As the group piled out of the truck I pulled out my phone, and called Sheryl. But instead of a worried kid looking for help, all I got was four rings and her voice mail.
“Sheryl, it’s Tom. We’re at the road where you guys left your vehicles, about to come in after you. Pick up if you’re listening.”
Still no response. I sighed, and tried a text. But she didn’t reply to that either.
“Problem?” Jenny asked, coming to stand beside me.
“No answer. She did say her battery was getting low, but I was hoping we’d be able to coordinate things.”
“I have a bad feeling about that. What if this safe zone isn’t as safe as they thought?”
“Then we’d better find out what happened and get out quick. Huddle up, everyone. Let’s get organized here.”
I waited a moment for everyone to gather round, and noted the way Shasa and Mitsi both sniffed the breeze and gave the woods a wary look before giving me their attention.
“We’re running out of daylight here, so let’s not waste time. Mitsi, I’m betting you’re the best in this group at sneaking around in the woods without getting ambushed. Does the System give you a map like it does us?”
The little catgirl nodded. “Of course. I found the treasure grove and marked the trail while we were on the way.”
“How does a cat know about waypoints?” Bob wondered.
“Mitsi is a very smart cat,” Mitsi declared.
“No doubt. Alright, then your job is making sure us clumsy humans don’t get surprised by something big and nasty. Keep as far ahead of us as you can without us losing sight of each other, and if you spot something dangerous stop and hold up your hand like this.”
I held up my left hand and made a fist.
“That will tell us to stop moving and be quiet. Then you can get a better look at the problem, or come back and warn us about it. But we’ll still be close enough that if something jumps out at you we can shoot it.”
Mitsi cocked her head. “Interesting. I thought dogs were good at pack hunting, but humans have all kinds of tricks. Alright, I’ll try it your way.”
“Thank you. Earl, I’m thinking we want spears at the front and back with ranged in the middle. Think we’ll have to go single file in there?”
Earl eyed the tangle of greenery that covered the hillside before us. The trees must have been sixty feet tall, and completely hid the ground. I’ve read that dense forest is usually pretty open at ground level, because the shade from the trees makes it hard for anything else to grow. But from what I could see that wasn’t happening here. Instead the jungle was dominated by big tangles of underbrush, with trees rising from among the smaller plants.
“Best plan on it,” he said. “I’m bringing my machete too, in case we have to cut a path.”
“Good idea. Alright, Jenny goes in front of the main group, with a spear ready in case of ambushes. Shasa next, then me, Bob, and Earl bringing up the rear. Bob, do you have any points in melee weapons?”
“Not spears. I can use a katana if we find one.”
“Weeb,” Jenny teased.
“Bite me,” Bob shot back.
“You wish.”
“Settle down, you two. In that case I’ll take the third spear. Everyone stay alert, keep the noise down and keep your eyes on the jungle around you. Let’s move.”
We made a motley group. Mitsi must not have liked the feel of clothes on her fur, because the little tabby was barely dressed at all. She wore a loose halter top of green cotton that was tied off under her breasts, and a denim skirt that barely came to mid-thigh, but no shoes. She was the perfect scout, though. The pattern of brown and black stripes that covered most of her body blended easily into the forest, and she may as well have been a ghost for all the sound she made.
In contrast Jenny, Shasa and I looked positively over-geared in our camo fatigues, armored jackets and tactical harnesses festooned with weapons, tools and ammo. Jenny alone had a spear, a slung rifle, two pistols and a pair of combat knives. Shasa was sticking with her trusty mace and shield, but I was packing a spear, rifle, pistol and knife myself. Thanks to our recent point investments Jenny and I were both reasonably competent at not crashing through the underbrush like a herd of cattle, but we certainly weren’t on Mitsi’s level. As for Shasa, she still tended to get distracted and blunder into things.
Then there was Bob, bumbling along in blue jeans and a t-shirt with a picture of some anime girl on it. His only weapon was his rifle, and he hadn’t even bothered to replace his sneakers with hiking boots. He somehow managed to make more noise than the rest of us put together, and he was paying more attention to Shasa’s ass than the woods.
An onlooker probably would have pegged Earl as our native guide if he hadn’t been bringing up the rear. His worn fatigues had obviously seen a lot of use, and he moved through the woods with easy confidence. His tactical harness was less cluttered than mine, even though he seemed to have a better loadout. His pistol and knife might as well have been part of him, the rifle slung on his shoulder never seemed to get in his way, and he even held the spear like he knew what he was doing with it. Unlike the rest of us he wore a rugged backpack, although he hadn’t mentioned what was in it.
The woods seemed empty at first, but I wasn’t fooled. They wouldn’t be marked as a rank three area if there wasn’t anything dangerous here. We were bound to get attacked by something, but what? Birds, squirrels, insects, even the trees themselves might be predators in disguise.
At first we were all pretty nervous. We crept through the trees as silently as we could, eyes and ears peeled for the first sign of danger. But nothing attacked us, and it quickly became apparent that the Dragonslayers had cleared out a lot of threats when they passed through this morning.
First we came across the body of a racoon the size of a bear. Then there was the scorched remains of a tree that looked like it had been repeatedly struck by lightning, in the middle of a burnt-out patch of woods. Then there was an area littered with the dismembered remains of a small horde of fist-sized spiders.
Mitsi called a halt at that point, and we all tensed up as she came back to consult with us.
“What are these things?” Mitsi asked, holding up a handful of spent brass. “I saw them after the fight at the hotel, too. They don’t seem to do anything, but they’re everywhere up ahead.”
Ah. Not a problem, then. Just curiosity. Well, she was a cat.
“That’s what’s left of a bullet after you fire it,” I explained. “They must have done a lot of shooting here, and decided not to bother collecting it all.”
“I’d do a lot of shooting too if a bunch of giant spiders were trying to eat my face,” Jenny commented with a shudder. “Ugh! Real ones are way worse than in a game.”
“The blood and guts are pretty gross,” Bob agreed. “But hey, that’s a good thing. The monsters being flesh and blood is probably why guns still work on them. If they were just solid evil or something I bet we’d be having a harder time.”
“Humans jabber too much,” Mitsi complained. “I still don’t get it, Tom.”
I sighed, leaned my spear against a tree, and unslung my rifle so I could rack the slide. A round popped out, and I caught it and showed it to the catgirl.
“This is a bullet. The back part is a container packed full of explosives. When you pull the trigger it detonates, which is what makes that loud bang, and the force of the explosion sends the pointy part shooting out of the gun. That’s the part that kills things. The back part gets left behind, so the gun spits it out. Sometimes people will pick up the spent brass after a fight, but that could take a long time if they’re scattered all over the place.”
Mitsi held up one of the empty shells next to the fresh round I was holding, and frowned. “Trying to picture all that is making my head hurt. I think I need more points in clever monkey trick smartness to really get it. But they’re harmless?”
“Yeah. Well, they’re pretty hot when they first come out of the gun, so you don’t want to step on them barefoot. But once they cool off they’re basically just weird-looking pebbles.”
“Okay. I don’t think there’s anything alive here, but I smell a lot of poison. I’m going to go around, so I don’t step in anything.”
I considered that. “Let me and Earl get a look at the scene first. I want to get a feel for how they coped with a chaotic situation. Then we’ll back out and follow you around.”
She shrugged. “Okay. I’ll wait here.”
Most of the crew followed us up, with only Shasa staying behind to keep Mitsi company. The battlefield was a real mess. Someone had set some of the bushes on fire, and there was a lot more blood than I’d expected. The reason became apparent when I found the body of another giant racoon.
“I don’t like the looks of this,” Earl said. “That thing waited until they were busy with the spiders, and then attacked.”
“Mobs working together is bad,” Bob agreed. “There must be a forest boss giving them orders.”
“Or maybe just a monster that can control other monsters,” Jenny pointed out.
“This is the third time now that I’ve seen signs of intelligent direction behind a group of monsters,” I mused. “Add in the stories I’ve been hearing second-hand, and the way the kids got trapped in the safe zone, and I think it’s time to stop thinking about these things like video game monsters. Most of them seem pretty dumb, but there’s clearly some kind of intelligence behind them.”
“Remember the crow?” Jenny said suddenly. “Or was it a raven? Anyway, I thought it looked like it was telling the hell cows what to do.”
I nodded. “Could be. We should keep an eye out, in case it happens again. Or it could be that there are different kinds of leader for different types of monster. A hive queen would make sense for the ants, and the zombie bush was clearly controlling its victims. We’ll have to keep an eye out for that kind of thing from now on, and kill the leader types if we can spot them.”
“Sure, that’s basic tactics,” Bob said, trying to sound like he knew what he was doing. “Say, is it just me or do the Dragonslayers have a real lack of AoE?”
“Area effect spells are stupidly expensive. My flame jet barely counts, and keeping it going burns mana a lot faster than lobbing force missiles. A classic fireball would cost more mana than I’ve got, and I’ve been buying it up pretty steadily.”
He huffed. “Man, this magic system is a rip off. How are we ever going to get the cool stuff when it’s all too expensive to cast? I’m glad I decided to go muscle wizard instead.”
Jenny snorted. “Muscle wizard? What, are your biceps going to throw magic missiles? Just call it what it is. You’re turning into a jock. You’re going to show up all those guys who stole your lunch money in high school by getting bigger muscles than them. I bet you’ve been spending more points on your dick, too.”
“Hey! You didn’t have those tits when we first met, Jenny, so don’t go throwing stones. Besides, I saw you checking me out.”
“Yeah, because you’ve got some sad little pheromone scent thing that makes anyone who gets too close hot for you. Like I wouldn’t figure out something that obvious?”
“How did you, I mean, what are you talking about?”
“Uh huh, don’t bother trying to deny it. It figures you’d buy a mind control power just to get girls, and then go for the lamest option there is. Does Beth know? I bet she’d be pissed.”
“Don’t you dare tell her! We’re just starting to get along, and I don’t need you butting in and messing everything up.”
“That’s enough, you two,” I interrupted, putting my hand on Jenny’s shoulder. “We’re all on the same side here. Focus on the monsters.”
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“Yes, sir!” Jenny said. She flashed me a smile, and stepped in to lean against me. “You’re right, Tom. I should save my attention for guys who have the guts to own their fantasies, instead of hiding them and trying to pretend they aren’t doing anything.”
Bob scowled, mumbled something inarticulate and turned away. I rolled my eyes, and smacked Jenny on the butt.
“Don’t test me, wench. You’re supposed to be in action girl mode, Jenny.”
Apparently she hadn’t been, because she froze for a moment as the command’s effects swept through her. Damn it, so much for trusting her to manage her own mode changes. Why would she try to do something like this in normal mode?
Knowing Jenny, she probably wanted to make me do it for her so she could feed her fantasies. Never mind that putting all the responsibility on me was impractical and dangerous, especially if she didn’t tell me she was doing it. Was she trying to get herself killed?
Well, this was a girl who decided to drive out to the middle of nowhere by herself to meet a bunch of internet acquaintances who were into bondage and mind control. Amanda and even Sara had made a point of talking about all the people who knew where they were when they first arrived, but not Jenny. At the time I’d just thought she was secure enough not to obsess over small risks, but now I have to wonder if she was secretly hoping to get kidnapped or something.
I should probably stop expecting common sense from her. But damn it, the way she tried to turn everything into fetish fuel was getting annoying.
We resumed our march, but now Earl and Bob carried on a hushed conversation behind me as we moved. Jenny put some extra wiggle in her walk, probably trying to provoke me into applying some sexy discipline. What was her issue with Bob, anyway? He was kind of a dweeb, and clearly out of his element, but he seemed like a reasonably decent guy. Just insecure, and trying a little too hard to compensate.
That was probably it, actually. Bob was one of those socially awkward introverts women love to dismiss as neckbearded losers. He could buy himself bulging muscles, but if he was still an insecure social reject on the inside they’d notice. Especially one like Jenny, who was probably still insecure about her own newly acquired hotness.
A twig cracked under my boot, and I realized I was thinking way too much about the intricacies of human relations and not nearly enough about my surroundings. The Dragonslayers may have cleared out most of the monsters on their way in, but something was bound to have repopulated by now. We could stumble on a threat at any moment. Worse, if the monsters were organized something might have noticed our presence and reported it.
I scanned the trees suspiciously. We passed a songbird now and then, and the occasional normal-looking squirrel going about its business. What if some of those animals were really spies? They could monitor our movements with impunity, and maneuver their forces to intercept us. If they were smart enough they might even listen in on our conversations, and pick the best moment to attack.
Maybe I was just being paranoid. But as they say, it’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you. How would I arrange this, if I were a leader monster?
I’d wait until the humans were deep in the woods, so they couldn’t just run back to the road and drive off. I’d keep an eye on them until they stopped carefully examining every bush and rock, and started to relax. Maybe wait for them to start talking, and get distracted enough to miss an ambush. Although Mitsi was as alert as ever, so that part might not work out for them.
How do you go about ambushing a party in the woods, anyway? If we were all human you could just hide a group of giant boar in a thicket and wait for us to blunder past. But Shasa would smell them, and Mitsi could probably hear their heartbeats at fifty yards. I’ve heard too many crazy stories about cats hunting mice to be worried about that kind of ambush. Would a leader monster have the experience to see the issue?
No, the monsters hadn’t done it like that with the Dragonslayers. They’d gotten attacked repeatedly as they traveled. Maybe that was because there were a bunch of little monster bands, each with their own leader? Or maybe someone was making the classic mistake of trying to wear down the enemy with repeated skirmishes, instead of just making one big attack with all their forces.
That would fit, wouldn’t it? Say an animal wakes up with intelligence, some kind of beast master ability and a burning desire to kill all humans. It’s quickly going to discover that humans are extremely unpredictable. Some of us are basically helpless, while others are incredibly lethal, and if you’re a sapient crow or giant ant or something it’s not easy to tell which are which. So when intruders enter your territory you try to feel them out first. Get them into some skirmishes so you can watch them, get an idea of how they fight, and figure out what it’s going to take to beat them.
So why weren’t we running into any monsters?
That was when a wasp the size of a hawk zoomed down out of the trees, and shoved its stinger in my face. I shouted and ducked, dropping my spear in surprise, and the spike of chitin slid off my aura instead of penetrating. But shouts and screams from both ahead and behind told me I wasn’t the only one in danger.
I tagged the wasp with my tracking magic, spun up a homing force missile and blew it apart in the space of a couple of seconds. That bought me just enough time to glance around, and find that our careful advance had dissolved into pure chaos. Jenny was being swarmed by wasps, frantically trying to dodge their attacks while she took swings with her knives. Shasa was too distracted with a wasp of her own to be much help. Behind me another swarm was going after Bob, who was screaming and trying to fend them off by using his gun as a club.
I caught a glimpse of Earl speed-drawing his pistol and calmly blowing a wasp out of the air. Good, he could save Bob. I formed another homing missile, of fire this time, and rushed to help Jenny.
Between her rapid movements and the armor that covered half her body she wasn’t an easy target for the giant insects. But there were half a dozen of the things, and numbers count. I saw one going for her arm, and flash-fried it with my flame missile. Jenny managed to cut a wing off of another one, and a couple jammed their stingers into the armor on her back and side to no effect. But another managed to plunge its stinger into her unprotected thigh.
“Ow! Shit, that hurts!”
She stabbed it with one of her knives, and I burned down another one. I heard Earl’s pistol roar repeatedly. We were beating them, but God only knows what their poison would do, and there was probably another shoe about to drop.
Sure enough, something big and black dropped out of the trees and landed on me. The impact slammed me to the ground, and a huge beak scrabbled uselessly against the armor on my shoulder. A deep bass screech filled my ears, and my ribs creaked as I was crushed into the ground.
I looked up to find a huge buzzard leering down at me, its fetid breath burning my nose. It lunged forward to take my whole head in its beak, and tried to crush it.
No time to think, with my aura already collapsing under the pressure. I cast a flame jet, and waved it over the thing.
The giant buzzard squawked in alarm, and gave up trying to pull my head off in favor of beating a hasty retreat. Its feathers caught fire, turning it into a torch as it moved, and in moments the whole thing was burning.
I held the flame jet on it until I was sure it was dying, and then dropped the spell and looked around. Jenny was still dealing with a couple of wasps, so I blew one out of the air for her. With that distraction gone it was only a couple of seconds before she managed to stab the last one. By then Shasa was limping over to us, looking upset and embarrassed.
“It stung my butt!” She complained. “Stupid bug. I hate bugs!”
“Me too,” I agreed.
Remembering the rest of the party, I turned to look back at them. Earl was standing there with his shirt ripped open, exposing a nasty set of gashes across his chest. A second giant buzzard thrashed on the ground at his feet, bleeding out from a bunch of bullet wounds. Bob was lying on the ground surrounded by dead wasps, moaning like he was dying.
Which might actually be the case, depending on how dangerous the wasp venom was. He’d definitely gotten stung more than once.
“Damn, Earl. The shirtless barbarian thing looks good on you,” Jenny said.
He snorted, and holstered his pistol. “I could do with some of that armor when you get a chance, Tom. Where’d Mitsi go?”
“Here.”
The catgirl hopped out of the trees, landing like the fifteen-foot drop was nothing. Her face was bloody, and she had the remains of a bird with black feathers in one hand. She held it up with a smug grin.
“I got a bird leader, just like you said we should. I think Jenny is right about them, too. This one has smartness points, and magic too! Want a bite?”
She raised the body to her mouth, and tore off a piece.
“Uh, no thanks,” Jenny said. “You killed it, you should get to keep it. Only, you might want to pull the feathers off first.”
Mitsi spat out a feather, and gave Jenny a quizzical look. “Pull them off?”
She flexed the fingers of her free hand, speculatively looking between them and the bird corpse. Then she gingerly took hold of a feather, and yanked. Naturally, it came off.
The catgirl’s eyes lit up. “Wow! Hands are awesome! No more spitting out feathers for this cat. So, how did you guys do? It looks like everything is dead.”
“Yeah, including me if I don’t get some help here,” Bob groaned.
Mitsi eyed him appraisingly. “Does that mean we get to split your points?”
Jenny giggled. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Oh, man up, Bob. It isn’t that bad. The venom stings like a bitch, but it’s not doing that much damage.”
“I’d still better take a look,” I said, kneeling next to Bob. “Let’s see what this stuff… oh, shit.”
Bob wasn’t exaggerating. He’d been stung four times, and these giant wasps injected thousands of times more venom than a normal insect. The stuff was rapidly eating through the tissue around each wound, and at the rate the stuff was going it would reach his heart and one of his kidneys in a few minutes. He wouldn’t survive that.
“What?” Jenny asked.
I grabbed her hand, and checked her health. Jenny was barely half Bob’s size, and even a single sting in the wrong place could be deadly. But the armor had protected her vitals, and apparently all those points she’d spent on health and physical toughness were paying off. The venom wasn’t affecting her anywhere near as quickly, and her body was fighting a lot harder to get rid of it. She might end up not being able to walk by the time it ran its course, but it didn’t look like she was in any danger of dying.
“You’re fine,” I said. “Something you bought is reducing the venom’s effectiveness. Bob’s in trouble, though, and my healing doesn’t neutralize poison. I can fix some of the damage it’s doing, but it will still be in there tearing things up.
“Fuck!” Bob exclaimed. “This sucks so hard. Wait, we’ve got points coming. System, how do I get poison resistance? What?! What do you mean, help is offline?”
I did my best to dampen the pain Bob was feeling, and tried a bit of healing. The results weren’t encouraging.
“I could burn all my mana trying to heal this, and it still wouldn’t be enough. Shasa, come here and let me check you.”
“Okay. I’m not going to die too, am I? It hurts pretty bad.”
I checked her condition, and gave a sigh of relief. “No, not from a sting in the butt. You might be limping for a while, but I can fix that as soon as I can spare the mana. Bob’s the one with a serious problem. Jenny, could you walk him through the process for buying the same poison resistance you’ve got?”
“Um, sure, I guess. But I spent two points on that, plus a bunch more on general health, fitness and fast healing. I’m not sure what all might be affecting this, but it probably adds up to a lot of points.”
Mist balls were starting to form over the dead wasps now, but we didn’t have time to waste. That venom was nasty stuff. Wherever it came into contact with tissue it basically just dissolved the cells, making them fall apart into yellow goop that oozed out of Bob’s wounds.
“Start with the poison resistance, and we’ll see how much difference it makes,” I ordered. “Earl, let me stop that bleeding while they work on that.”
Earl had already shrugged off his backpack and taken out a first aid kit, but he set it aside at my offer. “Thanks, buddy. I wasn’t looking forward to stitching this up. You sure you can spare the mana?”
“It hardly costs anything to make a wound stop bleeding,” I assured him. “I’ll hold off on anything else until Bob is out of danger, but we can’t afford to be another man down out here.”
While I took care of that Jenny retrieved her spear, and used it to shove some of the wasp corpses into Bob’s reach. He collected the points, and called up his status screen.
“Okay, if I remember right there were three parts to this,” Jenny told him. “First off, you know those tabs that let you see different layers of your body, like an anatomy diagram? You need to bring up the one labeled Homeostatic Defenses. If it’s like mine you’ve got these weird network things in different colors, right? Focus on the green one, and you should get a popup with a bunch of cryptic numbers and stuff.”
“Uh huh. Yeah, okay, I’ve got it. What is all this?”
“Like I have any idea? Ask a biochemist. Let’s see, now. Which of these things did I change, again?”
They puzzled through it slowly, often pausing to compare their numbers before making a change. I finished with Earl, and checked Bob’s health again. Damn, so far it wasn’t making any difference.
“If I ever find the idiot that pissed off the System trying to hack it, I’m punching his lights out,” Bob grumbled.
“I’d just shoot him,” Earl drawled.
“Do any of these terms make sense to you?” I asked. “Some of it sounds vaguely familiar, but I only took one semester of biochem back in college and that was ten years ago.”
“I’m an EMT, not a doctor. But I think you’re right. It sounds like maybe the System has a list of all the different ways a poison could work, and each one’s a separate stat. Only they’re mixed in with stuff for diseases and chemical burns and who knows what else.”
“Here’s hoping someone compiles a guide to it all soon,” I grumbled. “But that should mean we just have to find the right one for this kind of poison, and dump a bunch of points into it. Let me scan you while you do the rest of it, and maybe I can catch the one that matters.”
“All I know is we’d better find it quick,” Bob groaned. “My guts feel like they’re melting. What’s next?”
A birdcall from somewhere overhead reminded me that Bob’s situation wasn’t our only problem. I glanced around, and noted with relief that Shasa and Mitsi were both keeping watch. But I should have remembered to make sure someone did that. Some leader I was turning out to be.
Three purchases later the wasp venom suddenly seemed to slow down. It was still doing damage, but now it was taking longer.
“There!” I shouted. “That was it. Buy more of whatever that was.”
“I’ve only got half a point left,” Bob complained. “There, how’s that?”
“Better, but you need at least another point of it. Are there any more wasps?”
There were, to my relief. Bob used a few to buy up his venom resistance until it looked like he’d be okay, and at my prompting Jenny took a couple to boost her own resistance. That left just a couple of wasps and the two buzzards.
“We should all buy some resistance to that wasp venom, in case we run into more of them,” I decided. “Shasa, grab the points from one of those wasps and I’ll buy it for you.”
“Okay.”
“Mitsi, did you catch what we did there? The names of these options are pretty confusing.”
She waved off my offer of help. “That’s because you guys are being dumb. Just switch the list from ‘damage mechanism’ to ‘damage source’, and it’s easy.”
“Oh, like a cat knows all about user interfaces,” Bob scoffed. “I don’t see any options.”
Mitsi rolled her eyes the way only a teenage girl can. “Go to Help, UI Options, then turn on customized metric categories. Then you’ll have buttons at the top of the list for seeing it different ways. Duh.”
We all stared at her.
“How does someone who didn’t know what a computer is two days ago already have all the obscure status screen options figured out?” Jenny asked.
“Mitsi is a very smart cat,” Mitsi replied, sounding smug.
I groaned. “There’s a skill for that, isn’t there? You just paid a point or two, and became an instant expert at using the status screen.”
Mitsi casually started grooming her hands. “Knowing when to ask the Voice for help is pretty smart.”
“Then why didn’t you say something when we were trying to figure it out?” Bob exclaimed.
Mitsi shrugged. “You didn’t ask. Besides, I don’t know why anyone bothered to save you. You’re loud and dumb, and you were useless against the monsters. We should just let you die, and take your points.”
“Mitsi!” Shasa exclaimed, sounding scandalized. “We’re a pack! We can’t do that.”
“You’re a pack,” Mitsi corrected. “I’m not a dog.”
“No one is killing anyone,” I said firmly. “Or letting anyone die if we can help it. No, shut it Bob. She’s a cat, she doesn’t get social contracts. I’ll explain it to her when we have time, but not when we’re standing around in the woods waiting for the next monster attack. Let’s move, people. It’s getting late.”
I glanced at my watch. Just three hours of daylight left, and I did not want to make the trip back in the dark.