Chuck still didn’t know why they were in a graveyard, but it seemed they had two options. Either follow the road ahead of them or explore the cave. The road seemed like the safer option, although he couldn’t rule out the cave being a way out of the graveyard. It was possible it could go all the way through the mountain and out the other side.

It was equally likely that the cave didn’t lead anywhere, and they would meet a boss level creature as the cave seemed the perfect place for a lair. They only had enough food for a week at best as they were only planning on going to the capital. The graveyard certainly didn’t look like it had any food sources in it.

The pickup was down to less than a quarter tank of gas since it had been running all night. Chuck would need to get out and refill the tank before they could go anywhere. He wasn’t looking forward to the prospect as he felt much safter inside the pickup, but it would be a good test to see if anything noticed him when he left the cab.

The gun he always kept on his hip would probably not be very useful against skeletons, but it was better than nothing. He needed to check on R2 as well. The skeletons shouldn’t be able to do much damage to the robot but on the other hand R2 would need to chop them into little bits to stop them. Chuck wasn’t sure how long the swords R2 used would hold up to the abuse. It would be better if he had a mace or war hammer.

Tess told him to be careful as he slowly opened the door and stepped out. He stayed close to the truck and quickly got the magical gas can out and topped off the tank. Tess was keeping an eye out in the cab and Chuck was nervously scanning the area as well. When he was finished, he put the can back and stayed still, straining his senses for any reactions. When there were none, he hopped into the truck bed. “R2 can you move?” Chuck whispered but there was no reaction.

Swearing silently, he fiddled with the access panel and finally got it open. Looking inside, he could see the power crystal was only about half as bright as it should be. Not knowing what to do he removed the crystal and then put it back into place. The crystal flickered a few times before getting brighter. It looked like the old restarting trick worked. Chuck closed the panel and crossed his fingers that R2 would start working. It didn’t take long before the robot’s arms started moving.

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“R2 are you ok now?” Chuck asked quietly. R2 gave him an approximation of a thumbs up with a clawed hand. “Good, we are in something of a situation so just stay in the back for now until we decide what to do. We may have to fight skeleton monsters to get out of here so be ready.” Chuck continued, before climbing out of the truck bed.

There had still been no reaction to his presence, so he was feeling a little more confident. He returned to the cab to grab his binoculars and told Tess to stay put. She didn’t seem very happy but didn’t argue with him. Chuck crawled to the edge of the platform to get a better look. The drizzle had mostly stopped but it was still chilly out and the black stone was cold and wet beneath his body.

There was about a 100-foot cleared area between the platform and the first tombstones with a rusty metal fence in between. Maybe the fence was keeping the skeletons away, but it was falling apart and didn’t seem to be much of a barrier. The area was just bare dirt at the front of the platform and covered in water on the sides. Chuck scooted around to scan the rear of the platform, but the caves were too dark to see inside. The rear stairs led directly into the large cave entrance and water pooled around the entrances to the smaller caves with more tombstones protruding from the water.

He went back to studying the skeletons. None of them had armor or weapons and they seemed to be randomly walking around with no specific destination or purpose in mind. Even through the binoculars he couldn’t tell where the road led to and the graveyard seemed to extend as far as he could see.

There was a black smudge next to the road at the extreme range of his vision but it was too far away to tell what it might be. If they followed the road, they would find out but the cave was closer so he was tempted to at least check it out first. Chuck returned to the pickup to discuss things with Tess.