The two trucks rolled down the road. Derek, Candace, James, and Jenny were in the truck beds, on watch and tasked with defense, while Carson and Adam drove. The day after forming an alliance with various groups, Marie emphasized the importance of reaching level 15 to evolve their races and enhance practical skills for the upcoming assault on the horde. Everyone was here today, except for Marie, Linda, and little Victoria. Linda and John’s older kids, Olivia and Michael, were assigned roles that were the least dangerous. With Derek, James, and Leroy, everyone would be fine and Marie confirmed to the mothers in the group that there would be no issues.

Derek was following along to act as protector if they got in over their heads and needed help. Only those who could actually benefit from the combat were here, besides Carson and Adam, who were both healers. The recent additions to the family were at very low levels and needed a boost so that they could get to a point where a class could get selected.

The drive wasn’t anything special. The route to Girdwood was easy. They encountered a few monsters, but they didn’t slow the trucks down. Gunners leaning over the cab took them out before they even became a problem.

“What’s the plan, boss?” Carson asked as everyone gathered.

Derek raised his voice over the engines. “Anyone against the turn and burn plan?”

“What’s that?” Adam asked. It was the first run he had been a part of, and group strategy was mostly unknown to him.

“We drive in fast and loud, making as much noise as possible, then take them out.” Leroy answered, grinning.

“And if we get something stronger than we expect?” Adam asked.

“That’s where Derek comes in.” Carson added.

“Alright. James, you’re in command of ranged. Janet is overwatch. Leroy and John are the tanks, keep them off the ranged. I’ll be playing merc.”

“Why do you always get to play merc?” Leroy complained. “I wanted to be merc.”

“Because I’m stronger than you.” Derek smiled. “Change that and you can play merc.”

“Fine.” he grumbled.

“Um. What’s merc?” Adam asked.

“Mercenary, it’s one step up from the overwatch. Basically, he kills anything that’s a threat to the group.” Carson explained.

“Our landing point is the lodge. Carson, cover the school and north housing area. Adam, take the library and south housing area. Navigators, stay focused and hold your fire. Update the radio every thirty seconds after we separate.” Derek explained. “Questions?”

The entire family had been part of the planning phase. The details of the plan had already been drilled into their heads. They even had a couple of practice runs around the neighborhood to help with group coordination.

“Alright, folks, roll out.” Derek ordered.

With earplugs in place, tension mounted as the trucks rolled forward. Everyone was on edge, aware of the tightrope balancing act they were performing. Derek remained calm, confident that Marie wouldn’t have allowed the kids to come if it were truly dangerous. He trusted her assessment of the probable outcomes.

Air horns blasted from every window, creating a cacophony heard across the entire valley. The convoy rolled forward, moving around thirty miles-an-hour. The truck horns blasted continuously, and they made as much noise as possible.

Initially, only a few goblins emerged from the woods, but the pack grew as the vehicles began to split. Carson had to get to the school, and since it was on a road with only one way in and out, the journey in both directions posed a higher risk of being stopped. The horns in that truck slowed to a stop as that truck pulled away from the pack. Adam’s truck continued at a slower pace, leading the mob down the road at a pace they could maintain, but not too fast that they gave up the chase.

“Green,” chirped the CB radio on channel 9. Adam’s truck echoed, “Green.”

Orcs and trolls joined the goblins, then ogres and minotaur joined the growing horde. Dozens of monsters came out of the woodworks as a loud clamor blasted through the quiet community.

“Green.” Carson’s truck stated over the radio.

“Green.”

Hundreds of the monsters followed Adam’s truck, and the small horde was building quickly.

“Orange.” Carson’s truck stated calmly over the radio. “Evasive measures taken.”

“Green.” Adam’s truck stated as they turned toward the library.

The horde turned to follow them as they rushed as fast as possible to catch the moving meat mobile. Adam made the loop around the library and the fire department. A few goblins stood in the road and Adam plowed over them. The cattle guard bumper protected the truck’s front end.

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“Green. Turning east. Several hundred behind me.” Carson’s truck said.

Adam gunned it to catch up to Carson, narrowly avoiding a collision with the horde Carson was leading. As both trucks turned onto the highway, their hordes merged.

“Green. Good to see you.”

Each truck had nearly three hundred monsters following them as they turned into the residential areas, moving in opposite directions. The blaring horns were deafening, drawing the horde down the road as the trucks maintained their strategic pace. When the horde got too close, a mage in the back would conjure a barricade to trip the front line, or the truck would speed up to maintain a safe distance.

“Green. ETA forty seconds,” Carson’s truck announced.

“Green. ETA sixty seconds,” Adam’s truck responded.

“Roger, adjusting speed.”

“ETA seventy seconds.”

“Roger, adjusting route.”

Balancing the routes through the housing districts was tricky, as timing was hard to estimate accurately. Thanks to Carson’s navigator, they managed to coordinate and meet at the lodge at the same time.

With Carson’s navigator’s precise guidance, both trucks met at nearly the same time. They pulled into the lodge’s parking lot. A short barricade shot up from the ground as magic flowed through James as Carson’s truck arrived slightly ahead, causing the front line of the horde to slam into it and allowing Adam to squeeze in before the horde could overrun them.

The divided horde merged into one as the trucks skidded to a halt in the parking lot.

“Tanks into position!” Derek bellowed.

----------------------------------------

Marie

Marie sighed, leaning back in her chair while she scanned the notes on her interface, where a relationship diagram sat on one side and a branching timeline on the other side of her vision. Each branch of the timeline represented a different decision, largely based on her own influence because of her own words or actions. Minor changes in how she said things or what she shared would change the outcome, even if it wasn’t intended.

Since she began looking into the future, Marie discovered humanity’s predictive behavior. Most people chose the path of least resistance, doing whatever was easiest. Some intentionally took harder paths, hoping for better outcomes. Once she focused her Oracle powers on someone, she could roughly predict their future.

Derek almost always took the hard path, and it was easy to see why. Using her powers to view his past, Marie saw the events that led him here. Whenever the timeline could diverge to a better future and he didn’t take it, his life took a worse turn. Her visions of his past and future helped her understand his choices; his luck was terrible, and if things could go wrong, they did.

Understanding his past made Derek’s personality clear to Marie. She learned to read him like a book; every facial expression and reaction became predictable. She respected him more after seeing his life’s hardships. His disregard for people made sense, though it saddened her. His future was cruel and filled with violence and death. There was a reason she had been calling him ‘The Ravager’. It was his role, his destiny. It was a path filled with sorrow and pain. She spent several days crying over what she saw while Derek was away, leveling up to save their child.

She shook her head, refocusing on the relationship chart of events and scenarios. She had a vision of the future, and to reach it, she needed to influence several groups, like setting up the world’s most fragile chessboard. So far, she had diverted Anchorage’s complete destruction by allying with the military and gaining information about the horde. Telling Derek directly wasn’t an option; he needed someone reliable in an emergency. Now, Derek would eliminate the horde, which was only a moderate threat to the city.

There were other threats, more serious threats, that Anchorage faced. Threats that would arrive or show themselves while Derek was gone. Those were threats that Derek could not know about. It would jeopardize his mission, and events would spin wildly out of her control.

For now, her focus was on the horde and how events unfolded. It was crucial that various groups joined the assault. Sarah’s group was insignificant on its own, but her husband was the key to Anchorage’s survival and needed to experience the horde. Mauro’s group joining would eliminate them as a threat and rival to other small groups. After the assault, the military would be fully on board with the future, moving beyond their archaic structure.

The assault on the horde was the key to all these things. Marie smiled at the multiple threads of each group entangling in the current timeline. She hated manipulating events. She had once hoped the Oracle class would help protect her family, but it had turned her into a schemer. It wasn’t who she was, but if she didn’t, they would all die. In every timeline she could see, only one person remained constant.

A knock on the door pulled her out of her thoughts, and her interface vanished. “Come in.”

Linda stuck her head in the door. “Sorry to bother you, Marie, but I was hoping that you could help me with dinner.”

“Absolutely.” Marie smiled, relieved to do something other than plotting and planning.

Marie exited her bedroom and went into the living area.

“Can you chop all these vegetables for stew while I work on the meat?” Linda asked.

Marie nodded. Linda’s motherly quality made Marie miss her own mom. She cared for everyone, tending to wounds and making everyone feel loved. Even Marie felt comforted by her gentle presence.

“Do you know when they are going to be back?” Linda asked softly.

“They should be back a little after ten. Escorting people to the military base will add about five hours to their trip,” Marie explained.

“I admire them, out being heroes and keeping people safe,” Linda said with a warm, heartfelt tone.

They worked together, bringing the stewpot to life as vegetables and beef became a hearty meal that would fill the hungriest of bellies.

“Marie?” Linda asked, while stirring the broth. “Do you know where we can get seeds for next year’s garden?”

“Yes, but I can’t tell you,” Marie replied sadly as she stared down at the cutting board.

Linda gave her a sympathetic look. Everything was becoming more and more difficult to balance. Those answers were becoming more and more common lately. Marie was becoming increasingly concerned about how she affected the timeline. The problem was that she didn’t know if anything she suggested would cause the timeline to diverge. Her own influence was the strongest on the household because she was the matriarch.

“That’s okay, dear.” Linda said, resting her hand on Marie’s back comfortingly. “There is a supply store on the north side of town next to the tracks that should have everything we need for planting. The nursery to the south should be able to provide anything else we need, especially greenhouse equipment.”

Marie smiled, but it was filled with sadness. She felt like she needed to separate from her family to protect them. Maybe this was why the Oracle of Delphi was separated from the people.