While Timothy was still unconscious in the hospital…
“June, any sign of the gasbag?” Walker spoke into one hand. The other was already flickering with colors and shapes as her fingers flew through her next dial.
“Negative, ma’am.” June’s crisp voice crackled from the spell, loud enough only for Toby and Walker to hear. “It’s chaos out there, though. Monsters are fleeing the burning woods en masse.”
“If any of them close in somewhere, let someone nearby know. Otherwise, keep spotting, and stay in contact with someone. Keep an eye out for the gasbag thing. Walker out.” She flicked a few fingers and the spell changed color while she brought up her other hand “Amos, what’s the word?”
“It’s pretty bad, Miz Walker! Fluff Honey’s really flammable!” There was a shout from the other end. “We’re forming a bubble brigade to put out the hives an’ houses, an—“
“Breathe, kid!”
“We’ll be okay! Creekside’s turning up now that they’re back from upriver. I’ve been sending hurt folks to the green sun flare, okay? How’s Ella?”
Walker chuckled, but even that sounded tired. “Kid, your girlfriend can handle herself. Focus. Walker out!” Hand switch. “Ranell, expect more burns coming your way…”
It had been like this all night. All day, really, but worse now. At least then it was the captain coordinating stuff… Everyone had been scattered looking for li’l Meri when that gasbag thing barreled out of the woods and started hurling thunderbolts wildly. After that, chaos. The Captain and V had been dogfighting it, but both got blasted, and were at the hospital. At least the fight was hard to miss, what with the monster’s screaming and casting, so even without orders, enough of the town’s fighters and even civilians managed to shoot at it to drive it off.
But that was only the start of their problems tonight. The beast had sown chaos everywhere with its lightning. V and the Captain holding its attention definitely had kept the worst case scenario away, but it still missed enough shots to set off some nasty fires, not to mention the intentional shots it took at the eastern fields and, eventually, the Deepshadow itself. In short, there were fires all over, and the closest thing to a coherent chain of command was “everybody saw the captain get shot, so Walker’s probably in charge, right?”
Well, not just Walker. “Fire extinguished in the southern fields.” The gruff voice of Jacob Tarkas crackled from one of Walker’s fingers. “Those militiamen are heading east to make sure the power plant doesn’t burn.” Tarkas was commanding most of the militia, and whatever townsfolk had looked to him/them for instructions. Two chains of command, formed of tons of disorganized and weirdly connected links, and knotted together clumsily at the top. It was kind of working, but…
“Ari and her people already got that, Tarkas!” Walker clearly was biting back some choice words. “I’d split those people between the eastern fields and the walls. We’re seeing—“
“Lots of monster activity. We know.”
…It was wasting time they didn’t have. Because the Watch and Militia weren’t well integrated, nobody knew where anyone was. Everything had to go through Walker or Tarkas to the other, because nobody was talking properly to anyone besides their immediate circles. The Watch was scattered all over, and there were precious few of’em to begin with. Walker was talking herself hoarse trying to keep June’s spotting intel going where it needed to be, along with the intel from the walls, the requests for supplies from the field stations, the small scuffles that’d broken out when fleeing monsters got too close… and because info was flowing up and down wildly in two streams that only sometimes crossed, people were being sent places that had already been fixed, or were completely misunderstanding where they needed to go at all! It was infuriating.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
And to top it all off, it was time to set another bone. Toby tried to tune out the crosstalk and his own squeamishness to help poor cousin Allie’s arm. Oh, he hated first aid duty. Breathe, breathe… “Breathe,” he said aloud, to remind them both. “Ready, Lassi?”
“Starting.” The healer slime hit Allie with a pain blocking spell and Toby pushed her bones back into position in the instant her pain vanished. Lassi finished off with a surge of healing magic that sealed the bone right back together. At least the healing stations were outside the logistical mess of their communications. They were just impossible to miss: three bright flares high above, in different colors, in the shape of the Kindly Sun symbol. Every healer was out beneath one of them, fixing burns and other injuries from the firefighting or the attack. Green was out in the eastern fields, Blue here in Wright Square, and Red down south somewhere. That, at least, was hard to screw up. That was hospital protocol, they’d trained for it, and the healers knew what they were doing. That was keeping this from becoming a total pile of hillapples, along with his poor near-granny’s hollering herself hoarse into the phone spells. It was hard to know how bad things really were without good info, or eyes in the sky that were talking together.
“Thanks, doc, cuz.” Allie groaned. Lassi waited a moment for the pain truly vanish before lifting the painkiller spell. “Some night, ain’t it?”
“Hrm.” Toby grunted in reply, far too tired for much talking. Just as Lassi moved on to her next patient—
“Walker! There’s a giant beetle! It’s going nuts near the Crocker farm!” Walker swore violently. Toby wasn’t any happier. Already he was scrambling to remember who was where, and the old rabbit was clearly struggling just as much. She lost the other call she was making to Post as she counted personnel on those fingers. The old lady shoulda been asleep hours ago, not coordinating a town’s defense! Toby prepared to set her down and barrel off himself.
“Damn it,” the rabbit groaned in frustration. “Who’s close? Who’s even there…!?”
“Me!” The captain! Walker sighed a very relieved sigh as a new signal broke into the call. “Sorry I’m late. Amos, get its attention and lead it on a wild goose chase. Lead it back to me in two minutes.”
“R-roger!”
“Are you in any shape to be fighting, scales?” Walker asked, cutting off Amos’s signal to talk to the captain one on one.
“Nope.” The captain admitted. “I have a plan, though. Bubble brigade, to me!” She left the line open even as she yelled orders in person. “I’m taking command! Charge up a tandem water blast and hold for my signal!” Huh? Toby raised an eyebrow. Walker, though, realized what she was doing a moment later, and smirked.
“Ah, the old scream of terror, is it? Glad to have you back, Cap.” Then, businesslike. “V?”
“Alive, but down for the night. That monster’s spells hurt.”
“Damn. In that case, get airborne as soon as you can. We need eyes other than June.”
“Perfect.” Then to whoever was around her, “Be ready! I’m gonna give you an opening, and then we’ll all pile on!”
Right as she said that, another call hit Walker. “All fires within the walls are suppressed!” June sounded satisfied. “I‘ll let Ella know so we can move people to bigger problems.”
“Good lass.” Walker looked up at Toby with a tired grin. “Fancy a game bug cookout, kid?”
The tortoise chuckled low. “Hell, it’s something.”
About time the tide turned.