The first idea they discussed was to simply run away. There was a problem though. Looking at the map they realized that they were pretty much surrounded. All in all there were seven of the red Nodes, almost perfectly encapsulating them. It was a miracle they had found this Node before the Nodefoxes did.

Bixby judged it more than likely that they would be running into Nodefox scouts no matter where they ran. The only direction where no red Node was blocking their way, was the way they came from, but that option was off the table for known reasons.

The other problem was that Max didn’t want to abandon the Node. Which made the conversation turn a bit more heated.

“Listen to yourself Max! We can’t stay here. If those Nodefoxes really could be here within a week or two, we have to run!” Sarah was almost screaming at Max.

“Well what part about we can’t outrun them did you not understand?” Max was trying his best to keep his temper controlled, but Dave saw the vein on his forehead coming to the surface. That usually only happened during their most competitive rounds of Mario Kart. And only then rarely. It wasn’t a good sign.

Sarah sneered sarcastically. “Oh I’m sorry, I must’ve overheard that. Just like you apparently overheard that there are multiple hundred Nodefoxes heading over here looking for exactly that Node. What do you suggest we do Mr. Wiseass?”

“Maybe we can hide?” Max said shyly, taken aback by her sudden change in demeanor.

“I’m sorry Max, but I don’t think that’ll work.” Bixby chimed into the conversation. “Maybe we could hide somewhere in the woods if we’re lucky, but we can’t really hide the Node. And if they find out this Node is already claimed, they’ll start looking for whoever claimed it. Just to eliminate whoever could threaten them… So neither hiding nor running are options for us.” The Nodefox looked down, clearly trying to find a solution.

Fishing for words, Max couldn’t muster another argument. But the same went for Sarah. It looked like they were doomed. Dave remembered a thing his father always used to say.

“Never rush an important decision Dave. You might think it’s urgent. But trust me, there’s always time for clear thought.” It calmed Dave to think of his father. He knew he might never see him again, but he shut that thought down before the pain of it overwhelmed him. It was a mechanism he developed during the last few days. Albeit not a healthy one.

“Listen, let's take the night. There’s not much we can do right now anyways, assuming the Nodefoxes will be here tomorrow, then even if we leave now we would most likely run into them. So let’s sleep over it and make a decision tomorrow morning.” Dave nodded at the sun that had started touching the horizon by now.

After they all agreed to it, Max announced he would take a little walk and went away. His eyes held an emptiness that Dave didn’t like. So after waiting a few minutes out of respect, he decided to follow Max.

Max sat on a stone, staring at nothing in particular. His face firm, eyes set deep in concentration. The last sun rays of the day veiled the forest in different shades of orange. It was picturesque. You would’ve expected a scenery no different if you looked up “warm summer evenings” in the dictionary.

Dave almost wanted to turn back again, leaving his friend undisturbed, but he knew Max wasn’t the type that wanted to be left alone with his thoughts.

“It’s nice here.” He simply said.

Looking up at Dave, with no evident surprise on his face, Max snorted. “You really came here to talk about the weather?”

“No. I don’t even know what I came here to talk about. Maybe I just wanted to talk. No abouts.” Dave sagged down against a tree.

Max's face softened, relaxing at seeing Dave making himself vulnerable. “Okay let’s talk. Do you think we should try our luck in running?”

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“I don’t know… Isn’t it the only option we have?” The question was empty, Dave looked up to Max and continued, “Why did you want to stay with the Node?”

Max chuckled. “Honestly? I’m not sure.”

“You hoped we could protect ourselves with the Node buildings right?”

“Well that was part of it. There was also some part in me that told me we shouldn’t give the Node up. I feel like the Node is valuable.” Max’s tone was timid.

“Sure it’s valuable, you heard Bixby.”

“Do you think..?”

“No. I don’t think we can protect the Node, no matter how much defense stuff you can build.” Dave interrupted him.

Max sighed. “It’s just that I don’t want to run anymore. I want to finally have a place where we can feel safe again.”

“I do too.” Dave said softly. Then he waited. It wasn’t often that Max talked about his feelings and when he did, he always needed a bit of extra space.

It only took a few seconds before Max spoke up again. “You should see all the stuff we can build with the Node. It really has a lot in common with video games. Think of a mix of Age of Empires, Civilization and the game we shall not speak about anymore.” He laughed as he said the last one. Dave knew he was talking about Clash of Clans and had to laugh as well.

It felt good to lighten the mood a little. That was where Max always excelled at.

“You know what I thought when I saw the Node Menu? I thought ‘Cool, now I can be of help too’ “ Max said. “Dave, I know you don’t see it that way, but you’re the only reason we’re still alive. You saved us out of that Nodefox den, you faced off that giant ass tiger and you did the lion’s share of the fighting earlier against those wooden knights. Without you that last fight would’ve ended quite differently.I don’t know how you do it, but you’re suddenly so strong, and I want to be like that.”

Dave wasn’t used to Max speaking that way about him. Or rather he wasn’t used to anybody looking up to him in any way at all. He didn’t know what to say. Really, he was a little embarrassed.

“That wasn’t…” Dave started, but Max interrupted him.

“I swear to god, if you were about to say ‘That wasn’t a big deal.’ I’m gonna beat your ass Dave.”

Dave smiled sheepishly, causing Max to laugh. They sat in silence after that. Thoughts ran through their heads. About the last days, about the comically weird world they were in now, but mostly they were looking for a solution to their problem.

It was when the shades of orange had become quite red and the world almost dark, that Dave spoke up again.

“Can I see the Node Menu?”

Max thought for a second, then his eyes grew distant as he was looking through the menus himself. “I think so.”

He opened his palm like he did before when showing them the map of the surrounding Nodes. Wisps of blue light started dancing over his hand, forming into what looked like a perfect hologram again.

Dave walked over and sat down on the stone next to Max. He was baffled by how eerily similar to a video game menu it looked. It was like their text boxes, a soft blue illuminating the background, with clearly visible text on it. There were different tabs with different types of buildings or options. And it looked utterly complex.

They began what they usually called a “Strategy Bootcamp”. Whenever they got a new game that had strategy elements to it, or just a more complex than usual RPG game, they first sat down together and talked through the different options they had in the game.

They planned out which classes to take, looked for synergies in abilities and exploits in the mechanics. For strategy games, they sometimes even made a big excel sheet, tracking the economic powers of different buildings and style of play. Simply said, they tried figuring out how to play the game as efficiently as possible.

This Node Menu was vastly more complex than any game Dave had ever played though. Fortunately, most of the things available were either too expensive or Max simply hadn’t unlocked them yet. So they didn’t have to look at the whole spectrum of things.

It pained Dave a bit to maybe lose out on long term advantages by only looking at what’s available now. But they needed a solution for their problem. What made it a bit easier was the fact that for a lot of things they couldn’t even see what would become available. Some menus were just completely locked. So he couldn’t torture himself with what they were missing out on.

Still they sat for a while, discussing lots of possibilities. They had no access to the internet, so they couldn’t look for reference guides or patch notes.

Dave missed one of their old friends, Rupert. He was the foremost expert on strategy games Dave knew. Whenever he and Max thought they had found a new strategy to beat him in a game, they were quickly proven wrong. All their preparations and excel sheets paled in comparison to Ruper’s natural talents at figuring out game economies and finding new ways to play a game. Hopefully he was okay.

So it was just them, their brains and their long time video game expertise against the challenges of this new world.

It was long dark by the time they found an idea that might just work.