JOAN
What a day.
Called in for duty to help bring control to the end of the world. At least my family is safe at home, if anywhere is safe.
When the light show started and the world went insane I was offered skills that I was familiar with and, was able to choose Voice of Authority, Detect Untruth, Organization. These Skills and maybe my personality allowed me to choose a Class called Sergeant, even though I'm not one. The class does allow me to boost morale and something to help with group damage, I don't understand it so I set it aside for review later.
There were ten of us stationed at Keystone and 80, we are one of twenty or so checkpoints around the city to be ready for whatever is needed. Our groups consist of reservists, national guard, local police, and civilian volunteers, The original plan called for 1,000 people in groups of 20 but we ended up having just over 200 people. Then when we came back from that system thing we were missing four of our people.
Troy, Stephen, Claire, John, and Rick are the the ones left, survivors of whatever this is. Did our missing four run off, in all of the text there was mention of people not making it or being sent elsewhere. I wish them well if they survived.
Right after 'The Event' as we were instructed to call it we worked with the road crews to clear the highways as vehicles and wrecks were everywhere. Some cars drove away, some people went to the hospital, other people were just gone leaving empty moving cars. We moved the vehicles to one side of the highway leaving 3 clear lanes for travel if needed, then we were to remain in our area to assist travelers as needed, we moved people along as they showed up, the earthquakes were unexpected then we had reports of water rising, and as evening grew closer and the sun went down frantic frightened people were rushing by and the second moon showed up in the sky, Troy started referring it as the 2 moon madness.
The beasts didn't find us right away, we are located on an overpass on the highway, when I reflect on that night I think that the beasts ran out of people to kill in the city and found us on their way out of town.
Our second fight was a huge group of beetles chasing an SUV as it raced out of town, nothing we had would damage them and I was pretty sure we were not going to make it when we met Ben, he was running behind them going nearly as fast as the SUV, The beetles stopped to kill us and Ben stopped to kill the beetles. When he was done slaughtering the bugs he helped us figure a few things out. Mainly he showed us how to access our spatial storage and taught us about Mana Energy. It was enough to give us an edge.
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BEN
Looking at my jacket I can see specks of blood from the previous nights activities, I guess you can't be a part of that much mayhem and be completely clean at the end. I can send it to my inventory to clean up, but I think I have a spell for this...somewhere.
Opening my system menu screen and map, I feel like a rebooting robot, once my screens are up I scroll through my tabs. Let's see....spells....spells I should have a few of them. Just thinking about it makes the spell tab open up on which is listed what I have available.
-Spell - Combat - Shield - Blocks next attack be it mundane, enhanced, magical, etc. 2 minute cool down. 20 Mana Energy
-Spell - Combat - Knock Back - Distance 15'. A blow of force that extends 15' in one direction. 1 minute cool down. 10 Mana Energy
-Spell - Environmental -Fog/Mist/Cloud/Shadows - releases an environmental effect that shrouds an area around the target. 10-30 feet depending on opacity, density, and time.10 minute cool down. 20 Mana Energy
-Spell - Revitalize - A bath, 3 shots of espresso, and a Nap all in one cast. This handy spell makes sure your ready to go again instantly. 20 minute cool down. 10 Mana Energy
Ring of Bewilderment / Item - Ring / 3 Charges / Bewilders, Confuses, Hypnotizes all who can see the Ring when 1 charge is used. Amount of victims will decrease the potency of the effect. Strength and time increased with additional charges
Ring of Levitation / Item - Ring / 2 charges / 1-1-1 User can lift 1 pound per 1 Mana Energy for 1 minute. Variable.
Ring of Clean / Item - Ring / 5 charges / May require more than 1 charge based on size and need.
There it is, not the spell necessarily but a ring with a cleaning spell. Starting with the minimum required, I focus on the ring and fire off one charge of cleaning, Mana Sense shows me a silvery mist that rises around my body and as it dissipates my Duster is clean.
I like that, I wonder where all the grime goes when it's cleaned up. Seeing movement close by I tense up but it's just the shadows around Corbie swirling off and away. Pulling out one of my looted cores I offer it up to him "Ready to start the day buddy?" Snatching the offering Corbie gives me a small "kraaaa".
Opening up the truck door, I startle the people standing and sitting nearby. A young girl is looking up at clouds and I can just hear her whisper to no one in particular "Birds in the sky...."
It's a new dawn, It's a new day, I agree with the girl. Corbie hops up onto my shoulder so now I'm a pirate. I wonder if that's a class now, I just need a hook for a hand and a Raven on my shoulder.
I should hit level five today, no experience meter makes it a little difficult to judge progress, but when I think about my level I have a 'full' feeling. At the kitchen area the food tables are empty, no coffee either, this is not how you start a good day.
Hoping up I jump the ten feet to the top of the wall. In the morning light it looks less wall and more junkyard, despite that it feels solid under my feet. The piled up cars, vans, and trucks are stacked on each other with the top layer....crushed? flat to create a four or five foot wide walking area, what I took for semi trailers last night appear to be panel trucks backed into the wall so the back area can be used as storage, on top of each truck is a defensive position using sandbags and other things for shielding. Peering over the edge I can see the outside of the wall is blurry like someone took an eraser to it to fill in the gaps and open areas, with a concrete weld? across the bottom holding it all in place. Weird.
From up here what I see is a mess, during the night someone has dismantled the middle road barrier about 100 feet in both directions then used that to create an outer lower wall around the garrison and that area is filled with people. Every one has something to use as a weapon golf clubs, bats, rebar, a few guns, I see a few system swords here and there along with maces, spears, and other things to attack with, one guy is holding the classic aluminum trash can lid as a shield.
The other side of the concrete barrier is disgusting. A field of dead animals, bugs, scaled things, to the West there is a pile 6 feet high of dead things. Are zombies a problem now, should we be burning everything? Beyond the bodies I can see vehicles, parked cars and trucks from all the people inside as well as bikes, scooters, and motorcycles. No wonder there are so many people here now, people from all directions ended up here.
As the sun slowly rises I can just make out the dim shape of both moons still low in the sky lost in the bright sunrise, switching to Mana Sense I can see swirls of colored energy covering everything, even the wind above us is highlighted with blue and green paths of energy. The packed defenders below have misty silver energy as they use a skill or prep a spell, out in the corpsefield my Treasure Sense starts highlighting cores and bits of creatures as well as some dropped system Items underneath all the death.
5:57, looking at my watch again I realize it's been 12 hours since this started, 12 hours for civilization to break down. A haze of smoke covers the city, the taller buildings are broken or missing, the city looks like a setting for a bad movie, and there is water everywhere....so much water, any low spot seems to filled in with water most of it to the south where the river winds through the city.
A blinking notification catches my eye
GARRISON HAS IDENTIFIED OUTER PALISADE AND STAGING AREA. INCREASE 'MIDDLE OF THE ROAD GARRISON TO INCLUDE? YES. NO. OPTIONS.
choosing options I get a sub menu for the added space which included an attack bonus, a resting bonus, Increasing the outer wall size by 10%, a stamina recovery zone, and the last one was a stable or garage. I don't see any horses or mounts anywhere.
I remember something about upgrades to the garrisons and forts coming from the owners resources. Without knowing what to expect, I select all the options and once I mentally commit, I feel almost all the Mana Energy ripped from my body and with Mana Sense I watch it spread out over the garrison. The wall previously made out of the K-Rail Jersey Barrier is now seamed together and slightly taller and the open space, which I assume is a gateway is now wide enough for a car to fit through.
MIDDLE OF THE ROAD / Commander - Joan Bridgers / Occupants 227 / Registered Defenders 64 / Bonuses to Defense 13.7% Bonus to Healing 40.8% / Income 0 / Taxes 0
The milling people below don't notice anything at first as the changes were small. The few people who do notice just seem to accept it as another odd thing in the world.
Taking stock of where I am I look out over the city, scanning all around I see just North is a Starbucks and other random shops, South is a few restaurants one of which is an In-n-Out Burger, East and West are highway. The river must be flooding, the roadway is covered for sure and you can Identify low spots by how high up the water is on stopped cars or signage. To make it worse there's movement in the water, little ripples where something is moving around just out of sight. On top of some of the buildings I can make out little encampments of people sleeping or sitting in chairs or just huddling behind rooftop machinery. Some groups obviously didn't make it through the night still body and blood evidence of how they ended.
Looking back at the Starbucks sign I make a decision, I need a morning coffee. Looking over at one of the wall guards "Hey, if Joan is looking for me let her know I went to get a coffee." And without waiting for a reply I hop down into the new staging area then jump over the palisade wall and start walking to the East. Behind me I can just make out a muttered "who was that?"
Going through the cars lined up along side the highway I walk down the shoulder and over to the off-ramp, then following that down to Keystone Ave. I keep alert, there is a sense of safety around the encampment but down here I feel eyes on me. Under the highway overpass the road dips down and the low spot is full of water which extends past the off ramp by about half a block, there are shapes moving about in the deeper areas.
Avoiding the flooded area I hop the barrier and move up the street to the higher zone then switch to the sidewalk. The area looks like a war zone, vehicles stopped every which way, trash in the street, patches of blood and unidentifiable chunks all over the place, and just an eerie quietness in the immediate area.
Coffee is just on the other side of a blocky square building which must be a utility building or something. There's a pile of insect bodies mounded up against the buildings wall, not roaches or spiders something longer with scales, my Treasure Sense perks up and I can make out parts to scavenge and a bit of silver glow like system items. Walking closer i see most of the chain link fence is....melted or eaten, just beyond the pile of bugs I can make out a cell tower or something similar, it's leaning badly and the bottom of one of the supports is just gone.
The bugs as far as I can tell are giant Pill Bugs, they don't look quite right but identify just says dead body. Working through the pile with my knife I get chunks of carapace, a weird internal organ that's heavy enough to be gold, and what I take to be their teeth look like brownish lumpy diamonds, collecting and moving each of the bugs I soon get to the three humans they were on top of. A quick search and the system Items are added to my collection. Now, back to coffee.
The Starbucks looks like it's open, a line of cars at the drive up window, full parking lot, but there are no people, no voices, and no bodies. Walking closer the windows are covered in cracks and bullet holes, the door looks like a truck tried to drive through it but instead of paint on the frame it has pink and green ichor and bits of fur stuck to the metal.
Stepping over the door lying just inside, the glass is shattered and covered in blood from the person trapped underneath it. It looks like whatever got in trashed the place, two employees and three customers didn't survive whatever it was. Checking each body I find coins and system items. Another knife might come in handy.
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Corbie flies in behind me, and lands on the counter, he was carrying a....system coin all sparkly and clean, it drops to the floor as he lands on the counter. "Now where did you find that, you'll have to show me when we are done here."
Let's see, no power so if I want coffee maybe a cold brew, going behind the counter I search around for the stuff I need. Someone or something has eaten all the display food and there is coffee and tea spilled everywhere. The french press they use is on the back cabinet and there's plenty of ground coffee in bags available. In my search, I also found 2 totes full of pastries and snack items.
Sadly a french press needs hot water....and a cold brew takes too many hours, so I settle. On the back counter In a row of six thermos style decanters with the serve yourself spigots. Once I verify there's coffee in each one I pull out my nifty flask which hold 5 gallons of liquid. I was going to fill it up with water But needs must when the devil has coffee.
(sys) Flask / Utility / Hold up to 5 gallons of any liquid / Shape is variable but restricted to pocket sized.
Pouring myself a cup with the dregs of the 'flavor of the day', I offer some to the raven "What about you, Corbie, would you like some?" I get a negative "kraaa" and after taking a sip I agree "It is still better than no coffee, though, barely."
Filling up a third tote with anything I can find, I head towards the broken front door. "Ok, Corbie, show me where you found the shiny"
With a hop and leaving bits of shadow behind like jet trails Corbie flies across the street and lands on top of the Jiffy Lube. Out of habit I Look both ways as I cross the street, Then laughing at myself I set my snack boxes on the ground and then walk in the open bay door. "Hello, anyone home?"
It looks like something bad happened here as well. Doors are loose on their hinges. There's bloody drag marks on the ground and what looks like claw marks in the metal of the door leading into the offices and front reception area.
Searching the building for a way up I don't find any bodies or any survivors. Against one of the far walls in the Mechanics garage area is an access ladder, Seeing dried blood on several of the rungs. lets me know what I'll probably find on the roof, The hatch is unlocked but needs a hard push to open, I hear something tumble off as it swings up and open.
The roof is bloody, I think there are 4 bodies up here. The remains of the people are shredded if you've ever had nightmares of the movie Birds by Alfred Hitchcock you might be able to picture what the bodies look like, there's not a piece that isn't scratched, bitten, or shredded.
Scattered near one of the....bodies.... There's a small pile of coins next to a ripped up pouch, as well as what looks like a toolkit, one of those fancy roll up ones in a leather case....how do I know it's a tool kit, well it says TOOLS in giant capital letters. The next pile of person has three items, thankfully everything cleans up when inventoried so in a few minutes I've grabbed all the items in sight and as a bonus under one of the bodies was a small core I tossed over to The Raven.
The body it had belonged to had bird like wings, beak, but was also slightly reptilian, the size of an eagle or vulture. The feathers were rubbery and looking closely seemed more scaley than faethery. The talons on it's clawed feet were inches long, Mana Sight and my own Treasure Sense told me both feet and the beak were worth salvaging. My knife is sharp.
At the edge of the roof and looking down at a truck parked next to the building, I hop over the short wall and land in the truck bed, I'd say like a superhero, but I had a bad landing and almost fell over sideways.
Grabbing my crates of snacks from around front I head back to the highway, noticing as I get closer that the water is slightly higher on the roadway. near my turn I notice a trail of drips leading off into the bushes as if something crawled out of the water. Ignoring whatever it might be I head up the ramp, Corbie lands on my shoulder so once again I'm pirate Ben as I trudge up and around to get back to the Garrison.
One of the guards at the gate recognizes me as I get close, I pause long enough to offer them first choice of the muffins, cookies, and croissants. There's a bit more organization now, more guards up top, and people are resting around the perimeter of the inside, and more people seem to be holding makeshift weapons. The atmosphere is a little less crowded, not quite as hopeless.
Walking to the kitchen area, I set the containers down noticing that there's food ready again and two people manning the tables. "I ran over to the Starbucks to grab some snacks, There wasn't food out earlier"
"Thank you. We are not out of food yet, but we are getting close. There was only enough here for a small group of people, not this huge mob of people."
"We can definitely scrounge from the surrounding businesses and come up with food from nearby."
The lady replies "I don't know that you will get people to leave. Some of their stories are truly horrendous. Some haven't been able to go to sleep or find any rest at all, and most people are missing family or friends."
"I can't imagine today is going to get any safer. Anyway, I need to find Joan. Do you know if she's up?"
"She was just here grabbing some food, But I don't know where she went."
"Thank you, I'll track her down."
"Good luck and thank you for the extras."
Grabbing a piece of banana bread I wander off searching for Joan.