15) Meet the team

Should I call him the General? Naw. That would probably be too high of a rank for someone who didn’t even have a tank.

Captain? How about Brigadier? I don't even know if we had those in the US, but I’m going to go with Brigadier.

Anyhow, the Brig, for short, sort of snorted and then looked around at the five other people who were too old for this bullshit before looking back at me. “I suppose you should introduce yourselves to Mr Bright and fill him in on what you can do, but don’t expect him to do the same as I have been informed that he is not a helpful man.”

He turned to give me a hard look. "But all I need from you is for you to go into the dungeon. I don't need you to come back out or care what you do in there. But thanks for volunteering.”

What a prick. I grinned, but at least he was honest. And he cares about as much about my opinions about him as I do about his for me.

The old lady in the messed up sweater turned in her seat to look at me. “Annie Foraker. I got stuck with the Leech class which isn’t as horrible as it sounds. I can use my Health Talent to diagnose, and start a magical treatment effect that keeps going on its own so I can tend to a bunch of people one after another rather than have to choose only one person to focus on.” She nodded to herself, and seemed to choose to force herself to stop talking, instead, she nudged the baldy sitting next to her who seemed pretty checked out as he stared blankly off into the distance.

“Samson, you’re up.”

Droopy slowly looked up and turned to smile at the Leech, and something seemed to turn on inside him as he sat up straighter. “Sam Sanders, Armsman. I can make weapons work better with Enchantment essance, but I’m really here because Captain Ebler won’t give any of you combat ready guns.”

The not a Brigadier sighed. “I’m still working under regulations Mr. Sanders. No one, not me, not the Mayor, the Governor, or even the President has declared martial law or anything else that can free my hands. I can not issue military grade weapons to civilians, even ones volunteering for something as vital as this.”

He nodded at the now alert Sam, “But Mr. Sanders is still a licensed gun dealer and as well as still being the owner of record to his hunting goods store which means that as long as he accompanies someone, they can fire any weapon from his store legally without any waiting periods under the justification of testing out their purchases.”

I contunued to glare at him. I wanted a real rootie tootie point and shootie gun, not something I could have bought on my own at any time legally.

Ebler shook his head at me as I glared. “Unless you used to firing an automatic weapon you probably wouldn’t be able to hit anything anyways. Not to mention handling the recoil. Which is why we got these from Sander's Hunting Goods."

He turned and took a step over to a side table covered in guns and ammo, some of which seemed odd. Aren't shotgun shells supposed to be red, not green? And they looked too small.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

The Captain held up what looked like a long skinny shotgun. "This is an Ithica sixteen gauge pump action shotgun, which I think is the best choice for you Mr Bright. It's lightweight, and the buckshot has a decent penetration and spread so you can hit, and kill, one of the hostiles.”

As I started to set Blue down to check it out, he held up his hand. “We will be taking all of you out to check you on the weapons in a moment.” Then he nodded at the grinning man.

"Hiram Colshek. Saboteur. I set up dangerous things, and I used to work here with Harry at the factory." He leaned forward to look over at everyone else at the table. "And don't worry, I got my own guns, and lots of other things to mess up some damn dirty apes.”

I think I vaguely remember the guy. He used to talk at me sometimes and follow me around when I realized that not answering him wasn't enough to get rid of him and so I ended up just trying to just get away from him.

He followed me into the men’s room a couple of times, still nattering on even when I tried to hide out in a stall.

He made eye contact with me and nodded. Yeah, it's that guy.

Bread introduced himself, again, and explained that as a Cook, and had the Enhancement Talent which meant he could make food that could make us stronger, faster, or even heal up better. But it didn't do all that much, and whatever it was doing stopped if we ate something else from him.

Beryl didn’t bother to say anything, even when the Elber gave her a look. But he gave up pretty quickly with a resigned sigh rather than try to talk her into doing anything when she didn’t want to.

Dam, it’s like he knew her or something.

No one had gone into the local Dungeon yet. The photos they showed us of the entrance just showed a bunch of cement broken up and lifted into the a pile with a hole under it that faded away into pure darkness. Another photo showed a soldier leaning forward with both of his arms out in front of him pressed up against the darkness, it looked like he was like he was leaning onto something pretty solid.

“So far no one under seventy five has been able to enter any Dungeon. Despite multiple attempts, it just isn’t possible for anyone without a class. After five people with classes have gone into a Dungeon, no one else, not even another class holder, has been able to enter until at least one person who entered either comes back out, or is dead.”

Dead? I wonder how many people...

I realized he was looking at me. “So Mr Bright, would you care to share.”

Looking down and glancing from side to side, I realized everyone in the whole damned tent other than Beryl was looking at me. She was just silently laughing to herself. She knew I hated being put on the spot and she was enjoying this.

But I would be damned if I gave her the satisfaction of admitting the magical square people had decided to call me a Hermit. After all, they recognized how much she loved being a know it all to make her a Seer.

“Kami. It means god, but more of a place as a god than a big G man in the sky type of god. I’m part of my home and my land in a very real way, so it doesn't count if I go in a Dungeon since I’m only partially anywhere else. My home is who I am.”

Everyone seemed to take a moment to process that, and my Ex even got a look of understanding on her face as she slowly nodded.

Yeah. I don’t like changing my house, because I don't like change. That's why I didn't want new cupboards in the kitchen Beryl. That’s why I called your bluff that turned out not to be a bluff that you would leave me if I didn’t redo the whole damned kitchen.

I told you right from the start that I would never change from who I already was woman. I didn't need or want to grow as a person. Not for you, not for anyone.

Guess the whole Kami thing must have finally driven it home, and that the magical class givers had sided with me.

The Captain tilted his head at me. “But what can you do?”

Shit, what did I want to admit to? "Bond animals to my land, awaken the spirits there. Give strength and healing to those I welcome into my home. Not much that would help anyone here other than slowly healing them.” I nodded at Leech Girl. "Slowly like her, but I got to stay on them so I can only heal one person at a time."

At least one thing I said was true.

The Captain slowly nodded, and Beryl raised her hand. “Don’t try to tell him what to do Captain Ebler. He just does what he wants, so let him do things all on his own, like how he ended up coming here just like my vision said he would. Send him into the dungeon before us and let him do his thing since doing anything else may interfere with the outcome we want. He’ll come out when he’s ready.”

I sighed. She always had gotten me, but it was only when she finally understood that she would never be able to change me that she left.

My chest hurt again, like I had been emptied out and there wasn't anything left inside to hold me up other than pride, and spite. And all the warmth I could run down to my hand wasn’t going to do a damned thing for how I was feeling.