30) In death ground

I had driven by the Elysian Fields a few times back when it was just a plain old apartment building.

Then a chain of retirement places called Refined Manors gutted out a few apartments on the lower floor to add in a kitchen and dining room, then staffed the place with caregivers and other staff.

Not quite a nursing home, but nearly everyone I saw was walking around pushing walkers with wheels on them. So not so much one foot in the grave, but walking along the edge of one.

... Places like this were for people who had a reason to want to keep living but couldn't do it on their own anymore.

I would rather be found after the mailman noticed I hadn't taken my mail in for a week and the cops had to kick in the door.

Not that I had made it easy for them. The thought of some cop having to kick my door a dozen times or so to get around my blocker made me grin. It would give them something to remember me by.

Blondie’s buddy told me. “We’re in a safe zone Sir. Far enough out it should be safe to walk around. But the area is on a curfew from six to six.”

I nodded at him as Blue followed her mother jumping out of the car with a huff as she hit the ground. Chubby hesitated at the jump until I wrapped my hand around his chest and dropped him the last foot to the cement.

The male pup was a good two inches shorter at the shoulder than his sister now and felt like he was a good ten pounds lighter.

At least he had gotten used to me that while he squirmed in my hands, the still wild animal at least didn’t snap at me.

Beryl was waiting for me inside the front doors, which almost made me want to turn around.

She smirked at me, reading my mind again as I debated for too long and the two soldiers drove off with a promise to return in an hour.

An hour? I was thinking a half hour at most, there just wasn’t that much to cover.

The automated door opened as I headed forward, with Blue rushing ahead to sniff at my ex’s feet and look up at her before slowly beginning to wag her tale.

I gave her a dirty look as Beryl braced herself to lean down low enough to hold her hand out in front of Blue’s snout.

“Traitor.”

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Wylina chuffed.

The other four from my ex’s team were waiting around some padded chairs in the lobby. I ignored them while giving Bread a long look, were his eyes blue before?

The taller man seemed a little taken aback as I gave him a narrow eyed look, then his eyes went wide as he sniffed at the air.

Whatever, I was done with him, instead I looked at the woman dressed in a rummage sale sweater.

“Healer right? You can do that heals over time thing? I read about a trick for that online, and I wanted to test it out before I got in the dungeon tomorrow.”

The old woman tilted her head at me. “Oh, are you hurt now?”

I shook my head. “No, but I’m going to be.”

The way her healing worked, it kept people stabilized while it slowly healed up a wound she had locked her Essence onto. The worse the wound, the more essence it took, but no matter how bad the wound was, it still took at least a few hours to heal.

And the stabilization lasted the entire time it took the wound to heal.

I started to explain some more, but she was already nodding. “You can get a paper cut and then I can put more Essence into my Leech ability than it needs for the wound. Which means I can have the stabilization effect already going before you get hurt worse. And since the stabilization is generalized rather than wound specific, it can keep you stable regardless of how else you get hurt.”

She frowned a little. “If I load up one person, with everything I got about four hours before I go in I can be back up to full strength for anyone that gets hurt for real." She slowly nodded to herself, then glanced over at Wylina who was keeping her eyes on her male pup wandering around the dining room sniffing at the floor where old people had dropped food.

“Or I can split it between one man and a coyote instead." She gave me a suspicious look. "That is what you had in mind, right?"

I gave her a considering look, then jumped as I noticed Brad standing way too close to me. I took a step away from him. “What the hell man?”

He looked up at me in surprise, “Did you eat an apple today? Where did you get it from?”

I stared at him for a moment, then dug the Green girl’s Evercrisp out of my pocket, “Here, just take it. Stop being creepy.”

He took it out of my hand, and a gray square appeared in front of his face the moment his finger closed around it.

Weird.

I looked back over to the geezette. “I didn’t even think of getting a ‘Buff’ on Wylina too, since she came out of there without a scratch last time. But yeah, keeping her alive sounds good too.”

There was some more discussion. Brad promised me and Wylina some more ‘keep us alive’ dishes the next day to eat before I headed in alone.

Why alone?

Beryl had sat down in the circle of chairs in the lobby, and waved at me to sit down, frowning as I crossed my arms in defiance.

“Oh just sit down already Harold. Your ride is going to be another forty minutes and your back will be killing you by then."

I huffed at her and sat down.

While I had planned to go in alone to find out how two levels worth of getting my abilities raised would feel, and seeing if Wylina being there counted for being alone, I had only planned on being in there a few minutes ahead of another five people packing firearms.

But…

"I got a quest Harold. If we wait an hour before we follow you in, we destroy the core tomorrow.”

Leaning back in my chair I muttered. “Oh…”

I thought that over. “You get anything on me still being alive when the rest of you go in?”

She winced, "I don't exactly get words Harold, just an impression of waiting for what felt like an hour, then the sound of a crack that I knew to be the core."

My Ex gave me a shrug. "For all I know you can just stand at the top of that ramp for an hour, ready to run back out if it looks like too many are coming at you. That may even be how we beat the thing."

I rubbed at my chin. “That doesn't sound all that bad.”

Bread invited me to stay at the place since they were serving dinner in another hour. I could hear the clatter of cookware coming from beyond the dining room, and it smelled pretty good.

But, I had two soldiers, an oversized vehicle, and a plot of land with all the plants growing like crazy.

It was time for a trip to the Redsmart Garden Center.