52) A bumpy ride
Captain Ebler had been waiting for Hiram when he dropped off Beryl and had filled him in on how some of the people standing guard over the Dungeons all across the US seemed to have started putting up roadblocks, sometimes literally, to keep old people from going in a clearing them out.
Except for the ones that seemed to be using the Dungeons to level people up rather than clear them out.
Hiram gave me an irritated look. “A lot of those older people that are getting easy access are retired military members according to the Captain. And even the military was getting pressured to hold off on letting people in. He was only able to get us in because he’s a reserve officer and we got in before anyone was willing to give an outright order to stop anyone out to kill off a Dungeon.”
Crap. What are they… “Shit. They’re turning this into an arms race.”
Hiram grinned, briefly, before looking a little grim as he nodded. “I heard China is rounding people up, although no one is sure if they are gathering up the over seventy five crowd to level them up or keep them from getting powerful.”
I shrugged “Probably both. Loyalists get leveled, and the poor get locked down. Or worst”
The Sabatour winced. “They might not care all that much about who they level up. Old people got grandkids. It wouldn’t be hard to get people to do as they’re told.”
I winced myself. No matter how powerful I could get, Bea was just a little girl and would be vulnerable for… another thirty two years.
It didn't matter how much higher I raised my health, I’m not going to last that long.
But Vito will. I need to level up now, so he can level up with me. At least I think that’s how it works.
“We need to go in now, tonight. I don’t know if they can pull this bullshit forever, but I don’t want a Dungeon getting more powerful this close to my home. Not this soon. We not only need to get in there, but we need to break it.”
Brad had been looking back and forth between me and Hiram. “I don’t think I can listen to any more of this, even if you are clearly only talking about going to have a talk with the person in charge over there.”
He held up his folder. “Please talk to your lawyer and fill him in on what’s going on with Reed. Confirm that you’ve retained me as your lawyer and have him look over the papers I want you to sign to double check what I’ve prepared so it’s harder for anyone to question my competency due to my age. Then get back to me after you’ve had your talk with the federal agent.”
Brad handed me a card with a phone number and email scribbled out and new hand printed ones in place. Then he got up from the table and headed off.
Sam meanwhile smiled to himself and pulled a hearing aid out of his ear. “Might be best if the two of you took this outside. Not that I know what you were talking about. The battery must be dead in this thing again.”
Once outside the Elysian Arms, me and the Grinning man took a pair of seats under the tree in the middle of a circular drive and plotted some things out.
An hour later, we were on our way, after Hiram ‘Borrowed’ the keys to the Elyasian Arms bus.
This time I was bringing Coyotes. I hoped the staff and inmates at the retirement home didn’t mind all the loose hair from the beasts. The warming Spring weather meant shedding.
Hiram had a map to the old hospital on his phone propped up on the dashboard of the bus which he was struggling to drive, regardless of all of his promises that “I’ve seen what the drivers do, it ain’t that hard to figure it out.
From the map and some information he had gotten from Captain Ebler, we knew how close we could get before hitting the first roadblock the Border Patrol had set up. We had stopped well short of it to eat the dinners that Brad had put together for us.
Shredded leftover meatloaf pan browned in sesame seed oil with some herb, some diced up stuff, and sauces Brad had been putting together.
It was a good thing the Coyotes were smarter than animals now. “Yes Wylina you have to eat it. Your pups too, otherwise you can’t come into the Dungeon with us.”
Not that Chubby had any problem choking down the greasy stir fry, but Blue whined until her mother snapped at her.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
After that, well road blocks only block roads, and we had gotten out here well before sunset, which left us we plenty of light to take the bus across the cracked pavement and blacktops of the surrounding property as I jerked around in my seat, seatbelt keeping me and the coyotes more or less firmly in place.
As well as over those cement stopper things they put at the end of parking spots to tell you where to stop, and right through the orange plastic fencing the Border Patrol guys had strung up around the site.
The undercarriage of the bus was almost high enough to get over the cement things. Almost.
Hiram yelled in sheer joy at the sheer destruction. The grinding sounds from under the bus, and then the crashing as we came through the fenceline… and kept going.
With both of his hands clenched on the steering wheel as he set his shoulders… and something coming from him washed over me.
If Brad’s Enhanced mix was suppressing the effect of Hiram’s Fear Essence, I wasn’t able to tell.
“Slow down!” The coyotes were screaming. The bus was rocking on the broken pavement, and the wreak of the hospital rising up in front was getting too close, too fast. “Stop!”
There was the sound of gunshots at something on the roof that rose up and leaped down in a crash of breaking sticks, and the Heap gave the terrorized Border Agents a clear target for their fear and something to react to.
Just as the shooting began, my terror faded away as the Grinning man slumped down in the driver’s seat and brought the bus to a slow stop before looking back at me with a smirk. “We didn’t have to show them our passports, or our birth certificates Harry.”
I let out a huff and reached down to pat a still panicked Blue on her head. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s move. The Heap hasn’t got much juice left in it.”
My knees almost gave out as I got to my feet. I had been sending warmth towards the Heap for the last twenty minutes in an effort to keep it from falling apart, and I might have burned myself out even with Brad’s snack.
He had offered to give up some other treats for inside the dungeon, but I had only taken a bean and corn mix he said would help us if we got hurt, but I had to save that for an emergency.
I could only have one of his meals effecting me at a time and I might need the resistance to Hiram’s fear effects in the dungeon, and so would the coyotes since we weren’t members of his party. If we got swarmed his fear power could drive off the dungeon monsters.
A stop at a dollar stare had let me stock up on some overpriced off brand snack cakes which I had filled my pockets with, and as we headed out of the bus I began pulling them out and tearing off the wrappers before stuffing them in my mouth.
Not the sort of things a diabetic should be eating, but I needed calories not, even if literally in the worst way.
I guess I could have asked Brad for something healthier to restore me, but I wanted to eat at least one thing that tasted good before I went into danger.
And we might even need the Grinning man’s fear power later on to get back out of here.
While I doubted the local cops would arrest us for destroying a Dungeon no matter what demands the feds would make, it might not be the cops that arrested us.
If the Border Patrol Officers caught us first, well… even if the politicians wanted to avoid looking bad. A petty little middle manager who knew his career was screwed might shoot a coyote since he had nothing to lose and wanted a little payback on someone who had defied him.
Of course, Brad’s Anti Fear mix wasn’t the only thing the coyotes had eaten.
Two more monster Stones each for Blue and Chubby. And strangely enough none for Wilyna.
I think she may have been snacking behind my back and didn’t have a hankering for them if she was already up at her limit of rank three, something had torn open the one Lasher I had killed in the alley after all.
The pups hadn’t gotten any bigger after getting enough Stones to rank up, but then they had just eaten.
And soon, there would be plenty more for them to eat.