67) Doing well for my age

Johanson gave me a surprised look as I pulled myself up into the back of the big military truck. I was surprised myself as I had used the same arm whose shoulder had been hurting me all night with only a twinge of pain, and a grunt at the effort.

“Ugh. Back girls. Yes, I’m happy to see you too, but give me some room.”

Blue was pretty happy to see me, and to have my face on level with hers for once as I climbed up. Her mother just sniffed at me and wagged her tail a bit. Chubby of course lost complete interest as soon as it was clear I didn’t have any food.

My Ex Wife was more than happy to take the army guys' help in climbing in the back of the truck, with a bunch of them piling in behind her forcing me to move to the front of the covered bed of the big truck.

Beryl sat down across from me and looked a bit bewildered at seeing my big smile. At least until she saw the soldiers passing my shotgun forward from where their sergeant had handed it up. The man gave me a nod and as the truck lurched into motion, he called out, “One of the guys we got your mutts from told me Pena had taken it.”

So either Chip or the woman that had been with him had spoken up. Regardless of Pena, their boss, being a prick, most of the Border Agents were just normal people like everywhere else, just doing their jobs while having to deal with people getting paid more than them playing stupid games.

People whose game were all about getting something for themselves instead of getting the job done.

Which made me wonder why Captain Ebler had been so helpful. An officer, even one at about the same rank as a middle manager had to worry about not being turned into a scapegoat by their own bosses and then doing what’s right. “Beryl. What's Ebler’s whole deal? Why is he…” I twitched my shoulder. “Competent at his job and still in charge? When is the other shoe going to drop with him.”

She stared at me for a moment, then held her hand up to hush a woman I think helped teach me how to shoot a shotgun without falling on my ass. “The people who work for him trust him Harold, and he’s mentioned concerns for his family. I think his whole deal is doing his job well, and trying to make this work one that his children can survive in.”

The redhead nodded and looked over at me. “He has grandchildren too, and his moms still alive down in Georgia. She’s helped clear two dungeons before she got hurt and called off until the second wave.”

I looked back and forth between the two of them, then grunted and stored the shotgun away. “Good for her.”

Unlike me and Beryl, someone seemed to have raised a good man. I guess you had to start by being a good person.

“Either of you know what this Foundation is.”

Beryl nodded. “Brad talked to someone he knows in the State Historical Preservation Office, and they got word to the right set of ears in the Governor’s office. She’s not happy about the Federal government blocking people from clearing several of the easier dungeons around the state so she was more than happy to sign off on Brad’s proposal.”

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She shrugged at me. “Of course, he will need you to sign some papers to make it official, so try not to be an ass about it Harold. You hired him, trust him to do his job.”

I grumbled at that and decided to enjoy the rest of the trip in silence and scratching at Blue’s and Wylina’s ears.

Maybe forty minutes later we pulled up at a US Army Arsenal north of the city where I got poked, prodded, X-rayed, and had six different test tubes filled up with my blood before I started getting mad. “Just share what you already took, it’s not like getting cut up and running around for a few hours changed me all that much from the last time you people tried to suck me dry.”

I ignored the medical person’s attempts to try to explain why they needed so much blood, which had something to do with how few of us old farts had gone into dungeons more than twice and how they needed more information to understand what leveling up was doing for us.

I damned Intuition score, I was picking up on even the stuff I was trying not to pay attention to.

It finally got to the point that I was thinking about reminding them I still had a gun when the growling shut them up, both the growl from Blue, and from my stomach.

They fed me, a family meal from a chicken place that me and the furry minions polished off, and offered me a place to sleep for the night. But, “Thanks, but I just want to go home… I need to renew my ties to my home after what happened at the Hospital. It’s a Kami thing.”

They bought it, and I got home around three in the morning, barely taking the time to lay my hand on Acey’s trunk long enough to get a sleepy feeling of acknowledgment and her acceptance of another beast stone being buried into her roots before I made it inside and flopped down in bed. Still fully clothed.

I woke up to the sound of clawed feet dancing around in my room and a mother Coyote throwing herself against the side of my bed as two near full grown pups jumped up and began sticking their noses into my side.

Grumbling, I rolled out of bed, for once without the need the need to push myself up and wait until the room stopped spinning, and stared at the young woman looking back at me.

I blinked at he while she gave me a shy smile and shrugged with her hands thrust into the pocket of the solid dark green hoodie she now wore over her camouflage patterned sun dress.

Acey was still barefoot though, and she had gotten into the house somehow. “I forgot to lock the door, didn’t I? The dryad, now looking like a girl in her mid-teens nodded again, then reached out to tug at the sleeve of my blood stained pullover that I was still wearing from the dungeons the night before.

Then she began waving her hand in front of his nose with a fake offended look on her face before smiling again.

I sniffed at myself. Yeah, I not only felt like a younger man again, I smelled like one. “Could you make yourself useful and give them some food and water.” I pointed at the coyotes who immediately began to race off toward the kitchen like they were starving.

Which they very much might be. Chubby and Blue were both nearly head high to my waist, with their mother up above my elbows, and all three of them looked like they had been short a few meals for quite some time.

“Tear open all the hot dogs, at least the ones in the fridge, and refill their bowls with the dry stuff until they slow down.” Acey gave me a nod as she headed out my bedroom door. It looked like I might need to do another grocery run soon, just to feed the mootchers.

I had to hope the three of them as Spirit beasts were smart enough not to make themselves sick, or that Acey was smart enough to stop feeding Chubby after the other two started to seem full.

By the time I was out of the shower and had started getting dressed, Vito let me know someone was parked out in front of my house, hesitating to cross over my property line.

“Great, visitors.”