Chapter 34
The rest of the journey to Max¡¯s passed quietly for Hildi and the rest of the caravan. Everyone was tired and trying to figure out the last encounter. Fern quietly explained to the new folks what they¡¯d heard about Wade and his crew. The biggest question seemed to be why the caravan had reacted that way to what seemed to them a relatively minor encounter. Although Wade¡¯s group¡¯s holding weapons had definitely made people a little nervous.
¡°So, they¡¯re bandits?¡± one of the new people asked.
¡°I guess you could say that. They chased Hildi there,¡± she said pointing towards Hildi at the back of the caravan, ¡°for a couple of kilometers. Shouting that they wanted a piece of her, that kind of garbage. She had to hide from them. That¡¯s how we discovered the place where we¡¯re going.¡± She left it at that. Not attempting to explain the dungeon being her son or any of that. She figured that they¡¯d get a chance soon enough to react to that bit of weirdness. And future Fern could attempt to handle it then.
Eventually, the group settled down and they arrived at Max¡¯s. There had been some changes, even since Hildi had left. The roof had changed a bit and the windows and doors were black. Not like dark, but black.
¡°Hey, Jake,¡± said Hildi, her voice falling off at the end. ¡°We¡¯re here.¡±
¡°Great,¡± said Jake. He didn¡¯t know quite what to say either. Their relationship, whatever it was, had begun about a week ago and then they hadn¡¯t talked or anything since.
¡°Need snack!¡± said Baxter. ¡°Need snack now¡± and with that, he trotted through the door and then came to a complete stop.
¡°Too dark,¡± he said. ¡°Need lights. Where go?¡±
¡®Oh shit!¡¯ Jake thought. ¡®OH SHIT! LIGHTS! Fucking hell!¡¯
¡°Yes,¡± said Hildi. ¡°I brought them here. Where do you want them to go?¡±
¡°Through the door is what I guess is the first level of my dungeon. I¡¯ve killed off all the rats and cleaned up the place. I¡¯ve also added a whole bunch of things I thought you¡¯d need. It looks kind of like a hotel. A kind of plain hotel that has really comfortable beds.¡±
While Jake was talking to her, he had his other mind, the one he usually had siphoning all day, start the process of creating lights. Not for the rooms but for the hallways. He figured he¡¯d need to do something different for the rooms. He didn¡¯t have time to deal with that now.
For the hallway lights, he went into his pattern space and created a small plate of bronze and then inscribed the rune for light on it. He also created a timer and a dimmer functionality. And an override function for both the timer and the dimmer.
The timer would turn down the lights to a dim glow every night at ten o¡¯clock. Enough to allow the hallways to be navigable, but not enough to wake up a sleepy adult or child. Then he had the timer also brighten the lights back up to full strength every morning at 5 am. He figured that if he had to be awake all the time, then, by God, the people inside him should be awake too!
The final things he did were to have a call of ¡°Emergency¡± turn on all the lights throughout the whole floor at once. And a call of ¡°Lights On¡± turns the nearest light back to full brightness. The last instruction would only last while the person was within eight meters of the light. If they left beyond that, the light would dim again.
He thought about the pattern for a brief moment and then decided that it needed a shade. The lights from the runes were a little directional and could use some diffusion. Glass was too expensive, so he opted for a thin alabaster shade, made into a globe surrounding the glowing light element.
The material was not too expensive to make, about the same cost as his sandstone. Then he decided to get a little artistic. Over the top half of the globe, he put what he thought of as a large shell. He wanted the idea to be of an oyster with its pearl shining from within. Fortunately, the ¡®Loot Creation¡¯ space came through and it didn¡¯t look half bad. Way better than his limited artistic abilities could account for. The pattern cost him 100 mana. After he created one, he determined that a light was going to cost him 112 mana points.
He thought about that for a minute but decided to go for it. He liked the looks of his fixtures and he could add more lights tomorrow. Right now though, he needed to get the place, well, not dark.
After he¡¯d placed his first one, he stopped and thought about it some more. He knew that he was going to need mana for more than lights. Something would come up and people would be asking him for something that they needed now! Not to mention, what if there were core stealers in the group? He needed the mana to protect himself! He still wanted the lights, but could they wait?
What could he do that was cheaper? He thought about that for a minute. Cheaper lights. Well, flashlights cost less than light fixtures in the world that was. Could he make a flashlight?
He immediately started trying. He began with a short bronze rod about twenty cm long and five cm in diameter. Then he thought beam, glow and on and off. That was all he wanted the light to do. The glow would cast light out from one end of the rod and light up a circular area of about three meters around the rod. The beam function would generate a focused beam of light that would extend about thirteen meters. He didn¡¯t want to mess with a touch interface this time. He just wanted the thing to work. Say ¡°Glow¡± it glowed. Say ¡°Beam¡± it generated a beam of light. Say ¡°Off¡± it turned off.
The pattern wasn''t cheap but he expected that of anything with runes on it anymore. He got the feeling that it wouldn¡¯t cost that much to make though and when he created one, it turned out he was right. One mana point. He thought about all the people that he¡¯d need to create one for, 132 elderly, kids, adults and, well, the shocked and decided to make it an even 150. He created a couple of chests inside the door and then filled them with flashlights, light rods, light sources, whatever.
In the meantime, he¡¯d been having a conversation with Hildi and through Hildi a conversation with his mom and the other folks.
Hildi said to Fern, ¡°He¡¯s been busy creating stuff for us to live. He¡¯s changed Max¡¯s to be like a hotel he says.¡±
¡°What do you mean?¡± Fern asked.
¡°I guess he¡¯s created a bunch of rooms and stuff. He says that the inside is like a cheap hotel with comfortable beds,¡± Hildi answered.
¡°Plain, not cheap!¡± Jake inserted.
¡°Plain, not cheap hotel,¡± Hildi said. ¡°He wanted to make that clear.¡±
¡°So we go inside, find a room and settle down?¡± asked Fern. ¡°That¡¯s not going to work.¡±
¡°No mom,¡± said Jake. ¡°I made rooms for you and dad, Sammy and Dato, Rex and Bernie, Billy and Hildi, the Withers, the Falcons, and the Fishers. I also created a bunch of rooms for single folks like Joseph. But then you went and added a ton of people too. So, the single folks get shafted and have to sleep three to a room. I¡¯ve got a queen-sized bed and a full bed in every single room. I do have another two couple rooms if there''s a couple of couples in the new folks.¡±
¡°He says that he made a bunch of rooms for the original folks. The original married folks and our families all have rooms. The single folks and the new folks will have to share a room. Three folks to a room.¡±
¡°Can you create more space, more rooms?¡± Hildi asked Jake.
¡°Yes, tomorrow or the next day. I¡¯m pretty much out of mana for tonight. I¡¯ve got a little but not enough to make another floor. And I probably won¡¯t tomorrow either. It takes a lot of mana to build.¡±
¡°Can they use the other floors of the dungeon?¡± she asked.
¡°No!¡± said Jake. The answer came out almost involuntarily, sharply.
¡°Ok, relax!¡± she said. ¡°We¡¯ll figure it out.¡±
Hildi looked around and saw that everybody was watching her. ¡°It looks like we¡¯ll have to triple up. Sorry about that single folks, but it¡¯s temporary until he can make some more space.¡±
One of the new folks said, ¡°Who are you talking to? I hear you, but I can¡¯t hear anybody else. What¡¯s going on?¡±
Fern stepped up then and said, ¡°That is a discussion for inside. It¡¯s almost dark and I feel like getting some walls between me and the outside world. It¡¯s not safe out here. What say we all head inside and we¡¯ll take a look around, answer your questions and get everybody settled down for the night. We can get a meal ready and everybody fed too. How¡¯s that sound?¡±
The suggestion seemed to be well received, but everyone was tired and hangry, so there wasn¡¯t a lot of talking going on.
¡°Ask him if there¡¯s a space inside where we can all sit down and discuss what needs to happen from here on out,¡± Fern said.
¡°Tell her that the dining room has tables and benches. It can seat about ninety-four people. The kids can go swimming, I guess. Everybody can take a flashlight from the chest when they step inside. Say ¡°Glow¡± it glows, say ¡°Beam¡± it creates a flashlight beam, and ¡°Off¡± turns it off. I didn¡¯t have enough time to finish the lights. That¡¯s the best I could do,¡± Jake said to Hildi.
"That''s fine Jake," Hildi said. "To tell you the truth, I''m just glad the rats are gone."
Hildi told the waiting crowd about the flash sticks and how to operate them and then asked everybody to grab one as they stepped inside.
The people from the caravan piled into Max¡¯s following behind Jake¡¯s family, Hildi, Baxter, and Billy. He started to identify them but there were so many that he gave up before he even began. He thought ¡®I can do it later tonight when they are all in bed.¡¯
¡®Wow,¡¯ he thought, ¡®that¡¯s not at all pervy!¡¯
They all came inside and grabbed a light stick? Stick light?
Anyway, almost all of them grabbed a small bronze rod and said ¡®Glow.¡¯ Some of them seemed to be being guided by others and didn''t take a light. He guessed those were the shocked. The glow from their lights spread throughout the entryway, followed them down the hall to the first single rooms as they pushed their way inside and showed the first garden patch where they would hopefully start planting tomorrow. The crowd began milling around, the kids and even the adults were all fascinated by the lights. Shifting them rapidly from Glow to Beam and then Off.
¡°Ok,¡± Jake said, ¡°Looks like everybody¡¯s in and got a light. If you¡¯d tell them to head straight ahead. That way''s south. Past the first garden patch, you¡¯ll see a path between it and the second garden patch that runs east/west. Turn left and head east. You should see a light up ahead. That¡¯s where the dining area is.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
He had already placed the single light that he had created there. But he quickly created another two in the dining room and one in the kitchen. He figured that it would be better to have the meeting space brightly lit.
Hildi said, ¡°Ok, if you will all follow me, we¡¯ll head straight down this corridor, past the garden space here, and then take the first corridor to the left. It will take us to the dining room and we can all sit down and figure out what is going to happen. That''s where the lights are shining.
The tired group shambled behind Hildi and Fern as they led the way toward the dining room. The space they walked through was cavernous and dark outside the range of their flashlights. Most people were using the glow function but some were using the beam. This caused beams to flash around lighting up the ceiling, the passageways, the bedrooms that they passed. Their feet caused echoes that bounced off the floor and ceiling. The group tightened up into an almost instinctual herd. No one said anything until they turned the corner and saw the lights up ahead in the dining room. Then almost as one, the group let out a sigh and a couple of them laughed nervously.
Jake thought about what to do with the kids. ¡®I mean are they going to want to be part of this meeting or will they want to go swimming. Although most are orphans now, maybe they will want to be part of the meeting. Heck, I¡¯ll light up the swimming pool and they can make their own choices. Plus, I¡¯ll light up the restroom closest to the dining room too.'' So he created another four lights and placed them too.
The group filed into the dining room and started taking seats. There was some confusion about what to do then. The shocked had all come along with the group since they were being led there. But now that they¡¯d arrived in mass and had seen the seating situation, the group began milling around again.
¡°I assume that the adults being led by hand are what Baxter called the ¡®shocked¡¯? Jake asked. ¡°Is that right? If so, you passed the room I created for them. Did you want to take them there and let them rest up?
¡°Georgia,¡± Hildi said. ¡°That room that we passed was created for the shocked to stay. Did you want to take them there before we have this meeting?¡±
¡°Is there a restroom?¡± Georgia asked. ¡°I imagine that they need to go and then they could rest before we eat. How¡¯s that sound?¡±
¡°Yes, there is a restroom,¡± Jake said. ¡°There are actually three sets of restrooms. The only one that¡¯s lighted is the one right behind you. It has a light between the women¡¯s section and the men¡¯s. The women¡¯s side is on the east end, the men¡¯s is on the west end.¡±
¡°The restrooms are right there,¡± Hildi said, pointing toward the wall with the doors in it. The east end is the women¡¯s, the west end is the men¡¯s.¡±
Georgia nodded her head and began marshaling the shocked and their helpers toward the restrooms.
Jake thought about whether to say anything about the toilets but decided he¡¯d better say something. ¡°The toilets are kind of bidet style. All you¡¯ve got to do is sit down,¡± he said.
¡°The toilets are like bidets,¡± Hildi said. ¡°All you have to do is sit.¡±
At this, a murmur sprang up from the crowd. A couple of men, including Will, looked as if they were going to investigate this strange new occurrence, but Fern loudly said, ¡°Will! There¡¯ll be time for that later. Let them get the shocked situated first.¡± And all the men turned back, looking kind of sheepish.
After about ten minutes, Georgia led her shocked and their helpers back to their room and began arranging them for the night.
¡°OK,¡± said Fern. ¡°Restroom¡¯s open boys and girls,¡± and two lines quickly formed.
Watching their faces when they left the restroom was a hoot. Jake was rolling. Of course, he could have watched the whole procedure, but decided that just the face of people when they exited was enough. Man, woman or child, they all had a vaguely discomfited expression on their face leaving.
Listening to the conversation afterward was funny too. They seemed to both want to talk about it and not. There were a lot of conversations that began and ended with, ¡°Have you used the restroom yet?¡± People seemed to figure out the sinks fairly well too. They seemed to like the dry function, the soap. He received some negative feedback too, but overall the experience seemed positive.
After a while, he decided that it was taking too long and added another two lights to the closest restroom. He told Hildi that there was another restroom available, now lit. She walked around the corner and discovered the pools and the other restroom. She promptly shared the information with the others and everyone finished and settled into the dining room. The kids overflowing onto the floor around the edges of the room.
Fern stood up in the center of the dining room, standing in a firepit to raise herself up enough to see everyone.
She held up her hands for quiet and eventually everyone settled down and focused on her.
¡°Hello,¡± she began. ¡°For those of you that don¡¯t know me, my name is Fern Silvestre. That¡¯s my husband Will over there, my two daughters, Dato and Sammy, and my oldest boy, Rex and his wife Berni and their baby over there. I¡¯m the reason you''re all here. I¡¯m the one that invited you. So I¡¯m the one that you all can blame if something goes wrong, I mean, other than the end of the world.¡±
The crowd kind of chuckled at this.
¡°Two weeks ago, I¡¯d never met some of you,¡± she began again. ¡°And that makes me a little sad. It makes me a little sad because I lived a little life, took care of my husband and kids, my garden, went to work, but I didn¡¯t have time to get to know all you. But now I do, we do, have time to get to know each other. What I¡¯m trying to say is that while awful things have happened to us, to our families, to our neighborhood, our country, our world, we are now at a point where we can start to bounce back. To recover. To grow and survive. To take back control over our lives.¡±
¡°This is where it begins. This spot, this building is going to be our refuge. I¡¯m not going to make a long speech. I¡¯ve never been a person that liked talking in front of a group, but I felt I needed to say something to you all. To say, we will survive!¡±
She looked around, trying to make eye contact with everyone in the room.
¡°At this point, normally after a long day of walking, we¡¯d go home, make something to eat and probably watch some TV, maybe get a glass of wine, a beer, a coke, then lock our front doors, and settle in for the night. That¡¯s what I¡¯d like us to do also, but I¡¯ve got no TV, no wine, no beer, and maybe even, not a bed. For that, we¡¯re going to let Hildi here explain what Max¡¯s offers.¡±
She pointed toward Hildi who smiled and did a little wave, palm up, fingers pointing toward the ceiling.
Hildi looked a little surprised and nervous when Fern said that, but Jake just laughed. He recognized the feeling. He wasn¡¯t sure how many old folks lawns he¡¯d ¡®volunteered¡¯ to mow but it was more than ten. Less than a 1000, but way more than ten.
¡°But before that,¡± Fern continued, ¡°how many of you have a class? Or even know what a class is?¡±
Only the 22 adult members of the original party raised their hands. Then Billy thought about the second part of what she¡¯d said and he raised his hand and his group all raised their hands as well.
¡°So, it looks like 33 people have started to figure out now how our new world works. All you folks that didn¡¯t raise your hand, don¡¯t worry. We¡¯ll talk about it later. We¡¯ll explain everything that we can and answer all your questions.¡±
¡°How many of you are good cooks? You can cook on an open fire, you can cook without a recipe. You look at a bunch of vegetables and meat and think, ¡®that would make a good stew¡¯.¡±
Jake noticed that Hildi didn¡¯t raise her hand. Bernie, his brother¡¯s wife did, along with Fern and a couple of people that he recognized from his mom¡¯s block parties. All people who¡¯d raised their hands earlier. In addition, four people that he didn¡¯t recognize at all raised their hands. He was surprised, seven women and a single man. He thought there would be fewer folks than that.
¡°We¡¯re going to be your cooks tonight. Give us a round of applause!¡±
She smiled and everybody not selected started clapping.
¡®Probably,¡¯ Jake thought cynically, ¡®because they weren¡¯t selected.¡¯
Fern continued, ¡°we can work out roles in the future, but tonight, they need us! Do any of you have a problem with that?¡±
The cooks looked at each other and then shrugged and shook their heads.
¡°Ok, one last job we¡¯ve got to sort out, is, who here¡¯s been hunting? Shot a deer? Been a soldier? Been a member of the police force?¡±
Basically all the men raised their hands and quite a few of the women too.
¡°Good,¡± said Fern. ¡°Let¡¯s cut down the numbers a bit. If you¡¯ve been a soldier or involved in Law Enforcement, raise your other hand.¡±
Jake saw his dad¡¯s other hand go up, then a woman that he didn¡¯t know well, but recognized, Diana Caldwell raised her other hand. Rex¡¯s other hand raised which surprised Jake until he remembered Rex was a part-time Sheriff¡¯s Deputy. Although he¡¯d completed the training last year. And three other adult men that he didn¡¯t know, raised their hand as well. Four of the elderly men raised their hands also.
¡°Good,¡± said Fern. ¡°Everybody can lower your arms. You folks that raised both of your arms are our army. At least for tonight. Keep us safe tonight, and like the cooks, we can talk over roles tomorrow. Is that ok with everyone?¡±
She waited until the people selected had all nodded their heads and the conversation murmurs had pretty much died out and then said, ¡°Hildi, you''re up. Keep it short, we''ve still got dinner to fix, but tell us what this place has to offer.¡±
Hildi began, ¡°There are three restrooms, only two have lights though. But I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll all three will be lit up by tomorrow.¡±
Jake said, ¡°Yes, definitely.¡±
Hildi continued, whispering, ¡°Help me out here, Jake!¡±
Jake said, ¡°On the East wall, there are three rooms for married couples: one of them is for the Fishers, another is for the Withers and a third one is unclaimed.¡±
Hildi continued, ¡°The East wall, over there,¡± she pointed, ¡°has rooms for couples. One of the rooms is for the Fishers, another for the Withers and the third one is open for any couples that joined us later. We can figure out who''s in there later.
Jake said, ¡°In the middle, you have the pools and north of the pool is another restroom and beyond that is the start of the singles housing. Every single room has a queen bed and a full bed. The queens in the single rooms are the same as the bed in the couple¡¯s room.¡±
Hildi continued, ¡°There¡¯s a pool on the other side of this restroom.¡± She reached out and patted the southern restroom that she was standing next too.¡± All the kids perked up at that announcement.
¡°It looks like a lot of fun and if Diana or your folks say that it''s ok, I don¡¯t see why anyone shouldn¡¯t be swimming tonight!¡± Hildi continued.
At that, the kids let out a little cheer. Even the adults and elderly looked interested.
¡°There are three hot tubs too!¡± Jake said.
¡°And there are three hots tubs too!¡± Hildi repeated.
At this news, everyone perked up a little bit more. Especially the rickshaw pullers.
She continued, ¡°Just beyond those, are the single rooms. Unfortunately, you¡¯ll have to sleep three to a room. Two in the queen-size bed, one in the full. Sorry, we didn¡¯t know how many people were coming and didn¡¯t have time to create more rooms, or the energy either.¡±
"To the west of the dining room, north of the bigger garden are the kids'' rooms. Each one of them can hold 13 kids,¡± said Jake.
"And to the west of the dining room,¡± said Hildi, pointing, are the kids¡¯ rooms. Each one of them can hold 13 kids. They¡¯ll need to be divided up however, Diana I guess approves. But there should be space for all the kids.¡±
¡°On the far wall, is mom¡¯s room, Rex and Bernie¡¯s room, your room, the Falcon¡¯s room, and another unclaimed couples room,¡± Jake said. ¡°And that¡¯s all they¡¯re getting.¡±
¡°And the far wall is where the Silvestre family will live along with the Falcons. All the rooms there have been assigned except for one couple''s room. And that¡¯s pretty much it.¡±
The same man who¡¯d asked the question of Hildi who she was talking too, asked another question, ¡°who built this place? I mean, I was here, what, two weeks ago. This was a truckstop Indian post with a couple of pretty good restaurants in it. What happened to them?¡±
Hildi looked at Fern, who stepped up on the same fire pit that she¡¯d used to introduce Hildi and assign the roles and said, ¡°The answer that you¡¯re looking for is my son. Not either of the son¡¯s that you¡¯ve met on the journey here, but my third son, who I¡¯m very proud of. We can get into the ¡®the rest of the story¡¯ tomorrow though after we get fed, after the sleeping arrangements get worked out, and after the watch schedule for tonight is set up. And after we get a full night¡¯s sleep.¡±
¡°I think that we need to get us cooks into the kitchen, the watch set up, the doors and windows closed,¡± she said, glancing at the ceiling, ¡°and maybe some kids in the pool and some weary adults in the hot tubs. Hildi will be in charge of getting the adults settled. Diane, I realize that you¡¯re also on the watch team, but could you handle getting some adults and settling the kids into their beds?¡±
¡°I can,¡± Diane answered. ¡°All the kids which I guess means people younger than thirteen follow me toward the big garden.¡±
¡°Honey,¡± said Fern to Will, ¡°Can you set up the watch?¡±
¡°I can and I will,¡± he said. ¡°All you folks that got volunteered to be in the army come with me. We¡¯re going to walk the inside perimeter and see what we¡¯ve got to work with. Ok?¡± And he started walking toward the kitchen then paused to let his group catch up.
¡°All right cooks,¡± Fern said. ¡°Let¡¯s see what we¡¯ve got to work with.¡±
Chapter 35
The night had ended fairly successfully Jake thought. No bloodshed, no tantrums, everybody got fed. He¡¯d had let his mom discover a ¡®Scooby Snack¡¯ of venison in the kitchen. The cooks were surprised and wondered what kind of monster it came from. But meat is meat and they went to town on it after washing it in the kitchen sink.
The snack plus the vegetables that his mom pulled from her inventory made a nice stew and everybody got fed. They also pulled the pots and pans and knives and cutting blocks out of their inventories too so they had enough of a kitchen to make dinner and breakfast.
Similarly, everybody got a place assigned to sleep and the watch was set and finally, everybody hit the mattress. Which in a lot of cases, since they hadn¡¯t brought sheets or blankets, was all they had to sleep on.
But they got through it and then Fern and her husband, Hildi, Billy because he tagged along, Rex and Bernie, who held Dobbie, and Sammy and Dato ducked into a small door that Jake had built into the hallway between the Fischer¡¯s room and the enclosure to the dungeon. He¡¯d created the door to let Baxter back into his dungeon. Most of the people were in bed.
¡°So these steps lead down to him?¡± his mom asked.
¡°Yes,¡± said Hildi. ¡°When I was here before the only way down was through that tunnel over there, but I guess he¡¯s added some steps to,¡± she started to say ¡®the dungeon¡¯, or ¡®himself¡¯ but wasn¡¯t sure how his mom was going to take that, so she just stopped there.
They started down the steps, bringing out their flash sticks since the steps had never been lit. Jake made a note to figure out the dungeon lighting soon. He still had that skill ¡°Light¡± he could use as well as his new ability to make lights, so he had some choices to make.
Other than the Scooby Snacks he¡¯d made for Baxter and the members of the caravan, he hadn¡¯t really spent any more mana except for making more lights and Max¡¯s door and filling in the windows. He¡¯d also dropped his core the rest of the way down to the base of the second floor. Baxter had wanted his old sleeping spot back.
He¡¯d listened in to the cooks and had gotten a bunch of feedback about what to fill his kitchen space with though, and he felt like that should be his main priority today. But he could wait on talking to his family before starting all that.
His family had begun to go down the stairs. They¡¯d reached the first landing and stood and looked into the long empty corridor.
¡°So what¡¯s this place called,¡± asked his dad.
¡°Well, he called it his first floor when I was here before. He kind of felt bad about all the traps on it, but not really. He¡¯s a dungeon, he¡¯s got urges.
¡®Oh com¡¯on,¡¯ Jake thought. ¡®Did you have to go there with my mother?¡¯
¡°Yea,¡± said his mom, ¡°we couldn¡¯t get him out of the bathroom when he was in high school.¡±
¡®OH MY GOD!¡¯ Jake thought.
Hildi turned bright red. Rex and Bernie and Will all started laughing. Sammy and Dato turned a little red as well. Billy looked a little puzzled, like he might understand, but wasn¡¯t sure and didn¡¯t want to ask.
¡°What?¡± said his mom. ¡°It is a natural part of a young boy¡¯s life!¡±
If anything, Hildi turned brighter red.
¡°SHUT HER UP!¡± Jake pleaded with Hildi. ¡°PLEASE GOD! LET IT END!¡±
¡°Uhm,¡± said Hildi, ¡°not those kinds of urges, the bloodthirsty type. Stabby, stabby, trappy, trappy, urges.¡±
¡°He is a dungeon after all,¡± said Billy. ¡°Got to expect him to want to kill people.¡±
His mom, fortunately for both her and Jake who was thinking about releasing the giant snake on her, moved on to the new topic.
¡°What do you mean by that?¡± she asked Billie.
¡°Well, dungeons, at least in the stories, are places of vast wealth, danger and experience. They create monsters and loot and adventurers explore them and fight with the monsters. And take the loot when they win. Sometimes the monsters win, sometimes the adventurers win. Usually, the dungeon starts off easier, with things like a couple of goblins and by the end of it you might be fighting dragons.¡±
¡°When you say, sometimes the monsters win, you mean, they kill the adventurers?¡± she asked.
¡°Of course,¡± said Billy looking puzzled at the question. ¡°That¡¯s what dungeons do. They kill people and create things.¡±
¡°Hmm,¡± said Fern. Jake recognized that sound. Especially from his teenage years. It meant ¡®I¡¯ve heard what you¡¯re saying. Now it¡¯s time to grow up and do better.¡¯
¡®Lord,¡¯ he thought. ¡®Even as a pink stone, I still kind of fear that sound!¡±
¡°Anyway,¡± said Hildi, ¡°this is the first floor. Jake used to be at the end of it in a small room.¡±
¡°I¡¯ve moved,¡± said Jake. ¡°I¡¯m down on the second floor now.¡±
¡°But,¡± she continued, ¡°he¡¯s moved, he¡¯s down on the second floor now.¡±
¡°That makes sense,¡± said Billy. Fern looked at him and may or may not have ¡®hmmed¡¯ him. A different ¡®hmm¡¯. This one meant ¡®I¡¯m still waiting on an explanation¡¯.
Evidently Billy knew mom speak because he continued. ¡°In the stories I¡¯ve read, the dungeon has a core. If an adventurer crushes the core, they can kill the dungeon. In other stories, if an adventurer takes the core out of the dungeon, they wind up with either a mana source or a crafting material. That''s why dungeons grow harder as you come closer to the core. The monsters get higher level, they come in waves, the dungeon¡¯s traps get more lethal. They have instincts or urges to protect themselves. That¡¯s also why they keep expanding. They want to put as many monsters between their core and the adventurers as possible. Well, that and the mana.¡±
¡°Mana?¡± this time it was Dato that asked the question.
¡°Yeah, you must have noticed that the mana level inside Max¡¯s is several times what it used to be at your house,¡± Billy said. ¡°That¡¯s one of the things that dungeons do, they produce mana for the environment. Why I don¡¯t know, but I think the more mana they produce, the more mana they have to use. Of course, what kind of sucks for them, is that the mana they need to run the dungeon goes up too. Plus that¡¯s one of the ways that you can discover a dungeon. The mana in the area around it goes up. At least, I think that all holds true. That¡¯s what all my novels said.¡±
Jake was amazed at this little kid. He¡¯d summed up in two minutes what it had taken Jake a couple of weeks to figure out. And he hadn¡¯t really thought about that mana in the environment thing. Smart. He used Identify on the boy and got the following information back,
Name: William Brown ¡°Billy¡±
Age: 10
Height: 135 cm tall
Weight: 30 kg
Classless
No Titles
Level 0
Description: Human Male, Red hair, Blue eyes, Freckles.
His using the ability on her brother must have twigged Hildi¡¯s perception because she said, ¡°Bad Dungeon! Mine!¡±
Jake said, ¡°Sorry, I didn¡¯t know for sure who he was. I just wanted to know his name. He seems like he¡¯s got his act together.¡±
Hildi looked around and saw everyone looking at her. She said, ¡°Jake used a skill on Billy here. It¡¯s called identify. It tells him the name, class, levels, basic information about the person or being, I guess, that it¡¯s used on. He wanted to get my little bros help on designing himself.¡±
¡°Cool!¡± Billy said. ¡°I don¡¯t mind!¡±
¡°Yea,¡± Hildi replied in a big sister kind of way, that meant, ¡®yeah, that¡¯s not happening¡¯.
¡°Com¡¯on,¡± Fern said. ¡°Let¡¯s get down there. We still need to sleep and heaven help us all if everybody wakes up and panics over us being gone.¡± With that, they started down the steps again.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
It didn¡¯t go well. Jake should have known better, but who knew his 50 plus-year-old parents wouldn¡¯t be happy about taking 1412 steps down to the second floor? After they reached about 200 steps, his mom stopped and sat down on the step she was standing on. Everyone else did the same, letting out noises of complaint.
Looking at them, Jake decided that none of them seemed really Ok with the steps. All the group was looking winded.
He quickly carved a room out and put a couple of benches in it at that level.
¡°Holy shit boy! What the fuck?¡± his dad said, surprised by the sudden room appearance. ¡°Nice room, but are you trying to kill us? How many more of these damn steps are there?¡±
Jake said to Hildi, ¡°About 1212.¡±
Hildi repeated, ¡°1212¡±
The whole group let out a groan then. Rex said, ¡°Shit!¡± as well. Bernie, who used to be religious back before the Event and it kind of became irrelevant, smacked him. His sisters walked over and sat on the bench.
¡°Tell them I¡¯ll make a landing for them every 200 steps,¡± Jake said. ¡°Will that help? Or, we can just talk here?¡±
¡°No,¡± his mom said. ¡°I need to see what my boy has become. We¡¯re going on. But the landings will be appreciated.¡±
Rex and Dato looked like they might be about to protest but then decided to shut up. Will just looked down the stairway, trying to see if he could see anything besides steps.
They eventually arrived at the landing of the second floor. The big open space in front of them stretched out well beyond what their lightsticks could illuminate. Even when the group tried the ¡®Beam¡¯ setting. They stood there quietly for a moment, trying to capture their breath, trying to sense how big the room they were looking into was.
It swallowed their voices. Although it was only four meters high, it seemed to go on for a long way beyond the circle of light they were currently standing in.
Finally though, Jake created a light in the room in which he was situated and the group could view where they were supposed to go.
¡°Is that where Jake is,¡± asked Rex.
¡°Yes,¡± answered Jake.
¡°Yes,¡± said Hildi.
¡°Are there any traps or monsters that we need to watch out for?¡± asked Will.
¡°No,¡± Jake answered. ¡°There are three big snakes down here, but I didn¡¯t want to scare anybody so I moved them to the back wall. And I haven¡¯t made any traps here. At least not yet. This was going to be my big forest room, remember?¡±
¡°No,¡± said Hildi. ¡°No traps, no snakes. Just him and Baxter.¡±
¡°Yes,¡± said Jake. ¡°Baxter came down here last night.¡±
¡°Well, com¡¯on then,¡± said his mom. ¡°Let¡¯s go see my son.¡±
They had barely taken a couple of steps when they saw a blue light coming towards them and heard what sounded like nails on the floor. They stopped again and waited. Soon Baxter came into their circle of light and dashed over to Fern, who he¡¯d taken a liking too. And then, after getting a couple of ear scratches, he turned and ran back into the darkness.
¡°Well,¡± said Fern, ¡°it appears as if we have a guide. Let¡¯s follow that dog.¡±
¡°Where¡¯s Timmy, Lassy?¡± said Will.
¡°Hush you!¡± said Fern and the group came up to the doorway of the little about 3 meters by 3 meters foot room. The room hadn¡¯t changed much.
It was still small and the only thing that was really noteworthy in it was the pedestal, the small pink gem and, of course, the John Travolta carving.
¡°Is that John Travolta,¡± his mom asked.
¡°Yes,¡± answered Jake.
¡°Yes,¡± said Hildi. She was starting to wonder how long she was going to have to relay Jake¡¯s conversation to other folks. She didn¡¯t mind, but she felt a little like the wheels on the bus, going round and round.
¡°I raised you well,¡± his mom said. ¡°From John, only good things flow.¡± Her family shook their heads. Michael was a repeat movie night favorite. Well, a repeat movie on nights where movies were watched was maybe a more accurate assessment.
¡°So,¡± said Rex. ¡°Is that you? Are you the pedestal? The pink stone? Or are you this whole dungeon?¡±
¡°It¡¯s complicated,¡± said Hildi ¡°but the answer is yes to all of those.¡±
¡°Honey, are you in there?¡± asked his mom.
¡°Yes, he¡¯s definitely in there,¡± said Hildi.
¡°Yes, mom. I¡¯m here,¡± answered Jake.
¡°He says he¡¯s here,¡± she continued.
¡°What can I do,¡± asked his mom. ¡°What can I do to fix this?¡±
¡°It¡¯s not that bad, mom,¡± John said. ¡°I¡¯m doing Ok.¡±
¡°He says that it¡¯s not that bad, that he¡¯s doing ok,¡± said Hildi.
His mom was crying by this point. Her face was covered in tears. Her eyes were red and swollen. She clutched Will¡¯s arm and just stared at the stone. She started to step toward the pedestal and Hildi said, ¡°Wait! Wait! Stop!¡±
¡°What? Why can¡¯t I go see my son? What do you mean wait?¡± She started to step forward again, but Will pulled her back.
¡°Hang on hun,¡± he said. ¡°Let¡¯s hear what the girl has to say.¡±
Baxter had been dancing around the room, running between the remains of his last snack and the people in the room. But when Fern had taken steps closer to Jake, he had run in front of the pedestal. The beginnings of an angry dog look on his face.
¡°Remember when I said, ¡®he¡¯s got urges¡¯?¡± Hildi asked. ¡°One of his most basic drives is to keep people away. He almost attacked me when I came too close the last time. It¡¯s a little bit hardwired. Like breathing is for us. I think Billy nailed it when he was explaining dungeons.¡±
¡°His own mother?¡± Fern asked.
¡°Tell her I¡¯m sorry,¡± Jake said. ¡°Tell her I¡¯m working on it, but it¡¯s hard. Tell her I love her.¡±
¡°He says that he¡¯s sorry and that he¡¯s working on it. He loves you. He told me to tell you that,¡± Hildi said.
A couple of benches appeared in the room, courtesy of Jake. His mom sank down on one still clutching Will, who stood beside her. The rest of the family members moved into the room and placed themselves carefully on the benches. None of them trying to move closer to the pedestal containing the pink stone. Baxter calmed down and lay sprawled comfortably in the center, midway between the pedestal and the benches.
¡°How can you hear him and I can¡¯t,¡± his mother said. ¡°What do I have to do to hear my son again?¡±
¡°We formed a bond,¡± said Hildi.
¡°Fine,¡± his mom interrupted. ¡°I¡¯ll do it. What do I need to do?¡±
Hildi shook her head and started again. ¡°We formed a bond. It was something that Jake offered to me. We set terms and then agreed to it. Afterward, he and I could talk. I could also talk with Baxter.¡±
¡°Wait, the dog talks,¡± said Rex. ¡°That mutt there? Sorry about that,¡± he quickly apologized to Baxter. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean that in a bad way, it¡¯s just that you¡¯re obviously a mixed-breed, dachshund and some kind of hound.¡±
He turned to his wife, ¡°should I be apologizing to the dog? I¡¯m confused.¡±
¡°Hush,¡± Fern said.
Baxter said, ¡°Temple Dog. Shapeshifter! Hmph!¡±
¡°Hush,¡± said Hildi, and then looked at Rex and said, ¡°Sorry, I was talking to Baxter.¡±
¡°Both of you, all three of you, be quiet. I¡¯m talking to my son here. Jake, I¡¯ve finally got you back. Whatever you want me to swear, I¡¯ll do it.¡± A notification appeared in front of both Jake and Fern.
Soul Bond (Unequal - Greater)
A being, well actually your mother, wishes to :
Benefits:
- Beings can communicate with each other at a distance
- Beings can communicate with each other¡¯s servants or companions
- Beings can receive help in the form of mana or qi transfers once per day. The amount transferred can not exceed the transferee¡¯s maximum limits.
- You can finally order your mother around
Over time and at higher levels of bonding, additional benefits may accrue.
Penalties
- Bondees in violation of the bond will lose one mana point or stamina point per day until death or the violation is repaired.
Agree to be bound
Deny bond
|
Fern pushed the Agree button and just as quickly Jake pushed the ¡°Deny bond¡± button. He had to admit bossing around his mom sounded like it would be awesome, but just no.
¡°Honey?¡± she said.
¡°Tell her just a second. I¡¯m thinking,¡± Jake said.
Hildi said, ¡°he says to wait for a minute. He¡¯s thinking.¡±
¡°Why did he say no?¡± asked Fern, looking first at the pedestal but then at Hildi. Beside her, Will looked vaguely relieved. So did Rex and the rest of the group.
¡°It was an unequal bond,¡± Jake said. ¡°I¡¯m not going to enter an unequal bond with my mother. You and I got pretty much married because we didn¡¯t take time to think about this. What is it we¡¯re getting, what is it that we¡¯re giving. I¡¯ve been wondering what the hell all those people upstairs are expecting? What am I supposed to do for them? Plus I want to talk with Rex and Bernies and Sammy and Dato, the whole family. I don¡¯t want to be their boss to do it. It sounds like I could actually own them. I don¡¯t want that.¡±
¡°He says he rejected it because it was an unequal bond. He and I formed an equal bond. We both got or will get something out of it. It¡¯s literally branded on my flesh now.¡± She held up her wrist and caused the mark to show itself.¡±
¡°What did you both get out of it?¡± asked Will.
¡°I got to hear Jake and Baxter, plus I got him to help me keep my brother Billy here safe,¡± she said. ¡°And he got me to go find you all and bring you back here where he could help keep you safe. Oh, and I got this cool outfit and my weapons.¡±
¡°That makes sense to me,¡± said Will. ¡°Not the outfit nonsense, but the other. My wife here is a little impetuous. I¡¯m not. I¡¯m a planner. Jake takes after me, this one, pointing at Rex, is kind of midway between the two of us, while the girls are, well, clones of the wife.¡±
Every one mentioned thought about how he¡¯d just described them and, after a moment of two, less in the case of the impetuous ones nodded in agreement. ¡°I graduated high school, joined the service," he continued. "Served my hitch where I got trained as a pipefitter, a plumber and a welder, all according to plan. Then I got out and the first day I was back in town, I met this one.¡± He hugged Fern close.
He continued, ¡°Pregnant and so beautiful it made my eyes water just to look at her,¡± he continued. ¡°I say this, just so I can say, that day, that day that I met your mom in Tally¡¯s Diner, was the last time that anything has gone to plan. But looking around, looking at all you, I am so happy with my life. I have been blessed. All that said, we¡¯ve got more than 130 folks upstairs, all who are going to be wondering first thing tomorrow morning what we¡¯ve brought them here for. So, people, we need to come up with a plan.¡±
Chapter 36
¡°What classes do you all have? I could look, but that upsets you, Hildi,¡± Jake said.
¡°Jake wants to know what classes you all have?¡± said Hildi.
There was some muttering and everybody looked around kind of shame-faced. Finally, Billy said, ¡°I can¡¯t get a class. I¡¯m too young. But I¡¯m going to be a mage when I am old enough.¡±
Hildi shot him a glare but didn¡¯t say anything.
Finally, Will spoke up and said, ¡°Well, I guess none of us have selected a class yet. We talked about it, then we got busy getting ready for the move here, then there was getting everybody else ready to move here and, well, we wound up talking about it a lot. We never made a decision.¡±
¡°Is that right?¡± asked Hildi, looking around at the people in the group who all nodded their heads.
¡°Well, imagine that,¡± she said. She followed it up with a sub-vocalized, ¡°Did I get that right? Jake.¡±
Jake laughed at her copying his phrasing. But he had to admit he thought his folks and family were dumbasses too.
¡°New rules. Everyone in this room must have a class before sleeping tonight,¡± Jake said.
¡°He wants you all to select at least one class by tonight,¡± Hildi said. ¡°And I agree. My stats shot through the roof once I had a class selected. Plus my health, Qi and mana all almost quadrupled. Think about it. You could almost take four times the damage.¡±
¡°What do you mean about health,¡± asked Rex.
¡°And damage,¡± asked Sammy.
¡°Don¡¯t start Billy!¡± she said. ¡°Billy here is a little encyclopedia. He¡¯ll answer all your questions later, Ok? We need to figure out what we are going to do with all those people upstairs. And we don¡¯t have much time.¡±
¡°One of the classes that I was offered was Clan Leader,¡± Fern said. ¡°Is that a good class?¡±
¡°Jake? Billy?¡± asked Hildi.
¡°In the stories, I guess the Clan Leader was called the Patriarch. Which I¡¯m assuming you didn¡¯t get offered because, well¡¡± and then Billy started looking around nervously.
¡°It¡¯s Ok, Billy,¡± Fern said. ¡°I¡¯ve been a girl or a woman all my life. I¡¯ve accepted it.¡±
¡°Because you¡¯re a female,¡± he said. ¡°But usually in the stories, a Clan Leader is pretty badass. He or she is usually high enough level that they can take care of the clan. Like a deterrent. Because they¡¯re so bad, nobody wants to mess with them. In addition, they set policy for the whole clan along with a group of people called the Clan Elders.¡±
¡°Is a clan all related by blood?¡± asked Sammy.
¡°Well, usually, but not always,¡± Billy continued. Generally, when a clan gets too big and has too many members who aren¡¯t related by blood, they are called a ¡®sect¡¯.¡±
¡°But I¡¯d say that¡¯s most likely a pretty powerful class. Usually, things that say ¡®Leader¡¯ in them are an evolution of a base class.¡±
¡°Base class?¡± asked Rex.
¡°Well, for instance, fighter to knight. Fighters are the base class, knights are a step up. Knights get more and different bonuses to their stats. They also might get special abilities, like riding or the ability to draw aggro.¡±
¡°Aggro?¡± asked Rex again.
¡°Hang on,¡± said Hildi. ¡°Let Jake have a shot at it.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know for sure, but I expect she¡¯d get some bonuses to Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and, maybe Strength or Perception,¡± Jake said. ¡°Also, she might get the ability to make speeches, like she needs that, or, if diplomacy is a skill, maybe she¡¯ll get that as well. I don¡¯t know for sure. But it sounds like a powerful class.¡±
¡°He says it¡¯ll make her wiser and smarter. She also might get some Strength or Perception out of it. It sounds like your Oration ability might take a leap too.¡±
¡°Ok,¡± said Fern. ¡°I¡¯m taking it.¡±
¡°Oh Lord,¡± Jake muttered. ¡°I¡¯ve got four of them in my life.¡±
¡°I can hear you, Jake! We¡¯ll talk about this later!¡± Hildi said. She looked up and the family was all looking toward her.
**2/14
¡°Sorry,¡± she said. ¡°I was talking with his pink majesty over there. Anyway, talk to Billy, talk to me, whatever you need to do, but get your classes assigned by tonight. There¡¯s also a multiclass option. Think about that too.¡±
Rex started to ask a question and she said, ¡°Hold that thought. Jake and Will and everybody else that brought it up is right too. We have a more important problem to solve. What are we going to do about the people upstairs?¡±
There was a silence then as everybody started to consider the question.
Finally, Fern spoke up, ¡°We¡¯ve talked about it a little, I guess we could form a clan.¡±
¡°How?¡± said Hildi. ¡°What makes them want to join your clan?¡±
¡°They get to live in Max¡¯s and we provide food,¡± she said.
¡°So you''re going to kick them out if they aren¡¯t in the clan? Let them starve?¡± she asked.
¡°Well, obviously not. Maybe we construct a village and let them live there. Add some benefits, like food, maybe not great food, but food anyway, so they don¡¯t starve.¡±
¡°So welfare then? Food stamps? Subsidized housing¡± Hildi asked.
¡°That¡¯s not fair. The apocalypse just happened,¡± Fern said. ¡°People need a chance to get their feet back under them. Not everybody discovers a dungeon and has a place set up for them.¡±
¡°I know,¡± said Hildi. ¡°I was trying to say what I figured they¡¯d say. People used to love to hate on the government until they needed a cop ¡®cause their house got burglarized or a tornado happened and they needed their home county to be declared a disaster. Then they hated on the government for not doing its job fast enough.¡±
¡°Wow,¡± said Jake. ¡°Who are you?¡± he said admiringly.
¡°Yeah,¡± Hildi said subvocalizing. ¡°I¡¯m channeling my inner dad. One thing about long D&D games is that it gave him a lot of chances to table talk and that, for him, meant politics.¡±
¡°Fox or CNN?¡± Jake asked.
¡°Please! Fox!¡± she said. ¡°I think my dad was right when he called them ¡®the billionaire¡¯s propaganda network¡¯? Pbbt! I wouldn¡¯t trust them to tell me my hair was on fire. Although CNN, according to him, was a ¡®bunch of fucking liberal apologists. Fucking say it and stand behind it!'' he used to shout. But, the difference between the two is, according to him, ¡®CNN would at least retract something when they got it wrong. Fox just doubled down.¡¯ Used to drive him crazy! Adopting a dad voice, ¡®Fox is like stepping in shit. Just when you think you¡¯ve gotten it all off, you discover more¡¯.¡±
She seemed to hold her breath for a second and wiped a few tears away before releasing it. ¡°I miss him. I miss him and my mom and sister. God, I hope they are doing alright. Anyway, my mom and little brother and I would just have to kind of wait him out.¡± She stared down at her hands for a minute, then looked up.
¡°I suppose it doesn¡¯t matter anymore,¡± she continued. ¡°Culture wars, religion, the deficit, inflation, the welfare state, nuclear bombs, paying bills, all that crap that we thought was so important, it¡¯s all gone now. Along with most of humanity. I wonder how the Chinese are doing? The North Koreans? Iran?¡±
¡°Wow,¡± said Jake. ¡°Downer. Are you really 18?¡±
¡°Sorry. Like I said, D&D gives a lot of chances for dad¡¯s to talk!¡± she said.
¡°Well,¡± said Fern after waiting for Hildi to continue and deciding she was done. ¡°I think that if they want to live in Max¡¯s, they need to join. If they don¡¯t join, they need to move out. We¡¯ll try to provide a place for them outside, maybe make some walls and provide some food.¡±
¡°Ok,¡± said Hildi. ¡°What do they get if they join?¡±
¡°How about the ability to talk to Jake and Baxter?¡± Fern said.
¡°No,¡± said Jake. ¡°I don¡¯t want to have everyone talking to me. I¡¯ve already got two voices in my head, I don¡¯t need hundreds.¡±
¡°Jake says no,¡± said Hildi.
¡°So what do we offer?¡± Fern asked, looking around the room. ¡°And how do we know when they¡¯ve joined? How do we know this person is safe, this one not?¡±
¡°Dungeon bonds,¡± Jake said.
¡°Dungeon bonds,¡± Hildi repeated.
¡°He didn¡¯t want to make one with me, now he wants to make one with everyone else?¡± asked Fern, kind of upset.
¡°No, mom, that¡¯s...¡± Jake began.
Hildi interrupted him. ¡°That¡¯s not fair. He didn¡¯t want to allow you to become a slave. If you come up with something that is more equal, he¡¯ll do it. He wants to be able to talk to his family. He needs it, I think. Maybe one of the reasons past dungeons went all stabby-stabby was because they didn¡¯t have people to talk to, to see as equals.¡±
¡°Well, maybe not equals,¡± Jake said.
¡°Not the time, dungeon boy,¡± she said. ¡°Adults are talking.¡±
¡°Ouch!¡± said Rex. ¡°That¡¯s gotta burn.¡± He held up his hand in for a high five and Hildi smacked it.
¡°Ok,¡± said Will. ¡°How about different oaths or bonds or whatever they''re called? Maybe one that just gets you in, another that gets you more stuff, and finally one that allows you to talk to the dungeon. Well, my son.¡±
¡°In what?¡± asked Jake.
¡°In?¡± asked Hildi.
¡°This,¡± Will said, gesturing in a circle with his hands. ¡°Whatever it is we¡¯re creating here. Us and whoever join us and them and whoever doesn¡¯t join us.¡±
¡°So we¡¯re already making a caste system then,¡± Hildi said.
¡°No,¡± said Will. ¡°Well, maybe. But every society that man¡¯s ever made has had people that say ¡®Jump¡¯ and other people that get froggy. It¡¯s the way humans work. Heck to be fair, it¡¯s pretty much that way with animals too.¡±
¡°I like it,¡± said Jake.
¡°I like it,¡± said Fern. ¡°I get to talk to my boy and help people.¡±
¡°That might be the reason that you were offered the class then,¡± Billy said. ¡°It seems like you should take it.¡±
¡°Although, I¡¯m not sure about the deterrent thing. I don¡¯t want my wife fighting or dodging assassins,¡± Will said.
¡°It was only what I read in novels,¡± said Billy. ¡°Who knows if the world works that way. But given my sister¡¯s encounters with Wade¡¯s group, I don¡¯t really think we¡¯re going to have a choice about fighting. We either fight or become slaves. They may not call it that, but when you¡¯ve got no choice but to do something someone else tells you to do, that¡¯s pretty much a slave. And given the things that they were saying to my sister, the list of things they¡¯ll tell you to do is pretty broad.¡±
¡°Son, you continually surprise me. And in good ways. Keep it up,¡± said Will.
¡°As far as all this talk about politics goes,¡± he continued, ¡®it¡¯s all bullshit. I say that because like the boy said, we¡¯ve got no choice but to stand against outlaws and slavers. We need to set up something fair that will keep people safe. From what I can tell from history, it doesn¡¯t matter what rules you set up, it just matters that they apply equally. It¡¯s when people start nibbling on the rules, trying to get them to not apply to either them or theirs that things go to shit.¡±
¡°So what do we do?¡± asked Jake.
¡°So, what do we do?¡± asked Hildi.
¡°I guess we need to design the oaths,¡± Fern said.
Will said, ¡°What¡¯s the boy scout oath?¡± He was looking at his son Rex when he asked the question.
Rex replied, ¡°On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.¡±
¡°And here¡¯s my armed services oath,¡± said Will, ¡®I, William Roth Silvestre, do solemnly affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.¡±
¡°Is that enough to start with? Or do we need to bring in the Girl Scouts too?¡± Will asked.
He looked at Sammy who said, ¡°On my honor, I will try to serve God and my country, to help people at all times, and to live by the Girl Scout Law.¡±
¡°All three of those oaths refer to something outside the oath,¡± Billy said.
¡°Yep,¡± said Hildi. ¡°I think we should just keep it all in one oath, keep it simple and keep it local, no need to refer to a country or every God. Both seem to have disappeared. Bobs not included.¡±
¡°How about this,¡± said Dato. ¡°I will try to serve my sect, to help the members of the sect at all times, to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sick of trying,¡± said Will. ¡°It¡¯s too weak. It allows for failure. It practically is built into the word.¡±
¡°There is no try. There is only do,¡± Rex said, in his best Yoda voice.
¡°Then how about this one,¡± Dato responded. ¡°I will serve my sect, help the members of the sect, keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight. I will not act against the interests of my sect or any member of my sect. I will complete the tasks I am assigned by the leaders of my sect.¡±
They all looked around and no one had any objections and it seemed as if nobody could think of anything that really made them want to change it.
Jake said, ¡°What about me?¡±
Hildi said, ¡°What about Jake?¡±
¡°He¡¯d take the same oath.¡± Will responded.
¡°What about that physically strong bit? How can a dungeon swear to be ¡®physically strong¡¯,¡± Hildi said. ¡°It¡¯s not like a dungeon can do push-ups.¡±
¡°Well, what about this one then,¡± Sammy said. ¡°I will serve my sect. I will help its members. I will keep myself strong, keep myself mentally awake, be always prepared, be trustworthy, be loyal, be friendly, be courteous, be kind, and be clean. I will not act against the interests of my sect, nor any member of my sect. I will complete the tasks which I have been given and which I have accepted.¡±
¡°You left off any leadership in that one?¡± pointed out Dato.
¡°Yep,¡± said Sammy, ¡°I did. Who¡¯s going to lead? Who''s going to be the leader?¡±
¡°Mom,¡± said Dato.
¡°By herself? She¡¯s just going to lead us?¡± said Sammy. ¡°I mean, I love mom, but nobody else probably does. I have to obey her, because, well, she¡¯s my mom. What about old man Withers? I don¡¯t see him being happy with that.¡± If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
Jake thought that it was interesting that both Baxter and Sammy had pointed to Wither¡¯s in a kind of negative way.
Billy said, ¡°Clean?¡±
¡°Yeah,¡± said Sammy. ¡°The people around here stink. No two ways about it, they smell. I figure we need to nip that in the bud! Especially now that we have showers that work. And toilets. I¡¯m all for making people not be smelly! And if we want to have clean refer to brushing their teeth, littering, spitting, farting, pooping, peeing, I¡¯m Ok with that too. We¡¯ve got toilets now. I¡¯m tired of seeing men pee against the nearest damn tree! I¡¯m tired of squatting behind a bush too.¡±
Everyone started laughing. Sammy had always been a neat freak. Her dad and Jake had echoed this to a lesser extent, but Sammy was clear that everything had a place and everything belonged in its place.
¡°What benefits do they get besides staying in Max¡¯s? And food?¡± asked Bernie who¡¯d been quiet all this time. She was not usually this quiet. The apocalypse, having to kill and then eat monsters, never feeling safe, had done something to her. She used to be bubbly, the life of the party, now she held Dobbie in her lap constantly and kept her crossbow next to her at all times.
¡°They get a group to belong too,¡± said Fern. ¡°I don¡¯t know if these folks have realized just how limited our society is right now. Remember that notice about the ¡°Mandate.¡± According to it, the USA does not exist anymore. Neither do cops, judges, government handouts, taxes, even the law is gone.¡± She looked around.
¡°We are trying to save them and us. We want to get us all back on track. I don¡¯t like living in a place where someone stronger than my girls can take and use them with no consequences. That¡¯s what I want to bring back, responsibility. And consequences.¡±
¡°Ok, then this one,¡± Sammy said. ¡°I will keep myself strong, keep myself mentally awake, be always prepared, be trustworthy, be loyal, be friendly, be courteous, be kind, and be clean. I will act responsibly, not against the interests of my sect, nor any member of it. I will accomplish the tasks which I have been given and which I have accepted.¡±
They all looked around. Trying to figure out if there was something else they should add or remove. After a bit, Will spoke up and said, ¡°Ok, I¡¯m assuming that the last draft is Ok with everyone. What about the other ones? The family and the Sect Leader one?¡±
¡°Wait! We need to make the sect more prominent. Right now it¡¯s barely mentioned,¡± said Bernie again. Everybody was a little surprised at this. They¡¯d grown a used to the quieter Bernie that she¡¯d become. Everyone was pleased though to see her more assertive self coming out.
¡°Ok,¡± said Sammy. ¡°I pledge to the sect: I will keep myself strong, keep myself mentally awake, be always prepared, be trustworthy, be loyal, be friendly, be courteous, be kind, and be clean. I will act responsibly, not against the interests of my sect, nor any member of it. I will accomplish the tasks which I have been given and which I have accepted.¡±
¡°We good with that one then?¡± asked Will. Looking around he got a bunch of head shakes and no one seemed to have any changes to the vow to offer.
¡°Ok, we¡¯ll go with that one. As to leadership, the ¡®Oath of Office¡¯ for the president is pretty simple,¡± said Will. ¡°It goes ¡®I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States¡¯.
He looked around and everybody was gazing at him in surprise. ¡°What? I had to memorize it in boot camp. A punishment. They also made me memorize the Chinese one and the Russian one too.¡±
¡°Do we want to know?¡± asked Fern.
¡°Less simple, more words, but basically the same. More emphasis on responsibility to the people, less on the Constitution,¡± he said.
¡°Maybe we should have a Constitution then?¡± said Fern.
¡°Yea, look how much that was getting us,¡± said Will. ¡°Everybody doing what they knew was wrong and saying ¡®the Constitution allows it¡¯. I figure the US had probably ten to fifty more years before it collapsed.¡±
¡°What?¡± said Rex. ¡°How the hell do you figure that?¡±
¡°Same reason Rome fell. The rich got busy looting the country and the working-class folks didn¡¯t care enough to stop them,¡± Will continued. ¡°And then somebody hungry would move in and take over.¡±
¡°That¡¯s pretty dark, dad,¡± continued Rex.
¡°Yeah,¡± said Hildi. ¡°You and my dad would really get along.¡±
¡°Sounds like a smart man!¡± Will said.
¡°Ok, enough of the politics, especially old politics,¡± said Fern. ¡°I don¡¯t care. It doesn¡¯t matter anymore. What I want is to help people and talk to my son. This isn¡¯t accomplishing that.¡±
¡°How about this for the family bond,¡± she said. ¡°As I stand in the presence of family, I reaffirm the bonds that bind us together. I will support my family in their endeavors. I will never betray my family to another. I will love and cherish them.¡±
¡°What happens when the family grows?¡± asked Jake. ¡°And are we getting married here? I¡¯m not sure I want a thousand people able to talk to me.¡±
¡°Jake wants to know what happens to the oath when the family grows? Is this oath going to work for a thousand people? Also, he doesn¡¯t want to have to talk to a thousand people.¡±
¡°Why not,¡± said Fern aggressively. ¡°I think it sounds fine!¡±
¡°It''s a little hippy-dippy,¡± said Jake. ¡°And it doesn¡¯t really lay out what they get and what I get. I would take this oath in a second for the people in his room, but for some cousin, I¡¯ve never met who runs a dog track in Mendocino, not so much.¡±
¡°Ok, this is really growing old,¡± said Hildi. ¡°I hope we finish this soon because I¡¯m tired of being the font of the dungeon boy. He says it doesn¡¯t lay enough of the ¡®what they get¡¯ and ¡®what I get¡¯ out on the table. Then he rambled on about some cousin in Mendocino.
¡°Cousin Danny!¡± the whole family said at once.
¡°You mean there is a cousin who owns a dog track?¡± Hildi asked.
¡°Yep,¡± Will said. ¡°Fern¡¯s first cousin. He started a dog track, then couldn¡¯t bear to put down the old greyhounds and started a greyhound adoption facility and now he probably makes more money from that than the track. I wonder how he¡¯s doing?¡±
Somewhere in Mendocino, a short, pudgy man, surrounded by big, fierce-looking dogs, scratched his nose.
¡°Anyway, since you don¡¯t like mine,¡± said Fern, ¡°what would you suggest, Jake.¡±
¡°Let me think for a minute,¡± Jake said. ¡°If any of you have an idea, spill. I¡¯m open.¡±
Jake tried to think about family. What it meant, what belonging to one meant. He also tried to think about what it was that he wanted. He was a stone in a hole in the ground. Thank god for his new interest in basically everything because otherwise, he¡¯d be so bored that he¡¯d, well anyway, so bored. So list:
- I want to talk to my family
- I want to be able not to talk to my family
- I want to help them
- I want to be able to not help them
- I want to keep them safe
- I want them to grow
¡°How about this. It''s the same thing, just simpler: ¡®I support my family. I will help the members of it. I will help them grow. I will repay the help I have received with my future actions. I will never betray my family¡¯,¡± Jake said.
¡°Time¡¯s wasting, people. We need to figure it out!¡± said Will.
Hildi said, ¡°Jake just came up with something. Here goes, ¡°I support my family. I will help the members of it. I will help them grow. I will repay the help I have received with my future actions. I will never betray my family.¡±
¡°But it doesn¡¯t mention love,¡± said Fern immediately.
¡°Do any of you really love Cousin Danny?¡± Jake asked.
¡°Cousin Danny,¡± Hildi said.
¡°Ok, I admit he¡¯s a bit of a stretch. But what about the rest of us?¡± Fern asked.
¡°I¡¯m thinking about the future. All the Cousin Dannys that will be involved. All the people that you are kind of bound to, but may not want to be. That¡¯s all I¡¯m saying,¡± said Jake.
¡°Many Cousin Danny¡¯s,¡± said Hildi.
¡°Can we change our oaths in the future?¡± asked Bernie.
Hildi and Billy both got that absent look that people browsing their interface got. The cell phone stare. ¡°Yes,¡± they both said at once.
Billy grinned, said ¡°Jinx¡± and then shut up.
Hildi smiled and said, ¡°According to the help files on Bonds, bonds may be renegotiated if all the parties bound agree to it.¡±
Jake silently ground his metaphysical teeth yet again. ¡®Help files!¡¯ he thought.
¡°Alright, if that vow gets me able to talk to my son, I¡¯ll say it,¡± Fern said.
¡°Anybody else,¡± asked Will after a short silence.
¡°How long do Bond¡¯s last?¡± asked Bernie.
¡°Good question,¡± said Hildi. ¡°There are greater bonds and lesser bonds. Greater are permanent and can¡¯t be renegotiated. Lesser can be renegotiated and can have a time frameset, but don¡¯t necessarily have too. That¡¯s the only difference I think. I¡¯m not clear though on that last part.¡±
Billy''s eyes went dim as he started reading more of his help files.
¡°So we could let this family bond expire after a year? I mean, if we wanted to?¡± Bernie asked.
¡°Yes,¡± said Hildi.
Bernie looked at Rex, there were some subtle eye movements on both sides, maybe a lift of the shoulder on his part, a glance at Dobbie on hers.
¡°Ok,¡± she said. ¡°I was just curious.¡±
¡°Oh,¡± said Hildi. ¡°Kids can¡¯t take bonds. Evidently they can take vows before the heavens, but they can¡¯t do bonds.¡±
Billy who¡¯d just finished becoming aware of the group again, nodded his head, slowly and regretfully.
¡°Damn,¡± said Jake.
¡°Watch it dungeon boy!¡± said Hildi.
¡°Just a thought here,¡± said Rex. ¡°I mean does the ¡®help¡¯ in Jake¡¯s vow that we¡¯re supposed to pay back include stuff like the food, clothing, and caring we give our kids. Do our kids start out with a debt to the family?¡±
Will smiled broadly and started to say something, before Fern held up her hand, palm out. ¡°Hush, you!¡± she told him.
¡°No,¡± she said. ¡°I don¡¯t think so. They can only take a bond when they are adults. I say they start with a fresh slate. They can either become members of the family with all the rights and responsibilities that entails, or they can not. Actually, I¡¯m thinking that we may want to institute a tradition like ¡®Rumspringa.¡¯ It¡¯s hard to tell what you are joining if you don¡¯t see the alternatives. ¡±
She looked around and saw the puzzled faces. ¡°Amish tradition. They go out and wander the world for 2-3 years and then decide if they want to come back and be Amish. I¡¯m thinking you could be family and not take the bond. Maybe you have another one that¡¯s more important. That tradition might be good for us too.¡± She glanced briefly at Sammy and Dato before her eyes moved on.
The two girls looked at each other and shrugged, used to their mother¡¯s whims of steel.
¡°What¡¯s the downside?¡± Rex asked. ¡°What happens if we break the bond?¡±
¡°In my case, I lose one stamina point per day until death or the violation is repaired,¡± Hildi said.
¡°What the heck does that do to you,¡± said Rex.
¡°Well,¡± she said. ¡°I don¡¯t know for sure, but I suspect I¡¯d lose the ability to move and eventually something would come along and eat me. In my case though, I¡¯d have 277 days to fix it before that happened. More as I get higher level.¡±
¡°And you agreed to this?¡± he asked.
¡°I don¡¯t plan on ever breaking the bond. Jake and I, we¡¯re a pair now. Well, Jake, Baxter and I,¡± Hildi said.
¡°Love you!¡± said Baxter.
¡°Wow!¡± Rex said. ¡°I just said ¡®I do¡¯. I always knew there was a divorce possible.¡± He then ducked as Bernie took a swing at him.
¡°If you ¡¡± she began.
Rex held up his hands and said, ¡°Hang on honey. I love you and I don¡¯t want to ever leave you. I will never leave you. We Silvestre¡¯s are one-woman men. I am my father¡¯s son, but hell, most of my friends are married and already two of them got divorced. I am just twenty-one. This is some hardcore shit we''re dealing with here.¡±
¡°How do you get right?¡± Dato asked Hildi. ¡°I mean if you ever got wrong of your bond? Do you talk to Jake? Is there something else that judges us?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said Hildi. ¡°I had other things on my mind at the time and I haven¡¯t worried about it since.¡±
¡°Well maybe we should,¡± said Dato. ¡°Who judges? Is it by action? Or thought? Because I could see somebody like Cousin Danny running afoul of this bond. Not on purpose, but from the stories I heard, he¡¯s not so big on the paying back part of family.¡±
¡°Once again, I say, time people, time!¡± Will said.
Billy spoke up then, ¡°Evidently you have to complete a quest assigned by the System or Bobs, I guess. The stamina or mana drain stops until you complete it. If you quit working on the quest, the drain starts back up. The System or the Bobs tell you when you''re done.¡± He paused for a second. ¡°Quests! SO COOL!¡±
¡°Oh, I guess they also are the bond keepers. They¡¯ll let you know when you are coming close to breaking the bond and when you have broken it,¡± Billy continued.
Sammy asked, ¡°They have time for all that?¡±
¡°Evidently,¡± he said. ¡°Who knows, maybe they delegate.¡±
¡°I tell you that makes me feel better about these vows or bonds or whatever they are,¡± said Will. ¡°I don¡¯t like trying. I¡¯ve said that. The fact that there¡¯s now something out there that says, ¡®Yeah, you could do better, do better or else'', makes me a little happier. I¡¯m for the Jake vow now.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t care,¡± said Fern. ¡°I want to speak to my son. I vote for it.¡±
Jake said, ¡°Well, I wrote it so I guess I¡¯m for it too. The idea of being on the phone all the time with my mother isn¡¯t great, but I¡¯m Ok with it.¡±
Hildi laughed and then just shook her head when the others looked at her. ¡°Jake says, he¡¯s fine with it.¡±
Will looked around and asked, ¡°Is anyone here opposed to the oath, bond, whatever?¡±
There were some thoughtful looks, but nobody said anything.
¡°OK then,¡± he said. ¡°How do we do this?¡± Of course, right then a blue screen showed up.
Soul Bond (Equality - Greater)
A family wishes to enter into a soul bond willingly with the dungeon, Jake Sylvestre.
They have agreed to the following bond:
I support my family. I will help the members of it. I will help them grow. I will repay the help I have received with my future actions. I will never betray my family.
Benefits:
- Beings can communicate with each other at a distance
- Beings can communicate with each other¡¯s servants or companions
- All promises made in the bond will become enforced and regulated.
- This bond is irrevocable and unchangeable.
At higher levels of bonding, additional benefits may accrue.
Penalties
- Bondees in violation of the bond will lose one mana point or stamina point per day until death or the violation is repaired.
Agree to be bound
Deny bond
|
They made their choices.
There was a pause then as if a small fraction of a very large being looked in on the small room and then, surprisingly nothing. Hildi wasn¡¯t sure what she¡¯d expected but despite having done this once before, given the light show she¡¯d heard about from when Billy¡¯s group took their oath, she was a little bit disappointed.
¡°Huh?¡± she said.
¡°Jake,¡± said his mother. ¡°Can you hear me?¡±
¡°I could always hear you, mom. You just couldn¡¯t hear me,¡± said Jake.
¡°Oh thank god,¡± Hildi said. ¡°I don¡¯t have to be his loudspeaker anymore.¡±
¡°Bro,¡± said Rex.
¡°Yeah, man. I¡¯m here,¡± said Jake.
¡°I know,¡± he said. ¡°I can kind of feel you. Like mom and dad, Hildi, Sammy, Dato, wait. Why don¡¯t I feel you Bernie?¡±
She looked down at the ground and then looked up at him, at the rest of his family. ¡°I don¡¯t know why, but I panicked. I saw the word ¡®Greater¡¯ and thought this is weird, this is forever, ever. And Jake is some pink stone, and something like a god is going to be watching over what I say, what I do. I couldn¡¯t deal. I said no.¡± And with that, she stood up with Dobbie and ran out of the room.
¡°Bernie,¡± Rex yelled. ¡°Bernie.¡± He stood up and his mom said, ¡°Let her be!¡±
¡°But mom, she¡¯s my wife,¡± Rex said. Will had also stood up and he grabbed Rex in a hug.
¡°She¡¯ll either decide to do it or not. It won¡¯t make a difference to us, will it?¡± Fern said as she looked around. Everyone nodded in support.
¡°Give her space and let her figure out what¡¯s going on with her. She¡¯ll talk to you when she¡¯s ready. Don¡¯t reject her when she comes to you. Let her talk,¡± Fern said.
¡°But...,¡± he began
¡°I can see her Rex. She¡¯s fine. She stopped at the second landing and is sitting on the bench and crying, but she¡¯s stopped running. Nobody or nothing is anywhere near her. I can tell you that,¡± Jake said.
¡°You¡¯re really alive,¡± said his mother. ¡°Your voice sounds the same. You¡¯re really here.¡±
¡°Yes, mom,¡± Jake said. It was hard for him in one sense because he really loved his mom. At least he remembered loving her, but the intensity, the focus that his warm, fleshy, human body had given that love was mainly gone. He felt a curiously cold almost approximation, and yet, he did. He loved his mother.
¡°Thank god,¡± he said. He was worried that somehow he¡¯d been changed too much. That he¡¯d no longer be able to relate to what his human memories said was one of the most important people in his life.
¡°What baby?¡± said his mom.
¡°It¡¯s nothing. Nothing, mom. I¡¯m happy that you¡¯re here.¡± And he was. Just not as happy he probably would have been before his change. Or maybe as happy in a different way.
¡°Along with your words, I can feel, well, what you''re feeling,¡± she said. ¡°It¡¯s cool, almost like a stone that whispers. Don¡¯t worry. You are different now. But not so different that I can¡¯t recognize my son. Your mind still is yours. I recognize you. You are my son. Don¡¯t you ever, ever forget that. I will be your mother forever.¡±
¡°Mom,¡± he said. In the old days, he might have said more words, but the current him was fine. He¡¯d learned in silence, been alone mostly for two weeks in the hole that he had created around himself. He no longer needed the bright almost frenetic actions of the humans around him. He had grown accustomed to the dark, the lack of motion, the self-created rhythms of his latest efforts, but now that he was connected to so many of those bright sparks, he felt, well, complete. More than he was before, more than a stone, but different than a human.
¡°Mom,¡± he repeated. It was an affirmation of what he was, of the bonds he¡¯d formed in what had been a different life. A life that he had seemed to be growing away from, losing the meaning of the actions, the relationships, the people, like the words on a page when the reader loses focus.
¡°Yes, baby,¡± his mom said. ¡°I am.¡±
¡°Jake,¡± said Will.
¡°Yeah, dad,¡± said Jake.
¡°Just checking. I love you, son,¡± his dad said, tears rolling down his cheeks.
Everyone except Hildi and Baxter said hello or hi or something just to hear Jake¡¯s voice. To establish a connection with the being that both was and wasn¡¯t their brother. Talked with him for a few moments, anything to establish that their brother still existed. And with each connection, Jake grew more and more connected to his past, the him that was, rather than the stone he was becoming.
Finally, though, Will said, ¡°Ok, time, people. It¡¯s a-wasting. We still need a plan. We¡¯ve got a bond for the people to join. We¡¯ve got a family bond. Do we still need a third one?¡±
¡°What was it again?¡± asked Dato.
¡°The leadership one,¡± answered Will.
¡°What does that do for us again?¡± she continued.
¡°It would help prevent abuses of power,¡± said Will. ¡°Maybe tell us who those people are.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know that we need it,¡± she answered. ¡°Isn¡¯t that all contained within the original one, ¡®I pledge to the sect: I will keep myself strong, keep myself mentally awake, be always prepared, be trustworthy, be loyal, be friendly, be courteous, be kind, and be clean. I will act responsibly, not against the interests of my sect, nor any member of it. I will accomplish the tasks which I have been given and which I have accepted¡¯.¡±
¡°Isn¡¯t leadership a task? Something given?¡± she asked.
¡°Depends on the person,¡± said Will. ¡°Pretty sure our last Pre¡ nope, not going there. A lot of people regard it as a privilege or something they have by some sort of right. I¡¯m really Ok with the idea that leadership is a task, something that you are given to do and will be held accountable for.¡±
¡°Ok,¡± said Jake. ¡°Just so we¡¯re clear. Here¡¯s what they get for joining. A group to belong to, food and a safe place to sleep. If they don¡¯t join, then they¡¯ll eventually have to move out of Max¡¯s, but still get food. At least until we get some kind of economy going.¡±
¡°I guess,¡± said Dato.
¡°How long are we going to feed them?¡± he asked.
Fern said, ¡°If it¡¯s a lone child they will get fed, clothed, and educated (whatever that means) until they are thirteen and make their choice. Hopefully, they¡¯ll be loved too, but at least those three. Then they can either stay with the sect or move on to other opportunities. Every child will get educated. After that, they can join the sect or not. Whatever they want to do. If they¡¯re shocked, they¡¯ll get fed, clothed and cared for until, well, they die. Jake, I need you to look at them. We can¡¯t be having a significant portion of our population broken. We need to get them fixed. If they¡¯re an adult, they have thirty days to figure out a way to make themselves a productive member of our new society. Everybody works.¡±
¡°And what happens then?¡± asked Will. ¡°We going to kick them out?¡±
Jake started thinking about his mana stone idea again. ¡°I might have an idea. Let me work on it,¡± he said.
¡°Harsh times, harsh truths,¡± said Fern. ¡°I don¡¯t know what we¡¯ll do, but something will need to be done.¡±
¡°And by done, who¡¯s going to be the doing?¡± asked Will, looking around.
¡°We will, honey,¡± she said. ¡°We will figure it out together.¡±
Chapter 37
The group ended then, after deciding that they didn¡¯t need anything more. They had the tentative beginnings of a plan, a bond with the dungeon which would allow them to speak to both it and each other, and were tired. They decided to head up to Max¡¯s to sleep and get ready for the morning¡¯s meeting.
Morning broke. Fern and Will were almost the first ones out of their room. They both had a well-rested and content look on their face.
It had been a night of learning for Jake too. Basically learning how not to see things inside him, how not to scar permanently the delicate crystal lattices of his mind.
¡°Oh my god!¡± he thought. ¡°What was I thinking. Bernie and Rex, mom and dad. Oh my god! I need to fix those beds.¡±
¡°Jake honey,¡± said his mom.
¡°Yes,¡± he said. He was glad that he didn¡¯t have to face her because he might never be able to look her in the eyes again.
¡°I would kill for a cup of coffee!¡± she said. ¡°I almost did. Withers almost died when he took the last cup. Is there anything that you can do?¡±
Jake said, ¡°Only if you¡¯ve got a coffee bean. I can create more, but without something to start, I¡¯m not sure if what I can create will be coffee, you know?¡±
¡°As it so happens,¡± she said. ¡°I have a bunch of beans from Mary¡¯s house. Her dad used to order coffee beans and roast and grind them himself. I realize that it¡¯s old, but can you at least try.¡±
¡°Of course,¡± he said. ¡°With that much of a start, I should be good to go. Drop one on the floor.¡±
¡°On the floor?¡± she asked. Suddenly he thought, ¡®Oh shit!¡¯
¡°Just here on the floor,¡± she asked.
¡°I¡¯m sorry, you¡¯re right. Better if you take it to my locus. It¡¯s where I can see, hear and accept things the best,¡± he said.
¡°Where is this locus?¡± she said.
¡°It¡¯s outside on the porch, by the cigar store Indian statue. There¡¯s a circle there. Just drop it in the circle.¡±
His mom said, ¡°I¡¯m going to do that because, well, it¡¯s better than the alternative.¡±
Jake thought, ¡®Oh you have no idea how much I agree with you now!¡¯
His mom went to the front door and opened it. The circle, newly installed by Jake existed exactly where he¡¯d said it did.
But what really caused his mom to take a breath was the two arrows sticking in the door about man height.
¡°When did these arrive?¡± she asked.
¡°This morning, shortly after first light,¡± Jake said. ¡°I thought about what I should do with them, but couldn¡¯t decide so I left them.¡±
¡°Could you see who did it?¡± she asked.
¡°After they hit, I had my hawk fly over. It looked like that guy Matchstick and a couple of other men. They turned and left afterward. There are a couple of other guys watching still. What do you want me to do with them?¡± he asked.
¡°Can you remove them?¡± she said.
¡°Not a problem,¡± he answered. The wood of the newly installed door seemed to ripple around the arrows, softening and then pulling away from them, allowing them to float free. The arrows started to bend as if force were being applied and his mom shouted, ¡°Wait! Wait.¡±
Jake stopped.
¡°Let me have those and don¡¯t fix the door. Leave the scars where the arrows hit,¡± she said.
¡°Why?¡± said Jake. His dungeon instincts did not like the imperfection the arrow scars left on his doors.
¡°We¡¯ve got a bunch of people inside that until two weeks ago never had to fight, never had to defend themselves. They could call the cops if there was a problem. Now, they can¡¯t, but I think they still have the mindset of ¡®it¡¯s somebody else¡¯s problem. Let them sort it out.¡¯ These arrows might be a wake-up call for some of them.¡±
Will had been beside her this whole time and said, ¡°Let me see those.¡±
They looked much like the arrows that came out of the quivers that they had inside. They were black shafts of wood with a broad steel arrowhead on the front and fletched with some sort of feathers. It looked like the Bobs had cheated a little because the feathers weren¡¯t tied on using rawhide or gut, but seemed to merge with the wood.
¡°Event arrows,¡± Will said. It was what the group had started calling the arrows and other things that had come through the apocalypse changed in form and materials, but still functional.
Fern dropped the bean and then after looking around, said, ¡°Let¡¯s go back.¡±
Jake absorbed it and then thought about the various ways that he could recreate it. As it stood, he could create it as loot. He¡¯d gotten the loot pattern when he¡¯d absorbed it. But he wasn¡¯t sure he wanted to be in the morning coffee business, so he thought he might play with the bean later. Try to recreate it as a growable plant, as well as one that grew as a native in Oklahoma.
¡°Did it work,¡± said Fern as she and Will closed the door.
¡°Yeah,¡± said Jake. ¡°I can make coffee beans now.¡±
¡°Oh, that god!¡± said Fern. ¡°Thank you little baby Jesus!¡±
¡°Thank Bob!¡± said Jake. ¡°Or actually don¡¯t. Whatever they are, they don¡¯t seem to want our worship, I¡¯d just as soon keep it that way.¡±
The doors were big, blocky rectangles of red oak. They could be barred by another beam of red oak which Jake hadn¡¯t bothered to do last night. He¡¯d formed the brackets which could hold the beam but hadn¡¯t bothered to set it in place. Instead, he¡¯d created a channel in the floor behind the front edge of the doors and stuck two iron pegs, about as thick as a railroad spike in the hole. The base of the spike widened larger than the main opening of the channel. This made it impossible to pull the spike out, but they could be slid along the channel to either side of the door, making it possible for the door to open.
Now that he could make glass, Jake thought it was kind of pointless, so he¡¯d filed up almost all the windows with stone, leaving only the one between the two doors remaining. He¡¯d filled it with a lattice of bronze as thick as the walls and anchored firmly in them which allowed visibility and air to escape. Also mana.
¡°Hmm,¡± said his dad, looking at the door stops. ¡°Not a bad idea. Good job son.¡± And then he slid the stoppers back into their closed position.
Jake felt ridiculously proud of that comment. His dad was handy. The kind of man that could, Jake felt, given time, create an ark if he needed one. Jake was not. Or didn¡¯t used to be. He felt that maybe things were changing for him. Maybe all this becoming a dungeon crap wasn¡¯t all bad.
They went back to the dining area. By now many of the adults were up and out of their rooms. Georgia was busy taking the shocked for their morning showers and to use the restrooms. She¡¯d acquired a couple of helpers. They had created a slow parade of people from the room where the shocked had slept the night before through to the far north restroom.
Bernie and Rex sat at a table by the kitchen. Jake had tried not to listen to their conversation last night and what came after but was only partially successful. He was glad to see that whatever the reason, whatever had occurred with Bernie, it hadn¡¯t broken them. She still hadn¡¯t taken the vow, but Jake didn¡¯t really care. And evidently, and more importantly, neither did Rex.
¡°Where¡¯s my coffee?¡± asked his mom quietly, looking around the mostly filled dining room. ¡°Lord, I am going to need it!¡±
Jake quickly created the plan for a coffee pot. One of those big metal cylindrical ones. He¡¯d actually had a pattern for a coffee pot, courtesy of Max¡¯s. It was an ¡®event coffee pot¡¯ but would work. Unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t create it out of aluminum yet like the original pot he¡¯d ¡®cleaned¡¯ away and had gotten the pattern from, but he could use other metals. He wasn¡¯t sure how making it from some other metal would impact the flavor though. He decided to create it out of copper reasoning that people used to love cooking with copper pans, so it should be safe enough.
Another thing that he¡¯d done in the night, was to add the rest of the wall to the south side of the kitchen. He''d also put in some swinging doors in the door to the kitchen. He¡¯d left the northside of the kitchen with its short wall enabling people to see what was going on.
He¡¯d also added two thick balsa wood rooms to the back of the south side. Not very big, just big enough to hold stuff that needed to be refrigerated or frozen.
That along with the various stoves and ovens and food prep tables was how he¡¯d spent the night while everyone else was sleeping. ¡®Or not,¡¯ he thought with a shudder.
He created the actual coffee pots themselves already filled with ground coffee beans and starting to perk in the part of the kitchen where the dining room folks couldn¡¯t see.
¡°It¡¯s in the kitchen. I created two pots. Hope they like it black because I¡¯ve got no sugar or milk,¡± he told his mom. ¡°Dad could probably drag the pots out and set them on the serving wall, I guess.¡±
¡°Oh,¡± he said, as she started that way. ¡°There¡¯s cups too.¡± And he quickly created a lot of glass cups, being still unable to make porcelain.
Will and Fern made their way into the kitchen and brought out the copper, coffee pots and set them on the short wall that separated the kitchen from the dining room. Then went back into the kitchen and got the trays of cups that were also waiting for them. When they got outside again, every adult in the room had formed a line waiting or for those who had glasses or cups in their inventory, already serving themselves and settling into a spot around the table.
By the time the line completed, Georgia and her helpers were done and got coffee as well. Jake had been watching the pots and whenever they ran low, he simply filled them up again. Looking around the room, Fern decided that everybody was there. Just in case, she asked Jake who said that this was everyone.
She filled her cup and went to the center of the dining room where she¡¯d stood last night when she¡¯d held the meeting to get things somewhat organized. Will stood beside her.
¡°Everyone slept alright last night?¡± she began.
A rumble of affirmation came from the crowd. They had all slept well. The Beds of Good Sleep had done their jobs. No one was poorly rested this morning.
¡°Good,¡± she said. ¡°We¡¯ll have breakfast in a little while. I¡¯m sure us cooks will be able to scrape something together. But before we started, now that we¡¯ve had some coffee, let me just say, thank god for coffee again.¡± She had to pause here to let the shouts and cheers of agreement slow down.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Eventually, the room quieted down and she began again. ¡°Just in case any of you didn¡¯t hear last night, I¡¯m Fern Silvestre. My family is scattered all around the room. I¡¯m also the reason that you all are here. I invited you. I wanted to bring up two things for you all to consider. The first is that when I got up this morning and went outside, I found these stuck in the door.¡±
She held up the arrows then. She¡¯d been holding them in her hands this entire time and she¡¯d seen people glance curiously at them.
¡°Do you mean somebody shot them there?¡± asked a man. One of the older men who¡¯d volunteered to join the ¡®army¡¯ last night.
¡°Yes,¡± she said. ¡°I happen to know that it was the man named Matchbox or Matchstick or whatever his name was and two friends of his. I think it was their group''s way of letting us know they know where we are.¡± She paused to let this settle in.
A bunch of conversations sprang up as various people tried to figure out what the arrows meant. Nobody seemed to think that it was a positive sign.
People began to shout back and forth across the room, calling each other idiots when they disagreed. The tension in the room shot straight through the roof.
Finally, one man stood up and shouted at Fern who was still standing in the center watching the chaos spread, ¡°This is your fault. If you hadn¡¯t invited us all here, those people would have never known, even cared that we existed.¡±
This kind of shook the room for a bit. Everybody stopped and looked at Fern who looked back.
¡°Fair enough,¡± she said. ¡°I said that I was responsible for inviting you here and I meant it. If I hadn¡¯t invited you here, you would be still sitting hungry in your homes. I invited you here. I fed you and I gave you a safe place to sleep last night. But, you are right, sir. You could have been safely starving at home. Provided a giant coyote or something else didn¡¯t come crashing through your door.¡±
She looked around some more.
¡°I didn¡¯t show you these arrows to scare you,¡± she continued. ¡°Or to threaten you. I showed you these arrows so that you could take a real look at what the world is like now. What we can expect. That means, no government, no Red Cross, no police, no judges, no army, no civilization. That means that those men are as right as they can make stick. People used to say, ¡®your rights stop at my skin¡¯. Well, it was the government that saw to that. Now, your rights stop where I or some other person can make them stop.¡±
¡°That¡¯s a pretty bleak attitude,¡± said another man.
¡°Maybe, but tell that to the women those men have got screwing and cooking for them in their camp? Do you think they want to be there? That¡¯s what this world is allowing to happen. And I, and my family, aren¡¯t going to stand for it.¡±
¡°Your family, what all five of you,¡± said another man, sarcastically. ¡°How the hell are you five going to make a difference?¡±
¡°Yes, my family and another one, that I haven¡¯t introduced you to yet. Say hello Jake.¡±
¡®Well, shit,¡¯ Jake thought. ¡®I can¡¯t talk to these folks. I mean after ten minutes or so, I might be able to break through like I did with Hildi. With one of them. But hell, there¡¯s a hundred and thirty of them.¡¯ He quickly scanned the room and saw that a bunch of the people were starting to snigger and smile.¡±
¡®Ah, fuck it!¡¯ he thought and created a cube of bronze at the ceiling level and let it fall down beside the table of the man who¡¯d asked how they were going to make a difference. The block hit with a deafening noise, sounding like a car crash. The floor shook and indented, cracked, the tables jumped, the cube started to roll, but Jake steadied it and it held its position, rocking a little, back and forth.¡±
People jumped from their seats and attempted to run to the walls. Benches overturned as people jumped up, although mostly people cracked their knees on the tables and stayed in place. Benches are not easy to escape from in a crowded, panicky situation.
¡°What? Holy shit!¡± shouted the man, attempting to stand and falling back.
¡°Relax, relax,¡± yelled both his father and mother at once. After a moment, Bernie and Rex and Dato started yelling it too. Finally, the crowd began to quiet down a lot and people began to focus on their neighbors again, to focus on Fern. The benches were straightened again, stood up in a few cases and people began to resume their seats.
¡°Jake,¡± his mom said, ¡°Can you bring that cube over here? I need something to stand on so the people in the back can see me.¡±
Jake lifted the cube and brought it over to where his mom stood beside the central pillar. He only raised it about a meter, but it was enough to be visible. Despite wanting to fix it immediately, he left the impact crater on the floor of the dungeon. People close to the moving cube got up and stood back. People further in the room stood again to watch the cube sail its short distance from where it landed next to his mother. His mom moved and he set the cube down where she¡¯d been standing moments before. Then his dad helped her up so that she could stand on top of the cube.
¡°That¡¯s better,¡± she said. ¡°I can see my son and daughter-in-law over there by the kitchen now.¡± She smiled at the group. ¡°Like I said, my other son, Jake. He¡¯s the reason that I felt confident enough to invite you all here, he¡¯s my, our joker in the deck, our get out of jail free card. Importantly he¡¯s the one that built all this stuff that surrounds you. He¡¯s the one that supplied the meat you ate last night and the beds that you slept in. This,¡± she said as she waved her hand around encompassing the whole room, ¡°is my son Jake.¡±
The sound of kids playing in the pool penetrated the dead silence of the meeting. A few dripping kids stood on the outskirts of the dining room, summoned by the noise of the falling cube. Fern just let the people sit and absorb what had just happened.
¡°So what do you propose to do? You and your family? And Jake?¡± asked Joseph, one of the single men that had been part of the original group.
¡°Billy here,¡± she said, pointing toward Billy, mentioned that a class that I was offered after the event might be a good fit. I took it last night and it is. It¡¯s called, ¡°Clan Leader.¡± It gives a small bonus to experience gain and a larger bonus to health. Not just for me either. For every member of the clan. Neither are earth-shattering, but in this world, I figure every little bit counts. So, after my family and I met with Jake last night, I decided to form a clan.¡±
¡°What happens if we don¡¯t want to join?¡± said the man who¡¯d been sarcastic before, proving that in some people stupid runs to the bone.
Jake wondered if his mom wanted him to drop another cube. Unfortunately, something in him told him that he couldn¡¯t actually drop the cube on the man. He guessed it was another of those unwritten dungeon rules.
¡°Hang on,¡± Fern said. ¡°I¡¯m still trying to answer Joseph.¡±
¡°A clan is a group of family members that join to support each other. If they get too many non-family members they become what¡¯s called a sect. Anyway, it¡¯s a way to join up and make a stand. And before you ask, I¡¯ll tell you. A stand against the people that would take your daughters for sex slaves, take your food, take your weapons and leave you helpless except for their so-called protection. I¡¯m against all that. Every fiber of my being says filth like that doesn¡¯t have a place in this world next to me and mine. We fought one war against slavery in this country. I am not letting it start up again next to me.¡±
¡°Ok,¡± said old man Withers. ¡°Maybe Joseph wasn¡¯t clear enough. What do we get if we join? How do we join? What happens if we don¡¯t? Is your son going to drop a chunk of metal on us?¡±
¡°All good questions,¡± Fern answered. ¡°If you join you get to belong to something bigger than yourself. There¡¯s no government, no USA anymore. It¡¯s gone according to that notification we all got. And no Sapulpa either. It¡¯s spread all to hell and back. And I don¡¯t know what¡¯s happening at the city center. But with that Wade guy and his group, I¡¯d say things are probably not good there. There¡¯s that ¡®Duchy of Northern Tulsa¡¯ thing, but I suspect that they¡¯re busy getting set up. I don¡¯t know what the heck is going on there, but I suspect it¡¯ll be a long time before they get out to this neck of the woods. Especially since things have grown so much bigger. Heck, I have no idea even where Sand Springs is anymore. It¡¯s probably still almost due north of us, but how far north it is, is another question.¡±
She stopped then and looked around. ¡°So the first thing you get, as Withers asked, is you get to belong to a group. Before you knock that, I want you to think about how many of your old groups or institutions that you belonged to, still exist? How many of the churches, sports leagues, companies, governments, all the other organizations that you belonged to before, still work, still have open doors or a place that you could meet up at?¡±
She made eye contact with old man Withers then and the man who was sarcastic before moving her gaze around the room, trying to will people to actually think about it.
¡°The second thing you get is a safe place to live,¡± she said.
An immediate outcry sprang up at this. People stood and started shouting. The wet kids who had turned and started back to the pool came back, their faces a little frightened.
¡°Hold it! HOLD IT!¡± Fern and Will and soon all the family began shouting, trying to get some quiet in the room so she could speak again.
After about five minutes, the room was at least quiet enough that she could be heard.
¡°I didn¡¯t say that you¡¯d be kicked out, did I?¡± she said. ¡°We are planning on building a wall around Max¡¯s and a town inside that wall. If you don¡¯t want to be a part of our clan or sect or whatever it becomes, that¡¯s fine. You¡¯ll just need to move out into a house in the town. Jake doesn¡¯t want anybody inside Max¡¯s that he doesn¡¯t trust. And I imagine that works both ways, doesn¡¯t it?¡± She may have glanced briefly at the man who¡¯d been sarcastic before.
¡°Who¡¯s Jake?¡± asked one of the elderly men.
¡°That¡¯s my son,¡± she said.
¡°The building?¡± he asked.
¡°More or less,¡± she answered.
¡°Ok,¡± Wither¡¯s said. ¡°How do we become a member of this sect or clan? What¡¯s its name? Who¡¯s leading it? What are its long-term goals? Have you thought about any of those things yet?¡±
¡°Yes,¡± said Fern, which kind of surprised the rest of her family, as well as Billy and Hildi since none of those things, had been brought up at the meeting last night.
¡°The Sect¡¯s name is the Dungeon Born. You get in by being offered a chance to form a bond between yourself and everyone else in it, including my son Jake. A bond is like a vow or an oath. But a bond is somehow overseen by the heavens. It cannot be taken by children. In other words, you have to be over thirteen. The goal of the sect is, right now, saving as many people as we can. When the blue screen said, ¡°Do Better!¡± about saving other humans, we took it to heart. And the actual bond you¡¯ve got to make is:
¡®I pledge to the sect: I will keep myself strong, keep myself mentally awake, be always prepared, be trustworthy, be loyal, be friendly, be courteous, be kind, and be clean. I will act responsibly, not against the interests of my sect, nor any member of it. I will accomplish the tasks which I have been given and which I have accepted¡¯
¡°That sounds like the Boy Scouts oath,¡± said a man at one of the tables closest to Fern.
¡°It should,¡± she said. ¡°We took parts of it from that, parts of it from the Girl Scouts oath and parts of it we just made up.¡±
¡°What else do we get?¡± someone at the back asked.
¡°Well, we think that you¡¯ll get the ability to be heard by Jake and you¡¯ll have the ability to talk to other bondholders.¡±
¡°I can talk to them now?¡± said an elderly woman. ¡°I mean I just talked to you, didn¡¯t I?¡±
¡°No, like internally,¡± she said. ¡°Think of it like having a cell phone again. But keep the service and ditch the phone. Also no payments either.¡±
¡°How long does this bond last?¡± asked Dianna. ¡°Are we signing up for life or can we leave?¡±
¡°That¡¯s a good question,¡± said Fern. ¡°It can be either. We can set it up so it¡¯s permanent or we can set it up so it expires after a certain time.¡±
¡°This may be a crazy question, but since we¡¯ve gotten all these blue screens and stuff, does the system or the new gods or whatever, oversee the bond? Make sure you keep to your promise?¡± asked Joseph.
There was an immediate circle of quiet that spread around the room at his question. It was clear that everybody wanted to know the answer to this particular question.
¡°That is a really good question,¡± Fern answered. ¡°And it brings me up to the next points about this bond and oaths in general anymore. People,¡± she said almost vibrating with the intensity that she was trying to project. ¡°You need to understand. This new world, one of the biggest differences, is that your words have weight. What you say in a bond or if you make a promise to the heavens, something is going to listen. So yes, there are consequences to breaking the bond. It looks like you get drained stamina or mana, one point a day until you make up for whatever you did to break the bond.¡±
There was quiet in the room as everybody tried to digest this. Nobody really had a handle on their status screen or what the numbers on there meant yet.
¡°So what happens when you reach zero stamina?¡± asked a little girl, still wet from the pool.
¡°That¡¯s a good question, sweetie,¡± said Fern. ¡°And this may be a little scary, but we think, it means, you can¡¯t move.¡±
There was a large inhale of breath from the crowd.
¡°And who judges if you¡¯ve fixed the breach,¡± another voice said. ¡°Can we just go up and apologize and say we¡¯ll do better next time.¡±
¡°Unfortunately or, my husband would say, fortunately, no. The System or the new gods or whatever you want to believe in issues you a quest. While you¡¯re on the quest, it stops you from losing points, but until you finish the quest, you¡¯re always going to be a completed quest away from losing more points.¡±
** 2/19
She waited some more but this time the voices of the people did not stop. Her audience began talking among themselves at their tables and even cross-table discussions developed with people shooting answers to questions raised on other tables.
She stood there for a while, then she held up her hands and said, ¡°Everybody, everybody.¡± Her husband and started yelling too, ¡°Eyes to the center.¡± Eventually, everyone focused on her again.
¡°Everybody needs to relax a bit,¡± she said. ¡°We¡¯re here, we have food and shelter. Nobody needs to make a decision fast. We¡¯ve still got to build the wall, make houses, and we¡¯ll still need to figure some other things out, like food long term and what we¡¯re are going to be doing with the rest of our lives. I imagine most of you used computers in your day jobs. Well, they¡¯re gone. Maybe some of you were involved in, well like Georgia there, sales. She worked for Bama Pie. Bama is gone and so are the companies she sold to. Heck, even what she was selling is gone. No more Bama pies.¡± Once again she paused.
¡°Everything has changed,¡± she said. ¡°It¡¯s up to us to reap this whirlwind. We¡¯ve been spit out the other side. Now it¡¯s on us to make our lives. Keep talking, but if I could get the cooks from last night to meet me in the kitchen we¡¯ll get breakfast started and then, after breakfast, we¡¯ll have another short meeting about what it is we need to get done. Ok?¡±
Chapter 38
Will followed her back to the kitchen. Once again, there was a Scooby snack of venison waiting in the new refrigerator. Jake¡¯s mom led the current kitchen crew in an exploration of the changes to the kitchen that Jake had done last night.
Big copper pots, an oven, a grill, a stove, three prep tables, cutting boards, three resin-based trash cans that ¡®disappeared¡¯ the trash when nobody was looking. And a couple of serving tables that were just outside the north low wall where food and plates and whatever could be set up to form a buffet line.
All told, Jake was pretty much out of mana again and waiting on his siphoning to give him more. That big bronze cube had pretty much taken the last of his available mana, not counting the cushion he¡¯d left himself.
¡°It¡¯s starting to look like a kitchen, isn¡¯t it!¡± his mom said.
Everybody agreed, but kind of looked warily around. The idea of being inside a dungeon, a being that could well, create and drop big blocks of metal, was a little bit overwhelming to these women.
¡°Look,¡± his mom said. ¡°I raised my boy right. You don¡¯t need to worry about him. He¡¯s on our side. He¡¯s looking out for us. Just help out and he¡¯ll help you back. Ok?¡±
She waited and everybody nodded, looking a little calmer now.
¡°Let me tell you something. I can speak with him now, but I forgot that he couldn¡¯t speak to other folks,¡± she said. ¡°So when I asked him to ¡®Say hello¡¯ I had forgotten that he couldn¡¯t talk to other folks. That cube I guess was the only way he could figure out how to answer!¡±
Everybody looked around, then finally one of the women and two men started laughing and it spread, everyone almost rolling on the ground.
¡°Big cube!¡± said one of the women.
¡°Hello!¡± said another.
All of them laughing, gasping for breath.
¡°Let¡¯s just keep that between us,¡± his mom said when the group had finally calmed down. ¡°But did you see the face of that man when the cube fell right next to him? Oh my god! If I hadn¡¯t been having a heart attack too, I would have been rolling!¡±
¡°Yeah,¡± said a woman. ¡°That¡¯s Danny Michaels. He had this big black Ford 150. He put glasspacks in it and it had these big chrome exhaust pipes that stuck up above the cab. Used to drive my husband and me crazy when he¡¯d drive home at two-thirty in the morning on Saturdays from clubbing. Buppput puttt buppput putt" she said trying, and mostly failing to imitate the sounds a truck moving down the street with a loud exhaust would make.
They made another four big pots of stew and everybody started to eat and chat amongst themselves. Between the kids playing in the pool and the shocked they had enough seats for everybody. And were able to pull the kids out of the pool and get them fed as a chair opened up.
Finally, everybody had finished their breakfast and sat back on their bench seats with a look that said they were ready to continue the discussion.
Fern stepped up on the cube and smiled and said, ¡°Let¡¯s all thank the cooks with a round of applause.¡±
After the applause died out she said, ¡°Ok, here¡¯s what needs to happen. We need to figure out what everybody is good at and get them doing that, if at all possible. Obviously, no computers means no spreadsheets, no PowerPoint presentations, none of that stuff, but we existed before Office, and by god, since we¡¯re still here, we¡¯ll continue to exist after it. How many of you chose a class or two last night? By hands.¡±
Her family all raised their hands, but other than that, no one else did.
¡°How many of you already had classes chosen?¡± she asked. It looked like only four people raised their hands, all from the original group that had gathered at her house.¡±
¡°Ok,¡± she said. ¡°That¡¯s the first thing we¡¯ve got to get done. Everybody needs to figure out what they are going to be doing in this new world. I was offered a bunch of classes:
- Chef
- Homemaker
- Clan Leader
- Hunter
- Archer
- Serving Wench
- Herbalist
- Apothecary
- Alchemist
- Druid
- Mage
She paused and counted them on her fingers. ¡°That¡¯s it. You all should have a bunch of choices too. I¡¯m not sure how many or what they are, but you can view them just by saying ¡°Choose Class¡±. She paused and let everyone say it.
¡°Ok,¡± she said, ¡°Close the window by just thinking ¡®close screen¡¯ at it? It¡¯s a smart system, you can pretty much think whatever at it and it¡¯ll read your intentions. Now, is everybody with me?¡±
She paused and then said, ¡°Now think ¡®status¡¯.¡±
Everybody seemed to be doing that as well. ¡°That¡¯s you. Summed up in numbers. We think that the average number before the Event was ten. That would be neither high nor low, just your plain everyday person. Olympians probably were above eighteen, and if you had a number six or less, you probably had a problem of some kind. Billy here, sorry Billy, I¡¯m going to use you as an example, had a really low Constitution. He had chronic asthma, could barely leave the house. It showed up as a six on his ¡®status¡¯ sheet.¡±
Billy didn¡¯t really like the fact that everybody was now looking at him.
¡°Once again, sorry Billy,¡± Fern continued.
¡®Welcome to the family, Billy,¡¯ Jake thought. ¡®Get used to being volunteered!¡¯
Fern continued on, ¡°I mentioned Billy because that is no longer his stat. He¡¯s assigned points to it and cured his asthma.¡±
A bunch of whispers swept the room then.
¡°That¡¯s right,¡± said Fern. ¡°In this new world, you aren¡¯t stuck with what you began with. Always wanted to be smarter, assign some points. Same thing with every other stat. Prettier, wiser, less clumsy, healthier. But you only get so many to be assigned per level. Which brings us up to another thing. Levels. Just like in your video games or dungeons and dragons games, you can level up. You do this by gaining experience points. Which you gain from practicing skills or, well, killing monsters. The first levels are easy. After a while, it becomes harder. So your first easy attribute points don¡¯t last. Assign them wisely.¡±
A bunch of questions were shouted out of the crowd at her, but she just stood there with her arms raised. Will started shouting then, ¡°Quiet, quiet. Eyes to the center.¡±
Once she had gotten most of the people¡¯s attention again, she said, ¡°You can share your screens with each other. But I would encourage you not too. It shows who you are. Do you really want to show that to someone else? Should you? Anyway, do it or not, your decision.¡±
After another pause to let that sink in, she continued on, ¡°So, here¡¯s what I¡¯d like to have happen today. Everyone should select a class. If they¡¯ve got the class they want, go for it. If they want to cast spells and can¡¯t? Or they want to be an alchemist and can¡¯t? See Hildi or Billy here. They can help you unlock or discover your mana and Qi.¡±
Once again the crowd started shouting questions.
¡®Ah! Ah!¡± she said, holding her hands up.
¡°They¡¯ll tell you what those things are, but if you don¡¯t know, I would encourage you to find out what they are BEFORE you select your class or classes. They¡¯ll be telling you all what they are as well as guiding you through the process of unlocking them right here.¡± She gestured toward the two and motioned them toward where she was standing.
¡°Will, Georgia, Joseph, and Dianna,¡± she continued. ¡°We need to meet over by that little lounge area just behind the kitchen as well. Now, it¡¯s about eight o¡¯clock in the morning. We¡¯ll start getting ready for lunch at 10:30, so everybody has about two and a half hours to get their questions answered. And maybe, chose a class or at least get started in choosing. Then we can meet again, right here after lunch is over? OK?¡±
She looked around, smiled and hopped down from the cube, before helping Hildi up to take her place and walking out of the room toward where the four people she¡¯d asked to meet with her waited.
She could hear Hildi starting almost the same way that she¡¯d started about a week ago in her living room, ¡°... You guys know about the apocalypse. It happened. The world changed whether we wanted it to or not. But not like in the bible, it¡¯s different. I don¡¯t know why or how, but I do know it happened. What happened is that somehow the world acquired a system or maybe the system acquired the world ¡
¡°That sounds familiar,¡± her husband said as they walked towards the area where the others had already gathered.
¡°It does, doesn¡¯t it,¡± she said. ¡°It¡¯s hard to believe that it¡¯s only been what, slightly over a week? All these changes. Who¡¯d have ever thought I¡¯d go from a restaurant to a clan?¡±
¡°I would, honey. You kept us afloat through some lean times, I¡¯m betting you keep all us afloat through the end times,¡± he said.
She leaned up and kissed him then. ¡°You say the nicest things Will Silvestre. I hope they go from your mouth straight to well, whomever¡¯s ears!¡±
They arrived then and instead of the four people she¡¯d expected, she was greeted with pretty much her whole original crew.
Old man Wither¡¯ broke the ice, ¡°I guess we figured we wanted to know what was ahead of us. And since you seem to be charting the course, we thought we¡¯d come listen in. Besides we¡¯ve all selected our classes and heard Hildi¡¯s presentation before.¡±
She was a little nervous but figured he was right. They had as much a right to hear her plans as anyone else did. At least for now.
¡°Ok,¡± she said. ¡°I originally only called the four I mentioned out because they got drafted into one of the main jobs in kind of a leadership role. I don¡¯t know if they want to continue that way, or even if they¡¯re the best person to be doing it. It could be they have other skills, other roles they want to work on. Not everybody likes to lead. That can be worked on in the future. And if they want some changes made, just let me know. The way I see it is we¡¯ve got four things we¡¯ve got to do to keep the wheels on this bus:¡±
- ¡°Keep these people safe¡±
- ¡°Keep them fed¡±
- ¡°Keep the shocked alive until we can somehow fix them up¡±
- ¡°Keep the children safe, educated, clothed, fed and loved.¡±
¡°If we can do those four things, we have succeeded in my book. The other parts of making a society that will work should given enough time, fall into place. We may need to encourage them to fall that way, but they will do so eventually.¡±
She looked around and saw that everyone was nodding their heads. ¡°I asked Will to take on the safety portion. I¡¯m taking on the cooking portion until I can find someone to hand it off to that wants to do it, Georgia has taken on the shocked, and Dianna has assumed responsibility for the children. What do you all need from us to succeed? Will?¡±
Will looked at her and then the rest of the room. ¡°We need someplace that we can watch the outside of the building from. I¡¯m assuming that we¡¯re going to have workers outside, helping make this wall and these houses too?¡±
He looked around and seemed to get his answer because he continued, ¡°then we¡¯ll need some guards for both monsters and humans and probably some drills on what to do if they get attacked while outside. And we¡¯ll have to talk about what kind of rules living in a big building requires. Curfew? Cleaning? And what kind of penalties someone that breaks them is going to suffer, things like that. I¡¯m not sure if my crew is supposed to worry about stuff like that or not? And, there¡¯s the thing that you didn¡¯t mention, but I know you haven¡¯t forgotten. What are we going to do about all those people that are getting hungry, afraid to leave their house, and waiting for somebody, maybe the government to come rescue them!¡±
¡°Lot¡¯s of good points there,¡± said Fern. ¡°Everybody, keep them in mind, we¡¯ll devote some time to each group after we¡¯ve had a look at the problems each group leader has discovered, Ok? Dianna, you¡¯re next.¡±
¡°Well,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯ve got 68 kids in the kid¡¯s rooms. I guess Jake miscounted, ¡®cause I¡¯ve only got beds for 52. Most of them don¡¯t have parents. Having survived by hiding or being rescued by neighbors or just taken in by neighbors when they showed up on the neighbor¡¯s porch like stray dogs. Fortunately, some of these kids are brothers and sisters so they can easily sleep two to a bed. Most of them actually want to do so and would cry if we tried to separate them. I¡¯ve got some picture books, some board games. Sixteen of these kids evidently out level me and could probably slaughter most of this place if they so desired. One of whom is five years old. That¡¯s where I¡¯m standing.¡±
¡°Thank you!¡± said Fern to a subdued bit of clapping from the spectators. ¡°I knew we had a lot of children. I did not know that there were that many. As for the levels on the kids, I assume you mean Billy¡¯s group, right?¡±
At Dianna¡¯s nod, she said, ¡°I think Billy has that crew well in hand, but it does raise an interesting point. What about teenagers? Lord, magic and hormones both hitting at once.¡±
¡°Georgia?¡± Fern asked. ¡°What about you?¡±
¡°I¡¯ve got fifteen shocked,¡± Georgia said. ¡°None of them are demonstrating any signs of getting better. None of them are demonstrating any signs of, well, personhood. They eat when you tell them, will take a shower, use the restroom, put on clothes, take off clothes, but that¡¯s it. They might as well be, for all I can tell, human dolls. Whatever it was that made them human, the spark, it¡¯s gone and ¡®til they get that back, they ain¡¯t doin¡¯ nothing. If they were left alone, they¡¯d die of thirst in three days. There are three of us helping out now. Two of them¡¯s men whose wives are in the mix and we have another three or four kids whose mom or dad is one of them. They stop by and help, but they¡¯re just ten or so. ¡±Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
¡°Thank you for that report and thank you for doing what you''re doing, Georgia. You may have the most difficult job here. I hope I could do half as good a job as you,¡± Fern said. ¡°As for me, the kitchen is coming together. We¡¯ve got food, we¡¯ve got cooks, as of this morning we have pots and pans and prep tables. Heck, we have coffee!¡±
At this, a cheer went up from all the adults standing around!
¡°I know,¡± she continued. ¡°That was a gift from my son Jake. Along with the food we¡¯ve been eating.¡±
There was another burst of applause then too. More tentative than the previous one.
¡®People were still remembering that big brass cube falling,¡¯ Jake thought. ¡®Oops!¡¯
¡°We¡¯ve still got to get kitchen workers lined up, maybe some of the people currently doing it will stay, but I don¡¯t know that yet. Also, we need to get more stuff planted and get some variety in our meals too. Venison stew is going to get old pretty quick. Probably by lunch, I imagine. I¡¯ll need to get back and start prep work on lunch by ten-ish. It¡¯s hard saying. That¡¯s why we need a chef. People have been pretty good about bussing their own tables, but not everybody does. We haven¡¯t got a lot of ¡®cafeteria¡¯ dishes and stuff yet, so everybody has been pretty much using their own, which also helps. ¡±
Will spoke up then, ¡°I need people too. People that are actually committed to security, the army, keeping people safe. Right now, I¡¯m getting by on what might be loosely termed as volunteers. I need people that really are dedicated to it. And, well, I¡¯ll say it now, they should probably get paid.¡±
Dianna said, ¡°The same here. I need teachers, I need a curriculum, I need a couple of therapists, I need room mothers or dads, I need a structure to help these kids keep it together. And, they, whoever they wind up being will need to get paid too.¡±
Georgia said, ¡°the same thing goes for me and mine. We¡¯re doing it because it needs to get done. I don¡¯t know how long we can keep it up though. But we should also get paid as well.¡±
¡°I hear you, folks,¡± said Fern. ¡°I want to pay my kitchen workers and myself. I don¡¯t want to ask anyone to work without some kind of payment, but here¡¯s the kicker. I don¡¯t have any money. This clan that I talked about starting doesn¡¯t have any either. We¡¯re going to have to figure this out together.¡±
Withers spoke up then, ¡°Well, can¡¯t you have your son make something? Gold or silver? Heck, even copper?¡±
¡°Yeah,¡± said Jake. ¡°Who¡¯s gonna pay me? What do I get out of it?¡±
Fern nodded her head in agreement with what Jake said, but then turned to Withers and said, ¡°He¡¯s already given us beds, toilets, running water, showers, pots, pans, tables, chairs, a safe place to live, food, now you want him to pay us to take care of us. Is that what you''re proposing?¡±
¡°Hell, I don¡¯t know. I guess,¡± said Withers. ¡°You said people need to get paid. The only one here I can see who has any money is him.¡±
¡°Even if I did have money, why the hell should I give it to them? What do I get out of all this? Sorry, mom. I¡¯m just asking?¡± said Jake.
¡°My boy asks basically ¡®what¡¯s in it for him?¡¯ And I¡¯m having a hard time answering that. You want him to step in and be the new government tit? Is that it?¡± Fern asked.
¡°No, but sure as shit we need to figure something out,¡± he said. ¡°We¡¯ve got 130 plus people to take care of. We need some way of figuring out how to pay people for working. I mean soldiers get paid, so do health care workers and busboys and chefs. At least they did in the old world. People will work for free in an emergency, but once that wears off, and it becomes the standard, they¡¯ll want to be paid. That¡¯s what I¡¯m saying.¡±
¡°That¡¯s a good point and one I¡¯m very glad to hear you bringing up,¡± Fern said. ¡°We¡¯ve got no economy. No way to earn money. No way of spending. I¡¯ve got some of these copper and silver coins that I got left when my car was taken.¡± She pulls some out of her inventory and plays with them a bit, looking at their faces.
¡°But that¡¯s it,¡± she continued. ¡°I haven¡¯t gotten any more since, nor have I been able to spend them on anything. I can¡¯t even trade them for something with Jake here.¡±
¡°Mom, you don¡¯t need money with me. If you need it and I can make it, it¡¯s yours,¡± she said.
¡°Thank you, Jake,¡± she said.
¡°He was being a good son,¡± she said to the inquiring eyes around her. ¡°But we need to figure out a way to pay people.¡±
¡°Can¡¯t your boy do something?¡± said Withers. ¡°Like issue a coin? Make a credit card?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± she said. ¡°Let¡¯s ask him.¡±
¡°Well, seeing as how you¡¯re the only one that can talk to him, how about you do that?¡± said Withers.
¡°Need another cube?¡± Jake asked his mom.
His mom smiled again and said, ¡°I¡¯ll do that, but in the meantime, our problems seemed mainly people based. Paying, selecting, and determining their jobs. Is that what I¡¯m hearing from everyone?¡±
Everybody seemed to think about it for a moment before looking around and then nodding their heads in agreement.
¡°Ok,¡± she said. ¡°Why don¡¯t we do this? Everybody here counts off, one to four.¡± She waited until they¡¯d done that, then said, ¡°Ones you¡¯re with me, twos you¡¯re with Will, threes you¡¯re with Georgia and fours you¡¯re with Dianna. Talk it over and try to figure out some way to jumpstart our economy and figure out how many people each group needs.¡±
Later that day as Fern was chopping vegetables in the kitchen for lunch, Jake spoke to her again.
¡°Mom,¡± he said.
¡°Yes,¡± she replied. ¡°I¡¯m a little busy here. Don¡¯t want to lose a finger.¡±
¡°Practice your healing,¡± he said. ¡°Billy¡¯s gotten really good at it. We¡¯ve been talking.¡±
¡°I thought that only people that could take the vow could speak with you?¡± she asked.
¡°No,¡± he said. ¡°If I work at it, concentrate, I can break through and talk. It¡¯s a little painful, but doable. Well, painful for them.¡±
¡°Does Hildi know?¡± she asked.
¡°Well, no,¡± he answered. ¡°I¡¯d just as soon keep it that way if you know what I mean. She¡¯s a little protective.¡±
¡°Uh-hmm,¡± she said, kind of noncommittally. ¡°I¡¯ll practice when I have time.¡±
¡°Make time,¡± he said. ¡°Billy¡¯s advanced to level eight just by practicing. Now that you¡¯re the big cheese, you need to be strong.¡±
¡°I know,¡± she said. ¡°It¡¯s just time. Everything takes time.¡±
¡°Delegate,¡± he said. ¡°You need to get stronger!¡±
¡°I will,¡± she said. ¡°I promise!¡±
¡°Good,¡± he said. ¡°You know what an Adventurer is?¡±
¡°I¡¯m assuming you mean that in a specific way, so no,¡± she said.
¡°In the stories, it¡¯s a person who goes out and fights monsters. Usually, there''s a guild behind them called the ¡®Adventurer¡¯s Guild¡¯.¡±
¡°Ok,¡± she said. ¡°Is this going somewhere?¡±
¡°Yes,¡± he said. ¡°In the stories, they have a card, or plate or badge or something that keeps track of various stuff.¡±
¡°Uh-huh!¡± she said. ¡°Cool, just got another level on the skill, ¡®Small Knives.¡±
¡°Anyway,¡¯ he continued. ¡°The things that the plate tracks usually include quest rewards.¡±
¡°So money,¡± she said.
¡°Exactly,¡± he replied. ¡°Money.¡±
¡°Ok,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯m with you so far.¡±
¡°Look at this,¡± he said.
Suddenly on the prep table beside her appeared a bronze plate with a picture of his mother in the center and her name in the other corner along with her supposed rank, ¡°Bronze.¡± There was a circular hole in one corner to allow a chain or a thong to be attached to it to make it easy to carry.
She set down the knife and the potato that she was currently peeling and picked up the plate. When she did so, a blue screen appeared,
|
¡°Would you, Fern Silvestre, like to bind this Dungeon Born adventurers plate?
Agree
Deny
|
¡°It¡¯s asking if I¡¯d like ¡®to bind this Dungeon Born adventurers plate¡¯?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t do it yet, but you could. And if you did, you¡¯d own the plate. Then people could use this,¡± and an item that looked vaguely like an old gumball machine appeared next to her knife, ¡°to assign money to it.¡±
¡°So, we could say, pay people and let them keep track of their money in our guild,¡± she said.
¡°I¡¯d have to make enough gold to cover the rewards you¡¯d be giving or the wages you¡¯d be paying, but essentially, yes,¡± he said.
¡°Sounds like you''re hedging there. What do you mean?¡± she said.
¡°Billy said that when the Event happened the Bobs started with a notice that said something like they controlled all the gold? They even mentioned it when they talked to me. Remember that?¡±
¡°Vaguely,¡± she said. ¡°It was just another of a long list of things that I was too busy freaking out about to pay attention too.¡±
¡°Well, according to Billy, they did,¡± he said. ¡°And, when I try to make money or script or tokens or something that acts as money, I can¡¯t do it unless I have enough gold, silver or copper in either bullion or specie to back it up with. I literally can not do it! Nor could anybody else, I¡¯m pretty sure. The Bobs are a hard currency kind of being, I guess.¡±
His mom just sat there with a blank look on her face, considering something, her fingers playing idly with the card.
¡°Actually,¡± he said. ¡°It feels in a weird kind of way, fulfilling. Like it might be another purpose that the Bobs put on me. I¡¯m the damn banker of this world! Or at least, I¡¯m here to make gold, silver, and copper so the bankers of the world can make more currency. I get the feeling that people that want to debase their currency are in for a nasty surprise too.¡±
¡°So you actually can make gold,¡± she said.
¡°Have to if I want to create loot,¡± he said.
¡°Loot?¡± she asked.
¡°You kill something, a monster in me, I owe you gold or silver or copper. I literally have to pay, for some reason,¡± he said. ¡°I also can pay in items too. For instance, I could give you a toilet.¡±
For some reason that struck them both as funny and they started laughing. Fern put her head down on her arms, laughing and kept saying, ¡°A toilet, a toilet¡±
After she calmed down, she asked, ¡°Is a gold piece expensive to make?¡±
¡°Pretty much,¡± he said. ¡°Gold, silver, copper, all have mana limits on them. Same with platinum I guess. Maybe others. Other things go down in cost as I get better at making stuff. Those seem to have a set cost. I guess I won¡¯t be making a gold toilet.
¡°What? Why would you want to?¡± she said. ¡°Lord, have you lost it, son?¡±
¡°I was just making fun of Trump and I said I¡¯d make a real gold toilet, that¡¯s all,¡± he said.
¡°You¡¯ve been alone too long. From now on you are to talk to me at least once a day. You hear me?¡±
¡°Yes, mom,¡± Jake said.
¡°Anyhow, how much does it cost to make a gold coin?¡± she asked.
¡°Well, from what I can remember, a gold coin usually has about a troy oz of gold in it,¡± he said. ¡°That means it should take about five mana points to create one. But it doesn¡¯t. It takes a lot more than that.¡±
¡°How much more,¡± she asked.
¡°Over 10 times as much,¡± he answered.
¡°50 mana,¡± she said. ¡°Really?¡±
¡°53 if you want to know exactly,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s like there¡¯s luxury metals and non-luxury metals. Luxury metals cost more, way more to make. And that¡¯s just the way the Bobs wanted it. Also, I¡¯m not sure about whether or not the skill rank will continue to impact the cost.¡±
¡°What do you mean,¡± she asked.
¡°I¡¯ve noticed that as I got better at making things like wood or stone, the cost of making things has gone down. The walls here are made out of balsa. I mean it¡¯s thick balsa wood. Like half a meter thick, so don¡¯t worry, no one¡¯s coming through it some night armed with an X-ACTO knife. I can make it cheap. And it got cheaper as I got better at making it. I¡¯m not sure that will happen with luxury metals. They might stay at this price forever. On the positive side, iron should be dirt cheap eventually, just like bronze is becoming.¡±
¡°Isn¡¯t bronze mainly made out of copper?¡± asked Fern.
¡°Yep,¡± he said. ¡°I guess you could refine it and make yourself a nice profit. Provided you can figure out a way of doing it. From what I remember from high school chemistry, refining metals isn¡¯t just heating them up, you¡¯ve got to add chemicals too. Maybe it¡¯s not really an easy process? But you still have to have a dungeon to make the original bronze, so there¡¯s that. Maybe an alchemist could do it. Or a smith. I don¡¯t know.¡±
¡°Could you do it?¡± she asked.
¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± he answered. ¡°I¡¯ve never tried. Might piss the Bobs off though. Maybe not, after all, it¡¯s just copper.¡±
¡°Still that means I could make two or three pieces of gold a day if I learn the spell,¡± she said.
¡°Good luck with that,¡± Jake said. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure it''s an ability or spell that gets passed out to only some beings. I think the Bobs keep its circulation pretty limited. Under their hats, if they wear hats. Remember the old alchemists and their search for the philosopher¡¯s stone? It sounds like a good way to waste a life if you ask me.¡±
¡°It¡¯s always something isn¡¯t it?¡± she said. ¡°So what¡¯s this thing do?¡± she reached out grabbed the gumball looking machine, holding it up and looking over it.
¡°Well, that one, nothing. I made a look-a-like that doesn¡¯t actually work because the real one would cost over a thousand mana to make.¡±
¡°Jesus Wept!¡± she said.
¡°I know, that¡¯s for one of them. That¡¯s what, over eighteen gold pieces. It¡¯ll probably cost more than a thousand though. I can¡¯t tell for absolute sure until I make one for reals.¡±
¡°Well, what do they do?¡± she said.
¡°It¡¯s way cool! See that plate on the front of it?¡±
¡°Yea,¡± she said.
¡°You stick your badge on that plate and it verifies that you are the actual owner of the plate,¡± he continued. ¡°But the plate does that as well. If the owner holds it, it looks normal. If someone else does, it glows a soft reddish color.
¡°Anyway, once it¡¯s on the plate, the operator can view your money, answer questions about your basic level and class which they can view in the globe part. No one except the assigned user can view the globe or people that they allow to view it, and they can deposit rewards straight to your account which is basically created when the plate is issued.¡±
¡°Why would the adventurer wish to leave money in here?¡± she asked.
¡°I assume you¡¯d give them interest on it. That machine seems to be able to calculate and keep track of it. It also somehow networks with the others that get created by and for you. So they all are operating from the same information. Also, that way people don¡¯t have to carry around big chunks of money. And, they help their community by allowing the bank, which I guess is the Sect, to use their money as loans.¡±
¡°Why would someone care about carrying money around?¡± she said. ¡°With our inventory, nobody can get at it, right?¡± she asked.
¡°Right now, yes. Maybe not in the future. If somebody takes a thief or rogue-type class, they might gain the ability to ¡®dip into¡¯ or ¡®see¡¯ what you¡¯re carrying. At least Billy said that might be a possibility,¡± he said.
¡°That¡¯s not encouraging!¡± she said. ¡°The inventory is one of my favorite things about all this nonsense. Well, what about this thing? Can they do the same?¡± she asked.
¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± he said. ¡°I think the Bobs are looking out for it. It falls into the same category of protection as their ¡®hard currency¡¯. They protect their money supply.¡±
¡°So, no more trillion-dollar deficits? Is that what I¡¯m hearing?¡± she said.
¡°It seems that way,¡± he said.
¡°What happens if there''s a run on the bank?¡± she asked.
¡°I don¡¯t know, but the Bobs would handle it. There¡¯d be enough to cover it and somebody would be responsible,¡± he answered.
¡°You mean, us?¡± she asked.
¡°As the Sect Leader in charge of the bank, I can only assume you¡¯d have to take some of the responsibility,¡± he answered.
¡°What about loans?¡± she said.
¡°Same deal. Pay them back, no problem. Default and don¡¯t negotiate a new payment plan, big problem. For the debtor.¡±
¡°What do you mean?¡± she said.
¡°Bear in mind this is only speculation, but, you know how the Bobs got me and Baxter? Caught us in a weak spot and asked us to volunteer to be a dungeon more-or-less? I suspect that they might just pay off your debt and you¡¯d start working for them,¡± he said. ¡°They might just have a lot of openings, this being a newly ¡®System-ed¡¯ world and all that.¡±
¡°Damn!¡± said Fern.
¡°I know. Damn is right!¡± Jake said. ¡°But the other part about the card is that it tracks the card holder¡¯s guild status.¡±
¡°And by guild, you mean sect?¡± she said.
¡°Maybe, maybe not,¡± he answered.
¡°Meaning?¡± she said. His mom and he used to play a game where they¡¯d try to answer the other in the shortest number of words. If you had to ask, you lost and owed the other one a favor. The contests usually ended in a draw, one or the other of them hurrying off before they could lose.
¡°Two,¡± he said. ¡°One guild, one sect.¡±
¡°Why?¡± she asked.
¡°People join guild, not sect,¡± he said. Funnily enough, his time spent conversing with Baxter seemed to help his skills.
¡°Hmm!¡± she said, thinking about it. ¡°Good,¡± she finally answered. ¡°Do it!¡±
¡°Need people,¡± he said.
¡°Get dad,¡± she answered. ¡°Guild leader.¡±
¡°Ok,¡± he said and quit talking, preserving his record of three, now four matches with no losses. His mom went back to peeling potatoes. And staring thoughtfully at a gumball machine.
Chapter 39
Lunch had just ended so Fern took her position on the bronze cube. It looked like it was becoming a tradition to stand on the cube to address the people.
¡°Let¡¯s give our thanks to our cooks,¡± she said, preserving another just started tradition. After the applause died down, she said, ¡°and we have a new Chef in charge of the kitchen. Actually Chefs. I want everybody to give a round of applause for Cody Fisher and Juanita Olmos. Cody used to be a flying instructor and also was a chef for the ¡®Outback Steakhouse¡¯ in Tulsa and Juanita used to manage her family¡¯s Mexican restaurant here in Sapulpa, La Margarita. They both decided that they would tackle it part-time to give themselves more time to do what we¡¯re all doing¡ trying to figure out this new world. They''ll be dividing up the menus, working on figuring out how they are going to run our foodservice together. If anyone wants to help, they are always welcome.¡±
She paused to let the applause die down and then continued. ¡°Billy who you¡¯ve all met now and my son Jake have been talking. Sorry, Jake, I forgot I was supposed to keep that on the down-low. But in any case, they have come up with an idea for how we can move forward. In his reading, Billy mentioned that aside from Sects their usually existed organizations called ¡®Adventurer¡¯s Guilds¡¯. In any case, these guilds would act as a place where people could earn money by performing jobs. Things like cleaning streets, finding missing pets or even killing monsters. The guild would post the job, a member of the guild would take it and when they finished, they¡¯d get paid. The guild would collect the money upfront from the person or organization that wanted to have the job completed, and pay the person or group of people when they presented proof that the job got done. It sounded like a good idea to me. What do you all think?¡±
She looked around the room, making eye contact with both Billy and her husband, who smiled at her. Table talk started around the room with people starting to discuss the proposal.
Finally, Withers stood up and asked, ¡°Who would pay? How would people doing jobs receive their pay? What would somebody have to do to join this guild?¡±
¡°All good questions,¡± Fern answered. ¡°I suspect that people interested in joining the guild should come up with the answers. I know from talking with Jake, I will have the capability of setting up the mechanics of how people will get paid. It¡¯s up to you all to figure out the rest of it. I¡¯m thinking that I¡¯ll turn over the meeting after we finish here to my husband who can moderate and get things started. I expect I will be a member of whatever guild the group comes up with but I will not be a part of the leadership of the guild. I will have enough to do running my sect.¡±
¡°So,¡± she continued, ¡°after this meeting is done, you all can either go swimming, talk amongst yourselves or stay for another meeting about setting up the guild. Now, before we go any further, I¡¯ve had a couple of people reach out to me about joining the clan or sect, the ¡®Dungeon Born¡¯. If Georgia, Dianna, and my family would all rise, I¡¯d like to get the first swearing-in done. This way you all can see what it means and how it happens.¡±
There was a moment of silence and then everybody named rose and faced her and a blue window appeared in front of each of them.
Soul Bond (Equality - Greater)
A group wishes to enter into a soul bond willingly with the dungeon, Jake Sylvestre.
They have agreed to the following bond:
¡®I pledge to the sect: I will keep myself strong, keep myself mentally awake, be always prepared, be trustworthy, be loyal, be friendly, be courteous, be kind, and be clean. I will act responsibly, not against the interests of my sect, nor any member of it. I will accomplish the tasks which I have been given and which I have accepted¡¯
Benefits:
- Beings can communicate with each other at a distance
- Beings can communicate with each other¡¯s servants or companions
- All promises made in the bond will become enforced and regulated.
At higher levels of bonding, additional benefits may accrue.
Penalties
- Bondees in violation of the bond will lose one mana point or stamina point per day until death or the violation is repaired.
Agree to be bound
Deny bond
|
Fern said, ¡°Hold on, don¡¯t click anything yet. I want these others to see it.¡± She then shared the window with everybody in the dining room.
There were a lot of exclamations and one or two profanities when the window appeared in front of the people.
¡°I shared that window so you all could see. Nothing nefarious, just people joining a group. If you want to belong, you can contact one of us and start discussing it. If we feel that you¡¯d be a good match, all you¡¯ll need to do is agree to these same terms. Just like we are going to do, right now.¡±
And with that, she unshared the window from the group in the dining room and said, ¡°Go ahead and say yes if you still want too.¡±
Once again that feeling as if a small fraction of a very large being looked in on the room and then, nothing. But the people that were not included in the bond could evidently feel the presence of that being because they shivered a bit and another outpouring of exclamations came from the crowd.
¡°And that¡¯s it,¡± said Fern. ¡°Welcome to the Dungeon Born!¡± and stepped off the cube and made her way over to the two women and gave them both big hugs.
After she finished, she said, ¡°That¡¯s all I¡¯ve got for this afternoon. Like I said, you are welcome to stay and help launch the ¡®Adventurer''s Guild - Sapulpa¡¯ or whatever name you come up with. My husband will be leading that discussion. Billy will be there as well to answer what questions he can. I¡¯m going to meet with my two latest sect members and talk about the sect and what we need to get done!
The meeting in the dining room had gone on all afternoon. People were interested, they just wanted to know what they were joining if they decided to do so. Eventually, the crowd seemed to have decided on a framework very like the ones in the stories Billy had read. He¡¯d been talking most of the afternoon. Will had called on him pretty often. There also were several gamers in the crowd who talked about their online guilds and their experiences with ¡®Adventurer¡¯s Guilds¡¯ in games.
They all also talked about quests and other things that they generally got for completing them. Everybody was starting to get excited about the possibility of leveling. Everybody wanted to be prettier, smarter, faster, or stronger and saw this as a potential way to do it. Not to mention, everybody wanted to earn some money. Everybody here had worked most of their lives. They didn¡¯t like the feeling of being penniless.
They decided to let people join the guild which they¡¯d decided to name, ¡®Sapulpa Adventurer¡¯s Guild¡± after they got some more of the mechanics worked out. Will was appointed temporary ¡°Guild Master,¡± and instructed to work out the badges or cards or whatever the guild was going to use to allow people to prove they were a member of the guild. Also, he was to figure out the way they were going to be paid and maybe how much, although that was left pretty much up in the air. Nobody knew what type of jobs would be available yet.
They decided that they¡¯d hold another meeting in the afternoon the following day after Will got some more information.
Jake had been listening most of the afternoon. Well, part of him had been and not all the time. He¡¯d also been busy talking with his mom and her helpers and calming a pissed off Hildi down. She¡¯d be en upset that he¡¯d started talking to her little brother. He¡¯d finally got that settled down after he promised to allow her to be part of any future conversations he¡¯d have with Billy.
Fern and the other two plus their helpers had spent the afternoon trying to communicate with the shocked. They¡¯d tried sign language, spelling things against the person¡¯s hands, everything that they could think of. They¡¯d even resorted to placing their hands in ice water to see if it made a difference.
It did not. Their bodies seemed to grow uncomfortable, to move automatically away from the stimulus, even violently if they were held down, but nothing else.
¡®No spark,¡¯ as Georgia said. It was like the person in the body¡¯s shell had stepped out, gone away. Jake had been watching these attempts too and thought they looked a lot like his dungeon monsters when he didn¡¯t tell them to do something. They both just existed.
Fern, Georgia and Dianna and their helpers had looked over the children. Most of them were in the pools, but some of them were playing board games or just talking to others in their rooms.
Fern had asked the question early on, ¡®What can we do to make sure all these children are ¡°fed, clothed, loved, and educated (whatever that means) until they are thirteen?¡± And then they¡¯d spent the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out ways to achieve all four of those goals.¡±Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
When Fern stood in front of the group again after dinner, there was clearly something different about the people. She wasn¡¯t quite sure what it was, but she thought mainly it was that the people looked a little less apathetic. They looked as if they had somehow rediscovered their own lives. So, she started in with a question, ¡°How many of you feel better about your lives this afternoon then you did this morning?¡±
Like a dam breaking people started talking then, all kinds of people. People that had sullenly stared at her. People that used to be polite, but distant. People that she thought were a step away from joining the shocked all attempted to speak.
She thought about getting a talking stick going but then decided that was too 90¡¯s. But it boiled down to that between their classes, the newly forming Adventurer¡¯s Guild, the safety that they felt in Max¡¯s, they felt they had some control over their lives again.
Finally, after almost everyone had started to run down, she took back control of the meeting.
¡°Thanks for sharing,¡± she began. ¡°I¡¯m glad that things are growing and changing. Tomorrow, we¡¯ll continue this and start to get going on some of the changes that we¡¯ve talked about today. Also, tomorrow, we¡¯ll need to start on the wall, on the houses, on the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. We¡¯ll need to start building again. Making our new lives.¡±
¡°I¡¯m glad that today was a productive day. As you all probably didn¡¯t see since we all hit the hay early last night, the lights go out in the building at ten o¡¯clock. Well, according to Jake they fade to a very dim glow. They brighten up again at 5 am. If there''s an emergency, a call of ¡°Emergency On¡± will turn all the lights on throughout the whole building. Saying ¡°Lights On¡± will turn the nearest light back on at full, until you get out of range which is about 8 meters.¡±
¡°If you¡¯re a night owl, be quiet. Talk quietly here in the dining room. Or in one of the conversation areas. Don¡¯t be loud. I suggest you go to bed early. Tomorrow promises to be a busy day.¡±
She pointed toward the gardens and continued.
¡°Now Dianna and I are going over to the gardens and begin planting some vegetables. Jake says that they ought to grow like mad because of the high mana in here. I¡¯m not sure how fast ¡®like mad¡¯ is, but since our diet depends on it, I¡¯m hoping it means like a time-lapse film.¡±
¡°Kids, Dianna and I and all the helpers have decided that bedtime is at eight o¡¯clock. That sounds early, but we¡¯ll be getting you up at five o¡¯clock in the morning. Tomorrow¡¯s first lesson will be with Billy here in the dining room after the adult¡¯s morning meeting. You¡¯ll be unlocking your mana and Qi and learning how to meditate. You¡¯ll also learn the spell ¡®Mana Bolt¡¯ and the Qi ability, ¡®Jade Lotus Touch.¡±
At this, a rumble came from the crowd. A man, one of the adults who had children and a shocked wife said, ¡°I¡¯m not sure I want my child learning spells. Or that Qi stuff.¡±
Fern looked at him and then said, ¡°That¡¯s certainly your prerogative once you leave this building. I would urge you not to leave and not to handicap your children. They need to learn how to fight, how to survive.¡±
There was a little pause then while she let that sink in.
¡°In this building though,¡± she continued, ¡°everyone will learn how to fight. Everyone will have the greatest chance of survival that we can give them. It¡¯s not just Wade and his men we need to worry about. It¡¯s mutated coyotes, possums, squirrels as big as dogs. I suspect there are true monsters out there. Things like vampires, werewolves, hell things we don¡¯t even have names for yet. Anymore, even earthworms can be giant. My girl Hildi here says she was attacked by a twenty-foot long earthworm with a drill bit for a mouth that spit rock like a gun. What the hell is that I ask you? Everything wants to kill us now and I¡¯m not going to handicap a child because he¡¯s or she¡¯s a child. They are going to be as able to protect themselves as I can make them. From all predators, human or otherwise.¡±
¡°Are you saying that you¡¯d kick us out?¡± the man said. ¡°What gives you the right?¡±
She reached into her inventory and pulled out four arrows.
¡°People! Listen to me,¡± Fern said. ¡°Why are you even talking about rights? Look, these two arrows,¡± she said as she pulled two apart from the other two arrows and waved them around, ¡°were shot into the door this afternoon. That makes four arrows those men have shot into our door. Do you think they are concerned with your rights?¡±
She was almost yelling at this point.
¡°People you need to understand. Two weeks ago our world changed. You have no rights anymore. You have only what you can take or what has been granted to you if you don¡¯t want to take them. That¡¯s it. What we¡¯re trying to do here is make a place that men like this,¡± she paused and shook the arrows at the crowd, ¡°won¡¯t have a say in your lives. If you aren¡¯t strong enough, those men or men just like them will take everything you have.¡±
She took a minute to calm down, staring at her audience.
They stared back.
But before anyone else could speak, she started again. ¡°I¡¯m sorry if you don¡¯t want to hear this. But this is the world we now live in. You, your kids, your wife or husband, all of you are in the same boat. We can either grow strong or die weak. Me and mine are not going to be weak. And I desperately hope that you all make that same choice.¡±
¡°Damn mom!¡± said Jake. ¡°Should I drop another cube?¡±
It was probably Rex or Bernie, it seemed to start from the corner where they were sitting, but a handclap started, then another joined and pretty soon the whole dining room was applauding and yelling.
Fern stood there looking a little bit embarrassed but also firm.
¡°Settle down, settle down,¡± she said. ¡°Thank you for that. I actually got a notification that my oration ability went up. It¡¯s a weird world we live in anymore, isn¡¯t it? Now, as I said, Dianna and I are going over to the gardens and we¡¯re gonna plant some stuff."
She continued, "If any of you were gardeners and want to see if you can raise your skills or gain some skills, I invite you to come. I have seeds from plants in my old garden that I¡¯d be happy to share out. Otherwise, stay here and talk or get in the pools. Jake made us some firewood so we can finally use these fire pits he¡¯s created all over the place. It¡¯s over by the kitchen, in the little hallway by the Fisher¡¯s rooms, so if you want to start a fire, grab a bundle and feel free."
And then she finally wrapped up with, "Oh, and the door that¡¯s at the end of the hallway, is off-limits. Do not go in there for your own safety''s sake. That leads to the dungeon part of my son. A whole different set of rules applies if you set foot through there.¡±
She and Dianna left then accompanied by Billy and his crew, a bunch of the kids, and maybe a third of the adults in the room. The two garden beds were sitting ready for the plants.
One of the men, a former gardener who already had the herbalism skill said ¡°What about lights and water. These lights don¡¯t seem to be special, no offense Jake. And there ain¡¯t no water near here. The closest water is the bathroom sink.¡±
¡°Tell him I can make new lights and water is easy too. But, if things go like Billy and I talked about, we shouldn''t need them,¡± Jake said.
¡°He said he can handle the lights and water, but for some reason he has yet to explain, he doesn¡¯t think that either will be necessary,¡± she said.
¡°That¡¯s right, Mrs. Silvestre,¡± Billy said. ¡°We, that is Jake and me, think that because the mana¡¯s so high in here the other things are just kind of optional. We haven¡¯t tested it yet, but the plants should just grow!¡±
¡°Huh?¡± she said, accompanied by murmurs from the crowd.
¡°Well, let''s get on with it. I¡¯ve got seeds to pass out and Dianna will show you where we want them to be. Wait, Jake can you make us a chalkboard and a bunch of chalk? Make that two. I¡¯d like to document what plants went where.¡±
¡°No problem, mom. Hang on a minute,¡± Jake said and got busy.
The pattern was a copy of an old wooden-framed chalkboard that he remembered from his church''s rec room. Dark black slate surface, surrounded by a wooden frame. He made the whole thing out of wood and slate to keep the cost of it down. The slate surface was about two meters long by one meter high. The wooden frame was made out of black ash.
He started to create them and realized that they were expensive. Two materials with a lot of material used added up pretty fast. Even if the crafting was easy on this one.
He told his mother, ¡°Sorry, not happening. Too expensive. I¡¯ll make you some paper instead. Wait, don¡¯t you have paper in your inventory? And pens?¡±
¡°Well, yes, but¡¡± his mom said.
¡°Mom, I can¡¯t be your get-out-of-jail-free card. I need mana. I can¡¯t spend it all on crap that you just ask for. I need to make monsters and dig and do a bunch of dungeony stuff. It¡¯s like the pressure is building up inside of me. I need to be a dungeon. At least a little bit, well, maybe a lot.¡±
¡°Ok, honey,¡± she said. ¡°We¡¯ll talk later.¡±
And then to the group, she said, ¡°Hang on a second, I¡¯ve got some paper here and a pen two.¡±
She pulled out a small notebook and drew a picture of the garden plot. It was easy to do because the plots were already arranged in a grid. She just copied the structure and started labeling.
The group started to plant then. She¡¯d passed all her seeds to Dianna who began passing them out and telling people where to plant them. The bigger garden got zucchini, butternut squash, corn, watermelons, cantaloupe, muskmelons, strawberries, iceberg lettuce, spinach, asparagus, beets, turnips, celery, carrots, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers, basically every plant that the standard kitchen garden would have. It also had wheat. Even Jake wasn¡¯t sure about this one. Normally, it took a field to make enough wheat to be worthwhile. But they had the seeds and he was prepared to grow them.
The smaller garden got the rarities and the herbs, dill, thyme, oregano, cilantro, Italian parsley, mint, and avocado. Also, coffee and cacao seeds which Jake slipped Dianna. His mom had saved some seeds from the local asian market and also had star fruit, coconut, and banana plants too. They even had a tea plant which they rescued from Mary''s house along with the coffee beans.
After the planting was done, a little boy asked, ¡°So how long does it take?¡±
Jake was watching the soil and saw the first shoots of the plants breaking the surface.
¡°Look, mom! I told you! It¡¯s fast!¡± he said.
¡°Oh my god! Would you look at that!¡± Fern cried out and everyone gathered around to watch the plants grow.¡±
People, especially the kids, would hold their hands just above the plant just to let it grow into their palms.
One of the younger men said, ¡°It¡¯s a Festivus miracle!¡± and the crowd, at least those who used to watch Seinfeld, cracked up.
The crowd settled down, the adults staring at the plants, watching them grow while the kids soon left back to the pool.
¡°It¡¯s been just thirty minutes and already the lettuce has heads, not big ones, but still,¡± said Dianna.
¡°It¡¯s good,¡± said Fern quietly to her. ¡°I didn¡¯t want to cause an uproar but I was about out of fresh vegetables. Well, no about it, I was out of vegetables. Those carrots that were in the stew were the last of it. My garden couldn¡¯t feed this many people for that long.
Chapter 40
Jake was tired of making lights. He had been making them for almost two days now. He figured, based on his plans, that he¡¯d need forty-four more of them after his initial start of eight. That translated into over 4900 mana points. And coupled with everything else he¡¯d had to make, well, no fun stuff for him. No digging, no monsters, no plants, although he did get a bunch of soul patterns for the different seeds when they were planted so that was good. That planting session had given him over thirty new soul patterns to play with.
Oh, and he also got pot from a fifteen-year-old who dropped the seeds when he lit up in the bathroom. His toilets ¡®no odors¡¯ ability made the stalls of the restrooms a perfect place for getting high clandestinely. He made himself a small garden bed in the second-floor room next to the rune room and planted the pot at the same time everyone was planting the other plants in the garden areas. Because why not? He figured that it might be a big feature eventually on his second floor. So some fun stuff.
He did make four owls to watch outside at night. Fortunately, the night watch had been inside so when he¡¯d actually created the four owls on the porch, nobody saw. He made them dungeon scouts and instead of giant, he made them small, tiny little owls about 20 cm tall. He gave them shadow cloaks to make them better able to hide both at night and during the day. He started to give them steel feathers or talons but then decided that was pointless with a scout. After looking at the patterns, he decided to do something a little crazy.
He put hawk eyes in the owl''s head. Not instead of, but also. Hawk eyes on top of the owl¡¯s eyes. He shrank the large eyes that the owl normally possessed and gave it extended night vision to make up for the loss of vision. He decided that he didn¡¯t need to give it dark vision because it would be outside and with the three moons there would always be some light. It could easily see two hundred meters at night. The hawk eyes were the same as the ones that his normal giant hawk possessed. Smaller of course, but with the same visual acuity. He could sense that attempting to use both sets of eyes at once would overload the visual processing ability of the poor owl¡¯s brain so he gave it a reflex to only have one set of eyes open at a time.
When he finished, he thought the owl looked funny at first. The black eyes open with the hawk eyes shut on top of them all set in the heart-shaped white mask of the owl. Or the golden hawk eyes open with the black owl eyes shut below them. All the mechanisms of the eye, the lid, the tear ducts, all stood out from the white background.
It was too obvious that this owl was different. Just in case his little spy was discovered, he didn¡¯t want his changes to be seen immediately. He finally darkened all the feathers on the face and the body of the owl, making the whole owl¡¯s feathers match the tawny coloration which existed on its shoulders originally. Between the size of the owl and its new camouflage, not to mention it¡¯s shadow ability, he was sure that the owl would be almost impossible to find. A perfect spy.
When he released them to watch the outside, he made sure to include ¡®watch for humanoids and report back if you see them¡¯ script. He also instructed each of them to split up and to watch a different area. And to stay at least 300 to 400 meters from Max¡¯s. At 700 mana points his little owls were not cheap, but he felt better having them out there. An owl''s hearing, coupled with its sight, now in the daylight as well, should provide a definite watch. He also made two of them female and two of them male. Two pairs. He wasn¡¯t sure if dungeon monsters got busy, but he thought he¡¯d give them a chance. Also, he wasn¡¯t sure if the chicks of a dungeon monster born outside of his bounds would be a dungeon monster. He wondered if he¡¯d just created his first invasive species?
While he was at it, he decided to start claiming territory outside. He wasn¡¯t sure yet how to do it yet but figured that the easiest way was to sow seeds. Plant grass and let it grow. Bermuda grass, one of the seeds that Baxter had brought back as seeds in his coat, was a fairly invasive plant. If it got enough light, enough heat, enough water it would choke out the other plants around it and spread.
He wanted to keep that invasive quality, the ability to aggressively spread but thought he might do better on some of the other aspects. If he made it softer, people would like it more. If he made its height uniform and caused it to be a low ground cover, people would love it. And finally, if he gave it that dark green of fescue, everyone would love it. He figured he could tie it somehow to his mana and let it grow. He¡¯d have it create seeds that in addition to the seed core would have a lemony taste and supply vitamin C and D as well as a higher sugar content, so native animals, maybe even monsters would like it, consume it and spread it. He hadn¡¯t meant to do so but he¡¯d created a grass that humans could live on. There was enough nutritional value in the grass that people could eat it and survive. Not that they¡¯d enjoy it, it was grass after all, but they''d survive on a diet of his dungeon Bermuda.
The hardest part of the process was getting the plant sensitive to mana. Even with the ability to change patterns, it seemed like the pattern modification ability had a hard time understanding what Jake was looking for. Finally, after manipulating the mana around the pattern to both higher and lower levels, he was able to figure out how to change the plant to only grow around higher mana levels. In other words, around him.
It was odd having created a plant monster. Well, he wasn¡¯t sure what to call it. It was still tied to him. A monster grass. It didn¡¯t do anything. Well, I suppose if the person were allergic to grass it could inflict a nasty allergy on them, but it didn¡¯t seem like it lived up to the monster part of the name.
¡®I¡¯ll just call it Dungeon Bermuda,¡¯ Jake finally thought.
He thought about it some more. Wondering if there was something else that he wanted the grass to do. He could tell that he could sense it and use its senses, such as they were. A feeling of pressure, of water, of sunlight, of the cool earth, were about all that he could tell he¡¯d get from the grass. He thought briefly of increasing the sense of pressure that the grass possessed. But eventually decided that that would be too cruel. Create a grass that¡¯s perfect for walking on and then cause it to feel pain from the experience. Uncool.
But still, he wondered if there was something that he could change to make the grass more useful. He thought about having it create berries like a wild strawberry. Tiny little berries that he¡¯d never tasted to see if they lived up to their name or were just decorative.
He thought some more and then realized that there was something he could change, that he¡¯d have to change if he wanted the plant to be useful. Heat and light sensitivity. Bermuda started growing late in the season. It was late May before the grass started growing in Oklahoma. It required a lot of sun to grow and spread. Since it was now the equivalent of January, it wasn¡¯t going to take off and spread like he wanted it to unless he changed it some more.
He quickly made the change then. It turned out to not be as big a deal as he thought it might be. His earlier change to make the grass more dependant on higher mana levels made it easy to switch the grass¡¯s dependence on heat, on light to mana. If the mana were high enough the grass began growing. Period.
He started to wonder if he¡¯d created a monster then. Some invasive ground cover that was going to strangle out the existing plant life but decided it was just evolution in action. Plants that evolved to use mana would have a competitive edge over plants that didn¡¯t. Period. There was no helping that. Just like monsters. Monsters were, or at least could be, normal animals that had evolved to use mana. Greater size, a coat that turned attacks better, better eyesight, better camouflage, it all boiled down to greater survivability. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Although, he wasn¡¯t sure about the aggressiveness. Every monster or monstrous animal had been uniformly crazy. Attacking anything that came inside of the territory that they claimed. He wondered based on the giant ground squirrels if that was merely a phase to the adaption. They hadn¡¯t attacked. Baxter¡¯s presence had brought out a trace of survival instinct in them.
He wondered if the monsters or monster animals were starting to go back to their standard levels of aggression? If their aggression levels had reset to just be a little more aggressive? It made sense he thought. What good does the desire to attack everything do for a deer or a squirrel? Unless they completely changed their diet, there would be no evolutionary benefit to the heightened aggression. Actually there would be a net decrease in survivability. The wounds they would get from the constant battles would weaken them to their natural enemies who would have also been mana changed.
But that still left real monsters. Stuff that he could create that somehow might have been created naturally. Things like dragons or hippogriffs or griffins or owlbears or some of the other monsters he¡¯d been talking with Billy about. Billy had pulled out his monster manual and showed him several pages of it and that was a jolt to the system. He so wanted to create stuff like that, but what was the point? The only people he wanted to kill were Wade and his crew.
Anyway, he finally created the Dungeon Bermuda. The pattern modification was expensive. 175 mana points. But that was nothing compared to the cost of the grass itself. 200 mana points per seed. Holy crap! He created one.
He remembered going to Ace Hardware and Home Depot and buying bags of Bermuda seed, $33 bucks for a five-pound bag. There were literally thousands of seeds in each bag.
That seed was the equal of almost four gold pieces. That¡¯s like 40,000 bucks. He had to check his math, but each copper was worth about an old American dollar. 100 coppers to a silver, a 100 silvers to a gold. 40,000 bucks. For a seed.
He started thinking about the stuff that he¡¯d created then. Hall lights 112 mana, two gold, 20,000 bucks, Toilet 133 mana, about two and a half gold, 25,000 bucks.
¡®Holy Crap,¡¯ he thought, ¡®I¡¯ve already made my solid gold toilet. Take that Trump! And I made more than one.¡¯
He quickly decided to stop thinking about things in those terms. He hadn¡¯t really considered money and the cost of things. There was nothing he wanted to buy that he couldn¡¯t make. Hell, making things was the point. It was fun. It was what he did.
But translating the mana cost of things into gold and silver and even copper made a difference. He started thinking about all the stuff that he could make so casually and the cost of having the items made by hand and started to think again about monsters and protecting himself. He suddenly felt very vulnerable.
¡°Hey,¡± Hildi said. It was after nine o¡¯clock and she as well as most of the other folks was already in bed. She was evidently fighting off the effects of the runes. She sounded and looked tired.
¡°Hey,¡± he said back.
¡°Whatcha doing?¡± she asked.
¡°Making grass,¡± he answered. He felt like the conversation wasn¡¯t going that well so far. She had been back a day and had sworn another two oaths to him, but basically they hadn¡¯t really talked. He¡¯d been aware of her the whole time and had talked when she needed him like when she needed him to describe what Max¡¯s looked like, but other than that, they hadn¡¯t talked. He¡¯d talked with Billy far more than her. Really far more than anybody. She had been busy all last night and today answering people''s questions, gardening, putting kids to bed, or just sleeping. She snored by the way. Cute little ones though, not huge mouth breather ones.
¡°Do I want to know?¡± she asked. She was in her bedroom. Billy had opted to sleep with the other kids. They had a room that was basically all his group.
¡°It¡¯s Bermuda. I¡¯m getting ready to seed it outside,¡± he answered.
¡°Why?¡± she asked.
¡°I specially created the grass,¡± he said. ¡°It is mana dependent and very edible. It will grow and form a ground cover around me. And since it¡¯s mine, it¡¯ll claim the area that it grows on for me.¡±
¡°Are you trying to take over the world, dungeon boy?¡± she asked, half-jokingly.
¡°Just my little bit of it,¡± he said. In the meantime he had one of the new owls fly back to the porch and pick up the seed and drop it into a hole that it scratched in the ground and then cover it back up.
¡°Thanks by the way,¡± she said.
¡°For what?¡± he answered.
¡°For all this stuff you¡¯ve created,¡± she said ¡°This bed is the most comfortable bed I¡¯ve ever slept on. The pool is great. The kids love it. The numbers at the bottom of the pool, the fog, even the stairs on the pillar that they can jump from. Plus the food. Just thanks. I¡¯m not sure anyone has said thank you yet, but I wanted to.¡±
¡°You¡¯re welcome,¡± he said. ¡°And no, no one else has said thanks. I get it though. They are busy trying to deal with their new lives.¡±
¡°Yeah,¡± she said. ¡°But they still should say thanks. I mean you didn¡¯t have to do all this stuff. I was surprised when I got here. This place stunk like rat pee and there was that big nest right in the center of the place. To go from that to this in just a week is amazing. You are amazing.¡±
Jake felt both pleased and a little embarrassed. Not in a major way, but the muted way he experienced most emotions anymore. But if he could have, he would have been blushing. Maybe his gem glowed a little brighter.
¡°Thank you,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s nice to be appreciated. I¡¯ve been listening. Looks like my mom¡¯s gone all uber on everything.¡±
¡°Yes,¡± she said. ¡°She has. Thank god for her though. She¡¯s shaking things up. Shaking people out of their ruts. It¡¯s hard to understand these people. It¡¯s like they got two tracks running at the same time. One is here and now and the other is still back in the Sapulpa that was. 9 to 5. Daycare and Starbucks.¡±
¡°Did Sapulpa even have a Starbucks?¡± he asked.
¡°Bite your tongue, blasphemer! The reach of Starbucks is long and eternal!¡± she said, laughing a little bit. ¡°We had them. They were basically places that sold Starbucks coffee, but we had them.¡±
¡°Yeah,¡± he said. ¡°I guess that¡¯s right. I haven¡¯t lived here in about five, maybe six years. And overpriced coffee was never my thing. I had to work in high school and make car payments and insurance too.¡±
¡°Should have been a girl!¡± she said. ¡°Daddy took care of that for me!¡±
¡°Must have been nice!¡± he said.
¡°It was,¡± she said. ¡°Right up until two weeks ago.¡±
They both paused there. Stuck a little. She yawned a little, still fighting off the effects of the bed.
¡°I guess I¡¯ve got two tracks too,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯ll think I¡¯ve adjusted and then boom, I realize that I¡¯m still waiting on my mom and dad to show up. Still think I need to finish a college app or pick up some milk at QT.¡±
He paused, not knowing what to say.
¡°Sorry,¡± she said. ¡°Look at me. Doing my poor little girl routine to a man that got changed into a rock. Lord, I¡¯m dumb sometimes.¡±
¡°No,¡± he said. ¡°You¡¯re not. You got my family here, safely. You helped my mom rescue all those people. You¡¯re not dumb! You are a survivor.¡±
¡°God, I miss that,¡± she murmured sleepily. ¡°I miss that show!¡± she said and then drifted off to sleep, the runes finally taking hold.
Jake watched her sleep for a while. The other part of his mind that was busy siphoning, kept siphoning. But he was happy watching her, breathing in and breathing out. The room was dark, but to his senses, it might as well have been daylight. He looked at her, watched the mana in her chest move through her body, watch the bright spark of her soul burn at the edges of her skin.
He wasn¡¯t sure what this feeling was. It didn¡¯t feel like love, or lust or need. At least the way that he remembered those emotions feeling. Although it may have had elements of all those emotions in it. It felt cooler than that, strained through his body of stone. Although it felt warmer than most of his emotions got these days. Warm like the summer sun, warm like sheets fresh from the drier. It was contentment, he thought. Looking down at her sleeping, he felt content probably for the first time since, well, he didn¡¯t know. He¡¯d never felt this before.
Chapter 41
The next morning started early for the people at Max¡¯s. The rooms were pitch black and the beds gave them all a good night''s sleep. As a result, everyone was up yawning and drinking coffee in the dining room by five o¡¯clock.
No TV, no internet left most everyone reset back to the colonial days. Most people hadn¡¯t wanted to use their time available while gathering up their stuff to pack up books, so except for a few board games, they had no choice but to talk to each other.
After breakfast was served, Billy took over the cube and looked out at his young audience.
¡°I don¡¯t know how many of you are orphans. Most of us are. Some of us don¡¯t know. Others have just lost one or the other of your folks. I¡¯m sorry that happened to you all. If I could, I¡¯d go back and fix it, but I can¡¯t. No one can.¡±
He paused and looked around again. In the back rows of the dining room, a lot of the adults were sitting and watching, including the man who¡¯d said yesterday that he might not want his kids to learn magic.
¡®No pressure there,¡¯ he thought and then began training the kids.
Fern and Will and Dianna and Rex were busy chatting in the first conversation nook by the kitchen.
¡°We need to rescue more people,¡± Fern said.
¡°I know,¡± said Will. ¡°Tell us where we can put them and I¡¯ll be happy to do so. We¡¯ve got breathing space with these folks. Everyone is busy trying to figure out their classes, whether or not they want to join the Sect and/or join the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. Other¡¯s are busy gawking at the garden¡¯s wondering what the fuck is going on there? Speaking of which Jake, what in the fuck is going on there? Fully grown cacao and coffee bushes, tea, avocado, banana trees overnight. Not to mention watermelons, cantaloupes, corn, tomatoes. Heck, even the asparagus is fully grown and that¡¯s supposed to take seven years. What in the shit is going on?¡±
¡°It¡¯s like I told you last night when you were planting. Mana. It¡¯s the universal fertilizer. When you planted those seeds inside this big room, they started growing and baby seeds seem to really be receptive to it. They absorbed it and, boom took off. That¡¯s why the whole garden looks like it¡¯s eight months old instead of one day.¡±
¡°It¡¯s not natural,¡± said one of the onlookers. Meetings in Max¡¯s were rapidly becoming a combination of government and entertainment. If you didn¡¯t have anything to do, you watched and critiqued those that did.
¡°No,¡± said Jake. ¡°It¡¯s as natural as it gets. Things absorb mana, things change. If you want unnatural, I suspect that you just need to let the plants keep growing.¡±
¡°No,¡± said Fern to the onlooker. ¡°Mana is part of our world now. It is part of nature. Things just grow faster in a mana rich environment.¡±
And then to Jake, quietly, ¡°What do you mean ¡®let them keep growing¡¯?¡±
¡°Right now the plants are doing what they are designed to do, watermelons grow watermelons, tomatoes grow tomatoes,¡± Jake said to all his family member¡¯s present. ¡°All that extra zing that mana provides is used in doing what their genetics tell them to do. But give them some space and let that mana pool up in the plant, I¡¯m pretty sure you¡¯ll start getting some weird stuff happening.¡±
¡°Like?¡± said Fern.
¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± he said. ¡°Maybe muskmelons of doom, exploding strawberries, heck it could be anything or something as innocuous as a watermelon with a tougher rind. That¡¯s the thing about mana, it¡¯s magic.¡±
¡°I guess that makes sense. Maybe not the time scale, but I can see that,¡± said Fern. ¡°So gardener just became a high danger occupation. Good to know.¡±
¡°Not really, but maybe,¡± said Jake. ¡°Just use or pick the fruit and everything''s golden. Look it over before you eat it and make sure it hasn¡¯t mutated. It¡¯s bad inside here because the mana level is so high. I¡¯m producing a lot of mana and it all comes through here.¡±
¡°Look it over?¡± asked Rex.
¡®Use your identify ability or skill or spell on it. It should be capable of telling you what is safe and what is, well different. Maybe not safe, maybe safe but not the same. Use your identify,¡± said Jake.
¡°Ok, I¡¯ll make a note of that. And get with the kitchen staff. And gardeners. Make sure they know what and how to look at the plants,¡± she said.
¡°By the way,¡± asked Fern. ¡°How do you know all this?¡±
¡°I watched the plants grow all night. I even planted some grass outside. It was interesting. I can see mana, see Qi, heck, I can even see souls. It was fun watching things grow. Plus I was trying to see if having the plants growing inside me gave me access to more mana.¡±
¡°Did it?¡± she asked.
¡°Don¡¯t know yet. I haven¡¯t got a mana meter or even mana units to measure mana in. All I¡¯ve got is what you¡¯ve got, a status sheet with mana points on it. I¡¯m trying to figure out a way to measure it though. Billy and I have been talking about it.¡±
¡°Does Hildi know about that,¡± asked Fern.
¡°Yeah,¡± Jake said. ¡°We had a talk about that. We have to include her or give her the option of being included whenever we talk,¡± he said.
¡°Good,¡± she said. ¡°A good relationship is about compromise. Those that last, learn early. Those that don¡¯t learn, don¡¯t last.¡±
¡°Ok,¡± said one of the onlookers. ¡°How about you all talk out loud? It looks freaky when you all start talking to each other without words. How¡¯s that work anyway? Is it like telepathy?¡±
Fern looked up and saw that the crowd surrounding them was all nodding their heads. She thought she¡¯d better answer the man. It wasn¡¯t that long ago that people were getting lit up for being witches.
¡°It¡¯s more like a cell phone than telepathy. You don¡¯t get a lot of emotions or whatnot. You just get a voice. In this case, it¡¯s my son, Jake,¡± she answered.
¡°How much range has it got?¡± another man asked.
¡°Don¡¯t know,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯ve only had the ability since I¡¯ve got here inside of Max¡¯s last night. And I haven¡¯t done any experiments with range or what blocks it or anything like that. I can just hear my boy and that¡¯s enough for right now.¡±
She didn¡¯t really want to talk about it anymore. The range or other limitations of the ability could be lifesaving information for her or the sect someday and these men were not members. At least not yet.
¡°All right,¡± she said. ¡°Let¡¯s get back on track. Where were we before we started talking about vegetables. Rescuing people. What do we need to do?¡±
¡°First off, are there any watchers outside from Wade¡¯s crew?¡± asked Will.
¡°Yes,¡± said Jake. ¡°There¡¯s a couple. They think they¡¯re hidden, but I can see them.¡±
¡°Ok, there¡¯s two men watching,¡± said Will. There was a quiet rumble in the surrounding folks at this news.
¡°Any arrows this morning,¡± asked Will.
¡°Yep, Matchbox and his two guys came by not long after sunup. They only shot one today. I guess they started worrying about the numbers of arrows that they have¡± Jake responded.
¡°Ok,¡± said Will. ¡°Only one arrow. Hopefully, that means they are getting low on arrows. What can we do? We could go out the front door or Jake could make us another door too, I suppose.¡±
¡°The guys aren¡¯t together, they are watching all sides of this place. They are up in a couple of trees about fifty meters from here,¡± Jake reported. ¡°If I had to guess, I¡¯d say they are just there to report if someone leaves.¡±
¡°Well, so we can¡¯t leave without them seeing us. They¡¯re in a tree and probably going to run tell their crew if we leave. Is that what you''re telling me?¡± asked Will.
¡°Yep,¡± said Jake. ¡°It¡¯s too bad I can¡¯t talk out loud.¡±
Jake felt a flash of amused agreement from his dad then.
¡°Any ideas?¡± Will asked the group sitting at the meeting. And, of course, by default, the people surrounding them.
It was quiet for a minute and then one of the onlookers said, ¡°I know we want to do right by our neighbors, but have you all thought about where we¡¯re gonna put those folks? I¡¯m not trying to be difficult, just practical.¡± There was a hum of agreement from the folks surrounding the meeting.
Another man spoke up and said, ¡°I may have a partial solution to that.¡±
Fern said, ¡°Speak up then. We need all the solutions that we can get.¡±
¡°My name is Calvin Hornsby,¡± he began. ¡°I usually go by Cal. Anyway, I was a builder. ¡®Homes by Cal¡¯, you might have seen the signs around town. Sorry, just setting the stage. Anyway, when we had our meeting about classes and mana and Qi and all that, I opened my classes afterward and I got offered a bunch just like most folks. The boy, Billy, mentioned that there were different levels or whatnot of classes, like fighter and knight. I got offered all those base classes, I think he called them, like Fighter and Mage but I also got offered a class that well, I took. It seems to change names a bit. It goes between Earth Mage and Builder Mage. I¡¯m not quite sure what to call it.¡±
He stopped then and looked around.
Fern gestured for him to continue.
¡°Well,¡± he said. ¡°I got three spells instead of the one that most folks get. They are, ¡®Create Block, Create Earthen Wall, and Pallet.¡±
¡°And what do these spells do?¡± asked Will.
¡°The block one,¡± he said, starting to obviously read something only he could see, ¡®Creates a mass of stone. Unless otherwise specified by the caster¡¯s direction, the mass will be shaped as a block about the size of a cinder block.¡±
¡°The wall one,¡± he continued, ¡°Creates a 3 meter stretch of wall that is ? of a meter in depth. Each of the square wall sections is somehow anchored to the ground if cast on the ground.¡±
And finally, for the pallet one, he read, ¡°Creates a two-meter square pallet that is capable of moving at a speed of up to 12 kph. It is capable of lifting ((100 * level)*rank) kg.¡±
There was a quiet hum from the surrounding folks.
¡°I didn¡¯t get a good look at those huts outside when we came in a couple of nights ago,¡± he said, ¡°but I suspect that they were made using the ''Create Wall'' spell. They looked around the right dimensions.¡±
¡°Interesting,¡± said Will.
¡°Yeah,¡± said Jake. ¡°There was a group of people that lived here for the first week. They came in a couple of times and fought the rats that used to be in this building. They left though about a week in. Right before I met Hildi. Baxter used to have to be careful not to be seen by them. Baxter also killed most of the monsters around here so they didn¡¯t have to worry as much. At least the ones that came out at night.¡±
¡°I think you¡¯re right,¡± said Will. ¡°There was a group that lived here right after the apocalypse. They probably made those houses. And probably made them using the same spell. I wonder who they were? Not that it matters, I suppose. They left and haven¡¯t come back.¡±The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
¡°Can you share spells?¡± asked Rex. ¡°Those seem mighty handy. I could see people using those. Has anybody figured out a way to share or pass on magic?¡±
He looked around but none of the people leading the table or surrounding it had any comments to make other than a general agreement that sharing spells was a good idea.
¡°How much mana does the wall spell cost?¡± asked Will.
¡°10 mp it says. I guess that means mana points?¡± Cal answered.
¡°We need a wall and you can make it for us. Plus you can make houses too. That¡¯s good. ¡®Homes by Cal¡¯ may not be dead yet,¡± Fern said. ¡°But we also need more people to be able to make walls, to make houses. If we keep adding people to our settlement, we are going to need a lot of homes and a big wall.¡±
¡°Is the wall really necessary?¡± asked John, one of the men surrounding the meeting.
¡°What do you mean,¡± said Fern.
¡°Well, the same damn thing with that wall Trump was so fired up about building down between us and Mexico,¡± the man said. ¡°People went around it, over it, through it, underneath it. Hell, it even fell down once when the wind blew. We aren¡¯t trying to keep out poor people looking for a better life anymore. We¡¯re trying to keep out monsters. Those squirrels we saw could probably climb a stone wall without slowing down, big hawks, owls whatever could fly right over it. You mentioned the giant earthworms. A wall ain¡¯t gonna slow them down. Poor protection¡¯s worse than no protection.¡±
Riley, one of the men standing next to him, slapped his shoulder and said, ¡°Ain¡¯t that that the truth. That¡¯s how I got girls one and three. Rhythm method my ass!¡±
After the laughter died out, Fern said, ¡°You have a point. I guess I was thinking about castles and walls and forts and stuff.¡±
¡°Yeah,¡± said Will. ¡°The cannon and guns put the end to fixed defenses like that. I don¡¯t see spells as being much less effective than a matchlock. Heck, with what Billy and his kids can do, I sure as sh..¡± he stopped and looked at Fern sitting beside him, ¡°anything wouldn¡¯t want to be depending on a wall when they were on the other side.¡±
¡°So what are we gonna do?¡± said Fern. ¡°What can we do?¡±
¡°Well, if Jake can give us advanced warning and we can clear the monsters out of our area, I think we can be reasonably safe,¡± said Will. ¡°Get people strong houses with good foundations and a crew of people that could watch out and fight off the occasional wandering or relocating monster.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± said a man from the back, changing the topic back to the men watching. ¡°I ain¡¯t got invisibility or anything like that, besides they¡¯d probably see the doors open. What about a tunnel? Jake¡¯s a dungeon. Ain¡¯t they all about digging tunnels? Couldn¡¯t he open us up another exit?¡±
¡°Good thought,¡± said Will. ¡°Jake?¡±
Jake looked at his remaining mana. Then he thought about how he could do it. One way was by creating rooms one after the other, the other was just digging. His room creation cost was down to about 40 mana per 4x4 cubic meter room. The digging was way less than that. He could create a 2x2x2 cubic meter section of tunnel for three mana points.
He had enough mana to dig a pretty long tunnel so he said, ¡°I could do that. I could make a two by two by two cubic meter tunnel. How far do you want it to go?¡±
Fern looked at Will who said, ¡°He can do it. How far do you think we¡¯d need to go? The watchers are about 50 meters away, up in a tree.¡±
¡°I think we could sneak out just fine,¡± said Rex. ¡°Heck, all of us on the teams have been hunting for years. It¡¯s the coming back that¡¯s going to be a problem. Bringing a bunch of folks into a tunnel that¡¯s 2x2 cubic meters isn¡¯t going to be easy. People will freak. And upset folks make noise.¡±
¡°Good point,¡± Will said. ¡°So the tunnel needs to be at least a couple of hundred meters. Anyone think that is enough? Too short? What do you folks think?¡±
¡°I think Rex had a good point,¡± said the man who first brought up the idea. ¡°Some people are crazy scared of small spaces. And you¡¯d be asking them to go into one. In the dark.¡±
¡°We¡¯d have flashlights, so it wouldn¡¯t be that dark,¡± said Rex. ¡°Wait ¡®til we¡¯re inside the tunnel and turn them on. Nobody should be the wiser.¡±
¡°I think you''re gonna need to prep the folks pretty well,¡± said Will. ¡°If you leave it until you get to the tunnel, they are not going to make it. You¡¯ll have to make sure they are Ok with it.¡±
¡°What about just not telling them at all? Just walking up to the tunnel, passing out light sticks and saying, ¡®keep moving, keep moving¡¯,¡± asked Dianna. ¡°Maybe that might be the way to go? Less chance for people to get worked up. Tell them before they get close that there are watchers in the woods, they have to be quiet.¡±
¡°It¡¯d only take one person to freak out and start yelling to cause a disaster,¡± said Fern. ¡°I can see it working, but what if that one person won¡¯t go?¡±
¡°Maybe we need a sleep spell or something to knock out people?¡± said Rex. ¡°I can see some stupid ass blowing it for us. I¡¯d hate to be out in the woods with a bunch of folks that didn¡¯t have any weapons or anything against those guys.¡±
¡°I could make the entrance smaller and have a larger room right past it? Plus they are going to need to go down some too,¡± said Jake.
¡°Jake mentioned that the entrance is going to have to have some stairs or a ramp downward too,¡± Fern said. ¡°He said that he could make a room at the bottom of the stairs though.¡±
¡°All that stuff adds mana points to the cost though,¡± Jake added. ¡°I really don¡¯t want to spend my whole day''s allowance on this.¡±
¡°But,¡± she continued, ¡°he also mentioned that doing all that would cost mana.¡±
Again there was a lull in the conversation. People still murmured questions and answers back and forth but nobody had any new information to add.
¡°Where are we going?¡± asked Rex. The rest of the group looked relieved that somebody asked that.
¡°How about the turnpike back through to our old neighborhood?¡± she asked.
¡°What about those squirrels?¡± he asked. ¡°There were a lot of them. Is Baxter coming with us?¡±
¡°Nope,¡± said Jake. ¡°He said he¡¯s done with leaving. He got a class that makes him a guardian.¡±
¡°Well crap,¡± said Fern. ¡°I don¡¯t know what to tell you. Coming back you¡¯ll have a lot of folks. Even if you get past on the way there, I don¡¯t think those squirrels will be happy on the way back.¡±
¡°And what about the rickshaws? We just going to leave them on the side of the turnpike?¡± asked Joseph.
¡°Lord!¡± said Fern. ¡°You wait ¡®til now to bring all this up? So on one side, we¡¯ve got monsters and on the other, we¡¯ve got another kind of monster.¡±
¡°And let¡¯s not forget, where are we going to put all these folks?¡± asked the guy who''d asked about that issue before.
¡°Well damn!¡± said Fern. ¡°Alright, I was jumping the gun a little. But those people are probably pretty close to starving and if the survivors leave their houses, they are going to be bait for one kind of monster or the other. Let¡¯s figure this out, people.¡±
¡°How many men does that Wade guy have?¡± asked another man standing on the outskirts of the meeting.
¡°Well, when he showed up the other night, he had about twenty-eight with him,¡± said Will.
¡°That was most of his crew,¡± said Jake. ¡°My hawk couldn¡¯t get a great look since it couldn¡¯t fly over his camp, but I¡¯d guess he probably had no more then five to ten left-back at his camp.¡±
¡°Figure he had five to ten left in the camp, so thirty-eight tops. Call it forty just to be safe,¡± said Will. ¡°We figured his camp when he met us only had about five to ten left behind.¡±
¡°So we take out the two that are watching, we¡¯ve taken out about 5% of his force. That keeps happening, he¡¯s not gonna be their leader for much longer, is he?¡± said Rex.
¡°Jake, can you dig a tunnel right behind their tree blind?¡± asked Will.
¡°Yeah,¡± said Jake. ¡°That¡¯d be much easier.¡±
¡°Are we gonna do this?¡± asked Rex. ¡°I¡¯ve never killed somebody before. Are we sure they deserve it?¡±
Again there was a silence in the alcove.
¡°I¡¯ll take this on,¡± said Fern. ¡°Yes, they deserve it. Five arrows in our door, chasing Hildi, what they¡¯ve got those women doing, yes. They are not part of the world I want to leave my children. They are a disease that needs to be cured and I¡¯m asking you all to be the penicillin. I¡¯m not going to ask someone to do something I wouldn¡¯t. I¡¯ll go and I help with taking out one. Who is going to help rid me of the other?¡±
¡°I¡¯m with you hun,¡± said Will. ¡°We¡¯ll take one. Who¡¯s going to take the other?¡±
¡°I¡¯ll do it,¡± said Rex.
¡°I¡¯ll be the other one,¡± said Joseph. ¡°It won¡¯t be the first time. I fought in the Gulf War and did a tour in Afghanistan. I thought that all was behind me. But I guess not. This new world seems like it¡¯s pulling hard on the worst parts of the old one.¡±
¡°Thank you Joseph, Rex, Will,¡± said Fern. ¡°What¡¯s that old quote, ¡®the tree of liberty needs to be watered with blood¡¯ or something. This is where we start watering.¡±
Jake wondered if his mom knew that the quote wasn''t talking about killing bad guys, but good guys dying, but figured he shouldn''t bring it up. Oration interruptus.
Jake had his owls watching the men even as the group spoke. The two men couldn¡¯t see each other. Both of their blinds were on opposite corners of Max¡¯s. They would randomly do a bird call and the other one would answer it. It worked out to be about every 20 to 30 minutes. They had been there since this morning. Matchstick had brought them when he and his buds had shot their arrow into the door.
They¡¯d made the blinds yesterday morning and they¡¯d occupied them all day. Matchstick had come by around sunset and gathered them up, so they didn¡¯t spend the night in the tree. Calling them blinds was a little bit of a stretch. Both of the men were essentially in a fork of the tree trunks. High enough to see over the trees between them and Max¡¯s, but not high enough to expose themself to the aerial predators such as the giant hawks.
Jake went ahead and dug the tunnels behind where the men were hiding in the trees. He didn¡¯t open the tunnels to the surface though. He just created the tunnels.
As he had started to create openings he got his strange feeling. As if he was about to do something that was irrevocable. And sure enough, he got a blue window:
|
Careful what you do. Everything has consequences.
Would you like to open a dungeon entrance here?
Yes
No
|
He stopped then. ¡°Com¡¯on Bobs! Give me a break. What do you mean by that?¡± he said.
Of course, there was no answer. He wondered what that window meant. He hadn¡¯t received one when he created his first opening, nor his second or even when Baxter dug his tunnel? Did that mean that he couldn¡¯t remove any of those openings? Could he move them? Leave them open but rearrange them? Kind of like he did with his core? Dropping it?
¡°Mom, Dad,¡± he said. ¡°We might have a problem.¡±
¡°Hang on,¡± said Fern. ¡°We might have a problem.¡± The group of people waiting stirred a bit and then settled down.
¡°What problem?¡± Will asked.
¡°I¡¯ve made the tunnels, they are ready to be used. But, and this is a big one, I got a blue window.¡±
¡°What¡¯s it say?¡± asked Fern.
¡°It says more cryptic bullshit. ¡®Careful what you do. Everything has consequences.¡¯ and then asked me if I¡¯d like to open a dungeon entrance here.¡±
¡°What do you think that means?¡± asked Fern.
¡°I¡¯m afraid that it means if I open them up, I can¡¯t close them,¡± he answered. ¡°I think I might have just bumped up against another rule or limitation on well, dungeons,¡± he answered.
¡°What other ones have you bumped up against?¡± asked his dad.
¡°Well, the biggest one is that I have to have an opening to the surface. Period. If I don¡¯t I, well, will explode, I guess,¡± Jake said.
¡°Ok, that¡¯s pretty major,¡± said his dad. ¡°What else?¡±
¡°My monsters can¡¯t leave the dungeon,¡± he said. ¡°You might want to keep that one under your hats.¡±
¡°You¡¯ve got that hawk and didn¡¯t you say you made some grass and some owls last night?¡± asked his mom.
¡°Yeah,¡± he said. ¡°But those are a special kind of monster called a scout. They can¡¯t attack. Only defend. If they attack first, well, whoosh! They¡¯d probably go up in flames in a hurry. Just like my regular monsters do if they come outside the dungeon.¡±
¡°So you can¡¯t open up the tunnels, is what you''re saying?¡± asked his dad.
¡°I can, but I¡¯m afraid that those openings would be permanent. If Wade and crew find them, they¡¯d have two more openings to get inside me." He paused for a second and then said. "That just sounds wrong when I say it!¡± Jake said.
¡°Are you all going to share?¡± asked the guy who¡¯d said it looked freaky when they started talking to each other.
¡°It looks like Jake doesn¡¯t have the mana to open the tunnels right now,¡± Fern said. ¡°He just discovered that and was letting us know.¡±
She felt bad for a minute about lying but then thought that this was her son she was talking about. The less people knew about his capabilities, the safer he¡¯d probably be.
¡°Mom,¡± said Rex. ¡°You just lied.¡±
¡°Yes,¡± she said. ¡°And you will too. Or you will keep your mouth shut! Every bit of knowledge about Jake is now family only, top secret. Do you hear me? This is your brother and I don¡¯t want stuff about what he can and, maybe, more importantly, can¡¯t do getting out. Lie, be silent, misdirect or confuse. That is now family policy toward Jake.¡±
¡°Yes ma¡¯am,¡± he said.
Evidently she had been broadcasting on a wider frequency because every member of the family bond echoed their approval.
¡°Hildi, you will talk to Billy about this?¡± asked Fern.
¡°Yes,¡± Hildi said. ¡°It sounds like a good plan to me.¡±
¡°Ok,¡± said Fern. ¡°New plan. Jake will make another exit from Max¡¯s in the wall by the dining room. When I give the signal, we¡¯ll open it and the front door at the same time and we all us shoot. Maybe we won¡¯t even have to hit the guys. Maybe they do us a favor and fall out of the tree.¡±
¡°And then what?¡± asked Will.
¡°There¡¯s another neighborhood back behind the QT, down Bird street. It¡¯s got some houses left in it I suspect. Then if there¡¯s time, you guys can duck across the turnpike and start helping the folks there. Start with North Main. I wouldn¡¯t go any further than 10th street though. I imagine that the gang has been through those houses.¡±
¡°How we getting back?¡± asked Joseph.
¡°Jake, did those men spend the night there last night?¡± Will asked.
¡°No, Matchstick came by around sunset and gathered them up and they all went back to their camp together,¡± he answered.
¡°If you wait until dark, those guys have been reluctant to be out that late. Matchbox or whatever his name is came by last night at sunset and they all went back to their camp. So, we just wait until they leave and bring the folks inside,¡± she added.
¡°Ok,¡± asked the lawyer guy again, ¡°I hate to keep banging a drum, but where are we going to put these folks?¡±
¡°I realize that a wall won¡¯t be our final defense, and it may not keep monsters out, but it will hopefully keep out Wade¡¯s crew. At least until they get spells of their own. I suggest we get Cal building a wall. Who knows it might even cause a monster to think twice about coming inside. And see if Jake or some of those folks who took mage as a class can help.¡±
Chapter 42
It was almost embarrassing how easily their plan worked after they spent so much time on it. Jake made the door in the kitchen. They moved it from the dining room because they didn¡¯t want to have all the kids watch them kill a man.
Then Fern counted down and on three they threw open the doors, rushed out and fired at the men who thought they were well hidden in the trees.
The men in the trees saw the arrows and crossbow bolts flying towards them, evidently forgot they were in a tree and hurled themselves to the side. Of course, they lost their grip, whereupon gravity took over and the result was no surprise to anyone watching. When Fern and Will and the other two walked over to ensure that the men were dead, there was no doubt about it. Both had fallen thirty to forty meters and landed head first after flipping a couple of times around the lower limbs on their way down.
¡°I don¡¯t know how to feel about that,¡± Fern finally said. ¡°I came out expecting to have to shoot a man and instead he, well they, both fell out of their trees.¡±
¡°I know,¡± said Will. ¡°I can¡¯t tell how I feel. On the one hand, I¡¯m glad I didn¡¯t kill them, but on the other, well, I didn¡¯t kill them.¡±
By this time Rex and Joseph had come running around the building and were standing with Will and Fern.
¡°Did you,¡± began Fern, then stopping.
¡°What hun?¡± asked Will.
¡°I¡¯m just going to say this and ask a question. I got experience points from that. Did you all?¡±
¡°Yeah,¡± said Rex.
¡°That¡¯s pretty messed up,¡± said Joseph. ¡°I knew some guys in the service that talked like that. Now it¡¯s for real.¡±
There was a quiet pause as they all considered that they could grow stronger by killing. And not just killing monsters, but people.¡±
¡°Let¡¯s not talk about this with anyone, Ok?¡± asked Fern. ¡°I don¡¯t know what this is going to do to us? I have no idea what or even how I feel about this.¡±
¡°Do you think that you only get experience if it¡¯s a righteous kill? If it¡¯s a bad guy you¡¯re taking out?¡± asked Joseph.
¡°I don¡¯t think so,¡± said Jake. ¡°I think it¡¯s you kill them, you get the experience for it.¡±
¡°Jake doesn¡¯t think so,¡± said Will.
¡°Wow,¡± said Rex. ¡°That means those true killers¡¡± and then just kind of petered out.
¡°Yeah,¡± said Fern. ¡°That¡¯s going to have an impact on society once people figure it out. You get to a high level and people are going to look at you funny.¡±
¡°Or people with high levels may start viewing other people as walking experience farms,¡± said Will.
¡°Why does this feel like the old west is getting started again? Gunfighters strolling into town, calling the sheriff out,¡± said Fern.
¡°Do you think that Wade and his bunch have figured that out yet?¡± asked Rex.
¡°I don¡¯t know, but I wouldn¡¯t bet against it,¡± said Will.
The group stood there looking down at the man that Fern and Will had killed. Thinking about who knew what.
¡°What are we going to do with them?¡± asked Fern finally. ¡°Do we leave them? Bury them? What are we going to do with their bodies?
¡°I think it¡¯d be better to dispose of them some way,¡± said Joseph. ¡°Make them guys wonder if the two of them took off on their own, don''t you think? Heck, we might even get a couple more tomorrow. If we¡¯re lucky.¡±
¡°Ok, then. Drag them into the woods?¡± asked Rex.
¡°I can handle that,¡± volunteered Jake. ¡°Pick them up and set them on the front porch. I can, well, clean them away.¡±
¡°Let¡¯s set them on the front porch. Jake says that he can dispose of them. Don¡¯t drag them though. Carry them. Try not to leave any marks. Don¡¯t know what skills those guys have yet, but I¡¯d be surprised if at least one of them didn¡¯t have some kind of tracking skill,¡± said Will.
¡°What about the arrows and bolts?¡± asked Rex.
¡°I have no idea where they went,¡± said Joseph. ¡°They missed when these guys ducked and kept going. Do you want to look for them?¡±
¡°They¡¯re probably stuck in some tree,¡± said Fern. ¡°We¡¯ve got to get moving. It¡¯s about 9 o¡¯clock now. We need to get the teams off.¡±
They picked up the dead men and set them on the porch where Jake used his cleaning ability on their bodies causing them to disappear. It was the first time Jake had really paid attention to the ability. Everybody else was standing around watching them disappear, so he focused on it too.
The bodies seemed to soften at their edges and collapse downward into nothingness. The process didn¡¯t seem to need any energy from Jake and only took a few seconds. The blood that was pooling at the bases of the bodies'' heads and from the other wounds they received from their fall out of the tree vanished too. There may have been the faintest glow, a faint grey aura that the body was falling into, but it was so slight that it could have been just something imagined.
¡°Well, that¡¯s something you don¡¯t see every day,¡± remarked Joseph. ¡°It sure makes killing a lot easier.¡±
Nobody really had any followup to that comment, so they just stood there for a while, enjoying being outside.
¡°What¡¯s with this grass?¡± Joseph finally said. ¡°I don¡¯t remember it being here the other night.¡±
¡°What¡¯s it look like,¡± asked Jake.
¡°It¡¯s about four inches tall, fescue-colored and gives off a faint lemony scent when you walk on it,¡± answered his mom.
¡°How much has it spread?¡± Jake asked.
¡°It started by the front porch it looks like. It¡¯s spread out about ten meters in this big carpet. It¡¯s grown underneath all those rickshaws we left parked out front. Then it seems to have been growing around the building. Its edges look like it¡¯s putting out runners like Bermuda grass does,¡± she said.
Jake checked his senses and his area of perception had grown. He hadn¡¯t realized it, not having thought about it. The area that he actually claimed on the surface had grown to match what his mom had described. He also could feel where the four of them were standing. Just as a sense of pressure, a notice that something was there. And when they moved or stepped, he could locate their new position.
He also could feel the sun, the mana, the heat of the day. He could feel a small animal, maybe a field mouse nibbling on the grass.
¡°That¡¯s the grass I planted last night,¡± he said.
¡°That¡¯s the grass Jake planted last night,¡± his mom echoed.
¡°Holy crap!¡± said Joseph. ¡°Kudzu ain¡¯t got nothing on you.¡±
¡°It will only grow a certain area around me. I tied it to the higher mana level that I produce. It won¡¯t take off and eat up the countryside like Kudzu did. It¡¯s even edible,¡± Jake said.
¡°It¡¯s tied to him. It needs the high mana level around him. It¡¯s even edible,¡± she said.
¡°No shit?¡± Joseph exclaimed.
¡°Really,¡± Jake said. ¡°You could live on it. It tastes a little lemony. High in vitamins C and D. And it¡¯s high in mana too.¡±
¡°Taste like lemons. High in vitamins C and D. Mana too,¡± his mom relayed.
¡°Wow,¡± Joseph exclaimed again. ¡°What else does it do? I mean, why did you create it?¡±
¡°Well, it also claims the area it grows on for me,¡± Jake said. ¡°And I can sense where you are standing. Or other things are standing too. I can feel a mouse nibbling on it too.¡±
¡°He can feel people standing on it,¡± she said. ¡°Please keep that on the down-low though.¡±
¡°So it¡¯s spy grass?¡± said Joseph. ¡°Who would have thought? My lips are sealed.¡±
The morning sun was already beating down, the cool breeze whispering through the trees. Jake¡¯s hawk was floating high in the air, keeping watch toward the camp where Wade and his men stayed.
¡°Com¡¯on folks,¡± Fern finally said, ¡°We need to get the teams off.¡± And with that, they went back inside, closed the kitchen door and, after setting the teams off, closed up the front door as well.
** 2/29
Once inside Fern and Will were struck by how busy everyone seemed. Besides the meeting going on with the kids, there were many small meetings going on. People meeting in bedrooms, by the side of the pools, meeting while picking fruit or harvesting vegetables. People were busy talking classes, talking over the new Adventurer¡¯s Guild, talking about the Dungeon Born. It was amazing to see the excited discussions going on, especially when they remembered the quiet, almost sullen crowds that had arrived at Max¡¯s
¡°Jake,¡± asked Fern. ¡°Can you tell us how many people here have taken mages as a class?¡±
Jake answered, ¡°I can if I identify everyone. If they don¡¯t have a hidden class or the ability to lie to the identify ability.¡±
¡°Is that possible?¡± she asked.
¡°It may be possible,¡± he answered. ¡°Billy and I were talking and he said in his stories, high-level rogue or thief types could do it. There also were spy classes and whatnot that could also do it. But the odds were good that people now are still so low leveled that it¡¯s not likely. We just need to keep it in mind. We might want to mark down those people that have well, ¡°dark classes¡± just to be aware. Also, our identify capability is not that high a level either so we won''t be able to see through even beginning level confusion abilities.¡±
¡°So, just like the old days, watch what somebody does, rather than what they say they did or say they are doing,¡± she said.
¡°Exactly,¡± Jake answered.
¡°Dato likes knowing things about people,¡± his mom mused. ¡°She¡¯s always been sneaky. I think I might assign her to be our identify specialist. Cast the spell or use the skill all the time to get it high enough up there to be really useful. Mine, aside from the use of the interface, is a spell. What¡¯s yours?¡±
¡°Most of what I can do are skills,¡± Jake said. ¡°For instance, ¡®Create Materials¡¯ is a skill. That¡¯s why I think the Bobs control gold and the making of it. If they¡¯d just handed out a spell, everyone could learn it and do it. But since it''s a skill, they can more tightly control it. The other things I¡¯ve got are abilities, like Identify. They can increase, but who knows when. I get kind of a feeling when I¡¯m getting close in a skill, but nothing when I increase abilities. It just seems to happen.¡±The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
¡°Huh,¡± said Fern. ¡°Can you learn spells?¡±
¡°I can,¡± he said. ¡°But I haven¡¯t yet. At least I think I can. I¡¯ve got a spell¡¯s window in my interface.¡±
¡°Can you learn Qi abilities?¡± Fern asked.
¡°I have a window, but haven¡¯t learned any yet,¡± he answered. ¡°I think I also produce Qi too. Just like the mana. But I don¡¯t know for sure. I haven¡¯t got any way of testing it either. Just like mana. Billy and I are talking about how to measure it. By the way, when I talk about abilities I¡¯m not talking Qi abilities. I just haven¡¯t figured out what to call the Qi abilities yet.¡±
¡°You like him, don¡¯t you?¡± she asked.
¡®I do. He¡¯s smart. Wicked smart. I mean my intelligence and wisdom are both off the charts now thanks to my levels, but he keeps up with me. It¡¯s weird. It¡¯s like the high starting point that he began with gave him an advantage or something. Anyway, intelligence doesn¡¯t appear to be just numbers. I like him, he¡¯s fun to talk with, plan things out with. He knows what I am and doesn¡¯t judge or even seem afraid of me. That¡¯s kind of hard to find.¡±
¡°He¡¯s only ten,¡± she said.
¡°Yeah, I know,¡± he answered. ¡°But I¡¯m a pink rock that¡¯s slightly more than two weeks old. I try to respect my elders.¡±
She laughed then. ¡°Ok, but remember Hildi¡¯s got her eyes on you,¡± she said. ¡°Tonight, after Billy gets done with his kid¡¯s meeting, I want you to get with him and figure out a way to swap spells. We¡¯ve got this Cal guy sitting on a bunch of useful spells and we need to get them out to everybody.¡±
¡°So are you going to ask him to give up his spells?¡± Jake asked.
¡°What do you mean? We¡¯ve got to build houses, a village. Why shouldn¡¯t he give up his spells?¡± Fern asked.
¡°Well, they¡¯re his. Why should he?¡± Jake answered. ¡°He can build the houses on his own, take his time. Maybe get paid for building them. Why should he give up the spells?¡±
¡°So, back to this economy thing. We¡¯ve got to get something going,¡± she said.
¡°Yep,¡± he said. ¡°Back to this economy thing.¡±
¡°Ok,¡± she said. ¡°I¡¯ll make a note. We¡¯ll talk about it. Maybe this afternoon. I can throw it out there as grist for the idea mill.¡±
¡°Huh?¡± asked Jake.
¡°It¡¯s what I¡¯m calling the big sessions in the dining room. Like the Adventurer¡¯s Guild. I throw out an idea and they all work it over. Hopefully, they¡¯ll come up with some results,¡± she said.
¡°What has an IQ of 20 and a hundred feet?¡± asked Jake.
¡°I know, I know, a committee. You and your father are so alike it¡¯s crazy. But it gives them something to do. I don¡¯t know if you¡¯ve noticed but we¡¯ve got fifty-one adults in here. And for entertainment, we''ve got a couple of decks of cards, a couple of games of Life which the kids have hidden the pieces too, and no TV. What do you want me to do?¡±
¡°Sorry mom,¡± Jake said. ¡°I know things are crazy. But you¡¯re doing fine. Keep it up.¡±
¡°Thank you dear!¡± she said.
¡°Cal,¡± she said spying her next opportunity. ¡°Can we talk for a minute?¡± And then she bustled away.
Jake looked around, well-focused around, since he didn¡¯t have eyes anymore. Everyone did seem to be busy. Talking, arguing, even looking at their status pages in the corners of the rooms.
Some of the adults were busy practicing their spells. Evidently Billy had shared the ability to ¡®low cast¡± spells with the group. He hoped that the knowledge that it was possible to reduce the mana of a spell and still cast it didn¡¯t escape and become widespread. It made a huge difference in earning experience points.
He noticed that his mom and Cal and his dad and a bunch of the men who¡¯d had ¡®volunteered¡¯ to be members of the ¡®army¡¯ were standing outside on the porch, talking.
¡°Fern,¡± said Cal. ¡°I can make walls. Although, I thought that we weren¡¯t going to do that. I thought we were going to depend on killing the local monsters. And then having an army or some kind of unit that would kill any wandering monsters.¡±
Fern said, ¡°Well, the walls aren¡¯t really for the monsters. They¡¯re for the people inside them. Make them feel safe. Protected. You and I and anybody that takes the time to think about it know that they aren¡¯t worth a damn. But they''ll give the illusion that we¡¯re doing something. Making a difference.¡±
¡°That¡¯s a little bit uh,¡± said Cal pausing, not knowing how to continue on with the sentence.
¡°I believe the word you¡¯re looking for is manipulative,¡± Fern continued. ¡°And you would be right to use it. But we haven¡¯t got a monster squad yet. And we also haven¡¯t driven off or killed all the local monsters. So we¡¯ve got to work with what we can do. And that¡¯s your walls and your houses. I don¡¯t know if you¡¯ve noticed, but we¡¯re running in place here. Treading water. Whatever metaphor you want to use. I¡¯m trying to save people and bring them back to here so we can hopefully jumpstart society again. With my son Jake¡¯s help, I can get them fed. Now with yours and hopefully some of these other folks in there who took mage classes, we¡¯ll be able to create new and safer houses. That¡¯s what I¡¯m trying to do. Will you be a part of it?¡±
Cal sat and stared at Fern for a while, taking his time, thinking about his answer. Then he looked around him at the land outside of Max¡¯s. Looking at the trees that seemed tailormade to provide shade that had replaced the aluminum gas pump canopies and their gas pumps. Looking at the other strange trees that he¡¯d never seen before, like the reddish tree that smelled of cinnamon. The curious lack of undergrowth for an Oklahoma woods area.
¡°I can create walls for you. And houses like those ones over yonder,¡± he said pointing towards where the little circle of huts stood under one of the large shade trees. ¡°But I¡¯m not sure about what good it¡¯s going to do. People won¡¯t be safe out here.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t believe any place is safe anymore,¡± his mom said. ¡°But we¡¯ve got to get back and start reclaiming our place on the food chain. We can¡¯t all be living in a big box, waiting for our next meal to be delivered up to us. We need to start taking risks and learning from them. We¡¯ve got to start learning how to live in this new world.¡±
¡°Ok,¡± he finally said. ¡°But it¡¯s on you when a monster breaks through and slaughters some folks. I¡¯ll be trying my best, but I know that right now, that isn¡¯t enough.¡±
¡°Heck, Cal,¡± said Will. ¡°None of us are good enough, but we¡¯re trying. And that¡¯s all that really counts, isn¡¯t it?¡±
¡°I hope you''re right,¡± Cal said. ¡°But it still isn¡¯t going to make me feel better when a monster comes calling. Now, where do you want this wall?¡±
¡°It¡¯s about 9:30,¡± said Fern. ¡°Sunset is around five, five-fifteen or so, so we¡¯ve got, let¡¯s say until four-thirty before those men come back. So that gives us about seven hours to make a wall. How much can you make in seven hours?¡±
¡°I¡¯ve got 67 mana points. So I can cast ¡®Create Wall¡¯ six times according to what the spell description says. Then since Hildi taught me how to meditate, I can replenish my mana in about twenty minutes. So that means 18 times per hour, so 126 times. I could make a wall three meters tall that ran about 378 meters. So I guess if I made a circle I could make it have a radius of about 50 to 60 meters. Probably closer to 60. I¡¯d have to calculate it to know for sure.¡±
¡°Sixty should include Max¡¯s without any problems,¡± Jake said. ¡°It¡¯s a rectangle 115 meters by 70 meters. You could make a big circle around it. Of course, you may not want to do that. Maybe you want to have all that space for growth. So you could create a circle in front of Max¡¯s or to one side. Heck, if you did it in front or back, you could leave those tree blinds untouched.¡±
¡°We could make a circle with an opening facing Max¡¯s front door? The walls stretching out toward the road. We¡¯ve got enough room to have an enclosure out front between Max¡¯s and the road,¡± said Cal.
¡°Why don¡¯t we do that? The gang will come back, see a wall and find the blinds untouched, but empty. They¡¯ll wonder what happened to their men, might even try to ask or post new ones,¡± said Fern.
¡°Ask?¡± said Will.
¡°And you know what our answer will be, right?¡± said Fern, raising her hand, middle finger extended.
The men and Jake all chuckled.
¡°Where do you want to start the circle?¡± asked Cal.
¡°Why not about twenty meters in front of Max¡¯s front door? Tomorrow we can build a gatehouse that will cover both the openings in Max¡¯s and the circle,¡± said Fern.
¡°What do you all think?¡± She looked around at Will and the security team.
She watched them walk through the plan mentally and then they all shrugged their approval.
Cal asked for some rope, about 60 meters long, which Jake was able to supply him with. Evidently, it came from a type of silk that would have come from a giant spider that tended to live in jungles. It hunted and bound its prey up with the silk rather than capturing them with webs. Its leg¡¯s chiton was as hard as steel and it used its legs almost like swords, leading to its name, the Fencer Spider. Jake got all this from the pattern workspace when he created the loot. He didn¡¯t get the spider pattern though.
Cal tied one end of the rope to a spike also supplied by Jake and then used the security detail to start marking an outline of a circle using another spike tied to the opposite end. After they had started scribing the circle, he began following their marks with the wall segments.
At first, Cal had to wait for the surveying team to make their marks, but after he created the sixth segment of wall, he had to stop to meditate to regain his mana, which allowed the surveying team began to pull ahead. The marks weren¡¯t a complete circle, but more like x¡¯s left where the surveying team could get a straight shot around and through the underbrush. Cal was making the circle from mark to mark, trying to make walls that had the right curve to them.
It was the first time that the men on the team had, for the most part, been outside and they worried about monsters. Two men stayed at the center pivot, three men pulled the rope through the woods and Will and Fern stood watch over Cal. This was pretty close to the entire group of people in the army or security force, less the teams that were out gathering up people.
Jake had his spies out looking, the owls in the treetops, the hawk overhead, but it appeared that they were lucky. All Baxter¡¯s nighttime forays had cleaned out this section of the woods. Or the monsters had migrated away from Max¡¯s. He thought that might be the case. Baxter must have liberally anointed this section of woods and the other areas surrounding Max¡¯s. Claiming it for his own.
His grass was still growing, not visibly, but at about 1.7 meters an hour, it was almost visible. Well, if you took the time and watched the edges, you could make out the growth. It was about like watching dough rise. If your time scale was slow enough, it could be interesting. He figured that in six days he ought to have covered the inner parts of the circle enough to have claimed it.
He still wasn¡¯t sure what claiming ground outside of his dungeon granted him. So far, it seemed to only grant the surface and the four inches of space that the grass grew through. It allowed him to sense the sunlight and the moonlight, but he couldn¡¯t see the sun or the moon, just feel their effects when they cast their beams upon him. He figured he¡¯d have an excellent view of people¡¯s feet. He wondered if when he claimed the walls that Cal was raising he¡¯d just get the walls or if the fact that it was an enclosure would allow him to see everything up to the top level of the walls.
¡®Well, in six days, I ought to find out,¡¯ he thought. ¡®Well, maybe sooner. That estimation only accounted for growth in a single direction. If I grow the grass around the walls and then into the center, I¡¯ll have many areas of growth. It should happen quite a bit faster then 6 days. Like bacteria in a petri dish.¡¯
Jake was getting deluged with requests. Not from his family, but from all the people inside Max¡¯s. It was a little weird. Actually a lot weird. People would just stop what they were doing, a conversation or studying their status screens and say something like ¡°Jake, I don¡¯t know if you¡¯re listening, but I could sure use a knife right now for my class. One of those Kukri like you made for Hildi. Thank you.¡± This was happening over and over. It was almost like people were praying to him.
¡®This isn¡¯t right,¡¯ he thought. ¡®There is no way I¡¯m going to be able to do even half of this. What the hell people, get off your ass and make it yourself!¡¯
Of course, he had no way of talking to these folks. The ones he could talk to, didn¡¯t ask for stuff. Well, except for his mother, but even she didn¡¯t do it that often and when she did, it was something for the group, like the chalkboards. The people seemed to have an unrealistic expectation of what a dungeon could do. It¡¯s like they thought he had endless mana and was put here on earth to take care of their sorry asses.
¡°Mom,¡± he said. ¡°What the hell?¡±
¡°Uh, can you be a little more specific?¡± she asked. She was still outside watching over Cal as he meditated and created wall segments.
¡°These damn people are asking for shit like I¡¯m their new god. And I¡¯m better than the old one ¡®cause I give them shit. This is getting old. For instance, I just had a little girl getting out of the pool ask me to give her a new towel.¡±
¡°Really?¡± said his mom, laughing.
¡°Yes really! A cute little redheaded girl. Stood right there at the edge of the pool and said, ¡®Jake, I need a new towel please¡¯. And the weird thing is she seemed like she really expected me to give it to her. She was a cute one, so I almost did, but still, this is getting old quick!¡± Jake said.
¡°So what¡¯s the problem?¡± she said. ¡°Just ignore them!¡±
¡°Oh, like that¡¯s going to work. Every time I make something for someone, people are going to get pissed. I can hear it now, ¡®Why did he make that for them? I needed something and he wouldn¡¯t make it for me! That ain¡¯t right!¡¯ It¡¯s a lit fuse. And it¡¯s going to explode someday.¡±
¡°Will, did you hear that?¡± asked his mom.
¡°Yep,¡± he said. ¡°It sounds like a problem we¡¯d best get ahead of.¡±
¡°What can we do?¡± she asked. ¡°We can¡¯t tell people not to talk to Jake? And we need him to make stuff for us. If he quits making those ¡®Scooby Snacks¡¯ we are in trouble. Plus people know he can create stuff now. There¡¯s those lights, the bronze block, heck this whole place.¡±
¡°Maybe we can disguise it somewhat?¡± Will said.
¡°What do you mean,¡± she said.
¡°Well, do the Wizard of Oz thing. Create a place where they have to come to make requests, put some bureaucracy in the way. Make things harder,¡± he continued. ¡°Well, like that circle he created on the front porch. We both know that was bullshit, but it kind of made sense. Have him make a column or something where people have to fill out and submit their requests. Maybe even have a person standing by to talk with them to figure out what they really need and help them figure out a way for them to get it.¡±
¡°Will Silvestre, I had no idea you had this deep and dark of a cunning streak in you. I approve,¡± she said. ¡°What do you think Jake?¡±
¡°If I understand it, I think I like it. We could make a booth, set up Sammy in there. Maybe share time with Bernie and Dato too. Give them some rules and some forms that a person needs to fill out to make a request. Then have them file the request somehow? Girls keep one, the other gets eaten by the machine? Or whatever it is I create. Is that what you meant?¡±
¡°I think so,¡± said Will. ¡°You¡¯ll just have to never respond to a person¡¯s request away from the request booth. Otherwise, they¡¯ll just keep asking.¡±
¡°OK,¡± said Jake. ¡°I¡¯ll make something tonight after everybody goes to bed.¡±
Chapter 43
The day continued on. Everybody stayed busy. Jake made his plans for the ¡®God Machine¡¯. He didn¡¯t know what to call it, so he went big on the name. He figured he¡¯d never tell anyone its name anyway.
It looked like kind of a cross between Robbie the Robot and a slot machine. It was shaped like a humanoid, kind of like those Egyptian sarcophaguses with a big lever on the left side and a dome of alabaster. He thought about putting a brain in the glass or some rotating satellite dishes in a glass head-pod like Robbie had, but didn¡¯t want to make it too anthropomorphic. He wanted people to see the machine as a machine rather than something to interact with. Instead, he caused the dome to glow with a pale white light.
The lever caused a space to open in the front of the machine when pulled down and when raised, it closed the space and cleaned away whatever was put in the open space. Like one of those nutcracker soldiers that always appeared around Christmas time. Only instead of cracking nuts, it disintegrated what was in its mouth.
He figured that he could talk over with Dato or Sammy or whoever was in charge of the desk if he needed to find out more information about the person¡¯s request. The light on the dome changed to red when the lever was pulled to its open state, flashed briefly green when closed again (unless no paper was in the machine) and then changed back to its pale white resting state.
Once he had the machine planned at least, he created some forms that the requester was asked to fill out. The forms were tied to the machine. No form, no green light. The form had a carbon copy. One copy was kept by the person working at the desk, one copy went into the machine. He figured his mom would want to read what the person had requested. Bureaucracy lives!
He thought about how to answer the requests. Should the machine give back a token if the request was approved? A copper coin? A silver coin? He started to add that to his plans but then decided not too. People should be left wondering if their requests would be answered. He figured they could ask his mother if they really needed an answer. And then she¡¯d ask him and they could discuss.
He looked around Max¡¯s for a place to put the machine and desk. It was getting crowded inside the building. There was not much free space left. He thought about putting the booth and the machine in the dining room but decided that it was a bad idea. Well, not a bad idea, but one he wasn¡¯t sure about. If you don''t want to be in the business, don''t advertise he finally decided.
Finally, he decided to put the booth in the little stub hallway between the Fisher¡¯s room and the enclosure surrounding the dungeon entrance. He¡¯d thought about enclosing that hallway once and putting in a giant snake, but had finally decided not too.
He planned to put up a little cubicle with a door at the back and a counter that would have the god machine on one side of it. A chair, a filing cabinet, and a hinged panel that raised and lowered to allow people to enter the cube. He figured he could always change it, move the machine, do something different if he needed to.
Billy had finished his magic seminar and seemed pleased with the result. All the kids had awoken their Qi and mana. Now it was a question of following through, practicing. Billy told them that he was level nine now and had earned all his levels by practicing. He fired a three Force Bolt burst at the end to show them what was possible.
He thought about his next statement but decided to say it anyway. ¡°It¡¯s important that you know, this is not a game. These spells aren¡¯t toys. The average man or woman has 31 hit points at level zero. I would most likely kill them if I cast that burst of Force Bolts. Do not cast this spell at a person unless you really mean to hurt them. And I mean kill. Because you stand a chance of doing that. Do you understand?¡±
He looked around the room and saw the kids nodding their heads. It was odd how serious they all looked. Little mini men and women.
None of these kids were free from the effects of the Event. Most had lost at least one parent, some were like his group, orphans. He thought the average age of the kids in the room was a little bit older than seven. Thirteen of the kids were seven and under, four were four. There were some younger kids but they¡¯d been encouraged to go swimming instead of participating.
Billy wondered what the adults were thinking about allowing him to teach four-year-olds to cast spells, but then he remembered the coyotes clawing at his front door, the ground squirrels as big as dogs, and that earthworm Baxter had fought on the way to Ferns. He decided that childhood ended a lot earlier now. It may be the wrong thing to do but like Fern said everyone needed a chance to survive and that included the kids. Better to have an accident than to have someone lose their life because they couldn¡¯t defend themselves.
He went back to his room, not the one he was theoretically sharing with his sister, but his bed in the kid¡¯s room. The kids gathered around and they had a quiet chat, basically about the other kids that Billy had just trained, about what they had learned. Some of the new kids had followed Billy into the room and sat quietly against the walls.
Finally, Billy said, ¡°Let¡¯s practice!¡± and they started up again. They formed their circle and one of the kids donated a jacket to put as a target on the floor in the center of the circle. And they started practicing. They got around the circle once and looked up.
More kids had come into the room and were watching them practice.
Billy said, ¡°Ok, it¡¯s getting a little crowded in here. Brian, why don¡¯t you lead this session and I¡¯ll go see if I can get practice sessions started in the other rooms?¡±
Brian was the oldest of the boys in the room at twelve. He wasn¡¯t sure when his birthday would be due to the calendar changing but he was already worried about his classes and what he¡¯d do when he turned thirteen. It had become the default age of adulthood.
He wasn¡¯t sure about that yet. He was also an orphan. His parents had died on the second night after the Event. His dad was standing in their house¡¯s driveway looking up and down the street. His mom stood at the end of the sidewalk between the driveway and the house, also looking around. She was looking down the hill toward Mocassin Street when the coyote pack came up from Polecat Creek. Neither of them had a chance to do anything, other than look up at the incoming beasts.
¡°Brian, inside, now!¡± his mom shouted and then a coyote buried its head in her throat.
Fern and Will and their daughters had come at a run, killing two of the pack before the others ran away. Before that, Brian had barely known the Silvestres. He knew them from going to the block parties once a year and even then he had hardly talked to them. Then he started living in their basement.
But he took over Billy¡¯s place in the circle and began to talk them through the process. ¡°Remember, stop before you run out of mana. Just wave your hand if you¡¯re out. We¡¯ll all stop and meditate then. And remember, and this is vital, only put two points of mana in the spell. We¡¯re practicing, trying to gain levels, not trying to do actual damage. Oh, and never direct your spell at another person unless you want to hit them. Even practicing, this spell is dangerous! Ok?¡±
Everyone nodded and they started around the circle again.
In the meantime, Billy went to the room next door and started training the kids there. He found one of the oldest kids in the room, a boy named Toby Gillis who was also twelve and walked him through the process of practicing. He made sure that Toby knew the three main points in setting up a circle. Make sure everyone knew how to put only two mana points in the spell, not to shoot the spell in anyone''s direction, and knew to tell everyone when they had reached two mana points. He tried to stress that. ¡°Don¡¯t run out of mana!¡±
And, of course, making sure that they knew that after the first person ran out of mana, they all stopped and meditated for thirty minutes,
He did that in the next two rooms as well. Finding the oldest child and appointing them ¡®Shot Caller¡¯. Everyone surprised him by wanting to practice. By the time he left the final room and got back to his place in the first room, they were ending their second period of meditation so he snuck back into the circle. Ms. Caldwell had joined in and taken his place but they scrunched over and made room for him to join the practice.
The sounds from the four rooms were quiet, little, soft ¡®pew pew¡¯ noises following one right after the other or just quiet while the children within the rooms meditated. Ms. Caldwell¡¯s helpers all joined in and practiced too. No one wanted to be left behind or unprotected.
At around 4:30, Cal and the rest of the crew who were on wall duty came inside. He¡¯d left a ten-meter section of the wall unbuilt facing Max¡¯s. The boundary of the walls was fairly even. Cal ability to use his builder¡¯s eye to draw the circle from mark to mark that the survey crew had left, doing a good job of creating a uniformly circular disk.
After they had finished the walls, the whole security crew and Cal had walked through the inside of the circle, checking it for monsters, but didn¡¯t discover any. Baxter¡¯s nightly cleaning and the presence of the other humans had evidently driven the monster¡¯s away. If not for good, at least for now.
Jake stationed one of his owls at the hole in the wall and watched for activity.
Around 4:45, Matchstick and his two helpers showed up. They were surprised by the walls. They stood and stared at them for about five minutes. They crept up and looked in the opening, but didn¡¯t seem inclined to go inside the section of woods that was visible.
Jake could hear them muttering. They were surprised and upset. Even more upset when they went to the tree blinds and couldn¡¯t find their friends. Evidently one of the men with Matchstick had gained a skill in ¡®Tracking¡¯ because he was able to find the place where the two men had hit the ground. There were some angry outbursts, quickly muffled when the man told the others what had probably happened. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
By this time it was about five after five and it was starting to get dark. Matchstick led them all away again, not bothering to shoot any arrows into the doorway.
¡°People loud!¡± said Baxter from his place inside my core room.
¡°You can hear them from down here?¡± Jake asked.
¡°Yes, loud,¡± he said.
Jake hadn¡¯t really asked the dog what he thought about all this. It just hadn¡¯t come up. First, there was the apocalypse, then Hildi, and now there were all these people camped in the front room of Max¡¯s.
¡°Are you ok with all this?¡± he asked.
Now that he¡¯d come back, Jake felt, to quote his inner sloth, ¡®complete¡¯. Not to get all sentimental but the noise of Baxter chewing on his Scooby Snacks brought that unique feeling of annoyance and acceptance that had come to mean home to him. He hoped the answer was positive because he¡¯d hate to have to chase his family out of their rooms.
¡°Guess so,¡± said the dog. ¡°Like kids. Like Billy. Like Fern.¡±
¡°How about Will and Rex?¡± asked Jake.
¡°Will quiet. But good,¡± he said, then added ¡°Scratching¡± to make sure Jake knew how he was judging his family.
¡°Are you Ok with Hildi? Billy?¡± Jake asked.
¡°Love Hildi¡± he answered. Then paused for a moment.
¡°Billy smart,¡± he said. ¡°Stay good. Or chomp!¡±
Jake wasn¡¯t quite sure how to take this last one. Did the dog mean he¡¯d chomp Billy or someone else? And he wasn¡¯t sure what that ¡®Stay good¡¯ meant either. It was tricky sometimes interpreting his dog. Even with language, the dog didn¡¯t talk all that much. He used to think that the dog was new to language and would get better at talking. Now he wasn''t so sure.
It was like the dog had evolved to speak with his paws, mouth, ears, shoulders, and tail and didn¡¯t really see the need for more communication. He talked just enough to clarify or not what he was saying. It was like the dog had decided early on that sentences should be no more than two words, maybe three in a pinch and wasn¡¯t going to change. He also suspected that the dog understood a great deal more than he let on.
But Jake liked the way the dog communicated anyway. He¡¯d grown to appreciate mysteries a great deal. When you don¡¯t have a body you learn to like things that made you think. Things that occupied your time, gave you the impression of agency, of action. He¡¯d also started reacting on a slower scale than he¡¯d used to, than humans did. He wasn¡¯t sure where this was going but he¡¯d noticed a change in himself even in these past weeks. He still made lists but he didn¡¯t feel as compelled to get them done. He was ok just making plans.
¡°Jake,¡± said Hildi. ¡°You there?¡±
That was an interesting question. He was a rock. Where else was he going to be? Although he supposed he could flee about 440 meters a day. Probably more as his Move Core skill advanced. So, he guessed it was an appropriate question.
¡°Jake. Hildi to Jake. Are you there Jake?¡± she asked again.
¡°Uhm, yeah,¡± said Jake. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡±
¡°I just heard a little girl ask you for a Snickers Bar,¡± she said.
¡°Little redhead?¡± he asked.
¡°Yeah,¡± she said. ¡°Have you been giving the kids candy?¡±
¡°No,¡± he said. ¡°Mom and I have been talking about that. People are asking for stuff like I¡¯m Santa Claus. I¡¯m creating a machine where they can go ask. Dato and Sammy and Bernie are going to take shifts running it.¡±
¡°So this little girl just figured out on her own to ask for stuff?¡± she asked.
¡°Yep,¡± he said. ¡°She¡¯s not the only one. I¡¯ve got around 100 people all asking for things like new clothes, pillows, comforters, a towel by the pool, Snickers Bars, knives, you name it, they¡¯re asking for it.¡±
¡°Are you Ok with that?¡± she asked.
¡°Of course not,¡± he answered. ¡°But they¡¯re people and that¡¯s what people do. Want things.¡±
¡°Well, shit!¡± she said. ¡°We¡¯ve got to get a handle on this.¡±
¡°Well, that¡¯s what the machine is supposed to handle,¡± he said. ¡°Give them a place where they can ask. The people at the booth are the real deal though. They¡¯ll pass on the requests they think have merit.¡±
¡°That¡¯s clever,¡± she said. ¡°I guess. Are the people back?¡± she asked, evidently changing the subject.
¡°People?¡± he asked.
¡°You know, the ones who went out looking for survivors?¡±
Jake checked and sure enough, the survivors were close. He saw that Joseph had come forward ahead of the rest to make sure nobody from Wade¡¯s group was waiting to ambush them. He thought about sending one of his owls to signal that it was Ok but decided not too. He couldn¡¯t let people rely on him to make sure they were safe.
¡°They¡¯re close,¡± he said.
¡°How big a group is it?¡± she asked.
¡°Oh my god!¡± he said, after looking over the number of people with the teams.
¡°What?¡± she asked.
¡°There¡¯s a lot! Maybe even more than are here,¡± he answered.
¡°Mom!¡± he said. ¡°Rex succeeded. Maybe even overachieved.¡±
¡°I heard that!¡± came Rex¡¯s voice. ¡°It¡¯s not my fault. Most of these folks came from one stop. And they were hurting bad so what were we going to do?¡±
¡°What do you mean?¡± asked Fern.
¡°Most of them were stuck in a church, ¡®Faith Tabernacle Church¡¯, on 10th,¡± Rex continued. ¡°That guy Wade and his crew had been sniffing around, trying to pick up people, girls, food. They had barricaded the doors and the windows and were keeping them away. Up until then, it was kind of business as usual. We¡¯d find a house and they¡¯d join up. It was a whole different situation at the church.¡±
¡°What happened,¡± asked Will.
¡°Well, we came across the old turnpike on North Main. The Bobs evidently joined the roads just like they did on ninth. Anyway, we came down Main and basically all we saw was woods. It was different than on the other side of the turnpike. When we hit East Fern we decided we¡¯d go down the road to North 10th and start checking houses. Of course, there weren¡¯t any houses to check. We started wondering if maybe they¡¯d had a monster surge or something like Billy was talking about. Anyways, when we got to the corner of 10th, we ran into a patrol, I guess you¡¯d say, from Wade''s group. Four guys, two of them with bows, two of them with big sticks and what looked like machetes.¡±
He paused for a second.
¡°Go on son,¡± said Will.
¡°Well, they saw us and came running up at us and pointed their bows at us and demanded we stop. Well, they had two bows, we had eight. I¡¯m not sure who fired first, but when it ended they weren¡¯t among the living anymore. Sammy and Gloria both got hit, not too bad though. We were able to heal them. They even helped some.¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry son, and I¡¯m sorry for whoever else had to go through with that. Dato, Sammy, Gloria, are you alright?¡± asked Fern.
¡°Yes, mom!¡± or just ¡°Yes¡± they all responded. A little quietly, a little shaken still.
¡°So what happened then,¡± asked Will.
¡°Well, we dragged them off into the nearby woods and started down the street. We kept their weapons. Not the sticks but the bows and machetes. We talked it over and decided we¡¯d at least check out this street before we headed back. I guess the folks in the church either saw what happened or were looking out ¡®cause they opened their doors and sent someone out to talk to us,¡± said Rex.
¡°It was bad in there, mom!¡± said Dato.
¡°She¡¯s right about that,¡± said Rex. ¡°Too many people, too little showers, not enough food, sewers maybe didn¡¯t work, and they were scared. I don¡¯t know what those sons of a bitches were doing outside, but from the looks on the inside, I don¡¯t feel bad about killing them anymore.¡±
¡°So, how many are you bringing back to us?¡± asked Fern.
¡°Well,¡± said Rex. ¡°A lot.¡±
¡°Com¡¯on boy. How many?¡± asked Will.
¡°148¡± Rex finally answered.
¡°Holy shit!¡± exclaimed Will. ¡°That¡¯s more folks than we¡¯ve got now. Shit boy!¡±
¡°Hun!¡± said Fern to Will, trying to calm him down. ¡°We¡¯ll just have to figure out a place to put them. Obviously, they¡¯ll have to sleep inside tonight, but maybe by tomorrow, we¡¯ll have some houses inside the walls and can start moving people into them.¡±
¡°How many shocked you got?¡± asked Georgia.
¡°And how many kids?¡± asked Dianna.
¡°We¡¯ve got about 92 kids and 18 shocked,¡± answered Dato. ¡°Fifteen of the adults seem pretty old, and the other fourteen are, well, adults, I guess.¡±
¡°92 kids¡± exclaimed Diana.
¡°18 shocked,¡± answered Georgia.
¡°What are we going to do?¡± asked Jake.
¡°We¡¯ll get them fed, washed, and bedded down for the night,¡± said Fern. ¡°Heal those that need it and think some more about what to do in the morning. Don¡¯t let this get inside your heads. One step at a time people. We can handle this! Just like the lunch rush, get their food in front of them and then get them out the door. Here it¡¯s get them washed, fed and down for the night. We can handle the start of the long-term tomorrow. What can you do to help us out, Jake?¡±
¡°Well,¡± said Jake. ¡°I¡¯ve got the food covered. Scoobie snacks for everybody. And you should have enough vegetables from the garden. It looks a little like we¡¯ve got an ¡®embarrassment of riches¡¯. I hoped that the high mana in here would help the gardens grow faster, but it¡¯s growing like mad.¡±
He paused for a moment to think and then continued, ¡°I can create some mattresses. I can¡¯t create new space for them though. They¡¯ll be sleeping in already occupied rooms or even the halls though. I hope they¡¯re friendly.¡±
¡°I think they must be,¡± his mom said. ¡°The only way that little church would have 152 people in it was by going out and looking for their neighbors and bringing them inside. They must have started doing it before Wade got his little group of assholes together. I think they¡¯d be good citizens.¡±
¡°It¡¯s a church, mom,¡± Jake said.
¡°What do you mean by that son,¡± she said.
¡°Well, the whole religion thing and all that,¡± Jake said.
¡°You mean the announcement, I guess. Is that what you¡¯re talking about?¡± she asked.
¡°Yeah,¡± he said. ¡°Billy and I¡¯ve been talking about the Bobs and money and good and evil and stuff. He¡¯s a smart little guy. He shared the announcement with me. I didn¡¯t receive it. I just kind of woke up in a hole.¡±
¡°Well, I read that announcement that God was reassigned,¡± Fern said. ¡°And maybe that the current religions were declared no longer valid, let¡¯s say. It didn¡¯t say that what they believed was wrong. And a lot of what religion taught us about taking care of our fellow man is true. Just because there doesn¡¯t seem to be a new god taking over, doesn¡¯t mean that what the old gods taught us was wrong. Maybe it just means that we don¡¯t need to argue over who¡¯s more right anymore.¡±
¡°Sounds like that might be a good way of thinking. Do you think that they¡¯ll agree with you?¡± asked Jake.
¡°Don¡¯t know, but what I do know is that we¡¯ve got 148 hungry, dirty, tired folks about to land here in our laps,¡± she said. ¡°We need to get ready for them!¡±
And with that, she quit talking and headed off for the kitchen to make sure the chefs knew to get more food ready.
¡°Oh, Jake,¡± she said as she entered the kitchen. ¡°I don¡¯t know if you¡¯ve had a chance to talk with Billy yet about transferring spells or relearning spells or whatnot, but we need that information now. It''s priority one. We need those houses. We need more and higher walls. I don¡¯t want you building everything for us. I think that would be bad for the community long term. I need you two and whomever else you feel is necessary to figure out how the human part of this community can get it done! You hear me? ¡±
¡°Yes, mom!¡± Jake said.
¡°Yes, Mrs. Silvestre!¡± echoed Billy.