by Tao Wong
The modified description had Sumay’s fingerprints all over it, and I couldn’t help but smirk. Watson’s face twisted with frustration.
Sumay flashed into physical form in front of his eyes for a moment, making him jump and hopefully interrupting any other Spell he might have come up with. “Get Tae Song out of here! He’s vulnerable to this creep even if you’re not.”
We ran down a narrow gap between the bunk shelters, agreeing on our goal without need for discussion. Moments later, we clambered up the side of our watchtower. Watson would never come this close to the walls.
John glanced at us as we pulled ourselves onto the platform. “Welcome back!” His face was far too young for the exhausted air of responsibility in his posture and expression.
I gestured toward his rifle. “We’re both free for now. Why don’t you let me take over and go sleep on a bed for once?”
If Watson hadn’t had ulterior motives, Tae Song would have been assigned to the tower in the first place. John was far too tired to keep watch on his own. We watched in silence as he staggered toward the shelters. Sumay demanded we talk while she kept watch, but I hesitated to speak, uncertain of what to say.
Tae Song broke the silence. “You’ve never liked Watson much either. Even before you disappeared, I saw you cross the entire patio once, just to avoid walking near him.”
“You’re not the only person he’s assaulted.” I shuddered, unable to forget the memory of waking up in the dark with unexpected hands groping my skin.
“He hurt you?” Tae Song inched closer so it would be easier to hear me, but he kept his face turned toward the soccer field.
Going into the details after all this time felt like too much, so I skipped ahead. “They claimed I was lying and a fellow missionary would never touch me. Everyone thinks he’s so wonderful, you know? My own parents said I was ruining the reputation of a good man as some kind of sick joke. They’ve always thought of me as a rebel, that God had cursed them with me in order to test their faith.”
“That explains a lot, actually.” He glanced at me and shook his head. “I knew something was going on. You were suddenly on extra work detail all the time and getting called in for disciplinary meetings for no reason I could see. I guess I can understand why you didn’t tell me. I didn’t say anything to you either, but still… Knowing might have changed things.”
“I should have warned you about him before I left.” It felt like the regret would crush me with its weight. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. I didn’t talk to you either.” He turned away, but I could still see his ears redden with embarrassment. “It wasn’t quite the same for me. Watson knew I was… uh… he saw me watching the guy I liked. He offered to be a substitute. He said I’d have to marry a woman one day since my parents would never accept it. He wouldn’t leave me alone, and I… let him kiss me once on a bad day. After that, it was like I wasn’t allowed to say no anymore.”
My jaw clenched with anger. “What a creep!”
“For a while I thought I might as well just give in since I’d never find anyone else who would accept me. I’ll never get to be happy, you know? My crush was totally into Cher. It hurt to watch them together and think I’d never have that… and then…” His voice broke on a muffled sob. “It turns out Watson scared my best friend away too.”
His feelings were all too familiar, and Sumay murmured that Watson had likely preyed on us because of those similarities.
I decided to focus on a safer topic. “You liked Jeremiah? I can see why. He was a lot of fun.”
Tae Song scrubbed at his damp face and sighed. “I can’t believe he’s gone.”
We fell silent.
A familiar scent sweetened the air, and I scanned the horizon. “I can taste a sur coming in. I’m glad they got the rain barrels installed. At least we have covered shelters now and enough blankets for everyone when the temperature drops.”
“So what are we going to do?” Ignoring my attempt to redirect the topic, Tae Song sheathed his swords for the moment. He settled his back against the wall so he could face me now that we were finished with our confessions. “I’m tired of Watson coming after me. I wish I’d never listened to him, but recently, even when someone sees him hanging on me, it’s like they forget the next moment. And sometimes it feels like I should just give in and avoid making things more complicated since survival is what really matters. I just feel so guilty and disgusting all the time.”
“That’s a Spell.” I frowned and reviewed my logs. “Apparently it’s a group buff called Unity. It makes people ignore their objections and go along with a leader’s plan for the sake of survival. From my perspective, he’s essentially been Spell-drugging you… and everyone who sees him with you.”
With the description in front of me, I understood how the Spell might even seem beneficial to some. “He also tried some mental-healing Skill on me that was supposed to make me forget what I saw.”
“Why didn’t it work on you? Everyone else just blanked out!” Tae Song slumped back, grimacing in frustration.
I shrugged, uncertain how to answer.
Sumay exerted herself to become visible. “Having a nonstandard mental makeup makes Adrian virtually immune to most mental and charisma-based influences.” She spun in place, floating far too close to my face. “But don’t get cocky! You’re extra vulnerable to those who know how to manipulate Polymorphs.”
Tae Song smiled at the rare privilege of seeing her, unconsciously reaching to touch her. She floated closer and brushed her forehead against his fingertips before vanishing again. He clutched his hand to his chest as though she’d given him a treasure.
“If he tells them I’m gay, they’ll probably just assume I’m the real problem. They’ve already proven they can’t imagine a Missionary might abuse his position. With his Spells, I doubt they’re capable of helping even if they might be willing to otherwise.” He groaned and bumped his head against the exterior wall as if trying to knock a solution out of the adobe. “I wish there was someone we could call in to help us!”
“Mr. Sanders is trying.” My recently acquired understanding of our party leader’s character had finally convinced me that I’d always had more support than I assumed. “He hinted that he and a couple other teachers were investigating my situation before. Then my parents called in and informed everyone I am the embodiment of evil.
“I ran away before I heard what happened after that, but…” I trailed off, regretting leaving even more than usual. “Others might have helped us too, before the System gave Watson the ability to literally brainwash them. I’m hoping we can find a solution when we get to a Shop, but they refuse to send anyone to search for it!”
Tae Song slumped against the wall and yawned, drooping with exhaustion now that the adrenaline had run its course. “We can’t change the past. Let’s just talk to Mr. Sanders and keep an eye out to see who else we might be able to trust. We need to figure out how Watson uses his abilities and whether anyone else sees what he’s doing with them. We’ll go from there.”
“And, Adrian?” He rubbed a glimmer of tears from his eyes as he turned away. “Thank you for not judging me.”
I patted his shoulder awkwardly, equally relieved that he hadn’t assumed I was a liar. “Same here. Thank you.”
I scanned the field for a moment to give him the chance to calm himself, then pointed toward the hammocks below. “Now that we have each other’s backs on this, you need a nap. I’ll keep watch.”
Sumay hopped down to murmur something in his ear as I settled in to keep watch. I hoped she knew what to say, since I couldn’t think of anything that might help him feel better. It was my fault for leaving him alone and vulnerable.
Journey
Soon after sunset, Mr. Sanders hurried toward our group after the nightly teacher’s meeting. His grin radiated excitement as he pulled himself over the edge of the platform. Sumay offered to keep watch for a while as we settled in to hear his news.
> “They agreed to send us out in search of the closest Shop!” He pumped his fist in a silent cheer. “At first Watson recommended we just send you, Adrian.”
I tensed and glanced at Tae Song.
Mr. Sanders’s eyes narrowed when he noticed our expressions. “It was obviously a bad idea to send anyone out alone. Everyone agreed we should send a small party and put me in charge. They left the rest to me.”
“So, who’s in?” I couldn’t truly relax unless Tae Song was coming along.
“Adrian, Sumay, Tae Song, and...” He turned toward Rachel. “You, if you’re willing. Your Shelter Spell will offer safety so we can stop to rest, and you three have decent teamwork since you all share responsibility for this watch tower.”
Rachel nodded, wrapping her arms around John as he shook his head, his face twisted in silent protest. “I do want to help.” She caught John’s gaze. “And, John, maybe I can find out what happened to Mom and Dad.”
John awkwardly hid his face against her shoulder. The poor kid was one of the few of us with a surviving family member close enough to rely on, and now we were taking his support away. Even if our mission was vital to everyone’s survival, it couldn’t be easy to accept.
Tae Song and I shared a muted sigh of relief when Rachel whispered encouragement to John. Watson’s Unity Buff must have worked against his ulterior motives this time. We’d have to warn those we trusted to keep an eye on him while we were gone, but neither of us had noticed any signs of him targeting anyone else. Hopefully we’d be back soon enough to prevent him from causing more damage.
After giving us a few moments to accept the Quest to find a System Shop, Mr. Sanders continued. “We’ll leave tonight. I don’t want to give anyone a chance to change their minds. Chef Richards is putting together trail rations. Tae Song and Rachel, you need to help me load up the best of the loot.”
He glanced in my direction. “Will you keep watch till Cher arrives? She volunteered, since Joachim is mostly done rebuilding her foot. After she gets here, you’re in charge of finding backpacks and organizing whatever supplies Joachim has for us.”
I nodded.
He climbed down, gesturing for everyone else to follow. “John, come along and say goodbye to your sister. In a way, she’ll be safer with us than you are here, you know. We’ll always be using stealth abilities, which means we can sneak past anything dangerous.”
John didn’t seem convinced, but passed me his rifle and followed obediently when they hurried to complete their preparations.
Cher arrived with only a limp and a mismatched pair of shoes as a reminder of her injuries. She pulled herself onto the platform and accepted the rifle from me.
I bit my lip, trying to figure out how to start. “I need to warn you about something before I leave, but it’s a bit awkward to explain.”
Cher gave me a keen glance, then sighed. “Is it about Watson?”
It took me a moment to recover enough to nod. Did she think I had an unfair grudge against him?
She grimaced. “He’s been stalking Tae Song. I’m often on the same work group, so it’s become pretty obvious even if the adults seem to mysteriously forget everything they see. I’ve tried to help wherever I can. He finally told you?”
“I wish I’d noticed earlier.” Frustration surged as I realized that, even as his best friend, I seemed to be the last to know.
“Oh, Watson has been very cautious around you ever since you reported him.” Cher noted my shock and sighed. “My parents heard rumors about the investigation and called to warn me to be careful. They asked me to encourage you since your parents are idiots, but you ran away before I could do anything.”
“I… Wow! Uh… Thank you!”
She ruffled my hair and pointed toward the shelters where Tae Song stood waving to catch my attention. “We’ll talk more when you get back. I’ll keep an eye on everyone while you’re gone, especially John. Tell Rachel not to worry.”
I gave her a quick hug and swung off the platform, savoring the realization that she’d been supporting me all along.
About an hour before midnight, we reached Comarapa. Even knowing something had melted the entire valley, I still wasn’t prepared for the sight. Everything organic had been reduced to a thin layer of ash that drifted past our feet, obscuring the road. Feeling exposed by the lack of vegetation, we moved in the deepest shadows, keeping watch for whatever may have caused the destruction. In town, the wind hissed around walls that had been shattered like flawed pottery in a kiln.
Whatever had happened had occurred within the first days of the System, before the school’s scouts went searching for survivors in the area. We crept through, trying not to disturb the tomb-like stillness. Tae Song mumbled a brief requiem when we passed the charred field where we’d played soccer against local teens.
Once out of the valley, we took off our packs and hunkered down in the corner of an abandoned house to rest before continuing. Since the moon was new, Mr. Sanders was using his forty-five-minute Group Survival Spell to buff himself and Rachel with Tae Song’s Night Vision. Every time his buff expired, we rested for the twenty-minute cooldown before continuing up the highway. As we continued, I could taste rain pressing in as the temperature dropped.
Eventually, Rachel began to stumble as she ran, clearly suffering due to lack of sleep. We needed everyone alert since our plan depended on our ability to remain undetected by the high-Level predators in the area. I jogged next to Mr. Sanders and asked where he planned to stop so Rachel could rest.
“There’s a place in the next valley where I often camped, but we can stop anytime.” He pointed up the switchbacks where the road disappeared around a curve. “Keep an eye out for a good campsite, since you can see farther than the rest of us.”
Before I found a suitable place, we came around a corner and discovered a gigantic serpent, its coils spilling across the highway. We ducked back, keeping the mountain between us so it couldn’t use its thermal vision to sense our presence. Sumay swooped ahead to examine it more closely and informed us it appeared to be digesting a large meal. It was unlikely to react to our presence so long as we did nothing to aggravate it.
Group Survival: Night Vision would run out in a few minutes, so we followed a game trail up the side of the mountain, keeping as much earth as possible between us and the serpent. Amid the rugged terrain, I found a hollow in the mountainside. The shallow hole was just large enough for everyone to crowd inside, and we were out of time to search for better options. Gesturing for the others to stay back, I used Environmental Barrier to compress the thorn bushes and cacti crowding the space. I stepped to the side to release the debris outside the hollow as Mr. Sanders used a Crafted plank from his inventory to scrape out a bench along the back so we could sit more comfortably.
As prepared as we could be, everyone crouched beside me as Rachel cast Shelter to cover the opening, muting magical signs of our presence and camouflaging our location to most forms of visual observation for the next eight hours. The Skill she’d chosen as a Perk created a two-person dome, scarcely large enough to cover the four of us even with the additional space granted by the hollow. We dug out enough of the wall so Rachel could lie down with her head on her pack, but there still wasn’t much room after everyone wrapped themselves in blankets. I resigned myself to ongoing discomfort, thankful that at least my new body wouldn’t cramp up or resent the cold like my old one.
In spite of her weariness, Rachel struggled to sleep. She claimed her Air Sense was reacting to the changing pressure of the incoming front, but I assumed the worry about leaving her brother behind was also keeping her on edge. Eventually, Mr. Sanders folded her into an extra tarp he’d brought, saying the additional insulation might help her relax. Either it worked or her exhaustion finally outweighed her tension, and she fell asleep.
The sur arrived in full force as the others slept. Rain seeped under the dome’s edge and trickled down the wall, soaking my back and sopping into the blankets. I took the chance
to absorb minerals from the muddy water as Tae Song dozed against my shoulder. Earlier, we’d agreed he should sit on my lap so the other two could have a little more space. Mr. Sanders didn’t even seem to notice, which I hadn’t expected given the school’s many rules on physical contact. I’d even gotten in trouble for sitting back to back with a friend earlier in the school year. Maybe some teachers weren’t as locked into the mission’s rules as I’d always assumed.
As we waited for the others to awaken, Sumay and I reviewed our route, trying to get a sense of how much farther we’d have to travel to reach the Shop. She extracted the location name of Yuthupampa from the System, but it was unfamiliar to me and didn’t show on the paper map we’d brought with us. I finally gave up on the pointless discussion since we didn’t have enough information to plan.
Sumay floated off to watch for predators and read up on human history while I activated Meditation in hope of postponing the impending twenty-two hours of sleep my body would soon demand. When the other three woke up as the Shelter collapsed around dawn, I learned none of them were familiar with Yuthupampa either. We’d just have to keep heading in the direction Sumay’s senses indicated, or at least follow the highway’s zigzag climb to that point. After warming ourselves with steaming cups of coffee from a large thermos, we broke camp.
We ended up scrambling over the mountain through thorn bushes and along slippery game trails while the rain continued to fall. Even after an hour of careful climbing, Mr. Sanders still had to use Group Survival with Subversive Stealth so we could sneak past the final stretch of the serpent’s tail where it curved along the highway. The steep slopes above had threatened to crumble beneath our feet, and a landslide would definitely betray our presence if the fall didn’t kill us first.
I looked back at the serpent just before we rounded a corner toward a new branch of the valley. “Reminds me of our first day,” I sent to Sumay.
She laughed. “At least we’re not inside this one.”
I winced at the reminder. “It feels more like a nightmare I had once than a real experience. Logically, I should have been panicking instead of wondering why I got a stupid Title. Is this indifference a Polymorph thing, or am I just broken?”