by Tao Wong
Jason began directing the group back, while Monica helped calm the most panicky and Susan offered everyone snacks. Soon everyone had moved a few dozen yards down the road. Burns made his way over, taking Monica's hand and standing in front of the crowd. The fear emanating off them was palpable, and he tried his best to speak in a calm but loud voice.
“Everyone, I know what you’ve seen is terrible and we will need time to process. But we need to calm down and work together to figure out a way over this bridge,” he said.
“Why do we even have to leave!? Why can't we stay in our homes?” A female voice shouted from the crowd.
Susan spoke up. “We went over this! Those things will just keep coming back, it's not safe here!”
A woman came out of the crowd holding a young child on her hip, trying to calm the girl. “Why do you think that? We saw them burn when that boy exploded, we can fight back!”
“No. We can’t.” Burns said. “This… System we are all in now, it's dangerous and where we are is deadly to us. We need to get to a safer area, or we could all die.”
“How do you know this?” asked an older man near the front of the crowd.
Burns gave it a moment's thought. He didn’t know how much he should share about his new status without sounding crazy. “You all have been seeing system messages pop up into your field of vision, right?” A few heads nodded, so he continued. “Well part of what I got from the System was a bit of knowledge about the System. Everything is assigned a level, a measurement of its strength and ability to survive. We-” he gestured towards the crowd and himself- “are all level 1. But Shasta Forest, the area we are in, is much higher- level 60 or 80 or something.”
Jason's face paled at this information. “It really works like that? Like a game?” he asked.
Another man spoke up. “What does that mean? I don’t get it.”
“Well if this System is like the way a video game works, then basically we are so insignificant to the things that live in this area, that we could be killed by accident,” Jason responded.
The crowd rumbled at this, the younger generations nodding their heads in understanding. Burns witnessed little pockets of conversations going on. “We can worry about all that later, though!” he shouted. “What I know is that we must get to a safe zone now, and the city of Shasta Lake should be that zone! We need a plan to get across this bridge, then we need to move as fast as we can to the city.”
An older woman complained, “That’s almost 20 miles! We’ll never make it! Some of us are too old or weak to walk that far.”
Burns smiled at her. “That’s where the System helps us,” he said. “Somehow, we have all become a part of it, so we have a set amount of energy that replenishes pretty quickly when you rest for just a little bit. I think you’ll see that we are all hardier than before.”
Burns turned to look at the vehicle strewn bridge, sighing in frustration. There were about 6 cars in the pileup, with a Pacific Fuel truck jackknifed across both lanes. This gave him an idea. “Does anyone have any… wind magic or anything? Something that can move stuff?”
Most of the people looked at him like he was crazy. “Oh, right. Everyone concentrate and say ‘status’.” Jason and some younger members of the group did so right away, and Burns watched as they were reading things he could not see. Once again chaos erupted in the group, though this time it wasn’t the chaos of panic and fear, but surprise and maybe even a little excitement at what everyone saw.
He gave them all a small amount of time to look at their status screen before addressing them again. “I know there is a lot to process there, but I urge you to not do anything to your status until we can get to a safe area and spend some time learning about this System. I need to know if anyone has any kind of wind or air manipulation abilities, something that can help me spread a liquid? Also, did anyone bring a gun?”
After some jostling, several people came forward with guns, and two, who did not. One of them, an older woman covered in turquoise jewelry, spoke, “My status thing says I have a spell called ‘Wind Blast’ but I'm not sure how it works.”
Burns smiled at her and took her hand, setting her up in the location he wanted while directing the others with guns to their stations. “I’m not sure how it works either, maybe try pointing your finger and shouting the name of the spell or something?” The older woman looked at him dubiously, then pointed her finger towards some bushes on the side of the road and shouted.
“Wind Blast!” Nothing happened and her face reddened.
“Um, maybe try concentrating on making a blast of wind, I guess?” Burns suggested.
This time the woman pointed towards the side of the road but said nothing, a look of hard concentration clear on her face. A massive gust of wind rocketed from her hand and blew the bushes fiercely. The woman fell over out of surprise and Burns moved to help her up, but she lay back on the ground laughing. “Oh, that was wonderful!” she shouted. “It was so easy, so amazing!” She pointed her hand in a different direction and blasted another gust of wind, laughing with pleasure once again.
Burns grinned and let her have her fun, looking to the other person, a woman who looked barely out of her teens, who had also come up front. “Do you have some kind of wind magic also?” he asked her.
In response, the young woman held up a stick she was carrying and pointed it towards some rocks on the side of the road. “Wingardium Leviosaaah!” she shouted, and a handful of rocks began to float into the air. Her face took on a look of concentration as she flicked her hand in a circular movement, the rocks to follow her motions.
Burns gave her a strange look. “Was that from those kid wizard books?”
The woman rolled her eyes at him. “It’s Harry Potter!” She flicked her wrist, and the rocks went flying across the road. Her features softened then. “It’s not really the spell from the books, I have ‘Telekinesis’ I just wanted to flavor it up a bit.” Her smile lit up her whole face, obviously smitten with her new wizard-esque ability. “This is amazing!”
The crowd seemed to agree, and Burns witnessed many grins and excited cheers coming from them as pockets of conversations broke out while people tested their abilities.
“Yeah, well, it’s nice to see the silver lining in all this. Here's what I want you to do,” Burns explained his idea to his helpers. “I need you guys to shoot holes in that fuel truck, then you girls- I want you to use your abilities to cover as much of the bridge as you can in the fuel that leaks out. Spread it on as much surface area as you can. These sea creatures are weak to fire and I’m thinking if we make it an inferno up here, we can do some hefty damage and hopefully send them running.”
“Won't shooting the truck make it explode, though?” one of the gun wielders asked.
“Haven't you seen that episode of MythBusters?” the Harry Potter fan responded. “They showed that it's pretty much impossible.”
“How will we get through the fire though?” he asked, acknowledging what the girl said.
“I can take care of that, I think,” Burns responded. They seemed satisfied enough with the plan, and everyone got into place. On Burns’ mark they fired, their guns destroying the quiet of the day. The crowd practically flinched in unison, and they all held their breath. Just as the girl and MythBusters had said, the fuel truck did not explode, even as holes were punched through it. At his direction, the two women began their magic and spread the fuel all over the bridge, the harsh fumes wafting over to the waiting crowd. With a moment of concentration, Burns tried out his Class Spell ‘Flame Burst’ and sent a jet of fire streaking low across the pavement, causing most to shield their faces as the fuel ignited the bridge into a burning conflagration. A handful of people broke from the crowd, running back to a safer distance, unsure of what would happen next.
The flames followed the fuel up the lines of gushing liquid from the tanker truck, and soon it was spouting fire from everywhere, black smoke pouring out into the air. “Okay,” Jason said. “The bridge
is on fire… now what?”
Chapter 14
“Now,” Burns said, “we draw out the squid thing.” He hopped into an abandoned vehicle and popped it into neutral. “Everyone give me a hand pushing this thing down the road, let’s get it to roll across the bridge!”
He muscled the steering wheel aiming the car straight down the empty lane, and hopped out so he could keep one hand on the wheel while pushing. Several others from the group came and helped push, while most remained at a much safer distance from the flames. With a final heave, the car rolled down the road and onto the burning bridge.
As hoped, the tentacle snaked its way out of the water and lashed at the thing moving across its bridge.
“Look! Upriver!” someone shouted and Burns’ eyes turned that way. What he saw startled him and he shivered at the sheer size of the creature. A chorus of screams erupted from the crowd. The tentacle was attached to a large squid-like body, its giant head and a single eyeball poking out of the water, as it latched another tentacle onto the bridge support and began hoisting itself up. The massive squid body was easily the size of the fuel truck near them, with four tentacles, and a multi-faceted eye like an insect’s.
Burns turned his attention back to the rolling car, hoping the flames would be enough to hurt or scare off the otherworldly beast. A hope that was dashed as the tentacle seemed to ignore the fire altogether. It grabbed the car, lifted it up, and dragged it into the water. Everyone watched silently, their eyes darting with fear.
“Great, now what? We are literally burning our bridge here,” Harry Potter girl said, a little too nonchalantly for their current situation. Burns turned to the group to field other ideas when he saw several members’ faces turn ashen, their mouths dropping. Spinning back around, he witnessed another tentacle on the other side of the bridge rise out of the water along with the first. Both tentacles began slamming onto the top of the bridge, fuel and flames spraying in all directions. Its strength was such that cracks started forming in the pavement, and stifled sobs could be heard from the group behind him.
Burns cast his fire bolt spell at a tentacle. As it hit, there was finally some kind of reaction from the creature. A blister formed where the spell had hit. This seemed to anger the creature as it began flailing the burned tentacle. In its angry lashing the beast slammed a tentacle dead center on the fuel truck, crushing it and spraying hundreds of gallons of fuel out like a shaken soda can.
The spray of liquid caught fire as it flew in every direction, leaving burning spots on the water where the gasoline floated, and causing a wave of flame heading towards the group. Everyone screamed. Burns could feel the flames, as if he was connected to them, and before he even registered what he was doing he pushed at the flaming spray of burning fluid and ripped the flames off. The flameless fuel sprayed against him and the first row of people. Behind him members of the group ducked or raised their arms in protection. Before them, floating in the air, was a roaring, crackling ball of burning energy.
Burns marveled at it. The crowd was silent, awing at physically impossible stunt they had just witnessed. Burns ignored the chatter that broke out among the group behind him, concentrating on the ball of flame and compressing it smaller and smaller. He could feel the intensity of the temperature rising as the ball shrank. Burns noticed his mana bar draining as he toyed with the flame, and not wishing to waste any more mana, he flicked the ball of burning hot energy, now just the size of a golf ball, towards a tentacle. The flaming sphere hit dead on, then continued through the tentacle, cauterizing the wound as it burned.
The bellow of rage and pain that ripped out of the mouth of the massive undersea creature was unearthly. Many of the people covered their ears, some dropping to their knees from the sheer volume of it. Burns closed his eyes, concentrating on his elemental affinity. In his mind's eye he could see the flame, like a living entity dancing across the bridge. He could feel the connection to it through the conduit of the sun’s light.
“Everyone get ready to run across the bridge on my mark!” he shouted; his eyes still closed.
“It’s still burning! Are you crazy!?” a voice shouted back. Without a response he raised his hands in the air, imagining what he wanted to do, he spread his hands wide apart, and like some twisted scene from the Bible the flames parted to either side of the bridge, forming massive, burning walls of fire. He concentrated on the walls, and began pouring his own energy into them, somehow knowing this was the catalyst that would cause the creature to avoid the flames.
As if his thoughts brought the idea to life, the tentacles caught in the flame started smoking and burning. They retreated into the water as the creature screamed again.
“GO, GO NOW!” No one moved. Jason stood at the front of the crowd and spoke loudly. “I get it seems like a crazy idea, but this whole world is crazy now. We don’t have another choice!” With that he spun on his heel and dashed across the bridge, unscathed.
Burns screamed as sweat from concentrating began to break out on his brow. “You. Have. To. Go. Now!” he shouted through clenched teeth. After another small group of people made it through the flames, the rest of the group charged through.
Burns could sense the fire being drawn to the fumes of the fuel-splashed people and he fell to his knees as he concentrated harder on holding the flames off. He heard screams as a few people were singed but he managed to keep the fire away.
The squid thing slammed the bridge from underneath, shaking it and causing some of the group to falter. Several others helped them up, and they quickened their pace as the creature took its fury out on the bottom of the bridge over and over. Cracks formed in the concrete and members of the group shrieked.
Burn’s mana bottomed out, and he felt the flames roar back to the center of the bridge, where the remainder of people were still crossing. With sheer willpower and drawing on the sense of his affinity, he separated the flames again, this time his stamina bar draining completely. At long last, the group made it over the bridge, and he groaned at the stress of his power as he took his first few faltering steps through. The creature continued to pummel the bridge, and a particularly hard hit knocked Burns to the ground, his concentration failing.
He closed his eyes as natural physics took over, the flames rolling back to engulf the entire bridge. Burns screamed in anticipation of his painful, burning end, squeezing his eyes closed as if it would be less painful if he didn’t watch. When no pain came, he opened his eyes and gazed in wonder as the fire flickered across his body. He smiled. This would have been very helpful as a firefighter.
He strolled through the flames, marveling at the absurdity of flames dancing on his skin to no effect. In his contemplation, Burns had forgotten one thing: without his energy fueling it, the fire had become mundane once again. He paid the price of his cockiness as he registered that the creature had stopped bashing the bridge and once again a tentacle snaked out of the water and wrapped itself around him, squeezing.
Burns gasped as his ribs cracked, his health dropping by 40% in an instant. He knew he wouldn’t last long like this and shook his head violently, trying to rack his brain for a solution. An image popped into his mind, a memory perhaps, he couldn't tell, of his body covered in flames. He was wearing his old scout uniform, the memory melting away in his confusion. The image remained, however, of himself wrapped in fire, and he called out to his affinity, attracting the flames from the bridge to himself. Just as before, the fire ripped free from the fuel, leaving a large patch of it on the roadway. Burns willed the fire to wrap itself around him, feeding it the small amount of mana he had left.
Flame surrounded him like a shield. Willing the flames to stay, he concentrated again on his affinity. The tentacled creature bellowed as its fleshy protuberance started cooking. The smell of barbecued calamari came to his mind, but he had no time to revel in the scent as the creature flung him away, sending him in a fastball special towards the group of people that had made it across the bridge. He cried out, covering his face an
d trying to douse his flames, hoping to do so before he crashed into them, a human Molotov Cocktail.
When no impact came, he opened his eyes to find the Harry Potter girl, her makeshift wand pointed straight at him, holding him aloft with her power. A thin trickle of blood dripped from her nose as she sat him down.
“At least I made it across,” Burns said, then passed out, falling face first to the ground.
Chapter 15
Burns woke to the periodic squeak of a wheel that needed oiling. “Ugh,” he moaned.
“Dan!” Monica’s voice exclaimed from the bike pulling the trailer he rode in. “You're awake! I thought I’d lost you again. Are you okay? I would stop, but it’s starting to get dark and we want to get to the city. The zone we’re in is only level 30 now, so we are a little safer.”
“How long was I out?” Burns asked.
“A couple hours, we stopped a few times to check on you, but you seemed to be healing fine. It’s weird though, I can literally watch your body repair itself.”
Burns checked his health and saw that it was at about 90%. He still had a few aches and pains but felt good overall. “I think this System will take some getting used to,” he said.
Monica barked out a laugh. “Coming from my husband who is 20 years younger than a day ago, but still has memory issues.”
Burns smiled, laying his head back down on the bike trailer. They rode like this until the next time they stopped for a stamina recharge break. Burns had been right. Traveling, even for the older folks, worked much better in this System as they could stop to let their stamina recharge and be on the move again. Eventually they crossed over the large bridge on I-5 that spanned the rise of Lake Shasta.
They watched as down below the houseboats used for recreation across the massive lake were taken over by more things in the water. Huge tentacled beasts, more fish-people. Some were just driven into the rocks.