I headed back out to the yard and ran into Anna at the door. The Healer was wandering, seeing nothing through tearful eyes. She was dressed all in black, with a black veil. A bad sign. After her husband Grip had been sent to the respawn point, killed by the ferocious level 29 Alpha, the village’s strongest player had only one life left. And it seemed he lost that life that awful night. His death was final. I saw few of the old guard left. Two gloomy Builders, heartbroken Anna, and Edward Samarsky — the level 10 Mechanic was sitting on the wooden well, looking lost. He acknowledged me with a short nod.
I saw the Engineer too. Thin and somehow looking older after last night, Max Dubovitsky sat on the porch of the common house, his head in his hands. My heart damn near stopped. I walked closer.
“Is… Is Varya alright?” My voice shook as I asked the question.
Max slowly raised his head. I recoiled from his deeply sunken eyes, surrounded by black circles, but so wide I could see the whites.
“Ah… You survived, Sergeant. That’s good… I thought my decision had killed you, too.”
His voice was hoarse, aged. And I saw some gray had appeared in his hair. This one single night had cost the man a great deal.
“Killed? What do you mean?” I asked the Engineer in confusion.
Max pointed a shaking hand at the storehouse building. Or rather, at the point just behind the building.
“Everyone on the official list as a resident of Pan’s Landing was doomed. The humans revived and died again and again. After fifteen minutes. Then forty-five minutes after that. Then two and a quarter hours. All those that had less than five lives died. I lost four lives last night. I have two left…”
That was terrible to hear. And even worse to realize that the ten people I could see in the yard were probably the last people left alive in Pan’s Landing. My girlfriend Shelly had just three lives left, and that meant… I turned away from the Engineer so he couldn’t see my face.
“But Varya is alive,” Max answered my first question. “She came in this morning, alive and well, with your kitten on her shoulder. She said her huge dinosaur panicked at the beast’s screams and ran off, carrying her away. She got a foot caught in a stirrup and couldn’t jump off the mad animal, or even climb back up into the saddle. But it all turned out alright. My daughter and your Shelly headed off that way not so long ago,” the Engineer pointed at the rear gates leading to the firewall.
What?! Shelly was alive! I ran as fast as I could in the direction he pointed. The firewall had long since gone out, with nobody banking up the flames all night. There they were, Varya and Shelly, looking at something in the thick grass on the far end of the island. I jumped over the ditch and ran to meet the girls, shouting with joy. I spread my arms wide as I ran, planning to hug Shelly, but both girls leaped into my arms with happy shouts.
“Serrrgeant, you arrre alive!”
“Andrei! I was afraid I’d lost you…”
It felt awkward, but I grabbed and hugged both girls, holding them close to me, letting tears of joy flow down my face and covering not only Shelly with kisses, but Varya too. Neither of the girls objected. A minute later, Varya sharply reminded me that she wasn’t my girlfriend and asked me to let her go. I released them. The beet-red Scout stepped back, readjusted her uniform and asked me never to do that again.
I already knew what had happened to Varya last night, but I was yet to hear Shelly’s story. It turned out that when my girlfriend was running from the Alpha as it chased her down the corridor of the big house… she fell straight down the open hatch into the cellar. The boy called Anthony was climbing down it to hide from the danger, and the fear-crazed veich girl fell down on top of him. They crashed down in a heap together. The roof fell in and the two spent the night in the dark basement, shaking in fear. Whenever they moved, they heard the scratching of the night beasts trying to reach them. They emerged only in the morning, with the first rays of the sun.
“Look what we find herrre beyond the fence,” Shelly handed me a small pistol crossbow.
What a familiar item… The last time I’d seen it, that Swordmaiden had been fighting the urge to shoot me with it. So Avelia had been here last night. She must have caused the third Alpha to appear! Maybe the invisible girl had come deliberately at nightfall, to cause stronger beasts to appear and make life harder for Pan’s Landing? If so, she really went above and beyond by falling to the night beasts herself.
Suddenly, the sound of the gong in the village drew our attention. A call for the survivors to gather. We hurried back to the village.
And, along with the other villagers, we witnessed an amusing episode in the square — suddenly, frozen blue and shaking like a leaf, the Philosopher burst out of a barrel of water covered with a lid. Nearly dead from cold and fear, the Philosopher, as it turned out, had spent all night under the water in the barrel, breathing through a thick reed. Only the sound of the gong, audible even under the water, told the scientist that his tortures were at an end and he could climb out.
Anna led the shivering man away to her infirmary. Max invited the other villagers to come closer. Once he had everyone’s attention, the Engineer spoke:
“I am the last of the leaders of the guild of Pan’s Landing. But as the terrible events of last night showed, I am no worthy leader. I have too much empathy. I am too gentle. I can’t refuse to help others even when that decision is necessary for the good of the many. And so, if anyone wants to lead the village, I will willingly make them leader and give them all privileges to manage the guild!”
Everyone stood in silent shock. Max waited half a minute. No volunteers stepped forward to lead the guild.
“Well then, since nobody wants to lead… I hereby disband the guild of Pan’s Landing!”
Chapter 37 [Kitten]
Rumbler’s Refuge
THE MORNING WAS SUNNY, calm and warm as summer. Perfect weather. And it did nothing to lift the villagers’ spirits. The people trudged along, gloomy and defeated. I counted fourteen survivors in the village. The kitten made it fifteen. Still plenty, if you thought about it. When Sergeant, his sister and his pet first arrived at Pan’s Landing, there had been seventeen villagers, not many more than now. But back then, it had been a group of friends who felt pride for Pan’s Landing. They believed in building it up from a small village into a big town, in defending their home, in working for the good of all its people.
Yes, there had been conflicts even then. Once, I overheard that the second strongest warrior in the village, Rumbler, was refused a seat on the village council and bore a grudge over it. For some reason, Pan wasn’t a fan of Ashot, and the Baker responded in kind, though I hadn’t learned the reason for their enmity. The most senior Hunter, Washington, got into a scrap with Max Dubovitsky for trying to flirt with his daughter. I also heard that one of the Builders that died the previous night had nearly been chased out of Pan’s Landing because of eating narcoshrooms. But all that friction and trouble was local and perfectly solvable. Pan’s Landing more or less fed itself, it was steadily becoming a nicer place to live and it could be defended against the night beasts.
None of that was left now. Not a single Hunter. Not a single strong melee fighter capable of defeating an Alpha. Worst of all, gone was the sense of unity that held the people together. Faith in the river village’s future had gone with it. It was now every man for himself among the survivors. The two Builders took stone and the bony armor plates from the giga-komodos from the storehouse, to reinforce the walls of their rooms. That kid Jerry pilfered what was left of the food in the kitchen, locked himself in the basement and refused to come out. Anna sat in her widow’s veil on the edge of the empty house’s porch, her eyes dull, with a thousand-yard stare and no reaction to what went on around her. Sergeant and his sister were catching up on their sleep. Varya and Shelly disappeared off somewhere, taking Katy and Regina. Edward Samarsky suggested that they were sick of life on the river island and had set off for Orshi-Ur to ask Rumbler for shelter. The Mecha
nic himself wanted to do the same, but he didn’t know the way to the abandoned veich village.
Nobody cooked breakfast, and there was nothing to cook anyway. Nobody went hunting or fishing. Nobody got ready to defend the village when night fell. It didn’t even look like anyone planned to repair the damaged buildings. Apathy and a sense of doom reigned in the village and all the usual chores were abandoned…
Only the Philosopher stood out from the despondent and despairing crowd. He was enthusiasm itself. Whether from Anna’s healing or from the liquor poured into him to ‘warm him up,’ the Philosopher, who had already been dubbed Diogenes for his night in the barrel, was a fountain of ideas. He suggested building a big raft that the townspeople could gather on at night. They’d take the raft out and anchor it until morning, in the center where the river was deepest and the flow fastest. According to the Philosopher, the night beasts wouldn’t be able to harm the villagers.
Those that had died to the teeth and tentacles of the river monsters quickly shot down his idea. The skeptics believed the raft would be attacked by the beasts that inhabited the river, and everyone on it would be doomed. And they had to keep in mind the possibility of night beasts that were adapted for water, since they’d seen both land and air versions.
Diogenes’s next idea was to spend the night hours under the water — it seemed the night beasts couldn’t smell people through water. Or build some kind of spiky fortress out of one of the houses by hammering hundreds and thousands of yard-long sharpened stakes into the wooden walls, in the hope that the Alphas and Feelers wouldn’t be able to break through the sharp defenses. Or they could spend the night up in the treetops.
The villagers liked the last idea, and I watched from the storehouse roof as some survivors walked across the bridge and looked around for suitably tall trees. The Engineer was in a bad mood after his sleepless night. He told the others that staying in the trees was only a temporary measure, only for warm and calm weather. Living up in the canopy during rains, storms and especially the cold winter was an entirely different matter. And that meant they had to think of something else.
The Engineer himself suggested heading down the mineshaft beyond the nearest hill where Magomed, Yarik and Rumbler used to mine metal. He said that if we built a solid metal door at the entrance, one that the night beasts couldn’t get through, then they could wait out the dangerous nights in the depth of the mine. The trouble was that the metal deposit was a long way away, and it was crazy to hike there and back every day — it would be better to just resettle somewhere else.
Toward the end of the half-hearted discussion, the Mechanic and Engineer suggested returning to the Philosopher’s first idea — a raft on the river. But they wanted to make the raft big and solid, with at least two layers of logs. They wanted it to have a canopy to protect against bad weather, or better yet, just make it a small floating house. If the raft was protected with a strong fence along the edge, and the bottom and sides were protected with sharp stakes for protecting against the river beasts, then it could work, they said.
They discussed all the details of the work to be done for at least an hour while the sun rose high into the sky.
“It’s time to stop this empty chatter and find out who wants to actually build a shelter on the river,” the Philosopher said, casting an eye across the villagers assembled in the yard.
Only one hand was raised — the level 10 mechanic Edward Samarsky was willing to help. Three seconds later, the Engineer’s hand went up too. And that was it. Nobody else wanted to help build the raft. The villagers looked away in shame, but had no intention of joining in.
“Not many, then…” the Philosopher said, his enthusiasm noticeably dropping. “We can’t build a raft like that before nightfall with just three of us. And it won’t solve the Alpha problem, since we’ll have more than ten people… Hell, maybe we really should just go to Rumbler? What do you say, friends?”
I didn’t hear what the Engineer and the Mechanic decided, because a long column of people had appeared on the road leading from the hills. Who were they? The villagers frowned and narrowed their eyes, but went to meet the travelers at the drawbridge. Nobody bared any weapons yet. Not that there were any fighters left in the village anyway. We all looked anxiously into the distance. At least forty people were approaching the river. Most of them were strong men, some with weapons. Although I saw women and children too. And at the head of the motley group was big Rumbler. It looked like he hadn’t had much luck either…
* * *
“That was the worst night of my life…” Rumbler said, easing himself down with a wince onto the porch of the common house. “The trouble started in the day. There were already too many people in Orshi-Ur without us, and more and more kept coming in. They had no order, no discipline, just arrogance in spades. High-level and mean, some of them with no limits at all. Yarik went to explain the village rules to some newcomers and they knocked him out with a rock, stripped him bare and took all his weapons and clothes. It was tough, but we managed to take one of the houses for our group. But then the food we’d brought got stolen as soon as we turned our backs on it. Washington caught a zebroid deer and we had to literally fight off those freeloaders for it. I’m not kidding, I killed two of those bastards with my own hands!”
It was true; Rumbler and Washington now had skull symbols above their heads — “has killed players multiple times.” I’d never seen that before. Sounded like true chaos at the abandoned veich village…
“Thieves, low-life thugs…” Washington confirmed. “We couldn’t deal with them peacefully. We tried to convince them that they couldn’t stay more than ten to a house, and that different groups couldn’t get too close to each other. They didn’t listen. They lit fires all over like it was a big party, started dancing. They were cooking some kind of meat. I thought it might be human. Half of them were stoned from eating those blue narcoshrooms and drowseberries. Celebrating their freedom, I guess. They passed around the girls they’d brought. Even tried to drag Rita away…”
“Yeah, we should have come back last night…” Rumbler interjected again. “I could tell it wasn’t gonna end well. We wanted to take two houses at first, but we had no chance. We barely managed to take one, with so many people wanting a roof over their heads… We knew that there were more than ten of us, but we thought we could handle a single Alpha ourselves. We’re experienced, the house was strong, the other night beasts wouldn’t get in. How wrong we were! Far more of the beasts appeared than we expected. And some of them we’ve never even seen before! A huge level 205 Alpha chewed up me and Yarik. Ashot and Rita saw a purple Death Worm, which crawled right out of the ground into our house… Each of us died at least once… We had no chance!”
Wow… It sounded horrible. It seemed the situation at Orshi-Ur was even worse than at Pan’s Landing, although I couldn’t imagine anything worse than the slaughter I’d seen at Pan’s Landing last night.
Soothe skill increased to level twenty-four!
Yes, the frightened and despairing humans needed support. I had all my abilities on constantly to drive away their fears and heal their mental wounds. But now the question was: what to do next? Especially after thirty more people wanted to go with Rumbler when they left Orshi-Ur in the morning, seeing in the settlers a greater chance of survival. The old Warrior let them join, although he warned the humans in advance that Pan’s Landing wouldn’t take them all.
“Rumbler and Washington, you’re our most experienced players, so take the reins and lead the village!” the Engineer suggested.
Both veterans exchanged glances and agreed a little quicker than I expected. Although Rumbler warned those present that not everyone would like his decisions. And not everyone would have a place in the river village.
* * *
“Sergeant, you’re up next!” Washington said, finding the Beast Catcher already up and busy with his injured animals on the shore of the lake. Washington was one of the two new leaders.
&nbs
p; Many others had been called into Grip’s former abode one after another before Sergeant. Rumbler was using the house as a headquarters for the new leadership. Some walked out grinning from ear to ear, like Glutton the level 40 Builder, who was made manager of all the construction projects and third leader of the newly created guild, Rumbler’s Refuge. They’d let Varya stay in the village — the level 36 Scout and Shelly had returned from their hunt with rich game, enough to feed fifty hungry mouths. But most walked out in a daze, some even in tears, refusing to talk about what the new leaders had said.
I hurried to climb onto my master’s shoulder; I didn’t want to miss a single word. Sergeant listened to well-wishes from Julie and Shelly and hurried after the level 37 Hunter. Max and Anna turned out to be in the council house alongside the three new leaders. But both sat off to one side. It seemed they could only advise, not make decisions. Rumbler began the conversation.
“Sit!” the bearded ginger level 43 Warrior said, pointing at a spare stool. He seemed to be the leader right now, and the guild name confirmed that. “I think you know why you were called here. There are too many people in this village, and we don’t want a rerun of last night’s debacle. And although Max,” Rumbler nodded toward the Engineer as he humbly sat by the wall, “suggests all kinds of ways to reduce the resident count by night, all the same, we have too many people. We plan to keep only the strongest, the most experienced and the most useful. Seventeen to eighteen people, nineteen at the most. I’ve been told of your arrangements with the last leaders — the right of settlement for the bean sprouts, a free schedule and even a separate room. But the old guild is gone now. All previous agreements are no longer in effect!”
A Cat and His Human (League of Losers Book #1): LitRPG Series Page 31