by Tao Wong
“The Council sent Jim and his group into the dam today and they swept the area for monsters. They can’t afford to buy it right now, but with some work, they believe they can at least get the emergency release valves set to fully open so that the dam isn’t at threat,” Lana explains and I nod. Huh. I didn’t even realise that was a problem but I’m glad someone looked into it. As a kid runs up to me, I sigh and reach out, pulling a snack sized chocolate from my inventory and hand it to her. She grins, gives me a quick hug and runs off and I find both Lana and Mikito eyeing me.
“Bad,” Mikito points a finger at me and I shrug. Hey, I like chocolates - and the kid probably doesn’t get much in terms of treats these days.
When we finish up, Mikito takes over the dish washing and Lana grabs my arm, pulling me to the backyard. She tosses the remainder bones out where a brief scuffle settles who gets the scraps before she turns to me, waist length red hair swaying above her bottom.
“John, you’re headed out with my brother again tomorrow aren’t you?” Lana says and I nod in confirmation. Her lips purse as she visibly struggles with what to say next, arms crossed underneath her bosom. Eventually, she lets out a little huff, “I can’t stop you. Or him. If I told him no, he’d just go. Just, watch over him, will you? He’s my little brother and he’s, well, he’s stupid.”
I grunt, scratching at my head as she says that and then glance back inside to where Mikito washes the dishes silently, “I’ll try, but…”
“I know. I know it’s not safe. Just be careful, please. He came back without a foot. And Jim, he loses someone every few days. Just yesterday they lost half a hunting party,” Lana says and hugs herself tighter. “I can’t… if I lose him…”
I nod and then after a brief moment’s hesitation I walk over and give her a hug. She is stiff at first and then relaxes into my arms, just letting me hug her as she shivers. I push aside the tightness in my own chest, my own fear and loss for a moment. I can deal with my own issues later.
The next morning, I spot Richard as he drives up with the truck. He whistles and the puppies dash out from the back, looking to start clambering onto the truck bed. Time to go hunting.
“Why am I here again?” I whisper to Richard as I survey the boardroom a few days later. He grimaces and kicks me under the table and I sigh, leaning back. Fine. He’s right.
“We cannot keep adding citizens to our population. As it stands, non-combatant personnel are receiving a daily allocation of 1,400 calories which is significantly below what is recommended and we’ll need to drop that to a 1,000 calories next week once the last of the perishables are used up. Worst, a significant portion of that comes via protein intake as that is our most reliable food source,” Miranda states, leaning forwards and eyeballing both Richard and me. Mikito has run-off, citing the need to continue training new combat classers and she even managed to drag Lana with her this time. That means the two of us have to take the brunt of the meeting. “Until we get our first harvest in, we just don’t have enough vegetables and fruits.”
“Are you saying we should leave them in the wild?” Norman speaks from the corner, peering at Miranda over steepled fingers.
“Well, we can’t take them here,” Miranda states again and adds. “Unless the hunters are willing to give up a larger percentage of their earnings, we just don’t have the resources.”
Jim shakes his head as the other hunters start speaking up behind him, a low-voiced grumble that he cuts off, “We’re already contributing over 30% of our Credits. We need the Credits to get better equipment and better skills.”
“How about the Raven’s Circle and Richard’s group?” Minion adds, staring at Nic and Richard. “As far as I know they don’t contribute to the city at all.”
“That is not true,” Nicodemus rumbles. Even talking softly, it comes out as almost a shout as the half-Giant continues, “We provide 10% of all our earnings. It is smaller in percentage, but as we fight more powerful enemies, in total the Circle provide more Credits than any other group.”
“And we spend every other day currently training up your combat classers so that they can gain some levels and become useful,” Richard adds, tapping his fingers on the ground. “We’ve already had one full hunting party graduate and they now add to the food supply and Credits.”
“Yet you don’t supply the city with any Credits at all,” Minion presses.
“We need that money to upgrade ourselves! You’ve requested that the Circle and us hunt down the Bosses, how the hell are we supposed to do that without better equipment?” Richard states, glaring at him. “The last time we met one, we nearly died. You can’t expect us to fight, train your people and look for others while giving up all our Credits. The Circle doesn’t do any training at all!”
“That’s because we are busy hunting the Boss monsters,” snaps Nicodemus. “We aren’t waiting to level up like you guys.”
Fred speaks up, looking from group to group, “Please, let’s not get personal. We are all here to work together for the City.” As the participants all settle down, he adds. “Now, I know we are asking a lot from our premier parties, but as Miranda has stated, we desperately need more food. A 1,000 Calories is insufficient. We are here to work together on this matter.”
“How about asking Roxley?” I ask. I can feel my stomach clench at the idea of reducing food to the population even more. As it stands, those of us who have combat classes and are fighting are already looking significantly healthier than the general populace. I can just imagine what it’d be like if we had to put them on starvation diets and the kind of unrest it would cause.
“Well…” Fred pauses, looking around.
“Why would he help?” says Minion and I see a few heads nod.
“Well, for one thing, he’s taxing anything we buy in the Shop right now. If there’s a tax, there should be services,” I say and then shrug. “He’s also not going to want us to starve to death.”
“I don’t like it,” mutters one of the councilors, a pinched face portly gentlemen. “He’s an interloper.”
“He’s taxing us already whether or not you like it. We should be talking to him about this, not excluding him from these meetings,” I shoot back, glaring at them.
“That would give his government legitimacy,” Minion snaps and shakes his head. “We won’t do it.”
“Then people will starve,” I say, crossing my arms and glaring at him.
Voices rise again, some people calling for us to talk to Roxley, others like Minion refusing to do so. In the end, Fred has to hammer his hand on the table repeatedly to get us to shut up. “Enough. Mr. Lee has put forward that we speak with Lord Roxley about the food situation. Do we have a seconder?”
Richard backs me up quickly but we lose the vote and I growl, shaking my head. Idiots. The fight starts again about how we’re going to fund the purchase of additional foodstuff from the Shop, everyone refusing to give up a little bit of the pie.
I fall silent, watching as Fred wheedles, cajoles and pleads with everyone, finally getting the Circle to agree to help out with training and reducing the time we spend training to twice a week. It’ll give us more time to hunt and earn money, but that means we take a 10% contribution. I’m still not happy about this, but what can you do? Until the local economy recovers, we’re reliant on the System to provide the carbohydrates and vegetables needed for survival.
Once that particular fight is over, another one begins as the argument about what next to buy in terms of buildings. I grunt, shaking my head and sink further into the chair. This part I really hate and I so only pay partial attention, letting the arguments wash over me.
“John?” Richard says again and I blink, realizing I’ve been zoned out for a while. He sighs, shaking his head and stands up and I realize we’re nearly alone. Everyone else has left and I grunt, standing with him. “You know, you really should pay more attention.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I say and wave my hands. “It’s all bullshit really. They need to be talking to Roxle
y.”
“I know John, but you got to admit, it sticks in the craw that he’s the Lord of the city just because he bought it from the System,” Richard points out as we walk out of the school boardroom.
I nod at his words, letting my eyes wander over the inhabitants of the school and trying not to wrinkle my nose too much. Washing in the river is both dangerous and cold and so few people go down often enough and with so many crowded into the hallways, the smell lingers. As we walk through the hallways, we attract quite a bit of whispered attention. More than one woman shoots Richard an admiring glance, flashing smiles at him that he returns.
“Richard,” a young lady, probably no more than 18 and wearing a pair of tight pants comes up to him, placing a hand on his chest. “Will you be coming by tonight? Or I can come over…”
“Tonight? I’m ummm… busy,” Richard says as he stops.
“That’s okay, I’m willing to share,” she smiles at him again and then runs a hand through her hair. “I can meet you at your house…”
Richard looks at her for a moment, eyes raking her body and then he nods jerkily, “Sure…” She grins, going on tiptoes and kissing him on the lips before dropping down and moving away. Richard stares at her sway away before looking at me and my raised eyebrow. “Hey, it’s the end of the world. And she’s… nice.”
“Uh huh,” I mutter and wave him on.
He chuckles, looking at me and shakes his head, “If you didn’t glower at everyone all the time, you might have some better luck.”
“No time Richard,” I mutter, waving out. “We’ve got monsters to kill, skills to train and people to help.”
“Still no reason not to have fun,” Richard says.
I just grunt in answer. He’s right and yet, the idea of engaging in those kinds of conversations, of talking to someone and building a connection, of even just having those kinds of interactions makes me twitch. I just don’t have the energy or desire to do so, not right now. Sex might be nice, but there’s so much to do. Maybe later, when I have time.
As we exit the school, we glance around. No Mikito yet, so we’re on our own. Richard grins slightly at that, waving goodbye to me to work his emotions out. I watch him leave and watch again as he’s surrounded in moments by others and I shake my head. Well, he’s got his own thing to do.
I’ve got monsters to hunt. I’ve wasted enough hours listening to inane chatter. Time to go do something useful, work out some anger and some of this energy. I still need more Credits, especially if I want to buy some of the things I’ve been eyeing. I send a mental call for Ali, pulling him back from wherever he is and getting on Sabre. Perhaps I’ll try the area around Fox Lake today.
“Down!” I shout, bringing my rifle to bear. Mikito ducks, giving me the opening I am looking for and I open up, tearing a hole in the lizard creature she is fighting. She stands up, spinning the naginata as she does to get momentum and slams the blade into the creatures side, opening another wound and moving forwards to target their leader. I move to the left, breaking from the circle in hopes of getting a shot. To my side, three of the puppies are nipping at the creature that Richard glued to the ground, tearing into its legs as Richard unloads shot after shot into the lizardman.
“Right boy-o,” snaps Ali and I duck and spin, bringing my rifle to target the third lizardman that rises from the ground, snarling at me. I blast it in its face and watch the creature stagger back before I put one last shot into it and wince as a notification shows that I’ve got 2 shots left.
“Left!” Ali shouts and I spin, calling my sword into being and letting the creature run itself onto it. My momentum lets me tear the sword halfway through it before I finish and then I boot the dying lizardman away, making the sword disappear as I let it go and grab my rifle looking for more trouble.
Even before I can bring my rifle to bear, a pair of dogs tear into the last remaining lizardman that has shown itself and I breathe a sigh of relief. I look around, breathing fast and as always, glad that the helmet filters the smells of combat away from me and find nothing.
“We’re good!” Richard calls out and I let out a low exhalation as Mikito relaxes too, bending down to begin looting. As an official party, we don’t have assigned bodies to loot so Mikito and I just loot everything while Richard and his puppies keep watch.
“Damn invaders,” Richard mutters staring at the lizards. I can’t help but wonder if they were sentient like the Ogres. If they had come on purpose or were just caught up in the transfer. Perhaps they were here because they had sold themselves to the System like Ali. The System was unforgiving in such cases but it always had a use for you.
Once we finish, we get moving again with Richard driving and Mikito in the back while I range ahead. We’re headed to one of the smaller communities today, hoping to find some survivors. I don’t hold much hope for that but we’ve got to try.
An hour later we finally reach the series of rundown houses that make up this community. I look around, at the shattered doors and windows and even one torn down wall and I shake my head slightly. Small communities are hardest hit - too remote to make it to Whitehorse by foot, too few to mount a proper defense against larger predators, no access to the Shop. This is the third community we’ve visited in the last week and once again, it looks like no one is around.
Richard whistles and the puppies move out, searching while Ali turns around, scanning. If there are living humans around, they most likely learnt a Stealth ability of some form which means Ali’s System scanning might not bring them up. Thus the puppies.
They spread out and after a few minutes, the black Husky called Shadow barks. I blink, swinging my head in the direction of the noise. It only takes a few moments for Richard to discern what is going on and then we are moving, weapons drawn and on foot to follow the puppy into the forest. Looks like we might actually find someone.
Two hours of pushing through the forest and one brief encounter later, we are halfway up a mountain and coming close to a stream. I frown, tilting my head to the side as I catch a whiff of something and one of the puppies is barking at it. A brief investigation indicates that humans are living around here and they need more fibre in their diet.
Our first indication that something is out there is the voice, calling out to us. “Stop or I’ll shoot!”
We freeze and look around, Mikito crouching low as the puppies let out a low snarl. They hold though at Richard’s command and after a moment I spot the barrel of the rifle poking out at us and the head of the man behind it. Balding, white and squinting at us, the weapon he’s using is probably a .56 calibre.
“Easy there friend,” Richard calls out behind me and I can hear the smile in his voice. “We’re not here to harm you. We’re actually here to bring you to Whitehorse where everyone’s gathering and it’s safer.”
“I ain’t trusting you,” the man waggles the rifle barrel again. Even as he speaks, Ali darts past him into the cave, invisible to the naked eye. “You guys just get going. I’m fine here.”
“Well, we won’t force you. But perhaps you can ask your friends?,” Richard continues behind me and I mentally sigh. Yeah, he’s not the only holdout we’ve run into - people who are too distrustful, too scared to come. We can’t force them, but sometimes, I 'think we should.
“Ain’t no one else here. Now you best get going, you’re drawing attention,” the man answers again curtly.
“John, he’s not alone. There’s a pair of women in here and a couple of children. You better get in here,” Ali sends to me and I frown beneath my helmet.
I step forward, hands held out to my side, “Look, we got it. We do have some food to spare though, so if you let me just drop it off, we’ll be on our way. Got some ready meals that you could use and even some chocolate.”
I can see Mikito tense at that, crouching lower as she eyes the rifle. Richard behind me falls silent, watching me walk forward even as the gun barks and a stone shatters next to me.
“I said stop!” the voice g
oes higher, sounding a bit more panicked.
“Yeah, sorry, sorry. Thought I’d make it easier for you. One second,” I bend down, pulling some of my ready-meals from my inventory and placing them on the ground. “Here, just going to grab the chocolate…” I mutter and as I see him relax slightly, I move.
Before the System, I hated running. I was never good at it and my knee always ached when I ran on pavement. Too short, too slow, too untrained to really be good at it. Now though, now I could move. I cover the forty feet that separates us in less than a blink, his reflexive shot missing me. He doesn’t get a second as I grab the rifle, pulling it aside and then grab him, lifting him from the concealed entrance with one hand. He gurgles as I hold him up by one hand, and as he tries to kick me, I slam him into the cliff and make my sword appear in my hand, holding it against his neck.
“Mikito, Richard. He’s not alone. Check the cave,” I bark, staring at him. I idly slap his hand aside as he attempts to go for the knife at his side. “Stop it.”
I keep an eye on the man and the surroundings idly while the noise of the two moving into the cave ahead of me comes. After a moment, Richard starts cursing and then cuts himself off. I blink, frowning and then Ali comes floating back up to me.
“What’s going on Ali?” I ask the Spirit.
“Goblin-shit here thought to play king of the mountain. Unfortunately, it looks like his subjects didn’t agree and he’s been, well, lording it over them,” Ali spits to the side as he glares at the man. The man in turns looks at me speaking to thin air and his eyes widen further.
“Do I want details?” I say softly, a tightness in my stomach.
“No,” Ali says and I nod. I look at the man, considering if I should kill him now or leave it for his subjects…
Mikito walks out, looks to me and then without a word flicks her naginata at the man. It catches just above my arm, slicing through the lower half of his jaw. I reflexively jerk and then throw the man away, glaring at her as I shake the blood off. She doesn’t even spot me doing so as she’s headed back in.