Rejoining the fray, Allistor swung his own spear, crushing the rat creature that was threatening Nancy. Then he stabbed the rebar spear forward at a low angle across the cave floor, skewering two more. He paused to scrape them against a boulder to clear his weapon, then stalked forward. He smiled to himself as he remembered Chloe’s admonishment not to get bitten.
Another shotgun blast scattered the last clustered group of the mobs, leaving only a few for Allistor, Meg, Nancy, and Robert Edward to dispose of. Robert Edward wasn’t using any weapon other than his feet, stomping the life from any vermin that held still long enough.
When it was over, each of them looted the rats they had helped to kill, identified by a faint glow only they could see. Except for Nancy, who had moved to the fallen man to try and help him.
Already, his face was swelling, puffing up with a sickly green pallor that indicated infection. He was sweating and coughing, his teeth clenched in pain. Nancy tried to wrap a bandage around his head to cover his eyes, but he fought her. Managing to grab hold of one of her wrists, he begged, “Kill me. I’m dead anyway. A blind man can’t survive here.” He groaned in pain as a swelling pustule near his eye burst. “Make it quick. Please.”
Nancy looked up at the group, all of whom had gathered around her. One by one they all nodded. She lifted her knife and pointed it at his throat, then paused. After a moment she lowered it again. “I… can’t.”
Allistor didn’t hesitate. He stepped forward and slammed the point of his spear up under the prone man’s sternum and straight into his heart. The man stiffened and groaned in pain, then went still. A green number flashed up on his interface; +3500.
I got experience for killing another human? His mouth dropped open, and he nearly said something aloud about it to the others. But it occurred to him that when things got rough, it might be better that they not know their fellow humans’ deaths might level them up.
Sam looked at the dead man. “He was one of the guys who went to clear the caves?”
Sean nodded. “His name was Alan.”
“Shit.” Meg’s response was succinct and shared by everyone. “They must have disturbed another colony? Or is it possible they’re from the same colony as the one in the storm drains?”
Sandy replied. “No, we’re a good two miles north of town and the storm drains there. And the cave system only goes north from where we’re standing. I don’t think they connect anywhere.”
Allistor added, “One of those octopoids spawned in our basement. There was no way for it to get in there. Maybe these vermin things did the same here in the cave.”
Sean, still looking toward the back of the cave said, “I didn’t hear any shots. From back there, I mean. Before the vermin attacked. Just Alan shouting and running toward me with those things all over him.”
Sam looked at him, a frown bunching his eyebrows together. “You think the vermin got the others who went back there.” It wasn’t a question.
“Do we go look?” Sean didn’t sound as if he wanted to go look at all. Neither did anyone else. No one spoke.
Meg broke the silence. “We can’t afford to lose more people. If they’re dead, we can’t help them. If they’re okay, they’ll come out on their own. They took most of the guns with them, and that’s a big loss for us. But I don’t think even retrieving the guns is worth sending people back there.”
Sandy put an arm around Meg. “We can’t stay here. Even if this place is clear now, Allistor brings up a good point. Something else could spawn back there. And there’s way too much territory for us to guard. Miles of tunnels and caverns. Too many ways for something to get to us. We need someplace smaller that we can make safe.”
The others took a moment to consider, and there were murmurs of agreement. They began to make ready to move. Allistor, having no belongings to gather, volunteered to help deal with the body. When he approached it, he saw the same glowing aura around it that appeared on monsters he killed.
Not wanting to loot the body, but curious about what he would receive, he surreptitiously reached down and placed his hand on the dead man’s chest. The loot window popped up. He received twenty-five klax, an empty pistol with two empty magazines, an ammo belt with shotgun shells, a Swiss army knife, and a scroll.
All of the items that appeared in his hands quickly went into his nearly-full bag, except the knife, which he put in his pocket. When Sean approached, the other half of the burial detail, Allistor asked, “Did he have family? Still living, I mean?”
Sean shook his head. “No, he didn’t. In a way, he was one of the lucky ones. He didn’t lose anybody special this week.”
The two of them easily lifted the corpse and carried it gently outside. It was full dark now, and Allistor found himself a little disoriented. He’d intended to get a short rest, not sleep several hours.
Setting the body on a flat boulder near the cave entrance, they began to gather firewood. They stacked it in a three-foot-wide pile about six feet long, making sure the inside held plenty of kindling and brush that would burn quickly. When they were done, they set the body atop the pyre but didn’t light it. They’d do that when the party was ready to leave.
Stepping back inside, they found everyone packed and ready but sitting around talking quietly. Allistor moved to stand with Nancy, asking, “What’s going on?”
She rolled her eyes and looked embarrassed. “We got all ready to go, and then realized we don’t know where to go.”
Allistor looked around. The remaining survivors were gathered in groups of two and three, talking quietly and gesturing, occasionally pointing in a direction. He moved to the middle of the cavern and cleared his throat loudly. When he had everyone’s attention, he said, “I think we should all put our heads together and figure out our next steps. The first question seems to be where we should go. And I would submit that we should also discuss whether to try and go there in the dark.”
The small groups gathered around him as he spoke. Sean was the first to respond. “That’s a good point. Regardless of where we go, I don’t think I like the idea of walking through the forest at night.”
Sam agreed. “Allistor’s right. I think we should find a way to secure just this room, and hunker down till daylight. Anyone disagree?” He waited, but no one spoke up. “Fine. We stay the rest of the night. Hopefully, the others get back from dealing with the titan by then. Next question, or rather first question, where do we go?”
Sandy said, “There’s a Park Service station about ten miles from here. It’s a log cabin, with solar power, well water, and a working bathroom. But it would be a little cramped for all of us.”
“If it’s even still there,” Sam added.
Allistor raised his hand. Then, feeling silly, just spoke. “When my pop was mayor, he used to take me to work with him at city hall sometimes. I was a kid and got bored easily. Used to explore the building. There’s a basement level that they used for jail cells when they first built the place back in the 1800s. It’s two levels down and cut right into the bedrock. I remember there being a long hall with six or seven cells on each side.”
Meg was nodding along. “I remember that! When I was little my teacher took us on a tour down there. It had one of those old toilets with a pull-chain. So there must have been water at one point. And it wouldn’t hurt us to take a look around town. See what we can salvage in the way of food and clothes, weapons, whatever.”
Sam looked around the group. “Anybody got any better suggestions?” Again, no one spoke up. “So our choices are the ranger’s cabin or the old city hall basement. Raise your hand for the cabin.”
No hands went up.
“Right. The basement it is. We’ll head out at first light. I’ll take a watch on the entrance. Need somebody to watch the back.” He nodded at Sean who raised a hand to volunteer. “The rest of you, get some sleep.”
Allistor, having just slept about six hours as best he could tell, didn’t feel like resting. He wanted to speak with Sam. Since the ‘stab
ilization period’ had started and the monsters began showing up, he had mostly huddled in his home with his family. There had been a few town meetings during the three-day countdown, mostly to talk about whether their situation was real, and to try and make some basic plans for survival. Nobody really had any idea what to expect.
Now, with some time on his hands, he wanted to compare notes with the marine to see what he could learn.
“Sam? Feel like some company? I was hoping we could talk.”
“Sure, kid. Grab a seat.” He indicated one of the ‘stones’ next to the one he was perched on. They were man-made, formed into a rough semicircle where people had sat to listen to Sandy and the other rangers give cave safety lessons before tours.
Allistor sat and got right to the point. “So, have you read all the info that they gave us in our interfaces? All the stuff about attributes, experience, and skills?”
Sam nodded. “Me and Meg, we went through it all. Been training a little bit. Killed enough monsters to make third tier so far.”
Allistor was glad to hear it. “Level three,” he corrected the older man. “And that’s great! So, I sort of accidentally picked up a skill this morning. Weaponsmithing. I had to leave our house without any weapons and had to improvise. I made this.” He handed the spear to Sam, who looked it over and handed it back. “It gave me the skill. I also got one for stabbing, and one for blunt weapons for using this thing as a club.”
Sam turned his gaze to his wife. “Meg and I both got the Cooking skill on day one. Raised mine up to Apprentice level already. Had to feed all the folks who came to hang out at the diner to talk. The food we make gives bonuses to a few of those attribute things.”
Allistor smiled at him. “Those are called buffs. They beef up… what? Stamina? Constitution?”
Sam nodded. “Those, and Health regeneration. And Meg can make a tea that increases Will Power.”
“Sweet! If we ever have any casters, that’ll come in handy.”
Sam looked confused. “Casters?”
“Magic users. Wizards, Sorcerers, anybody who casts spells.”
“Are you shittin’ me? Wizards? C’mon, man. A lot has changed this week. Some freaky shit has happened for sure. Stuff I’d never have dreamed possible. But most of it has been aliens coming here. We humans seem pretty much the same. Are you trying to tell me that some of us can somehow magically do… well, magic?”
Before he answered that, Allistor asked, “Have you been doing anything to train yourself? Improve your stats at all?”
Sam shook his head. “Not so much. Your pop told us you and he were training to get stronger. I’m sorry he’s gone, by the way. He was a good man.”
Allistor did his best to keep the tears from his eyes as the crushing grief settled over him. He’d been on the move almost every moment since their deaths, and he hadn’t taken time to deal with it. “Thanks. And yeah, it was his idea. I figured out that this new system the Collective has put us in works a lot like the VR games I’ve played all my life. So we focused on increasing attributes like Strength. Trained really hard every day.”
He handed the spear back to Sam. “This is, was, standard rebar. Try and bend it.”
Sam took it in both hands and tried to bend it. Though he was past his prime, his bulging biceps still showed through his shirt as he put some effort into it. Allistor took it back, set it across his knee, and bent the bar into a rough C shape.
Sam’s eyes widened. “Holy shit, boy!” he reached out and took the bent spear. As if he thought it was some kind of trick, he tried to straighten the metal back out. Again, he failed. Allistor retrieved it and took a minute to work it back into shape.
“So… you’re super strong? Just from training for a few days.”
Allistor shook his head. “It was intense training. And I’m no superhero or anything. Currently, I’m about twice as strong as I was last week.” He paused and let Sam absorb that. Continuing on, he said, “Now, back to wizards. It stands to reason that just like I can develop Strength and Stamina, someone like my mom, who started with high Will Power and Intelligence stats, could develop them as well. And the most direct benefit of that is an improved ability to cast spells.”
“Huh.” Sam’s eyes unfocused as he pulled up his stats. “My highest numbers are in Constitution and Strength.”
Allistor said, “Have you been applying the attribute points you received when you leveled up each time?”
Sam shook his head, returning his focus to Allistor. “Nope. Me and Meg talked about it, but we didn’t understand enough to know how to do it right. She figured better safe than sorry. You know about this stuff?”
“Yep. I mean, not this system exactly. I’m doing some guessing here. But it’s a lot like other systems I’ve used. And I read as much as I could. At level three you should have six points available to assign. Two for each level. You see them?”
Sam took a moment, then confirmed he saw them. Allistor continued, “Okay, so you said you started with higher numbers in Strength and Constitution. If you want to be a melee sort of fighter going forward, somebody who can take and dish out a lot of damage, then you continue to put points into those attributes. On the other hand, if you wanted to become a wizard, for example, you’d start loading up Intelligence and Will Power.”
Sam got the idea very quickly. The two of them talked for a while about the various attributes. Sean, who had been listening from across the room, joined them. He asked a few questions and listened while he watched the back of the cave. Allistor noticed a few others who were listening rather than sleeping. He and the others started speaking in normal voices rather than trying to be quiet. The more these people knew, the more likely they were to survive.
When he had them all caught up, he added a few twists. “So, getting the free points isn’t the only way you can improve. My pop and I worked out nonstop for days, and I raised both my Stamina and my Strength by a point just from that. So what you do in the world now impacts who and what you are more than ever before. Pop’s Constitution went up after he took a lot of hits from the octopoid in our basement and didn’t die.”
He looked around at the folks who were now obviously following the conversation. “Any of you pick up any skills like my Weaponsmithing or Sam’s Cooking?” He knew about Nancy’s skills, but he didn’t feel it was his place to share them.
Sean raised a hand. “I got one called Engineering while I was working on the car.”
A woman Allistor didn’t know but vaguely recognized spoke up as well. “First Aid. I’m a physician’s assistant. I wasn’t doing anything in particular when the notice popped up.”
Allistor thought about it for a second. “It might just be that you have the knowledge in your head, and the system recognized it. Or maybe… if you had helped some injured folks earlier, and they reached a certain level of healing? I’m not sure.”
She seemed to agree with the last part of that. “Makes sense. Thank you.”
A small woman in her fifties that Allistor hadn’t even seen sitting behind Sandy raised a hand. “Tailoring. I was mending my husband’s favorite jeans after a dog thing bit through the leg.” She pointed at Allistor. “I can fix your clothes for you, if you like. It looks like many things have been chewing on you.” She gave him a little smile, and Chloe giggled somewhere in the background.
Allistor grinned at her. “Indeed they have. Thank you. But I’m not sure they’re worth the effort. I’ll probably just replace these. I have no particular attachment to them… I’m sorry, I don’t know your name.”
“Mrs. Chen. You can call me Lilly.” She had a kind smile that reminded Allistor of his mom. “And I’d like to try anyway. Like you said, the best way to level a skill is practice, right?”
Allistor nodded, conceding the point. “You’re right. As soon as I find replacements, they’re all yours.”
Robert Edward shyly raised his hand. “I got one called Reproduction.”
Sean scratched his head. “Repro
duction, huh. Like making copies of stuff? What were you doing when you got the notice?”
When Robert Edward blushed, the physician’s assistant snorted. “I think he means Reproduction like making more humans.”
It took Sean a moment as everyone grinned at him. When he caught on, his eyes widened. “Oh. Oh! So you were… Ohhhhh.” He winked at Robert Edward, who looked like he wanted to be pretty much anywhere else at that moment. Sandy gave him a good swat on the behind and a wink, making him blush even more deeply.
Allistor heard the faint voice of Chloe in the background asking, “What was he doing, Momma?” followed by a hushing sound from Nancy.
“Anybody else?” Sam asked, trying to hide his smile.
Nancy spoke up. “I’ve learned Alchemy and Herbology. From working in my garden.”
Sandy raised her hand, still giving Robert Edward a flirty smile. “I have one called Tracking, and another called Woodworking that I got while making a walking staff.” She put special emphasis on ‘wood’, never taking her eyes off Robert Edward. The man lowered his eyes and coughed.
When nobody else spoke up, Allistor said, “Nancy, you should speak with our resident doctor here. There should be a way the two of you can combine your skills to speed up healing or increase how much of a heal we get from bandages or potions and such. Maybe include Meg and Sam. The ingredients that give buffs to the food they make might help you as well. And vice versa.”
Sam looked at his watch. “We can do that tomorrow, once we’re someplace safe. For now, get some sleep folks. Maybe assign your attribute points now that we have a better idea what they do. We might need some boosts to get to safety tomorrow.
As the others laid themselves down or zoned out to mess with their attributes, Allistor took a spot in a corner behind the sitting stones. Out of sight of most of the group, he reached into his bag and removed the scroll he’d looted from Alan. Keeping it out of sight, he used Examine on it.
Scroll of Levitate
Item Quality: Uncommon
Shadow Sun Survival Page 5