by Xander Boyce
Bill looked at him strangely, “What sort of books do you read?”
They could see the wall now and headed towards it through the parking lot of the swimming pool. Drew was about to answer, but Jholie spoke instead, “I don’t really read books, but I watched Perks of Being a Wallflower and that was based on a book, so it’s like I read it. I also watched the Hunger Games movies and those are based around books too. I really miss movies; I was excited about the new Jungle Book movie--the live action one that was supposed to come out next month, that’s going to be great. My friend Shea says...”
Drew and Bill both turned to stare at Jholie, who didn’t seem to realize that they thought it odd how much she talked, then looked at each other and shook their heads slightly. Jholie kept talking, quietly enough that it wasn’t really an issue, but Drew tuned her out, nodding and grunting whenever the girl paused. He was impressed with her energy, to be honest. She had probably just had her parents and most of her friends killed, and her world had been invaded by trolls, but right now she was talking about how much she loved Minions and Inside Out.
They made it to the wall without further incident and with Jholie only ceasing her constant flow of words for breath. “We need to be quiet up here, this is where I was attacked by the squirrels, and the trees are thick enough that there could easily be a couple hundred more of them. Bill, I’ll help you over first, then you can help Jholie on the other side. I can get myself over.” Both Drew and Bill looked at Jholie, who nodded her head, and pantomimed locking her lips and throwing away the key while Drew leaned against the wall, so Bill could use his legs, shoulders, and hands to climb over the wall.
Bill threw over his crowbar and then took the pre-offered boost up from Drew to scale the 8-foot wall with relative ease. Drew grunted while trying to push him up to make it easier. At the top of the wall, he looked around, “Looks clear.” He said before dropping down to the other side of the fence. Jholie watched and then shook her head.
“I can’t do that.” She said with a frown.
“Sure you can, it’ll be easy, and the chief will catch you on the other side,” Drew said, interlocking his fingers together again to help.
“Come on over Jholie; it’ll be fine.” The chief said from the other side.
It took a few more minutes of cajoling before Jholie eventually made her first attempt. Drew had to push her over the top of the wall, but she managed to get up without too much effort. She only let out a small scream as she jumped off the wall into Bill’s waiting arms. Drew backed away from the wall, and then with a running start activated gravitas, clearing the wall with ease and sailing over Bill and Jholie, and landing far more gracefully on the other side than his first attempt at the maneuver.
He turned around and realized that both were staring at him with impressed expressions. “Did you just jump over the wall?” Bill asked incredulously.
“That was soooo cool!” Jholie exclaimed.
Drew grinned back, “Yeah. Probably one of the most fun xatherite I have.” He turned and began walking up the road, the other two moving to follow him.
Drew saw a few squirrels in the trees. He wasn’t sure if it was due to the larger group or if they were leary of him having killed the pack that attacked him earlier, but they managed to get all the way to the hill leading up through HQ and to the exchange without being attacked. Jholie stayed quiet for most of the trip. About halfway there she had been looking tired enough that they took a short break while Drew cast refreshing rain. He also took the time to renew his protection spells.
The highway was relatively boring, but they were able to jump over a chain link fence and up a slight hill to get onto St. E’s campus. They passed through the gap between the headquarters building and the parking lot. Drew pointed out where they had exited and watched cautiously but didn’t see any Go’rai or wereghouls in the windows. The remains of the barricade looked like it hadn’t been fixed yet either. Drew wondered if the manaborn respawned, and if they did, would Chakri become his nemesis like in Shadows of Mordor? He hoped not, because that had been a pain.
As they climbed, Drew looked up at the exchange where he’d last seen Katie and saw that the walls were still up. He had been hoping to catch a glimpse of the attractive brunette as they came back. He hoped she wasn’t too mad that he was late.
Drew lead the others in his excitement to get back and get Sarah healed. As he went around the corner of the exchange towards the front door, he walked straight into what he could only call a swarm of hand-sized mosquitoes which glowed red to his mana sight. A quick fireball killed dozens of them, and he shouted a warning to Bill and Jholie. There were still many of the swarm left, and still more were being drawn in by the heat and light he’d just created.
He looked behind him and then blink stepped back 15 feet to be right in front of Bill, launching a frostfire ball towards the swarm that was now attacking his afterimage. A few dozen more died to the flames and others were caught by the flying ice, their wings shredded, causing them to smash against the floor, feebly attempting to return to the air. He raised his hands, waiting for the rest of the swarm to notice him, backing up slowly as the illusion bought them a few more seconds for fireball to recharge. When they came after him again he dual cast cone of frost and cone of frostfire, his arms spread wide to increase the coverage of the spells. The icy blast took out a large swath of the swarm, leaving only a dozen individuals that had been on the front edge where the cones hadn’t expanded.
Drew ducked as one flew towards his head but heard the smack of the crowbar hitting it out of the air as Bill took a swing. Jholie was screaming and had curled up into a ball, waving her hands around her head to scare them away. Drew launched lightning bolts as fast as he could; he missed often, but Bill was doing serious damage with his crowbar.
Seeing one latch onto Jholie’s back, Drew smacked it away with his hand. He could feel the proboscises break off inside the girl as he did, and her screaming became even louder. But the fight was mostly over at that point, and it only took a few more swings of Bill’s crowbar to drive the rest of them away.
Drew stomped on a few of the still moving mosquitoes while Bill pulled the proboscis out of Jholie’s back. She didn’t stop screaming until he hugged her, at which point she broke down, crying hysterically. Drew didn’t blame her; it was probably the first time she’d felt safe since the Advent began a week ago. He realized that she’d been hiding all the pain and fear underneath that thin veneer of normalcy her constant chatter had allowed.
Drew gave Jholie a minute while he walked towards the door, wondering what had gotten the mosquitoes to swarm there. The outer glass door had been broken open, and inside was what looked like a pure black, enlarged badger and several mosquito corpses. The insects had clearly drained it of blood as it had struggled and killed a few them, but the swarm had been far too much for it to handle.
He caught a bright red glow of mana from one of the mosquitos and realized there was the smallest xatherite crystal he had seen growing out of its back. He touched it, then with a very mild red glow, a blinking message appeared in the corner of his vision.
The summoned walls inside the exchange were gone, leaving a clear line of vision through the glass door to the back wall, and he could see glow stones spread around the place, but the bedding where he’d left Sarah was empty and there was no sign of Katie.
Chapter Twenty-Six — Reunited
“Katie!” Drew called out after having harvested the red xatherite. He frowned as he realized that his new mana sight xatherite was telling him there were blue and indigo mana constructs in front of him, even though his eyes told him that there was just an empty hallway there. He cautiously walked forward until a finger disappeared like it had been cut off in midair. There was no pain and he pulled his hand back, his fingertip reappearing.
Indigo aura. An illusion? He pushed his hand through the illusion, but he was stopped half an inch past it, where he could feel the solid surface of a wall.
The blue aura must be Katie’s summoned wall. He pounded his fist through the illusion, shouting again, “Katie!”
Drew pounded his other fist against the wall, all his frustrations coming to the forefront of his mind. Another fist against the wall; he could feel the pain, but it was a dull and distant thing. He kept pounding, bringing the fleshy part of his hand against the hard concrete of Katie’s summoned wall. His hand came down for what must have been the tenth time and it felt no resistance this time; he just swung through the empty air, throwing him off balance. Then he heard Katie’s voice, “Drew?” He pushed through the illusion.
As soon as his eyes passed through the illusion he saw Katie. She had pulled one of the glass doors on the inside of the exchange open and unsummoned the wall, and he immediately pulled her into his arms. Grasping her as tightly as he could, “I thought…the wall…” He couldn’t speak in complete sentences as the adrenaline drained from his body his legs felt weak. Luckily for him, Katie seemed to be in a similar state.
“You’re late.” It took a minute for both to gather themselves together enough for the nonsense half thoughts to finally graduate to full phrases, but that was the first thing Katie managed to get out. Drew laugh-cried as she said it.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to, but the mana storm hit and then I had to deal with the trolls and…” Drew finally opened his eyes and saw two men standing over Sarah, one of them carrying about ten pistols in various holsters around his body, while the other had a hand on Sarah’s forehead. Something inside of Drew snapped and a lightning bolt flashed from his hand to the one touching Sarah. The smell of ozone immediately filled the room. The man with the guns tried to push the one touching Sarah out of the way, but the bolt impacted along the right side of his back.
“Drew, stop!” Katie shouted in his ears and he turned to her confused. The gun wielder had pulled out a pistol and held it ready. “They’re friends!”
Drew clenched his fists, the emotional wringer of the last minute and a half having completely spent his body. Adrenaline raced through his overly stimulated muscles from the mosquito fight, and then the fear of losing Katie and Sarah. He realized just how dangerous what he had just done may have been; he could have hit Sarah, or the bolt could have conducted through the man’s skin to her unconscious body. He swallowed, and his legs gave out, landing with a painful thud as his knees slapped the tile floor.
Katie moved to stand between him and the other three people. “Drew, it’s okay,” she said, putting her hands on his shoulders and pulling him into another awkward hug, his forehead against her clavicle. “It’s okay Drew; we’re safe.”
The sound of the lightning bolt must have alerted Bill, and the chief’s voice could be heard calling out in the hallway behind them, “IT2, where’d you go?”
Katie pushed him away for a minute a confused look on her face. “In here, chief. There’s an illusion,” Drew said, his voice seeming drained of all emotion.
Bill’s hand followed by the rest of his body appeared a few seconds later; he was leading Jholie. All three groups stared at each other for a few seconds while Drew managed to reclaim his calm. “Katie, this is Bill and Jholie, Bill is a healer.”
Katie hugged Drew tight at that, “You did it,” She murmured in the crown of his head. Everyone else looked on awkwardly as the two Coasties had their reunion. Finally, Katie pulled away. Looking at Bill and Jholie, then back to Drew, she gestured behind her, “That’s JP and Robbi. They came here looking for supplies and survivors.”
Drew looked at the two men. JP was the one with all the guns, and to his mana sight, his aura was almost purple, with a strange intermixture of red and blue. Robbi, on the other hand, was the one sporting a large burn mark across one side of his body armor and his aura was a weird indigo, green, and yellow that reminded Drew of a half-healed bruise. He was probably the source of the illusion on the wall. Another layer of protection added against the monsters?
He was glad that JP hadn’t opened fire on him, and the gun he had pulled out was back in its holster. Drew realized for the first time that both men were wearing blue police uniforms under their body armor, and while he didn’t carry as many guns as JP, Robbi had a few of his own. The armor had probably been enough to save Robbi’s life; a large black scorch mark on the back of the vest showed that his aim had been true, despite JP’s attempt to save his partner.
“I’m sorry about that lightning bolt thing,” Drew said hesitantly. Robbi opened his mouth to say something but was stopped when JP laughed.
“Shit bro, it makes sense, Katie told me you’d gone out there alone,” JP said, walking over to Drew and Katie, leaning down to extend his hand to shake Drew’s. “I can’t imagine that walking around out there alone is good for a person’s mental health.”
Drew took the hand and shook it, then putting a hand around Katie’s waist pulled both to their feet, letting the brunette go as soon as they were back on their feet. “Still, I’m really sorry…”
Bill spoke up then, “Sorry to interrupt, but I should heal Sarah, so we can get back to the others.”
“Oh right, Of course, Bill, she’s right there,” Drew said, gesturing to Sarah’s body. The big chief walked over to the girl, and kneeling, began to hug her.
Katie tugged on his sleeve and gave him a questioning look, “Bill’s healing requires that he hug the person,” he answered. Meanwhile, Jholie was staring around at everyone nervously. JP and Robbi were watching Bill curiously.
Katie squeezed his arm, watching, while both held their breath as Bill used his daddy’s embrace. Nothing happened at first, but then they saw Sarah wrap her arms around Bill in response. Katie’s grip on Drew’s arm became tighter, and when he looked over, she was crying. He put his arm around her waist again and she released his arm long enough to give him a side hug as she watched her friend move on her own for the first time in days.
When Bill finally managed to extract himself from Sarah’s embrace, Katie ran over and hugged the ensign herself. Drew clapped Bill’s shoulder, “Thanks, chief.” Bill just shrugged and went over to stand near Jholie.
Drew walked over to where the two cops were standing, “I’m really sorry Robbi…just a little bit on edge, I guess.” Robbi shot him a bit of a glare but didn’t say anything as he grabbed a sprite and stalked over towards Bill and Jholie.
“Give him a bit. It’s not every day you’re almost killed,” JP said, then shrugged, “Or I guess, it wasn’t every day. It kind of is every day now, isn’t it?”
Drew laughed and nodded his head, “Yeah. For me, anyway. How did you guys get here?”
“Well, we were sent out to recruit people. We’re set up in Nat’s Park with about a thousand people total. There were five in our scouting group when we set out, but we lost two on the bridge to a massive squid that pulled them into the river, and another to what Katie called Orcs, as we were traveling through the new mental hospital.”
Drew frowned, “I’m sorry to hear about your losses.” They stood there in silence for a few minutes while they each contemplated those of their companions they had lost.
“Where did you find these two?” JP asked, as he nodded towards Jholie and Bill, “Katie said you left alone.”
“I did, I went to Bolling. The DIA building on base has turned into a dungeon like the HQ here has, but it’s filled with troll-like creatures instead of orcs. I managed to rescue about 20 of them and brought Bill back up to heal Sarah. The plan was to take Sarah and Katie down there and rescue the rest of the prisoners.” Drew answered truthfully, hoping the men would join them.
“Robbi and I would like to join you,” JP said immediately to the unspoken request. “That’s why we came out here, after all, to bring back as many as we could. The guy in charge was a senator before advent; but he’s alright, kept a lot of people alive and we’ve got running water and showers up again. There should be plenty of food once we get the five or six people with enhanced farming skills working the playing field. Housin
g is in the stadium for everyone, and we have enough reds to keep the place safe from the monster attacks.” He glanced at Drew, “Not that I expect you’re lacking on reds yourself. I haven’t seen anyone take out Robbi’s shield, and still leave enough to actually hurt him.”
Drew blinked. JP was certainly trying to sell the place hard, “Does he need healing? I’m sure chief or Sarah can help him…” JP just waved it off.
“When he’s ready, he’ll ask for it.”
“Right, well, I got lucky and got a couple of good red skills from xatherite drops. When did you start setting up at the stadium? I’ll be honest, it sounds…too good to be true.”
JP laughed again, “Yeah, I know what you mean, especially after what Katie told me of y’alls experience in the HQ building. We’ll go rescue those people of yours first and then you’ll see.” Drew nodded his head. If the dungeons were going to continue sending out raiding parties, having a safe place across the river to keep people was going to be important. How they were supposed to get a whole bunch of people across the squid infested river was a problem for tomorrow.
The two girls were mostly back to normal and Drew nodded to JP, “I should talk to Sarah.” JP nodded in response, and Drew walked back to where Sarah and Katie were. Sarah smiled at him as he sat down next to her.
“I hear you saved me.”
“Well, I think Bill’s hug did that. I was just Katie’s gofer boy,” Drew said, and Katie punched his shoulder.
“And you were late too!” Katie said with a frown, “I don’t know why I was worried, you have a way of coming out of impossible things intact. I feel like we should start calling you Ethan Hunt.”
Sarah smiled at the two, “Well, I’m glad to be awake, Katie told me a few things that happened while I was out. Thank you both for saving me.”
“Of course, can’t let a shipmate down,” Drew said, and Katie nodded in agreement as all three of them thought about Mitch, Juan, Rob, and the others that hadn’t made it out of the dungeon alive. Sarah saw his bloodied hands and frowned, “What happened to your hands?” she asked, grabbing them and looking at the split skin.