Abyssal Border Protocol: Ch 3 (rough draft) (Patreon)

Chapter 3: Home Is Where the Heart Is

I opened the message from Mom first.              

Kathleen: We're okay. Sister with me. Be careful. We watch, hear.

“Oh, fuuuu, fudge, thank God. Okay, they are alright. Mom and Alison are together. They’re watching, and they can hear me?” I said, it looked like she was also conserving XP as well. She had always been frugal, not a crazy penny pincher, but with the situation we were now in, I knew she would save as much as possible.

“Mom, Alison, I love you, and I will try to be careful. Try to save as much of the XP as possible. I don’t know how much I’ll be able to get.” I said, looking up at the ceiling. It felt weird, kind of like praying, but I knew they could hear me. At least I hoped that was the case.

I leaned forward on the couch, ready to read Liz’s message.

Liz: OMG, Justin! It’s horrible! No windows! Door Locked! I’m trapped! I have Food, Water, a toilet, a view screen, a bed, one pillow, and one thin sheet! That’s it! Ahhhhhh! I could hear her angry scream through the text. Don’t forget me, Justin! The System says it’s for my protection, as I am able to breed more abyssal border wall warriors to fight, but I basically have to get pregnant. The System says I can craft and sell what I make to the Warriors. I get bonuses for birthing children. ARRRGGG! Be safe! I love you.

I guessed she was watching me also and said, “Hang on, Liz. I'll get you out of there. I… I love you!” The tone surprised me as it came from my mouth, not a whine or overly dramatic declaration, but a cold, resounding fury that sent cold fire racing through my blood.

So, this System needed warriors for its wall… and killing these things was the only way to get XP to help Liz and mom and Alison… Then so be it. I would become a warrior, a guardian, and ensure I freed them.

I stood and went outside to the driveway. Mom’s car was there, dead, and Liz’s rental car was also dead. There was no electricity, and from what the System had said, the gas in the tanks would not be flammable either. I looked up, expecting to see the sun in the sky; it felt like it should be just past noon, maybe two in the afternoon.

I froze, “What the fuck…” my curse drifted off weakly when I gazed into the sky. There was no sun, “No sun, no yellow ball… What…” I felt a creeping dread of disorientation fill my gut, like standing on a high cliff looking down.

I shuddered and took a few deep breaths. Then I remembered, “System, where did the sun go? How is it day with no sun?” I asked the question while focusing on the search help feature.

System help answer:

Localized star body: Has been removed. Orbiting bodies cannot exist within the Abyssal Border Wall continuum. Outer space is absent. Your iteration of prime Earth is no longer in localized three-dimensional space and has been added to the infinite abyssal border wall planar continuum field, not a rotating sphere.

Day–night regulation: maintained by the System. Light is delivered in waves—twilight, then day, then dusk, then darkness.

Zone 0.5 cycle: 1 hour dawn – 12 hours day – 1 hour dusk – 10 hours darkness.

I asked my next question, “Can I get a clock or timekeeping?”

System help answer:

Timekeeping: A system-generated timekeeping display can be purchased for 10 XP and added to the system menu.

Would you like to purchase time keeping display, yes or no?

Yes.

I purchased the clock and saw that I was mostly right; it was 2:30 pm. My current total XP was 36. I went back inside to review everything I had gotten ready.

My backpack was packed: food, water, underwear, a sleeping bag, and that was really it. There were two kitchen knives that would be usable, the larger chef's kind. My broken mall ninja sword, bow, and now twenty-three arrows, eleven of which had hunting tips. There was Old Bess as well, and the two walking staffs.

“Sorry, Liz, I’m going to have to repurpose yours,” I said out loud, coming up with a plan.

I grabbed her staff and my mall ninja sword and ran back over to Old Tom's workshop. He had everything I would need to make the sword-spear thing there. I found a hand saw, and after marking the center of the staff at the top, I began sawing. I cut a slit down the center long enough for the tang, which had two holes drilled in it.

Once the slit was sized, I grabbed the hand drill and fitted the sword into the slit. I marked out the two holes and drilled through the staff. I got two properly sized bolts, washers, and nuts, then slotted them into place and tightened the sword into place. Once the naginata was made, I hammered the ends of the bolts with the nuts on them with a ball-peen hammer, ensuring the nuts would not loosen. It was a cross between a rivet and a bolt.

I checked the time, it was 3:30 pm.

“Shit, Hank and Linda…” I said out loud, rushing back over to my house. Hank and Linda's farm was just up the road. I knew Linda would have been taken by the System to the tower thing it talked about. They were older, in their late fifties and early sixties.

I grabbed my backpack and weapons and got on my mountain bike. The thing had seen better days, and it was in desperate need of a good lube job.

I rode up the road and down Hank’s drive. The white farmhouse was classic with two stories, a basement, and a big red barn. The house was fine, but the noise from the barn let me know where the monster had spawned.

“Mooo! Mooo!” The sound crashed out of the barn: the whinnying of horses and the clear noise of scared animals.

I dropped my bike and backpack and rushed to the front of the barn. Hank was lying in a pool of blood but breathing. Next to him, his monster lay motionless, with an old scythe plunged through its chest.

I skidded to my knees next to Hank's body. His intestines were spilling out, and he was pale. “What the fuck do I do, shit shit…” I said, whipping my head back and forth.

I knew there was nothing I could do. It would take a surgical team and more than a few skilled doctors to fix Hank. His breath slowed, and with a final shudder, he died.

“Fuck, if I had…” The words trailed off as I realized. If I had come straight over, I might have been able to save him. How long had he lain here?

I stared at the creature lying dead next to him. It was sickly pale green. It had Gnarled teeth and lifeless black eyes that stared in rage. Its frame was wiry and corded with misshapen muscles, and at the end of each hand were fingers that were tipped in claws coated in blood.

It was alien, not from Earth. And the near-human bipedal appearance made my heart pound in my chest. I had gotten lucky, oh so very lucky, with the slow slug monster that had spawned.

Whatever scrap of life it had clung to was left in that moment, its body decaying into motes of black smoke.

40-XP gained.

What, but I didn’t kill it, I was… then it hit me, the XP must have gone to me as I was the closest abyssal border warrior when it died.

“System, why did I get the XP?” I asked, focusing on the general help function.

XP acquisition conditions: XP is awarded to the killer of a monster. If a group has fought a monster, then XP is split based on participation. If the abyssal border wall warrior who killed the monster dies before the monster, the next closest abyssal border wall warrior will receive full XP.

Just as I thought, fuck, right, best calm down, Strider and River.  

I got up and went about a chore I was familiar with from helping from time to time on Hank and Linda’s farm. I let the animals out into the pasture. I stopped when I reached Strider and River, the male and female horses that Hank and Linda loved to ride.

I went to the back of the barn and picked up a few carrots and apples that they used as treats. I approached Strider first. He looked like he was ready to burst through the paddock gate and run.

He calmed slightly when he saw me holding the carrot out to him. “Hey, Strider, good to see you. You’re okay, boy, you know me. Everything is going to be okay.” I kept speaking empty words, just letting the calming tone in my voice soothe him.

He approached wary after some moments and took the carrot. I could tell the smell of the blood was still getting to him. I grabbed his bridle and led him from the barn to the front of Hank's house.

I did the same to River, Linda’s mare, and soon they were both out of the barn and hitched to the post near the water trough.

The System popped up a message.

Skill gained:

Animal handling: Level 5, Novice.

This time, I felt the skill washing over me. A slight tingle and a new understanding of how to handle animals. I saw Strider and River clear now, not with the eye but with a feeling deep in me. Their panic, their fear, and their trust in me and the calm I gave them.

I went back into the barn, got their saddles and saddlebags, and placed them on the porch.

It was time to bury Hank the best I could. It was all I could do for him. He deserved a nice tombstone, but this was all I could do.

I got a sheet from the house and wrapped Hank in it. I was numb, scared, and not thinking straight as I dragged his body over to the tree alongside their garden. I got a shovel and dug, not a deep grave, but it was something. I spent an hour digging. My mind screamed, I shook, and I puked twice.

Skill gained:

Digging: Level 1, Novice.

Level 2, level 3, level 4, level 5.

The message rolled over me, and I paid it no mind when I finished. I noticed that as the skill increased, the digging got easier and more precise. Not by a lot, no. It could have just been my imagination as I worked, if it were not for the intrinsic feeling the skill gave me of working to improve my ability to dig a hole.

No, not a hole.

A grave.

Hank and Linda would sit in the evenings under this tree in the evening, watching the sunset on their small farm. I guessed this was a good place to be laid to rest.

Once he was covered in dirt, I stood over the grave and spoke, “Linda, if you're watching, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I did not get here sooner. I could have. I could have helped him…I’m. I’m sorry. Hank, may you rest in peace.” My head fell at the loss and the weight of the insanity of it all.

I knew Hank would not hold it against me, nor Linda. They were good people, and what was happening was crazy, just crazy. I spent a credit to send a message to Linda.

Justin: I’m sorry, Linda. This is where Hank will rest.

I sent the message and stood there until the light began to fade. I looked up, and I saw in the distance, like a wave coming from the ocean, a tidal wave of darkness. Dusk proceeded with the unnatural night that was cascading over the land.

“I have to get home,” I said as I moved to the horses in front of the house. I loosely placed their saddles on and bags and guided them down the road back to my house. I walked my bike with my backpack on back to my front door.

I put River and Strider in the backyard and filled a bucket of oats for each of them before I went inside. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I would have to kill two of those leech slug things and start moving.

I lay on the couch in the living room, exhausted. Fear, I felt fear. This was crazy. This was insane.

Night came, and the world went black. There was no electricity, no lamps, and I had failed to light a candle. Not that the lighter or matches would have worked. I needed to find my ferro rod and try to light a candle. But that could wait. Now I needed sleep.

“Good night mom and Alison, I love you. Liz, good night, I… I love you.” The words felt natural and only a little weird, tinged with the fear of never seeing her again.

I drifted off to sleep vowing that I would see Liz again. That I would kiss Liz again and I would hold her in my arms, one way or another.