The Daily Grind - Chapter 379 (Patreon)

"I've always tried to teach you two things.  First?  Never let them see you bleed.  And second?  Always have an escape route."  -Q; James Bond, The World Is Not Enough-

_____

“…spatial bubble.  Attempting to exit the area has killed a lot of people so far, and Zhu says we’d probably hit the same problem teleporting.  I’ll be checking if my demiplane portal works through it, but there’s a lot of people in here that need food and also a way out, so I won’t be oh you bloody fucking idiot so I won’t be leaving right away.  Tell Anesh to drink his half of the dream draught for tonight, to establish two way communication, and we all really hope someone has an idea on how to crack this place open.”  Anesh looked up at the young Researcher gasping for breath that had tracked him down and brought him the message.  “Second?”

John, gasping for breath, nodded.  He was really regretting not putting as much dedicated effort into the exercise potion regimen right now.  “Buh.”  He tried to talk and just gasped out a noise instead, before hauling air into his lungs.  “Yeah.  It and-or they got a message ten minutes ago.”

”Well.”  Anesh said as he considered dramatically crumpling the printed page in his hand like he was a dejected aristocrat.  “At least we know they’re safe.  And that Second’s voicemail is very effective.  We should make more of those, sooner rather than later.”

Still gulping, John shook his head.  “Size four blue.  Way too big to copy and we never find them.”

”You spend all day breaking pens, you must have found at least one.” Anesh said distantly, still looking at his boyfriend’s words, and wondering, again, if he should be there with him.

“Yeah, and I never find size fours.  We only get those from the really weird stuff we shouldn’t have broken.”  John sighed, regaining his composure.  “Anyway, Momo said to get this to you, fast, and also, that she ‘has a plan’.”

Anesh closed his eyes and seriously considered that he should be with James right now.  Trapped inside a Dakotan hole in space would be much safer than being in a building where Momo had a plan.  “Did she use the voice like you just did?”  He asked John.  “Where it sounds like you’re putting bunny ears on it?”

”No, she actually made air quotes.”

”Piss.”  Anesh exclaimed.  “Okay.  Wait here.”

The human ran a hand through his hair, black locks springing around his fingers as he turned back to where he’d been having a nice afternoon.  The strange room - and weren’t they all strange rooms - somewhere in one of the Lair’s basements that was full of arcade machines had been a fun little thing to explore with Keeka.  Anesh wasn’t much of an arcade guy, and he could tell that Keeka was smothering jolts and starts at some of the sharper noises, but the two of them had been slowly getting more comfortable and more competitive on the dance game machine off on one side.  Though it did help that they were the only people here, for Anesh’s embarrassment levels; it was strange that the Lair had an entire free arcade and very few people knew about it.

Technically, neither he nor Keeka had known about it either.  It had been an accidental discovery, while Keeka was trying to show Anesh how to explore the lair by climbing over the ceiling pipes, and Anesh was trying to explain that his fallible human body didn’t want to move like Keeka could move.

”Is it a disaster?”  Keeka asked Anesh as he returned under the glittering lights of the arcade machines.  “Or a crisis?  Or maybe a boondoggle!”

”Now that last one sounds like something you picked up from James.”  Anesh said, unable to keep the smile off his face as Keeka nodded energetically.  “Right.  It sounds very American.”  His smile turned brittle as he tried to figure out if it was appropriate to try to hug Keeka right now.  “Not sure which category it all falls under.  But we got a message from James and the others.  Everyone is okay for now, someone did shoot at them, so-“

”I’m sorry!”  Keeka said with a horrified expression, all four paws coming up to cover his muzzle.  “I’ll never say anything again!”

”Please.  We both know it would have happened anyway.  I love James to death, but he deserves his reputation.”  Anesh said, patting one of Keeka’s paws affectionately.  “I have to go, though.  We’re going to need to find a way to punch a hole in there, and I have a few ideas.  Momo does too, from the sound of things.”  Anesh friend not to grimace.  Momo was making a real effort at being so much more than the reckless twit she’d been years ago.  But it was hard to adapt his mental image of her to the newer iteration of Momo, away from the one that thought brain damage was a casual tradeoff for totem research.  “I’ll have to cut our day short.”  He told Keeka sadly.

The ratroach nodded in understand, his shiny black fur seeming to shimmer under the arcade lights.  “Can I come too?”  He asked.

Anesh paused, but only for a moment.  “Yes,” he said, “but it’s going to be four copies of me doing math.  Are you sure?  Probably a bit boring for you.”

”I have headphones!”  Keeka said happily.  “And I never get to see Momo’s ideas!  Everyone talks about them but I’m always too late to watch them.  So I want to be there this time!”

”That’s something someone who’s never seen one of Momo’s ideas says.”  Anesh nodded, running a hand along Keeka’s head and getting a noise almost like an attempt at a purr out of his inhuman boyfriend.  “Alright then, come on.”  He took Keeka’s paw, already messaging his other iterations to loop them in on the situation.  He’d meet himself down in Research, where two of him already were.  But this him needed to know where, exactly, Momo’s idea was taking shape.  “John?  Let’s get going.  If you’re alive.”

”I’m fine!”  The Researcher said, with only a little strain.  “I just need… new lungs.”

”Oh!  I have an orb for that!”  Keeka told him cheerfully.

_____

The Order group moved through the streets of Castleton cautiously.  None of them had their weapons out, but everyone was a little on edge at how quiet it all was.

The town didn’t have the suburban sprawl of larger developments.  Buildings weren’t packed together, and there was plenty of room between homes and filling out backyards.  The inside of the bubble that was keeping everyone here must have been bigger than the space outside, because James could see larger and richer homes up in the hills to the east, and even the main portion of the town was a lot of physical area.  But most of that area was just ranch homes.

Half the businesses in town were impossible to distinguish from overhead; homes repurposed into offices for insurance agents or optometrists or in one case a burger joint that looked like it was one warm day away from a grease-based structure fire.  That last one was also one of the few restaurants in town, with the absence of even a McDonalds putting a bit of a fine point on the strange rural situation the town existed in.  Three thousand residents, a church for every thousand of them, and yet no one had thought it was worth a Starbucks.  That was dire.

“We’re being watched.”  Alanna said calmly as they passed through a neighborhood that would have been pleasantly natural under any other circumstances.  Lots of old trees that the homes had been built around.

Karl started looking around rapidly, the kid’s eyes barely focusing on the different windows that weren’t covered in the houses around them.  Some of those windows were broken already, and one house at the end of the street had a whole wall that had been reduced to charred cinders during a fire that no one ever cleaned up after.  Flanking the younger human, Riho and Tyrone sighed in unison.

”Stop looking.”  Spire told her knight-in-training flatly.  It was one thing to instruct someone to remain calm, it was another to test them.  But she still wondered if she should have left one of her people at home, knowing now what was going on here.  “They are not looking, they are aiming.”

”Keep walking.”  James said with a calm smile.  He’d already spotted the old man with the rifle, and he and Alanna positioned themselves on the outside of the formation so that any bullets would hit them first.  Or fail to hit them, specifically.  “They look spooked, not angry.”  He raised a hand to wave politely at the figure, and felt the sensation of being targeted waver before catching sight of the guy ducking away from the window.  “We’re good.  We’ll leave him alone for now.”  James said.

TQ, in the shadow of James’ shield bracer, hissed into the cold air.  “Home marked for when we have a way out.”  He said professionally.  And then in a gentler voice, added, “Perhaps we can summon some food for him as well.”

”I’m out of the stuff I stole from the last Wal Mart.”  Alanna admitted.

Tyrone’s laugh came out nervous.  “You’ve got an addiction.”

”Impossible.  Mesa Oasis would have fixed me.  I’ve got a hobby.”  Alanna shot back.  “So.  Buddy.  Where are we going?”  She asked James directly.  “And are we there yet?”

James looked away from a driveway where a car had been left with half its doors open.  The street was silent, and the cold light of the sun overhead made the whole place seem eerily empty even though there were people in some of these buildings.  And no matter how steady he and Spire were playing things, no one was exactly calm about this. “Sorry, yeah, I forgot you missed the plan.”  He said.  “Points for following for so long, glad you trust me!”

”Always.  Now talk, dumbass.”

”Riho here-“

”Hi!”  The younger woman grinned at hearing her name.

”- has a level three cast of Informal Pagoda.”  James said.

Riho picked up where he left that information hang.  “The paladins say there’s a spot up ahead where there’s no people, but still in the city.  So I’mma gon’ cast it there, minimize the number of people it can pull bad interviews from, and get us a picture of where to go next.”

”Which doesn’t require all of us.”  James said with a nod.  “So Spire’s on that, we’re going to your favorite place in the world.  Apparently.”

”A combination laser tag and brothel?”  Alanna asked with a beautiful shine in her eyes that shoved away the gloom of the empty street.

TQ decided to add his own option.  “Just a regular laser tag?”

”A gym with the gravity thing from Dragonball?”  Arrush suggested quietly, while looking at the plot of lightly grassy earth between two buildings, nose twitching.  

“You dudes know we’re in a lot of life or death trouble here, right?”  Tyrone asked them.

Alanna waved her hand at him in a shushing motion.  “Wait, hold on, Arrush has a good suggestion here!”

”It’s a Wal Mart, Alanna.”  James said, rubbing at his face with a gloved hand.  He was considering strapping on the potion mask that he had hanging on his belt, just for warmth, but those things were kind of uncomfortable to wear for a long period of time.  “We’re going to the Wal Mart.”  The original plan to go to the geographical center of town had been canceled, because the geographical center was a gravel parking lot with an overflowing dumpster in it pretty far outside the general outline of where the town’s buildings were.  And James had checked it via drone already.  “Also, Arrush, you okay?  What’s up?”

The ratroach had stopped walking and turned toward the empty lot, pointing a paw in its direction.  “Blood.”  He said simply, all the joking and playing gone in a moment, following a few steps after James as his partner broke off to take long steps in that direction.

Hopping up on the curb, James kept a hand on the gun at his side just in case there was something going on, but it was quiet.  Instead, he found a makeshift grave.  Under one of the trees, there was just a patch of recently disturbed earth, with a simple cross made out of planks marking it, and a weathered dog collar hanging from the side.  “Ah.”  James said, the nervousness replaced quickly by quiet sorrow.  “Someone’s dog.”

”It smells like a lot of blood…” Arrush said next to him with confusion.

”Yeah.”  James said, his attempt to make it sound calm instead coming out with cold bitterness.  “Three months without food.”  He said with a grim atonal voice, closing his eyes for a moment.

”They ate the dogs.”  TQ’s digital voice came across as shocked at the revelation, the camraconda looking back to Spire with a widening lens that she met with her own expression of surprise.  James just nodded, while the other humans looked away with bit lips and shaking heads.  “Oh.  I see.”  The camraconda said, with far too much understanding.

It occurred to James just in time for him to keep from saying something stupid that TQ and Spire had both been here before.  Not here, in Castleton here, but here, trapped somewhere and slowly starving.  They likely understood exactly what had happened and why.  “Come on.”  James muttered to Arrush, gently wrapping fingers around his boyfriend’s shoulder.  “Let’s get going.  Sooner we figure something out, the sooner we can get these people out of here.”

They kept moving in silence from that point on, the two teams splitting at a crossroad, though they’d be meeting up at their target in about an hour.  The path James had them on went past one of the churches, where he had planned to try to make contact with the people sheltering there as a group.  But when they arrived, they didn’t find the refuge he’d expected from the overhead view.  

The parking lot was the first clue.  Rows of tire tracks in the soft dirt, someone having skipped the proper driveway.  A few too many parked cars that looked like they’d had windows broken or headlights and bumpers smashed.  It stood out only because it was the kind of destruction that they hadn’t seen elsewhere yet.

Then there was the church itself.  The front door of the church was hanging open with its hinges broken and debris scattered around, windows smashed, and, critically, there was no one in the building.

Zhu had dragged himself out into a manifested form as they poked through the building, finding signs of a struggle and even more signs of looting.  A lot of the furniture had been shifted around to make room for a large sleeping space in the main site of worship, and the whole room smelled like unwashed humanity, as well as blood and a tiny bit of gunfire.  The kitchens were ransacked, which made sense, but what made slightly less sense was that anything that could have contained an object was left thrown or smashed open.

Cabinets, cases, cardboard boxes, even the mesh pouches on the back of the pews, all of it was ripped into, the majority of the contents spilled out among the sleeping bags and half-toppled sheet walls of the ruined shelter.

”This happened recently.”  James said with a frown.  “Like, earlier-today recently, maybe.  Must have been before we got here, Spire or I have a bunch of drones up, we’d have seen any big movements, but…” His hand idly traced a brass stanchion that had been knocked over on the main stage, the tip of his glove’s finger sticking slightly to the only-mostly dried blood.

Alanna and Arrush came back in from the front entryway, walking across the well-worn red carpet as they individually followed signs of the fight that had taken place here.  “Okay, we’ve got casualties.”  Alanna said, drawing on a few fringe skills that overlapped into something that was almost crime scene investigation.  “And someone definitely put a car through that front door.”

”They dragged bodies out.”  Arrush had the compact SMG he had brought clutched tight in two of his paws, the offset position of it leaving one of his main arms open while still making it clear he was worried about being ambushed.  “But only a few.”

”Why?”  James asked them, and while TQ looked over his way from where the camraconda was inspecting a pile of bibles, not even the camraconda had an answer.  James looked around at the church interior that had dark stains on the floor; a refuge for at least fifty people that had been openly attacked and emptied out.  But where were the people, then?  “We’re missing something.  If this were about cannibalism or some shit, then they wouldn’t have left anyone alive, right?  So… what happened?”

”The fight could have turned.”  Alanna offered.  “Defenders fought back too hard, and the attackers just took the dead?  No, that doesn’t make any fucking sense, where is everyone?”

Zhu’s feathers flattened against James’ armor in the cold air.  “I can’t find ‘em.  But that’s kind of outside my wheelhouse, and I think there’s something that doesn’t want them found?  Oh, hey, there’s useful information!  They’re alive!”

”Okay but why.”  James restated.  “Three months.  Barely any food.  Why are they alive?  I mean, why attack at all, obviously, that’s fucking insane.  But the only thing that makes sense is that whoever hit this place kidnapped the survivors, and why would you do that if you’re already starving?”

TQ’s voice was quiet in the air of the church, a sad digital note among the smell of recent blood and old ash from their fires.  “You don’t start with cannibalism.”  He said simply.  “You don’t start with killing everyone.  You start by thinking that you’ll have another choice.”

James turned and walked over to the camraconda with steady steps, hearing a muffled ‘holy shit man’ from Alanna before he dropped to one knee and grabbed TQ in a hug that maybe wasn’t perfect because they were both wearing armor and one of them had a robotic arm backpack on.  But it still seemed like an important thing to do, because as far as James was concerned, the other option was to throw up.

”Thank you.  Now let me go.”  TQ said simply, twisting away and toppling the pile of bibles.

”Yeah.”  James sighed and stood, then froze as he looked over TQ’s head.  “Oh shit.”

Zhu was already pointing, an orange beacon of light from his talons.  “Oh shit!”  He said.  “Dungeon nonsense!  Wow, that’s insane, that’s so hard to see without looking at it.”  The sentence sounded weird, but everyone instantly knew what the navigator meant.  To him, the revealed object was a blank spot in his navigator’s senses, only visible once he saw it with his manifested eyes.

The thing in question, packed in among the stack of King James Bibles, was another piece of printed text.  A scroll, thick white parchment rolled up with silver caps on the ends and a little blue cloth tassel.  It was warm to the touch, a tiny bit glowing, and very out of place in the Christian place of worship they happened to be in.  “If I explode or teleport away, either avenge me or wait for me to come back.”  James instructed, getting a thumbs up from Alanna before he unrolled the scroll.

He did neither of those things.  Instead, he was met with three numbers, written in what looked like blue glitter pen on the page.  Thirteen hundred and sixty one, ninety four, five.

Relaying the information to the others, he got a quick answer from Alanna about one of those.  “That’s the local population.”  She said.  “Bet you an orb.  That’s how many people are left alive.”

”Hm.”  James sat the scroll down on the edge of the stage, unslinging his backpack carefully around Zhu’s form so he could stash the thing.  “And the second one is the number of days, presumably.  Three months, give or… oh.”  The last number had changed to a four.  “And if I…” he picked up the scroll again, and it shifted back to a five.  “Right.  So.  Population, days, people holding scrolls, presumably.”  He felt a grim lump in his throat as the population number dropped by one.  “That means at least four people probably know we showed up, but that’s good, right?”

”Buddy.”  Alanna gave him a withering look, backed up by Arrush shaking his head.

James sighed.  ”I know, I know.”  He rolled the scroll back up and stowed it, the weight replacing a tiny bit of what he’d lost from the pack when he’d given away the extra food he had.  “Zhu, any chance you can find more now that you’ve seen this one?”

”None.”  The navigator admitted.  “I can’t even feel it now that it’s in the bag.  You think it’s a collection test?  Get them all and get out?”

”I don’t know what I think yet, but I also think I’m hoping that Research has a better idea for cracking this place open faster.”  James said bluntly.  He took a second to poke at the camera feed from his drones, also double checking their current battery life, which was going to become an issue if they were here for more than a couple days.  Probably less, with how much he’d started leaning on the things.  “Come on.  Spire’s team is moving toward our meetup point, I don’t want them thinking we died.”

Arrush shouldered James as they headed for the door.  “We can talk to them in our heads whenever we want.”  He said with a chitter that didn’t quite get past the cold violence that had happened here.

”Okay yeah, but I want to get out of this place as fast as possible.”  James said more honestly.

No one disagreed with him.

_____

Their group reconnected with Spire’s on a side street near the downtown area.  It was still mostly townhomes and old brick buildings, half of which had been repurposed as small businesses, and yet because of how the buildings and trees cut off the skyline, it was impossible to tell from the street corner they gathered on what the true size of the small town really was.  They could have been five miles deep in a suburb, or a three minute walk from the edge of the city, and wouldn’t have known without a map.  Or without James and Spire staring down from overhead, but that was cheating.

As Spire led her group over, the camraconda had a look on her inhuman face that James had a hard time interpreting.  He wanted to say that she was enjoying moving around a mostly normal human town without a single care for who saw her, but he was also pretty sure that she was planning to bite someone.

As they got into his hearing range, he started to understand why.  “-carrots, butternut squash, I’m just saying, these dudes have a lot of options, and I can grow some squash in-“

”Karl.”  Spire-Cast-Behind said calmly.

”Yes ma’am?”  The teenager hastened his steps to get to her side.

”Please murder Tyrone and you can have his place in my coterie.”  The camraconda said in the same voice.

James bit back a laugh as the groups joined up, ignoring the look TQ gave him while Arrush waved happily at the returning knights.  “No murdering.”  He felt like he needed to say as they all fanned out where they were standing on the corner of a sidewalk.  It felt very strange to stand around in an intersection just talking, even with things as they were.  And James had actually noticed a lot of people here seemed to be the same way; cars were parked, the few people they’d seen walked on the sidewalks, and whether it was subconscious rule-following or a deliberate attempt to hold on to civilized behavior, there just hadn’t been a total breakdown into chaos.

Well, mostly.

“Fresh news, hot off the press.”  Riho said as she flicked her wrist out, handing James a small sheaf of papers.

”I know you read it already, just sum it up.”  He said with what he hoped was a friendly laugh, trying to avoid having to use fingers that were getting steadily more icy.

Spire came to a stop underneath the giant copper statue of a bipedal deer that inexplicably existed on the corner of the road, rising up on her tail and happy for a distraction from Tyrone’s crop knowledge.  “We have several articles about local drama, though most of them are irrelevant owing to the deaths of some of those involved.  As you may have heard from my… companion… there was a community attempt to start a farm in the space north of town, which has completely failed.  ‘Interviews’ indicate it was due to personal failure, but we believe it was more likely because of lack of irrigation, and poor crop choice.  These people are not farmers, and there is no library in this town.  Deprived of internet access, they may have had no way to know what to plant.  There is also a growing fear of where several missing persons are.  Oh, and the alcohol has run out.  That was a headline.”  Riho helpfully held up the small zine, red gloved finger helpfully highlighting the bold words ‘the end is upon us, Castleton has run dry’.

“We passed so many bars, though!”  Arrush protested.

”Humans have a problem.”  TQ agreed with a bob.

”Yeah, this place needs an AoE Mesa Oasis cast and access to a board game shop.”  James agreed with a wince.  “Also it was only, like, three bars and one tavern.  And a liquor store.  That was definitely looted.”  He watched as Arrush raised a paw while Alanna bit at a chuckle as she also watched the ratroach’s expression.  Sighing, James took his boyfriend’s paw and lowered it back down.  “Taverns exist in real life, they’re bars that serve food.”

Arrush’s muzzle cracked open in a smile.  “Thank you.”  He said, before adding, “Isn’t it just as bad if you get people addicted to card games?”

”Yeah not everyone wants to play Magic buddy.”  Alanna elbowed him.

Zhu came to James’ defense, voice rising out of the inside of his layered clothing.  “In James’ defense, they do have oil money!  Gotta waste it somewhere!”

“I noticed that, actually.”  Tyrone interjected.  “The oil money I mean.  The whole town is propped up by it.  Did anyone notice?  All the newer houses have the same models of cars with company stickers.  The businesses that are still open cater to dudes who work the fields or in that one office.  We’re in a planned out company town.”  He looked down the street toward the edge of the Wal Mart parking lot they could see from where they were lurking.  “Two companies, actually.”

Alanna gave a nod with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, an expression of cold anger.  “Lot of places closed down around here.  And I don’t mean the ones that are looted, I mean all the shuttered family shops we passed.  Turns out, Wal Mart does exactly what everyone always knew and warned about; hollows out small towns and creates food deserts.  It probably sucks for anyone who lives around here in more rural homes.”

“Especially if the Wal Mart is in here.”  TQ said, arching to try to look at the nearby hillside with the dots of structures on it.  “How many people do you think came here for groceries, and never left?”

Tyrone shook his head sadly.  “At least they’ve got this dude.”  He jerked a thumb toward the giant deer statute.

”Someone used him for target practice.”  Spire pointed out, her lens briefly turning and spotting bullet marks on the deer’s head.  “Likely before knowing the number of bullets was finite.  Actually I wished to ask a question of the humans.  Why is it so quiet?”

James took a long breath of cold air through his nose. ”You mean, why isn’t this some kind of chaotic mess of rioting and panic?”  Spire inclined her head at him, brass fangs glinting in the bright midday light.  “It’s because everyone wants this to go back to normal.”

”But there were deaths.”  TQ said, looking around at the street that was, admittedly, a little more covered in trash than he was used to seeing in Townton, but that wasn’t some kind of post-apocalypse movie in process.  The worst thing was potholes in the asphalt, and he could fix that himself if he wanted.  “People died, but look, everyone else is still parking inside the lines.”

”Fifty percent is usually how much a mass casualty event can hit for before the peeps stop burying the dead.”  Riho informed him with the grim certainty of someone who had access to the world’s saddest statistical studies.  “These guys are rural, not morons.  Even if you hate someone, you bury them cause you don’t want a plague.  But if you run out of people, or if it looks hopeless…”

Alanna took a second to consider that.  “Parallel parking is a sign of optimism?”  She mused out loud, looking around the street and seeing an SUV that had a tire up on the curb.  “Well, not that guy.  But sure, I get that.  Same thing with the camps, right?  And… fuck, the mass grave out by the wall, too, huh?”

James nodded.  ”Right.  Though as with our mystery parker here, I’ll bet you money someone in that place we visited is hoarding food.  Maybe they’re doing it for a good reason or something, but there’s always people who’ll mess up, or just not care about anyone else.”  He tugged his coat back into place against Zhu’s attempt to colonize his sleeve, and inadvertently flooding them both with winter air.  “Like, that guy, John?  He wanted something from us, even if it’s just for us to think he’s a good guy when we’re picking who escapes.  He wasn’t a dick about it though, because he still does believe we’re getting out of here.”

”And we are.”  TQ pointed out.

”Well, maybe.”  James hated saying that.  Hated admitting this might be the end of the road.  It seemed so stupid.  He’d fought a pillar before, he’d survived the fucking Underburbs.  This couldn’t be it.  But.  Well.  It could.  And pretending otherwise was only going to make that more likely.  “I think that my demiplane has an exit that might work, but Zhu can’t confirm it.  And if mine does, then anyone else with the Wastes door in theirs can get out too, and we can probably get a good five or ten people through each slip, right?  Maybe more, depending on how long we can hold them open?  It’s not like we’ve tested.”

Arrush’s eyes widened.  “Oh.”  He chittered sadly.  “That is not good math for anyone else.”

”Right.  And that’s assuming our way works at all.  We might not even be able to get into the demiplanes.”  James said.  “But we don’t know.  And we have a lead.  And a plan.  And some supplies.  So for us, for now, we’re doing the same thing.  Following the polite rules, even really niche ones like not executing everyone that tried to ambush us and then taking them home.”  He gave Karl a knowing smirk.  “Even if that would have felt good at the moment.”

Spire-Cast-Behind slithered her way into the middle of the intersection, looking down the street as far as she could see before small curves blocked further line of sight with walls of buildings.  When she spoke, it was with a distant hurt in her words that came through powerfully in her digital tone.  “And so everyone stays inside.  Conserves resources.  Energy.  Food.  Hoping that you- that someone will arrive to break the cage.”  She exhaled, not quite a hiss, but instead a sound that had a low electronic alarm in it.  “And now we are here.”

”That we are.”  James agreed with his paladin.

“We need to understand the scrolls.”  Spire began making a list as she lowered her camera head from where she was staring at the sky.  “We need to breach the wall.  We need to contact the survivor groups.  We need to know who attacked that church.  And we need to make contact with the Order, which presently requires at least one of us sleep.  Should we secure an empty home?”  The camraconda paused.  “Also there is movement at our next destination.”

James saw it too.  He and Spire both shared the view of their drones with the others, but Karl at least didn’t have a skulljack, and Alanna and Tyrone both seemed to get motion sickness from the first person view of the camera drones piped directly into their brains.  “Trucks, looks like three of them approaching.  Pickups.  Does a pickup count as a technical if you have a guy with a shotgun in the back?”

”No.”

”Okay, then three pickups.”  James continued, eyes closed as he located their spot on his ‘map’.  “They’ll pass by here in under a minute, fan out, take cover.”  His words were followed by motion, everyone moving in pairs, even the newest person on the team following their training as everyone got behind roadside rows of bushes or hunkered down with parked cars between themselves and the road.

The vehicles sped by, and the paladin poked his head out just enough to get a good look at the number of people in them.  Two or three to a truck bed, obviously armed though something was off about a couple of them.  They were all bundled in layers of coats because while they were clearly out looking for trouble, they didn’t have access to actual armor inside this naturally occurring thunderdome.  James was a little surprised no one was wearing football gear, since there was a grade school here and they must have at least some sports equipment, but maybe no one thought it was useful.

Either way, they were headed for the Wal Mart James had been planning to pay a visit to, in an attempt to cut off the ongoing warlordism of the group that had taken it over.  Alanna was right that box stores like this, and specific ones from this one company, drained towns of other options.  But the worse part was, when a disaster like this hit, it meant there was a single point of control for the most critical resources.

James made a quick decision.

”Spire!  Keep distance, cover us if we need it!  The rest of us, same pairs, Alanna on the flank, Arrush we’re going to go say hi.”

”This is a horrible idea!”  Alanna happily agreed, rising from her crouch behind a shiny new van and checked her rifle.  “I love it.  Let’s go.”

James felt Arrush tap his shoulder, the ratroach moving just behind him like they’d practiced together a thousand times now, and put into effect in a dozen dungeon delves too.  Both of his partner’s instant willingness to go along with his excellent idea was deeply reassuring, and James was smiling an honest broad grin as he left cover, his weaponry safely stowed as he started jogging down the street after the vehicles, everyone else moving into a wide net so that if things went wrong from either upcoming source of trouble, there would be someone in position to provide aid.  Or covering fire.

”Are we going to talk?”  Arrush asked as they jogged, one of his smaller paws clapped on the pommel of the sword sheathed at his waist.  “Or do you think they’ll shoot when they see me?” He paused just long enough that James started to answer before adding, “Or when they see you.”

”I’m not that… okay maybe.”  James said as they took a steady pace across the intersection.  He still checked on reflex for cross traffic, because even though traffic was basically entirely gone due to the lack of available gas and also the cut of the population, he still felt that same compulsion he’d talked about earlier.  “But I’m gonna talk.”

”I hope it works.”  Arrush said steadily, even as he kept up with loping strides at James’ side.

They cut a corner, crossing through the parking lot of something that looked like the world’s most secure and least fun vape shop, before coming to the larger road that cut in front of the massive box store and its equally massive front parking lot.  Just in time to see the three trucks come to a stop, their front tires hitting the little miniature yellow painted curbs in the angled parking spaces as the drivers slammed on the brakes and subjected their passengers to inertia.

Arrush was the one who stopped James this time, his paw catching the human’s armor as he realized a split second sooner than his partner that the people in the back of the trucks were only half armed attackers, and half… well, unless this town was a lot kinkier than anyone had expected, the people who were tightly tied up were probably captives of some sort.

“Shit.”  James said, sliding to a stop and dropping to a crouch behind an electrical box that had been casually vandalized by a half dozen sharpies over the years.  Through his skulljack to the others, he continued without speaking out loud.  “They’re not attacking this place.”  He told them as he watched the group of figures get out of the trucks, half of the ones that weren’t tied up even looking like they were laughing about something.  “They live here.”

”They have prisoners.”  Arrush added in his own silent message to the group.  “Three… four.  One is small.”

”Yeah that’s a kid.”  James confirmed with growing anger.  They weren’t bullying any of the people they had hostage, but they were definitely making it clear, with their guns and the way they were standing, that the option was to get inside the supermarket, or… well, no, that was the only option given.  Through one of his drones, he caught movement on the roof, and tried to zoom in the camera enough to get a good idea of what he was looking at without dipping the flyer low enough to be heard or seen. “Snipers.”  James added to the team.  “Two, at least.”

”They’re in the building with a whole department that sells guns and ammo.”  Alanna pointed out from somewhere behind James and Arrush.  “Probably aren’t shy about shooting.”  There was a brief notification that TQ had started to say something, but then cut himself off before the message came through.  A quirk of the program they used for the skulljack communications, and, James had come to realize, a thing that came from TQ specifically when he was thinking of a wry joke and then decided against it.   Alanna continued.  “They’re way too far forward to catch without teleporting.  Do we go for it?  I could take ‘em.”

James stopped that plan with a pit in his stomach.  “No.  We don’t know how many people are inside, and I know we could win that fight but I don’t want to risk the hostages.  Everyone wait for the guys on the roof to back off, and then we’ll fall back.  Tonight, we can stealth in and scout the place.”

”The doors.”  Arrush pointed from where he was crouched behind a low concrete dividing wall.  “They have to open them by hand, look.”  His eyes focused on the building as he watched people on the inside shoving the sliding doors back into place behind the group that had just entered, and then stacking something against them.  The entrance shutting closed behind the captives like a slow moving maw.

”I got it.”  Zhu said, with James acting as a skulljack sternographer for the navigator.  “There’s eight ways in, and five of them are easy.  Just wait a couple hours for night.”

”Hours?  It’s… oh.”  Arrush looked up at the sun, which was rapidly approaching the edge of the flat grey border wall.  “I hope… I hope they’re okay.”

”Same.”  James whispered out loud.  “Okay, we’re clear for about thirty seconds.  C’mon firefly, let’s get behind the dentist before someone takes a shot at and then tries to handcuff us.”

Backing out of a situation was a lot harder than getting into one, when you were suddenly aware of the fact that there were people with guns and high ground that might take offense to your presence.  But even if they were spotted, there was no sign of it, and soon enough, as a group, they’d completely broken line of sight to the box store.

”Now w-what?”  Tyrone asked, trying not to look like he was too cold.

James had a great answer.  ”Now, we find an empty house and borrow it, I take a nap and talk to Anesh, and we recharge our drones and arms as much as we can.”  He sighed.  “Anyone who has a slip spawning in the zone, figure out where it is, too.  I think mine is at one of those bars, but I can’t tell.  ‘Social hub’ my ass.”  James grumbled.

”Inside sounds great, let’s go knock on some doors.”  Alanna said.

Not that she was cold, and not that being inside would actually warm them up that much in a town with no electricity or gas.  Though maybe they could find a fireplace.  But mostly, she just didn’t want to be out in the open.

None of them did, though they didn’t really say it out loud.  There was just something uncomfortable about how quiet the town of Castleton was.

It wasn’t dead, it wasn’t emptied out.  There were people hanging on, even if they were starving and filthy.  But it was also, already, a ghost town.

James couldn’t help but make a mental list.  Three months meant anyone who had relied on insulin was probably dead.  Any long term care or medication was probably in the same boat.  Anyone who was vulnerable to the cold, especially anyone elderly with no support, was likely also gone.  Anyone who had been an outsider, who hadn’t been accepted to the groups that had secured the main food supplies, was probably equally fucked.

Actually, that brought up a good question.  Had anyone been looting the houses?  The people that had moved into the various camps had probably brought their stuff with them, especially food and other small supplies, but what about the people who had been out of town?  Or who had died to the wall?  Or who had just… died?  Were those survivor groups scavenging?

James didn’t know.  But he did know that the house they picked - empty of all life - looked untouched.  He’d used a charge of Move Through Glass to get in without having to break a window; he’d have picked the lock but hadn’t thought he’d need lockpicks in the middle of the North Dakota wilderness.

“Score, grape juice.”  Riho wasted no time raiding the fridge, which was off, which might have made it warmer than the rest of the house.  “Aaaaaaand mold on everything else.  Damn, guy who lived here loved chinese takeout.  Wait, there isn’t a chinese place in this city, is there?”

”What do you think the doordash charge is on a forty minute drive for kung pao chicken?”  Alanna asked as she got to work closing all the windows and double checking all the locks.  

James didn’t want to think about that worst case scenario.  Instead, he sat on the cold couch, partly using Zhu as an inner blanket layer while TQ inspected the fireplace and everyone else found places to sit and relax for a moment.  Mostly.  Alanna and Tyrone stayed alert, and didn’t loosen their equipment at all; clear views of the windows letting them keep an eye out for anyone approaching while James and Spire recharged their scout drones.

“This sucks.”  Karl’s voice spoke up as James popped open one of his flasks of dream draught potion and downed it, before pulling one of the coffee thermoses out of a bag, checking the label, and pouring some into a frozen glass he’d stolen from the kitchen.  “What are we doing?”

Swallowing the potion with a gulp and knowing he’d be tasting that for a while, James wiped the corner of his mouth and looked over at where the young human was standing by one of the windows looking out at the mess of a backyard.  “I’m taking a nap, so we can figure out what the Order is planning to do.  Alanna, can you…”

”On it!”  His girlfriend was way ahead of him, stepping away back to the front of the house where the original owner had left behind several pairs of shoes, a whole duffel bag they must not have wanted to carry, and a stack of unopened mail from the government.  “Message for Second.  Hey, it’s Alanna.  Can you tell…” her voice faded out as she got 

“And you’re resting.”  James pointed at Karl.  “I know, I know.  You’re tough and durable and could definitely keep walking for another ten miles.  I believe you.  That doesn’t mean you won’t get something out of sitting down for an hour.”  He turned to point at one of the two kitchen chairs.  Whoever had lived here clearly didn’t entertain company that often, James realized.

Karl dropped his bag - carefully, at least - but didn’t sit.  Instead, pacing back and forth, staring at where the others were gathering in the living room as Arrush and Riho tried to find more burnable material than the pile of dried sticks sitting by the fireplace.  “They kidnapped people.  And we let them.”  He said with restrained anger.

”Do you know why?”  Spire-Cast-Behind asked her squire.  “Or are you asking for an explanation?”

”…Yeah.”  Karl said, almost pleadingly.

”That isn’t… alright, listen.”  James leaned forward as he waited for his coffee to cool off, the room barely warming with their collective presence, though the quiet voices of the others around them made this stolen refuge feel a little more comfortable for the moment.  “You’ve been on some delves, right?”

Karl nodded slowly.  “Yeah.  They were cool.  Why?”

”You know how to fight?”  James prompted.  And Karl nodded again, a little more confidently, a little pride in the gesture.  “In a dungeon.”  He surmised, correctly.  “Okay.  Now.  This isn’t universal, but… there’s a massive difference between fighting people and fighting dungeon creations.”  James explained, stripping every trace of judgement from his voice.  “In a dungeon, your opponents are often animals, in a way.  Even the smarter ones are usually dungeon puppets.  So there’s some tactics that have a massive advantage.  Like…?”  He prompted.

The young human, eager to prove that he knew what he was talking about, leapt to answer.  “Ambushes.”  Karl said quickly.  “Or… anything that separates groups?  Most mon- most dungeon life doesn’t use tools, either, right?  So does that count?”

”Excellent answers.”  Spire complimented him placidly as she appraised the collection of wood and kindly that her other coterier had assembled in the fireplace, before splashing a Visiting Tongue cast at the base and lighting the whole assembly up.  A flickering beacon of heat starting to really push back the chill.  “And how do you deal with intelligent targets?”

”…Don’t ambush them?”  Karl said like he realized he was walking into a trap.

Spire hummed.  “And groups in defensive formations?  Swarms?”

”We aren’t supposed to even try.”  Karl said.  “But this is different!”  His voice rose as he figured out where he was being led.

Cutting off the other paladin, James sighed.  “Yeah, man.  It is different.”  He looked down at TQ, who was trying to decide if he was taking off his arms or not.  “The biggest difference in fighting people?  They’re not going to do what you think.  We could ambush them, and that’s still an advantage, but these guys have guards.  Snipers, even.  We’ve got ways to defend against guns, but remember that we found a magical doodad in here already.  We don’t know what magic they have.  We also don’t know how many people are in that building, or how much they’ll actually fight back.”  He closed his eyes, remembering, for a moment, the sound of gunfire and the smell of human blood.  “We don’t know if they’ll break, or fight.  And any plan we make… they’re perfectly capable of adapting to and fighting around.”

”So we just let them kidnap people.”  Karl said, anger back in full force.

”Absolutely fucking not.”  James barked out a laugh.  “But if we just kick in the door and start shooting, we’re likely to get the people we’re trying to help killed, and that’s a worse outcome.  So we’re going to rest up, while I contact Anesh in a dream quest, and in an hour when it gets dark, our resident ninjas are going to phase through the walls of a Wal Mart loading dock and get us a better picture of what we’re looking at.”  He talked while he pulled the clearly dungeontech scroll out of the pack and set it on the table, unrolling it just enough to check the number of survivors.

Thirteen hundred and fifty nine.  Two people had died, just in the last few hours.

“And then?”  Karl asked, fidgeting with the straps on his armor.

“And then we consider our-.”  James started to say.

Alanna bulldozed into his conversation.  “And then we start blasting!”  She said with a sharkish grin that didn’t reach her eyes.  “Hey buddy.  Message is out, so if you’re gonna see if the dreamtime potion works through the wall, now’s the time.  Oh, and I’ve got a demiplane slip in here, so at least they form.  It’s a mile away though.  Might try it later.”  Later, in this case, being after James was awake again, and Riho and Arrush were back from stealthing into another building.  “Anyway, I found a copy of Boggle in this guy’s closet, anyone wanna play while we wait?”

”I would be happy to be boggled.”  TQ said languidly.

The comment got a genuine laugh from James, and he saw Arrush smile too, the ratroach warming his paws by the growing fire as he slowly fed bits of wood and mail from the IRS into it.  “Alright.”  James said as everything settled.  “Don’t let anyone shoot me while I’m out.”  He wrapped his gloved fingers around the cold glass of coffee, the effect of the chilled dungeon beverage not exactly the same as a sleeping potion, but close enough for someone who had gotten a lot of experience napping in dungeons.  “Anything I should tell Anesh?”

”Remind him to walk Auberdeen!”  Alanna instructed him.  “She needs exercise!”

”You say that about everyone.”  James said, downing the coffee with about the same level of despair at the flavor as he had for the potion.

”Yeah, and I’m here getting you exercise.”  Alanna told him.

James deliberately didn’t respond to that, or react to Arrush’s quiet chittering laugh.  Instead, he pried his boots off with his toes, trying to not get his socks wet while he did so, and swung his feet up onto the couch.  Laying back, he closed his eyes while the others kept talking, only taking a moment to press his hand to Alanna’s so Zhu could jump over to her.

Around him, his companions worked on contingency plans for different possibilities in terms of what the Order could do to break them out, what kind of interaction their demiplanes would have, and also what was going on with the magic here.  Now that they had some downtime alone, there were a few spells thrown around too; mapping out part of the city in snow with Liminal Echo so that Zhu could try to use it as an effigy to hunt for things, and a pair of uses of Island Valiant to see if anyone could detect local magic like they could sometimes see green orb effects in progress.

But there was only so much they could do that wasn’t just waiting to recharge equipment from external batteries, or preparing for night when potions and leveler items would let a couple of them gather more personal information on the people occupying the largest structure in the city.  And Alanna’s comment about Boggle appeared to be entirely truthful.

James, his brain slowed down by the cold magic coffee, just let himself become comforted by the wash of voices of people he knew.  And eventually, when he got his Endurance to actually shut up, he drifted off to a light and dreaming sleep.

____

For the first time in her life, Cam found herself not wanting the world to end.

There was a sentiment, which she had first realized she’d held during a social conversation with TQ, that the end of the world was nothing to be afraid of.  A lot of camracondas held that view, it turned out, as did several umbral.  Cam wasn’t sure about ratroaches, as she tended to intimidate many of them out of casual socialization; though she assumed they would appreciate it as well.

After all, when your world had already ended once, your entire life upended, everything you thought was stable whipped out from under you and everything you thought was important fading into the horizon behind, what could possibly happen next that would be as tumultuous?  And when the next world, the one the Order built - the one that Cam helped the Order build, every day with her own efforts - when that world was better than what had come before, it was very hard to miss the old ways.

It will be okay.  It’s only the end of the world.

Cam had said those words to Alanna before, said them to herself before too.  She’d heard them from a half dozen camracondas.  She’d heard the phrase spread through Townton as one of those things that wasn’t a joke, and wasn’t gallows humor either, but was instead an almost playful challenge to the world itself.

It will be okay.

It’s only the end of the world.

Townton had become a home to Cam.  More than the Lair ever was, though the Lair was a place of power that she would likely never really stop spending time at.  But Townton was a whole place.  Small, compared to most places, and fragile, but somewhere that was being purpose built with specific ideas about community, society, and freedom.  A place where Cam had been able to find value in herself, in a way that she had never really been trained how to do while the Last Line was busy giving her a crash course on how to kill monsters and spy on human power structures.

And in the last week, she had found almost no time to be in that home.  Not that this was abnormal.  Sometimes Cam went on dungeon expeditions, sometimes she was given an assignment by Nate or Ben, sometimes she needed to undo whatever problem either James or JP had gotten themselves into.  Though it was usually not James these days.

The point was that spending time away from home was not strange.  What was strange was that she felt like she should be there.  Should be living firsthand the experience of how Townton was adapting to the new population of ratlings, how the umbral were settling in, how the new developments were coming along.  She should be escorting the newer and more skittish necroads, and assisting with construction of the new water network.  She should be home.

Because it might not be there forever.

Instead, Cam was doing reconnaissance work on a nation five thousand miles away, trying to determine the extent of a mass mind control magic so that the Order could maybe risk exfiltrating a handful of people.  She was running new members through combat and disaster training scenarios.  And she was spending an irritating amount of her time trying to track down a pillar.  Not specifically the thing that called itself her father, but any pillar.

The world felt like it was heading toward some form of ending, but this time, it wasn’t just her world.  It was bigger.  And it was actually a world she wanted to live in, so Cam took this incredibly personally.

That was also a new experience.  She never really took things personally before… well, before the chanters, if she thought about it.  Before that wave of eggs hatched and they went from being refugees to residents, kind of at the exact same time she did the same thing.  Prior to that, there was no ‘personal’.  There was information and objectives, and Cam had found that simple and manageable, but if she really looked back on it, it was ultimately unfulfilling.

The idea that there were more problems than the Order could tackle was annoying.  So Cam had taken to multitasking.

”This is humiliating.”  Her Crimson sister said from behind her.  “You cannot expect us to waste time on this.”

”I am not wasting time.”  Cam told her scowling mirror as she sat a crate down in the marked off mustering zone in the Lair’s briefing warehouse.  “I am reviewing our acquired London surveillance footage for indications of where the Tyrannies that did not remain in Buckingham Palace have ended up.  I am preparing to deploy as security for our solution to the problem two of our paladin teams have become part of, which, incidentally, tips the score toward James again.  And I am managing a personal problem.”

The Crimson narrowed her eyes at Cam, though Cam pretended that her wing blocked the view and continued stacking the pile she’d need to hold for the teleport.  The weight seemed stable, but she’d found herself double checking more and more in the last few months.  “What are you keeping score of?”

That hadn’t been what Cam had expected, and she allowed a small smile for her sister.  “James is one of several individuals within the Order of Endless Rooms that is consistently in life threatening danger.”  She said.

”Most baseline humans are.”  The Crimson pointed out.

Cam straightened up, brushing one hand across the heavy white coat that Elizabeth had given her.  The young girl had called it a school project, but Cam had a hard time believing that she’d made the fashion statement of iron grey accents in the outline of shields as a coincidence.  Nor did Cam believe for a second that Elizibeth’s professor wouldn’t have asked why the coat had wing slits and sleeves.  “James is far from baseline.  He is simply in the lead for near death experiences.  I believe one of his friends is in an unspoken competition with him.”

The Crimson didn’t look back at Cam, instead keeping a hunter’s eye on the cluster of humans, camracondas, ratroaches, and a single umbral that were milling about.  A group of Researchers comparing notes, many of them talking in animated voices as they continued to refine what they referred to as ‘a plan’ right down to the last minute.  “Competition I understand.”  The Crimson said, almost as a peace offering.

Cam took it.  She’d had enough of her sisters for a lifetime, but at least that meant she knew how to handle them at least a little.  “And we are going to ensure that the competition continues, without one of the parties involved dying.”

”But not JP.  Good.”

Turning her head like a hawk, Cam stared back at her sister.  “I wasn’t aware you had met.”  She said neutrally.

“He’s one of the shapechangers.  I encountered him patrolling the southern perimeter of Townton’s new constructions.”

That actually made Cam pause for a second.  “No, JP is human.”  She said, finding his profile and sending the image to her phone, holding it up for her sister.  “This is who I am talking about.”

”Yes.”

”No.” Cam pocketed the device, shaking her head.  “You met someone impersonating JP.  Why, I do not know, though I sincerely doubt it is a security risk.  I will still be investigating when we are home again, because…”  Because she had to know.  How could she possibly let this go unquestioned?  “Because of protocol.”  Cam finished.

The Crimson nodded.  This, she also understood.  Even if in reality she didn’t know that Cam was just curious.  “I am still unhappy with being here.”  She declared.  “I should be hunting something, at least.  This is… busywork.  And I don’t know what problem you think you are managing, but it leaves me with nothing to do.”

Cam pointedly did not laugh.  Laughter came easier to her these days, in that it came to her at all, but she knew better than to drive off a sister with it.  ”If I tell you that there will be something or someone to hunt at the end, will you cooperate?”

”Yes.”

“Then I-“ Cam stopped talking suddenly.  Something had changed.  Something was wrong.  She saw her sister tense up, bracing for combat the same way she was, but no one else seemed to have noticed.  The warehouse was full of strands of voices; people planning a Climb delve, a group making phone calls to various local news agencies, the Researchers arguing about totem orientation.  But none of those voices were the threat, and they also hadn’t reacted to its arrival.  “Where.”  She uttered in the voice pitched at the edge of a Camille’s hearing so that only her sister would know.

”Right next to you kiddo.”  A warm voice from an older woman answered, and Cam grabbed hold of her instincts before she backhanded the pillar that had stepped out of thin air.  No.  Not a pillar.  Something else.  But of a kind with the creatures that the Last Line Of Defense was one of.  “Relax, I’m not gonna drag you back into my lagoon.”

Cam flinched, realizing that she had been heard, even if she hadn’t spoken.  “Ma’am.”  She greeted the elderly woman with wrinkled skin pulled over her hawklike face and a bushel of silver charms woven into her hair.  And then, when the ma’am in question gave her a pointed look, Cam corrected with a sigh. “Kiki.”

”You joined the informal club, you need to get yourself used to being informal.”  Kiki told her with the kind of satisfaction that came from a grandmother teaching a young child a particularly fun life lesson for the first time.  “Don’t mind me.  I’m just tagging along.”

”Why?”  The Crimson said, before wincing and almost looking away, having made the mistake of speaking out of turn to a pillar.

Kiki’s own expression softened, and her smile took on a sad note.  “I’m not sure yet.”  The woman said.  “Maybe I don’t even need to, and I’m just doing it to amuse myself.  And isn’t that a treat!  Oh, that reminds me.”  She held out a small ziplock bag.  “Cookie?”

Cam blinked, and opened her mouth to say something, before realizing that a cookie sounded quite nice at the moment.  She took one of the offered baked goods, before having a thought, and selecting a second to hand to the Crimson standing behind her, still in a tense near-combat stance.  “Thank you.”  She told Kiki, having to wave the cookie in her offhand at the Crimson for a good ten seconds to get the other Camille to accept it.  That was as far as her obligation went; she wasn’t going to make her sister eat.  “How much of a risk are you going to be?”  She followed up bluntly.

The laugh Kiki gave was a layer of hot chocolate and heavy blankets, feeding through the winter chill in the warehouse and changing it into something softer and expectant.  “Not sure myself, but not too much this time.  I’ve had a good weekend with everyone’s favorite Attic, so I’m more a person than you’d expect.”  The way Kiki shook her head tugged at Cam’s heart as she realized there was quite a lot of pity in the woman, and it was aimed squarely at her.  “You two kids had a tough time of things, haven’t you?”

”I’ve noticed.”  Cam said sardonically, taking a bite of the cookie.  Fruit and chocolate and sugar exploded in her mouth, and for a moment, she was a child.  She had never been a child, but she had a nostalgic impression of towering kitchen counters and creaking stairs up to her bedroom.  “I think I am recovering, though.”  She said in a quiet tone, staring at the cookie before shaking her head and looking back at Kiki.  “If you are coming along, could you assist with carrying materials?  The Research team insists any of this may be needed for establishing a hole in the perimeter." 

“Since you asked nicely!”  Kiki said, and was only maybe meaning that in the sense that she was interacting with the underlying rules of reality through the lens of polite social conduct.  The old woman leaned a bony elbow on the stack of crates, still looking carefully at Cam.  “You want me to kick everyone into gear?”

An iteration of Anesh that was approaching overheard.   ”Oh, please don’t.”  The human said, voice a study in keeping calm in the face of yet another mess.  “They might argue.  And we finally have a consensus."  He gave Cam a thankful nod, though she could see the exhaustion on his face.  “If you three are our protection…” Anesh glanced at the Crimson.

”I will be prepared for combat, yes.”  The girl said, thankful to have something other than Kiki to respond to.  She was still holding the cookie like it was a land mine, though.

”Thanks.”  Anesh’s simple gratitude threw her off.  “So, it’s seven PM local time, but it’s already effectively midnight inside the zone, if you need to go in.  And we don’t know if anyone can get out once they do.  No power or water in there, and James says they’re looking into a… a warlord of some sort?  But they haven’t found more than just normal people yet.  Normal starving people.”

Kiki patted one of the crates.  “I’ve got some tricks for that.”  She said cryptically.  Cam looked steadily at the crate she’d just brought up from the basement.  It was definitely not full of food, but… she didn’t really want to question the incarnation of lethal kindness.  “What about your tricks?  Got a way to haul your boy’s butt out of there?”

“I never have a problem-“ Anesh closed his mouth suddenly and blushed darkly, cutting off what he was about to say.  “Ahem.”  He cleared his throat.  “Yes.  We have three ideas lined up.  And if we’re lucky then the first one will work perfectly.  Though I want to see the place up close first.  As it turns out, doing math based on my boyfriend’s descriptions of an esoteric spatial phenomena that I was delivered in a dream might not be reliable.”

“I can’t imagine.”  Kiki said dryly.

Anesh was about to continue when a messily dressed ratroach body approached them.  “Are we ready?  I’m not picking up a box until we’re ready.”  Reed asked.

”Waiting on everyone else.”  Anesh said with a nod.  “Shall we stop wasting time, before James finds a way to get himself shot again?”  He raised an arm, waving the rest of the team over that would be assembling a totem on site in the middle of nowhere on a North Dakota winter evening.

Cam appreciated the blunt direction that Anesh brought to the group.  Organization might not be the man’s strong suit, but he was good at simply telling people what was needed and getting them lined up and connected for a pair of telepad deployments.  As the team, still holding conversations, got into position, she hoisted a series of crates and let Kiki settle a hand on her shoulder.  “You’re going to need to do something with that.”  She told the Crimson, who was still keeping distance and had an unsampled cookie in her hand.  “Get that stack.”  Cam indicated the last pile of boxes with her foot, doing her own part to give clear direction.  “And remember to not resist the pull.  You can go with the second group.”

”Right.”  The Crimson gave her a grateful nod.  Or at least, the tiniest gesture that was probably all Cam would be getting for the effort, but she knew what it meant.

The last thing Cam saw before they vanished into one of the Dakotas was her sister mechanically eating half a cookie in one bite, and her face flickering into a confused expression.  Like she was sad about something, and didn’t understand why.

Then Cam was somewhere else, and she let Kiki wander off to stare at the red zone of the affected area’s border while she herself got to work moving boxes of materials and tools into position with the Research team.

Her sister required a third telepad to join her, having been so distracted by her snack that she’d forgotten to not dig in her heels.

But Cam could forgive that.  It wasn’t every day someone’s world ended, and she knew it could be hard to adapt through it.