After archery, we sat around and rested for a bit. It was a beautiful day. Warm, but not hot. Oklahoma has weird temperatures. Some Junes it is 102⁰, some Junes it’s 65⁰ (that’s Fahrenheit, not Celcius, by the way.) This June or rather Quietus, I guessed it was closer to 70⁰. I wondered if the weather was going to change since the calendar said that the month now was a January equivalent. Was the temperature going to slowly or rapidly go down to be more aligned with winter weather or did the seasons change or even vanish? Did the whole world become like southern California?

I must have been looking a little stressed because Tanya started saying my name, “Monsoon, Monsoon, Monsoon!” I finally heard her and looked over and she gave me a peace sign and said, “Don’t worry, be happy!”

Janet and I both laughed because what else can you do in the midst of an apocalypse? We sat in the shade of our target tree and chilled for a while. The girls talked and I sat and listened. Of course, we all made sure to be facing a different direction because, well, what else can you do in the midst of an apocalypse.

“Ok,” I finally said. “Who's up for Mighty Max?”

“Let’s do this thing,” said Janet. “I want to see what Mighty Max turned into.”

“So do I,” I said. “I set aside some stuff and I’d like to pick it up if I can.”

“I want some Diet Dr. Pepper,” said Janet. “I have a three bottle a day habit that I don’t intend to kick. Let’s get me some!” she said and then stood up and started walking towards the loading dock!

“Woah, girl! Woah!” Tanya shouted with me echoing something similar. “We’ve got to plan this!”

“Yes,” I said to Janet. “Remember the apocalypse? That thing that happened just last night? Remember the shelves folding up, turning from metal to wood, things disappearing? Remember that?”

“I got it! I got it!” she said. “I just am going crazy for a diet DP right now. So how do you want to handle this?

“I say we handle it like it’s going to be our first combat. We march inside, slowly and carefully, and try to safely explore the building. As of right now, I’ve only had to fight one thing, but that’s one thing more than I’ve had to fight before in my entire life. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a couple of fist fights, bully smackdowns, and even been mugged in Boston once, but that acid slime was the first time that something was actively trying to kill me and, I killed it! We need to, as you said, ‘start like we mean to proceed!’ Everybody needs to armor up, get your weapons ready, assume our formation and, then and only then, head inside. Better a slow approach, then a dead reproach!” I said.

There was a pause. “It was something my Sensei used to say,” I said. Both of the girls looked at me and shook their heads, “Give me a break! My leadership is only Level 3!”

We put on our leather armor, the girls inside the teepee, me outside behind it. I left my clothes on underneath to prevent chafing; hopefully, I wouldn’t smell too bad. I doubted that I’d be that lucky though, judging by my past experience of wearing leather shoes in the summer.

I stored my bow and quiver in my inventory, drew the machete and equipped the shield. The girls loaded their crossbows and made sure that their machetes were handy. We quickly went over the drill, shoot, draw their machetes, Tanya casts Force Bolt, Janet’s on healz. I’d be out in front with both of the girls behind me and Tanya would be our tactician, she’d be directing us in the fight.

We hopped up on the loading dock, took our positions, and faced the back door of Mighty Max, the door was open and the space beyond it was black in the afternoon sun.

“Everyone ready?” Tanya asked.

“Yeah!” “I am!” we responded.

We stepped into the darkness within and looked around. The room was still the shipping area. It ran the whole length of the back wall of the Mighty Max. Where before it had a shipping manager’s office and a huge number of shelves (metal ones that were built in and left over from the days when the store was a Walmart), it now was an empty room. Not even dusty yet, although with the loading dock door opened, it would soon become that way.

Tanya yelled out “Light” and then both she and I cast our light spell. I cast it on the center of my shield. It was the equivalent to about 12 candles since I leveled it up. The light was yellow and not really very bright at all. Maybe a quarter or slightly more as bright as an old 60-watt bulb. The light spells lit up the room, but the shadows were pretty heavy in the corners. There didn’t seem to be anything in the room. I waved my shield from side to side, directing the light around the room and nothing moved, except the shadows. The door back into the store was black and, vaguely, we could sense movement. Hear it too, a sound like paws or unshod feet moving away from the light.

Tanya had cast her spell on the end of her machete and was now holding it up.

“Monsoon,” she said. “We need to do better with the lights. I’ve got mine on the machete, but it’s going to not be that great if I have to hit something with it.”

“I agree,” I said. “Maybe we can step outside and try to figure out something? What do you think?”

“Dr. Pepper! Dr. Pepper” Janet chanted.

Tanya and I both laughed and then Tanya said, “Let’s at least walk the room, see if anything’s changed and then move to the doorway. What do you say?”

“It’s alright by me,” I said. “Janet?”

“Tanya’s the leader, I’m just the healz! Let’s do this!” she shouted.

“Quiet!” I whispered back. “Didn’t you hear that movement in the other room? Let’s not let them come to us, let’s go to them!”

“Sorry, sorry!” she whispered back. “Are you ready, fearless leader?” she asked Tanya. Tanya just nodded and then said, “Skinny T-Up!”

We both looked at her and she rolled her eyes at us and said, “New call, it’s a starting call. It means to form the triangle and get ready to move out.”

Janet and I both looked at her, shrugged at each other, and then assumed our positions, me at the point facing the door. Then she said another new call, “Left Drift.” Again both Janet and I looked at each other and then looked at Tanya. “It means to keep facing forward while moving to the left at a slow walking pace.”

“We need to talk about your calls,” I said. “Not that I mind them, just probably combat isn’t the place to learn them at, you think?”

“Silence on the line,” Janet said and then quietly snickered.

We marched along the back of the store wall, keeping our eyes peeled on the doorway, but moving along the back wall. There was a strange, acrid odor that I had smelled before, but couldn’t identify.

“Hamster pee!” Tanya whispered. “That’s what I’m smelling, hamster pee!”

She was right. The odor was unmistakable. It brought back shades of Miss Bingham’s classroom at the University School for Gifted and Talented Children. We used to take turns keeping the class hamster and changing its litter. The room smelled exactly like the bottom of the cage did.

We reached the far wall and looked in the corners, other than shadows and something that looked like big mouse droppings, there was nothing there.

“What do you suppose happened to all of the shelves and stock?” I asked. “There wasn’t a lot back here, but there was some cleaning supplies, some plastic takeout dishes, forks, and stuff, and there was also a bunch of CO2 and soda tanks here last night.”

Both girls shook their heads, saying they had no idea either.

Keeping our formation, we walked the back wall toward the other side as well. My chest felt tight and I was sweating. In the web novels, the MC had plot armor, I just had light-weight, leather gear. I wasn’t particularly happy about that either. Once again, nothing but shadows and suspiciously large mouse droppings.

“Skinny T-Up to the door,” Tanya said and we marched toward the doorway to the interior of Mighty Max. I reached the door and held my place. I heard the girls stopping behind me. The light from my shield did a pretty good job of illuminating the room beyond, at least as much as it could. Originally in Mighty Max, this room was a big square, rectangle really. It was about 500 feet wide by 300 feet long. The front doors were on the northeast end, the loading dock was on the south end, with the showers, locker rooms, and the restrooms on the east side (women’s) and west side (men’s). The Indian diorama used to sit in the middle of the space while the vendor tables were all around while the two eating areas (the soda fountain and the pizza place) took up the front half of the space. The convenience store took up space next to the entrances.

The light couldn’t penetrate the room even though the room had gotten smaller because there was an enormous pile of what looked like broken wooden shelves, chairs, tables, dolls and other crap from the trading post. Somehow it looked like it was pulled together purposefully, rather than dumped like a construction trash pile. At the base and other locations in the pile, there were dark holes about a foot or two in radius. We stood and studied the pile and what we could see of the room for a minute or two, trying to decide what we were going to do.

“Mana check,” said Tanya.

“I’m down 10,” I said.

“Full up,” said Janet.

“Down 10,” said Tanya. “We going to do this, or what?”

“I don’t know,” said Janet. “What the hell happened to this place? The room’s smaller and has this big nest thing right in the middle of it. I don’t know.”

“Well, that clearly looks like a nest for something and I left the boxes with the food and stuff up front by what used to be the convenience store. We can do this many ways, try to draw out what lives in that nest which I’m guessing might be some big rats or mice or something similar and fight them here in the doorway where hopefully they can’t swarm us. Or we can try to slip around them; however, I’m pretty sure that whatever lives inside that nest knows we’re out here. Or we can leave out the back, go around to the front and try to reclaim the goods I left without disturbing the nest. What do you think?” I asked.

“I don’t like rats!” said Tanya.

“Me neither,” said Janet.

“Ok, outside it is,” I said.

“B-Up exit,” said Tanya and we began to back slowly toward the loading dock.