Chapter 9

Mary met them at the town gate. “Thank you. Thank you,” she said, hugging each of them. “You have saved lives.” She waved them in and the moment they were through, two guards put their shoulders on the heavy doors and it clanged shut firmly. “We have a little celebration planned in the town centre and a house for you guys to use. I will show you that first.”

The house she led them to was impressive. “Six bedrooms. Gravity fed cold and hot water in the lower floor bathrooms.” She pointed to some tanks that had been installed on an upstairs balcony. “Toilets work.”

“Hot water?” Omala asked.

“Yes,”

Omala and Jules squealed.

Mary smiled at their obvious joy. “Judy just heated it up. It should be enough for all of you, but if you need more, I can get her back.”

“Bags first shower,” Jules yelled.

“It has been one day,” he objected. “And before that, the training facility had unlimited showers.” Jules ignored him and hurried inside the house.

“While they are getting settled, maybe you can show me the town square.”

Mary nodded and immediately waved. “This way, boys.”

With a start, he realised that all the ‘boys’ minus Mike, who had followed Charlotte had stayed outside.

“How did we get the accommodation?” he asked Mary once they started walking.

“The occupants volunteered to vacate for a day.”

“You shouldn’t have.”

“Of course, we had too,” she said, waving his protest away.

“And how many of you have hot water?”

Mary smiled at that question. “Everyone has access to communal showers, but we have re-plumbed maybe a quarter of the houses. Waters heated at least once a day, depending on when the mages can get there.”

“That’s impressive.”

“Security, food, shelter and now luxuries.” Mary read off the list. “But we are not naïve. Well, Parker isn’t. He has us pushing our skills constantly. Especially non-combatants,” she added.

“The mages are not fighters.”

“Not them, but the plumbing, getting toilets fixed, tailors,” she plucked her top, “cooks, cleaners, all of those support classes are working their butts off. We are a community.”

“No slackers?”

Mary laughed. “There are always slackers, but not many of them to be honest.”

They reached the central square, but it wasn’t paved. Instead, it had once been a simple grassed park. The grass had been tramped and magic was used to prevent it from getting muddy. In one corner, there was still an intact playground with two kids using the swings. Adrian stood there in silence, watching. A lump formed in his throat. There were about twenty children, ranging from five to twelve running around. Their minders all wore swords, but the kids, they were being kids.

He wiped a tear away and then looked at the rest of the place. Three large fires burned, each of them reduced to mostly coals with spits roasting above all of them. The smell was divine.

“It’s self-serve,” Mary told them and Adrian realised that all of them had been watching the kids play. A couple of minutes had passed. “We run meals here two times a day. On any night, half the town comes.”

“Half?” Adrian asked.

“Sometimes I like to eat with the community,” Mary confirmed, “and other days just with my husband.”

“Nice setup.”

Mary noticed the way Praveen and Galan were looking at the food. “Go, go. Help yourselves.”

The others immediately moved forward. Leaving Adrian standing next to Mary. It was almost dark, but the kids were still playing.

“Do you use money?” Adrian asked.

Mary shook her head. “We are running the place like a communal village. Everything belongs to the town. All loot goes to the town and we have an unofficial merit system, but if Parker needs something, the resources go to him.”

“Is he the boss?”

“Of security, but…” She shrugged. That made sense. If your security guy says he wants more swords in this new world, you did not argue. You just get it to him as soon as possible.

Adrian noticed a trader.

“Do you bargain with the traders?”

“Yeah, we worked that out. It’s the main reason we collect everything together.”

Adrian’s stomach rumbled loudly, and in front of him the play was breaking up. “Do you mind if I go eat?”

Mary laughed. “It’s why I brought you here. You go. I’ll go back to the house to escort the others over when they are ready.”

Adrian went and got some juicy cuts of meat, hot potato chips, and an icy cold local home-brewed beer. Smiling happily, he sat on the bench next to Galan. The park had entire rows of solid looking tables and benches set up for people to eat on.

“To a job well done,” he said happily clinking glasses with the boys. “Despite our attempts to self-sabotage.”

He got stuck in his food contentedly observing the surrounding dynamics. It all reminded him of Wagga, that companionship which had been forged from a mutual struggle for survival.

“Good place,” Adrian said, looking around.

“Yep,” Galan agreed. “These guys got their head screwed on.”

He got rudely pushed to the side as Jules squeezed between them.

“Hey,” he protested just catching his beer before it went flying. “The seat next to me was free.”

“I like the bench.” She elbowed him playfully and tasted the beer. “Good,” she declared after a moment.

Praveen brought over half a dozen drinks. “Thanks for the save back then. Beers on me tonight.”

“They’re free,” Galan reminded Praveen and everyone else.

Adrian laughed. “I used to claim the same when the corporate credit card came out.”

“You’re a billionaire man,” Praveen grumbled. “It is not like I can say thank you by buying you something you need.”

“True,”

Jules ended up laughing and spluttering as a mouthful of beer went flying across the table.

“Gross,” Andrew, the earth mage complained. But everyone was smiling.

“We really missed an opportunity to get a superhero name,” Jules mused. “Like the Avengers.”

Adrian had a drink and looked at Jules speculatively. “Don’t we need personal names as well?”

“You’re Shadowman Fitzgerald,” Andrew told him confidently.

“Or The Billionaire.” Jules chimed in.

“She’s The Berserker,” Andrew continued.

“Lightning Berserker, thank you very much.”

“Nah, just The Berserker. Adding lightning doesn’t have the right ring.”

Jules mock pouted at Andrew.

“We don’t get to choose our nicknames,” Andrew continued. “Mike’s the Mad Tactician.”

Adrian lowered his beer before taking a sip, chuckling and glad he hadn’t mimicked Jules’s previous effort. “I am not sure about Charlotte. There are just so many ways to go.”

“Scarlet Axe,” Charlotte suggested, sitting on the other side of the table.

Andrew hesitated. “That’s actually pretty good. I was trying to link life steal, tanking and your hair colour. Ok some of us get to choose our own superhero names.”

“I’m Tank,” Praveen declared.

Andrew smirked and then winked at Jules. “I was thinking Clumsy.”

The table rocked. Praveen grabbed his knee having obviously tried to kick Andrew under the table and hit some supports.

Andrew burst out laughing. “Did you just try to kick me under the table and miss? And hurt yourself?”

“No.”

“You did,” Galan said through his laughter. “Your name is so Clumsy.”

“Praveen the Fearless.”

“Nope, Clumsy, who else.” Andrew’s eyes fell on Galan.

“Unfortunately, I haven’t achieved a sufficient number of legendary deeds,” Galan said solemnly, “to have earnt a superhero name. Unfortunately, I have not tripped over my own feet in the face of danger or kicked the table by accident. However, by the end of the night,” he stood and raised his hands to emphasise his declaration, “after consuming litres of beer I’ll attempt to match Clumsy’s heroic feats.”

The entire table burst into laughter.

Andrew looked around his eyes landing on the two healers. “Joanne is Limb Grower and Omala is Life Saver.”

“Not Life Saver. Call her Candy instead. You know get it a step removed from the source.” Charlotte was giggling at her suggestion.

The healer spun towards Charlotte in outrage. “No way am I being called Candy.”

“Life Saver,” Andrew said. “Unless you guys are brave enough to call her Candy.”

“No.”

“Never.”

“Nope.”

“You guys are boring,” Jules said.

“Will you call her Candy?” Andrew challenged.

“With my regeneration, I don’t really need healing so…” Omala glowered at her. “On second thought, Life Saver is great. But,” she fixed a glare on Andrew, “if you keep making them so lame I’ll make one up for you.”

Andrew laughed. “I’m so open to suggestions.”

They threw around options but none were good enough to stick.

Mary and her husband joined the conversation and it turned to how the town had survived. Basically, just everyone pitching in together.

“So, what can we expect from Wangaratta?” Jules finally asked.

Mary hesitated. “I don’t know. Chiltern changed so fast.” Silence filled the table at the reminder.

“Chiltern’s not relevant,” Mary’s husband interjected. “Wangaratta is a powerhouse. I reckon they have over twenty thousand people.”

“You are right,” Mary agreed, patting his hand absently. “They have had it rough. Monsters are everywhere. There is an infestation of octopus-like things about four kilometres out of town that they have been fighting since day one. I reckon their levels are as high as us, maybe higher.” She shrugged and laughed a little self-consciously. “Those octopus creatures have kept them occupied.”

“Manga octopods,” the husband supplied the name.

Mana Octopods

Pack hunters that are weak in isolation. Occasionally have been known to form large swarms to defend captured territory. They mainly use bursts of mana to increase strength and speed.

“Mana Octopods?” he clarified.

“Yes.” Mary clicked her fingers and pointed at him. “That is their name.”

“Do you think they will destroy Wangaratta?”

“They haven’t yet. They seem pretty passive and have not been expanding.”

“Over two months? Mike, do you have any theories?”

“Nothing specific, but dense groupings of monsters usually spread out.”

Something was not right.

“That is not what they are doing,” Mary said. “But after Chiltern and the shintopurs, Wangaratta has stepped up and started fighting them more. That was an eye opener you can’t leave concentrated Alpha monsters nearby.”

“Like the meerkats,” Jules said.

“Exactly,” Mary proclaimed. “It’s our country and we are going to win it back.” She drank from a water bottle. “All of it,” she declared fiercely.

“I’ll drink to that,” Adrian said, toasting. “To claiming the whole country back.”

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