Chapter 3

April 1, 2018 0920 PST

Sarah quickly followed Joe into the house thanking God for the skill pain tolerance, Sarah was thankful she had leveled it up again, it helped with the pain. However that was one skill she could spend her whole life not leveling up again. She was careful with her wings as she stepped through the doorway and it was then Sarah realized she was taller. Taller! She wanted to do a happy dance, but doing so while hiding from a large animal in the woods was not the time for it. The room she entered was a decent sized living room with several stuffed chairs and in front of the bay window was a fairly beat up dark brown leather couch. Sarah would normally be reluctant to follow a stranger into his house, but with whatever it was in the woods, and him helping with her wing she would take a chance on him. She saw the dogs he had been referring to and while most people would be wary, she had grown up with dogs. Joe told the dogs “Down! Stay!” She was impressed when the dogs immediately dropped to the ground.

Joe knelt down behind the couch and said, “Freaking escape artists, they always manage to get in the house if I leave them in the backyard to long. Normally, I wouldn’t be worried about anything in these woods but considering I’m now a dwarf and you have wings. I think it’s best if we stay out of sight until it either wanders off or we find out what it is.”

Sarah knelt next to Joe and looked out the bay window. She saw a large dark shape moving through the trees, she squinted her eyes trying to get her Analyze skill to work. She was trying hard to focus through the trees and suddenly everything became sharp and clear.

Eagle’s Sight activated. 1-minute duration, 10-minute cooldown

Short-faced bear (Adult), level 2

“It’s a short-faced bear Joe” she said. When she didn’t get a response, she looked over at Joe and he was staring at her. “What?” she asked.

Joe quietly told her, “Those have been extinct for 11,000 years. That’s not possible.” Sarah pointed at her wings and Joe sighed. “How sure are you, Sarah?”

She whispered, “It’s a skill called Analyze. When I focus on something, it gives me some basic information, and it says it’s a level two adult short-faced bear.” Joe looked at her a moment then crawled out of the room on his hands and knees. Sarah continued to watch the large bear move through the trees.

Five minutes later, Joe crawled back next to her and brought up a pair of binoculars. Staring through them he muttered “You may be right.” Sarah could not decide if she should be offended, but considering where the information came from, she would cut him some slack. They both watched the large bear for a few minutes. Suddenly it stopped, began to sniff at the air and then ran off away from the house and out of sight. Joe said, “It’s headed for the Miller’s place. They keep a horse on their land. Short-faced bears were supposedly fond of eating them.” In the distance, they heard a horse screaming a deep roar and then nothing. Joe sighed and told her, “We should be safe for a few days. The bear shouldn’t leave its kill until it’s done feeding. According to scribes...er...paleontologists, they need 32 pounds of meat a day to survive. A horse should keep it fed for at least a week, if not longer.”

“Can we do anything?” Sarah asked.

“Not easily, my guns have holes in them” Joe said, “One of my skills is firearms. Now when I think about guns I see images are of Pre-Civil War weapons. Black powder, smooth bore flintlocks and I don’t own any of those. Although the Millers have some. Rich Miller was a Revolutionary War fanatic, he took me tae the range a few times. He wanted tae show me a real man’s gun. Thankfully, they are not home now. They left tae visit their grandkids in San Diego fer Easter and weren’t supposed tae be back fer a few more days. They had asked me tae keep an eye on their horse.” Joe seemed to become lost in thought after the last comment.

Sarah looked around the room and the place looked trashed, not like it wasn’t taken care of, it just looked like something ate part of his house. Glancing up she saw sunlight coming through holes in his roof. “Joe, what happened to your house? I assume it didn’t always look like this.”

Joe glanced up at the aforementioned roof, “No. Whatever caused all of this,” he waved his hand to indicate their bodies, “destroyed my house.”

“Did you see what happened?” Sarah asked.

“Sorta. It came from the sky. A white cloud or mist. It was odd…dropped straight down. I ran into the house, but it seemed to come through the roof like it wasn’t even there. Next thing I knew, I was laying on the ground, six inches shorter and, well, young again. I’m fifty Sarah but I look like I’m just out of high school.”

Sarah was silent for a time as the thought about what he said. “Sound just like the mist that came into the plane. But I was awake for most of it and it seemed almost self-aware. Oh, and Joe? I grew five inches. My parents are going to freak out when they see me. Joe, I need to get hold of my parents, they probably think I’m dead. Did one of your phones happen survive?”

“Hmm? No, sorry, Sarah. My phones are gone, and the electricity is out as far as I can tell. Everything I had that used electricity has been reduced to small piles of powder.”

“Dammit” Sarah said. She was at a loss on what to do next.

All of Joe’s dogs started to whine and he looked back at them. “They want to know if they can come greet you and by that, I mean they want to come sniff and lick you.” The dogs looked at her hopefully.

Sarah asked, “Will they jump on me? I don’t think my wing could take it.”

Joe looked at his dogs briefly and sternly said “No, they won’t.”

“Then yes, I would like to meet them. I have lived with dogs all my life.” With that said, the dogs walked over and sat down in front of her. They stuck their heads out for pets. She laughed, and Joe introduced her to the dogs.

Joe left Sarah to get to know his dogs. As he walked back to his bedroom he heard the noises the dogs were making translated in his head to a lot of “Pet me!” He knew his guns were a lost cause. But he had collected a few swords while in the Marine Corps and hoped they were in better shape. As he pulled them down from the top shelf in his closet they were all oddly undamaged. He had his non-commissioned officer’s sword from the Marines, a katana he had picked up in Okinawa, a twenty-three-inch French saber bayonet from the 1870’s he found at a yard sale of all things, a fancy double edged parrying dagger and a pair of K-bar fighting knives from the Marines. Dumping them on the bed, he picked up one of the K-bars and clipped it to his belt. Looking at his hands, he figured the only thing that would even fit his hands now was the katana. He knew enough about handling the thirty-one-inch blade not to cut himself, probably. Sighing with regret he placed it on the bed. He had a wood axe and a sledgehammer in the garage. Those would work best for him now. He called out to Sarah asking her to come back to his room. Maybe she could use some of them.

Sarah was enjoying herself which was odd. The plane falling apart and her fall down to Earth, all seemed somehow distant, more like something she experienced a month ago instead of 30 minutes. Sighing, she resumed petting the dogs. She hadn’t had play time with dogs since she left for college. Sadly, they did not allow dogs in the dorm. Charlie, the larger black Labrador, was a serious mooch. She was scratching his chest with her right hand while petting Milo with her left. She had been rotating the dogs in pairs to spread the love when Joe called. She walked down the hall toward his bedroom and saw him standing in front of a bed with several swords laid out. He looked at her as she got closer and asked, “Can you use any of these?”

Sarah glanced over the swords. As she looked at them it was like she could suddenly remember sword lessons; how to hold the sword, how to swing and where to strike. She pointed at the NCO sword, “May I see it?”

Joe nodded. Gestured to the swords, “Help yourself.”

Sarah picked up the sword and drew it from the black sheath. The saber had a lot of fancy etching with some odd runes toward the point. It was a slashing blade, sharp on one edge almost to the cross guard the opposite edge was only sharp about eight inches from the point. “Can I have this one Joe?”

Joe replied “Of course, Ah dinna bring yah back just tae tease yah.” Joe suddenly blushed. “Sorry about that. I’m speaking common, but my primary language is Dwarven and it influences how I speak. Which is weird. I used to think in English, but I can barely recall it now.” Joe started to rub his temples, “Gives me a headache to even try.”

Shaking his head, he focused again on the swords, “So take the NCO sword, and this dagger. The rest we’ll carry for trade if we have the room.” Joe suddenly stopped himself and looked at her. “Sarah, I’ve been assuming you were staying with me. I realize this all is happening suddenly, but from that countdown timer I don’t think there is going to be a normal for us to get back to. You’ve kept your wits about you and you like my dogs, so if you are willing, I would like you to stay with me. No strings attached. It would be good to have someone to watch my back.”

Sarah stared at Joe for a moment not saying anything. The world was going crazy, but Joe seemed to be an honest person and, let’s face it, she had no desire to be walking around by herself. Off and on Scottish accent or not. Besides, he was a dog person. “You have yourself a partner, Joe.

Joe broke into a smile, “Whew, you had me worried for a second. Ok, let me grab a few things from the closet and we’ll go tae the garage. Ah have a few things in there we could use.”

Joe opened the garage door, looking inside, it was just as messed up as his house. Thinking about the swords he hoped the armor he had from his reenactor days was not full of holes. Joe walked to the back of his garage and pulled off a dirty white sheet revealing a pile of metal armor. Joe looked back at Sarah, “Sarah, come here. Some of this should fit you.”

Sarah approached and appeared to be somewhat dubious about the pile of armor. “Joe, is this going help? Didn’t you say smoothbore firearms worked?”

Joe nodded to her, “Oh aye, but one thing yah need tae remember, those type of guns are going tae be few and far between for a while. Also, a good breastplate could stop a musket ball. It wasn’t until 1765 and the…” Joe grew quite for a minute. “That was seriously strange lass. Ah knew what changed. Ah knew how it was done, but when Ah think on it how Ah get nothing.” After a moment Joe shrugged, “Nothing tae be done and best nae tae dwell on it. Now back tae the armor. The biggest threat tae us is going tae be tooth, claw, and whatever makeshift weapons desperate people will be wielding. Against those, this armor will give us a serious edge.”

Sarah asked, “Joe, where did you get all this?”

Joe smiled,” I used ta spend mah weekends pretending I was a German mercenary from the 1400’s, fun times, but I did a few back to back tours in the desert and never got back into it. Lucky for us though. Now let’s see what fits you.” Joe pulled out something that looked like heavy knee-high boots with a steel plate attached to the front. “I bought these for a girl I used to date. They are heavy leather boots with steel greaves attached, see if they fit.”

Sarah removed her sneakers and tried on the heavy boots, “They fit! Great actually.”

Joe grunted and pulled out a knee length chainmail hauberk, “Weird, these used tae be just rings twisted together, now the rings are solid.”

“Is that good?” Sarah asked.

Joe nodded “Oh aye it’s great actually less likely to break, but it must be System doing more than tearing things apart. This is made to go over a gambeson.” Joe set the chainmail down and picked up what looked like a thick long sleeve jacket. “This is a gambeson.” Joe stared at her wings, “Let’s see how game-like things are now, try putting this on.” Sarah took the gambeson and put her arm in.

Would you like to adjust the Gambeson Humanoid to Gambeson Winged Humanoid? This can only be done once.

Sarah said, “Joe I got a message asking if I wanted to convert it to winged human.”

Joe said “Do it. Everything Ah give you is fer your use.”

Sarah said, “Yes, adjust it.” Before Sarah's eyes, the gambeson added long slots for her wings with leather straps at the bottom to close it back up.

Joe said, “Here let me help you get that on, at least the first time.” Sarah received the same message for the Hauberk. The same for the rest of the armor, a pair of vambraces for her forearms, heavy gloves covered in chainmail for her hands, a padded hood with a chainmail coif that covered her head and neck. To top it all off, a steel helmet that covered the top of her head, back of her neck and had steel plate coming down between her eyes to protect her nose. After she placed the helm on her head, Joe looked her up and down. “You look awesome Sarah. Do you have any weapon skills besides sword?”

Sarah thought to herself and said, “Unarmed and shield?”

Joe nodded and said, “Got just the thing.”

Joe reached behind a stack of boxes and brought out a beautiful round shield. “It’s a Scottish targe, ¾ inch plywood covered in thick leather with brass stud reinforcement. It’s a pretty piece I got as a wall hanging, but its fully functional. They were also known to have a chance at stopping a musket ball.” Joe handed it to her and it fit comfortably on her right arm. “Now yer set.” A blue screen appeared:

You have the option to convert the armor you are wearing to a set of high steel Valkyrie armor of weight reduction. Do you accept?

Sarah said “Yes!”

A cloud of mist seemed to come out of nowhere and briefly surrounded her. After it faded away, the armor had changed. It now looked custom made for her body and it felt like she was wearing normal clothing. “This is so awesome.”

Joe stared at the transformed armor on Sarah, noticing how it hugged her curves. “Damn”, Joe thought and started to quickly get his own armor on. Every time he received a message he said yes. The only differences in their armor was he had steel armor of overlapping plates on his shoulders, a set of articulate plate for his hands and arms.

“No shield.” Joe said

You have the option to convert the armor you are wearing to a set of high steel Heavy Mountain Dwarf armor of knockback resistance. Do you accept?

Joe smiled and said, “Yes.”

This is the final bonus you will receive for being The First. Good Luck Joe. System.

A dense cloud of mist surrounded Joe and when it faded away his armor looked thicker. Everything from the helmet to the boots looked like it was made from ¼ inch plate and the rings of his mail had tripled in thickness leaving almost no space between them. The armor was heavy. He was not sure how well he could maneuver but as he started moving around the armor seemed to lighten until it returned to its original weight.

Racial bonus Mountain Dwarf applied, armor weight and penalties reduced from Heavy Armor to Medium Armor

Joe said, “Well let’s get a few things together and get moving. We need to decide where we want to go but staying near a 1500-pound carnivore is a bad idea.”

Joe was staring at the pile of supplies they were gathering and starting to wonder how they would be able to haul it all. Then he remembered the wagon he had for the lawn tractor, as he walked to the shed he hoped the Event hadn't messed it up to badly. Staring at the wagon he was not sure what to to. The wagon was 5 feet wide and 10 feet long with a 2 foot tall barrier to keep things in, and it was currently sitting on four flat tires. The holes in the wagon body itself was not a big deal since he was not planning on hauling dirt, but the tires were shot. The axel oddly appeared untouched, not that it was a complicated design, it was a metal rod passing through a greased hollow metal pipe. Maybe because it was so primitive in design? Shrugging he hauled it do the garage to see what he could do with it.

Joe and Sarah stared at the bastardized wheels on the wagon, proud of the final product. They had worked on the wagon for several hours using four disc shaped 25 pound weights from his weight set, a few dozen bolts, and allot of elbow grease. It would work and that was what was important. Joe said, "Lets load it up and lets see how well I can pull it, if it works I say we call it it a day and head out first thing in the morning."

Sarah looked at him and asked. "What about the bear?"

Joe nodded, "Yeah I was thinking about it, but I don't think it will leave its kill as long as we leave it alone. So we should have a few days, but we should still leave tomorrow, no reason to push it. I don't know about you but I'm hungry, how does cold pizza sound?"

System watched them toss some things into a couple of backpacks and a small wagon. The power requirements to make and maintain the “enchantments” was negligible. System decided to keep a small part of itself dedicated to watching them since it believed it would get some good returns on its investment.

Interlude I - 15 miles northeast of Fresno, California

A pair of F-15E Eagle Fighters were on patrol outside of the contaminated area. Flight commander Lt. Commander Alfred “Slider” Johnson of the Air National Guard was watching the ring of contamination spread and there was not a damn thing he could do about it. There were four of these things spreading out across the United States and except for the one centered on the Pentagon, the rest made no sense. The Pentagon made sense as a move to remove military leadership, but Yellowstone National Park, Oakhurst, and middle of nowhere Texas seemed pointless. They had tried everything, except nukes over the last 24 hours with no results. Rumor had it that China had tried nukes to no effect. As Slider banked to the left away from the contamination, he saw cars packed bumper to bumper heading south on Highway 99. Not going to do them much good to run, there were three of those rings of contamination spreading out in Mexico.