Chapter 7

April 2, 2018 2115 Hrs.

They all sat around a fire about six miles from the Miller’s place. Joe had hoped to make better time, but it was not meant to be. They had been discussing possibilities while the bear meat cooked. Joe focused on suppressing his "Dwarven" accent, "We’ll, I think any size town is going to be a disaster. We may find allies, but food is going to be running short in a few days. With the way a lot of people have been embracing their new races I don’t want to be near any towns when that happens. In fantasy most of what were considered evil races had no problem with eating other intelligent species.” Looking over to Rachel, Joe said “I’m sorry lass, but they will have no problem looking at other races as a source of food.” Rachel reached over and gave Donna a hug.

“I got a good look at all the races”, Joe continued, “Being the first person changed allowed me to pick my race. I don’t remember them all, but for every elf, dwarf, and gnome; there was a troll, ogre, vampire, or ghoul. That’s just to name a few. Not everyone is going to go nuts, but enough will to turn towns into battle zones. Bass Lake is a small town just down the road, population 22,000, it is spread around the rather large lake with most of the population on the opposite bank from where we will approach. I think we may try and recruit a few more people and from there I have some ideas, but I would like to hear what you all have to say.”

Liz stared at Joe across from the fire as he talked about their options. Her hand caressed the butt of one of the flintlock pistols she had been given. When she had first been changed she thought it was a dream come true, from wheelchair bound paraplegic to a gnome with working legs. She had played a ton of computer games, and read even more books, so she had a clue when she woke up. Unarmed I and Firearms III was no help when those asshole orcs broke into her home and.. Focus, remember looking down the barrel of the gun, blowing that assholes brains all over the grass. Liz focused again on Joe’s face, she owed him, so until that debt was settled she would be with him, Gnomes settled their debts. Thinking of what he said she thought of something. “Joe there is a metal artist who has a forge living in bass lake, we should try and contact him. Also if were staying out of towns, I figure Yosemite Valley, Iron Mountain or any of the abandoned gold mines in the area would be good places to hole up in.”

Joe was surprised how fast Liz had come back to herself. She looked kinda badass with all the pistols on her. She had four flintlock pistols about her person, the saber bayonet of his strapped to her side, and the recently recovered leather armor from the short-faced bear loot drop. It covered her torso, shoulders and upper thighs, reminded him of Roman armor. When she finished speaking, he thought about what she said. The metal artist was a no brainer, if he hadn’t changed and forgotten his humanity. She also thought along the same lines as he did. Joe looked at the group and started to explain their options. “We’ll Yosemite Valley is about 50 miles from Bass Lake, and is probably a war zone. Were looking at 15000 tourists, think about what happened around here. According to Donna and Liz the orcs were a motorcycle club headed from Yosemite when the Event hit. I don't mean a gang either, just a bunch of friends who got together for rides. The goblins were petty criminals, turned into evil goblins right out of a book. I think Yosemite is out, we would have to go through two small towns and still have to deal with all the people in Yosemite. Iron Mountain is 28 miles east of Bass Lake . It’ll take just as long because of the terrain. We’ll be on hiking trails for about half the trip. No one lives there because of the terrain and because it is part of the national forest. The gold mines could get attention again from other underground races. Sarah? Rachel? Donna? Can you think of any other options?”

Rachel looked around at the group, and said, “Joe I still need to settle things with Hairy, I was hoping we could take care of that before we went anywhere else.”

Joe nodded, “I understand Rachel, and I went to school with your folks, came home on leave to be with them and was there at your birth. I want that goblin, but I want to make sure I get him and not die trying to reach him. He may not have even survived that group running away, goblins are not kind to leaders who fail them. Give me a few months and I expect to be able to tunnel into Oakhurst from wherever we end up.. We’ll survey the scene, find out if he is still alive, and if he is, where to find him. Then we'll settle our accounts with him. Does that work with you?”

Rachel nodded, “I can live with that.”

Sarah said,” What about food? I’m a city girl so not sure what’s around here.”

Joe nodded, “It is an issue. That said, we have a large amount of local game and the local lakes have been stocked with fish. What the System has done with all of this is unclear.”

Joe continued, “I have been going over my profession skills. If you just think about them, you can get information on how you can apply them. I have Stone Shaping, Dwarven Structural Engineering, and Runecrafting. They are all profession skills that will allow me to build both underground and above ground.” Joe picked up a chunk of decomposing granite laying near him. Holding it in his hands he focused.

Stone Shaping III, skill check successful.

Mana loss -5

The stone compressed, becoming denser, moss fell from between his fingers and the clump of decomposing granite took the shape of a perfect square approximate the same size as the original clump. Continuing to focus on the granite, he added a final touch.

Mana loss -2

Joe stared at the polished square of granite. “Now if the granite is already solid, I can make even bigger shapes, form tunnels, and... “Joe took a gold coin out of his coin pouch, bending the coin in half to give him an edge he again focused.

Runecraft skill II, skill check failed!

Mana loss -25

Frowning he again focused.

Runecraft skill II, skill check successful.

Mana loss -10

He could see lines forming on the stone, He followed it with the edge of the coin leaving lines of gold in its wake. He was about halfway through when the lines started to fade, he again focused.

Mana loss -10

As he finished tracing the lines on the stone he was happy another skill check was not required, he traced the final activation rune. “Done.” He placed the remains of the coin in his pouch. With a flourish, he touched the activation rune and one side of the stone lit up. Another tap of the rune and the light went off.

“This will allow us tae set up growing rooms underground. We’ll have tae bring in soil, but this will allow us tae grow crops in the winter months and we have all summer to set it up.”

Looking over at Sarah, Joe said, “With the gold you found at the Millers, we have enough fer some quality Runecrafting.”

Sarah smiled at the memory of finding the floor safe in one of the closets. She had been looking for durable outdoor clothes when she stubbed her toe on the safe handle. The combination was the same for the gun safe, and inside they found 10 five-troy ounce gold bars, 50 one-troy ounce gold coins, 237 Eagle silver dollars and one sterling silver flute.

They discovered a new facet of the system when Joe wished out loud for an inventory system. A 12 inch circular opening appeared, the edges of the opening glowed and runes appeared to rotate around the opening. It cost fifty mana to open and lasted 60 seconds. It gave you access to the classic inventory system, six storage areas, each area held one large, five medium or 50 small items, downside they all had to be the same and fit through the hole. They could also store an almost unlimited amount of the same coin type. Joe tested it out and he said the insides felt like a opening cut into granite. Joe took the small gold bars for Runecrafting and they split the remainder with everyone in the new party of five: 10 gold coins and 47 silver coins each. The flute, they all agreed, went to Donna because as a bard she needed an instrument. Joe had told them to hold on to the coins for now. It may be years before they had real value. Sarah still felt rich. Watching him runecraft, she better understood the need for him to keep the thin gold bars. Thinking back on the inventory system the level of technology required to do something like that was way beyond what Earth was able to pull off. Her money was on aliens. Why they would do this to them she was unsure, and ultimately did not matter, they were stuck and she highly doubted any country would be able to do a damn thing about it.

Thinking of all the talks they had during the day Sarah came to a decision. She said. “So, more people at Yosemite, or a good source of iron ore at Iron Mountain is what it comes down to. I vote for Iron Mountain. We can always add people once we’re set up. Rachel, what do you think?”

Rachel said, “Will I fit in the tunnels? I’m not really built for it.”

Joe smiled, “I’m making them, so you will have plenty of room. Also, we’ll have buildings outside, and once I get my stone shaping leveled up, I should be able to run tunnels out to Mammoth Town. Bass Lake will take longer but straight lines are so much faster. A 50-mile trip to Yosemite by road is 12 miles as the crow flies.”

Rachel said, “I vote for Iron Mountain, invite people in.

Joe nodded, “Liz your thoughts?”

Liz quickly said, “Iron Mountain, less people.”

Joe looked over to Donna, “Donna?”

Donna said, “Same, Iron Mountain.”

Joe nodded, and said, “Iron Mountain it is. We’ll try and pick up a few more people and supplies in Bass Lake. There are some more houses we can check tomorrow. We’ll check them to see if someone is home. If they are empty, we’ll check for supplies.

“Ok that’s it for tonight. I’ll be last watch” Joe stated. “We’ll stand watch in pairs, three hours, and then wake the next. Before you ask, you can use my watch. It’s a windup watch of my dad’s, and it appears to work fine.” Taking it out of his pouch, he checked the time and wound it up. “We’ll rotate the watch, so no one gets the worst time every night. Sarah, you and Donna first, then Rachel and Liz, and me and the dogs last. Sleep in your armor with weapons close. We won’t have time to get dressed if were attacked.”

April 3, 0330 Hrs.

Joe was awakened for his watch at 3:30AM. He was honestly surprised they hadn’t been attacked. It took some time for him to fall asleep as there was the occasional roar or screech in the distance. Adding more wood to the fire, he sent the dogs out to do a quick check around the camp and to take care of business. On the bright side, he didn't have to pick any of it up. Once they were done, he took a shovel and did his own business. As he was putting up his shovel he heard something move in the trees. Glancing up he could make out the shape of an owl up in the tree’s. Thinking a flying beast would come in handy he focused on the owl after staring at the owl for several minutes nothing seemed to happen, he tried every way he could think of to connect to the owl with no success. Then he got a blue box.

This is Administrator Aonea, you are unable to tame further animals until you acquire the tame skill, raise your intelligence or advance to level 5.

Frowning he stared at the box for several minutes, then shrugged his shoulders and let it go. The next three hours passed quickly, and he started waking everyone to get the day started.

Most of the homes they had checked had been empty, a couple looked like there had been fights in them, but one had been occupied by a nice pair of Lamias. The half snake half human couple had managed to hold onto their humanity. They had traded stories and before leaving he had made them a rune light to help them in the night. He had tried to get them to join with them, but they had been unwilling. Joe got the feeling they had been a retired couple and were attached to their home. Hoping they might change their mind later, he told them where they were headed.

Joe walked up to a large, light brown, two-story house. The front yard was well maintained with only a few oak and pine trees. This would be the final house before getting into Bass Lake proper. They had skipped a bunch of homes, only hitting the ones near the road. Joe figured it would not be long before scavengers from town started spreading out. Depending how desperate people were becoming, it could turn into a fight. Really not worth getting one of his people killed. They had found a second wagon and both were already pretty full. Every medicine cabinet yielded at least one or two potions, enough that every person now had four minor healing potions in their inventory.

Joe looked over his party. “Standard set up. Donna yer on the wagons with the dogs.” Donna’s flute was already out, ready to signal or play a song of mesmerize. The song could hold up to five people for five minutes as long as they were not attacked. “Everyone else stay loose until we find out if someone is home.” They had been training on entry techniques using alternative weapons.

Joe knocked on the door. “We come in peace. Here tae trade.” After waiting five minutes, he checked the door, locked. “Liz, yoo're up.”

Liz waited till I stepped away from the front door and brought out her auto lock pick. The design for it was sitting in her brain when she woke up, a few gears from power tools, an old mechanical alarm clock, and it was done. Since then she salvaged everything with gears she could find. (Old clocks were great.) The fancy watches with the tiny gears were better. She couldn’t use them yet, but eventually she would. Placing the auto lock pick against the door lock she turned a crank and Voila! Stepping back, she drew a pistol in each hand.

“Stack up.” Joe said and nodded to Sarah who stepped behind him. he turned the doorknob and waited till everyone got in position. Joe used one arm to keep kept Helm Cleaver’s blade up to help protect his face, he was able to see by looking over the top of the blade. Joe pushed the door open, grabbing helm cleaver in both hands he turned and rushed to the left. Sarah came up behind him, shield up, checking right, followed by Liz with her Pistols and Rachel behind her with bow drawn moving straight into the room. After the initial entry, they broke into teams of two. Everything was going smoothly until the fourth room on the bottom floor.

Joe came up to the door and was getting ready to open it when he smelled the coppery scent of blood. Looking toward Rachel, he quietly told her “Blood.” Joe entered into the room. It was hard to finish clearing the room without looking at the bloodied nude man on the table. The room was white and had the look of a hospital room. The man had a bag over his head and was tied to some sort of medical table with heavy leather belts. “Rachel, I need an ID.”

Rachel said, “Human male, level 2 cleric.”

Joe nodded, “Rachel, get the med kit for me please.”

Rachel nodded and said, ”I can do that.” and headed out of the house.

Joe examined the man and checked the bandages on his wrists. The two red blotches on each of the bandages made him suspicious. Liz came into the room with the med kit, handing it to Joe. He opened the box and selected a potion of minor healing since he didn’t want to use the better ones just yet. Peeling back the bandage, he got a good look at the injury. It was twin puncture wounds like you would see in a vampire movie. Joe said, “We’ll, this sucks. It appears we have a vampire victim. Let’s get the bag off his head, we need to check his teeth.” Once the bag was off, they got a good look at him. Red hair, freckles, and pale skin. Joe used the flat of his dagger to check the teeth. They looked normal. He took the potion and poured it into his mouth. As he watched, the bite wounds faded, and a bit of color came back to his checks but that was it. He took one more of the minor potions and poured that one into his mouth. More color came back but he was still unconscious. “Leave him tied up fer noo. His wounds should have healed a long time ago, so we need tae be carefull with him. Could just be the effects of a vampire bite, we’ll have tae see. We need tae check the rest of the house and see what we can find. I have a feeling this room will be a potion gold mine.”

An hour later after they were done searching the house Joe took his dogs into the room they found Arnold in so they would learn the smell of vampire. They had found a good number of potions, including some animal specific ones. They made him wonder if the homeowner was a veterinarian. Animals and humans shared many of the same medications, which could explain the mix. Joe spoke to his party, “Alright everyone, if he is coming with us we need tae make sure he doesn’t have the vampire disease. I’ll give him one of the remove disease potions we found, better tae be safe.” Taking the potion out of the now well stocked metkit Joe poured it down the unconscious man’s throat. A short while later, small trickles of black leaked out of his eyes, and they slowly opened.

When Arnold opened his eyes instead of seeing his ex-girlfriend, or the inside of a bag, he saw he was outside on a stretcher. He tried to speak but all that came out was a croak. A Dwarf? handed him a canteen. He gratefully took it, taking a long slow drink.

“Tha...Thank you.” When he tried to return the canteen, but the dwarf gestured for him to keep it.

Joe was amused at the guy’s expression when he looked at him. “Well lad, my name is Joe, the centaur is Rachel, the valkyrie is Sarah, our bard with the flute is Donna, and the gnome with all the pistols is Liz. We found you in a bad spot of trouble, couldn’t tell if you were vampire snack or a future convert. So, which was it?”

Arnold replied, “My girlfriend, well ex-girlfriend now I guess, was changed into a vampire that first night. Everything was ok at first. I found her a place to stay during the day. But that night when I went to check on her she...did something. I woke up the next day tied up, so I guess the answer to your question is snack.”

Joe nodded, “Next question, and you can think on it because we need to get moving. Question is do you want us to drop you off in Bass Lake or do you want to stay with us? We could always use a healer type. For now let me get you something to eat. We’re heading from here to Bass Lake. Oh! And we have some clothes for you.”

Arnold blinked at the last words and glanced down. Yeap, he was naked. He looked around and noticed all the good-looking females around him. “Yeah, pants would be good? Please?”

Joe watched as they were starting to head into Bass Lake, looking at everyone he said, ”One second everyone.” When they stopped he looked each of them in the eye, and said, ”I know I’m short on pleases and thank you’s when we get busy, too many years in the Marines giving orders. That said I want to thank each of you for doing a good job today. Donna. Liz. You both impressed the hell out of me, If you ever need anything let me know. We are heading into Bass Lake, I need you all to be on your toes. Liz if you could walk up here with me and lead us to the metal artist I would appreciate it. Thank you all again. Let’s move.”

Joe started turned and paused at the laughter, sighed and said, "I will work on it."