Nick made his way out to the bar, making sure to have his armour on. He didn’t know what he’d be getting up to today but it didn’t hurt to be prepared. He and Lily had decided to wait a day or two before approaching Tony with their plan, just to see how things would go. While time was a concern for them, rushing into a plan would be too risky.

Nick found the rest of the 72nd Roamers in the bar, they were just sitting around a table in the corner.

“What’s going on?” Nick asked as he approached them.

“Waiting for you Nick, we were going to yell at you for being late but Maddy pointed out you don’t have a clock yet.” Joshua explained.

“Ah yeah, I’d love to pick one up when I get the chance.”

“Well we’re going down to the 71st today, if you get lucky and find enough pills you can pick one up from a trader.” Joshua explained as the team got up to their feet.

Nick noticed that all the men in the group had bruises on their faces, though Jacob’s was rather light and Logan had the most. Nick had the tact not to ask, it seemed Tony was an abusive dictator. He was sure Maddy could heal the injuries easily, but doubted Tony let her. Nick couldn’t help but sigh. He had absolutely no sympathy for whatever fate was coming for Tony.

“So why are we going to the 71st floor?” He asked.

“Well, a couple of reasons. First, the 72nd doesn’t have the most profitable of challenge rooms, nor great mapping. The 71st has a lot of good challenge rooms close to each other, which makes it great for clearing in good time.” Joshua explained.

Then Jacob interrupted with a grin across his face. “And the 71st Roamers are going to be busy guarding the ramp, so we’ll get to run most of the rooms.”

It just got worse for the 72nd floor the more he found out. While Jacob saying it made him uncomfortable with the idea, it was a smart move. If challenge rooms closed for hours to reset, then there was only a limited amount of times you could run them a day. If the other teams were busy then his team could have free reign of the loot. The idea didn’t sit right with him though, taking advantage while other people had to work to defend their homes.

That’s when Maddy spoke up. “Don’t worry Nick, it’s not like we’re doing anything dirty. Anyone can go to any floor and use the challenge rooms, people aren’t allowed to monopolise them.”

She must have read something from his face. It was an interesting bit of information, it explained why Tony wasn’t more fastidious about guarding the rooms other than the bar. He did wonder what stopped people from monopolising the rooms, was it an agreement or some other factor? It did explain why there were people from the Parklands in the event room, even while the hotel floors had gathered up to discuss the possibility of going to war with them.

The group was moving towards the door of the hotel when Nick noticed Maddy and Jacob bristle. Both of them suddenly pulled out their weapons.

“Fighting in the main room.” Jacob spoke seriously, something Nick had yet to see from him.

Joshua’s face hardened. He then turned and ordered one of the grunts in the room to get Tony up and ready. The grunt quickly bolted into the Quarters. Nick pulled out his wraps and started quickly applying them.

“What’s the call Josh?” Jacob asked.

“We wait for Tony, prepare for a fight though.”

With that everyone in the room started putting any armour they had on and held their weapons at the ready. Nick quickly finished applying his wraps and felt a bit more relaxed, he was more ready for whatever was coming.

Nick wondered what it was, was there a monster of some sort invading, was it someone here for Tony? The Parkland’s invasion? Surely they would have heard if the Parkland’s had invaded, Tony had some sort of way to communicate to the other floors. Tony came running into the bar, locating Joshua and running over. Tony looked more geared up than he’d ever seen him. He was coated in a dark leather armour, with a menacing dagger held in one hand. Why hadn’t he worn this gear to the meeting? It made him look positively frightening, even if he was still a bit too chunky to pull off the deadly rogue look.

“What’s going on?” Tony asked.

“Not sure, the Scouts heard fighting in the main room. Decided to call you before making a move.” Joshua answered.

“Good call. I say we hold the bar. It’s easier to hold a door than push into an unknown conflict.” Tony said. It was a reasonable call, but there was clear dissatisfaction with it.

“Tony, our men are fighting out there. If it’s a monster it could kill it’s way through room after room of non-fighters.” Maddy rebutted.

There were murmurs of agreement through the grunts, clearly no one was fan of letting people die. Other than Tony that was. He clearly didn’t want to let the team push into the next room, he wanted them to stay with him. With each moment that passed without Tony making the call, the dissatisfaction in the room grew. The people in scrap armour likely had friends and potentially family out in the other room, Tony was risking their lives.

Tony wasn’t stupid, he had to know he couldn’t make the wrong call here and keep his position stable.

“Alright, Roamers push first, Militia quickly follow. Establish a zone and we’ll move from there.”

With that, Logan pushed through the door. It wasn’t a monster on the other side, it was a group of people. They were beating their way through the dwindling group of militia stationed in the lobby. There was only one figure holding their own, Gareth.

Gareth looked injured but was still facing off against two men. The two men were dressed in mismatched armour pieces and wielding decent looking weapons, Gareth looked to be at the disadvantage. He was constantly taking steps back, forced to use his hatchet to block, which it clearly wasn’t suited for.

Other than the two men, there was another notable melee fighter with a large hammer. He was churning through the militia, crushing limbs and pouring the pressure on. Nick realised that there were people on the ground, unmoving. Shock ran through Nick, people had been killed.

The room was in chaos, more people were coming through the door to the car park and they weren’t from the militia. The militia members that had entered the room behind Nick didn’t hesitate and ran to reinforce their comrades. Tony then came through and Nick could see the gears turning.

Jacob and Maddy had already pulled out their weapons and were taking shots at the invaders. Logan and Joshua were positioned to block anyone that moved in their direction, Joshua looking back and waiting for Tony’s call. Tony clearly wasn’t an experienced general of any sort, he looked a little clueless.

“Defeat the invaders!” He called out.

It was a pretty basic order but it was all the 72nd Roamers needed. Logan and Joshua began their march towards the fighting, towards Gareth specifically. Nick felt lost, he had no idea what to do. He didn’t really want to take part in the fight if he was being honest. He watched as the fighting continued and brutally maimied each other, he really didn’t want to take part. Defeating monsters was one thing, killing people? That was another.

Nick’s inner turmoil was challenged when a group of the invaders clashed with the Roamers. Nick watched in horror as Jacob threw a knife through the eye of one of the men, causing him to crumple to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Joshua then caught the swing of a man’s sword with his own and countered with a horizontal slash, gutting the man. Nick stumbled backwards, trying to escape from the horrific sight. None of the other Roamers even paused, the fight simply continued for them. Logan was weathering blows and hammering back, Maddy was shooting into any openings that came up.

Nick just kept stumbling backwards. He’d never seen anything like this. It was horrifying, people were dying, killing each other. There were screams and shouts, people would crumple to the floor, clutching wounds or simply lifeless. Then Nick realised he’d isolated himself. He’d moved away from the group’s formation, moved himself into a space between the Roamer’s fight and the disorganised clash the militia was going through.

He wasn’t alone in that space for long though, a man with a short sword spotted him and charged. Nick froze as the sword was swung towards him. It was all too real, far too real. Nick managed to snap himself out of it just quickly enough to step back, activating Hasty Escape. He used the extra speed to throw a punch into the man’s face and stepped back, his body carrying him through the practiced motion. The man spat out a tooth and moved towards Nick again. Oh god. Nick didn’t want to do this.

Nick tried to keep moving backwards but soon ran out of space, the room just wasn’t big enough to run. The armed man grinned at him and Nick sucked in a deep breath. He didn’t have a choice. It was time to fight.

Nick had never fought anyone with a proper weapon before but he knew some general advice. Stay away from the sharp bits. Be wary of the extended reach. Nick and the man circled each other for a bit, then the man moved forward with a downward slash. Nick stepped back, activated his buff and used the speed to close the distance. It didn’t matter if the man had a sword if he didn’t have the room to use it. Nick grabbed the man’s wrist and extended it, then used his free hand to hammer an uppercut into the man’s exposed side. The man had a chest piece on but Nick managed to land the blow between the two sections. The punch didn’t even seem to hurt him. Nick started to think that he’d need a weapon.

Unluckily for Nick, the man wasn’t a static training dummy. The man shoved against Nick, trying to push him away and free his hand holding the sword. Unluckily for his opponent, Nick was the far better melee fighter. Nick kept the man’s arm in his grip and circled around to his opponent's back. Nick had never done anything like this before but he held his nerve and started slamming his fist into the back of the man’s head. The man didn’t have a helmet and it only took two punches to send the man down the ground.

Nick was then given options. The man was rumbled but not out. Nick could just run or he could finish the fight. Nick took a second to look at the rest of the room. It was still chaotic but the Roamers were getting it under control. They had met up with Gareth and were now moving between the clashing groups of invaders and militia, defeating the invaders and building a larger and larger force. As the man tried to get back up to his feet, Nick ran.

The downed man could be someone else’s problem. Nick just ran towards his group. It took no time for Nick to cross the room and reintegrate with his group. He just stood sheepishly near Tony, who was also not taking part in the fight. Nick didn’t know what to do so he just stood and watched, trying to pick up any details about what was going on. It didn’t take long for nausea to overwhelm Nick. As the adrenaline from his own fight lowered his senses were assaulted.

The smell of blood was thick in the air, so thick that Nick felt like he could taste it. There were screams and shouts, only drowned out by the sounds of metal weapons clashing. The sights were the worst part. Blood was splattered across every surface, weapons, armour, faces. Not to mention the bodies. People from both sides littered the floor, Nick unable to accurately differentiate between the dead and the dying. Nick just couldn’t take it.

He hunched over, emptying everything he’d eaten. Tears were thick in his eyes, desperately trying to block out whatever vision he had. Nick saw half digested pancakes and then saw Benny’s smiling face handing him the plate. It was all just too much.

Nick collapsed into his own vomit.