Chapter 7 – DAY ONE

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Yeah, so, everybody just rolled back up our cloaks, and we all went back to sleep.

Not.

First, we went back over to the where the women were and briefed them up. At that time, they wouldn’t actually let either of us touch them, which was okay by me because both of them were in full chunk tossing mode. It was like they were operating air-cooled, belt-fed large caliber puke guns.

Who would have thought that just opening a zombie and exposing the arcanely imbued organs of the living dead to the air we were breathing would have such a profound effect on the human body?

I honestly never imagined anyone could projectile vomit as far as I discovered Delight was able to. Impressive talent. Bonita was competitive as well, I’m not taking anything from her. But Delight was the clear victor on distance. As odd as it sounds, it endeared her even more to me.

I’m a winner and feel comfortable around other winners. I’ve always been competitive that way. My innate goal is to always be at the top, and I like to be at the top of a legit pile. Who wants to be king of loser hill? I want to be king of the hill made of other kings. And I like to be around those who share those values.

So, anyway, just like DeSantos, who had hold of my cloak as we shuffled back toward where we’d been bedded down, the girls couldn’t see. They’d awakened to the sounds of battle, then gotten hammered and overwhelmed by the stench of the zombie beasts.

I knew both were probably edging, if not sprinting, toward blind panic. See the joke there? Blind?

Anyway, going loud to overcome the sound of their ralphing, I called out to try to calm them down. I didn’t know if my efforts would work because women aren’t really like us. I mean, they have their own program that doesn’t always mesh or make sense to us. Sometimes it’s difficult to know what they need. This time, however, I seem to have nailed my understanding because my effort worked. I’m empathic like that.

“All good. DeSantos and I killed the monsters, and we’re all good now. As soon as we clear this loot drop, we need to relocate away from this crap and get a fire going. I’m not too worried about bandits at this point. We better get some good shit, too. I don’t want to be nickeled and dimed to death in this game.”

Stepping the short distance to grab my spear I saw the reliquary above the first fallen monster I’d killed. After recovering my weapon, I went through the motions again, saw the light show and the invisible tabletop layout of goodies. It was cool to hear, between the sounds evidencing olfactory revulsion, a couple of grunted ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the girls who hadn’t seen the light show until then.

LOOT DROP LIKE A MOTHERFUCKER. That’s right. Bam!

I felt like we’d robbed a bank. Without the guilt, of course. I mean, we slew monsters for this, and payday felt great.

Clearly, this loot should, to an extent, be equally distributed. There was definitely some ability alignment going on, and, as an officer with my background, I don’t do greed. Particularly with my troops. And, by now, I considered them all my personnel.

“Okay, DeSantos. I don’t want to stand here much longer. Is there a way I can just skank all the goodies now and distribute it when we get to a safer location away from this ghastly stench?”

“Should be, sir. I went ahead and took the dagger for Bonita. You ought to be able to claim it all, and later, when shit is settled, you can pull up your equipment screen on the bottom right. Everything should be going there when you claim it. Anyway, you should be able to select an item and reject it or something. I don’t yet know all the details, but that is a normal game mechanic. That’s how I was planning on getting the dagger to Bonita.”

“Works.” I accepted all the loot, and we bolted.

Well, bolted is a little bit ‘not accurate.’ Actually, before the girls would let us touch them DeSantos and I had to use up all of our water rinsing the gore from our armor as best we could. After we got cleaned up, with me doing most of the work since only I could see, we started helping the girls.

Mostly me helping and them getting helped. There was quite a bit of shuffling and stumbling by the other three. Being nighttime and all. With very little light. Almost no light, in fact. Lots of even darker shadows, roots, and branches. We pretty much only went upwind far enough away that the stench wasn’t burning everybody’s eyes. Maybe fifty meters or so.

Once we got to our new hide, shit got competitive.

So, anyway, thankfully everyone had fire starters. We also discovered that you can break the fire starters if you don’t know what you are doing. We ended up with one. Delight’s. Winner.

It turns out, as I demonstrated during two attempts, not only am I not the king of the primitive fire-making-hill but suck at it.

Delight had apparently been interested in primitive camping while in her late teens and knew how to use multiple items to start fires various ways.

I know. Me, neither. Rich chick, gorgeous as hell, knocking rocks together and making fire?

Fact. Winner. I’m really starting to feel good about her.

So, after the fire got going DeSantos and I ran a quick security check in the immediate vicinity. We then settled down for a quality discussion. I really felt like I needed to lay out a plan of action, distribute the loot, and get a better handle on the game mechanics before something rips out my throat while I’m reading a pop-up. Or, something else unexpected happens, like when I walked up and the fire was putting out some serious lumens and my night vision just blinked off. I mean, I had it, then blinked my eyes because it was so bright in the light, and it was gone. Back to regular vision.

“Well, night vision just went away. Let’s take a breather and try to figure some shit out.”

I flopped down next to Delight. It seemed like the thing to do.

Once we’re all sitting around the cozy little fire, I pulled off my helmet.

My three companions did a sort of weird gasping thing as they stared at my face. I’ll be honest, I didn’t really like the looks on their faces. Sort of a cross between, ‘You’ve got spinach stuck in your teeth,’ and ‘Are you admitting that you did molest that donkey?’

Not cool to be on the receiving end.

DeSantos spoke first. “So, El-tee, you remember how we had those conversations in the hospital, and you were telling me nobody in your family other than your great-grandfather ever had a tattoo? And, that you thought my sleeve tats were going to cause me problems getting a job in the civilian world? And, that we both agreed that getting a tattoo on the face was probably a guarantee to never work at a bank?”

“What is it, Corporal? You three are looking at me like I’ve got three heads.”

“Well, sir. You can probably forget about that job in finance. Unless that shit wipes off. You’ve got a very cool Eye of Horus tat around your left eye. In silver.”

I turned to Delight, sort of panicky, but not really, really panicky. Panic-light.

“What?” I may have shouted. “I can’t see it. Can you wipe it off, Baby?”

Since when did I start calling Delight ‘Baby?’

Delight did that knee walking thing attractive women do as she came toward me, her face a display of gentle concern. She licked her finger and started rubbing it around my eye. Gently at first, but with more pressure when the initial efforts failed to accomplish her goal. After a full minute of effort, she ceased and brought her eyes very close to mine.

Look, I’m not some whiny cry-baby. I know earlier I said I was weeping after my fiancee's betrayal, and I did, but that was a damned good excuse. But, you have to understand, it has been sort of a point of pride in our family that we don’t cave to the same social pressures that normal people do. When some celebrity shows up with a tattoo, then everybody runs out and gets tatted up, or an athlete gets his nose pierced, then everybody goes out and gets their noses spiked, these are what my family considered clues of something excessively common and, therefore, actions to avoid.

Let me put it another way. Since May 12th, 1945, getting a tattoo in our family was guaranteed to result in instant removal from any will and full disinheritance. My people are that serious about tattoos. With good reason.

Moving on.

So, here I sit with a fucking future destroying ink blot on my face, that I had nothing to do with as far as I knew, and I’m looking at the probable dissolution of my future, so, yes, there was a touch of excess moisture in my eyes. Sorry Mrs. McAlister, another run-on sentence.

“Damn, Delight, that’s making my eyes water.” I sniffed, “Made my nose run, too. So, it doesn’t wipe off?”

“No, Ricky. I’m sorry. It looks kind of interesting, though.”

I was briefly and warmly distracted for the briefest second when her use of ‘Ricky’ made it through my misery. It actually helped get my mind right.

“Okay, I said, “I’ll destroy that bridge when I come to it.”

I sniffed again, hard, then turned my thoughts to what I could impact and influence at that time. That’s another thing among the many that I’m exceptionally good at, focusing attention on what I could affect and ignoring things I could not.

“Alright, Luis, go ahead and get Bonita the dagger you picked up. I want your gamer expertise. You go first and then explain it to me so I can distribute the loot to these ladies.”

“Yes, sir.”

DeSantos looked at Bonita and said, “Bonita, because Delight isn’t a gamer and most likely doesn’t know much about dagger usage, at least in a gaming environment, the lieutenant and I felt you should get this.”

He looked over at me as he waved his hand and said, “Sir, I’m looking at my page and selecting the equipment section of my character sheet. Now, I’m selecting the dagger. There are some buttons here that say ‘Equip,’ ‘Store,’ and ‘Remove.’ I’m choosing ‘Remove.’”

As soon as he said that, the dagger appeared on the ground between him and Bonita.

Bonita picked it up. She said, “I’m seein’ the normal two buttons, green and red. I’m pickin’ the green one. Alright, it just showed up on my equipment list. I’m pickin’ ‘Equip.’”

As soon as she said ‘Equip,’ a belt with a sheath appeared around her waist.

She looked up at us with a huge grin, her perfect and perfectly white teeth bared in excitement. She squealed and asked, “How cool is that?”

DeSantos and I exchanged looks. I nodded and answered, “Very.”

“Okay. I grabbed a bunch of stuff earlier from that last one, which was actually the first one killed. It looks to Luis and me like there is something for everyone. I mean, specifically, something for everyone. On a side note, I’ve got a pretty good bit of coin here. Should I divvy it up, or what?”

Bonita spoke up, “Generally, Rick, I like to play with need versus greed. How that works, with the people I normally play with, is your kill, your cash, split appropriately between anybody who participated in a kill. But, if you got some kind of magic item or somethin’ like that which is appropriate for one of your party members, then they get it. If somethin’ comes up where two or more party members can use it, then we always have a rock, paper, scissors fight.”

I swallowed a chuckle. In my world, the word ‘fight’ was never associated with ‘rock, paper, scissors.’

Well, okay. I did use a rock in a fight, once. And I could see stabbing somebody with scissors if that was all you had. And possibly, maybe, you could wad up some paper and jam it down someone’s throat until they choke to death. Alright. I can get there from here.

Moving forward past my musings, I said, “Okay. I like that. That will be our loot distribution SOP, meaning standard operating procedure, unless it becomes a problem or is otherwise assessed as inappropriate at any particular time. That being the case, standby for the good times.”

Bonita grinned brightly again and said, ‘Laissez le bon temps rouler!”

Delight asked, “What?”

Bonita clapped her hands, bounced on her heels as she shook her head from side to side causing her hair to swing. “It’s Cajun for ‘let the good times roll.’”

I have to say, Bonita’s sparkle and constant good cheer were infectious. It broke me out of my shadowed mood about the tattoo. I had to smile back.

I went ahead and started manipulating the equipment list in my character sheet. “Okay then, let’s roll the good times. First item up is for … BONITA!”

Yeah, I did the whole funny voice filled with breathless excitement gig. Hey, we were in the dark, had just been attacked, I was a few moments after developing an anticipation of a future in which I was to be disowned, so I decided we needed the motivation.

“Bonita Thibodeaux, come on down and see what you’ve won. It’s a brand … new … SPELL!”

As soon as I said ‘spell,’ I selected ‘remove,’ and the scroll appeared to hang in the air between Bonita and me.

Oh … my … something. I thought she was about to orgasm. I was kinda faking the whole excitement thing. She clearly was not. She went full on Cajun babble, repeating, “Je l’aime” over and over. Thankfully, DeSantos explained later meant ‘I love it’. Which was good, except it was French. Which I don’t speak. She could have been warning me there was a spear flying toward my head and I wouldn’t know it.

I puffed out a hard breath and looked over at Delight to change my focus. I pasted a huge smile on my face as I thought over and over, ‘Bonita is DeSantos’ girl, I’ve got my own. Bonita is DeSantos’ girl, I’ve got my own. Bonita is DeSantos’ girl, I’ve got my own.’

Thankfully, seeing Delight calmed my ardor a bit by shifting it to her. Damn, she looked gorgeous in that firelight, with the excitement all around us. I started leaning her way when DeSantos piped up.

“Whoa! That’s the shit. Way to go, Bonita, way to go.”

I could hear him smiling as he spoke.

I felt a wave of, joy or something like it, crash through me. The realization struck me that I’m with some fantastic people. Folks who are just nice, giving, lovely people who find happiness wherever. Beats the hell out of my parents. My smile got real. How cool is that?

Very cool.

Since I was already looking at Delight, I went to the loot I was sure was supposed to be hers.

I opened my eyes very wide, like some carnival barking goober and said, “And now, Delight, my delight, how about you? What’s this I see just for you? Would you do me the honor of accepting …”

I did the whole catch and release program with the ring, timed for my little speech.

“The Ring of the Mentat!”

I was way too into the thing. I was exaggeratedly waving my hands like those chicks on the game shows flopping their dick skinners around at a new car.

Delight smiled happily and asked, “Wow. You are offering me a ring? I accept. What does it do?”

Like a dumbass, I didn’t quite catch the implication.

“Corporal DeSantos, brief her on her newest jewelry.”

She slipped it onto her left ring finger, and it resized to fit perfectly.

“Well, Delight, you can’t actually use it, I mean you can wear it, but until you can get activated in character you probably won’t be able to do anything with it. Other than wearing it, I mean. Once you are up, however, it should double damage when you do some sort of mental attack, or reduce any damage you would take from a similar attack against you. If I understand it. Obviously, this is all new to me as well. A new game with unknown rules and details, I mean.”

I saw Delight grin wickedly as she ran over to Bonita. She stuck out her left hand and held it down with her fingers spread so the ring could be clearly seen.

I recognized that move. I’ve seen it before on multiple occasions, one of which I was directly associated with. I kind of got a little nauseated as the possible meaning hit me. My brain sort of kicked into high gear.

‘Fuck. Did I just propose?’

‘I don’t think I proposed.’

‘What if I did? Does it count if I didn’t mean too?’

‘Did I mean too?’

‘Do I love her? I think maybe I do. Maybe. I don’t know. What the fuck? How do I know any of this shit?’

‘I'm a life taker and a heartbreaker. A man-killer and a booty tiller. That’s my gig. I don’t get married to some girl I just barely met. I’ve only known her for a couple of days. Damnit.’

‘Oh … my … something. She’s common. My family would definitely kill me, disown me, disinherit me. I’ve got rules I have to follow. Shit. They’d buy her off like the last one.’

‘How do I get out of this?’

“Delight. Sweetheart,” I started almost babbling. Not quite. Close run thing, though.

She turned and smiled sweetly and said as she pulled the ring off, “I’m going to wait until you turn me on. Again.”

Bonita started giggling, then Delight giggled back.

DeSantos looked at me like he’d just seen me get shot in the face.

I looked at him, my eyes were as wide open as they had ever been, and mouthed, ‘Whew. Fuck me, that was close.’

He nodded and mouth back, ‘No shit.’

I needed to shift the focus away from potentially impactful romantic shit. Quickly.

“Alright, you two, we’ve still got stuff to hand out. DeSantos, here’s a magic sword. Don’t cut yourself shaving. I’ve also got some money that apparently I get to keep. And also, this deed thing.”

I went ahead and equipped it to bring into my hand.

“What do you think? Luis? Bonita? Hell, Delight? Anybody have an idea or a clue?”

Bonita stepped over and held out her hand and asked, “May I?”

I handed it to her, and she took it. Interestingly, I didn’t have to do any game mechanic mumbo jumbo. Just acted like real life and let go of it.

As soon as I released it, the original notification popped up above it.

She looked at the scroll and screen with intense concentration for a moment and handed the scroll off to Delight.

“I got nothing. Delight, maybe you can guess?”

The screen disappeared when Bonita let go and reappeared immediately when Delight had full possession. Delight quickly shook her head and handed it to DeSantos.

Same thing with the screen.

In fact, just to improve the flow of the story, it will be known that throughout this entire adventure from here forward, unless otherwise noted, that screens came into existence every time someone handled some item for the first time. Except when it didn’t. Once something had been handled once, the note screen would only come up if called for.

DeSantos’ face had the expression of a man with severe constipation. He squinted and said, “Man, it almost seems like I remember something like this from a game or book or a movie. Something? It feels like, in my mind I mean, it feels like you can claim something like land, or a castle. Something like that. It’s obviously, like, a magical artifact of some kind. Based on, like, the color combinations and design of the note, I’d say it’s probably a pretty big deal. And it’s probably, like, level locked so you can’t even tell shit about it until you get to a particular level. If I had to guess.”

He handed it back to me. I was slightly distracted by trying to count how many times he had used the word ‘like’ in that short period. He normally spoke … normally, and not like a valley girl.

Ha! I said ‘like’ too.

Anyway, moving on.

I made the deed disappear back into whatever little whatever it went to when I selected ‘store.’

One of the Marine Corps leadership principles is to keep your personnel informed. I wanted to make sure we were all on the same page, as they say, so, I determined it would be appropriate for me to issue a fragmentary order, or what we call a ‘Frago.’

“Okay, everybody. We’ve got to get this quest thing going. To rehash what I started covering earlier this afternoon, unfortunately, we don’t know where Syra is, how far it is from here, or what risks and threats we might face en route or once we get there.”

Delight raised her hand with a tentative gesture.

“Hang on, sugar. Let me say what I’m going to say and any questions that remain unanswered afterward I will address.”

“Okay, Ricky.”

“So, this is a multi-stage order because the initial stage is gaining intel on terrain and route development. This will entail a reconnaissance.”

Delight raised her hand again.

I was kind of pissed off at the interruption, but figured, what the hell, I’ve worked with knucklehead privates and PFCs for years, so sometimes it is best to let them get the stupid out early.

Politely, and pretending as if I was actually interested, because I know how to do that, I said, “Okay, Delight. You clearly have something of immediate import to share. Go ahead.”

Obviously, she either missed my mild sarcasm and intent to suppress, or she just ignored it. Either, or, she replied crisply.

“I was going to mention it earlier when we left the shrine, but we got side-tracked. I know I can’t access anything game-wise until you turn me on, Ricky, so I can’t check to be sure, but, didn’t Saint Mattis say he gave us maps? You remember, he said, ‘That’s it. Choose the green button, walk out of my shrine then check your map.’ Wouldn’t that help us find out where we are and where we need to go?”

Folks, I have to tell you the truth. There are few things I hate worse than feeling, legitimately, like a stupid ass.

Like a big fucking stupid ass who instantly failed to follow orders to open a map. Like a stupid ass who forgot I use maps on a daily basis while on operations, while preparing for operations, and while training for operations. Like a stupid ass who taught classes to my troops on the importance of map reading, and techniques of land navigation using maps and compasses, and GPS, then totally forgot I had a map. That exact kind of a stupid ass.

But, focusing on silly bullshit such as ‘how I feel’ is a non-productive use of time. So, I did what I know to do. One of the key leadership traits is to know yourself and seek self-improvement. Consequently, when one recognizes an instance of personal failure, one should immediately work to address it and resolve that failure.

I smiled slightly and waved at the other two and said, “DeSantos and Bonita, let’s pull up the maps my fantastically brilliant girlfriend reminded me of and see what we can figure out.”

Another leadership principle is justice, such as in acknowledging the valuable contributions of others. Just so you know what I did, that’s it.

I made a quick bow of the head to acknowledge her as I said, “Thank, you, Delight. You just saved us all from hours of fruitless effort.”

I pretended not to notice that I saw out of the corner of my eye when Delight turned to Bonita, smiled, gave a thumbs up, and mouthed, ‘girlfriend.’

I thought, ‘Oh, shit. What in the hell is going on with my mouth?’