I was going to try a friendly smile, but with the orc girls tusks, I wasn't sure if barring my teeth was going to be a friendly gesture for her. That's when Chloe kicked me in the back of my leg. "Put the hammer away and bow like I'm doing."

I glanced behind me to see my now grimy looking friend leaning forward and with a "get on with it" look directed at at me. Just then the green woman made a snorting sound and made a bow of her own to Chloe as I hastily joined everyone else in the slightly leaning forward because I'm friendly ceremony.

We all stood up as the orc woman adjusted her towel a bit, tugging at it to direct my attention to the fact it was a towel while giving me a questioning look. "Okay, I think I'm reading that right, she asking if we got anything else for her to wear."

"And that I got covered."

I give her a slight, no teeth showing, grin and a nod as I waved for her to follow me, stopped as I realized I was heading for the doors with all the soap and pews, then hastily changed directions to the doors Chloe had opened. All the while avoiding her amused stare.

"Just checking the damage, I meant to go this way from the start."

I stood to one side as miss green hesitated to enter, with Chloe finally heading in first with a encouraging "Come on." directed to the orc woman and some hand waving we finally got her inside, only for her to jump and whip around ready to smash my head in as I pushed the door shut loudly behind her.

I threw myself back against the doors, while she flinched and suddenly looked miserable while saying something that sounded like an apology.

I kind of waved my hands around in a "It's okay" kind of way and went over to open the door to the stairs in the bell tower.

She and Chloe both hesitantly followed me down. I guess Cloe had never explored the place when she was over here giving dance lessons.

I would have jumped at the chance to sneakily check out a old building.

From the stairs to room C, one of the four classrooms in the basement, I led the way before digging around my still damp armor to get to the keys in my pocket for the master key lock.

At some point the locks on the doors down here had gotten so loose a good shake could open them up, so a latch and a padlock now secured the door to a room full of old used clothes that no one had been willing to buy at two for a dollar. Good thing we kept the place secure so no one stole any of it.

I pushed the door open, stepped inside and flipped on the light, getting a twin set of gasps as the woven wonders within. Must be a girl thing.

Chloe pushed pass me, which was completely unnecessary and asked. "Where did all of this come from? Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"Ah, it's the leftovers from like three fund raising sales that no one wanted to buy or haul off for free, and you never mentioned needing cheap clothes."

I turned to the big gal, only to find her standing right up behind me, without having made even a hint of sound, and looking into the room by peering over my head, with interest.

I gestured her inside. "I don't think I'm the one who should help her pick stuff out while she's just wearing a towel, so I 'll wait outside."

That got a absent minded "Ah huh" in return from the gal elbow deep in piles of neatly folded old clothes as she looked for things in her size.

The orc woman turned to look at me again, so I tugged at my tee shirt, waved at all the clothes, then pointed at her. I figured with that she either had gotten the idea, or would figure it out soon enough and closed the door behind me.

There were plenty of old chairs out in the hall so I took a seat, and let my mind just go blank for a while.

Sometimes you just got to let your head empty itself out.

...

I could have died out there. I got so wrapped up in my plan, I completely forgot the smart zombie Mr. Fancypants.

I almost got Chloe killed too.

I need to do better. Did I get the deadbolt? No, I didn't. The latch should have caught when I close it, but..

No more "Good enoughs." No more sloppy thinking.

After giving the door to room C a few knocks, I yelled. "I'm going to check the door and take a look outside, back in a minute." then headed off fast enough I wasn't sure what Chloe had yelled back at me.

Might have been a "Okay." I'll take it as a "Okay"

Turns out I had flipped the deadbolt. I guess it was habit, and there was nothing outside but the still present broken remains of the dead, so mush for being in a world running on video game rules.

Why weren't the bodies vanishing?

Wait. I looked around to make sure no one was watching as I stepped up close enough to one one of the bodies in front of the still open soapy doors. Duh. Held my hand over it and whispered. "Loot."

Nothing.

In a slightly louder voice. "Loot, search, inventory, salvage...show me the money."

Nope. Guess I'm going to have to rebury them, with not much chance of getting any of them back into the right graves.

Then again, a funeral pyre could be seen for quite a distance, and I did want to bring in anyone looking for a place to find shelter. Although I would more then likely get some more orcs or even some other kinds of folk as well.

I nodded to myself as I started working at getting the doors shut. "I think I'm good with that, people are people, no matter they look like."

It took me a few minutes, and a face plant as leaned too far over a pew to try to get the other door shut without going around, before I got the doors secured and headed back downstairs to see Chloe and Miss green standing in front of Room C

Chloe had a bundle of stuff in her arms, while the orc woman had gotten dressed in some faded men's jeans that fit her like a set of capris, yes, I had sisters, and a red Cole canoe base tee shirt which fit her like a crop top and showed off the top of a visible six pack.

She also had a bundle of clothes but unlike Chloe who was clutching hers ahold of hers like she was afraid someone was going to try to take it away from her, the orc woman was passing hers back and forth between her hands like she wasn't sure what to do with it.

Chloe brightened up as she saw me come out of the stairwell. "Her name is Rowtock, and I'm barrowing your shower. Bye." Then she was gone, leaving me and Rowtock together. Staring awkwardly at each other before she finally pointed at her self. "Tock, amo Tock, en Rowtock."

Ah...?

Due to the number of request for some kind of translation ability, we have implemented a universal understanding between all people in the Context.

You're welcome

Hashtag. Peace and understanding go together. Hopefully

My "Thank god." and the orc woman's "Gratitude." pretty much got said simultaneously.

We looked at each other in surprise for a moment, before I risked a smile and got one in return.

"I was saying my name is Tock, Tock Ket..." she hesitated. "...Ketdaughter"

She said it like she was trying it on for the first time and found it to her liking, so much she said it again. "Ketdaughter."

Okay. "My name is Sean, Sean Murphy. I live in the church as a caretaker and Chloe, the other person was here to teach a class when all this went down. How about you?"

She seems to have to think over at least some of what I had said, repeating some of it silently to herself. I think maybe my words were getting translated for her, but not the concepts. Maybe?

Finally she nodded, look alarmed at the sound of a shriek coming from up in the rectory as Chloe confirmed for herself that their wasn't any hot water, and then continued after I just shook my head sadly and gestured for her to go on.

"I was getting out of the shower in the locker room as the whole station started to shake like it was under some kind of great strain, then it was breaking up and I thought I was going to get sucked out into the empty space."

"But instead of seeing stars and the globe below me one las time, it was all white, still cold enough to freeze my bones, but I wasn't instantly dyeing from the lack of pressure, just cold and unable to breath."

She shuttered a bit. "The station was still breaking up around me and could see others, not getting sucked out so much as getting pulled by some unseen force. Then the station seemed to shake one more time and vanish, then I blacked out until I woke up in the forest." She jerked her chin up to the south.

"It was weird, it was like it was the same dozen or so trees being repeated again and again."

She sat down on a old chair that creaked alarmingly for moment. "Then I saw the beasts."

I pulled up a chair to sit opposite her, looking at her in concern. "Beasts?'

She nodded. "Like nothing I had ever seen. But all of the entertainments have the world ending with all of the animals turning on us, trying to tear us apart in punishment, and the beasts looked hungry."

"Licking their lips, rubbing their front feet together in anticipation, and wiggling their big puffy tail as they prepared to leap down on me."

Puffy tails? "Wait, like squirrels?" I held my hand about a foot apart. "That big, kind of reddish brown, white on the bottom?"

She shook. "Squirrels, what a horrid name for such terrible beasts. So small and fast, they chased me all the way here, only turning away when they saw the animates."

She looked me in the eyes. "But of course a elf would know of them."

Ah...? "Elf?"

She smiled. "Yes just like the legends say, so thin and pale, with ears that stick out, and such tiny teeth."

"Ah, no. I'm human, me and Chloe are humans."

Tock nodded. "Of course you would have your own name for your people, I meant no offence."

I shook my head and tried to explain, but all I that happened was she swore to keep my secret and call me a human since us elves had enemies.

You know what? Never mind. I'll be a elf. What could it hurt.

"So you've been running in the woods, in a fight, and apparently blown out of a space station. Busy day, how about some food, another shower, and maybe get some antibiotic and bandages on the scratches on your legs?"

She glanced down and snorted. "Those are nothing, the beast close do not dig deep. They're already half healed, but food and another shower sound good."

Upstairs, I got a glare from Chloe as she was drying her hair with the hair dryer I mainly own to dry my man parts, which I swore to myself I would never tell her. I'm guessing the angry look was for the cold water which she somehow was blaming me for.

The hair dryer got a odd look from Tock before I asked her. "You okay with eggs?"

Tock brightened up. "Yes, eggs are a luxury back home, so if your food is poisonous to me, at least I will enjoy it.

Me and Chloe exchanged looks. Okay.

While their was entire kitchen down in the church's basement, I did most of my cooking on a dinky little electric stove, which was just as well as the real kitchen was a four burner gas oven.

As as food goes I had about enough bacon, which Tock really liked, eggs and bread for meal consisting of one slice of bacon each, two eggs, three for Tock, and then filling up on bread with some margarine smeared on.

As we leaned back in thought, and Tock looked around the rectory in curiosity, I decided to broach the subject of the dead bodies. "So I'm thinking we pile up the dead and light them up, the smoke should lead some people here and theirs's no way I want to spend the rest of the day burning corpses, even if I'm not sure what time of day it is now.

The sky was now a sort of light purplish blue color. Chloe suggested "Periwinkle." Tock gave her a abrupt look and glanced out the window again with a look of wonder.

I shrugged. "Okay, Periwinkle thirty. I don't want to deal with dragging around dead bodies right after eating, and I don't have much food around, but..."

"I never saw anyone emptying out the Dollar Plenty next door since it closed, and it usually has a lot of unhealthy, long term, shelf life food inside, so I'm suggesting we break in, cast over a few loads, then start a fire."

Tock sat up in alarm. "But, the squirrels are that way."

Chloe looked confused. "Squirrels?"

Tock explained. Chloe looked thoughtful. "If those really are squirrels, can't we eat them? I mean fair is fair."

I thought that one over and nodded. "Maybe later, and their might be fish in that lake." I turned to Tock. "The store is right next door, we shouldn't have to go into the woods, so it might not be a issue."

She nodded nervously. "They may not attack you either, the entertainments only have them attack people, Hazak people anyways, they may not attack elves."

Chloe again looked confuses. "Elves"

I shook my head at her. "You missed a lot during your cold shower, we can come back to that later."

She of course, dragged the story out of Tock as we walked down the street.

I had brought along my cordless drill, which had surprised me by being full charged, along with a couple of my better drill bits to drill out the lock, which I hoped would get us in.

And the hammer or course, although I might have been better off getting the machete out of the shed. I don't know why the church had one, but I had found it a great tool for hacking at some of the worst of the overgrowth after I found out the unpaved fenced off lot across the street was part of the property.

Then I noticed the squirrel, skittering along from tree to tree on the other side of the remains of Grover street of which only half of it had come along with the church and the store, and it tapered as it reached the end of the street, along with the edge of the parking lot in front of the store which tapered out completely before it hit the trees.

Where a few more squirrels were watching us

Neither of the girls noticed.

I looked behind us. More squirrels were drifting out of the woods, like they were cutting off our retreat.

"Ah, we might want to get a move on?"

The two of them looked around, then Tock took off for the front of the store, Chloe darting off to catch up with her.

Which made me call out "Hey, wait for me!'

It probably would have made more sense to head back to the church, but they were already off and I was running after them before I thought of it.

But what the worst that could happen, it was just squirrels.