So...

Sorry for not posting in a long time, but I'm...

I've been in a really low mood, and couldn't write anything worth it that wasn't depressive.

I'm going to keep writing this with regularity if I can, but I'm not sure if I can.

I hope you enjoy.

Cold was the only thing my mind could understand at the moment. Snow covered everything around us when we were thrown out of the portal one after the other in a pile of bodies. Knight, who apparently couldn’t maintain his mouth close was coughing snow.

The portal shimmered behind us. It was a white arch of stone whose inside was filled with something akin to water or mist. It took a few seconds for the portal to stop completely turning back to a simple arch.

“Did you get the books?” I asked the moment everything stopped dancing in my head.

My friends tried to incorporate still dazed by the travel. John was the first to accomplish it who nodded to me.

“We got them all before Sauron started to yell, don’t worry Adam,” said my brother. “But we lost the spaceship…”

“The what?” I asked in a whisper.

John and Knight exchanged looks and then helped get up.

“There was something that looked like a plane. Well, it was…” he looked at John for support.

John looked at me. “It was an X-wing.”

“WHAT?!” I yelled.

“It was pretty damaged and too big to enter the inventory. We wanted to show it to you, but… The doors closed and then we were running.” Said my brother trying to sound convincing.

At that moment I assured him I believed him and that no matter how many spaceships he loses I would always love him and trust him. Then I accompanied that answer with a hug and a reassuring handshake.

Of course that only happened in my mind. What it actually happened was that I was about to kick him for losing Luke’s ship when somebody else joined the party.

“Hands where I can see them!” yelled a voice from behind.

Two men where pointing guns at the other side of the arch. Another man was balancing a top a pile of snow also aiming at us. My friends followed the orders easily. I was too angry to do it.

“These are not the droids you are looking for,” I said letting Communion transmit my fury.

Which of course, following the rules of this nonsense world almost worked. Two of the men lowered their weapons just for a moment. Confused and a bit afraid, but it was not enough.

“What?” said the not affected man, and the spell stopped.

“I said hands where I can see them!” yelled again the man. “I don’t want any tricks.”

My friends stared at me unable to believe what just happened. I smiled and moved my hands in the air. A man got close and made us follow.

While we moved I noticed for the first time where we were. It was the same clearing of the tower. For a moment when we took the portal I was afraid we would end somewhere in the other side of the world, but I guess this made more sense. We crossed from one portal to another and this were probably the only portals in the world at the moment.

The tower was still there, sort off. Snow had started to cover the tower in some sort of dome shape around it. Almost as if it fell over it and got frozen in space, floating in midair. The tower itself looked distorted, like seeing it through a glass that bended the light. At a side of it I could see a body paralyzed inside the area of the tower. Frozen in time.

I was suddenly very glad of not being in the tower.

“So… We are having a hell of a time lately, right?” I asked. “I mean a few hours ago it was almost summer, and now all this snow is-“

“Shut up,” snapped one man.

Knight tried to bore a hole through my head by looking at me. I mouthed an apology.

The Zombinator was still in the same place we left it. With the addition of the band of armed thugs that was now inside it. I swallowed trying very hard to not yell at them to stop touching it.

“Hey, look what we found,” yelled one of them.

The thugs stopped working and stared at us. It was a weird group, some had guns, other had rifles. All were clothed unevenly with what they had managed to find in their way. A man walked out of the Zombinator. Eight in total.

I glanced back at John. He shocked his head almost imperceptibly.

“Boss, we found this-“

“Shut up,” snarled the boss moving closer. “How did they get so close without any of you noticing?”

The group shifted uncomfortably. The boss moved face to face with John.

“Where do you come from?”

John just looked at him.

“Are you from the group in the north? Was this your plan? Attack us before we take you out?” he asked and smiled. “That’s not going to work. Many people have joined us. We are ready to go for you.”

I rolled my eyes knowing this was going to be a weird one. “Sorry, but we don’t have any idea what you are talking about.”

The man changed his attention to me. “No? And who are you then?”

“We are here to join you,” said Knight quickly.

“Yes! Yes, we are here to join you against that other group because they are evil.” I said. “We heard all about this from other teams, and they told us it was you who we needed to talk to… Join.”

There was confusion and then pride. “They told you that?” asked the boss.

“Oh, yes. You can join without speaking with the boss first, they said,” answered Knight.

“They were adamant about it,” I nodded.

Communion was working quickly trying to make them relax. It was not working perfectly for everyone, but it was working. The men were starting to relax.

There was not much time to think of a way out. We had to buy time. The Zombinator was still parked there where we left it, but this people had changed it. Tables were brought outside, a camouflage fabric was covering one of the sides, and several cans of food littered the ground around it.

Too many cans. We had been inside the tower a few hours, and although after the merge the weather was fast and weird there was too much snow too… They couldn’t have eaten half our food in a few hours.

I tried to reign in the anger and confusion, but it was too late. The boss cocked his weapon to my head.

“I don’t believe you.”

I couldn’t resist it, my anger flared. “Your lack of faith is disturbing.”

Knight looked at me as if trying to choke me to death, but unfortunately none of us had that power. Yet.

The radio of the Zombinator started then. It was more static than anything else, but the voice of somebody was discernible over it.

One of them went inside and out. “Boss, it’s from one of the other teams.”

The boss sighed still aiming his weapon at me. He pointed at two people.

“Make sure they don’t move,” he said and then still aiming at me. “If I don’t get an answer when I come back, one of your friends is dead.”

I swallowed and the group minus two people disappeared inside the Zombinator. Looking at both sides I started to make a plan.

It was a stupid crazy plan, but that was kind of my theme.

“So… What a hell of a snowstorm, right? Look at this,” I said trying to fill them with calm. “In just a few hours is all white already.”

One of the men stared. “It’s been almost a week of snow already.”

I stopped, glanced at my friends. I saw something in John’s face, but I tried to calm him. I had to concentrate to pull it off.

The discovery of mana manipulation had opened other doors. I launched a tendril of mana towards the grass, and I connected to it without the need for touching.

“That’s what I meant, a week. The weather is crazy lately.” I said trying to get the other to contribute to the conversation.

It was not as easy as to be touching it directly, but it worked. I reached out with mana to the Zombinator. It was there in a cabinet, exactly where I left it. They didn’t bother to touch it, or perhaps they hadn’t even seen it.

The white flower flared in welcoming. It was almost dying already, and only days without sunlight would have done that. Not hours. I filled the flower with mana making it grow back and started to pour the somniferous inside the Zombinator as fast as it could while I tried to calm the minds with communion.

“The weather is completely crazy, yes,” added Sam.

Our wardens looked at each other. “The boss said the snow will stop soon, anyway. It’s from all those earthquakes and fires.”

Knight laughed and it didn’t sound as panicked as I knew he was. “You shouldn’t believe the weatherman too much. You know how they are.”

They laughed, and my friends joined in awkwardly.

It was the moment. One by one the people inside the Zombinator started to lose consciousness fast. Just a matter of minutes and they were all happily dreaming of other things. Of course no plan survives contact with the enemy.

“Help!” yelled the last man to fall.

It was enough for the two men guarding us to attack. The grass jumped at my command slow enough to let one escape while the other stumbled to the ground with a green suit.

The other man jumped back avoiding the grass and aimed at us. To slow.

John was already aiming with his crossbow and arrow flew to his head killing it instantly.

You have lost 5 Luck for killing an innocent.

I stared at the message. My friends did the same. My stomach burned for a moment and I wanted to throw up. That wasn’t good.

“What?” asked Sam dazed.

I swallowed and walked to the Zombinator. “It doesn’t matter, now. Okay? Just- Let’s move out of here.”

---

Helping people, like when I healed them in the camp, gives luck. Hurting people (killing people) makes us lose it. I remembered the system saying something about karmic luck. It was fairly straightforward when you thought about it.

I was nursing the flower that had saved us while the Zombinator moved, letting my mind get lost in the comforting whispers of its tiny mind. The contact with plants was always amazing, and as I was discovering also addictive. It was easy to get lost in the simplicity and not think of other things.

Unfortunately those other things were inevitable.

We had moved the unconscious bodies out and left them in the snow. Not like if we could or wanted to take them with us, but the radio was still talking from time to time with other voices. That was supposed to be important. I should be paying attention but…

Why did it said innocent?

We almost got killed, apparently lost a week inside that tower, discovered a band of thugs trying to raid another group. Discovered there was another group out there surviving after months of nothing more than silence, and that message was the only thing I could think.

Did the universe know something I didn’t? Did the man that was about to shot us was actually innocent? Was he going to surrender and got killed instead? Perhaps it was something more simple than all that, perhaps there was never a good excuse to kill somebody. That almost made me smile.

It was both comforting and unnerving that the universe had a moral rulebook.

“Are you okay in there?” asked my brother giving me a cup of tea.

“I’m fine,” I said taking the offering.

He sat across and looked at me. “You know… You shouldn’t feel too bad about them, we have lost half our foodstuffs thanks to them. And John says they broke one of the water filters trying to filter snow or something.”

“I’m fine Knight.” I said more strong than what I meant to. “Just a bit angry still about the X-wing.” I joked.

Knight snorted even though we both knew that wasn’t true.

The Zombinator stopped then, slowly driving out of the roads.

I looked at the front confused. “Why are we stopping?”

“Because we have a problem,” said John followed by Sam.

John dropped a map in the table. It was one of our maps, but it was filled with annotations along the margins.

He sighed. “According to this we are close to a small town. Or at least what it was before a small town, now…” his voice broke, but then started pointing at the map. “These men have closed and are guarding all the roads around it. They steal from everybody that tries to escape the town. We are surrounded and we can get out of here without a fight.”

The words took a moment to sink in and Knight spoke. “We can’t drive around without using the roads?”

“Not with the Zombinator, between the damage of the merges to the buildings, the forests growing everywhere and the heavy snow we have. It’s going to be that difficult or impossible to move through. We have to use the roads or wait for the snow to stop, and that could take a while.” He said pointing around the map.

“And I imagine that fighting these groups is not a good idea,” said Knight.

John looked at me. “Not unless you want innocents to die.”

My brother and John glanced at me. Sam didn’t.

“Look, I don’t- I don’t know what that message was about, but regardless of that I don’t want to kill people if I can-”

“Relax Adam,” smiled John. “We don’t have any idea of how many people are in these blockades, or how difficult it would be to attack them. It’s not a good idea to go without more information, and I think we have an alternative.”

His hand moved to a point heavily marked in the map. A mall surrounded by annotations of entrances and plans.

“The other group,” I said.

John nodded. “They are in a big mall. About a hundred survivors armed and prepared to protect it. They’ve been there for a month, and out little group of bandits has been aching to take everything inside.”

“And what? Why go there and ask: hi we are the new neighbors, would you have a cup of coffee?” I asked, blinked. “Actually, when you think about it…”

Sam took the map from the table and examined it closely.

“They are almost a hundred. To get to those numbers they had to accept people, and I imagine everyone that is still in the city and doesn’t want to run into the bandits has joined them,” he said. “That means we should be able to join too.”

Knight nodded. “It’s a stretch, but it’s getting late already, and we will have to find a place to stay during the black rain. That people seems our best option.”

“They are also our best option to know something more about these bandits,” added John looking at me.

They were all looking at me. Because again I was their leader. It was getting on my nerves.

“Okay… I was convinced since the coffee, in the worst case we can always run. We are good at that.”

The Zombinator moved again following the roads inside the town, and it was… Weird. That was the word. Most of the buildings were a wreck, completely broken into pieces along the ways. Others were dominated by trees that have grown around them. Others… were fine. Like nothing happened here at all fine.

Communion proved his usefulness again showing me where most of the monsters were hiding and we tried to maneuver out of their way until we were close to our target.

The mall wasn’t in the town proper, more like at a side of it, sandwiched between a giant parking lot and a park. The park of course was more of a forest by now, outgrowing its bonds and eating part of the town. It was, nonetheless, a big mall, and there was somebody in the ceiling. A single guard at first, but soon more followed.

We were moving straight through the parking lot when the first shot came. It didn’t damaged the Zombinator, just singed it harmlessly, but it was enough for Sam to stop.

“Now what?” asked Sam.

I was already on it, a tendril of mana reaching all the way to the guards and checking. I didn’t know exactly if Communion could work at those distances, but after a moment the emotions started to flow.

“They are scared,” I said.

“That’s good, right?” asked Knight. “I mean, at least is not vengeful fury or some other emotion. They are scared because they don’t want to fight.”

“Or they scared because they are going to fight, and everyone is scared before a fight,” said John.

“Or maybe- Adam, I just noticed that your magic powers are shit,” said my brother.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m sorry my Jedi mind tricks are not good enough for you, my young padawan. Time for Plan B.”

I took a white towel and opened the door, and before anyone could stop I was flapping the towel as hard as I could in sign of surrender. I moved slowly around the Zombinator feeling the emotions of the guards at every step in case I had to run back.

At the sight of the towel they calmed and I capitalized on it with communion.

“Don’t panic! We come in peace for all mankind!” I yelled not sure if they could hear me.

They could. Their emotions dropping the fear and showing tints of humor. I dropped the towel to the ground and put my hands in the air.

“We are a bit lost, and a band of… idiots have closed the roads,” I continued carefully as their emotions turned bitter, but calmer. “We can’t get out or find a safe place to stop for the night… so… Could we talk? You know, face to face, not just me yelling and hoping you are listening.”

They talked, or it seemed so from my position and one of then disappeared.

“Is anybody else liking this idea less and less?” I asked just strong enough for my friends to hear.

Then we played the waiting game. Nobody seemed to move from one side or the other. I was there alone, which was good to me with my friends safe. Nobody talked.

“Are we going to-?” I started to yell.

“You can come alone to explain!” yelled somebody back.

A big door opened in the mall just enough for a person to pass. Scared whoever it was, but nothing that seemed off or that could indicate a trap. I started to walk.

“Adam!” said my brother poking out of a window.

I moved my hand in reassurance not looking at him, and went to it. We were already into it. The guard at the door pushed me inside as I got close. It was a dark room filled with people in some kind of police or military uniform.

“Hands in the air!” yelled one of them as they shoved me inside.

I maintained the hands in the air as they had been for a while and sighed. The conversation of course took a turn for the better after that.

“Who are you? Why are you here? How many did you brought with you?” questioned the same man.

“Eh…”

“Are you with the bandits? Here to attack us?”

“Eh…”

“Against the wall,” he ordered as another man was kind enough to shove me into it. “We are not going to fall for a trap so easy. Oh, no. If you think you are going to return to give information to your friends-“

“Eh…”

It was then when I noticed my dialogue patterns were getting very similar.

“We are going to discover everything you know.”

“Eh…”

“Search him for weapons!”

Someone started to search me or rape me. I wasn’t entirely sure what, and it was also completely pointless given that-

“Would you stop doing that bloody thing Sergeant?” asked a voice. “You have been accusing of being an enemy to everyone that passes this door. And if he has half a brain his weapons are in his inventory which we can’t search anyway so this is pointless.”

I recognized that voice, although I wasn’t entirely sure where…

“It’s the protocol, ma’am,” answered the sergeant quick as if he had already repeated it many times.

“And it’s completely useless in our current situation,” sighed the voice.

I turned to look as much as I could when somebody was pushing me into a wall. My eyes widened.

“Amelia? You survived after the camp?” I asked.

Amelia Walters looked at me and smiled.

“Oh. You are the doctor,”

“Doctor who?” asked the Sergeant.

Everybody groaned.

--

Really bad jokes aside the next part of the interrogatory was easier.

They let us move the Zombinator inside the mall. The first floor wasn’t built to house vehicles, but it was filled with them. Dozens of cars and RV’s in perfect state (or almost perfect) filled the place, but strangely nobody was guarding them.

Then, Amelia, who was the leader of this group of survivors, let’s us explain our story. John explained everything shortly and quick to the point as everything he did.

“So you want to tell me that, not only you survived completely on your own and without any of you dying in the progress these last months, but somehow managed to dupe the boss of the bandits that had been harassing us for two weeks,” summarized Amelia deadpan.

“Yep,” I nodded.

The Sergeant was inspecting the map with the annotations in silence. A few soldiers snickered.

“And why in the name of sanity didn’t you kill that bastard? He killed two of my people already!” yelled Amelia.

I lowered my head. My friends were looking at me. I could feel...

“Because unfortunately I didn’t know that,” I snapped. “And because my first instinct when I met somebody new, regardless of how much of an asshole he was, is not to kill. I’m not a murderer. Are you?”

Amelia seemed about to say something when the sergeant intervened.

“The map is consistent with what we already now, but I’m not sure if they are telling the truth,” he announced. “The map may be a trap to infiltrate someone inside our group or-“

“Oh, stop it Sergeant. If you have all this information why did you come here?” she asked.

“We don’t know how well settled they are, and it was too late to figure it out and attack before the night,” answered John.

Amelia stopped. “You just wanted to pass the night here and go in your way? That’s it?”

“Yep,” I nodded.

“What Adam is trying to say is that we don’t really want to be a problem to your group,” said Sam quickly glaring at me.

Anger was boiling inside the room. Panic and fear from the news growing along with rage. I didn’t understand why.... Oh.

“It’s not that we don’t want to help-“ I started.

“I don’t like this ma’am, we can’t just let them go,” said the Sergeant.

After that it was just chaos. People started yelling to one another with recriminations that had little to do with us. In some way I knew that the sensitive thing to do, not only for them, but for us, would be to join them and help them.

I didn’t really knew much about them, and after my brief encounter with Amelia in camp Bloodmoon she was obviously changed. All of us were changed after what had happened. I couldn’t trust them. I couldn’t know if they were ‘good’ people. I only knew they were fighting another group that was composed of assholes.

That wasn’t much.

On the other hand, with the monsters becoming stronger being in a bigger group could be the best for us. I wanted to believe that they could be our group, but I wasn’t sure.

I sighed as the yelling became stronger. It was going bad for us.

“A little bit of help could come in good right now,” I muttered.

New quest created.The battle of the mall.The gods of light have deemed the situation of their druid, Adam, a worthy challenge, and will offer their help. You have one week before the attack of the bandits start to shore of your defenses and protect the innocents of Amelia's camp.Objectives:

Protect the lives of all the survivors.

Defend the mall.

Optional 1 - Craft artifacts to aid in the defense.

Optional 2 - Find more about the bandits.

Optional 3 - Obtain food for all the survivors.

Option 4 – Gather cars and fuel to transport all survivors.

Optional 5 - ?Rewards:

EXP + Luck to depending of contributions.

? to special contributions.

The discussions stopped as the window appeared at everyone’s faces. I blinked slowly reading all of it.

Amelia looked at me and then everyone else. “Well, that’s new.”