Authors Note: Thank you for being patient up to this point with many things that did not make sense before, I hope this chapter will clear things up for many. All 7 days and events were pre-planned in my mind already. I wanted to show the full 7 days and the effects of a new world on society and people in general. from here on time jumps, weeks and months can pass, tho no years, that would be too, much of a jump. Plus a I need a few time skips to keep the story progressing.

The death and resurrection were also planned to a) give Julie and Scott the link B) get the Doc initiated and lastly get Mark out of the way :) Some might think it was a cliche shallow drama induced gut wrenching bunch of bull. many have commented that Scott should be the Sir YES Sir! soldier and know better due to years of training and in other Novels that would probably be the case, but here he will have flaws and imperfections. I eluded to his 20 years of service and training, but I also said he had not developed any social skills in that time. He was a good soldier took and gave orders flawlessly,but his human interaction on a personal level was nill in those 20 years straight our of high school.

He is learning how to deal with people now on a personal level. If it were just him, things would be so much different, it would be a totally different story, but as it is, he now has two girls, a good friendship developing with Rick and the Captain even (who is more of an adviser to him which he relies on more and more each day), These are all things he never really experienced before, so yes he is going to look like an idiot at times.

I know that the comments are a minority and I should ignore them, but I wanted to clear this up as many may read those comments and get the wrong impression of the story as whole.

As always thank you for reading! Please review my Story and let me know how I am doing and thank you to those who took the time to review both good and bad, I learned from them.

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Chapter 32 The Calm before the Storm

I see the Doc approaching,” They are all dead!”, I say to to Doc, he nods to me and approaches one of the bodies. He kneels down and is about to do something, when all the bodies begin to glow. We all quickly step back from the bodies, then as suddenly they all disappear. Everyone one of the holdouts was gone, as if they never existed.

“What the hell is going on here?”, Someone calls out nervously.

“Oh my god the children!”, Julie cries out

I quickly look around and see none of the children. I begin to run, Julie, Cindy Doc,and many others following, we are headed for the library where Mrs Roberts is keeping all the kids, the library became the child care center. It was also agreed that all under 18 would still do studies and a learning regiment had been put in place almost immediately, all had to study.

We arrive outside of the Library and hear nothing, the Library door is closed. We all rush inside and are immediately greeted with a warm sight. We see Mrs Roberts is reading a book to an assembly of children in front of her. The older children are sitting at tables further away studying or writing things down. Mrs Roberts 2 assistants are standing with the older students moving back and forth answering questions, tutoring the older students.

All of them stop what they are doing and look at us as we burst in. “Is everything all right here Mrs Roberts?” I ask cautiously.

She smiles warmly and replies,” yes Mr Smith, can we help you with something?”

One of the parents pushes thru, a little girl recognizes him, “Daddy Daddy!” She cries out in glee and rushes to him, he rushing to her and grabs her up in his arms, “Thank god you are ok bumpkin!” Tears forming in his eyes.

Other parents are arriving and the scene repeats itself many times with the little ones, while others look embarrassed when their mom or dad rush to hug them tightly.

“What is this about Mr Smith?” Mrs Roberts asks confused looking about at the scene unfolding.

I pull her to the side and begin to whisper,” did you get a message a few minutes ago?” I ask in a low voice.

“Why yes, it was strange, I could not move for a few seconds when the message popped up, but then it released me and we continued on” She says still uncertain. The Sheriff, Cindy and Julie joined us.

“Are any of the children missing?”, Cindy asks.

“No, they are all here, but what was odd is only I and my two assistants were frozen during the message, the children did not seem affected.” she says trying to understand why we all showed up suddenly

We quickly explain to Mrs Roberts what happened and she gasps in shock at the news and now understands the parents reactions.

“Lets ask the older kids if they saw anything” The Sheriff whispers to us. We all nod.

Our little group makes it way thru the reunion celebration that is taking place to where the older kids are gathered with their families.

“Sorry to interrupt you folks, but we were hoping the kids here, could tell us if they saw anything like that message?” The Sheriff asks of the group.

Several shake their heads no, a few spoke up and said “no”.

“Thank you all” Sheriff says and our little group walks to exit the library.

As we exit and close the door, “Now that is strange indeed, none of the kids were affected by the message or the paralysis.” The Sheriff says scratching the back of his neck.

“Maybe it has to do with the fact they are not yet 18?” Cindy asks

“Why would that matter? Julie asks

“We still do not know why all of us were reset to 18, maybe that has something to do with it?” I say.

“hmm you may be right there Scott, so what happens when they hit 18?” The Sheriff asks.

“Do we really want to find out?” I ask, “I think getting them initiated before their 18th birthday would be a wise choice”.

“I think you are right Scott” Cindy agrees

“So if they do not get initiated by their 18 birthday, you think they will die and disappear too?”, Julie asks

“I do not know kitten, but I really do not want to test that theory if at all possible,” I say to the group, they all nod in agreement. Our mood is lightened with the safety of the kids. The fear that gripped us had dispersed. I began to relax again, the others showed visibly that they too, did the same.

Suddenly a new message appears to us, it is now 10 am, I have a new watch that Cindy was able to find for me and put it on my wrist while I was asleep, she is very thoughtful. I will have to thank her properly later.

SYSTEM MESSAGE!PREPARE YOURSELVES ADVENTURERS!

NPC Races will spawn in 24 hours

Go forth and meet them, but be aware, some might be friendly

while others not so. Become a leader or a slave,

the choice will not always be yours. Can you survive the encounter?

To do so, can bring forth riches and wealth to some, or a slave collar for others.

What now? NPC Races? What races? In the MMO there were elves and dwarves and that kind of stuff, could they be referring to that? Hmmmm...hehehe maybe even some cat girls? Meooowww

Scott sweetheart did you forget already?

Look but don't touch?

Scott?

Sorry sweetheart, my mind wanders at times, I will do better........

“Are they doing that thing, the Doc told me about?” The Sheriff asks of Cindy

“Sigh yes, they really need to control it”. Cindy grumbles shaking her head.

“Sorry about that, umm Rick, going back to the kids, how about we keep this under wraps for now, I do not think we have anyone turning 18 soon who is not initiated, do not want to cause a panic and have parents initiating their young ones just yet till we know more?” I say to the group.

“It would be really bad if parents did panic and pushed an 8 year old into initiation right now, but then again they might panic and do it right now anyways thinking any moment it could happen again and this time their kid could die and disappear on them.” Cindy says to us in thought.

“We could just tell them the kids are not affected by this and there is no reason to panic. I think we can tell them up front about the 18 year limit, I think it would even ease their minds” Julie says “I know it would me if I were a parent”, she adds looking slightly flushed in the cheeks taking a peek at me.

Sheriff nods, “I think Julie is right, the more we all know the better, it will help in the long run too, as we prepare for future initiations.

“We are forgetting something very important here” I say suddenly, quickly pull up the Barony Menu and look at population report. Population...population...there it is.. It shows a new population of 338 but it also shows temp 150, so the 150 temp must be the NPC workers of the upgrades? That would leave 200 of the 214, 14 less than before. We already found 8, Only 16 survivors left! All children?? The parents died? How do find them fast? They will not last alone on their own, god help me, let me find them please....I begin to panic inwardly

Scott calm down, think this thru, take a deep breath, I am here with you,

Taking a breath, I am staring at Julie again, each times our thought cross, I find myself looking at her, “sorry about that”

“What are we forgetting Scott” Rick asks.

“There are only 16 survivors left” I say grimly

“Oh no....” Cindy gasps

Ricks face goes pale “we have to move fast Scott”

“Yeah I know, lets get everyone together that is willing and can carry a gun, we need to find them fast.” I say determined.

“We can't just throw these folks into danger like that, they are not ready for that” Rick says his face showing concern.

“They are kids Rick!” and enter into the Library. We quickly explain our theory on the initiation process and the age of 18 to the parents here as all were gathered already, not one did not show after the holdouts died. After the explanation was done, “Folks I need everyone in the Cafeteria now!”

Without waiting for an answer, I begin to leave,” Gather everyone into the Cafeteria quickly we do not have much time at all”.

Everyone splits up and begins to gather everyone. 15 minute pass and all are assembled in the Cafeteria. The guards as instructed were dragging the guns and ammo into the Cafeteria.

"Folks, we have a crisis on out hands and I am turning to you for help. There are only 16 survivors left in our Safe Zone, most likely all children and I need your help to find them. It is going to be dangerous as hell. But we have no other option, unless we want to simply abandon them." I quickly explain and people upon realizing what I said about the survivors being kids made them worry as well.

"I will assign 4 task groups, 12 people in each one, with 4 Deputies per group. We will go out in the vehicles. We have 18 so everyone should fit, might be tight in a few of them. If and when you do find survivors radio to the rest of us and let us know how many. Our priority is to get them to safety, but also to keep you safe as well.” I say to the group “ I know I am asking you to risk your lives here, but they are kids, they need us now more than ever”.

No one complains or refuses. All have a determined look on their faces. I look to Mrs Roberts “ I am going to have you stay here Mrs Roberts with your two assistants and keep a watch on the kids while we are gone”.

She nods and grabs the shoulder of a child in front of her protectively, the kids assembled around her.

Quickly the Guns are distributed to everyone, AK-47 and AR-15's mainly. The deputies are furiously loading and showing others how to load the magazines, even demonstrate quickly how to flip the safety to shoot. In 20 minutes our force is ready to move out and are quickly broken into groups.

With Sirens on, we move out, The noise it to let them know we are here so they come out to us on their own, but also to gather any creatures to us so we can wipe them out quickly, killing two birds with one stone so to say.

My group consists of 12 people, Myself, Cindy Julie and Johnson. I am driving my truck, Julie has a car, as does Cindy and Johnson. We load up and head out We head towards the section where the Owlbears had spawned, tho it seemed like I may have gotten rid of them, I still wanted to check also to see if any of my gear was still there. Plus I was the most likely person who could deal with them with Julie and Cindy at my side.

We arrive at our designated spot and begin a house to house road for road search, it is tedious and time consuming, kicking in the doors yelling checking basements and rooms quickly, some houses you can already tell no one is there, as it is smoldering from a fire. Some entire neighborhoods had burnt down.

The going was slow, no progress to be reported. No monster sighting either, which is strange, as at least Worg or two should have been spotted. But nothing was reported. We search into the evening, Sadly none of my gear was found in our search, when the report suddenly came. All 16 had been found in a Daycare. 10 children and 6 adults were there. The adults were all armed with various guns and weapons. They had killed several Worgs and were initiated early on. They survived by making food runs to nearby houses and businesses. They had a larger group in the beginning, a little over 30 they said, but a few tried to venture out further and never came back. Some had taken their kids with them.

With the news, we all congregate to the site to transport everyone. Once all were loaded up, we headed back to the School in the darkness, a convoy of 24 vehicles, no monsters came out to greet us. We gained 6 new vehicles to our little convoy.

We go back to the school unloaded everyone and head to the cafeteria, where a hearty dinner was waiting for us. The 16 new arrivals, with delight and excitement, dig into their meals quickly and devour them. The 10 kids ranged from ages 3 to 9, as the day care was a 7 day a week facility many parents worked on weekends and used it for that purpose.

When the monsters began to spawn, parents frantically tried to make their way to the facility to get to their kids. Many made it to the Daycare. Several tried to look for other survivors or help, taking their kids with them at the protest of the Daycare Coordinator and others, but never returned, and this morning the Daycare coordinator and the 4 aids all disappeared after the message as they had not been initiated.

It seems Terry Williams, ex-army, kept everyone together after that, even by force if needed, he was a single father and had an 8 year old son in the Daycare, he was a mechanic and was working that day when it all happened. Everyone sang his praises as he took out many Worgs it seemed with his hunting rifle. He was an avid hunter, 6ft tall, 30 years of age, but looks 18 now, short cut brown hair, hazel eyes. Still fit, but due to lack of exercise not muscular, he had on his blue mechanic overalls still, they were clean, but torn in places from the fights with the Worg.

With everyone fed, we took them to a room prepared for them by the maids to sleep, for now we let them all sleep together as that is what they were accustomed to and need to slowly integrate them and give them time to adapt to their new environment. Everyone got to take a hot shower before bed, with jubilant joy, woots and laughter came from the showers. They were over joyous at the fact that we still had power.

The adults looked strangely at the guards and the Captain who stood watch in various areas or patrolled. We explained to them the situation and what had transpired thus far with the school. After the explanation they were not only amazed, but in disbelief at it all. NPC's, magic, it was all a lot for them to handle.

We agreed to go into more details in the morning after a good nights rest and all parted ways to sleep.

Julie, Cindy and I went to bed, many things happened today. But then again, it has been like this for the past 7 days, no rest, no time to breath and relax, we all snuggled but did not get intimate.

“Sorry I did not get chance to ask kitten, are you feeling ok” I ask her while getting comfortable, feeling both their warm bodies against me.

“Yeah I am fine sweetheart why do you ask? “ she asks quietly, positioning herself against me tightly.

“Well after being shot and dieing, then brought back to life, I was not sure if their were any after effects.” I say concerned.

“WHAT???” I got shot and died??? When did that happen?” She cries out sitting up in bed looking at me stunned. The blankets fall away to reveal her amazing breasts.

“Umm Julie what do you remember when we went to go see Mark?” Cindy asks now, sitting up as well looking at Julie. The blankets fall away revealing her bare chest.

“Well we went into the room, Scot confronted Mark and Mark made those stupid remarks which just pissed me off, like hell if I will see things his way! Then the shooting began, I was about to raise my shield, but I woke up in the nurses office instead........No way! Really? I died?” She says shocked again and begins to look over her body.

“Yeah sweetheart they got you in the heart. I made Doc my personal physician and he resurrected you. The trade off was, we are now connected it seems, mind, body and soul.” I say to her softly letting it all sink in.

We spoke about Marks last stand and the others being killed by the guards She was totally stunned and we spoke more on the subject, the sharing of health, mana an endurance. The dangers that may occur with the sharing of such. Julie regretted Marks death, but was glad he was gone. Cindy also pointed a few thoughts out. We talked late into the night. At some point we called it a night and fell asleep one by one.

Morning arrives at the yell of kids running in the halls, an adult is chasing after them telling them to be quiet and to stop running to the glee of the kids.

We get up and make our way to the Showers after giving each other a good morning greeting and kiss. After refreshing ourselves, a shave for me, brushing teeth and combing hair, we head to the Cafeteria.. Breakfast is fantastic again. It is day 8 of our new lives. We quickly eat breakfast and plan that days events.

I tell Rick I would like to start a training program for all, exercise, weapons training, hand to hand combat. I call to the Captain of the guard and tell him I want all the Elite to train with his guards and learn swordsmanship .Both agree and think it is a good idea. It will give everyone something to do on their off times, when such occurs and give our people much needed training and maybe open up new skills to them. I will participate as will Julie and Cindy, we decide.

Cindy also is practicing her magic on the side, perfecting her current spells and learning new ones daily. Several people gather to watch her, amazed at the fire magics. Some want to learn but are unable to grasp the profession.

9:45 am hits and a new message hits us

SYSTEM MESSAGE!Greetings Fellow Adventurers!

24 hours have passed! You were given this time to find and gather

the remaining Adventurers.

All Creature spawns were disabled and temporarily removed to allow

for this transition. Now all will be re-spawned, and reset back to their

original challenge levels.

The 7 day xp bonus and the 50% creature XP increase have been removed.

Creatures will now give normal XP and their challenge rating will reflect their levels.

We hope you enjoyed the bonuses and leveled quickly in this time.

Those who own territories will not have any spawns, but keep in mind,

creatures can and will wander into your territories.

So it will be up to you to keep your people safe!

So that is what happened huh? I find myself not angry at the message, instead I am actually quite calm, no sense in getting angry anymore about this, we have to move forward, Guess we moved at the right time then. So we now have an established safe zone, but what is this about monsters being reset back to their original challenge levels? Does this mean our guns will be ineffective? We need to proceed with extreme caution from here on. Great, just what we needed about now sigh.............