The day continued on. Everybody stayed busy. Jake made his plans for the ‘God Machine’. He didn’t know what to call it, so he went big on the name. He figured he’d never tell anyone its name anyway.

It looked like kind of a cross between Robbie the Robot and a slot machine. It was shaped like a humanoid, kind of like those Egyptian sarcophaguses with a big lever on the left side and a dome of alabaster. He thought about putting a brain in the glass or some rotating satellite dishes in a glass head-pod like Robbie had, but didn’t want to make it too anthropomorphic. He wanted people to see the machine as a machine rather than something to interact with. Instead, he caused the dome to glow with a pale white light.

The lever caused a space to open in the front of the machine when pulled down and when raised, it closed the space and cleaned away whatever was put in the open space. Like one of those nutcracker soldiers that always appeared around Christmas time. Only instead of cracking nuts, it disintegrated what was in its mouth.

He figured that he could talk over with Dato or Sammy or whoever was in charge of the desk if he needed to find out more information about the person’s request. The light on the dome changed to red when the lever was pulled to its open state, flashed briefly green when closed again (unless no paper was in the machine) and then changed back to its pale white resting state.

Once he had the machine planned at least, he created some forms that the requester was asked to fill out. The forms were tied to the machine. No form, no green light. The form had a carbon copy. One copy was kept by the person working at the desk, one copy went into the machine. He figured his mom would want to read what the person had requested. Bureaucracy lives!

He thought about how to answer the requests. Should the machine give back a token if the request was approved? A copper coin? A silver coin? He started to add that to his plans but then decided not too. People should be left wondering if their requests would be answered. He figured they could ask his mother if they really needed an answer. And then she’d ask him and they could discuss.

He looked around Max’s for a place to put the machine and desk. It was getting crowded inside the building. There was not much free space left. He thought about putting the booth and the machine in the dining room but decided that it was a bad idea. Well, not a bad idea, but one he wasn’t sure about. If you don't want to be in the business, don't advertise he finally decided.

Finally, he decided to put the booth in the little stub hallway between the Fisher’s room and the enclosure surrounding the dungeon entrance. He’d thought about enclosing that hallway once and putting in a giant snake, but had finally decided not too.

He planned to put up a little cubicle with a door at the back and a counter that would have the god machine on one side of it. A chair, a filing cabinet, and a hinged panel that raised and lowered to allow people to enter the cube. He figured he could always change it, move the machine, do something different if he needed to.

Billy had finished his magic seminar and seemed pleased with the result. All the kids had awoken their Qi and mana. Now it was a question of following through, practicing. Billy told them that he was level nine now and had earned all his levels by practicing. He fired a three Force Bolt burst at the end to show them what was possible.

He thought about his next statement but decided to say it anyway. “It’s important that you know, this is not a game. These spells aren’t toys. The average man or woman has 31 hit points at level zero. I would most likely kill them if I cast that burst of Force Bolts. Do not cast this spell at a person unless you really mean to hurt them. And I mean kill. Because you stand a chance of doing that. Do you understand?”

He looked around the room and saw the kids nodding their heads. It was odd how serious they all looked. Little mini men and women.

None of these kids were free from the effects of the Event. Most had lost at least one parent, some were like his group, orphans. He thought the average age of the kids in the room was a little bit older than seven. Thirteen of the kids were seven and under, four were four. There were some younger kids but they’d been encouraged to go swimming instead of participating.

Billy wondered what the adults were thinking about allowing him to teach four-year-olds to cast spells, but then he remembered the coyotes clawing at his front door, the ground squirrels as big as dogs, and that earthworm Baxter had fought on the way to Ferns. He decided that childhood ended a lot earlier now. It may be the wrong thing to do but like Fern said everyone needed a chance to survive and that included the kids. Better to have an accident than to have someone lose their life because they couldn’t defend themselves.

He went back to his room, not the one he was theoretically sharing with his sister, but his bed in the kid’s room. The kids gathered around and they had a quiet chat, basically about the other kids that Billy had just trained, about what they had learned. Some of the new kids had followed Billy into the room and sat quietly against the walls.

Finally, Billy said, “Let’s practice!” and they started up again. They formed their circle and one of the kids donated a jacket to put as a target on the floor in the center of the circle. And they started practicing. They got around the circle once and looked up.

More kids had come into the room and were watching them practice.

Billy said, “Ok, it’s getting a little crowded in here. Brian, why don’t you lead this session and I’ll go see if I can get practice sessions started in the other rooms?”

Brian was the oldest of the boys in the room at twelve. He wasn’t sure when his birthday would be due to the calendar changing but he was already worried about his classes and what he’d do when he turned thirteen. It had become the default age of adulthood.

He wasn’t sure about that yet. He was also an orphan. His parents had died on the second night after the Event. His dad was standing in their house’s driveway looking up and down the street. His mom stood at the end of the sidewalk between the driveway and the house, also looking around. She was looking down the hill toward Mocassin Street when the coyote pack came up from Polecat Creek. Neither of them had a chance to do anything, other than look up at the incoming beasts.

“Brian, inside, now!” his mom shouted and then a coyote buried its head in her throat.

Fern and Will and their daughters had come at a run, killing two of the pack before the others ran away. Before that, Brian had barely known the Silvestres. He knew them from going to the block parties once a year and even then he had hardly talked to them. Then he started living in their basement.

But he took over Billy’s place in the circle and began to talk them through the process. “Remember, stop before you run out of mana. Just wave your hand if you’re out. We’ll all stop and meditate then. And remember, and this is vital, only put two points of mana in the spell. We’re practicing, trying to gain levels, not trying to do actual damage. Oh, and never direct your spell at another person unless you want to hit them. Even practicing, this spell is dangerous! Ok?”

Everyone nodded and they started around the circle again.

In the meantime, Billy went to the room next door and started training the kids there. He found one of the oldest kids in the room, a boy named Toby Gillis who was also twelve and walked him through the process of practicing. He made sure that Toby knew the three main points in setting up a circle. Make sure everyone knew how to put only two mana points in the spell, not to shoot the spell in anyone's direction, and knew to tell everyone when they had reached two mana points. He tried to stress that. “Don’t run out of mana!”

And, of course, making sure that they knew that after the first person ran out of mana, they all stopped and meditated for thirty minutes,

He did that in the next two rooms as well. Finding the oldest child and appointing them ‘Shot Caller’. Everyone surprised him by wanting to practice. By the time he left the final room and got back to his place in the first room, they were ending their second period of meditation so he snuck back into the circle. Ms. Caldwell had joined in and taken his place but they scrunched over and made room for him to join the practice.

The sounds from the four rooms were quiet, little, soft ‘pew pew’ noises following one right after the other or just quiet while the children within the rooms meditated. Ms. Caldwell’s helpers all joined in and practiced too. No one wanted to be left behind or unprotected.

At around 4:30, Cal and the rest of the crew who were on wall duty came inside. He’d left a ten-meter section of the wall unbuilt facing Max’s. The boundary of the walls was fairly even. Cal ability to use his builder’s eye to draw the circle from mark to mark that the survey crew had left, doing a good job of creating a uniformly circular disk.

After they had finished the walls, the whole security crew and Cal had walked through the inside of the circle, checking it for monsters, but didn’t discover any. Baxter’s nightly cleaning and the presence of the other humans had evidently driven the monster’s away. If not for good, at least for now.

Jake stationed one of his owls at the hole in the wall and watched for activity.

Around 4:45, Matchstick and his two helpers showed up. They were surprised by the walls. They stood and stared at them for about five minutes. They crept up and looked in the opening, but didn’t seem inclined to go inside the section of woods that was visible.

Jake could hear them muttering. They were surprised and upset. Even more upset when they went to the tree blinds and couldn’t find their friends. Evidently one of the men with Matchstick had gained a skill in ‘Tracking’ because he was able to find the place where the two men had hit the ground. There were some angry outbursts, quickly muffled when the man told the others what had probably happened.

By this time it was about five after five and it was starting to get dark. Matchstick led them all away again, not bothering to shoot any arrows into the doorway.

“People loud!” said Baxter from his place inside my core room.

“You can hear them from down here?” Jake asked.

“Yes, loud,” he said.

Jake hadn’t really asked the dog what he thought about all this. It just hadn’t come up. First, there was the apocalypse, then Hildi, and now there were all these people camped in the front room of Max’s.

“Are you ok with all this?” he asked.

Now that he’d come back, Jake felt, to quote his inner sloth, ‘complete’. Not to get all sentimental but the noise of Baxter chewing on his Scooby Snacks brought that unique feeling of annoyance and acceptance that had come to mean home to him. He hoped the answer was positive because he’d hate to have to chase his family out of their rooms.

“Guess so,” said the dog. “Like kids. Like Billy. Like Fern.”

“How about Will and Rex?” asked Jake.

“Will quiet. But good,” he said, then added “Scratching” to make sure Jake knew how he was judging his family.

“Are you Ok with Hildi? Billy?” Jake asked.

“Love Hildi” he answered. Then paused for a moment.

“Billy smart,” he said. “Stay good. Or chomp!”

Jake wasn’t quite sure how to take this last one. Did the dog mean he’d chomp Billy or someone else? And he wasn’t sure what that ‘Stay good’ meant either. It was tricky sometimes interpreting his dog. Even with language, the dog didn’t talk all that much. He used to think that the dog was new to language and would get better at talking. Now he wasn't so sure.

It was like the dog had evolved to speak with his paws, mouth, ears, shoulders, and tail and didn’t really see the need for more communication. He talked just enough to clarify or not what he was saying. It was like the dog had decided early on that sentences should be no more than two words, maybe three in a pinch and wasn’t going to change. He also suspected that the dog understood a great deal more than he let on.

But Jake liked the way the dog communicated anyway. He’d grown to appreciate mysteries a great deal. When you don’t have a body you learn to like things that made you think. Things that occupied your time, gave you the impression of agency, of action. He’d also started reacting on a slower scale than he’d used to, than humans did. He wasn’t sure where this was going but he’d noticed a change in himself even in these past weeks. He still made lists but he didn’t feel as compelled to get them done. He was ok just making plans.

“Jake,” said Hildi. “You there?”

That was an interesting question. He was a rock. Where else was he going to be? Although he supposed he could flee about 440 meters a day. Probably more as his Move Core skill advanced. So, he guessed it was an appropriate question.

“Jake. Hildi to Jake. Are you there Jake?” she asked again.

“Uhm, yeah,” said Jake. “What’s up?”

“I just heard a little girl ask you for a Snickers Bar,” she said.

“Little redhead?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said. “Have you been giving the kids candy?”

“No,” he said. “Mom and I have been talking about that. People are asking for stuff like I’m Santa Claus. I’m creating a machine where they can go ask. Dato and Sammy and Bernie are going to take shifts running it.”

“So this little girl just figured out on her own to ask for stuff?” she asked.

“Yep,” he said. “She’s not the only one. I’ve got around 100 people all asking for things like new clothes, pillows, comforters, a towel by the pool, Snickers Bars, knives, you name it, they’re asking for it.”

“Are you Ok with that?” she asked.

“Of course not,” he answered. “But they’re people and that’s what people do. Want things.”

“Well, shit!” she said. “We’ve got to get a handle on this.”

“Well, that’s what the machine is supposed to handle,” he said. “Give them a place where they can ask. The people at the booth are the real deal though. They’ll pass on the requests they think have merit.”

“That’s clever,” she said. “I guess. Are the people back?” she asked, evidently changing the subject.

“People?” he asked.

“You know, the ones who went out looking for survivors?”

Jake checked and sure enough, the survivors were close. He saw that Joseph had come forward ahead of the rest to make sure nobody from Wade’s group was waiting to ambush them. He thought about sending one of his owls to signal that it was Ok but decided not too. He couldn’t let people rely on him to make sure they were safe.

“They’re close,” he said.

“How big a group is it?” she asked.

“Oh my god!” he said, after looking over the number of people with the teams.

“What?” she asked.

“There’s a lot! Maybe even more than are here,” he answered.

“Mom!” he said. “Rex succeeded. Maybe even overachieved.”

“I heard that!” came Rex’s voice. “It’s not my fault. Most of these folks came from one stop. And they were hurting bad so what were we going to do?”

“What do you mean?” asked Fern.

“Most of them were stuck in a church, ‘Faith Tabernacle Church’, on 10th,” Rex continued. “That guy Wade and his crew had been sniffing around, trying to pick up people, girls, food. They had barricaded the doors and the windows and were keeping them away. Up until then, it was kind of business as usual. We’d find a house and they’d join up. It was a whole different situation at the church.”

“What happened,” asked Will.

“Well, we came across the old turnpike on North Main. The Bobs evidently joined the roads just like they did on ninth. Anyway, we came down Main and basically all we saw was woods. It was different than on the other side of the turnpike. When we hit East Fern we decided we’d go down the road to North 10th and start checking houses. Of course, there weren’t any houses to check. We started wondering if maybe they’d had a monster surge or something like Billy was talking about. Anyways, when we got to the corner of 10th, we ran into a patrol, I guess you’d say, from Wade's group. Four guys, two of them with bows, two of them with big sticks and what looked like machetes.”

He paused for a second.

“Go on son,” said Will.

“Well, they saw us and came running up at us and pointed their bows at us and demanded we stop. Well, they had two bows, we had eight. I’m not sure who fired first, but when it ended they weren’t among the living anymore. Sammy and Gloria both got hit, not too bad though. We were able to heal them. They even helped some.”

“I’m sorry son, and I’m sorry for whoever else had to go through with that. Dato, Sammy, Gloria, are you alright?” asked Fern.

“Yes, mom!” or just “Yes” they all responded. A little quietly, a little shaken still.

“So what happened then,” asked Will.

“Well, we dragged them off into the nearby woods and started down the street. We kept their weapons. Not the sticks but the bows and machetes. We talked it over and decided we’d at least check out this street before we headed back. I guess the folks in the church either saw what happened or were looking out ‘cause they opened their doors and sent someone out to talk to us,” said Rex.

“It was bad in there, mom!” said Dato.

“She’s right about that,” said Rex. “Too many people, too little showers, not enough food, sewers maybe didn’t work, and they were scared. I don’t know what those sons of a bitches were doing outside, but from the looks on the inside, I don’t feel bad about killing them anymore.”

“So, how many are you bringing back to us?” asked Fern.

“Well,” said Rex. “A lot.”

“Com’on boy. How many?” asked Will.

“148” Rex finally answered.

“Holy shit!” exclaimed Will. “That’s more folks than we’ve got now. Shit boy!”

“Hun!” said Fern to Will, trying to calm him down. “We’ll just have to figure out a place to put them. Obviously, they’ll have to sleep inside tonight, but maybe by tomorrow, we’ll have some houses inside the walls and can start moving people into them.”

“How many shocked you got?” asked Georgia.

“And how many kids?” asked Dianna.

“We’ve got about 92 kids and 18 shocked,” answered Dato. “Fifteen of the adults seem pretty old, and the other fourteen are, well, adults, I guess.”

“92 kids” exclaimed Diana.

“18 shocked,” answered Georgia.

“What are we going to do?” asked Jake.

“We’ll get them fed, washed, and bedded down for the night,” said Fern. “Heal those that need it and think some more about what to do in the morning. Don’t let this get inside your heads. One step at a time people. We can handle this! Just like the lunch rush, get their food in front of them and then get them out the door. Here it’s get them washed, fed and down for the night. We can handle the start of the long-term tomorrow. What can you do to help us out, Jake?”

“Well,” said Jake. “I’ve got the food covered. Scoobie snacks for everybody. And you should have enough vegetables from the garden. It looks a little like we’ve got an ‘embarrassment of riches’. I hoped that the high mana in here would help the gardens grow faster, but it’s growing like mad.”

He paused for a moment to think and then continued, “I can create some mattresses. I can’t create new space for them though. They’ll be sleeping in already occupied rooms or even the halls though. I hope they’re friendly.”

“I think they must be,” his mom said. “The only way that little church would have 152 people in it was by going out and looking for their neighbors and bringing them inside. They must have started doing it before Wade got his little group of assholes together. I think they’d be good citizens.”

“It’s a church, mom,” Jake said.

“What do you mean by that son,” she said.

“Well, the whole religion thing and all that,” Jake said.

“You mean the announcement, I guess. Is that what you’re talking about?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “Billy and I’ve been talking about the Bobs and money and good and evil and stuff. He’s a smart little guy. He shared the announcement with me. I didn’t receive it. I just kind of woke up in a hole.”

“Well, I read that announcement that God was reassigned,” Fern said. “And maybe that the current religions were declared no longer valid, let’s say. It didn’t say that what they believed was wrong. And a lot of what religion taught us about taking care of our fellow man is true. Just because there doesn’t seem to be a new god taking over, doesn’t mean that what the old gods taught us was wrong. Maybe it just means that we don’t need to argue over who’s more right anymore.”

“Sounds like that might be a good way of thinking. Do you think that they’ll agree with you?” asked Jake.

“Don’t know, but what I do know is that we’ve got 148 hungry, dirty, tired folks about to land here in our laps,” she said. “We need to get ready for them!”

And with that, she quit talking and headed off for the kitchen to make sure the chefs knew to get more food ready.

“Oh, Jake,” she said as she entered the kitchen. “I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to talk with Billy yet about transferring spells or relearning spells or whatnot, but we need that information now. It's priority one. We need those houses. We need more and higher walls. I don’t want you building everything for us. I think that would be bad for the community long term. I need you two and whomever else you feel is necessary to figure out how the human part of this community can get it done! You hear me? ”

“Yes, mom!” Jake said.

“Yes, Mrs. Silvestre!” echoed Billy.