We retreated to the longhouse and found places amongst the soft fur rugs to lay our heads for the night. Johnny stayed with ‘Brother’ coyote for a while before joining us inside. I sat cross legged to one side of the room and fished my phone out of my pocket. It was probably time to see if any of my messages I sent earlier this morning made it out and got any replies. I was disappointed to find that my phone did not survive me getting batted around by monsters and goblins and was pretty much nonfunctional. Then I had a thought.

“Veep, are you tapped into the pre-system communication networks?”

“I am. In fact, most of your communication networks will begin failing when mana saturation reaches 100%.” The little AI assistant responded in her typical cheery voice.

Alyssa was looking at me then pulled out her own phone and saw it in much the same state as my own. Then her eyes glazed over as she began the same conversation with her AI as I was with mine.

“Ok, so can you pull the contacts and message history out of my phone and display it for me?”

“Oh, yes! Doing it now.” As she did a new tab appeared in my mental menu labeled ‘Communications’. I opened it and it showed that it was currently synchronizing my contacts and messages. I watched as the status bar filled quickly and then all my phone contacts appeared and I selected the names of the people I had sent messages to. All but one had replied which was a good thing. The responses I got indicated they had already taken my advice and were currently engaging mutated animals and various monsters of their own. The ones who replied lived in Tucson, the one who didn’t lived in Phoenix, but he didn’t always reply quickly in the best of times so I wasn’t too worried. I thought out responses to them and closed the interface.

“I’ve got internet access, too!” Alyssa exclaimed.

“Veep?”

“Yes, I can also link you to your world's internet. Eventually it will be subsumed into the Universal communications network, it’s all pretty much the same but includes FTL communication protocols.”

“Shit…” It was my turn to look dumbfounded, We’ve got the internet in our heads now. This can’t be a good thing, can it? “What you looking at?”

“Just Youtube videos across the country of cities being overrun with monsters. It’s pretty bad. The news feeds are saying at least 30% of the population in the US has been wiped out.”

I nodded silently, Johnny hadn’t commented the whole time, just seemed to be meditating or something. I turned to the Youtube in my head and pulled up some more detailed information. Seemed most of the world was in a far worse state than the US was. Most countries had strict gun laws so had no easy means of defense. When I looked at the numbers more closely I could see most of the casualties the US suffered were in the bigger cities where the gun restrictions were the worst. People just didn’t have the means to protect themselves.

“Veep, you got the official numbers for our local area, our state, then the rest of the world at large?”

“I do, the system keeps track of all information and statistics. In the general Winslow area there was reported approximately 9100 residents. The system found the actual number closer to 9500. Of those 9500 residents only approximately 3500 are still alive. Your party is currently the highest level and the only one that is attempting to clear the local area dungeons and encampments.” She paused a moment to let me digest that information then continued.

“The state of Arizona has roughly 6 million residents in total. Half of them live in the Phoenix area, another half of that live around Tucson, and about 100000 live in Flagstaff. Phoenix and Tucson have seen an approximate 50% casualty rate. Flagstaff is closing in on 60% total casualties.” She paused again for me. My thoughts grew dark and she continued with the requested information.

“The world at large is looking at about 73% dead by the end of the week, currently sitting at 61%”

I nodded my thanks and decided not to share the grim news with my companions, if they wanted to know they could look it up themselves. I scanned through my list of contacts and was pleased to find that Alyssa, Johnny and Dick were on that list. I selected Dick and thought out a message to him. I wanted to check on the apartment complex and I informed him we had one core and were going to go for the second in the morning.

A moment later a message came back and I read it silently.

I’m alright. More looters came a few hours ago. They killed the couple in A4 before I knew what was happening. They killed their children too. I caught them as they were dragging the TV out and killed them with my fire. They burned alive. 3 others got away. There are only 16 residents left, half of them are children, 2 of which whose parents are gone. Either they were at work or dead. The adults have all armed themselves finally. Mostly knives and bats, but one guy has a hunting rifle and another woman has a bow.

… I understand why you did what you did earlier. Hurry the fuck back.

-Dick

I mulled over the information that Dick shared. And looked at my party in deep thought. Part of it was rage inducing, but mostly it was just disappointing. I was still considering my options when I spoke. “Got an update back from Dick.”

Alyssa and Johnny gave me their attention almost immediately. Alyssa’s smile faded when she saw the look on my face.

“They got attacked by looters again, got the couple in A4.” Johnny dipped his head slightly at that. Must know them. “Dick says there were 5, torched 2 when they tried carrying out the big screen. The rest ran.”

I took a breath and studied the faces of my companions, Johnny was in deep thought, though Alyssa was impassive. Doesn’t really know anyone like Johnny did. “He says they finally armed up, though, he found a couple of orphans, didn’t say who was taking care of them.”

“If they are Navajo, the community will take care of them” Johnny stated flatly.

Alyssa scoffed and went back to whatever she was doing. Seems to think otherwise. She may be partially right. Not my problem.

“Dick wants us to hurry back, I still think we are better served hitting the dungeon. The goblin riders we fought by the ambulance garage came from here, I don’t feel like leaving a horde of semi-intelligent monsters this close to our home.”

Johnny considered me for a moment “I agree.”

With that settled I layed back down and perused the internet in my head, at some point I fell asleep. I woke in the dark longhouse and rolled to a sitting position with a stretch. I looked over myself in the dim light for a moment. My fat gut was gone and I noticed muscle I never had stretched over my chest and shoulders. I smiled as I moved feeling no lingering background pains from arthritis or gout. I checked my status effects and found all of them were gone.

“Gotta love the system” I muttered quietly.

I rose easily and saw that Johnny was already up but Alyssa still slumbered, I left the girl and stepped outside and found Johnny tending to the coyotes. Kaia walked up and greeted me with a giant slobbering tongue bath. I laughed and looked out at the rising sun on the horizon. Alyssa must have heard the laughter and woke up. She was now crawling out of the longhouse wiping sleepers from her eyes with a disgruntled look on her face.

“Just one more hour…” she groaned mostly to herself. Then her dark coyote pinned her to the ground and proceeded to wake her with the same treatment Kaia had given me.

“LULU!” Alyssa squealed but the giant coyote didn’t back down until her rider was giggling in the dirt.

Johnny smiled at the display of affection and then climbed up onto ‘Brother’ coyote. “We seem to be ready, yes?”

I wiped the slobber from my face, chuckled, then swung up onto Kaia, “Yeah, let's get to it.”

We headed out the back of the camp and were notified that we were leaving a safe area. No shit, huh? We reached the river bank and allowed the coyotes to lap up some water before pressing along the wall of the canyon towards where our AI indicated we should find the entrance of the Kobold Dungeon.

I checked my messages while we rode on. Dick had sent me another update about a half hour after we woke informing me that they had moved some of our cars to form a barricade at the two entrances to the apartment complex. The guy with the hunting rifle had put down a couple more mountain lions and the woman with the bow ran off some more looters in the night. One of the children who was barely 15 had taken a class and gained access to some kind of ice magic. Dick was helping her kill any of the mutated animals that came too close to get her levels.

The girls age was interesting and I asked Veep if there was an age limit for gaining a class, to which she informed me that until you reached the age of majority recognized by the system, which was in fact 15, you were not allowed to gain a class. Apparently it was difficult to change your class after it was in place, didn’t want to mess that up on a whim at 6 years old. There’d be alot of Firefighters and Astronauts on Earth if that happened.

I passed the message on to Alyssa and Johnny and continued riding. Suddenly the coyotes as one dropped low to the ground with their ears pinned up. Teeth bared a moment later and I drew my pistol in anticipation. Me and Johnny stretched our perception in imitation of the coyotes and then I saw what had spooked the coyotes.

At about 50 meters we saw two figures milling about by a small crop of flagstone rocks. The creatures stood about a head taller than the goblins and over most of their bodies was a reddish brown fur that blended easily into the red hued flagstone of the Northern Arizona desert. They had long scaly tails devoid of fur, as was their feet and hands, which both ended in wicked looking black claws. Their heads were shaped something like a rat mixed with a dog. The heads were covered in fine dark brown fur with beady black eyes set on either side of a long scaly snout which ended in several sharp curving exposed teeth, large round black noses capped their muzzles.

The creatures each carried a spear, and wore primitive leather armor on their bodies, arms and legs. On their backs were strapped several more spears.

Alyssa began to speak and I cut her off with a hand motion to my neck and a shake of my head, then I tapped a finger to my temple and opened a message to her and Johnny, basically creating a private chat room in our heads.

Looks like we found the Kobolds.

That’s what I was going to say :( Alyssa sent immediately.

How do you want to handle them, this looks like a patrol or guard. Johnny added.

Stay here and keep watch Johnny, Alyssa, lets ride forward to their flanks and take them out with Kaia and Lulu.

Alyssa nodded OK.

I was shocked a moment later when she and her coyote Lulu both descended into the early morning shadows. That girl is fucking terrifying! Kaia carried me slowly into the shallows of the river and we began stalking to the right of the rock cropping through the tall reeds that cluttered the shore. We crept around the rock to find the Kobolds sleeping on the job. Well, if you’re going to make it easy.

When you move. I sent to Alyssa.

Immediately Lulu’s open maw appeared from the shadows and removed the kobolds head before it even woke. The second kobold stirred a moment before I felt Kaia lurch forward and crush the creature's neck in it’s jaw. It shook the body and I heard the sickening pop of more bones breaking and then Kaia dropped its body in the creek and preened in satisfaction. I scratched behind his ears in reward and holstered my pistol. Alyssa and Lulu emerged fully from the shadows and both looked rather pleased with themselves. Don’t piss this girl off, we’ve created a monster.

Johnny rode up on ‘Brother’ and jumped down and gathered up the Kobold spears. “I need something to fight with that doesn’t take so long to summon. The spirits provide.”

I shrugged and pointed at the hole in the canyon wall flanked in torches. “Looks like these guys were supposed to be guarding the entrance, guess they decided to take a nap in the shade. Let’s go see what we’re working with.”