Chapter 6 Part 5
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Imperator Pax
Talon Master
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Chapter 6 Part 5
Where Nate had brought his cruiser out and up from the south his next visitor looked far more exhausted. Adam looked far worse for wear than Nate, but maybe that was because the former airborne medic had always looked a bit more frazzled around the edges before the world had flipped upside down and well... Nate had been overseas and Adam had been a middleclass office guy since graduating college. John didn't consider that a knock against him it was just how things were.
He suspected that whatever talks that the friend group had of zombie apocalypse or doomsday prepping from the before, had proven to be wildly inadequate in practice. That was no big surprise but Nate had been coming south. When asked about it, "I was coming back from Greenville when I ran out of gas..." He trailed off as the wind picked up, "What's happen here is happening there, except even more, though this is still crazy." The sandy blonde remarked, "I ran out of gas and I really thought I was closer to town than I was... it probably would have been smarter to double back and walk to Randy's."
John could easily see how that had happened. If you were used to fifteen minute drives being everywhere what that meant in walking time for that same distance became skewed. Hearing about how Greenville was going crazy prompted Nate to drag his own chair a little closer. Nate hadn't los this phone day one, and the cellphone network in ninety six had survived for whatever reason, but the news he had gotten wasn't good. Military service had not been a tremendous game changer for survival... the Legion had suffered significant casualties probably not helped by the well above average snow fall for the region just being a disaster in and of itself.
"Yeah its a disaster," Adam continued, "I mean I had questions anyway, but its like this," He gestured to the surroundings, "How did you even manage this?" Adam hadn't been around since Wednesday after all after the ill fated early morning goblin attack he had left once daylight was up. "Is all this from magic?"
"Honestly mostly cantrips repeated over and over again," It was time consuming but he could see results
"Full caster bullshit," Nate grumbled.
"I... I classed into Paladin I don't get those." Adam stated, "Anyway Greenville is a mess somebody has done something similar but its like a tropical jungle or something." He stopped again, and then started from the beginning. Adam's original plan had been in recognition that he wasn't as prepared as he could have been had been to try for the larger city and hope things were more organized and available... he needed things like bullets, or at least that was his admitted priority, "I knew I didn't have enough, Zombies you know." He shrugged. "I figured we'd be fighting a lot of those, but I was late getting out because everything was going upside down and the card readers have stopped working now."
"What's going crazy in Greenville, why did you think I'd know something. I haven't left around here to be up there?" John questioned.
"Well, not," He gestured to the hedgerows, "Nothing to do with those, you are friends with the vampire larp coordinator right?"
He blew out a breath... that was he supposed the definition of knowing a guy for twenty years and hanging out and shooting the shit with him on a semi regular basis, "I guess so. Peter and I have known each for years. I don't really do Mind's Eye anymore, but yeah." It had been a hot minute since he'd gone to an event... some of that had been Covid of course, but back in the hey day it had been a t wice a month game with carpooling. "What's that got to do with anything Adam?"
"He did HEMA right?"
"Before the plague shut down all the clubs around here." He acknowledged, the lockdowns had ruined his social life after all.
"So him and Jesse got involved in a gang war but like Peter had gone deep into character from the way he was acting. I mean wearing Garb is one thing, but ... like he's moved into I guess its a plantation house," Adam shook his head obviously swimming in the details and trying to get things straight, "I only knew him from SCA, I didn't do Vampire."
It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure shit out, "He wants to be in charge I take it?"
"Yeah...I think he's some ranger variant or something, but he's got more magic access. I mean I think... and then there is Jesse who is right there with him talking about how we need to have law and order... and then there is the … well" The Paladin trailed off, took a minute to blow on his fingers against the cold.
"The evangelical and anti-dnd crowd has to be thrilled," Some of the local gaming community had tried to explain shit that dnd wasn't satanism, and that had been one thing before giant monster ants were a thing, never mind goblins running around hacking people to death with crude cleavers.
"Its not just them, the local city government still thinks they should be in charge, and most of them don't have levels... and that's the other thing,"
It was Nate's turn to speak up, "I don't think anyone on the town council made it," He replied, "Probably not the county either. Most of the deputies and police all scattered to look after their own families you know."
John continued after a minute, "Someone up in Greenville thinks they should be in charge?"
The two shared a look, and then Nate grimaced as Adam answered, "The vibe up there, well everyone think that but that's going to lead to a fight. The guys we talked to, well almost none of them have levels. They didn't do what we did and go out to shoot zombies right after this started... and I was seeing fewer zombies up there anyway."
The truth was he wasn't sure how the XP awards worked. He'd gotten his first xp from the slime thing... but Randy, and Jesse had gotten into a fight with nut jobs... and some of the others had fought zombies and gotten their first level. "Can you level off killing people?"
"I don't know." Adam replied pulling his own garb duster around him as the wind picked up, "Fuck are you not cold?"
"Merino wool base layer." John remarked... even if he wasn't entirely convinced that was the only reason he wasn't cold.
He got a middle finger for that, and he laughed, "Come on, I'll stoke the fire for you." They wandered in through the old french doors of the back porch, and took their boots off collectively to leave to dry. "Tell me more about your trip up to Greenville?" He asked grabbing a log in front of the fire and shoving it onto the pile.
"Well to quote Jesse all of public service is just cleaning up after people who should have known better," Adam remarked as he fished himself out of the jacket. Then with a frown, "Or that they don't deserve the help, but help them anyway." He muttered. "Its already turning into an us versus them argument," He reiterated again as he was trying to wrap his head around it that shit was going to hit the fan over there... but John figured it already must have started to since Adam had said that there had been a gang war break out... and one that Jesse and Peter had gotten involved with...
Nate shook his head, "Looting hasn't been a problem out here," Though the airborne medic's tone suggested that he was disappointed that he hadn't had the opportunity to deal with looters in his preferred way.
Adam mirrored the gesture, "Thats just it, from what I've seen it really wasn't been all that big of a problem..." Maybe it was too damned cold, maybe people were just too scarred to go out.
That did make sense, but it wasn't something that could last forever. If it was too cold for people to want to go out without power it would cold enough that people died indoors from it if they weren't prepared... which they probably weren't... and eventually whatever ready to eat food they had would run out... and they would have to go out.
John walked back to the french doors and looked out towards the magical monolith providing him with clean moving water despite the weather. He couldn't read the sky... too much about this year was already confusing, and it was still early. Winter could last for months yet.
--
Notes: Alright this basically finishes what in the latest outline is 'vol1' content which brings me to my IRL bullshit and hte likelihood that despite not wanting to, daily updates will probably go on hold following easter. Some things like AH will continue to update simply because a lot of that is already written. I'm going to try and continue to update both Archon and Ghost but I can't promise that. Beyond those nothing is certain, I'm just going to have to make serious life decisions based on real life friends and needs I don't have the inclination to write while under an emotional load.
Where Nate had brought his cruiser out and up from the south his next visitor looked far more exhausted. Adam looked far worse for wear than Nate, but maybe that was because the former airborne medic had always looked a bit more frazzled around the edges before the world had flipped upside down and well... Nate had been overseas and Adam had been a middleclass office guy since graduating college. John didn't consider that a knock against him it was just how things were.
He suspected that whatever talks that the friend group had of zombie apocalypse or doomsday prepping from the before, had proven to be wildly inadequate in practice. That was no big surprise but Nate had been coming south. When asked about it, "I was coming back from Greenville when I ran out of gas..." He trailed off as the wind picked up, "What's happen here is happening there, except even more, though this is still crazy." The sandy blonde remarked, "I ran out of gas and I really thought I was closer to town than I was... it probably would have been smarter to double back and walk to Randy's."
John could easily see how that had happened. If you were used to fifteen minute drives being everywhere what that meant in walking time for that same distance became skewed. Hearing about how Greenville was going crazy prompted Nate to drag his own chair a little closer. Nate hadn't los this phone day one, and the cellphone network in ninety six had survived for whatever reason, but the news he had gotten wasn't good. Military service had not been a tremendous game changer for survival... the Legion had suffered significant casualties probably not helped by the well above average snow fall for the region just being a disaster in and of itself.
"Yeah its a disaster," Adam continued, "I mean I had questions anyway, but its like this," He gestured to the surroundings, "How did you even manage this?" Adam hadn't been around since Wednesday after all after the ill fated early morning goblin attack he had left once daylight was up. "Is all this from magic?"
"Honestly mostly cantrips repeated over and over again," It was time consuming but he could see results
"Full caster bullshit," Nate grumbled.
"I... I classed into Paladin I don't get those." Adam stated, "Anyway Greenville is a mess somebody has done something similar but its like a tropical jungle or something." He stopped again, and then started from the beginning. Adam's original plan had been in recognition that he wasn't as prepared as he could have been had been to try for the larger city and hope things were more organized and available... he needed things like bullets, or at least that was his admitted priority, "I knew I didn't have enough, Zombies you know." He shrugged. "I figured we'd be fighting a lot of those, but I was late getting out because everything was going upside down and the card readers have stopped working now."
"What's going crazy in Greenville, why did you think I'd know something. I haven't left around here to be up there?" John questioned.
"Well, not," He gestured to the hedgerows, "Nothing to do with those, you are friends with the vampire larp coordinator right?"
He blew out a breath... that was he supposed the definition of knowing a guy for twenty years and hanging out and shooting the shit with him on a semi regular basis, "I guess so. Peter and I have known each for years. I don't really do Mind's Eye anymore, but yeah." It had been a hot minute since he'd gone to an event... some of that had been Covid of course, but back in the hey day it had been a t wice a month game with carpooling. "What's that got to do with anything Adam?"
"He did HEMA right?"
"Before the plague shut down all the clubs around here." He acknowledged, the lockdowns had ruined his social life after all.
"So him and Jesse got involved in a gang war but like Peter had gone deep into character from the way he was acting. I mean wearing Garb is one thing, but ... like he's moved into I guess its a plantation house," Adam shook his head obviously swimming in the details and trying to get things straight, "I only knew him from SCA, I didn't do Vampire."
It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure shit out, "He wants to be in charge I take it?"
"Yeah...I think he's some ranger variant or something, but he's got more magic access. I mean I think... and then there is Jesse who is right there with him talking about how we need to have law and order... and then there is the … well" The Paladin trailed off, took a minute to blow on his fingers against the cold.
"The evangelical and anti-dnd crowd has to be thrilled," Some of the local gaming community had tried to explain shit that dnd wasn't satanism, and that had been one thing before giant monster ants were a thing, never mind goblins running around hacking people to death with crude cleavers.
"Its not just them, the local city government still thinks they should be in charge, and most of them don't have levels... and that's the other thing,"
It was Nate's turn to speak up, "I don't think anyone on the town council made it," He replied, "Probably not the county either. Most of the deputies and police all scattered to look after their own families you know."
John continued after a minute, "Someone up in Greenville thinks they should be in charge?"
The two shared a look, and then Nate grimaced as Adam answered, "The vibe up there, well everyone think that but that's going to lead to a fight. The guys we talked to, well almost none of them have levels. They didn't do what we did and go out to shoot zombies right after this started... and I was seeing fewer zombies up there anyway."
The truth was he wasn't sure how the XP awards worked. He'd gotten his first xp from the slime thing... but Randy, and Jesse had gotten into a fight with nut jobs... and some of the others had fought zombies and gotten their first level. "Can you level off killing people?"
"I don't know." Adam replied pulling his own garb duster around him as the wind picked up, "Fuck are you not cold?"
"Merino wool base layer." John remarked... even if he wasn't entirely convinced that was the only reason he wasn't cold.
He got a middle finger for that, and he laughed, "Come on, I'll stoke the fire for you." They wandered in through the old french doors of the back porch, and took their boots off collectively to leave to dry. "Tell me more about your trip up to Greenville?" He asked grabbing a log in front of the fire and shoving it onto the pile.
"Well to quote Jesse all of public service is just cleaning up after people who should have known better," Adam remarked as he fished himself out of the jacket. Then with a frown, "Or that they don't deserve the help, but help them anyway." He muttered. "Its already turning into an us versus them argument," He reiterated again as he was trying to wrap his head around it that shit was going to hit the fan over there... but John figured it already must have started to since Adam had said that there had been a gang war break out... and one that Jesse and Peter had gotten involved with...
Nate shook his head, "Looting hasn't been a problem out here," Though the airborne medic's tone suggested that he was disappointed that he hadn't had the opportunity to deal with looters in his preferred way.
Adam mirrored the gesture, "Thats just it, from what I've seen it really wasn't been all that big of a problem..." Maybe it was too damned cold, maybe people were just too scarred to go out.
That did make sense, but it wasn't something that could last forever. If it was too cold for people to want to go out without power it would cold enough that people died indoors from it if they weren't prepared... which they probably weren't... and eventually whatever ready to eat food they had would run out... and they would have to go out.
John walked back to the french doors and looked out towards the magical monolith providing him with clean moving water despite the weather. He couldn't read the sky... too much about this year was already confusing, and it was still early. Winter could last for months yet.
--
Notes: Alright this basically finishes what in the latest outline is 'vol1' content which brings me to my IRL bullshit and hte likelihood that despite not wanting to, daily updates will probably go on hold following easter. Some things like AH will continue to update simply because a lot of that is already written. I'm going to try and continue to update both Archon and Ghost but I can't promise that. Beyond those nothing is certain, I'm just going to have to make serious life decisions based on real life friends and needs I don't have the inclination to write while under an emotional load.