Sponsored Apocalypse, mini arc 1

Hi everyone!

I'm finishing up the book.

This mini arc will go before the last chapter of the book.  To avoid confusing everyone, I'm going to just tell you this up front and then post the chapters here together.

At the end of this mini arc, the story picks up from Miles' perspective again in what was Chapter 34.

All three chapters are from the perspective of Gray, the weary but dutiful sheriff. :)

***

Gray White pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.  He hadn’t gone this long without sleep for a long, long time.  Getting older sucked.  Being old when the world was ending sucked too.  But being old and in charge during the end of the world…this was the hardest he’d ever worked in his life to keep up The Act.

He’d been maintaining The Act for most of his life now.  As a child, being a black kid with a name like Gray White, and wearing thrift shop clothes that came in every shade of color meant the other kids made dumb jokes about rainbows and clowns.  Constantly.  Kids can be cruel.  As an adult, hearing that children called another child “Rainbow Boy,” might sound cute, but when Gray was young, it wasn’t cute.  At all.  He hadn’t wanted to go to school.

But then his uncle had told him about making a choice to turn around what people say, and to take pride in everything, even the weird name your mom gave you.  Gray given it a shot.  It turned out that by standing out, the teasing turned to admiration.  “Rainbow Boy,” stopped being about his names and clothes, and more about how he smiled.  About how people liked being around him.

Gray liked that he could help people, and he liked being involved with what was going on around him.  In middle school, he was already involved in student government and he’d been in leadership positions ever since, eventually leading to his 15 year run as the sheriff.  He’d been so close to retirement…

As an adult, he’d made an effort to know as many people as he could.  People were usually wonderful if you took the time to get to know them.  And he stopped being Mister White, and became Mister Gray instead.  Even as a sheriff, most folks called him Mister Gray, only other law enforcement officers usually used a title.  He liked it that way.  And part of how he built that rapport was being strong enough to face everything in life that he possibly could in a friendly and optimistic manner.  Or faking it.

But the world being overrun with monsters was definitely testing his ability to keep it up.

He rubbed his eyes.  The oil lamp in this room was enough to read reports by but was hard on his aging eyesight.  He refused to use any of the power from the generators.  They were being used to charge phones, charge radios, and keep medical equipment running.  A light would barely sip power but he didn’t want to contribute to draining the community’s precious gasoline.

“Has it really been another day already?” he wondered aloud.  According to his watch, it should be around sunrise.  Everything, all the days were starting to run together at this point.  If not for this damnable system, he probably would have passed out to exhaustion a while ago.  The system was terrible, truly a harbinger of hell on earth, but at least he’d been able to get the strength to do what needed to be done.

He pulled up his character sheet and frowned.  In the dark room, he could still see it perfectly.

Gray White

Level 7

Class: none

Traits: none

Stats:
Str: 4

Dex: 4

End: 6

Int: 6

Will: 6

Luck: 3

Reflex: 5

Armor (nat): 0

Affiliations: None

Titles: None

Prime Skills:

Conjured Spotlight

Skills:

Rifle Combat

Gunhand

Ranged Support

Combat Support

Ambush

Available Advancement Points: 1

***

He always thought it was interesting how with a lifetime of practice, and a couple days of demonstration, the system didn’t list any of his administrational skills.  Instead, the entire world now seemed focused on combat abilities and survival.

At first, he hadn’t understood the point, how the system only listed combat skills.  After all, the combat skills listed didn’t seem to give any bonuses, just noted things he’d demonstrated he could do.  His confusion had cleared up after discovering that people could spend points in the system to get combat skills.  The purchase gave them knowledge, not expertise, but theses kinds of skills were cheap.  As a resulm,  even those who had zero knowledge about combat of any kind got a fighting chance…at least if they could manage to gain a single level first.

And Gray’s random skill had turned out to be a lucky one.  It was why he’d been able to level so fast.  Compared to the other surviving law enforcement officers in the area, he hadn’t actually been spending much time fighting.

Too old for that nonsense for one thing.  For another, town needed someone with some sense to steer the ship.

A knock on the door raised his head.  “Come in,” he said.

Charlie Perry, one of the town’s sheriff's deputies, nodded at him as he entered.  “I have more than just bad news this time.”

“Oh thank God.”   Gray put the paper he was holding down, an updated report of all the insulin that had been collected.  Luckily, Miss Tina who worked at the hardware store had gotten a rare skill that could help.  She could replicate medicine if she understood it and had a sample, so she was taking a crash course on all things insulin and diabetes.  The diabetics survivors in town had a chance now, especially if they used their points from leveling into a skill that offset their disease.  Gray hoped people in other areas could be as lucky.

Deputy Perry pulled a chair from the wall and sat down.  He took his hat off.  The man looked as exhausted as Gray felt.  The two of them had known each other for over a decade so there were no formalities in private like this.  “I’m not gonna lie, Gray.  The rest isn’t sunshine and roses, but we keep getting reports of massacred goblins.  This latest one is at the Henry Lumber Mill.  Little sons of bitches–pardon my French–had already been turning the area into a slaughering hub.  Our boys couldn’t even get close, the entire area was crawling with them.

“The Turner boys went up that way to kill some before hightailing it back but the place is a graveyard now.  Goblin bodies ripped apart everywhere.  It was a bloodbath.”  The man was about to spit but thought better of it when he remembered he was indoors.  “Serves ‘em right, I reckon.”

“Were there any survivors?” asked Gray.

Deputy Perry sobered.  “Two.  A boy–name’s Trent I think– who was tied up and gonna be eaten.  And a young lady–don’t recall her name or family– who seems to wish she was dead at the moment.  Can’t say I blame her, with–”  He shook his head and coughed.  “Anyway, we have someone with her and on suicide watch.  Hoping she can pull through.”

Gray nodded.  They were stretched thin, thin to the breaking point.  But if the community couldn’t pull together to offer aid in situations like this, maybe they all deserved for the monsters to win.  “What did the survivors say about what happened?”

“Well, the girl ain’t talkin’, but the boy said the same thing we heard before.  Death on four legs.  Wolf of Satan, that kinda thing.  Carnage.  Same stuff we heard before.  This time whatever it was could have easily killed the captives. It’s verified.  The boy said it definitely knew they were there, even saved the girl at the last.  Goblin was gonna kill her out of spit but the dark wolf blew it apart.”

“Savage.”

“Yup.”

“So…enemy of my enemy is my friend?  Or an ally?” wondered Gray out loud.  “Or another enemy?”

“If there’s darkness, there has to be light, Gray,”

“Maybe.”  He made an expression that was part smile, part grimace.  “So give me some of the bad news.”

The deputy hesitated and dry washed his hands.  “Town is getting worse.”

“Really?  Even though we’ve been stopping a bunch of them on the roads?”

“Yes.  We can’t catch all of ‘em.  And some are pretty smart.”

Gray grimaced.  “And we still don’t know why they’re trying to gather in town?”

“Nope.”  He shook his head.  “Can’t be nothin’ good, though.”

Gray nodded.  “For sure.  Are we still able to track the most dangerous things in the area?”

“As close as we can.”

“Alright.”  Gray decided he needed to level and put more points in endurance.  That would require going outside, though.  But he probably needed to see some of what was happening for himself.  Since it should be getting light out soon, other folks might have less of a conniption if he went out now…  “Do me a favor please, Charlie.  Get one of the folks here at base with an ammo skill to go with us.  I want to see some of what I’m hearing about.”

The deputy hesitated.  “Alright, but some people aren’t going to be happy about this.”

“As long as I’m calling the shots, they can be as unhappy as they want.”

“Your wife, too?”

This time it was Gray’s turn to hesitate.  “Let me deal with that.”

“It might make everyone feel better if we take another person or two.  Maybe a fighter?”

Gray thought about it.  “No.  I don’t intend to get out of the vehicle.  Let’s take a jeep.  Get a magic person who can make light and might be able to kill something to get some experience.  That should be fair and make it safer for all of us.”

“Sounds good.  I’ll have the jeep ready to go, too.  Best for laying down some hurt and getting the hell away.”

“Open top?”

“Yup.”

Gray chuckled darkly.  “Hope it doesn’t rain.”

***

The jeep’s headlights cut through the pre-dawn gloom, but nobody in the vehicle was too worried about ambushes.  They all knew about Gray’s ability.

It was not a stretch to say almost all the flying monsters in the area had already been killed due to Gray illuminating them in the sky, or finding them where they were roosting.  That was how he’d gotten most of his experience so far.  He could sense nearby monsters if he used his skill.  And it only drained his mana to actually activate the lighted searchlight function.  He couldn’t decide if it was a cruel twist of fate that such a powerful support ability was given to someone tied down with admin work, or whether it was lucky that he could earn experience so efficiently with others’ help.  After all, an admin with better stats was an admin who could work longer.

He chuckled at his own, mental joke.  Next to him, Charlie Perry smiled too even though he couldn’t have known exactly what Gray was thinking.  Gray had to admit his friend might have been close, though.

Behind them were two young people from town who’d both survived so far and been blessed with good starting skills.  Ben Habber had done a couple of years at a vocational school and was working nearby in a nearby town as a welder.  He’d been visiting his parents when the world got turned upside down.  Now he was one of the highest level fighters in the area, his skill [Trajectory Path] worked as well on firearms as any other projectile weapon–he got full credit for kills, could even use regular ammo.  Lucky sonofagun had leveled up just a few minutes after getting his skill, shot some goblins trying to break into his parents’ house.

Now he was carrying a Beretta CX4 in 9mm as his main weapon, but had a shotgun at hand for any leftover flying creatures or bigger creatures.  The weapon was some newfangled-looking sci fi shotgun that Gray had never seen before and wasn’t too interested in learning about.  He knew that Ben could switch between buckshot and slugs by flipping a switch, though.

Beside Ben was Bryanna Tanner.  Gray knew her, she’d sang in his church’s choir up until a couple years ago when she’d started a family.  Now she didn’t have much left.  Maybe that’s why she’d taken to learning magic with so much gusto.  When she killed monsters, it was obvious that it was always personal for her.  But when she wasn’t throwing fire, the woman was quiet, subdued.

Gray didn’t really try to talk to her.  The fact he’d actually met her husband and her little body just a few months ago would probably make any interactions even more sad for both of them.

“Okay, we’re nearing the fork, Gray.  Where we going?” asked Charlie.  His sheriff hat was in his lap and he’d put his duty weapon, a Glock 23, next to the seat.

“Let’s go to the latest area you saw all the dead goblins first,” said Gray.  He checked his radio, both it and his phone were fully charged but he had a lot more faith in the radio.  No matter what the government said or what people on the radio said, he didn’t believe that the communication infrastructure could last much longer.  Normal internet and cable vanished right after everything happened.  Too many power poles had been destroyed by monsters or accidents.

He was grateful for every extra minute it lasted, though.  The new generation moved fast, technology was their sandbox to play in.  A lot of what folks knew about the system so far was because of young folks online chatting about it, brainstorming and experimenting.

The jeep passed another vehicle, one of the trucks watching the approaches to town, trying to thin out some of the monsters moving into the area.  Gray didn’t know where they came from, but there had to be some sort of plan to this invasion.  He planned to use it as best he could–helping his people grow stronger at the same time he prevented the area being overrun.

As the Jeep turned down a darker road through the trees, he could sense the two fighters behind him grow more intense.

It was time to go.