Sponsored Apocalypse, ch 8

The next few moments were terrifying.  It was like a nightmare come to life, all Illuminated by the dim red light.  Every roar of the monsters outside, accompanied by the security bars shivering, was a reminder that we would all be dead already if not for the protection.  The bars might have seemed tough and overkill prior to the apocalypse, but now I couldn’t help but wish they were even thicker.

My pistol bucked in my hand as I emptied an entire magazine at the monster on the left.  It was ugly, maybe a troll, but smaller than the one I’d seen before.  Like it's fellow that was also trying to get through the bars on the windows, it was more bestial than the troll I’d seen before.  It was almost like a cross between a sloth, a jackal, an ape, and a neanderthal.

I was shocked at how little damage all of our bullets were doing, but at least we were still killing the thing.  It bellowed in pain, redoubling its efforts to break in.

Someone was screaming.  Maybe it was me.  Could have been all of us.

I clumsily reloaded. Even though I'd trained with guns, I was not really familiar with the H&K paddle release. I also hadn't ever trained in conditions where I was fighting in the dark with two monsters the size of a Mini Cooper trying to break through a steel security fence.

As fast as I could accurately fire, I dumped the entire mag into the creature’s head.  Little puffs of blood and fur showed where my friends were also peppering the creature with lead.

Finally, it let out a gurgle and began to slouch, all of its strength gone.  Then it collapsed, finally dead, and I half expected a notification for a level up or something else. I didn’t get one.  The situation didn’t give me time to think about it much, because the other monster became enraged, redoubling its efforts to dislodge the bars.

I swallowed and fumbled my last magazine into my pistol, but before I even got a chance to fire, the creature suddenly twitched and was shoved to the side by something.  When I noticed what looked like a giant icicle in its side, I wondered if I could believe my eyes.

Then after a couple seconds of quiet where it had sucked air into its huge lungs, it roared.  But its rage and pain-filled bellow didn’t last long.  Another huge icicle blurred through the air and slammed into the creature’s side.  The ice must have hit something important, because not only did the monster stop roaring, it also shivered and fell onto one elbow.

One last icicle seemed to finish the job.

All of us in the store stopped firing at the same time.  None of us said anything, we just scanned outside the door, waiting in anticipation for what would happen next.

I heard a slow pair of footsteps outside.  No, two pairs.  One sounded different and they were out of sync.

Both people outside stopped for a moment.  Only one of them continued forward until they were right outside the store’s windows.  A woman’s voice floated through the shattered glass.  “I come in peace.  Don’t shoot.  Human here.  I have an injured friend and I just need to grab a few things for her.  Medical supplies.  You have medical supplies, right?”

Tom answered cautiously, “We have some, yeah.”

“I thought so.”  The woman jerked a thumb at her backpack.  “I can barter.  You all cool in there now? No twitchy trigger fingers?”

“Cool?” muttered Jeb.  He was holding his wife’s hand.  It looked like she wasn’t doing very well after the troll attack.

“Yes, lady.  We’re fine,” said Matt.  He turned to look at everyone else.  “Everyone lower your weapons but keep them handy,” he whispered.

The woman went back to the other person, her wounded friend, and the two of them walked into view together.  The wounded person had blood all over her.  She was middle aged, sort of frumpy in a salt-of-the-earth way.  The other, younger woman, presumably the first speaker, was around my age and was beautiful in a very intense way.  I usually thought of attractive women as, “cute,” or “pretty,” but this chick was legit beautiful.  Like a statue of a goddess.  It was obvious she’d spent a lot of time working out, too.  I could tell she had magazine front page-level muscle definition even under her loose clothing.

“Maybe open the door?” asked the younger woman with impatience.  She glanced behind her, and the message was clear.  The two monsters laying outside were dead, but there were undoubtably more out there.

“Oh, yeah, one sec,” said Tom.  He rushed to the door.

“No, wait,” said Matt.  “What was that ice stuff?  What happened to that thing?”  He pointed to the second monster to die.

“That was me,” said the younger woman.

“What did you do?”

“I used magic.”

“Magic!?”  Matt turned.  “Tom, maybe we shouldn’t let her in!  There’s a lot of weird shit going on and–”

Tom shook his head.  “No.  This is America.  I don’t care if the devil himself is out there.  The day I don’t help a hurt lady and a girl in trouble by just opening a door, is the day I stop being worth a damn as a man.  And besides, if she punched that monster’s ticket, what makes you think she couldn’t put some ice through your head right now?  Her being in here isn’t any more dangerous than out there.”

Matt’s mouth worked for a second as he digested Tom’s logic, then he just nodded and stepped to the side, looking down while he reloaded his weapon.

Tom opened the door.  The younger woman helped the older, injured woman into the store.  She grimaced.  “I thought you guys were going to argue forever.  For me, it doesn’t matter, but Amanda has lost a lot of blood.”

“The supplies are in the corner,” said Tom.  “We don’t have everything, but–”

“Yeah I know.  I’ve been in here before.  Thank you for your help.”

I watched the women move to the back of the store and I just sat down, head in my hands for a second, thinking about what had just happened.

Monsters and now magic.  It was a lot to take in, but my struggle was not with acceptance.  Instead, I was starting to think about the future.  The giant had scared the shit out of me when it destroyed my house.  It was so big, so alien, I’d almost thought of it like a force of nature.

But the troll things that had just been trying to get into the gun shop were more real to me.  They were still alien and savage, but they made more sense.  More importantly, if I were to ever find a bunker or something somewhere, a place the giant couldn’t even find, the trolls would likely still be able to make a way in.

All of my half-baked plans in the back of my mind of surviving the night and then hiding were crumbling to dust.  Like I’d even realized earlier: This new world was currently in tutorial mode.  Long term survival would require fighting.  Hiding would be like rolling a bad set of dice.

I needed power.  And now that I’d seen magic, real magic beyond just throwing a hammer around, I wanted it.  The mysterious woman had killed the troll monster with ease.

A new plan started to form in my mind.  I seized on what I was feeling and decided to act on it.  After getting up I made my way over to the ladies in the back of the store.  On the way there I took a quick peek around to see what the others were doing.

Sarah had been quietly on the verge of a breakdown ever since the troll attack, and Cam was busy trying to console her.  He was still carefully watching the front of the store, though.  Tom and Matt were both talking quietly, loading magazines and keeping watch as well.  Every once in a while Matt looked back at our newcomers and frowned.

I got the impression that since a lot had just happened really fast, some of the others weren’t quite sure exactly how to react, yet.  Plus, it was pretty obvious that none of us exactly felt safe enough to have a leisurely chat.

At the back of the store, the younger woman, the magic user, was opening packages.  It was all basic first aid stuff that Tom used to sell.  He’d had a small but dedicated group of customers who bought the stuff before–preppers and weekend warriors, tactical LARPer types.  They were men who would buy a bunch of random, military-esque supplies, usually for “training,” or “a class one day” that they’d invariably never actually use.

One of them had always seemed to be fairly self aware when I’d bumped into him in the store, though.  He’d joked that buying militaria made him happy and was cheaper than drugs.  I could never argue with that.  Besides, I had been buying a bunch of the same stuff at the time.

An open wad of gauze was already on a sterile napkin on the floor next to the wounded woman, Amanda.  She was panting in pain, her eyes closed.  Tears were leaking down the side of her face.

The younger woman didn’t look up at first as I approached.  “Hi, dude.  I’m kind of doing something here,” she said.  She looked up and her eyes were piercing, direct.  “I’m kind of in a bind here because you folks are doing me a favor, but I really need everyone to leave me the fuck alone.  That is, unless you’re a doctor.  My friend is in bad shape.”

Okay, showtime, I thought.  “About that, uh, you mentioned barter for the supplies.”

“Supplies.  This your store?  Do you own these supplies?”

“No, my friend Tom does.”

She focused on what she’d been doing again.  “Then I’ll deal with him before I leave.”

I frowned.  People like this were always difficult for me to handle.  Short tempered, rude, or otherwise overly self confident people could make me feel low level irritation.  “I was not talking about the supplies. I might be able to help you.”

She glanced up again, clearly annoyed and skeptical.  “How?”

“You’re trying to help your friend, right?”

“Dude, just spit it out.  There are monsters outside and Amanda is bleeding out.”

Amanda herself spoke for the first time, saying, “Aldina, chill.”

The pretty but abrasive young woman, Aldina, frowned and went back to preparing medical supplies.  “I’m listening,” she said.

I knew this next part might be a little bit of a gamble.  None of my current comrades had gotten a healing skill.  I assumed that Aldina might understand what was going on better than most.  She already had magic and her attitude was just more…assured and matter-of-fact that anyone else’s so far.  That didn’t necessarily mean anything, but the fact she hadn’t asked if anyone could heal before, did.

Out of a sample size of seven people, I was the only one who had a healing skill.  I also suspected it was rarer than that. Aldina hadn’t asked us if anyone had a healing skill.  She’d just come for supplies.  It was possible she didn’t even know that healing skills existed.

“I have a healing skill.  I can help your friend.  In return, I want you to help me learn magic.”

Her head shot up and her eyes widened.  She whispered, “Be careful how loud you say that sort of thing?”

I blinked.  “Huh?”

She shook her head.  “Don’t worry about it.  Just accept you are lucky right now.”  She sighed.  “So you really have a healing skill?”

“Yes…”

“Okay.  I’m Aldina.”

“Miles.”  I hesitated.  “But a lot of people call me Shrug.”

“Okay, Miles…Shrug.  My friends call me Dina, but I don’t know you too well so let’s keep it to Aldina.”  I nodded and she continued, “If you do me a favor and heal my friend here, then I’ll see what I can do.  Either way, I’m still going to make good on my side of the barter that I promised earlier.  In fact, I’m going to give you and your friends here one of the best gifts anyone can give after The Message.”

“The Message?”

“Yes.  The apocalypse.  It’s what people are going to call the beginning of the world changing.  When the first status message came up.  The Message.”

I almost asked how she could possibly know that, but she sounded so sure of herself I just moved on.  “What gift are you giving us?”

She smiled.  “Knowledge.”