Ch 248 - The Danger of Fools

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“I fear we won’t find such a happy ending with you,” he said grimly.

“Get away from me!” Carrie shouted, lunging to her feet, but 3 men grabbed her shoulders and 1 placed a blade against her throat. Undeterred, she shrieked, “You have no authority here! I want representation from the Teamsters.”

“You have it.” Ray Winstone stepped from the crowd, his face hard.

“Ray, stop this madness! It’s all a lie,” Carried shouted, trying to move to him, but held in place by the guards.

“If it’s a lie, we’ll make sure there are consequences,” Ray said. “Best way to prove your innocence is to let them scan you and verify you’re telling the truth.”

“They have no right!” she shrieked.

“I’m afraid they do.” Ray took a step closer, eyes locked on hers. “If you really sold us all out, I’ll kill you myself.”

She wilted back, looking absolutely stunned. “Ray, we’re Teamsters!”

“Like family,” he agreed. “Which means if you did turn traitor, you chose to plot to murder your own family.”

Still seated on the floor, George Dunning spoke up for the first time. “Why waste so much time on this circus? We’re all going to die? Is it so wrong to try to save ourselves and our families?”

Every eye turned to look at the fat old fool, who looked totally sincere. I spoke into the silence. “Marisara can’t save you. Everything she promised is a lie.”

“You don’t know that,” he snapped. “You don’t know anything! You’re stuck here just like us, just as lost as the rest of us. I shouldn’t even be here! We were on vacation.”

That stupid little rant broke the floodgates and people started shouting over each other, many reaching for weapons. For a moment I feared we’d have a riot and folks would rush the dais and rip George to pieces. Not even Tony could restore order until he pushed his Charisma to the max.

When he finally won a reluctant silence, he said, “Calm down everyone. George has confessed. Carrie, what say you?”

“I say you have no right! You don’t control me.”

“Carrie has confessed too,” Tony declared.

“Why?” I demanded, before he could simply execute them like he had Liz and Adam. “What justification can you give for betraying all of us and our entire planet?”

Carrie just snarled, struggling against her captors. She didn’t pull any weapons or anything from her inventory, so must have some kind of suppression spell on her. I’d have to ask Tony about that later.

George finally tried struggling to his feet, but failed and needed assistance from his guards. His face was pale, but his expression defiant. “You can’t expect us to take responsibility for the entire planet. That’s pure insanity. I can’t save everyone, so I just tried to save my family.”

“What did Marisara promise you?”

“I never spoke with her, just with some other folks who said they worked for her.”

“Let me guess. Martin and Trish Briggs.”

He nodded. “They said she had saved them from the stage-1 collapse, gave them better armor and weapons, and helped them level up. All they had to do was help her survive. She’s trying to save her own world too. If she wins, she promised to send anyone who helped her back home, and promised to make sure Earth thrived.”

Ray Winstone glanced at me and sighed. I raised one eyebrow and he nodded. Good. The Teamsters would detain Martin if they saw him again.

“And you believed that insanity?” Tony demanded, visibly angry.

George shrugged. “I could see they were stronger than me, so it sounded better than waiting to die here. My family and I can’t reach level 50.”

“Because you don’t try,” I growled.

“You can’t expect us to go fight monsters or work like farmers all day at crafts we don’t care about. We have rights!”

“Not here you don’t,” I told him with a sigh. The idiot still acted like he was in the States. “Here you have what you win. Nothing more.”

“That’s not fair!”

“Nope,” I agreed. “It’s totally not. Our only chance, as slim as it is, is to work and fight together and help each other. Instead, you decided to sacrifice all of us and our entire planet on the slim hope you can save your own Albuquerque.”

“Do you know any other traitors?” Tony demanded. “If you cooperate, you’ll get a painless execution.”

Carrie barked a humorless laugh. “As if that’s motivation.”

“Have you no shame?” Ed demanded, striding forward, face a mask of disbelief and rage. “You’re willing to kill off all the rest of us with no real guarantee it’ll actually help you?”

George shrugged. “I don’t know any of you. My family comes first.”

“Your family is going to die because you’re an idiot!” Tony shouted, making George cringe back.

“Are your wife and daughter helping you pass information to the Briggs?” I asked.

He shook his head so vigorously, his jowls jiggled back and forth. “No! They didn’t want to take the risk.”

Such wastes of life. They wouldn’t take the risk to try surviving, but didn’t want to risk actively supporting George. At least he tried to do something, as misguided and insane as it was.

“They knew what you were doing?” Tony asked.

“Yes, but they didn’t help.”

“They said nothing, so they’re just as guilty,” Tony declared. He turned to Natasha and Sally. “Arrest them.”

“No!” George screamed, struggling weakly. “Leave them alone.”

“We can’t do that,” Tony said calmly. “But if you confess everything, perhaps we can spare them.”

“And give them the levels to continue?” he pleaded.

The audacity of the fool.

Tony shook his head slowly. “You still don’t get it. No one is given levels, or anything that they don’t work for. If we spare them, they have to do the work.”

George slumped. “Then they’re as good as dead.”

“With your attitude, I guess so,” Tony agreed. “Carrie, do you wish to add anything?”

“You’re all going to die!” she shrieked.

“You first,” Tony said, and his black Mark III sword appeared in his hand. The sight of it sent George into fits of blubbering terror. Carrie just glared.

“Hold on,” I said. “Ed needs the experience more than anyone, and he was victimized more than anyone recently. He should do it.”

Ed looked shocked, but squared his shoulders. I hated to push him into it. No one should have to suddenly accept the role of executioner, but like Tony said, we had to do hard things to survive.

Tony hesitated, glancing at Ed. “Your point is valid, but as the head of the military, it should be me.”

“Or just assign an executioner.”

“I don’t want to make anyone else do it.”

I held his gaze and there was something in his eyes that suggested more to his insistence that he do it, but what? He’d looked deeply troubled after executing Liz and Adam, nearly crazed for a minute. Had something snapped? I wanted to shake him and tell him to keep it together. We couldn’t afford to lose another key leader.

Holding his gaze I said, “I understand, but I don’t think you should have to execute anyone else.”

“You don’t understand,” he whispered, and for a second he looked anguished before his expression turned grim again. “It has to be me.”

Ed stepped between us and placed a big hand on Tony’s shoulder. “You don’t have to bear this weight alone. I will do it.”

Tony looked like he wanted to argue, but everyone was watching. With a sigh, he nodded and stepped back, his sword disappearing. Ed’s giant new greatsword appeared in his hands. At the sight of it, George started screaming and even Carrie paled, struggling harder.

Ed looked from them to his sword and sighed. His sword vanished and he approached George, who stopped screaming and looked up at Ed with wild hope in his eyes.

“You helped monsters kill our people,” Ed said softly, placing his hands on either side of George’s head. “You chose a path of selfish stupidity, and there are consequences.”

George started to speak, but with a single mighty heave of his shoulders, Ed wrenched his hands sideways and snapped George’s neck. In nearly the same movement, his greatsword appeared in his hand and he plunged the giant blade through Carrie’s heart.

For such a huge guy, he moved incredibly fast. Neither of the traitors had time to scream. It was the only mercy he could show them.

Ed stepped back, his sword vanishing again, his face grim. “I’m sorry I had to do that, but it had to be done.”

I placed a hand on his shoulder. “Yes, it did.”

He sighed. “I got a level. Makes me feel dirty, but I need it.”

“I know.”

Tony said, “Someone loot them and deposit their gear with the town store. Dispose of those bodies.”

A grim silence had fallen across the gathered assembly. Knowing executions were necessary and witnessing them were 2 different things. We’d all had to do horrible things over the past 2 weeks, but rarely did we need to put down our own kind.

“So what do we do now?” asked Hector sadly.

“We finish this stage,” Tony growled. He lifted his arms, his voice swelling. “No more wasting time, no more waiting for enemies we can’t reach to come down and play games with our minds. Lucas already took out the merfolk boss. We’re going after the clockwork insects and we’re going to wipe them out this morning.”

“Do we know where they are?” asked someone.

I said, “I’m pretty sure they’re in Echo City in the palace. We have to go there anyway for the relics that are most likely in the palace and the castle.”

“Speaking of relics,” Tony said, and extracted a tall, tarnished mirror with warped glass that showed distorted reflections of rooms that did not look like our hall. “We picked up this one when we raided the Mech-mantis warehouse.”

“Veilglass Mirror. Unique. Echoes of Calamity quest relic 7 of 10.”

“Used to scry the demon king leading the unholy horde that swept the Ashen Covenant, the insights it gleaned broke the mind of the master Magitek who crafted it. Now it can only show twisted fragments of truth to those who dare look within.”

“Did you look in it?” I asked, making sure not to stare long at the ever-shifting hints of images passing through the warped glass.

“Not yet. The description isn’t encouraging. I was waiting for someone with stronger Mental resistance.”

“Jane will be best, but I can probably manage too.”

I triggered my Big Head Ring of the Mind to double my Perception and Mental Resistance for up to 30 seconds, then activated my new Double Down ability to double Mental Resistance again. And for good measure, I triggered the Indomitable aura from my Hercules title, and power swept out to fill the room, boosting everyone’s Mental resistance by 50%.

My mind felt like an unbreakable fortress, my thoughts vivid and sharp. I kind of doubted any relic would actively harm us, but why take the risk? With my resistance now boosted so high, maybe not even Jane enjoyed so much protection for those few seconds I could stack my boosting abilities.

I crouched and looked into the mirror.

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See you in 2026!