Ruthless V5Ch57-There Goes the Neighborhood

Jesus…

An enormous centipede wound itself around a skyscraper as if claiming its territory.

Multi-colored lizards the size of men skittered along the street below, following one single giant lizard that seemed to Alan to rival the former Alligator Monarch, Samuel, in size.

Pigeons the size of steroid-abusing eagles streaked across the sky, flying in a tight formation until they reached the tallest building still standing, where they perched and proceeded to walk around in what felt like an aimless fashion. Even after the apocalypse, it seemed, they were still pigeons.

Enormous cockroaches flooded out of a sewer grate in a tidal wave of brown, chitinous flesh and rushed, in their uncounted numbers, inside of what seemed to be a deserted building.

A few seconds later, they came rushing back out, chased by a scorpion built like an SUV.

Alan also saw a sewer manhole cover pop up out of the ground. A rat’s head the size of a bowling ball poked out. Seeing the chaos unfolding above, it quickly ducked back under, having determined that the surface was unsafe. Alan found that he and the rat were in agreement.

The City of Orlando was definitely unsafe for human beings right now—and perhaps for rodents of unusual size too.

For James, I imagine this place would stand out like one of those maps of Earth from space, with all the bright lights wherever there’s electricity and prosperity, Alan thought. He would sense each individual territory and be able to separate out where all the powerhouses are, distinguishing them from the weaker Rulers.

Alan couldn’t feel things so sensitively, but he knew enough to try to keep his distance. The entire area of the city gave off a feeling of intense and unpleasant pressure.

I used to come into this place once a week… Jesus. You really can’t go home again.

There was just one problem.

Alan lowered the binoculars he had been using to scope out the city and turned back to face the members of the Electricity Commission who had come with him. There were two dozen people there. Only the hardcore, committed people who desperately wanted technology restored had continued on the journey. Alan and Mitzi had split up so that she could lead the rest of the group, plus the refugees from the Dungeon James had destroyed, back to the Fisher Kingdom.

They won’t want to turn back, of course.

“Well, Mr. Roget?” asked Christian. “What did you see?”

“Do you think it’s safe?” asked Mateo.

Alan slowly shook his head. “I don’t. I can see more monsters from here than I encountered in my entire Orientation, and those are just the visible ones.”

“We’ve fought a lot of monsters,” said Alexandra, a Mage. “We all survived Orientation.”

“This isn’t like that,” Alan insisted. “Urban warfare is brutal. There are a thousand and one places for enemies—in this case, predators—to hide. There would be blind spots around every corner.” He forced himself to stop. The men and women of the Electricity Commission were too young to have ever experienced war firsthand, let alone the unique brutality of urban warfare.

Maybe I’m biased by my own experience. It’s possible this won’t be as bad as I’m suggesting. Most of these creatures won’t be intelligent, at least.

“I think we’ve asked a lot of Alan,” began Mateo.

“Then he can go home,” interrupted Darryl, looking back and forth between Alan and Mateo with a frustrated expression. “We’ve come all this way. Fought through plenty of monsters. You can’t tell me we’re going to stop here, without even trying to enter the city.”

Alan scanned the faces of the reset of the Electricity Commission as Darryl spoke, but he sensed it would only be Darryl, Mateo, Christian, and Alexandra who would speak up right now. These four had been founders of the group, and they were still its leaders. Alan had only been appointed to lead this specific expedition. It wasn’t even as if he could pretend he cared that much about electrification.

Running water and electricity just weren’t that important when much of the population could conjure water from out of thin air, and when the Florida heat was mitigated by everyone simply investing in leveling up and building up their Fortitude. The harsh truth was that everyone who couldn’t do that was already dead.

“I can’t see us going back empty-handed,” Christian said.

Mateo sighed. “I think you guys are taking the situation a little too lightly. We should think carefully about whether we want to continue. Alan is a war veteran, and James trusted him enough to assign him to lead the expedition—which all of us agreed to at the time. Then he led us through those monsters that we fought through. All of which is to say he’s probably right. That doesn’t mean I want to turn back, but we ought to at least think about it. Talk about it. Quietly, among the four of us, before we make a decision or take a vote.”

“If you say so, Matt,” Alexandra said immediately.

Christian and Darryl nodded, looking disappointed and annoyed respectively—but neither of them, Alan felt he could see, seriously considering continuing the argument in front of everyone else. There was an instinctive deference to Mateo from the others, which Alan respected. He had command presence.

“I’ll just be waiting for you all to come to a decision, then,” Alan said, giving the four a small smile.

“Thank you,” Christian said.

The four turned and formed a huddle, and Alan couldn’t hear what they whispered back and forth—and he also didn’t want to. The decision was not in his hands. The Expeditionary Force had been his charge, and this group was just a kernel of that one—the entirety of the Electricity Commission. It would feel wrong for him to order them to withdraw, even setting aside the practical question of whether they would listen or simply dig in their heels.

The deliberation continued for several minutes.

Finally, Christian turned around and faced Alan.

“We reached a decision,” Christian said. He was smiling thinly. “It was unanimous among the four of us.”

“That’s great,” Alan said. “What is it?”

“We’re going in,” said Mateo.

I figured, Alan thought. Well, what’s an adventure without risk?

A shadow passed overhead, and Alan looked up to see the two wyverns that they had watching from above.

At least we’re not completely on our own.

Still, it was doubtful how much help even James’s creatures would be in such a dangerous and crowded environment.

“Let’s do it right away then,” Alan said. “While we still have good daylight.”

It was almost noon by this point. The day wasn’t getting any younger, and he had no interest in staying in the new Orlando after dark.

Christian turned his head back halfway, without entirely taking his eyes off Alan.

“Everyone ready to go into the city?” he called.

The response from the group was a thunderous cheer.

People always sound so chipper when they’re marching off into a high risk of death, don’t they?

Alan turned to look forward before the group could catch the weary expression passing over his face. With his body effectively younger under the effects of James’s blessing, it was easy to forget how old he was sometimes. But today he felt ten years older.

In his bones, he knew that not all of these men and women would make it out of the city.

He closed his eyes and said a silent prayer for the brave people who were trusting him to lead them through. He hoped he would do the best job possible.

“Alan, we’re not going to be reckless.”

The Healer opened his eyes and saw Mateo standing at his left shoulder.

“I hope not,” Alan said, restraining the urge to shrug.

You don’t know that, he wanted to say. You don’t know what reckless means until you’ve seen good lives thrown after wasted ones.

But he contained himself. The last thing these people needed was their guide falling to pieces on them.

“You say you’re hopeful, but why do I have the feeling you’re convinced that we’re doomed?” Mateo asked.

Alan looked back cautiously. He saw that the rest of the Electricity Commission, including the other leaders, were giving him and Mateo space. They were squaring away armor and equipment, and they at least looked like they were prepared for a fight.

Perhaps Alan was being unfairly pessimistic. But he decided to give Mateo his honest thoughts.

“We don’t have a plan,” Alan said. “Nor do we have any reasonable way of making one. We’re just going in on a hope and a prayer. You already heard what the threats are. The ones we know about. I think a better question is, why does it feel like everyone in your Commission is convinced you’ll all come out alive?”

Mateo looked slightly stung by the words, but Alan just gave him a look that said, You asked.

“We have a map, at least.” Mateo drew a large city map out of his Small Bag of Deceptive Dimensions, and he opened it out so that Alan could see. “I think we’re roughly here.” He placed his finger on the map at one of the outlying regions of Orlando. “With Lake Eola still intact and visible over there—” He pointed—“we shouldn’t be too far from these places.” Mateo gestured at a tightly clustered group of circles on the map. There were other circled locations, but they were further away. “The circles represent all the electronics stores that we know existed in the before times.”

Alan narrowed his eyes as he looked at the map a bit more closely. It was slightly discolored, and he wondered if that was from age. He glanced at the map key and then shook his head. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh or scream.

“What?” Mateo asked.

Alan pointed. “One of those places is a Radio Shack. How old is this thing?”

Mateo looked embarrassed. “Look, there aren’t a lot of physical maps left. We were grateful someone contributed this. It’s the best guidance we’re going to get. This is why we need Internet back!” His flustered way of talking communicated his doubts better than any explicit admission he might make ever could. This was out of character for the young man, who usually spoke with quiet assurance.

You need Internet, so you can find physical locations for places that have been destroyed, Alan thought. And for this, you’re going to lead your friends to their deaths.

“Well, cross out the Radio Shack so no one wastes their time,” he said. “We’re going to lose people in this city, I can almost guarantee that. No one wants to find out their friend died trying to get to a store that was permanently closed.”

“You don’t have to come,” Mateo blurted.

Alan shot him a look that could curdle milk.

“I’m sorry—” Mateo began, but Alan cut him off.

“No, I do have to come,” Alan said. “I’m not going to walk off and sit on my hands while you and your friends die chasing this dream. I couldn’t live with myself if I let you green kids go off alone. So I’m going to do everything I can to keep you alive. That’s what I want to do. Just don’t complain if I’m not a ray of sunshine while we’re doing this. Attitude isn’t what’s important here anyway. Survival is.”

Mateo swallowed and nodded.

“Go and bring your people. They seem to be ready. We’re losing time.”

“Got it,” Mateo said, looking as if he had a sour taste in his mouth—but not resentful, Alan judged. Not that it mattered terribly for Alan, but he thought the young man had a good head on his shoulders.

When the group approached Alan, it turned out they were slightly less unprepared than he had assessed. One of the Mages had a Skill that was perfect for obscuring movement through a city, refracting light through glass to create a blinding glare that would cover a whole street.

As they entered the city, this Mage, Victoria, used her Skill to shield their movements from prying eyes.

Although this meant the group had to walk with their eyes squinted at first, it became significantly more convenient after they found a store that sold sunglasses. Once they had upgraded their eye protection, they were the only beings that could see within a city block of themselves. The light kept the giant roaches taking cover in the sewer, and nothing else seemed to openly challenge them at first.

They walked in a border area where two semi-overlapping Ruler auras clashed. Ideally a border region would mean creatures from both territories would be reluctant to fight, since they might be drawn into a conflict with those that lived in the other territory.

Alan allowed himself to feel a hint of optimism. The street layouts were basically the same as in Mateo’s old map, at least, and there were enough skyscrapers still standing that Victoria’s method of concealing them would still be viable through the entirety of the portion of Orlando they needed to pass through.

The Electricity Commission was still able to navigate. In five minutes, they would stand in front of a cell phone store, which would have lots of material they believed they could salvage.

Though the roads and sidewalks were cracked, and weeds now poked through everywhere in thick tufts that made the city feel like it had been abandoned for a decade—except where the cracks simply revealed black emptiness—it was still a recognizably human location.

Things were going according to plan, with a loose definition of the word “plan.”

Alan nevertheless kept his head on a swivel, remaining on the lookout for potential enemies. The rest of the group was beginning to relax. He would never make that mistake in a place like this. The others were too used to being safe in the Fisher Kingdom. Too comfortable already.

As the group passed an intersection, Alan saw them. From a darkened alley, glowing eyes stared, watching the humans. Alan stared and visually estimated in an instant. There were thousands of the red orbs staring at them.

For a moment, he thought they were only observing, but then the mass of eyes in the darkness moved—a creepy, jerky movement as if the flesh the eyes nested in belonged to a single organism that was only just waking up. It was a lurch toward the road the humans stood on.

Alan opened his mouth to utter a warning, but at the same moment, the ground began to move underneath him. In an instant, he felt himself falling backward, and he saw the others around him tumbling beside him.