Warbreaker's Risk: A LitRPG Apocalypse Adventure (The Connected System Book 2), page 29
The voice was wise.
Paintings, pictures of kids, a bookcase not filled with books but souvenirs of traps, trophies, other things a family would have. There were a couple of books too.
Evidence of life.
It all made Theodore mad. All stuff he had never had and now might never happen. He would have power, the voice promised, but not now. Not soon. Someday.
With power, the family could come. Another promise by the voice. Theodore believed it but knew it wouldn’t be real. Not like the family that had lived in this house. The perfect family portrayed in the pictures.
And knowing what the future would bring didn’t help now.
Or in the past.
Theodore had no family. Never had. He wasn’t naive enough to think that any future family would be gained the right way. Not with using power to force it to happen.
But did that matter?
The voice said that it wouldn’t.
It dangled a lot of dreams in front of Theodore. Promises of what was to come if he only did what they wanted.
Theodore was only too happy to listen and obey.
For now.
The voice told Theodore a lot about their new world and what it meant to be Connected, a part of the Connection. They all knew the basics, what the words of the Connection had told them, but Theodore knew more. What the Classes were and how to get specific ones. What the various Levels meant and what the milestones were. The different types of Dungeons. Resources, Spirit, and Cores. Even things that no one else knew. It was a lot to comprehend and absorb. Theodore wasn’t sure he fully understood what it all meant. The voice assured him that it didn’t matter.
He just had to do what it told him to.
Turning away from the window, Theodore looked at the men sleeping. Soon he could begin the voice’s mission. Take the first steps toward power. Focusing inward, Theodore felt his Core. He could sense how full it was, getting an idea of how much more he would need to absorb in order to reach the next Level.
He was almost Level Four.
Which was so close to Level Five.
When he would get a Class.
And not just any Class but one the voice had picked especially for him.
Once he had that Class, everything would change.
Theodore smiled.
Anyone that looked at him at that moment would have been horrified. His face twisted, eyes glowing purple, looking manic. They would swear they could see another presence that was part of Theodore. Not a ghost, but an image laid over Theodore. Tall and skinny, with a triangular head with eyes, no ears, and tentacles writhing where the mouth should be.
Anyone that looked at him at that moment would have had their mind broken.
Chapter Thirty-One
The noise woke Loch.
He sat up, looking toward the glass doors of the hardware store. Jenny was in front of them, on watch, looking out toward the lake. Around him, he heard Piper and Brian stirring, also waking up.
It was a haunting sound. Long and lonely, deep, sorrowful.
An animal’s cry. A kind of bird.
It didn’t scare him or fill him with worry. It wasn’t joyful either. Loch felt lonely, an ache for something lost, something he’d never get back. Pictures of Kelly flooded his mind. Happy moments. Sad moments. Angry moments that he wanted to take back but couldn’t. He felt tears start to form, his mind fighting against the images and the fear that he’d never see her again.
Loch reached out, searching for Piper’s hand. She was looking for his. They grasped, holding each other, listening to the sound. He thought he heard her crying.
Loch was reminded of a loon’s call. He had loved being woken up by that sound. The loon’s call had a sad quality to it but had never filled him with the loneliness that this did.
It went on for a minute, then faded as if it had never been.
The effects lingered.
He saw a flashing icon in the corner of his vision, it was the Connection indicating he had gained a debuff.
GAVIA’S SONG OF LOSS
HEARING THE SONG CAUSES A LOSS OF INITIATIVE. -20% TO ALL REACTION TIMES FOR 2 MINUTES.
He stood up, releasing Piper’s hand. She held it up, reaching for him. He turned and looked down at her, seeing lines of tears falling down her face. Taking her hand again, he pulled her up to him, tight into an embrace. Her arms wrapped around his body as tight as she could. Loch kissed the top of her head.
“It’s okay, honey,” he said quietly. “It’ll pass.”
Gently stepping out of her hug, he put his arm around her shoulder, pulling her in close, walking with her to the double door. It had remained open, one of the sides unable to open or close. He had broken the mechanism. The other had been pulled closed as much as it could, leaving an opening about a foot or so wide.
The moon was high, clouds obscuring the stars.
A large shadow passed through the clouds, roughly bird-shaped.
“That sound was beautiful,” Jenny said. She had been crying. “It made me so lonely, like a piece of me was missing. But it was beautiful.”
Loch didn’t say anything. There was no need. They all felt the same.
“I wonder what it’s missing,” Piper said quietly.
“What?”
“The Gavia.” She pointed at the dark shape in the clouds as it circled over the lake. “What did it lose?”
“I don’t know, Pipes,” Loch replied. “I don’t know.”
The blinking icon picked up speed, then disappeared.
Loch didn’t lose the feeling of loss. He did feel his body shift, his normal reaction times back.
They stayed at the door, watching the Gavia flying through the clouds. It never went below, at least not that they saw, and it never let out its call again.
Howls filled the night, answering the Gavia’s song, adding their own mournful voices. Wolves or coyotes.
“Get some sleep,” Loch told the others, not looking away from the lake and the giant bird flying over it. “I’ll finish out your watch,” he told Jenny.
“Thanks,” she said quietly, turning away from the doors. She looked over her shoulder, one last lingering glance.
Brian had already lain back down, shifting to look away from the door. The big man had been affected by the song. He hadn’t cried, but Loch had seen the haunted look in his eyes.
Piper didn’t move.
He let go of her shoulder, giving her a nudge.
“Pipes,” he prompted quietly.
“I want to stay with you,” she said. He could hear the need in her voice. “I miss Mom.”
It was so quiet that Loch almost missed it.
He gave her shoulder one last squeeze, giving her another nudge.
“I do too. Now sleep.”
“Okay.”
Loch watched the Gavia for another hour or so before it finally gave up its flight, diving out of the clouds, Loch’s view blocked by the trees. It never flew up again. Did it have a nest along the shore of the lake? Or did it land in the water itself?
He didn’t see it again.
Not even when the sun started to rise.
Loch shifted the backpack’s straps. The load was unbalanced, the left side dragging it all to that side, the straps shifting and sitting awkwardly on his shoulders, the left one digging into that shoulder. He shook to the right, trying to shift the supplies in the bag.
It didn’t help.
Cursing, Loch took the backpack off, setting it on the ground. Crouching down, he reached in, feeling around for the heavy object that had put the load off center. Finding the boxes of nails, Loch shifted everything around again.
It felt like he’d done this a half dozen times already.
At least he knew how to organize a backpack. All that hiking in the White Mountains had helped him learn how to be the most efficient and make the most use out of every available inch. Weight distribution was a big one. Off just a bit to one side, after a few hours and couple of miles, it would start to dig into the shoulder. Very uncomfortable.
Lifting the backpack, he slung the straps over his shoulders again. Pulling them tight, he was satisfied with how it sat. He needed a bag like Piper’s satchel. Small, hung off a belt, and didn’t carry any weight of its own, no matter what they stuffed in it.
And they had filled it almost full.
He had been tempted to fill it all the way, but there was still the police station, and who knew what else they’d run into on the way back.
“Everyone ready?”
They were in the parking lot out front of the hardware store doing final prep on the bags they’d carry. One for each, even Piper getting a small backpack to go along with her satchel.
Brian gave a thumbs up and Jenny nodded. Piper smiled, her attention still out to the lake, the waters visible through the trees.
“What’s up, Pipes?”
“Just wondering where the Gavia is,” she said. “I feel bad for it.”
“I would not,” Cerie said. “The song was most likely a hunting Skill, used to provoke just such a reaction to make the prey easier to find and kill.”
Piper’s face fell, looking slightly disgusted.
“Oh.”
Loch glared at Cerie. The small fairy shrugged.
“Okay, let’s go,” Loch said, shaking his head.
He couldn’t really blame Cerie for her lack of tact. She’d come from a place where she was treated as a tool. Only to speak if commanded and then only to respond with the requested information. Any social skills she might have had as a living fairy were gone. If she had any social skills to begin with.
She was from a different world, different culture. Maybe how she acted was how all fairies acted. Loch had to remember that she wasn’t like those fairies shown in pop culture, no matter how much she looked the part.
He looked around one last time, hoping for some sign.
But like yesterday’s searching, there was nothing.
Not even of the Gaunts, or anything like them.
Jenny and Piper had stayed at the store as Loch and Brian spread out. They walked down to the lake, at the boat ramp and even down the road as far as the town beach, both places that the other group would have known about and logical places to stop and explore.
It had been a fast search, Loch wanting to cover as much ground as possible. They might have missed something a more careful search would have turned up, but time was not their friend.
They’d gone up the other road, far enough for Loch to confirm that the barn with the cows was empty. No sign of the cows being removed. The gates and doors hadn’t been left open, Loch figuring that if someone took the cows, they wouldn’t have bothered shutting gates behind them.
The cows were just gone.
Loch hated to admit it, just to himself and not spoken out loud, but not finding the cows was the bigger disappointment. Those animals were badly needed at the camp. They could have supplied milk and in the future meat.
He hated that he was thinking that way but there was no choice.
It was late spring, still had summer and fall to get through, but winter was coming. Months away, but the time would pass quickly and they needed to start preparing now.
By the time they’d check some of the houses, gone down another street a decent distance, it was dark. They hadn’t even bothered to scavenge anything, just jogging around and looking for obvious signs.
Now it was time to go.
They started up the road, heading east.
Same marching order as before.
Breakfast had been quick, waiting for the sun to be fully up before leaving. It’d taken two days to get to the store, Loch figured it would be three days back, maybe two and a half if lucky. They’d be going slower because of the added weight of the backpacks, needing more rests.
He still couldn’t get over how much the world had grown. What had been a five- or ten-minute car ride was now a couple days walking.
That made him think of horses. There were a lot of horses around. They’d have to get their hands on a couple. If any had survived and not disappeared like the cows.
Reaching the brewery, Brian stopped, looking back at Loch.
Sadly, Loch shook his head.
Stopping at the brewery and getting some beer, had been a want. Not a need.
They didn’t have the space for a want.
With a shrug, Brian started up again.
Passing the building, they could see the large field again, this time on their left. There was still movement near the cemetery. Except there was more of it.
Easily twice or three times as much.
“What the hell?” Brian muttered as they gathered together, looking down into the field.
The walking figures had spread out from the cemetery, filling the field, avoiding the more wet areas to the east. Some were pretty close to the slope leading up to the road.
“Undead,” Loch cursed, recognizing the shambling motions of many. “Skeletons and zombies. Cerie, should there be this many from that spawn field?”
“No. That cemetery is not large enough to generate this many creations in such a short amount of time. If it had gone unchecked for months, maybe years, then yes. But to make this many in a day? Impossible.”
“Not impossible,” Brian said. “It happened.”
“There has to be something else involved,” Cerie said, eyes glowing. “That is the only possible explanation.”
“Something else,” Loch prompted.
“There are a lot of possibilities,” Cerie admitted. “But none that makes sense with it being this early in Earth’s Connection. It would take a lot of power to cause this.”
“A lot of power means something dangerous,” Loch said.
Cerie nodded.
He took a couple of steps closer, not that it made a difference in how far he could see or what level of detail. Some of the figures didn’t walk as stiffly as the zombies and skeletons. They had a more normal gait. And were taller.
“Gaunts,” he said, pointing out a couple.
“I see a hound,” Brian added, pointing west, where the field had been blocked by the large brewery building. “Make that two. Three. Okay, four.”
“Could the Gaunts be creating the undead?” Loch asked, trying to get a count of exactly how many were there.
It was hard with all the constant moving around. Only the Gaunts seemed to stand still for any length of time. The undead just kept roaming with no set direction or reason. They didn’t seem to be capable of leaving the general area of the field, though.
“It’s possible,” Cerie answered. “I do not know enough about these Gaunts.”
Loch gave up trying to count.
“Let’s get moving before any of them spot us.”
They got going, picking up the pace.
Loch didn’t like the idea of the undead massing in the field with the Gaunts and especially if there was something powerful creating the undead. If the amount had doubled in just a day, how many would there be in a week? A month?
He knew they couldn’t leave this threat alone for long. They were going to have to do something about it. No way could they let the undead just keep growing. At some point, the undead would attack the camp, and by that point, the numbers could be overwhelming.
Loch would have to come back with some of the others.
As soon as possible.
One last look before the field was lost from view, Loch realized they would need to get people trained, Leveled up, and with Classes before coming back. Which would take time. Time for more undead to be created.
Not good.
Chapter Thirty-Two
The roadblock was the same. Nothing had disturbed the makeshift canopy over the mutilated bodies, thankfully. Loch was surprised scavengers hadn’t gotten to them yet.
They approached with caution, not able to see beyond the trees. The view from the hill behind them had shown a clear road past the block, but the angle had been wrong to see immediately behind the trees if anything had been hidden by the branches.
Motioning Jenny and Piper to stay back, Loch directed Brian to take the north side as he worked his way around the south. He knew that anything on the other side would know they were there, and would have spotted them already.
It wasn’t a good tactical position to be in, but they had no choice.
He couldn’t feel anything looking at him.
Before the Connection, Loch never put much faith in the idea of intuition or instinct. He didn’t believe humans had a danger sense. But now, with everything he’d seen and done, he was starting to believe it was possible.
Moving around the trunk, he stopped to take more time examining the end of the tree and the stump. The end was jagged, not smooth like it had been chopped by an axe. The tree had been hacked and slashed, ripped apart to make it fall. There were marks all over the trunk, indications of the wild swings not being in the same spot. Nicks and deep gouges. It would have taken a long time to fell the tree.
Turning up the tree, he saw Brian at the other end. No one and nothing else.
He gave a thumbs up, getting one in return.
“Piper, Jenny.”
They joined him on the other side.
Piper looked like she needed a rest, but Loch didn’t want to stop. There were dead bodies on the other side.
He’d forgotten about the dead Gaunts.
Their bodies still lay on the road, right where they had died. The blood, gray and red, had dried up, fading in color. Surprisingly, no flies buzzed around the bodies. They didn’t appear to have been damaged from scavengers. The bodies did look a little more pale, even thinner than before.
Piper didn’t stop or even stare at the bodies. Loch didn’t like that reaction. These weren’t the first bodies she had seen. There had been plenty of others. Some she had even killed. But to be this jaded to the sight of dead bodies? Already? Loch didn’t like what this world was doing to his little girl.
Not little any longer. She was doing some fast-growing up. Even if she and Loch weren’t ready.
