Warbreaker's Rage: A LitRPG Apocalypse Adventure (The Connected System Book 3), page 34
Grass had overgrown, from never being maintained or a result of the Spirit, Loch didn’t know. The wind was blocked by the building, the back shaded. It felt odd to be away from the ever-present wind.
With Harper in the lead, they crept down the building, away from the gaunt side. There had been a couple of large white tanks at the far end. Loch had never been sure what had been inside. Propane for grills probably, but in the larger? He’d never asked. Now they were gone, taken by the Worldcore.
Which Loch figured was a good thing.
The last thing they needed was gas tanks exploding.
It wasn’t like they could use the gas.
Or could they?
Guns no longer worked, but was propane still flammable? There were some propane canisters around. He’d seen them at some of the homes, in the backyards by the grills. They’d have to grab some on the way back.
Harper reached the end of the building, carefully peeking around the corner. Loch tensed up, not liking that Harper went first, but she had the highest agility and could Shadowskip out of any danger. She was the best choice.
He hated that she was.
Seeing nothing, she gave him the all-clear, disappearing around the corner as he reached it. Loch turned around the building, seeing the blue waters of the lake. He remembered the Gavia’s song they’d heard last time, wondering where the giant bird had gone. The call had reminded him so much of a loon.
Harper waited at the next corner, just past the dock door that was off the ground a couple of feet. Metal, probably locked from the inside. Next to it was a man door, a couple steps down to the ground. It was probably locked too.
Moving around the stairs, he crept up behind her.
“I can see bags and bags of soil,” she whispered. “Hard to tell how many, but there’s a lot.”
Loch smiled. That was great news. He’d been afraid they’d come all this way only to come up empty. They’d grab some other supplies, but the soil was the main reason for the raid.
“I can also see the gaunts’ wall,” she continued.
Loch bit back a curse. He’d been afraid of that. He hadn’t seen the wall on this end; only Harper had, and she hadn’t seen where it was in relation to the stores. Her angle had been from behind it, not knowing what view the gaunts had toward the west.
“They got a pretty good view.”
Loch looked up toward the sun, trying to guess how close it was to setting. They hadn’t been walking that long. Setting out from the house just after sunrise, the two- maybe three-mile walk, the fight with the Mutated Ticks, stopping for a quick meal and rest. It would be mid-afternoon, maybe late afternoon. The sun was still hours from setting.
There was no way they could do anything in the daylight.
“Let’s rejoin the others,” he said, moving away from the corner. “We’re going to need to wait for night.”
Loch stood at the rear corner of the building, looking east toward the far corner and the convenience store entrance. Davis and Brian stood there, looking up Route 4 toward the gaunts’ wall. There were no lights, and Loch was barely able to see shadows moving around.
No lights meant night vision, which made their mission that much harder.
Loch had hoped the night would hide them, but if the gaunts had some form of night vision, that hope was gone. They were still going to try. He had thought about entering the hardware store through the backdoor but held off. The soil was more important.
If they got discovered raiding the store and didn’t get the soil, the whole raid was a bust, in his opinion. If they got discovered grabbing the soil or after, the raid would still be something of a success.
He looked back toward the old parallel road, trying to find Bobby. The archer had hidden himself well. Bobby was supposed to be somewhere with a line of sight to Route 4. It would be at the edge of his range, but if things went wrong and gaunts started chasing them, Brian and Davis were meant to pull the gaunts to them, which would get the creatures into Bobby’s range.
Loch hoped it didn’t come to that.
Harper was back at the corner, peeking around. Her Shadowsense Ability let her see in the dark. There was no day or night in that vision. Jenny was behind her, then Piper and Cerie, who would remain at the wall. Her glow, which she could dampen but never extinguish, would be a giveaway. Loch was last, Onyx not ready. The axe, like the fairy, glowed too brightly.
And he hoped to not need it.
Their part of the hasty plan was simple.
Run to the front of the building and start stuffing bags into Piper’s spatial bag. It wouldn’t be as easy as it sounded. The bags were heavy, fifty pounds. Which to their Adapted bodies wasn’t much, but they were still awkward and would take precious seconds to put into the spatial bag. With only one bag, it would take time. Jenny had suggested a system that Loch hoped would make it efficient and speed the whole thing up as much as possible.
They were going to have to move quickly and quietly.
“Clear,” Harper said.
She moved to the front of the store, quickly followed by the others.
Loch stepped around the corner, barely able to see the bags of soil piled on pallets that lined the front of the hardware store. It was about fifty feet, maybe more, before getting to the stairs that led to the entrance. The main part of the building had been brick-red-colored siding, this part gray. Harper and Piper had stopped in the middle of the rows of pallets, the shadow that was Harper looking odd as her shape grew with the bag in her hand. Her shadow melded with Piper’s, the shape of the bag disappearing.
Loch was glad it was night and dark. He couldn’t see the warping as the larger bags of soil twisted and warped before being sucked into Piper’s spatial bag. He hated watching that. It made him queasy, giving him a headache.
Jenny had run past Harper, reaching the far end, already grabbing a bag.
Loch stopped at the first pallet he came to. He couldn’t read the top of the bag to see what kind of soil it was, assuming each pallet was a different brand and style. They’d had gardens back home, a small vegetable and flowers, but that had been Kelly’s thing with the girls. Loch just carried the bags and put them where she wanted them, using the rototiller when requested. He never paid attention to what kind of soil she had used or when and where.
He wasn’t paying attention now.
It was all coming.
The pallet had maybe twenty bags on it. It was hard to count in the dark, but it looked to be four to a level, five, maybe six levels. Loch just grabbed bags, two at a time, bringing them over to Harper and putting them down in front of her. She was grabbing from the pile he was making, her own pile and Jenny’s, stuffing them down into the spatial bag as fast as she could.
No one was watching the gaunts. That wasn’t their job. Davis had that responsibility. Their one goal was to get as many bags as they could.
One after the other.
Harper switched out with Jenny. The pile to be put into the spatial bag grew as they piled everything closer. Loch was making his way toward the middle, leaving the wooden pallets behind. If they could, they’d grab those as they left.
He lost count of how many bags he’d grabbed, how many were already safely stored. He lost track of the time. It couldn’t have been that long, but it took seconds to grab bags and move them. Even with his Adapted body, he was getting tired.
It would have been easier to go slower, but they couldn’t afford to.
Loch was anxious and nervous, feeling eyes glaring at him. Any second, he was ready for the gaunts to shout out or Davis to give a warning—any second, they would be seen.
They were quiet but still made noise as they moved, picking up and dropping bags.
Sound traveled in the night. The gaunts had to hear them.
Every little grunt or shift of foot along the pavement. Every shift of a bag or bang against the side of the building.
Loch kept looking toward the wall, just waiting to see a flood of gaunts coming after them.
He didn’t know how much time passed. He fell into the routine. Pick a bag up, drop it in the pile, and grab another. At some point, he switched with Jenny, taking from the growing pile and stuffing it into Piper’s spatial bag. The poor kid had the worst job. She had to stand there, not moving, holding the bag open.
He smiled at her, trying to show he understood and was proud, not sure if she saw it in the dark. But she didn’t complain, didn’t move.
The pallets were emptying, the pile next to him bigger. There was nowhere for Harper or Jenny to put the bags. They had known the hardest part would be in stuffing the spatial bag. Loch just kept going, one bag at a time.
It was awkward to hold the soil bags and lower them down to the much smaller opening, shifting them until the magic of the spatial bag took over. It would pull at the soil bags, Loch having to hold on and let it go slowly as it was pulled in. Letting go too soon, it would fall to the ground and out of the magical field.
Spiritual field? Loch wasn’t even sure what to call it.
One bag after another.
Without moving his legs, Loch turned and picked up a bag, rotating his upper body and lowering the bag down next to Piper’s side. Then repeated. And repeated again.
He turned to grab a bag and stopped.
There were no more.
He looked along the front of the building and at the empty pallets.
They’d gotten them all.
Loch stood up straight, back aching from being bent for so long. He raised his arms high, stretching.
A pallet scraped along the pavement, Jenny dragging it. It wasn’t heavy, but just awkward. Their Adapted bodies helped with strength but did nothing with oversized or awkward loads. A pallet had never been the easiest thing to carry due to its size. It still wasn’t.
Harper helped Jenny hold the pallet on an angle, corner pointing toward the spatial bag. They struggled to hold it steady as the bag sucked it into the depths. Loch grabbed another, already holding it on the angle. As soon as they stepped aside, he slid his toward the spatial bag, turning his head as it started to warp.
It disappeared inside. Loch stepped away, letting Jenny and Harper take his place with another pallet. He looked back to the wall, not seeing anything. Looking up at the moon, he had no way to tell how long they had before daylight. He wanted to be long gone by then, preferably up in another house on Main Street.
And they still had to grab everything they could from inside.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Grab anything that would be useful,” Loch said, starting at the corner just past the entrance.
Piper stood at the glass doors, looking toward the wall. Cerie was in the far corner of the building, near the back door they’d entered by, keeping her light as far from the doors as she could. There was still no movement from the gaunts.
Now that they were inside, Loch felt even more pressure to be quiet and quick. They could get out quickly, but it would take time to move through the aisles and out the door at the far end. If gaunts rushed them, they could easily find themselves trapped inside the store.
After the last pallet had been put into the spatial bag, he’d thought about just leaving and heading back to the Clanhold. But the lure of the supplies inside had been too great.
The night before, when at the house they’d broken into, Loch and the others had gone through what would be considered ‘useful.’ No paints, doorknobs, light bulbs. Nothing that required batteries or gas to work. Hand-cranked was good. They had found some hand-cranked flashlights in a house. Those had still worked for some unknown reason.
Nails, screws, hammers, screwdrivers. Those were all useful. Tools like sledgehammers and shovels were good. Rakes, not so much. Axes were incredibly useful. Good for tools and weapons.
They made more noise, but it couldn’t be helped. It was next to impossible to take a single shovel off a hook without it touching and clanging against another. Pulling boxes of nails off just made noise.
With Piper on watch, the other three spread throughout the hardware store. They had baskets in hand, which would all go into the spatial bag when done. The bag itself was on the check-out counter, just waiting for baskets full of supplies to be thrown inside. Loch was glad the shovels and other longer tools were in the front. He spent a long time stuffing them into the bag.
They had brought backpacks, but nothing from the hardware store would go in those. It would be too heavy and loud and make for an awkward load. The backpacks were for jackets, food, and anything they raided from the houses.
Once done with the tools, Loch moved on to the next section. He grabbed hand saws of all sizes and extra blades, stuffing them into the spatial bag. He took watering cans, gardening tools, and packs of seeds. Armfuls of coats and hats that the store had on display. Bungee cords and rope. Reels of different sizes of chain.
He smiled when he came across the small section of camping supplies. All of it went into the spatial bag, especially the small canisters of propane. A couple dozen of them. Small, used for the camping stoves, Loch hoped they’d prove to be useful.
Harper had a basket full of carabiners and other kinds of attachments. Hooks, U-bolts. It all went into the spatial bag. Jenny had a basket and arms full of boxes of nails and screws. Loch grabbed cleaning supplies.
They moved quickly. Just not quietly.
More and more went into the bag. It had to be getting full. Already with the soil, pallets, and what they’d stuff into it, there was more than they had put into it before. Had the bag somehow Leveled and gotten bigger? He laid a hand on it, accessing the bag’s inventory menu. It was nearly full, but they could squeeze a little more.
A bright flash came from outside, just barely visible through the doors.
“Dad!” Piper shouted, not trying to be quiet.
They all knew what it meant. Harper and Jenny ran to the check-out counter, stuffing the few things they had in their baskets into the bag. Both headed for the exit in the back. At the doors, Loch could see shadows moving, coming closer, already a good distance from the wall. Blue flashes shot out from the side. One struck a moving shadow, the flickering light revealing a gaunt.
“Time to go,” Loch said, somehow calm.
He gripped Piper’s shoulder, pulling her away from the door. They passed the counter, Loch grabbing and closing the spatial bag. The two ran through the store toward the green glow that was Cerie hovering at the open door. Piper was out, turning to the right, followed by the fairy. Loch ran out the door, not even bothering to close it.
He turned to the right just as Piper disappeared around the corner. He could see flashes of light from behind the building and hear the sounds of fighting.
Piper, Jenny, and Harper were running at an angle, cutting through the small bit of grass and bushes between the store and the road. At a sharper angle, toward the front of the building, Loch could see the flashes of light, the glowing that indicated Davis and Brian were using their Abilities. Streaks of light shot past as Bobby unleashed arrow after arrow. As a Common Class, Archer only gave one Ability and one Skill at the start. The Skill was Passive, called Rapid Fire. It was a simple Skill, allowing Bobby to shoot arrows faster. The first Ability was adding elemental energy to the arrows. It varied by archer, adjusting for what the individual Connected’s affinity was. Bobby appeared to have ice arrows.
Loch didn’t take the same angle as his girls. He headed straight down the back of the building, tying the spatial bag around his waist. The flashes of energy got brighter. Reaching the end, he saw a small but chaotic fight. Brian was in front of three gaunts, a large club swinging to keep them at bay. Arrows shot past, hitting gaunts beyond. Davis was darting around Brian, stabbing with his spear, the tip glowing. Running toward the fight, Loch threw Onyx.
This wasn’t the time to let them earn experience.
The axe slammed into a gaunt facing Brian, knocking it to the side and into another, leaving both open to attacks from Davis. Activating Windstep, Loch closed the distance, hand out as Onyx returned. He swung the weapon, trailing sparks of energy, as it cut into the nearest gaunt. He couldn’t see how many of them there were.
He kicked another gaunt, knocking it back into a group of two. Or three. In the dark, with the numbers pressing, it was hard to see them all. He swung Onyx again, summoning Bulwark. Pushing with the spiked shield and swinging Onyx, he cleared the area in front of Brian and Davis.
Where had all these gaunts come from? What had alerted them?
It didn’t matter. They were there now and Loch had to clear room for his people to get away.
“Back off,” Loch ordered, shifting to take the spot Brian had been in.
He swept Onyx across in front of him, pushing the gaunts back. A couple rushed past, out of his reach. One of them was sent flying back. A swing from Brian, Loch assumed. Getting some space, Loch Activated Elemental Surge. Energy gathered in his body, nerves on fire as it built up. He felt it release, a wave of force pushing out against the gaunts. They were forced back, some falling, tripping up others. The head of one bent at an awkward angle, the snapping sound lost among the sounds of fighting and bodies falling.
There was a pause in the fighting, the gaunts working to recover from the Surge.
Loch’s armor felt heavy on his body. His whole body was tired, sapped.
He knew he’d recover fairly quickly, but not for a while, not while in combat. Starting out tired was just going to make it worse.
“Run!” he shouted, turning away from the gaunts.
The others had already started running, more arrows streaking down from Bobby. A dark shadow shot past, ramming into the gaunts. He could hear bodies falling, flesh being torn. Risking a glance back, all Loch saw was a pitch-black shadow in a vague animal shape. It was in the middle of the pack of gaunts, ripping and tearing, drawing attention. Piper’s ink summon was huge, the biggest he’d seen her summon. It had to be the bear. How many times had she summoned it? Loch couldn’t remember. Each time summoned, it got weaker. He hoped the bear was still near peak strength.
