NOVEL NEXT 31. A Long Night and an Early Morning
The night seemed to drag on forever. While no additional attacks happened, every noise caused the trio to leap to their feet in a panic and throw more glowing rocks out into the yard to try to find the source. At some point in the middle of the night, they decided to take shifts and let one person sleep while the other two were awake, which continued until the first rays of dawn poked over the horizon.
As they shuffled into the kitchen and Colin snapped his fingers and boiled a pot of water for coffee, Bridgette slumped into a chair and let her head bang into the table. "That fucking sucked," she complained. "And the worst part is that they can keep doing this whenever they want, and it ruins us in the process."
Alice sat down next to Bridgette and rubbed her lover's back affectionately. "Actually, I think the worst part is that this whole apocalypse scenario is supposed to have us fighting monsters, and instead here we are wasting all of our time and stressing out about other humans, not even the monsters. And now we don't feel safe at home, either."
Bridgette turned, looking at Alice. "Do we know that the apocalypse is about fighting monsters? I mean, yea, they appeared. And they're a pain. But the quest didn't explicitly say to fight monsters, right?"
Colin blinked, suddenly flushing with embarrassment. "You know, I think we forgot to actually inspect the quest text. I'm going to blame it on the fact you had us taking bourbon shots when it unlocked."
Alice quickly brought up her interface, navigating to the quests section and mentally selecting the Earth Dies quest that they had forgotten to inspect. She read it over quickly, paused, then read it a second time out loud, face turning pale.
"You have five years to choose a future for Earth. Your decisions and actions will be the pivotal factors in determining the course this world takes, as well as the lives that inhabit it. The path ahead is fraught with challenges, but you must rise to meet them as a leader, amass power, vanquish adversaries, and establish your dominion."
"Those who prove themselves worthy will be lifted up, their names etched in history as saviors of Earth. On the other hand, those who falter under the weight of responsibility will find themselves cast aside, their dreams shattered like fragments of a broken constellation. The stakes are high, for if Earth cannot claim its own destiny, it shall perish beneath the indifferent gaze of the gods. It is up to you to ensure that this does not come to pass, and in doing so, secure your place as the architect of a new era for humanity."
"If you fail, Earth Dies."
"Fuck," Bridgette said, echoing the party's thoughts. "That's a lot of responsibility for a trio of eighteen-year-olds from a farming town."
"Yea ... and yet, it kind of explains Daniel's behavior, in a fucked up way, right?" Colin mused. "He's decided he's going to be the leader and rule the world, starting with Defiance. So either we get in line under him or else we have to stake our own claim, which is going to result in us butting heads with him anyway. It's fight or submit, and I don't think we'd enjoy the latter option."
Alice nodded her agreement. "Never going to fucking happen. So we need to get strong and we need to protect the farmhouse. And I don't know how to do both."
Colin thought for a minute, turning back to the table and setting cups of steaming coffee in front of the girls. "You're both right, this is a total mindfuck scenario and now we're a few weeks behind everyone else in planning. Can we leave the farm alone to go level, knowing that Daniel's crew might be lurking in the field at any point? How do we get a good night's sleep anymore, knowing that at any time another brick could come through the window? Although, as bad as it is, I think it actually does help highlight something. We're not as safe as we've been acting."
"What do you mean?" Alice asked. "I think we've been acting fairly cautious."
"Well, here's the thing. We've been treating the farm like a defended castle. We all go to sleep at the same time, leaving nobody on watch. Sure, I have my alarms, but at any point we could have been swarmed by kobolds. And every time we leave, we lock the house up, but that doesn't mean it's safe, it could very easily have been destroyed or looted by monsters - or humans. So yea, this absolutely sucks, but it just highlights that we've been ignoring those risks, they're not new."
"Fuck ... you're right," Bridgette agreed, sighing. "I don't like thinking that way, it's been comforting knowing that the house is here and feeling protected. But it's not any safer than sleeping out in a tent in the middle of the corn field."
"So what can we do? I don't like feeling like this, we have to find a way to have a good night's sleep." Alice complained, "This isn't fair."
"Fair doesn't matter anymore, I'm afraid. But I think the best thing is honestly to find more survivors and set up a village. Read any fantasy novel or watch any movie, and the common theme is that lone farms are at high risk for attacks while mostly folks gather into villages. It also dovetails nicely into what the actual quest wants us to do, too. 'Rise to meet them as a leader, amass power, vanquish adversaries, and establish your dominion.'"
"But the only other survivors we know of are Daniel and his shithead buddies," Bridgette countered. "And they did offer for us to join into their little village, but that doesn't work for me."
"Right, I agree," Colin said. "But that doesn't mean they're the only people out there. I'm not sure if I believe them about nobody being in Harlan, that doesn't make sense, and honestly we can also scout up north toward Denison, I'll bet there are more folks up that way. Eventually, we're going to find decent people who we can trust."
Alice pouted, "That's a lot of talking to strangers."
Bridgette chuckled, patting Alice on the head, "Don't you worry your little introverted head. I can handle the diplomacy for us. But yea, Colin is right. I guess we'll need to establish watches even here at home, and then figure out how we protect this place while we're trying to find more kobolds to get stronger."
"I can just keep up an alarm spell 24x7 on this place, and it'll ping me no matter where we are. With a little research, I can tailor it so one spell will cover the whole farm. Might take twenty or thirty minutes to do each morning, but worth the effort. Then even if we're out on patrol, we'll know and can either head back or otherwise prepare."
"That would be awesome, thank you. I was also thinking about trying to roam a little south back toward Defiance and see if we could set up any kind of traps or other spots to watch for Daniel and his buddies coming back this way. Maybe today we just head south and look for any evidence associated with last night's bullshit, so we have a better idea on how many people were involved and if they hung around."
Alice nodded, "That's a good point. Was it all of them, was it just one, did they immediately run back or hang out, stuff like that."
After finishing their coffee and grabbing some quick breakfast, the three walked out into the front yard. Colin pointed at the field off to the right, away from the barn. "Based on the trajectory of the brick as it came through the window, I'm guessing it was thrown from over there." They walked into the corn field and spread out, each searching around for any evidence that trespassers might have been in the area.
"I've got something," Alice heard Bridgette shout a few minutes later. "Over here!" Alice quickly trotted over, cutting through the rows of corn, until she found where Bridgette was standing and Colin popped through the corn a moment later. "Check this shit out," Bridgette said and pointed to a spot. "Literally," she joked.
It looked a few stalks of corn had been cut down and moved out of the way to create a small clearing and several sets of footprints tracked back and forth around the area. Some candy bar wrappers and other trash also littered the area, and it looked like someone had dug a cat hole over in the next row.
"I'm no expert tracker, but looks like a few people were here last night and definitely stayed a while. I say we try to follow these footprints and see how far we can go. Luckily, it rained a few days ago so the ground is a little soft, and we might be able to track them."
The three followed the footprints, although predictably they ran back to the main road at which point they lost them on the tarmac. However, the footprints did appear to angle back toward Defiance, which was what the three had expected.
"Okay, decision time. Should we spend the day headed back to Defiance? Should we try to confront Daniel for his bullshit? Or should we instead set up an alarm for the farm and go kobold hunting? Or should we head up to Denison and try to find more survivors?" Bridgette asked the three, as they stood on the side of the road looking south.
Colin thought for a few seconds, then answered, "I think we should go kobold hunting, at least for now. I'd feel a lot more confident if we can hit level 3 before we have any more interactions with people. I've got to hope Denison has nicer people, or more people, but from a strength perspective we're still weak enough that we can be easily outnumbered and taken down. Let's get strong, then ask people to join us."
Alice nodded in agreement, "I think he's right. It's going to suck for a while until we get more people to help turn the farm into a village, but I agree we need to be strong enough that they want to join us."
Bridgette shrugged, looking back and forth, "Okay, that makes sense to me. So, where should we find kobolds? Just wander around?"
"I think both of the kobold attacks we've seen recently were northeast of that one intersection where Kyle wrecked his dad's truck that one time, if you remember, so that would probably be a good place to start. We can head back there, then scout out into the fields and see what we can find." Colin proposed.
Alice and Bridgette both thought about it for a second, then nodded. "Sounds good to me, go ahead and set the alarm spell and let's get going."
