Path of Dragons 1 - Chapter 4 - Necessities (Patreon)

“I think we have enough for a couple of weeks, so long as we ration,” said Alyssa, looking over the stacks of canned food on the table. There were other dry goods as well, but not nearly as many as she’d hoped. “Makes me wish I’d made a Costco run before, you know, the end of the world.”

Roman shook his head, saying, “I’m not that worried about food. We have the garden out back, too. What really concerns me is water.”

Alyssa looked away, then ran a hand through her hair. It was so difficult to wrap her head around the fact that the world had changed overnight. However, when the sun had risen, she’d gone outside to survey the damage, and she’d been shocked to discover that, instead of the familiar skyline of Seattle, all she saw on the horizon was mountainous wilderness. The rest of her neighborhood was still there, and though she saw hints that the nearby town of Easton had survived, she anticipated that she’d only seen the smallest fraction of the changes that had taken place.

Further supporting that assumption was the fact that utilities hadn’t been restored, meaning that in addition to the lack of power, cellular service had been suspended. Probably due to issues with the cell towers. But that wasn’t an immediate concern. The biggest issue was that, because of the transformation of the terrain, water service had been cut as well.

“Lake Eden is only a few miles away,” Alyssa suggested. “And we can set up some buckets for rain collection for the short term.”

“And if it doesn’t rain?” asked Roman. He glanced toward the basement’s ceiling, almost as if he could see the others in the house above. He took a deep breath, then said, “I think we need to go to the store.”

Alyssa leaned forward, hands on the table, and sighed. As a police officer, she’d often had to deal with shoplifters, and during some periods of civil unrest, she’d had to respond to looting as well. So, what Roman had suggested didn’t really sit well with her. However, it wasn’t as if she was contemplating stealing televisions and cell phones. This was a matter of survival.

Still. It just didn’t feel right.

But considering that the world as they knew it had just ended, her moral quandary felt more than a little silly.

“We only take what we need,” she said.

Roman shook his head, then put his hand on her shoulder. “I don’t like it, either,” he said. “It’s been less than a day, and already, we’re talking about breaking the law.”

“I’m aware.”

“But the thing is – this isn’t anything like what we’ve been trained for,” he said. “This is survival.”

“I just told myself the same thing,” she stated.

“And if we don’t do this now, there’s not going to be anything left,” Roman pointed out. “We need to take care of our immediate survival. You have Miggy. I have Trish. And I’m going to do whatever it takes to make sure they get through this. Next to that, legality doesn’t matter. Hell, I’m not sure morals even come into it.”

Alyssa shook her head. One day. That was all it had taken. And if they were thinking that way, then everyone else was, too. The moment that thought crossed her mind, she knew that the situation was going to quickly deteriorate.

Easton had never had much of a criminal element. That was why she’d moved to the suburbs in the first place. But when people got desperate, social order had a way of being tossed by the wayside. Roman’s suggestion proved that.

The real problem was that Alyssa couldn’t really counter it. Food and water were going to be issues. That was a fact. And given the choice between watching her son die of dehydration or hunger and following the law of what may well have been a fallen civilization, she knew precisely which option she was going to choose. So, in that context, Alyssa said, “We need to get going soon. Manning’s isn’t huge, and if we take too long, it’ll be picked clean.”

With that decided, Alyssa and Roman went upstairs to inform the others of the plan. Everyone agreed that it was the right course of action, but predictably, conflict reared its ugly head when they realized that they were going to be left behind.

Trish said, “It’s just a mile or so. What could go wrong? I don’t want to be cooped up in this house, and I’m sure Carmen doesn’t either.”

“It might be dangerous,” Roman said. “Think about it. None of us have really tried out these abilities, but –”

“I tried mine out,” Carmen pointed out. “I mean, Bind isn’t meant for fighting or anything, but –”

“Nobody said anything about fighting,” Alyssa interrupted.

“That’s because you don’t want to admit the obvious,” Carmen countered. “But I think what Roman was going to say is that people are probably panicking right now. And they have magic abilities. More than that, some of them have definitely come to the same conclusion you two did. Given that, there’s a good chance that they’ll try to keep others from taking resources that might ensure their own survival.”

“It’s been less than a day!” Trish insisted. “You act like all of society is going to collapse just because the power is out.”

“Trish…”

“You haven’t been outside yet, have you?” said Carmen.

Alyssa added, “Trish, this is way more than just the utilities being cut. The whole world has changed. Did you even read the notifications?”

“I skimmed them,” she admitted. “Something about World Trees and whatnot. Seemed like nonsense.”

Alyssa massaged her forehead in frustration. “You did pick an archetype, though, right?”

“Yes. Roman made me choose Healer.”

Alyssa let out a sigh of relief. Then, she said, “Okay – I think it’s best if we figure out what everyone chose and test out our abilities before we start running around. Like Carmen said, it might get dangerous out there.” She looked around, then went on, “Guess I’ll go first. I picked Warrior. And the ability I got was Heavy Blows.”

She navigated to the ability’s description:

Heavy Blows: Increase the damage of your melee attacks by 5%. Toggled personal augmentation.

“It just says it increases the damage of my attacks by five percent,” she explained. “Apparently, it’s a ‘toggled personal augmentation’, whatever that means.”

“Self-buff,” said Carmen. All but Miguel narrowed their eyes in confusion. “Oh, come on. None of you play video games? It’s obvious.”

“I only play sports games,” said Roman.

“I like Candy Crush,” Trish stated.

Alyssa asked, “You really think this System is like video games? I mean, what are the odds of that?”

Carmen shrugged. “I mean, there are probably all sorts of explanations that would make sense,” she said. “Maybe the System seeded the ideas a long time ago, guiding us so that it would make sense when we were touched by the World Tree. Or –”

“That sounds like the World Tree is some kind of sexual deviant,” said Trish.

“It’s a tree…”

She shrugged. “Still not the best phrasing,” Trish persisted.

Carmen rolled her eyes, then said, “Anyway. My point is that the explanations don’t really matter. It is what it is, and I get the feeling that if we keep questioning it, we’re going to end up dead. Accept it, adjust, and move on. Or that’s what I intend to do, at least. So, in that spirit, I took Tradesman, and my first ability is Bind. It lets me bind two materials together.”

“What use is that?” asked Roman.

“For combat? Nothing that I can think of,” Carmen answered. “But for making things? I mean, it should be incredibly useful going forward.”

“You took a non-combat option? That’s the stupidest thing –”

She crossed her arms and interrupted, “I also put all my extra points into Strength. So, watch what you say, big guy.”

“Calm down,” said Alyssa. “I’m sure Carmen can pull her own weight and then some. Besides, people who can make things are going to be valuable. You’ve got to see that, chief.”

Roman shook his head. “Whatever,” he said. “Guess I’ll go next. I took Marksman. Ability I got was Aim, which I can use to increase the damage of any ranged attack by thirty percent.”

“Wow. That’s…that’s nice.”

“I don’t think it works on guns, though,” he admitted.

“Why do you say that?”

He shrugged. “Instinct? I don’t know. It’s weird. I just…know. Does that make any sense?” he asked.

Alyssa said, “Kind of. My ability kind of came with something similar. I sort of know how to use it, at least. Yours is probably the same way.”

“Stop trying to make sense of it,” Carmen advised. “Just accept it.”

“Probably for the best,” Roman said, shaking his head. Then, to Trish, he continued, “Alright, babe. Tell them what you got.”

“It’s called Mend. I can…I don’t know…I guess I can heal people with it. Just wave my hand and they’ll get better? It feels kind of like it would be strong, but…it also comes with…I don’t know. Sort of like if I cast it, I won’t be able to do it again for a little while.”

“Cooldown,” provided Carmen. Everyone looked at her, and she said, “Game term. Sorry.”

“What about the kid?” asked Roman, gesturing down the hall where Miguel was asleep. He’d tried to stay awake, failing spectacularly. “He get an archetype, too? And what are we going to do with him when we go for supplies?”

“He didn’t see anything but the initial notification about the world changing,” Alyssa answered. “And if we’re all going, we need to take him with us.”

Roman shook his head. “That’ll complicate things.”

“Non-negotiable,” said Carmen.

“Fine. But if it’s dangerous out there…”

“I’ll take care of him,” Carmen stated.

Alyssa was quick to voice her own agreement. While Miguel wasn’t her biological child, she’d helped raise him since he was a toddler. So, in every way that mattered, he was as much her son as if he’d come from her own genes.

Roman shook his head, saying, “But if you’re taking care of him, you’re going to be distracted when we might need you to –”

“Drop it,” said Trish. “Just drop it, okay. If we had kids, I’d want to keep them close, too. Especially if things are as bad as you say they are.”

Roman had clearly been outvoted, so, as his wife had suggested, he dropped the topic. Instead, they all went out to the back yard, where they spent a little time practicing their abilities. From Alyssa’s perspective, there really wasn’t much to practice. She just had to use her ability, and it would remain active indefinitely. Perhaps there was some other limiter, but if there was, she couldn’t find it.

Trish’s limitations were far more prominent, and after spending almost an hour testing things out, they determined that the cooldown after using Mend was nearly fifteen minutes.

“Feels crazy to complain about magical healing, but that seems like a pretty harsh cooldown,” said Carmen, pressing two old fence boards together. They stuck, which seemed to be the limits of what her own ability could accomplish. “Still, I guess we just save that for emergencies.”

Roman, who’d retrieved his hunting bow from his house next door, shot an arrow at a target he’d set up at the other end of the yard. It was only a few dozen feet away, and when he loosed the arrow, it whipped across the lawn with the speed of a bullet, tearing through the target – a fake deer meant for hunting practice – and hitting the shed behind it.

“Damn,” he said.

“Impressive,” agreed Alyssa.

“Haven’t shot this thing in years. No time for hunting, lately.”

Indeed, Roman had been promoted to police chief only a year before, and since then, he’d been putting in seventy-hour work weeks. That he was home when the world went crazy was just a stroke of good luck.

After everyone had gotten comfortable with their abilities, Carmen went inside to wake Miguel up while everyone armed themselves. Roman and Alyssa both strapped their service pistols to their hips, while Trish was given a shotgun. She handled it with some familiarity, reminding Alyssa that the other woman had spent her fair share of time at the range.

Carmen carried an old softball bat and an ancient revolver that had belonged to her father. Despite its age, it was in good condition, and like Trish, Carmen knew her way around some firearms.

The only one who was unarmed was Miguel. No one wanted a eight-year-old running around with deadly weapons, after all. Still, he put himself to use by carrying spare ammunition and bottled water in his backpack.

Thus prepared, the group set out for their local market.