B4 Ch43: Utility Challenge (Patreon)

The next thing Arthur knew, he was surrounded by complete chaos. He blinked and found himself standing outside, taking in a lungful of fresh air scented with pine and the cold sharpness of snow. Then, suddenly, he was jostled from behind. To keep his balance, Arthur reached out and caught himself on another person, but they were unsteady, too and the two of them stumbled into another. Somehow, Arthur and the man managed to keep their feet, but it was a close thing.

He was staggering forward, pushed from behind by a crowd of people who were all running down an extremely hard-packed road of dark, smooth stone with lines separating the middle. The panic and despair in the air was so thick that he could almost taste it, and the scourgeling whistles from behind him were so loud that he could barely hear himself think. More people knocked against him, blinded by fear, and not paying attention to anything other than the need to get away.

If not for his Dexterity and Strength attributes, he might have fallen. And if he fell, he would have been trampled. 

The moment he caught his balance, Arthur half turned to glance behind him. Then he knew why the crowd around him was so frantic.

What could only be described as a wave of scourgelings galloped at them, not far down the road. There were so many, he couldn't even tell for certain what shape they were, and they seemed to move as a mass. More scourgelings were coming out of the thick pine forest behind them to join the mass and run the humans down.

Men and women dressed in randomly patterned green and gray uniforms screamed out orders to the fleeing people and pointed what had to be weapons at the scourgelings. The weapons boomed—sharp reports that threatened to deafen Arthur further. The projectiles were so fast that Arthur couldn't even see them. Some kind of card power? An enchantment?

The front scourgelings fell as they were struck, tripping up others behind them, but there were always more to replace them. It slowed the mass, but not by much.

The fleeing crowd passed odd machinery, dead and broken on the road. They were some sort of cart, only made of metal with seats in the middle. In desperation, some people climbed in a few and seemed to be trying to get them to move. Though nothing happened.

Other people were pushing carts full of children and elderly who could not run as fast as the rest of the group, but these had their limits too. The crowd parted around one woman who stood behind a wheelbarrow. Three children sat within, clutching a blanket, and looking terrified.

"I can help," Arthur said, slowing. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know!” She was half frantic. “The front wheel is so wobbly. I think the axle-thing in front is broken. Do you know how to fix it?”

Arthur frowned. He didn't have a lot of mechanical skills. "Do you have a part?" 

Her answer was a stressed out laugh. “Do you think I do? This was all I could grab from the house. There wasn’t any warning!”

She went on, but Arthur was focused on the problem. Bending, he saw the pin that connected the axle with the wheels had snapped. It was metallic and oddly made, in a way he’d seen carved into wooden screws… but how in the world did someone manage that with metal? Did these people do everything with metal?

He did have a piece of kindling in his Personal Space made of hardwood that would fit in the hole. It was tapered wider on one end and hopefully wouldn’t fall out. Switching them out, he tossed the snapped metal screw in his Personal Space to show Brixaby later. Maybe it would give the dragons some ideas.

New Skill Gained: Basic Mechanical Knowledge (Engineering Class

Due to your card’s bonus traits, you automatically start this skill at level 5.

 

The piece of wood wouldn’t last long, but it was better than nothing.

Their salvation was visible a half mile down the oddly packed road. The sheer face of a mountain stood at the end, and the crowd flowed through a pair of large steel doors, each bigger than the size of the barn. Unless the scourgelings were the burrowing type, they should be safely protected by steel and rock.

He took one end of the wheelbarrow, and the lady took the other, and they pushed and ran. Arthur found that he could run faster than her—as well he should, with his Running skills. But it seemed, that too would be increasing in this challenge.

New Body Enhancement skill level gained: Running

(Level 26)

It’s a utility challenge, he thought grimly. And this time I’m not limited to kitchen work.

More people in uniform screamed at them to hurry up. Looking back, he saw other guards were starting to retreat, still firing their weapons.

The delay had cost him a little time and the double doors were starting to creak shut as he and the woman approached. Before they stepped through, Arthur took one last glance upward. The sky was bright blue and empty of dragons.

It seemed they’d be facing this scourgeling eruption alone.

Once inside, Arthur turned and watched the last few people stagger in. To the guard’s credit, they were the last in, firing toward what had now grown to an unending wave of oncoming scourgelings. This wasn't a combat challenge, but Arthur wondered why no one was using any other card-based powers to protect the group. There were no earthen barriers, no shields, illusions, lightning or even a single sword or edged weapon visible.

If was reality and not a challenge from the dark heart, Arthur would have stepped in with his Nice Shot card—

Wait.

He stopped that thought in surprise and looked down at himself. Then he staggered back a step with a stomach-dropping sense of shock. His hands weren’t his own. They were bigger, the skin older and weathered like a middle-aged man, with more hair on his arms. He reached up to his face and felt a beard, where he had always been clean-shaven before. And running his hands over his head, he found a bald spot.

He was not wearing his own clothing. His shirt was a lightweight white fabric with N-A-S-A written in Texan on the front. His pants were of a thick blue fabric. Most importantly, the armor Brixaby had crafted for him was completely gone.

But a quick check through his heart deck showed him that at least he had access to all of his cards, including his Master of Skills and Master of Body Enhancement. He didn’t know what he’d do without those.

"This isn't real, this is a challenge," he told himself, and turned to watch the last of the guards retreat while firing at the oncoming mass of scourgelings. There wasn’t time to grab any of the shards from the fallen beasts. The moment a scourgelings was down, it was rolled over by the rest of the wave.

The double doors were still rumbling to a close. Then, three feet from shutting completely, they ground to a halt. Alarms blared, and people yelled. 

"What's going on?!”

“Door’s jammed! I’m doing a reset. Hold on!” A nearby man pounded an odd machine with lighted squares—were those words on the screen?

Arthur desperately wanted to look, but his eyes were drawn upward to the gears and lines that ran to the double doors. His Mechanic skill was new, but it still provided him a little insight where he’d had none before. The main line was attached to a pulley system that, when had pressure, would help shut the door.

“We can push it closed manually!” he said, pointing. “Someone grab that line! You! There! Grab the one on the other door. Hurry!”

New skill level gained: Leadership

(Level 26)

 

He was always glad to level that one up.

A man objected. “It has to be thousands of pounds!”

“And if we don’t do something about it, there will be thousands of scourgelings in here,” Arthur snapped. “Hurry!”

“They’re coming!” a woman shrieked.

Her fear seemed to spur on the rest.

And suddenly Arthur had more hands trying to help than what he knew what to do with. There was some shouting, a little pushing, but within a few moments enough people were hauling at the line that, with a groan of metal and a squeal of gears, the door started to move.

The same thing started to happen with the other door, though it was slower to close. The group might have figured it out on their own, but seeing death rush at them from now less than a hundred yards away had numbed people’s critical thinking.

Meanwhile, the guards kept using their weapons through the shrinking gap. The noise echoing in the chamber was enough for Arthur to feel deafened.

It wasn't quite enough to hold the horde back, and some scourgelings raced in front of the others to get to them first. One snaked a too-long forearm through the gap between the doors and snagged a guard. His friends started shooting at it. With a whistle of rage, the scourgeling fell back.

The first door was shut. Arthur yelled at everyone to help with the second door, though he couldn't hear the sound of his own voice between the whistles, the shooting, and the screams.

But something must have gotten through because he received another notification of a Leadership and Mechanic increase and people rushed to help with the pulley for the second door.

Within moments, it too, was closed.

The doors were so thick that the moment the second clicked shut, all sounds from outside were cut off.

There was a moment of darkness, and then lights -- probably from a card anchor, though Arthur had never seen anchors burn so bright and regular -- came up.

Someone nearby gave a nervous chuckle. "That was like a zombie invasion, man! Wild."

Arthur wasn't in a good mood. He scowled. "Why didn't anyone put up shields?"

The man who stood next to him mopping his forehead clear of sweat, suddenly stopped and stared. A half-smile quirked up at his lips, and he gave an uncomfortable chuckle. "What? Like Star Trek? All shields to full?" 

"That's Star Wars, damn it," someone else said.

With a squawk of outrage, the man turned to the other speaker, leaving Arthur baffled. They were speaking Texan, he was certain of it, but he had understood none of that.

Turning, he looked around until he saw the woman he’d helped with the wheelbarrow. She was not far away and was busy calming her kids. Nearby, a helpful guard was directing her to move down further in the tunnel with the rest of the civilians.

The woman spotted Arthur’s approach and straightened to smile up at him.

"Thank you for your help back there. I don't know what I would have done if we didn't get a move on."

He nodded. "I was happy to help, but if you don’t mind me asking… What cards do you have?” It was a rude question, but considering he had just helped save her children…

She was silent for a baffled moment. “Credit cards?” Then she started patting her pocket. "Oh, of course. A payment, but... I don't think that will work, and you know, cell phone towers have been down. So ,it's not like I can Venmo you."

Again, Arthur didn’t understand what she was saying, but he shook his head. "No, no, no payment needed. I think I misunderstood. Thank you." Then he walked away to a clear area of the room, leaving her staring after him. He needed to think.

He wasn't an idiot. He remembered the Dark Heart’s words to him. It challenged him to learn how cards began. So, had it really dropped him in a reproduction of an ancient time before cards? In some other man’s body? He looked around at the people. They just seemed... normal. A few of them were heavier than he was used to seeing, dressed oddly, and the room was full of strange, blinking card anchor lights -- but, then again, they wouldn't be card anchors, would they? How were they getting lights on command without cards?

None of it made sense. He was told not to trust his senses in the Dark Heart. Who knew how much of this was real?

"Hey," he turned as someone touched his arm. It was one of the guards in the mottled uniform.

"You didn't hear the announcements? All scientists are to gather together at sub-level two." He glanced at Arthur's shirt meaningfully. "You are a scientist, right?"

There was only one answer he could give. 

"Yes, of course," he said, and got a skill level in Acting. This was going to be beneficial if this kept up like this. Nowadays, Acting was almost as hard to level as Leadership.

"What's your name?" the man asked.

"Arthur."

"Well, Doctor Arthur," the man said, "come this way. After that FUBAR situation, we're going to need all hands on deck, am I right?" He laughed, but there was a note of strain to it.

"Uh, sure," Arthur said, and had no choice but to follow.

He and the guard walked out of the room and into a smaller corridor. More of those not-quite-card-anchor lights were up on the ceiling, casting a harsh glow. After a few twists and turns, they descended several stairwells. Arthur wondered how deep these people had dug into the mountain.

Suddenly, the guard opened a door into a large room. Other people milled about, most with anxious expressions, but there was more than enough seating for everybody.

"Got another one for you, General,” the guard said. “Came in with the last of the civvies." 

The man spoke to nodded. Then he called up, “Everyone, have a seat!” before striding to the front of the room.

He had the air of a stern leader and wore a guard's uniform, though his shoulders were decorated with different medals.

"The whole compound has been secured, and just in time. But I'm afraid we don't have any good news for you. Satellites work, but almost all other communication is down across the board. These things chew on wires and anything else they can get a hold of..."

"How long will we have electricity?" someone asked.

"We have enough fuel, and most of this facility is powered by geothermal heat under the mountain. But unless we can get some air support, I think that we're going to be here for the long haul."

"What are these things?" a woman called.

"I've heard them called the scourge of the world," the general said, "and they seem to be spreading, too." He clicked one of the screens.

A map came up on the far wall. Arthur was torn between amazement at the ability to do this without a visible card anchor and confusion about what the map was meant to portray. It was all unfamiliar to him except in broad strokes. He had no points of reference, so he wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to be looking at. A village? A country? But there were several lands portrayed. Was that water between them? Was this... the whole world?

If it was, it made the dots of red that started out small but were quickly spreading all the more ominous.

"These Goddamn things are spreading like a virus," the general growled. "We can kill them just fine, and as far as we can tell, they're staying dead, so I don't want to hear a single zombie joke. But somehow they're breeding faster than we can make bullets." He paused to let that statement sit. The moment stretched and Arthur gave a slight mental nod to the man's Leadership skills. He knew how to keep people on tenterhooks.

"So," the man drawled out after what felt like an age and a half. "The sixty-four-thousand-dollar question is, what are these things? Some new biogenetic mutation?" Another weighted pause, and he screwed up his mouth slightly like he didn't enjoy what he had to say next. "Aliens?"

For some reason, all eyes turned to Arthur.

He shifted in his chair, a little confused. Even the general was giving him pointed attention.

"You got an opinion on that, NASA?"

Oh. The shirt he was wearing.

Arthur didn't know what the man meant by alien, so he spoke the only truth that he knew. "Well, scourgelings erupt from the ground, don't they? From nests?"

And they can be spawned by rotting cards,  he added in his head. He didn't say it out loud because he still hadn't seen any indication of card use from these people.

The general’s face twisted again. "Scourgelings? Maybe workshop that name." Then he turned away.

"So, they're popping up like daisies. Outstanding. As you can guess, your goal today, ladies and gentlemen, is to find out how to stop these things. Because they're killing anything they come across: People, livestock... crops. We're going to be looking at a wide-spread famine if we don't get a hold on this ASAP."

The best way to kill scourgelings was by using dragons, but there hadn't been any mention of those so far. Besides, people on this continent didn't have them anymore. Maybe he should raise his hand and tell them to look toward the Fabergé kingdom?

But something told him that would be a bad idea. What did the dark heart want him to do?

He hadn't forgotten that whisper of a challenge before he'd entered this place. This seemed to be a representation of the past. Was it trying to show him how cards had come to be? As a need to control scourgelings?

But that didn't quite fit. Card shards were found in scourgelings.

What was the answer, here?

People seemed to take the general's words as an order and the meeting was breaking up. As it did, a man with curly dark hair and glasses approached Arthur. There was something about his demeanor that reminded him of Marion. He was scholarly.

"You're one of the late comers, right? The last of the evacuees before they shut the doors?" He continued before Arthur could answer, a lot like Marion as well. "Glad you made it. I'll show you down to the labs so you can see what we'll be working with."

With a nod, Arthur rose and followed him down through several blank and impersonal hallways. The illuminated blocks of light on the ceiling were quite interesting -- not card power either, he supposed. He kept an eye on it as the man chatted about things Arthur didn't understand... right up until the moment that he did.

"Wait, you said more subjects? You mean... you have scourgelings here? With us?"

He nodded. "Yeah, the army guys were happy to kill 'em, and some of the corpses are pretty fresh. Not that you'd be able to tell from the smell. I assume biology isn't your thing -- you're more of a physics guy, right?"

Arthur didn't know what that meant, but he nodded since the man seemed to expect it.

"Well, at least you know your way around a lab. At this point, we need as many outside opinions as we can get." He gusted a sigh. "I'm not afraid to tell you that we've hit a bit of a wall."

As he spoke the last line, he shouldered open a door.

They came to a large room that was filled with... Arthur wasn't even sure what he was looking at, at first. There were water barrels everywhere up on tables, except they were translucent fine glass.

And floating in each of them was the corpse of a scourgeling.

Even though they were kept preserved in liquid, it still smelled faintly of scourge-rot.

These people are insane, he thought. If they're uncarded and they're breathing that stuff...

But they didn't know, did they?

Then his attention was caught by another scourgeling corpse -- fresh, by the look of it -- laid out on a table.

It had the rough shape of a squirrel, only without fur, plenty of weeping sores and teeth that sprung out of its muzzle in every direction like a bristle brush.

And its chest was glowing. This scourgeling was unharvested.