Tunnel Rat Chapter 160 (Patreon)

The Hollow was starting to wake up. Most everyone had slept well, with no bad dreams. And no good dreams. In fact, no dreams at all, just sleep. Things seemed so much clearer today. It was time to go to breakfast.

Milo saw most of the Hollow lining up at the mess hall for the morning meal. Most mornings breakfast was a long and staggered affair, with people showing up from fourth bell to 9th bell to eat and then the evening meal from 6th bell to 12th bell. Was Rifkin serving something especially good today? Why was everyone up so early. He carefully peeked through windows.

Rifkin was nowhere to be seen, but several people were at the counter handing out breakfast as fast as they could. But they weren't sitting and talking. Each ratkin took the food handed to them, stuffed it into their mouth and left in a hurry. Milo caught up to a whelp that he knew worked in the mushroom fields.

"Hi, can I ask you something? What's for breakfast."

The whelp kept walking, but smiled and spoke. "New Cheese. Tasty and good for me." His eyes were unfocused and he walked on. "Got to go. Need to pick mushrooms."

Other ratkin had the same glassy-eyed reaction. All needed to start their daily jobs, with a few exceptions.
"Time to make the mashed roots with meat drippings."
"Stomp spiderlings, mine the rock."
"Sweeping the cave, need to sweep the cave, dust everywhere."
"Lizard races! Who wants to race Lizards? Me!"
"Making Spikey-sticks. Do you need a spikey-stick?"
"Must start picking the peanuts."
"Bataco day! Need more bats!
"Polishing shiny rocks."
"Nap time, study later."
"Smelting copper bars. I need to smelt copper bars."

Justin was walking along, whistling a happy tune. Milo stopped him to talk. Well, he tried. Justin moved him out of his way and kept walking. "Sorry, got to get to my guard post. Important work guarding the Hollow."

Milo walked beside him. "Justin, have you noticed anyone acting oddly?"

Justin kept walking but paused his whistling. "Nope, or I'd tell them to get to work. Great day to get to work. I'm guarding the back door and Brutus is guarding the front door. Everybody is getting their job done."

"How much cheese did you have this morning, Justin?"

Justin paused and his eyes narrowed. "Talking about cheese isn't allowed. Say, why aren't you working?"

Milo showed him his ring. "I am working. My job is to scout around and question everything."

Justin seemed satisfied with that and started walking again, smiling. "Right! That is your job. I had three pieces of tasty new cheese because I'm big and I'm a guard. So, I get extra!" Justin didn't even seem to notice when Milo left, he just kept walking along and whistling as he passed by the Tower of Spite and mostly empty marketplace. To took up his guard post at the back tunnel overlooking the gathering fields where dozens of ratkin were gathering up mushrooms and vegetables.

Milo wanted another look at the mess hall. The lines to get in were packed, but it wasn't hard to get in through the back door. He slunk to the shadow nearest the door, then kept low and moved behind the counter. None of the ratkin in the mess hall paid any attention to anything but the cheese. The four ratkin serving squares of cheese on a bland cracker were none to him. Why was Blackwhisker and his little group of three other players serving cheese in the mess hall?

Luckily, no one had a high perception. Stealthy Skulking was up to rank 8, reducing their perception by 18 and essentially making him invisible as long as he did nothing obviously out of the ordinary. He wanted a good look at this cheese. There were many bags of it behind the counter. A large wedge was brought out of the bag, and then cut into smaller pieces. The player cutting it was handling pieces oddly, and brushing something off as he took the wedge out of the bag.

Milo moved up carefully. He needed a diversion, and as he waited, he got one. Master Clawhammer and a group of ten tired miners walked up to the mess hall. Seeing a crowd at one door, they went to the next door. This got them a few looks from some of the ratkin in the long lines, but no one said anything. They sat at two tables and Master Clawhammer looked over at the servers. "Hey, buddy. We just worked a double shift, any chance of getting a plate of cheese and some breakfast?"

Blackwhisker barely looked over. "Get in line and wait your turn. That's the new rules, get used to it."

The miners grumbled, and Clawhammer stood up. They'd been working non-stop for over a day with only a couple of hours off to sleep in a corner. Spiderlings were all over the mines, and they had a new infestation of digger-moles to deal with. His crew had worked hard and needed food. He walked over to Blackwhisker. "Where's Rifkin? Who's in charge here?"

The other players snickered. Blackwhisker tried to stare down Clawhammer, but it when it didn't work, he put a big smile on his face. "Cheese Master Rifkin isn't here at the moment, and left me in charge. How about I get you all a double helping of cheese to start out."

While all eyes were on the Master Miner and Blackwhisker, Milo put his hand on one of the gather bags of cheese and stored it in his ring, leaving an empty bag behind. Then he backed out of the kitchen area and made his way to the miners. He tucked his pick into his belt, imitating how the miner's stored their picks. "Hey, I've got plenty of food over at the guard barracks that we can share. Fresh bread that Gennifer drops off every morning and a big wheel of gouda that we just cut open. They don't have a lot to offer here today."

Clawhammer looked at him strangely. Then threw away his fatigue and looked at the mess hall. Something wasn't right. Too many glassy stares and strange people handing out cheese. "That sounds like a great idea, I'd love to go have some fresh bread and gouda."

As soon as they were outside, Clawhammer turned to Milo. "What the hell is going on? I didn't notice at first, me and my guys are dead tired."

Milo led the way to the guard barracks. "I think it's the cheese. I stole some to take a look at it. Everyone is too passive and showing the same behavior. They don't care about anything other than following orders and getting to work."

One miner elbowed another in the ribs. "Sounds like us, most days." But they were all looking around and noticing the blank stares as the people of the Hollow lined up for breakfast and then silently got to work. Inside of the guard barracks was more of the same. The six guards at the barracks were all 'resting'. Just laying on their bunks and staring at the ceiling. They didn't say a word as the hungry miners at most of the food in the cupboard.

Milo pulled the gather sack from the mess hall out and looked at it. It was full of spider mites. A strong smell of sour cheese filled the air. Clawhammer looked at it and started cursing. "That's spider cheese, or something like it! Why would anyone serve that in the mess hall? And where did it come from?"

"Have you seen the cheese caravan? It showed up with sixteen carts full of cheese."

The miners had barely sat down and had a minute to eat, but Clawhammer stood up and spoke. "Don't like the smell of this, and not just that cheese."

"Grab some bread and gouda to go. I want you guys to fan out. Get everyone who lives around the mines, or works in the crafting area gathered up. I don't want anyone eating any cheese from the mess hall until we figure this out. In fact, get everyone into the mines. We've had meetings in the cathedral cavern, lets head there. It has fresh water and lots of space. Grab all the fresh food you can."

As the miners were leaving, the twins came in through door.
"We came to report."
"The way good scouts do."
"We followed Rifkin, he is very, very sneaky."
"Which we found strange."
"Almost lost him, so he must be sneak."
"He met with four players."
"They are not sneaky."
"So not sneaky, the opposite of sneaky."
"Which we need a word for."
"They spent a lot of time talking."
"Making sneaky plans."
"But really just explaining where all the pots are."
"And how much cheese to give each person."
"The players went to the mess hall."
"Rifkin is heading to the cheese caravan for more cheese."
"That is the good scouts report for the day."

Milo looked at them. "Good job, you get a reward."
The twins looked alarmed, and hung their heads.
"It would be nice if the reward was cheese..."
"but we suspect it will be another job."

Milo handed them a bag. "Why not both? Take that to Old Healer."
"And I wouldn't eat any of it, it has spiders in it."
The twins skulked out of the guard barracks muttering to themselves.
"Worst cheese reward, ever."

Milo had just left the barracks, he should head out and check on the caravan and find Rifkin. He was about to when someone came running from the direction of the mines. It was one of the miners who had just left. "We got trouble. There's something big in the mines, blowing stuff up."

"I'll come help. Run tell Master Gilad and Master Arlothe, and any guard you see walking around."

Milo started heading to the mines and ran past the tunnel to Larry's house. He hadn't seen Larry at breakfast. Another mystery. Sounds were reaching him, explosions in the mines. From behind him he heard shouts from the tunnel leading to the caravan. He wondered what was going on, but he had a monster to deal with for now."