Chapter 23: Camila (Patreon)

Camila was watching calm waves roll over the deep ocean. She was far from her family, but they weren’t the source of her worries. Her concerns were too profound to be actionable, and that drove her crazy. She was naturally decisive, seizing upon worthy goals and taking action to accomplish them. In this case, there wasn’t much she could do. Her worries were for the future of humanity as a whole.

When reality fell apart, she latched onto the first sign of sanity she found. Despite Charlie being a timid one, it was immediately clear that they shared the same reservations toward the aliens. She had thrown in with the sweet cinnamon bun and neither would allow the pair to be separated. Camila thought they made a perfect combination, like chips and salsa.

People thought Camila was inherently talented, but that wasn’t how she saw it. She was constantly working hard to become the person she wanted to be, creating her own opportunities and striving to perform beyond expectations. Then a bunch of aliens just had to invade Earth and mess everything up. The invaders actually had the nerve to act like they were doing humans a favor, like they were uplifting a primitive society by sharing the wonders of mana. They even hand selected individuals and called them Chosen, then bestowed blessings upon them, like they were Gods.

The entire scenario was too pretentious. Camila saw through her faction’s posturing immediately, but intended to take every advantage she could get her hands on. She’d take whatever resources they were willing to provide, whether it was intel on their new system, magical equipment, or just networking, but she wouldn’t be manipulated into becoming their tool.

Camila was shocked other people actually fell for it. Somehow, after barely any time at all, the Empire had managed to convince regular people that they were special, capable of conquering the entire world and presenting it as a gift to the aliens. All in exchange for the mere promise of a place of honor among the stars. Some really believed they were the Chosen of Gods.

Observing her temporary companions left her shaking her head. Give people the tiniest of ways to differentiate themselves from others and they immediately take it to a violent extreme. A week previously these would-be conquerors had been cashiers and office workers. The Champion of the Endless Empire’s settlement was a freaking sophomore film student. It only took a week before he murdered someone to claim the settlement in the name of the Empire.

It was damn fanatical. The aliens said jump and these people asked ‘how high?’ She didn’t want any part of it, but all signs pointed to them needing a settlement for survival. She still planned on making her own way once they gathered the right people.

She and Charlie had a simple plan after being returned to Earth from the attempted indoctrination with the Endless Empire, but they had been met with complication after complication. The first step required them to establish their homebase in the nearest settlement, where they could take advantage of being trained by the aliens to regroup with their own people.

Even the first step turned out to be a pain. The state of the settlement they meant to use as their haven had been a major disappointment. The Empire’s lackeys were ruling the settlement like authoritarians, trying to force loyalty with the threat of being exiled from the safe territory. Camila didn’t like it one bit.

Camila and Charlie wanted to make sure that Charlie’s parents would be safe in the settlement, so they were still playing along. Charlie wanted to rescue a pair of island caretakers that she knew before the apocalypse. So, like good little soldiers, they approached some of the leadership to let them know they would be gone on an expedition and would be returning soon with a few more.

Those damn weirdos thought the expedition was such a brilliant idea they formed an entire squad to go along and map the region while scouting for intel on potential threats. A little attention from some purple aliens and they were already treating the rest of humanity as either pawns or enemies.

Charlie and Camila wanted it to just be the pair of them, but instead there were four parties of five sailing through the ocean. The only essential member of the entire squad of 20 was Charlie, as she used her skills to fill the sails and was the one navigating to an island that none of the rest had ever heard of. But everytime someone spotted some land or structure they had to go investigate thanks to their enthusiastic squad leader, Kevin the Hammer, as he called himself. Camila didn’t think anyone had any nautical experience at all, and worse yet they were sailing some relic of preindustrial exploration.

Poor Charlie was being run ragged, using up her mana every time they needed to change directions. The worst part was all the creepy guys with capes that followed Charlie around while she tried to recover. What was it with the capes? Camila was constantly shooing them away so that Charlie could relax.

Unfortunately, no amount of driving away worked on their own party. Parker, Richard, and Eric had developed an immunity to her admonitions. She was sure it wasn’t so simple as them ignoring hints. She believed the Empire had put them up to keeping an eye on the pair of girls as the Empire had flagged them both as valuable assets. Parker was some kind of rogue, Richard a sword wielding brawler, and Eric a magical archer. None of them were anything special, but they all received the maximum allotment of gear, so the Empire deemed them worth investing in for some reason. Two of them had capes.

Charlie had predicted the trip would take 8-12 hours to reach their destination. Instead, the expedition had been going for three days and two nights, and Camila found the company to be miserable. Somehow the rest of the squad were enjoying themselves immensely, fashioning themselves as pirates and sailors aboard the carrack. The next person to tell her a pirate pun was getting thrown overboard.

Camila could admit that there had been a few highlights, like when a pod of dolphins followed them for one afternoon. Surprisingly, all the dolphins had been above level 20, implying other monsters were in the water for them to defeat.

The one detour they didn’t take was when they spotted a massive tentacle reaching into the sky from the deep ocean. Not even the enthusiastic squad captain nor the wannabe pirates had any interest in meeting a sea monster.

Their little detours hadn’t resulted in finding anything else of note, just some buoys and the occasional shallow reef, so when some idiot yelled, “Land ho!” she found herself frowning. But this time Charlie finally confirmed that it was their destination, Ghost Reef.

Camila found herself joining everyone else to lean over the side with the wind in her face to get a better look. At first it was just a speck on the horizon to the west. As they moved closer they could make out more details. From this side, the island was mostly mangroves, but a lighthouse was visible to the south and an imposing stone fortress to the north of the island.

The fortress was startling, a huge construction in the middle of the ocean, it seemed to be almost the size of the island itself with half of it escaping into the sea. The introduction of mana had caused a channel to be cut down the middle of the fortress separating it into two halves, giving her a clear view to the ocean on the other side. Camila was amazed at the sheer scale of the stone construction, and judging by the conversations around her, she wasn’t the only one. It must have been an immense undertaking to even deliver that amount of stone to the remote island, let alone build the thing.

Charlie navigated them in a wide sweeping turn around the north, some distance from the island. She knew where the coral reefs should be, and was directing them to a channel that would lead to a dock on the opposite side of the island. As they went around on the north a loud, clear bell started ringing from the fortress. She thought that was good news as it meant at least one of the two caretakers was still alive. They might be trying to get the ship’s attention for rescue. She hoped they could grab the two and head back before the squad got any ideas about exploring even further.

As they approached the channel they could make out two figures on the ramparts. Camila was relieved that both were accounted for, but then she spotted two smaller figures running back and forth behind the walls. It seemed like there were more people on the isolated island than anticipated. She was curious who they would find. One of the taller figures disappeared from the walls while the other remained. Even at this distance Camila knew it was Jones still observing them as Charlie had described both him and Coop to her in many conversations.

One of the crew announced that his mana detection skill indicated that they had entered a settlement’s territory. This caught everyone by surprise. There was plenty of murmuring from the squad. A settlement out here in the middle of nowhere? They were supposed to be population centers.

“Be ready for battle.” Kevin the Hammer gave a meaningless order, they weren’t actually sailors, they didn’t have battlestations. A few people scrambled around but most people just kept watching the looming fortress. Camila scoffed, imagining them manning the missing cannons on their ship. Then again, they were close enough that she could see that the fortress actually had their own cannons, and it wasn’t just a few. It was an intimidating sight.

They slowly approached the dock. As they neared, the entire ship was washed with a looming presence that made the fine hairs on the back of Camila’s neck stand up. She felt like she was being chased by the villain of a slasher movie that had come to life. She looked around to see that everyone felt it. Some were gasping, others were pale with eyes bulging. Kevin the Hammer had broken into a sweat with his eyes locked on the figure waiting for them on the dock. They were too close to turn the boat around and flee.

The monster on the dock raised its arm in a wave. Once they were within shouting distance it yelled, “Hey there! Y’all need any help?” And the spell was broken. Whatever had gripped the entire crew was released. As they drifted closer, Camila, along with everyone else on the boat, identified the man on the dock.

[Human (Level 23)]

Every person on the boat was at least level 25, with most at 26, and Kevin at 27. The dockman shouldn’t have been as intimidating as his aura indicated.

“Tch, his faction must have let him out early.” Kevin mumbled to no one in particular. Without a faction, only the exceptional would be above level 17 by now, and with a faction they should have been 25 for a week already. The crew came to their own conclusions on how he reached his level of 23.

They finally reached the dock and the shirtless man moved to help secure the vessel. His shoulders and triceps bulged as he pressed the side of the ship while it gently compacted the buoys that lined the dock before it settled a dozen feet away off the dock. She thought the ship was much too large for him to have had any effect in slowing it down, but Charlie had done an expert job bringing them to a stop so smoothly. No one threw any ropes down.

Kevin leaned over the rail and asked, “What faction do you represent?” The ship was elevated enough that they would have to raise their voice to be heard on the dock.

The man visibly shrugged, “Don’t have one.” He answered. “We’ve got food and beds if you want.” He offered, still waiting to help them tie down the ship. Only the sounds of the waves lapping against the dock offered him any response as he stepped back to get a better look over the railing without craning his neck straight up.

Kevin finally broke the silence. “Just tell us your faction.” He demanded.

“I don’t have one.’’ He spread his arms, “What do you want me to say?”

Camila left the scene while Kevin gathered his party and began discussing what to do, out of sight of the man on the dock. Camila went to retrieve Charlie who was still doing all the work steering the ship, powering the sails, and navigating the channel from the rear of the ship.

“What happened?” Charlie asked, wiping sweat from her brow. “We docked right? I tried to be careful but it’s hard to slow down.”

“Your boyfriend scared the hell out of everyone with his aura, so now they’re afraid of getting off.” Camila explained to the flushed Charlie. “C’mon I want to make sure they don’t try anything funny.” She added. “Plus, I want to get a better look at him, he was waiting on the dock in nothing but shorts.”

“Yea, that sounds like Coop…” Charlie confirmed before adding, “and he’s not my boyfriend, we were more like friends from work.” She repeatedly reminded Camila knowing she would continue to ignore her. The pair made it to the bow while Kevin was still huddling with his party.

The squad captain believed Coop was lying about his faction affiliation, but also suspected that he was only the muscle for the settlement. Kevin predicted that the Champion was the one watching them from the walls and it was his faction they needed to learn. The mission had unexpectedly changed from recruiting a few more willing residents for the Empire to dealing with a completely different settlement.

Charlie leaned over the railing, excited to see her friend, “Hey Coop!” She greeted him with a friendly wave garnering the attention of the rest of the squad as well. Many of them had never even heard Charlie’s voice before. Camila also leaned over to get another look. He was tall, suntanned, and barefoot, with dark blue shorts that stopped above his knees showing off athletic legs. Camila had to admit that he was nice to look at.

He gave a handsome open-mouthed smile to Charlie’s greeting. “Charlie!” He exclaimed with impossible to fake, genuine excitement. His unkempt hair was casually swept off his forehead. Camila looked at Charlie’s hair and thought it must be an island thing.

“What are you doing here? Did you come to visit?” Coop asked, surprised to see Charlie.

“More like… rescue you and Jones…” Charlie modestly explained, pressing her fingers together in embarrassment at her admission.

“Wow, you really went above and beyond, Charlie!” Coop enthused, causing Charlie to look down. “Don’t worry, I took good care of your book.” He promised. “We didn’t think anyone would come, so we hunkered down in the fort. You should check it out. You’ll love the stew.”

Before Charlie could answer, Kevin leaned over the railing and cut in. “Why offer useless things like food? Mana takes care of all that stuff.” He looked at Coop suspiciously.

“I think it’s a good idea to keep doing the things that remind us we’re human.” Coop gave another casual shrug. “You know, for keeping perspective.”

A few of the crew scoffed, believing mana had truly made them superior beings. But Camila found herself nodding, realizing how simple but thoughtful the idea was. She only needed to look around her to find people who behaved more like aliens than humans. They could use the reminder that a nice meal or a warm bath might bring. When Coop’s easy gaze met her eyes she caught the stupid grin that had snuck onto her face and paused her nodding. She stepped away from the railing, but couldn’t stop the tingling feeling that ran down her spine.

“Oh, he’s hot.” She admitted to Charlie as she pulled her aside. Charlie was giving her a gratified smile. “And he’s just shirtless like that? All the time?” She jokingly asked Charlie, better understanding Charlie’s motivation.

“Sometimes he would wear one of those stringy tank tops when we all had dinner together.” Charlie teased back, satisfied that Camila was on the same page.

“I thought you said he was sorta detached, like he had something weighing him down? He seems engaged and friendly.” Camila asked. Coop had been a recurring topic during their slumber parties.

Charlie made a noncommittal gesture. “Seems like mana did him good.”

“I’ll say!” Camila nodded to herself, making a decision and turning back to the crew. “Well, I’ll be staying.” She announced to the squad. “C’mon, Charlie.”

Camila hopped onto the railing and, using a skill, vaulted from the ship to the dock. She landed so quickly she had turned into a blur. She looked up at the turning Coop and gave him her most innocent smile.

“You wanna show me around?” She made the request sound like an invitation. His flustered expression was exactly what she aimed for. Charlie landed gently behind her, using a gust of wind to make the jump and another to make a soft landing.

Charlie took one look at Coop’s face and gave a knowing laugh, “Coop, this is Camila.” She introduced them. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to her. Probably.” She hesitantly assured the confused Coop.

“Charlie has already told me all about you.” Camila added, causing Charlie to match Coop’s flustered expression.

“Uhh, good things, I hope?” Coop responded, still bewildered.

“Some…” Camila let her answer trail off to encourage his imagination. The truth wasn’t that exciting.

Camila glanced back at their squad and spotted a lot of complicated expressions over the railings. Some were scowling in frustration and others scrunched their faces in jealousy, she noted that even some of the girls looked disappointed that Camila was giving someone else attention, but the dam had broken. Someone finally threw a rope over so they could tie the ship to the dock and extend the gangway.

Coop took care of securing the vessel while the squad disembarked, leaving one party to stay on the boat as security. She noticed how quick he was to offer a helping hand regardless of who needed it. It was the largest contrast between how he had been described and how he appeared. She expected to find an aloof guy, but he was attentive and helpful. It seemed like he had worked through whatever was depressing him before the apocalypse.

Camila stayed close to Charlie while she took in the scene. The dock was a concrete sea wall, wide enough to accommodate a large passenger ferry. It was well-maintained, seemingly swept of sand and cleaned recently. Behind it was a wide flat area with thin stringy patches of grass stabilizing the sand, and even further was a wide moat that would be difficult to vault even with her skills. On the other side of the moat was the weathered, light red fortress with three layers of cannon ports open and threatening.

The dock continued along the shore until it turned into a packed sand trail, lined by grapefruit-sized coral rocks. The trail led straight inland, parallel with the moat and wall until it reached the shade of a copse of abnormally large palm trees. The palm trees marked a crossroads of trails, leading in all four cardinal directions. The trail to the south ran along a picturesque white sand beach with a lighthouse in the distance, the east showed mangroves in the distance after more flat areas of thin grasses, and to the north was a wooden bridge that led to an iron gate and the entrance of the fortress. Admiring the beach, Camila would have taken a vacation here.

Approaching the gate, they were greeted by the waiting Jones. He was obviously happy to see Charlie alive and well, and she was equally excited to see how young and healthy he was. Camila was introduced and he invited them all inside to a Tavern to continue the reunion between the park ranger and the caretakers. That was when Kevin cut in, halting the procession.

“Jones is it, then? What faction is your settlement? The young man here refused to share.” Kevin not so diplomatically asked.

Jones was unperturbed by the question. “The settlement is independent, as is Coop.” Jones confirmed. “From what I understand sponsorships were concentrated around population centers, so those of us stuck in isolated places were less likely to be offered.” He tactfully explained.

“For real?” Kevin continued, turning to Coop, finally coming around to the possibility that he was telling the truth. “In that case I’ll give you this one for free, kid. You need an aura skill. A faction would have told you that before you hit level 5.” He gave Coop a pitiable look.

“I’ll consider it when I hit 25.” Coop responded noncommittally, she could tell he didn’t appreciate having Kevin look down on him.

Kevin made an annoying sound with his teeth. “Don’t be arrogant about levels, it’s hard to get them without simulation training from the factions. Non-Chosen won’t get past 25 before Day 30.”

Coop just hit him with a “Heh.” and led the way through the entrance. To Camila he seemed confident, like he had just confirmed something that they didn’t know. Camila wanted to know.