Chapter 56

The Safari Resort, Etson - 9:32 AM

I was happy to see the Safari Resort thriving when I finally made it to the office district. Just like Etson Square during the day, people were in constant motion. Those just leaving looked nervous but refreshed from their time in the safe zone. Those arriving were in various states of relief and disarray; some were covered in blood and gore while others showed signs of fatigue but were otherwise unharmed.

Despite the crowd’s constant shifting, an oppressive hush had fallen over the people. There were always those who enjoyed themselves in this situation but that didn’t include most of the population. Most of those types were also the ones who were more likely to get themselves killed on the first day while fighting monsters or, worse, each other. Those who did survive would be great assets later on, but for now these people just needed time and something to focus on.

Near the entrance to the Safari Resort were people I recognized. I gave a polite nod to a big group that had gathered together as I passed them. The majority glared at me, but most simply stared off into space. Sam the bellhop helped watch over the kids, and my heart dropped as I saw the state they were in. They had huddled around Bill, the elderly receptionist, who wasn’t doing any better. These were the remnants of the Kingtin’s horde, though the group was smaller than the last time I saw it.

The Mercurial Mind skill book had been a blessing for Kayla. It was a drop that had obviously been meant for someone who had undergone that kind of mental trauma, but only one dropping was a curse. Guilt clouded my mind for a moment as I thought about how Kayla only received it because I needed something from her, but I shook my head and dismissed it. The rest of these people would survive, and no one would give them any trouble so long as Thomas was still in charge.

Lost in thought, my shoulder collided with someone else’s. A moment of anger went through me as I stopped to berate the man who had shoved past me, but I stopped. He didn’t even turn to look at me for getting in his way. He wore military fatigues and had a revolver in a holster on his belt. Taking in a breath, I turned away and resumed heading inside. There was no reason for a confrontation; I was just under a lot of stress.

The inside of the Safari Resort had changed since I had been here last. The crater that had formed in the marble floor while Thomas and I were fighting had been covered with a thin piece of wood and had a warning sign placed in the middle. The plastic statues of the big five game animals had been removed and several small rooms had been built out of plywood. These weren’t much more than privacy screens set up for triage and short term care for the injured.

Three basic stalls had been built near the stairs as well. Merchant classes with the ability to set up businesses and customize their own shop screens would have started appearing, though the only thing they'd have to sell for a while was common goods and equipment. "Coming soon" signs were on two of the stalls, and I knew they wouldn't be open by the time I had to leave Etson.

As I walked and observed, I recognized some of the healers tending to the wounded as members of the Etson Faithful. The “EF” painted on what little armor they owned had been painted over with a “TT,” and I chuckled. Francis had decided that Thomas’ group needed a name. Thomas didn’t want anything to do with it, and left it up to the Alurnes and his sister while he dealt with things he felt were more prudent.

“Welcome to the headquarters of Tommy’s Tumblers,” the young blond man behind the reception counter called to me as he saw me staring. I snorted at the name. Tommy’s Tumblers. By the time it reached Thomas’ desk, it had already stuck. Since he knew that I had knowledge of things to come, I wondered briefly if he would accuse me of withholding this information.

“Great name,” I said, giving the receptionist a thumbs up as I approached.

“Thanks, the boss hates it,” he replied with a laugh. “What can we do for you?”

“I’m looking for the boss, actually. I’m Anthony Franklin, I’ve got some urgent stuff to discuss with him.”

The man’s face filled with surprised recognition. “You’re Anthony Franklin? Kind of thought you’d be bigger.”

“Wow, is that how you treat all your guests?”

“Oh, sorry, yeah that was rude, wasn’t it?” he asked, suddenly nervous. “I just heard about the big monster, right? And the way you cleaved it in two made me think that it would be this big muscle man, is all.”

I arched my eyebrow. Cleaved in two? That certainly wasn’t what actually happened, but I didn’t really want to continue this particular conversation. “Apology accepted. I can see Thomas, then?”

“No, sorry. Tommy’s out right now. Gloria’s here, though. I can let her know, if you want.”

I nodded, and the young man picked up the desk phone. It was good that Thomas was out getting points even if it was inconvenient to me at the moment. Having Gloria stay behind so he could hunt wasn’t a bad idea either. It would give her time to rest after almost losing her leg and she was already ahead of the curve on points. Honestly, Gloria was likely the strongest person in the group after the Writhing Zeppelin fight, though she shouldn't be sidelined for long.

Everyone should be hunting if they were even halfway serious about clearing the scenarios, and it looked like a good portion of the people here were trying. I knew that for every one person down here, there were likely others who couldn’t or wouldn’t fight hiding elsewhere in the large resort, but that was for Thomas to deal with.

“Good morning, Miss Gloria, you have a visitor… Anthony Fran-“ he paused before setting the phone down. “She’ll, uh, be down in a moment.”

“Thanks, I’ll wait over in the cafeteria,” I told him before heading that way. It had taken me half of the trip to realize it, but the Dealer’s surprise visit had distracted me from breakfast.

The cafeteria wasn’t crowded at this time of day, and I easily found a table away from other people. Swiping open the menu, I went with waffles and syrup for two points. I barely got to dig in when I saw Gloria jump from one of the balconies. Her feet glowed as she took an invisible staircase to the floor, and I nodded in satisfaction at the skill book she must have received.

Air Walk was the next step up of the Air Step skill my Heelies of Hermes provided. Instead of a few steps, she could literally walk in any direction in the air for a second per two points of dexterity with a moderate cooldown. It would synergize well with her aerial based class.

Gloria's brown eyes homed in on me immediately. “Anthony!” She called out, approaching.

I swallowed down my food before standing up. “Gloria, it’s good to see you in one piece,” I told her, though I couldn’t help but notice the slight limp she walked with. She would have been healed perfectly by Gabrielle, but it looked as though she had suffered some mental trauma. “I feel bad about leaving you there, I’m sorry.”

“Psh, don’t be,” she said, pulling out a chair across from me and sitting in it. I sat back down and resumed eating. “I understand why you left, so don’t worry about it. Instead, I have a real question for you.”

“What’s that?”

“You told me we were going to blow it up like the Hindenburg and we didn’t even get a sparkler, what happened?”

I huffed, amused, and shook my head. “Yeah, sorry. I’ll try to get you an actual explosion somewhere down the line, but no promises. What I tossed inside was a Relocation Grenade. The Writhing Zeppelin was big enough that we didn’t see the effects until it completely deflated, but its brain, heart, and a good chunk of the rest of its innards are floating around in the Atlantic Ocean right now.”

“And we don’t have to worry about a submarine or something coming from that, do we?”

“No, as far as I’m aware there’s no such thing as a Writhing Submarine.”

Gloria leaned back. “Good, I don’t think I want to fight another one of those things,” she admitted.

"Neither do I. I couldn't possibly cleave another one in half like some people have been saying."

"A little embellishment was in order, I hope it keeps people from picking fights with you in the future." As she spoke, I noticed her hand on the leg that had been nearly chewed through. When she noticed my gaze, her hand went onto the table with the other one. “I’m okay, really. And it was worth the points.”

“You still feel it, don’t you?” I asked softly.

“My little brother is pretty cross with you. About what happened to me, I mean,” she said instead of answering the question. Her next words were said in a conspiratorial hush. “But I know your future, past, whatever sight isn’t perfect based on what you told us in the Square. Everything changes in different ways in every vision, right?”

“That’s right,” I said, slowly nodding. “That’s something I wanted to talk to Thomas about. The reason why the Writhing Zeppelin evolved from the truck form was to try and take me out. Nobody’s supposed to know about the future, and that makes me a target.”

Leaning back in, Gloria rested her elbows on the table. “Why go through all that hassle, then? Can’t they just strike you down where you stand?”

“As much as they’d like to, no,” I said. I put my fork down and pushed my plate away from me. The food was only half gone, but I didn’t feel like eating anymore. “The system does afford us some protections from the administrators. They can’t directly smite us, for example, but they can evolve a raid boss to do it or speak to people directly. I’m sure Father Alexander is one of them, given his faith.”

“Seems like a really arbitrary rule if they can’t do something like that, doesn’t it?”

I shrugged. “My understanding of their rules is relatively vague. I know Seraphim’s in time out until about noon tomorrow, and that’s the big thing.”

“Okay, tries to kill a player and gets put in time out. Sounds reasonable.”

“Not ‘tries to kill a player,’ but awakens a raid boss, which is a really big deal. We were very lucky that I had what we needed on hand and you were so willing to help me.”

She waved a hand dismissively. “You’d have done the same.”

“Yes, I would have. Which is why I really appreciate that you stepped forward with no hesitation. It was really brave of you.”

“Don’t you go soft on me, Anthony,” Gloria said, though I could tell she was pleased by my praise.

“I wouldn’t worry about that, especially since I’m here asking you guys to go to war with me.”

The amusement left Gloria’s face and she sat back again, running her fingers through her salt and pepper hair. “The war’s supposed to start tomorrow at noon, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but it would be better if we went on the initiative,” I answered. “Do it while Seraphim’s still gone because I feel like he’s going to pull this same shit trying to kill me by evolving the Vespae queen during the fight. I wanted to use the Relocation Grenade on the queen, but you were there to see why I needed to use it early. We’ll need the Faithful to make sure as many people survive as possible, which is why I wanted Thomas’ help.”

“The Faithful aside, not many people are going to want to agree to that, Ant,” she said slowly. “They already feel bad enough about the war, but to convince them to go onto the Vespae’s home turf? We were getting ready to bunker down here and fight them off.”

“That wouldn’t work for a few reasons. We only have two safe zones in Etson and we’re not cramming all of the survivors into both of them. That leaves a lot of people still outside where they can be killed. After that, they’ll start building strongholds again. This time it’ll be in those office buildings across the street, or the buildings surrounding the Square. Trust me, bunkering down into a defensive position sounds like a good idea, but it’s really not.”

Images flashed in my mind of earlier runs. Whenever the people of Etson took a defensive position against the Vespae, they lost big. Aside from the items and points, that was the big reason why I stayed until the first main scenario had been completed. There had been times when I left Etson immediately in order to try out strange plans that I thought might be worth it, but coming back was always hard. The buildings around the safe zones become massive connected hives that completely cover any areas the people consider safe. Their bunkers become tombs as they learned that points don't get distributed when killing monsters from inside a safe zone.

“Well, I can tell Tommy when he comes back if you want, but I’m not sure when that’ll be,” Gloria said. “He’s been gone all morning.”

“I can go out and find him, make this easier. Where’s he gone?”

“Francis made a request to go see a place that was on your map, and Tommy agreed to go with him. John, surprisingly, was really excited about it.”

My fingers drummed on the table as a sense of dread creeped over me. If it was Francis, then there were a few places he’d want to see on account of being obsessed with ghost hunting. Etson had a few haunts, but few that would be active at this time of day. “Gloria, where did they go?” I asked, my voice grave.

“To that cemetery by the old aquatic center.”

I shot to my feet, hands clenched into fists. “To the place I marked with three skulls and wrote the word ‘ghost’ and ‘danger’ next to? One of the places I explicitly stated not to go to?”

Gloria was taken aback by my sudden anger, but recovered fast. “Francis saidd he knew what to do about ghosts now that he had some kind of purifying fire magic, and John seemed excited to go. That got Tommy to agree. They all agreed nothing would be as bad as the Writhing Zeppelin.”

“Damnit!” I yelled, storming off towards the entrance. Gloria caught up with me quickly. “I have to go save their asses now. That’s a special dungeon, Gloria, they can’t leave until the boss is dealt with.”

“What’s so bad about it?” she asked, concern rightfully written all over her face now. “I can get a team together and-“

“If we wait, they may already be dead. I can make it to them faster than anyone you have,” I said as I walked through the doors.

“Anthony, wait! Why’s this so bad? Can’t Francis’ magic deal with it?”

“No. It’s the Mausoleum of the Arsonist; Francis is just going to make it worse," I said before wheeling off and leaving the Safari Resort behind.