13 – System Node

Andy looked around the assembled crowd of trailer park residents. James and another man had brought out their camp lanterns, so there was plenty of light, especially now that the storm clouds had moved on and the moon, huge and swollen, shone down on the desert. He didn’t know what time it was, but he figured it was well into the middle of the night. He wondered if anyone knew the exact time. Even old-fashioned watches used batteries, right? He wasn’t sure.

Everyone was looking at him, and he supposed that was his fault for a couple of reasons. For one thing, he’d won the stupid System’s quest to control the trailer park. Everyone had seen his name at the top of that list. Then, there was the fact that he’d called the meeting.

Andy wasn’t bashful and didn’t mind being the center of attention, but he’d never been much of a public speaker. He'd done group projects in college, back before he’d dropped out, and often, he’d be the one to present, but that was about the extent of his experience. Still, something about fighting for his life over and over took the edge off the idea that a bunch of strangers were staring at him.

He cleared his throat and said, “You all know about that quest, right? The one about the trailer park being contested ground?”

“What’s that?” an older man shouted from the back of the crowd.

Andy sighed and held up a hand, yelling, “Yo! I need you all to be quiet for a minute.” To his surprise, most of the people stopped talking. He took a breath and spoke loudly, trying to project his voice, “Is everyone familiar with the System’s quest about the trailer park?”

A man with long hair and holding an aluminum baseball bat stepped forward. “Hey man, just because you won doesn’t mean you’re the boss of us.”

“I’m not trying to be anyone’s boss. I only mentioned the quest because, after the System said I won, it kind of pulled me aside to talk to me. I got some information that I figured I should share. I mean, I bet there’s a lot of information we all could share that might make our chances of living through this shit a little better.”

“I’m with Andy,” James bellowed, stepping toward the front of the crowd and looking around. He was old, but he was tall, and his voice carried. “You all need to hear him out.”

Andy nodded, smiling his way. “Thanks, James.” He looked at Bernice. “Did anyone count the people here? Is there anyone who didn’t come?”

She nodded. “I think we’re all here except for James’s boy. Twenty-seven of us.”

James nodded. “Twenty-eight with Keshawn. There’d be more, but I saw five or six folks heading out the gate when the storm first let up. They said they were going to look for their kids at the school.”

“Yeah?” That was news to Andy, but he supposed it made sense; if he had a kid stuck at school during the kind of crazy shit that had been going on, he would’ve gone for them, too. “Well, um, let’s hope they make it back.”

“What about the people who were at work?” a woman called from the middle of the crowd.

Before Andy could respond, a boy, probably thirteen, stepped forward. “My mom’s not home from work. She kept me home ’cause I had a cough. I was faking…”

“Ah, shi—” Andy cut himself off, looking around the crowd, realizing there were probably seven or eight kids younger than fifteen there. “Any other kids with no adult at home?” To his relief, no one responded. He looked at the one who’d spoken, “What’s your name?”

“Samuel—Sam.”

“Bernice, can you find—”

“I got you, Sammy,” Bernice said. “I’ve got a spare room you can stay in until your momma finds her way home.”

“What did the System tell you, man?” the long-haired guy with the bat asked.

“All right,” Andy said, raising his voice. “Let me get this out, and then we'll talk about all this other stuff. So, when I went to my trailer, I, uh, was approached by something called a guide…” He took a few minutes to give a rough summary of what the guide had told him. He covered the very brief instructions he’d received about settlement “boons.” Then he went over what the guide told him about the System and the Architects, including the fact that they were apparently trying to earn some kind of brownie points on a higher plane of existence by putting them all through this ordeal.

“I don’t get it, man. Who or what the hell is the System? Is it alive?” Eduardo, the biologist who’d collected the giant spider corpse, asked.

Andy shrugged. “I have no clue. It all feels like a bad movie plot or, hell, a game. Hey, speaking of which, we all should talk about what kinds of attributes and skills we have. It would be great if we could try to determine how much it helps to add one of those improvement points to something—”

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“I have two improvement points now!” James interjected.

Andy nodded, looking around. He locked eyes with Lucy briefly, and she smiled, holding up three fingers. She’d already told him as much, but he threw her a thumbs-up. “Anyone got a notebook?”

“Just a sec,” Eduardo said, turning to jog over to a nearby trailer.

“Listen, folks, I think it would help if we all wrote down what our status sheets say. We could get an idea of an average value for things like speed or strength. We could try to understand how rare it is to get improvement points. While we wait for Eduardo, has anyone else gotten a class? I got one—a, uh, Warden.”

“You know I got Tinker!” James said.

“What’s a class?” an older woman asked, but Andy had seen Lucy’s hand go up, so he walked closer to her. She pulled her little notepad out and scribbled something.

Hunter

“Ah! That’s cool!”

She smiled almost shyly, then took another minute to write something, ripped the page out of her notepad, and handed it to him.

Per - 6

Will - 5

Str - 4

Vit - 5

Speed - 6

Bows - 3

“Thank you!” Andy clutched the little page tightly, and Lucy nodded, offering another quick smile. Then Eduardo was there with his full-sized, college-ruled notebook. Andy clapped him on the shoulder. “Hey man, do you mind recording everyone’s numbers? I figure we can take an average of all the stats people started with and then—”

“And then we can get a better idea about how we should spend our improvement points!” He grinned, holding up a fine-tipped marker. “I got this.” He moved to the center of the park and yelled, “Everyone! If you want to see the data, then you gotta contribute yours! Make a line here, and I’ll share the results with everyone who helps out.”

Andy smiled, glad to be off the hook for a little while. He wandered around the crowd, listening to conversations, wondering if any other parents were still there who were missing their kids. He wanted to try to organize something for when the sun came up—a search party for the school or something. He didn’t find anyone, though, and he began to think they’d all been in that group that went out when the storm let up.

Lucy walked close to him again and held up her little notebook so he could read what she’d written: What about the settlement?

It was a fair question. Andy kept getting sidetracked; he hadn’t even looked at the settlement menu yet. He held up a finger, and when Lucy nodded, he mentally called up the menu:

SETTLEMENT MENU:

Settlement Name: Sleepy Saguaro Trailer Park

Leader: Andy West

Successor: --

Active Effects: Newly Settled – 71 hours remaining

Settlement Level: 0

Citizens: Place System node to allow in-person migration. This will enable citizens to accept quests and contribute to the settlement.

Boons:

--

Boon Points: 1

Boons Available:

Freshwater Spring

Natural Bulwark

Forager’s Bounty

Hearthflame Ember

Veil of Stillness

System Node - FREE

Quests Available:

1. Lost and Found: Eleven children from the Sleepy Saguaro Trailer Park are missing. They were last seen attending classes at Catalina Shadows Elementary and Middle School before the System integration. Their families fear they may be trapped, lost, or worse. Find the children and escort them safely back to the trailer park.

Objective: Locate the missing children and ensure their safe return.

Threats: Hostile survivors, mana-induced environmental hazards, hostile species.

Reward: Experience, (Potential) Improvement Points, System-Generated Treasure, Settlement Boon.

2. Secure the Food Supply: The food stockpile in your settlement is dangerously low. Nearby grocery stores, warehouses, and farms may still have salvageable supplies. However, you're not the only ones looking. Secure at least five days’ worth of food for the settlement before it falls into unfriendly hands.

Objective: Collect and return a sufficient food supply.

Threats: Hostile survivors, mana-induced environmental hazards, hostile species.

Reward: Experience, (Potential) Improvement Points, System-Generated Treasure, Settlement Boon.

Notes:

1. To understand a boon, focus on it, and a description will appear.

2. To select a boon, simply do so mentally in the same manner that you spend Improvement Points.

3. More than one citizen can contribute to a quest. The System will know.

4. More quests will become available as more citizens join your settlement and as events unfold that affect the settlement.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Your settlement is currently under the effect of “Newly Settled,” which is only granted to a settlement once. The System is obscuring your settlement from people and other entities with hostile intentions. When this effect fades, you should be prepared to defend your settlement.

“Ah, hell,” Andy groaned, realizing the quiet they’d experienced since killing the giant spider was probably because the System was hiding them from whatever else was roaming around out there.

Lucy gave him a look that said, “Are you going to tell me what you saw?”

He sighed and briefly described the Settlement Menu. He finished with, “I haven’t read about the boons, but I’m glad to see, according to the quests, at least, that we might be able to rescue the kids.” He held off explaining what “Newly Settled” meant because several of the kids were hanging nearby.

Lucy scribbled on her notepad: Do the node thing so we can all be citizens.

“Uh, right.” Andy looked at the menu again and focused on the “System node – FREE” line. A message appeared in his vision:

***Be certain you are standing where you want your System node to appear. A wide open area is suggested so that there is room for upgrades. Place System node here? Yes/No.***

“No!” Andy looked at Lucy and motioned for her to follow him. He walked a dozen paces to the center of the dog park, then accessed the menu again. This time, when the message appeared, he said, “Yes.”

A pop sounded, and then, with a sizzling display of silvery sparkles, a floating, liquid metal orb appeared in the air before him. It hovered there, five feet or so off the ground, about the size of a softball. It glowed with a faint silvery light and emitted a soft, barely audible hum.

***Congratulations! Your settlement’s System node has been placed. This node will allow people to join your community and accept System-generated quests that will benefit the settlement. If you continue to upgrade your settlement, this node will eventually gain more functionality.***