22 – Intention

To Andy’s relief, nothing attacked them on their brief trek across the desert landscape, nor did they get lost. Just as Lucy had predicted, they emerged from the brush onto the wide gravel road that led toward the Sleepy Saguaro Trailer Park, and, after another twenty-minute walk, they arrived at the gates. Apparently, Tucker was on gate duty, and when he saw Andy, Lucy, and their train of children, he immediately unlocked the chain.

“You made it!” he announced, smiling and running his fingers through his hair, his face displaying his obvious struggle with emotions as he stared at the kids with their bloodstained clothes and distant expressions.

“Hey, Tucker.” Andy moved to the side to let Lucy and the kids through. “I’ll close this up. Can you, like, let people know we need help with these kids? I don’t think any of their parents are here right now. I mean, only a few are from the park, anyhow.”

“Right, right, man. I’ll get some people here. A few others made it, though. I mean, while you were gone. Three other people came back; they were out all night, hiding and shit—pretty sure they were out looking for their kids.”

“Gotcha. Well, that’s good, right? Anyway, I’ll watch the gate.” As Tucker ran off, Andy turned to pull the gate shut, and then a string of System messages filled his vision:

***Congratulations! You’ve completed the quest: Picking up the Pieces. For rescuing all (7) of the surviving children and bringing them to the Sleepy Saguaro Trailer Park, you have earned experience toward your next level, a settlement boon point, and a System-generated treasure, which will be delivered soon.***

***Congratulations! You’ve reached level 9 in your Umbral Warden Class and have been awarded an improvement point!***

***Special Quest Opportunity: Seek out the “Whistler” of Mesquite Basin Ranch Homes. Take vengeance for his murderous behavior.***

Andy shook his head, cussing quietly at the System messages. Did he want to go after that guy? He’d told Sandy he’d come check on her. She’d wanted to know where they were staying, and he supposed he shouldn’t leave her there alone. Maybe there were others, too. Before he could really think about it, Lucy tugged his sleeve, whispering, “I got another level.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes, this time I got an improvement point.”

Andy nodded. “Cool, same here.” He didn’t want to mention that he was already sitting on five points again. “Um, what about—”

“The quest?” She nodded. “I won’t do it, though. I won’t hunt a person.”

“It’s weird how it’s formatted differently from the settlement quest, right? No objective or reward

stuff—just the quest. It makes me wonder if the System has different parts or if it’s, like, alive. I mean, maybe it makes custom messages on the fly…” He trailed off, unsure how to voice the vague ideas running through his mind.

“It’s weird,” she agreed. “What about you, though? Are you going to go after that guy?”

Andy shrugged. “Maybe. Not so much for vengeance, but because he’s obviously preying on people. If I leave him alone, that’s on me, right?” At his words, she frowned and licked her lips, her eyes shifting to the side. She wanted to agree with him, but she also didn’t want to go after that guy. At least that was Andy’s impression, so he added, “Don’t worry about that right now. I’ll think about it. Get some water and food, yeah? You’ve been out in the sun for hours.”

She nodded. “Come by later if you want. We have quite a few things in the pantry.” She pressed a hand to her forehead, squeezing her eyes shut. “I mean I, not we.”

“Yeah, I know.” Andy gently squeezed her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Lucy.”

“Thanks, Andy. Thanks for all your help.” She nodded toward the cluster of adults fawning over the kids, giving them snacks and drinks. Andy hadn’t even realized that was going on; he’d been so absorbed by the System messages and his thoughts. “I’m glad we saved some of them.”

He smiled. “Yeah, me too. Talk to you later?”

She sniffed and nodded, turning to walk down the lane. Andy took his spear and walked along the fence, aiming for the corner where he’d placed the freshwater spring. He was going to fill up his skin and see how Tucker and the others had done with the channels and sluice gate. After seeing the state of things outside the park, he wasn’t optimistic about long-term supplies. They were going to have to get some gardens going. They needed to get ahold of some chickens and smaller livestock…

He shook his head, pushing the thoughts aside. What he needed was to stop thinking like he had to solve every problem. There were plenty of smart people around him, people who knew more about those sorts of things than he did.

He found Violet at the spring, filling some empty bottles with water. He also saw the channels Tucker had promised. The work must have gone quickly because it looked pretty much done. Two gravel-lined ditches led away from the spring—one down to an empty trailer plot, and the other straight to the fence and down the slope.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Andy could see the sturdy wooden sluice gate built from fresh-looking lumber and nails at their junction—a post driven into the soil on either side. He wondered how they’d managed all that. “Looks good,” he said when Violet looked up.

“Tucker knew what he was doing. I guess he used to run his own farm. It didn’t hurt that he got a class for it. Can you believe the System made him something called a Frontier Steward? It even gave him a couple of skills. You’ll have to ask him about it.”

“Man!” Andy chuckled as he bent, lowering the mouth of his water skin into the basin. “That guy surprised me. My first impression was that he’d be a problem—kind of an asshole. He’s been cool, though. He was even watching the gate when we arrived.”

“You aren’t the only one who thought that. He always rubbed me the wrong way, but today he was amazing. I guess some people shine under pressure.” She smiled, watching him fill the waterskin. “Like you, Andy.”

“Me?” Andy chuckled, shaking his head. “I’m just trying to get from A to B, you know?”

“Better than wallowing in terror or despair. Trust me, there’s plenty of that going on around here, too.”

“Well, I appreciate you, Violet. You and Eduardo have been great.”

“Eddie’s not doing so hot. He really tried today. He helped with this”—she pointed to the trenches—“but then he went to the trailer and lay down. Hasn’t moved all day. That message from the System this morning really messed him up.”

“Should I talk to him?” As he asked, Andy mentally kicked himself. Why was he volunteering to take on another problem?

“No, not yet. Give him the night. I’ll let you know if he’s not getting any better.”

Andy nodded, relieved. “Sounds good. I’m going to my trailer. Gonna take a breather and, uh, assess.”

She smiled, screwing the top on her bottle and picking up another. “We know where to find you.”

With those ominous words to mull over, Andy walked down the trailer park lanes until he saw his sad, beat-up little trailer that he’d gotten for 3200 bucks about half a year ago when he’d dropped out of school. It had been an impulsive move—something he’d done in a kind of rebellious fit when he’d quit. Worse than dropping out, he’d used his student loan money for the trailer and to help him scrape by with part-time work. “Wasn’t exactly the best year of my life.”

Stepping onto the metal steps hanging off the side, he pulled the door open and went inside. As far as food went, his trailer was in a sorry state. He had half a loaf of white bread and some peanut butter in the cupboard, though, so he smeared himself a few pieces of that, then sat down and pulled up his status sheet, wondering what he ought to spend some points on.

He had five improvement points, and, yeah, he was getting them easily, but he wondered if that would last forever. Maybe he’d hit some kind of slow point like Lucy seemed to be going through. As he thought about it, he remembered his earlier contemplations about intention and how it might affect how the System rewarded a person. As he had the thought, a proverbial lightbulb went off in his head, and he remembered how Lucy had regained her ability to speak by spending points in will. She’d spent those points with clear intention. She’d told him as much.

“So, if I’m going to spend points, I ought to think about why.”

He stared at his notable skills:

Notable Skills or Spells:

(* denotes active bound abilities)

Spears: 4

Sneak Attack: 1

Shadow Vigil: 1

*Piercing Dusk – Bound: 1

*Twilight Steps – Bound: 1

Nodding, the inkling of a plan forming in his mind, he read the descriptions for Shadow Vigil and Twilight Steps:

Shadow Vigil – innate: Your senses adapt to the darkness, granting heightened awareness in low-light or shadowed environments. Hidden enemies and subtle movements are easier to detect.

Twilight Steps – bound: You can channel mana to move more quickly in dimly lit environments. Mana cost: 2 per second.

If he were really contemplating taking the System up on its quest to deal with the “Whistler,” wouldn’t it be smart to wait until dark? Wouldn’t these two skills be key to his success if he did? He imagined himself gliding through the Sonoran Desert at night, slipping through the shadows unnaturally fast, spying out his enemies before they even knew he existed. Nodding, he put a point into each of the skills.

To his surprise, he didn’t notice much happening. What would the new points do? Make him move faster? Make him see better? A little doubt entered his mind; was he making a mistake? Had he wasted those points? Rather than back off, he doubled down: if he was going to be sneaking around in the dark, wouldn’t he want to be able to slay the enemies he ran into quickly and without giving himself away? He put a point into Sneak Attack.

***Congratulations! You’ve unlocked a specialized bound ability, Veil of the Stalker.***

***Veil of the Stalker – bound: The night embraces those who move unseen. Your presence in the darkness becomes harder to perceive, and your strikes from the shadows bite deeper.***

***Keep up the good work, Andy! You’re making progress toward unlocking a specialized class evolution!***

“Holy shit,” Andy whispered, exhaling a deep breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “It worked.” Before he could celebrate further, blue sparkles erupted near his feet. He jumped, wondering what new nightmare was taking form, but then he remembered he had a System-generated reward coming and calmed down. As the sparkles faded and blue smoke drifted up, he waved it aside and looked at the dirty linoleum. A pair of dark leather gloves sat there.

***Your System-generated reward has arrived: leather combat gloves. These gloves are designed to improve your grip on your weapon, protect you from harmful toxins, and even shield you from minor attacks. Congratulations!***

“Seriously?” Andy grumbled, picking up the gloves. Of all his belongings, his leather work-gloves were probably the most suited to his new life. Were these new gloves even any better? They were undoubtedly more supple. He slipped his hand into one and nodded as he flexed his fingers. “All right. I get it. These are better.” They were reinforced along the knuckles, and they simply fit better. He could perform little dexterous tasks that his work gloves hadn’t allowed.

He leaned back, stuffing a big bite of peanut butter-slathered bread into his mouth. Chewing noisily, he contemplated his new skills and looked at his spear leaning against the wall. He was going to do this, wasn’t he? He was going to go out at night and hunt down the Whistler. Grinning despite the craziness of the thought, he took another bite and, as he chewed, muttered, “And any other monsters that cross my path.”