33 – Scouting Report

When Andy and Lucy reached the dog park, the cool breeze had picked up, and occasional, fat droplets of rain fell from the gathering gray clouds. The eastern sky was even darker, making it clear another storm was blowing in. Most of the residents were there, waiting for him, he supposed. Even a bunch of the kids they’d rescued from the goblins were gathered around near the System node. Some were sitting in the grass, quiet, but others, perhaps more resilient or more oblivious, were laughing and playing tag.

Someone had set up a big picnic table, and Eduardo waved, beckoning, as he called, “Andy, over here! Stand on the table so everyone can hear you.”

Andy looked at Lucy, and she shrugged. “Go on.”

“Right.” Andy walked through the crowd, nodding and smiling at the many greetings. A lot of the faces weren’t happy, however. He could see real worry in people’s eyes, and several blurted out questions like, “Is it true? They’re killing people?” Some made their feelings known off the bat—one guy yelled, “We don’t need a goddamn war!”

Andy stepped onto the picnic table’s attached bench and turned to face everyone. He didn’t have to raise a hand or shout for quiet. Several people started shushing others, and then, before he knew it, only the laughter of a couple of kids playing marred the silence. “Look, everyone, I wish I had better news, but I’m just going to rip the band-aid off, so to speak.” He cleared his throat and turned to step onto the top of the table, buying himself a few seconds to gather his thoughts.

“I went to Construction City hoping to find that things weren’t as bad as we feared. I went there hoping I might see some reasonable people—” Bella, standing near the back of the crowd near some of the others he’d rescued, barked a harsh laugh. Andy locked eyes with her, and she folded her arms, looking down. “I went there hoping to find some reasonable people, but I didn’t. Actually, I saw them bring in some others they’d captured. They were tied up and wearing hoods. I saw the person they left those people with start to beat them.”

He paused while people reacted, standing quiet and looking around, surveying the growing mass of people he’d somehow become responsible for. Many looked angry, but more looked scared. He hated that. “I intervened and freed those people, and from them, I learned about the horrors the people in Construction City are visiting upon the other survivors in the area. Look, I’m not the kind of guy who wants to have to fight others to survive, but damn it, we didn’t ask for this situation. All I know is that I can’t see us having a peaceful relationship with that settlement.”

“So you think we should declare war?” Hector, an ex-trucker, asked.

“If you don’t, they will!” Bella called, apparently done being quiet.

Andy raised his voice, speaking over the muttered responses. “I happen to agree with Bella, but I think we should take a vote. Does anyone need to know more about the situation?”

“How many people do they have?” someone called.

“I don’t know,” Andy replied, feeling he ought to be honest. “They only had four or five people on watch, but you guys know Construction City—it’s a huge building. There could be ten people or a thousand in there.”

“It’s not a thousand!” Bella said, locking eyes with him over the crowd. “They only have like five raiding parties, and those are less than ten people each. They talked a lot when they were…capturing us.”

“So,” Eduardo said, standing close to the table, “something like fifty raiders and maybe twice that many who stay back? I’m just guessing. It’s not a thousand, but it’s a lot more than we have.”

“I figured something similar, Ed.” Andy nodded, making eye contact with the man, then raised his voice. “Here’s the deal. If we declare war, they’re going to get a debuff, and we’re going to get a buff. Sorry to use terms from games, but that’s how the damn System talks. Basically, the only edge we’re going to get is if we catch them off guard with this. We’ve got a boon to spend, so we can fortify the settlement a little. That’ll help. We’re underdogs, but if we’re smart, we can beat them. I already put down one of their raiding parties last night.”

“We could recruit,” Lucy said. When Andy looked at her, she added, “People like Sandy.”

Andy nodded. “There are other survivors out there. We can recruit and—” A small woman with long black hair wearing nurse's scrubs raised her hand, catching his eye, so Andy interrupted himself. “Yeah? Sorry, I forgot your name.”

“We’ve got like five weeks to get ready for whatever the System is going to do when it opens the world to other settlers. We can’t have these creeps hounding us when that happens. If we start this war, we need to finish it before then. I know it sounds awful, but if we beat them, we’ll be in a stronger position to face whatever comes next.”

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“Shit! She’s got a point, Andy,” Brian, the man who’d been set on finding his wife the day before, said. “We’ll gain levels if we win a war.”

An older man with gray hair spoke up. “When the System integrated us, it gave me two levels in the War Medic class. It said I had an abundance of life experience. I guess that would come in handy.”

Andy looked at the grizzled old guy. Had he even seen him before? He looked tough as nails, and if what he said was true, it sounded like the System wasn’t exactly playing favorites as much as Andy feared. “That’s cool, sir. What’s your name?”

“Dunlap. Frank.”

Andy nodded and looked at Ed. “Can I give you some more work?”

He glanced at Violet, then nodded. “Actually, that would be great. I need something to keep my mind busy.”

“Okay, listen, folks! I have the power to declare war—I don’t have to ask you all. I don’t want to run things that way, though. I value your opinions. That being said, we don’t have time to mess around. If you want to have a vote on whether we declare war or not, make a line. Ed here”—Andy pointed at Eduardo—“is going to record everyone’s vote and, while you’re at it, you’re going to tell him your class and level. If you don’t have a class or any levels, you still need to tell him what you did in your pre-System life. We need to start figuring out who can do what. Maybe some of you noticed that we don’t have toilets that flush—”

“You can pour a bucket from the spring into the tank to get a couple of flushes!” someone yelled.

Andy nodded. “Right, okay, we can work around some problems, but we ought to be looking at real solutions.” Many people had begun talking while he spoke, so he lifted his fingers to his lips and whistled. “Listen! Get in line. Single file and give Ed some space. Put the end of the line about ten feet from this table. He’ll talk to you one by one, get your vote, your details, and any ideas you have for the settlement.”

“Wait!” someone yelled, and Andy turned to see Omar, the guy who’d been tending the bonfire outside, stepping forward. “Andy, we need more information. What’s it like out there, man?”

“Yeah!” Monique cried. “A lot of us are still missing people! We have to know. Is there any hope?”

Andy heard muttered agreement, so he stepped back up to the top of the table, clearing his throat. “Listen, I won’t blow smoke—things aren’t pretty out there. When I got to Wentworth, I saw hundreds of abandoned cars and no people. Maybe everyone ran off, trying to get to places like this. I’m sure there are lots of clusters of survivors around the city. I’m afraid there are also lots of monsters. I saw some huge”—Andy glanced at the kids nearby—“damn things. But yeah…” He paused, again glancing at the kids, a few of whom were looking his way. “Yeah, I think it’s worth keeping hope alive. The best thing we can do right now is make sure we have a safe place for people to come back to if they’re out there trying.”

“What about the desert? Is it safe to go out looking?” Omar asked.

Andy shrugged. “Again, I saw lots of monsters in the desert. I used my class abilities to avoid them, but, honestly, we should probably put together parties—groups of hunters—to go out and keep the hostile creature population down. I mean, at least around the park. We need to be working on gaining levels anyway.” He pointed to Eduardo. “That’s another thing Ed can put together, but you’ll need to tell him your class and level and, yeah, how interested you are in something like that.”

“That’s enough questions for now!” Bernice hollered. “Line up!”

Andy stepped down from the table and sat on the bench seat, watching people form a loose line. Lucy sat beside him and asked, “Are you gonna go back out and try to get that Whistler guy?”

Andy frowned. He hadn’t thought about that. “Maybe? There’s a lot to do around here, but, yeah, the quest reward might be worthwhile.”

“Well, I’ll tag along. I'd like to check in on Sandy and possibly visit some other houses in the area. We should try to recruit and gather supplies.”

“All right. We can make a plan for that, but first let’s see what’s up with things around here.”

She nodded. “Sure. Of course.”

They sat together quietly for a minute, and then she got up and pointed to the line of residents waiting to talk to Eduardo. “Want to stand in line with me?”

“Oh, shoot. Um, yeah, I guess I should get in line too.” Together, they walked over to the back of the line. It moved slowly. Each person was basically having a little interview with Eduardo, so they had plenty of time to stand around and listen to the people chattering about everything from worries about toilet paper to concerns about kids suffering from PTSD. While they waited, Andy pulled up the Settlement Menu to see how much had changed with regard to the population in the trailer park.

Settlement Menu:

Settlement Name: Sleepy Saguaro Trailer Park

Leader: Andy West

Successor: Lucy Huff

Active Effects: Newly Settled – 32 hours remaining

Settlement Level: 0

Citizens: 45

Boons:

System Node

Freshwater Spring

Boon Points: 1

Boons Available:

Natural Bulwark

Forager’s Bounty

Hearthflame Ember

Veil of Stillness

Quests Available:

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.

“Still only one settlement quest available.”

“Yeah?” Lucy asked.

“Yeah, and we’re still level zero. I wonder what we have to do to gain settlement levels. Our population has already gone up to forty-five.”

Lucy shrugged. “Maybe more boons or more people.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Andy looked toward the front of the line—only five more people, and then he and Lucy would be up. “And then we’ll find out if we’re going to war,” he muttered.