43 – Strangers at the Gate

As Tucker spoke, a melodic, tinkling sound, accompanied by a faint hiss, sounded behind Andy, startling him. He whirled, his mind jumping to wild conclusions like some kind of magical snake had gotten into his trailer, but when he saw the billowing clouds of silver and pink steam, he realized the System had decided to deliver his promised rewards. “Damn,” he grunted. Rather than being excited for the awards, he felt the stress of a thousand things to do weighing on him.

“What’s that?” Tucker asked, peering past Andy toward the colorful steam.

“System rewards. Hang on. No—” Andy turned back to the long-haired man. “Can you go and get Lucy? Tell her to shoot anyone who tries to come up uninvited. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Tucker was still staring past him, into the trailer. “Can’t those, like, wait?”

“Well, sure, Tucker, but what if something useful is there? What if it might help with the current situation?”

“Right.” He scowled, his bushy, sand-colored eyebrows lifting as he shook his head. “I get it, man. Not trying to be a dick.” With that, he turned and jogged up the lane, toward Lucy’s trailer.

Andy moved closer to the slowly dissipating steam and tried to hurry things along, waving his hand to clear it. When he could see the floor, he found a small black book and a glass vial, about the size of a finger, containing a glittering pink liquid. “What the hell?” He reached down to pick up the black book, and as soon as his fingers touched the leather cover, a System message appeared.

***Congratulations! Your reward for killing the Whistler has been delivered: an uncommon Codex entry.***

Andy smiled as he read the message. The last Codex entry he’d gotten had awarded him his Pyroglyph Invoker class. Holding it aside, he picked up the little vial full of pink fluid.

***Congratulations! Your reward for killing the elite gargantuan rattlesnake has been delivered: a vial of Meridoc’s Cleansing Tonic.***

“Huh.” He held the vial up, peering at the pink liquid, watching as it sparkled in the light coming through the door. “For poison, maybe?” Despite his desire to examine the little Codex book, he couldn’t focus, not knowing that a large group of possible hostiles was bearing down on the settlement. He tucked the book in the back pocket of his jeans and slipped the little potion into a front pocket. Then, he grabbed his spear and jumped out of his trailer, jogging straight for the gate.

When he arrived, the gates were open, and he could see a crowd gathered beyond, at the top of the trail. Something had to be off about the group that was coming up the road; otherwise, Bernice and the others would likely let them up. The park wasn’t crowded yet, and they needed people to help defend if things got bad with the Construction City situation. Besides, humanity was in trouble. People needed to look out for each other.

As he arrived, jogging on the gravel road, several people turned to face him, and Eduardo waved for him to come forward. “Andy! Lucy’s just below on the trail. She’s a little upset…”

Andy looked at him sharply. What did that mean? He didn’t stop to ask; Lucy could tell him herself. He saw her as soon as he got onto the trail. She was up at the first switchback, bow drawn, aimed down. He could hear a man shouting, and he realized it was Brian, communicating with the people below. Andy couldn’t see them yet, so he hurried up to where Lucy stood and, from there, he got a clear view.

There were maybe ten people down there, adults and kids, and they all wore backpacks and carried weapons—hockey sticks, bats, axes, long walking sticks. He couldn’t see any further details from where he stood, and was about to go further down when Lucy said, “Really? Shoot

anyone who comes up the trail? Kind of a lot to put on me.”

Andy looked at her and understood what Eduardo meant that she was upset. Her brows were angled sharply in a scowl, and her cheeks were flushed as she gritted her teeth, staring down the length of her arrow at the people below. “I, uh—I wasn’t thinking, Luce. I meant, like, if they were obviously bad guys. I don’t expect you to kill random people just because they—”

“Forget it. Go find out what’s going on. Brian said there are monsters with them.”

“What?”

“That’s all he said. It’s why he and Bernice didn’t let them come up.”

“I’m going down. Do you want to come along or stay here?” Andy wanted her to come with, but was afraid he’d set her off if he said so.

Still scowling, she relaxed her bowstring and nodded. “I’ll give you some backup.”

“Thanks.”

Andy continued down, listening as he got close enough to make out Brian’s words. “…didn’t say that. I’m just saying, we need to talk about it. Give it a minute for Andy to get here! I see him coming down!”

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“Oh, jeez,” Andy muttered.

“Fearless leader.” Lucy’s tone was much lighter than a minute ago.

“Honestly, this is getting a little nuts. I think we should elect a council or something.”

“I don’t know. Sometimes people are idiots, and you’re not an idiot. I’d rather you were making decisions than a bunch of people sitting around arguing.”

Andy looked over his shoulder at her, surprised by how much she’d said as much as by the content of her words. She smiled at him and shrugged. He chuckled softly, then turned around, watching the trail, so he didn’t trip and fall. She’d made a good point, but it still felt like he was responsible for too damn much. Maybe there was a compromise. “Well, I ought to delegate some shit at least.”

“That’s definitely something worth talking about.” She inhaled sharply and added, “Look!”

Andy paused and turned to see what she meant. She was staring down the side of the cliff toward the group of strangers. For a second, Andy thought some of them were wearing costumes. He almost scoffed, asking Lucy who would cosplay in a time like this, but then he looked closer and realized they weren’t costumes. Three of the people below had colorful skin—two were a deep crimson, and one was a vivid blue. All three of them had shiny black horns sprouting from the sides of their heads, and, if he wasn’t mistaken, there were long, slender tails swishing back and forth behind them.

“What are they?” Lucy whispered.

“I dunno, but I can see why Brian and Bernice didn’t automatically guide them up the trail.” He turned and started walking again, and Lucy’s feet crunched on the stony trail behind him.

“What’s in your pocket? A notebook?”

Andy reached back to touch the little Codex book, shaking his head. “Something from the System for killing Whistler. What about you? Did you get anything for that or the snake?”

“Nothing for Whistler, but I got a magical arrow. It’s called a Serpent Slayer. I don’t know what it does, but it’s very pretty. I can show you after this.”

“That’s pretty cool. I got a little potion for the snake kill. I think it might be to cure poison.” As he spoke, they rounded the last switchback, and there were Brian and Bernice, standing on the second loop of the trail, looking down about ten yards to where the group of strangers stood.

“Andy!” Bernice said, waving. “You gotta come talk to these folks.”

“Yeah, okay.” Andy paused next to Brian and asked, in a low tone, “Did they do anything violent?”

“No, but…”

“Yeah, I can see. No indication they’re with the Construction City people?”

Brian and Bernice both shook their heads, and Bernice said, “No, they seem real nice.”

“Right.” Andy turned to face the edge of the trail, waving down to the people. “I’ll be right down.” He turned to Lucy, and she nodded.

“I’ll watch from here.”

“Cool.” Andy continued the rest of the way down the trail, and when he heard boots crunching behind him, he turned to see Brian following. He carried a wood-cutting axe on his shoulder, and he was a big guy, so his presence was a little comforting… just in case.

When they reached the bottom of the trail, one of the strangers stepped forward. He was an older-looking man with a khaki boonie hat strapped under his chin. “Hello there. Andy, is it?” He shifted his tall walking stick to his shoulder and held out his hand.

Andy nodded, stepping forward, though he couldn’t deny keeping his eyes on the red and blue people and their long, sharp horns. He took the man’s hand, gave it a shake, and said, “Yeah, that’s me.”

“I’m Paul Howell, and these people here are my family. You see, I own a ranch about four miles southeast of here, and my children were in town for a family wedding.” He turned toward the other people, and Andy could tell he was getting ready to start introducing everyone. Meanwhile, one of the women was bouncing a toddler, trying to get her to stop fussing, and he felt like everyone could do with a little less beating around the bush.

“Listen, Paul. I’m happy to meet you all, but we need to talk about the elephant in the room. I’m not trying to be rude, but put yourselves in my shoes.”

The men and women behind Paul muttered, some of them glared at Andy, and a young woman, the blue

-skinned one, said, “What do you want to know? If we’re psychotic monsters? We’re just people that the System screwed over!”

“Lena,” Paul said, tamping his hands down in the air.

“Do you mind explaining that?” Andy asked. “I mean, about the System?”

Lena cleared her throat and stepped forward. “My sister, my brother, and I all got messages on day one telling us a latent bloodline had caused a mutation. Now, on our statussheets”—she sneered the words—“it says our species is cambion.”

“But we’re still people!” the red-fleshed woman added. Her irises, like her sister’s, were big and purple, and Andy couldn’t help noticing how both women had many sharp teeth, including oversized canines.

He nodded, looking from the sisters to Paul. “They’re your kids? Why didn’t—”

“I change? I don’t know. Perhaps they got the bloodline from my wife, God rest her soul.”

Andy leaned on his spear, looking from Paul to his three cambion children and then to the rest of the people—four other adults and three kids, including the toddler. “You understand that there are kids and vulnerable people up on this plateau. I don’t want to put them at risk, so if there’s anything else you need to tell me, please be honest. You wouldn’t want someone putting your kids at risk, right?”

“There’s nothing!” Lena said, practically crying in her earnestness. “The only thing… Honestly, the only thing about us is that I used to be a vegan, and now I can’t stand eating anything but meat!”

“And booze,” the male cambion said, chuckling. “Booze sits just fine with us.”

Andy looked at Brian, and he shrugged. “I mean, you should tell them about Construction City.”

“Ah”—Andy shook his head ruefully—“yeah, that’s something you should know. This plateau is our settlement, and we’re at war with these assholes over at Construction City. We’ll expect you to help out, and, well, there’s no guarantee we’ll win, but I intend to make sure of it.”

“We tried to start a settlement,” one of the other men said.

Paul nodded, picking up the tale. “Our cattle drove us out. Damned things mutated. Not all of them, but twenty or thirty head…”

He trailed off, and Lena finished, “They became minotaurs! And, yes, just like in the stories.”

“They let you leave?” Andy couldn’t help thinking about the minotaur that attacked him and Lucy; that thing hadn’t been reasonable.

Paul shook his head. “No, we fled in the night after hiding in the wine cellar all day.”

Andy looked at them again, noting the weary expressions in their eyes, the dust on their faces and clothes, and the deep worry lines on many brows. “How’d you know to come here?”

“Well,” Paul cleared his throat, shifting uncomfortably. “That’s the thing. The System gave us a quest to seek shelter here.”