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CH 16: Information
🕑 Added 2024-11-21 17:38:08 +0000 UTCMarlene slapped Reid across the face as hard as she could. When that didn't get a reaction, she poured half her canteen of water over his head. He sputtered a bit, then went back to snoring.
She looked at her watch. Reid had been asleep for almost 12 hours now, and the man simply wouldn't wake up. Even when she, Oscar, and Louis had dragged Reid out of the valley and up into a tree for safety, he just kept snoring. She'd used identify again on him a few times while he slumbered, and his health pool had rapidly replenished for the first few hours, then trailed off to a slow uptick since then.
Marlene groaned, and turned to her hunting party. "We can't sit around and wait any more. We're dragging him."
They all stood, Louis checked the ropes that secured Reid to their improvised travois. The travois was a simple thing, just two long, thick branches in an "A" shape, where the crossbar was used as a sort of stretcher. Reid was tied to it - both to keep him from bouncing off, and to restrain him for whenever he decided to wake up. Normally, a travois would have been pulled by a dog, or a horse. Today, it was being pulled by Louis. Oscar would be scouting ahead, and Marlene would be staying behind Louis so she could guard their rear - and keep an eye on Reid.
Each member of her team were armed with newly crafted weapons, thanks to the high-level salamander. Its aquamarine claws were secured to the end of improvised spears with rope and tape. The opaque claws of the lower leveled salamanders could cut through low leveled salamander skulls, but they couldn't penetrate through the high leveled salamander bone. Similarly, the high-leveled salamander claws were capable of splitting through the higher leveled salamander skull. If they encountered any more level 10 salamanders, her team would need the new weapons to fight them.
And she wanted to encounter more level 10s.
Marlene's quest timer didn't care that Reid was asleep, and they'd already lost too much time, in her opinion. Her options were simple. Either hope they would find more of the high leveled beasts to kill, or head back for Sanctuary and prepare a defense. She chose the latter option, and they moved back towards the campground.
#
After another four hours trudging through the woods, their sleeping beauty finally stirred.
They didn't have much time to waste, but Marlene would get to the truth. The truth behind how Reid was separated from the rest of the awakened, how he managed to survive, and how his stats were higher than they should be. Only then would she let her guard down around the man.
Marlene had Louis lean the travois against a tree, then untie Reid's bonds and shift him to the ground. Marlene placed a canteen up against Reid's leg, then crouched down next to him and put on a warm smile. One of her hands rested on his boot, while the other was behind her back holding the grip of her pistol. He was her friend's husband and Sara's father, but there was no telling whether he would be a problem. She tried to sound calm and friendly.
"Hey, you. You're finally awake."
--
+ Reid +
Reid groaned. His entire body felt sore, and hunger stabbed at his stomach. His eyes still felt heavy, and his head lolled from side to side.
Wait - lolled? Reid was laying on the ground when he passed out. What the hell was going on?
He forced his bleary eyes open and tried to blink away his sleep. He was moving, there were people around him. And - he was tied to some sort of sled. His elbow shifted uncomfortably when the sled thing was lifted up and leaned against a tree, and then he found himself placed on the ground.
A woman was staring at him. She looked familiar. She was wearing a warm, but somewhat uncomfortable smile.
"Hey, you. You're finally awake."
Reid's mind was still waking up. "Yup, I was trying to cross the border. Walked right into the ambush."
The woman's smile faltered for a moment, and Reid took the opportunity to speak before she could.
"Just a joke - a reference. I figured you knew it because of what you sa-." He scanned her face as he spoke, and words spilled out of his mouth faster and faster as realization dawned on him. "Oh! You're the outhouse water lady... uh, Melanie! You were next to us when it happened! Please - the women with me were my wife and my daughter. Please tell me you've seen them."
The woman let out a chuckle that didn't reach her eyes. "Close, but my name is Marlene. Sara and Susan are both fine. They're waiting at a campground where the beacon appeared. Susan is working for me healing people, and Sara is helping out there, too. They're both safe, healthy, and doing well."
Reid felt tension he'd been carrying start to melt. They were safe at the sanctuary. He let out a long, shuddering sigh. Everyone politely gave him some space when the sigh turned into a soft sob.
When he'd collected himself, Reid got out a few 'thank you's amid a host of iterations of the same question. Yes, Sara and Susan were actually at Sanctuary. Yes, they had enough to eat. Yes, they had beds to sleep in. No, they hadn't suffered injuries. It took minutes for Reid to realize he was monopolizing the conversation.
"Sorry for all the questions, Marlene. It's just - I've spent the last few days only thinking about whether they were okay. Thank you, again, for taking care of them."
Marlene gave a genuine smile. "Sara is a good kid. And your wife is a hard worker. I'm lucky they're around. But now that I've answered your questions about them, I need you to answer some questions for me. Let's start with how you ended up out here."
Reid recounted his last few days in as much detail as he could manage. Marlene gave him questioning looks a few times, but just insisted he keep going. When he reached the end, she finally spoke up.
"When do you think the shackle is going to wake back up this time?"
Reid thought for a moment. "It should have woken up already. I'm not really sure why it's not back. Maybe whatever it did to me made it... die. If it can do that."
"Okay. Tell me more about your stats. You get five points per level but you don't decide where they go, right?"
Reid nodded his head. "Right. That's the thing the system shackle guy broke, so instead of getting to pick one of the six stats, everything goes into control. I started off with a few points in control and a few points in power, but only 1 or 2 points in the rest. Then, I started to figure out how to increase my stats without the points - and I figured out that it has a hard limit where my other stats can't be more than half of what control is. Can't go past that. I've figured out power, started to figure out constitution, but I haven't gotten the others to work yet."
"And you used that same kind of power to heal yourself?"
Reid nodded. "Yeah. It's painful but it works. I'm sure I'm not the only one that's figured that out yet, though."
Marlene slid both hands down her face and stood. "Reid, no one else has even come close to doing what you just told me about. I sure as hell can't see inside my own body. And I damn well can't heal a bone. Nobody else even has the control stat you're talking about, and I can't see it with my skill. Improving stats without points is impossible. And we only get three points per level. The only differences between them and you is they all awakened at the beacon, and you haven't. There's got to be something more there. And if you started with stats that weren't all 1's, there's another difference between you and literally everyone else. Outlier is a good term for you."
She paced back and and forth, and her boots crunched the leaves in her path down into to tiny bits of debris.
"Reid, I didn't come into this forest to find you. Finding you is great, really - for Sara, and for Sanctuary. You didn't tell me anything about quests, so I assume you haven't gotten one. They're objectives we can complete, before the tutorial starts, and it will give us a better chance of coming out on top of whatever competition happens there."
Reid blinked. "There's a tutorial?"
The leaf-crunching stopped as Marlene finally came to a halt. "Right. When you touch the beacon, you agree to a sort of contract thing to fully awaken yourself. It let the rest of us see our stats, distribute points, and use our skills," she paused, "but maybe we didn't need a contract for that. Anyway, it also tied us to the beacon, Sanctuary, and gave us a timer and a description of a tutorial. The tutorial is supposed to be where people raise up their level quickly, through a series of different challenges. It does have different beacons competing with one another, and says a bit about power being necessary for after the tutorial ends." She looked directly at Reid. "That means people fighting people. We have no idea if we're a small camp or a large one. We don't know if we're powerful or not. I've seen what happens when people fight for power, and I damn well intend to be on the winning side here. So I accepted quests to help us level before the tutorial starts. We need the advantage."
Reid was nodding along while his stomach did cartwheels at the thought of Sara having to fight another person.
"The quests started as simple ones where we just had to kill beasts, then larger groups of beasts. Recently, it's been all about salamanders. Your kills counted for our quest, and it raised the quest difficulty. We have... a little over 25 hours to kill two more of the level tens or we fail the quest." She gave him an asking look.
No. Reid thought. I've spent days fighting, hiking, and starving all to get back to my family. No, I'm not going to wait a second more than I have to before I see them again. Figure out your own quest, and you're welcome for the quest progress I already gave you. I'll find my own way, thanks. I'll eat a hot meal, take a shower, and sleep in an actual bed while you chase extra xp.
His mouth betrayed him. "What happens if you fail the quest?"
Marlene's face was steel. "When the time limit ends, salamanders will attack Sanctuary. Immediately."
Reid's mind toured a series of vivid nightmare scenarios about salamanders eating his family before he started hearing Marlene's words again.
"... and we lost two people to it. So, Reid, you are our best chance. You're more than double my level, and I'm the highest leveled person in our camp. You have the most skill points out of all of us, and you already showed yourself capable of bringing down the big ones. If we can keep the fight here, we save lives. I know you're not really one of my people yet, but will you fight for me? For Sara and Susan?"
Reid's decision was easy. He could keep his family safe by fighting more beasts. The same ones that had already torn him open, stabbed him, broken his legs and arms.
"I need a minute to think." He put his head in his hands and stared down at his boots. Chunks of the soles were torn, and dried blood stained almost every surface. His shoelaces were starting to fray - fuzzy threads arced up where they were nicked, and one lace came apart at the end where he'd lost an aglet. The seams strained under the increased size of his legs and feet, and a small cut on the outside of his right boot threatened to expose a bloody sock to the elements. They were still usable, of course. He could walk in them, fight in them if he needed to. But they were worn. Tired. Fraying and coming apart at the seams from holding things too big for them to bear. What shape would they be in after another fight? After two? Just how much longer could they hold together?
The crinkle of food packaging caught Reid's attention. A skinny boy, only a few years older than Sara held out a granola bar. He had black curly hair and a plain face with kind eyes. A claw-tipped spear was strapped to his back, and one hand was wrapped with a bandage. "Here. You've been sitting for a while, you should eat." Reid gave a nod and thank you as he tore into the bar with greed. Oh god it was delicious. It had flavors. Real flavors! His jerky sucked. It sucked so, so bad and real food was so, so good.
"My name's Louis" The boy continued, watching Reid devour the bar like a starving animal. "Do you-
An all-too-familiar screech sounded out from the woods, followed by two more in different directions. The outline of a large salamander was just visible in the distance.
Reid didn't have a choice to make anymore. The fight had come to him.
