Thanksgiving supper was how Richard had expected it to be. The same old nostalgic taste of his mother’s cooking. The banter of the family that probably went a little too far at times. And the full stomach that probably couldn't take any more, but dessert still needed to be eaten.

  “So bro, Mom was saying that you’re an explorer now?”

  “No dungeon talk at the dinner table,” his mother said. She didn’t look up or stop plating the pumpkin pie. And soon they each had a slice with a health dollop of whipped cream. “I worry about you Richard. And really wish that you would find a job that wouldn’t kill you like being an explorer can.”

  Richard didn’t really have an answer to his mother’s request. Between the red guild and the Umbra he had already encountered real chances of death or disappearing. Not that he would ever admit that to his family. “It’s a living,” he said. “I won’t be doing it forever. And have been keeping to the ‘safe’ dungeons so far.”

  “People still go missing in the safe dungeons.”

  “Ma, you said no dungeon talk. And now you’re talking about it the most,” Shannon said.

  “Get this, when Ma was talking with Richard the other day your Ma kept yelling at me for making noise. But it wasn’t me! If anything I thought that she was the one doing it. And so I just kept my peace about it. But then she goes and yells at me!” his father said and then laughed.

  “Now don’t blame that on me. Usually if someone is making noise it’s you. I don’t know how you expected me to know that it wasn’t.”

  “I don’t know. I truly don’t,” he said and shook his head, “but check next time. I could have fallen or it could have been something outside. No sense blaming the blameless.”

  Instead of listening to their parents argue, Richard and Shannon slipped into the living room. It held a decently sized TV. A small amount of china that had been left over from their grandmother’s house. As well as photos of them growing up. The couch was old and well worn, but still comfy. While the two arm chairs were new looking since they were usually left for guests. Since, technically, they were guests, they ended up in the chairs.

  “So, exploring?” Shannon had extended the footrest and reclined while Richard was slightly rocking.

  “It was either that or go back to work. Probably school before that, and then finding work. And then maybe finding something where they’ll just treat you like trash. So yeah. Exploring. Low barrier to entry, money can be made if you are willing to work for it. I had to do a lot of math the first few weeks in order to make sure that I wasn’t losing money due to the equipment rental.”

  “Also dangerous. I know that Mom’s a worrywart. But she’s right at some level.”

  “Only some level?”

  She rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”

  “I do. I only expected to stick to the safe floors and just solo. But I’ve joined a guild and have been running around with them. It’s safer than going on my own. More hands to help if something goes wrong. As well as people to walk the path with.”

  “I-” Shannon’s words were interrupted by a rumble. It sounded low at first, but then rose in volume and intensity. The house shook for a moment after the sound stopped before it finally settled.

  “Is everyone all right?” His mother came flying into the living room with his father right behind her. “Was that an earthquake? We’ve never had one before.”

  “It probably wasn’t one, this area has always been pretty stable. So unless it was far away it wasn’t an earthquake,” his father said.

  “Then what was it?” His mother’s words were partially drowned out by a noise that sounded outside.

  They all paused and shared a look with one another. His mother’s face had gone pale, his father frowned, while Shannon had curled up in her chair. The noise wasn’t something that Richard had ever heard in proper action before. But it came up from time to time back when he was still in school and they were doing drills. It was a noise that everyone should know.

  The break sirens that were sounding.

  ***

  Martin yawned as he looked out over the wall. Darkness had already fallen and the flood lights lit up some hundred of meters of the ground outside. Anything outside of the light might as well not exist since there was no way to make out what might be happening in the darkness.

  It kind of made him feel redundant. But him, and others like him, being there made people feel safe while putting money into his pocket. The double time he’d get for working the holidays was quite the nice bonus as well.

  “Man I hate this,” Natalie said. She was leaning against the wall with her back to the outside. “All those people with their families. Having fun, getting drunk, eating too much, and here we are. Standing around freezing our asses off.”

  Martin shrugged. “Could go into the dungeon.”

  “Nah. I want something a little more safe than that.”

  He looked at her. “And this is safer?”

  Yup,” she shook her head on and down. “Wall Enforcement Officer is the job with the lowest KIAs don’t you know? Pay is only okay. But that’s all we need in this day and age.”

  “You could always just wait? I mean your family. We are doing ours next weekend.”

  “Nah, my family sucks like that. They are already done and probably deep in their cups.” She turned around to look outside. “I could use some of that right now. Help with the cold. I was pretty sure that it was supposed to be warmer out.” She rubbed her arms with her hands.

  Martin caught a glint in the darkness on the outside of the wall. It only showed for a moment and then disappeared. How did something catch the light from the walls? There shouldn't have been anything out there. Just as he was about to speak a figure stepped into the light.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  It squinted up at the lights and with a flick of its arm something small rocketed through the air and impacted with the wall light. The light flickered once, and then after a noise of another impact it went dark. All along the wall the lights were likewise attacked and extinguished.

  “Bugger me,” Natalie said. She pulled out her phone. “I’ll sound the alarm.” Martin was already on his phone calling their supervisor.

  “What? Martin?” The other end was loud and rather joyous. People laughing, plates and cutlery clinking. “I’m eating with my family, can’t it wait?”

  “Krist, ratters at the wall.” Martin tried to look over the wall, but the darkness was too deep. “Numbers are unknown.”

  “What? I’m sorry I can’t hear you over the noise here. Give me a moment.”

  “I don’t have time for that!” Martin yelled into his phone. Natalie was already at the edge of the wall and had started shooting into the darkness. The sights on the guns had a night vision mode. And while it wasn’t perfect it would at least be enough to maybe slow them down. Further on down and up the wall the other WEO’s had also started shooting.

  Martin heard a door close from the other end of the phone and the background noise disappeared. “Alright. What is the fuss about?” Krist asked. Before Martin could respond there was a flash of light accompanied with a roar. He grunted as a wall of force impacted him and he was sent to the ground. “What was that? Is everything alright? It almost sounds like a warzone.”

  It took Martin a moment to come around. “Ratters Krist. At the wall. Outside lights are out. Hell, the wall might be down.”

  “It is,” Natalie said. She was looking to the east with her scope. Only it was with her left eye. The flash of light might have blinded her other one.

  “Wall is down. We need backup.” Martin staggered to his feet.

  “Guess that I’m not getting any pie,” Krist said and sighed.

  Somehow the double time no longer sounded that good. Martin stowed his phone, brought the scope to his eye, and fired bullets into the swarm of ratters climbing the rubble of what once had been a wall.

  ***

  Emily yawned and stretched her arms into the air. She was pretty sure that she got enough sleep last night. It was probably because there wasn’t anything entertaining to do at the current moment.

  “I always hated being on call like this,” Art said. He was looking at the TV on the wall and was flicking through the streaming subs. “There’s never anything that I feel like watching. No matter how many subs they have. Plus the stress from maybe suddenly having to be deployed ruins any R and R I might get, ya know?”

  “Stop your bitching Art,” Pao said. He was throwing darts at the board across the room. He made it look easy as he effortlessly hit a bullseye with each dart. “Also stop yawning-” His words were interrupted when he cracked a yawn just as large as Emily. “Damn it.”

  “How did we get the short stick again?” Art asked. He had settled on turning the TV off instead of picking anything to watch.

  “We voted,” Emily said. “It was either this or work the end of the year holidays. We had them both off last year.”

  “Ugh. I guess this is slightly better. You know I’m getting all sorts of aggro from the wife. She’s cranky on a good day. But she’s having to deal with her parents and the kids all by herself…”

  “Just get her some flowers or something,” Janice said and looked up from the tablet in her lap. “Chicks dig flowers.” She smiled and gave Art two thumbs up.

  Art squinted at her for a moment. “I mean. Sure. But-”

  An alarm sounded and the TV turned itself on. A blue window was displayed on it that contained dispatch orders due to ratters being encountered at the northern wall of the city.

  “There you go Art, saving the city is pretty boss. Should get you some brownie points with your wife,” Pao said with a smile. He set aside the darts in his hands and strode into the locker rooms.

  Emily was already on her feet and she clapped her hands. “Alright people, get your gear on and let's go,” she said, still looking at the TV. “Ratters at least and-” There was a low roar in the background and a slight rumble passed through the building.

  Pao came back out from the locker room missing his top. “What the hell was that?” he asked as everyone stopped what they were doing and looked to Emily. Her eyes were glued onto the TV where the blue message had been updated to red.

  “The wall is down,” she said. A moment after she spoke they all scrambled into their armor as they moved or hopped towards the door. Once in the elevator they continued suiting up as it raced to the roof. Then they piled into a black helicopter with blades that were already spinning.

  Once everyone was in the pilot took off into the sky and angled north. “I can’t believe that we got a breach,” the pilot, Roberto, said. “And on a holiday too.”

  “It’s been a long time since the last one,” Emily said. “Where can you set us down?”

  “The wall’s too risky. Given that a section has already fallen, chances are we’ll be shot out of the sky.” With one hand on the controls Roberto used his other to flip through screens on a tablet built into the dash. “Looks like there’s a landing zone by the Dungeon Center just outside of the Boroughs. Though it’s a little far away and does not seem that ideal?”

  “Not really,” Emily said and looked at her party. Each one of them nodded to her. “Where’s the closest we can get without a proper landing zone?”

  “Anywhere you want,” Roberto looked over his shoulder with a big smile on his face. “We just won’t tell the boss is all.”

  As they travelled north Art pointed out the other helicopters that were also in flight. Emily could tell right away that one of them was from the second rank guild. It was painted red and gold and should be from the Break Angels. They used those colors and it fit the guild image to have an ostentatious looking helicopter.

  The second helicopter was indistinct like the one that they flew in. And it could be either from the Dungeon Center or from any of the other top ranking guilds. It continued going west and was probably going to the Dungeon Center. Which meant that they might be from the DC. While the Angels’ one followed closely behind their own helicopter for a time before heading east.

  Emily found herself gasping along with the others when the wall came into sight. Only a few lights on the inside were still lit. Amongst the darkness it was hard to tell where the breach was at first. And it was only after using the whiteness of the walls as contrast that they were able to see just how bad the breach was.

  “It’s larger than I thought it would be,” Janice said. Emily swatted Art before he could add anything unnecessary.

  “What? I’m innocent this time. Haven’t said a thing.” Instead of answering him she swatted him again. “You make an off color retro joke one time and they never let you live it down.”

  “I mean. I assumed that he could go somewhere with that. So I kind of set that up for Art. Sorry Em,” Janice said.

  There was an explosion between their location and the wall as a gout of flame barreled skywards. “That’s about it then, any closer and we might not make it,” Roberto said. He angled the helicopter downwards and landed in an empty intersection.

  “Thanks Roberto.” Emily clasped him on the arm. “You get back into the air and we’ll call if we need you,” she said while the rest of the party jumped onto the ground. Art scanned the surroundings to check for hostiles, Janice slammed her sword and shield and started warming up, while Pao stood ready for anything and everything that may come.

  Emily spared a glance at the helicopter as it took off and then started jogging down the street that led north. There were screams already sounding out in the night. People hadn’t had a chance to evacuate to the shelters. Many were caught at home still. And to make matters worse due to the holiday they would be even more people in the Boroughs than usual.