Blake yawned and wiped the sleep from his eyes as he stomped down the stone stairs to the faction hall’s basement. When he reached the cell that held Major Dominguez and his command staff, he opened the door.

  “Time to go.”

  Two people jerked awake at his words, while two others had to be prodded. It was dawn, and Blake wanted to get an early start on his next expansion town. Monsters would appear in a day, and he needed to have a third faction hall fully constructed before they appeared.

  “Huh,” Major Dominguez wiped his eyes. “What’s happening?”

  “I’m letting you guys go,” Blake explained. “Sorry it took so long, but I’ve been busy."

  At his words, the soldiers perked up. They had been stuck within the cell for a week, with nothing to read but his guide. Even their interface was hobbled, as they could not communicate with the outside world while inside the jail.

  “Have monsters appeared yet?” the Major asked.

  Blake shook his head. “Not for another twenty-four hours. So, I’d hurry home if I were you. Or, you can join us. My faction would love to have more soldiers,” he offered.

  One of the men snorted and shook his head.

  “I wouldn’t dismiss the offer yet,” Blake advised. “My two towns are the only safe places where no monsters appear for over a hundred miles. And, today, I’m going to make a third. My entire goal is to save as many lives as possible.”

  “Could’ve fooled me,” the same man mumbled.

  “Don’t forget, it was you who fired upon me first,” Blake pointedly reminded him. “I was just defending myself and my family. You should also remember that your president continued to attack us, even with you guys here. He didn’t care about your lives, just like your old commanding officer.”

  The man looked away, unable to defend his leader’s actions.

  Major Dominguez cleared his throat. “We were stationed in Phoenix. That’s almost two hundred miles away. Without vehicles, how are we supposed to get home?”

  “Well, I’m willing to give you guys a ride to Payson on one of our trucks. They’re old diesels, retrofitted with a crank start,” he explained. "That’s halfway there, but for the last hundred miles, you’ll have to walk. Sorry, but I want my faction to stay as far away from The Valley as possible.”

  “Why?” the Major asked.

  “Because more monsters appear in the city than the countryside,” Blake replied. “That, and there’s more people with guns. I may be bulletproof, but my men aren’t. Besides, it’s over a hundred and twenty degrees down there. Without AC, who would want to go there?”

  “My wife and kid are stuck in Phoenix,” one of the soldiers replied.

  “And my fiancée is all alone,” said another. “She moved away from her family to stay with me. I need to get back to her.”

  Blake nodded. “I’ll make sure you’re both on the next convoy to Payson. What about the rest of you?” he glanced at the other two men.

  “I’m single,” Major Dominguez admitted. “And, my family lives in LA. Unless you’re willing to give me one of those retro trucks, I don’t see how I can reach them.”

  Blake chuckled. “Sorry, but we need all of them.”

  “Then, I don’t see the point in going back to Phoenix,” the Major replied.

  “There’s an armory in Show Low,” the soldier with a wife and kid reminded him. “They could use your help.”

  Dominguez shook his head. “I don’t know if I can go back. To be honest, I’m kind of pissed at the National Guard, and Warner.” The Major glanced back at Blake. “You said you’re going to be saving people. If I join up, will I be a part of that?”

  Wow, is he actually considering it?

  Blake had no real expectation of recruiting any of them. He assumed they would all laugh in his face and walk away the second he freed them. He essentially only asked to be polite. However, he was more than happy to recruit a soldier who wanted to save lives.

  “Of course,” Blake grinned. “I’m actually about to head out to do just that. We’re going to establish a shelter just outside Eagar today, so people have a safe place to sleep when the monsters come.”

  Major Dominguez stared Blake in the eyes for a full ten seconds before he finally nodded. “I’ll do it. Sign me up.”

  “Me too,” the officer next to him added.

  He nodded and used Analyze on the man to learn his name. “Happy to have you, Jared. What about you two?” Blake turned to address the soldiers with a wife and fiancée.

  “Can’t,” the family man shook his head. “I gotta get home.”

  The other man agreed.

  “Okay, I’ll let Kasey know you two are on the next ride out of here. Jared and Dominguez,” he turned to address his two new recruits. “Come with me. I’ll get you set up with some nano-gear and get you started with a combat skill.”

  “Just call me Antonio,” Major Dominguez corrected him. “I’m not in the military anymore.”

  “Fair enough, Antonio,” Blake nodded in agreement.

  As they ascended the stairs, he invited his two new recruits to the Terran Alliance, and contacted Kasey. When the combat team leader arrived at the lobby with Jeremy and Jimmy, he ran up the stairs to his mother’s office. He entered the empty room, which only a few people had access to, and palmed the faction management sphere.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Blake withdrew sixty mega-nano from the treasury, and rushed back downstairs. He needed twenty mega-nano to construct a level one faction hall, and another forty to supply each of his four new members a combat skill. He was not sure if the two spies had learned one already, but he needed to keep up the facade.

  Once he rejoined the group, he thanked Kasey and took over as tour guide. He led the four men to the armory and let his new members pick out a set of gear. Afterward, he met up with Brent and a few others who had agreed to help build their new expansion.

  They gathered near three diesel trucks. The beds held tents, water, food, and other supplies they would need to last a few weeks. Two of the vehicles towed campers to temporarily house them, and the third pulled a flatbed full of stone and metal. Their target location was just West of Eager, next to a lumber mill. There would be plenty of already cut wood to satisfy their needs.

  “Okay everyone,” Blake announced to the group of twelve people. “Last chance to grab anything you forgot before we leave.”

  Only one of their new non-combatants rushed away, and by the time he returned, they had already started the trucks. Blake decided to keep all four of their new combatants with him. With five people in the extended cab, it was a tight fit, but they would only be cramped for a couple of hours as they drove east.

  Finally, they were on their way.

  As they drove down the empty highway, everyone remained silent. Blake sat in the passenger seat in case he needed to escape in a hurry, while Jeremy drove. After a half an hour, Blake decided to break the tension and learn more about his new combat team.

  “So, what did you think of Kasey?” he asked the driver.

  “Interesting guy,” Jeremy responded carefully. “I wasn’t aware others had powers. I thought you were the only one.”

  “Oh yeah, all of our original combat teams are level one now. Kasey just has a basic class, but he loves his new spell. Did he show it to you?”

  Jeremy nodded. “Yeah, some kind of electrical discharge.”

  “Yep, it’s a mana based spell called Shocking Stun,” Blake explained. “By default, it’s got a range of about twenty feet, and as the title states, stuns the target when it hits. It doesn’t really hurt what it hits, but it’s got a pretty short cast time, and can be used often.”

  “That sounds badass,” Jimmy replied from the back seat. “Can you do that, too?”

  Blake shook his head as he turned. “No, but I can do something similar with Mind Blast. It’s a psionic-based spell that causes a blinding headache, and can actually knock people out if they’re close enough.”

  Jimmy Lee grimaced.

  “I actually evolved it so it can affect multiple people instead of just one,” Blake continued to explain.

  “What all spells do you have?” Jeremy asked.

  Blake turned to face their driver. “Let’s see, my Chi spells are Regeneration and Alacrity. Flame Shield and Gale are my mana based spells, Dampen Sound and Spatial Step are my Aether spells, and Mental Blast and Mind Sense.”

  Jeremy’s brows rose. “That’s a lot. What level are you?”

  “Level two,” Blake replied.

  “That’s because you have an omni-class, right?” Major Dominguez asked in clarification.

  Blake nodded.

  “Why doesn’t everyone go for that if it gets you so many more spells?” Jared asked. “Didn’t you say that Kasey guy only had one?”

  “The guide said it costs eight times more to level, and requires ten achievements,” Antonio Dominguez replied to his subordinate. “Don’t you remember?”

  “How the hell am I supposed to remember all that?” Jared Lesley complained. “It was a shitload of information that read like a video game.”

  “We literally had nothing else to do.” Antonio replied.

  “Antonio’s right,” Blake confirmed. “And the more you can remember, the better. Once you get some more experience fighting, you’ll want to think about what kind of class you want. For now, you four should get to know each other. You’ll form a combat team and run a scenario today while we wait.”

  “Wait for what?” Jimmy asked.

  “For the faction hall to be built,” Blake explained. “Once I start construction, it’ll take six hours before it’s finished. After that, Brent and his laborers can get started on the quarry, wood workshop, and metal workshop. By the time that’s all done, we should have plenty of off-world wood and stone to upgrade the faction hall to level two and build the warehouse.”

  “Okay, I don’t really know what all of that means,” Jared admitted. “But, when do we start saving people?”

  “I already recorded a video and posted it to the Collective’s regional forum. I let people know where we’re going to set up our town and invited them to join us. But, don’t get your hopes up. Most people won’t want to leave their homes until the monsters show up. When that happens, we’ll drive up and down the streets and offer safety. That’s when we’ll get the most people.”

  “How do you know all this stuff?” Antonio asked. “Are you really from the future?”

  Blake sighed. “Yeah, I am. But, for some reason, no matter how many times I tell people, they never believe me.”

  “You gotta admit,” Jeremy responded. “It does seem kind of far-fetched.”

  “More far-fetched than an alien AI invading Earth and eliminating electricity?” Blake asked in disbelief. “What I think is crazy, is how you all question if I’m really from the future, but completely believe me when I say monsters are going to appear tomorrow. How else could I possibly know?”

  “He’s got a point there, Cap.” Jimmy responded with a snort.

  Interesting, did you just let something slip?

  “Cap?” Blake asked innocently. “Is that short for Captain? Are you in the military?”

  “No,” Jeremy answered quickly. “It’s just a nickname. We play a lot of Return to Duty online.”

  Sure you do.

  “Well, real life battle is nothing like video games,” Antonio informed Jeremy. “I was a Major in the National Guard, and my LT here was part of my command staff,” he said as he hooked a thumb towards Jared. “If we’re going into combat together, our team is going to need a leader. Since I have the most experience, I’ll be the one in charge. Do either of you have a problem with that?”

  “Fine with me,” Jimmy answered.

  “No problem here,” Jeremy replied.

  “Okay, good. Since you two are civvies, you’ll need to stick close and follow orders.” Antonio turned to Blake. “What kind of enemy will we be fighting?”

  “Tomorrow, every kind of monster will start to show up in the outside world,” Blake replied. “But, if you’re talking about inside the scenario, it’s Tieflings. The portal’s about a quarter mile away down the Little Colorado River.”

  “What are Tieflings?” Antonio asked.

  “They’re big, red aliens with horns and hooved feet,” Blake answered.

  “Aliens?” Jared asked. “I thought we were only fighting dumb monsters? Are they going to have ray guns or anything?”

  Jeremy chuckled.

  Blake shook his head. “The Architect gets rid of any tech not its own, remember? No, they’ll fight with the same gear and weapons you will.”

  “Do they use tactics, or are they primitive?” Antonio asked.

  “They’re just as smart as you or me,” he answered. “They can talk, and plan ambushes, just like we can.”

  They continued to discuss plans for their future scenario, until they arrived on the barren outskirts of Eager. Blake then turned to Jeremy and pointed out the window. “Turn left up there, that’s where we’re going to set up.”

  As they pulled into the Timberworks’ gravel parking lot, Jeremy said, “Looks like there’s people already here. Is that going to be a problem?”

  A crowd of at least thirty people milled around a campfire. They sat on foldable camp chairs and drank from red plastic cups. Behind them were a line of tents, already set up. Blake spotted multiple wheelbarrows and even some carts, still full of supplies.

  Wow. I didn’t actually expect anyone to show up.

  “Not a problem,” Blake grinned. “Not at all. Looks like we’re going to get more help than I thought.”