Chapter 3

  Day 1 since the Rift opened:

  Thank God for good people. And for the laughter that old friends bring even in the darkest times. None of us knows what will happen next. None of us knows if what has happened to us is permanent or what these new “classes” mean. But the sadistic humor that comes from these three ranger buddies getting back together for the first time in years means that we will weather whatever this storm is. Thank God for good friends.

  Morning came with no special fanfare and nothing exceptional happening. Kane and Callie actually woke up thinking it was a terrible dream. Callie hesitated in rolling over; she didn’t want to confirm any of it. She wanted it to be a horrible nightmare brought about by too many movies and not enough sleep. She did eventually roll over, though, and the quiet look of uncertainty on Kane’s face told her he had been hoping the same thing and that it wasn’t a dream. Callie sat up and looked out the window. Everything looked the same. Their master bedroom windows faced the goats to the south, not the north to Ft. Carson. Not towards where the dark spot Kane had seen was.

  Callie got up, did her usual morning routine, but she paused at the foot of the bed, looking at Kane as he checked his phone. Stern was the first to check in last night when he hit Oklahoma, telling them others he had talked to at the gas stations were reporting seeing the same thing over almost every major military base in the south. Phillip checked in, too; they had gotten delayed by a road closure when trying to pass into Colorado, so they were taking a longer route but still slowly heading south. We hadn’t heard from Stern again, which was worrying Callie, and she could tell by Kane’s face that it was concerning him too.

  “Anything else from last night that I missed?” Callie asked, hoping she just didn’t wake up for one of the check-ins.

  “Got a text from Phillip that they are about an hour out, all the major highways and interstates were shut down. He finally couldn’t take it anymore and let Carlie drive, so they are moving at a slower pace because, as he put it, she drives slower than him,” Kane said, still looking at his phone, “Last message I got from Stern was that he had made it into Oklahoma, but was starting to run into the same issues Phillip had, that the major highways and the interstate was closed. Because they have the camper, Stern was going to find someplace to sleep.”

  “Okay, so go get breakfast ready because we are about to have guests?” Callie muttered to herself as she walked out of the bedroom.

  Sitting on the couch, the twins were already up and looking out the window towards Ft Carson. Neither was saying much, but looks of concern mixed with fear were on both of their faces.

  “Girls, are you okay?” Callie asked as she turned to look out the window as well. Looking out to the sky over Ft. Carson and the mountains was definitely a lot darker than it was yesterday. Callie wasn’t sure if she was seeing it right, but it almost looked like multicolored lightning was coming from the dark spot, but it wasn’t expanding past the edge of the darkness. Outside of the dark, the sky was the typical Colorado blue. It gave an even more menacing look to the darkness.

  “Things were dropping out of the dark spot a little bit ago. If the lightning is going on, nothing drops out,” Eliza said while still watching.

  “It's not nice in there,” Josie said.

  “No, I don’t think it would be nice in there with the lightning, Josie. Eliza, how long have you girls been watching?” Callie asked, walking closer to the window. She heard Kane get out of bed at the noise of their talking.

  “I don’t know, we wanted to go check on the goats and do morning chores, but we didn’t think you would want us to go outside alone,” Eliza said, getting up from the couch.

  “Thank you for not going without us.” Kane yawned as he came out of the bedroom, throwing on a shirt.

  “We need,d to go out and check on the animals and feed everyone. Do you want the girls to go with us? They can’t stay inside all day,” Callie asked hesitantly.

  Kane just stared at her. Finally, he signed and looked down at his twin girls. ‘Do dangerous things safely.’ That is what he and Callie had heard once and were trying to implement in raising their girls. It was a dangerous world before all of this; now there was an unknown to the danger they and their girls would be facing.

  “Phillip and Stern’s kids have been outside, so they probably all have their classes. We will need help with the animals, especially if all of them can talk. Lord help us if all 40-plus chickens can talk. They were loud enough without putting words to the noise.” Kane said, trying to get the girls to giggle.

  “Charzar will have a lot to say!” Josie exclaimed, running to put on her shoes.

  “Socks!” Callie yelled after her daughter. Why, at 10, that girl couldn’t remember to put on socks before shoes, she would never figure out.

  A few minutes later, and a lot of whining about shoes with or without socks, the four of them were ready to head outside. As they were reaching for the door, out of the bedroom came lumbering Zeus.

  “Wait for me!” Zeus yelled, leaping over the corner of the couch to get to the door faster.

  "NO!!!!” Callie and Kane yelled, pulling the door shut before Zeus could escape.

  “I have to pee! Let me out!” Zeus exclaimed while also whining.

  Kane looked at Callie and the girls and then opened the door for Zeus. Zeus relieved himself very quickly and was back at the door.

  “Food, food, food,” Zeus kept repeating while jumping at the door.

  Kane opened the door, “We will feed you when we come back in.”

  “Aww,” Zeus sulked, but lay down by the edge of the couch next to his bowl.

  Kane opened the door and ushered Eliza and Josie outside.

  Josie froze as soon as she stepped outside. Eliza squeezed past her but also stopped midstep as surely the system realized they were there and was now sending the same message Kane and Callie had gotten the day before. It didn’t take long before Josie straightened and then walked down the stairs like nothing had happened. Confused, Callie started to follow her.

  “Dad! I’m a Harry Potter!” Eliza squealed with excitement.

  “A what?” Kane said, suddenly realizing he still had his hand on the door but hadn’t grabbed his rifle.

  “I’m a wizard!” Eliza said, smiling from ear to ear.

  “Callie!” Kane yelled. He had seen Harry Potter but hadn’t paid much attention, and he had never had any interest in reading the books. He knew what a wizard was from his games, but could not relate to why his daughter was so excited about being a wizard.

  “Kane, just deal with it,” Callie threw back over her shoulder, finally catching up to Josie, who was nearly at the boy goats' pen.

  “Josie, are you okay?” Callie asked as she tried to gently grab her daughter's shoulder.

  Josie turned, looked at her mom, “Yup, I already knew.” And turned back to the goats, like she hadn’t just said something incredibly confusing.

  “You already knew? What did you already know, Josie?” Callie asked, stunned at her daughter's response.

  “I knew I was special. Mom, Greg is giving Turbo a hard time,” Josie said, walking closer to the pen like nothing unusual had just happened or that she had just said something just as strange. Callie looked back at Eliza and Kane. Eliza was doing a little dance coming down the steps, heading towards her. Kane looked exhausted but now had his rifle in his hand. She didn’t think he had slept much last night, and it was showing in his body at that moment as he came down the stairs. Eliza changed her little dance to a fancy skip on her way up to the goats. She stopped short of Josie as she heard the goats fighting.

  “I told you no!” They heard who they thought was Turbo talking to the younger male, Greg.

  “You’re no fun!” Greg was saying.

  “What is happening right now!?” Callie exclaimed, hearing her goats talk for the first time.

  “Greg is wanting to escape, but I told him again, if we are going to get out the only proper way to do it is by force and force alone. Jumping off the house is much too undignified,” Turbo said with such a matter-of-fact nature that Callie could only nod her head in agreement.

  “Wait, why are you trying to escape in the first place?” Callie asked, quickly followed by, “Why am I asking a goat!”

  “Mom, I’m hungry, and I know where there is a great cactus that just went into bloom. I want it before this big oaf gets it!” Greg explained.

  “Mom? That is unsettling to hear from a goat.” Callie thought. She turned and headed towards the shed to get the chicken feed. She normally fed the chickens while the girls worked on feeding the goats.

  As soon as she opened the shed, the barn cats came spilling out, hissing and crying as they went. The momma cat and her kitten stopped just a few leaps out of the barn. After a few seconds, the sweetest voice came to their ears.

  “Good gracious, that was rather unpleasant.” Momma Melody, the cat, said as she jumped up onto the little bench next to the shed, “Come, Casper, time to go hunting.”

  Sleek Melody was followed by her kitten as they went off towards the garden area.

  “Mom?” Eliza grabbed Callie’s arm and was pointing to the dark spot, “The lightning stopped, something will drop out soon.”

  Callie looked towards the dark spot, and sure enough, as her eyes fixed on the spot, it did in fact look like something had fallen out. Whatever it was, it was pretty big, and it looked like it dropped but then corrected itself and flew into town. As soon as the object flew off, the lightning started again.

  “Is it always just one object?” Callie asked, still looking north.

  “No,” Josie said as she went into the shed.

  Callie looked towards her daughter, just ‘no’. No elaboration, no further details, just ‘no’. The matter-of-fact way Josie was handling all of this was getting a bit unsettling for Callie. Eliza looked from her mom to Josie and back, shrugged, and then entered the shed to get the buckets of feed for the goats ready. Kane finally made his way up the shed. His rifle was now slung across his shoulder, and he was looking around. Callie wasn’t sure if he was looking for danger, looking at the animals, or just looking to look.

  As the twins came out of the shed carrying the feed buckets for the goats, Callie remembered herself and went into the shed to get the chicken feed. As she walked towards the chicken runs with the two buckets of feed, she realized that the squawking wasn’t as loud as it normally was. She started looking for her chickens; normally, feed time was quite a chorus of squawking and wing flapping. Today, just a couple of chirps could be heard.

  “What are you looking at? We’re hungry!” Squawking Charzar in a strangely gangster-esque tone.

  “Where is the rest of the flock?!” Callie exclaimed.

  “Oh, those dimbats! After Charleen and I came outside this morning and got our talking to by the system, those heretical nutbags are refusing to come out!” Charzar squawked again, puffing himself up.

  “Heretical what?!” Callie was stunned. Did her chickens have a religion she didn’t know about?

  “Those egg-swooning dust for brains think the system will take their eggs from them like the ‘mighty hand’ does, so they won’t come out.” Charzar ruffed his feathers, his statement dripping with sarcasm.

  “Mighty hand? Are you kidding me?” Callie thought.

  “Well, I guess you and... uh . . . Charleen, are just going to get all the food then,” Callie said as she opened up the feed slot and dumped the bucket in.

  “Don’t bother me none, those nitwits can think whatever they want, I found my skills list, I got something called TRUE STRIKE, that damn pigeon that’s been bothering me for months doesn’t know what's coming to her!” Charzar squawked as he pecked at the food.

  Callie stood there stunned, a skills list, what was a skills list!? And TRUE STRIKE, what was going on?! Callie shook her head. She needed to finish the morning chores. Phillip and his family wouldn’t be long now; she needed to get inside and get going with the day.

  Callie walked over to the other chicken run where they kept the younger meat birds separated from their older laying hens. These birds were all out, but looking around and not squawking like they normally did.

  “Uh, morning?” Callie said questioningly as she started to pour the bucket of food into the feed chute.

  All 30 birds looked at Callie and fell silent of the little noises they were making.

  “MINE!!!!” screamed one of the birds running to the feed chute. The rest of the chickens started screaming “mine, mine, mine” as the whole flock rushed to gobble up their breakfast.

  “Well, at least that hasn’t changed,” Callie thought as she walked back towards the shed, looking for the twins as she went.

  She found them with Fearne, Mabel, Blonde, and the 4 babies. The 4 babies were contentedly nibbling on the grain in their feeder, as well as Mabel and Fearne. Blonde, on the other hand, was standing next to Josie getting pets. That was pretty normal for Blonde; she was such a sweet girl that she normally got pushed out by the other goats during feeding time. Josie usually left a little extra grain in her bucket so Blonde could come over and get some of the feed uncontested. Either Blonde had already finished her treat this morning, or she wasn’t hungry. She was just standing there with Josie.

  “Everything okay?” Callie asked, walking up to the fence.

  “Yup,” Josie stared into the distance, still petting Blonde.

  “Good morning, Mom,” Blonde said to Callie, “I was just helping Josie find her skills. It can be tricky the first time you look, the babes had issues too, but they are so young the system limited them. Thank goodness.”

  “Yeah, I just heard about this skills list. What is it?” Callie asked, still dumbfounded that she was asking one of her animals for help. Kane came up next to her and was silently listening and watching the goats eat.

  “It’s the next slide of the list,” Jonny Boy startled them as he suddenly appeared right next to the fence.

  “Umm, how do I get to the list?” Callie asked.

  “Oh! I cock my head,” Jonny Boy said as he cocked his head to the right, “See!”

  “Jonny Boy, you sweet boy, they can’t see what you see,” Blonde said, “but that is how we found it. We bent our heads and then turned where we were looking, and the list changed.”

  Callie tried cocking her head to the right. Nothing happened. She cocked her head to the left, and suddenly, transparent words appeared in front of her.

  LEVEL: 1

  CLASS: CLERIC

  ARMOR: -

  WEAPONS: -

  HEALTH: 100%

  BONUS: WISDOM

  “Huh, that’s . . . . different,” Callie mumbled to herself.

  “Turn to look to your right a little, and the next list will come up,” Blonde was saying.

  Callie looked to the right a little bit, but the text didn’t follow her vision. She did realize the words weren’t solid; she could see through them. And in the bright light and the blue sky behind it made it harder for her to read than if she were looking at the ground or the dark shed. Good to note, the words weren’t really there, and they wouldn’t always be easy to read.

  SKILLS:

  PASSIVE SPELLS:

  *SELECT ONE*

  SPELLS:

  *SELECT TWO*

  “How do I choose something? And how do I choose something I know nothing about?!” Callie said out loud, accidentally, feeling her anxiety and the feeling of getting overwhelmed start creeping over her.

  As she said this, she moved her hand subconsciously to try to touch the ‘SELECT ONE’ at the top. A list appeared. Callie saw the word GUIDANCE suddenly appear. Callie moved her finger down a little, and MENDING appeared. Callie went back up to GUIDANCE and made a motion to tap. Bolder words appeared on top of the existing list, but they had a square behind them so they could be read clearly. It reminded her of a pop-up window on a computer, but she could still see the words, however faintly, underneath.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  TOUCH A WILLING CREATURE AND GUIDE THEM ON THE PATH YOU WANT THEM TO GO

  As soon as Callie lowered her finger, the brighter words went away, and the ‘Skills’ list came back into full view.

  “Okay,” Callie thought, “now how do I get out of this? I don’t want to be doing this outside.”

  Callie lowered her chin, nothing. She tried looking at the sky. Nothing. She cocked her head to the right. Nothing. She tried the left. Nothing. In exasperation, Callie shook her head. The words went away.

  “Okay, we are getting somewhere,” Callie thought, then out loud, “Thank you, Blonde.”

  Blonde looked up from the grain she was attempting to sneak from next to Mabel. “You are very welcome, dear. Please take care of Josie and Eliza. They are sweet darlings, Mom.”

  Callie looked stunned as Blonde went back to trying to steal some grain. Callie looked around for Eliza and Josie. They were sitting on top of the pile of pallets on the other side of the shed, talking quietly to each other. Kane was still standing next to her, but his fingers were moving, so he must be in a list.

  “Kane, shake your head, let’s go inside,” Callie said, tapping Kane on the arm.

  Kane shook his head, looked at Callie, then looked for the girls. Without another word, he headed over to the girls, told them it was time to go in, and then headed towards the house. Callie sighed, looked down at Charlotte and Jonny Boy grazing in the field, and went inside herself. Time to look at the options for their new skills.

  Callie locked the door behind her, looking to the living room where Kane and the twins were. Kane looked lost in thought, already sitting on the couch, maybe in a menu list? Josie was standing at the window watching again. Eliza sat on the opposite side of the couch from Kane with a strange smile on her face. They must be in menus, but what was Josie doing?

  Callie walked over to Josie, but before she could touch her daughter, “I’m fine, Mom,” Josie said, still staring out the window.

  Callie didn’t have it in her to ask anything else. She looked around and went to sit at the kitchen table. Before she sat down, she paused, turned, and grabbed the scratch pad that was always on the counter with a pen next to it. Sitting down with her pen and paper, she opened her menu and swiped right.

  SKILLS:

  PASSIVE SPELLS:

  *SELECT ONE*

  SPELLS:

  *SELECT TWO*

  “Okay, here we go.” Callie thought as she moved to make the first selection.

  A list of words popped up. She had already looked at GUIDANCE, and MENDING could be interesting. RESISTANCE, resistance to what she thought? SACRED FLAME was the last thing on the list. Callie clicked on RESISTANCE.

  TOUCH A WILLING CREATURE TO REDUCE THEIR DAMAGE FOR A DURATION OF TIME

  “Okay, that could be helpful,” Callie thought. She moved back up to MENDING.

  “If this is what I think it is, where was this when the goats punched through the fencing yesterday?” Callie smirked to herself, but then realized the absurdity that something good could come from this.

  REPAIR A BREAK OR TEAR IN A SINGLE ITEM YOU TOUCH UP TO ONE PLANETARY FOOT

  “Planetary? What is that supposed to mean? Is this thing not from here?” Callie was about to say something to Kane when she noticed the time. Phillip and his family should have already been there. Callie slid her finger down and tried to close the menu.

  SELECTION MADE

  Quickly flashed in the air before disappearing.

  “What did I select?!” Callie exclaimed to herself as she heard a car door shut outside.

  “INTRUDER!!!!! INVADER!!!! I GET YOU!!!!” Zeus yelled while simultaneously barking as he ran from the master bedroom to the front door.

  Kane instinctively grabbed the rifle that was leaning against the couch and headed to the door.

  “Get back, Zeus!” Kane yelled as he pushed past the dog to look out the window next to the door.

  “DAD!!!! LET ME OUT!!!!” Zeus continued to bark and scream.

  Callie saw Kane start to smile, “It’s okay, Zeus, they are friends, you know them, but it has been a while.” Kane leaned his rifle against the wall and opened the front door.

  As Kane opened the door, Callie saw that Carlie was getting her youngest daughter out of the van. Cosette was already running ahead of her dad up the stairs. Kane threw his arms open as he bent down to hug Cosette, the 8-year-old nearly flew into Kane’s arms. Phillip stopped at the bottom of the steps and smiled at his daughter and best friend with tired but happy eyes.

  “Those last couple hours were rough, man,” Phillip said, finally heading up the stairs for his own hug now that his daughter had run inside the house.

  “Let’s get everyone and everything inside and then let's talk,” Kane said as Zeus came flying out the door, nearly knocking over Cosette on his way and ramming himself against Phillip, who had to take a step back down the stairs from the momentum.

  “FRIEND! FRIEND! FRIEND!” Zeus nearly yelled as he leaned HARD into Phillip.

  “AH! What the fuck!” Phillip murmured through the exhale of air caused by Zeus.

  “Yeah, they can all talk.” Kane said as he slipped past Phillip and Zeus to greet Carlie and Giana, “Hey, little G, how are you, Carlie?”

  “We made it, that is all that matters right now. I don’t know if we will make it back home, though,” Carlie said sadly as she hugged her daughter a little tighter.

  “We will figure it out,” Kane said, giving her a quick hug, and then went to the back of the van to start grabbing their bags.

  “Zeus, get your ass back inside and get off him!” Callie said, finally making it outside.

  Zeus took a sad look at Phillip and tried to do pouty eyes at Callie. Which did not change the stern look on Callie’s face, so Zeus lumbered off to go ‘check the perimeter’ instead of listening to the first command Callie gave him. Mostly, it just meant he was going to sniff around until he found the right cactus to pee or poop on. Those cacti needed to be reminded who was boss, and Zeus wasn’t going to give them a day off.

  “Hi, Phillip,” Callie said, hugging Phillip when he settled onto the top step, “Glad you’re here.”

  “Yeah, we are too,” Phillip said as they heard cheerful giggling and chatter coming from inside. It had been maybe a year since the Tracy Family, Phillip’s family, and the Gonthar Family, Kane’s family, had gotten together, but for the girls, it was like no time had passed. Even Josie was talking along with Cosette and Eliza. They probably had a lot to talk about before the events of yesterday, but now they couldn’t contain themselves.

  “Any word from Stern?” Phillip asked as Kane walked past with a couple of bags.

  “Nothing, either he hasn’t made it to the Colorado border yet, or he couldn’t pause to talk; either way, something isn’t right,” Kane said, barely slowing his pace and heading downstairs to their guest rooms.

  Phillip just nodded and headed back down the stairs to grab more bags from the van. They had initially only planned to be there for a week, but the challenge to get through or around the roadblocks, Phillip got the sense that a week was just the start of how long they were going to stay now. Unlike Kane and his family, Phillip’s family didn’t have a reason to go back to Minnesota.

  Yeah, they had jobs and the kids had school, but they didn’t have animals, they didn’t have property, and the family they cared the most about was going to be here. His parents were out of the country on vacation, and he hadn’t talked to his biological brother in years. Carlie’s family was in Colorado, but further into the mountains, who knows if they could get to them if they wanted to right now.

  While Phillip was deep in thought, Carlie had made her way up the steps and was hugging Callie. They hadn’t talked much in the last year since they had been together last. Life had moved fast for Carlie with a newly walking toddler and a first grader who wanted to try everything, and for Callie too, with her twins. But when they had talked, it was always exactly what the other needed to keep going. Callie was glad that if disaster struck, which she didn’t even know if this was a disaster or what it was, she at least had people she could trust and rely on with her.

  “You okay, Carlie?” Callie asked as they let go of the embrace.

  “Yeah, I didn’t sleep much last night. We were going to stop in Rapid City to see Mt Rushmore with the kids. But when we saw the lightning and the wind, Phillip decided to push forward and just get here. I’m glad we didn’t stop. There are roadblocks everywhere. It looked like the National Guard was deployed.” Carlie said through the hair of a squirming Giana. She finally put the child down just inside the door and watched her over-confident three-year-old hobble off towards her sister.

  “Why would the National Guard be deployed? What don’t we know?” Callie whispered to herself more than to her friend, shaking her head as she held the door open for Phillip.

  “Come inside, I know you don’t drink coffee normally, but is today an exception?” Callie asked, turning to close the door behind Phillip and Carlie.

  “HEY! WAIT FOR ME!” Zeus yelled as he sprinted up the stairs and into the house, nearly knocking over Giana in the process. The toddler, for her part, looked shocked but grabbed onto Zeus, making him whelp a little.

  “Zeus, you deserved that. Be nice to the baby!” Eliza yelled between giggles with her sister and Cosette.

  “Actually, yeah, coffee sounds like what I need.” Carlie said as the two ladies, forgetting about their men, stepped into the kitchen.

  Downstairs, Phillip and Kane took advantage of not having their wives and kids around to talk.

  Kane, “What did you see out there?”

  Phillip, “I’m not sure what I saw. Where do you want me to start?”

  “Why not start with the flash? Callie and I saw pretty much the same thing, but from different angles. You said you saw it over Ellsworth Air Force Base? Stern said it happened at Benning, too, but I didn’t want to ask for details over the phone.”

  “Okay, let’s start there . . . “ Phillip proceeded to describe almost the same thing that happened above Fort Carson, the lightning that appeared over Ellsworth had less colour to it, but still the wind, and then the dark spot after the flash. Phillip wasn’t as close to the dark spot as Kane had been and sounded like he was even further than Callie was.

  “Okay, after the wind, what happened? I had a . . . ‘system message’ as soon as I opened my car door. It was like whatever it was didn’t see me or recognize me until I was out of my truck, or Callie until she was out of the house.”

  “Yeah, we had the same thing happen when we got out to take the kids to the bathroom. Carlie got labeled as a fighter class. If she weren’t so freaked out, I think she would find that hilarious. She was always a fighter, I wouldn’t have married her if she wasn’t, but for that to be her class? Cosette is a bard; it seems fitting, right, that child came out of her mom dancing and singing. What I don’t get is I don’t think Giana was recognized. Carlie spent the better part of an hour trying to talk to her after we all got back in the van. Either she didn’t get a class or she isn’t telling us.”

  Kane, looking down, “We didn’t let the girls go outside till this morning. I wanted to be sure Callie and I were okay before I let them go out. Eliza is a wizard, Josie . . . Well, now that I think of it, I have no idea what Josie is; maybe Callie knows. Callie got cleric. It kind of sounds like some of the computer games I play, but it sounds more like that table game. Umm, remember that kid in the regiment, what was his name... Anders? Anderson? That’s not right. Anyway, that kid who was always trying to get us to go down to the coffee shop and play DnD? Aren’t these classes a part of that game?”

  Phillip, “Holy shit, you’re right. Afterson convinced me to go after you got out. It was fun, but it was weird. I went back one more time. Afterson had me playing as something called a warlock, and said it was easy to play, but damn, having to keep track of the spells and shit, hope rogues don’t have any of that.”

  Kane, “Could we really be in a game? Who or what would be so fucked up as to put us in a game?”

  Phillip, laughing, said, “I don’t know, but those creatures definitely weren’t from here.”

  Kane suddenly looked up, becoming very concerned, “What creatures?”

  Phillip, with a slight smile on his face, “You haven’t seen them yet? They came from the dark spot; there is another dark spot up by Denver, and we saw things coming out of it. I know the guardsmen were trying to get it out of sight, but I caught a glimpse of what looked like a giant lizard, but it had more of a bird head, beak, and everything.”

  “You saw what?” Kane exclaimed, but was still trying not to be too loud as to alert the wives and kids upstairs.

  Phillip, “I don’t know what I saw, but it was just as we were coming over the Colorado border. There were some National Guard blocking the road and turning people around. Just south and west, I saw a big tent and the guardsmen were . . . I don’t know... fighting this lizard bird creature into the tent. Dude, it was at least twice their size, and I have no idea how long.”

  Kane stood upright in silence with deep concern etched on his face. Phillip sat down on the guest bed.

  Phillip, “I don’t know what to tell you. From there, I turned off the main road, backtracked a little, and found a county road that took us into Colorado. We tried going to Ft Morgan to see if we could get back on the highway heading south, but there were barricades up. I didn’t want to get stuck being interrogated, or worse, told to go back the way we had come, so we just hit the 2 lanes and dirt roads all the way down.”

  Kane finally relaxed his stance and nodded a little, “I’m glad you made it.”

  Phillip nodded, his sheepish smile turning into a full mischievous grin, “Me too. Oh! Are large turtles native here?”

  Kane stared at Phillip for a moment, then responded with, “What do you mean, large turtles? We have box turtles and some tortoises, but they are the size of your hand.”

  “No, this was almost the size of the minivan, if I saw it right, it was a ways off, but when we were on the dirt road just south of Colorado Springs, there was a turtle-looking thing on top of one of the hills. I couldn’t tell which way it was going, and to be honest, I was so tired I didn’t get a good look at it.”

  Kane said, contemplatively, “I think we need to start doing security details. Whatever is going on, we need to assume it is dangerous until proven otherwise for the sake of our girls.”

  Phillip, “Agreed, but I’m telling you now, the adrenaline and good feelings for making it are starting to wear off. I need sleep.”

  Kane nodded and a slight smile, “You never could handle CQ. Anything else from the van that needs to come in?”

  Phillip laughed, “Fuck you, man, you hated it too, it's why you couldn’t handle another round in the regiment.”

  Both of them laughed privately, thinking of those miserable 24-hour plus shifts handling drunks and idiots.

  Phillip finally said, “I think there might be one more bag that needs to come in immediately, but I’d check with Carlie. She packed up the van while I finished securing the house.”

  A sad look suddenly came over Phillip’s face.

  Kane, “Hey, you’ll see the house again, we’ll figure out what all this is about.”

  Phillip, “Naw, screw the house, there wasn’t anything there for us besides jobs, we can get jobs anywhere.” There was still sadness in Phillip’s eyes, but a small smile hit the rest of his face.

  Kane, “Get some sleep, I’ll go check in with Carlie and Callie. You get the night shift.”

  “Screw you, man, I’ll be up in 4 hours. You can take the night shift, it’s your house,” Phillip laughed as he took off his shoes and climbed onto the bed.

  “Hey, have you figured out how to pick your ‘skills’ yet?” Kane paused at the door to ask.

  “Yeah, Carlie figured it out. It didn’t give me any options. I apparently have a grapple skill and something called UNARMED STRIKE. Carlie has the same. I have no idea what the kid picked. She spent most of the time after getting back in the van giggling and waving her hand in the air.” Phillip said with noticeable exhaustion in his voice this time.

  “Thanks, man, sounds similar to mine, but I have some spells I apparently need to pick,” Kane said.

  “Sucks to be you, man,” Phillip trailed off, unable to stay awake any longer.

  “Wimp,” Kane softly laughed as he headed towards the stairs.

  As Kane headed up the stairs, he heard Callie and Carlie quietly talking, and the kids loudly talking and giggling. Kane paused halfway up the stairs for a few moments, soaking in the joyful noises of his kids and their friends. Large morphed creatures were here, and he didn’t know if they were coming towards them or going away from them. What could he do to defend his family?

  He finished walking up the stairs. He walked over to his wife and kissed her on the forehead and said, “I’m going to make my selections in the menu list thing, and then I want to check the perimeter. Phillip is sleeping for a couple of hours.”

  Then he remembered, “Carlie, anything else in the van that needs to come in? I don’t want either of you or the kids outside until Phillip and I verify it’s okay.”

  “If the four suitcases are in, the only things left would be the girls' backpacks and their stuffed animal bag; those can wait till later, though,” Carlie said, picking up Giana, who had just come over with her arms outstretched.

  Kane just nodded and walked into the bedroom. Their house wasn’t small, but with the kids occupying the living room and the wives in the kitchen, the lazy boy in his and Callie’s bedroom was his escape. Finding comfort in the well-worn recliner, Kane sat down and opened up his menu.

  LEVEL: 1

  CLASS: RANGER

  ARMOR: -

  WEAPONS: RIFLE

  HEALTH: 100%

  BONUSES: DEXTERITY AND CONSTITUTION

  BUFFS / DEBUFFS: EXHAUSTION 1

  “Buffs, that's new,” Kane thought as he scrolled right to see the skills menu.

  SKILLS:

  ATTACK ABILITIES:

  UNARMED STRIKE

  DAMAGE

  GRAPPLE

  SHOVE

  SPELLS:

  HUNTERS MARK

  *SELECT 2*

  Kane moved over the ‘SELECT 2’ and suddenly a dozen options scrolled in front of him.

  “BEAST BOND sounds interesting,” Kane thought, “Wait, did I see ALARM?”

  Kane selected ALARM to get the description.

  SET AN ALARM AGAINST INTRUSION

  “Well, that seems self-explanatory. But it could be good to have alarms set. I wonder if it works like our house alarm does?” Kane thought, continuing to scroll.

  “DETECT POISON AND DISEASE could also be useful if it is as self-explanatory as ALARM was.” Kane thought briefly, pausing on it. Then Kane saw SNARE and clicked on it.

  DRAW A CIRCLE ON THE GROUND TO SET YOUR MAGICAL TRAP

  “That could be really helpful!” Kane thought as he did one final scroll through the other options, but did not click on anything else.

  “ALARM and SNARE it is,” Kane mumbled quietly to himself, “I need to protect my family.”

  “Kane, are you okay?” Callie said, suddenly appearing in the doorway.

  “Yeah, just making my selections,” Kane said, getting up from the chair as he closed out of the menus.

  “Okay, the kids are hungry, so I’m going to make an early lunch. Do you want anything?”

  “Not right now, I’m going to go take a walk outside,” Kane said, looking around for his rifle. In the excitement of Phillip showing up, Kane forgot he had left it next to the door.

  “Okay, can you leave the front door open so we can hear you if you need us?” Callie asked as Kane kissed her on the forehead again as he walked past.

  “Yeah, just don’t go outside, please,” Kane said, debating if he should tell her about the creatures Phillip had seen. In the end, he opted not to worry her any further. If Carlie had told her about them, Callie was either handling it better than he expected or putting on a good face. But if Carlie hadn’t told her, he wanted to give her a few more hours before adding another worry onto her plate.

  “Have you finished making your selections?” Kane asked, looking back at his wife, who hadn’t moved from the doorway.

  “No, I suppose I should get that done with,” Callie said, looking down at her hands that she had unconsciously been extending and contracting.

  “Mom! I have FIRE BOLT and MAGIC MISSILE!” Eliza suddenly said, nearly jumping over the couch towards her mom.

  “Umm, wow!” Callie said, barely recovering from the shock of hearing her daughter say ‘fire’ and ‘magic’ in the same sentence.

  “And I can make DANCING LIGHTS and colorful lights,” Cosette said excitedly from next to Eliza.

  Josie also turned around with a big smile on her face.

  “What about you, Josie?” Callie asked.

  “I can talk to animals,” Josie said through a big smile.

  “That sounds like fun, girls. What did you want for lunch?” Callie said, moving towards the kitchen again as she heard the screen door shut behind Kane.

  After many shouted answers and lots of back and forth, Callie and Carlie decided on mac and cheese and some ground beef. Carlie cut up some carrots for the kids to munch on while they waited for the water to boil for the mac and cheese. Thankful that Carlie was there, Callie took a few moments to open her menu. She needed to finish selecting whatever it was she was going to select.

  LEVEL: 1

  CLASS: CLERIC

  ARMOR: -

  WEAPONS: -

  HEALTH: 100%

  BONUS: WISDOM

  She swiped to the right again.

  SKILLS:

  PASSIVE SPELLS:

  RESISTANCE

  SPELLS:

  *SELECT TWO*

  “Well, that settles one of the issues.” Callie thought as she saw that her accidental selection was RESISTANCE.

  “Now to choose the rest.” She sighed.

  A dozen options came flying into view. CURE WOUNDS caught her eye immediately. She clicked on it.

  TOUCH A CREATURE TO EITHER PARTIALLY OR FULLY HEAL IT

  “Yes!” Callie softly sighed.

  “You okay?” Carlie asked with concern next to her.

  “Yeah, I am trying to make my final selections. I found something called CURE WOUNDS.”

  “That would be incredibly helpful!” Carlie smiled, “Stop jumping on the couch!” Her smile went away as she realized what their kids were doing behind them.

  “Okay, one more,” Callie thought, bringing her attention back onto the selections while stirring the pasta she had dumped into the boiling pot.

  As Callie scrolled through the selections again, she finally went back and forth between PROTECTION FROM GOOD AND EVIL and SANCTUARY. The advantage of the protection spell was obvious; she could protect someone, but only one. SANCTUARY seemed to act much the same way. But which one would be better?

  Then she saw it, DETECT EVIL AND GOOD. She clicked to see what that was.

  SENSE WHETHER THE CREATURES WITHIN *30* PLANETARY FEET ARE EVIL OR NOT

  Callie made her final selection. She wasn’t sure if choosing to detect evil was better than being able to protect from it, but the descriptions said she could only pick one person for protection. If she could detect evil, maybe that would give her or Kane a chance to get both kids to safety. The pasta started boiling over, and Callie had to scramble to turn down the stove before it spilled further. She closed her menu and took a deep breath.

  “At least that is done,” she sighed to herself as she took the pot to the sink to drain the pasta.