Callie and Carlie rounded the corner of the house, running at full speed towards the kids who were already running back from the chicken coop. As they did, the ground stopped shaking. For the briefest second, Callie thought maybe the boys were wrong and it wasn’t coming at them. Then the ground shook so hard it nearly knocked her off her feet; it did knock Giana and the two eight-year-olds off their feet, though.

  Suddenly, Turbo was next to Giana, nudging her to get up with his horns. Blonde and Fearne were next to Cosette and Dani, doing the same. Callie looked past them to see Josie still running from the area of the goat pens.

  “RUN!” Josie yelled, pushing past Turbo to help Giana to her feet.

  Carlie ran up and grabbed Giana and started running back to the house with Turbo at her heels. Blonde and Fearne had gotten their two girls to their feet and were running with them, steadying them as they ran. Josie and Eliza were taking up the rear when suddenly a glowing hand appeared in front of Carlie, who was in the lead of this pack heading towards the front door.

  As the group hit the bottom step, the magic hand opened the front door and then positioned itself at the corner of the house like a shield with its palm facing out. Callie, as she ran past the hand saw that the gesture mimicked one that Eliza was making. With that realization, Callie got behind her daughter as the boys came rounding the corner, nearly running into the palm of the hand. Eliza moved the hand over just enough to let them pass. A brown head covered in shining metal slammed into the hand right after the boys passed it.

  Eliza was thrown backwards as if she were the one hit by the motion. Callie, thankfully, was still behind her and caught her before she fell. Stern had turned as the hand disappeared and took a shot at what did in fact look like a gigantic metal sheeted badger. The bullet ricocheted off the metal face plate, narrowly missing the group of people by the stairs.

  The badger reared up as it twisted around the edge of the house, clawed hands in the air, and let out a deafening scream into the air.

  “Of course, this one would have a normal name!” Phillip yelled as he took a shot at the badger’s chest, giving Stern a chance to retreat to the bottom of the steps where Phillip was shooting from.

  Kane also took a shot at the badger’s chest, but he had opted not to go to the stairs, though, and was out a little way from the deck.

  “Dad!” Josie screamed as she jumped past her mom and sister over the railing of the deck, landing a few steps away from her dad.

  “Josie!” Callie screamed as Josie stretched to touch her dad’s arm.

  “PROTECTION!” Josie screamed as she touched Kane’s arm.

  At the same moment Josie called out, a burst of magic shot from over Phillips' head straight to the badger's face, making it scream louder into the air. A bar showed up over the badger; the bar wasn’t full, but it also wasn’t quite half either. Suddenly, Turbo came from behind Josie and Kane, and a bolt of glowing fire shot out of his forehead straight to the face of the still screaming badger. The health bar went yellow and dropped to just below half.

  The badger shook its head and came back down onto all four legs. It growled and then screamed at the humans and goats. Its health bar filled up to over half.

  “SHIT!!!!!” Stern screamed, heading for the backside of the deck. Phillip backed up onto the deck, where Eliza was now on her feet and Callie behind her. Kane picked up Josie and raced with Stern behind the deck as Turbo turned and ran back towards his pen.

  Suddenly, a cloud of grey came up between the badger and those retreating. The badger growled but backed up, getting a mass of clouds in its face as it tried to swipe it away. Kane, seeing this, looked around. They couldn’t stay where they were, but where could they go? He tapped Stern on the shoulder.

  “Feel like climbing?” Kane asked.

  “I’m too old to climb onto your roof!” Stern proclaimed quietly.

  “No shit! No, get to the fort," Kane said as Stern’s eyes went wide and he got up to move, “Wait! Josie, can you put RESISTANCE on Stern?”

  Josie looked from her dad to Stern, gave a blank stare, then touched Stern’s arm. Stern felt the sensation go from his arm to the rest of his body.

  “Thanks, kid, but get inside," Stern said, picking up Josie and hoisting her over the banister of the deck.

  “Thanks, Stern,” Kane sighed with relief as he saw his daughter disappear inside, “Let’s move.”

  Stern and Kane rushed around the opposite corner of the house.

  Carlie had put Giana on the couch and told her to stay as she scrambled to remember where she had left the shotgun Kane had given her yesterday. She raced downstairs, grabbed the firearm, and, on her way back up the stairs, Cosette nearly ran into her.

  “HERO!” Cosette yelled as she grabbed her mom’s arm on the way past.

  “What?” Carlie blurted out without slowing down.

  Carlie passed Josie going into the house on her way out of the house. Carlie momentarily paused, seeing the grey cloud in front of the badger. Then, catching herself, she pulled Phillip the rest of the way up the stairs. Callie shoved Eliza past Carlie and then turned to help drag Phillip up the remaining stairs.

  “RESISTANCE!” Callie yelled.

  Phillip felt it go over him; even his still oozing arm felt like it had something over it. Phillip turned to look at the two women, then looked over the banister where his friends had been. He caught just Kane’s feet as the two raced around the edge of the house.

  “Get inside!” Phillip cried, trying to push the two women inside the house.

  “No!” Carlie said, thinking Phillip was going to stay outside by himself.

  “Get inside!” Phillip yelled again, shoving hard enough that the three of them tumbled inside. Phillip got up quickly and pushed the door shut.

  “Where are the kids?!” Phillip asked as the women scrambled to their feet.

  “Here!” Dani and Eliza cried simultaneously from the couch where Giana was crying.

  “Down here!” Phillip heard Cosette and Josie cry from downstairs, not quite in unison.

  Phillip ran to the living room window, nearly plowing over Callie in the process. He saw Kane climbing into the fort and Stern scrambling into the playhouse. He saw Stern toss what Phillip assumed was Alexandrus out of the playhouse, just to watch the creature scramble back in next to Stern.

  They heard the badger scream again outside and felt the earth shake. Phillip assumed the badger had reared up and then slammed back down.

  “Stern and Kane are getting into position; we need to get that badger into the backyard!” Phillip yelled to Callie and Carlie as he headed for the stairs.

  “How are we going to do that!?” Callie yelled back at him.

  “I have COLOR SPRAY?” Cosette said at the bottom of the stairs, “Do you think it would like to come to that?”

  “You are not going outside!” Carlie yelled.

  “Wait, do you have anything else?” Phillip asked, heading down the stairs.

  “Phillip! She’s not going outside!” Carlie screamed at her husband, following.

  “DANCING LIGHTS? It says it doesn’t use slots, whatever that means,” Cosette said.

  Callie, following her friend, grabbed her arm, “Trust him.”

  “You trust him!” Carlie yelled at her friend, jerking her arm away, “You aren’t putting my child in danger!”

  “Cosette, cast it as far as you can out the back door. Give Stern and Kane a chance to wound it,” Phillip said softly, leading his daughter to the basement door, ignoring his wife, “After you’ve cast it, get upstairs with your sister.”

  “Okay,” Cosette said, looking from her mom to her dad with a terrified look on her face.

  “Tell me when to open the door, okay?” Phillip asked.

  Cosette took a deep breath, put her hands up, nodded her head. Phillip opened the door and Cosette took a step into the doorway. Callie caught Carlie’s arm so she couldn’t grab her daughter, it took everything Callie had to keep her friend back. Cosette cast the lights onto the path leading to the back of the property. Then without a word, dropped her hands and ran past her mom up the stairs.

  “That’s my girl,” Phillip said quietly with a smile as he walked out the basement door and shut it behind him.

  “It will be okay,” Callie said as Carlie dropped to the ground in front of her, “It will be okay.”

  Phillip looked to his buddies first as he shut the door behind him, then looking over at the camper saw the ladder.

  “Perfect,” he thought, pushing the rifle over his shoulder on the sling and starting the awkward climb up the ladder. Although some feeling was returning to his hand, his arm was still oozing and he didn’t have full control yet. As he was climbing he could hear the badger growling and running to where Cosette’s lights were on the hill. Once at the top of the camper, Phillip realized he hadn’t heard any shots being fired from his friends. He looked over to the fort to see Kane gently looking from him back to the badger. His friend must be waiting to take his shot alerting the creature until Phillip was settled.

  Phillip didn’t waste any time, he quickly settled himself into a prone position, positioning his rifle foregrip on the metal bars of the luggage rack on top of the camper. He needed the extra support with the limited use of his hand. And the added bonus of it kept him tighter against the camper to be hopefully less noticeable. Phillip gave Kane the thumbs up.

  Kane cast HUNTERS MARK on the badger hoping that it didn’t alert the creature right away. As the creature glowed slightly, the trio heard gentle hoofs coming up behind them. Kane looked down and saw Turbo and Greg walking between the swing set fort and the camper.

  “Shit! Quiet, be quiet!” Kane screamed in his head quickly leveling his rifle at the badger.

  The badger stopped swatting at the lights, its ears perked up and a snarl came from its mouth. Turbo and Greg stopped midstep. But it was too late the badger turned and looked at the two idiotic goats. It turned its whole body and extended its long claws digging into the ground.

  “FIRE!” Stern screamed, opening fire on the badger, trying to aim for the spots that weren’t covered in metal.

  Kane started firing at the same time, but he noticed every second or third bullet seemed to be a fireball, catching the badger's fur on fire as the bullets hit. Kane glanced down at Turbo, who was intently staring at him. He gave the goat a quick smile and continued firing.

  Phillip also opened fire on the badger, but with the instability of his injured hand, he could tell his shots weren’t as accurate as Kane’s or Stern's. The badger reared up, screaming into the air and shaking off the burned fur chunks. Something in that scream must have woken up Carlie, because she opened up the basement door and leveled her shotgun at the creature.

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  The health bar was slowly sliding down, but not at a good enough rate, Kane realized. He would be out of ammunition before the creature was down, that was assuming it didn’t regenerate its health in the meantime.

  “Shit!” Kane thought to himself, trying to come up with a plan while still trying to take strategic shots at the creature.

  Suddenly, Zeus was flying through the air, chopping down hard on the back leg of the Badger. Zeus was glowing slightly and was doing his best to show why the Malinois breed earned the nickname of ‘malingator’. He was doing everything in his capabilities to shake the badger's leg loose. For a brief moment, he actually managed to get the badger off balance, making the creature come down hard on its front legs. Unfortunately, with its balance able to be shifted onto the opposite side of Zeus with one quick swing, that badger hit Zeus broadside, sending him flying, narrowly missing the house by 20-some yards.

  “ZEUS!!!!” Kane screamed, getting to a kneeling position in the fort, letting go of the thought of conserving ammunition and just shooting the creature that may have just killed his dog. Through tears and anger, Kane cast ENSNARING STRIKE, knocking the badger to the ground, and vines wrapping around the creature's torso.

  Stern got up from his position in the playhouse and was now moving and firing what, on a normal creature, would have been kill shots straight into the badger's exposed chest. Suddenly, the creature screamed and threw all of its weight and strength into getting out of the vines.

  “STERN WATCH OUT!” Callie screeched, pushing past Carlie.

  Stern was attempting to back away from the suddenly free creature. The badger reared up again, and Carlie took a couple of strategic shots at the creature's back legs as she maneuvered forward. The badger stumbled, but it swiped down at Stern, throwing him in the same direction as Zeus.

  “NO!” Callie cried, running over to Stern, who lay motionless in a heap on the ground.

  Kane climbed out of the fort, beginning to feel like this was a losing battle from the beginning when the earth started shaking like an earthquake. This wasn’t caused by the badger. Kane took a couple of steps back and realized the ground wasn’t shaking under him now, but it was still clearly shaking under the badger and Carlie. The shaking earth had thrown Carlie to the ground just in the nick of time to not get hit by the deadly claws.

  Then Kane heard, “FIRE BOLT!” from Eliza. He looked over, and Cosette and Eliza had their hands up, and fire was shooting from Eliza straight at the badger's face. Little Cosette was sweating from the exertion of making the earthquake.

  Kane took a look up at Phillip, who looked down at him. They nodded to each other, and Kane moved to his right, avoiding the edge of the earthquake. He got to the side of the badger and only had to wait a moment before the badger’s arm was thrown up by the earthquake to reveal a soft spot in the creature's armpit. Kane pulled the trigger as fast as he could, putting as many shots into the creature as he could. The health bar was starting to plummet.

  In an attempt to save itself, it tried to rear up, exposing its neck to the sky. Kane wasn’t at the right angle to fire on that spot, but as he was thinking of running to a better position, he saw the magic ball hit the creature in the soft spot at the base of the neck as it came back down. The health bar blinked and then disappeared. The creature plummeted the rest of the way to the ground just as the earthquake stopped, causing a dust cloud to go out in all directions.

  Kane blocked the dust at the last second, looked over at his daughter, who collapsed onto her knees next to an already kneeling Cosette. Kane ran over to the two girls. He wrapped both into a big hug as he saw Phillip climbing down from the camper.

  “I love you girls, you are okay. Thank you," Kane whispered as he kissed both girls on the side of the head, “You will be okay.”

  Phillip came behind the girls and wrapped them in a hug, tears running down his face. Kane released the girls and stood up, seeing Josie in the doorway. He walked over to his other daughter and hugged her tight. Phillip got up and looked over at his motionless wife.

  “Carlie!” Phillip yelled, dropping his rifle as he ran over, kneeling next to his wife. She was covered in debris, but he couldn’t find any blood as he looked from head to toe.

  “Carlie, baby, wake up!” Phillip cried, picking up his unconscious wife.

  Blonde, the goat, was next to Phillip, “Please, let me," She said, bending her head closer to Carlie.

  Carlie gasped as she woke up, grabbing onto Blonde’s horns as she awoke. Blonde swung her head slightly, making Carlie let go. She took a final sniff at Carlie with a grunt and then walked back towards Turbo and Greg.

  “You two shouldn’t have gotten involved,” she snorted as she walked past them.

  “That is YOUR opinion! I think I did quite well,” Turbo said, turning to follow her, “I went up a level for my efforts, nitwit could have stayed behind though. He froze.”

  “I’m not a nitwit,” Greg pouted, turning to follow the other two goats.

  They continued to argue as they went around the side of the house, presumably heading towards their pens.

  “Carlie, are you okay?” Phillip asked, scared to let go of his wife.

  “I think so, I hit my head on the way down," Carlie said, grabbing the side of her head as she tried to get up.

  “Wait, you might have a concussion, please, be careful,” Phillip told her, refusing to let her go yet.

  “KANE!” they heard Callie scream, as she was kneeling next to Stern.

  “Shit! Stern!” Kane ran to the opposite side of Stern that Callie was on.

  “I need to stop the bleeding!” Callie cried as the words popped up over Stern’s limp body.

  “HEAL,” Callie wept, pressing both of her hands against the multiple gashes of Stern’s torso.

  “Come on, heal!” Callie tried again.

  Kane watched his wife trying to help his friend. Phillip and Carlie ran up, looking down at their friend.

  “Get the medical kit!” Callie ordered, picking up one of her hands, trying to sift through her menu.

  Olive suddenly came running over, “Let me see him.”

  “Olive, I need to help him!” Callie cried, putting both of her hands on Stern again. A slight glow coming off of them.

  Olive sniffed Stern’s wounds and then licked the largest gash on his chest.

  “Olive, stop!” Kane tried to put the dog away.

  “STOP! Let her do it!” Callie hissed at Kane, “She helped!”

  Kane looked down at the gash Olive had licked. It was still bleeding, but not nearly as much, and it had been. And the gash had definitely gotten shallower. The gash directly under Callie’s hands had also gotten smaller and had nearly stopped bleeding as well. Olive came back over, and as Callie lifted her hands, Olive licked the final untreated gash. Stern was still bleeding, but he made a soft grunt.

  “Okay, that is better than it was,” Callie mumbled through tears to herself as Phillip returned with the medical kit.

  “Thank you, open it up, I need gauze to stop this bleeding,” Callie ordered.

  Callie worked diligently until all of the gashes were covered with multiple pieces of gauze, and Kane helped lift Stern so she could put a wrap around Stern’s torso. She tried to make it tight enough for the wounds to clot, but not so tight that they had to worry about him not being able to breathe. Stern’s breath was shallow, and his heart rate was low from what Callie could feel based on the basic CPR and triage training she had taken as part of a first aid weekend she had signed up for years before.

  “Mom, is Zeus going to be okay?” Eliza asked from behind Kane.

  “Shit, Zeus!” Kane swiveled, looking at his dog lying there, feeling guilty that he had forgotten about him.

  “Coming,” Callie scrambled to her feet and knelt next to Zeus’s body.

  Callie tried to put her hands on Zeus, “Shit! I’m out of spells! Olive, can you heal him?”

  “No, I’m sorry, I used all I had on my master,” Olive whimpered as she lay down next to Zeus, putting her head on his slowly moving chest.

  “Shit, where is Josie!” Callie cried for her daughter.

  “Mom, it's going away. The body is going away," Josie pointed to the badger’s body.

  It was, in fact, going away. It looked like it was turning into large, flaked ash. As it turned to ash, it floated back toward the Rift. The metal plating even went with it. After a stunned moment, Callie looked back at her daughter.

  “Josie, are there any animals that have any sort of healing? Olive and I can’t help Zeus; we need another animal to do it," Callie explained to her daughter.

  Josie stared blankly at her mom for an uncomfortable amount of time. Right as Callie was going to repeat herself, Josie said, “Yes.”

  “Which one? Can they come here?” Callie asked.

  “She is on her way,” Josie said, looking towards the goat pen.

  Walking towards them was Blonde.

  “Who needs my help?” Blonde asked, seemingly unfazed by anything that had and was happening.

  “Zeus, he’s barely breathing," Callie said.

  “Oh, him! The monster who barked at me non-stop and who tried to bite my babes. Serves him right!” Blonde snorted, turning back around.

  “Please, Blonde! Don’t let him die!” Josie cried quietly.

  “Please, Blonde, he shouldn’t die, not like this," Callie cried as well.

  Blonde hesitated in her steps.

  “No, he doesn’t deserve this, but he also isn’t nice," Blonde said, turning and walking back towards Zeus.

  She bent over and touched his chest with her forehead.

  “He wasn’t cursed with the endless bleeding. He did have some internal bleeding that I stopped. I could not fully heal him, but he should live. He better not make me regret this decision,” She declared and then walked away grumbling to herself.

  “Thank you, Blonde!” Josie yelled after her.

  “Let’s get Stern and Zeus inside,” Phillip finally choked out as if he was holding back tears.

  “Phillip, help me?” Kane asked, moving to Stern’s head, squatting, getting ready to lift Stern by the armpits as Phillip moved to grab Stern’s feet and legs.

  “Carlie, can you help me grab Zeus?” Callie asked.

  “Girls, one of you grab the front door, the other shut the basement door,” Carlie ordered as she moved to help Callie.

  The slow processional moved up the front steps and into the house. Phillip and Kane placed Stern on the couch. Callie and Carlie had the girls put a couple of pillows on the floor by the living room window so they could lay Zeus down. Then Callie went to the bathroom and washed her hands.

  As Callie washed her hands, she looked into the mirror and saw the dirt mixed with tears on her face. She tried to wipe her face, but having not gotten all the blood off her hands, she mixed blood and water, and mud altogether, giving herself a gruesome look. She couldn’t help herself. She collapsed onto the floor with her back against the vanity and just sobbed.

  That was the position Kane found her in. Kane had seen it before. When the announcement of the helicopter crash came over the radio, it was like time had stood still. Then everything moved at once; they needed to rescue whom they could. They needed to recover any bodies that they couldn’t save. After that rescue mission that ended in him burying a friend and watching countless others being shipped off for life-saving surgeries, he had gone back to the squad hoochies. Everyone had been stoic, but a couple were soaked in the blood of their friends, quietly sobbing. He had made sure those men got food and got rest. He needed to do the same for his wife.

  Kane got down next to her and grabbed her into a deep hug, something he would have never done for those men, but he knew she needed. And thinking back on it, they probably needed some warmth too, but that wasn't the regiment way. Any sign of warmth or affection that wasn’t done sarcastically just wasn’t done, and there was no need for it in war.

  “Let’s get you cleaned up," Kane soothed gently into Callie’s ear. He helped her up, got her undressed, and got the shower started. Once the water was warm, he put her in the shower. He walked into the living room quickly.

  “Phillip, I need to take care of Callie. Are you okay out here?” Kane asked, peaking his head into the living room.

  “Yeah, we will be fine, get her taken care of,” Phillip said, putting his arms around his own wife, who was silently sobbing.

  “Dad, I’m making sandwiches,” Eliza said with sadness he hadn’t heard before from his daughter.

  “Thank you, Eliza. Mom will be okay; she just needs to shower and rest,” Kane said, stepping out of the bedroom and walking over to hug his daughter. It seemed to go a long way with Eliza, and after a long hug she let go and went back to make sandwiches for everyone. She didn’t have a smile on her face, but the extreme sadness was gone. That was something at least.

  Kane went back into the bathroom to check on Callie, who was still standing in the shower. She didn’t look like she had moved since Kane put her in there. Kane sighed and then got undressed himself.

  Kane quickly got Callie clean and out of the shower and then got himself cleaned up. By the time Kane was done and hopping out Callie had already dried herself and was getting dressed. She was still looking in the mirror, but some color was starting to return to her cheeks. Kane dried off a little and put his hand on her shoulder.

  “You okay?” he asked, making eye contact with her in the mirror.

  “Phillip is still hurt because I couldn’t heal him properly. Stern won’t wake up. And I didn’t have anything left to help Zeus. How can I keep our kids safe if I can’t keep them safe?” Callie asked, looking straight into the mirror, not taking her eyes off Kane.

  “Phillip was moving his hand this afternoon. He is getting better. Stern and Zeus aren’t dead. You did what you could, and everyone is alive,” Kane tried to comfort his wife by squeezing her shoulder a little.

  “How do I keep my kids safe?” Callie asked again, turning to face Kane directly.

  “I . . . . I don’t think we can. Those kids saved us today. I think we need to start considering them into our plans. You and Carlie said it earlier, they can’t stay inside for the rest of their lives. Time to start having them do dangerous things with supervision,” Kane told her.

  Callie grabbed Kane into a deep hug and cried silently into his bare chest. Kane stroked her hair, holding back tears himself. He also didn’t know how to protect his kids, or his wife, or his friends. But he couldn’t crack now, just like after that helicopter crash, people were relying on him, and he couldn’t let any weakness show.

  “I need to finish getting dressed, and Eliza was making sandwiches when I came in here. You might need to check on her,” Kane choked back the last of the tears he felt and gently pushed Callie away from his chest.

  “Okay, we were almost out of milk this morning. And I’m sure now that Eliza made sandwiches, we are out of some other things. I didn’t go to the store before this all started,” Callie had a worried look in her eyes again as she told her husband their food predicament.

  “We need more ammunition, too, if that badger and the snagon are just a taste of what we will be dealing with,” Kane said as he looked out their bathroom window to the backyard. “We need to go into town."

  “Kane! We have been seeing things flying around above Colorado Springs since The Rift opened!” Callie exclaimed.

  “I know, but we need to go. We need to restock, and we need to know what’s out there,” Kane said as he was walking to their closet to grab clothes.