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Team Player B2Ch24: Regroup
🕑 Added 2024-12-12 15:00:04 +0000 UTCGrue patrols found her, of course. At times it was almost like they came after her with two patrols at once, the Brutes snarling and the others howling along with them. Killers shot at her, avarice in their eyes as they sensed the Talismans she carried. She cut them down, left their remains to litter the ground, and returned to running. The further behind her she put the city, the better it would all be.
It took her nearly another hour to leave the city behind, and by then she’d already killed eight patrols and just as many Killers. She ignored the notifications about her accomplishments and kept running, eventually breaking out of the mass of buildings and streets as she pounded along a long-dead highway, heading away from where Liliana’s power held sway. As she ran, she could feel the Shade’s presence weaken. The times that she could catch sight of the thing watching her lessened further and further, until she was running alone through the wastes of a dead world.
There were still Grue, of course, scattered throughout the wilds. She could see them moving, occasionally, through the trees on the side of the road. Their shadowy forms patrolled towns and rest stops as she passed. Occasionally, they came howling out after her; she only stopped to destroy them when they had Archers with them. After all, it only saved time if she wasn’t risking an arrow to the back.
As she ran, Alex would check behind her every so often. She’d watch the towers of the city in the distance, trying to make sure she had the angle right. Eventually, she had to make a quick stop at an abandoned convenience store, pausing long enough to steal a map and wipe out the Grue who tried to stop her. From there, she could trace her route a little better, even though she still couldn’t read the alien script that covered it.
It was nearly two hours before she began to recognize things. The view of the shining towers of the city seemed to match what she remembered, and through the haze of her fatigue, she started to see buildings she’d known before. Off to the south was a rest stop that she’d seen and never visited. A little further east, she could see the bulky shape of a bank. Alex grinned to herself and veered to the southeast, aiming for a grocery store she knew occasionally carried a health potion or two.
The Market was clear of Camps, something that seemed incredible to her after having fought over it for so long, but there were still occasional patrols. They had no Brutes, and the Soldiers died so quickly she almost felt guilty about them counting towards her total. By the time she had scavenged the potions and continued on, the Screen had already informed her that her final Quest was done.
Then she was running across the ruined pavement streets of a ruined suburb, towards a portal that she’d once used so many times, not so long ago. Somehow, some way, it felt like home.
[Mission Report]
[Successful Return! +20 Experience]
[Main Quest Completed! +140 Experience]
[Secondary Culling Quest Completed! +80 Experience]
[Secondary Culling Quest Completed! +80 Experience]
[All Quests Completed! Glorious Victory! +80 Experience]
Alex looked at the report and simply felt numb. It felt… wrong to celebrate what she had just done. She knew the sight of the dying Surveyors would haunt her, just as much as the ones she had seen die to the Killer. She shook her head, and the notifications continued. They offered her rewards for resetting her Skills, and she refused. Only an idiot would handicap themselves when they might be headed into battle.
At least she knew her mother was waiting for her. She’d found eight Talismans, all scattered in front of the portal. Muriel had probably tossed the dead ex-Surveyors through to try to hide the bodies, though she wouldn’t have come through herself. A former B rank would create a notable disturbance at an E rank portal.
Then the light finally engulfed her as she left behind the other world…
The portal room looked different from the one she was now used to, but it had been designed the same way. There was the same blank concrete surface, the same statue of the Crimson Blade to the side, and the same solid security door blocking her exit.
There was only one difference. Standing in front of the statue of the Crimson Blade was her mother.
Muriel was looking up at her own features, an unreadable expression on her face. The statue towered over her; it was on a pedestal, after all, and had been built literally larger than life. Despite that fact, there was no question as to which figure drew Alex’s eyes the most. Something about the way her mother stood, with a simple practice sword in her only remaining hand, made the stone sculpture seem that much more hollow and meaningless.
Then Muriel turned, her gaze sweeping across the portal, and froze. Her single eye went wide with astonishment. She looked from Alex to the portal behind her, and then back again. A small, trembling smile twisted her lips. “Well then. You just keep surprising me, dearest. Welcome back.”
Alex staggered forward and threw her arms around her mother, burying her face in her neck.
For the first time in what seemed like forever, Alex woke up in her own bed.
There was such a feeling of peace that she couldn’t quite believe that she was actually awake. For the first time in what seemed like forever, she wasn’t rushing out the door to train or running down to the portal room to begin her Survey duty. Alex looked up at the familiar ceiling of the room she’d lived in for years and simply felt… safe. Protected and warm.
She was tempted to lounge in bed a while longer, but a delicious smell wafted in from the kitchen. Reluctantly, Alex left her bed and padded down the hallway to where her mother and father were waiting.
Alex found them speaking in low voices as they worked. Her father was cooking some kind of sinfully delicious smelling egg mix, while her mother making pancakes. She watched them for a long moment, drinking in the sight of them, safe and happy. Her father leaned over to whisper something in her mother’s ear, and Muriel laughed, a low delighted sound that made Alex feel a little embarrassed.
Then her mother caught sight of her and stepped a little away from her husband. Muriel smiled and left the stove, walking over to grab Alex in a one-armed hug tight enough to make Alex’s ribs creak. “So she does wake up! It’s almost ten. Did they not let you sleep in that place, either?”
“It’s been a hard few days, Mom.” Alex pulled back a little as a stab of grief ran through her. She tried to press it down for a moment. “We need to—”
“Eat something, I expect.” Eric Morrison’s massive arms encircled them both, and even Muriel squeaked a little in protest as he lifted both Surveyors off the floor. He grinned and dropped both of them on their feet next to the table. “I’d hope that even you would see the wisdom of feeding yourself before you start whatever plots you have for the day.”
Alex opened her mouth to protest, only to stop when he gave her a grave look. Then he turned back to the stove with a smile, portioned out a bit of eggs and a pair of pancakes, and plopped them right in front of her. Suddenly, it was a lot harder to come up with a good reason to argue about the urgency of the situation. She tried to ignore the deep chuckle from her father as she grabbed a fork and started to dig in.
“So, now that we’ve seen to some basic needs, what’s the plan?”
It was still hard to look past the incredibly self-satisfied look on her dad’s face, but Alex tried to manage it. “We need to head into the city today. And I need to get back in contact with Sam.”
Eric nodded. “The boy with the phone?” She nodded again, and he frowned. “I thought you spoke with him last night.”
“We talked, yeah.” She’d told the other Surveyor she had arrived safely, and he’d immediately called her. Alex had spent the brief car ride home reassuring him she was fine, and that she’d be back to help him soon. He’d also sent her some of the information that Zach had given them, which was important.
She paused as another stab of grief ran through her, and then she shook it off and continued. “I still need to coordinate with him about our next steps. That way, he can set things up with the others.”
Her parents exchanged a look that Alex immediately didn’t like. Muriel spoke first, her voice hesitant. “You know, Alex, we can always just run. You don’t have to fight Wells anymore. He probably doesn’t even think you’re alive.”
Eric spoke next, his words curiously rushed. “We could always get your friends out later. It would be a lot easier to—”
“No.” Alex looked back and forth between them. “I won’t leave Wells to keep doing what he’s doing. Not when I have a chance to stop it.”
Her mother’s expression darkened. “This isn’t your fight, Alex. If you don’t stop now…”
Alex met her mother’s gaze. Then she smiled. “Who protects the protectors, Mom?”
The question seemed to hit Muriel harder than anything she’d done in a practice match. Her mother wavered a bit and then looked at her husband. Eric laid a hand over her remaining one and sighed. “She’s learned a bit too much from both of us, my love.”
Muriel closed her eye and breathed in. She let the air leave her in a huff and then nodded. When she opened her eye again, it seemed clear of doubts. “All right. So what do we do?”
Alex relaxed from a tension she hadn’t realized she had. Then she grinned. There was no humor in her expression at all. “First, we’re going to make a few house calls.”
An hour or so later, Alex sat in the back seat of her father’s truck, waiting for Sam to pick up his phone.
They’d agreed on a time for the call the night before. Sam obviously couldn’t have his secret phone on him most of the time, so she’d waited until he would be free for lunch. He’d probably have to come up with some excuse to slip away from the meal, but Sam was good about that kind of thing.
Just before she was sure that the call would go to voicemail, someone answered. She tensed for a moment before she heard Sam’s voice, breathless like he’d been running with her on the wall. “Alex? Is that you?”
“Yeah, it’s me.” She smiled a little at the worry in his voice.
“Mind if we do a video call? I’m a little paranoid today.”
“Sure.” She activated the option and held the phone out. A moment later, Sam’s face appeared on the screen. He was crouched down in the barracks with the door closed.
Sam looked harried, but he calmed down when he saw her. Then he shook his head. “Where are you driving to?”
“I’m coming back to the city. We’re not far away.”
He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “Good. That’s good.” Sam shook his head. “Things are getting bad around here. Wells seems like he’s ready to kill anyone who speaks up too loudly.”
Alex grimaced. “Did they give the phones back?”
“No. Still on lockdown too.” He glanced at the door, as if reassuring himself that it was still closed. “During the morning exercises, he called us all together and told us that you, Ed, Mary, and Bob had all been given some kind of special transfer for helping with a situation at the portal. Then he announced that we’d be doing another crunch session tomorrow, to make up for losing you guys.”
She wondered for a moment if Bob and Mary had actually made it back, and Wells had disposed of them, or if the Grue had gotten them. In the end, she supposed it didn’t matter. “I’m sure I was given a great eulogy.”
“Oh, absolutely.” Sam paused. His expression flickered with pain. “There’s one other thing. I was going back through my messages and… Zach sent me something. Yesterday morning.”
Alex froze. She remembered the list of texts she’d ignored on his phone. “What was it? Did it say anything about what might have happened?”
Sam shook his head. “It’s a list of addresses and gangs. I think he managed to find the stockpiles where they were storing the material they get from Wells.” He paused. “A couple of hours later, someone else started texting me from his phone, asking if we could meet. They probably took him at that point.”
She closed her eyes for a moment, fighting to contain the agony. When she opened them again, she cleared her throat before she spoke. “Ed said he was gone. I think… I think they…”
“I know.” Sam took a deep breath and let it out slow. “I’ll keep looking for any sign he’s alive, but I don’t think they have him here or anything. The only place they have locked down is the portal room. Maybe Wells is worried that you’ll pop back through.”
Alex forced herself to smile. That uncertainty would have to serve as a down payment for the debt she’d collect from him soon. “Good.” Then she glanced at the front of the car, where her mother was looking back at her. “I need you to do one other thing, okay? Try and get a meeting of all the D ranks together in your barracks tonight. Bring Calvin from the support crew in too, if you can. Tell them you want to celebrate us getting transferred and plan for tomorrow.”
Sam hesitated. Then he nodded. “Sure. I can do that. What time?”
“Just after the seminar would work, as long as Wells doesn’t hear.” Alex doubted the C rank would notice. After all, if he expected Alex to still be stuck in the other world, he’d likely be focused on guarding the portal chamber rather than the rest of the compound. It was a weakness that she intended to exploit. “And do me a favor and ask Calvin to have the support staff ignore the secret entrance again. I’ll make it up to you later.”
“You can’t be—of course you are. Why wouldn’t you?” Sam shook his head. “As for the favor, if you wanted you could just pass your phone to your parents, and we’d be square.”
She froze. When she glanced up, her mother had raised an eyebrow. “I… don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Since when do you only do good ideas?” Sam raised his own eyebrows, and his smile was a mixture of nervousness and vindication. “Any reason you wouldn’t want to? I mean, I’ve already met your dad, kind of.”
“I’m just saying I—”
“That’s enough, Alex. He already knows.” Muriel’s voice was steel wrapped in amusement. “Don’t you, Sam?”
Sam’s dark eyes went a little wide, but he squared his shoulders and nodded. “Yes, ma’am. I just needed confirmation. Would help to know the backup plan, you could say.”
Alex grimaced, but her mother held out her hand. She handed the phone over, and Muriel looked down at Sam through the screen. “It’s nice to meet you, Sam. I look forward to speaking with you once all this is over. I enjoy people who know how to have a nice quiet chat.”
The implied threat was clear, but she heard Sam give a slightly choked laugh before he answered. “You and me both, ma’am. You and me both.”
Eric muttered something under his breath from the driver’s seat. “Don’t forget about me, either. I think I owe you at least a handshake.”
“Your daughter’s already saved me more times than I can count, sir. You don’t owe me anything.”
Muriel raised her eyebrow at Alex again and handed the phone back to her. Alex looked back at Sam. “Don’t tell anyone else, okay? The more people know…”
“The riskier it is. I get it.” He paused and looked back towards the door. “Still, you might need to start letting people in on it, too. Joanna and Brian have both been hounding me for things about you, not just Wells, and I think Clara is close to putting it together on her own. I’m not saying a word, but your friends aren’t dumb, okay?”
“I know, I know.” Alex slumped in her seat. “I was trying to be so careful.”
Sam laughed again, a hushed sound in the empty barracks. “Well, if you were trying to fly under the radar, you shouldn’t have taken after her so well. I mean, what with the saving everyone all the time and not dying when you were supposed to…”
“I get it, I get it.” She waved away his words. “Be careful in there. We’ll be there soon.”
“I will—and you be careful too. We still don’t know enough about this scheme.”
Alex nodded. “Don’t worry about that. In a few hours, we’re going to know a whole lot more.”
It didn’t look like a bad neighborhood, necessarily. The houses were mostly fixed up, even if a few had appliances scattered in the backyard or paint peeling from the siding. There wasn’t any trash littering the streets or homeless people wandering the place. Alex didn’t think it looked all that different from where she lived, except for the fact that the houses were all squished up against one another.
She walked up the driveway to the front steps, taking them two at a time. As she approached the front door, she glanced around casually. Most people living here appeared to either still be at work or were out somewhere else. There weren’t any kids walking home from school or inconvenient cop cars waiting around.
Alex nodded to herself and knocked on the door, standing at an angle where someone couldn’t peer through and easily see her. There was a doorbell camera, but she just stood up against it so that she covered its lens. A normal person might see it and assume something nefarious. Her intended host was likely going to be a lot more overconfident.
There wasn’t a response to the first knock, so Alex knocked again, listening intently. She heard someone moving around inside; they were muttering something to themselves as they started for the door. Alex waited for them to arrive, still scanning the street as she lounged on the doorstep.
The person on the other side paused for a moment, likely checking her camera, and then swore. Then she cracked open the door, outrage clear on her face. “What do you—”
Recognition was instant and happened in both directions at once. Alex made an instant catalogue of the woman’s features—her frizzy brown hair, the close-set eyes, the tattoo of a trident on the right side of her neck—and identified her instantly as the Surveyor that had beaten Zach. The woman, for her part, saw Alex’s armor, axe, and shield, and obviously identified her as a major problem that was about to get worse.
She wasn’t wrong.
Alex slammed her shield into the woman’s face, knocking her back and into the house. The screen door that had been between them snapped and crumpled into a useless tangle that Alex had to step over in order to follow the ex-Surveyor, kicking aside the wreckage as she stalked into the house. Her prey scrabbled backwards on her hands and feet, staring up at Alex with wide, stunned eyes and a nose that was fountaining blood. “W-wells will get you. He won’t—”
“Even notice you’re gone.” Alex saw the woman try to draw a pistol and moved forward in a flash. The E rank didn’t even manage to fire before she batted the weapon away with her shield. It clattered across the floor and into the kitchen.
“Th-there’s more of us! A lot more!”
“I know.” Alex let her voice grow low and lethal, and she reached to her belt. She let half a dozen Talismans dribble onto the floor, the priceless, dull-seeming coins thumping into the aged hardwood floor. “There were a lot more. Now there’s just you and me.”
It wasn’t entirely true. They’d only visited four of Wells’ remaining pet Surveyors so far, which left five to go. Still, as far as this woman was concerned, there wasn’t exactly going to be a rescue waiting on the horizon.
The blood drained from the woman’s face. She went so pale that Alex started to worry about blood loss and fainting, but she seemed alert enough as Alex leaned in. Her axe gleamed in the faint light of the afternoon, and the woman’s eyes flickered from the axe to Alex’s face as if she couldn’t decide which terrified her more.
Alex let her voice dip lower into a growl. “The reporter you hurt a few days ago. Where is he?”
“I-I don’t know. I didn’t even know he was a reporter!” The woman’s eyes went to the axe again, pulling back a little as Alex leaned in a little closer. “I haven’t seen him since then?”
“If you can’t tell me anything, why should I keep you alive?” Alex let the axe bounce a little in her grip, as if she was getting ready to strike. The woman’s eyes followed the blade, getting even wider.
“I mean it, I don’t know anything! All I heard is that some of the guys caught him snooping around and brought him to Wells. I don’t know what happened after that.”
Alex snarled at her. There was nothing new there; the other Surveyors had said the same thing. “Did Wells stash him somewhere? Is he still alive?”
The woman paused, her lips beginning to tremble. “I don’t know. He doesn’t tell us. He just gives orders.” Alex drew back the axe, and the woman flung out a desperate hand. “W-wait! I can tell you other stuff! About the gangs, about what they’re doing. Anything you want to know, I’ll tell you. Please. Please!”
Alex stared down at the woman, wanting more than anything to bring the axe down on her. Then she spoke quietly. “Talk. If what you say matches what I already know, you get to keep all your fingers. Every lie you tell…” She smiled. “So be very, very clear.”
A few minutes later, Alex watched her mom haul the bound and blindfolded woman through the garage and into the back of the nondescript panel van they had ‘borrowed’. The gang members who had come to kidnap or kill her parents had driven it, so using it now was fair game. She caught a glimpse of the others curled up in the back as Muriel tossed ex-Surveyor number five inside. Some of them had blood on their uneven hands; others were just whimpering.
Then Muriel closed the doors on them and sighed. “Four more to go. Any news about Zach?”
Alex shook her head. She was getting a much clearer view of the structure of the gangs, at least. Any law enforcement agency would love to have their hands on it—though she doubted it would matter in this case. Wells and his friends at Greylight were connected enough to bury all of it, in bribes or threats, depending on the cop involved.
Fortunately, no cops were going to be near this problem. Not until she said so.
She waved to her dad, parked across the street, and then jumped into the passenger seat of the van. Muriel pulled her baseball cap a little lower over her face, and then they started out towards the next place.
Hours later, long after dark fell, Alex felt a sense of déjà vu as she stalked through the corridors of Red Blade Securities.
Reaching the hidden exit hadn’t been hard. She was wearing civilian clothing after all, taken from her closet at home. All she’d needed to do was weave through the crowds and then duck into the alley at the right time. The corridors near the exit had remained clear; Sam’s deal with the support staff had obviously gone well.
She skirted along through the corridors, making sure to keep to places that didn’t have cameras and where the support staff weren’t working. It felt unreal to stalk through the hallway, her weapons in hand and her eyes darting for any sign of movement. At any moment, she knew that Wells or a security officer might turn the corner and find her, but she shoved those worries out of her mind and crept closer to her destination.
When she reached the men’s barracks, she saw the door was closed. There were voices inside, some of them raised and arguing. Clearly, things weren’t going entirely well. Her dad’s phone chirped in her pocket, and she glanced down to see a text from Sam’s secret phone. He was wondering if she was there.
She smiled. Then she stepped forward, stowing her axe, and knocked.
There was a sudden burst of silence. Then she heard a voice—it seemed like Clara’s—saying something she couldn’t quite make out. She could hear a sudden rush of footsteps to the door and—
Clara flung open the door, her eyes wide. She stared at Alex like she was seeing something impossible. Joanna was there a moment later, coming to a dead stop as well. Others were starting to crowd in behind them, only to blink and step back in shock.
Alex smiled. “Hey. Mind if I come in?”
A few people started to shout, but the others hushed them, at least until the door closed behind her. She scanned the room briefly, counting. It looked like all of the D ranks were present, which was what she’d wanted. Calvin and a handful of support crew Surveyors were there too, staring at her with wide, incredulous eyes. The old man himself was a little different; he was looking at her as if she was a threat, with a hint of betrayal in his features.
She cleared her throat and looked at Sam. “So. What have I missed?”
He grinned. The guy looked a little harried, as if he’d been trying to herd cats for the last little while. “They… didn’t seem to believe me on the whole situation. Hard to blame most of them, really.”
Alex frowned. “Which part? The drug smuggling, the griefing, or the human trafficking thing?”
The questions had Brian burst out laughing. “I think most of them were doubting the whole you-being-alive thing, actually.” He looked around at the other D rankers with a smug smile on his face. “Told you guys.”
“So what?” A D rank named Tyler was glaring at the group in a way that was definitely defensive. “This just shows that she came back from whatever transfer the company sent her to. Doesn’t prove any of the rest of it.”
Alex raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, there wasn’t a transfer. Wells is just saying that because he tried to have me killed, and thinks I’m still stuck in the other world. He’s probably just waiting to see if I come out so he can kill me, or if I stay too long and never appear again.”
Laura folded her arms across her chest. “That’s kind of a lot to ask us to believe, Alex. Why would your supervisor try to kill you? That’s just not something that happens.”
The former Golden Swallow Surveyors exchanged a few looks. Audrey snorted. “Please. This isn’t even the first time.”
As the other Surveyors gave Audrey uncertain looks, as if they were waiting for her to finish the joke, Calvin cleared his throat. His eyes were fixed on her, though they occasionally moved to her weapons. “Let’s say we believe the rest of the story. What should we believe about what you claim happened? How do we know you haven’t joined him? How else can you be here?”
Another Surveyor spoke up from the back. “Yeah! And where are the others who got transferred?”
Alex hesitated. Then she shook her head. “The others aren’t coming back.” Silence spread again, and she went on quietly. “Wells sent Mary and Ed to kill me. Bob was just along for the ride, probably to force him to join.”
Calvin’s eyes widened slightly, then narrowed. “And?”
Without saying anything else, Alex took out one of the Talismans and tossed it to Calvin. He caught it, and then nearly dropped it when he realized what it was. She spoke softly, though there was no noise to keep her words from reaching the rest of the room. “Like I said, they won’t be coming back. Them, or the rest of the group that Wells sent after me.”
“No way.” Tom was staring at the Talisman, his eyes wide as they could go. “No way. You couldn’t have. Wells said…”
She immediately looked at him and tensed. “Wells said what, Tom?”
The lethal tone of her question cut through the muttering like a knife. Suddenly all of the Surveyors were looking at him. He scrunched himself down on the bunk he was sitting on, his eyes still stunned. When he looked up at Alex, he blinked. “He said that there were dozens of them all over the city. That if I didn’t do what he wanted, he’d go after my family. My sister.” He shivered.
Alex nodded. “Did you do anything for him? Kill anyone for him?” Her hands tightened on the axe.
“No! No.” Tom shook his head. “He just wanted certain people to fall behind on the Surveys. He didn’t ask for more than that.”
Laura turned back to Alex, her expression growing more worried. “They have people on the outside?”
“Not anymore.” She shook her head. “Most of them went down trying to kill me, and we rounded up the rest today.” There was a burst of questions, and she held up a hand. “They’re all going to be willing to testify against Wells once Regulation steps in—but I want to be sure he goes down. That means I need your help.”
There was a brief pause, and then Tim raised his hand. “As always, captain, whatever you need.”
Audrey burst out laughing. “Yeah, just say the word, Al.”
Raul spoke up as the others from Golden Swallow were agreeing. “What would you need us to do, Valkyrie?”
The question brought another pause to the room. Alex took a deep breath and let most of it out. “Tomorrow he’s going to try and push you all through another crunch. He wants to build up his supply of material, and get a bunch more washouts for his plans. The fact that I’ve cost him a bunch of recruits means he needs more.”
She watched as the meaning of those words settled on the group. Then she continued, looking around at the D ranks. “Tomorrow, before your first Survey, I want you to change the instructions for the E ranks you lead in. All you have to do is go through, do a full Survey, and come back. By then, it will all be over.”
“And us, Surveyor?” Calvin’s question brought her attention back to him. She nodded.
“Wells still has some helpers here in the compound. Maybe people like Tom who he’s intimidating, but probably more like Ed and Mary. They’re probably on the security staff and in the PAD.”
Calvin nodded, his eyes intent. “We know them. You want them detained.”
She nodded. “Yeah. I’ll need some of you to do that.”
There was a spark of amusement in his eyes as he tilted his head. “And the others?”
Alex met his gaze and smiled. “I’ll need you to be Surveyors again. Just for one more day.”
