Charbend
patreon
Chapter 8: Suburban pirates & city government
🕑 Added 2024-04-03 22:41:07 +0000 UTCFrank was, technically, in the city at this point. He was off the freeway now and had been driving down an arterial road headed closer to the center of the city. He was, at the moment, driving through a commercial zone. It was an example of the urban sprawl so endemic to America: vast swathes of parking lots attached to individual retail buildings, all situated on a road meant to shuttle a significant amount of traffic into and out of the city.
If the teleportation incident had occurred during morning or afternoon rush traffic, the road itself would have been nearly impassable. As it was, Frank rarely had to hop the curb.
The relative openness of the road evidently was enough for cars to still get through. Frank slowed a bit as he looked out into the parking lot of a nearby grocery store. There was a group of cars parked right outside the store, in the fire lane, with a few people standing guard.
He blinked in surprise at the thought. They actually are standing guard. There’s a freaking convoy of SUVs looting the stores. He watched, brain trying to adapt to this news. One of the people standing by the cars looked like your standard garden-variety soccer mom. Tense, with a nervous air about her, like a lot of them had, but still. Suburbanites are looting the dang stores.
As he watched, people started coming out of the store with carts in tow, packed to the brim with stuff. They all descended on the goods, packing them into the vehicles before the looters turned to go back in. As they turned, one of them spotted Frank, and pointed at him.
One of the guards came around the car, holding a rifle and shouting at him.
Frank hesitated before taking off. He glanced back at them as he pedalled. The guard who had walked toward him was still watching him, and even from this distance he could see they were tense. It hasn’t even been a day, and people are already acting like this? He shook his head in disgust. There’s literally magic in the world now and people are circling their carts instead of helping others.
As he rode past the retail zone, he saw a few other groups looting stores. He also saw a number of individuals doing the same. Things were obviously tense, but there wasn't any fighting. Not yet, at least.
As he drifted down the road, he passed by the entrance to a suburban neighborhood. ‘Vandenilis Heights’, the sign said. The entrance was blocked by cars, not wrecked, but parked. Behind the cars, very conspicuously, a few folks sat on guard. They gave him a wave.
He rode on, giving them a tight nod. I don’t like having to be wary of people, but it looks like it’s going to be the norm.
A thought struck him as glanced at the GPS. If they’re looting supplies already, has anyone gone to the library? Books are going to be important, for the information and for the Skills you can get. I’d better hurry.
He picked up the pace, tapping into his once again dwindling supply of stamina as he hurried to his destination.
<O/%%%%%/O/%%%%%/O>
Not too much later, the library came into view. Frank hadn't ever been here himself before, partly because he had lived in a dinky apartment on the other side of the city, where there was another library, but mostly because he hadn’t been in a public library in years.
He looked over the building and almost felt a pang of regret at that. Frank hadn’t ever been inclined toward architecture as a field of study, but he definitely had an affinity for attractive buildings with bold features. This building was notably older, almost Victorian, and had large, imposing doors and a few sizable windows on the upper floors. It sat next to a local park, and had easy access to the space.
He wasn’t the first here. In fact, it looked like a lot of those remaining in the nearby community were using the library as a gathering place. Taking over several parking spaces and a swathe of the park, a number of tents and covers had been set up.
He parked his bike, and looked around. There was an ambulance in the parking lot, and it looked like they were offering some medical treatment here. Out in the park, there were a number of canopies set up with people buzzing about, several of them moving back and forth between the library and the park.
Frank headed toward the ambulance.
He blinked, and squinted as he got closer. There was a child under the popup canopy they were working under, and she was crying holding her heavily cut up arm. Gently, the doctor held her arm and the doctor's hands began to glow yellow. In the span of a minute, he watched as the cuts on the girl's arm diminished, scabbing over and shrinking. The doctor cut off her ability when the cuts were minor wounds instead of major wounds.
She panted, sweating and visibly spent from the minute of healing. She gave a tired smile to the girl and patted her on the head. “Does that feel better?”
The girl nodded, wiping her eyes and her nose. “Yes. It still stings a little though.”
The doctor gave her that frown that you give to children when you want them to know you understand and feel their pain. “I’m sorry, I’m still pretty new to this whole magic thing, and I can only do so much with it at once. But my friend over there, Sam, he can get you patched up the rest of the way, okay?” She said, pointing out a man in scrubs under a nearby tent.
The little girl gave her a hug, and went on her way to get bandaged up.
Frank stepped up, eyeing the doctor as she leaned over her chair, sweat dripping off her face. “So… I’m guessing you don’t have another heal in you right now?” he asked, pointing at his still bandaged shoulder.
She glanced over and winced. “I hope some monster did that to you, and not a person.”
“It was a weird deer.” He glanced at the girl who had just walked away, and lowered his voice. “Have you been seeing many wounds caused by people today?”
She shook her head, and gestured for him to take a seat. “Not many. Not yet.”
Her tone was grim. Frank inhaled sharply as she peeled off his bandages. “Do you expect that that is going to change soon?”
“I don’t imagine it’ll take long.” She pointed over at the other group of tents, in the park. “That’s what is left of the city government, them and the folks inside. Firefighters, police, the people in charge, they’re pretty much all here trying to figure out how to deal with an emergency no one ever prepared for.”
She held her hand up, and visibly braced herself as it started glowing. Red now, instead of yellow, she placed it on Frank’s wound with a pained grunt. She spoke through gritted teeth. “They’re the most organized, but there are other groups starting to form. Everything is chaos right now, but I’d wager it won’t be long till there’s fighting.”
She pulled her hand away from his shoulder and, while still somewhat damaged, he was no longer in danger of opening it back up and bleeding out. With a quick glance at his status, he could see that his health had surged back up to 40%, and was slowly ticking back up on its own.
He looked at her in amazement. “Was that a mana Skill? How were you able to do that?”
She cocked her head at him. “Mana? Like, from fantasy stuff? Is that even a thing?”
He deflated a bit. “I don’t actually know. I’ve been hopeful that I could unlock it as a resource and just like… cast spells.”
“Hah! Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying the end of the world,” she said sarcastically. He flushed a little. “But no, I can use my stamina or health to use it.”
“I’m jealous. I have a Skill that can use health, but the only way I can do it is to bleed all over stuff.”
She grimaced. “That’s rough.”
“Yeah,” he nodded, “I actually came here so I could try to pick up some other Skills from the library.”
“Oh! Well, you’d better hurry then. One of the librarians is still here, somehow, and he’s been helping people find books. They’ve been going fast though.”
Frank hopped out of the chair. “Really? I gotta go then!” He called back to her as he started jogging over to the library door, “Thanks for the healing! I’ll make you something cool soon as thanks!”
She just waved him off, sinking wearily into the chair he’d just vacated.
Eagerly, he pushed open the door to the library, and he was instantly overwhelmed by noise and movement. Everywhere he looked, there were people. There were people in uniform, police, firefighters, and nurses all rushing about alongside the scared, nervous, and exhausted civilians.
He took a moment to orient himself, and then headed for the desk, conscious of the antlers on his back. “Let’s get some Skills.”
