Chapter 47 - Restless Vigil

  The ceasefire we'd put together was undoubtedly a fragile thing. I had no doubts the other side would end it as soon as they thought it was in their best interest. The only reason they had agreed to it in the first place was because it was to their benefit. Once that was no longer the case, I assumed all bets would be off.

  But to my surprise, it did hold, at least through the rest of the day.

  After the enemy withdrew, I brought Maggie back to Captain MacGregor, who designated several of his highest tier officers to make sure she and Emmy both stayed safe. Whether she liked it or not, Maggie had become what he called a ‘high value asset.’ If that meant keeping her safe was a top priority, I was all for it. What she'd done was incredibly brave. I mean, it was easy for me to stand out there in front of a bunch of hostile monsters. There wasn't much they could do to hurt me, and if things got too bad, I could always fly away. Compared to me, Maggie was practically defenseless.

  To me, that made what she did ten times more courageous.

  In spite of the temporary truce, the remainder of my afternoon and early evening was still anything but boring. The police continued trying to evacuate as many civilians as they could from the downtown area. One of the easiest ways to get people out was across the Longfellow Bridge into Cambridge. Maggie wasn't the only person attacked by a flying fish trying to cross that thing. It turned out the local wildlife was growing increasingly hazardous.

  MacGregor asked me to keep an eye on the bridge and ensure the monsters couldn't just pick people off as they tried to cross. The flying fish turned out to be pretty easy. They were all tier one, and I took care of them without any trouble.

  It was the giant birds that turned out to be more of an issue. The rocs started dive-bombing the bridge as the afternoon moved towards sunset. Even the small ones were big enough to carry away a child, and the bigger ones could haul off even a full-grown adult. I ended up having to take down over a dozen of them before the rest got the idea and went off looking for something easier to hunt.

  Those fights won me a few more crystals. It wasn’t enough to make any earth-shaking changes to my powers, but I figured every little bit helped. I managed to rank both Will and Flight up to tier five, which opened new slots. I put Gust of Wind into the new yellow slot, and another Will stone into the new clear space. It was an incremental increase, but the stronger I got, the better able to help people I’d be.

  Magical Stones

  Point 1: Clear Stone (Tier 7) - Strength

  Point 1, Second Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 7) - Stamina

  Point 1, Third Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 6) - Agility

  Point 1, Fourth Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 5) - Strength

  Point 1, Fifth Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 5) - Will

  Point 1, Sixth Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 4) - Strength

  +

  Point 2: Yellow Stone (Tier 5) - Flight

  Point 2, Second Ring: Yellow Stone (Tier 3) - Gust of Wind

  +

  Point 3: Grey Stone (Tier 7) - Natural Armor

  Point 3, Second Ring: Grey Stone (Tier 2) - Regeneration

  +

  Point 4: Blue Stone (Tier 2) - Water Breathing

  +

  Point 5: Clear Stone (Tier 4) - Will

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  Spare Stones

  Clear: Charisma (Tier 2) x3, Will (Tier 1) x2, Strength (Tier 2) x2, Stamina (Tier 2) x3, Intellect (Tier 2) x1, Intellect (Tier 3) x1

  Yellow: Air Elemental (Tier 2) x1

  Grey: Natural Armor (Tier 1) x1

  Blue: Create Water (Tier 1) x2, Water Breathing (Tier 1) x1

  By the time the sun set, the steady stream of refugees had slowed to a bare trickle. The bridge, which had been flooded with people earlier in the day, was empty except for the occasional family making a late departure. MacGregor had some of his officers going building to building, warning residents that remaining in place wasn't an option. Most of them listened. I wondered what would happen to the ones who didn't, but we were doing everything we could to save as many people as we could. That would have to be enough.

  As dusk fell, I flew a quick patrol over the bridge. All clear. Then I zipped back up Cambridge Street to where the police had set their new command post. Captain MacGregor was still there...still working...still doing everything he could to save as many lives as he could. I had to hand it to the man. In a crisis like this, some people step up while others fell apart. MacGregor was one who'd stepped up, and a lot of people were still breathing who might otherwise not have been because of it.

  "You've been doing a lot today. You should get some rest. We don't know what tomorrow will bring, but I doubt it will be any easier than today," MacGregor said when he saw me.

  "You're one to talk," I said. "These people are going to need you in top shape tomorrow."

  MacGregor chuckled. "The first thing I did, once I realized what those crystals were capable of, was stack as many stamina stones as I could get my hands on. I'm only tier four in stamina, but all the creaking bones and aches that used to plague me? They're gone, and I feel like I could keep this up for quite a while yet. But you're not wrong. I'll step down for a nap soon enough."

  "I hear you about the stamina," I said. "Mine's tier seven. At this point, I don't know if I still need to sleep at all."

  "Tier seven? How?" MacGregor did a little mental math. "That's sixty-four tier one stamina crystals, right?"

  I laughed. "Just between you and me, I have three stones ranked up to tier seven. Some of that is thanks to those giant crabs. With each of them dropping a tier four or five stone, they give a serious boost."

  "Good to know," he replied. "I wish more of my people could take them down. They're tough. Those shells are the next best thing to indestructible."

  "They're not indestructible," I replied. "Just highly resistant. If you can hit them with something the same rank or better, they go down fast enough."

  "The difficulty there is getting people up to that point. At tier four, I'm one of our highest ranks. We've been sharing out the crystals we've earned in battle to help all of the fighters advance, but it's slow going. As you say, the tier one and tier two lobster warriors aren't dropping enough crystals to advance everyone more quickly."

  I nodded. I had seen much the same thing. All the giant fish and monster birds I'd killed this afternoon defending the bridge had barely advanced me at all. "It helps that I had a tremendously shitty first day after the event hit. My girlfriend died barely minutes after the whole thing started, leaving me underground, in the dark, with a dozen kids to somehow escort to safety. It wasn't easy. We barely made it out at all. But in the process, I had to grow very strong, very fast. Otherwise, none of us would have made it."

  "I'm sorry for your loss," MacGregor said. “Listen, we have a calm moment. Why don't you go visit with your friends?"

  "That would be nice," I said. "Where are they?"

  MacGregor nodded in the direction of a fire pit a few dozen meters away. "Over there. The men I set to guard Emmy are still with them, too. She's a charming kid! Neither of them want to leave her, even though I'd intended to make that a rotating duty."

  I had to laugh at that. "Yeah, she's a trouble magnet, but she grows on you. I'll be over there, then. Call me if you need me."

  "Oh, I will. Don't worry about that."

  I walked the short distance to the fire, kind of taking in everything around me as I walked.

  The sun was mostly gone, with just the fading bits of daylight left in the sky, giving us a little light to see by. The lobsters had maintained their new line. They hadn't advanced at all, which gave us time to recover some of our dead from the battlefield. Thank you. On the surface, everything seemed calm, but the reality wasn't as peaceful as it looked. Every so often, if I listened hard enough, I could hear a cry for help or a scream from somewhere in the distance. We'd saved a lot of people, sure. Between the evacuation, the defensive action, and the truce, we'd helped thousands of people escape from downtown to Cambridge or parts of the city further west. But we left a lot of people behind, too.

  I wanted to go after them. I wanted to go flying in and save as many as I could. But if I did that, the lobsters might well take it as a sign of attack and end the truce early. I might have enough stamina to keep going all day, but most of these defenders didn't. They needed this rest.

  Sitting on my hands was maybe one of the hardest things I’d ever done. Another shout pierced the darkening evening, and I winced. It was all I could do to stop myself from rocketing into the sky to go rescue whoever it was.

  We’d saved so many lives.

  It still hurt that I couldn’t save every life, though.

  With a final glare toward the enemy lines—because as rough as the whole Event had been, the majority of the pain and suffering people were going through was the fault of those crustacean troops—I turned and continued walking toward the fire where my friends were waiting for me. I felt like I could use some company to help dispel the despair I felt slipping into my heart.