Kane went into Phillip’s room. He hated waking his friend, but that tortle had, in fact, been heading their direction; luckily, the trajectory didn’t put the house in immediate danger. But if there was one, there could be others. And he had gotten close enough to know that more things were dropping out of the dark spot. The cherry on the top of the shit pie was that the description of the tortle said it was used in war. War was coming, he just didn’t know how or why, or when. He needed to talk to his friend. They needed a plan.

  “He dumbass, get up, you're missing it,” Kane said, smacking his friend on the ass as Phillip lay on his stomach.

  “What the fuck!” Phillip tried to yell, but was muffled by the pillow.

  “Get up, fat ass, we got shit to do," Kane smacked his buddy’s butt again.

  “Shit, I’m up!” Phillip exclaimed, smacking Kane across the head with the pillow.

  Kane laughed as he tried to grab the pillow from Phillip. Phillip threw the pillow back down, turning over, and sitting up, rubbing his eyes. He looked around as he stretched.

  “Shit, man, getting old sucks. Remember when a couple of hours felt like heaven and we could still move after?” Phillip said through a yawn, stretching his arms out.

  “No, I’ve been too old to remember that for a while, and so have you. Get up," Kane laughed, grabbing the other pillow and throwing it in Phillip’s face.

  “We got some shit to figure out,” Kane said, turning around to see Josie standing in the doorway, startled, and asked, “Hey kid, what’s up?”

  “It’s coming,” Josie said, turning to walk away like she had her mother.

  “Hold on!” Kane said, grabbing his daughter's shoulder, “What’s coming?”

  “I don’t know, Dad, it won’t tell me, but I don’t like the way it feels," Josie said with such a matter-of-fact tone that it made Phillip quickly get out of bed and move to stand next to Kane.

  Kane let go of his daughter and turned to Phillip. Josie continued her course up the stairs like nothing had happened and nothing had been said.

  “So, this is your house. What do we do first?” Phillip asked, breaking the silence of what felt like minutes later..

  “We get Callie and Carlie, and then we get the kids downstairs so we can talk,” Kane said as he turned and headed upstairs.

  “Okay, time to do some gangster shit,” Phillip said with a smirk as he followed Kane upstairs.

  As Kane hit the top stair, “Callie, Carlie, have the kids go downstairs and make sure the basement door is locked.”

  Callie and Carlie looked at each other as they stood in the kitchen. Carlie was the first to move, grabbing sleeping Giana and heading down the stairs. Eliza went over to where Cosette was still sleeping and shook her gently to wake her up. Josie stood in the kitchen watching all of this, but not moving. When Eliza and a sleepy Cosette went past her down the stairs, Josie took a look at her mom, shrugged then followed her sister and friend.

  At the top of the stairs, Josie turned and looked at Phillip and quietly said, “He says watch out for the tail,” and then went down the stairs like she hadn’t been dropping bombs on them.

  “Kane, your kid is starting to freak me out!” Phillip exclaimed as he walked towards the bedroom where Kane had disappeared.

  “What did she say?” Callie asked from her position next to the window.

  “Watch out for the tail,” Phillip repeated as Kane came out of the bedroom with another rifle, a shotgun, and a satellite image.

  “At least we know it has a tail, and we know we can’t trust it,” Kane said, putting the items on the kitchen table.

  The satellite image was a standard Google Earth-type image of their house. It looked like it was probably a couple of years old because all of the livestock pens and runs were drawn in with pencil. There were a couple more markings for what Phillip could only guess were plans Kane and Callie had been working on. Kane rummaged through what was probably a junk drawer and sat down with a pencil in hand.

  “We need to set a perimeter and we need a way to guard it," Kane said, taking the pencil and roughly drawing a circle around the house.

  “Yay, basic shit, Mr. Ranger, what else you got?” Phillip said, smirking.

  “Gangsta shit,” Kane said, smiling, looking at his friend, “Let’s channel Stern for this one, only that asshole could pull off the crazy shit I’m thinking of.”

  Phillip smiled and sat down next to his friend as Carlie came up the stairs and joined them. Callie moved to look out the living window, but this time she looked like she had purpose.

  Twenty minutes later, there was a rough battle plan. Kane was going to move his truck so the rear end was facing The Rift on the trail that led to the back part of the property. Phillip was going to take one of the rifles and position himself in the bed of the truck using a couple of pallets as protection. Kane was going to position himself in the fort above the swing set after putting a SNARE in the most direct line between the dark spot and the house as far out from his position as he could. Callie and Carlie were going to be positioned near the house, Carlie with the shotgun, and Callie was going to confirm whatever they saw was good or bad and then stand by with CURE WOUNDS as needed.

  As Kane was confirming all the positions and everyone's roles, Callie finally spoke up, "It's called The Rift, not the dark spot.”

  “What?” Kane said in disbelief.

  “We have a creature near the house, it spoke to us, it called it ‘The Rift’," Callie said, turning to look at Kane.

  “There is a creature near the house!” Kane was nearly screaming as he nearly knocked everything off the table as he stood up.

  “How do you think we know DETECT EVIL AND GOOD works. I already used it on the creature," Callie said, folding her arms in annoyance.

  “Why didn’t you say something sooner?” Kane asked loudly.

  “The creature named Alexandrus won’t hurt us; he will most likely hurt himself before us,” Callie said, slightly chuckling, remembering the clumsy creature, and turned back to the living window, “We need to get ready.”

  “Why the sudden urgency? You didn’t tell me about his Alex creature earlier?” Kane asked with angry sarcasm showing in his voice.

  “Because Alexandrus just came out of the kids' playhouse, jumping up and down. I think it senses something bad is coming," Callie said as she turned and walked towards the table.

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  Kane looked stunned at his wife for a moment.

  “Okay, we know the plan. Kane, am I moving your truck, or are you going to get that beer gut away from this table and do it yourself?” Phillip asked, grabbing the rifle on the table, “By the way, what am I shooting out of this thing?”

  That seemed to snap Kane out of his daze. He walked quickly into the bedroom, grabbed the ammo from its hiding spot, and *thumped* it onto the table in front of Phillip.

  “Grab however much you think you are going to need, but keep some in reserve. I don’t know when we will get a restock,” Kane said, going back for the shotgun ammo for Carlie.

  “Roger,” Phillip said, grabbing the ammo and heading for the door.

  Callie walked out the door and was immediately bombarded by Alexandrus, who had moved incredibly quickly from the backyard where she had last seen him.

  “My lady, my lady, this is not good. It's a big one and he is not happy!” Alexandrus was yelling from the bottom of the stairs.

  “What’s not good? Who isn’t happy?” Callie asked as Phillip joined her on the front deck.

  “Snagon’s are notoriously unhappy. My personal opinion is they lay eggs instead of getting to snuggle warm babes, but that is just because Alexandrus has seen . . . “Alexandrus wasn’t given the opportunity to finish.

  “What is a snagon!?” Phillip interrupted angrily.

  “How rude!” Alexandrus looked abashed at not being able to finish his thought, “You will just have to see if you are in that much of a hurry. It won’t be long now, they move fast, the snagon does. But for My Lady, watch out for its tail, it is a nasty business getting hit by a snagon’s tail.”

  And with that, Alexandrus ran, hopped up to Greg and Turbo’s pen, and disappeared through the pallet fencing.

  “We already know about the tail!” Phillip shouted after him in frustration.

  “Yeah, and we now also know we are out of time," Callie said as Kane and Carlie came out the door.

  The next 5 minutes moved very quickly with the four adults getting their positions squared away, then came the waiting game.

  As they sat there waiting for the snagon, whatever that was. Callie started thinking about the name. It was like a dragon, could it be something dragon-like? Snag, did the tail have barbs on it to snag on things? Porcupus had 8 legs like an octopus, maybe like that snagon was a hint at what they were about to face. Suddenly, there was a tremor felt on the ground. Not large, it reminded her of when the smaller artillery practice would hit on Fort Carson. Then she saw it, the grass at the top of the hill moved unnaturally, and there was something in the grass just above where Kane had set his snare.

  Multiple things happened at once. Callie cast her DETECT EVIL AND GOOD, making the creature glow dangerously red in the tall grass. Kane’s snare was triggered, sending a giant snake-like creature into the air at about head height above the grass. Phillip fired his rifle at the creature, hitting it just behind the head, making the creature scream and whip its long tail in Phillip's direction. Kane fired his rifle down on the creature, hitting it just above the eyes, causing the snake to swing its tail back in Kane’s direction. Kane ducked just at the right moment.

  The tail, which had some sort of barb or set of spikes on it, hit just above Kane’s head, causing the wood to splinter and shards to fly across Kane. Kane army crawled backwards, remembering the warning of the tail that was given to them not once but twice. Then simultaneously they all saw the notification:

  Time didn’t stop or slow down while the message played across their vision. Thankfully, the words were translucent enough that Phillip and Carlie were able to get more shots off at the snagon before it dropped down to the ground. A blinking bar showed up across the top of the creature; it was red with just a little bit of the bar filled in.

  “Can you see the health bar?!” Phillip yelled.

  “No shit, dumbass!” Kane yelled as he took another shot at the creature.

  Suddenly, wings appeared to stretch out from the snagon’s back, and the creature was airborne, whipping its deadly tail between Kane and Carlie. Carlie and Callie dove to the ground, with the tail hitting the back of Carlie’s shirt, but thankfully not hitting her. Phillip, thinking his wife was hit, stood up and took another shot, hitting the creature in the back at the connection point of one of the wings. Kane, seeing his shot aimed and fired again at the snagon’s head. Somehow, he hit the creature in the eye despite its heavy thrashing.

  The snagon screamed and crumbled to the ground. But not before it whipped its tail back at Phillip, who, in standing up, left himself exposed to the creature. The tail on the descent hit Phillip’s left arm. Phillip cried out in pain, dropping to the truck bed. Seeing the snagon on the ground but not knowing about Phillip, Kane put another shot in the middle of the snagon’s forehead, making sure the creature wouldn’t get up again.

  Carlie panicked, having felt the tail catch her shirt, and ripped it off, crying like she had been hit. Callie grabbed her friend, turning her around quickly, trying to check her frantic friend.

  “Carlie! Carlie! It missed you! Carlie, look at your shirt! It missed you!” Callie was screaming, trying to get her friend's attention.

  Then they heard the blood-curdling scream from the truck.

  “Shit shit shit!” Callie said, running to the truck. Kane jumped down from his spot in the fort, narrowly missing the head of the snagon. Carlie dropped to her knees, paralyzed on the ground, staring with terror in her eyes at the truck.

  Callie made it to Phillip just in time to see the skin on his arm bubble and a green ooze start emanating from the gash in his arm.

  “Shit, damn it, damn it!” Callie cried quickly, trying to get into her menu as all sorts of flashing lights showed up over Phillip.

  “Not if I can help it!” Callie mumbled to herself as Kane made it over to his friend.

  Taking a look at his friend's arm, Kane whipped off his belt and started trying to apply it just above the elbow, seeing the green streaks leading up his best friend's arm.

  “Shit, Callie, wounds!” Kane said, lying across his friend as Phillip writhed in pain.

  “I know!” Callie said, finally getting to the menu, in her haste, she had swiped too far and had gotten on a ‘Feats’ menu.

  Clicking on CURE WOUNDS, Callie quickly touched the skin on either side of the gash with her two hands, cupping the damaged arm of her friend. The green lines running up Phillips' arm started to come back down. The skin around the gash was still green, but it wasn’t bubbling anymore. ‘’DISMEMBERMENT EMINENT’’ went away from above Phillip. The ‘GASHED’ was still there, and ‘POISONED’ was replaced with the word ‘INFECTED’. Callie sighed, she hadn’t completely cured her friend, but he wasn’t going to die at least.

  Phillip’s thrashing slowed down, and Kane removed his belt slowly from Phillip’s arm. Carlie, who had silently moved next to Kane and Callie as Callie had tried to heal Phillip, reached out and touched Phillip’s forehead. Phillip looked up at his wife. And grabbed her hand.

  “I’m okay,” he said as Carlie broke out in silent tears, “Man, did you have to put your fat ass all the way onto me? You hurt almost as much as the damn tail," Phillip smiled, trying to sit up.

  “You liked it,” Kane said, helping his friend sit up and then hopping out of the truck bed.

  “Let’s not do this again,” Phillip said, and then added, “Thanks, Callie.”

  “I didn’t get it all,” Callie said, looking down at Phillip’s arm.

  “Hey, I’m not dead, you did fine," Phillip said as Carlie climbed over the side of the truck to hug her husband around the neck.

  “Umph, damn girl, maybe I should be near death more often, maybe I could get baby number three,” Phillip smiled, squeezing his wife with his uninjured arm.

  “Not in your life! You gave me two 9 plus pound babies!” Carlie laughed through tears.

  “Can’t blame me for trying,” Phillip winked at Kane.

  “My Lady, you made it!” they heard a familiar voice say from the top of the cab of the truck.

  The four adult humans looked up at the porcupus curled up so that just his top two arms showed.

  “You were some help,” Phillip said, not letting go of his wife.

  “Snagon have been attacking and eating porcupus babies for as long as there have been porcupus. I like life,” Alexandrus said with a shrug and then rolled down the front of the truck out of sight just as quickly as he had appeared.

  “I take it that thing will be here for a while?” Phillip asked.

  “Until My Lady is not as radiant or until Alexandrus finds a way home,” they heard from the front of the truck.

  Phillip and Kane started laughing to the shock and dismay of their wives.

  “Damn it, Kane!” Callie said, smacking her husband in the chest.

  “What?! You ARE radiant,” Kane said, still laughing.

  “Bad timing, bro,” Phillip said, laughing.

  Callie started walking towards the house. Kane quickly jumped out and followed her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, kissing the top of her head. Callie swung her arm lightly and hooked Kane in the diaphragm, lightly but still enough to make him exhale quickly.

  “You deserved that,” Callie said through a smirk.

  “Get him, My Lady!” Alexandrus said, hopping behind the two.

  Phillip and Carlie watched them leave, sitting there for a few minutes longer, quietly talking to each other. Eventually, they got up as well. Phillip realized he didn’t have feeling in his left hand, but didn’t tell Carlie. Hopefully, it was just a side effect of the infection. They walked towards the house, no one noticing that the snagon was slowly disappearing into the grass, well, at least no one outside noticed.