“Ok,” I said. “Then we have a goal and we’re a team.” Of course, that just gave the system a chance to butt in.

Formed: Party

Goal: Reach Mommie’s house.

This is a semi-permanent group whose goal is to reach the estate of one of the group member’s mother. Members of the group can communicate with each other via group chat as well as share member maps (if within range). The experience will be divided equally in tiers.

Name: ?

Leader: ?

Members: Monsoon Seebring, Tanya Slovakia, Janet Lee

“Huh,” I said. “Did everybody get that notification?”

“Yep,” Tanya said. Janet nodded.

“OK,” I said, “it looks like we have some decisions to make. The first thing is the name, I think that ...”

“Nope,” Tanya said.

“You didn’t even hear it yet. How do you know what it was even going to be?”

Tanya rolled her eyes and looked at Janet who nodded her head, “It was going to be like Monsoon’s Angels or something similar. I figure that it would start with your name and then have some kind of gender reference to us, like Chicks, or Babes or Angels. So let me, us, cut you off there, it’s not going to happen.” Then she turned and both girls high-fived each other.

“Where’s the love? The respect, I ask you? Where’s the respect?” I said.

“I say, we call ourselves, “The Travelers” Tanya said.

“Works for me,” Janet said.

Then before I could even say anything, the Namespace changed from a question mark to “The Travelers” and the Leader changed from a question mark to “Tanya Slovakia”.

“Wow!” Tanya said. “I didn’t mean to appoint myself leader!”

“No,” I said, “it’s good at least with me. Here’s why. We’ve got a small team or party. You mentioned that I should be out in front taking the damage. I’m OK with that, but that means that I won’t be able to watch the fight as well as someone else might. My job will be to keep the bad things from getting to you two squishies. That leaves you two. Janet is a healer and you are a mage. Of the two, I don't know which would be better, but since I’m going to be depending on Janet to keep me alive, I want her to be focussing on keeping my health up (and yours too, of course) and not worrying about directing the fight. That leaves you. A mage. You are going to be a ranged damage dealer. Since you are going to be sniping anyway, I figure that you’d be looking over the fight. You’d probably have the best situational awareness, so that’s why I think that you might be the best leader, at least in fighting.”

Janet spoke up then and said, “I agree. Sisters are doing it for themselves! But I don’t know that we should present ourselves that way.”

“Huh?” I asked.

“Look you’re a nice guy, a bit of a nerd, a brainiac, and kind of cute, but that’s not the reason that I’m nominating you for figurehead. Unless I miss my guess, the world has really changed. Muscles are gonna count for more and, let’s face it, men have more of them. I’m thinking that as time goes on people are going to move back into more of a hunter-gatherer type society. Maybe even a feudal one. Hell, we’re already into a hunter-gatherer society, aren’t we? Do we need food? How are we going to get it? Go to the convenience store? Yah, good luck with that!” and here she turned and looked at the Mighty Max, the now built out of stone bricks, quarter-sized Mighty Max with its big wooden doors and its holes in the wall windows and shutters, the grass former parking lot and the cobblestone streets. “Yeah,” she repeated softly, “good luck with that.”

“So what are you saying?” Tanya said.

“I’m saying that even if you’re our leader and - I’m not sure what that means post-apocalypse, but I agree with Monsoon’s reasoning - we should probably have him be our ‘acknowledged’ leader. You still lead, but Monsoon is the face of our group. I’m pretty sure that we’re gonna encounter groups that won’t take a good-looking blond seriously. They’ll be like, “bring the bitch to me now,” and I think it’d work out better if we have someone that says, “hands off, those are my bitches!”

“I agree,” I said. “I’m not sure how much truth there was in all of the fictions that I read, but one thing that they all agreed on is that after the apocalypse, the rules changed and not for the better. I’m thinking that we should probably make some rules up for how we’re going to survive like if Tanya says to do something, we do it. Or we take care of ourselves first, before anyone. What do you think?”

“I’ve got one,” said Janet. “Nowhere is safe!”

“Yes,” both Tanya and I said. “Here’s another,” I said. “Never go without a weapon.”

“Here’s one,” said Tanya. “Stay loose! Be warmed up and limber. If you’ve got to run away, you don’t want to be easy to catch. If you’ve got to fight, you want to be able to dodge.”

“Always have clean water,” I threw out.

“And I’ve got another one too,” said Janet. “Keep your clothes tight and your hair short.” At that time, all three of us got sad faces. Janet’s hair was butt-length, Tanya’s was mid-back and mine was shoulder-length. “Yeah, I can see that,” I said. “Don’t mean that I have to like it. In all my wuxia novels the dudes had long hair.”

“Just saying,” she replied. “Mine’s coming off before we leave this place.”

“So’s mine,” I said reluctantly. “Easier to clean and won’t hold bugs!”

“OK,” Tanya said with a small shudder. “I just got less attached to my hair. One thing, I suggest that we burn it, and anytime we bleed, we burn the blood too. I’m not sure about how paranoid we need to be, but I figure that there’s probably at least one Voodoo priest out there and now magic works!”

“Note to self, develop clean spell pronto!”, I said.

Tanya says, “Always watch the weather. Exposure can kill you. And we don’t know what season it is or what the weather is going to be like.”

“Good one,” Janet said. “This one may be a stretch, but I’m going to say it anyway, ‘Never give your real name!’ One of the things about Celtic mythology was the power of true names. I’m not sure what a true name is, or even if this could hold true, but I’m going to say, better safe than sorry. I think we ought to come up with nicknames and go by those.”

“Here’s one,” I said. “Always take care of your weapons! I have some over in that pile by the rickshaw that I’ll be passing out. Once it’s yours, take care of it.”

Tanya says, “And another one about the weather, always have hats, gloves, and boots if you can! Plus, gloves can make a difference in a fight, just remember the acid slime!”

“Oh, I do!” I said. “This isn’t a rule, but before we get started, I’d like us to do some prep work. I’d like us to get used to fighting together, maybe make up some signals, get used to party chat, train on our weapons, figure out some spells, look over our supplies and then when we’re as ready as we can be, take off. It’s a new world and I don’t want to be unprepared for it. I’m pretty sure that they have a word for people that aren’t prepared … corpses!”

Oh, your little group is so cute! Making plans, talking strategy. It just gives Us the quivers to watch! Not even 10 minutes into the apocalypse and you guys are making plans to survive. It’s so CUTE!

+1 to Wisdom

+1 to Intelligence.

“You know,” I said. “I really hate this System!” Both Janet and Tanya nodded. “But the pluses are nice!,” I added. Janet and Tanya nodded again.

“Ok, girls! What’s it gonna be?”, I asked. “Oh wait, I’ve got to ask,” I said. “I’m pretty sure that you got the mana in you. Did you get any titles?”

“Yes, we both got the same ones,” Tanya said. “‘Second Place Mage Ain’t Bad’ and ‘Not Even Jet Lee!’ I’m guessing that both of them are slightly lesser versions of the titles that you got. Thanks for getting us to drop everything and study mana and Qi, by the way. I think that you’re probably right. That titles, skill and attribute gifts are going to be rarer than before.”

“What do the titles give you?” I asked.

Janet answered, “The mage one gives +1 to Wisdom and Intelligence, +5% to all experience gained, +1 attribute point in Int and Wisdom gained per level, +10% to all skill points. In addition it makes it possible to learn all spells possible per level/skill/attribute, while the ‘Not Even Jet Lee’ title gives +1 to Strength, Agility, Vitality, +5% to all experience gained, +1 attribute point gained in Strength, Agility and Vitality per level, +5% to all skill points. In addition, it makes it possible to learn all Qi skills or abilities possible per level/skill/attribute.”

“So about the same as the ones I got, just a little bit less. Cool, I guess,” I said softly.

Both girls looked at me questioningly at that last part of my statement. “No, I don’t mean it in a negative way, I’d be happy if you got the same title that I did, or even a better one. It just makes me concerned. I mean the System is talking about how tough it’s going to be to survive and it keeps giving us these great plusses to our attributes. It just means that it probably thinks that we’re going to need them. I mean I could probably drop and give you 250 pushups and not even break a sweat right now, what is this world where that is normal?”

Just then a voice rang out in my head, “Don’t worry, you’ve got us and this nifty party chat thing. Like a cell phone but easier to use.” I looked in my eyes, screw it, I’m going to call it my heads up, and in the far right corner of my eye, it, I saw a little animated head that somehow - without it looking like her at all - I knew it was Tanya. It was surrounded by circles that were moving - representing sound waves, talking, I guess?

“Woh, how’d you do that?” I asked. Janet looked at both of us with a puzzled look on her face.

“It was something that I figured out back when we were sitting in Mighty Max playing with our interfaces,” Tanya said - out loud this time. “It didn’t work then, but it does now. Basically, you just say or think, Chat followed by Party or Chat followed by the person's name. Then you think (subvocalizing) or say what you want to say. Basically, it just appears in the Chat recipient’s ears? When you want it to end, you just say “Chat End” or speak out loud to a person that isn’t part of the chat. When you do that, the little icon in your eyes vanishes to show you that you aren’t chatting anymore.”

Of course, then we all had to try it and for the next few minutes, we sounded like an old Verison commercial, “Can you hear me? Can you hear me now?” Tanya told us that the range was as long as the party was capable of being grouped together, which was 100 meters per level of the highest leveled party member, in our case, that would be me at level 5, or 500 meters.

I was truly excited about this discovery: secure, silent communications! Wahoo! At least until Tanya said that some classes could get skills to listen in on party chats. I was also a little bummed that parties could be dissolved by distance. 500 meters wasn’t that much distance, I thought. We’d have to watch that if we went into cities to shop.

“OK,” I said. “That’s enough playing with the voices in my head, why don’t we pick out some weapons, make some plans and then hit the hay. We can get started again tomorrow morning.”

I walked over to the pile of weapons and stuff that I’d pulled from the trailer, now rickshaw. I had a sword, bought from Jake’s Arms, a local Ren blacksmith. It was of middling quality. Basically a big mass of poured steel that had been pounded on for a while. I guess you’d call it a short sword. Then I had a couple of machete’s, a couple of combat knives, a bowie knife and a couple of homemade pole arms - really a couple of hickory sticks with a couple of 14” knifes tied to the end, and a composite bow and even a couple of crossbows. Then I had my shield, a three foot by two-foot mess of plywood and steel flashing that I’d created on one of my off days. It had a couple of eye bolts through washers with the nut ends pointing outward and a mixture of soft nylon rope and steel wire threaded between the two of them to give it something to hang on to. It wasn’t great, but not bad for my first time crafting something. I could tell that my new muscles were going to make a difference. Before the Apocalypse, it was basically too heavy (I thought) to use. Now, it wasn’t bad at all. I didn’t have a katana, too bad Kendo lessons, but I’d also taken saber lessons as well so, well, there you go.

“Ok,” I said, putting the weapons out in a row, ranged to daggers on what used to be MM’s loading dock. “Who wants what?”

They both walked over and stood looking down at the weapons but made no attempt to pick them up. “I’m guessing from that response,” I said, “that neither of you has any martial arts experience?”

Both of them shook their heads no.

“Ok,” I said. “Not a problem. Have either of you shot a gun before?”

They both admitted that they had which made me feel slightly better about our chances of surviving.

“Since you’ve both shot a gun before,” I said. “I’m going to give you both a crossbow. A bow takes a lot longer to learn to use, it also requires more strength, especially in the upper body. Basically, you can look at a crossbow as a medieval gun. It’s got the stock area and the bow area is called limbs. It is mostly limited to short-range shooting, about 30-40 yards, well meters I guess, or so. Here are the basic rules:”

“First off, always unload your crossbow by firing it safely into a target or into the ground. Never ‘dry fire" a crossbow. Doing so will probably break it.” “Also, don’t fire bolts (these little metal arrows) that weigh less than these. Doing so will probably break your crossbow.” “Keep your fingers below the flight groove,” I said, making sure to make eye contact with them and pointing out the groove on the crossbow. “It’s a great way to lose a finger.” “Beware of objects around the bow's limbs. I met a guy that had a nasty scar on his face from not paying attention. He was in a blind, leaned forward to take a shot at a deer, got a branch in the limbs and when he fired, it broke the limb and part of the bow went into his face. So be careful.” “And lastly, keep the rail properly lubricated and clean.”

“Just like a rifle it’s got a scope, use it. We’ll practice with it tomorrow. I’ve got about 200 bolts here. That sounds like a lot, but trust me, they’ll go fast. It hard to find a missed shot in the woods and rocks and trees, heck even bone, can play hob with them. Every time you fire, expect to lose a bolt. Your job is to make it worthwhile.”

“Janet here’s your machete,” I said. “I bought them with a leather sheath that can fasten to your belts. Go ahead and fasten them on.” Fortunately, both girls had belts on. Janet’s was covered in intricate beadwork.

“You notice the curve in the blade? It’s a type of knife/machete called a kukri. It’s a weapon/tool of a Nepalese people called the Gurka. They were or are a fierce warrior people, one of the fiercest and most deadly regiments of the British army was made up of them. Note the notch just above the handle at the base of the blade? It’s called a Cho. It is symbolic of a cow’s foot which is widely worshiped in Nepal. Plus it also prevents blood and other fluids from dripping down the blade and onto the handle, which makes the handle slippery.” At that point, I noticed that both of the girls were looking a little green, so I stopped with the history of their knives. I figured that they’d have enough time to get used to them tomorrow.

“And lastly,” I said, “here’s your knife. I expect you both to keep it on you or by you everywhere, at all times. It’s also a kukri, it’s just a smaller one. The first one, the machete was made by a company called Condor Tool and Knife. I bought three of them, so we’ll each have one. I also have a short sword that I bought that I’ll be using along with the shield instead of the machete. Anyways, I just liked the picture of them on the website and was in a buying mood. The smaller one was made by a company called Citadel. It’s made out of steel with a high iron content so it shouldn’t be stored in a leather sheath. Unfortunately, it came with one, so, well what can you do. Once again, I was looking for knives and thought these ones looked cool. Plus they’re kukri! Has either of you ever read Kipling? The Jungle Book? Wee Willie Winkie? Kim? Just So Stories? The Phantom Rickshaw? He’s great! I loved his stuff when I was growing up. I think I read the jungle book at least twice a year until I was ten!”

“That’s it for tonight. Tomorrow we’ll talk tactics and strategy, practice some battles formations, and try to figure out how we’re going to get to my mother's place. Like I said before, we had between 16 and 24 miles to travel to get to my mom’s place; however, They said something about geography changing so I’m not sure about that distance anymore. Plus we’ll be going through I don’t know what kind of territory, with what kind of beasts or even monsters in it. And people can be the deadliest of monsters … at least according to Derek.” I looked up and both of the girls had a puzzled look on there face, “Derek Stone is the head of my mother’s security,” I said. “He’s a former Navy SEAL, a black belt in about five martial arts, the kind of guy that could kill you with a napkin. He’s my Sensei. Now we just need to figure out a place to sleep and set up watches.”

When I said this, both girls got this funny look on their faces, like they were trying to hold in a laugh. “We got that covered, boyo,” Tanya said.

Janet steps forward, next to the rickshaw and kind of made this scooping gesture with her arms and damned if a teepee didn’t appear set up right in front of her. After looking at it for a second, I realized that it was the teepee from inside Mighty Max. It was a big one, part of the diorama set up inside, it would easily sleep four.

Tanya made the same gestures and the rocks for the interior fire circle appeared and then the logs that the fake Indians from the diorama were sitting on appeared too. Even the bedding inside, a bunch of wool blankets, a couple of buffalo hides as well as some metal pots and a fire grill and hanger to cook over the fire circle appeared.

“Wow! When the heck did you ‘gather’ all that?” I asked.

“Right after the apocalypse happened. We stepped away while you were looking at the sky and grabbed it. Good thing too. I’m not sure what remains of the inside of the store anymore. I swear I saw things disappearing, shelves folding up, changing from metal to wood, that kind of thing. I’m not going back in there tonight,” Janet said.

“OK,” I said. “I’ll take the first watch, Janet can take second and Tanya can take third. What do you think?”

The night passed peacefully. I heard some howling in the distance, but Oklahoma has always had coyotes, so even though these voices sounded bigger and deeper than a coyote, I pretended really hard that they were. After my shift, I woke up Janet and slipped into her bedroll in the teepee to sleep. I was asleep before she made it outside.