“Trish,” Dez said, loudly enough for Rory’s ears to ring. He sounded terribly calm in spite of the situation. “Can you hear us? What’s going on?”

Rory had no idea what sort of communication medium the Sigil of Calling used. Radios and mobile networks were out of business, so if it depended on those, which wasn’t unlikely considering the Sigils Rory had used to create it, then they were screwed. Ironic since this was the situation they had been trying to avoid.

Nearer at hand, the others were looking on in concern. Ned, Viv, and Sue had gathered close by, while the young office workers and the other family all had a cast of fear and apprehension on their faces. Rory wished he could tell them that everything was fine. Maybe he should have put some more thought into where he Warded the Sigil of Calling.

It took a while before Trish replied. “I can’t talk long, but we found more survivors,” she said, her voice harried and rushed. There was a very obvious note of exhaustion. “They’re at a bunker. We stopped at a police station, but then we were attacked by—” Her voice cut out for a frightening few seconds before she returned. “We’re trapped. Can you send help. Hurry!”

“Where are you, Trish?” Dez asked, still in that steely, forced calm.

“…station.”

“What station? You’re cutting out.”

There was a pause. Trish seemed to be busy with something, and Rory swallowed, feeling like the monsters were upon her and Allen. When Trish spoke again, she was loud, nearly screaming. “… station. Police station. Po-lice sta-tion.”

“Okay,” Dez said. “Hold tight. We’re coming to get you. Can you confirm you heard? Over!”

They waited again, a little breathless. Then Trish’s voice jerked in.

“Copy,” she said. “We’ll stay put. Over.”

The line went dead.

Sue cursed loudly. “Well, they went and messed up.”

“More survivors.” Dez turned to them, the steel-hard expression only growing more resolute. “We need to get there and get them out as fast as we can. We can scope out the situation once we reach them.”

“A police station…” Viv mused. “It must be the closest one. The one on East Twelfth.”

“That’s right,” Rory said. “There’s a bunker there too.”

Viv turned to him in surprise. “Really?”

He nodded. “I recall from one of the older maps I sold. But yes, I agree, we need to head out now. There’s no telling how long they’re going to be able to hold out.”

“Right,” Dez said. “I’ll take the van. Ned can come with me if he doesn’t mind.”

“I don’t mind.” Ned looked like he wanted to mind but he steeled himself, especially when Dez turned to him. “Good idea too. I can use my Burnwing to scout around once we get close enough.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

“I’ll accompany you,” Rory said.

“Wait, you?” Viv glared at him. “Why?”

Rory took a deep breath. “I’m not sure. But I think they’re going to need all the help they can get over there, including more than just pure firepower.” He turned to Evelyn, who was standing in the periphery but was near enough to hear the conversation. “Evelyn, can you come with us. I understand if you don’t want to, but I think they might be in need of healing.”

She nodded. “I want to prepare my pack. My Sigils are good and all, but normal medicine might be useful too.”

Evelyn headed to the side of the hall, probably where she kept her backpack and the medicine. Since the half-destroyed van might fall apart if they pushed it, Ned ran off to bring in the pickup truck. Dez also headed off to prepare for the journey ahead.

“Look,” Rory said to Viv. “Someone needs to stay here to protect the bank in case more monsters come in, someone who’s powerful. And I think they’re going to need my Weaving over there because the situation might call for anything.”

Viv closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “It’s fine. But just make sure you do your best to stay safe, please. You’re not the only one who worries.”

“I will, I promise.” Rory loved his wife for understanding the urgency of the situation superseded any singular worries they might have had. He turned to Sue. “Stay near this pillar. We’ll do our best to keep in touch.”

She nodded. There was obviously more that she wished to say, but she kept her mouth shut.

“Are they alright?” Malcolm asked from down the hall.

“Can we help somehow?” someone else asked. One of the young office workers.

Viv decided to address them directly. “There’s been some kind of complication, but we’re going to investigate. There’s no point in worrying. The best thing we can do is make sure we keep everything here going smoothly so they can focus on their mission without worrying about us.”

“I hope those other people come out of this alright,” another of the newcomers said.

Rory was going to have to at least try to remember their names at some point. For now, he stepped forward too. “Trish and Allen are more than capable of handling anything they come across. I’m sure they’re fine. We’re just going to go over and provide backup, and we’ll be back before you know it.”

He wasn’t sure how well they took it, but he couldn’t waste more time here. The others had arrived, and after kissing Viv goodbye, Rory gathered some supplies he’d need and jumped into the pickup truck.

Ned pressed down on the accelerator and the truck screeched off down the road.

The palace dwindled in the rear-view mirror. What worries Rory had were muted. Viv was there. She’d take care of things.

Ned forewent all caution as they hurtled along. Rory and Evelyn kept an eye out from the seats, Dez ready to attack anything from the truck’s bed at the back. But nothing came at them. No Thundershells shooting lightning, no Emberteeth belching fire.

“We can’t contact them from this truck, can we?” Ned asked. “If only the radios worked.”

“Don’t worry.” Rory pulled out he supplies he was going to need. “I’m going to make another Sigil of Calling.”

He used his Weaving on several more phones to get the component Sigils he needed. Then he used some Mana to get a Sigil of Mana Empowerment. Finally, he Wove all the Sigils together to create another Sigil of Calling, which he Warded into the truck’s dashboard.

“Hello?” Dez said, tapping on the Sigil. “Is anyone there? Trish? Allen? This is Dez. We’re coming to get you and about halfway to the station. Please respond A-S-A-P. Over.”

There was no response. Rory figured that was only fair. The other Sigil was Warded on the car too, which they must have left behind to take shelter within the station itself, most likely. No wonder Trish had been having trouble talking the last time.

Rory distracted himself by watching the town passing them by. It looked just as deserted and destroyed as it ever did, though the ever-present trees reduced that feeling a little. In the distance, he saw a market that had burned down to a hollow shell, a hospital that looked haunted as a cemetery, and a school with its gates eerily open as though welcoming them to their deaths.

Good thing the police station wasn’t far. Ned knew the way, and after some twists and turns, they had reached East Twelfth street, at the end of which the police station was visible.

“Holy mackerel,” Ned said. “What is going on over there?”

He slowed the truck down as they approached. Rory pressed his face against the window and watched the distant, three-storey, glass-plated building with a white walls on the lowest floor. There were strange creatures swirling around the building. They were too far for him to tell what they were, though.

“One of these days, we’re going to need binoculars or something,” Rory said.

“Good point,” Dez said.

They left the truck far from the police station so that their escape route remained safe. Rory told Evelyn to stick close as they approached the police station on foot carefully.

The monsters surrounding the police station started becoming clearer. Rory frowned at the sight.

They looked like apparitions, but green and covered with a dark cloth and long, claw-tipped monstrous arms bursting out of their sides. The ends of their long clothes trailed along the ground, hiding their feet and making them look as though they were floating.

And there were tons of them.

“What are those things?” Ned asked quietly as they took shelter behind a clump of trees.

“Wraiths,” Rory said, the barrage of information flooding his brain taking him by surprise. At least he was able to absorb the most important bits. “They’re like ghosts but with corporeal forms and have powers that make you feel like you’re dying. Which you will be if you stay in their area of effect for too long.”

“Wait, so we can’t even get close to those things?”

“You can. You just can’t let them use whatever strange attacks they have on you for long. They can suppress their deathly auras, apparently, and it’s naturally kept down. So, the ideal situation is we’d take them out quickly before they turned those deathly auras on us.”

“Sounds easier said than done.”

“They’re keeping Trish and Allen and whoever else is there trapped inside,” Dez said. “There’s too many of the things for them to escape in one piece.”

Rory grimaced. “Exactly.”

“So, the idea is we create a diversion and hope they can use that to get out of there. Then we all rendezvous back at the pickup truck.”

“I’m guessing you intend to be the major diversion?”

Dez grinned. “Of course.”

“I’ll help,” Ned said. “I can whiz around and—”

“No, stay with Rory and Evelyn. Help them evacuate the others. There might be wounded people and that’s going to need some careful handling.”

Rory stepped forward a little and observed the lay of the land. The police station was surrounded by a large section of open ground, as were most buildings in the town. That was what afforded the monsters enough ground to basically lay siege to the building. The parking lot behind it had a few cars, but most seemed overturned or broken in some other fashion.

There was no sign of Trish’s Spyder. Hopefully, it hadn’t been destroyed or anything.

Dez parted after wishing them good luck. Once he reached the corner of the area near the woods, he set the plan in motion. Dez started volleying his Abyssal Inferno into the army of Wraiths, setting them on fire that burned black with starlight-blue glints.

The keening that rose from the Wraiths chilled Rory straight to his bones. It was an unearthly noise, similar to how Evelyn’s kid had sounded, but more obviously malevolent.

Dez was undaunted by both the noise and the approaching army of monsters. He continued firing away his Sigil, setting the monsters aflame one by one, powering through the screams they shrieked out into the air. Soon enough, all of the Wraiths’ attention was now focused on the big guy with fists burning pure darkness.

Now was their chance.

“Let’s go,” Rory said.

They stuck to the left side of the road. Since there was no cover at all, the best they could do was keep their profiles low. The distance would be enough. And the screams. Rory hadn’t considered auditory camouflage, but the Wraiths’ shrieks covered any noise they might have made.

All the while, Dez battled the Wraiths. He was now focusing his blasts of burning black flames on a circle of area close to him. The monsters had gotten too close.

Soon enough, they made it to the entrance in one piece.

“Go inside and get them out,” Rory told Ned and Evelyn. “I’ll keep an eye on Dez and help if he needs it.”

“We’ll be fine,” Ned assured him. “And we’ll get them all out before you can say Dez.”

Rory bit down on a laugh. “Go.”

Ned charged in.

“Take care, Rory,” Evelyn said before following Ned inside.

Rory hoped the interior of the police station was in a much better condition than its exterior. He frowned into the distance. The black pyres made it difficult to tell what was happening. But the monsters were still screaming and moving, which confirmed Dez was still alive. For now.

Then things shifted. Green light wafted up in the distance, the press of Wraiths beginning to slow down. Rory’s heartbeat spiked. Something—probably his Sigil of Knowledge—informed him that they were about to attack.

“Dez, get back!” Rory shouted.

It was pointless. Rory was too far away for him to hear. The monsters didn’t truly attack, but they used their deathly auras to suppress Dez’s offence. His fiery blasts started to slow down. Rory couldn’t tell at this distance, but he was sure Dez was falling back.

Growling, Rory started moving towards the melee, but he was far too slow. It wouldn’t do to end up there, all tired and unable to help too. No better time to check his staff’s maximum range. Rory stabbed his staff, focusing on the Sigil of Rending Blizzard. The icy bolt that burst out sailed over the open the ground and struck the back of the nearest Wraith easily over a hundred feet away.

The monster turned with an angry, ethereal screech. Rory’s attack had frozen it partially in place. He threw out more icy blasts freezing nearby Wraiths as they turned to check their new attacker. The motions made him feel silly, but it was nice to take some pressure off Dez.

Unfortunately, too many monsters rounded on him. Rory’s heart started hammering. As their auras started getting in range, a strange sensation of hopelessness and lethargy washed over him. It was minor though. Something his adrenaline-fuelled body could stave off. Why was Dez reacting so poorly to it?

His stats. Of course. The combination of Rory’s Spirit and fortitude likely helped him against the monsters’ deadly auras. Dez had no such thing to help him.

Rory had a solution. He pulled out a Sigil of Frozen Lightning and inserted it into his staff. A sweep with his staff covered the ground several feet ahead of him with crackling ice. When the Wraiths rushed across it, ice flashed and burst around the creatures, trapping them in place, followed immediately by a net of lightning sparking into existence. The Wraiths screamed.

The monsters froze. Not just the ones approaching him, but also the ones trying to attack Dez. They all turned to stare behind Rory.

Heart in his mouth, he turned just as an explosion rocked the police station. A gang of Wraiths burst out of the station’s rear end, rushed across the parking lot, and disappeared into the woods. But it wasn’t just the surprise appearance of Wraith from within the building that caused him to freeze.

No, it was the screaming and struggling man that they were carrying away with them that had him rooted to his spot.

Before Rory could react, before he could even properly register the surprising scene, the Wraiths disappeared into the trees with their captive. Soon enough, the man’s screaming faded to nothing.