Then

Cal dropped the young cop in a plush chair before going back to shut and lock the door. It was an office. Desk, computer and dual monitors on top, plants, bookshelf with management books and binders, everything one would expect to see. Cal looked around leisurely while the young man stared at him with wide eyes.

Cal saw that there were several picture frames arranged on the outer edges of the desk. Smiling family, kids and grandkids from the look of it. He felt a momentary pang in his chest. Where these people still out there? Was the owner of the office? Or were they one of the numerous victims of the impossible apocalypse. He knew his immediate family was alive, at least for now, but how about the rest? He didn’t have a way to find out at the moment and he didn’t know when he would be able to check.

Megan, Tessa, and Veronica. He could help them, needed to help them, and all he had to do was crack the terrified young man trapped in the office with him.

“Relax,” Cal said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

The young man leaned back in fear, clearly not believing him.

“What? Do you think I’m going to torture you? C’mon man I’m not CIA and this isn’t a black site. This is a community center office and I’m just a guy looking for my family,” Cal sighed. “Look around you. Do you see a board in here? Buckets of water? Afraid I’ll slice you up?” He spread his arms wide. “See, no knives.”

The young man’s expression grew confused. “What do you want from me?” He finally said after a long silence.

“I want you to tell me where you took my family. I want everything about your entire operation. I want everything on this ‘Jay’. He in charge?”

“I can’t do that, he’ll kill me. He’ll hurt my sister.”

“Why don’t we start with something easy? What’s your name?”

The young man hesitated a moment. “It’s Ron.”

“Okay, good. Now, Ron, I know this is all pretty weird right? But you’ve seen what me and my guys can do. Took you all down in minutes. You even had guns and we did it all with our bare hands. You saw what my girl can do?” Cal kept his tone light. “I’m sure whatever this Jay’s got, we can handle.”

“You’re wrong! You guys might be strong, but he’s something else, like a monster. I saw him take the top of this guy’s head in one hand,” Ron mimed the action with his cuffed hands, “and just squeeze… turned the poor bastard’s head into mush, like a tomato or something.” He looked like he was going to be sick. “Just thinking about it—”

Cal snapped his fingers in Ron’s face. “I need you to focus. Did it look like it was hard for him?”

Ron looked at Cal with confusion.

“When he… squeezed the guy’s head. Was it a struggle? Did his face get all red, veins popping? Like if he was trying to bench his one-rep max? Or was it easy for him, like he was just opening a bag of chips?”

“I don’t know, I guess somewhere in the middle, but closer the first one. It felt like it took awhile and the guy was screaming the whole time.” Ron shuddered.

All true at least as far as Cal could glean from his light touch on the surface of Ron’s thoughts. “Why are you with these losers? I can tell you’re not a true believer in that white power garbage.”

“I had no choice. When Jay took over the station he said we were either on his side or an enemy.” Ron looked down at his feet. “The few officers who weren’t white or were mixed didn’t even get a choice. Meat shields, he called them. You know what that means?”

Cal nodded.

“A couple of the white officers refused or tried to fight back. They got thrown in with the meat shields,” Ron spat the word.

“No one tried to fight?”

“They did, but guns weren’t working and Jay got strong, I mean he was already the biggest roid-head in the station, but this was something else. He was tossing guys around like they weighed nothing.” Ron hung his head even lower. “I should’ve helped, at least tried to do something, but all I could think of was my little sister. I’m all she has and I’d brought her to the station for safety. If I had fought they would’ve hurt her.”

“I’m thinking you did the right thing,” Cal said. He truly empathized. “Family is the most important thing.”

“Look, man. I want to help. I don’t like what they’re doing. It’s wrong. It’s straight up evil, but I can’t risk anything happening to my sister.”

“And how long do you think your sister will remain safe? Untouched? If I could tell you weren’t committed to the cause, don’t you think your boys can as well?” Cal leaned back against the desk right in front of Ron. “You can’t protect her. I’m guessing you didn’t get anything good from the spire.”

“Huh?” A confused look crossed Ron’s face.

“You don’t know,” Cal said. “You haven’t been inside the spire.”

“That weird, huge thing in the middle of campus?”

Cal probed Ron’s thoughts, daring to push deeper with the distraction provided by the young man’s bewilderment. “You killed the gremlins that first night and you got that same message we all did, yet you didn’t go to the spire and Jay didn’t say anything about it… interesting.”

Ron’s fear had progressively given way to confusion then to a cautious sort of hope. At least he was now fairly certain that Cal wasn’t going to torture him. “It’s like you said. He doesn’t trust me.”

“So, what about the rest of those guys out there? Any of them actually went to the spire?”

“I don’t think so. Jay’s got like an inner council thing, call them einherjar,” Ron stumbled over the word. “Only like five or six guys. I think like two guys from the force the rest are Jay’s biker buddies. They don’t have to pull guard duty like the rest of us.”

“Of course,” Cal rolled his eyes. He’d bet his favorite knife that they had named their group Norsefire, Sons of Odin, Thor’s Hammerers, or something as equally cringe-worthy. “So, that’s why you lot here don’t have any powers, magic, or other bullshit. And here I thought we just shocked and awed you.” His fingers drummed the desk behind him. “I think we can make a deal, Ron.”

Ron started to shake his head.

“Hear me out before you refuse.” Cal raised a finger. “All I want from you is information. You won’t have to do anything else.”

“I won’t do anything that might put my sister in danger.”

“Kid, she’s already in danger!” Cal snapped. “I can give you the means to maybe, just maybe, make it so that the danger is a lot less and all you have to do is flip… ha… on a bunch of human trash that you don’t like anyway.”

“Okay,” Ron said. “It’s not like I’ve got much of a choice and you haven’t hurt me yet, aside from punching my face, which I had coming.”

“Good, so, tell me everything about Jay and his operation and then I’ll tell you about the spires.”

Cal knocked on the office door. It took a few seconds before it opened slightly and Remy’s head peeked out.

“What?”

“I got what we need,” Cal said as he beckoned his brother out.

Remy came out of the office and shut the door behind him. “Thank god!” He said in obvious relief. “I think that guy was starting to get suspicious that I wasn’t going to do anything to him.”

“Tsk, tsk,” Eron grinned. “All you had to do was sit there and just stare. I had my guy practically pissing his pants.”

“Where did they take my family?” Remy ignored Eron.

“They’re at the high school,” Cal said.

“That’s just right there,” Remy pointed to what Cal guessed was southwest, “it’s close, won’t even have to leave the park grounds.”

“What’s it called?”

“Davis High.”

“Oh, sorry I’m not familiar with your city. Ron said they were using MLK High as a base,” Cal said.

“Who’s Ron?” Eron chimed in.

“The cop I was interrogating. He’s alright, not an actual racist. Sort of got forced into going along with all this. Has a little sister back at the high school.”

“Guys, focus!” Remy snapped. “Are you sure he said MLK?”

“Yeah,” Cal said.

“Good,” Remy sighed. “That’s only about fifteen minutes walk down B Street. Let’s go.”

“Woah! Hold up. We need to plan this out,” Cal said.

“No, we can’t waste anymore time. We don’t know what they’ve got planned for my wife, my daughters,” Remy fired back.

“Just give me a second to explain,” Cal said. “According to Ron they don’t do anything to white people. They just question them and make them swear an oath to the cause or something stupid like that. Then they let them go home. And before you ask, he wasn’t lying, I saw the truth in his mind.”

“What happens when they ask Megan who the kids’ father is?” Remy shot back. “I’m sure they won’t be as hands off to ‘race traitors’.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Eron said lightly. When both Cal and Remy rounded on him with angry looks, he merely shrugged. “Megan’s smart, she’ll say that their ‘white’ dad is out gathering supplies or something.”

“What if they ask the girls?”

“C’mon, Rem. They’ll just copy their mom. Especially if this Jay is as scary as they keep making him out to be. Tessa and Veronica won’t have to fake anything. Couple of scared kids looking to their mom, perfectly normal and expected, not suspicious at all. Besides they pass well enough. The clan,” Eron rolled his eyes, “won’t think anything of it.”

“While I don’t like the flippant attitude, you aren’t wrong,” Cal said. “So, Remy are you ready to listen?”

“Yeah, fine.”

“Okay, first thing we need to do is take the rest of those racists out in the hall and separate them. We’ll place them one by one into any free offices, even the bathrooms,” Cal said.

“I don’t think there’s enough free spaces for all twenty of them,” Eron said.

“I’ll fix the fence outside. We can put the rest out there,” Remy said.

“Then we’ll take all their gear, guns included and bring them back to your house. We’ll work on our plan there. We’ll get some rest, because I definitely need some if we’re going up against this Jay and my head is killing me right now,” Cal grimaced. “Then we’ll head to the high school close to midnight were we’ll rescue our family, the others imprisoned there, and put a stop to this.”

“What about your new buddy, Ron?” Eron frowned.

“We are letting him go with his equipment and a shotgun.” His brothers were about to protest, but Cal forged on. “Part of the deal, plus he’s not one of them, not to mention there’s a little girl out there that has no one else to count on. He’s going to hide and wait for an opportunity to get his sister.”

“And you trust him,” Eron said.

“Yeah, he was telling the truth.”

“I don’t doubt your mind powers, but the dude could always get cold feet and change his mind.”

“He won’t,” Cal said with certainty.

They were lucky that stealth wasn’t vital since they were being far too loud to Cal’s ears. It felt as if if each step on the sidewalk was like a hammer in the otherwise silent night. And that wasn’t even taking into account the candle lanterns the two people in the middle of the line, Remy and Nila were trying to keep somewhat hidden in their hands. They had to bring the light. There wasn’t really a choice. Had they gone without the damnable gremlins would’ve been all over them. At least this way they only had to swat away the occasional nippy mutant bird or rodent.

Cal was trusting in the intelligence provide by Ron. The young cop had freely, eagerly even, divulged that his former gang, they didn’t deserve to be called police officers, numbered at around fifty men in total. Twenty had been left at the community center to keep watch over their captives. The plan was to keep them there overnight to let them sit and grow more afraid of their unknown fates. It was a despicable tactic to begin the process of breaking their wills. Which was an advantage for Cal’s group. The men at the community center wouldn’t be missed, especially once midnight rolled around. That was when Jay and his einherjar were going to be busy in the high school. Of the remaining thirty men, ten remained at the police station at all times, while the other twenty would be busy keeping watch over the captives at the high school.

Ron wasn’t entirely certain why they moved the captives to the football field every night, while Jay and the einherjar went into the buildings. All he could tell Cal for certain was that he had heard intermittent sounds of fighting and the men emerging three to four hours later, usually wounded, with the exception of Jay.

Cal had a good guess at what Ron was describing almost immediately. MLK high school had somehow been turned into a dungeon zone, to use a fictional term and it was resetting every night. When he shared his suspicions with the others their reactions fell within expectations. Eron bought into the idea right away and grew excited. Nila was skeptical, but asked a lot of questions. Remy didn’t care, he just wanted to get his family back as soon as possible.

This gave them an opening to use against Jay and his men, however it posed another problem that Eron astutely brought up. If the racists were running the dungeon on a nightly basis, how much stronger had they grown? According to the time line of events Cal put together from what Ron told him, it was thirty-three nights in a row. That was a lot of opportunity to increase their strength and practice their unknown powers and abilities.

The group stopped in the shadow of a liquor store on the corner across the street from the high school. They were careful to keep the lanterns behind their bodies to block the light from any potential eyes. It wasn’t a huge concern. According to Ron the gang didn’t keep a tight perimeter watch since they weren’t concerned about human opposition. They were mainly concerned about keeping their captives from escaping. Not that there were many that dared it, unwilling to face the monsters in the dark.

“Anything?” Eron whispered.

Cal shook his head.

“What about Megan and my kids? Can you sense them?” Remy was tense in his crouch. He looked as if he was just on the edge of making a mad dash for the high school.

Cal placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder to steady him. “Nothing yet. I’ll need to get closer.”

As it happened their approach placed them on the opposite side of the campus from the football field where Ron had said that the captives were being kept in a makeshift encampment. Cal would’ve chosen to come from this direction anyways in order to shield them from prying eyes.

Cal gestured forward and Eron led the way. They moved as quickly as they could while trying to maintain some semblance of quiet. They entered through an open driveway into what looked like a faculty parking lot.

As soon as he crossed the line from sidewalk to lot a familiar sound chimed in Cal’s ear. The surprise caused him to stumble.

Welcome to the Martin Luther King Jr. High School Encounter Challenge.

Challengers Active: 10

There were several more lines of distorted text that he couldn’t make out. Oddly enough the voice had also become garbled.

“Hey, are you guys getting this?” Eron slowed.

“Keep moving.” Cal pushed him forward. “Let’s get some cover first.” He pointed toward a building across the lot.

When the group reached the building they halted.

“I guess you were right. The school got turned into some kind of dungeon,” Remy said.

“Good thing we were planning for this,” Cal said. “Nothing changes. Let’s go.”

They crept along the long, narrow building, offices of some sort, before rounding the corner and emerging into the campus proper.

“Wait a second,” Cal whispered.

The group stopped and Cal called upon his telepathy. He had slept for a few hours and his throbbing headache had given way to a mild feeling of fatigue, like he had been up for too long, something manageable. He probed for any thoughts in his vicinity and found nothing. All of this was new to him and he still wasn’t sure how far his range extended.

“I’m not getting anything.” Cal pointed to the nearest large building off to the left. “Let’s start there.”

The doors were locked, but Eron simply forced the door open with a loud crack that made them all wince. The youngest Cruces brother led the way into a long hallway with a bank of lockers on both sides. The rows were broken up by evenly interspaced doors every thirty feet or so, classrooms.

Cal called for another halt as he once again used his power. This time he got something, many things actually. There were dozens of them, a handful in each classroom. Unfortunately, all he could glean were vague feelings of hunger and malice mingled together. “I think there’s something in the rooms,” he whispered.

“People?” Remy was hopeful.

“They’re supposed to be all at the field,” Nila said. “We’d hear them if there were people in there.”

“She’s right,” Eron said. “I’d definitely hear like breathing or snoring. I can’t hear anything in there. I’d say the rooms are empty.”

“Great, that can mean only one thing,” Remy spat.

“Monsters then?” Nila looked to Cal with concern.

“I guess my dungeon zone theory was right,” Cal said.

Eron raised a hand. “I vote we clear the rooms.”

“No!” Remy snapped. “We can’t waste time. Plus we have no idea what kind of monsters are in there. They might be too much for us to handle.”

“If we bypass them they might attack us from behind. Safer to go one room at a time, so we don’t have to fight more that a handful,” Eron said.

“Then we should go back the way we came.” Remy implored Cal.

“I vote for that.” Nila raised her hand.

Eron shook his head in a huff. “That might also cause them all to attack at once.”

Cal thought quickly. “Remy can you float a lantern about half way down the hall. I need to see how many doors there are and I can’t see to the end without some light.”

“Yeah, I think so.” Remy brought the candle lantern in his hand up and focused on it for a few seconds. Suddenly, it floated from his outstretched hand. It wobbled at about waist height in the middle of the hallway. A look of concentration was on Remy’s face, evident even in the dimness.

“That’s far enough.” Cal called for Remy to halt the lantern. He counted the doors, then he did it again to make sure before he gestured for Remy to bring the lantern back. Eight doors on each side. From what he knew of fire safety laws, he guessed that each classroom was required to have two doors, which meant there were a total of eight classrooms in this one building. “Okay, we’re going to clear these two rooms,” he pointed at the two closest ones on either side, “and then we’ll test out Eron’s theory.”

“C’mon, why?” Eron held his arms out wide.

“Remember our plan? Well, if you’re right and bypassing the rooms leads to all the monsters attacking…” Cal raised his brows.

Eron narrowed his eyes at his oldest brother.

“That’d make pulling this off a lot easier!” Remy elbowed Eron in the side.

“I still don’t se— Oh, oh!” Eron’s mouth widened into a smile.

“What are you guys talking about?” Nila looked at the three Cruces brothers like they were crazy.

“It’s like your work,” Cal said. He didn’t elaborate.

“Okay, let’s do this!” Eron moved to the classroom door on the left side of the hall. “I’ll go in swinging. Just keep the lights on my back, but wait and watch unless I’m in trouble.”

It was a good plan. They needed information about what kind of monsters they were going to have to face in the high school turned dungeon zone. Eron was the strongest and most durable by far, which made him the perfect choice to take the lead. Once they knew what they were up against they could come up with better tactics.

“Count me down,” Eron said as he gripped the door handle.

“Three, two, one,” Remy said.

With a mighty pull Eron pulled the locked door nearly off its hinges. He dashed into the room with his fists up.

“Holy crap!” They all shouted in unison.