A while after that, we found another cabin with a little sign at the base of the driveway that had the name of a rental agency on it. There were no cars and no answers to our shouts. So we decided it was vacant and moved on.
“How far do you suppose it is to town?” Joe said when we stopped to regenerate Stamina and drink some water.
I dug out the guidebook and tried to guess where we were on the map. “Another two or three miles, tops,” I said. “I’d have thought we’d have been there by now but the road is steeper than I remembered. I already miss cars.”
“I’m surprised we haven’t seen more people,” said Mandy. “Even I would have been a lot more willing to walk into town if we’d been this close to start with.” She looked a little red from the walking, but she was doing all right. Having an actual ‘this is how tired you are’ number while exercising turned out to be quite useful.
“We picked the cabin we did because it was farthest out and in the least busy area,” said Samantha. “You know. For privacy.” She blushed a little as she realized what she’d just said. Sheila gave her a curious look.
“What exactly were you guys doing together?” asked our Administrator. “You’re not all family, are you?”
“No,” said Anthony. “We’re online friends.”
“Mike and I are married,” said Samantha quickly. “We met everybody else online. Like on a Facebook group.”
“What Facebook group?” Sheila replied.
“For science fiction fans,” I said. “We’re all big nerds.”
“Okay,” said Sheila, obviously not willing to let it go now that her curiosity was aroused. “But I thought you guys went to big conventions, not rented little cabins in the back woods.”
PARTY CHAT / JAMES: Okay, this is getting out of hand. Not like it should matter in the middle of the apocalypse, but… Ideas?
PARTY CHAT / JOE: I got this.
“Sheila,” Joe said slowly, coming to a stop and turning back to face us. “You got us. This is really embarrassing. If I tell you, you promise not to give anybody a hard time?”
“I guess?” she said, surprised.
“We’re… LARPers,” he said, staring at the ground in (fake) shame.
“What’s that?” she said. Her face was confused and I had to suddenly stifle a laugh.
So near, and yet so far.
“Live Action Role Play,” he said, still trying to sound embarrassed. “It’s like Dungeons and Dragons, only instead of a pencil and paper, you actually act like you’re your character. You jump around and shout out what you’re doing and stuff. It’s really fun, but it looks kinda… silly.”
Sheila and Bruce looked at each other, eyes wide. It felt like they didn’t know quite what to think.
“So anyway,” I said, trying not to giggle, “we all love role-playing. Role-playing games, I mean.” I thought I did hear Mandy snort at that one. “That’s why we adapted so fast. Ironic, huh? Before we were weird and now we may be the best adapted people on the planet.”
After several awkward seconds, Bruce said, “That’s not so weird. I was afraid you were doing some kind of se…”
I almost choked.
And again… so close.
Having stopped himself, he just looked at the kids. “I mean… that’s no big deal.” He smiled. “I’m glad you were here. You probably saved our lives.”
Sheila nodded firmly. “Me too. We won’t say a word.”
“Thanks,” said Joe. “It’s just… you know, we’re adults. People can be nasty about things.”
“No problem,” said Bruce.
We all got moving again, several of us fighting to keep our expressions under control.
PARTY CHAT / JAMES: Joe, I don’t care what your Intelligence is, you are a goddamned genius.
PARTY CHAT / JOE: I’ve been pretending not to be a nerd my whole life. I’ve gotten pretty good at it. So I just turned it around.
PARTY CHAT / MANDY: Good boy. I’ll reward you later.
PARTY CHAT / ANTHONY: TMI. :)
PARTY CHAT / JOE: Watch it or you’ll get the opposite of a reward.
It was Anthony’s turn to snort. But he kept quiet, both in real life and in Party Chat, after that.
Not that anyone was feeling talkative. The road had steepened yet again and I’d had to trade off pulling the wagon with Mike twice already. Eventually we pulled to the side for another break.
“I thought this was the not steep way,” said Mandy, not quite panting.
“This map is flat,” I said, looking at the book. “It’s hard to tell. But it still looks easier than the other route.”
“It is,” said Mike. “The other way is much steeper. We had to downshift for one hill even at speed.”
“As far as I can see,” I said, “we’ve got the rest of this straight part, a tight turn, and then basically a straight line to town.” I traced the road with my finger. “In fact, we’re climbing to what I think is about the highest part of this road, and then it’s downhill from the turn. That’s what I remember.”
“Me too,” said Joe. Anthony and Mandy nodded.
The kids were all quiet. Robert and Betsy had finally started to lose some of their childish energy. Sally and Billy had been almost completely silent since we left their house. They’d reply if spoken to, and had eaten a little more, but otherwise they just stared at nothing.
Just as I was getting ready to roust everybody out for the last slog, there was a noise in the trees to our right.
A loud noise.
A really loud noise.
I scrambled to my feet. Danielle, sitting next to me, bounced to hers like she was made of rubber and springs. The rest of the group followed suit.
“What the Hell was that?” snapped Bruce.
“I don’t know,” I said, voice low. “Weapons ready. Cluster up on the kids. Don’t get in Samantha’s way. She has to be able to shoot and to see Kaa.”
Taking one quick second to look around, I saw that Samantha had already ‘drawn’ the System weapon. Mandy had shaken out her whip and was standing behind and to Joe’s left. He had his bat up as if waiting for a pitch. Danielle, just in front of me, had her claws out and a snarl exposing her fangs.
Bruce and Sheila were standing on either side of the kids, and Robert had his arms around his sister, who looked terrified. Billy and Sally looked frightened, but were still as stones in the wagon. Anthony was clutching his staff and trying to stay on rear guard, but the noise was impossible to ignore.
The noise came from the trees again. It was definitely closer.
“Samantha, send Kaa to the front and have him rattle,” I said. “It might scare whatever that is away.”
Looking to the side, the Animal Tamer concentrated on the snake, and it immediately moved along the side of the group until it was in front of Joe, only a few yards from the trees. Coiling, Kaa faced into the woods and raised the gigantic rattle on his tail.
It began to make the most frightening sound I had ever heard.