“What would you like us to do with him?” I asked Sheila quietly.
For a moment, this just made her start sobbing again. Samantha patted her on the back, offering what comfort she could.
“Can we… can we take him with us?” she finally choked out. “I don’t want to leave him here in the middle of nowhere.”
“I think so,” I said. “We’re nearly to the top of the hill. After that we’ll be going down and it shouldn’t be too bad. We can make a stretcher.”
“I put a bedsheet in my pack,” said Samantha. She gave Sheila one last comforting squeeze and disengaged. Sheila looked like she might fall, but stayed up, her arms going around the children on either side of her.
Looking in their direction, I saw that Sally and Billy were still sitting in the wagon. The bear hadn’t come too close to them and they hadn’t followed Sheila over to Bruce’s body. I walked over to them slowly. Billy just stared into space, but Sally looked up at me.
“That was pretty scary, huh?” I said as gently as I could.
Sally nodded, tears running down her face.
“You okay?” I asked.
She nodded again. “Is that… what happened to mommy?” She pointed at Bruce’s corpse with a tiny, trembling finger.
“I don’t know, Sally. I hope not. But it might have. Mister Bruce died to save us, just like your mommy died to save you.” Technically, this was true: Sally’s mom wouldn’t have died if she hadn’t had to go outside to find out why there was no water. Not that it mattered. I just wanted the little girl to think her mother hadn’t died for nothing.
“The monsters are real,” she said. I had to strain to hear her. “Just like you said.”
“They are,” I agreed. “We have to get someplace safe. With other people to help us fight them.”
“I’m going to fight them,” she said, her voice getting a little stronger. “When I’m bigger I’ll fight them all. I won’t let other kids be scared.”
“I think that sounds really brave, Sally,” I said. Part of me wanted to tell her it was going to be okay, but that wasn’t the world we lived in now. Here, there were monsters.
She didn’t respond to this. She simply stared at the corpse as if memorizing every detail. Or wondering if this was how her mother had died. It probably wasn’t healthy, but I didn’t have it in me to stop her.
I turned back to the others to find Danielle, almost entirely healed, walking up to me slowly. I put my arms around her and we exchanged a fierce hug. Tears welled from my eyes.
“I thought… I lost you,” I said. “I just found you and I thought I lost you.” I hugged her so tight that even with my mediocre Strength I heard her spine pop.
“You saved me,” she said, her own voice full of tears. “I think we’re even now, nya.”
“See if you can Examine me,” I said, chuckling through the tears.
She lifted her head from my chest just enough to look me in the face. The giant blue eyes were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. “It says James Erickson, Mage, Level Five, Party Leader… Adamant.” Somehow her eyes got even bigger. Her voice dropped to a whisper.
“You got another title? ‘Adamant: This being will not give up on someone they have chosen to save, even unto death. The System recognizes them as Adamant.’ You did that for me?”
“You got it for me,” I said gently. “I got it after I healed you.”
The little Shadow Dancer sobbed into my chest. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. I’m so glad you’re alive, nya.”
“Me too,” I said, managing a tiny smile. I wondered if that System anti-anxiety thing was kicking in. I hoped so. Maybe it would help Sheila and her kids. “It doesn’t say anything about bonuses?”
“No,” she said, her face pressed against my chest. “Why, nya?”
“It has some pretty good ones,” I said. “Makes it harder to knock me out of a fight.”
“You can owe me, then, nya” she said, laughing a little. It was the sweetest sound I’d ever heard.
I gave her another good squeeze, not caring about the sticky blood which still covered most of her body. Then I turned back to the group. Joe and Anthony had made two rough poles and they were sliding them into either side of a bloodstained bundle the size of a man.
“Good work, guys,” I said. “Sorry I got distracted.”
“It’s okay,” said Anthony. “You stayed in the fight even after we got knocked out. You earned a little break.”
“If that happens again I’m revoking your meatshield badges,” I said.
They both smiled but didn’t laugh as they worked on their grim task.
Mandy was standing there watching them, still looking pretty out of it. She was mostly healed. There was no point yelling at her for trying to protect Joe. We’d have to do better next time. But there was something…
I walked over to her and bent to whisper in her ear. I didn't feel like turning on Private Messaging for her and this wasn’t really appropriate for Party Chat.
“I’m glad you’re healed,” I said, as she looked up in confusion. “But… your shirt didn’t regenerate.”
She gasped and looked down. Her top was a slashed ruin. Somehow it still covered the critical bits, but she was a half a breath from falling out of it.
Without a word she ran for her big purse. I hoped she had a T-shirt or something in there. Joe looked up, but when he saw she was in no danger he went back to tying knots in the sheet to make sure it stayed closed.
“It’s a straight run down the hill to town once we make that turn,” I said, waving to the bend just a few hundred yards away. “You guys think you can carry him a mile or so?”
“It’s no problem,” said Joe, his voice gruff. “I could carry him by myself if I had to.”
“Thanks, guys,” I said. “My Strength and Stamina need some work.”
“Thank you. Again,” said Joe.
“At least you got some hits in this time,” I said. I didn’t want to crack jokes while they were putting Sheila’s husband in a shroud. But we had to feel like we won. Or next time the fear would be worse. “I think you broke that thing’s leg. You held aggro long enough for us to give it a good pounding.”
His eyes slid toward Mandy, but he didn’t turn his head. “I’ll do better next time.”
“We all have to,” I said somberly. “And Anthony, I never would have believed you could have gotten a sharp stick through that bear’s hide like that. That was impressive.”
“It’s a Class Skill,” he said. “I can damage any target.”
“I remember,” I said. “That’s amazing. We needed every single point.” I paused. “Bruce used his group buff. It made the difference. He saved us all.”
Sheila let out another burst of choked sobs.
“I know,” said Anthony. “The damage resistance saved me a lot of pain, too.”
“Thank you, Sheila,” I said, and she looked up at me, eyes flowing with tears. “Thank you for my life and for Danielle’s life. Without Bruce’s buff she’d have died from her injuries and I wouldn’t have been able to kill the bear before it finished us all. I can’t thank him so I’m thanking you. I know it’s not much. But it’s all I can do. And anything you or your kids need, if I can help, you’ll get it.”