David awoke to chaos.

  It was still dark, at least as dark as it got inside the barrier. The soft glow overhead wasn’t the only thing illuminating the night now though.

  Harsh electric lights flooded the end of the park where the access gate was located. The growl of diesel engines drew attention to the source. That and the shouting. Apparently, the army had arrived, and they objected to the fact that there was a barricade and what amounted to an armed militia between them and their objective. So, shouting.

  The noise had reached David and his friends at the point where the troops had finally reached the gates having cleared the temporary barricades that had been moved when David arrived with the injured raiders.

  Their objective was obvious based on their actions; secure the Obelisk. Which they were doing as soldiers in camouflage uniforms with guns raised moved to surround the alien stone.

  They seemed intent on getting all the civilians away from it and this was where the problems were occurring.

  Even at this time of night there was activity around the Obelisk. You apparently needed to be close to it to complete your tutorial, probably due to the lack of stats, though it might be a setting David could tweak, he made a mental note to check. That meant that there were apparently batches of people who were still undergoing their tutorials and the soldiers were trying to move them.

  Clearly alarmed when they didn’t immediately respond they had shifted to trying to wake them.

  Dr. Chen was yelling at them, her fuzzy bath robe making it clear she had been summoned in haste and proximity to the medical area made her the first person on the scene.

  Then the real problem arrived. Micky and Phil, accompanied by a dozen or more people, mostly Militia with guns. Likely the reason for their delay.

  Seeing the way Phil was moving David guessed that he had been woken and lacked Stamina. Micky on the other hand was all smooth motion and coiled intent. So, either awake doing something or a man with Stamina to burn the analytical part of David’s brain couldn’t help extrapolating.

  “Well, would you look at that...” Carl commented sardonically as it became clear that there was turf war going on to decide jurisdiction.

  The Soldiers had brought up several vehicles, slowly rolling them through the park to reach the Obelisk. Their intentions were clear. They would use the vehicles to create a physical blockade to control access to the Obelisk and there wasn’t a thing anyone could do about it. At least that’s what David thought initially.

  Micky had other ideas. “I am the senior LEO in this area and I am telling you this is an illegal police action by the US army. We, civilian law enforcement, have this situation under control and do not require the aid of the National Guard OR the US army!”

  Micky could be heard clearly from where they were standing as he shouted.

  “Any soldier who proceeds with this illegal action will be court martialed under Article 92 for violating 18 U.S.C. 1385. Stand DOWN! You have NO Jurisdiction.”

  The man in cap and fatigues facing him was clearly impatient but his demeanor said that he wasn’t about to shoot Micky for making a scene.

  Carl gestured and the group drifted closer. They were just getting close enough to hear the exchange when a helmeted soldier moved to intercept them. He noticed that their weapon was still pointed at the ground but the way they held it indicated they were anything but relaxed.

  “Halt! Do not advance!”

  To David’s surprise when he heard the soldier speak it was clear she was a woman. A glance showed him that while most of the squad were men there was another woman not far from where they stood.

  Carl came to a halt immediately, the rest of them continued to drift forwards even as the rest of the woman’s squad converged on them.

  “US Army, stop where you are!”

  The repeated challenge was tense. And the way the soldier gripped but didn’t raise their weapon as well as the support converging on her finally halted the rest of the group.

  For a moment David considered using Halt. Then caught himself. This would be a massive escalation and wouldn’t even achieve the objective of letting them involve themselves in the discussion going on beyond the loose cordon of soldiers.

  Carl held up his hands peacefully. “Look Corporal, we ain’t here to cause problems. Just the opposite. If you let us speak to the Major there, I’m confident we are the ones best able to answer his questions about this situation.”

  The woman, the Corporal he supposed didn’t look convinced.

  “Sir, I need you and your friends to back away. This area is restricted by the US Army.”

  “Do you intend to move civilians out of the only safe area for miles around?”

  The Corporal responded tightly.

  “As long as you don’t advance on my position, I intend to stand my assigned post.” Then she compromised and yelled over her shoulder.

  “Sarge! These folks say they have information that can help the Major.”

  Now the situation was less tense David started to wonder what was going through the soldiers heads, they were professional sure, but this felt off, like they were responding to a different event to the one he had lived through.

  He presumed they had been deployed at a local army base, he wasn’t sure where exactly that was, but likely they woke up today, same as the rest of the people. Only, they were on base, in a unit, with lots of other fit, young healthy people. Had they been spared the horror of waking among the undead?

  Speaking calmly to avoid raising tensions he decided to ask.

  “Corporal, how long have you been awake since initiation? Did your squad lose anyone while they were sleeping?”

  Seeing David talking to the solider Charlie got in on the action.

  “Are you here to get your tutorials out of the way and get your systems fully operational?”

  One of the soldiers, a baby-faced man with dark skin and the muscles of a bodybuilder, responded to that.

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  “I told you! This is totally an MMO!”

  “Shut up Private Rice! Nobody wants to hear your damn video game speculation.”

  David was pretty sure Charlie did, but he smiled at that. Then he repeated his initial question.

  “Corporal. I’ve been awake for the past three days. There is a lot that the Army can help with. I just want to know what you know so I don’t miss anything you need in my explanation to the Major.”

  Seeing the expressions on the soldiers’ faces he knew he was getting through.

  It was Private Rice who broke discipline.

  “Do you know what happened to Hector and the others? Will they be OK?”

  Which was of course when the Major called out.

  “Captain. Company will hold position while new information is relayed up the chain of command! Seargent Sanderson, Get the CO on the line.”

  There was a flurry of activity in response to the order. Acknowledgements, people moving and general shouting.

  Carl watched all of this closely and as the soldiers who had been blocking their way fell back to the nearest vehicle he spoke softly.

  “They’re under strength for a Major to be here. This don’t even look like a full company, something is up.”

  David looked at him quizzically “There are a lot of soldiers here, I can see what…” he counted quickly. “Thirteen big vehicles, plus a boat load of soldiers. What, like a hundred or something.”

  Carl nodded. “Yep, seems like a lot right. It’s still less than a Captain” he emphasized the rank “should be in charge of. A company is like 150 soldiers plus heavy weapons and supplies. I don’t see heavy weapons at all.”

  David slowly nodded, Carl was right. The army vehicles were big, blocky, intimidating but unarmed. The soldiers themselves were carrying guns, some of them bloody big scary guns, which was quite enough, but in this context, he understood that heavy weapons meant stuff that wasn’t carried around by one guy.

  “We should engage with them, this changes things and we really don’t want them ending up following Micky around…”

  Carl nodded. As the two men went to formulate a plan of attack Sarah just shook her head, and went to speak with the talkative private, gesturing to the others to stay where they were.

  After a few moments of conversation, the man turned and yelled.

  “Sarge, these people insist they have information about our casualties. Do you want to talk to them or pass it up the line?”

  The commotion resulted in a young man, David guessed about his age, approaching. His rifle wasn’t raised, but he was still visibly heavily armed.

  “Madam, I’m Lieutenant Smith. I understand you have information that you believe would help the Army?”

  Sarah turned and gestured for the others to approach as she explained.

  “Lieutenant, my friends and I were some of the first to wake up. Mostly because we were actually in the immediate area of the Obelisk when things started.”

  “Wait, are you telling me this thing was here before everyone fell asleep?”

  “No! No! We were all in the park, or driving by, well except David. This thing appeared while we were out, but we woke up after about two days. Not five like the rest of you.”

  They noticed that an older man closer to his 30s than his 20s with Sergeants stripes had moved close enough to hear what was going on, he didn’t interrupt and they continued.

  “We have a good idea of the dangers out there. I don’t know what you have seen so far but this whole thing is insane. Magic, zombies, mutant monsters that used to be people.”

  Their audience now included several soldiers who were loitering close enough to hear, clearly extremely interested.

  The Lieutenant tried to take change of the narrative glancing at his men.

  “That is all clearly nonsense! This weapon,” he gestured towards the Obelisk “is clearly releasing some sort of hallucinogenic agent or radiation. That’s why we need to secure it, get people away from it, then get experts to figure out how to contain it.”

  Carl spoke softly. “Hah! If you told me that before I saw the shit I’ve seen since I would tell you that sounded plausible. I might even believe that this was Chinese, or Russian, or something… Son, that ain’t what’s going on. If you boys promise not to shoot we can show you.”

  David interrupted gently. “Didn’t you all get the system messages when you woke up?”

  The Lieutenants’ face cleared and he spoke. “Oh, those! I personally didn’t experience that but quite a few of the men and women back at base did. It seems to be some sort of effect driven by whatever caused this. It’s what drew our attention to this location as a potential threat.”

  David’s mind was going a mile a minute. They knew the Obelisk had limited range and apparently that meant that if you weren’t close to it you got no system. He wondered if that was permanent, then if they needed a system at all…

  Something to discuss with Charlie and the others in the future. Speaking of he addressed his young friend softly, still focused on the conversation.

  “They probably don’t have a system at all. Can you check if they can still do the tutorial?”

  Charlie nodded and his eyes lost focus for a second then he came back. “Yep, there is a catch. They need a lot, and I mean lot more resources and time because they need the whole thing, we already mostly have it from waking up…”

  The Seargent spoke urgently to the Lieutenant. “Sir, I’m not sure if these people are hallucinating or not, but it’s damn weird that they had the same mass hallucination as the folks back at base.”

  David came to a decision and spoke. “Look, the fastest way that we can convince you is to show you. Do you want your demonstration to be fast, convincing and scary? Or kinda cool and maybe fakable?”

  Camila turned to David and spoke. “David, this is a bad idea if you’re going to do what I think you are…”

  “You, Sarah and Charlie if they go for the cool option. Otherwise, it’s me and if that fails Mark and a knife…”

  The Lieutenant had clearly had enough and was young enough to respond, his voice filling with Bravado and confidence. “Sir, Ma’am we are the US Army. You will find very little scares us. Do you fast demonstration.”

  David nodded. Then spoke pouring power into his next word.

  “HALT!”

  He made sure not to raise his speaking voice much and exerted his full strength to catch all the troopers standing around them, willing his spirits to reinforce the spell and pouring his available resources into it.

  He was shocked by how easy it was. They were, he estimated, at least as vulnerable to his magic as zombies.

  With all of them locked in immobility he continued speaking.

  “As you can see, magic is real. Anyone who disagrees with me, raise your hand. Or hell, just say something. Anything. Now my friends also have magic. This isn’t a video game, but it feels like it. You’re the first people we have spoken to who were a long way away from the Obelisk and woke up. So, while I have your attention, I’m going to explain a few things we have learned.

  First, and I apologize for this. You are going to be standing there for a while. I didn’t know how well you could resist my spell. It turns out you have basically no resistance. Well, no more than a zombie.

  I don’t know if you saw what might have appeared from a distance to be confused people staggering around. They aren’t, they are corpses animated by a parasitic spirit called a Nath. They are tough, unless you destroy their brains and they are strong. We are talking bodybuilder strong. They are individually dumb, but they react like insects to an attack. They swarm when you kill them. They also kill anything they identify as a threat, which might not include you given your spectacular lack of magic.”

  David added the last on impulse as he realized why they were odd, they were practically invisible to his spiritual senses.

  “Second, we have mutants – if you see a person covered in a kind of green slime that hardens they will eventually emerge as a mutant, they are fast, smart, strong and aggressive. We don’t know how to reverse that, so I hope your friends aren’t like that…

  In the city most of the people didn’t survive the initiation. I don’t have an accurate estimate, but I think we are outnumbered by what are effectively hostile enemies given the dead raise and many mutate.

  Now for the really bad news. There are hostiles out there with magic, strong magic like mine. We met one, just one that was related to zombies. We had a hundred plus person raid, all with magic of our own and we barely got out alive, many of our friends died.

  You need to get magic yourself.

  Finally, this area inside the barrier of light is a safe zone, the Obelisk contains the central hub for a System…”

  David had been planning to continue speaking until they broke free naturally, but he realized that could be a while, the strain on his spell wasn’t at a level where he felt it would break any time soon. They were completely helpless.

  Instead, he shifted his pitch seeing that more soldiers were moving in their direction, not wanting to explain what he had done.

  “I’m going to free you now. Please don’t panic or try to shoot me or my friends…”

  With that he withdrew his spirits and broke his connection to the soldiers, allowing Halt to unwind.

  The men and women who staggered free were looking at him with absolute terror on their faces. Maybe calmly lecturing to people who he had paralyzed and who had no idea what was going on hadn’t been such a good idea…

  He was, after all, well past the limits of the old world and they were still trained protectors from another time.