The door of the cabin was open, and Allistor took it as a bad sign. Equipping his shotgun, he approached the door slowly, trying to see inside before he got too close. But the sun was too low in the sky, and the shadows of the surrounding trees left the cabin dark inside.
Taking a deep breath, Allistor pushed the door open with the barrel of this shotgun, then stepped to the side in case anything charged out. After hearing no sounds of any kind for twenty seconds, he stepped back in front of the door and then inside. He kept his weapon in front of him as his eyes adjusted to the lower light.
The main room of the cabin was a combination office and kitchen. There were two desks, an extra chair next to each, a sofa, and a dining table with benches. The kitchen was just a basic wood stove, sink, and several cabinets with a short counter space on either side of the sink. One was taken up by a small microwave. A big coffeepot sat atop the stove, a shelf on the wall above it holding half a dozen mugs.
One of two doors leading off that room led to a full bath. The other led to a large room with a fireplace, two sofas and some chairs, a larger table, and a giant bearskin rug. The grizzly it came from must have been ten feet tall.
Attached to that room were two bedrooms, and a bunk room with three sets of bunk beds. Allistor cleared each room as he went through the house, and an itch started to work at his subconscious. When he finished his search and stood staring at the rug, he realized what it was.
No blood stains, or signs of a battle of any kind. With two trucks out front, there should have been at least two rangers here. If they were still alive, where were they? He doubted they would have left the front door open if they’d gone out hunting.
Remembering the windmill, he tried the nearest light switch. Two table lamps on either end of a sofa turned on. Allistor turned them off again and headed for the door. He made a circuit of the clearing around the cabin, looking for blood or obvious tracks. Finding nothing, he returned to the pickup. Fuzzy was snoring inside, atop his nest of many blankets.
Feeling a little tired himself, Allistor elected to stay the night at the cabin. Lifting the bear in his arms he carried him inside and set him atop the rug. Fuzzy never even opened an eye. Closing the shutters on all the windows, he turned the two lamps back on and stretched out on the sofa and closed his eyes.
Ten minutes later he was back on his feet, poking around in the office. It was too early to sleep. He was just considering lighting the stove to make coffee when he noticed a radio set up on the desk in the back of the room. This far out from civilization, it might be a short-wave radio. He sat in the chair and studied it for a moment, then flicked the power switch. A dial on the right side let him adjust the frequency. Turning it to the one Sam had been using, he pulled the large microphone pedestal toward him. Pressing the button on the bottom, he said, “Heya, Sam, you out there somewhere?”
He released the talk button and waited. When there was no answer after thirty seconds, he tried again. “Sam? Come in, Sam. Uhh… breaker, breaker! Wait, is that for CBs?” He let go of the button again.
“Allistor? Is that you?” Sam’s voice was faint. Allistor found the volume button and turned it up.
“Hey, Sam! Yup, it’s me. Found a ranger station with a short wave. Decided to camp here for the night. How are things there?”
Sam chuckled. “We’re fine. The kids are all excited because some chicks hatched today. They’re naming them after cartoon characters. You gonna make another Outpost?”
Allistor hadn’t thought about it. “Actually, not a bad idea. There’s a kitchen and a windmill for power. The place could sleep ten people pretty easy. There are two nice park service Suburbans here. It’s back off the road a good ways…” his voice drifted off as he considered. Then a question occurred to him.
“Wait, chicks? We haven’t had that coop long enough for chicks.”
Sam’s voice sounded amused. “That’s what I said. Nancy decided to experiment with the Grow spell she uses in the greenhouse. Cast it on a nest of eggs that the hen had been sittin’ on for a week. The damned things hatched the next day. Should have been two more weeks.”
“That’s great! We can speed up egg production that way. Can she do the same thing with the bunnies?”
“She’s way ahead of you. Problem is, we couldn’t tell if the bunny was pregnant. Amanda had to use her spell to… you know, look inside? Anyhow she found out that she was pregnant, and Nancy zapped her too. The bunny, I mean. Not Amanda.”
Allistor rolled his eyes. “So, in a few weeks, we can be knee deep in chickens and bunnies. That’ll help feed everybody. I should tell you, I picked up a pet myself. His name is Fuzzy and he’s a grizzly cub. About six months old as far as I can tell. The system bonded us together after I fed him, then drowned him, then saved his life and gave him a blanket.”
There was a long pause, then Meg’s voice came through. “You did what now?”
“Hi, Meg! It’s a long story. I’ll tell you the whole thing when I get back, but we’re going to have a growing grizzly to feed. If the kids misbehave, tell them I’ll feed them to Fuzzy when I get back!”
“You’re terrible!” Meg sounded amused. “Sam says you’re gonna make another Outpost?”
“I wasn’t going to, but since he suggested it, I’m thinking about it. It’s not a bad spot. But I’d have to make it just a basic one. I don’t want to spend all our system points on Outposts. My aim is to claim another Stronghold somewhere in Cheyenne. Or maybe Laramie if there’s a problem in Cheyenne.”
“Why not both?” Meg snorted. In the background, Sam called out “Yeah! Go ahead and grab both!”
Chuckling, Allistor said, “Please pass my congratulations on to Nancy. And tell her I said please don’t make any mutant chickens or killer bunnies?”
“You got it! Be safe out there, Allistor. We need you.”
“10-4… uhm… over and out?” He switched off the radio and decided he didn’t want coffee after all. Just checking in with the others had relaxed him quite a bit. He sat on the sofa near where Fuzzy snored. Pulling up the Outpost interface, he didn’t find an option to designate the ranger station as an Outpost.
“Hmm… what was it that allowed me to take the gun shop?”
Last time he’d tried to establish the gun shop as a Stronghold, and the system had offered him an Outpost instead. So he tried it again.
This structure does not meet the physical requirements of a Stronghold. Additionally, this structure is currently occupied by a life form that has a prior claim to your own. To claim the structure, you must kill the prior occupant, convince it to relinquish its claim or banish it from the vicinity for twelve hours.
“Prior occupant?” Allistor looked around the room, suddenly wary. He was sure he’d cleared the place. Still, he got up and searched the rooms again. Finding nothing, he woke Fuzzy. “Hey, buddy. I’m not sure how well you understand me, but I need to know if you smell anybody else here?”
The groggy bear cub tried to roll over and go back to sleep. Allistor picked him up and set him on his feet. “C’mon! Show me what that nose can do.” When Fuzzy just looked at him, he tried some one-word commands. “Search! Um… Seek! Track!”
Track must have been a command recognized by the system for pets. Fuzzy’s nose went to the floor and he began to follow it around the house. He bumped into one of the tables and knocked the lamp off, then tore a rent in a sofa cushion when he jumped up onto it with his sharp claws. “Right. Mental note. Keep Fuzzy off the furniture.” Allistor followed the bear around.
When he reached the kitchen, he stuck his nose against a lower cabinet door and growled. A squeak from within confirmed something was hiding there. He pried the door open with a claw, scratching both the door and the frame. The moment it was open far enough, he jammed his head into the cabinet with lightning speed. A terrified squeak was cut off as whatever it was died.
Allistor suddenly recalled that the system’s message had said life form rather than specifying a huma
n occupant. He quickly tried again to establish a Stronghold. The exact same message popped up again.
“Good boy, Fuzzy,” he said as the bear gulped down the deceased rat. “Do it again. Track!”
The bear cub resumed his search, nose to the floor. Leaving the kitchen he made his way back to the bear rug. After a moment, he shoved his nose under the edge of the rug and pushed at it, revealing a trap door.
“Holy shit, Fuzzy. That was awesome!” Allistor rubbed his ears and tossed him some meat. “Stay up here.”
Drawing his .45 in his right hand, he stood behind the trap door and pulled it open. When no shots rang out, he called down, “Anybody home? My name is Allistor. I’m not here to hurt you.”
A woman’s voice called up. She sounded weak and afraid. “Hello?”
“It’s okay. You can come up now. It’s safe. Did something attack this place?”
“I… don’t think I can make it up there. Been down here for… I’m not even sure how long. A week, maybe more? Haven’t had water for two days.”
Allistor put away his gun and stepped onto the stairs that led down into the darkness. Halfway down he found a pull string and tugged on it. A light came on, and a woman in a ranger’s uniform blinked rapidly before covering her eyes with her hand.
“Sorry.” Allistor descended to the cellar floor. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Helen. Helen Rodgers. I’m a park ranger here. Or I was when there was still a park service and a park, and…” She drifted off. “Do you have any water?”
“Oh, my god; I’m an idiot!” he pulled a canteen from his ring and handed it to her.
“Thank you… Allister?”
“Allistor, with an o instead of an e. And yes, my parent’s might have been high when they named me.” He smiled at her as she took several small sips of water. “I have some beef jerky too, if you’d like. Or a candy bar? Granola?”
“Actually a candy bar sounds amazing!” She leaned forward slightly. “I’ve been living on cold canned beans and granola all week.”
He handed her a chocolate bar. “Why have you been down here so long?”
She sat down on a stool and munched on the candy for a moment before answering. “Cliff and I were both here at the station when the monsters started to appear. At first, it was this six-legged dog thing.”
“Canids,” Allistor supplied helpfully.
“Yeah, OK. Those. First just one, then three. They killed our dog on the first day and kept sniffing around here, trying to get in. We shot several, but more just kept showing up day after day. A week ago, one of them managed to latch onto Cliff’s leg. Tore it up really bad. We killed it, but we could already hear more of them howling in the forest. He said he was a dead man anyway with his leg so badly hurt. Told me to hide in the cellar while he tried to lead them away. Maybe if they didn’t smell anything anymore, they’d eventually leave the area in search of prey.”
She looked down, her candy bar forgotten. “He pulled the rug over the door to hide my scent, then wiped his blood from the floor and headed out. I heard a few shots a little while after he left… then nothing. Until I heard them sniffing around up there.” She pointed through the trap door.
“They were inside the cabin. So I made myself as small and quiet as I could and waited. My water should have lasted longer, but I kept getting so thirsty.” She sounded as if she was apologizing.
Allistor shook his head. “The door was open when I got here. But I didn’t see any sign of canids or any other critters up there. Nothing’s been disturbed. Well, not before we got here. Fuzzy has done a little damage.”
“Fuzzy?” she asked.
“My pet bear. Bear cub, actually. He adopted me yesterday. He’s spent the last couple hours sleeping on that bear rug.” He smiled at her. “If you think you have the strength now, I’ll help you upstairs and you can meet him.”
She nodded and got to her feet. He offered a hand and a shoulder to lean on and helped her climb the ten steps to the main floor. Pretending not to notice the smell of urine and feces down below, he closed the door saying, “Can’t have one of us falling down there.”
She didn’t hear him as she was in the middle of a staring contest with Fuzzy. The bear tilted his head, then sniffed. Not liking what he smelled, he snorted and turned away, walking back toward the kitchen and food smells.
She laughed. “Was that his polite way of saying I need a shower?”
Allistor just grinned. “I haven’t had time to teach him manners yet.” He helped her to one of the bedrooms that had a bath attached, then closed the door behind him as he left.
While he waited for her to shower, he retrieved the two bowls from his ring, along with a couple cans and the opener. He emptied two cans of spaghettios into one of the bowls and used the sink to fill the other partway with water. Setting both on the floor, he said, “Now don’t make a mess, you silly old bear.”
Fuzzy promptly stuck out a paw, tipped the food bowl over, and proceeded to lick the pasta and sauce off the floor. He was gentler with the water bowl, lapping the water out without splashing too much.
Half an hour later, Helen emerged in a fresh uniform. She sat on the sofa, only giving the torn cushion a brief glance. “Thank you for coming down there for me. I was in and out a lot the last few days. If you hadn’t come, I would have probably just fallen asleep and not woken up.”
“Why didn’t you try and escape?” Allistor tried to keep his tone gentle.
“I thought about it. Even went up the stairs a few times. But Cliff took our last ammo with him, and I kept imagining being ripped apart by those things. I just couldn’t do it.”
“Fair enough,” Allistor sympathized with her. Just then Fuzzy emerged from the kitchen, using his long tongue to lick the last of the pasta sauce from his muzzle. He walked right up to Helen and gave her another sniff. Seeming to approve this time, he licked her hand once, then went to lay back down on the bear rug.”
“Was that some kind of taste test for later?” She smiled at the cub. “He’s a young one. Maybe six months. Did you kill his mother?”
Allistor shook his head. “Nope.” He sat down on the sofa as well and told her the whole story, starting with the octopoid fight and ending with their bonding. Then, because she didn’t understand what he was saying about the system bonding them, he told her all about their new world and what they’d learned about the system.
She absorbed it all without much comment. “I’ve played a few of those games. When I was a kid.” She was in her late thirties as best Allistor could guess. “So, are you like a ranger or a hunter, taming pets to fight for you?”
He grinned. “Ha! No. This was all sort of accidental. I just didn’t want him to die alone in the woods, and then he sort of became my responsibility.”
They talked for a little while longer until Helen began to yawn. “Hey, you’ve had a rough week. Get some sleep. I’ll sleep out here on the sofa and keep an ear on the door.”
She just nodded and returned to the bedroom, closing the door behind her. He leaned down and patted Fuzzy’s side a couple times, then he settled in on the sofa and closed his eyes.
*****
Allistor woke in the morning to a cold wet nose jammed in his face. Sputtering and pushing the fuzzy face away, he sat up. Helen was sitting in a nearby chair, an amused look on her face. “I think he wants to be let out.”
Allistor blinked a few times, wiping the sleep from his eyes and looking at his pet. “Is that right, Fuzzster? Are you house-trained already? That was easy!” He got up and went to the cabin door, opening it for the bear. Fuzzy stuck his nose out, checked the air, and then ambled into the bushes.
“Guess that answers the question about whether bears do it in the woods!” Helen giggled at her own joke. Allistor wished he had thought of it first.
“Good one. So, did you sleep well?”
“Like a log! Thank you again for coming to my rescue. I would certainly have died down there in the dark.”
>
“You’re most welcome. How ‘bout we talk about what’s next? I told you about the Warren and my people there. You’re welcome to join us if you like.”
Helen nodded her head. “I’ve been thinking about that since I woke up. I’ve been working in the park for ten years, and I know this area pretty well. If you’d like some company on your little road trip…”
Allistor thought about it. On the one hand, it would be great to have some company. Other than Fuzzy, of course. But it was dangerous, poking his nose around out here. He’d almost died more than once already.
“This isn’t a picnic out here. Canids are far from the worst of the monsters we’ve run into. I’m planning to go into a large city or two, and will more than likely get my face eaten. The safe thing for you to do is take my pickup and go to the Warren. You can stop at the gun shop Outpost on the way and load up weapons and such. I’ll take one of the park service trucks here. Those are better for me anyway, as there’s more room inside for the bear as he gets bigger.”
Helen shook her head. “I’m done with safe. I sat in the dark down there trying to be safe. Safe is just a slow way to die. If you’re worried about me pulling my weight, I’m an expert marksman with a decade of experience in the woods. I can track, find berries and nuts and roots for food, and probably teach you quite a bit.”
Impressed, Allistor agreed. “I still think we should take one of the park trucks, if that’s okay?”
She laughed, slapping his shoulder. “As probably the last official representative of the park service, I hereby authorize you to make full use of department resources. In fact…” She paused and tapped a finger to her chin. “In return for saving my life, I hereby officially grant you ownership of the entire Medicine Bow National Forest!”
A golden glow surrounded them, and chimes filled the air. Helen hunched down in her seat, looking around wildly. “What the hell?”
Allistor’s interface lit up with notifications. Ten thousand experience points flashed up on his screen, along with several golden Fame Point numbers in rapid succession. A long notification scrolled up in bright green letters. He waved it aside for a moment, looking at a still-wary Helen.
Shadow Sun Survival: Shadow Sun Book One Page 27
