by Tao Wong
“Chur.” He shifts his focus to the bar then over to the pool table. “Didn’t this place used to be called the Quarthouse?” I notice his eye twitch again as he checks out the state of the game.
Half watching the game, half looking for a staff member, I say, “That was before the entrance was knocked down by some sea creature that stormed through town early on.” I catch the waitress’s eye and smile while indicating that we want a few drinks. “After Jase bought and finished doing up the place, he christened it the Pub. Pure creativity ‘n class, that one.”
“No shit. How’s ol’ Jase doing?” he says, eye twitching again.
“You’ll see soon enough.” I look around, expecting him to walk through the door. “Should be here any minute. Bastard owes me a feed.”
I grin as Ngaire, the Pub’s all-in-one chef, waitress, and part-time manager drops two handles of frothing amber liquid on the table.
“‘Fraid we’re all outta ya favorite, Nate. All’s we got is the bird or the lion, and I’ve neva seen ya have the red, so Tui it is.” She pulls a pen and paper out of thin air. “You boys want—” She stares at O. “Otiniara… is—is that you?” She doesn’t wait for a response and falls atop her unsuspecting victim. Wrapping him in a tight hug, she softly sobs. “I-I didn’t think I’d ever see you again, and after your sister… oh God! Your sister! I’m so sorry, she… umm. I’m sorry.” Then she grips him tighter and quietly cries.
Hugging her back, he says in a soft tone, “Hey, hey now. Tumeke. It’s’all good. I found out a while back, but cheers for saying it.” Slowly releasing himself, he places a hand on her forearm, smiles, and looks her in the eyes. “It’s good to see you, Ngaire.”
Interrupting their moment, I cough. “Well, looks like you might be a popular one tonight.” I get a half-hearted glare from both of them. “Ha. Well, we were just about to do a bit of a catch-up. Did you want to join us?”
“Can’t. Jase hasn’t turned up yet, and when he does, he’ll probably be clowning around with you two.”
“Yeah, sounds about right.” I cross my arms in a mockingly serious manner while nodding. Then looking at her, I throw on a sly grin. “Weeeelll, if you aren’t joining us for a powwow, could ya find it in ya heart to bring us over a few bowls of hot chips and a couple’a burgers each? Maybe something for the comatose one over there too.” I indicate Ellie. “It’s been a long day, I’m starving, and no doubt she’ll need something when she wakes up.”
Ngaire looks slightly concerned as she looks from us to Ellie, then she also crosses her arms, but in a more serious manner. “‘n how exactly are you paying for this?”
“Jase said—”
“No, not tonight you cheapskate.” She slams a palm on the table. “Not without Jase here to back you up.”
“Oh, c’mon, Ngaire, it’s O’s return party, and Ellie almost died.”
“I’ll sort Elise out when she wakes up.” Smiling at Otiniara, she says, “O, your meal’s on the house.” A heartbeat longer than necessary later, her stare turns to daggers as it falls on me. “You, I wanna see hard creds before I leave the table.”
I place my hand over my chest. “Ngaire, you wound me. Whatever gave—”
“No,” she says, one hand on her waist, the other hovering inches from my face, “Credits. Now.” Then she flips her hand over, palm-side up.
I show her my best puppy dog eyes before caving with a sigh and summoning enough for the meal, dropping it in her hand. “Fine, here’s—”
“And the drinks.” Her hardened eyes don’t break contact with me, and she emanates an aura of heat.
I drop a few more credits. “You’ll have me sleeping on the streets at this rate.”
Sliding the credits into her inventory and jotting down the order, she says, “Might as well already be on them. Hell, they’re probably safer than that hovel you call a flat. You bought it yet?”
This time O chimes in. “No, he hasn’t. Was givin’ ’im grief ‘bout it when I turned up this arvo. Was hoping to ask him about it now.”
“Well then,” she says as she magics the pad away and turns to leave, “suppose I’ll leave you two ta have a bit of a chat. Back in a bit with ya kai.”
She walks off, giving us a wave over her shoulder before slowing a touch and doing a half turn, giving O a warm smile, and glaring at me.
“Salt of the earth, that one. Perfect partner for Jase,” I say, glancing at O.
“Business partner?”
“Ha! As if that’s ever stopped you.” Then I turn to him with a deadpan face. “But seriously, please don’t fuck this up. I like eating here, and she’ll take it out on me if you hurt her.”
“As if I would,” he says, smirking. Then he shrugs as he gets comfortable. “So anyway, I know it’s been the end of the world ‘n all that, but what’s the deal with you and Ellie? Weren’t you two, like, a thing? And what’s with your class? What made you choose a Māori one? And why don’t you own ya place yet? And while I admit, the title Pyrorational is pretty cool, why on earth are you known as The Eater of War Parties?”
“Hold up,” I counter. “How the hell did you get back here in one piece? Weren’t you in Auckland? And why can’t I read your class or stats? And what’s up with that badass healing spell?”
“Yeah, nah man,” he says, left eye twitching hard as he shakes a hand. “Kai Taua. Eater. Of. War. Parties. Explain.”
“Okay, but you mind if we have our feed first? I’d rather not go into detail on an empty stomach. Probably won’t be able to eat afterward.”
“Fair enough.” He looks at the pool table. “Table’s free. Want a game while we wait?”
“Sure.”
***
Three games of pool, a half dozen drinks, and a table of food later, we’ve got a few more beers in front of us as I’m about to start my story.
I blurt, “Hey, Ngaiii! What’s up with the drinks tanite? I’m actually starting ta feeling it.”
“New skill!” she screams across the room. “Called Lightweight. Reduces resists on people I serve my drinks to. Basically lets ya get drunk easier.”
A few people cheer, causing a chain reaction across the pub.
“Nice!” I call back over the racket before emptying my drink, then sliding the empty glass upside down across the table. Picking up another, I turn to O. “You grow up thinking that when the zombie outbreak happens, you’ll be ready. Ya know, like, out of everyone you know, you’re the one with the plan. You’d drop what you’re doing and race to the hardware store, pick up everything you need to survive. Then once the place is all boarded up, you make your way over to the supermarket for supplies. Or something like that.
“Turns out that when the world fell apart, I was fast asleep.” I can see a smirk appearing on O’s face. “Oi, don’t look at me like that, it was like two a.m. I totally missed the initial notice and almost slept through the entire prep hour.”
“Fuck,” he says.
“Fuck’s right. So, what’d I do when I woke up with a glowing blue square flashing in my face? Same as most other people, I guess—stopped thinking and freaked out. Nothing was working. Computers wouldn’t turn on and I couldn’t call my family. So I decided to run across town to my granddad’s place.”
I shift in my seat, then look down into the mug of beer I’m grasping tightly with both hands. “Looking back, I suppose that was a good, wholesome, family-first thing to do. Gotta make sure they’re all right before taking care of yourself. But I seriously wish I’d thought a bit more before rushing out the door at a quarter-to-three.”
“Yeah, that was pretty stupid” O says mid eye twitch, “But what about your class? Why’d you choose Kaikiko Toa? What’s it do?”
“I’ll get to that soon enough,” I say, a little annoyed that he isn’t letting me just tell the tale.
“Anyway, so the streets were pitch-black and it was hosing down. A few drunks were stumbling around outside the Quarthouse, and the homeless guy who lives under The Rock tr
ied to ask about what was going on. I didn’t care, I just ran. I had to make sure my pop was okay.”
“Your Pop? You mean your Grandad?” He asks, as if he’s never called a person by two names.
“Huh?” I say a little surprised, ”Oh, yeah, I call him both, so sue me. Mind if I get back to the story?”
“Sure.” He says with a shrug, “Just making sure.” I take the moment to down some liquid.
“Honestly,” I say as I wipe my mouth, “I should be dead. Idiot that I am, I turned up without any kind of a weapon. Didn’t even think to stop at Mitre 10 as I ran past. Oh, and in case you hadn’t realized yet, I hadn’t spent any time looking over my class options, so I didn’t even have any Skills.”
“Hold up,” says O, shaking his head in disbelief. “You’re telling me you didn’t choose your class, or assign your Skills yet?”
“Yeah,” I reply before taking a sip. “I didn’t know anything about the System at this point, hell, I was still surprised at how quickly I made it across town. The pain in my leg from busting my tendon a few years ago? Gone. But I didn’t even notice this until I was walking through the door and I’m greeted with a familiar but completely unrecognizable face.
“My granddad, the frail old ex-navy man I’d come to rescue, who’d been plagued with dementia and spent the last few years slowly wasting away, he’s no more. Standing in front of me was an imposing figure. Strong, certain, proud, and dressed to the nines in his formal suit. World War II and service medals pinned to his chest, bugle in one hand, a machete in the other. It was breath-taking.
“Turns out, about fifteen minutes after the System went live, most people’s issues were fixed by the automatic health regeneration. Which meant that all the old war vets and Returned Service Association members in his retirement village were suddenly healthier and more alive than they’ve been in years—hell, in decades—and they were all staring at a message telling them that their friends, family, country, and world are in danger.”
I stop and take a drink. O doesn’t say anything this time, but I notice his eye twitching again and it’s starting to bug me. Gotta remember to ask about that after this.
Setting the drink down, I continue, “So yeah, first thing he does after letting me in, Pop points me toward my aunty, who thrusts a few chef’s knives and a sharpening steel rod at me, obviously expecting me to get to work. Meanwhile, Granddad’s outside blasting the ‘Reveille,’ making sure the whole neighborhood’s awake and directing people to gather by waving his blade.
“Just like that”—I snap my fingers—“close to two hundred of us are huddled in the middle of Pohutu Street, rain coming down hard as we pass around sharpened shovels, gardening tools, and kitchen knives before we make our way somewhere more defensible.”
At this O leans a bit closer, as if trying to pay a bit more attention.
“Again, none of us think to go to the hardware store or even the supermarket. All these people, and the best thing we come up with is to head toward the Mataatua Reserve and the Ngāti Awa marae across the road. I guess we thought that maybe that area would be easier to defend, what with the river and reserve on one side and the steep side of the hill on the other.
“Once the prep hour was up, we didn’t even make it a block before the monsters caught up with us.” Memories of the night cause me to shrink into my chair a touch.
“It was like some kind of horror movie. There we are, wandering the streets with only a sliver of moonlight guiding us… I felt lost. Darkness seemed to be swallowing me, and obviously that’s exactly when shit hit the fan.”
“All around us, I hear these sloshing thumps.” I sit up straight and slam my open palm on the table a few times, causing a few people to turn our way. I pay them no mind and keep going. “Then someone near the back screamed. Then another, and another, and suddenly we’re no longer a reasonably structured group. No, now we were a warbling mass of jelly haphazardly flowing through the streets and slowly losing more and more of our body as we ran.” As I say this, I pour some beer on the table, and watch as it pools together, then swipe at it, sending the liquid flying. O leans back, watching the beer hit the floor as he takes a drag from his own handle.
“Screams were coming from everywhere,” I say, continuing the story. “We still had about fifty people in the group, and my granddad was leading the way with some of his RSA buddies. I was as good as useless. I’d only been a salesperson before all this. Spent more time with games and music than with exercise or fighting, but my pop, even as a Level 1 Naval Officer, he was a beast.” This catches O’s attention, and I can see him focus again as he sits a little straighter in his chair. “My guess is he had that class offered ‘cause he was a chief petty officer when he left the navy. Whatever the reason, he was leagues ahead of pretty much everyone.
“Wouldn’t find this out until later, but it turns out we were basically guppies swimming in a pool of frogs. Most of the town started as a Level 10 zone, so while that’s pretty low, it was a freaking mountain when we were just starting out. Yet there he was, this man who never bragged about his time in the service, who’d take me out fishing, who taught me the need of a soft touch when playing pool, and who I’d been forced to spend the last few years watching lose his memories and motor skills, there he is in front, leading the way and carving up every last mutated weta, centipede, and goblin he came across.
“He’s the one who got us to the marae. He’s the one who coordinated with the Ngāti Awa Iwi members held up there. He’s the one who organized building the fences and defensive structures around the area. He’s the one who saved not only me and my aunt, but hundreds more that night, and he’s the one who got stronger as he kept going, time after time, into the miserable night to look for more people to herd back.”
Stopping again for a drink, I look at Otiniara to see if I can get a read on what he’s thinking. He’s definitely paying attention, but all I really get is a slight twitch of his eye as he too takes a drink. Weird. I guess I was expecting him to have more to say.
Putting my drink down, I get back to the story. “Mmmm, so the sorry sight I was, my main contribution that first day was to help fend off waves of massive crabs, land-walking jellyfish-like creatures, and a horde of ants, all while successfully looking like a drowned rat guarding our makeshift gates. I may not have been a hero, but me and the guys at the gates fought all night with no time to rest or look at our stats, all while more and more people were brought into the fenced-off area.
“I tell you what though. The moments when we were standing there at the gates of the Ngāti Hokopū marae, fighting side by side with my granddad, I’d never loved him more or been more proud of him.”
I stop again, this time to take a breath. The noise of the bar bounces off me as I reflect on that day and wipe my reddening eyes. After a few minutes, I down the rest of my mug and get started on the next before getting up to go to the bathroom.
***
Stumbling back a few minutes later, I can see that the bar is full, Ellie is still fast asleep at her booth, and having downed another beer O’s just watching the crowd. Sitting down at the table I start things up again. “Good to keep going?”
“Yeah man. Go hard, I’m all good.” O says, shifting to get relaxed as he prepares to listen again.
“So, after that first night of hell the number of spawns slowed to a crawl around midday, and people used the time to start breaking off for food or taking a few moments to themselves, trying to digest everything that’d happened.” Remembering the next part I look away from O. “In my stupidity, not even really thinking about it, I went off with a bunch of blokes from the wall to raid the various pubs. We just wanted a drink. Didn’t say goodbye, didn’t tell anyone where we were going or when we’d be back, just left a handful of people to watch the gates and headed for town.
“We ended up at the bar down the road, the Craic. A lot of us were pretty broken up about how many people we’d lost, and we drank a bit more than we probably sh
ould have. I passed out around three p.m. and didn’t wake up until I felt someone shoving me a few hours later. Turns out that while we were getting drunk and sleeping, more monsters showed up and attacked the marae.”
“Shit,” says O as he leans forward, resting his crossed arms on the table, eyes focusing just before the left one twitches.
Nodding to his response I continue, “The guys had already left to help. I was the last to leave. I tried to catch up, but I was still a little drunk. As I came round the corner, I saw the others just hitting the gates as my pop and a handful of RSA, Ngāti Awa, and a few people from the marae fell through our fencing. Right behind them were these huge half-man-half-snake-looking creatures wearing opal and gold armor. Most of them were holding spears or bladed polearms, but the biggest was holding some kind of thick battle axe.”
Resting his elbows on the table and clenching his fists, I can see an intensity in O as he focuses on this part of the story.
“Our side had actually been doing a pretty good job. They managed to take down several. But it didn’t last long. The guys, and most of the others, were ripped apart in under a minute. All I could do was watch in horror as person after person fell. Soon it was just my granddad standing up to them, and before I finished psyching myself up, the axe-wielder sliced off my granddad’s legs, and another put a spear through his chest—all while I cowered in fear.”
I take another swig of my drink as the memories make me feel anger and resentment toward myself. Slamming the beer onto the table I see O jolt back as I accidentally break off the handle and send the cup flying. The drink spills and the glass smashes. Fuck.
“Oi! What’s going on over there?” I hear from the bar.
“Sorry, Ngaire, I’ll pay for it. Can I get another?” Collecting the broken glass, I wipe the spilt beer off the table with my shirt as best I can.
