Chương 113: 110: No Pizza For Them

Of course, it might have been the monsters who'd done the damage. But I remembered Jack's fireballs. The splashes of charred paint, the melted glass, and the craters on the tiled floor looked to me like a brand-new fire mage flaming some pesky flying enemy. And then probably running away and coming back to flame it some more, because I didn't think a Level 1 fire mage could fire a hundred shots in a minute.

"Wow," the guy from the second instance muttered by my shoulder.

"I hope Tess is okay."

"Did I mention that she's a fire mage now?" I asked as I scanned our surroundings for signs of an enemy. Or enemies.

"No. How do you know that?" He didn't wait for me to answer, but yelled, "Tessa! Tess! You there?" I winced. He was right next to me, and I had enhanced hearing. Or had, before he deafened me.

"Bobby?" The answering yell was almost as loud, even though it was coming from farther away, and then a woman burst out of a store farther down the wing and came running toward us like monsters were on her heels. She hurled herself into the guy's arms, and he stumbled back a few steps before catching himself and hugging her back. She pulled away and stared into his eyes.

"I thought you were dead. I thought you were all—" She spotted the others over his shoulder and practically shoved him away to get to them.

"Tracy! Leon! Jeff! Oh, God, guys, it's so good to see you, I thought…" She stopped and put her hands over her face, covering her eyes. Her friends clustered around her, alternately soothing and laughing and getting a little tearful themselves. Dammit. I really didn't want to know their names. I didn't want to get attached. I'd volunteered at an animal shelter for exactly three weeks once, before I realized I didn't have the emotional stamina to survive not being able to rescue every dog on the edge.

And no, of course I'm not comparing human beings to dogs, but a rescue's a rescue, right? I checked that Zelda was with me, then strolled down the wing while they had their moment. I was surprised the smell of smoke and melted plastic hadn't overpowered the pizza, but it hadn't, and there was definitely pizza down here somewhere. It wasn't the food court I'd been expecting, just a single pizza place.

It smelled amazing, and Tessa had obviously been taking advantage, because a half-eaten slice was dropped cheese-side down, as if it had slipped out of her grasp at the sound of Bobby's voice. No grouchy Italian cook stood behind the counter, which was probably just as well. It would be incredibly weird to have a fake human being inside a rift. But sitting on the laminate was one of those stacked glass warming cases, and each shelf held a piping-hot pizza, as if they were fresh out of the oven.

Four shelves, one each for cheese, meat-lovers, veggie supreme, and, tragically, Hawaiian. What a terrible waste. Not that I wouldn't eat it if it were the only one left, but pineapple belongs in fruit cups, not on pizza. Unlike a normal pizza place, the case opened to the outside of the counter, so I helped myself to a slice of the meat-lovers. I thought about taking more, because Riley and Bear were going to mope about having missed out on pizza, and I was sure Jack, Pen, and the others would appreciate it, too.

Had Pen ever had pizza? Was pizza a sin for religious cults? But Tessa and her friends had gotten into this mess because they were running low on food, and Tessa had apparently fought pretty hard for it, so a single slice could count as my rescue fee. That said, the first bite was practically a spiritual experience. Melting cheese, a hint of oregano in the sauce, sausage with just a bit of a kick… I shared, Z got half of the pepperoni, but I also gobbled. I was licking my fingers when the others arrived.

Everyone helped themselves to slices. No one took the Hawaiian, proving they were all civilized people.

"Let's grab boxes and take the rest of it to go," I suggested.

"Maybe we can get more in the instance your other friends are in." Leon put words into action, going behind the counter and finding the boxes, but Tessa shuddered.

"You only get the pizza if you can get past the toy store," she said.

"And those toys are nightmares."

"The toys?" said at least three of us simultaneously.

"The dolls were the worst. They do the 'mama, mama' noise until you get close enough and then they spit acid on you." Tessa lifted her leg to show off the holes eaten into her blue jeans. Each was about the size of a nickel, but there were a lot of them.

"Oops, baby spit up," she said in a high-pitched voice, sounding bitter.

"Little shits." I did not laugh, but it took willpower. Jeff and Bobby both lacked my inner strength and guffawed.

"Can you imagine if they were? Or did?" Bobby said between laughs.

"Weaponized dirty diapers, that would be the serious shit." Tessa thwacked him in the stomach.

"Careful, I can throw fireballs now." Leon and Tracy finished loading up the pizzas and closed the case.

"You think they regenerate?" Leon asked, sounding skeptical and looking to me for answers.

"Not exactly. I think that in this instance of the rift, the toys are permanently defeated and the pizza is permanently gone. But when we get back to your other friends, the toys will be back and the pizza, too." He nodded, but he still looked puzzled.

"It's like a game," Tracy offered.

"Like a dungeon in an online game."

"Yeah, the only reason it's not a dungeon is because somewhere in here…" I waved to indicate the entire mall, not just the pizza place, "… there's a gate that leads to another planet."

"Another… what the fuck?" Bobby sat down hard at one of the small tables. It was so strange to discover what other people knew and what they didn't. What had become common knowledge over the last few days? What was still a mystery? People with access to enclaves and the Multiversal Information Network obviously had an advantage, but how fast was word spreading among those who didn't?

"Yep, all the shimmers are entrances to rifts and every rift has at least one gate that leads to another planet with more mana than Earth. The rifts are leaking mana out onto Earth to raise our mana saturation level and supposedly heal our planet." I nodded toward the exit.

"Ready to get moving? I've got places I ought to be." If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Leon stuffed his last bite of pizza into his mouth and grabbed the boxes. Tessa tipped her head and said, "Um, so, who are you? I was so happy to see these guys that I didn't even think about it, but do you live in Spruce Gap? Did those Sovereign Ridge fuckers throw you in here, too?"

"No, I, ah, threw myself in. So to speak."

"And you brought your dog? Hey, beautiful." Tessa bent and gave her hand to Zelda to sniff. Zelda approved of her, too, and this time offered a lick.

"Oh, wow." Tessa straightened, her face going slack for a moment, her shoulders dropping as if she'd just unloaded the weight of the world.

"That—what is she?"

"She's in the System, too. Her class is Devoted Chaos Heart, and she just gave you a Resilience boost."

"It's awesome," Tessa muttered, and then she burst into tears. She grabbed for paper napkins from the counter and waved off her friends.

"It's okay, let's go, it's just…" She waved again.

"Let's go, we need to find Javi and Mike." Tracy and Bobby took either side of her on our walk back to the gate, patting her back, arms around her. Leon carried the boxes of pizza and walked behind them, so I wound up walking next to Jeff, aka Instance #1 Guy.

"So," he said hesitantly.

"You didn't actually answer Tessa's question. Who are you and how did you wind up here? I'm Jeff Masters." He gestured at the others.

"We all work at Spruce Gap Middle. Well, Javi doesn't, but he's married to one of our seventh-grade teachers. And Leon coaches the soccer team, but it's not a full-time job. But that's how we know one another. The school's a shelter right now, we've got about thirty families who've evacuated there, so—""Kids can get a Minor class," I interrupted him, ignoring the question he started with.

"It'll give them a boost to healing and a defensive skill. You should bring them here and let them whale on those mannequins so that they can get into the System. It could save their lives. You also need to get into the System yourself and as quickly as possible. Get stronger than those Sovereign Ridge guys and then you won't have to worry about them. How close is the school to the rift?"

"Who are you?" he answered my question with a repeat of his own, but he breathed the words out with a crazy kind of reverence.

"How do you know all this? And how did you—why are you here? Do you need a place to stay? Do you want to come back to the school with us?" I laughed, but it was wry.

"Actually, I need to get back to my own place as quickly as possible. I was expected home—well, with friends—a while ago." I corrected myself mid-sentence, because the enclave wasn't home and wasn't going to be, thank you. I had a perfectly nice home of my own and every intention of living there. Just as soon as I found Jules. And helped my mother. And... Well, okay, the point was that I didn't need a place to stay.

"I was running a quick errand and it's now turned into a long errand, so people are probably worrying about me," I explained.

"But thank you for the offer." We'd reached the gate, but I waited until the others caught up.

"Ready?" I asked, and when everyone nodded, I stepped into the shimmer. I selected the last remaining instance of the rift, chose everyone I was with to join me, and stepped right back out into the mall atrium, along with the others. I'd learned from the instance info that the two guys with Missy had leveled up while I'd been gone, but their location wasn't obvious until I heard yells and laughter coming from the direction of the Lacy's.

"This way," I said, heading down the concourse. They'd found the sporting goods store and triggered the mannequins, but even without Zelda's assistance, they were doing great. Baseball bats were an easy win against plastic, and the only advantage the mannequins had was numbers. That wasn't much of an advantage when the team also had Missy, whose water bullets could apparently knock the head off a mannequin just as effectively as a baseball bat.

"Olivia, hello!" Missy called out when she spotted us approaching.

"And you found the others, that's wonderful."

"We brought pizza," Leon called out, hefting the boxes.

"Pizza?" Mr. Upright's next swing hit so solidly that the mannequin he was targeting flew off its feet and crashed into the one behind it. Bruised, who was no longer bruised and who was probably really named Javi, jumped on the fallen mannequin and crunched it, caving in its midsection. There was one last mannequin standing, but they finished it off easily. This rift really was an excellent training ground. And it had pizza. How long would it take me to claim it?

I didn't need to go through the offworld gate to claim the rift; that was just for the rift report. But I would need to find the core, which for this rift probably meant harvesting all the zones to put together a badge, and then fighting a final boss. Once I found the core, I'd know what the tier progress was and how many more times I'd have to harvest the instance to reach a full clear. Best-case scenario might be an hour.

An hour during which Jules could be attacked by mana-crazed coyotes or Gila monsters or whatever else West Texas held. Vultures, maybe? But—and, okay, maybe this was just mean of me—if I claimed the rift, I could lock it. No one would be able to enter without my approval. The Sovereign Ridge Patriots wouldn't get access to the goods inside. No pizza for them. And they couldn't use it as a dumping ground any more either. Was that worth another hour when Jules was still missing?

The Spruce Gap Middle School staff were doing the thing: hugs, stories, and a hell of a lot of relief. Tessa might have been the only one who'd written all of them off, but I was pretty sure they'd all expected to die. I caught Missy's eye and gestured her to one side for a private conversation. In a few quiet words, I explained the situation and waited for her opinion. She considered. Sighed, glanced at the group of strangers, bit her lip. Considered some more.

And then she buried her face in her hands for a moment before dragging her palms across her face, clenching them into fists, and standing straighter.

"I'm going to say something you don't want to hear." My wince was internal. Externally, I nodded for her to go ahead.

"Megan's enthusiasm about searching for your friend is my daughter being her optimistic, energetic self. And if anyone can find your friend and her son, it'll be Megan. But…" She hesitated. I swallowed, but gestured for her to continue.

"…it's such a long shot. Even if your friend is doing exactly what you think she's doing, it would be so easy to miss her."

"Needle in a haystack, yeah," I replied, trying to keep the words light. I knew that. I'd told Megan that when she first started strategizing.

"I'm not telling you to give up on the search. If Jack or Megan were out there…" The Spruce Gap Middle people were opening the pizza boxes. Tessa was sitting cross-legged on the floor, stroking Zelda's back. Her face still showed the tearstains, but her expression was so joyful it almost hurt to look at.

"The obvious answer is to focus on the search now, and come back to help these folks later," Missy said.

"But that's a risk, too. If the government or the military or any of the other people looking for you get in the way, you might not be able to make it back here. An hour or two now…" I nodded. The back of my eyes was prickling.

"Helping these people isn't just helping them, either. You're saving every kid back at their school. Not to mention shutting down the bullies trying to walk all over the good people of the world." I managed a small grin.

"Definitely not irrelevant. Maybe my favorite part." Missy saw through the grin. She put a hand out and touched my lower arm.

"I'm sorry. I know your friend comes first. I just… I'm just not sure…I just think…"

"It's okay. I asked the question." I pinched the bridge of my nose and added, "You're right. I'm not going to give up, but if Jules is trying to bike across West Texas, she'll still be on the road tomorrow."

"That's right," Missy agreed.

"So we harvest this rift first?"

"Yeah. Clear it, actually, which means running it a few times."

"Gotcha. Could we maybe stop by the enclave first?" Missy suggested.

"I'm sure David's worrying by now."

"That's a great idea." Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the atlas and held it out to her.

"Actually, maybe, if you didn't mind, you could stay there and help Megan make plans? I don't want to shut down her enthusiasm, but a reality check is probably a good idea." Missy opened her mouth and then closed it. [Uncanny Insight] told me she'd been going to object, but was now considering the suggestion. Slowly, she nodded.

"I can do that," she said as she took the atlas from me.

"Megan did seem surprisingly nonchalant about the idea," I added. Missy made a scoffing noise.

"She's a cyclist. Fifty miles is a fun afternoon for her. One summer during college, she and a friend cycled from North Carolina to Maine. She's mapped bike routes across the entire country."

"That makes so much sense." I tried to smile, but I couldn't make it reach my eyes. What had Jeff said? Thirty families at the school? Maybe a hundred people total. This was the right decision. I knew it was. I still didn't like it.

"You know we're definitely going to search, right?" Missy said.

"I'll keep Megan on solid ground, but I'm not gonna be a Debbie Downer about it. If the eventual plan calls for me to get on my bike and cycle for hundreds of miles, I will do that for you with willing legs and an open mind. I swear I'll give it my all."