Reluctant Necromancer

I dreaded the day that the local gas stations ran out since getting a resupply seemed unlikely. It had already been rationed to just the response teams and emergency services, But I suspected we were running low.

We filled up all the vehicles and then added a few gas cans per vehicle into the back of the trailer just in case. There should be some stations on our way, but there was no way to know if they’d be operational, let alone willing to sell to us. It wasn’t going to be that long before the town would have to figure out how to resupply on foot.

With one last look around we all loaded up and started the long journey. Dennis rode along with Glen and Junior in their truck. Sheryl rode by herself. Our party all rode together. We’d offered to give Dennis a lift, but he had been very skittish around us and refused before Oliver could even finish asking.

We passed the police station where a large group of people I assumed were the refugees were milling about. A few minutes later we were out of town and into the farmland surrounding it. Then there was nothing but forest.

I got bored very quickly and pulled out a book to read. Unfortunately Ashley did not believe in the universal ‘if I have a book open don’t talk to me’ rule. She kept trying to draw me into idle conversation. After a few times reading the same page without being able to take in the words I relented and with a sigh closed the book.

“Oh, you didn’t have to stop reading,” she said.

I glared at her. She had the good sense to look a little sheepish, but not enough to leave me alone. We chatted as the miles rolled on.

According to our maps we were a little over halfway to Pineville, the closest town to us on the way to the depot. The van began slowing down and I looked out the windshield between the front seats. I couldn’t see much, but it looked like something had fallen into the road.

We finally stopped about ten feet away from what looked to be a tree that had fallen into the road. The only problem was that the trees didn’t grow close enough to the road to have blocked the entire thing. There were old drag marks from the right side of the road where the tree had been dragged. The end was obviously cut. Fucking bandits.

A pair of men stepped out of the forest from the left side with a set of rifles in hand as we stepped out of the van. “Well, looky here. Told you that’d work,” the shorter, fatter man chortled. The other was about average height and rather scrawny. He didn’t say anything, just shouldered his gun so it was pointing in our direction without pointing at anyone.

“Alright, ladies and gents, hand over your money and any supplies you might be carrying and you can be on your way,” the talkative one called out to us. “And don’t think about no funny business. There’s more fellas behind the trees with itchy trigger fingers.”

Ashley stayed behind me as much as possible and I sensed more than saw her unholster her pistol. Her large rifle was still in the van, but her military gun was hanging low on her back.

John just guffawed loudly. He was quickly bent over, hands braced on knees as he tried to get his laughing under control. The little man yelling at us began to become visibly angry about it. He pulled his rifle up and aimed it right at John who’s laughter suddenly cut off. His mithril coated his skin in an instant.

“Got one of the freaks!” The man called out and then a hail of gunfire opened up, all aimed at John.

Bullets pinged off of him as he stomped over toward the pair. Surprisingly, at least to me, there actually was gunfire coming from the treeline. The pair of bumbling idiots did in fact have friends. Ashley quickly reholstered her pistol and slung her military gun forward. She took a quick stance and began peppering the trees with fire.

John hadn’t been idle during that time either. He marched through the gunfire at the two exposed bandits. He turned his arms into sharpened blades and slammed them into their chests.

Mara, not to be outdone, threw her arms up and sent a sweeping beam of superheated energy crashing through the trees where the gunfire had come from. Within a few moments the gunfire coming from the trees had dwindled down to nothing. But screams for mothers and crying could be heard.

With a flick of my senses I raised the two men sliding off of the ends of John’s arms. John stabbed them again in the chest before I could call out to him what was going on. Mara rolled her eyes next to me and John glowered. I shrugged my shoulders and sent the men into the treeline to hunt their friends.

Several gunshots rang out, then there was silence. The rest of my friends turned to look at me with slightly horrified looks on their faces.

“Look, there’s no medical services out here to take care of them, and we shouldn’t risk Oliver fixing up fucking bandits that were eager to kill us as soon as John shifted,” I argued.

“They were people,” Oliver murmured.

“They were enemy combatants.”

“There are laws against killing wounded people,” he argued.

“We don’t live in a pretty world like that anymore. Those people,” I pointed at the forest, “would have killed us all without missing a beat. They shot first!” My breathing was coming in pants at this point.

Ashley sidled up next to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I took some deep breaths and got my breathing under control.

“Let’s talk about this in the car, not in front of the civies,” Ashley called out to us. I turned and a green faced Junior had exited the truck and was trembling beside it.

“Oliver, go calm down the convoy,” Mara directed. “John, can you move that tree out of the road?”

Both men nodded to her and headed in separate directions. Oliver pulled a shaking Junior back to his door and urged him in. He spoke to everyone in the truck for a few minutes before heading further back to Sheryl’s ice cream truck to check on her.

John stepped toward the downed tree and with an almost casual flick of his arms sliced the tree nearly in half. With a vicious kick he broke the cut and sent both ends spinning away. He still walked over and pushed both sections of the trees off either side of the road.

I followed Mara and Ashley back to the van and climbed into my seat. With an absent thought I cut the threads holding the two men to me and watched their barely visible forms crumple in the dirt.

I turned to Mara, “Tell me you agree with me.”

She sighed. “I understand what you’re saying. I really do. It’s just that Oliver could have patched them up and sent them on their way. We could have disarmed them and left them here.”

“Like they wouldn’t have found a way to do the same thing to the next group of people to come this way,” I argued.

“I’m not saying you’re wrong–”

“You’re not saying I’m right either,” I interrupted.

“Grace…we haven’t had to kill people before. It’s only been monsters up until now. I think it’s going to take some time for everyone to come to terms with what might or might not become a necessity now.”

I folded my arms across my chest and flopped back against the back of the seat. “This is why I’ve always said people suck. Give ‘em half a chance and they turn into raging assholes. They would have killed us,” I urged.

“I know,” Mara sighed. “And up here,” she pointed to her head, “it makes sense. But I need to make it make sense here,” she pointed to her heart.

“Yeah, ok,” I grumbled.

The others got back into the van and a few minutes later we were back on track. This time Ashley left me to stare out the window and stew in my thoughts. I really didn’t think that what I’d done was wrong. People like that didn’t give up the little bit of power they scraped together. If we’d let them go, especially after healing them, they’d be back at it in a week tops.

People like them were the kind of people that drove me to just declare that I hate people in general. Mostly because they seemed to be literally everywhere. So many people put themselves ahead of helping others, or even common sense in a lot of instances.

I wasn’t the most social or kind hearted person, but even I put the good of the community over my own. Hence why I hadn’t bailed on this whole trip. Anyone with half a brain would know that we were better off together than alone.

But people like those bandits didn’t care. They were out for themselves at the expense of others. Fuck those guys. I wasn’t sorry for what I’d done. And I would do it again if put in the same situation.

I just hoped that the others came to see what I meant. Before someone got hurt. I would do what needed to be done, but it would be so much easier if the people around me…my friends…didn’t hate me for it.