Reluctant Necromancer

We stayed at the house preparing potions for another forty minutes before we were finally able to cram back into the van and get on our way. We made good time on our trip now that we knew the route at least a little bit. We stopped to top up on gas at the abandoned station along the way again. The place was slightly more unnerving with all the shelves ransacked and the dried pools of blood without a body. I knew we’d been the ones who cleaned out this place, but it didn’t change the vibe of it. The stop there was brief and quiet. Then we were on the road again.

We didn’t come across anymore fleeing refugees. We didn’t run into any monsters. And before I knew it we were parked on the hill overlooking the little town we’d come to investigate. It still looked eerie and quiet. I couldn’t make out any movement down below. It was too bright with the sun still up to determine if there were lights on anywhere.

After watching for an hour and then some discussion we decided to make camp nearby and observe the town overnight. We’d keep an eye on lights and movement that might be more hidden during the day. Then we’d go in first thing in the morning.

I was itching to get into the town and see if we could find anything, but I bowed to the group’s caution. None of us wanted to get hurt or worse. I’d made it this long. Another few hours wouldn’t mean that much, especially if we could use it to our advantage.

We drove down to the bottom of the hill and pulled off the side of the road. There wasn’t much clearance for the van into the forest on either side of the road, but Oliver managed to pull it off enough to get us a dozen feet or so off the road. It wasn’t perfect, but it should help disguise our van from passing eyes. At least a little bit anyway.

Unlike last time we were out here we’d stopped well before sundown and had several hours to kill before we could start our overwatch. It was actually kind of fortunate I guess, because all of us were not going to fit comfortably inside the van for sleeping. Montgomery had sent along a couple of old tents for us to use. So at least there was daylight to see by as all of us struggled to get these things up.

Ashley was of course our subject matter expert, or SMEE as she called it gleefully. No clue where the extra ‘E’ came from. Whatever, she decided to help the other team before her own girlfriend and I felt betrayed.

There were three smallish tents. One for Josh and Jeremy. One for a gleeful Jenny and Mara. And one for me and Ashley. John and Oliver were going to take the van to sleep in.

I struggled to figure out where to slide the poles into the canvas of the tent while I watched Ashley calmly walk through the process with Josh and Jeremy. Jeremy seemed a little flustered that he was being shown up by a girl, but didn’t try and act like he knew more about what was going on than he did. Maybe partially because Josh was the first to admit that no one in their family had ever gone camping. Ashley was very kind and showed them what to do without showing off or acting superior.

I had managed to wrangle a single pole into a set of sleeves on my tent, though I wasn’t sure that I’d done it right because the pole looked like it was about to snap, when Ashley moved on to helping Mara and Jenny. Traitor.

She got them squared away and staked into place in short order. I managed to get the other pole into a set of sleeves and I was more certain than ever that I had done something wrong. Ashley finally turned to my struggles and started sniggering into her hand right as one of the poles popped in the middle. One section popped out of the adjacent section and the pole promptly lost all shape and the tent partially collapsed.

I looked at Ashley with a pout, “I tried.”

Still trying to stifle her giggles, Ashley gave me a quick hug, “You sure did, babe. But, maybe next time you could pay attention to what I’m telling the others instead of staring at my ass the entire time.” She raised her eyebrow at me. Damn that eyebrow lift! So cute.

I threw my arms up in defeat. My face turned red and I stuttered for a few seconds, but all I could come up with was, “Nuh uh.”

Ashley continued to laugh at me as she quickly disassembled the tent I’d struggled to put together. She threaded the poles through the tent sleeves so that they crossed over in the middle instead of whatever I’d done. Then she showed me where to stake down the corners, but made me do it. Traitor. I think she just wanted to ogle my ass this time because she made sure to stand behind me and catcall and wolf whistle at me. The rest of the group had a good laugh at us.

But…finally the tents were all erected. And I could go back to worrying about what was going to happen tonight. There was still some daylight left, so Mara suggested that we start a small camp fire.

The others agreed as long as we managed to put it out by nightfall. I think Mara just wanted an excuse to roast the package of hotdogs she’d scored before the trip. Not that there were any buns or bread to eat them with unfortunately.

We went out in pairs to gather dry sticks and large stones to ring the campfire with. I followed Ashley into the trees, bending to pick up the occasional stick as we walked. We chatted quietly about nothing, mostly enjoying the quiet and each other. If we stopped to kiss here and there, pressed up against trees or standing in the sunshine, who could blame us?

That evening there were just enough hotdogs for everyone to have one. I could have sworn they came in packs of ten, but I never saw what happened to the other two. A mystery for another time perhaps.

As the sun sank down we let the fire burn down and then dumped sand atop the coals at Ashley’s urging. Something about less smoke than dumping water. I don’t know, but we all trusted her advice at this point.

We discussed the watch rotation. Two people would be on watch like last time. But this time they needed to keep an eye on the camp as well as hike up the hill and check out the town below. We maintained the same pairings we’d kind of established with the sleeping arrangements and had fallen into during the firewood collecting. This time Ashley and I got the first shift. We’d be the most likely to see anything moving down in the town if there was anything to see.

The others settled into their tents and Ashley and I quietly climbed up the hill. We stood on the shoulder of the road to avoid exposing our silhouettes. The sun had just sunk below the horizon up on the hill, but down below it was already dark. I looked down at the town with little expectation that I would find anything. I doubted that anyone had stuck around. Otherwise I figured there would have been some kind of movement earlier.

I looked down the hill…and there were some lights. There were a scattering of street lights that had come on. Which was to be expected I guess. A handful of homes also had a light or two on though. I turned to Ashley with an eager expression.

She matched my expression. The chances of us finding answers in the morning had just gone up! We stayed up there another thirty minutes before heading down to the camp. We went up a few times during our shift and the lights continued to burn.

Sure there was the chance that they were just lights that had been left on in people’s rush to leave town. But I needed to take the more optimistic route tonight that tomorrow would bring answers. At least some.