TJ stood, or posed, or whatever he did as a serpent, in near silence as Charlie tied nearly half a dozen javelinas to his back. They’d quickly discovered that he’d o carry a halter or something to that effe his mouth, or else the tied on ropes would simply roll down his body and off his tail. Thus, TJ felt something like a strange horse as he held the rope in his mouth. It was unfortable at the ers of his jaws, but TJ didn’t mind the excuse not to talk.

  He felt slightly unfortable about blowing up at Sheridan, but he didn’t care enough to say anything to her. He’d been right with everything he said, and he merely regretted losing his patienbsp;

  “You should be more patient with her.” Charlie almost seemed to speak to himself instead of TJ. “Mary saved her life in that charge. She probably just feels guilty.”

  TJ grunted in response.

  “Not that I bme you. I wonder if you’re the only one of us hunters who’s seeing our situation for what it is. Having someone scream at you for doing what seems to be the best option sucks, but we’re in hell. I hope you show some patiend uanding. That’s all.”

  Again, TJ adopted the Stanton response. Charlie didn’t seem to mind and tio work in silence for a time. OJ was effectively fully loaded, Charlie stepped bad looked at his handiwork.

  “How much time do you have left on your Diviransformation?”

  TJ, without having thought of that limitation, pulled up his Status.

  Current total maximum Diviransformation time: 39:15(End+Vit+Will+Fix)/4 Current cooldown: 57:28

  With the cooldown being twice what the time spent while using Diviransformation was, TJ forced himself to do the mental math of dividing the cooldown by 2. He’d spent a bit over 28 minutes with his Skill activated, so had maybe 11 minutes left. TJ struggled to spit the rope out of his mouth to respond.

  “About 10 minutes.”

  “Yeah, you gotta leave. You should be fast enough to get at least to where it’s somewhat safe like that. Let’s have Angelo heal you a little before you go.”

  Though he tried tue, TJ’s wishes were overruled by Charlie’s insistence. When Angelo began to pour his Skill’s healing into TJ, Angelo gasped.

  “Dude! Why didn’t you tell me to heal you already? You’ve got it bad!”

  TJ g his HP: 248/940 and rising. “It’s not that bad. Just o take a break. I at home, once I drop this off.”

  “What do you mean he has it bad?” Charlie demanded.

  “He’s below a third of his total! Are you stupid, TJ?”

  “Typical of some maan moron.” Zig chimed in. “o bleed out looking over the snowy valley. It’s just cold, no snow here! You o get to the Northeast or something for that.”

  TJ couldn’t say that he had any idea what she was refereng, but he tried t. He had no shoulders, so nothing happened as the sileretched into something awkward.

  “I ’t top you up. You have too much HP for that, so I’ll give you what I without emptying my MP.”

  “That’s fine. I’ll go now.” TJ didn’t say anything more as he adjusted the nylon rope bato his mouth and, feeling like a reindeer, or maybe a mushing sled dog in the Iditarod, he made trails back to town. Some of the hunters watched as he went, but TJ refused to look back. Instead, he accelerated forward. With so much weight slowing him down, TJ made sure to gradually get up to velocity instead of leaping into his top speed and risk ripping ropes or anything like that. On top of that, though he’d insisted on awo being put on him, TJ could feel that he was notably slower and weighed down with so much. He was much strohan he’d been before the System, but not enough to sprint the whole way back to town.

  TJ tinued on his way, and the rope chafed at his scales and twisted in his mouth, but it held suffitly for him to tinue on his path. The wind whispered to him as he moved, seeming to want to tell him something. TJ refused to listen, instead keeping his eyes and ears peeled to listen for anything approag him. Every shifting branch seemed like it ukwudgie preparing to strike while every shifting bush could be a cougar i of poung. While his worries pgued every step of the way, TJ’s journey began wholly without i. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before his hopes for a quick, easy journey were dashed as he heard the sound of coyote yips approag. Four burst out of the bushes, rushing to surround him, their jaws wide. He paid them no mind, instead drawing Wind Manipution into a whirling tornado that burst out from around him and pushed them away.

  The es screeched and cried as they were sent tumbling around him. TJ’s path remained clear and so too was his destination. He tinued slithering at top speed forward, the wind whistling through his ears. Thankfully, his cooldown timer had only reached 1:15:07 by the time he began desding the hill into the town itself. Though TJ was retively sure that he was no longer in danger, he still hurried through the town, staying in the ter of the highway as he rushed. Several people screamed at his approach, but TJ coasted to a stop in front of the general store where he allowed himself to transform back to his human form.

  “Hey, Jeff. You help a guy out?”

  The tangles of rope around his legs and torso kept him from moving, and it could be that that was one of the primary causes keeping Jeff from throwing something at him. Seeing the big bad snake man trapped in hundreds of pounds of food he’d brought back seemed to be enough of a sotion to stop Jeff’s mood from s further. Or maybe it was the fact that the big bad snake man was trapped and now Jeff had been io take care of him. With a sharp knife.

  With effit strokes, Jeff cut the javelina corpses from TJ’s body. TJ happily rolled his shoulders as he was freed.

  “I’ll help carry them in.”

  “Go ahead. Where’s the rest of the hunters?” Jeff asked, his tone curt and ung.

  “I had to go ahead t all this before my Skill’s duration ran out.” TJ didn’t want to get into the ey of the drama that had occurred. Luckily, Jeff simply nodded and threw a corpse over each of his shoulders before turning and stalking into the general store. TJ grabbed another brace of javelina bodies and dragged them in, noting how obvious it was that Jeff had a higher Strength than him. He Appraised the prickly man again and saw that his level hadn’t risen from Zealot, 3.

  As Jeff pushed through, the doors of the general store hung open, the faint light within struggling to pierce the much brighter sunlight outside. The store almost looked like a cavern of sorts as TJ struggled to pull hundreds of pounds of limp javelina into the pce they’d store the food. Jeff strode purposefully to the back of the store and TJ followed as best as he could. Sarah, the uard, seemed tle to pull the bodies as much as he had, and his slightly pricked pride felt slightly better. Then, TJ realized he was paring himself to a woman quite a bit smaller than him, and that the System meant that eople looked like no longer had much of a bearing on how strong they could be, and he was mostly able to get over himself.

  For the sed time that day, TJ walked through the small store, but when he reached the back, he couldn’t help but notice that Laura was missing from her desk. In fact, as far as he could tell, Jeff, Sarah and he were the only people in the building, though there was no guarahat there was nobody in the back. With steady steps, TJ left the thought behind as he followed Jeff.

  In the back of the building, there was a rge door marked “EMPLOYEES ONLY” that was in the process of swinging closed. TJ followed as well, and inside he saw Jeff ying the two corpses on a rge metal ter. With a deep breath, TJ gathered himself and picked both bodies up to thump them down beside their panions. The stainless steel rattled from the carelessness with which he tossed the bodies, but TJ didn’t care. He’d pushed hard for a long time, and he nearly colpsed to the ground while he gasped for breath.

  “It was just a little ways to get here.” Jeff said, his tone derisive. “You really o be so dramatic?”

  “I basically ran a mile and a half with 300 pounds on my back. Yeah, I’d say I warrant a rest.” TJ mustered up the energy to gre up at Jeff.

  Jeff didn’t say anything and just stalked out of the ste area after holding the door open for Sarah.

  “I’m willing to take care of the skinning and preparing of the meat, unless someone else wants to do it.” TJ offered to the much friendlier woman as they worked together to get the bodies up on the ter.

  “Don’t ask me. I wouldn’t know.”

  “Figures. Where’s Laura?”

  “Lunch. Granny Pens after her if she does every meal. Her lectures are great, so long as you’re not the one she’s disappointed in.” Sarah smiled wide.

  TJ nodded before ging the subject, “How did you get your levels? Are you one of the hunters?”

  “No, I just guard here. Why?”

  “Because you have at least 4 levels. Did you get an Occupation?”

  “Yeah, I’m a Guard. I get a little experience from standing watch, I’d guess that if I fought to protect a pce I’d get more.” Sarah shrugged. “I’m pretty happy not having to fight and kill things, though.”

  Having already had the versation twice today, TJ didn’t jump in though a rge part of him was dying to. Instead, he o Sarah and walked out the doors. There, Jeff was being relieved from his position by another man, and they were locked ied versation.

  “I dunno what it is, man. The gas still burns, but the spark plugs won't ig. It might be something I haven’t seen when I was w before, but it’s like magic is keeping the engine from running. The diesels won’t start either, so it’s not the plugs.”

  “But it’s gotta be something. There’s no way that a fu’ internal bustion engine just stops burning. The gas burns, the engine draws the gas, and so it should fire!”

  “And it’s not. We’ve looked at every part of the engine, of the intake system, everything, and there just isn’t any way to see why none of the cars or trucks will turn on. The batteries are all dead, the grid is down, and cars don’t work. That’s how it is.”

  “I’ll take a look after I eat.” Jeff scoffed, his scowl threatening to burn a hole in whatever he looked at. Though they were going to the same pce, TJ deliberately hung bad gave the angry guardsman his space. The idea of a funing car was beautiful, and TJ couldn’t believe he hadn’t asked about it. When he’d e into town, nobody had used one or mentio, and he’d simply fotten to ask anyone about it. Now, though, he supposed he had an answer. With nobody to man the prid or water system, he wasn’t at all surprised there wasricity or running water, but he just didn’t think about the cars.

  Before he could make his way to the firehouse, though, TJ heard a familiar voice.

  “Hey kid.”

  A broad smile cracked his face as he turo Stanton, who stood behind him with his thick handlebar mustache groomed away from his mouth and his Stetson proudly perched on his head.

  “Hey geezer. Hoater duty?”

  “Wet.” he grunted, but seemed mostly fine.

  “Good.” TJ began to turn away and towards the firehouse, but a thought crossed his mind and he sighed. “ you do me a favor?”

  Stanton grunted.

  “Could you take some of the people you were with today up the road, turning right at the church up at the hill? I had to go ahead of the rest because my Skill was running out of time, and I’d appreciate you making sure they’re ok.”

  Stanton cocked an eyebrow up at TJ, gruhen turned on his heel with a whistle and started plodding up the street.

  Though he didn’t like Stanton wandering off on his own, TJ had fidehat he would find someoo help him, plus TJ himself couldn’t really support his friend right now. His MP was near zero while his Diviransformation was effectively uo be used as well. He resumed his path towards the firehouse, the grumbling Jeff serving as his announcer. In the firehouse, TJ made his way to the serving line, where there were, blessedly, no eggs. Instead, real mashed potatoes with heaps of butter and some fresh ham were plopped onto his pte. Sure, there wasn’t as much of it as he’d like, but it was good.

  With a smile, TJ tossed the food into his mouth and chewed, eating as fast as he always did. Then, looking around, he saw Laura, eating quickly, though with her eyes focused on a paper report of some sort. TJ scraped the st of his food into his mouth and picked it up to carry it to the kit. Out of nranny Penny bzed past and stole the utensils from his hands and hobbled into the kit. He ughed as he approached Laura, who held up a fio keep him from interrupting. TJ waited, and a mier, Laura looked up.

  “Speak.”

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