All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 101: Reap What You Sow

When we reached the next settlement, we found just a normal family completely untouched by the chaos. I stayed outside while Beatrice and Tony argued with them; apparently, their news was hard to believe without proof. Voices were raised, and eventually, Beatrice had to pick me up as they were chased off by a couple men carrying pitchforks.

We only had to run for around 5 minutes down the path before we long outpaced the angry men. Beatrice seemed conflicted about the whole incident. "I can't believe they thought we were lying! What did they think we were going to steal from their farm or something? As if they wouldn't know we were lying when they got more than five minutes off the farm."

Tony paused as if he was considering Beatrice's words. "I bet that they thought we would rob them once they left. Or we had friends that would frisk their place when they were away."

"Don't you know them? They’re your neighbors."

"Yeah, more than a day's walk away. I think Da knows them but I never met them myself." Tony said with a bit of bite in his voice. "I haven't heard anything bad about them per se, but I also haven't heard anything good about those two either. That’s the more telling part. My Da doesn't say bad things about anyone."

Beatrice scoffed. "Well if they want to sit and wait for the dead to find them, let them."

"There isn't much else we can do." Tony sighed with what I thought was significantly more sympathy in his tone.

Really, I was just disappointed. Another group of humans from outside had attacked us. Tony and Beatrice seemed to find it less dangerous than the others, though. I guessed that was because they weren't trying to kill us, just drive us away. But still, the use of force was entirely too excessive. I wasn’t sure if I should have retaliated.

We moved on to the next house the same day.

***

As we saw the light of the clearing at the end of the trail, I picked up a commotion on my sensors. Not wanting to show up too late, I requested Beatrice set me down.

I wanted to just zip forward and go ahead full speed, but a treacherous root caught my wheel and sent me tumbling not 17 feet from where I was set down. Before I lost all my momentum, I extended my arm and nudged the ground so that I would land on my wheels. My models worked perfectly as I landed on my wheels while retaining 54% of my momentum.

My sensors told me that I didn't have much time, so I kept going, and the next time a root tried to make a fool of me, I activated my thrusters and floated over without losing speed. I had to keep hoping over small obstacles. It slowed me down a little, but not nearly enough to let Beatrice and Tony catch up to me.

Once I got to the fields, my trip became much smoother though. I sprayed dirt everywhere behind me. Normally I would be mortified at causing such a mess, but the area around me was mostly crops, and they seemed to need dirt after all. The coating of dirt on my underside and rear, though, made my casing itch.

This clearing was much smaller than the other ones we had seen before, and only a single small house stood in the center. On the front porch stood an old man and a woman with graying hair. The man wielded a pitchfork with great dexterity, and the woman stood slightly behind him with a broom. I liked the woman already. Arrayed in front of them were nearly a dozen zombies. Currently, only the railing of the porch kept them from being overwhelmed.

As I approached, I saw the old man get his pitchfork stuck in the chest of one of the zombies and struggle to take it out. One thing I learned from watching Beatrice fight these was that aiming for the head was the better plan. Zombies would ignore any shots to the chest that weren't completely bisecting the spine. Luckily for them, I arrived just in time.

A sweep of my lamp at ankle height cut the zombies down without having to risk shooting through them and harming the normal humans or house behind. As I got closer, I appreciated the older couple even more. They must have bathed this morning with how clean they were.

My intention was just to get the attention of the zombies so that the older ones could take a breather and be safe. These zombies must have been incredibly weak though, as the beam sliced right through their ankles, sending them to the ground. That didn't finish them off, of course. Like cleaning a tough floor, they needed multiple passes. As I got closer and found an angle where I didn't risk hurting the humans, I finished off the zombies.

Right about that time, Tony and Beatrice made it within sight of me. I pointed my arm to the back of the house, directing them to where another group of zombies was closing in. Perhaps that might have been a mistake, as the old humans were now pointing their pitchforks and brooms at me. I tried to communicate with them and tell them that everything was all right, but no matter how much I beeped at them, they only seemed to get more scared.

---

Bee followed her master's urging and sped up around the house, leaving Tony behind. She had kept pace with him as they chased after Void, as she didn't want to leave him vulnerable. Now that her master was in sight, she figured he was safe enough. She heard her master attempting to bestow wisdom on the elderly owner of the farm.

However, she knew that wasn't going to work. The uninitiated wouldn't be able to understand its otherworldly screeching. She remembered when she had first heard its calls and how terrified she had been. Her master's slightly naive outlook might not have been able to recognize how terrifying it was. Or maybe it was simply the observer's onus to learn to interpret its great wisdom.

Yes, that was likely it. That was much more likely than Void being naive. As much as a being that only desired cleanliness, it also understood great evils. It needed to fight to achieve its dreams. Just considering the holy war on stairs clearly demonstrated its ability to navigate the darker parts of life.

Bee banished the thoughts of her master's nature from her mind. While they would need to be meditated on further to grow her understanding of her class, right now wasn't the time. From behind the house, a small group of zombies was rounding the corner. These were much lower in level. She really hoped that it would be just enough to push her over the edge and get her to the next milestone, but she doubted it.

Her scan showed that their average level was less than 20. This would only give her chump change. With her new evaluation of the threat, she slowed her advance after positioning herself between the house and the oncoming group. It would be better to simply leave these for Tony for the most part. He would at least benefit from the exchange.

She wondered if he would be able to finish off them all by himself, but with her to step in if necessary, he should at least be able to put up a good showing. Readying her broom, Tony skidded to a halt at her side. "That's not too many. Looks like only seven. I'll take the three on the left?"

Bee shook her head at Tony's question. He looked slightly confused. "Okay then how do you want to take care of them?"

As Tony readied his iron rod, Bee thought that he really needed a better weapon. Tony was starting to fall into the same trap she did when learning the broom. The rod worked well against the slow-moving opponents that were weak to blunt force to the head. Against something quicker like a skeleton, the defensive capabilities would shine through. And if he ever had to fight a ghoul…

"I think you should give them a try." Bee told Tony.

"What? All by myself?"

"Yes, They aren't that high a level. None are above 20. I think you can take them." Bee insisted. At the skeptical look she received, she remembered that she had never told Tony about her scan skill. At this point, it wasn't that she still didn't trust him, but now wasn't the time.

"If you say so." Tony took a step forward.

"Oh, you should think about your next skill carefully. You might want to pick up a weapon proficiency." Bee called out to him. Tony shot an annoyed look over his shoulder.

"Is now really the best time for this?" He asked.

"Well, you might level up here. It would be a waste to have you pick something that would help you in the short term out of panic, especially while I’m here and can step in if you need time." Bee said.

"Sure, thanks," Tony said before charging at the left-most zombie. Bee wasn't sure she understood his strategy at first, but as he swung at the head of the zombie while moving past the group, they all turned to face him. His momentum added extra force to his swing, which connected, leaving a large dent in the head of his target. It also carried him past the group rather than getting swallowed up, as he would have been if he had gone for the center. This gave Tony room to work.

Unfortunately, the first one struck didn't go down, and while not inside the group of enemies, he was only a few paces away. Still, it gave him time to repeat the attack from the other side of the group. This time the one that he struck fell. With less speed as he struck, it meant that he also had less speed getting away. Still, he managed it.

This time, instead of immediately charging back in, Tony backpedaled. With more space, he had room to maneuver some more. While the zombies were an unthinking horde of beasts, that didn't mean they just targeted the nearest person. A few broke off from the group and started shambling towards Bee while more aimed for the house. Tony now only faced a few while the rest went to targets that he needed to defend. Bee wondered how he was going to handle this.

Looking around at the fight, Tony saw the issue and ran at the group going after the house, swinging his makeshift club viciously. It was riskier as he could no longer count on being out of range of any counterattacks. Dodging the hand that reached out for him, he wailed at the zombies desperately, trying to finish them off so he could get to the group approaching Bee in time.

The two that he had run away from, though, were not satisfied with just waiting for him. Instead they moved toward the house from a completely different angle. Bee could see sweat forming on Tony's brow. It seemed that she might have to intervene - not to save Tony, but rather to help contain the threat from Void.

As she was about to step up and assist, a cry from the house wrenched her attention away. "No! Please, we can't!"