David turned to the others and spoke more urgently “do we get everyone up?”

  Camila muttered to herself “Madre de Dios, if we keep waking everyone up we will be useless in the morning, are you sure?”

  “No, I don’t know how this works. I still think we need to be sure before we leave people sleeping…”

  “Do we need to evacuate all the survivors?” Carl cut to the heart of the problem, it wasn’t just their group who could be awake and moving. They had saved people, brought them here and needed to take care of them.

  “OK lets try not to over react, we can start by seeing who is up. Then make a plan.” David tried to be decisive even though he lacked information.

  A few minutes later they had nudged the others awake and got some more unexpected news, good this time.

  When they went to wake Billy up they were confronted by a low growling as Bessie raised her head looking straight at them and issuing a clear warning. The sound instantly woke Billy, who grabbed the dog around the neck and started speaking urgently and softly.

  “Hey, Bessie. Friends! These are Papa’s friends. Who’s a good girl! Warning Papa. Who’s my best girl!”

  Following a questioning whine from the dog Billy started scratching her behind the ears and speaking, more a stream of nonsense than actual words while the dog looked at him with wide eyes cocking her head to the side.

  Once reassured the pet dog bounded to her feet and started running round around Billy energetically. David swore now it was moving the animal looked bigger, the Mutt that he would have guessed was at most forty or fifty pounds now looked more like the size of a labrador.

  “Bessie heel!” It only took the single command and Bessie snapped to a halt and quickly circled to stand beside Billy, all doggy joy firmly controlled. “So everyone, this is Elizabeth, but you can call her Bessie. Bessie, these are friends! Good girl!”

  Everyone stopped as the animal sat down and looked at them with big bright doggy eyes, then solemnly held up a paw to shake.

  As they watched the sitting dog offering its paw Billy continued “She wants to sniff you and probably will once you shake paws with her. It’s her trick you know…”

  After a pause where nobody moved Billy continued, sounding anxious, which caused Bessie to reorient on him and whine softly. “It’s OK. She won’t bite or anything.”

  Katie and Camila broke the impasse moving to greet the dog who moved towards them tail wagging furiously and sniffing each in turn while making more little whining sounds. From that point there were quite a few head pats and ear scratches handed out, with Camila even dropping to one knee and hugging the dog as it wagged its tail and licked her face. Her giggle was light and joyful as the seriousness of their situation was eclipsed by meeting a very good girl.

  After getting to meet Bessie everyone was in a better frame of mind, even Carl who had felt separate from the group since his return was just one of them playing with an enthusiastic dog.

  Conversation turned to the problem at hand now everyone was awake and introduced.

  “If you didn’t hear anything or see anything it could mean that the area is clear of danger, or simply that you were unaware of stuff in the houses.” David opined.

  Charlie immediately jumped in “we don’t know how the barrier works, so I kinda agree with you, just because it’s called a safe zone doesn’t mean it is impossible to attack or break through.”

  “Yeah, it could be acting as a repellent like skunk spray, it does sort of create this sound that my spiritual hearing picks up…” David added.

  “Hang on, is spiritual hearing an ability name? What are it’s prerequisites? What about…”

  “Men!” Camila’s exasperation was sharp and easy to hear in her voice. “You just woke everybody up in the middle of the night David. Nobody here wants to sit and listen to you and Charlie speculating.”

  Both men looked embarrassed as they realized how far off topic they had got in less than a minute. Charlie’s cheeks were flushed, clearly embarrassed by being called out by Camila. He quickly turned to the Obelisk where Sarah was still undergoing her tutorial and moved to touch it next to her his eyes unfocusing as he queried it.

  “Uhh, OK. This is like embarrassing that we didn’t already ask but… Oh, damn. That isn’t helpful. There are multiple types of… Oh Crap.”

  Then the whole group received a glowing quest notification in the angry red that they already associated with non-optional activity.

  Once they had all read and cleared the new notification Charlie spoke again.

  “Uhh, sorry about that guys. I umm guess that my inputting information about multiple active monsters caused this to update. It also told me that the safe zone was downgraded to a zone of influence. I don’t -think- that actually changes anything, but umm there you have it.”

  Camila spoke up grimly “So we have possible enemies in here with us, Sarah is vulnerable and standing there and we have survivors including children in here.” She paused then started swearing in Spanish.

  “Right, we need to figure out if this is a problem, and how big it is. We can’t leave the survivors unprotected and we need information. So a scouting party and one to protect the survivors and support us if needed. I’ll scout because of my spiritual hearing, no Charlie that’s not a new ability its just what I’m calling my ability to hear the dead, who else can come with me?”

  Billy responded first, surprising David “Look I know you have magic and stuff, but I got Bessie. She ain’t an ordinary mutt now. She’s special and we have a bond, a real magical bond and Bessie, well she has keen senses. I reckon we can do a good job of finding any trouble…”

  Camila, Katie and Mark all quickly made it clear they planned to stay close to Sarah and the survivors to protect them.

  Reading the room Charlie and Carl both volunteered for scouting duty and they agreed that they would make a lot of noise if they needed to fight. The others would then come and help.

  Once they got underway Bessie’s behavior changed; instead of bouncing around them she moved to be a little in front of the group head scanning and ears twitching as she advanced.

  Seeing her David focused on his spiritual hearing, though other than the subliminal hum he associated with the barrier he wasn’t picking anything up.

  As they moved to the first house he saw that the barrier had extended almost all the way to the back of the building, though it wasn’t possible to tell if it was going around the house or through it.

  Bessie made a series of whining sounds and sniffed intently at the doorway while the others looked around tensely. “Right, decision time. Do we break down the doors and check each house? Or just sweep for trouble?” David held up his crowbar as he asked the question.

  Carl and Charlie looked at each other before Charlie responded “Aren’t front doors made to resist a crowbar? This will take ages. We need some quick way to clear houses and…”

  He trailed off as Billy stepped up to the house and said shortly “Bessie, listen! Good Girl!” then he rang the first doorbell. Nothing happened, likely due to the lack of power. After trying it again the homeless man lifted his fist and pounded vigorously on the door calling out “Anyone home?”

  David just stared, shocked. Carl nodded approvingly at the decision not to break into anyone’s home.

  As David was about to speak Billy held his hand up for silence as he listened intently then sharing a look with Bessie turned to the others. “No movement. I doubt there is anyone able to answer in there.”

  When they all looked at him funny he said “I used to sell things door to door back before the pandemic. You get good at listening for sound. Even if they don’t come to the door right away most people react and move around when you make a noise like that. You said these zombies and monsters reacted to people so I think we are OK if Bessie can’t hear or smell a problem and nothing moves when I pound on the door.”

  David was ready to argue but Carl and Charlie both nodded and Carl spoke “It sounds like we have a plan. Plus when we are done I’m sure it will be much harder to sneak up on us with Bessie on guard?”

  This question elicited a nod from Billy. “Yep she is good that way, no way something is sneaking up on us with her around.”

  Walking along the entire row pounding on every door for and generally making lots of noise then listening didn’t get any response, though it took a while.

  Once they were done Billy spent some time looking at Bessie and said “Bessie thinks there are living people in those houses but they aren’t moving around. I’m still getting used to figuring out what she is sensing but I think that’s right.”

  As the group returned to the makeshift camp around the Obelisk Carl and Charlie were complaining that this had been a waste of time, while Billy just seemed to be happy to have done something with Bessie.

  David wasn’t so sure. He felt comfortable with his advocating for consistent paranoia, there were no second chances. He was already starting to think through what advantages Billy and Bessie gave them, the fact that information was as valuable as firepower was obvious now…

  Back at the Obelisk everyone’s moods were mixed, with those who had been sleeping notably more grumpy than those who were already awake.

  David was glad they had checked and contained a potential danger, but embarrassed they found nothing.

  Charlie was trying to get someone to discuss why there were no zombies with him and Billy was focused on getting Bessie something to eat and drink.

  Once it became clear that even if there was a problem Bessie would likely spot it first Mark and Katie went back to bed. Charlie who seemed to be buzzed produced a large can of energy drink and seemed to have given up on sleep. Seeing that Carl asked if he wanted to swap watch with him and also went back to bed, muttering about not being as young as he once was.

  As Billy settled down with Bessie David turned to Camila “You could get some sleep too you know?”

  “I’ll wait until Sarah is done, check in with her and then get some sleep. If you want to talk move away from the others so people can sleep.” She then settled down close to Sarah, making it clear that she had no desire to join their speculation on magic.

  Nodding respectfully to Camila Charlie gestured for David to follow and moved away from the group to an open area of grass with a bench where he settled nursing his energy drink. Once David settled down he jumped right into speculation.

  “There is something weird, going on with the barrier, no, not weird like it’s a magic barrier that lights up the night sky.” He paused before rushing on with his thought.

  “No zombies, nothing problematic we could detect. Billy even said Bessie could hear sleeping people. You didn’t hear any Zombies did you?”

  David nodded in agreement, before he could reply Charlie continued.

  “Why is that? Everywhere we have been so far there have been zombies, transforming people and here nothing.”

  David looked troubled “I’ve been thinking. We haven’t seen anything problematic near the park. Even when zombies were swarming back at the shelter I think I felt there was less from this direction.”

  Charlie nodded eagerly “I’m wondering if the safe zone is repelling these spirits or whatever before they ever enter a body. I would even speculate that the effect could be quite a bit bigger than the field of light.”

  “Hard to test though…” David was already deep in thought.

  “Not really, if there are dead bodies in the houses then we know. The mutating people have a smell too. I bet Bessie would pick that up…”

  Charlie continued after a moment “It might be fairly safe to be outside the zone near here. I just don’t have any way to prove it… I don’t want to disprove it and get us attacked or something so that doesn’t work but that could mean a lot of low risk ground to look for people and supplies.”

  David smiled “a rich person problem.” When Charlie looked at him funny he continued “It’s not a real problem at all. Kind of good is good thing. I’m worried about this safe zone not being safe at all. If the surrounding area is safe but we don’t know it nothing changes.”

  He finished grimly “We have to assume there is danger everywhere until we prove it’s safe. It’s not paranoia if zombies really are out to kill you…”

  After that the two of them turned to more general discussion of the system and what they could and couldn’t do and did and didn’t know.

  It was later towards the end of their watch when Sarah found them.

  “Right, I need you to explain a few things to me.”