The situation was almost exactly as bad as David feared.

  Once they could move the soldiers backed away rapidly, raising their weapons and calling out in alarm. This predictably set off their colleagues, and David found himself staring down the barrels of at least a dozen guns.

  Even as he raised his hands to try and calm things down his heart was racing a mile a minute and adrenaline-fueled jitters ran through his body.

  “Lieutenant, I told you it was fast and scary. Do you understand now? Magic is real.”

  The commotion had attracted the attention of the Major, Micky and Phil. Even as Micky tried to speak to the Major, he brushed them off, moving rapidly towards the confrontation even as he barked in his best command voice.

  “Lieutenant Smith, report! What is going on here?”

  “Sir, I know this sounds insane, but this man just used magic to disable myself and several soldiers. He then fucking told us about monsters while we stood there paralyzed.”

  David took a deep calming breath, then addressed the Major noting the concerned look in the man’s eyes and eth almost involuntary glance at the Obelisk following his officers report.

  “Major, we offered information about what is happening to your men. We are the people who have been awake the longest, we have been learning about this situation and saving people for three days. It became clear that you are all working under some false impressions so I offered to show your men magic they couldn’t ignore to help them understand. While you could easily dismiss fire or ice as some kind of trick I felt there was no way that they could dismiss being held immobile by magic while I spoke with them. That isn’t something I could fake.”

  By the end Davids nerves had driven his delivery halfway to babbling as adrenaline demanded that he do something, preferably something about the big scary guns pointed at him.

  “Are you law enforcement too? What happened to you?”

  The question confused David for a moment, then he realized he still wore the bullet proof vest, stained and marked from his fight at the airport. While he had taken the tactical helmet off at some point his face and especially hair still held evidence of his injuries, likely extremely visible in the harsh artificial light shed by the vehicles.

  Gesturing he replied.

  “No, no, this is something I found at the armory in the airport when I was fighting zombies to rescue my friends.”

  Seeing the look of disbelief on the Major’s face he decided, in for a penny, in for a pound. So, he poked at his reserves.

  “If you want me to prove what I’m saying I can use the same spell on you, or on one of your men again I guess.”

  The last was hastily added as the Lieutenant reacted to his suggestion told him he would likely get shot if he took out their CO. Before he could continue the Major interrupted him.

  “No, I will not tolerate offensive actions, even if they are part of some insane confidence trick. You don’t attack a soldier to prove a point. Right now, I don’t know what to believe. We came here with the intention of securing whatever was causing the hallucinations and learning more.

  I gather from Officer Vale and Councilman Greenwood that they have the situation here at the park in hand, and as the highest civilian authority on the ground I will defer to them. They also indicated that they sorely need the Army to help with disaster relief and security, at least until we get the power back on. Once communication is re-established, I’m sure that the President will federalize the necessary resources to help everyone.”

  “Major, I don’t think you understand the scope of what is happening. The whole planet is affected. We spent the last three days going to places where people needed help. Based on that the local mortality rate is over 50%. Those who are older, in worse health or farther from the Obelisk suffered more. Given the age of our elected officials, I expect their ranks to have been severely impacted.

  The casualty rate across the county is crippling and rebuilding as we are hunted by monsters, that’s going to be worse. Magic and embracing the change is the only thing that can help. Tell me, how many of your soldiers were just dead when you all woke up? I’m sure you were the fittest healthiest group in the whole area…”

  Now the Major looked both troubled and skeptical. Still, given the knowledge being displayed, he answered.

  “The Colonel was dead, so were several of the older officers and NCOs, as well as some enlisted. More worrying were the ones who didn’t wake – some of them are showing weird symptoms and we don’t have hazmat gear or the medical resources to deal with them. I still can’t believe that this is a nationwide phenomenon, let alone global. Our adversaries lack the power to do that. That leaves the UFO.”

  David’s expression sharpened, he focused on weird symptoms, not bothering to try and explain what the Herald was, or to be fair, said it was...

  “Major you have two problems, did you bring all your men here or are there more back at your base?”

  Now the Major looked wary, as though suddenly worried he had said too much.

  “The base is secure, and the US army is already moving assets to aid in disaster relief. I won’t comment on ongoing operations to someone without the need to know. I apologize if that frustrates you Sir.”

  David ground his teeth.

  “Right, let me offer some advice based on symptoms we have encountered. Then I’ll offer you some advice. If you have people who have started secreting a kind of greenish slime with a strong rotten grass smell that then dries to form a sort of tough chrysalis they are mutating. As far as we can tell they will emerge as monsters, monsters that will attack on sight.

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  Your second problem is the dead. They will, likely sometime around a couple of days postmortem, though that is a guess, rise as zombies. Yes, I do literally mean zombies. It will take them some time to develop coordination and move normally but they are extremely strong and tough unless you destroy their brains.

  Both groups will try to kil you, and each other.

  Depending on how many there are and how ready your troops are for what happens you could lose your base, especially if everyone is here.

  Now for the advice. Your people need to get magic. I understand at least some of them have received the system messages, but you all need magic, systems. They can make your people more to meet the challenges facing them.”

  The Major paled, then doubt flared in his eyes followed by suspicion. He turned towards Micky and Phil who had approached while David spoke.

  “Is this true? Do you believe this man’s fantastical story?”

  Micky smiled evilly at David and the others before replying.

  “Major, I’m afraid to say that these people are among the troublemakers I warned you about. They seem to believe that thing…” he gestured to the Obelisk,

  “is some savior that has made them into characters from a video game. They already got dozens of people killed as a result and I wouldn’t trust them or anything they say.”

  The Major looked troubled but almost relieved that the problem was the Obelisk, and the person giving him the bad news was somehow unreliable. Then as a professional he asked the hard question.

  “How do they know about my men’s symptoms?”

  Phil too was looking troubled as Micky continued.

  “That is an excellent question. I don’t know how they could be so, in the know, about these things, unless… they are somehow responsible for what is going on or involved in some way.

  We only have their word that they were incapacitated like the rest of us, and they are strangers to everyone here. As I told you I’m working with a neighborhood watch organization and a few officers due to whatever bomb or whatnot got set off. None of us, and none of the local people I have spoken to knew them before this happened.”

  The Major was nodding along as Micky laid out his fabrication. David’s brain spun as he realized that Micky was thinking on his feet and using whatever the Major had told them as the basis for his story.

  He started to formulate a response to logically poke holes in the narrative the other man was building.

  Camila got there before he could, with predictable results.

  “Why you little perro, you have been out there and fought zombies. You have shot your fair share of the undead. Was that all a hallucination? I remember you sending your goons to hold us at gunpoint while you tried to enact your version of martial law and take all the weapons people need to protect themselves away.”

  Things went downhill from there as Carl got involved and called Phil a useless worm when the man tried to suggest the Council was the authority here, Micky then accused all of them of kidnapping and mass murder over their airport raid, even suggesting that there was no danger there just an excuse to go off and kill.

  David watched, as oddly, the soldiers he had used magic on relaxed in the face of a totally mundane argument that frankly looked like it had come straight out of daytime TV.

  Apparently, something as human as an argument complete with swearing and arm waving put them on more level ground. The Major, who was avoiding participating, was pulled over by the Lieutenant who was muttering urgently in his ear even as the other man followed the accusations and ‘truth bombs’ flying around.

  The commotion was attracting a crowd, who started participating and confusing the issue further. The word kidnap was thrown around again, coming from someone who had woken up in the Park and wasn’t happy about it given their lost car, and things really went downhill from there…

  David did the only thing which made sense to him, rather than wading into the argument he stepped over to the Major, this was the person he wanted to influence after all.

  Taking the time to glance at the man’s fatigues for his name he spoke to him directly.

  “Look Major Farrell, I apologize for the unfortunate introduction your Lieutenant had to magic. I understand that you have a lot on your plate right now and the local, political, situation isn’t helping.

  I’m not going to ask you to take sides in this. Just suggest that you get your men fully equipped with a system and start helping people.

  I don’t want to sound like a prophet of doom, but I expect we will be dealing with millions of hostiles in the city.

  When Micky threw the accusation about our last expedition getting men killed, he wasn’t wrong. He wasn’t right either and is spinning like a politician.

  We went to the airport to try and rescue people who were there when it happened. I was awake and estimate it was a little before 6 am, which is the morning rush for flights coming and going.

  We figured there were a load of people at the airport who needed help, so we went.

  We bit off more than we realized, got overconfident and spread out. We were ambushed by someone leading the zombies and overwhelmed.

  Bear in mind that while we are talking about people without your training, we had guns, and magic.

  People died, a lot of people, good people. I was able to win in the end, with some help from Katie. We’ll go back in the morning to get our friends bodies to stop them turning into zombies. You and your men could be tackling problems like that, with systems you could even manage the bigger threats like the R’Nath.”

  Realizing he was rambling David shut up and looked at the Major. He could see that the man didn’t believe him, that he had made a choice at some point in the chaos of argument and fantastical information. The hardening of his face said it all.

  The others would likely continue to argue until the cows came home but the army officer had finally had enough.

  “LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.” The parade ground roar got everyone’s attention.

  “You have provided us with a great deal of information, as well as evidence about what is going on in this area. The US Army will NOT get involved in civilian matters. As Officer Vale pointed out, that would be a violation of army regulations. We will coordinate with our chain of command, then deploy to the place where we can do the most good. Unless you have an urgent humanitarian problem which the Army can assist you with we will withdraw to a less contentious location at this time!”

  There was a general silence at that pronouncement.

  Then Dr. Chen spoke. She too had remained aloof from the back and forth arguments.

  “Sir, if you want to do some good you should secure the hospital. It isn’t safe and without its facilities people are not getting the medical help they need.”

  The Major actually looked relieved upon hearing this.

  “Ma’am, thank you for highlighting this need. I will pass it up the chain and add it to our resource prioritization.”

  “Company, attend to orders. Company will mount up and redeploy to exfil point Charlie.”

  Micky looked like he was ready to start arguing again. Before he could get started the Major cut across him one last time.

  “Sirs, Ma’ams, we will take our leave. I strongly recommend that you evacuate the area around this object as soon as possible. It may be responsible for the mass hallucinations and coma’s you have experienced, and I cannot in good conscience expose my men for a prolonged period with no clear objective or lawful orders to interfere over the wishes of the civilian authorities.”

  The last part was oddly emphasized. Making David suspect that the Major was mostly pulling back to get those orders.

  Then, like that, the Army was in retreat again moving toward their vehicles. This was enough to end the argument at least temporarily, though Phil followed the Major remonstrating with the man about something for several minutes as the soldiers packed up.

  Carl summed it up, thankfully after the soldiers were out of earshot.

  “Well, if that isn’t the most epic bury your head in the sand exercise I’ve ever seen. Your taxpayer dollars at work!”

  David disagreeing spoke thoughtfully “I’m reminded of the story about the blind philosophers and the Elephant. They each draw a radically different, inaccurate conclusion from their limited contact with the beast. None of them can see what the narrator does.”

  “What, so you’re excusing Micky and the Major for not knowing enough while we can see the whole picture?”

  “No, I’m saying we are all blind philosophers. Us included.”