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  Mace sighed heavily. He knew she was right. What was worse, he’d been ready to do just what he said, even knowing it was stupid. Still, he wasn’t ready to give up. “But… Twinkies.” He moped.

  Shari reached over and patted him on the head like a sad puppy. Then she ruffled his hair. “We’ll get you some treats, boy. Don’t worry.”

  A few turns and about a mile further on, they reached the megastore. There was a considerable crowd of vehicles in the parking lot. Shari began a circuit around the building, much as she’d done at the truck stop, explaining her process to Mace as she went. They both carefully checked the cars they passed. Once the circuit was complete, Shari repeated it in the other direction, giving them a different angle of view on the cars and the building. Satisfied, she pulled up to the loading dock in the back. Finding the roll-up door open, she drove Bertha right up the ramp and into the warehouse.

  They sat there for a minute or so, engine running and lights on. If anything were waiting inside, Shari wanted to be inside the protection of Bertha’s barred windows when it attacked. When nothing moved, she turned off the engine and they listened.

  Another minute and they exited the truck. Shari shone her flashlight around, checking in corners for any threats. She turned to find Mace looking outside. “What’s up?” she asked, thinking he’d spotted a threat.

  Mace pointed. “There’s a trailer out there. Does Bertha have a hitch on the back?” he asked.

  “Yup. I was told she can pull quite a bit of weight, too.” Shari nodded.

  “Then we can fill the trailer with the bags of soil. That way we won’t get Bertha all dirty. Less risk of bugs, too.” Mace offered.

  “Not so simple-minded after all!” Shari congratulated him. “Great idea. And we can use it again later. Which means, we can fill Bertha with tools and maybe grow lights, and ho-ho’s!” she smiled.

  “Yessss!” Mace pumped a fist in the air. “Let’s do this.”

  The two of them moved into the store. They worked as a team, keeping their eyes moving and scanning every corner as they went. Mace and Shari each grabbed an oversized shopping cart. They gathered some power tools, an assortment of nuts, bolts, and screws, string, several types of glue, some spackle, and small bucket of cement mix. Mace went to the aisle that held lights, and found several dozen UV LED bulbs. Then he located half a dozen light fixtures that would fit the bulbs. It wasn’t nearly enough to cover an acre of corn, but it was a start.

  Shari found an electric nail gun and several cases of “ammo”. She couldn’t think of any current need for them, but she couldn’t resist bringing them home anyway. As an afterthought, she grabbed a second nail gun for Mace. After all, everything was on sale. At deep, deep discounts. Discounts to die for!

  They also loaded up a couple of the small portable work benches. The kind with adjustable clamps at the top. Shari grabbed several box cutters and other thin bladed instruments. “In case I have to do an emergency appendectomy on you.” She winked at Mace, who looked a little green.

  “How bout we just hit a medical supply place so you can get real tools?” he offered. “That’ll work” she replied.

  With all of their toys loaded into Bertha, they moved her out to where the trailer was, and hooked her up. Then they pulled around to the lawn and garden area at the side of the store. Shari backed the trailer in through the gate and all the way back to where the bags of soil lay on pallets.

  The two of them found aprons that the employees used, and put them on over their clothes. Then they set about loading the twenty-pound bags of soil onto the trailer. They carefully inspected each one, setting aside any that had holes in them. Likely they were fine, and the holes just happened during transport. But the two weren’t taking any chances. A single contaminated bug inside the facility could end them.

  It took nearly an hour, but between them they’d loaded a hundred puncture-free bags into the trailer. Then they moved over to the wall of seed packs. They grabbed a little of everything, except flowers. As Mace was reaching for cucumber seeds, Shari gasped and drew her hand back. Fearing the worst, Mace searched frantically for a bug, or bird, or something.

  “What? What is it? I don’t see anything!” he whispered-shouted.

  “What? No. There’s no problem.” Shari told him in her normal voice. She reached for a packet. Turning it so he could see the front, she said “Look. This shows a mandarin orange tree growing in a pot. It’s only like three feet tall, and it has fruit! And this one, a lime tree. And here… something called a dwarf banana tree. Oh! And avocados!” She was getting more and more excited. Mace just let out a deep breath and tried not to think about strangling her for scaring him.

  Shari looked at him, and said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. And I know I’m geeking out a little. But these mean a renewable source of citrus, and a lot of essential vitamins. They mean we won’t be getting scurvy.”

  Mace, now sufficiently calmed, put his hands on her shoulders and turned her toward him. “Listen, Shari. The odds of us surviving long term in this world are just above zero. My plan to transfer our consciousnesses into the server is our best way to survive long term. I’m not ready to do that yet, but I don’t think we’re going to have the years it’ll take for these trees to grow.”

  Seeing the look on her face, he added. “But I suppose it doesn’t hurt to have a backup plan, in case I can’t get the transfer to work.”

  She smiled and hugged him. “Thank you, Mace.”

  Though her hug was a little distracting, Mace had just had an idea. He’d walked right past several small trees in the garden section, instinctively avoiding them. But what if they weren’t contaminated? He shared his thought with Shari.

  “Mace! Let’s go look.” Her enthusiasm level actually increased.

  “Okay, but touch nothing, and keep a close eye out for contamination. Withered leaves, dead fruit, greyish bark, any of it.”

  They split up and moved through the aisles of small trees in large pots placed on pallets. The garden section was open to the sky, with just a chain link roof, so that the plants had received enough rain to keep them alive. But that also left them open to birds, bugs, and whatever was blowing in the wind. Mace kept his gloves on, and his helmet visor down. He couldn’t tell from looking at them what kind of tree they were. Luckily each had a tag with a label on it. He spotted maple trees, and a birch, and ficus trees galore. Shari called out after a couple of minutes. “I’ve got a mandarin here! And an avocado!”

  Mace abandoned his area and moved to where Shari stood. The first tree he checked was a dwarf banana. “Got banana here. And some kind of cherry. I don’t really like cherries. Do you?”

  Shari laughed. “Only in my cocktails. Leave that one. But grab the banana!?

  “Hold on.” Mace warned. “Check them first. REALLY carefully.” As he said it, he examined the banana tree. The trunk was a warm brown, and the small leaves seemed a healthy green. He inspected every twig for bugs of any kind, but found none. “I think this one is good.”

  “Same for the orange tree.” Shari confirmed. “I’m checking the avocado.” Mace grimaced. He wasn’t a big fan of avocado either. He could tolerate guacamole dip, sometimes. But he knew avocado was one of those ‘superfoods’ packed with good stuff that was probably good for him.

  While Shari inspected the last tree, he went in search of a pallet dolly. He found one in a back corner, along with a stack of wooden pallets. He set one of them flat on the floor, slid the dolly into it, and raised it enough to clear the floor. Then he pushed the dolly over to where the trees were. He and Shari worked together to lift the pots that held the small trees and transfer them onto the pallet. Then he pulled it all over to the trailer. They transferred the trees to the back of the trailer, adjusting the bags so that each pot sat in a little well. They wouldn’t be driving fast, but Mace didn’t want the trees tipping over.

  Before they left, they grabbed a couple large watering cans, and four garden hoses. Sh
ari said she knew how to poke holes in them and turn them into sprinklers, so that they wouldn’t have to manually water each plant. As they got talking about water, Mace looked around again. Spotting what he wanted, he grabbed a case of plastic rolls. They’d put the sheeting down underneath the soil to help it retain the water. On their way out, Shari grabbed a few frames for the tomatoes and other vine plants to grow onto. Mace, at the last minute, tipped two of the big shopping carts up onto the trailer as well. For moving stuff around inside the building.

  They left the home store and headed back the way they came. As promised, Shari stopped at the Hostess truck and helped Mace load about fifty pounds of snack cakes into Bertha’s back seat. She also raided the police cruiser, finding the expected shotgun and twenty-four rounds. She found a radio, two vests, and some flares. All of it went in with the other supplies. Then she grabbed her siphon pump and topped off Bertha’s tank with gas from the cruiser.

  Back on the move, they’d only gone about a quarter mile, when Mace pointed to a strip center. “There’s a clinic. They might have the med stuff you want. And some drugs.”

  Shari pulled the truck in front of the store. The door was unlocked. Not so surprising, as few people took the time to lock doors when zombies were roaming the parking lot.

  They took some time peering through the storefront, looking for anything dangerous. Then Mace led the way through the door, as he was the one with full body armor. When they’d cleared all the little rooms in the clinic, Shari went to work. She grabbed a large bagful of drugs, as well as bandages, alcohol bottles, three sets of surgical tools, a stethoscope, a defibrillator, three boxes of gloves, a couple of the tiny flashlights that doctors use to look down your throat, some scrubs with little fluffy bunnies and teddy bears on them. When Mace looked at her as she picked those up, she said “Pajamas.”

  Before they left, she raided a doctor’s office, getting Mace to help her carry a large stack of medical reference books. “If you’re going to figure out how to MacGyver our brains into the system, I might as well try to help.” she told him as he eyed the hundred pounds of books.

  With Bertha all loaded once again, they continued on their path back to the facility. Mace had Shari make a few small detours, just in case anything or anyone was following them. Then they pulled into the parking garage, once again watching to make sure nothing followed them through before the door closed.

  As soon as they were parked near the building entrance door, Mace headed in to find the pallet dolly. As he opened the door, he said “Start checking the trees and stuff again. We were outside for a while. Need to make sure we didn’t pick up any bugs.”

  Shari answered. “Yeah, might be a good idea to leave the trees out here for a day or two. Just to be sure. If they’ve been contaminated, they’ll turn by then.”

  Mace retrieved the dolly and returned. Shari reported the trees still looked good, but they set them off to the side a ways anyway. They unloaded the shopping carts and filled them with the items from the store, Mace snuck on some ho-ho’s while grabbing Shari’s medical supplies. They set the carts by the elevator, then went back to retrieve the bags of soil. They stacked about half of them on the dolly and pulled it into the lobby. Mace took some time to look around outside, and to check the security monitor at the reception desk. When he was satisfied that it was clear, they wheeled the soil through the lobby and around the corner to the elevators that led upstairs. They decided on the third floor, because Mace remembered a big conference room there.

  Sure enough, as they exited the elevator, they found a corner conference room with a fifteen-foot long table and floor to ceiling windows. The windows faced east and south, so there should be no shortage of sunlight.

  Mace unrolled some of the plastic sheathing across the table, then unfolded it so that it hung over the sides. He asked Shari to go back down and get the nail guns, while he began pulling out cabinet shelves and doors in the break room and the copy room. When he had enough to cover about forty feet, he brought it back to the conference room. They nailed the shelves to the edges of the table, creating a sort of cradle for the soil. Then they draped the plastic over top to hold any excess water in. Then they simply cut open the bags and poured soil onto the table. They made quite the mess.

  When they were done, they had the entire table covered in about twelve inches of soil. Shari started planting seeds, while Mace went and filled a couple coffee pots with water from the kitchen. He followed behind her, pouring a little water around each planting. Shari stuck little markers in the dirt to keep track of what was planted where. She kept the seed packets so she could make notes on how often something needed watering.

  And just like that, they were done. They’d only used about fifteen of the bags to cover the table. But they decided this was enough to experiment. If something grew here, they’d use the rest to cover a whole corner office floor somewhere. They left the remaining 35 bags stacked on the conference room floor.

  Back downstairs, they put the rest of the bags on the dolly and took them down to the 15th level. This was one of the expansion levels. It was basically two great big open rooms with a set of restrooms in between. They chose the room farthest from the elevator, and wheeled the soil into it. Mace unrolled more plastic, making a pad roughly thirty feet by thirty feet. Then they began to dump soil on it. They started in the center, and piled it up until it was about a foot deep. Then they spread out in a spiral around it, dumping bag after bag.

  When they’d emptied all fifty bags, Mace found they’d covered a surprisingly small area. Their circle was maybe seven feet wide. Undaunted, Shari said “Let’s just plant what we have room for, and see if the corn will grow.”

  So while Shari planted, Mace went and fetched one of the UV lights and an extension cord. He plugged the cord into the wall near their new field, then tossed it up over a ceiling grid so that it hung down above the soil. Then he hung one of the grow lights from the grid as well, and plugged it into the cord. A question occurred to him.

  “We can’t have this on all the time, right? I mean, 24-hour sunlight would kill the plants, wouldn’t it.” He asked Shari.

  “Yeah. We’ll need the lights on about eight to ten hours a day. Any chance that outlet works on a switch?”

  So they went looking for the light switches. They found them back near the elevator. As it turned out, the switches did not work on the outlets. “We’ll just have to unplug it every day.” Mace said. “Unless Peabody can somehow control the power when he’s active. I’ll work on that some more tomorrow.”

  Leaving the light off, they got back on the elevator and descended to the 30th floor for hot showers and a meal. Showers were first priority, food could wait until they smelled better.

  Chapter 10

  Don’t Stop Believin’

  Mace and Shari met up in the kitchen for a late lunch. As neither of them felt like cooking, or cleaning up, lunch consisted of beef jerky, chips, and some newly obtained ho-ho’s. Washed down with cold iced tea. As they ate, they chatted about where they were in the game, and what their plans were for the evening.

  They walked together back to their quarters. As they approached hers, Shari stopped and gave Mace a brief hug. “Thanks for today. A good breakfast, a little shopping, some light gardening… it was almost like a normal day.” she smiled at him.

  “Ha! Well, I’m glad you enjoyed it. And to be honest, I really did too. I’m… very glad you’re here.” he said earnestly. That earned him a kiss on the cheek before she turned and stepped into her quarters. Mace entered his own, closing the door behind him. This time though, he didn’t lock it.

  Back in the game world, he summoned Minx. It was time to leave Svarthold and make their way to the surface. Once Minx was comfortably set on his shoulders, she faded from sight. He took her cage and stowed it in his bag. He equipped his new dagger in its wrist sheath, then his sword and staff across his back. Stopping in the hallway, he knocked on Krieger’s door. The old drow didn’t answe
r, so Mace proceeded downstairs. He stopped at the bar to order some traveling rations, and while he was waiting he spotted Krieger at a table. He was speaking to a couple of scruffy looking kobolds.

  Mace approached the table, clearing his throat politely.

  “Mace! Getting ready for your trip?” Krieger asked.

  “About to leave. As soon as my travel rations are ready. I just wanted to thank you again for the gift. Also, to wish you good luck.” Mace replied.

  Krieger shook his head. “We’re not even yet, lad. As for luck, you may have just had some.” He gestured to the two kobolds in front of him. “Meet Truffle, and Shook. They are hunters who were captured last year in a raid, and sold to a drow merchant who made regular runs from here to the surface. That merchant died suddenly this afternoon.” He winked at Mace. “These two wish to return to the surface and rejoin their tribe. They know the quickest path. And the safest. Which are two different paths.” He chuckled. “I thought you might want to escort them to the surface.”

  Mace bowed his head to Krieger. “Thank you. This is quite a coincidence!” He grinned. Turning to the two kobolds, he said “My name is Mace. I’ll go to the surface with you.”

  Quest Received: Keep the Kobolds from Kicking the Bucket

  Difficulty: Hard

  Escort the kobolds to the surface using either the safe route, or the fast route. Keep them alive until they see the sun again.

  Reward: 1,000xp; Increased reputation with the Blackclaw tribe.

  Truffle nodded at him, saying in roughly accented common “Fast path better. Get home sooner. Big bad beasties are slow. We outrun them.”

  Shook shook his head “Safe path better. Only half day longer. Big bad beasties don’t fit in tunnels. Everybody get home in one piece.”

  Krieger laughed as Mace looked back and forth between the two. Who both looked quite pleased with themselves and confident that Mace would choose the path they recommended.