Chapter 22 - Know Thy Enemy

Day 17

Evening

Erin arrived back at the house, by intention or not, in style. She landed in the middle of the disparate groups, each trying to handle their own piece of what had just gone down. Despite the importance of some of those tasks, every single person turned her way, mixed emotions on display depending on the person.

Turning towards General Anderson, who leaned against the grill of the SUV, he looked over at her questioningly, and she responded with a nod. He gave a nod in reply, and she could sense the multiple meanings it carried. I'm sorry, thank you, did you make it painful?

Shifting her attention to the remaining soldiers, she noticed they were lining the dead soldiers up on the lawn. "We can take them out to the dump, if you want." Her comment was flippant, childish, probably callous, but in the moment she didn't care.

The soldier with Cohen printed on his uniform stopped what he was doing, took a couple steps towards her, and said, "With all due respect lady, up until tonight these soldiers were our comrades, and some of them were our friends. We just had to gun them down to protect your family, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell us what to do with their bodies."

Erin's cheeks burned with embarrassment. She deserved that, and she knew that she deserved that. Looking at the ground for a moment, when she met Cohen's eyes again, she did her best to impart a silent apology as she gave him a gentle nod.

General Anderson came up beside her, "Sorry about that, Erin, it's been a rough night for everyone. I'll talk to them after."

"I was in the wrong, so if you do have a talk with them later, make sure they know that I realize that."

They were quickly joined by Mrs. McGibbons, who looked like she had just been out for a walk on a warm Sunday afternoon. "You've been in town for a week, George, and it takes an out of control desk jockey busting down my door to get you to visit?"

George suddenly looked uncomfortable. It was the first true sign of discomfort Erin could recall him showing. Despite that, both he and Mrs. McGibbons gave each other genuine smiles of friendship. "Oh, you know me, I didn't want to impose."

"Bullshit! You've used that same excuse since the day William asked me to marry him. He's been gone for 25 years, George, you can let the jealousy rest with him."

"Yes, well…these are hardly the easiest times to book a vacation day in."

Mrs. McGibbons looked pointedly at the left side of his chest, "And what the hell is with the fruit salad on your Class Cs? Did you forget your dress blues in the other tank?"

George laughed long and hard at that, while Erin looked at Mrs. McGibbons like she was speaking a foreign language. George must have caught Erin's look, because he said, "Military slang. Fruit salad are these ribbons, Class Cs are the uniform I'm wearing, dress blues are the Army dress uniform. And to answer your question, Mary, they're rewards from the System, but I can't take them off, even the useless ones."

"Well the System is making you look like a damn fool. Erin, I need to catch up with an old friend. I'm sure your mother could use a hug right about now. Oh, and I won't charge you for the window this time, since you save our lives"

Erin nodded at the both of them and headed for her mom, kneeling beside her and wrapping Eun-ha in a big hug. "Are you okay, Eomma?"

"Yes, Ttarai. These soldiers who ride in the tank have been checking on us." Eun-ha pointed at one of the members of the tank crew checking on Ms. Jackson, who briefly turned in their direction to give a smile and a nod. "We're all safe though, thanks to you, and of course Logan, Sydney, and General Anderson's men."

"We're going to find a way to prevent something like this from ever happening again." Erin still hadn't stopped hugging her mom, like she was afraid something or someone would take her away, "I'll keep getting stronger, and Noah is really smart, maybe he can work on something to help."

Eun-ha just kept hugging her daughter. It was part of the relationship between a parent and child. Her daughter wouldn't want to let her go if…when the time came, but that time came for everyone, System or not.

When Erin finally broke the hug, she said, "I need to talk to Logan and Sydney. Call me over if you need anything, okay?"

"Yes, daughter." Eun-ha smiled lovingly at Erin, but when her daughter turned to go the smile faltered. If something happened to me tomorrow, she might turn this incredible power on the entire world in her anger. She knew that the people Erin hurt so far deserved it, but the way she threatened the General and the soldiers who came to help…Eun-ha's concern only grew for her daughter.

Logan and Sydney stood on the driver's side of the police SUV, drinking juice boxes of all things. "Aren't you guys a little old for juice boxes?" Erin said, her tone carrying a mirth she didn't really feel.

"Helps with the adrenaline crash," Sydney said, then offered Erin one of her own. Taking the juice box, Erin shifted it around in her hand, pretending to read the labeling, before looking at the two of them. "I think we might have a problem."

That perked both Deputies up. When someone who can launch themselves and a grown man so far into the sky you can't see them anymore says there might be a problem, you learn pretty quick to listen, "What kind of problem? Military? Monster?"

"I'd say monster, but that's both too accurate and too inaccurate at once." Erin was dodging the topic, and she didn't quite understand why. Maybe she felt saying it out loud would make things more real. "You guys got experience for the soldiers you killed, right?"

They both nodded sombrely at her.

"And what about the Lieutenant?" Erin asked.

"Yeah, you must have finished him inside five kilometers. The whole party got experience for him.

"Good, but…" Erin was really having trouble talking about this, "Did you two get experience from Thaddeus, the uh, The Antagonist?"

Logan shook his head, "No, we weren't in your party yet back then, and you were the one who finished him…wait…are you suggesting…?"

Sydney caught on and continued the train of thought, "You think he's still alive. Why?"

Erin fidgeted with the juice box some more, "For one, I never got experience for killing him, just the quest experience for defeating him in the quest."

"Okay, but you could have brought that up before. What changed?" Sydney sounded unsure, which was not a natural state for her.

"When I was returning to town after finishing Hawthorne, I got a glimpse of something. A crater, with a trail leading from it. Where something was dragged away."

Logan narrowed his eyes, "Outside the east end of town…and you're sure it was dragged, not walked, crawled, slithered, or…something?"

Erin looked him in the eyes, firm in her answer, "Dragged. I'm confident whatever landed there was dragged."

"I'd like to see the spot. When can you take me there?." Sydney's tone suggested she would go right now if Erin said so.

"Let's go in the morning. I'm sure that my mind and body are up to the task, but emotionally I feel like I've got nothing left."

"Alright," Logan said, "We're not going far tonight, probably going to sleep in the SUV out front, so the three of us can leave first thing in the morning."

"Yeah, right." Sydney snort-laughed, "You think Eun-ha will let us sleep in the SUV, especially after everything tonight?"

As The Stranger watched Erin converse with the two Deputies from the corner of a house down the street, he wished, not for the first time, that he could hear that far. Knowing Erin as well as he did, it wasn't hard to guess what she was saying. "Oh Logan, I saw something scary in the woods. Come check it out with me." He said this in a voice that tried to imitate hers, but it came out more like a guy making a high pitched imitation of a generic teenage girl.

In his own voice, he said, "You're growing powerful, Erin, but you're still just a scared little girl. You'll always just be a scared little girl." He let a big grin spread across his face, "Don't worry though, I'll save you. I'll save you from your past, your mom, the town, your students, Deputy Pretty Boy, I'll even save you from the future, and from yourself."

He stood there a while longer, unable to pull himself away. New world, new Erin, but still the same Erin. His Erin, they were all his Erin. He stood there right up until a couple of the soldiers started pointing in his direction. They were curious and questioning at first, then they started running towards him and yelling, drawing the attention of the others.

"Time to go. See you later, Erin." With that statement, he threw a flurry of blades in the path of the soldiers, then disappeared between the blinks of the soldier's eyes.

Erin noticed the soldiers point and start to walk, which set off her danger sense. When they started to run, that sense flared. Mid-conversation with her friends Erin disappeared, launching across the distance so quickly, it generated a shockwave in the air just like when she exited the house. At barely arms length in front of the soldiers, she spun into a flurry of motions, kicking, punching and slapping projectiles out of the air. Even at her speed their movement was incredibly fast.

When the last blade was knocked aside, Erin spun around to check on the two soldiers, "Are you guys okay?"

Both of them looked her up and down with concern, not a lascivious intention in their eyes, "Ma'am…are YOU okay?"

Erin looked down at herself, and it wasn't until she saw multiple puncture wounds and cuts through her dobok that the pain hit her. "What…" She got out the one word before she started to collapse, the soldiers stepping forward to catch her, Erin's consciousness losing coherency."

"What's going on?!" Mom?

"What the hell happened!? General?

"Why isn't she healing?!" Sydney?

"Get her in the SUV! The clinic staff have healing abilities!" Logan?

"I don't know if she can last that long." Noah?

Erin tried to make sense of the other voices, but they were starting to blur together as her mind slipped into blackness.