Knives & Levels - Chapter 65

They arrived in a desolate part of the ruins of Nashville, miles from the stadium and, therefore, theoretically, miles from where Denny would be looking for them. Or at least, so Julia hoped. It was their little safe house, planned out the night before. She led them quietly through the night, letting Colt linger behind and dwell in his exhaustion.

For his part, Colt felt done. Defeated. His pains ached, his head hurt, and his heart was torn at having to leave his friend behind; he felt a full-sickness wrenching in his gut that had made each step through the city difficult.

The place was a little duplex with a boring brown roof. The one on the left was theirs, having broken the lock off with a shot of water magic. A perfect unsuspecting home to call it a night. Julia led the way in—and a light in the kitchen greeted them after opening the door and walking in.

“Colt?”

“It’s us,” Julia chirped pleasantly, leading the way in.

Colt’s feet felt heavy, but he straightened his back and followed anyway. 

All of them there, except for Jimmy and Nick.

Nate sat at a table; a dim light illuminated the room, and he had a bottle of scotch. He had a bruised chin and a bloody lip. Sarah was next to him, equally sporting bruises. The two looked like they’d been through the wringer. Instantly, Colt’s heart leaped to his throat. “What happened?”

“Made a distraction outside after it became apparent something was going wrong inside; the loud crash was enough of a hint. I was about to fight my way in.” Nate shrugged and nursed his glass of scotch. Sarah leaned next to him, sipping her own.

“We’re glad you made it back.” She added.

“I didn’t bring Jimmy with me,” Colt said, settling at the table, he leaned back in his chair, eyes up at the ceiling. It was a dingy, off-color white, and the whole place smelled faintly like tobacco. He fished in his pocket for a smoke, having the sudden urge.

But there were none. Donny had gotten rid of his last pack way back in the first dungeon he’d even had the displeasure of being trapped in.

“Not sure what to do from here,” he said, shaking his head, “It was more than just me failing—Nick was there. He shot me with a bow.”

The words felt hollow in Colt's mouth, wrong, like speaking a foreign language. The arrow wound throbbed, but the betrayal cut deeper. Just about yesterday, they'd trained together, shared drinks, and talked about becoming stronger.

Nate winced at the news, but he didn’t have the strongest reaction of them all.

“That bastard!” Sarah yelled, instantly standing with fire and fury as she scanned him, searching Colt’s expression. “That sad little loser, I’m going to storm into that city and tear his arms off—“

Nate raised a hand, trying to calm her down, “Relax. He’s going through a loss and thinks working with New Nashville is best for his survival. It’s only natural; he came from there before he knew us after we… parted… Of course, he would return to them.”

“He lied to us about training. He probably came right out of that dungeon an hour after us and ran back to them. God knows what other secrets of ours he’s spilling.” Sarah insisted.

Nate looked down at his cup, grabbed it, and took a drink, pointedly not responding to Sarah’s protests.

Julia cleared her throat. “I was in New Nashville first. Now, I work with you all. He’s just lost.”

Colt rubbed at the place in his shoulder that still burned from the arrow. Without Jimmy, it would be a couple of days until the wound healed up. Nick had lost sight of what power was meant for in his pure pursuit of it—that was what had happened. And Colt had overestimated his own personal power and capabilities compared to others in this new world.

“I don’t know. There was more to it than Nick; he’s using these odd crown symbols on people, which must be some Skill—I saw a man transformed into a monster down below. He’s going to use those people, use this city for whatever aims he wants in this new world. Probably to rule as a dictator,” Colt said, sure now the type of person Denny was.

When someone spouted off about an ideal, that they made everything about it, maybe they did it to create a light. Make something shine bright enough, and then you can hide whatever you want in the shadows. Often, the lie of the light hid the truth that you really said. Denny cared about freedom—his own. His divine right to rule over all others and have them bend their knees to him and his will. No other opinion would be tolerated.

No, Colt hadn’t just abandoned Jimmy back in that stadium. He’d left a whole city full of survivors in the hands of a dangerous man.

He sank further into his chair, his mind churning.

“Look, I like Jimmy as much as the rest—but it’s obvious we don’t have what it takes to take on a city of thousands. We can still leave. None of us are seriously harmed. We can leave Nashville. There’s too much to this world to sink it all in on a city that hates you.” Sarah insisted.

“They don’t hate us; they don’t understand what Denny is doing, and the people that do aren’t strong enough to do anything about it,” Julia said; being the stone-cold voice of reason, the girl wandered over to the bottle of scotch, grabbed it from Nate, and took a chug.

Nate frowned at her as she slammed it back on the table and stared at Sarah.

“Maybe we aren’t the main characters in some video game—maybe the whole world is a mess. But we have power. We’ve been given this strength and earned it. Maybe this world needs heroes, just like it needs villains like Denny.”

Sarah snorted.

“Or we can go thirty miles away from New Nashville, find some farmhouse, and make it ours, then not worry about any of this.” She insisted, “You’re the one who kept going on about how you like cozy farm games.”

“That was when I thought this was a game.” Julia folded her arms.

Colt rubbed at his eyes. He felt tired, and after a rest, he’d work better. There was a certainty to him there, though. Julia was right. There was no point in all the strengths and sacrifices they’d made to let injustice rule over the lives of thousands. If they could change that fate, then they should. Sitting in a farmhouse somewhere and waiting for the end of the world was an act of selfishness.

If his mother was still around somewhere, it was precisely the sort of plan she’d execute, maybe with his brother.

“Jimmy is captured, not dead.” Nate said, folding his arms, “Without any allies outside to mount or bargain for his rescue, aside from us, which means one thing. If a stealth operation isn’t going to be possible, we’ll need to gain leverage to bargain either for his freedom or to assault the city.”

At Nate’s suggestion, Julia and Sarah stopped going back and forth, frozen as they stared at the soldier. The two might’ve expected him to be callous and to leave Jimmy behind, but Colt knew better.

Nate hadn’t changed much from the sort of person who would charge at monsters he had no idea about to try to help a coworker.

“We could clear more dungeons for more power,” Colt proposed, still thinking it through.

“We should assume that given Denny’s advancements, he’d manage to keep pace with whatever rate of power we can gain, not that I’m saying clearing more dungeons is a bad idea. The very real issue with that is time. There isn’t much time to overthrow him since, at the moment, he’s entrenching his power and rooting out any internal issues he’ll come across. If you give him two months, assaulting his city will be an entirely different thing from now. It will be his safe haven and an extension of himself.”

So, the idea then wasn’t just personal power. Leverage, Nate said, was the key. They needed more people with power who had the drive and ambition to face off against New Nashville.

“Leverage isn’t just us managing to cobble together an army, is it?” Colt asked, rubbing at his eyes.

“No, but having our own army would be useful. Troops could help us coordinate, and we’d be able to implement a plan more effectively.” Nate replied easily.

That much was a stretch to accomplish, finding the people with the right levels and the same motivation—it was like thunder striking. The leverage, though…

“He seemed invested in his minotaur,” Colt said, mind churning. “Houses it under the city. I wonder if there are entrances and exits into the city from down there; the whole place is a giant maze—I can’t imagine he keeps something like that locked up all the time, even if he could control it somehow. I know his type, especially now. I’m willing to be that Denny is not the type to not use things he’s spent resources on, and that Minotaur seems to be a significant weight behind his plans.”

He sat up for the first time, his mind clearing. He saw a route. “We need to track down his pet, capture it. And offer a trade.”

Colt raised his hand as Sarah began to protest.

“This is what I will do. Like always, I won’t ask any of you to do anything that makes you nervous or scared. This is dangerous, but I refuse to let so many people sit under his heel if I have the power to prevent it.”

Sarah settled back down, grabbing her drink and staring at him. She turned to Nate.

“I’m not leaving Jimmy either. We’re his only chance. But we don’t have much time, I’d imagine a couple of weeks, and this all will become near impossible; he’ll be working double time to cement his power, and once a dictator is established, they are harder to overthrow.” Nate said.

“You’re all going to get me killed,” she said and took a deep chug. “Alright then. If we’re going to do this thing, then let’s make the plan and get to it. Two weeks huh? Well if there’s anyone I trust to pull this off, it’s you two.” 

Colt nodded his head and leaned in.

Then, he began to go over the entirety of his experience, from the guard to his little adventure in the tunnels below, stopped here and there by Nate asking for an explanation or looking for more information. Still, steadily, as the night wore on, he gave them a full account of the mission.

He’d thought of it as a failure, but really, it was their first attempt.

One didn’t fail unless one gave up, and now they had information to work with that they didn’t before, along with a new actionable plan.

Catch a bull by the horns, namely, that’s all that Colt could think of, and Nate thought it could work. The issue is, however, one of power. Even with all of them gathered together, he wasn’t sure that they would have what it would take to take on the Bull—even alone, Colt felt his odds of facing off against it were torn.

Together, they came up with the basics of a plan. A compromise between Colt’s vision of conquering the bull and Nate’s of trying to set up a rival army was that they could merge the two and meet in the middle.

One thing was certain: Denny’s indiscriminate attacks around Nashville had to have angered other parties. If they could get enough groups to work with them, conquering the Bull seemed all the more likely.

Get more friends, take on a bull, and in the end, they could bargain for Jimmy…

Except, that was a front. It would give them a window of opportunity, not only to get Jimmy out of his hellhole but also to take down the man in charge before he solidified his power and turned New Nashville into his private playground.

Dawn crept through the windows, but sleep felt distant. They had a plan now—dangerous, maybe impossible, but it was something. Colt closed his eyes, not to rest, but to prepare. Tomorrow, they'd begin hunting a bull.