Chapter 34: Chapter 34: Shopping for trouble

Anna giggled quietly by the campfire. Operation Seduce Norman was off to a great start. Her newfound knowledge about how to make a man fall in love with her had not come from some epiphany she had. Nope, what she hadn’t told anyone yet is that her class had solidified for her.

The sensation of being assigned a class had been a bit weird. It was like something was building inside her for weeks until finally it just fell into place. It was also why she had been so manic recently. Of course, she didn’t realize that until it was over.

As for what she had chosen, that was a bit hard to say. It wasn’t like with the people that got access to this new magic right after the fall. At least from what she understood going by the information that had become available online in the last few years. Most of the people that talked about it, said it felt like they had made a monumental decision. Whatever the hell that meant.

Toby said that was a load of horse shit. As he simply decided he wanted to do what he was already doing, only better. Norman wasn’t able to give her a clear answer, since apparently, he had been high at the time.

Anna had only gotten a vague idea of what her class was, probably because she herself wasn’t certain of what she wanted with her life. She did feel strongly about one thing though, which of course was to be with Norman. It seemed like whatever magic allowed these jobs to exist figured that was good enough.

Already her body was changing to conform to this new reality she had chosen. It was much like how the physical classers all became super buff. Only her changes weren’t disgusting ripples of muscle. She had to resist the urge to cup her breasts again to verify they had indeed grown. Just the fact that she could cup them was an improvement over what she used to have. She had first noticed the change that night at the mansion when she hugged her brother. It made the hug a little awkward on her part, but she was ok with that so long as her brother was better.

Anna had also realized she had grown an inch. Neither Toby, nor Norman had noticed the change, or maybe they just thought she was having a growth spurt. An inch wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things since she had only been five foot-three before but every little bit helped. Her height and breasts weren’t the only changes her body was undergoing. Her skin was improving along with her eyesight. Soon she might be able to even get rid of her thick glasses. She hoped her body would continue to develop. Eventually, then Norman might notice her.

Her mood wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine though. Learning that her brother was dead, or more specifically undead had upset her. She had barely suppressed the gasp of shock as she listened to their conversation in the van. The boys weren’t very smart to discuss something like that while she had been present and pretending to sleep. Another horrifying shock came when she learned she was the cause of Toby’s misfortune.

Although, it was also super sweet of Norman not to mention this fact to her brother, making her only want to be with him that much more.

Honestly, Anna had known Toby was different from when she first hugged him back at that mansion. The lack of breathing and heartbeat was kind of a dead giveaway. But her brother was obviously still in there so she was fine with him being dead. It seemed to suit him if she was honest with herself. Her brother was always a bit too focused on making a name for himself. Anna didn’t know exactly what he did for a living but she had a good idea based on his spying.

This new Toby seemed calmer, nicer almost.

Not that Anna would reveal that she knew he was dead. She decided to let the boys have their little ‘secret’. It also gave her ammunition to use against them if her plan to seduce Norman met any serious snags.

She paused in her giggling as she heard the two returning. She rolled her eyes at their weak attempts at posturing against each other. That was another major change, Toby and Norman were no longer friends or in her brother’s case didn’t even pretend to be friends anymore. It was clear to her from how they acted around one another. It was like they didn’t know how to act around each other now. They were all awkward and unsure. It was rather weird. She wasn’t sure exactly what had caused the shift but it was probably something her brother had said or done.

Anna stood up and hurried over to the picnic table. She of course sat on the same side as Norman. Sitting close, but not crowding the man like she used to. Norman gave her a small smile. She smiled inwardly, thanking the new knowledge that was in her head.

***

“Why are we here?” Norman was sick of sleeping in the damn van. It was hot and stuffy with three people. It was also starting to stink. And not all of that was due to body odor, he turned to glare at Toby.

The man’s appearance had changed and Norman wouldn’t recognize him at a glance. Gone was his signature spikey blonde mohawk. In its place was one of those hipster-style combovers. Even his hair color was dyed a dark brown. Norman had no clue where the man had gotten hair dye from. Norman did have to give the man credit, he looked like a completely different person without the hair, the dark eye shadow, and the spikey bracelets.

“We need to scout the town before we head in. Unless you want to bumble into Sin’s goons?”

“How do you even know he has men stationed in this town?”

“I don’t, but that doesn’t mean we should be lazy.”

Norman ignored the jab. “Fine, let's say that he does have men down there.” Norman gestured toward the valley town in the distance. “How prey tell would you see them from way out here?”

“I’m not looking for individuals. I’m looking for anything that stands out.” Toby put the binoculars back to his eyes as he scanned the town. “Like that,” he stated, pointing to a farmhouse along the road into town.

Norman took the offered binoculars and inspected the house for himself. “I don’t see anything out of place?”

“Look at the back of the house.”

“All I see is some parked vehicles.”

“Uh huh, now look around town, tell me if you see any other vehicles.”

“Huh… That’s weird, where are all the other dead cars and trucks?”

“Exactly. I don’t know much about this town, but what I do know is that they have a small steel mill. You can see it blowing smoke in the distance. You don’t keep a mill going unless you have something to feed into it. What better than useless vehicles?”

“Ok, but that doesn’t explain your fixation on the house.”

Toby sighed, “If they managed to keep a vehicle, it means they have access to fuel since none of them looked electric. That means they probably have money or power. If they have either, why are they parked in the back of a shitty, out-of-the-way farmhouse?”

Norman finally understood what Toby was getting at. “So you think that’s where Sin’s men are waiting for us?”

“Probably not all of them. If I were Sin, I would have every road into town being watched. It would only take one spotter to alert the rest of his people via phone. And we certainly can’t take the van into town. We would stand out like a sore thumb even if there were other vehicles about. We’re going to have to walk into town and hope for the best.”

“Why don’t we just find a different town?”

Norman watched as Toby rubbed his temples in frustration. “We would run into the same problem. You don’t understand how big of an operation Sin was running. He may look like some small-town thug because of where he chose to set up his headquarters, but the man had most of the state under his thumb before the fall. Only a few of the larger cities were out of his reach.”

“And before you ask, no, we can’t go to one of the larger towns like Denver. You think our little town had it rough after the fall, we had it easy compared to the larger cities. They practically imploded in violence when people realized starvation was worse than shooting your neighbor and taking their food. Magic has only added to the vicious cycle of violence in those cities, so we are steering clear of those places.”

“Fine, no going to the larger cities. What about leaving Colorado?”

“…That’s a possibility. A probability most likely, but we don’t know what’s out beyond the Northern border. Let's try to deal with what we know before we jump head-first into the unknown.”

“What about Anna? We can’t just leave her here to wait.”

Toby shrugged, “why not?”

Norman chuckled. “Oh, this oughta be good. I’ll let you tell her that then.”

Norman was still chuckling an hour later.

The conversation with Anna – asking her to remain behind – had gone as well as he had expected. Now Anna was skipping along behind the group with Toby grumbling quietly under his breath.

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There had been two ideas about approaching the town. Do it during the day to raise less suspicion or wait until night and just break in to get what they needed.

Since they didn’t know the area very well, it was agreed upon to do it during the day.

Entering the town was easy. Unlike the town they had fled from, this one didn’t have a wall. There was no need, it was a good fifty miles further from the border with the jorik territory than the town they had come from. Meaning they didn’t have to deal with the new natives and hostile wildlife yet.

Of course, they had to leave the van behind. It would be a good hour's walk just to reach it but they couldn’t risk being spotted driving into the city. They just picked a point the farthest from any of the roads into town and strolled right in.

They blended in pretty well considering the number of people walking around on the street. It wasn’t nearly as packed as their old town, but the city did feel alive. As for the city itself, it was your typical blue-collar city. Smaller homes, some in disrepair, with a small downtown area and then the major manufacturing center where the steel mill was located.

Norman did notice the town lacked the ubiquitous advertising signage that cluttered every city he had ever been to. You could still see the spots where the signs had been, but it seems the remaining citizens of the town decided it all needed to go after the fall. Norman applauded the change.

It did make finding the supermarket a bit of a hassle though.

“Alright, go in, buy the shit you need, and let's get out of here.”

“Huh?” Norman asked in confusion.

“Get the stuff you said you need…” he glanced back at Anna, whose attention was on a nearby bed of flowers, “to fix me,” he added in a hissed whisper.

“Wait, I thought we came here to get some food?”

“What? Why would I risk our lives for some stupid food? Especially when we have food back in the van.”

“Um…yeah, I think you have the wrong idea of my capabilities. While I can certainly buy stuff here to make my healing potion. I don’t exactly know even where to start with your… issue, let's call it. That’s going to take time and a safe place for me to study and conduct experiments. That’s certainly not here,” Norman gestured around the busy parking lot where people were coming and going, loading trailers and wagons with whatever they purchased from the store.

“Dammit. You should have told me that before we came here.” Toby ground out.

“Well, if you would actually tell me what you had in mind for this little trip, I would have told you then. But we’re here now, so might as well make the best of it.” Norman strolled away from Toby and entered the market.

He came out half an hour later with a cart filled with items. This place had a much nicer selection of meats, and they were all frozen. The cost had been steep but Norman still had his bag of gems. He even managed to talk the butcher into packing up some spare bones into a bag, saying they were for his dog. The one-stop shop was a blessing. Norman was able to gather all the ingredients for his potions. Except for clover but he could grab that anywhere.

Then he purchased some other survival items. He had a pot, some utensils, some paper plates, a whole slew of single-serve alcohol bottles – only on the shelf because they were the weird gag types of alcohol you gave to people as a joke or if you wanted them to suffer – and a whole lot of water.

In hindsight, he probably shouldn’t have bought so much. He grunted tiredly as he carried two of the five-gallon jugs of water.

All good things must come to an end though. Norman should have realized everything was going far too smoothly.

They were near the outskirts of town when two men stepped out of a nearby alley. At first, nothing happened. The two groups just looked at each other in surprise. Then one of the men’s eyes went wide and he slapped his buddy on the shoulder.

“That’s the guy!” He pointed directly at Norman.

The guy that spoke reached for something behind his back while the other tried fishing a phone out of his pocket. After that, everything seemed to happen all at once, yet in slow motion.

Toby was already in motion, being the fastest to react, he was sprinting for the guy reaching behind his back. The two men split up as Toby wrestled with the guy holding a gun. That left the phone man, Norman, and Anna.

“Anna, use the necklace!” Norman shouted, dropping the water jugs he was holding.

Then he did something he never thought he would do. He reached down and yanked one of the orbs off his belt. He tried to fumble for his knife with his other hand but he was shaking too much, so, he just shoved his sharpened fingernail into his skin. It took more effort than he realized to puncture his skin but he managed to draw blood.

The orb activated but the man was already yelling into the phone. His distraction cost him though as the orb smacked him right in the hand holding the phone.

Norman turned away, not wanting to see the man’s face melt off like what had happened with the raccoon. The man gave out a startled scream and started coughing as the green vapor enveloped his head.

“What the fuck, asshole!”

Turning back to face the man, Norman was left speechless. The man wasn’t dead, and his face was perfectly fine. No, wait, it was different.

“What the fuck did you do to me!” The man looked down at his liver-spotted hand with surprise.

Norman slapped his forehead. Orb of Decay, it was right in the name of the spell. It caused decay. What was age if not the decay of the body? That’s why it had little to no effect on the stupid tree because their lifespans are way longer than grass or a raccoon’s.

Not wanting to take any more chances, Norman grabbed one of the larger orbs, activated it, and chucked it at the guy. Norman had to give the man credit, he tried to slap the thing away. But age had caught up with his reflexes and he just barely missed. The orb hit him on the shoulder and a larger area of green haze exploded around the top of the man’s body.

This time Norman didn’t look away, although it cost him his lunch.

Similar to the raccoon, the man’s upper torso and head rotted away within moments. Leaving behind a desiccated skeleton.

What Norman wasn’t prepared for was the fountain of blood that splurted from the bottom half of the man.

Apparently, neither was anyone else that was present as everything stopped and went quiet.

Anna seemed to be the first to recover from the shock. She ran up behind the man, Toby was wrestling with and kicked him square in the balls. Norman felt the sympathetic pain in his own groin and decided that was much worse than what he had just done.

With the man on the ground and disarmed, Toby drove a knife into his chest.

“We gotta go!” he yelled.

Norman glanced at both bodies, a little sick to his stomach, but he nodded. He picked up the one water jug that survived and hurried after the brother and sister pair that were already sprinting out of town.

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