CJ needed to both warn the people outside about the threat and get his people moving. Did he really need to warn them? He could just leave and have them slow down the bugs. That would be too cruel, especially after connecting a bunch of their slates. With that decided, CJ strode out the front door while the rest of the team continued to help with Roger’s preparations.

  He heard the locking mechanism on the door thunk shut. Turning, he manifested his motorcycle key in his right hand. Before he could start it, the man in glasses began to jog toward him. Closely followed by two familiar looking members of the saviors. Susan and Phil had arrived.

  “Stop right there. You need to come with us right now.” Demanded the man in glasses.

  CJ used a heartbeat to take in this man’s measure. He had black hair slicked back, horn-rimmed glasses colored a dark blue, and he wore a dark blue suit over a faded grey t-shirt. It was obvious the suit was given to him since the shoulders didn’t quite fit his slender frame.

  “Actually, my team and I are getting the fuck out of dodge.” CJ replied as he started the bike. “We’ve been here too long, and the monsters are coming. There is an imminent threat of a cicada swarm targeting this location.”

  “How could you know that?” asked the flustered man before pushing his glasses up with one finger. “It doesn’t matter. My name is Emil. I’m here to escort you back to meet Mason and formally apologize for our people’s behavior. Your team should just come with us. Everyone can fit in the truck and… Do you hear that strange sound?”

  CJ did indeed hear that familiar thrumming that preceded a Cicada attack. While Emil was prattling, CJ gave his team a ten second count down over party chat. They were now at three.

  “Cicada’s, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  “But we have questions.” Shouted Emil as CJ rolled forward off the lawn and onto the street proper, “Like how do you create a safe space? What’s this about dungeons and how is it you can change a no phone into a slate user!?”

  “Another time perhaps. If I were you, I’d run!”

  “You can’t turn down Mason. He’s going to save us—” Emil was cut off as the front wall of the retirement homes tv room burst up like a garage door on steroids.

  Roger had rigged the wall itself to hinge up and out with two hydraulic pistons on either end of the wall. If that wasn’t shocking enough for Emil, an armored Escalade came barreling out of the building. Packed to the gills with gear and people. Emil must have imagined the fluffy white tail of a rabbit waving at him through the passenger window. Its tires were screeching as it made a sharp right turn driving down the street after CJ. Once the vehicle was clear the wall just retracted back down to the building seamlessly.

  “After them!” Emil cried sprinting back across the street. “We won’t go back empty handed.”

  CJ could honestly say he missed the feeling of moving at high speeds. He was fast, he knew that, but there was still a difference between running at top speed and riding a motorcycle. That feeling of joy lasted just long enough for the first cicada to land on the road in front of him.

  New Message from Party Leader CJ: Just dodged a huge bug. They were dog sized before, but they seem to have gotten into the steroids. They are easily the size of big jungle cats now, if that one is any indication. Check your fire if you’re behind me.

  New Message from Rubio: Copy.

  With that CJ pulled back on his speed. Hitting one of these things at sixty might max out his mana. He could use some more points but not at these speeds.

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  There was a loud crack just before a cicada corpse hit the road not thirty feet in front of him. Bug guts and pieces of carapace flew up into the air. CJ knew instinctively that shot came from Rubio. Then a flatbed truck that was parked on the side of the road flipped over. He angled the bike to swerve around the cab end and jerked it back to center. At the cut back around the outside of the truck something grabbed him from behind. His bike launched out from underneath him skidding across the pavement. Then he was bodily slammed into the windshield of the upside down truck. His mana level skyrocketed to one hundred points from thirty two.

  CJ faked a wince and slowly opened his eyes to see a six foot five inch tall humanoid Cicada. Its carapace was tinged green with grey spots. The two antennae above its forehead twitched in anticipation. The four insectile wings growing from its back buzzed as it reached back with its left arm, claws outstretched, prepared to swipe at CJ’s jugular.

  This whole time CJ had been batting at the arm holding him pressed to the ruined truck. He couldn’t budge it an inch. It held him like a vice. His revolver appeared in his right hand and CJ pulled the trigger three times. He heard more than saw the bullets plink to the ground at his feet. The brute didn’t even flinch. That was when he noticed something peculiar. He chanced a glance up at the creature as bullets ricocheted around them. It had a folded ace of spades card wedged in its mouth hinge.

  “Yes, now you realize I am your doom.” It said in a buzzing clipped voice.

  New Message from Roger: Do it now!

  CJ straight up noped out. He activated Flashportation for the first time. Blinding light erupted from around his body. The monster hissed covering its eyes and backing up. Just in time for Roger to hit it full on with the Escalade. The monster was launched down the street, through a parked van, which crumpled in around it. CJ appeared on top of the wrecked truck as the Escalade slid to a stop.

  “Need a ride?” asked Roger smiling ear to ear.

  The smile died out once the sound of tearing metal could be heard from the now crushed van. The cicada monster was trying to force its way back out and onto the street. It seemed to be having a hard time though as its strength met unyielding steel without its full range of motion. Several lesser bugs landed around the van pulling at bent metal bands trying to widen the hole.

  “Yea, I’ll… I’ll take that ride thank you very much.”

  “No room inside. I installed some straps, and hand holds on the roof though.”

  New Message from Rubio: Good thing we were following you. This is still an active combat. Please keep all communication in the message system.

  CJ hopped from the top of the truck to the roof of the Escalade. He strapped his left wrist down onto a nearby hand hold and kept his revolver in his right hand. To his right were packed boxes also affixed to the roof of the vehicle. Then he stomped on the roof once.

  New Message from Party Leader CJ: Go, go, go.

  Roger peeled away going down a side street. All the while rhythmic thrumming cold be heard. CJ could swear he heard inhuman screaming coming from behind them. He wasn’t taking any more chances. One quick cast of Now You Don’t should see him to the turnpike exit with a minimal loss of mana.

  Emil fumed while sitting on the passenger side of the military transport. They finally got on the road after these tiger sized bugs dropped out of nowhere around them. He may have been a bit eccentric, but this Thompson was correct. They had been attacked. There was good news though. They weren’t the only ones.

  Now they were following a trail of cicada corpses through the streets. Several of them needed to get out and move a turned over flat bed truck out of the way. Another delay, but as long as they could keep following this trail, they’d find their quarry sooner or later.

  “Sir, you should come see this.” Said one of the no phone soldiers.

  “What is it now? It’s getting dark and we are nowhere near the safety of our sanctuary.” Emil complained as he stepped down from the cab before pushing his glasses up his face. “I see.”

  Thompson’s motorcycle lay in a twisted heap. It looked like someone put the bike in a trash compactor. He didn’t notice any human remains anywhere, but these bugs wouldn’t be strong enough to do this. There were dead cicada corpses strewn around. Also, that armored vehicle his team had was nowhere in sight. What Emil did find interesting was the completely gutted former Astro Van. It was basically two bucket seats and a broken axle now. The damage to the motorcycle seemed… personal. There were even grooves on the bent metal that looked like hand prints.

  “Someone get a good vantage point. I want to know what direction they went in after this fight. They couldn’t have gone far by the looks of the damage.” Barked Emil kneeling down to inspect what was left of the motorcycle. “What have you gotten yourself into, Mr. Thompson?”