11 - Bureaucracy

We were rounded up and placed into vans and transported back to town. There were no windows so we couldn’t get a look at where we’d been transported, what kind of town we’d now found ourselves in. When the van stopped we were unloaded and marched through a quiet building and thrown in what I suspected were the drunk tank holding cells. They were quite large with benches running around three sides, leaving the front wall windowed and bare. Ashley, Mara, Jessica, and I were placed in a cell on one side of the room. John and Oliver were put in one across the room from us.

We sat in there quietly for what felt like hours. Occasionally more traumatized people would show up and be pressed into the rooms with us.

Jessica paced at the front of the cell like a predator at the zoo. Mara sat in the corner, nearly catatonic. I sat beside her and held onto her, trying to provide comfort. Ashley sat on her other side, running her hand in circles on Mara’s back, whispering encouraging words into her ear. After what felt like a few hours, the only thing Mara had said was to question if she’d be allowed to take her meds.

When the next group of people were brought in, I jumped up to grab the attention of one of the people leading them in. No one was in uniform, so I couldn’t tell if any of them outside of the lieutenant were actually police.

“Hey, my friend needs to take her meds,” I was careful to stay back and not reach out to touch him as he guided people into the cell with us and gave him her name.

“We don’t have any–”

“They were in her backpack. Someone should have grabbed it when you arrested us. Please,” I begged.

The man shook his head and sighed, “You’re not being arrested. We’re just taking precautions. One of the other towns in the area was nearly overrun by violent American gangs coming through those portals with guns blazing. The monsters roaming around outside town don’t help. It’s just until we can figure things out.” He hesitated, “I’ll look into getting your friend’s meds.” Then he walked away.

I walked back over to Mara, “Hey, he’s going to try and get your meds. Ok?”

Mara nodded her head and sniffled. It was the most response I’d seen from her since we arrived. I felt horrible seeing my friend like this, and I didn’t understand why she was like this.

Maybe ten minutes later the guy I’d talked to before came in with Mara’s backpack. He held up one of Mara’s med bottles and asked, “Mara Jacobs? Is that your friend?”

I nodded my head, “Yeah, she should have three meds that she needs to take.”

He rummaged through her bag for a moment, “Estray–di–doll?”

“Estradiol, yes. And progesterone and spironolactone.”

“Yep, they’re all here,” and he opened the door and handed me Mara’s meds.

“Thank you.” I spun around and walked back over to Mara.

“Miss,” the man called out to me. I turned around and he held up a water bottle.

I dumped Mara’s bottles into her lap and the hurried back over to the door to retrieve the water bottle for her, “Thank you.”

“No problem, ma’am. We should be figuring out all of your situations soon. You shouldn’t be in here for much longer.” He closed the door and stepped back. He gave an awkward little wave and then headed back into the station.

It felt like forever, but eventually people stopped coming into the cells with us. I must have fallen asleep at some point because I jolted to, my head on Mara’s shoulder as someone hollered into the cells to listen up. At the same time a System notification pinged in my head. I ignored it for now.

The lieutenant stood between the two cells, cowboy hat in hand. I only just realized that he wasn’t actually in any kind of police uniform. Maybe he’d been called in from home in a hurry to deal with us. I wasn’t sure if that boded well for us or not. Maybe all this was just a huge over reaction on the town’s part. Honestly, with the reputation that a lot of my countrymen held I almost couldn’t blame them. Especially if the man from before was telling the truth.

I couldn’t imagine the fear of a bunch of people just suddenly showing up on your doorstep with no idea of what was going on. And then some of them coming in fully armed; well their initial reaction to us and especially Ashley and Jessica made more sense. Not that I could fully forgive them for their rough treatment of us. But I could begin to understand their fear.

I stood up with Mara and Ashley and we wandered closer to the front of the cell. Jessica stepped up on my other side and nodded at us.

“The portal seems to have stopped spitting people out,” Lieutenant Asshole declared.

“Hey, did you guys see Owens and White?” Jessica whispered at us.

It took me a minute to realize who she must be talking about. The other Army guys she’d shown up with. Ashley shook her head distractedly and I leaned over to Jessica, “I’m sure they used one of the other portals. They’re fine.” I smiled hopefully at her.

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Jessica’s lips barely twitched in appreciation for what she must have felt was a lie. I turned my attention back to the man in front of us.

“What that means is that we can finally process all of you and begin finding you places to stay outside of these cells,” Montgomery continued. “For those of you who were separated from your families because of the portal, we’ll work on reaching out to the surrounding towns for more information. We will do everything in our power to help you.

“You’ll be pulled out and interviewed in the order you arrived. We don’t have enough officers, but volunteers have been found to help speed the process up. Please be cooperative and we’ll get you out of here as quickly as possible.” He turned to meet everyone’s eyes, nodded once and then marched out of the room.

The people all around us and in the cell across from us all burst out into panicked whispers. I turned away from the front of the cell and followed Ashley back to our little corner with Mara. I took a moment to check the notification from when I woke up.

[User, [Earth] has been fully reconstituted into twenty (20) individual realms. Small portions of [Earth] were sacrificed to reduce the mana load of [Earth’s] realms. Portals have been established in large population centers for transport between realms. Users of [Earth] are not authorized to visit outside realms at this point.]

Not too long after that several men came into the cell and collected me, Mara, Ashley, and Jessica. We met John and Oliver in the space between the cells before we were marched out into an office like space.

It wasn’t very large, only a handful of desks with old, outdated computers sitting upon their surfaces. John, Oliver, Jessica, and Ashley were all sat in front of a desk. Mara and I were escorted toward the back of the room and into separate rooms that looked like they were used for interviews. A small table and pair of chairs and not much else. Definitely none of the one-way mirrors that’d I’d seen in movies.

I settled into the chair facing the door and settled in to wait. Only a few moments passed before a young man in casual clothes came into the room. Looked like I got a volunteer. Wonder if that would make this easier or harder.

He had a clipboard in hand and was staring at whatever was on it as he stepped into the room. He closed the door without looking before finally bringing his eyes up to meet mine. “Good evening. We’re just going to ask you some questions, take down some information, and then you’ll be shown to where you can stay for the evening.”

I nodded my head, “Sounds fair.”

He sat down in the chair across from me and set his clipboard down. “My name is Andrew. Now, Miss…”

“Grace,” I supplied. He scribbled it down on his clipboard.

“Miss Grace, what can you tell us about any essences you might be carrying or have already consumed?” He asked in an excited voice. Figures I’d get stuck with another nerd. I wondered if he’d be as bad as Mara.

For the next forty minutes or so Andrew asked at least a million questions. Some were easy like what I did before the System, where we had come from? Others were a little trickier. What did we plan on doing now that we were here, how could we contribute toward defense of the town, or my favorite, what did I plan on evolving my essences into?

I knew better than to just blurt out I wanted to be a necromancer. People tended to look upon those kind of people as the villains in most stories, and I did not want to start off on the wrong foot. As long as I contributed toward keeping the town safe and clearing out monsters and any dungeons or anything that popped up I was sure it wouldn’t become much of an issue until it was too late. By then I’d hope I’d have proven to them that I was someone to be trusted and not run off with pitchforks.

At the end of the interview I was escorted out of the room. I was given back my bag, which had been obviously rifled through, but seemed to still have all of my snack cakes, diet cokes, and water bottles. I pulled out a Swiss Roll and started unwrapping it while I waited at the back of the “offices” for the others to finish their interviews.

Everyone was wrapped up not more than ten minutes later. Ashley was particularly cranky because while they had returned her big guns, they had flat out refused to return her pistol. I didn’t really understand the reasoning, a gun was a gun, but it apparently had something to do with typical uses. People apparently didn’t usually take pistols hunting or anything like that, so she couldn’t have it to hunt monsters either.

Jessica had negotiated staying with the rest of the civilians at the police station to make sure everyone was treated fairly. I think her main reason though was the hope that someone would be able to reach out to surrounding towns and ask about the rest of her unit.

We were all placed back into the van that had brought us here to begin with and driven to one of only two hotels in the town. After several harsh words from our escorts with the night staff of the hotel we were given a room. For all of us.

There were two queen beds and we were given a cot. John and Oliver obviously got one bed. That left us three girls to fight over who would have to share and who would have to sleep on the cot.

“Rock, paper, scissors?” Mara suggested.

“Best two out of three,” I added.

Ashley agreed and we circled up. First Mara and Ashley went head to head. Mara kicked Ashley’s ass handily with a pair of rocks. Ashley kept going scissors. Her and Mara snickered and glanced at me every time she threw the sign. I rolled my eyes and tried not to smile. Stupid lesbians had jokes.

“Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!” Ashley and I chanted together before throwing our hands in the middle. I lost when I threw paper, thinking she’d surely change her sign this time. She did not. She beat me again when I threw rock and she finally changed her sign to paper.

I hung my head and quietly sat about unfolding the cot at the foot of the beds. While we battled for bedside supremacy, the boys had decided to jump in the shower. The rest of us would take turns before turning in for the night.

When it was my turn to shower I did my best not to linger. That time I won the rock, paper, scissors battle against both women and got to go first. As the hot water washed over my face and body though, I couldn’t help but reflect on the last few days. I’d gone from comfortably employed in a job I didn’t hate to fighting for my life against monsters from mythology and nightmares to being held at gunpoint in Canada of all places.

I was coming around to the idea of working with the party that Mara had put together. It was nice to have people on my side for what felt like the first time in a long time. Even Ashley. Who did not stir thoughts that sent tingles anywhere inappropriate when I thought of her in the shower later.

I hoped that we had made the right decisions. In coming together to fight for others. In coming here through the portal. In trusting in the System to keep us safe and informed. Only time would tell.