Ch 10

  It took them about an hour, but once they had gathered all the materials—using some of the rags the goblins called clothes to fashion a makeshift bag—they were on their way. Their goal was to find water, which proved easier said than done since the generally flat terrain offered no clues. For all they knew, they might have been traveling parallel to a river all day yesterday. That uncertainty led Matt to decide to take a path perpendicular to the route they had carved the day before. Although this maneuver brought them a bit closer to the goblins, Matt was convinced it was still the right move.

  Hours passed, and apart from employing his wilderness navigation skills to keep them on a mostly straight line, everything felt unnervingly too peaceful. This calm only confirmed Matt’s suspicion that something was provoking attacks on individuals who wandered alone. He secretly hoped that the goblins, who always moved in groups of four, might also suffer from this anomaly, yet he doubted it—after all, both the boar and the rabbit had attacked him by themselves. These thoughts swirled in his mind as they finally paused for a breather under the scorching sun at its zenith. That's when Eleanor gently pulled him aside from the group to get more information.

  “So, how close are you to reaching level 2?” she inquired.

  “Just over 72% of the way there, but no—gaining that last bit isn’t my top priority right now,” he replied.

  “Maybe it should be. Hear me out—we’re relying on you more than we should, and we have no idea what leveling up will even mean for us.”

  “Let’s find water first. Each of those goblins was at least level 3, yet that didn’t stop me from taking them down with a single hit.”

  “Alright, but if you need my axe or any of the other weapons, just ask and I’ll see about lending them to you next time you go out.”

  “No, and don’t ask me why, but if it’s something provided by whatever sent us here, I’d rather not use it.”

  “Promise me it isn’t just a misguided sense of pride or something along those lines.”

  “No, it’s nothing like that. I simply get this uneasy feeling whenever I handle any of the weapons you all carry. Trusting my instincts is how I fight, and I’m going to stick with that approach, hoping it all works out.”

  “Alright, now for the tougher topic—what are you going to do when one of us starts thinking that we love you?”

  “Walk away.”

  Matt gave Eleanor a serious look before continuing. “In my mind, walking away is my only option. I’m simply not the kind of person to deal with the responsibility of keeping anyone happy. Besides, we have no clue what our new reality will be like once we leave this place. Even if I were capable of returning their love, any relationship that hindered me from living the life I want would sour very quickly. I’ve made it clear that I’m not one to enjoy the company of others, and I can only think of a single woman who might have even been a possible match for me.”

  "What happened to her?"

  "Nothing. I didn’t even give her a chance to be more than a friend I’d talk to a few times a year when I went into town for supplies. Part of my goals is to find her if she got dumped in here with us and make sure she survives. But who knows how spread out we all are or if she even ended here as she may have fallen into a different category than us."

  "I see. I assumed that any attempts to get close to you would be a terrible idea and have already told the others as much. I just wanted to ensure that you would turn down any who tried. Now, please make sure you do so firmly when it happens, but don’t insult them either, as we all need to work together."

  "Right, at least for now. Don’t worry, if any of them wants to make a big deal out of me turning them down, I’ll be the one leaving, as I would rather die than deal with that for a year."

  Eleanor looked a bit worried as Matt said that, but she kept her thoughts to herself as she stood and called for the others to get ready to move again. Matt decided not to pry into her mind, as doing so with anyone was just about the last thing he ever wanted to do. Still, he knew there was a reason she had asked, and it only increased his desire to escape and go off on his own the moment he felt like doing so was an option. Only, part of him felt like it wasn’t ever going to be as the rules had been set up to deny him that simple freedom.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  The next few hours really started to wear on Matt as more than one of the women didn’t know how to keep their complaints to themselves. It would have been one thing if they had been complaining about things he could address, but they were just lamenting over things beyond anyone’s control. Matt started to feel like he couldn’t take one more complaint about wanting a specific drink or food that likely didn’t even exist anymore. Still, the worst was listening to the overweight staff wielder complain about having to walk so much, especially since she was slowing them all down.

  Matt was lost in dark thoughts when something caught his attention. The terrain was dry, but ahead lay a riverbed—one that meant water to Matt, even if it wasn’t immediately apparent. To the others, it seemed like a cruel joke, and the overweight staff wielder wasted no time blaming him as he announced that they should set up their base nearby.

  "Look at what Matt has found—a river for us to settle near! There's just one problem: all the water is gone!" she complained loudly.

  "Do you know anything about water tables?" retorted the red-haired sword wielder, her tone sharp with irritation. "Honestly, can you do anything but complain?"

  "Why would I need to know anything about whatever those are? It’s not like—"

  "Just shut up," the redhead interrupted firmly. "Water tables indicate how deep you need to dig to find water, and riverbeds usually have very high ones. With an hour or so of digging by hand, we’ll likely reach safe, drinkable water."

  "Let’s not assume that it will be safe to drink," cautioned Matt. "We don't know what kinds of minerals this area might have—"

  "We either drink it or die of dehydration, since we don’t really have any other options right now," Eleanor stated briskly. "Even if we had a pot to boil it, we don’t want to start a fire and be seen yet."

  "If you’ll let me finish, we need to let the water settle before drinking it, and when we do, it’s important not to disturb it too much. You’re right that there’s a risk of contaminants, but we can mitigate that somewhat," Matt added calmly.

  "How about you prove there’s actually water before making plans," scoffed the overweight staff wielder.

  Matt swallowed his urge to retort, not wanting to start another argument, and allowed a small smile to creep onto his face as a plan began to take shape. He surveyed the area and noted that the riverbed was about ten feet wide and, by his rough estimate, could hold around five feet of water when full. It wasn’t a raging river, yet he was confident that water lay beneath the sediment. Finding a sturdy rock to serve as a makeshift tool, he chose a spot with fewer obstructions and knelt down to set out his orders.

  "Eleanor, at least four of us need to stay on guard, facing outward in case anything attacks while we’re digging. I also need two others to help move the excess dirt as the hole starts to collapse around us—that'll be one of my biggest challenges."

  "Emily, Maria, you two can handle soil removal," stated Eleanor, firmly.

  "I am not—" the overweight staff wielder began, alerting Matt that her name was Maria, only for the redhead to shoot her a silencing look. It seemed that at the very least, Maria had a bit of sense as she got to work, even if she was grumbling under her breath the whole time.

  Thus began the digging, and Matt soon found himself wrestling with more than one rock that stubbornly interfered with his progress. Every inch he dug revealed ever-increasing dampness, which buoyed his hope that water would soon appear. Yet after what felt like two exhausting hours, he was left with nothing more than a hole about two feet deep and two feet wide, devoid of any pooling water. While he could extract a scant trickle from the rich soil he had dislodged, it simply wasn’t enough, and his body was beginning to protest the strain.

  “Take a break, and I’ll take over for a bit,” offered the redhead, clearly seeing that he was slowing down.

  “Thanks. Just make sure you keep widening the hole as you go so that it won’t collapse,” Matt replied.

  With a nod, Matt switched roles and assumed the lookout, keeping an eye on their surroundings. Barely twenty minutes later, someone shouted excitedly upon discovering water, prompting renewed bursts of digging as the team shifted to having just Matt and Eleanor on watch. By the time the sun began to set, they had expanded the hole into a circular basin about four feet across and four feet deep. This measurement didn’t even take into account the stones and sticks hastily arranged around the edge for reinforcement. Still, Matt knew much more work was needed—only the bottom and about a foot up on each side were lined with their makeshift support.

  This left them with one major challenge: they could only scoop out a meager mouthful of water at a time with cupped hands. The water skins Matt had filched from the goblins were now in their possession, but they all agreed to avoid them after Matt explained his reservations and even allowed them to sniff the skins. Matt’s plan was to first fill the skins with water and then drop in several red-hot stones to boil—and thus sterilize—the water. This approach, however, meant they would need to wait until they felt safe enough to make a fire. He even considered testing the women with the bow drill, though he doubted they could manage the far more laborious hand-drill method he had once used to cook boar.

  Speaking of the boar, Matt was relieved that they had let the remaining portions cook almost into jerky the previous night, as that turned out to be what they had for dinner again. With the hearty meal and the steadily emerging water supply, Matt was generally in good spirits, despite a few grumbles from the women about minor oversights that momentarily tempted him to consider leaving. Yet, as dusk settled and they resumed the familiar rotation of watches from the night before, Matt accepted that he was firmly stuck where he was—for a little while longer at least.