Risen World

Joshua and his group were all waiting inside a large storage shed the morning of the day after the broadcast. The news had upset a lot of people in the group and had caused a new reason to fear what was happening to the world. After the broadcast Joshua had calmed everyone down before bringing those who were in the know along with him to a closed off room. They had a long discussion about what their next step should be and during the conversation Joshua brought up the idea of letting the Carsen brothers in on knowing what was going on.

At first the others were hesitant, but Joshua quickly laid out multiple reason on why getting more help was a good idea. The fact that all three brothers were well trained and were not involved in some of the past mistakes the town folk had with Madalyn were both positives. Eventually they all decided to bring them in to the fold and that's what led to the current situation with them all waiting inside the shed. Joshua had asked the Carsen brothers to come to the place in the morning for an important talk before everyone got up to start the day off. Now they were all just waiting for them to arrive.

It didn't take long for after a few minutes the door to the shed could be heard squeaking open as three shadows poured into the room. Dave was at the head of the group as he led his two brothers into the room and stood before Joshua and the others. "So what's got you guys being so secretive that we had to come all the way out here to talk?" Dave asked.

"Yeah it almost feels like some secret under the table drug deal or something." Dillon said causing everyone in the room to look at him strangely.

"Ignore the idiot and let's get to the point of us being here. I'd like to get a nap in before my patrol shift." Devin said as he yawned and rubbed his reddened eyes.

"Alright then let me explain why I wanted you three to meet us." Joshua said as he took hold of the conversation. "Although there has been much information I've told everyone in the group there are still some things that I have been keeping hidden for both the well-being of the group and to keep everyone from getting depressed on the outlook of things."

"So what, you've got some kind of big secret?" Dave asked as he scratched his beard in confusion.

"Well yes, but we decided to let you three in on it going forward. The thing is we know about what is happening to a certain extent." Joshua said grabbing the full attention of the three brothers. "As of now we are all stuck in what we know is the first phase of this occurrence. Anyone who was not male and between the age of seventeen to forty-nine or female and decided to stay has been transported to a safe location. The goal of this first phase is to kill the things that will be hatching from the larger eggs like back in town. When the first monster hatched from one of the eggs is killed then this will all be over."

"Wait so like the eggs that they were describing creating monsters on the broadcast yesterday?" Devin asked with a shocked look.

"Not exactly, the ones mentioned in the broadcast are much smaller and are in terms that Nathan would use, sub-bosses. On the other hand the monster I'm talking about are the main bosses." Joshua tried to explain.

"How can you tell the difference?" Dave asked.

"The easiest way to tell is by the coverage of the haze they spread. The one in town is a boss class monster sense it spreads enough purple haze to cover an entire town. The ones in the broadcast are similar to the one we found at the factory, only strong enough to cover that small area." Joshua explained.

"Wait so then there's one of those things at the factory and it could hatch any minute now?" Dave nearly shouted in surprise. Joshua merely nodded causing the three brothers to tense up at the revelation. "Damn, now we got one of those stupid things so close by."

"Well we're going to handle it before it becomes an issue, but until they hatch there is no way to harm them so we will just have to wait." Joshua replied.

"How did you all learn about all of this?" Devin asked with a rare serious expression instead of his usual sleepy one.

"Well it turns out all the women that decided to stay behind were informed of the basics of what's going on and given… well they were given super powers." Joshua said as he was bit hesitant at saying that they were given powers and wasn't sure how the Carsen brothers would handle it.

The room remained silent for a moment as both Dave and Devin gave Joshua an incredulous look. That was until Dave finally decided to speak up. "You're joking right?"

Joshua looked towards Laura and she stepped forward and placed her hand out in front of her. Then she conjured a small flame to settle just above her palm brightening up the room. Both Dave and Devin looked at the scene slack jawed in amazement. They could only stare at the fire for a few moments before Dillon came bursting into the scene with a fire extinguisher as he sprayed Laura's hand to the surprise of everyone else in the room. Everyone just looked towards the smiling fool in shock as he put the fire extinguisher back against the wall. "What? I am a fire fighter after all." Dillon said without a care in the world.

For a moment everyone continued to stare at the airhead before Madalyn burst out in laughter as she watched Laura angrily try to shake off the white coating on her hand. Laura gave Dillon one of the harshest stares Joshua had ever seen, but the big oaf just seemed to smile it off. "Well that's what I meant by powers anyways." Joshua said trying to get back on topic. "Laura has control over fire as you have just seen. Madalyn has the ability to create different forms of poison and Natalie can sense emotions and create mental links so that we can talk to each other with our minds."

Dave looked gob smacked at the information before regaining his composure. "Well what made you guys decide to let us know now?" He asked gaining similar inquisitive looks from his two brothers.

"Well with the eggs starting to hatch we decided we needed more people to know what was going on. Even if you three aren't going to be fighting head on all the time being able to communicate with you guys back at base when we're in areas that phones don't work will be a big help. "Joshua explained.

"Why not tell Thomas? He's been in just as much of a helping role as us back at camp." Devin asked. He could hear a loud snort from Madalyn who glared at him for asking the question. "Never mind I think I get the picture."

"Well that's all we wanted to say. Now that you guys know more about what's going on I hope that you'll keep this a secret from the others for now. Telling them that there's a giant boss like creature that we have to kill before this ends isn't exactly a pleasant situation to have." Joshua said while scratching the back of his head with a nervous smile.

"Alright, that's fine just let us know whenever you need any help." Dave said, but he paused as if he was hearing something in his head. Joshua realized that was Natalie linking them up to her mental system. With the three of them she was now maxed out on the number of people she could link up. Devin seemed a little surprised at the process while Dillon just looked like a kid in the candy store. "For now we'll head back in get ready for our morning schedule with the others. I hope we'll all survive this together."

After saying that the three brothers left and headed back towards the mansion while Joshua and his group soon followed suit. "For now everyone can get some breakfast and help out with any projects we have going on here. Will head on out to grind at noon." Joshua said getting a nod from the others before they all headed off. Joshua was about to follow along when his phone started buzzing in his pocket. He was surprised and quickly pulled it out to look at the collar ID sense no one on the farm would be calling him this early in the morning. He was happy to find Adrian's name pop up and immediately answered it. "Hello?" Joshua said.

"Josh is that you? Thank god you're alright man." Adrian's voice could be heard on the other side of the phone. "We've been worried sick about you."

"We? Whose there with you right now?" Joshua asked sounding a little more excited than he wanted. He couldn't help himself after finding out that one of his best friends was still alright.

"Oh, I'm here with Henry we met up at the airport here in Japan. You're on speaker phone by the way." Adrian said.

"Hey Josh, are you doing alright over there. It's been hell on this side." Henry said sounding more depressed than he had heard him in a long time.

"I'm getting by. I've gotten a group together and we've been holding off any problems thus far. How come you sound so down man? Are things that bad over there?" Joshua asked.

"Oh please, things are fairly bad sense were on the edge of a city, but that's not the reason he's moping so much." Adrian said while snickering.

"Then what's the issue?" Joshua asked confused.

"I came all the way here, this crap happened and now I won't be able to go get my limited edition figurine. I spent so much time and money for that damn thing!" Henry's voice grew more angry as he went on. "Now I'm stuck in this airport with this idiot because I decided to come pick him up instead of minding my own business."

"Are you serious? Forget about a stupid figurine and worry about your life." Joshua reprimanded him.

"Anyways, putting Henry's problems aside things haven't been all that great here. Although the airport is on the edge of the city half of the place is covered in the haze and there isn't much room in the other direction considering there is the ocean at our back." Adrian started to explain.

"Did you guys figure out what's going on? Do you already know about the first phase and all that or do I need to explain it?" Joshua asked.

"Come on Josh if there is anybody in the world who could figure this out on their own it would be a first class nerd like myself." Henry proudly said. Joshua could even tell how arrogant he must look right then just from his voice. "Besides even if I couldn't figure it out I have one of the world's biggest man whores right here to get information from any of the girls around."

"Hey I'm not that bad I just like to meet many different people is all." Adrian responded and pretended as if he were offended.

"Yeah sure. I've already seen you making out with five different girls since we've been stuck in this airport you flirt." Henry said and Joshua could hear a smacking sound from the other side of the phone.

"Ow that hurt man. You didn't have to slap the back of my head. Besides I was just networking with the people around here. I've got to say though Japanese girls are pretty nice." Adrian said before he started to do another one of his annoying laughs. "I was able to learn a lot from the girls, especially after Henry figured out that everything happening felt like the start to some game."

"Yeah I got someone on my side that did something similar." Joshua said after realizing how well Nathan and Henry would probably get along.

"Found yourself a fellow nerd like myself to rely on huh Josh?" Henry said with as much of a smug voice he could manage. "Well I'm not surprised. You were always smart, but only when it came to what you were interested in. Unlike me, the genius."

"Very funny, I'm just glad you guys are alright." Joshua said before he took notice of some people heading over in his direction. "Well I've got to get to work. I've got another long day ahead of me. Call me back tonight so we can catch up."

"Alright, but that would be morning time for us so we probably won't have to much time to talk. We've got things to do here as well." Adrian said. Joshua could here Henry mumbling something along the lines of people to do too and decided to ignore that comment. They said their goodbyes and Joshua hung up the phone. He looked up at the approaching farmers with a big smile on his face and a large weight off his shoulders.