The Protagonist System

I woke up in the morning and the world felt colder. It only took me a few seconds to realize why as I rolled over in bed and saw that I was alone. Sandra hadn't come back into the apartment after talking to Janine and my mind immediately jumped to conclusions. However, I learned a long time ago to not overreact and took out my wand and cast the human reveal spell.

It was almost a physical relief when I found Sandra asleep on their couch and not in bed with Janine and Jenkins. I might have freaked out a bit if she had jumped into their arms after what happened, even if it would be understandable for her to seek comfort from her best friend. As it was, I was highly debating the wholesale murder of all the fungal growths across the country, since I could easily make more of the strongest weed-killer I could.

I was more angry about Tammy's passing than I thought I would be, probably because it was my fault. I had only done normal medical checks and kept her healthy; at least, I thought I had. Instead, I had been very very wrong.

How could I miss her spending extra time in the bathroom and throwing up for months? How could I not see how much pain she had been in? Why didn't I do more than what I did? Why didn't I? Why? WHY? I yelled at myself in my mind and I punched the mattress in frustration.

The bed creaked and shook at the strength of my hit and I took several breaths to calm down. Wrecking the bed wasn't going to help me deal with things and I climbed out of bed and dressed. I went to the kitchen and on the counter was a plate of oatmeal cookies that Tammy had made yesterday and I started to cry. I didn't fight it and let it out, sobbing quietly, and made breakfast for four.

It was ready half an hour later and I set the plates onto the food cart and rolled it out of the suite and knocked on the door across the hall. The door opened and Sandra stood there, her own face covered in tears, then she stepped aside and I rolled the food cart inside. She didn't say anything and walked over to the bedroom and knocked on the door.

I set the plates of food on the dining room table and placed the plate of cookies in the center before I sat down. I wasn't hungry and I really didn't want to eat; but, I couldn't starve myself as I tried to work through the mistakes I made. I had let someone I loved die and I didn't know what to do about it.

Sandra, Janine, and Jenkins joined me at the table and both Sandra and Janine started crying again at seeing the cookies. Jenkins just looked pale and started eating mechanically. I did the same and both Sandra and Janine did as well. None of us spoke and ate in complete silence, which was fitting. We had lost a significant part of our lives and that deserved more than only a single moment of silence.

When I finished my meal, I was the only one that took a cookie and ate it. “This is delicious.” I said automatically, because it was something I always did after Tammy took up baking. It also made her smile because a cook as good as myself had liked her amateur baking.

No one else said anything and they didn't really have to. I stood up and put the dirty dishes back onto the food cart and then picked up the plate of cookies. If no one else was going to eat them, then I would eat them all myself. Not right away, though. I'd make them last and I would keep reminding myself of Tammy's happy smile.

I carried the cookies and pushed the cart with my other hand. “I'm going to be too busy to cook for the next few days, so someone else will have to do it.” I said and let the cart go to open the door. “Or just fend for yourselves, I guess.”

“Eli, why...” Sandra started to say.

“What are you going to do?” Jenkins interrupted.

I turned around and smiled sadly at them. “I'm going to carve a statue of Tammy out of stone and then I'm going to mount it above the front doors of the hotel.”

The three of them were stunned to hear that, probably because I've never expressed any talent for it or even suggested that I could do such a thing.

“I even have matching jewels to mount for her eyes.” I said and left their suite to go back into mine. I stored the plate of cookies and used magic to clean the dishes before putting them away.

Surprisingly, no one had followed me or asked me why I wanted to make a statue. I figured they would get around to it eventually and I would answer them truthfully. There needed to be something permanent left behind to us all to remember Tammy by.

I went downstairs and entered the stable to get Hermes and a cart to haul stone blocks back. I left the hotel on foot with Hermes walking beside me, like it was almost normal, because we usually took a walk together at least once a week and it was nice and calming. The clapping of his hooves on the pavement was like a soft and kind of familiar rhythm, so I started singing for no reason.

“Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in the landslide, no escape from reality. Open your eyes, look up to the skies and seeee. I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy, cause I'm easy come, easy go, little high, little low.” I sang on key. “Anywhere the wind blows, doesn't really matter to meee, toooo meee.”

We walked onto the next block and I changed up the lyrics to fit.

“San-dra, I just killed a woman. Put a fire 'round her head, burned to ash and now she's dead.” I sang, letting my sadness fill my voice. “San-dra, life has just begun... and now I've gone and thrown it aaaall away. Sandra, ooo-oooo, didn't mean to make you cry. If I'm not back again this time tomorrow, carry on, carry on... 'cause nothing really matters.”

We stopped at a partially wrecked building and I started loading stone blocks into the cart.

“It's too late, my time has come. Send shivers down my spine, body's aching all the time. Goodbye, everybody! I've got to go. Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth.” I said and tossed the bricks like they weighed nothing. “Sandra, ooo-oooo, I don't wanna die, and sometimes wish I'd never been born at all.”

I realized most of the middle of the song and the chorus didn't apply to me, mainly about someone letting me go, except for one statement. “Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me... for meee... for meeee!”

I then stopped working and took out my guitar and had a bit of fun playing the guitar riff for a couple of minutes. My melancholy came right back and I slowed my playing to a stop as changed the last lyric slightly.

“Nothing really matters, any one can see. Nothing really matters... but every thing matters, to meee.” I sang and plucked the last few chords on the guitar and put it away.

I stood there among the rubble and took several breaths, letting the air calm me. I actually felt a little better about things, even though I still hated myself for not paying more attention. I would just have to be more diligent with taking care of the others and I'd have to give them a full magical checkup, too. I was not going to make the same mistake again.

*

Sandra had quietly made her way down to where she could watch Eli as he made a kind of mini-quarry in the street outside the hotel. It was kind of fascinating to watch him carve each stone block into a puzzle piece, add it to the pile, and then make some mortar to stick them together.

Janine came down a few hours later and handed her lunch. Sandra accepted it with a nod and the two of them ate together. Neither of them wanted to interrupt Eli while he worked, so they had Jenkins do it and delivered his lunch.

Eli finished the next piece of stonework and ate his food. Jenkins asked him what he was doing and Eli explained. In fact, he told him why he was doing it and both women cried. When he was done eating, he went back to work, using different chisels and a small hammer to carefully carve another piece that would fit together and become whole when he was done.

Four days later, Sandra, Janine, and Jenkins watched as Eli slotted the top of the head together, hair and all, and he attached the two almost glowing gemstones into the eye holes. It was almost eerie how life-like the finished statue was and Sandra was sure that if it could somehow be painted with life-like colors and textures, it would have been like Tammy herself was standing there.

Saying it was a work of art would be a severe understatement.

Jenkins went outside and talked to Eli about how he was going to mount it and Eli gestured with the shape of a stone archway. Jenkins nodded and the two of them proceeded to build up an appropriately sized space for the statue to be mounted upon over the doorway.

Sandra and Janine exchanged looks and went outside to help, too. There might only be finishing work left to do and that was okay, because they didn't have to worry about getting in the way or making Eli's task more difficult than it already had been.

When it was finally done and carefully lifted into place, thanks to several ropes and pulleys, the statue was secured to the building and could never be removed without either wrecking the building or destroying the statue.

Hugs and kisses were shared afterwards, both as a celebration and as an act of mourning, and several apologies were shared as well. Forgiveness was going to take longer, especially for Eli. He wasn't going to forgive himself for his mistake for a very long time and spent an inordinately large amount of time taking extensive care of Sandra, Janine, and Jenkins. They accepted the extra attention without complaint.

*

My underlying anger at the fungus wasn't allowed to be sated for another year and a half, when I finally convinced myself that I could leave Sandra alone for a few days without her succumbing to the infection. Of course, both Janine and Jenkins encouraged me as well when they found out I was going to use an airplane to bomb certain overgrown areas with my strongest weed-killer.

Sandra wasn't as vocal as them in her support, even though she knew how important it was. Well, relatively important. I would still have to be careful to not over-saturate the ground or allow too much run-off to spread. The last thing the survivors in the world needed was to have all plant life die and for me to be the cause.

So, a lot of planning was to be had, as well as finding a large enough area for me to take off from, then figuring out the best delivery system. Just dropping a large and fragile glass container full of weed-killer wasn't going to work very effectively against deeply dug in nests. It also wasn't going to do much against the infected that weren't in constant contact with a main nest of fungus.

That meant some engineering was needed to create a pneumatic delivery system that would inject the majority of the liquid into a visible mass of fungus when I found them and another system like a sprinkler to spray the remainder out in a wide circle to cover more area. Different sizes and styles would be needed for the different situations I was bound to come across, too.

Another six months later, during one of the hottest months of the year and when the fungus would be at its most active, I kissed Sandra goodbye and hugged Janine and Jenkins before I set out on foot for my chosen destination. It was a wide stretch of highway that was four lanes across and had a long enough stretch of straight road for me to take off and land from.

I wasn't sure they believed me when I claimed to have found a working aircraft in my travels and stashed it nearby, even though it was true. They must have suspected those travels were nowhere near Colorado and there was nowhere physically nearby that could be used to store such a thing. Well, they let me go anyway and I promised to fly overhead before heading out on my extermination mission.

I used a much stronger weed-killer than I normally did as I walked out into the wilderness and sprayed the ground to clear my path. It was satisfying to see the plants and grass visibly die, including the vines and growths nearby that I made sure to spray as well. It wasn't until several hours later that I finally reached the right stretch of road and I sighed at the mess that was there.

I had to waste a few more hours clearing the stretch of highway of debris, abandoned and wrecked cars, and plant growth. When I had enough room for my needs, I took out the jet aircraft I had found in the Smithsonian Museum in the last world. I spent half an hour installing the long range CB radio and connected my walkie-talkie to it. A double click let Sandra know I was ready to talk and a moment later, another single click answered me.

“I'm getting ready to take off and just finished installing the radio. Over.” I said.

“This is a lot later than you planned for.” Sandra said and I heard the implied question of 'what happened'.

“The highway was a mess and I had to waste a lot of time clearing out enough space for me to take off. Luckily, this thing is pretty small and doesn't need much, or I might have had to delay until tomorrow. Over.” I explained.

“That's great, Eli.” Janine said and then silence. “Um, over.”

I chuckled and hit the button, letting them hear me. “When was the last time we used these things, anyway? Over.”

Some soft laughs came over the radio signal.

“It's been way too long.” Sandra said. “I'm glad you're keeping your promise, Eli. Really glad. Over.”

“Me, too.” I said and started the jet engine. “Okay, I'm hanging up for now. I need both hands for this part. Over.”

“Good luck and good hunting.” Jenkins said. “Over.”

“Don't fly too low over us, Eli. I like my windows intact.” Janine warned me. “Over.”

“Be careful and... and come back to me.” Sandra said, her voice low. “I love you. Over and out.”

“I will and I love you, too. Over and out.” I said and turned off the walkie-talkie, checked the flaps and the rudder, then nodded at the readings on the dials. Everything was working perfectly and I grabbed the throttle and pushed it forward a quarter to get the engine roaring, then to half to get the plane moving, then all the way to shoot me down the improvised runway.

I was grateful for all my training in Goku's weighted clothing, because it felt like I was kicked in the chest by an angry horse as gravity wanted to keep me back where the plane started from and not in the seat I was in. I pulled back on the flight stick and flew up into the air with a determined look on my face. My mission of revenge was finally a go!

*

If a plant or fungus had any kind of feelings that were analogous to that of humans, it would be feeling fear and trepidation. More and more parts of itself were disappearing and whole areas were being cut off somehow. It couldn't think about or rationalize what was happening, so it couldn't plan or retaliate against whatever was killing off.

It tried to send out the mobile parts of itself to search around and look for something, only it didn't know what it was looking for. It did hear some odd wind rushing by and didn't know what it was, since it was only a plant and didn't really have a brain to think things through. So, it died and died and died as entire swaths of overgrown areas were wiped out from existence.

*

I stayed in contact with Sandra as I flew all over the place. I only did Colorado first, then moved on to Utah and then Wyoming. I then hit Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas as I continued in a circle and expanded out and out, flying further and further, delivering death and destruction to as many fungal nests as I could. I even dropped a few spare weed-killer bombs in the middle of overgrown and abandoned towns and cities, just because I could.

Not surprisingly, I burned through my stocks of weed-killer missiles pretty quickly, since the spread of the deadly virus was all over the place. I had to start conjuring up more containers, temporary of course, and I knew I would eventually run out of actual weed-killer. I was flying over New Mexico when I was down to the last of my weed-killer and I didn't want to abandon my mission.

Even after how long I had prepared for it, it was going to end way too soon, so I thought hard about what to do. The solution came to me when I held the flight stick with my knees and was eating an MRE. I had just taken out my endless water container and spent a trickle of magic to make it into red wine to go with the strips of beef.

My eyes went from my water container that had wine in it, to the nearly empty weed-killer jug at my feet, then back to my container. I repeated this for several seconds and then laughed. I laughed so hard that I dropped my MRE and didn't care. A bit of magic changed the wine into another liquid, my weed-killer fluid, and I filled up the jug.

It had the right smell and consistency, so I knew it worked. I didn't slap myself for being an idiot or for wasting so much time brewing up hundreds of gallons of the weed-killer, since it let me work and kept me busy. I wasn't going to be an idiot from now on, though.

My mission was back on and I filled the next conjured bomb and delivered it right into the center of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and flew on with a much lighter spirit. My determination to exterminate as much of the fungus grew and I easily finished up that state and flew on to Arizona. I didn't bother using up the jet fuel I had in my inventory and just changed my water container to what I needed and used that instead.

Yes, this mission had just become very easy to complete and I was very, very happy.