What followed was a rapid but bloody melee, the three men lunging for daggers while Deirdre leaped for the dealer. She tackled him, the two falling to the ground as the poker table flipped over with an enormous crash and a spray of cards and chips. Deirdre's knife moved like the needle of a sewing machine, rapidly punching in and out, as it traversed the man's chest from neck to waist. Two seconds ter, the dealer had ten deep stab wounds across his torso and y still while blood gurgled from the punctures. Colin took a quick step to the side to line up his shot, and pointed his finger making a "Bzzt" noise. With a deafening thundercp, an enormous bolt of lightning fshed forward, through the two men and blew out the front wall of the tavern and continued off into the night. As the lightning bolt passed through the two men, their skeletons could briefly be seen, and as the light faded they crumpled into ash.

  Deirdre turned and stared at Colin. "Noisy," she commented. Colin shrugged, apologetic. Deirdre strode over, grabbing her clothes from the bar and vanished them into her storage ring. She then grabbed Colin's diamond from where it sat and flipped it to the young man, who quickly stowed it along with their winter coats. The two then turned to the huddling women. Deirdre looked over the bar at them. "Come. Now." The women shot to their feet. Deirdre stepped quickly to the gaping hole in the front of the tavern, fire starting to lick up the sides of the building as overturned candles ignited the decor. She whistled loudly and her dire wolf, Moonwhisper, padded out of the gloom and id down in front of her. The bartender screamed in horror at the sight of the giant beast.

  Deirdre climbed onto Moonwhisper's back and turned, gesturing behind her. Colin climbed on, awkwardly pcing his hands on Deirdre's bare stomach as he reached around to hold on to her. "Come on, hurry," he urged the two women. They scrambled up behind, the waitress clinging to Colin and then the bartender clinging to her. The wolf quickly stood back up and trotted off into the darkness, moving faster as it went. Fifteen minutes ter, they had rejoined Alice and Bridgette. The two women stood, staring at Colin in disbelief as he gently lowered the two scantily cd women down from the wolf before sliding down himself. Deirdre then slid from the wolf, nding beside Colin and staring at Alice and Bridgette.

  "Uhm, Colin." Alice began, gncing at the two strange women wearing lingerie and the attractive ranger wearing only a bra and panties while absolutely coated in blood and viscera. "I feel like this needs an expnation. I have so many questions right now."

  Deirdre shook her head in the negative. "Svers, capturing women. We killed some, rescued these. Warren recently returned from a trip, missile silo north-west of here. He will be warned. We must hurry."

  Bridgette's face twisted in a grimace. "Fucking hell, what it is it about the end of the world that makes people want to start ensving each other? Okay, I can respect what you guys did. We have to get Becky back, though."

  Deirdre stared at Bridgette, "And the others."

  Bridgette sighed, "Yes. And the others. I guess we're breaking up an entire svery ring tonight." She turned and gnced at the two other women, both standing there clearly overwhelmed. "What are we going to do with you two? We don't have anywhere safe to take you while we go and kill everyone in this stupid town." Bridgette grimaced, kicking a rock into the night. "Do either of you have any kind of combat skill?" Both women shook their head in the negative, clinging to each other. "Fucking great." Bridgette looked back over at Deirdre, reproachfully.

  Colin gulped, stepping forward, pcing his hand protectively on Deirdre's bare shoulder, smearing the tacky red blood still covering it. "She did the right thing, Bridgette. Those guys were scumbags and had it coming." Deirdre gnced at Colin's hand curiously. "You should have seen how quickly she moved, it was amazing." Colin blushed, not sure why he added that st bit of information. He was incredibly proud of what Deirdre had done, he didn't think he would have been brave enough to confront the men like she had, and even though it had complicated their rescue of Becky, he was going to defend her actions.

  He was also painfully aware that she was still standing there in her underwear, which was now all wet and clinging even more closely than before. Colin started as Deirdre moved beneath his hand and looked down at her. The short woman looked back up at him, a glimpse of a smile fshing across her face. "Thank you. I must get clean and dress again before combat. One moment." She removed Colin's hand from her shoulder gently, then stepped to the side, pulling spare clothes and underwear from her storage ring. She then stripped naked, storing her soiled clothes, and pulled a canteen from her ring, holding it above her head and pouring water down across her body.

  Colin stared, open-mouthed, as the water traced its way down the gorgeous woman's nude figure. His brain was stuck, unable to stop staring. A water droplet hung from her left nipple, like an Olympic high diver, poised and preparing itself. Colin his held breath, watching, until gravity recimed it, and it fell toward the ground. Suddenly, he remembered his manners and blushed furiously, spinning around, facing away from Deirdre. Oh god, that was so embarrassing, he thought. I'm sure she caught me staring. I am so dead. But holy fuck is she gorgeous.

  Alice had politely averted her eyes, while Bridgette ughed and stepped over to Colin. "I think she likes you, nerd boy." Colin blushed again, shaking his head in disbelief. "She put on quite the show just for you."

  A minute ter, Deirdre stepped back to the trio, wearing her typical leather hunting garb. She stood oddly close to Colin, looking over at Alice and Bridgette. Alice just smiled at Deirdre, while Colin gnced back and forth between the three women, trying to understand the looks they kept giving each other. He had no idea what was going on, but there was clearly a very long conversation happening purely based on gnces and expressions, and he couldn't understand a single thing.

  Colin cleared his throat. "Okay, so. What's the pn?"

  Bridgette grinned, leaving the unspoken conversation and gncing at Colin, then at the two rescued women huddled next to their small fire, then at Deirdre, then at Alice. "Okay, so. Warren is dug into a bunker like a tick in a mare's ass, has an unknown number of people helping him defend, an unknown number of hostages ssh captives ssh general bystanders, and an unknown number of people who might come to his rescue to reinforce once the battle begins. Also, we have no clear idea what his threat level is aside from the fact that Alice was able to get him with Hold Person once, and no idea what the threat levels of anyone else in the area is."

  "The four that died tonight were weak," Deirdre offered.

  Bridgette sighed, "Okay, good to know. I mean, the whole thing is an absolutely fucking huge 'don't do this, you know too little' warning scenario. But we've kicked over the hornet's nest, so we can't not do it, now. What is it with you and leading us into combat against huge numbers of unknown enemies, Deirdre?" Bridgette gnced at Deirdre, then at Deirdre's wolf. "Will she be of any use if we go down into a missile silo? It's going to be tight tunnels, underground." Deirdre shook her head in the negative. "Okay, then can she take these two," Bridgette gestured toward the rescued women, "and keep an eye on them somewhere?" Deirdre nodded. "Great, thanks."

  Alice linked her arm with Bridgette's, patting the taller girl. Colin gnced at the two of them, jealous of their closeness. "It's okay, babe," Alice said. "I have a good feeling about this. We're doing the right thing."

  Colin nodded his agreement, gncing at Deirdre. "She did what I wasn't strong enough to do, but now we have a chance to finish this. Let's kick their ass and rescue everyone we can."

  "Fuck it, let's do this thing," Bridgette agreed with a shrug.