Path of the Berserker

I DIDN’T GO to Jim’s office right away.

After the newly promoted Sergeant Andrews collected Richards’ body to prepare it for disposal, I hung back with Kelsey to do some preparations of my own. I rooted through the nearby trees for fist-sized rocks and began placing them in a line about three feet back from the mass of the snarling demons.

“What are you doing?” Kelsey asked, looking over my shoulder.

“Marking the edge of the barrier,” I said. “The sword will protect us from demons, but not spirit beasts. We need to construct a wall or something to keep them out. Once that’s done, I’ll feel a whole lot better about leaving you guys out here alone to head back to the city.”

“Alone? What are you talking about?” She then threw her hands on her hips in a superhero pose. “Your little Berserker Sister will be here to defend the tribe!” She then laughed. “Eventually anyway.”

I laughed with her, her youthful enthusiasm delighting me. “You’re not wrong, little sis.”

Kelsey grinned at her new title.

“But seriously though,” she said. “You want to build a wall?”

“Yeah… It’ll be a big job. Going to need as many hands as we can get working on it.”

“Yeah, probably, but I can’t see him disagreeing with increased security. I’ll talk to him about it when I get the book.”

“It’d be a huge improvement for sure, though,” Kelsey said with a nod. “When we were living outside before, most people still went into the bunker at night. A wall would definitely help to make people feel safe.”

“Yup,” I said, laying down more rocks. “I have another reason for doing this as well. I felt the sword grow stronger when I killed that ape. I need to see if the barrier actually extends as a result of me killing spirit beasts with it. Need to use these rocks as a marker.”

“So you’re going to go hunt another giant ape?”

“Or something like it,” I said, looking up at the Bloodmoon. “If I have time.”

I didn’t know how long it would take to build the wall, probably more time than I had, but I couldn’t leave them like this, knowing what I knew now. A roaming B-class monster could wipe them out just as easily as the demons. Hopefully Gui Zu and Zu Tien could hold the fort down for an extra day or so while I got this done.

“Well, let’s get to it then,” Kelsey said, doing her best to help by collecting some rocks of her own. “This wall won’t build itself.”

We spent the next half hour circling the perimeter, laying down rocks, sticks, and branches to mark the one and a half miles worth of wall we’d eventually have to construct. Seeing just how much length was involved, I still wasn’t sure how long it would take, but I had to make a start.

“Okay let’s go see Jim,” I said once we had finished. “We’re going to have a lot of work to do.”

* * *

I stopped just outside Jim’s office and when he beckoned me to enter, he suddenly raised his hand to stop me again when he looked past me to glimpse Kelsey.

“Hold on,” he said. “I’d like to see him alone please, Kelsey. You mind waiting outside?”

Kelsey frowned, looking dejected and then looked to me for confirmation.

I nodded to her. “It’s ok. I’ll be out soon.”

Kelsey complied and once I closed the door behind me, Jim motioned for me to sit across the desk from him.

“Took you a while to get back,” he said. “Thought you’d be eager to get this book of yours.”

“I am,” I said. “But there was something I needed to sort out first.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

I explained to him about the need to build the wall and how I had already marked out the footings with the stones and also how’d I’d use the same to determine if I could extend the width of the barrier.

His brows raised. “Is that right?”

“Yeah, I was hoping you could maybe assist with getting your men to help. If you think this is a good idea, that is?”

Jim smiled, perhaps sensing I was acquiescing to his authority. “Of course it’s a good idea. I just question the logistics and our ability to take on that kind of task.”

“I’ll do the heavy lifting,” I said. “Literally. Just need some hands digging the foundation while I’m out gathering materials.”

“What kind of materials?”

“I was thinking using logs would be the quickest and easiest for now. We’re basically surrounded by pines and they’re all pretty tall.”

Jim sat back in his chair, mustache twitching.

“I’ll do you one better,” he said. “Harris was in the Army Corps of Engineers before he transferred to the base. I’ll have him help you design the damn thing. If we’re going to do this, need to make sure it’ll last.”

I smiled. “That’s even better. Thanks much.”

“No, thank you,” Jim said. “This wall and barrier will help us survive long term no doubt.”

I nodded as an awkward silence then passed between us.

Finally, Jim leaned across his desk, hands folded atop it. “Now, Max… before we go any further. I need to check in with you on something.”

I raised my brow at that. “Sure?”

“It’s about what you witnessed tonight.”

“You talking about Richards?”

“Yes, son. Richards. I’d like to know how you feel about that. If you have any issues with how I handled that situation. If you do, I want you to be forthright about it.”

It was an odd question, but perhaps he was trying to head off any potential dissension at the pass.

“Seen worse where I’m from,” I said. “And honestly if you didn’t do it, I probably would have done it eventually.”

Jim let out a harumph. “Don’t misunderstand what you saw. That was justice. Not punishment.”

“You don’t have to justify anything to me, Jim. You’re in charge and you had to make a call. It was the right one, in my opinion anyway.”

Jim paused a moment more, studying me as if checking for sincerity. I didn’t use [Struggler’s Resolve] but I didn’t need to. I meant every word I’d said.

“Alright then,” Jim said seemingly satisfied and his countenance shifted as he opened his desk drawer. “Now I’m going to give you back your book, but it comes with a catch.”

He plopped the cultivation manual on top of his desk along with another book with a hard cover.

“What’s this?” I ask, flipping the book around.

“If you’re going to have us learn about Yee culture, then you also need to learn about your own.”

I read the title that was in English. “History of the American Revolution…”

“How old were you when they took you, son? Four? Five?”

“I was eight,” I said. “A bit older than most.”

Looking back now, that single difference was the one thing that had truly saved me. Were I any younger, I’d be no different than Jian Yi and Yu Li, consigned to my fate as a Terran commoner because I just didn’t know life as anything but.

“That’s older than I expected,” Jim said. “But still too young to have ever digested anything like this.” He then tapped on the history book. “I’ve re-read this about eight times now and the more I read it, the more the similarities I see to what’s happening to us now. You showing up here, to fill in the blanks on what’s going on in the outside world only solidified that for me. We’re the Yanks versus the Yee instead of the Brits this time.”

I picked up the book and began flipping through the pages. I had learned about the American Revolution in school, but after years of being force fed Yee culture and history, I had to admit the details were all but lost to me now.

“You’re one powerful son of a gun,” Jim said. “Done things I still can’t quite wrap my mind around yet. And maybe never will. Were we still a nation, you’d be a treasure––a secret weapon to deploy against the enemy.”

I nodded at him, but wasn’t quite sure where he was headed with this.

“The thing about a weapon though, is you need to know exactly how it works before you can wield it effectively. And right now, I don’t know exactly how you work, Max.”

“Well, I’m not a weapon, Jim,” I said, setting the book down. “That’s for sure. I’m a person, blessed with abilities that I choose to use to free my people. I’m a Terran just like you, looking to restore the Earth.”

“You’re not a Terran, Son. You’re an American.”

I squinted at him. “I fight for the whole Earth. There are no countries anymore.”

“Maybe,” he said. “But our spirit lives on. And if you’re going to fight for something. For us. Then you need to know what the hell it is you’re actually fighting for.” He tapped on the book again. “This will tell you.”

I looked at the book again. This was a new sort of challenge.

I didn’t necessarily like the way Jim had put it across, but he was right in that I had only a vague inkling of what the world was truly like before the fall. I was a kid when the old world ended. I knew Minecraft and Roblox, not world history and geopolitics.

I always knew that the people here held the seed to the revival of us as a nation.

And I couldn’t be exempt from the process.

If I was going to restore the Earth, then I needed to know what it was I was restoring.

“You got yourself a deal, Jim,” I said, scooping both books off the desk. “Kelsey will learn cultivation and I’ll learn history.”

Jim smiled. “Excellent.”

We both rose and shook hands.

“One last thing,” he said. “You mind heading out there and killing something edible before you set to chopping down a whole damn forest?”

I laughed.

“Way ahead of you, Jim. A breakfast barbeque will be first thing on the agenda.”