The next day we woke up with a radio call. Montgomery wanted us to come into the station as soon as possible. I couldn’t help but assume that the other team had never made it back out of the dungeon. That we would be sent in next.

  We didn’t rush, but we did hurry as we all got ready for the day. My bag was still packed from yesterday’s trip. I’d been a little too preoccupied to worry about unpacking it. That thought made me smile.

  When we got to the station, it was still early in the day. Montgomery met us in the front lobby. The asshole receptionist from yesterday was nowhere to be found. Good riddance in my opinion.

  “Alright, as you may have guessed, the other group didn’t come back in this morning.” Montgomery jumped straight to business. He led us back to the map room and indicated a space on it near the southwest of town. “This is where the dungeon is. The other group did confirm that before they went in. And by process of elimination, this is the Jungle dungeon,” he told us.

  I took a closer look at the map. “There aren’t any roads anywhere near there,” I complained.

  “Yeah, you will need to hike a little bit to reach it. It’s only a handful of kilometers from the closest road.

  “I have no idea what that means,” I glared at him.

  He stared at me confused for a moment. “Oh, right. Americans…it’s like maybe two miles.” He shrugged at us.

  He stood up to usher us out of the room I assume, but Ashley stopped him in his tracks. “I need more rounds.”

  He paused and looked at her. His mouth opened to argue, but immediately closed. “I don’t know how long we can keep supplying you if you go through ammo this quickly.”

  “We kill monsters. Would you rather I didn’t?” She stared him down.

  “What’s wrong with the other rifle you have?” He asked.

  “Not a lot is coming at us at the ranges that that particular rifle would be useful. I still need to take the scope off. And as soon as I do I just know that I’ll miss it,” she glared. “It’s almost as if if I had something else that was short range and a highly manufactured caliber I could use that more often.”

  “I’m not giving back the pistol,” he stood defiant. “They’re not meant for hunting or anything but people.”

  Ashley rolled her eyes so hard my eyes hurt. “Shit has changed. I need more flexibility. I am not just hunting monsters. Most of them are hunting us right back.”

  They glared daggers at each other as the tension in the room seemed to increase. Neither of them moved or spoke. Like a pair of fighters in the wild west waiting to draw on each other. Waiting for the other person to move first. To blink first.

  “Every one of us is a weapon of mass destruction now,” Ashley growled. “She can literally melt a hole through the building and fry anything in between,” she indicated Mara. Who of course nodded happily. “He can turn his body parts into bladed or blunt edged weapons, and is effectively bulletproof.” This time she gestured at John who crossed his arms menacingly. “He could drown you right here without moving a muscle,” she waved at Oliver.

  The beefy man blushed and sputtered, “Not that I would of course.”

  Ashley rolled her eyes. “And she can summon spears from nowhere and raise the dead,” this time she indicated me. He whipped his head around to stare at me. A look of disgust spreading across his face.

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  I nodded my head slowly at him. I wanted to raise my eyebrow all cool…but that was not one of my skills unfortunately. I didn’t care for the judgement in his eyes, but it’s not like the System and pop culture hadn’t warned me. Necromancers were not generally the good guys in the story after all.

  He finally turned his attention back to Ashley, “How many rounds of five-five-six do you need?”

  “Three hundred,” she leaned forward. “Or, one-fifty and the nine.”

  I am not afraid to admit I was more than a little confused. They kept saying numbers in a way that made no sense to me. Five-five-six, the nine, the fuck? But obviously now was not the time to ask anyone what the fuck was going on. Now was the time to stand menacingly behind my…friend. Yes, my friend, who I kissed. I was not ready to declare her anything else right now. The rest of our group gathered around behind Ashley as well. Offering her our silent support.

  Montgomery became very twitchy. He seemed to be developing a tic or something just beneath his left eye. And I could almost see the vein pulsing in his forehead as his face flushed in obvious anger. His fingers curled into fists. “Are you threatening me?” he asked coldly.

  “Of course not,” Ashley waved him off like the very idea was preposterous. “I’m just telling you the score. Right now I am possibly the least lethal person on our team. The nine, the thirty-ought-six, and the AR help even that out. You want us at our most lethal if we’re going to go into this dungeon that already ate a group.” She didn’t raise her voice. She didn’t wave her arms around. She just spoke plainly, calmly, and quietly. Laying out the facts of the case dispassionately like a scientist.

  After a moment Montgomery deflated. The fight went right out of him as his shoulders slumped. He seemed to take on more weight on his shoulders in front of us. “Fine,” he whispered. But the room was so silent we all heard him.

  He took a deep breath, like a drowning man breaching the surface. “Fine,” he said again. “I’ll get your pistol. But there will be no waving it around town. It only comes out when you’re working for me.” His steely eyes bore into Ashley.

  For her part, she just stood there. Silently accepting his pressure like it weighed nothing. She nodded her head slowly. “Agreed.”

  Montgomery snorted like a bull and stomped off, growling for us to wait there.

  After he left the room, the tension seemed to rush out of all of us. John laughed loudly and clapped Ashley on the shoulder, “Oh my god! You have fucking brass balls.”

  Ashley started laughing as well and punched him on the shoulder. I reached over and squeezed her forearm. Mara and Oliver gave her warm smiles.

  A few minutes later Montgomery returned with Ashley’s pistol and the little magazine insert thingies. Loose bullets were in a baggie as well. Ashley just rolled her eyes.

  She calmly took the pistol from Montgomery and did some kind of check on it. I had no idea what she was doing, but she looked competent doing it. I felt a little bit of arousal uncurl in my stomach. Ashley quickly loaded up one of the bullet carrying things, slapped it into the bottom of her pistol and then pressed something that made the top slap forward. She checked it again and slid the gun into a holster I hadn’t even noticed at the small of her back. Arousal spiked through my veins. Fuck she looked so badass.

  She loaded the rest of her bullets up and nodded at Montgomery. He eyed her with a modicum of respect. Then we were all ushered out of the office and back through the front.

  “Let me know when you’re at the dungeon and as soon as you’re out,” Montgomery ordered. He looked at each of us in turn. He refused to meet my eyes though.

  I sighed as we exited the building, “Maybe next time don’t tell people I’m a…you know.”

  “Yeah, I’m sorry babe,” Ashley said grabbing my hand and giving it a squeeze. “I didn’t think he’d have that much of a reaction.”

  “I think it’s cool,” Mara said skipping ahead of us.

  “You’re also a freak,” I laughed back. “He’s already treating me differently and he hasn’t even seen me do anything,” I complained.

  “I’m sorry,” Oliver said. He patted me on the back as he walked past to get in the driver’s seat.

  “What does he know?” John demanded. “I think you’re down right neat,” he grinned at me as he got into the van.

  Ashley pressed a kiss to the cheek, right at the corner of my lips. I felt half robbed as she pulled away. “We’ll figure this out. And no more outing you. Promise,” she held up her pinky in solemnity.

  I linked our pinkies together, “Ok.”

  Together we climbed into the van and headed back to the back most seats. I curled into her warm strength as we drove down back roads and barely there dirt paths. We were on our way to the next dungeon. Hopefully it treated us better than it had the first group to attempt it.