Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty-Two. Complications.

Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty-Two. Complications.

Bob poured Monroe onto the table before slumping down into his chair. He'd expected to have had to have cast a half a dozen or so regeneration rituals, but Eric had brought nearly a hundred men, all of whom were in terrible condition. It wasn't just the wounds from combat, Eric had sought out what Bob recognized immediately as the homeless. Malnutrition, starvation, substance abuse, and a host of other conditions and diseases threatened to end their lives. So he'd cast the ritual over and over again, for almost two hours.

They'd been suspicious at first, but as they watched each man being restored to perfect health, those suspicions had gradually faded. One by one, after they'd been healed, they'd been led off for a shower, clean clothes, and a hot meal.

Bob knew that he hadn't exactly lived a great life, at least up until the explosion, but he could freely admit that these guys had had it worse.

It was becoming clear to him what Eric's big move was going to be. The people he'd helped tonight had been in desperate shape. There were a couple who might not have made it another week or two.

He was pretty sure that Eric was planning to disappear every single homeless or near homeless veteran that he could locate. Then he'd bring over every single combat-wounded veteran who was willing to give up their lives on Earth in exchange for a regeneration.

Mike had alluded to the fact that there were some veterans who wouldn't be coming over because they'd managed to build decent lives for themselves, and they wouldn't leave their families. Bob respected that. He respected that quite a lot.

"Thanks for that," Eric said as he sat down across from Bob, reaching out a hand to idly pet the pool of fluff that was a sleepy Monroe.

"Doing what I can," Bob replied awkwardly. He wasn't comfortable with being thanked, despite how often it had occurred over the past two years.

"So I've roped in a couple of dozen Endless and half a dozen folks from the Church of the Light," Eric began. "We're greenlit at eighteen hundred hours next Friday. The Old Guard and the Endless will focus on the extraction, and we'd like you, along with the Church of the Light, to be ready for triage if necessary and regeneration rituals if not. We have intel on just over three million disabled veterans, and we've made primary or secondary contact with two and a half million. Of those, half a million are unwilling or unable to join us at this time."

Eric took a deep breath and let it out slowly before continuing. "We're looking at a touch over two million, with five hundred thousand or so in need of immediate regeneration. Some of these people are going to be coming off life support as we move them through the portal," he warned.

"Our goal is to start with the homeless, then the ones in poor conditions, followed by the guys who are in a stable situation, and finally the guys stuck in the hospital," Eric shook his head and smiled gleefully. "If we can hold to the schedule, we should be pulling the guys out of the hospital between midnight Sunday night and o-six hundred Monday morning. All told, we're going to move a lot of men in sixty hours."

Bob closed his eyes for a moment. Two million people was an insane number. Especially considering where they were. It would effectively be the same population density as Manhatten.

"I'm not trying to be a wet blanket," Bob said slowly, "but do you have the infrastructure to house and feed two million people?"

"Not even close," Eric shook his head, "we're currently sitting at housing for twenty thousand, although by next week, if things go as planned, we should be at two hundred thousand."

"Where are you planning to put everyone?" Bob asked.

"Well, that's sort of where you come in," Eric winced. "See, we found a place that can hold the lot, flat, level, decent elevation, but we'll probably need a hundred Dungeons to keep the mana density low enough that we don't end up with monsters spawning inside of the tents."

"A hundred?" Bob whispered.

"Just single floor Dungeons," Eric hastened to assure him, "just enough of a mana draw to keep monsters from spawning."

Bob leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table as he rubbed his temples. "It takes five hours to get a Dungeon started," he said through clenched teeth. "There aren't five hundred hours between now and when you plan to bring all those people here."

"Oh," Eric replied, looking startled, "we have people who can dig out the Dungeons and do the environmental control stuff," he said reassuringly, "but no one is anywhere near as good as you are at getting the mana draw right."

Eric chuckled, "In fact, they've been having some real trouble in Glacier Valley with the mana draw from the Dungeons they built out. I'm a little surprised no one has reached out to you to take a look at it."

Bob relaxed his jaw but continued rubbing his temples. "A hundred hours of ritual casting is doable, although that's an all-day, every-day commitment for the next week. Where exactly do you plan to put everyone? I've flow around a bit of this continent, and I swear it's almost all mountains."

"On top of the glacier," Eric replied.

"I know how tense you get after enchanting," Dave replied as he dug his thumbs into a particularly stubborn knot. "And while I don't want to add to it, we had a few bombshells in our email."

"None of that right now," she muttered, lolling her neck from side to side. "The Affection Amendment of two thousand and eleven states that the only suitable topics during intimate or affectionate moments are affirmations, and food-related inquiries."

"Don't forget time-sensitive scheduling issues," Dave worked his way to her shoulders.

"Those too," she breathed.

"So, I'm guessing," Dave paused to brush a lock of hair over her shoulder and kiss the back of her neck softly, "that you did something amazing with that bedroll?"

Amanda chuckled softly, "According to Jessi, it's called a 'swag,' and I think so," she said.

"And what miracle did my brilliant," he kissed the side of her neck, "creative," he kissed the other side, "amazing Amanda work tonight?"

"Tell me more about this Amanda girl," she replied, "she sounds pretty great."

"Oh, she's incredible," Dave grinned, working his hands down from her shoulders to the middle of her back, seeking out the knots with the familiarity of long practice. "She can look at a problem and just immediately see outside of the box solution that everyone else missed. The whole room lights up when she walks in, and she chases the clouds away on dreary days."

"Sounds too good to be true," Amanda mused.

"Well," Dave conceded, "she does snore a little bit."

"I do not!" Amanda leaned back, tilting her head back to look at him sternly.

"Sure you do," Dave replied with a wicked grin. "You make these cute little mini sniffs, it's adorable."

"Those aren't snores," she protested, "we agreed that those were, at most, snuffles."

"Alright," Dave conceded, "she snuffles a bit."

"That's better," Amanda leaned forward again.

"So, what did you do with the swag?" Dave asked curiously as he continued to work his way down. He knew that she'd probably developed a large knot at hip level, just to the right of her spine. She almost always did when she sat for too long without getting up to move around.

"Well, I made it bigger on the inside, of course," Amanda began.

"Of course," Dave agreed.

"Then I used a combination of dimension and transmutation to make the mattress thicker, without actually making the mattress thicker," she explained.

"For a grand finale, I made the pockets at the head of the swag bigger on the inside as well," she finished, "so you can crawl in there, and we'll have plenty of space to change, as well as room for clothes, shoes, equipment, and if you do you're part and make with the Stasis, even a place to keep food."

"So a nicely rolled up home then," Dave surmised.

"Well, a nicely rolled up bedroom," she conceded, then looked over her shoulder at him with a smile that could only be described as predatory. "Why don't we both give it a thorough inspection?"

She completed her inspection by lunging through the rolled back canvas that led into the swag, with Dave hot on her heels.