“Welcome back, Sarge,” the one with Bjurstrom stitched on his chest replied.  “And yeah.  We lost a good bit of the complex down here.  The lower levels aren’t safe.  We fought a running retreat until we could seal off the bottom four levels at one of the blast doors.  Lost some good men.  The captain sacrificed himself, stayed to distract them while we got the doors shut.”

Allistor spoke up.  “Let me guess.  Octopoids?  The things with the stubby legs and tentacles?”

The airman nodded.  “Yes, sir. Those and some nasty lil white goblin-looking things.  Like a hundred of them.  All sharp teeth and claws.  Also, these jello-looking slimy things that burn like acid when you touch them.  They kept eating through the lower doors.  It’s why we had to keep retreating.  But they can’t seem to get through the blast door.  At least, not yet.”

Goodrich added, “It’s like a damn video game dungeon down here, Sarge.  Please tell me it’s safer out there?”

Andrea shook her head.  “It’s a video game out there too, fellas. Nasty monsters, even worse than you’ve seen down here. But yeah, it’s safer, if only because there’s room to run away. Baron Allistor here has built a Stronghold over at the mall.  Nothing spawns inside the walls.  And there are other survivors there as well.”   All four men grinned and fist-bumped each other.

“That’s the good news.” Their faces fell at that phrase.  Every soldier knew what was coming when an NCO started talking good news/bad news.

Allistor took over.  “The bad news isn’t so bad.  I plan to turn this place into a Stronghold too.  So that nothing bad can spawn down here.  But in order to do that, we need to clear the place.   Remove every living thing other than ourselves.”

The four men began shaking their heads.  “No can do, sir.  Even when there was a dozen of us, we didn’t have the firepower to take them all out.  We’re the last of the guard unit.”

Helen grinned at them.   “I’m Helen.  Park ranger and badass monster killer.  You might have heard me on the radio in the last few days?”   McCoy nodded.  “Well, Allistor here is good at killing monsters.  And with a little backup from us, I’m sure he can get it done.”

To reinforce her statement, he summoned a fireball in his hand, then let it dissipate.  “Part of this new game world is the ability to learn magic.  To make yourselves stronger, and faster and smarter…”

All four men were grinning at him now.  “We know, sir.” Campbell thumped his chest.  “Lots of us are gamers.  Not much else to do when you’re trapped down here for weeks at a time.  Especially since we have access to one of the highest speed networks on the planet!” The others all gave thumbs-up and shouted, “For the Horde!”