Summoning America

Chapter 22: Vacation

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October 9, 1639
Orange County, California

Under parting clouds, the sun shone upon a residential neighborhood. Anders looked out his Mercedes, rolling his windows down and enjoying the breeze as he coasted down the roads. The homes and sidewalks were completely different from the last time he was here; trash and debris no longer cluttered the area. Everything from the storm several months ago had been cleaned up, and the neighborhood looked as if nothing had even happened.

The only difference he noticed was an increase in 'for sale' signs. He passed almost a dozen such signs before he pulled up to his driveway. Noticing his neighbor Greg watering some plants, he walked up to him. "Hey, Greg."

Greg looked up from his plants and cracked a smile when he saw Anders. "Oh hey Sam! I take it you're on vacation?"

"Yeah, I've got a couple weeks. Been pretty crazy working with all these new fantasy folks."

"Oh? Yeah I've seen some stuff about that on the news. Wish I could go check out this Qua Toyne place, but I've been busy with getting the company back together."

"Tough times?"

Greg shrugged, turning off the water. "Eh, somewhat. The first couple of months were pretty bad. Lot of folks around here got hit hard when the economy and labor market tanked." He gestured around, pointing at the various 'for sale' signs.

"Damn," Anders muttered. "I'm glad you're still kickin' around though."

"Ayup, I'm one tough bastard. So how are these new folks?"

"They're... a bit arrogant. I don't think they'd try anything stupid to maintain their influence though. But then again, these guys are pretty aggressive with their policies, so I'm not so sure. Everyone else is fairly polite though; we've got a few new nations requesting contact."

"Huh. Well that's something."

"Yeah, and I also heard about a specialized group of marines and special forces teams getting sent up north. This 'Operation Doomslayer' has been quite the talk of the town, on the fleet at least."

"Doomslayer? They going to kill demons or something?"

"Something like that. Kingdom of Topa wants our help, and being the good Christian nation that we are, we pretty much accepted their request right away."

"Ha, sounds fun. I wish I could've done that back in the day, but man I'm getting old. Wife just said my beard's turning white the other day."

"Well, you still look fairly young to me."

Greg chuckled. "No need for flattery, Samuel. I'm already planning on embracing the new look, maybe getting an eyepatch haha!"

Samuel smiled and shook his head. "So anyway, how are things overall?"

"Well, gas is fucking eight a gallon. Used to be nine, but it's been going down recently; thank God. Oh, and pineapples are through the roof. I gotta say, I never expected to have to pay like ten bucks for one of those things. Everything else seems fine though, economy's back up and running. Stock market's recovering decently, magic shows are becoming more popular. Can't tell who's a phony and who's real, unless of course they're one of those furry fellas or pointy ear fellas."