Richard walked by the newbies, still feeling like he was a part of them. It was weird because Leylah was also walking next to him. It was strange that a week ago they were wearing the simple shirts and trousers of the newbies, but now Richard was in his longer overcoat and Leylah was wearing far tougher armor on her. Richard felt like he was playing dress-up, and he wondered if Leylah felt the same. Though it was good to see Leylah on her feet again. The training must have brought her strength back, even if there was a haunted look in her eyes she constantly pushed to the side.

  It wasn’t a long walk to the beach. He could feel it under his boots when the dead earth changed into rough sand.

  “Alright, here’s the plan. Elias will check his traps. Savannah and I will start gathering clams. Everyone else wait here and do not touch the water. Stay by Izzy and Leylah,” Marcus said.

  The newbies were smart as they remained where they were. Felix even tried to inch closer to Leylah, his gaze never remaining on something for longer than a few moments. There was a pause as Marcus glanced at Elias, who made no move to walk toward his traps.

  “Is there a problem?” Marcus asked.

  Instead of a snarky remark, Elias simply curled his lip and mumbled something too quiet for anyone to hear before he headed in the opposite direction. Marcus rolled his eyes and walked toward the cliff, with Savannah scrambling after him once she noticed he was on the move.

  A silence settled over the small group. Richard struggled to fill it, but remembered how many times he would usually trip up and make things worse. So he let the silence remain as he watched Felix, Sarah, and Kian’s faces as they took in the beach. Richard glanced at the sea to make sure there wasn’t an island or anything there. He was only a little relieved to see an uninterrupted horizon. There were still dark depths that he couldn’t see over those gentle waves.

  “This is deceptively peaceful,” Felix said.

  “Damn right it is.” Izzy kept her gaze toward the forest. She didn’t offer any other words, so the newbies remained in a worried huddle. Richard didn’t blame them. He wasn’t even halfway to level sixteen, and he was glad Izzy and Leylah were here. He knew if a lure was here, it would be up to him to get rid of it quickly before it drove the newbies mad. Richard decided not to think about how bad that might be, so he turned to Leylah.

  “Hey, how’s your first week in a class going?” Richard asked.

  “Much better than last week.”

  Richard didn’t know if he should comment on that. Felix was from Callro, and he wasn’t sure if someone had already warned him what might happen in another week.

  “You? How’s your first week?”

  “Barely survived the first day, but it hasn’t been too bad since.” Richard noticed Marcus and Savannah coming back.

  “Yeah, I’m glad you’re still alive,” Leylah said.

  “I don’t know what that lake monster is, but I’m glad it’s frozen.”

  Izzy grunted, then nodded. “I believe my people from Shudesh are responsible for that creature.”

  Leylah turned toward her leader. “What do you mean?”

  Izzy shrugged. “Hard to explain. But we know that beast. It’s in our mythology, or the lord of our hell. I’m not even sure what it is; I just know that if it swallows you, it takes about sixty million years to digest you.”

  Richard stared at Izzy, and he wasn’t the only one. Izzy just shrugged. “Is there… no one here… from Shudesh?” She then pointed to Sarah. “You’re from Shudesh, right?”

  Sarah’s eyes widened. “Right.”

  “So when I say enormous beast with a jaw full of teeth…”

  “Be on your best behavior,” Sarah said before realizing what had come out of her mouth. She tried again, concentrating. “Do good, behave, because the world will open up and a beast will snatch you and… and…” Izzy motioned for her to continue. “Yeah. Sixty million years in the beast’s belly. It will paralyze you, so you’ll be conscious the whole time.”

  Richard shook his head, trying to comprehend it all.

  “Your planet has its own hosts of horrible creatures,” Izzy said to Richard.

  “Me? What’d my planet bring?” Richard asked.

  “How many deadly sins are there?” Izzy asked.

  “Seven,” Richard said without thinking. He blinked a few times. “Damn, that just came out. How’d I know that?”

  Izzy shrugged. “Dmitri doesn’t ask you questions like that because it’s already unsettling being in an apocalypse. But there are more ways to figure out what planet you’re from than by asking you simple questions.”

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  Marcus and Savannah arrived with the clams. They dumped them out, and Richard sat on the ground and got to work. He was really hoping for both of his abilities to upgrade because it would always be an enormous help. Anything that brought a bit more strength to his skill tree. It seemed harder to upgrade his other skill trees, as the survivor one seemed quite eager to upgrade.

  “What’s he up to?” Marcus said, brows furrowed.

  Richard had barely started looting, but he didn’t like the tone in his leader’s voice. Elias broke out of the trees, sprinting toward them, shouting something.

  Richard knew many things. He knew he didn’t like Elias. The man was an asshole. He also knew that the asshole was currently sprinting toward them with a look of absolute horror on his face, and they were in the middle of an apocalypse that everyone admitted was getting worse.

  “Everyone drop their things.” Izzy pulled out her spear. “Leylah, take the newbies back to base. Now.”

  Leylah nodded, ushering the newbies to their feet. Richard waited for his own instructions, unsheathing his dagger just in case and remembering his punching and kicking abilities. Elias cupped his mouth and screamed something Richard couldn’t quite place.

  “What’d he say?” Izzy asked.

  Marcus shrugged, his own dagger out.

  Richard heard the ringing in his ears. He stiffened, feeling confused. Chaos said he wouldn’t experience time loops anymore. Since he got his class and gift, he wouldn’t sense when Chaos looped time. Why was this happening?

  “Do you hear that?” Marcus asked.

  Richard glanced at Marcus, worried. Marcus heard it, too?

  “Shit,” Izzy said, low and slow.

  Elias cupped his hands over his mouth again and screamed a single word. It was faint, but the air seemed to carry it. “Locusts!”

  Richard’s eyes widened. Locusts? As in bugs? The thing everyone feared more than the enormous monsters roaming the forest.

  Marcus grabbed Richard’s shoulder and forced him around. “Run!”

  Richard didn’t question it. When his brain was working again, he realized how extremely dangerous locusts were. A vague memory of clouds of bugs devouring everything in sight. Richard started running. The ringing he thought he heard instead turned into humming, then a dull buzzing sound like millions of wings beating together. Richard thought he was running fast until both Marcus and Izzy sprinted ahead of him. Richard tried not to be nervous, but he also sped up, pushing himself to his limits.

  Ahead, Izzy grabbed Kian and Sarah and threw them over her shoulders like they were sacks of potatoes. Marcus grabbed Felix and did the same. The two of them kept sprinting, and Richard kept pumping his legs. Savannah kept herself in front of Leylah and Richard, glancing behind her every so often.

  “What is it?” Leylah asked Richard, out of breath.

  “Locusts.”

  “Shit.”

  Richard knew Leylah felt the same as him. She didn’t know why she felt such terror at those bugs, but she wasn’t about to stand still and find out.

  Elias sprinted up behind Leylah and Richard, passing them. “If you don’t want them to devour your bones and leave no sign of you, I’d pick up the pace.”

  Richard was already pushing himself, and Elias’s statement forced him to dredge up every bit of energy he had to sprint past the gates.

  “To the silos! Hurry!” Savannah shouted.

  Richard caught his first glimpse of the swarm. If it were near the sun, it would have blacked it out completely. Instead, it looked like a solid black mass heading straight for base two. The sight of it forced Richard to find the very last bit of energy he possessed to sprint toward the farmlands at a rate he previously thought impossible.

  He got close enough to the silos to see Marcus, Dmitri, and Izzy standing guard over the one on the left. Izzy gestured for them to get in. “Go! Go! Go!” She glanced behind her at the swarm that had just passed the walls, descending on the crops. A chilly wind picked up. Elias, Leylah, and Richard climbed down the ladder into the silo. Once they were at the bottom, Izzy and Marcus followed. Richard glanced up only to see Dmitri slamming the door shut.

  “Wait,” Richard said, completely out of breath. “Dmitri. What… what…” He didn’t have enough air for this. His body was shaking from pure exhaustion after sprinting all the way from the beach.

  Marcus was hunched over, but he must have heard Richard. “He’s going in the other one.”

  “But… but…”

  No one said anything. Richard wasn’t sure if anyone could read his mind to understand what he was trying to say, but all thoughts fled once he heard the roar of the locusts. Richard stared ahead, sick to his stomach as reality hit him. Locusts. Pests that destroyed crops in minutes. Here he was in an apocalypse, and he had a bad feeling these bugs would do so much worse. The way Elwyndor slowly sank to her knees, her body shaking with silent sobs, told him enough.

  Richard hugged himself; the roar above him mingled with other sounds. One he could have sworn was a building falling in on itself. People moaned or mumbled as Richard tried to recover from his fast sprint. The roar above him would drive him insane.

  The lights were low, but Richard saw enough to know they were all hiding in a space that was covered in food. It was incredibly dangerous, but then again, where else could they hide? Not up there where a building caved in on itself. Besides, if the locusts make it into the silos, they were all dead anyway.

  Richard thought he was going to lose his mind after fifteen minutes of hearing the roar, but when an hour passed and the locust swarm was as loud as ever, he had to admit that he remained sane only because he had to. It was the way of the apocalypse. To survive. Because the other option would be to simply… not.

  Richard jumped when he heard grinding metal. Izzy stiffened, then glanced back over her shoulder. “Guards, to me, now!”

  Evan, Shrub, and Leylah moved forward, pulling out weapons from their inventory. Richard instinctively stumbled back as the grinding got louder. Sparks rained down on them, and panic set in.

  It didn’t last long. Once Richard realized the locusts were actually eating the metal, a rain of locusts forced themselves into the hole. Izzy swung her axe, and a few locusts were hit, but the swarm soon covered her body. People started screaming, running toward the back. Richard backed away, spurred on by the palpable fear the roar of locusts created.

  Richard wanted to look away, but the horror of it all kept him riveted as he watched Izzy disappear in a puff. Shrub roared as he ran into the swarm and was eaten in less than a second. Evan kept swiping his sword until it clattered to the ground, and he was gone. Leylah grunted as she stabbed at the cloud with her spear.

  Richard felt tiny pinpricks. He lifted his hands to see locusts devouring his flesh. He breathed in deeply, unable to comprehend what was happening as a few locusts landed on his head and chewed into his skin, then his skull, and finally his brain.

  Then the pain disappeared, and Richard gave a deep gasp, still feeling the tingling sensation in his head. He clutched his chest as he stumbled back. Multiple hands reached out to steady him. The roar was above him; his death was avoided. He pulled up his tree skills just to see.

  Quantum Immortality (basic)(passive/active)

  (If you die, you leap into a different timeline)

  (Chaos Curse: 10%)