Declan didn’t find a reward box, but then, he didn’t expect to. His first words to Char after the fight made clear why. “I should stay with the people downstairs when you go after him. I was completely useless in that fight.”

  “Bullshit.” Char didn’t even look over at him as she tapped the leg of one of the dead Ice-Heart Supplicants, trying to loot her. The system gave her some gold credits, but the body didn’t poof away into dust. That meant something, but she wasn’t sure what.

  His eyes widened, caught between incredulity and shame. “I didn’t do anything other than get caught and nearly die. I never even swung my sword.”

  “True. We got caught off guard.” Char straightened and stretched her shoulder. “I screwed up, too, thinking the cultists were just creeps with knives. That doesn’t mean you fold after one bad day.” She heard the edge in her own voice and reined it in, softening her tone. “What level are you now?”

  “Seventeen.” She could hear the bitter note in his voice, his disappointment in himself.

  She walked over to one of the benches and righted it, turning so they could look out at the desert, instead of at the gruesome mess in the center of the room. She patted the seat next to her. Hesitantly, Declan joined her.

  “You’re not that far from hitting level 20, and getting a Core.” Words jumbled around in her head. She rubbed the back of her neck, trying to untangle her thoughts and find the right ones to help the kid. “Look… This world’s a meat grinder now. Well, to be fair, it was never easy, but now it’s… supercharged. If you want to stay with the folks downstairs, that’s fine. Might even be the smart move. But don’t call yourself useless. You held your ground when most people would have run screaming.”

  He didn’t respond. His jaw clenched.

  Char leaned forward, elbows on her knees. “I can’t tell you what to do. I’m making things up as I go. All I know is, for me, lying down and waiting to die isn’t an option. I don’t think it’s the right move for you, either.” She sighed and rubbed her face. “I’m no good at pep talks, and I’m not going to try to convince you to do anything you don’t want to do, but I think you should ask yourself which path you’ll regret least. Huddling up scared, or facing it down?”

  She glanced sideways at him and found some words her dad told her once, “You’re not weak, you’re scared. It’s what you do with the fear that counts.”

  “I…” his words choked off. She could see him fighting with himself. His knuckles were white where his fingers curled around the edge of the bench. The kid was good at hiding his feelings, but whatever he was struggling with was too big to keep entirely under wraps.

  Char held up a hand. “Let it breathe. Take a little time and think about it. We’ll talk after we get those people settled somewhere less… ghoulish. Don’t make a knee-jerk decision right now.” She watched his face, and when he nodded, she let the topic go. For now.

  They headed back down the stairs in silence, and Char took a moment to check her notifications as they went. The first thing she realized as she saw the single kill notification was that she wasn’t getting notifications for Lulu’s kills anymore. When Lulu had been a pet, she’d counted as an extension of Char; now, the system saw her as a separate entity, which was good in Char’s opinion. Lulu deserved to get the credit and the rewards for her efforts.

  The next notification was one she’d expected, but wasn’t happy about.

  Quest Failed:

  Cannibal Cult

  You failed to prevent the completion of the ritual.

  No rewards gained.

  _______________________________

  New Quest:

  In Pursuit of Winter

  Follow Winter’s Maw and destroy it.

  Reward: Experience, Weapon Enhancement Gem, Random Magical Item

  She’d expected the reward to be less, not more. The System must really want the Wendigo dead. For once, she agreed with it, but she couldn’t help but wonder if it wanted her to end the Wendigo because it was evil, or because it was outside of the System’s control.

  There was one more notification, and she had mixed feelings about it:

  Your Thunderbird bloodline had advanced to 23%.

  Your bloodline has crossed a threshold.

  Your Gift [Child of the Storm] has evolved to

  [Scion of Thunder].

  Your Affinity to the Lightning Domain has increased.

  Your progress to Tier 2 has increased to 65%.

  On the one hand, she was getting stronger. With the challenges they were facing, that was a good thing. On the other hand, she wasn’t sure how to feel about becoming less human. The idea was deeply unsettling. And she still didn’t know what that Gift did. After what she’d learned this afternoon, she wasn’t sure the System knew either.

  It wasn’t the all-knowing, all-invasive, and all-powerful force it was trying to make them think it was. After the messages she’d seen while she was in the vat and afterward, she’d had some suspicions about it. After today, she was sure. When she’d seen the word ‘Root’ in the messages, she’d been willing to consider that it might be some mystical nature-based term that she didn’t have context for. Now, she was pretty sure it was the translation protocol using the term she was familiar with for an admin-level user of an operating system. The System was a computer program, and if it had Root-level sysadmins, it wasn’t some divine force.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Their problems might not be as hard to overcome as she’d feared. That’s not to say it would be a walk in the park, but it was easier to wrap her head around aliens with advanced tech. The idea of facing down godlike beings who could casually rearrange a planet, not so much.

  It also meant that somewhere out there might be a code-jockey who’d done her a solid. They might not be alone in this fight, but she couldn’t put too much trust in that. There were too many unknowns, and too much at stake to put her hopes in the altruism of someone she was only half-certain actually existed. Even if she was reading the situation right—and that was a big IF—she didn’t know the motivations of the person who’d overridden the enforcement on her Core. Why her Core—her real Core, not the Echoform disguise—was such a big deal that it warranted termination, she also didn’t know.

  It was the one part of the story that she hadn’t told Declan, and until she knew more about what it meant, she wouldn’t be telling anyone. The message had been pretty clear that the truth was a death sentence hanging over her head. It wasn’t in her message log anymore. All of the mentions of her Pure Spirit Core, and the lockout and enforcement overrides had been scrubbed, and she could only assume it had been her mysterious ‘Root’ benefactor who’d done it. All she could do for now was file it in the big pile of questions that needed answers.

  It took a little convincing to reassure the survivors in the office that the cannibals were gone and it was safe to open the door. Heavy scraping sounded as the desk was dragged aside from behind it. Char stood back, giving them space. Her thoughts were a million miles away, turning over oddities, system quirks, and half-remembered scraps of myth. When the door opened an inch, and the old man’s weatherbeaten face appeared, she shook herself out of her reverie.

  His eyes darted around the hallway behind them as if he expected to find cannibals holding a knife at Char’s back. She couldn’t blame him for his caution. Royce had obviously had some sort of supernatural sway over the other inmates and some of the staff. As crazy as the world had become, she supposed it was smart to be a little paranoid.

  When he finally stepped back and opened the door, he asked, his voice rough and wary, “Are they dead? All of them?”

  “All but one.” Char would have liked to have told them a kind lie to let them sleep better, but if the Wendigo doubled back, she’d be doing them no favors by keeping them ignorant. “Royce ran. We’ll get you someplace a little safer. Then I’m going after him.”

  “We,” Declan said. “We’ll go after him.”

  Char looked at him, surprised by the vehemence in his voice, but she saw determination in the set of his jaw. He’d come to a decision on their way across the building, then. Catching his eye, she nodded. “Yeah. We will.”

  “Where is safe?” The older teen demanded. Her voice shook, but she masked it with a hard tone. “There’s monsters. We’ve got no food, no water. No weapons. Are you just dumping us out there?”

  Char’s first instinct was to ask if she’d rather stay here, but she swallowed it back. The girl’s fear was talking. Anger was easier than terror. “No one’s getting dumped. There are options. The longhouse, their apartment block,” she nodded to indicate the Russians, “any of the other buildings. Declan and I will get you there and leave you what supplies we can spare. If you feel strong enough, we can try to get you up the cliff to the woods, and give you directions to another group of survivors.” When she saw some of their eyes light up at that, she was quick to add, “But that’s a long walk, with monsters, and Declan and I are going after Royce. We can’t take four days to escort you and still have any hope of catching him.”

  “The apartment block will be your best bet. It’s solid, the concrete keeps it a little cooler in the heat, and it’s closer to the cliff and farther from where Royce went,” Declan pointed out. “If we don’t come back in a few days, you’ll be in a better place to try for the woods, and there’s water not far away.”

  The teen scoffed. “Great. Just pick which way we die slower.”

  The old man put a hand on her shoulder. “Lina,” he said, his tone somewhere between chiding and plea.

  “You want the truth?” Char said, her voice roughening. “There isn’t a safe option. Not right now. But there’s a difference between sitting here and waiting to die, and moving. Even if it’s just a little. You move, you get a chance. That’s more than a lot of people have right now.”

  No one spoke right away.

  Char took a moment to use Assess on them. The big Russian had the highest level of any of them, and he was level 5. The old man was level 4, and the others were all level 1. They wouldn’t stand a chance against the wildlife. Even if they could get up the cliff to the woods, the animals there all had them beat by ten levels or more.

  She looked out the window. It was mid-afternoon. The sun was scorching. Two miles to the apartment block may as well be twenty with this group; they were frail, hungry, and exhausted. The woman with the haunted stare hadn’t moved since they’d come in. There were Voracious Myriapods and Deathbarb Vultures, and who knew what else between here and there.

  She came to a decision. “Look. I know none of you want to spend the night here. I sure as hell don’t. The longhouse is only about a mile away. Let’s head there and rest for the night. We can all get a good night’s sleep, and you can decide what you want to do in the morning. Does that work for everybody?”

  The old man nodded. The teen looked like she was ready to argue with anything just for the sake of getting some power back, but the old man squeezed the hand on her shoulder and whispered a couple of words in their language. Her eyes stayed hot, but she clamped her mouth shut. The Russian woman translated for the man, and they both nodded to Char.

  “I am Jabat,” the old man said, holding out his hand, “and this is my granddaughter, Lina.” he gestured to the other two and continued, “My daughter Intan, and grandson, Jalong. We thank you. The suanggi took us three days after this madness began. They had others, before. They took someone every day. They… They told us what they were doing. Made us listen.” His voice cracked, and for a moment, he looked like he might shatter entirely. “Two days ago, they took my son-in-law,” he said, hoarsely. “Until today, we waited to die. Now… we live. But we do not know how to live in this new world.”

  “None of us do,” Char said softly. “But we’ll help however we can. You’re not alone anymore.”

  They took a little time to find weapons for everyone who could hold one, mostly knives. Declan loaned his crowbar to the big Russian, Sergei. He didn’t speak much English, but the woman, Irina, did.

  The body that had been on the butcher block in the kitchen had been Irina’s brother, and she refused to leave it behind. Char helped her scavenge some sheets and wrap the body and all its parts. She was worried that they’d have to carry it, and it would draw the vultures, but Irina was able to store it in her inventory. Char was impressed with the woman’s practical stoicism. She’d gotten her crying out of her system, and now she was all grim business.

  Once that was done, they met everyone back in the lobby. Char checked everyone over. Those who hadn’t had shoes were now wearing the thin institutional sneakers, but they were clean ones. Everyone had a weapon, except for Intan. Her son, Jalong, had to guide her. She was in some sort of fugue state, but as long as he held her hand, she’d follow him.

  “OK,” Char cleared her throat. How had she ended up in charge? She shook away the thought and tried not to sound like a drill sergeant. “We’ve got to go about a mile. There are some vulture-like birds, a nasty centipede thing, and a fire elemental that we’ve fought so far. Declan’s job is to watch the sky. Lulu will alert us to anything underground, but all of us need to be alert. If anything attacks, Declan, Lulu, and I will handle it, but I want all of you to try to get a blow in, even if it’s just throwing a rock. If you can get some levels, it’ll make surviving easier for you.”

  She looked at each face. They were scared, and some were handling it better than others, but none of them looked like they were about to panic. Jabat was worried; he kept glancing at his family, but Char was sure there was an iron core to the thin old man. Irina was a rock, and Sergei was swinging the crowbar like he was looking forward to using it on something. Lina looked as if she wanted someone to argue with, but Char recognized in the girl her own coping mechanism of spackling over the cracks of fear with a coating of anger.

  It was the best she could ask for, under the circumstances. Well… OK, she could ask for more. A SEAL team would be nice. But she’d take the small blessings where she found them. She nodded to Declan, and he opened the door. Lulu trotted out first, and Char didn’t feel any alarm from her, so they all followed.

  Patreon. You can also check out my other work-in-progress: 'Thief of Echoes' -- a story about a thief who gets in over her head and finds out that there's more to the world than she ever imagined (Contemporary Fantasy, GameLit with a Chakra-based system, and past lives relived.)