I jumped back to the tiller immediately noticing the snake part of the Gladi-gator was still alive. I pulled out the machete and reactionarily chopped two or three times.

  I whipped the boat back around scanning the water and the bank for Tony.

  “Dadblasted, man! Why weren’t you wearing a life jacket?”

  I could see random banners floating in the air on the banks, but nothing was attacking us right then. Earlier there was more movement in the water, but at the moment, I didn’t see any banners or swirls directly in front of me.

  I had learned that didn’t mean they weren’t there. Apparently, the gators had some kind of ability that prevented me from seeing them until they struck like one of those turn-based RPG games, like Final Fantasy, where you were just walking around and BAM! Out of nowhere you were ambushed.

  My eyes scanned every inch of the bank for the nightmare that attacked the sheriff’s boat.

  What was that thing? What level was it? Would I even stand a chance against it?

  Faces flashed through my mind. Donnie, Danny, and the deputy. I didn't even know his name. I didn't know if he had a family. Crochet lay in front of me badly wounded, I held out hope Tony would be ok. Another group of men I was responsible for had perished. Another crew I couldn't send home to their families in one piece.

  I steered to the site of the boat crash. Still glassy and unmoving water, no bodies, no ripples, no sign of life.

  A fireball whooshed over and behind my head.

  “Soggy biscuits!” I ducked and swerved the boat almost crashing it.

  I searched for the origin of the ball of flame and found one of those demon-turtles snipping from the bank hissing at me. At more than 30 feet away, I felt I was safely out of range.

  I saw snakes and rats on one bank staring at me like a morbid audience. On the other bank a porcupine stalked next to some other weird slime or mud creature. It literally looked like a pile of crap, but it was too far away for me to identify.

  I aimed with the Glock taking the porcupine out of the fight before it could get any shots off.

  “No,” I said, not quite feeling safe enough to do that at the moment.

  I looked over at the sheriff. He had passed out, and Starla was licking his wounds. “Good girl.”

  He had three really bad cuts on his arm and shoulder and the gator-bite on his ankle. Even with Starla's healing power he needed hospitalization, soon.

  The radio crackled to life. I had completely forgotten about it until now.

  “Sheriff Crochet? Paw? Come in! This is Shaun. We heard gunfire. Is everything alright? Over.”

  “This is Bart,” I responded. “We got attacked by some wild animals over here in our search area. Stay away from this area. I repeat. Stay away from here! Over.”

  “Anybody hurt? Over.”

  “Shaun. I mean it. You don’t come this way! You hear?”

  I didn’t hear anything for a second.

  “Paw? You there? Bart, let me talk to my dad! Now!”

  “I can’t do that, right now. Listen to me! Stay clear of this area. It's hostile. The animals are feral and extremely dangerous. I repeat. Do not come this way!”

  No reply. “Shaun?” Static.

  I cursed as I wiped the tears from my eyes. This was almost as bad as my mission in Afghanistan. I could feel the tension rise to the surface and take hold of every muscle in my body. More men were heading into danger, and I couldn’t do anything about it.

  Starla sensed the wrongness of my mental state and instinctively came over to me and curled into my lap. Her soothing aura washed over me.

  I sat there for a moment torn between looking for Tony a bit longer and taking the sheriff back to town.

  Shaun’s boat whipped around from one of the cuts. He headed my way full throttle. Thirty seconds later he cut his motor pulling up beside me.

  “Dear God, man!” Shaun yelled at me as he saw the carnage. “What the hell happened?!”

  “Like I said. We were attacked.”

  “What did that to Crochet?! Ain’t no gator did all dat! And where’s Paw?!”

  I knew I couldn’t reason with him in his hysterical condition, “Some wild looking wolf thing did that to Crochet’s arm. When he jumped off the boat a gator bit his leg. A snake bit your dad on the chest just after we killed the gator. He fell into the water a few minutes ago. He still hasn’t surfa…”

  Shaun jumped onto our boat and punched me in the mouth. He grabbed my shirt in both hands and shook me. “What happened to him? Where is he? Why didn’t you do anything? You coward! You bastard!”

  I stood there letting him unload his emotions on me physically. He couldn't hurt me, and I knew he needed this release. He finally let go and started bawling intensely.

  “What happened to Danny and Donnie?” Joe asked me, somehow remaining calm.

  “The same…um…thing, attacked them. Their boat crashed. Um...they haven’t come up since they went down.”

  “What ‘thing’?” Jake asked.

  “Like I said it was like something out of a horror movie or one of those scary video games. I have never seen anything like it. It literally jumped from the bank to the boat, slashed everyone up, then jumped to the other side.”

  “You sound cray cray, but whateva. Shaun and I will stay to look for any survivuhs. You get Crochet back. You know da way?”

  “You can’t stay!” I exclaimed. “That monster is still around here somewhere, and I don’t think any of us can take it on. We need to get back and regroup and get more guns.”

  “You can do what you want,” Shaun fumed as he stood up and got back in my face. He stared in my eyes, his fists clenched ready to swing again. “We’re going to look for Paw!”

  “You don’t underst—!”

  Shaun turned and grabbed his rifle aiming it at my chest, “No! You don’t unduhstand! We’re staying! And dat’s dat.”

  I held my hands up, surrendering. I was looking at two dead men, and I couldn’t do a thing about it.

  “Okay. Okay. Take it easy,” Trembling, I restarted the boat. Tony’s boat. “Do you know where the other boats went?”

  “Steve’s and Ronnie’s boats? Dey wuh on da main channel when we head back dis way. Call em on da radio.” Shaun lowered the rifle and got back on his boat.

  “I’ll be back. I’ll bring help!” I shouted as I eased away.

  Starla finished licking the sheriff’s wounds. She looked at me with a worried expression, cooing softly.

  “It’s okay, girl. We will get back as fast as we can and get help. The Fontenot’s will be fine.”

  I pulled up the GPS map on the console. Tony had a nice Hummingbird depthfinder, and I could see the track we had just taken. I followed the line and kept my eyes peeled for attackers. I saw nothing on either bank or in the water, as if every animal had gone back into whatever hole they crawled out from.

  I grabbed the radio, “Steve. Ronnie. Either of y’all there?”

  No answer. “Steve? Ronnie? Y’all come back now.”

  Great. Another two teams might be down. I couldn’t help but blame myself. I had gotten everyone involved. I led them out to this area; led them right into a trap. Four were dead, one critically wounded, four were missing, not counting my dad, and two were in grave danger. It's all my fault.

  I didn’t know how to use the radio to call for an ambulance. Why didn’t I ask the Fontenot’s how to call emergency personnel?

  Since I had a few minutes until I got to Pierre Part, I figured I could level up. I looked up like I had done before and asked, “Level up!?”

  “Yes.”

  Based on the advice from Murray, I decided to get my constitution up to normal by giving it two of my points, and the last point I put into intelligence. I am a pretty smart guy, but he said intelligence might help me get more points in the future or make it easier to learn new things.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Forgetting my situation for a minute, I allowed myself to grin. I had no idea how to use magic, but I had a gaping wound in my shoulder that needed attention. Unfortunately, I couldn’t heal the sheriff too, because the spell would only work on me. I stretched my right hand back reaching for my shoulder wound then thought intently on healing.

  Nothing happened. In all the movies I had ever watched, magic users said some magic word or phrase like abracadabra, but that was stupid. I thought, Minor Healing. I felt the magic thrumming through my hand going into my shoulder.

  Agony ripped through my shoulder, sharper than the original impact, forcing a scream from my throat.

  I had to stop healing. The pain was intolerable. Feeling around the area wincing, I felt gauze.

  Idiot. Basically, my skin was trying to grow and knit over the bandages and fuze to the gauze!

  I delicately removed the gauze seeing a flashing “Bleed” notification. I promptly thought the phrase Minor Healing again and felt the pulse of energy flow through my hand. It felt a lot like a high-pressure faucet streaming warm water on my hand, and tiny electric shocks like a tinge unit on my shoulder.

  A few seconds later, I felt no more pain in my shoulder, and the “Bleed” notification vanished.

  I had to wait a minute before I could cast, but when my magic was full, I finished healing the shoulder.

  Glancing at my status bars, I noticed I had almost completely filled up my health. I knew the remaining gap in health points had to be from my burn.

  I had a couple of more minutes before I got back to shore, so I asked to view my full lineage sheet and stats.

  Despite my arms burning from the last fight, the kind of ache that lingered even after the adrenaline faded, my stats had gone up. The image of that thing in the swamp hadn’t shrunk from my mind preventing me from enjoying my brief victory.

  “I wish I could get experience some other way,” I mumbled under my breath not really expecting anything. Oddly enough, however, I got a new notification.

  A quest? I could have used a quest earlier! Thanks a lot! Oh well, this one should be pretty easy.

  One name popped into my head immediately.

  Murray had probably never thrown a punch in his life, but he’d spent years maxing out RPG characters, breaking down skill trees, and arguing about optimal builds like it actually mattered. In this region, he was always referred to as the master gamer.

  If this world really worked like a game, then I didn’t need another sword. I needed someone who understood the rules and Murray was my guy. If anyone could keep me from leveling up the wrong stats, it was him.

  I pulled into Bayside Marina and ran inside the store. Old café style tables and chairs were spread along the window. Several ole’ timers sat around, wasting the day away. They stiffened at my approach and just stared at me as I jumped off the boat and ran up the ramp screaming for a phone. “Please! Help! I need a phone! This is an emergency!”

  “What seems to be the trouble, son?” asked an old man with wrinkles upon wrinkles like crumpled up paper.

  “Sheriff Crochet was attacked by a gator. His leg is mangled pretty bad, and I think his shoulder is busted up too!”

  “Let’s have a look see,” said the second old man wearing a dirty t-shirt with an old pearl snap shirt fully unbuttoned over it. He also had on an old-weathered baseball cap and looked like he had been a smoker his whole life white eyebrows, mustache, and beard yellowed from the tar and nicotine.

  “I don’t have time for that! I need a phone to call 911, now!”

  “Now, hold you horses. Hold your horses. I’m not just letting anybod—" the first old man started.

  “I get it! I don’t know you, but please, one of you, let me use your phone. This is an emergency!”

  The second one took out an old iPhone, like a 2nd generation version, and handed it to me. Before he could get the words, “here ya go little fella,” out of his mouth I swiped it and had already dialed 911.

  “911, what’s your emergency?” a soothing voiced lady answered.

  “This is Bart Cash of Pierre Part. I’m at Bayside Marina. I have an injured Sheriff Crochet with me. He got attacked by an alligator. I’m requesting immediate medical attention and a possible Medevac Helicopter.”

  “Ok, honey. It sounds like you’ve been through a ringah. I have an emergency vehicle dispatched your way right now. I’ve also notified the authorities in your area. You said you have Sheriff Crochet with you now?” She somehow remained perfectly calm.

  “Yes ma’am. He’s in the boat right now. He might be in shock.”

  “Is he breathing?”

  “He’s breathing and seems relatively stable. I managed to get the bleeding to stop on both of his wounds, but he’s unconscious.”

  “Were any deputies with him?”

  “Yes ma’am. I don’t know his name, but he was also hurt, and I lost sight of him when he fell in the water. There was also a boat crash, and two more people…I think it was Dorien and Danny...they went overboard. Shaun and Joe Fontenot are out there now looking for their dad.”

  “Goodness! What in the world happened?” Her calmness broke a little after that news.

  “I...I don’t really know. I can't really explain it. All I understand is that the animals in that area have gone completely feral. They are attacking anything and everything. I've never seen anything like it.”

  “Okay, honey. Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. Thanks,” red and blue flashing lights just down the road gave me the signal to get off the phone. “I see the ambulance. Thank you!”

  I handed the phone back to the old timer.

  Starla was waiting for me patiently as I ran back to get her and my things.

  “You ain’t gonna wait ar—?” one of the old guys asked.

  I cut him off, “I have to go get a friend. The sheriff is in the boat. I’ll be right back.”