Suzie ran as hard as she could. Her legs were tired, and her body ached. She felt like she had been running all day, and in fact, that was not too far from the truth.
The twenty-six-year-old woman was visiting her family in the small town in the middle of nowhere. To say Suzie’s relationship with her parents was estranged was an understatement. When Suzie turned 18, she moved to California in the hope of getting her big break in the movie business. That choice was not something her very religious parents had approved of.
In truth, Suzie, like so many of her peers, really didn’t have a plan or idea of what they wanted to be or do with their life. She just knew she had to get out of the small town if she wanted to figure it out. Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles Suzie learned how expensive everything was. Even though she had a few successful commercials ads, and some ‘extra’ work, it was hard to get by. Her original awe at the industry quickly faded after multiple ‘auditions’ that just turned out to be attempts at getting her to do porn. She had nothing against the industry, but it wasn’t what she wanted.
It took a few years and several failed relationships, but Suzie had finally met someone, and they decided to move in together six months ago. Both worked one or more jobs and still they struggled to survive and make ends meet in the city. She would call her parents every so often, but they just didn’t understand her, so the calls home became fewer and fewer. When they would call her, she would say she was busy or working and let them go quickly.
She did love her parents; they just didn’t understand how things were now. They were strong in their faith, and it was clear they loved each other very much. Suzie just could not get them to understand how dating was and how the world worked now.
“No, my little Suzie-cue! The world only works that way if we allow it!” Suzie’s father would tell her all the time.
To which her typical response would be to roll her eyes and say, “Okay dad.”
Both of her parents were loved in their small-town community as well. Her father was a doctor, and her mom was a part-time schoolteacher. Her mom kept the household and finances, with it she had invested well, and they were able to both retire early. Retirement for them only meant they could be more active in their church and community, both giving back as much as they could.
They did not approve of her moving in with her boyfriend. Her parents never admonished her, but rather just expressed concerns about settling for less than she deserved. Suzie did not tell them why she had come home to visit. They could tell something was wrong, but they did not push. Instead, they did what they could and welcomed her home with open arms and her mom did her typical country mom response. “Sweetie, you look like skin and bones. Sit down and let mamma fix you somethin’ to eat.”
Suzie didn’t have the heart to tell her parents they were right. She had come home early, only to catch her boyfriend in bed with her best friend in LA. A part of her had wanted to resort to violence, as her father and older brother both had served in the military and made a point to teach her survival skills. Heck her own mother taught her how to use a bow so she could go hunting with the family when she was young. Suzie knew how to handle herself as a true country girl. In this instance, however, her heart hurt too much to even bother beating the crap out of them. She just grabbed her keys, hopped into her car, and drove straight to her parents’ house, only stopping to use the restroom, fill up the tank, and grab snacks along the way.
That was how she ended up in her small hometown when the apocalypse came. She was sitting down at the table for an early morning breakfast her mom was making. Her older brother, his wife, and their twins Matt and Micah had just arrived for a visit. The reason, according to her brother, was so the two eight-year-olds could get quality time with their auntie while she was in town. In truth, her brother wanted to know what happened and whose face and rear-end he needed to rearrange.
They had all just started digging into the amazing food her mom had just made, when her whole family disappeared in flashes of bright light. Then the words appeared in front of her vision and a voice echoed in her mind. The apocalypse had come. Her family had been saved, but she was now left alone to figure out how to survive.
The system gifted to everyone left reminded Suzie of the role-playing games, or RPGs, several of her boyfriends had played. She was no stranger to them either but found it best not to make them look bad. To say her exes were not the sharpest tool in the shed was an understatement. Suzie’s problem was her like of pretty boys. Other than the lack of good conversation and the fact that it was darn near impossible to build a life with a moron, her biggest dating issue was that most of her exes ended up being one narcissist after the other.
One thing she learned about narcissists, you can’t be better than they are at anything, otherwise they make you suffer for it. So, she played dumb as best she could, but now that it was the apocalypse, she could not risk falling for another evil person. Even though her heart was recently stomped on, she focused on the problems at hand. Suzie decided she would lean into her RPG skills and learn as quickly as she could what this system could do.
Suzie reviewed her Status page.
Name: Suzie
Race: In Transition
Level: 1
Strength: 8
Dexterity: 18
Constitution: 16
Intelligence: 13
Wisdom: 6
Charisma:17
Spiritual Attunement: Unaligned
Core Stage: Not Formed
Spiral Stage: Not Formed
Health, Mana, Stamina Values & Regen Rates per hour (pH)
HP: 40
HP/pH: 5
MP: 33
MP/pH: 18
SP: 145
SP/pH: 48
Congratulations! You have earned one perk and based on your stats one spell or stamina-based skill.
“Well, my agility and reflexes are pretty good since I have such a high Dexterity. Guess that comes from stretching and running every day. My Constitution is high as well. Must be from all the yoga, exercise, and healthy eating. Intelligence not bad, Wisdom is kind of low, maybe that explains my poor choice in men. Lastly, my Charisma is good, that should help with interacting with other survivors.” Suzie summarized as she thought about what kind of ‘build’ would play to her current strengths.
Suzie decided to choose the Weak Point Detection skill first. She was already skilled at hand axe and knife throwing thanks to her father and brother’s training. It only made sense for her to lean into that skill set.
Weak Point Detection
Description: Sharpen your eye to find and exploit weakness in an enemy.
Passive effect: Naturally gain insight into an enemy’s weak spots, increasing your chances of inflicting a critical strike.
Active effect: Expend stamina to have weak point areas on an enemy highlight or glow to make it easier to hit.
It took Suzie some time to decide on her perk. In the end, she decided to embrace this new RPG like world and chose a perk that allowed her to change her race to Wood Elf. This gave her a racial perk called Elven Precision.
Elven Precision
Description: Elves are known for their quick reflexes and graceful movements. This racial characteristic grants them increased accuracy in both ranged and melee attacks. Minor decrease in costs on Stamina based skills and actions.
Susie screamed as her whole body contorted and began heating up. She could feel muscles tearing and bones breaking, only to be reformed a new. What felt like agonizing hours passed, but it was only a few minutes. She came to lying on the floor, blood and other bodily fluids lay in a puddle everywhere around her.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
The scream had apparently drawn attention to her. As she stood there on shaky legs, a banging was being made on the door. Suzie grabbed a few nearby kitchen knives just as the door burst open. A short green skinned figure with an axe charged straight at her.
Without even thinking, Suzie threw one of the blades she had in her hands. The blade flew true and in a blink was buried handle deep into what her System identified as a level 4 goblin. The moment the goblin dropped dead on the floor another goblin charged in club raised.
Seeing a steak knife on the table she stood next to, Suzie grabbed it with her free-hand and chucked right at the oncoming goblin. The blade flew true as well, once again burying itself up to the hilt into the goblin’s skull. That was two dead.
Suzie did not get a breather or even a chance to take a moment. A third goblin appeared in the doorway and charged at her. Again, with lightning quick reflexes she grabbed another steak knife and took out the third and final goblin.
Rushing to the kitchen door, Suzie did a quick look outside. Further down the street she saw more goblins checking houses and doors. She ducked her head back in and then proceeded to drag the two goblin corpses by the doorway further inside her house. Once the bodies were clear of the door, she shut it.
The latch was broken on the door, so Suzie ran to the kitchen table and pushed as hard as she could. The solid oak table slowly moved towards the back door. Once the table was firmly blocking the door from being opened again, Suzie slumped to the floor. She wasn’t safe yet, but she had a moment to review her notifications and get cleaned up.
“Ugh! I smell awful! I’m so taking a shower, goblins, or no goblins.” Suzie said as she tried to multitask, reading her notifications while taking a quick shower.
Congratulations! You have killed a level 4 goblin. You gained +125 experience.
Congratulations! You have killed a level 4 goblin. You have gained +125 experience.
Congratulations! You have killed a level 5 goblin. You have gained +150 experience.
Congratulations! For killing multiple enemies of dark alignment in quick succession and leveling up within the first few hours of the apocalypse you have gained the achievement and title Skillful Hunter.
Title: Skillful Hunter
Description: Within the first few hours of the apocalypse, be one of the first in your area to kill enough dark aligned creatures to level up using your natural talents and skills. Those who adapt quickly to this new world reap the benefits. +4 stat point per level gained after obtaining this title.
Level up! Congratulations! You are now level 2! As a wood elf you gain +6 stat points per level. With your Skillful Hunter title, you have a total of +10 stat points to distribute.
Suzie was sure glad she had selected the Weak Point Detection skill. Without thinking about it her new wood elf mind used the skill in tandem with her racial perk to easily pinpoint and strike critical killing blows on her attackers.
Her quick shower over she was dressed in some form fitting yet comfortable gear that gave her good range of motion. She grabbed her father’s weapons belt and leg straps. This allowed her to equip and carry multiple hand axes, small blades, and a few handguns to her waist and legs. She threw on a hoodie to help keep her warm and cover her now pointy ears. That done she snagged her dad’s rifle, all the ammo she could find, and grabbed her compound bow, quiver along with holster and a backpack.
“These goblins are about to meet a true country girl!” Suzie declared.
She wanted to pay back these goblin invaders from daring to come into her hometown. “Wait when did I get so possessive of this place?” Suzie asked before she answered herself. “The moment I had to defend it.”
Even with that drive to fight, Suzie used the upstairs windows to do some scouting. Her parents had regularly commented on how each room upstairs faced a different direction, giving you a 360-degree view of the town, they so loved. Careful poking her head up and doing what she could to remain unseen, she checked each cardinal direction.
The goblins seemed to be coming from both the southwest and southeast direction into town. A handful could be seen slowly making their way deeper into town, but her scouting confirmed the northern direction was completely clear. This left Suzie with a choice, to make her way out of the town and into the forest north before the goblins closed in around her or bunker in and take a stand.
Doing one more headcount on the number of goblins she could see, Suzie realized one simple fact. She might’ve killed three of the bastards easily enough, but she doubted she could take on the over thirty goblins attacking her from all sides. She had to flee. Perhaps she could find a well-built cabin to hunker down in and figure out a plan.
Just as Suzie was about to head downstairs, she heard gunshots. She turned and saw Old Man Jones shooting at the nearby goblins with his assault rifle.
“Come get some you green skinned demons! I’m gonna send you back to the hell you came from!” Old Man Jones declared.
“Crap. I can’t just let him die. My parents loved that old coot.” Suzie cursed as she booked it downstairs and headed for the door.
Several goblins were running towards the old man. Several shots could be heard, and more goblins dropped dead. “Yea that’s right, come get some ya little ugly bastards!” Old Man Jones roared.
Suzie noticed a few goblin archers taking up positions. One was almost at an angle to flank the crazy old man. She drew her bow, activated her Weak Point Detection skill, knocked an arrow, and fired. The arrow flew true and took the goblin archer right in the throat.
The goblin archer fell from his perch catching both Old Man Jones and a few nearby goblins’ attention.
“Nice shot Darling! I remember when you won the Archery State Championship. Your parents were so proud.” Old Man Jones yell out to her as he took a step further from his spot on his porch.
In his distraction a goblin archer hit Old Man Jones in the shoulder causing him to drop his assault rifle. “Son of a...” Old man Jones cursed as he fell back trying to take cover.
Suzie paid the archer back for his transgression with an arrow to the back of the head.
More goblins were making their way up the town’s streets, coming from the south. Suzie bolted towards Old Man Jones’s house. One of the downed goblins apparently wasn’t dead yet and lunged for Suzie as she was passing by. Completely caught off guard she could only watch as the goblin’s dagger was heading straight for her stomach.
BANG! BANG!
Two bullets hit the goblin twisting the body and giving Suzie the precious space to dodge the attack. The goblin dropped to the ground dead. Suzie looked towards the sound of the gunshots and saw Old Man Jones holding his 9MM. “Little bastard was playing dead.”
Old Man Jones leaded against his door showing clear signs of fatigue and injury. Suzie helped him maintain his balance when she reached him.
“Good to see ya darling.”
“You too Mr. Jones. Let me take a look at that wound.” Suzie greeted, as she began to inspect the injury.
“It’s nothing darling. Just give me a couple shots of whiskey and I’ll be right as rain.”
“Nonsense. Let me patch you up. Then we gotta get out of here. All that noise is attracting more goblins.” Suzie said as she withdrew some gauze from one of her first aid kits in her backpack.
In mere minutes she had his shoulder bandaged and gained a skill for her efforts.
Skill Obtained: Healing (Mundane)
Healing (Mundane)
Description: Rare is the healer that can save someone’s life without the use of magic. +25% increased chance to treat injury and illness to save a patient’s life.
“I remember when you would work at your father’s practice and go with him on house calls. You always had a gift with healing darlin.” Old Man Jones commented as he moved his injured shoulder.
“What was that Sir?” Suzie asked.
She was a bit distracted by the notification and then the rush of memories as she recalled all the time, she worked alongside her father to be his personal nurse. ‘Why hadn’t I pursued a life in medicine? I used to love helping people feel better.’
“I said, you got a gift for healin. Now help me with my things so we can get out of here.” Old Man Jones said as he gestured to the duffel bag near the door.
Suzie helped the man who had to be in his 70s put the strap over his other uninjured shoulder so he could carry the bag.
She put Old Man Jones’s arm over her shoulder to help him lean on her as she headed north out of town.
That had all happened hours ago. They both were exhausted, and it was getting dark.
“I’m sorry Sir but I can’t keep going. We have been running for hours. My body is about to collapse, and you don’t look much better.” Suzie exhaled as she leaned up against a tree.
“Call me Jebediah, or Jeb for short. Ya earned it for helping me get outta town. Plus, I can’t forget you helped fix up my injured shoulder. There are a few hunting cabins up ahead. We can wait out the evening and get some sleep in one of the ones close by. Then in the morning we should head to my old war buddy’s compound several miles deep into the forest.” Jebediah stated.
“Compound? What are you talking about Mr Jones... I mean Jeb.” Suzie said the last part after Jeb raised an eyebrow at her formality.
“You haven’t been back for years Suzie. Seven years ago, my war buddy Paul, you might remember him...”
“Kind of.” Suzie answered unsure.
“Well anyway, Paul bought a bunch of land for cheap from the town up north deep in the forest. He then proceeded to build a bunker compound. The man was a genius. Paul said he built the place to survive the apocalypse.” Jebediah continued.
“That sounds like a good destination. How are we going to get in if he built it so well?” Suzie asked.
“That’s the easy part. Paul left it to a hunting friend of ours, a young gentleman who was like a son to him. Good man who was always respectful to us old timers. He would listen for hours to use droll on about past experiences. He stopped by several days ago to say hi and let me know he would be up there for a week or more. Goes by the name of Shadow, he was some kind of gamer, we called him that cause he was always our shadow everywhere we went. If he’s still alive we can hole up there.” Jebediah explained.
“Sounds like a good plan to me. My memory of this forest is starting to come back to me. One of my ex-boyfriend’s had a place nearby. His cabin should be up this road. I know where he used to hide the spare key.” Suzie stated as she realized how close they were to Duncan’s place.
“Lead the way darling.”
A few minutes later they were walking up the driveway to her ex-boyfriend Duncan’s place.
“Who goes there?! I got my guns! Don’t think ye got a chance trying to loot me!” A nervous voice called out of one of the cabin windows.
“Duncan?! Is that you? It’s Suzie!”
“Suzie?! Yea right! Suzie moved away years ago! Now get off my property!” Duncan called out.
“I came back home a few days ago! Now quit being an ass Duncan Donuts and come help a lady and Old Man Jones!” Suzie got another side eye from Jeb. “I mean Jebediah!”
“Suzie-cue?! It is you! Hold on a sec, I’ll be right out!” Duncan called out, clear recognition in his voice.
Suzie and Jeb heard a latch, and several bolts were unlocked before the front door swung open revealing Duncan. The man was easily two meters tall and had the look of a linebacker. Which made sense, as that was what he was in high school, they were state champions thanks to his skills on the field. The boy was built like a tank, but his friends called him Duncan Donuts because he would never pass up a donut, he loved them. He wasn’t the smartest and probably took one too many blows to the head, but he was notorious for being able to take a hit and shrug it off like it was nothing.
Duncan’s eyes lit up seeing his old friend and past girlfriend. He ran out of his house, closed the distance in an instant, and picked up Suzie in a big ole bear hug. “It’s good to see ya again Suzie-cue! I missed ya!”
Trying hard to breathe, Suzie wheezed out, “Let... me down ya big oof!”
Duncan put his friend down and rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. “Sorry about that Suzie-cue. I just got excited to see ya. It’s been years and everything has gone all crazy. Poor Pookie vanished in a flash this mornin and then all these words showed up in my vision.”
“Pookie?” Jebediah asked.
“His dog.” Suzie answered.
“Ah, yea my Duke vanished in a flash too.” Jebediah put his hand on Duncan’s shoulder. “It’s for the best my boy, you wouldn’t want them living through this nightmare.”
Duncan sniffled. He always got sad thinking about his dog being gone. The big man just nodded and led them inside. “Come on in. It’ll be a bit tight, but I’ll make room. You two eaten anything?”
“Not since this morning.” Suzie answered as her stomach growled at the reminder of food.
“Same. Been a bit distracted since.” Jebediah commented.