Emily’s arrows winked out as she accepted the reward and the room fell into near darkness. A stream of light shone through the crack in the wall the monster had made. The monster dissolved into glittering Myst and the small beam of light grew slightly larger.

Left behind as a Myst reward was a hand that was stuck halfway through the wall.

Nausea suddenly overwhelmed her and she threw up into the bathtub. She had just killed another human. She knew it was a monster and that it was going to kill her, but still…the images wouldn’t leave her mind.

Just do the next important thing, she told herself.

She wiped her mouth and moved over to the now empty hole in the wall. She needed to get to the man on the other side and check for wounds. First she turned on the bathroom light and threw the hand into her drawstring bag. It would be worth twenty-four merit points. Those points could feed the other survivors for a day.

Then she went to town trying to rip open a larger hole. It took her a few minutes to create a hole large enough to squeeze herself through. Then she rushed to the man who was slumped on the floor next to their bathtub.

She remembered her training from getting CPR certified and checked the man for vital signs. She could tell he was still breathing, but blood was pouring from a wound on his head. She grabbed the towel hanging nearby and pressed it against the wound. It didn’t seem like a life-threatening wound, but she didn’t know when he would wake up from such a blow.

She reached out with her senses to see if their battle had attracted any other unwanted guests. Now that she trusted her senses more it came easier to her. She couldn’t feel anything in the house, but there was one large monster outside. The strength of the monster terrified her. It took her a moment to realize it was one of the trees outside. She kept her focus on it for a while until she noticed that it didn’t seem to move at all. She would have to check that out later.

Her neighbor started to stir and her attention returned to him. He let out a groan and opened his eyes.

“Gabriela,” he said, still dazed. The first words from his mouth were his wife’s name. Emily felt for the man. Then his eyes went wide as he noticed she wasn’t Gabriela. “What the…”

“I’m your neighbor, Emily,” she said in a calming tone.

“Monster?” He said and tried moving away from her.

She realized that most humans didn’t have glowing freckles and a tail. She guessed she probably did look a bit like a monster. She hoped the man would recognize her calm demeanor and come to his senses.

“No, I’m…human,” she said without confidence. She added, “I’m not a monster. I killed the one that broke through my wall. I’m your neighbor on that side.”

Emily kept pressure on her neighbor's wound as he glanced around and came to his senses a bit more. “Gabriela…” the man’s voice caught and tears welled up in his eyes, “Gabriela is gone?”

“Yes.” Emily said simply. She tried to avoid eye contact with the man. “What’s your name?” She asked, trying to keep him from melting down.

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“What?”

“What’s your name?” She repeated.

“Eduardo,” he said.

“Do you know which way the monster came from? How did it get into your house?” Emily wanted to make sure they weren’t attacked out of the blue.

He tried shaking his head, then winced at the movement. “Here,” Emily continued, “keep pressure right there.” She placed his hand on the towel as he began sitting up. He was going to be okay. Emily jumped up to her feet and began scouting the apartment.

Light was shining in from the windows now as the sun was starting to rise. She wasn’t sure how long she slept in the bathtub, but it was still early morning. She quickly noticed the busted open front door. Through it she could see another open door on the other side of the second storey landing.

Had the monster come from there? It was level 8 so it probably killed a few others before moving to this apartment. Still, she felt she needed to check for any survivors. The time for cuddling up into a ball was over. Those who had fused couldn’t just sit back and wait while the monsters got stronger.

She pumped herself up and then moved to the open doorway. She scanned the area both visually and spiritually. She didn’t see anything. Well…besides the big tree that still felt weird to her. It was far enough away that it shouldn’t be able to interact so she dashed across the landing and into the other apartment.

The apartment was a mess. There were definite signs of fighting. There was a knife on the ground and one of the kitchen chairs had been broken. It was weird to see signs of violence without any blood.

The way Myst interacted with the world was still strange to her. She was just glad that all the wood in their building wasn’t dissolving away. It hadn’t been alive to become infused with Myst. Enough of the Chosen had asked questions about that to confirm non-infused materials would last. However, anything from paper to food would soon be used up. It made them even more dependent on the System Pillars. She really needed to make her way to one as soon as possible.

She checked each room, first spiritually and then visually to make sure no one was there. The fact that there wasn’t made her feel nauseous again, but she forced herself to move on.

She returned back to Eduardo. He had removed the towel and was checking his wound in the mirror. It was still bleeding, if less than before.

“Keep pressure on the wound,” She reminded him. “Do you have a first aid kit or do I need to grab mine?”

“Uh, yeah,” he said and pointed toward the top of the bathroom cupboard. Emily found gauze and a bandage and began wrapping the head wound. She knew she should probably check for signs of a concussion, but she wasn’t a doctor. They would just have to do the best they could with what they had.

She should probably be suggesting leveling up and abilities rather than seeing a doctor anyway. The world was now ‘magical’ afterall.

“What kind of spore did you fuse with?” She asked.

“It hasn’t spoken to me yet,” he said, “but I got a screen saying I needed to head to a System Pillar for help with the spore. It said the spore was only semi-sapient.” His eyes showed the worry he had. “Gabri…Gabriela had a dormant spore. We knew she would… There was no way she would make it through the day.”

With his head finally wrapped Eduardo leaned heavily onto the bathroom counter. “I thought I would die too,” he continued, “I…I probably should have. I’m not sure I can be of any help.”

“No,” Emily said. “I know it’s hard, but don’t give up. Do you have kids?” Eduardo nodded. “Then don’t stop trying to be there for them.” The defeat in his eyes only grew darker. They still had no clue what it would take for them to leave the planet.

“You can do what it takes to make it through today. Then we’ll see about tomorrow.” Emily said.

Eduardo looked up with tears in his eyes. “Okay. I can do that.”

“Good, cause we have work to do.”