Emily steadied her nerves for the last excursion before her group would make their way to the System Pillar. She looked to her left and saw Sterling holding a glowing baseball bat and then to her right where Ashlyn was using her senses. They were a married couple who had been lucky enough to both be fused with sapient spores.

“I sense two on the top floor and one on the bottom floor in the apartment closest to us.” Ashlyn had the highest Sense attribute and had proven her worth time and again over the last twelve hours when they met. Since then they had been working hard to help the other residents stuck in their apartments.

“Come on, let’s go.” Sterling said in his typical serious tone.

Emily moved forward with an arrow in hand. She learned how to create arrows that were better designed for throwing. What was in her hand felt like a mix of a dart and a javelin. It would have to do until she found a bow. She knew from watching Jeff that there were basic bows in the Pillar Shop. She wasn’t positive they would be able to purchase things from the shop yet, but that seemed unlikely. Why would they send the Pillars if not for the chance to use them?

They decided to take the bottom level first. They rushed from the courtyard of one apartment building to the next. Emily saw a large 17 on the side of the building as they approached. They ran up to the wide window closest to the parking lot. Unfortunately they couldn’t see anything. Still, they found it was easier to go through the windows than through the doors. It left them open to attacks from outside, but it also allowed them the option to run toward the others who were helping them.

Sterling looked to Ashlyn, “There’s someone in the master bathroom,” she confirmed. He stepped up and slammed his weapon right into the window. Emily kept her eyes peeled for threats as he continued to open up a way for them to enter.

Like most apartments on the bottom floor there were blinds and blackout curtains hanging in front of the window to protect their privacy. Emily called in while Eduardo helped Ashlyn through the window. “Hello! We are here to save you. We are not monsters!”

She waited for a reply, and when nothing came she stepped in after Sterling. Luckily, the windows were only about thigh high and were easy to enter without scraping herself. Her extra points in dexterity also seemed to help.

“We have a group of survivors, we want you to join us so we can all be safe.” She tried again.

“Go away!” a voice growled back from the bathroom. The sound of the voice caused them all to pause. It was feminine, but there was something else to it.

She stepped all the way into the room. The room was very similar to Emily’s. That was one nice thing about cookie-cutter apartments, they were all familiar with the layout of each person's home.

Ashlyn took over the conversation. She was the best at calming down everyone in these situations. “Why do you want us to go away?” she asked.

“Because I’m a monster!” the voice responded.

“What kind of monster?” Ashlyn asked without skipping a beat. She just wanted the person locked in the bathroom to use reason. Emily kept her senses focused on any dangers that might interrupt them.

“I- I don’t know, but I’m not human. Just go away!”

“Is your skin glowing?” Emily called out.

“What? No.”

“Then you might be more human than me,” she hoped that knowing she wasn’t alone would help the girl come around. “Come on. We aren’t leaving without you and you don’t want to miss out on the best chance of survival.”

There was a long pause where the girl was deciding. After it had gone on long enough Ashlyn spoke up again. “What’s your name?”

“Jessica,” the reply came in a small voice. She was obviously on the verge of breaking down.

“Can you open the door Jessica?” Ashlyn continued with a calm, but commanding voice. “We don’t want to break down the door.”

Ashlyn was good at saying threats without them sounding like threats. It was more like she was just informing you of the regrettable inevitable. Emily had the thought to add that skill to her mothering repertoire… which she may never be able to use again.

Focus, Emily thought to herself.

The door began to open and Emily turned toward it. She had to move herself to the side to finally get a look at the…unfortunate girl.

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Oh, that was bad.

Jessica had undergone many more changes than she had. Whatever spore she had fused with had reconstructed her face with tusks and a large nose. Her hands and feet also seemed abnormally big for a human. She looked like an orc, but not one of the cute looking versions.

“I’m hideous…” she said around the tusks.

Ashlyn didn’t try to deny it, “it’s okay,” she said. “At least you're alive. Were you here alone?”

“Yes. My boyfriend left right after the Pillars dropped. He said he had to go check on his family. I didn’t have a car, and- and- and now this.” Jessica melted down in Ashlyn’s arms.

She looked to Emily meaningfully. Emily placed a hand on the girl and used her Induce Sleep ability. Jessica soon fell limp. She had unfortunately gotten a lot of practice with the skill today.

Sterling stepped forward and picked the girl up. He had gone for a strength build and it had really come in handy. Emily could see the benefit of focusing on physical stats earlier than later. Having the strength to break down doors and carry people seemed useful. She had left all of that to Strai’Ze so far, but she was keeping notes for the future. Sterling stepped out of the window with barely any indication that he was holding a limp human in his arms.

Could you give me a bit more Strength with my next level up? she asked Strai’Ze as she followed.

“Of course, I think that’s a good idea,” it replied. “Having more physical stats will help a lot during the next few days. After that you will probably do better with-”

Strai’Ze was cut off by the sound of shattering glass. A large figure crashed down on Sterling’s back causing him to tumble on top of Jessica. The sounds that came from their fall alarmed Emily. There were normal noises and then there were the ones that made a mother dash across the house to make sure their kid didn’t give themselves a concussion. This was that kind of noise.

Emily hadn’t fully exited Jessica’s apartment. Still, she hurled the arrow as hard as she could from her awkward stance. The arrow drove into the back of the monster. It arched up off of Sterling and turned to face her.

“Stop!” Yelled a voice from the window above.

The monster froze just in time for Emily to throw another arrow right through its chest. The monster cried out in agony and so did the voice from the window above. She hadn’t seen them yet, but her senses had already locked on to the person standing there.

“Stop!” the voice cried again. This time Emily felt the power coming from the command. She was able to shrug off the weak ability, but it still caused her to pause. Luckily, the monster looked like it was going to die anyway. It wasn’t nearly as high leveled and other monsters she had faced today. Two arrows would do the job.

“Stop,” the voice cried out with hysterical desperation, “that’s my wife!”

Emily finally looked up to see the man hanging out the window.

“I was able to control her!” The man pleaded.

Ashlyn, who had moved to use her Healing Touch ability on Sterling responded, “She jumped out the window and attacked my husband! That’s not control. Emily put it to sleep.”

Emily reached down and induced the monster wife.

“Is- is she dead?” the blonde haired man said. “I’m coming down there. Don’t touch her!” He disappeared into the house and Emily could sense his desperate movements toward the door near the middle of the building.

Sterling stood up with a wince and thanked his wife. “I’m going to get Jessica to Eduardo and the others,” he said. “Should I bring backup?”

Ashlyn shook her head, but pulled her husband down for another kiss before he picked up Jessica and left for the others. That left Ashlyn and Emily standing over the sleeping monster with two arrows through its torso.

“Can you heal her?” Emily asked.

“Not sure, honestly,” Ashly looked incredulous, “I’ve never tried healing a monster.”

“Let’s at least stop her from dying until we can talk to her husband.”

Ashlyn looked worried, but still moved toward the monster. “This is probably a bad idea. Even if he can control her… he already lost control in a bad way.”

Emily forced her light arrows to disappear right as a golden glow surrounded Ashlyns hands healing the monster wife.

“Get away from her!” The man rounded the corner just as Ashlyn finished with the weak healing ability she had.

The ensuing conversation went about as Emily expected it to. The man kept freaking out, they kept trying to calm him down, and Ashlyn kept healing the monster against her better judgment. The man, Brandon, promised that he could control his wife, Emily would point out how he already hadn’t and people had been injured because of it. Ultimately though, Emily and Ashlyn didn’t have the heart to do anything about it. They had already decided to heal the unfortunate woman and neither of them would hurt her while she was sleeping and her husband was right there.

“Here’s the deal, Brandon,” Emily said, putting on her metaphorical manager hat. “The two of you can’t join our group of survivors. We are heading to the Pillar by the church and I honestly don’t trust her to not attack us again while we are out in the open.”

Emily paused for a moment feeling the guilt of her decision weighing on her. “If…if you make it there on your own, then we can probably help you. I’m sure there is a place where you can stay that is protected but not necessarily right next to us at the church. Just wait for us to get there first so we can vouch for you. Now, get inside before none of this matters.”

Emily and Ashlyn turned and dashed back to their unofficial headquarters in an apartment two buildings back. That was their last building and Emily was exhausted enough that using induce sleep on herself was sounding like a really good idea.