The attitude in the room was one of grim determination as we weighed our options. Pam sat in front of me, her crossbow resting on the table between us. This time the point of the bolt wasn’t pointing at me. It’s the little things.

“This is a crazy idea,” said Jack, shaking his head as he walked. He had been pacing back and forth for the last five minutes and it was starting to get on my nerves.

“We’re safe enough here, and even if we leave this defensible position to try to break into the VIP section, we have no idea what we’ll find. It’s better to stay and wait this out.. whatever this is.”

I set down my empty beer glass with a bang and leaned back, regarding him with what I hoped was a patience I didn’t feel.

“What part of ‘Catastrophic level event’ seems like the type of thing you can just wait out?” I asked him, arching a brow.

“You want safety, and I get that. But the reality is that we’re on a moving ship in the middle of the Apocolypse. We don’t know where we’re going or how fast the ship is moving. Our first step has to be reclaiming control of the ship, and there is only one way to do that.”

Jack shook his head again, raking a hand through his hair. The others watched in silence. Most had agreed with me, but both Jack and Garret seemed reluctant to leave the false safety of the buffet area.

“Alright,” he said. “Let’s say we managed to fight our way to the VIP elevator and use that,” he gestured to the VIP key card that now lay on the table between us. “To get inside. What’s to stop that Hive Lord asshole from killing the lot of us. He’s level 13 for fucks sake, that’s higher than the lot of us together. Are you telling me that you have some sort of master plan to deal with him?”

I exchanged a look with Nat who fought a smile. Jack threw up his hands.

“Unbelievable.”

“Well, I for one want to hear what he has in mind.” Pam folded her muscular arms across her chest and raised a brow.

“Shoot.”

I opened my inventory, something I still wasn’t quite used to, and selected a Molotov cocktail. When I slapped it down on the table Pam’s eyebrows rose so high they nearly escaped her forehead altogether.

She whistled.

“Fire? Shit, it might work but not before the ship went down in flames. You have some sort of contingency plan or are you just expecting all of us to swim to shore?”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” I said carefully, glancing at Garret. The Water Mage let out a groan and rubbed his face.

“How did I know I’d end up being in the thick of this.” He sighed. “Fine, I’ll hear you out. But I make no promises.”

I smiled and laced my fingers together. I had the attention of the room, and I planned to use it.

“So, it’s like this,” I said, starting my monologue just like my Uncle Vinny used to when he was telling a story that had everyone hooked.

“I have three of these bad boys, and I know how and when to use them. The bug bastards are armored and hard to kill – we know that already. What they aren’t is flameproof.” That was my best guess anyway,

“What we need is an edge,” I continued. “The chance to control the field and catch them off guard. It’s what they did to us – so we’ll cram their own tactics back down their throats.”

Pam was already nodding, her face set in a determined grin.

“Lure them into a trap and strike fast and hard, I like it. The only problem is… she glanced from the Moltov cocktail sitting on the table between us and up to Garret. The water Mage was looking a little green.

“Look, I don’t have a lot of control,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “There isn’t any guarantee that I can control the blaze and-“

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“You wouldn’t be alone.”

Rob rounded the counter and he was holding something red in his hands. Even Pam looked a bit doubtful.

“I don’t think a single fire extinguisher is much of a fail-safe.”

Rob shook his head. “Not for the main blaze, no. But cruise ships are built with fire hazards in mind. There are fire doors that can shut and compartmentalize the ship not to mention the water sprinkler system – which is generally automatic.”

There was a brief silence where we all blinked at him. Rob adjusted his glasses on his nose.

“What? I get nervous about sea travel. You can never be too careful.”

All eyes turned from him to Jack who glanced at Pam and sighed.

“Fine, I’m in. Better to die fighting than to die in an all-you-can-eat buffet.”

With that, the decision had been made. I watched the others make preparations and placed the Molotov Cocktail I had crafted back in my inventory. There was another reason I was pushing to go after the Hive Lord, but I knew better than to share that fact.

Still, If I was going to survive in this new reality then I’d have to learn more about how this system worked. I rose, grabbing my spear and heading for the door with the others.

“Our first objective needs to be finding a map of the ship,” I said. “Anyone got any ideas?”

“I think I saw one by the elevator on the floor below,” Nat gestured downward with her cleaver. I nodded.

“Then that’s a start.”

Pam and I went first, followed closely by Rob and Nat. When I pushed open the door to the buffet and stuck my head out I expected to see enemies, but the hallway beyond was silent. The only sign that the Hive had been here was the few bodies stacked in the corner, as well as a thick trail of blue goo.

“Looks like there was a fight,” said Jack, gesturing with his chin towards the bodies. We was right. One of them, a kid that looked to be no older than sixteen had been holding a dagger that looked like it had been spawned in with his class.

I blew out a breath and turned away. Another kid that would never graduate high school – and all because of this goddamn Apocalypse.

“There’s a trail,” I said pointing to the smear of blue blood trailing down the hall toward the elevator. The doors were shut and the trail ended at a Hive Warrior, fetched up against the wall. At first glance, I assumed he was dead.

But as our party approached he opened his ant-like eyes and peered up at us. Pam came to a halt, her bow trained on the warrior. But I strode past her, lifting my spear and fully intending to end the bastard's life here and now.

“Wait!”

At first I thought the sound had came from one of the others. I half turned my head and that’s when I saw the expressions on their faces as they gazed past me to the half-dead bug man. I gaped at him in surprise.

“You kiddin’ me?” I said. “You assholes talk?”

The Hive warrior opened and closed his mandibles and then nodded his head.

“Some of us speak your language,” he said, his speech slow and halting. “We were taught by the system. To prepare for…”

Blue blood trickled down the side of his face. I scowled.

“To prepare for the invasion,” I guessed. “So you could slaughter us like pigs. You cowards.”

The warrior made a noise in his throat that sounded something between a cough and a laugh.

“Your people are no more than chattel to the System. Every race must pay their tithe to Gods, and yours is no exception. You will learn soon enough. If your race survives extinction that is.”

He made another chittering sound that made me want to grind my teeth.

I lifted my spear.

“I’ve heard enough of this,” I growled but to my frustration, someone rested a hand on my arm. It was Nat. I opened my mouth to tell her to get out of my way, but she surprised me by squatting in front of the dying warrior.

“Your people may have prayed on dying worlds In the past but the day the system chose Earth, it made a mistake.” Her voice was low and menacing and I watched as she rolled the handle of the cleaver over in her hands.”

“You had time to prepare, to calculate how you would attack and when. You caught humanity off guard but believe me when I say it will be the last time. Humans are like cockroaches. Once we infest a place, we’re damn hard to kill and we are legion. There were 7 billion of us when you first arrived. Just how many do you think are left?”

The warrior tilted his head, mandibles clicking in annoyance.

“It doesn’t matter,” it said. “The System extinguishes worlds. There is no stopping the integration. Once it’s begun, your race will fall. First comes the cities and those in power, then comes the land, dead and dying. Then-“

“You ever heard of baseball?” I interrupted. The bug man appeared to frown, antennae twitching.

“What-“

I flipped the spear until I was holding it like a baseball bat and, in a move I had perfected in high school I hit that bastard’s head like a perfect pitch. The staff of the spear made a resounding thud as it struck and to my surprise the warrior's head came clean off, rolling down carpet where it came to a stop fifteen feet away.

Garret made a noise in his throat that sounded like a whimper. But Nat’s face was cold as she gave me a nod. Jack however looked troubled as he stared at the headless carcass.

“He said they’ve been planning the invasion,” he said, voice catching. “That the major cities would be the first to fall.”

“Now we know it wasn’t isolated,” said Pam, lifting her bow. “This is happening all around the world.”

There was a grim silence in which our party contemplated the implications. I was the first to speak.

“This changes nothing,” I said. “We still have our objective, and if the clock is any indication we have only forty minutes to pull this off.”

Sure enough the timer was ticking steadily downward in the corner of my vision.

Just then there was a boom from somewhere up above, a shower if dust raining from the ceiling of the hallway. Pam glanced up, and grimaced.

“What the hell was that?”