Blix flicked the reins and turned her attention back to Alf, who was sitting deliciously close to her, right arm wrapped protectively around her waist.

Horses, it turned out, if given a choice, tended to stay as far away from the edge of a cliff as possible. Since their only choice was a hundred foot drop-off on the left or a rocky wall on the right, she was pretty much an expert driver.

“What are we going to do with all these players?” Alf’s eyes were glued to the edge of the trail, his voice tight. “What if they send an army after us? There aren’t that many places we can go with a wagon. What if they have hunting dogs?”

“Relax,” she said. “We’ll be fine. Jane’s aliens are a noobs.”

“But we don’t have the keys to the shackles. We can’t just leave them for the wolves.”

“Seriously,” she said. “You need to relax. We’ll figure something out. But first we need to figure out how to get you to the next level.”

“But…”

“How much EXP till you reach level six?”

Alf’s eyes took on a far away look. I’m at 15/2800.”

“Wait… Wasn’t that what you were at this morning?”

“Yeah, I…” He went back to staring at the edge of the cliff.

“After all that fighting… you didn’t manage to kill a single guard?”

“They’re people, not monsters.”

“They’re aliens,” she said. “Aliens that invaded our planet. Aliens that are trying to kill you.”

“But I can’t kill the actual aliens, now can I?” Alf pierced her with a look. “I would have had to kill the innocent humans the aliens were controlling. The aliens wouldn’t have been hurt at all. They would have just gone off and found another human to invade.”

Blix had been worried this would become a thing with him. “You heard Jane,” she said. “The dust will heal the bodies after—”

“Recycle the bodies!” he spat out the word like it was a half-chewed Brussels sprout. “That doesn’t mean the human inside won’t cease to exist. The brain. The personality. The soul…”

“Alf,” she gentled her voice. “I get that this is hard for you, and I appreciate that you care about other people. But this is a war. We’re not got to survive if you’re not willing to do what needs to be done.”

He looked down at the pile of swords rattling against the floorboard. “I’m pretty sure I broke a few arms. That will at least keep them from holding a sword for a while.”

She shook her head. He just wasn’t getting it. “You can’t protect us and them at the same time. What if I was attacked by a rapist with a sword and refused to use the gun in my pocket because I didn’t want to hurt him?”

“Why couldn’t you just shoot him in the knee?”

“Forget it.” She huffed and went back to pretending to drive the horses. Why did he have to be so infuriating? Couldn’t he see that he was going to get them killed?

They took a left at the first intersection after the top of the hill. Three days ago it had been a road that lead to a super expensive neighborhood, but now it wasn’t much more than an overgrown game trail. The farther they went, the more narrow the trail became until it was little more than a twisting footpath through a forest of ancient trees.

“Whoa!” Blix called out to the already stopped horses and turned to regard their prisoners. “How many of you are NPCs? Raise your hands.”

The prisoners just sat there looking at each other. “Okay… Am I correct to assume you’re all players then?”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“How did you say that word?” a stocky woman with bulbous features called out.

“How did I say what word? Players? NPCs?”

The stocky woman opened her mouth, but nothing came out. “Both of those words. What are you?”

“I’m a native NPC.” Blix climbed over the back of the bench and scooted over to sit beside the woman.

“She’s an exotic native NPC,” Alf called out from the front of the wagon. “And an expert at earth RPGs.”

“And Alf is the most powerful paladin in the kingdom,” Blix added. “We'll get you out of these chains whether you join our guild or not, but remember, until you walk away you need to follow our instructions exactly. Failure to comply will get you kicked out for good.”

Alf vaulted over the seat and made his way through the prisoners to kneel by her side. “What are you doing?” he hissed in her ear. “Those soldiers are bound to send their army after us. We need to get out of here.”

“I thought you said we couldn’t leave them like this.”

“Yeah, but how does all this guild talk help with anything?”

“Just follow my lead.” She turned back to the group and spoke in a loud voice. “We don’t have much time so listen carefully. I need you to put pile all your items in the middle of the wagon: hairpins, daggers, wires, whatever you’ve got. Everything but your clothes. Nothing’s too small or or insignificant.”

Everyone just sat there looking at each other until the stocky woman pulled a bag of coins from her tunic and tossed it onto the floor of the wagon. “Come on!” the woman said. “You heard her. If you want to get out of these chains, do what she says!”

“What’s your name?” Blix asked her.

“Hannibal, Blacksmith of the Dale, Twenty-sixth Artisan of—”

“Thanks, um... Do you mind if I call you Hannah? Hannibal has some bad associations for me.”

“Fine with me. Just get me out of these binders, and you can call me whatever you want.”

“Alright…” Blix picked through the pile and selected a loop of metal wire. It looked like it had been used to form some sort of buckle, but she was fairly certain Alf would be able to straighten it. “Use this to pick one of the locks.” She tossed him the loop.

“What? I don’t know how to pick locks.”

“Then you’d better learn quick. It’s not going to take that search party long to find us.”

“But…”

“You’re level five, almost certainly the highest level we’ve got. Just try to pick the lock, and the system should give you the skill.”

Alf went to work on a skinny elf’s manacles while Blix straightened a gold colored hairpin and taught Hannah the basics of lock picking. Maybe characters with dwarf blood got some sort of bonus for working with metal, but Hannah managed to open her manacle is less than ten minutes.

“I just got a message!” she exclaimed. “It says I have a new skill. Did anyone know you could do that?”

Blix quieted everyone down and set Hannah to work on the other manacles. The dwarf said she didn’t have any skill points to spend, but she got faster with each lock she managed to pick. She had already opened six locks before Alf managed to open his first. Based on his Faire du Canne skill, she’d been reasonably confident he could pick up skills that weren’t traditionally paladin skills, but it was good to have a second data point.

“Okay,” Blix called out when Hannah had unlocked the last set of manacles. “Anyone who wants to leave the group is free to go now. Remember, if you stay, you’re agreeing to follow our instructions. Any questions?”

“How do we know you won’t instruct us to do something to our detriment?” An irritatingly pretty Asian girl climbed down from the wagon and started down the path.

“What’s your name?” Blix asked.

“Marie, ranked fifty in science and technology.”

“Good to know. Marie, you are free to leave at any time. If we ask you to do something you don’t want to do, you can walk.” Blix was fairly certain that Marie was bluffing. These aliens were lost sheep. They would follow anyone who was willing to lead. She turned her back on Marie and addressed the group. “You there.” She pointed to the skinny elf guy. “What’s your name?”

“Joseph,” he said in a loud voice. No honorifics, no rankings, no vanity accolades… Blix liked him already.

“Joseph, recruit three volunteers, and unhitch the horses from the wagon. Do not let them get away. You’ll need to keep a tight grip on the reins at all times. Got it?”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Hannah, your job is to strip the wagon of materials we may be able to use later. Everyone else, you have five minutes to find a branch or small tree to use as a weapon. Alf, show them your cane. You can use the swords we took from the guards to help cut them to size. Stay in groups and don’t wander too far away. These hills are full of vicious beasts.”

Everyone talked excitedly at once. They seemed happy to finally have someone telling them what to do, and Blix was happy to keep them happy. Alf swung Blix onto his back and helped people craft their canes while Joseph and company worked on the horses. It took closer to ten minutes than five, but at last they had everything packed up and ready to go.

Alf and Blix led the group and two horses single file through the woods, taking the most round about path they could devise. They had to stop several times and wait for Alf to dispatch the occasional predator they came across—dozens of rats, four wolves, and even a three-foot-tall spider—but he made short work of them and even managed to accumulate a few hundred more experience points.

They didn’t reach their cave until well after dark. Everyone was so thoroughly exhausted that they plopped down on the floor and went right to sleep.

And didn’t wake up until they heard the roar.