Terry had taken out the healer, and then the mage, getting hit with multiple spells in the meantime. She was pretty crispy around the edges and her hair was ragged and short now. Her leggings were shredded and there was a lot of crusted blood on them. Her shirt looked like Swiss cheese. But she was still on her feet, which was better than the rest of them could say. Three of them sat on the grass recovering, slumped against the side of the house, while Terry kept watch.

Karl stared at her until she met his gaze. She smiled at him, but looked tired.

Finally she asked, as if dreading the answer, “the others?”

“In the Safe Zone, next door up the road.” Karl watched a lot of the tension go out of her. My God, was she afraid we were all that was left?

He sighed. “Has this house been broken into?” he asked, jerking his thumb over his shoulder. Terry nodded. “Any survivors?”

“Doesn't look like it.” She sounded as tired as she looked. That reply wasn't as certain as Karl would prefer. He started getting up. “I'll go make sure.”

“No, Karl. Stay down. I'll do it.” She went inside. He sagged back down, watching the treeline, waiting for health, mana and stamina to all regenerate slowly. He faintly heard her moving around inside. Then nothing.

A minute passed, and Karl dragged himself to his feet and walked around to the back door which had been broken into pieces. There was a body partly in view, but no sign of Terry. He moved further in and turned on his head lamp.

The place was wrecked even worse than what other monsters usually caused. Orcs apparently were messy and dirty. Karl saw another body. “Terry?” he called.

“Quiet!” Terry hissed from somewhere upstairs. He took a couple of steps towards the next room. “I said quiet!” He stopped moving. Several seconds passed. He heard nothing, and then a rattle at a door. “Okay, Karl, get up here, please, hurry.”

Karl got up the stairs as quickly as he could manage, to find Terry standing in a hall, one ear up against a closed door. He walked up.

“There's something alive in here.”

Karl struggled with the door, but then put his new nine in strength to good use. The door took considerable damage, but finally he was able to reach inside and unlock it. He opened the door and stepped in. There was an awful stink.

A body was huddled up against a giant pile of cloth at the far end of the bathroom, tucked inside the tub. It was curled up as small as possible, facing away from the door. Very faintly, a sound was coming from over there. From under the body, he realized as he got near. He leaned over and reached out with one hand to grip the shoulder and pull the body aside.

Karl jumped when the arm he touched shot out and clutched the cloth pile, as if clinging for dear life.

Or protecting something with the very last of her strength.

“Oh my God. Terry, get over here please.”

“Coming.” He heard Terry working her way into the narrow bathroom behind him. In the tub, the small head of frizzy brown hair lifted a fraction and turned.

A faint, terrified female voice asked, “Terry?”

Terry squeezed past Karl and got a look at the pale dirty face. “Annie? Is that you?!”

“Terry?!”

“We're here to rescue you,” Terry blurted, and Annie burst into tears.

The brunette tried to talk through her sobs. It took a couple of tries. Gingerly, slowly, Annie pulled herself away from the spot she had been covering. “I...was... here... babysitting... and...”

Karl lunged forward to see, and quickly laid a couple of fingers on one, and then the other of the two babies he found nestled within the folds of cloth. He cast healing hands twice. It worked twice. They were both alive. Karl sagged in relief and took a deep breath, then almost gagged at the smell.

“Karl, please pick up one of them, I'll get the other. Annie, you can lean on me. Let's get you out of here.”

“That's Kyle,” Annie managed, looking at the baby which had started crying again faintly when Karl picked it up carefully. He moved aside, and Terry very gently lifted the other. “That's Dana,” Annie whispered. Slowly they worked their way out of the bathroom, down the hall, and down the stairs. Annie made a little noise when they reached the bodies, but didn't start crying again. Terry guided her through until they were outside in the open air again.

Chenelle and Doug both expressed amazement to see the babies and the girl. “You were right, Karl,” Doug said quietly, shaking his head. “Good job.”

“Annie here did the good job. She's the reason they're alive. Come on, let's get them back to the Safe Zone before anything else comes by.”

“We looted the orcs,” Chenelle added. “Be sure to kick them on the way out. Now, give here.” Karl gladly handed over the baby in his arms to the expert, and quickly did his share of the looting, getting two silver and change. Terry followed suit, still carrying baby Dana. They quickly walked with their precious cargo up the driveway and headed down Walnut. Everyone jumped at each shift of the light, twitched at every sound. The six minute walk seemed to take an age. Finally they reached the edge of the Sanchez property and cut diagonally across the big lawn to get to the door faster.

There was a huge hubbub when the others found out Terry was back alive, and at seeing their new rescues. Terry refused to come inside yet, though she promised to be right in. Karl went in, waited a few seconds, then turned around and quietly stepped back outside. Terry wasn't visible, but her heard her around the corner of the building, weeping. He waited a minute, then walked over.

“Terry.”

She looked up at him, a picture of misery. Karl fumbled for words, then simply crouched down next to her and wrapped her up in his arms and held her tight. “Terry,” he whispered, “I'm so glad you're alive. I don't know what happened to you. You don't have to say. But you are a good person in a mad world. You are important, you are precious, and you just saved our lives. Again. Thank you.”

Terry cried very quietly in his arms. For a couple of minutes he just knelt there, holding her protectively, letting the strong girl be weak just for that little time. He wasn't sure what else to say so he said nothing, and hoped the hug convinced her where words would not.

The crying jag ended. A minute later Terry was composing herself admirably like the tough young lady she was, and Karl let her out of the hug. They stood up.

She cleared her throat. “Thank you.” She cleared it some more. “Okay, let's not freak them out. I was ...crying with relief that we saved my friend and the babies. That's all.”

Karl nodded. “That'll work.”

“I'll tell them the story of what happened in a minute. Just...pretend I was tougher about it.”

“You've got it. Ready?”

“One sec.” She bit her lip, thinking. “Karl...remember yesterday when I asked you if I was a sociopath?”

“Yes.”

“I'm not worried about that any more. I feel how awful this is.”

“The others seem to be moving well through the chaos. But I'm also...”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Wait a minute.

“Terry. You hit fifth level while you were gone, didn't you?”

“Yeah, why?”

“You and I are the only fifth level people in the group. And I'm suddenly having a harder time coping too. The rest are still relatively fine with this madness. Even Michael's holding it together, and he lost his wife just a few hours ago. You don't suppose...?”

“The mind control dials back at fifth level?” Terry blew air out her cheeks. “Like training wheels?”

“Maybe it's not sadistic. After all, I think it actually helps people function so they can survive.”

You've discovered a important fact about the System. Certain emotions of individuals on worlds new to the System are suppressed so they may function and have a better chance of survival. This suppression begins to wear off at level 5 since by that point the individual has demonstrated that they are capable of surviving in the System Worlds. Exp+250

“Damn. We gotta warn people as soon as they get to fifth. This hits hard.”

“Indeed. You ready to put on a brave front?”

“Yeah.” She looked up at him. “It helps, knowing I'm not going crazy. Also that I'm not alone. So...thanks again.”

“You're quite welcome.” They started walking to the front door. “And it helps me too.”

He thought for a moment, then nodded. “You know, I think we're actually going to get through this.” She looked at him in surprise. “Well, with 'kickass Terry' and the 'great paladin Karl' on the job I think we've got the chops.”

Terry finally gave a small but genuine smile. “Don't get too full of yourself, old man.”

“I wouldn't dream of it, young lady.”

**

When they got inside, they found Jake finishing up a sign with black magic marker and taping it to the wall over the fireplace mantel. It read

Karl Hausman paladin

Terry Williams. rogue

Doug Hooper. warrior

Chenelle Hooper healer

Danny Hooper. 5 year old

Michael Cook. archer

Jacob Cook. tinker

Jim ____. ?

Maria Sanchez. none

Anne Lebowski. none

Kyle Brown baby

Dana Brown baby

Karl looked it over, and then around the room. Twelve survivors, and one casualty. Horrible as it was to be so few, he still felt a little pride that he'd been the catalyst to free them and bring them to a Safe Zone. How bad might it have gotten for everyone, himself included, if he'd decided to hunker down at home?

“Who's Jim?” Terry asked.

Before anyone else answered, Daniel piped up, “He's magic like you! Only he's bad at it. You're definitely more awesome.” There was a little quiet laughter as his mother tugged him closer and started whispering in his ear.

Terry raised an eyebrow at Karl. “Replacing me already?”

“Impossible,” Karl said very quietly with a gentle smile.

Terry's eyes started to mist a bit, then she slapped his arm with the back of her hand. “Quit it.” She walked over to the couch and held out her hand. “You're Maria? I'm Terry.”

“Welcome to my... home.” The latina took her hand briefly. “It's good to meet you. People were worried about you.”

“Yeah, what happened out there? What'd you find out?” Doug asked.

Terry glanced around. “Well, is everybody here? I don't want to repeat everything. Where's this Jim person now?”

A voice came down from upstairs. “Coming.” Yawning hugely and squinting, Jim descended the steps. “How long was I out?”

“About two hours?” Jake guessed. “Hurry up, we're waiting to hear Terry's story!”

Jim nodded and looked around slowly, scratching his chest. He and Terry looked at each other for a few seconds without saying anything, both going still, then Terry gave a girly squeak of alarm and hid behind Karl.

Maria watched this, then stood and walked until she was standing right next to them. “Come with me. Everybody give us a few minutes, Terry needs to get cleaned up.” The two women walked off, and Karl noticed that Terry always kept Maria between her and Jim until they were out of sight.

Oh, hell. Karl watched Jim with narrowed eyes as the biker ambled over to where Annie was spooning applesauce to the twins while snatching bites of an energy bar for herself. “Oh holy shit, you found babies!” He lifted a hand in greeting. “Hey. Jim.”

“Annie.”

Jim nodded pleasantly, then looked in the direction Maria and Terry had vanished. Karl took a step in that direction, ready to interpose if needed, but then noticed that Chenelle was staring at him, wide eyed, her mouth in a tight line. He focused on her, wondering what was wrong. Then her mouth twitched a couple of times.

Is she laughing—? Why the hell is she laughing at me? Karl thought indignantly while looking back, and her mouth twitched harder and her eyes got very bright.

“Really?!” Terry's excited voice rang out. Everybody turned to look. There was a rat-a-tat of impossibly fast footsteps, a blur of motion, and then the bathroom door slammed shut. Two seconds later they could hear the shower start.

“That's fair,” Jake commented as a couple of people laughed and others groaned at the delay.

“Is there any coffee?” Jim asked. A soft murmur of interest went around the room.

“I think so,” Maria said. “Somebody scout the kitchen for monsters for me?...I can't believe I just said that.”

“On it,” Jim said, immediately transformed from walking zombie into a man with a mission. He and Doug manhandled the bookcase out of the way, then Jim literally disappeared.

“Hey, Annie?” Jake asked. “You know Terry, right?” The girl nodded. “Could we hear your story? I figure Terry can hear it from you later.”

“Sure. There's not much to tell. I was over at the Brown house babysitting. The parents...promised to be back before the deadline, but they were late. This pig monster thing appeared in the kitchen and I ran upstairs to the nursery before it saw me. But there's like three open doors in there, so I grabbed them in their blankets and whatever stuff I could lay my hands on silently in a few seconds and put them in the tub, then locked myself in the bathroom with them.

“The lights weren't working and my cell was dead. I could hear things moving around in the house. Then I heard the Browns yelling outside, and then screaming. So I...uh...well, I needed to pee, and just when I finished I heard this snuffling sound, so I thought maybe their noses wouldn't find us if it stank in there. When I changed their diapers I put the used ones by the door, and just piled up all the blankets and towels and tried to keep them quiet without smothering them.

“I was sure at any second something was going to find us and break the door down. I guess I spent over a day like that. I was so hungry, and so were the babies. All I could do was read the stupid bad English useless help pages. Then I finally heard something breaking in and I tried to play dead, but it turned out to be Karl and Terry.”

There was silence for a moment when she finished. Then they heard someone clapping.

“Awesome,” Jim declared, applauding from the doorway to the kitchen, where Doug had been keeping an eye on the dislodged barricade. “Disgusting, but awesome. I couldn't have done it. Good job.” He looked around. “There's coffee.”

There was a lot of shuffling around then as cups were handed out to the adults. Karl wondered if coffee was soon going to be a thing of the past forever. He checked his inventory and cleared his throat.

“I just wanted to point out that with the loot from the uncommon spawn we are well over the ten silver needed for tomorrow.” The room took a collective sigh of relief.

While he was looking at inventory, he remembered something and materialized it in a pile on the mantel. “Jim.” The biker looked at him. “Knives on the mantel for you.”

“Oh, sweet, thanks!” He walked over, coffee in hand, picked them up one by one and inspected them, then vanished them into his own inventory. “Orcish daggers. Wicked.” Karl nodded tersely and walked to the other side of the room, taking up station outside the bathroom door with his back to it.

Chenelle walked up next to him and whispered, “Should I keep a heal ready in case you have an aneurism?”

“She's barely fourteen!” he hissed back.

“Oh, I agree. We'll keep an eye out. I just love your reactions. I can't tell if you're being the overprotective father or the doting grandfather. You've barely known her a day and I think you'd slay a dragon for the kid.”

“Don't jinx us,” Karl said with alarm.

“If anyone could do it, you could, Sir Karl.” He shook his head at her in disbelief.

A few minutes later, Terry emerged from the bathroom, looking worlds better. She wore a T-shirt and cutoff blue-jean shorts, with a belt to hold them on as they were much too big for her. Her blond hair was damp but pulled back with a scrunchy.

“Better?” Maria asked her.

“Much. Thanks, Maria.”

Karl cleared his throat, then gestured at the room. “Young lady, could we please now finally find out what happened to you this afternoon?”