Karl did his best to stifle his own grief, which was being ripped open anew by the sound of Michael weeping. He had barely met Emma, but he missed Jane so terribly, and he empathized more than he wanted to right then. He took his own feelings and stuffed them down and forced himself to focus. He looked over the little group. He had to figure out how to help these people. He knew to give Michael and Jake space; they knew the others were near if they wanted them. After a bit, he thought of something he could do.

The rest of the group was spread out to watch in different directions in case of more monsters. Karl walked over to Doug and Chenelle. “Doug, could you watch my side of the road for a minute?” he asked quietly. Doug looked at him for a long moment, then nodded, whispered to his wife a moment, kissed her on the forehead, and walked past.

Chenelle kept watching the surroundings and didn't look at Karl even when he was standing next to her. He waited, and then she muttered, “Are you going to tell me how awful I am, or that I did nothing wrong?”

“Neither.” Karl paused to let that jar her out of whatever mental rut she was stuck in, then continued.

“You tried. Emma still died. That's going to be the way of things from here on out.” She looked at him then. “You did your best. Sometimes your best won't enough.”

“That's cold.”

“It's practical.” Karl sighed. “Look, you know Emma was first level.”

Chenelle looked shocked. “So what? Are you--?”

“She didn't have a lot of health points,” Karl kept his voice low even as he talked over her interruption, waving it aside. “Never mind why. That's not important. Look, just three of those damned crabs almost killed me in my own kitchen yesterday. When she got swarmed, I don't care how fast your reflexes were, you couldn't have saved her. It's amazing that you saved Michael. Good work there, by the way.”

“It wasn't enough.”

“You're also lucky you didn't get swarmed yourself.”

“I have Jake to thank for that.”

“That's how it works. That's why I didn't hole up in my house when all this happened even though I hate people.” Chenelle snorted and Karl pressed on. “We're going to save each other. Again and again. And when one of us falls, the survivors will keep going. Keep learning. Keep 'leveling'. Keep getting stronger. Until the day comes when we can get our fingers around the throats of the aliens who did this to us.”

She grunted her approval of that, then took a shaky breath. “So what did I do wrong? Or, what could I do better?”

“I don't know. But that's the right question. We'll learn as we go. We'll improve.”

She sighed. “Thank you, Karl.”

“You're welcome.”

“And I don't believe for a moment that you hate people.”

Karl snorted. “Must be all those damned points my class keeps dumping into charisma.” Chenelle gave the barest hint of a laugh before she caught herself. Karl was glad to hear it.

“If you--” Chenelle stopped talking and stared. Karl whipped his head around to look at the woods, but saw nothing. When he looked back at the healer, he saw she was reading a notification on her interface, her eyes growing wide. “What the hell--?” She spun around and stared around the battlefield. “Where's Danny?”

Karl was puzzled. Chenelle didn't sound so much terrified, as she did angry. He looked around himself and spotted the reason.

On the other side of the street, Terry was crouched down next to Daniel, who was holding a rock almost too big for him to lift. While he watched, Terry pointed, and Daniel half threw, half dropped the rock onto a crab that was pinned under a bigger rock but still twitching. It died, they both looted it, and then Terry pointed out another one.

Chenelle was moving at a very fast walk, stumbling a bit over crab corpses. Karl hurried to keep up.

“What do you think you're doing?” she hissed when she reached them, giving a quick look at the grieving Cook family before focusing on Terry and Daniel again.

“We're killing the bad crabs, Mommy,” Daniel answered soberly. “So they don't kill anybody else.” Chenelle turned her glare on Terry, who met her expression calmly and a bit defiantly.

“I'm trying to give him experience,” she said simply. That brought Chenelle up short. Her mouth worked a moment before she protested, “he's five!”

“Want him to be six?” Terry snapped, with the tactlessness of a teenager. Immediately she closed her eyes for a second and waved her hand. “Sorry, sorry, I know you do! I just...if I can help him survive, I want to do it. I thought if I gave him some easy XPs he might level and double his health points. Danny says he can't access the System except for inventory, but I don't know if that's just because he doesn't get how or--”

“I read the help files on children yesterday, such as they are. He doesn't get access until he turns seven, and he can't get a full class until he's fourteen. Until then I get all his notifications.”

“What?”

The teenager froze, staring at the boy's mother. Looking pale, she swallowed. “Fourteen?”

“Yes, why?”

“Just under the wire,” she whispered. Chenelle looked confused but Karl got it.

“When's your birthday, Terry?” he asked.

“Ten days ago. Ten. Days.” Terry shook her head, clearly shoving away an image that terrified her. “Sorry, got distracted. Is this helping Danny level?” she asked, pointing at the dead crab. “I mean, I'm getting 10 XP for each so I'm hoping he's getting the rest.”

XP? Karl wondered briefly, then understood. Experience points.

“It says he's getting them but they're 'banked'.”

“So he can't level?”

“No. I don't know if he can level at seven or not, but he certainly can't now.”

“Well how many health does he have?” Terry demanded.

“Twelve, all right?!” Chenelle burst out. She reached down and seized Daniel, picking him up and squeezing him protectively. “He's only got twelve and I don't know how to get him any more!” She looked on the verge of tears.

“Then that settles it,” Karl said firmly.

He felt no doubt. Everyone turned to look at him, even the two survivors of the Cook family, so he straightened up and raised his voice. “I'm not letting this happen again. We're building a temporary Safe Zone, today, and we'll build one every day until the permanent one is ready even if I have to go out every morning and hunt the ten silver myself!

“Terry, scout the whole perimeter if you can. Doug, keep watching the south and I'll watch the north. Chenelle, please loot these damned crabs and then switch with Doug. Doug, when you finish looting switch with me.” He looked at everyone, one by one, then nodded and stepped away a little and faced outward, resuming his guard duties.

Possibly five minutes later, Doug called out, “Karl, you're up.” As they passed each other, Doug paused and added, “and thank you.” Karl nodded, and then quickly made the rounds. Three coppers here, two coppers there, every little bit would help. He thought about throwing away the crab legs and then noticed that even 28 of them were only taking up one slot in inventory. He also picked his rocks back up; they made good weapons.

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

Endurance +1

He shook his head and blinked the message off to the right with the others. He saw Jake on the other side of the small battlefield, working his way around and looting. Taking a deep breath, he approached the spot where Michael was kneeling next to his wife's body, his hand over her crossed wrists.

Michael looked up at him. He seemed to have aged ten years in ten minutes. Karl thought back to which condolence had hurt him the least. “I'm sorry for your loss.”

Michael's face was closed, hard. “I want to bury her. As soon as we're safe.” Karl nodded acceptance. He thought about the challenge of transporting a body a couple of miles through hostile territory...and then blinked. Strange new world. He took a breath. “Would you...like me to...carry her for you?”

“I...” Michael stopped. Karl waited patiently. “No, thank you. I'll do it.” Michael reached out with one hand, and Emma's body vanished into his inventory.

“Let's make it the last one,” he stated in a shaky voice. “I'll be ready in a minute.” Then he stood, turned and got moving, very deliberately stepping on each of the crab corpses, grinding them a bit underfoot as he went.

Karl thought he heard Michael whisper, “Loot you to hell,” as he stepped on each one.

**

Karl felt like an idiot and a failure.

We should have done what Emma asked, made her house the temporary Safe Zone and left her watching Daniel while some of us scouted the place first. There wasn't any need not to do it that way, just relative advantage. He'd foolishly assumed that with seven adults they would be able to walk down the street for a few hours and defeat whatever came their way without losses. In hindsight, it was idiotic. I wanted to save a few hours on the 24 hour timer, so I thought I'd postpone until we were closer. And Emma died because of that.

It was another emotion he had to clamp down on. Maybe the System was helping with that, or maybe Chenelle was right and he was just cold. He didn't like people, after all. And with cold logic, he knew that the decision had not been solely his. He still hated himself for misjudging the danger, but he'd be damned if he let his guilt get more of them killed.

He kept an eye out for Terry, so he could tell her to simply find the nearest house that they could clear and use as a Safe Zone.

The wind began picking up as their little band marched; Karl wondered if there would be rain. Then he wondered if the System would mess with the weather too. Would there be monsoons in January? Snowstorms in August? He filed it under 'problems for tomorrow' and kept up his watch. They had nearly reached the intersection of Walnut and Post Road when everyone received a System notification:

System Message: Uncommon spawns are now commencing. Increase your power levels by destroying spawns or by other means. Good Luck!

“Shit,” Doug hissed. “It's been just about exactly a day since this all started, hasn't it?”

“I think so,” Karl agreed, getting his point.

“Harder monsters every day?”

“I assume. Though I hope there are only a few levels of spawn. We're almost to the intersection, right?”

“Yes. Just around the next curve or two.”

“Help Safe Zone,” Karl said, to remind himself. “Okay, we have system tokens. There has to be a sturdy building, even for a temporary safe zone. And we have to clear out all the monsters first.”

Abruptly Terry appeared in front of them. “Guys? Trouble. A lot of those green guys are right at the intersection.”

“Big or small? And how many is 'a lot'?” Karl demanded.

“Maybe...twenty big ones? And more than that in small ones. Probably not double. It's hard to tell.”

“Any details? What are they doing?”

“It kind of looks like they're forming a roadblock. Or a military fort? I dunno. They're cutting down trees and lashing them together with something, and piling up mud.”

“Magic users? Healers?”

“Going by the robes and feathers and shit, at least one of the big guys and two of the little ones.” They shared a look.

One fireball and Daniel's dead. Karl turned to look at everyone. That's at least double what we faced this morning, maybe more.

We've all leveled, but...

“We can't risk it. That's too tough for us right now,” Doug said.

“Agreed. We'll have to back up and try to cut through the woods.”

“What if we get into a fight in the woods?”

“Not if. When,” Terry corrected. “No way are we going a mile or more through woods unmolested when we can't get that far on the road. We can't fight too close to the intersection or the Ugly Green Brigade will hear. So we'll have to go way around.”

“We could really use a map,” Karl muttered.

“I got your back, old man.” Terry opened her messenger bag and pulled out a pad of paper. She opened it and flipped through a couple of pages, then turned it to show him. Karl was hopeful as he held it up and studied the marks. Then he was disappointed that he couldn't follow her scribbles at all.

“Help me out here, what am I looking at?”

Terry took it back with an exasperated look and held it between them, and used a pencil to point. “This is Walnut. We're here. These lines mean it's low land, those mean it's high. These mark houses. The mill is somewhere around here.”

“What's over here?” Karl pointed at a blank space they would have to cross.

“Those woods,” she pointed east, “some marsh, maybe Twisty Brook itself but I don't know exactly. It's way too swampy down there so I've never gone very far in.”

Karl frowned. “Terry, I think we need to go back to checking houses. We have to find a safe space for Danny as soon as possible, and at least one of us will have to stay with him.”

“I guess that would be me, if no one objects,” Jake spoke up. “I'm lower level than the rest of you and I can't do as much.” Chenelle looked like she wanted to object, but held her tongue.

“That leaves five of us. Paladin, warrior, archer, scout, and healer. Anybody else lower than third level?” The other four shook their heads. “All right. We can't make too much noise fighting too close to the hobgoblin fort. I think we need to back up a few houses, and then start checking and clearing. Terry, do you think you can stay out of trouble and not get yourself killed if I tell you to scout farther ahead?”

“Sure,” the teenager said offhandedly.

“Terry.” Karl looked at her until he had her full attention. “I mean it. We cannot afford to lose you. Err on the side of caution.”

She grimaced. “Okay, I'll be careful.” Karl kept staring. “What do you want from me? Life's uncertain.” He stared. She sighed in exasperation. “Okay. I promise that I will err on the side of caution.”

Karl figured that that was the best he was going to get from the cheerleader. “All right. Thank you. We can't afford to fight at the two closest houses but we still need to know what's lurking there because they're relatively close to the mill. Go.” Terry nodded and vanished. Karl looked around at the group. “Okay, back the way we came, three houses up and then we wait for Terry's report.”

Everyone fell quiet. They all felt the disappointment of losing ground. Only Daniel wanted to talk.

“Mommy?”

“Yes, sweetie?”

“Can I learn to do magic?”

“When you're older, sweetie.”

“When I get bigger, can I help you fight?”

“I hope you won't have to.”

“But can I?”

“Well, we'll talk about it after you learn magic.”

“Okay.”

Doug murmured, “Not a sentence I ever thought I'd hear her say,” and Karl suppressed a grin.

When the passed the first of the mailboxes, Karl noted that Terry had left a chalk message there already:

8 Marsh guys

and there was an X. No survivors. They kept going.

At the next mailbox, the driveway had a very steep drop down to a red two story house with black trim. There wasn't any mark there yet. Karl wanted to stop, but told himself to trust Terry. She's probably scouting it right now.

The third mailbox said '138' and led to a property that was almost level with the road for once. There was a large wide lawn and a very long driveway through it leading to a small mansion all in white with black trim.

I don't know if that's great or terrible. Karl looked it over. I guess you can see enemies coming, so it's good? If only they had a gigantic pile of metal and some closer trees.

They stood there for several minutes. Nothing approached them, which wasn't too surprising since they had just come through.

Wait, what was that?

Karl stiffened. He looked at the others and tapped his ear with a finger. They waited, listening, until he heard the same sound as before. A wolf.

It could be nothing.

But then they clearly heard another howl. And another. And another. All coming from the general direction of the mill, the same side of the road as the house Terry hadn't finished scouting. And as they listened, the sound changed direction.

It was a hunt.