[Player Log Start!]

[Log Holder: Jared Caliber]

[Level: 1]

Pins and needles were digging into the crevices of his joints.

“Urgh, give me more pain meds.” He groaned, languishing on the floor. Of all they had managed to scrounge up and forage from the world, somehow, they had foregone getting a mattress. These ratty sleeping bags weren’t nearly enough for him.

“Absolutely not.” Tench frowned, “You’ve had enough. There’s nothing more to be done.”

Jared swore dully to himself. Pain ebbed through his legs in a constant staccato. His braces had been able to support him alright before, so what was changing now? It was the walking, wasn’t it? He should have laid off all the exercise.

“Are you aware the compression aspect of these braces is stopping the pain from properly registering?” Tench continued, “Because that’s what is happening. You aren’t actually lifting as much pressure off the joints in pain as you thought.”

“Yeah, I figured.” Jared agreed, his hands clenching into fists, “I just didn’t know what else to do.”

“A cane.” Tench suggested.

“Tried that. Didn’t work. Made me a target, and when I reached for a weapon, I couldn’t keep my hand on the stick.”

“Two canes.”

“What?” He squinted at the healer, “How’s that supposed to work?”

“He means crutches.” Asadullah supplied helpfully, subtitles floating over to him from the corner where he was sitting and poring over a textbook. It was about butchery, and was a terrible mix of dry and gruesome, but people did desperate things for entertainment.

“Well, you could’ve said so.” Jared bristled, “No need to be so enigmatic about everything.”

“Crutches are two canes, it’s very self-explanatory!” Tench gestured wildly, “I’m not the crazy one here.”

“Just say that, then. Don’t understand why you people enjoy using enough idioms to turn your brains into yogurt.” Asadullah frowned, pulling his book closer to his face, “And I know I just used an idiom but don’t bring that up.”

“Okay… you wanna go on a crutch hunt?” Tench continued to needle the boy, even as his ears flattened and fur stood on end.

“Not. Interested.” He bit out, clearly invested in his book now. Even though he had been the one to insert himself in the conversation. Then, his ears perked on end, followed quickly by his head swiveling in the direction of an unheard noise, “Did you hear that?” He asked, foreign words laced with alertness.

Tench moved first, taking charge of the situation as the only one familiar with the zombie world. And also as the only adult there. Jared lingered, watching him as he peered out of the exterior window.

“There’s a zombie.” He reported finally, “Seems more dexterous than the others. Made its way over the fence, already.”

“Does this happen a lot?” Asadullah asked, feline claws poking out of the tips of his fingers.

“No, not a lot. But once a couple months or something.” Tench replied, “We just need to kill it and it’ll be fine.”

“Sure, I can do that.” He agreed, wresting himself onto the windowsill as he shrank down into a tiny bundle of fluff. In the next moment, he had slipped through the crack in the window and landed on the ground. Jared pulled himself off the ground and to the window, even as his knees screamed in protest.

It was worth it so see Asadullah’s lithe form darting out to the yard and tackling the zombie in a blur. He had taken on the shape of a tiny cat, barely even the size of a football, and yet easily tore through the undead creature’s neck.

Even in the distance, the green panel popped up, celebrating his victory. Asadullah morphed back into human form, loping back into the building.

Jared gulped, reaching for his Card of Compulsion. Asadullah really was unimaginably strong.

“Woah.” Tench whispered, leaning beside Jared to look out of the window, too, “That guy’s… intense.”

“Relatively inexperienced, actually.” Jared corrected, “But he’s got the power to make up for it.”

“You can relax, then.” Tench replied, “The two of us can team up and get you those crutches I mentioned. I already know the places to hit up for them.”

“Sure, go ahead. I’m probably not even going to use them, but knock yourself out.” Jared waved him off.

----------------------------------------

Hours later, he was pulling his braces back up his legs. He tightened up the straps, feeling the ache in his legs mute into a dull thrum.

Footsteps sounded outside the room, but he didn’t lift his head, still adjusting one of the buckles.

“Here.” Tench’s voice broke through his thoughts. Jared suppressed a flicker of impatience as he looked up at the man. He was covered in grass stains and scrapes. And yet, he raised a pair of metal sticks at Jared. No, not just any metal sticks. They had handles and were twisted into a more stable shape to support a person’s weight. Crutches.

Jared looked at it carefully, unsure what he was supposed to be doing with them. When Tench nudged them insistently towards him, he found himself reaching forward to take them from Tench.

“Well, give them a try.” Asadullah insisted, “I had to clear an entire building of zombies all on my own.”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t like that.” Jared rolled his eyes, tucking the sticks under his arm, “Bet you’ve gotten enough points to shoot you up three whole levels.”

“Probably not three. Maybe one.” Asadullah grinned, amusement twinkling in his eyes, “But it really was a gift for you, so you better accept this.”

Jared fought his protests, and decided to give it a shot, anyways.

To give the crutches a fair test, he unlaced his braces and took them off, before swinging his legs off the ground and giving it a practice round.

“Huh.” He mused, letting himself circle around the room, once, twice, and then a little spin for extra measure, “This is surprisingly easy.”

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

“Final verdict?” Tench probed. Asadullah’s ear twitched in silent excitement.

“I like it.” Jared confirmed. The two exchanged high-fives. The familiar chime broke through his thoughts.

[Personal Challenge Fulfilled!]

[Rewarded: Jared’s Trust has Increased]

“Did you make a personal challenge out of this?” He demanded, almost feeling offended.

“And I won!” Asadullah nodded, looking smug as ever, “These were picked out by me, just by the way.”

“I appreciate that.” Jared smiled at him, “Want to take a trip around? I’d like to give it a proper test run on the route we planned out into the practice run.”

“Maybe get used to the crutches, first.” Tench cautioned.

----------------------------------------

Jared tore through the weathered streets, weaving between parked and broken cars that had been rotting here for years.

He’d done this before, but it was a slow, careful journey, always alert of any wrong turns he may take and any zombies that might come into his way. Not this time. This time, he could move.

Asadullah shouted something from behind him, but Jared didn’t have time to read the subtitles flashing by before the older boy snatched him out of the way and pulled him onto the roof of a car. A zombie had been limping over to him from a blind spot, its snapping jaws fast and vicious, contrasting against its stumbling gait.

“Uh… thanks.” He whispered, heart pounding in his ears.

“You’re more careful than that.” Asadullah reminded him, stepping away to give Jared more space, even standing on top of the car.

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Jared frowned, “I’ll take care of the zombie.”

“Uh, I can do it-”

Before he could argue any further, Jared brought a tiny dagger down onto the zombie’s head, caving it instantly under his hand. It crumpled facedown on the spot. Another cheerful ding!

[Jared Caliber has Killed the Zombie (Lv. 2)!]

[He has been Rewarded 20 Exp!]

[Zombie (Lv. 2) will Revive in 4 hrs]

[3:59]

“That was sloppy. I’ll be more alert next time.” He told Asadullah, putting the knife away.

“Did Vera give you that?” Tench asked, “Knives don’t seem like your style.”

“Yeah. A goodbye gift at some point.” Jared replied, his hands trailing over the pocket which contained it, “It’s strange, but I don’t really remember when. Didn’t even offer me any lessons on how to work it, so I just wave it around.”

“You didn’t even try to practice with it, did you?” Asadullah asked, crossing his arms judgmentally. And he would be right.

“What’s the point if my friend isn’t the one giving me instructions?” Jared shrugged, before batting his eyes at Asadullah, “You offering?”

“I don’t have knife fighting expertise.”

“Hypocrite.” Tench snorted, but his voice sounded distant, both literally and figuratively. As if he had been left behind, and wasn’t paying much attention to the conversation. Both Jared and Asadullah turned around to look at him, where he was staring into a dusty storefront.

It was drab and dark, so normal that no one had even thought to break the glass and barge inside, like all the other stores were. Yet, he cared about it enough to freeze in his tracks the second he had seen it.

They both looked at each other, and wordlessly came to the conclusion to walk over to Jared and see what had captivated him so much. It used to be an ice cream store, but it must have shut down before the apocalypse had ever struck. All the furniture and trappings were packed away into boxes and left on the ground.

Nothing stuck out at all in the scene.

“You recognize this place?” Asadullah asked, tactfully quiet.

Tench gulped and confessed, “Yeah. My parents owned the place.”

“Weren’t you a doctor?” Jared asked impulsively.

“Does that mean my parents can’t work in confectionary?” Tench asked, not even disguising the laugh in his voice.

“Well- I mean- I don’t know!” Jared stammered, his face heating up. He should think harder before he opened his mouth. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

“But, either way, yeah. They ran the ice cream parlor for all my childhood.” Tench explained, “But around the time I was in undergrad, business was trickling out because of the trendier slush places down the street. You can- well, you can see what remains of it down the street.” He gestured down the ghostly street to a tattered pink bunting was flying in the slight breeze. It was connected to a sun-bleached red storefront. Except the glass was shattered, and the sign outside had been clawed out. Even the brick walls had cracks and dents all over them, as if people had been hammering into it desperately. A piece of rebar they had managed to pull out now had the torso of a zombie hanging off it. Still biting away at open air, hoping something would be stupid enough to walk into its waiting jaws.

Asadullah shuddered and looked away, “Well, at least your parents’ place didn’t have to face the same treatment.” He offered in way of consolation.

“I guess.” Tench allowed, leaning into the glass, as if he expected to fall right through, “Must’ve still been your age when I was bringing around all my friends and bragging about my constant supply of ice cream. It’s just… terrifying to think about. How young I was then.”

Jared shifted, his skin prickling in discomfort. The emotional kind. Oddly enough, the physical had melted away more than he’d thought considering the crutches don’t even touch his legs. He wasn’t entirely sure how that worked, but he wasn’t planning on asking Tench something that was apparently so obvious. Not when the two people living in the zombie world were already looking down on them for their age and lack of experience. He wouldn’t hold himself back like that when their opinion meant the difference between life and death.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t have the time to bum around ice cream shops, and I’m sure that Jared didn’t, either.” Asadullah cut in, not caring about any optics, “Don’t mourn something we never lost, old man.”

“It’s not about the ice cream!” Tench replied, his hands clenched into fists. His eyes were shiny and watery, but why on Earth was he being so emotional over something which wasn’t even connected to him? It didn’t make any sense.

“It’s about the fact that you shouldn’t have to be dealing with this.” He finally explained, as tears finally began to spill out of his eyes, “You’re kids. Annoying as hell, and also maybe killers, but you’re still kids. It shouldn’t be up to you.”

Asadullah’s brows furrowed, and woah, Tench has caught his ire. He needed to douse the flames before this blew up. What to do, what to do? In a desperate bid, he reached for the Card of Compulsion.

“You’re right.” He answered, looking Tench in the eye and trying to be as honest as he had ever been. No showboating, no smoke and mirrors. Go for the simple, solid approach. Vulnerability was a blade easily turned against the instigator.

Sure enough, Tench turned to look at him, immediately caught in his next words.

“We shouldn’t have had to be the ones to shoulder the responsibility.” He explained, “But that is what happened, and you need to get over it. We found the laptop, we started the Game, we chose this to happen. Out of everyone, me, Vera, and Mike were the ones who asked for it the most. And there’s no backtracking now. No overthinking. No mourning. We cry after this is done, because we cannot afford this right now.”

His words were true and uncomfortably raw. But they managed to shock Tench into contemplative silence as he mulled it over.

Finally, he let out a sigh, “I guess you’re right.” He allowed, “I just- I just worry. A lot.”

“Don’t. You haven’t even been thrown into a different dimension yet.” Asadullah joked, “That’s when you start panicking.”

“Oh my God, you’re all so traumatized.” Tench covered his face.

“He hasn’t even gotten into the abandonment issues yet.”

Asadullah immediately latched onto the topic of conversation as they pulled Tench away from the former ice cream store, “Yes! My friend, Tahira, she joined the army.”

“Who lets teenagers enlist in the army?”

“People who are being beset by empty suits of armor, keep up. It’s more of a problem if you have even the slightest grasp on how kingdoms and princes work and how there isn’t a solid army faction at all-”

His explanation was cut short by another chime as a panel appeared in front of them. This one wasn’t green. It was red. A bad sign.

[Console No Longer In Possession of Party(Main)!]

[You Have 100 Hours to Retrieve It Before Ownership Transfers to Thief]

What had those idiots done?

“Asadullah!” Jared snapped, spinning over to the boy, who straightened up instinctively. He still seemed to be reeling by the notification, even as it blinked out of existence.

“Activate your Tracking ability and search for Vera and the gang.” He directed, stepping into the role of leader as if it was a well-worn glove, “Once we meet up, we can figure out what went wrong.”

Asadullah nodded in response, crouching down as he began to focus. When his eyes flicked open, the pupils were dilated wide, and he charged forward.

[Applying Tracking…]

Tench and Jared followed behind. All thought of the emotional conversation dashed to the side as this newest development took them by storm.

[End Player Log]