[Player Log Start!]

[Log Holder: Asadullah Khan]

[Level: 1]

[! Log Translated From Urdu !]

Claws dug deep into soft soil, kicking up clods of earth with every step. Wind brushed against his ears, making a whistling sound that filled his head.

Asadullah didn’t care, he simply focused on running, following the swooping trail of scent left behind the rest of their team.

Until, finally, he skidded to a stop in front of the three, who were standing around a giant tree. Everyone was there, Ben, Verity, and even Michael. So, he’d managed to do it faster than Jared. He’d be impressed if there wasn’t a different crisis happening right now.

“What happened?” He asked, looking around him. No one seemed hurt, and even Verity seemed to not have been in a fight, despite the disconcerting amount of blood her shirt was covered in. So, it must not have been taken by force.

Verity gritted her teeth, clearly embarrassed at having to admit this, “We left it. Got distracted by a deer and… forgot it.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Jared swore, facepalming.

“Listen, not the time to be arguing about this. Who cares if they left it? There wasn’t anyone around to grab it, as far as we knew.” Tench interrupted.

“Exactly!” Verity agreed, “I haven’t heard of a single other person here except for you guys, so what gives? Anyone you know hanging around the area still?”

Tench and Ben frowned, thinking it over for a few seconds.

“We haven’t heard anything of people wandering about for long.” Tench noted, though he didn’t sound completely sure, “Ben has said things about people passing by.”

“All the time.” Ben confirmed, “I help them through the area, offer them some resources, but they never accept that. Then, I watch them try to make their way across the moat. Some make it, others… don’t.”

“Figured.” Asadullah agreed, shuddering at the idea of the zombie-filled swamp at the base of the hill, “Anyone who might have been sequestered away? It’s a big place. Surely you can hide somewhere in this mess?”

“Why would you?” Ben asked, “There’s no reason to hide! We’re clearly friendly.”

“But do they know that?” Jared pointed out, “We have no idea how it appears to them, and we can’t control that, either. We need to get to finding out where the Console went.”

“A detective story?” He asked excitedly. He’d always been a fan of those.

“Only if we figure out what happened.” Jared replied, turning to look around the area, “Did you guys mess with anything?”

“Do we look stupid to you?” Verity crossed her arms, “The crime scene is as it was.”

“Crime scene.” Tench scoffed, “Crime isn’t real anymore.”

“Shut it, Tench.” Everyone said at the same time.

Ben turned to frown at him, “Actually, why are you out here? What if you got caught up by an attack while I wasn’t there? You’re our only medic!”

“I’m not going to let the literal children wander around a city that they don’t know.” Tench replied, “That’s even worse than the risk of getting hurt. Also, we needed crutches for Jared, and Asad didn’t know where to look.”

“I could’ve figured it out.” Asadullah felt the need to defend himself.

“We finally found the things in an apartment building overtaken by zombies. No way were you going to find that in a million years.”

Maybe he was right, but Asadullah wasn’t going to admit to that. He simply moved on to look at the trampled grass on the forest floor, “Someone walked by here.” He announced, “You left it on this tree, exactly?”

“…” The silence was telling enough as he continued to analyze the scene.

“Someone walked by here. Clumsy gait, too. Took off in that direction.” His tail pointed out the path he’d discovered, “Think we can follow it?”

Verity frowned, crouching down a little, just like him. Asadullah thought for a second she was mocking him, before a red almost glasses-like frame appeared around her eyes. When the panel showed up this time, it wasn’t green, but the same hair-raising red.

[Verity Monroe is Applying Tracking…]

Asadullah screwed his face and followed suit. The background fell into muted colors, but a trail of bright yellow scent marked the way. Judging by how her eyes roved over the area, Verity was seeing the same thing.

“Yeah, seems about right.” Verity decided, “Let’s get a move on, because its already getting dark.”

“Regular formation.” Jared announced, “Keep Tench in the middle to reduce attacks. Vera, Asad, as the Trackers, you’re the leaders. Everyone else, bring up the rear and make sure nothing springs out at us.”

Asadullah powered down his Tracking, instead shifting over to give his legs some extra length and padding muscles over his shoulders.

“We shouldn’t have both of us running Tracking at the same time.” He cautioned, “What if there’s a time limit on how long we can do it? How about we swap in and out, instead?”

“Clever.” Verity agreed, “Jared, take my back, will you?”

“Aye, aye!” Jared agreed, moving to cover her shoulder.

“Formation movements, huh?” Ben tested it out, moving slowly towards the corner she had been assigned, “Never done this before.”

“Better fall in, or we might be caught unawares.” Michael warned her, “I travel with people all the time, but Vera struggles with this stuff, too.”

They made quick work of going through the forest and down the hill, until they reached the moat. The smell of rotting flesh and slime and stagnant water was so strong that Asadullah was nearly swept away by it. He gagged roughly, his stomach revolting at the stench.

Verity wrinkled her nose but didn’t seem to have as much of a problem as Asadullah was having. Her Tracking ability must not be as scent-based as it was for him.

“Our Console-napper went through here.” She confirmed.

“Over the zombies?” Ben asked doubtfully, looking at the undead heads gaping out of the murky water’s surface, snapping away with the tenacity of ferocious piranhas, “I mean, this is the narrowest part of the river I’ve ever seen, so it’s possible...”

“I think we can jump it. Maybe.” Asadullah tilted his head, eyeballing the distance he’d have to cover. It was a narrow creek, all things considered, but packed tight with waterlogged zombies. The slightest stumble would mean certain death.

“Nope, you’re not-” Ben started to tell him, but Asadullah was already kicking off the ground, flying over the infested waters. He landed in a crouch with a solid thump on the firm, dry ground on the other side of the moat.

“Halwa.” He grinned, wheeling around to look at the others, who were still standing there. They all looked varying levels of shock, but it was Verity’s face that stood out to him.

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She stared at him, face crumpled up and bitter, “You know we can’t do that, right?”

He didn’t have any way to explain it, but the way she said it, it almost made his head spin. For a moment, all he could see was Tahira, standing on the edge of a cliff. She had her arms crossed, the same pout on her face whenever Asadullah bested her at something.

“You know that I can’t do that, right?” Even when Verity’s words were just text, it sent him spiraling back to that moment when he had cheerfully jumped over a crevasse between hills, leaving Tahira behind.

He had offered to help her jump over on his back, but she had shoved him away and laughed at him.

Her words still rang in his ears, so close he could reach forward and pluck them out of the air.

“You’re going to drop me, silly! A little girl like you can’t carry someone over that, no matter what djinn is powering you.”

But they were simply wisps of smoke, dissipating as he tried to hold them close. His blood ran cold as he struggled to stay afloat.

Tahira had taken it back later, he tried to reassure himself, once she found out the truth. She didn’t truly mean that.

No, the intrusive voices feeding into his hysteria whispered to him, she only meant that about Asadullah being a girl. That bit about him not being strong enough? She’d meant that. She’d meant that he was stupid and weak and that she had a better chance of living if she left him behind. Because Asadullah couldn’t keep anyone safe except himself.

Words swam in front of his eyes. Solid, real subtitles, transforming the nonsensical words everyone around him had been using into something understandable.

“Asad. You okay?” Ben’s head was moving, so she must be the one talking. He forced himself to nod.

“What triggered you?” Tench frowned, “We’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Tench couldn’t promise that. It was a big, scary, everchanging world. All it would lead to was the others walking on eggshells around him. He was the strongest person here, and he needed to keep his shit together, no matter what. Couldn’t lose his grip when everything was going so well.

“Are you coming, or not?” He demanded. Everyone exchanged glances, and then Ben sighed, grabbing a long, twisted branch off from the ground.

“Everyone, stand back.” She commanded, and the others immediately gave her a wide berth. She took a running start, jabbed the branch into the riverbed, and then vaulted straight over the swamp.

She almost didn’t make it, her toes hovering just above the zombie’s dreadful teeth. But Asadullah managed to reach out and use his hands to give her a platform to flip off of.

He clapped excitedly when she landed in a crouch, eager to shift the attention over to someone else. It was never a good thing when people were staring at him, trying to look under his persona. What was people’s obsession with trying to find an imperfection? Wasn’t it enough that he was happy and strong and handling everything just fine?

People just didn’t like to see a guy like him winning.

One by one, the others made it over the creek in their own ways. Ben and Verity used the vaulting branch as a bridge to help Michael and Tench get over, and then Verity went the daredevil route by using the various rotted skulls as lily pads to hop across in a fraction of a second.

“Don’t do that.” Ben cringed, ruffling Verity’s hair with her closed fist in some form of affectionate gesture.

“You’re just jealous.” Verity taunted, batting her away, “What’re we waiting for? Let’s go!”

It seemed that no one had forgotten about Asadullah’s minor slipup, but they at least tried to pretend that they had. He supposed that it was the best he was going to get.

Soon, Verity’s Tracking wore off, and Asadullah had to take over. The sun had gone down, and it soon became so dark that he could only see with fully dilated pupils. That was alright, though, because his Tracking was scent-based, anyway. Light was unnecessary. Until Tench nearly broke his neck on a root.

“Torches?” Ben asked, once she pulled him up and made sure he wasn’t hurt.

“I’ve got it!”

“I’ve got it!”

The translations doubled over each other, indicating that two people had said the same thing simultaneously. Followed by a click of light. And two beams of light broke through the darkness, nearly burning out Asadullah’s eyes.

He hissed impulsively, and then cringed as the phantom of Tahira’s delighted laugh hit him. He’d been thinking about her too much recently. Back in Mira, he had managed to separate himself from her exit. So why was he obsessing over it now?

“Wait.” He interrupted his own thought process, “Where did the second light come from?”

When Jared answered, he could barely squint enough to look at the translations of what he was saying, but what he did recognize was the chime of the Game notifications.

[Michael Kapok Has Applied Sorcery!]

“What the hell?” He stared at the panel in confusion, and then whipped his head around to look at the second source of light other than a torch. It was a tiny, impossible sun, hanging in the air like a glowing yolk, air rippling around it from the heat.

“Uh… surprise?” Michael gulped, “I unlocked Level 8 while in there.”

“And it was sorcery?!” Verity threw her hands into the air, “Why didn’t you say something sooner?”

“There were more important things happening, I’m not sure if you noticed. If we weren’t looking for the Console that you lost, maybe I would’ve told you about it and all the other things that happened!” Michael replied, more than a little waspish.

“Alright. We’ll unpack that later. Good job with the… sorcery.” Jared interjected, “But, how Michael said, let’s unpack this later, shall we?”

Asadullah didn’t want to simply move on from this. There were a lot more questions he wanted to ask. But it seemed this was all he was going to get. At least the idea of a magic user, however inexperienced, made his stomach settle. His hand reached up absently to stroke the bangles containing the djinn. He still remembered the fire and the razor sharp winds from when it had first broken out. A magic user should be able to contain it, if the bangles ever failed.

They continued through the area, guards even higher than before. Outside of the moat, there were more zombies, and they were mostly level-fours, too. Stumbling would mean death, and Asadullah had to be their guide through the blindness.

Until they came to a crossroads. The yellow trails of sour, metallic scent split into two, and he froze.

“Why’d we stop?” Jared asked.

“It splits off.” He explained, trying not to let the panic creep into his voice too much.

“What do you mean?” Ben asked.

Verity leaned over, the notification scrolling up as she reapplied Tracking and looked at him, “He’s right. Most of it is going in direction, but there’s a very slight sliver going off in one direction.”

Asadullah frowned, trying to see which branch was thinner. Both seemed to be the same size to him.

“We need to follow them both.” He insisted.

“It’s too risky.” Verity pushed back, “No splitting up.”

“I’ll go then, you know I can do it.” Asadullah shot back, “But I’m telling you, the other trail is important and we need to follow it.”

Tench’s hands shook. He was sensitive about this because he still saw them as kids. But if Asadullah could win him over…

“Fine.” He relented. Asadullah’s ears and tail perked up, but he tried to play it cool.

“Stay safe.” Ben instructed him, “First sign of trouble, and you come back. Be smart.”

“’Course I will.” Asadullah agreed. The others went left, he went straight. It was fine, for a little while. A few stray zombies that he easily downed. A risky scare with a Level Five that fell from an overhanging tree, but he managed to deal with it, too. All the while, the scent trail stretched forward. So far, so good.

Then the heavens opened. It began raining.

The sour yellow trail was washed away immediately, and the pressure weighed uncomfortably on his whiskers. He grimaced, all the feline instincts transferred to him by the djinn warring against the undignified soaking.

He dashed to the closest cover he could find, an overhanging piece of metal sticking out through the canopy. It wasn’t leaking, providing a dry spot in what had turned into a rainstorm outside. He shivered, wringing his ears out to get the water out.

His hand wandered back to brace himself against the tree where the metal overhanging was attached to. Except, no tree met him. Instead, he was met with jagged glass. He reeled back, looking at it in confusion. The metal wasn’t connected to trees. It was a concrete structure covered by vines and plants, with strains of yellow scent lingered away.

It was a bad idea, he was aware of that, but the rain outside was worse, the hole in the window was big enough for a tiny cat to make it through, the trail led all the way here, and he was curious.

He gripped the bangles and pulled out the djinn’s power to shift into a housecat, slipped between the jagged edges of glass, and leapt to the ground. He transformed back into human midair, landing in a crouch and looking around.

Around him was a storage room, filled with shelves packed tight with… jars, and tins. He crept over to look at was inside one of the jars, but then a scraping sound hissed into the edge of his hearing.

That was the only warning he had before a huge zombie barreled straight to him, a faded uniform hanging off its skeletal frame as it thrashed wildly. Asadullah felt his breath hitched as its jaws scraped past his left ear.

He growled, ripping more power from the djinn in the bangle to gain enough muscle to roll the zombie over, and then threw the creature across the room. The force of the throw sent him reeling, backed up against the wall as he tried to calm his heart.

The throw must have been enough to break the creature’s neck, as it was followed up by a ding!

[You Have Killed a Zombie (Lv. 10)]

[You Have Been Awarded 150 Exp!]

[Zombie (Lv. 10) Will be Revived in 30 min]

[0:29]

That was a higher level of zombie he’d ever met. What the fuck was it doing here?

It was such an inexplicable thing, he didn’t run when he should have. But he didn’t, and then the solid wall he was resting on began to slide backwards, earning the third heart attack of the day.

He landed on his back, the world spinning around in confusion. There was a door, swinging shut in front of him, closing the storage room with the zombie inside.

Someone moved in his periphery, and he looked in its direction. A person was there, with strange teal hair, locking the storage room tightly.

“Uh, hi?” He offered once he had gathered up his thoughts.

They turned to look at him, their throat working away as they gulped in silence. They finally settled on a slight hand wave.

Asadullah didn’t care, he was just about ready to check out. In fact, out of the rain, and far away from the zombie’s snapping jaws, he was starting to become… incredibly tired.

He yawned, eyelids suddenly becoming uncomfortably heavy.

All he saw was the look of silent alarm that crossed over the stranger’s face as he tilted to the side, unconscious.

[Player Log End!]