[Player Log Start!]
[Log Holder: Asadullah Khan]
[Level: 1]
[! Log Translated From Urdu !]
“If I can’t convince you to come along with me, I’ll simply wait with you!” Asadullah explained cheerfully.
Terry didn’t seem as ecstatic about this plan as he was. In fact, his face paled even more than it already was, pasty from the lack of sun.
“You can’t do that!” He argued, the stress of the situation finally making him resort to signing again.
“Why not?” He challenged, tilting his head to the side.
“You just- urghhh you can’t.” His hands stressed.
“The way I see it, it’s the most logical solution.” Asadullah pointed out, “I’m stronger than you, so I can fight them off. And I’ve got Tracking, too, just in case we need to catch up with the others. All the closure you want, you can have it. And we’re only risking everything a little bit.”
“And a little bit is quite enough.” He rolled his eyes, as if he wasn’t still struck silent by the terror of the suggestion. Terry had the habit of doing that, acting fine even though he was checking every box for not fine.
“Besides, how do you know I can’t track?” Terry pointed out.
Asadullah had to suppress a laugh at that, “What part of you seems like a tracker?” He was saying before he could help himself. But then, he found himself stopping.
“Wait a minute, we never looked at your stats.” He realized, “With all the stuff going on, and how late in the game you came in, it slipped out of my mind. Do you know what they are?”
“Not a clue.” Terry blinked, “What are stats?”
Astaghfirullah, they hadn’t told this boy anything.
“Come on, we need to have a chat with Michael.” He decided, reaching forward to grab him by the wrist, but only just stopping when he remembered the guy’s aversion to touch. Instead, he just backed away and gestured for him to follow behind.
In the main area of the supermarket, Verity, Michael, and Jared were all gathered around the Console, apparently trying to shove the entire food store into the device’s Inventory. The fact that you could put things inside it was news to him, because up till now, he’d thought it was simply a dispenser. Turns out it wasn’t, and everyone had already known that. Being the only one from a world that didn’t have video games was becoming very tiresome.
“Alright, everyone, shove off.” He commanded, “Terry needs to check his stats.”
“Huh?” Michael looked up before realization struck, “Oh shit, we never checked his!”
“Dang, really?” Jared blinked, “I forgot about all about that.”
A few sharp clicks was all it took to get the Console to display Terry’s stats, complete with the onslaught of translation windows.
[Name: Terence Glasgow]
[Age: 18]
[Class: Cure-Maker]
[Level: 7]
[Active Powerup: NeuroMushrooms]
[Compress Character Profile→]
[Power Stats:]
[Durability: 2]
[Strength: 4]
[Agility: 4]
[Charisma: 2]
[Remove Abilities Menu→]
[Eidetic Callback Lv. 9]
[Nature Affinity Lv. 7]
[Shrink Down Lv. 7]
Terence reached forward to highlight the words Shrink Down with a confused air. Asadullah was inclined to agree.
Jared reached forward to click on it, and a green panel popped up to define it: “Shrink Down: An Ability allowing its User to appear small and harmless, and instead pass an opponent’s ire to another Player in the vicinity. This is an Uncommon Ability.”
“That’s perfect!” Asadullah grinned, clapping his hands, “Terry can hang back after all.”
“Why’s Terry hanging back?” Ben asked, popping in from where she was testing out baseball bats in the sports pile.
“Because he shouldn’t be forced to rush his departure.” Asadullah explained.
“So, you’ll stay until he sees his home being ransacked by murderous people intent on destroying whole multiverses.” Tench noted, “Yes, that’s an infinitely better solution.” Asadullah might have thought he was genuine, except for the utterly disbelieving look on his face. He didn’t believe that this was going to work out.
“It’s better than not knowing at all.” Terry responded, letting his hands do the talking once more.
“Yeah, he’s got you there.” Verity agreed, “I just… you know what? I don’t care. As long as we get to carry the research you’ve already written. And also maybe take the jacked up Derek zombie ahead with us. You guys can do whatever and just catch up later.”
No one else seemed to be as on-board as Verity was. And she had also been the victim of a very harrowing panic attack recently, so it was clear that everyone was doubting her judgement on this.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
“If you’re sure about this, I’ll tag along.” Ben volunteered.
“You don’t have to.” Asadullah quickly shut her down. He didn’t want to trouble her.
Ben simply laughed, hefting the new aluminum bat over her shoulder, “Are you kidding? I might as well break this in if we’re doing something stupid.”
“Keep an eye on them, Ben.” Tench was easy enough to convince now that another adult was on board, “We’re almost done with the packing anyway, so let’s get a move on!”
Everyone fell into line, wrapping up the Console and tucking it into Michael’s backpack. Chances were that he would be most effective with it, if they managed to get separated. The Harbingers were gunning for the Console anyway, and they needed to keep it as far away from them as possible.
The pile of resources they meant to put into the Inventory got smaller and smaller but didn’t vanish entirely. A small tower of food and rolled up blankets remained.
“What about these?” He asked.
“The Inventory slots have been used up.” Michael explained, “They don’t fit.”
“I’ll carry them along on our backs.” Asadullah compromised, “Or have you forgotten how to hold heavy bags?”
“Ha, ha.” She rolled her eyes, enunciating the fake laugh slowly, “The only reason you’re stronger than me is that armband of yours.”
She was right, obviously. All his gifts had come from that fateful moment when he was nine years old.
“I was just trying to make a joke.” He muttered.
“Don’t bring my competence into it, then.” Verity grumbled, “That’s not funny.”
“Right…” He nodded, “Won’t happen again.”
The quartet that would venture outside first lined up in front of the stepladder leading up into the skylight carved into the first floor.
“Follow the map I’ve outlined.” Ben instructed them sternly, pointing them over the glossy printed street map, “Hygeia should be in that direction, and the last I know, it’s still active. For everything this place has, a working radio isn’t one of those things, so I can’t double check.”
“What’s the worst that could have happened in three days?” Jared shrugged, “Don’t sweat it too much.”
“Maybe we should sweat it.” Tench frowned, “A little overpreparation won’t hurt us.”
“I just meant that as a warning. Don’t squabble with the children, Gid.” Ben sighed, “You’re better than this, you know?”
“This whole fucking operation is falling apart.” Verity muttered to herself as she jumped up the stepladder in adorable little hops. But if he pointed that out, she would have went after him with her giant knives.
Jared watched her departure with shadowed eyes, “I’ll talk to her.” He promised, but to whom, Asadullah had no idea, “She put all her extra points into leveling up, so it might just be growing pains.”
Asadullah hadn’t experienced any of these so-called growing pains, but he let the story hang in the air.
“Well, best of luck to all of you.” Michael nodded, climbing up after Jared. He didn’t look back, even once he’d disappeared through the skylight.
Tench didn’t bother with a farewell. Just a short nod and a meaningful look at them all before he too began to scale the ladder.
Once they had left, Terry immediately turned tail and went inside. Derek would have to be released from the wall, and then lured out of the broken window in his room. And then, he would have to be given space to mourn.
“Should we… go after him?” Ben asked, clearly out of her depth.
“No.” Asadullah shook his head, “He needs this. I would have appreciated something like this, too. Back when the metal men first appeared.”
It wasn’t the first time he’d fantasized about putting off accepting that invitation for a few more minutes. Just taking a deep breath in and appreciating what he had. Before the world truly fell apart, in a thousand complicated ways.
They watched him as he went from room to room, a slow methodical pacing, as he took in every detail, nook, and cranny of the main room, and then retreated into the backrooms to continue the pacing with almost an air of enrapturement hanging over him.
“Are you done?” Asadullah asked, once he had gone through this song and dance for the third time.
The teal-haired boy gave him a pitiful look, “I just need a little more time. To say goodbye. To get ready to step outside.”
Asadullah nodded mechanically, and Terry turned to run a hand over the wall with a reverent look.
“We’re going to have to bodily drag him out of here.” Ben whispered to him. Terry clearly heard in the way he had tensed sharply.
“Don’t say shit like that.” He replied with a frown.
“You can’t seriously think he’s going to agree to walk out.” Ben scoffed, “Wake up, the trauma has clearly gotten to the poor kid. He’s going to keep procrastinating and procrastinating until the world actually does end.”
“And maybe he deserves it.” Asadullah replied.
“None of us got this type of special treatment! Why does he deserve it more than any of the rest of us?”
“Because none of us had the option. And he does. I thought you’d understand that, but apparently not!” He threw up his hands and marched away. Ben didn’t follow him. Didn’t continue to rant to him. That gave him room to think.
As had been the norm recently, his thoughts drifted back to Terry.
He was odd. Unobtrusive and drawn to quiet spaces in a way that Asadullah had never been able to relate to. He was always the center of attention wherever he went, what with the ‘part cat, holder of a djinn’ thing.
But silence was good, too. Asadullah was… self-conscious when he prayed. Privacy was important to him. So, it was a bit of a heart attack when Terry turned out to have been there the whole time. And then Terry was asking all these questions, which he tried to answer seriously, even as the startling discovery was expanding in his chest.
He didn’t mind praying with Terry in the room.
That was… that was huge for him.
It’s hard to talk about these things to people who don’t understand. They don’t understand the foreign energy that seeps into his veins and makes him feel inhuman. No one could understand when they didn’t share their body with a supernatural parasite that he had to constantly feel grateful for. They don’t understand his need to feel alone and separate from it, which he could only do when he was praying.
It’s stupid to think that he could confide in Terry about things like that, because they had nothing in common. They couldn’t even communicate without the Console! He was here to save the world, not to make deep relationships, because at the end of the day, it wasn’t going to last. They would split off to go back to their perfect worlds once it was all over.
Tahira was going to be the only person left who could understand him. And in the meantime, all he could do was sit, moping about an unchangeable truth he should just accept now.
His sudden bout of melancholy was interrupted by Ben, who sounded much more civil now.
“Do you smell something?” She asked, tilting her head to the side.
Asadullah took an instinctive sniff, wrinkling his nose at the smell of smoke. He’d been hoping to leave that behind at Wayside. Though, he supposed if they wanted to get past this Level, he would have to go into that death-smoke realm.
Wait, focus. Where was the smoke coming from?
Another sharp sniff, and he could pinpoint it wafting in from outside.
He stood up, pressing his face to a gap between the shelves that gave him a glimpse of the outside world. There was a solid line of trees a couple feet away. It was now on fire.
And in front of the rippling heatwave, there was a solid, human outline. Big, buff, and very threatening.
[Player: Roiland Hargreaves Has Entered the Field!]
His arm was held out, and following his motion, the flames rose another story, the inferno coming to a crescendo. No fuel was added. No weapon was used. It was pure power.
They might have miscalculated a little bit.
[Player Log End!]