The man in the corner scrambled away from Zoe's voice. He was large, easily over seven feet tall with a broad frame to match. Massive muscles twitched under pale skin, his body completely exposed except for a pair of bright orange swim trunks and a grey sharkskin helmet with long flaps hanging past his cheeks. A fin stuck out on the top of the helmet, evidence of the armor’s origin. The man underneath stared at Zoe with absolute horror.

“Did you kill my men?” he asked.

“No,” Zoe said. “They’re alive.”

His eyes darted to the harpoon beside him, but he didn’t reach for it.

Zoe leaned in the doorway and crossed her arms.

“Feel fast enough?” she asked.

His fingers twitched.

“What do you want?

“Good question. What do I want? For one, answer my question: who is Big Bob?”

The giant man eyed the harpoon once more. He gripped the conch in one hand, a faint sound like distant waves coming from within.

“Big Bob is… he’s from the tutorial.”

Zoe’s eyes sharpened and she pulsed [Our Hearts Toll as One]. Her technique wrapped around him so subtly that he didn’t even flinch.

“What are you to Big Bob?”

“I’m… my men… we’re expendable,” she could feel his panic rising. “He came a few days ago and he took over our island. We’ve survived since the apocalypse started. We don’t want any trouble.”

His heart told her that he wasn’t lying.

“Arrows don’t mean peace where I come from.”

The giant grimaced.

“Other people from the tutorial took over other islands. We’re at war. When we saw you, we thought you were the enemy.”

“Half-right,” Zoe said idly. “I’m not from the tutorial.”

“I know,” the giant whispered. “Where are you from?”

Zow twitched her technique and the giant’s heart pounded. He fell to his knees clutching his chest. She felt bad, but in a situation like this, she needed absolute control.

“I ask the questions,” she said. “How is Big Bob keeping you in line?”

“Please, we don’t have a choice. He… he has our families hostage.”

Zoe tapped her chin.

“You have enough food and water in these islands?”

The giant frowned at the change in questions.

“Yes? Some islands had towns before the apocalypse and there’s endless fish if you know how to cook ghosts.”

That was another line of questioning she wanted to pursue, but not right now.

“I have around two dozen people with me who need water, food, shelter, and clothing. If I kill Big Bob will there be room in the islands for us?”

The giant man sighed.

“You wouldn’t be the first to attempt it, but Big Bob is special. The people in the tutorial received all kinds of unfair advantages. He’s so powerful… but if you could, then yes, we would welcome you…” his voice broke as his eyes filled with tears. “We’re so tired, we just want peace. I just want to see my family.”

Zoe nodded.

“I understand,” she said as she held out her hand. “Now, give me the conch.”

The giant man handed her the shell. It felt so fragile in her grip, as though she could crush it to powder with but a thought.

“How’s it work?” she asked.

“Like a phone.”

Zoe placed the conch to her ear. Soft waves rolled endlessly in the shell’s distant spirals.

“Anyone there?”

A wave crashed into static.

“Mathias?” asked a deep voice. “Is that you?”

“Is Mathias the giant with a dinky fin on his head? Cos he’s done.”

“What? Who is this?”

“I’m the new queen of the islands. Surrender, and send an escort for me and mine, or I’ll wipe you out.”

Deep laughter crashed through the shell.

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“Nice try. You sound pretty, maybe there’ll be a place for you in Big Bob’s paradise after I teach you some manners. As for Mathias, if he’s still alive,” and the voice grew loud enough that the giant man flinched. “Tell him his family is forfeit!”

The giant, Mathias, paled and ran toward the window above the urinals. He leaped for the bars and his body dissolved into a stream of sand that passed through the metal without a problem. Zoe glanced at the conch in her hand as the connection died.

“Skidmark!” she called out. “Bring him back.”

Lightning flashed and arced through the bars. Mathias slammed into the wall and fell to the ground. His dazed eyes swam as he gazed up at Zoe.

“What have you done?” he asked as tears rolled down his cheeks.

Zoe plucked his cap from his head.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I have a plan.”

###

Mathias couldn’t run or fight his way out without his equipment, so Zoe left him with Skidmark and hurried back to the beach. There, she found Anton and Bella directing the survivors to search the other shacks. Three small piles of alcohol, tourist shirts, and canned goods grew as the survivors found new resources.

The archers remained unconscious and bound in a collective bundle of Bella’s black energy.

Anton waved at her as his eyes bobbed about, and Bella hurried forward.

“Anton relayed what happened in the toilet. What’s your plan?

“I need a portal to Big Bob, he’s on one of the other islands.”

Bella flexed her wrist.

“You know, it does take a lot out of me to cut open those portals…”

“I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t urgent.”

Bella grinned.

“Not that I don’t love doing them. You know the coordinates?”

“I still have a little bit of time on my map. IMP!”

The bloodied projection unfurled above them. Crimson droplets of liquid Skein fell to the sand as the map curled in the balmy air.

“This thing looks creepier every time you summon it,” Bella said.

Zoe tried to ignore the implications of that.

“We need to cut a portal to Big Bob. Show us how we can do that without leaving this beach.”

The symbols carved into the holographic skin swirled and spiraled as the map processed Zoe’s request. After a minute, it showed up blank, before runes etched themselves before her. Blood dribbled from each delicately carved word.

[No location discovered on the beach]

[Expand search?]

“Yes,” Zoe said, refusing to let the pressure enter her voice like she knew the map wanted. “But it has to be on this island.”

The runes faded and were replaced by the bird’s eye view of the island Zoe saw when Bella tossed her high above. A small circle appeared on the edge of a heart-shaped stretch of reef.

[Slice here to enter Big Bob’s current location: Big Bob’s throne room]

Zoe peered out toward the reef. It was about a mile and a half away. She could feel the pressure of time. If Big Bob killed innocents on her account…

She shook her head. No time for distraction, only decisions.

“Bella, hop on my back.”

“What? I can run.”

“I’m faster. Get on.”

Bella half-grumbled, and half-smiled, as she climbed onto Zoe’s back. Zoe grabbed a hold of her legs and launched herself forward. Wind whipped at her as Bella cried out in shock at the speed as Zoe propelled herself forward. In one leap she cleared the beach and landed on a cluster of bright orange coral pillars. The shells crushed beneath her feet as she launched herself again. In a series of bounding steps, she arrived at the edge of the heart-shaped section of reef as indicated by the infernal map projection.

The oceanic smell rose strong about them. Schools of floating fish darted away from their arrival. The translucent creatures swam down through the coral and air as though both were water. A larger creature resembling a hammerhead shark of glass poked its head out from behind a glowing brain coral, but one flex of Zoe’s Willpower sent it swimming away.

Bella climbed down from Zoe’s back, slightly breathless.

“I’ve been on roller coasters less terrifying than that.”

“I would never drop you,” Zoe said.

“I know…” Bella looked away as she unlimbered her blade. “Ok, give me a moment.”

The runes fired one by one and a wind spiraled around them as she stepped toward the reef’s edge. Beyond, a gulf of sky swirled and burned with fierce color. Another island lay a few miles away in the distance. It was larger, and multi-storied buildings could be seen on the beachside.

Bella’s eyes paled as she held the runeblade overhead and swept down. A black slash opened in the air. Without hesitation, Zoe leaped through.

###

Big Bob lounged on his throne. The tutorial was kind to him, in that since he survived the horrors of its purpose and ending, he now had the strength to take whatever he wanted from the remnants of old Earth.

The leather couch underneath him was proof. He never could have afforded something like this in his old life of bussing tables, the leather alone came from cows treated that lived better than him. Brown and supple, just how he liked his women. Big Bob stretched his substantial girth across the long recliner.

“Another drink!” he shouted with obnoxious cheer.

Everyone else was so gloomy, somebody needed to liven things up.

Footsteps slapped against the concrete floor and Big Bob looked over his shoulder.

A young woman in a grass skirt and coconut bra ran toward him across the floor of the indoor pool. He had chosen this room to be his throne room as it was the largest single building on the island. Already he had a team painting his mural on the four-story walls. Why a hotel wanted an indoor pool when the ocean was right there was beyond him, but the rich do as they do. The pools themselves were drained, and they now housed the families of his new subordinates. Eventually, they would go free, but for now, he needed collateral to stop anybody from doing anything stupid. At least the people inside the concrete holes stopped whimpering a few hours ago, the sound had driven him crazy over the last few days.

The young woman — Sari? Sarah? Tammy? — arrived with his drink.

“Your drink, Big Bob,” she said as she bowed and presented him with a coconut half full of rum.

“Thank you, girl,” he said as he took the drink with one hand.

His other hand kept a chain in a tight grip. On the other end of the chain, a ghostly tiger shark circled above them. Big Bob knew it slept through his technique [Animal Magnetism], but to everyone else, it appeared ever vigilant.

Their fear was almost as delicious as the magical pina colada. He took a sip and felt his body grow even as the drink hit the back of his throat. Enough of these and he would need another couch!

He laughed at his joke and the woman nervously laughed along with him. From down in the empty pools, more timid laughter rose. They had all been doing that ever since he asked them to, and while it felt good to be applauded, he couldn’t help but sense the fakeness. He sighed, these people knew nothing about acting!

“Has anyone found in any movies, yet?” he asked.

She nodded quickly.

“We’ve found an extensive collection of DVDs and Blu-rays but…”

“No DVD player?”

She grimaced.

“None that survived the apocalypse, Big Bob sir.”

“Please, Big Bob sir was my father.”

She laughed nervously, her grass skirt rustling as she shivered. Was she cold? He could help her warm up…

If only he didn’t have to worry about that damned conch. With a groan, he sat up on the couch. The coconut was tiny in his hand as he sucked it down. His bulk almost reached eight feet in height, and the woman beside him was dainty by comparison.

What had that woman on the conch said? She wanted to be queen? Well, he would show her how a king treats his queen!

“Prepare my chariot,” he said. “It’s time to remind everyone why I’m the star here!”