Since the System arrived and took everything she held dear from her, Jamie had been running on autopilot. She woke up from nightmarish half-rest into the chaotic and terrifying struggles of each day. It was hard to keep track of time, but she thought it had been about seven days since the System descended and the monsters arrived. Whole days and nights had been lost to the haze of activity required simply to survive, but it felt like a week.
Of course, the natural world was doing its best to throw confusion on that possibility. Thistledon had always been merged with the natural world, but the change in only a few days was hard to believe. Instead of a small university town with trees and parks, the local flora had decided to take over. Jamie and Kylie had decided to stay despite the destruction and were witness to a reclamation.
Not content to leave open land, the System seemed to empower the plants. Other than the camp which the pair of them had set up around the perimeter of St Gerrard’s University, it was as though humanity had never set foot on the land before. In a way she couldn’t articulate, the sudden objective beauty of the land made Jamie angrier each time she cut away a path to the magical bubble. Kylie agreed that the dome was special enough to warrant checking, so the pair took it in turns to check on the strange place every twelve hours or so.
It seemed others felt drawn to the area, too. Unlike Jamie, these wanderers didn’t seem to have a particular reason for coming to this place, yet it was clear that the bubble had something to do with it. The first groups were the most uncomfortable for the pair of women, but not for the reason Jamie would have expected. There was a reverence and a trust placed in them from the moment they announced their levels to people that it made Jamie itch. Not that she didn’t continue to use it to cow them and keep everything calm in Thistledon as more people arrived.
Before they knew it, Jamie and Kylie were seen as leaders. It seemed as though everyone had seen enough of the System’s horrors to trust in strength when they saw it. While these level one people saw demons clawing at them from the shadows, it was in the jerky movements of the scared men and women that Jamie found anxiety. The monsters were no longer the primary threat for Jamie, after all.
People were.
Now that people could punch through a brick wall or run faster than a car, even trusting them at arm's length was a struggle. Of course, fear of others had always been true for women in strange situations, but none so strange as the System had happened before. It was slowly setting into the pair that they were strong, compared to just about everyone they met. Few had thrown themselves into the fire like they had, and fewer still survived it.
In their time clearing Thistledon, Jamie and Kylie hadn’t found any living souls. Yet, despite the small village’s somewhat rural positioning, the people who arrived, bedraggled and useless, didn’t stop coming. If they were drawn by the strange pinkish dome, still impenetrable by all, then they stayed for another reason. Perhaps they could sense the inherent safety which the two powerful women provided, Jamie wondered while she walked through the empty streets. She ignored the stares of the zombies.
Those refugees who had stumbled into Thistledon had not been turned away, though Jamie’s instincts had told her to do just that.
Either force these useless people to leave, she knew, or you’ll be looking after them forever.
Now, as these pathetic individuals sat in the wide area around what used to be St Gerrard’s, they just listlessly waited for some unknown end to find them. When they arrived, it was clear most had been broken by the changes to their new world in a way Jamie and Kylie were not. It was more of a surprise they had survived the journey than when most collapsed upon finding the first modicum of safety.
At first, and if she was being truthful even now, Jamie didn’t know what to do with the other people. Even as she told herself it wasn’t her job to save anyone, Jamie knew she would do what she could at this point. The System had become her enemy, and every life it claimed was a victory it gained over her. With that logic, Jamie began to organise the survivors who arrived in Thistledon. The main issue for most was hunger. Thankfully, these two problems could be solved at once.
Every once in a while, a monster would drop an item of food as loot. It was a special kind of bizarre to smash a Kobold’s head to pieces in a fight, only to then touch the fallen body and receive a warm can of soup. The first time Jamie had found food, she had been disgusted and ignored it. The idea of eating an (unwrapped) hamburger from the corpse of an orc had been enough to make her feel sick. When Kylie voraciously devoured it from the floor, Jamie realised her own foolishness and hunger. She didn’t begrudge the other woman, but she stopped being so picky after that.
By explaining the possibility of easing their hungry bellies even the most languid individuals began to attempt hunts. Despite her reticence, Jamie begrudgingly began taking others out to increase their levels. She didn’t hold people’s hand, but she was able to make it less likely they died while completely helpless. Without talking about it together, she found that Kylie had done the same with another set of people and the routine became set.
Under the brutal guardianship of Jamie or Kylie, groups began to form which could handle themselves in the surrounding woodlands. With the adrenaline and panic of those first days now firmly worn away, it was up to each person to find their reasons to struggle on. For some, it was impossible, and they would fade quickly. Others began to grasp at the power offered by the System and claw their way to some form of freedom.
Once a few teams had been set up who could handle the nearby monsters, Jamie was once more free to do as she wished. She began ranging farther from their camp, looking for dangerous enemies. The monsters near to their settlement were too weak to challenge her anymore. The instant responsibility she felt when faced with the lives of others was a gift from her dead best friend, Grant. His disapproving and pained look as she abandoned him for her family would never fade from behind her closed eyelids. Like her emotions, that moment was frozen within her. Permafrost.
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Honestly, it was only during those frantic moments of combat, where she gambled her life needlessly, that Jamie felt alive. For most of her waking hours, she was an ice sculpture. The only time she felt warmth was when she wet her hands in the lifeblood of those she ended. Of course, the best feeling was when she actually levelled up and placed her Attribute points. The tingling warmth of stat gains were longer lasting than the simple thrill of battle, but that sensation was becoming harder and harder to grasp as the days went by. Her rising level became a thorn as she glared at her Character Window.
Character Window
Name
Jamie Baker
Race
Earth Human
Title
None
Level
11
Health
80/80
Mana
0
Attribute Window
FP:0
Strength
10
Recovery
12
Resilience
13
Dexterity
11
Agility
13
Perception
10
Power
0
Regeneration
0
Command
0
The reason for her slowing pace wasn’t as simple as her giving up, as so many had. No, Jamie wasn’t like the shambling survivors who had yet to gain a single level in this monstrous new world. She also wasn’t like Kylie, who had lost herself in the bloodlust. No one’s like Kylie, Jamie thought as she shook her head, but that’s exactly why Kylie is the strongest. Kylie was like a woman possessed. Unsurprising, as she searched for each and every avenue to have her daughter returned to her.
At level fourteen, Kylie had a full fifteen attribute points on Jamie. There was a tacit agreement not to ask about someone else’s level or even their stats, though Jamie wasn’t sure if she had started it or not. Although the two women were thick as thieves in almost every way, they stuck to this unspoken rule between themselves. Jamie hadn’t even asked what Kylie had gained from reaching level ten, allowing the woman to keep her secret.
They had both hoped it would be the return of her child, but as the world itself continued to be a hellscape, there was a small part of Jamie which understood the System’s logic. Then she remembered her own family, just as unprepared as a newborn, and wanted to tear something apart again. “Jamie?” The timidity was clear in the voice but Jamie’s aggression leaked out as she spun around to find the offender.
A young girl sprinted away at full speed. So immediate was the reaction and the young woman combined her fear with such an unrefined gait that all of Jamie’s frustrations popped like a balloon. Using her impressive speed, Jamie quickly overtook and stopped the teenager with a calming gesture. It took a few more tries, like a cat surrounding a scared mouse, but eventually the girl calmed down.
Or realised she couldn’t escape if she wanted to. Jamie swallowed down the grim thought, not liking the taste. This wasn’t the same as those scenarios, and this girl was likely too young to have been cornered in a club. “How can I help?” Jamie asked, the concern and willingness to aid clear in her own voice. The sound surprised even Jamie, but she held onto the feeling that had been created. Grant’s chuckle seemed to tickle her ear. She wanted to help. The feeling was warm.
The young woman stammered a little but managed to squeak out her question. “IwashopingthatIcouldcomewithyouthenexttimeyougoout?” It was just a little too quick for Jamie to follow, which was impressive given her attributes. When Jamie just smirked and waited, the girl calmed a little more and repeated the request.
“You want to come out with me the next time I go ranging? I thought you were a part of Huckle’s group?” A few small cliques were forming, mostly based on capability and teamwork. Jamie didn’t know the girl’s name, but the large man who used a car door as a shield, Huckle, had been a hard silhouette to forget. “What level are you?”
“Huckle’s an idiot,” the girl answered with a roll of her eyes. Jamie didn’t argue. She had seen the man pull a nail out of his head, planted courtesy of a goblin with a piece of wood. It had gone deep, but he had just smiled and said how much he loved having a health bar before trundling through the miniature attackers. “He takes all of the fighting for himself, and I need levels. I’m only level three.”
“Why do you need levels?” Jamie asked simply. She wasn’t a babysitter, and when she went into the wilderness the dangers were real. It wasn’t a casual thing to bring another with her, even Kylie.
“Because the System took everything from me,” the young girl answered. She was a small thing, still growing into her full size but would never be a huge woman. Her brown hair was curled and matted, dishevelled from days of no grooming. She was just a wisp of a thing, especially compared to Jamie or Kylie, and yet…
As she spoke, Jamie felt warmth. Not the heat of battle, but something close. The girl carried a blazing inferno of desperate anger which matched her own frigid wasteland. She didn’t need any more explanation. “Alright, let’s go.”
Without waiting for an answer or to see if the girl really did come with, Jamie left the safety of Thisteldon and stalked towards her new favourite hunting zone.