I went up to the fence and didn’t see anything. I decided against sending Thor in. I thought a shadow dog might be pushing it. I wanted to look as normal as possible.

I started walking towards the gate. It was locked. Then I realized I was being stupid. Ok, more stupid than usual.

I had noticed my abilities were quickly approaching super human. My stats had almost doubled since this whole thing began. It was only a six foot tall fence. I could totally jump it. So I did. Up and over, easy as pie. Thor and Loki hopped over with me.

Now that I was inside the fence, I started looking for whatever the zombies were after. I assumed it would be survivors. I didn’t want to call out because making loud noises around zombies was always a bad idea. I think we were lucky no other zombies were attracted by our fight.

As I was approaching the side door, I found what I was looking for, survivors.

A small group of people approached me. I recognized the guy in the lead. It was Scott from the grocery store. They were holding weapons in their hands. They all looked homemade. It was obvious they weren’t holding guns.

“Wassup guys?” I asked holding my hands out and away from me. It just occurred to me that putting your hands up wasn’t a friendly gesture any more. I shot lightning from hands. It was more like I had just taken my weapons out and were just holding them. And my two dogs were right next to me. Loki didn’t actually need a long wind up time on her icicles. She only did that to overcharge the attack.

“Gavrin? That you?” Scott asked. “We didn’t know there were other survivors.”

“No worries.” I said. Like I would expect someone to be looking for survivors at the end of days. “I was just wandering around looking for stuff. I haven’t seen anyone except those zombies back at the fence.”

“The zombies?” Another girl behind Scott asked. She looked familiar but I didn’t know her name. “You didn’t let them in did you?”

“No.” I said. “I took care of them.”

“Oh thank god.” A different person said. “We’ve been so scared and they wouldn’t stop chasing us. How’d you do it.”

“Typical zombie rules.” I answered. “Headshots only. Why? Where you guys having problems with them? They weren’t someone you knew?”

“Headshots?” Scott interrupted. “You got a gun to work?”

“Nope.” I held my hands together and gathered a ball of lightning between my hands and then let it dissipate. "Looks like magic."

“Magic? What are you talking about?” Scott asked.

“You know, right after the lightning fell. A bunch of giant ants burst out of the ground and then I got a level up and then a class. Then I decided to get out of town for a little bit.”

“Levels, classes?” Scott asked. “I don’t get what’s going on.”

“Did you guys check your menu?” I asked and brought up menu again just to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.

“Menu?” Everyone asked. Then everyone in front of me just stood there staring. I realized what had happened. These fine folks had never played a proper video game and lacked the correct instincts. “So are you guys all there is? Anyone else make it? Do you guys have water? I really want to take a shower or a bath. And can we go inside, shit is weird out here.”

“Okay.” Scott said as he moved to the side.

I moved to go pass him but the three people with him were still staring into the distance, with their eyes tracking back and forth.

“Guys?”

“How did we miss this?” The other guy said. “How did you find this?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know. Full disclosure, I was super high when everything happened so I was just going along for the ride. What have you guys been doing for the last couple of days?”

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“He’s right.” Scott said. “We need to go inside. We have a lot to discuss.”

This time I followed them inside to the school. It was dark inside and the lights were off. Some off the ceiling tiles were askew and broken.

“Lightning got here too?” I asked. “It basically blew my house up. I really liked that house.”

“Yeah. It pretty much got everything high tech.” Scott explained. “Even the guns too.”

The other guy chimed in as walked down the hallway. “That sure was a surprise. The guns weren’t initially targeted but you only have one or two shots before a lightning bolt drops on your head. Most of the cops in town died that way before we figured out what was causing it.”

“Well, they do serve and protect.” I said. “But that is unfortunate. That will probably take care of lot of the crazies.”

“Yeah.” Scott said. He held a door open for and ushered us into the gym. There were cots set up and there was about 20 people in the room. “Here we are. This is all the people we have found so far. We stopped going out because of the zombies. And we are running out of supplies. We really didn’t know what to do.”

Scott pointed to his bat. “This is pretty much all we got for weapons.”

“My kingdom for a sword.” I said. “To bad we don’t have any larpers here. Even some mall ninja shit would be better than nothing.”

I found a place to sit down and thought. The first group gave me some room but the new people came up and tried to talk.

“Hey new guy.” One of the kids said. “You stink.”

“Your mom stinks.” I reflexively replied. I sighed. “No that’s not fair. I’ve never met your mom. I haven’t had a shower since the start of this whole and I know I’m nasty.”

“Oh, we have showers but the water stopped working the other day.” One of the kids said. “We have a bunch of barrels, maybe you could a bath.”

“Thank you little one.” I said. I really needed to learn some names.

“My name is Oliver.” Oliver introduced himself. “Can I pet your dogs?” The other kids nodded along to him.

“Sure.” I said. “They’re friendly enough. This is on Thor. He is a big dumb goof. And this is Loki. She’s alright.”

The kids came forward and started petting Thor and Loki. Loki maneuvered herself so that her tail wags thwapped my face. I laughed. I could feel her amusement through the bond. She was getting pretty intelligent and I wondered if either of them would get an ability to talk me. I would have to level up to be sure.

I noticed one of the kids had a splint on his arm. “What’s up with your arm?” I asked him.

“It was broken during the lightning storm.” The kid said. “One of the people here is a nurse and she set it and made the splint for me.”

“My name is Gavrin.” I said holding out my hand. The kid was a teenager but there was no need to be rude. I was keeping an eye on the kids playing with my dogs. Thor was lolling on his back get belly rubs. He was a sucker for belly rubs. Loki was playing tag with a small group of kids. They were beginning to make a racket. I smiled because I saw they were having fun.

I stood back up. “Can I see it?” I asked.

“Name’s Liam.” Liam replied. “And can I ask why?”

“I got a skill.” I said. “It might help.”

Liam nodded his head. “You got a skill?”

I cast druidic healing and channeled it in his arm. His arm glowed bright green almost white and then the glow slowly washed over the rest of his body.

While that was happening I told him. “You guys gotta access you ‘menu’ and start selecting stuff.”

I had attracted attention. It seems a strange man talking to a bunch of kids and then making them glow green was concerning to parents. I was now the center of attention. Everyone came over. There was a clamor of voices as everyone spoke at once.

I listened and waited until it was quiet enough to be heard. “One at a time please. I can’t hear you if you are all yelling at once.”

“What was that? What did you do to him?” One of the ladies yelled at me.

I winced a little bit at the sound. “Ever since the lightning I could do magic. I accessed my menu, was presented with an option to choose a class.”

I gathered a ball of lightning into in my hands. It glowed with a buzzing intensity then I slowly let it fade away. “Are you guys serious? No one here has a class?”

“No.” Someone answered. “We didn’t see anything. Are you hallucinating?”

Someone else answered for me. They were staring off into the distance like they were reading something so I knew at least one person had a menu. “No, he isn’t. I just saw a menu pop up in front of my face.”

Now everyone was silent. One of the kids said. “I don’t see anything. What are you guys talking about?”

“Menu.” I said. “Maybe you are too young to get it.” I didn’t think giving young children the power of the elements was a good idea but maybe in this new crazy world it did.

Someone yelled out. “Goddamn it. There’s a help menu. How did you find this menu?”

“It was just there.” I said. I thought about it. “But I was super high while I was out working in my garden. Maybe that had something to do with it. You know, I was in a receptive state or something.”

I waited as it looked like everyone was in their menus right now. I cleared my throat to get someone’s attention. Scott looked up. “As previously mentioned, I would like a bath of some sort. Is that a yes or no?”

“Oh, I am sorry.” Scott looked a little sheepish. “I forgot. We discussing what to do about this.” Scott made a gesture that vaguely encompassed everything. “We have some tubs back in the locker rooms. The water is out so we have to make do with what we have. Mind a wash clothe wipe down? We don’t have the water for anything more.”

I looked around the gym and located the exit for the locker room. “That way right?” I confirmed with Scott. He nodded in agreement. “Okay, when I get back, do you mind if I join you guys for the planning session. There are things I might be able to help with.”

“Sure thing.” Scott absently said as he went back into his menu.

I shook my head at these guys and headed for the showers.