A week ago, if Logan had faced the same circumstances, he knew he wouldn’t have survived. Surrounded by hundreds if not thousands of monsters? He knew exactly what he would have done. Retreated into the house, barricaded the door, then hid in the basement or another room that seemed secure.

And then he would have died.

He would have fought until the end, convinced that he could make it out on top through some type of divine System intervention… but he would have died.

Now, after everything he’d been through, even facing monsters over level 100, he knew he’d have a chance.

But best of all, surrounded didn’t mean he couldn’t escape.

Logan had a Pink Sock that let him climb a cliff so high the blobs had looked like bowling balls on the ground.

He wasn’t trapped.

Not anymore.

Why bother retreating to a house when he could leap over top of it, scale the roof and jump to the next neighbourhood? Even though the Cursed Rope was clamoring for him to slaughter the hell out of those buggers, Logan could rein in his emotions. He refused to be manipulated. He’d make the smart decision. He didn’t have the luxury of time. Lara and the kids needed him, and what he’d learned from Peter made worry fester in his stomach.

At least he knew that there was a high likelihood that Lara and the kids were alive, but if the rats had taken them by force, there would be no System contract to protect them, and these rat fuckers could walk all over them. He had no idea what kind of working conditions they were in, whether they had access to food or to shelter. The longer he waited, the worse it could get.

He needed to move his ass.

“Ernie,” said Logan. “Scoot back into the pouch again, will you? We’re going jumping.”

Ernie beamed and made a sound of excitement as he scurried into the pouch. “I like flying, Logan!”

Logan studied the charging rat swarm, and then glanced behind him at the house, hesitating. Retreating without showing them that you didn’t fuck with Logan didn’t feel right. He could admit to a certain degree of pride. Deserved pride after everything he’d been through. Just fleeing, acting as if he were scared, didn’t sit right with him. The rats would think he was fearful of a fight rather than making a smart decision.

Making sure his facemask covered his face and activating the mirror effect of [Mimicry Armour], Logan turned himself invisible. He wasn’t sure how effective it would be against the higher-level monsters, but he knew it had worked against the golden blob army.

Gripping his sword, he gritted his teeth and pictured himself launching into the air. But he didn’t aim for the top of the roof of the house. Instead, Logan launched in a flying leap above the nearest two-headed rats, the ones the size of horses.

“Yes, Logan, yes! Let’s fly!” chanted Ernie, popping his head out of the pouch.

The rats had long, sinewy bodies, and disgusting, long rat tails that were the same length of his sword. Their claws were scraping the asphalt as they poured down the street, each one knocking into the other two-headed rat next to it. They filled the street like sardines. Holy crap, if this is what Lara and the kids had encountered yesterday, Logan didn’t like it. Talk about overkill! But in a way, he could see how it could be effective. Most people who were resistant to signing the rat contract would take one look at the army and surrender without a fight.

The two-headed rats had their noses up in the air, scenting like dogs. Their whiskers twitched, red eyes flashing, before they looked directly up at Logan as he soared over their heads.

Could they see him or just smell him? Logan suspected it was the latter.

He let himself drop to the ground, then jumped on the back of one of the monsters, his boots scrambling to get a purchase. It was like balancing on the back of a bull!

A burning ozone smell wafted off the thing, and even though it was only level 32, it had an aura of killing intent, as if it were blasting all its attributes at Logan at once. Just like his stealth player status, he had to wonder if some monsters were more intrinsically powerful than their levels suggested. After all, a lion could be level 2, but its natural abilities would make any person wary in a one-on-one fight.

The rat snapped its two heads at Logan, kicking its paws in the air. Logan swiped with his talons, digging into the back of the thing, latching on like he was gripping a chicken with a fork. With his other hand, he swung with his sword.

Thorin’s sword was sharp, so sharp it had cut through Logan’s armour like butter, and against a rat body, it was nothing. The rat shrieked in pain, desperately bucking and trying to throw him off, but Logan held on, sawing his sword through the huge carcass like hacking through the body of a cow.

It bellowed, its two heads snapping at him, scraping his boot as the light faded from its eyes and its body slammed to the ground with a slam.

Ding!

[You have defeated a Level 32 Two-Headed Rat!]

Logan wasted no time and jumped off the back of the corpse, leaping onto the next. The advantages of his Pink Sock meant that he didn’t have to fight them on the ground, which meant that he could avoid chopping off their heads, bypassing their regeneration ability.

But this one had seen what happened to its fellow rat and was already bucking like a rabid bull. Logan’s teeth clanged together, and he accidently bit his lip as he tried to balance so he could grip the thing’s back and swing his sword.

“Logan, can I have this one? Oh please, let me try!”

Ernie wanted to make it into a minion.

“Ernie, it’s huge. Are you sure you can…?”

Ernie had already crawled down Logan’s armour. With a frown of concentration, he clung to Logan’s leg as he pressed one of his tentacles to the rat’s back.

“Be careful! It has paralyzing venom.” Logan’s armour stopped the monster from piercing his skin, but Ernie didn’t have the same protection.

Then Ernie did… something. It was almost too quick for Logan to catch, cobwebs drifting from Ernie’s tentacles to the rat’s back, seeping into its skin. Those were Ernie’s filaments.

At first, there was no difference, the rat’s bucking getting even worse, serrated teeth in its two mouths snapping at Logan’s armour and trying to cleave through. But then its bucking calmed, and the black fur underneath Logan’s feet faded, transforming into a brown pelt, and then grey, and then finally… white.

Its four red eyes lost their malevolence, turning milky white and becoming vague. It was as if it were stoned.

And then it stopped moving entirely, as if Logan were standing on top of a docile horse.

“Yes!” Ernie said. “A mammoth minion! Yes!”

Huh.

Ernie had turned the thing undead; there was no other explanation.

Logan swallowed. “Can it… turn the others?”

Ernie scurried back into his pouch. “No, it’s just a thrall. No transformative power. I…I. My minions are not like the queen’s,” he muttered unhappily. “She transforms them into undead beings which gives them power to transform others. Her power is a network, spreading not just to animals but to plants. Fungi.”

Then he brightened. “But I will still triumph! Her minions are slaves. They have no loyalty. She thinks she’s a power with no equal, but she is stupid! Stupid, Logan! For loyalty of an army is what matters. No one could ever pry my minions away from me, since they’re loyal not because they’re mine, but because of how I treat them.”

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Logan blinked. That had been… surprisingly wise. Just how many points had Ernie thrown into intelligence and wisdom?

But something was happening to the rats around them. Although the minion was now docile and provided a steady back for Logan to stand on, the others were starting to notice that something was wrong. As one, they eyed the rat as if it were an imposter.

Far back in the throng with the other high leveled four-headed monsters, one of the rats was staring at them with narrowed eyes.

“Kill it,” said Fang. Fang was way beyond the size of a draft horse, more like an elephant. Because he was so large, he had a view of the whole army. Something about him made the hairs on the back of Logan’s neck stand up.

If Fang could talk, that hinted to a degree of intelligence that he didn’t like. Logan had always considered rats to be pests, which meant they were unintelligent. But he knew that was the ick factor speaking. There was a reason they were considered pests. It was because they were so difficult to kill. They recognized traps, they communicated with each other. If a normal rat could do that, he didn’t like what that said for a monster whose highest attribute was intelligence.

“Kill it!” Fang said again.

And then like a regular army, the call spread.

“Kill it!” said another rat who was just as large.

“Kill it!” Every rat who could talk was chanting the same thing; but the rats who hadn’t evolved still understood commands.

All of them were glaring at Ernie’s minion with murder in their eyes.

“I think it’s time we got out of here,” said Logan. “We made our point.”

“…what was the point?” asked Ernie.

Logan frowned and for the first time, he felt an embarrassed flush spread to his ears. The point had been pride. But weighed against his other priorities, had it been important?

He shifted, uncomfortable. “To let them know that they shouldn’t follow us. That they shouldn’t screw with us.”

To that end, he needed to make sure they understood the message. Jumping off the back of Ernie’s minion, Logan launched himself into the air, soaring over the crowd of rats, shouting, “Don’t mess with us, fuckers!” and directing it at the huge four-headed rats who stared over their army with eerie, calculating intelligence.

“Silly human,” breathed Fang. It was said quietly, but Logan could pick it up with his perception attribute. “We have your scent now, your essence. You think a pathetic display of power is going to dissuade us from finding you?”

Fang chuckled, his four long pink tongues flashing as he licked his muzzles. It was eerie watching him, since he was speaking from all four mouths. “If we don’t find you, we might as well all be dead. Pied doesn’t forgive failure.” His eyes glinted playfully. “But run, run as far as you can. You might just extend the inevitable.”

Talkative fucker.

Logan threw his sword into his spatial collar so that it wouldn’t give him away, becoming invisible again as he slammed into the nearest roof and then leaped away.

The rats nearest Ernie’s minion were attacking the albino rat, a swarm of them piling on top of it as they tore it apart, but the other rats stood in place, front legs raised and their noses up, scenting the air and unerringly following Logan’s jump path.

Fuck.

He might have made a mistake engaging with them. Before, he could have deployed his armour, made himself invisible, and then leaped over the house to the next street, but now, they had his scent.

***

Logan leaped over building after building, travelling what had to be at least four streets before he dropped down to the ground. Unfortunately, although his armour kept him invisible, he couldn’t stop the racket as he slammed to the dirt. And at the same time, he couldn’t help grinning, beaming with a secret thrill. It was as if he were a superhero, slamming to Earth! Kickass.

Still, that wouldn’t help him be stealthy. After all, his Pink Sock only gave him a jumping ability, which meant that he needed massive force to launch himself into the air. Slamming into each roof hadn’t been quiet.

His shoulders hunched, Logan glanced up and down the street and strained his hearing. It seemed quiet. Good. He needed quiet to have a chance to find the hunter seeker rats so he could follow them to Lara and the kids.

“Are we in the clear?” asked Ernie, peeking out of the pouch.

“I think so.” Logan dissolved his face mask and helmet and then ran a hand over his chin. “We better be. I think those small little buggers aren’t going to show up if that army is roving around.”

“We should find another human.”

“Another kid? That might work.” He’d have to go roving around to find the rats, but if he found another person hiding in a house, the rats would come to the house instead. But fuck, he didn’t like waiting. This was taking way too long.

Logan jogged down the street, trying not to go too fast so that he could scan everything with [Life Fabricator]. From the bugs crawling underneath the asphalt, to the fungi creeping over the rotting garbage on the streets. At least this way it would give him a heck of a lot of practice.

Luckily enough, the fire hadn’t reached this part of town, so other than the smog from the wildfires and the localized smoke, everything was clear.

He kept jogging, going another block, until he came across a residential street packed with condos. It was a mixture of new buildings, glass windows that glinted, and old condos built more than a century ago. But just like every other street, it was empty, not a soul to be…

Huh.

Just around the corner, one of the buildings hummed with life. It wasn’t the same aura that he’d sensed with the hunter seeker rats. This time, he was convinced he was sensing humans. People. It was coming from a three-storey condo, the life pinging on his radar concentrated on the first floor.

That was a ton of life, and if the rats were looking for large swaths of people, this just might work.

Shit.

The street started to vibrate, his boots shaking. But it wasn’t an earthquake, it was the rat army. Far down the street, back the way he’d come, the first swarm of two-headed rats were pouring towards him, their noses twitching and whiskers out as if they were smelling the best meal of their lives.

They were tracking Logan.

They couldn’t see him; he was too far down the street, but they knew he’d gone this way. Like bloodhounds, they were pursuing him. Worst of all, he’d worked them into a fervor. The two-headed rats swarmed down the street, but the larger three-headed rats were bullying their way through, slamming into buildings, making plaster fly.

The huge four-headed rats made it even worse, slamming their elephant bodies into condos. The other rats had already weakened the structure, and when a hundred of the level 120 rats slammed one after another into the side of the building, it started a domino effect. One side of an older condo collapsed as the building caved in and plumed dust and plaster into the air.

That was needless destruction; but it was destruction of empty buildings. No one was inside.

But the rat army was pouring down the street towards Logan in a direct path for the building that sheltered multiple people.

Fuck! He’d led them here! If he left, jumping past this street, the rat army would keep coming. That meant the building would come down on top of the people, dooming them. And it would be Logan’s fault.

Logan ground his teeth, frustration building, and not a little shame. If his pride hadn’t gotten in the way, this never would have happened. He could have escaped with the rat army none the wiser. Instead, he’d have to take a detour.

A saving detour.

Sighing and hoping he didn’t look unhinged, he ran directly for the condo full of people. The door was locked; one of those mechanized condo doors that didn’t open without a key or an electronic keycard, but Logan disregarded that and slammed his fist through the glass, pushing it aside in a torrent of broken glass. He didn’t have time to do this the easy way. He had minutes, maybe less before the rats reached them and damaged the building.

Logan kept [Life Fabricator] activated and charged towards the bright burst of life that he sensed up ahead. The inside of the condo was as old as the exterior, with peeling, flower wallpaper and salmon carpets. Without power, the hallway was dark, and even darker as he turned a corner, powering through until he reached… it was a community room.

Logan burst through the two swinging doors, coming to a sudden stop and staring.

People.

It was so long since he’d seen actual, normal looking people that at first, he could only blink and stare.

At the back, four large windows covered by blinds provided light and illuminated the room. There must be fifty people here, huddled together around tables, kids on the floor, others leaning against the walls, blankets covering their laps. A few puzzles were half-assembled on the carpet, a pile of children’s books next to it.

The kids were all ages, from a child who looked barely five years old, to a child who looked the same age as Hunter. They all had dark circles underneath their eyes, as if they’d gotten no sleep and were barely holding it together.

Beyond the children, thirty adults were in the middle of the room, murmuring to each other, worry on their faces. Opened cans of food were overflowing in a garbage can, and fruit flies swarmed around them.

As soon as Logan burst through the door, the adults shouted and clambered to their feet, facing Logan with their eyes wide and bulging in fear.

“Is it the monsters?” screamed a child.

One man and a woman pushed their way in front of the crowd, their teeth bared. The man was older, at least fifty, with salt and pepper hair. He wore jeans and a plaid shirt filthy with dirt. His face was covered in stubble, lines around his mouth and eyes. His eyes were blue and wary, someone who looked as if he’d gone through hell and lived to tell the tale.

The woman was younger, in her early thirties or late twenties, her sharp cheekbones making her look harsh, angry. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a severe braid, a smear of what looked like dried blood on one of the strands. If this weren’t the apocalypse, Logan would say that she could pass for a model. She was tall, as tall as Logan, wearing what looked like yoga pants or exercise gear. Attached to her hip, she had a knife, another knife fastened around her ankle.

Both aimed handguns at him, mouths in grim lines.

The woman shot him a glare. “We’re not signing contracts.”

Logan scanned them with [Idiot’s Inspect]:

[Brooke Fisher: Level 23. A human being.]

[Highest Stat: Intelligence. Characteristics: An analytical mind. Hidden name: Brooke.]

[Chase Evans: Level 21. A human being.]

[Highest Stat: Perception. Characteristics: A marksman. Hidden name: Buckerfield.]

Shit. Were these the highest leveled people here? That was nothing!

Logan tried to look non-threatening, but urgency made him snap his next words. “You need to leave. An army of rats is coming down the street and the building is going to come down on your heads.”