Joe remained locked on the figure in the rear-view mirror. The cowboy was definitely watching them, but he didn’t move a muscle.

“Want me to ram his ass?” Betty eagerly offered.

“What? No! Well... not yet, anyway. We don’t know if he’s friendly or not.” Joe looked at his map, but it didn’t offer much help. The cowboy wasn’t marked as a red dot, nor anything else really—just a simple, colourless circle.

Joe reopened his inventory and hovered over the Pumpkin Scythe. He wasn’t entirely sure if he could wield the trident yet and now didn’t seem like the time to test it.

The Scythe was Level 3, so at least he knew he could probably handle that. Keeping the screen up, he pulled the handle to exit Betty.

“If this goes south, you have my permission to ram him—but don’t jump the gun,” Joe cautioned.

“Fine, but I don’t like this, Joe,” Betty replied.

Joe stepped out, clicking on the scythe. It appeared in his hand, but it was longer than he’d expected—an intimidating 8-foot reach. Not ideal for close combat, but he’d manage, not that he had fought another human before.

He moved to the back of the car, keeping a cautious distance from the cowboy in case it was some sort of trap.

“You there! Who are you?” Joe shouted, trying to project authority.

The man just stood there, silent.

“Have you come from… home? Or, uh, Earth?”

The man began walking toward him.

"Shit, shit, shit.”

"Stop!" he shouted, failing to capture that authoritative tone he was grasping for.

The cowboy kept coming.

As he drew closer, Joe suddenly realised why the figure looked familiar. It was the same guy he’d seen earlier—the one standing at the edge of the Inferno gates when he first arrived.

“Hey! I saw you earlier! You were with the group at the gates!” Joe called out.

At that, the cowboy finally halted, and his features sharpened into focus. He was taller than Joe and built like a brick shit house. His face was toughened and weathered, the kind of face only years in the sun could carve.

A prickly layer of stubble covered his jaw, but what stood out most were his piercing blue eyes, holding Joe’s gaze with an intensity that felt animalistic.

If Joe had to describe him to someone else, he’d start with, “Imagine the manliest man you can think of.”

"You came from above?" the cowboy asked, his voice rough as if he'd been chewing gravel and cigarettes since utero.

"I did," Joe replied, feeling the need to elaborate before trust could even be a consideration. "After the explosion, I felt... a pull toward the source. That’s when I saw you and a bunch of others standing at the Inferno gates. Got this weird message saying we were all that stood between here and home."

The cowboy just grunted. It was clear he wasn’t convinced. Joe braced himself for more questioning, knowing he hadn't earned this stranger's trust just yet.

"And how did you get here?" the cowboy asked.

“We—I drove,” Joe said, motioning over his shoulder at Betty, parked just a few feet behind him. He instantly regretted the slip-up.

That "we" sounded suspicious, and the cowboy’s gaze sharpened as he scanned the area as if Joe might have hidden reinforcements ready to pounce.

"My car, Betty," Joe explained quickly. "She… kind of… became sentient? I don’t fully understand it myself, but she can talk and control herself."

"And I make a mean cake!" Betty shouted from behind him. Joe just sighed, rubbing his temple with his freshly healed, non-crispy hand.

For a second, the cowboy’s tough exterior cracked in surprise, but he quickly composed himself.

Joe blinked, mentally activating his assessment ability on the cowboy. His level appeared in Joe’s field of vision—Level 5! How the hell did this guy get to Level 5 so fast?

"Even if you're lying, I doubt a Level 2 isn’t going to be much of a problem for us."

"You can come out now, kid," the cowboy called out.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Joe heard footsteps, and from behind the building they’d been hiding near, a boy emerged. The kid was a sharp contrast to the grizzled cowboy, but also Joe recognised him—it was the same boy he’d seen earlier with the green sack slung over his shoulder. Another Earthling.

"I just snuck right past you without you even seeing me!" the boy declared, strolling confidently past Betty and Joe to stand beside the cowboy. "I could’ve been anything!" he added with a grin.

Joe quickly assessed the kid, who showed up as Level 3. Seriously? How is everyone a higher level than him? The boy was no longer carrying the green sack but had managed to pick up some leather armour—worn and stained, covering his torso with a battered leather breastplate.

"I had to make sure you weren’t a threat," the cowboy said.

"I'm Pete, or Dark Avenger if you prefer," the boy said, thrusting out a hand as he walked up to Joe.

Joe smiled and glanced at the cowboy, who looked like he was trying not to roll his eyes. Seemed like he had his version of Betty to deal with.

Joe put his Scythe back into his inventory and shook Pete’s hand. "Nice to meet you, I’m Joe, and this is Betty." He nodded back toward his car.

“Hey Kid!”

Betty did a quick three-point turn, positioning herself to face Pete directly.

"So I wasn’t hearing things," Pete said, wide-eyed. "You really can talk!"

"You bet your ass I can, kid. I can even play music!" Betty chimed, starting up Joe’s old CD player. The Bee Gees’ "Stayin' Alive" blasted from her speakers until Joe shushed her, worried they’d draw unwanted attention.

Pete just laughed harder.

"You guys have about as much sense as you do situational awareness," the cowboy said, unimpressed.

"At least we’re having fun doing it!" Betty retorted. "And who are you, anyway?"

"Just call me Levi," he replied.

"I would've pegged you for more of a ‘Butch,’” Betty said.

Joe didn’t respond, but he secretly agreed. The name Levi didn’t quite fit the cowboy’s rugged vibe. The cowboy’s face remained unresponsive so Joe quickly ushered the conversation.

"I saw you up there as well, with that green sack," Joe said, glancing at Pete.

"Yeah, I was in the middle of my paper round on the scooter when the big boom knocked me right off," Pete replied, "When I got back up, I saw this message pop up in my vision, telling me to head toward the glowing light.

Joe nodded, understanding dawning. "So that explains the green sack."

"Yep. Already lost it, though," Pete said, looking sheepish. "Hope Mr. Withers won’t be too mad about that."

Joe looked at Pete, noting how serious he seemed, then caught Levi shaking his head slightly out of the corner of his eye. Joe took the hint.

“So... I take it you’ve both figured out your menus, inventory, and all that?” Joe asked.

“Yeah! It’s like a real-life video game!” Pete replied excitedly. “We’ve even levelled up!”

“Yeah, I noticed…How are you both at such a high level?”

“Oh, we’ve killed a lot of stuff! There were these weird bats with legs, and tons of little snake things we stomped on. That was when I lost my bag. Levi helped me a lot since we went through the tutorial together,” Pete said, sounding proud.

“Tutorial?” Joe repeated, surprised.

“Yeah, you know—tutorial. We met our guide together, and he showed us how things work. We even teamed up to kill an enemy right there! It was just a small Level 1 thing, so it went down easy. Didn’t you have one?” Pete asked, looking puzzled.

Joe felt justifiably pissed. He’d definitely been handed a rough start. His so-called guide, Terrence, had ditched him right away, and instead of a Level 1 enemy, he’d faced off against a Level 4 crab-man. If not for the Meat Cannon, he’d probably be dead.

“I did have one,” Joe said, “but he wasn’t very... helpful.”

“Oh…ours was great,” Pete said unsympathetically.

Levi stayed quiet, letting Pete do most of the talking, though Joe couldn’t help but think the cowboy probably had a better grasp on the situation than the enthusiastic 14-year-old. Joe decided to try and get Levi’s perspective.

“Why do you think this is happening?” Joe asked, directing the question toward Levi.

Levi paused, clearly giving the question serious thought like he hadn’t yet found a clear answer. Levi motioned for Joe to follow him off to the side, and Joe got the hint.

"Betty, why don’t you show Pete what you can do? Maybe a few doughnuts? Hop in the passenger side, Pete, and let her rip," Joe called out.

“With pleasure!” Betty responded immediately.

"Awesome!" Pete shouted, running over and hopping in the passenger seat.

Once Pete was safely distracted, Joe turned back to Levi. They moved over to stand behind the wall of a cracked, burnt-out building.

“Listen,” Levi started quietly. “The kid’s either in denial or he doesn’t understand what’s going on. He keeps talking about getting back to his parents and if Mr Whatever is going to be angry, but… truth is, they’re probably already gone. I don’t know why any of this is happening. Could be Armageddon, the rapture—who knows."

"But our town and everything around it is already gone.”

Joe was surprised by Levi’s bluntness, but he could see Levi was watching out for the kid in his own way.

“Poor kid,” Joe said, even though he was in much the same boat.

“That’s not the only thing,” Levi continued, glancing around. “Doesn’t this place look… familiar to you?”

Joe looked around again, squinting at the ruins. There was something strangely recognisable about the layout. Not the scorched buildings or the dust-covered shells, but something deeper, like the arrangement of the streets.

“I thought it did, but I couldn’t place it,” Joe admitted.

“It’s our town,” Levi said, “these burned-out shells? They’re what’s left of it.”

Joe’s eyes widened as realisation struck. He scanned the area and recognised the road shapes and the intersection they were standing by—right on the outskirts of town.

Levi was right.

This was home. He recognised the road leading in from the west, passing by where the pharmacy and gas station used to be. Even the overhang of the roof and the charred remains of the old gas pumps were still faintly there.

“This… this is home?” Joe whispered, “I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I,” Levi replied. “But if this is our town, it’s gone. And somehow, it ended up here.”

Joe continued looking around, picking out more familiar landmarks in the ruins.

There was no mistaking it. This was home.