After some discussion with the group, we decided it was getting too late to try to traverse the streets at night and everyone was exhausted. We opened all the windows to let some air cool the house down and separated into three sleeping groups. One person from each group would rotate watch every 4 hours. That night I slept in my old bedroom cuddled next to my old dog. It would have been a near picturesque moment if I wasn’t surrounded by George and Julio cramping my full-sized mattress.

“There have to be other places,” I said while they huddled around me.

“You think we want this bro? I want to go in the girls room. They said no and to please never ask. And then they sent mean brain messages. And now your dog is looking at me like I ate her food,” Julio said sleepily.

I hate this so much Juli thought.

“Boss I’m not leaving you alone,” was all George said.

I was worried that I broke something in George when I gave that first Tap command to him. Not only was the man extra protective, his own memories were a jumbled mess between both myself and Dennis controlling him. I made it a goal to see if I could develop a mental version of the Minion Heal skill in the future. Or delegate it to Kendall at least.

Lonnie was the last one in the room, sleeping in my old Boy Scout sleeping bag by the door. Lonnie was the local college football player that held Hale down to be stabbed under Dennis’ control. I didn’t blame him for it but he still blamed himself.

I decided to finally pull up my interface for the first time in awhile to see the current challenger count:

Rijohe 98,789/100,000

Tom S. Controlled: 921 Killed: 50

Juli B. Controlled: X Killed: X

Jon M. Controlled: 10 Killed: 1

Time Remaining for Step 1: 28:23:54

There was now a time remaining that wasn’t there before. Looking at the screen filled me with dread and reminded me of the overall responsibility that came with these abilities. Beyond just saving my dog. Twenty percent of the total number of controlled still seemed like an impossible figure to reach.

It’s weird seeing my named crossed out, Juli thought.

“Why don’t the numbers match up Cindybot?” I asked the small AI girl.

She appeared and was horrified to see our sleeping conditions. I wondered where she went when I didn’t need her, my mind was wandering.

Cindybot droned on as I started to drift off.

“You killed a person outside of Rijohe’s control so he doesn’t show up. The ones you took from Dennis don’t show up as yours, and the people that are taken from Rijohe by other challengers don’t show up. It’s not a very good indicator of overall-“

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I fell into the strangest dream of my life. I was at the beach surrounded by thousands of people. They were all cheering me on for some reason I couldn’t understand. Juli was next to me looking very sullen at the cheers.

“I’m part of this too but don’t ask me how or why,” Juli said as we continued walking through the crowd.

“You’re a part of us now,” one of the beach goers told her in her ear. Juli stepped away from the person and closer to me.

“We are his legion,” they all said suddenly.

“No I don’t want this weird mind control shit,” I heard myself say to them. Their coordination creeped me out.

“Find us Jon. Please,” they said in unison.

“What? I don’t. I don’t know where anyone is. It’s creepily deserted out there,” I told them.

They all closed in on Juli and myself until we felt overly claustrophobic. Then they started pushing us toward someone drawing in the sand. It was an ornery older man that was drawing some alien runes in the sand with a long stick of rotting wood. They reminded me of cindybot’s old runes when she spun.

“Holy shit Mr. Beasley???” I said looking at my old neighbor as they all shook their head.

“Jon find us,” they all said again including Mr. Beasley as I faded out of the dream.

I woke up with both Julio and George cuddling me tight while Sally was on the floor whining.

Why are we down here master Sally’s symbiote asked.

“Hey that was that dude that made me carry you the other day,” Julio mumbled while his eyes were still closed. I pushed him off the bed.

I searched his memory from that day and it was still fuzzy. Julio lost his motorcycle in the initial legion command and he can’t remember anything until he and Mr. Beasley were carrying me into the storm shelter.

“Didn’t he say something about a radio?” I said while picking up and hugging Sally. Everyone shrugged. Lonnie was on last watch so I told him to come back inside and sleep a little.

Jennifer can you take my old bicycle and go back to the apartment building while we do the grocery store thing? I thought to her.

Wait no what if you need me? The grocery store thing is so shady she thought back.

I’m connected to a system that’s connected to possibly billions of minds somehow. I think some weird shit is going on in my brain. Just look for a radio to satisfy my curiosity. Or anything else that’s weird at his place, I thought to her as the rest of us got ready to go.

We ate whatever else we could find in the house but it wasn’t enough. Hopefully the grocery store promised more than just an ambush.

“How does it work past a thousand people? The food management has to be absolutely impossible at that point,” I asked Cindybot.

“They cheat. Once they unlock that many people the system helps them. You’ll see when you get there,” was all she offered.

Half the group was starving and the rest were miserable from the poor sleeping conditions. I put Sally down and looked at everyone while shaking my head. The fucking aliens scammed me into being a glorified babysitter I thought. I told the hungry half to just raid the closest neighbor’s house. Mr. Hisui will absolutely be pissed as he’s a very private neighbor but we needed to get to the store as soon as possible. I was planning with Michelle and looking for things around the house to take to the store or back to the shelter when Julio interrupted me.

Jesus we need an exorcism bro this house is haunted Julio thought.

You ate more than everyone else why the fuck are you over there I asked him.

Hey for real get over here we're hearing some freaky noises he responded.

I swear if this is some fucking abandoned cat or something Jon I'm going to flip Juli thought.

I let out a big sigh and walked over to Mr. Hisui’s two story house a few hundred yards away. I heard a distant ping I didn’t recognize as I got closer. The boys had already kicked down the front door and I got to the den right as Lonnie and George were moving a giant bookshelf from the far wall. The house smelled musty and I thought I saw a rat scamper away from the newly exposed area.

“That was the map’s ping Jon,” Cindybot whispered. She had a worried look on her small sprite face.

“Yo your neighbor has a trap door. It wasn’t ghosts so that’s good,” Julio said in between bites of a fresh sandwich.

“Yeah but only serial killers have trap doors what the hell is this” I said as we tried to open the hidden door.

“This is bad boss,” George said as a horrid smell hit us.

We finally clearly heard the odd pounding behind the old door. It was of course locked, but it quickly came off the hinges as we kicked it down.

“Oh fuck. Tap. Cure. Tap. Cure. TAP. CURE.” I yelled while trying to not gag.