“Don’t worry, we are almost there.” the voice of my AI companion spoke from within the insides of my head, trying her best to keep me moving. It had been two hours since we left the forest clearing and began walking, two hours since I almost got smashed to pieces by an acid fire breathing creature known as a blood bat. Although my injuries were pretty severe, with a few broken ribs, punctured liver, and ruptured spleen, thanks to the augmentations I possessed as a monster slayer none of the injuries were bad enough to prevent me from walking. It was still pretty dark outside but from Rachel’s calculations it was quickly approaching dawn.

“Rachel.” I said, calling out to my AI companion before leaning over the side of the road to cough up blood. That one hit from the big ugly creature had really done some damage to my internal organs. I was also bleeding internally, and my health continued to drop. I was now at 57% of health.

“Yes Hunter?” Rachel replied. she was trying to keep her voice calm but I could sense an under tone of worry.

“I really need to rest for a bit.” I said, spitting out saliva mixed with blood. “Is there like a place nearby where I can just sit for a minute? I feel like I’m about to hurl.”

“Scanning…” she said, taking a few seconds to process my request. “There is an abandoned cabin nearby. You could rest there for the time being, but we need to get going afterword’s. we really need to get you to a healer.”

“What’s a cabin doing in the middle of the woods like this?” I asked Rachel, feeling some relief and standing up straight.

“I did say it was abandoned, didn’t I?”

I resumed walking and eventually I found the place. The cabin was situated at the center of another clearing. There was a lake to the side and the water looked calm and inviting. I had the sudden urge to take a bath but I needed to check out the cabin first. I walked up to the wooden structure, pushed opened the door, then lowered my head before walking in. inside was dark and musty. “Hold on.” Rachel said, and a second later the lights in the room came on with a metal click.

“How did you do that?” I asked Rachel.

“I don’t know.” she replied. “I just did it.” I looked around the small room much better now as everything was bathed in a soft yellow hue from the light bulb connected to the ceiling. “The moment you entered through the front door,” Rachel said, “I just had access to the electronics in the room.” I moved deeper into the cabin and began to inspect the place. There were three rooms. The kitchen, what I guessed was the living space, and a separate space for sleeping complete with a mattress. In the kitchen there were pots and pantries, in the living space there was a chair, which was sitting in front of an examiner’s table, which had an electric lamp sitting on top of the table. But the bed room was where I found the most stuff.

There was a rack on the wall which held three things of interest to me in that very moment. A brown coat jacket which seamed long enough to be my exact size if I chose to wear it, a pair of longer blue jeans which were going to be a perfect fit on me, and a black belt with a silver buckle. The remaining useful items I found were a pair of black combat boots, a lighter, and a cardboard box at the head of the mattress. I picked up the box then sat on the mattress as I opened it. what I found inside appeared to be junk at first, but soon became extremely valuable upon closer inspection.

First was a tiny bottle with a strange blue liquid inside of it.

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“You have to drink that right now.” Rachel said.

“Why? What is it?” I asked.

“Healing potion.” she replied, and I did not wait another second. I flicked open the cap then threw back my head as I proceeded to down the whole thing in a single gulp. A cooling sensation washed through my body from the inside, causing me to suddenly feel less pain and discomfort as I did before.

“That should keep you settled for at least an hour.” Rachel said. “Dulls any immediate pain and helps with internal bleeding but not by much. We still need to find a healer for you as soon as we can.”

Setting the empty bottle aside I continued rummaging through the box. I pulled out what looked like a flash drive and Rachel instantly let out a gasp.

“Put it in.” she said excitedly.

“Excuse me?”

“Connect the drive to the port at the back of your skull.”

“Why?” I asked worried. “What if there’s a virus or something? I don’t want that in my head”

“Just trust me.” Rachel said. “It’s safe.”

Sighing, I did as she told me to. I took the flash drive and connected it to the port at the back of my head. There was a slight vibration as whatever was on the thing booted into my skull. A loading screen appeared in the center of my vision showing a progress bar from left to right. “And, done.” Rachel said, and at the same time the loading screen vanished. “You can take it out now.” she said.

“So, what’s on it?” I asked, taking the flash drive out and setting it aside beside the box.

“Something that is going to become very useful.” Rachel replied. “I just need to finish analyzing it. will let you know when I’m done.”

“Alright.” I replied, while I continued to inspect the box. There were two other items left inside. A small black notebook, and a pair of gloves. “What do you think these are for?” I asked Rachel, holding up the note book and the pair of gloves.

“I’m not sure.” she said. “But they seem useful. So, I say take them.”

I absorbed the items into my inventory then placed everything I had removed back into the box and placed it in a corner. After that, I went outside, took off my blood-soaked jean shorts, then went for a swim. The water was cold against my skin and very refreshing. At some point I thought I saw a tiny reptilian creature swimming in the water towards me, but as soon as it appeared it disappeared.

When I got out of the water I went to go try on my new clothes. Everything fit like I suspected. The coat jacket, the boots, and the pair of blue jeans. Finally, I was completely dressed. However, the coat jacket didn’t have any buttons. But it wasn’t a bother. I kind of even preferred it that way.

I plopped onto the bed a second later. I was exhausted. Since there were no food or clean water in the cabin I decided to wait until I got to town before eating or drinking anything. I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

***

Meanwhile, out on the main road not far from the cabin where I slept, a group of people were traveling along in a carriage. It was a horse carriage. Led by two other men in front. They were transporting a little girl. They were about six of them in total.

The carriage carrying the little girl was at the center of the group. There were four other individual riders on horses of their own. Two riding in front of the carriage, while the other two rode up from behind. These men were heavily armed. They wore expensive looking armor and possessed swords, axes, spears, and arrows. Including the driver of the carriage the little girl was kept in, and the girl herself, that made it a total of six people.

At some point during the journey, the little girl reached out both of her hands through the curtains of her carriage and began to beg for water. “E.” she said. “Eee.” she said again. Cupping both of her tiny hands together.

“Huh?” the driver of the carriage turned around having heard the little girl’s pleads. The moment he understood what she was begging for he promptly ignored her and focused his attention back on the road.

A few minutes later one of the men riding in the front gestured for the entire party to stop. He had heard something. He took out his sword and went a little closer to the direction of the noise with his horse. He peered over the side of the road. There was a ditch. A forest ditch. It resembled a giant hole on the side of the road and the sound he had heard coming from it a moment ago discouraged him from wanting to investigate it further. He turned his horse around and began to return to the other horses in the formation. But then, something happened.

A massive gray creature leaped out of the hole and dropped on top of the man and his horse. The beast was the size of two full grown cows put together. It had a head with six black eyes and shark like teeth. It possessed a tail like a scorpion’s. it bit the head of the screaming man clean off then killed the man’s horse by biting its neck and ripping out its throat. Then it turned its attention over to the remaining men and their horses. It produced a deafening scream then lunged to attack the rest of the party.

***

twenty minutes later and I was still fast asleep in the cabin. Just outside however, something in the water took interest in the cabin and began to rapidly crawl towards it. because I had forgotten to close the door, it simply crawled inside and came straight into the bedroom. It then crawled up the mattress. It gazed at me as I was sleeping through tiny black beady eyes.

Then it began crawling towards my face.