“Maddy?” a rough, worried voice whispered in her ears, and with a start Ace woke up. Her thoughts were foggy. Hazy. She told her hand to clench and it actually took a few seconds for her body to react. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was you.”

A very tall... person leaned next to her. It was still storming, the room was dark, and she remembered that she’d broken the lamp. Still. Something was wrong with their shape. It was a little extra in some parts, such as the torso and down near their legs, and a little less in other areas, mostly the face.

“Maddy, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize it was you.”

Maddy, Maddy... why did that sound so familiar? The word bounced around her brain until finally, the credit clicked. The journal entries. The other ranger sent here. Did that mean the voice belonged to DM? And why did they think she was Maddy?

“It was dark, I thought you were some stupid kid coming to vandalize the place again.” There was a pause. “I… you haven’t been here in what feels like forever, I never thought it’d be you.”

They kept talking, apologetic words tumbling over each other. Ace stayed quiet and used the time to reorient herself, checking reflexes with her fingers. Situation: fucked, yet not beyond repair. She was trapped in here with an unknown person until the storm died down, and they thought she was some woman probably long dead. Also, something to keep in mind, speaking to her didn’t automatically make them a sympathetic ally.

“Not willing to test respawn just yet,” she muttered, cracking her neck. The cabinets were at her back and she could feel two small door knobs jammed into her body.

“What did you say? I didn’t hear you.”

She was at a disadvantage. If there were weapons here, she didn’t know where or what they were. If this was a chat quest, she didn’t have the information needed to continue the chain. And if it came down to another fight, she was screwed. One up close and personal encounter was enough thank you, and she’d swear those had been claws she’d felt, not nails. Ace was in this blind. So... how did she want to play it?

“Maddy? Say something.”

Well, that was one thing she needed to continue, being Maddy for the duration of the storm. Always good to have short term goals like not dying.

“Something.”

The word caused a harsh bark of laughter.

“You and your sense of humor.” There was a pause. “I’m glad you’re okay. I’ve been worried.”

“What happened?” Ace asked, keeping her voice soft and as open to interpretation as possible. She had no idea what Maddy sounded like, but hell, that’s what bluffing was for.

“After you left? Chaos.” They took a deep breath, and she wondered if they’d been a smoker; their voice was a three-pack-a-day habit with an occasional grit gargle. “The birds were the smart ones. They flew away and we stayed to suffer. The air changed. Skies went from blue to purple to pink, all in the same hour, and there was still nothing from headquarters.”

They moved a little further away and a strange sound came soon afterward. Plink. Plink. How the hell was she hearing water drops during a storm? As soon as she opened her mouth to ask, she realized what it was. They were cleaning up the shattered remains of the hurricane lamp... and there was an interesting question. How had the game known not to add that to her inventory? Wasn’t that an item she could have carried around with her? Her inner notes grew longer.

“You stayed here.”

“Of course.” There was a nod. “One of us had to remain on duty. And, as I kept watching, I felt as if someone had to record what they were seeing.”

“What was that?” She knew the answer but wanted confirmation from the game.

“The death of everything we knew and loved.” One last piece of glass clinked, and the shadow straightened. “Anything with wings was long gone by that point, but there were still a few animals in the area. One of the bears, Honey, came crashing out of the bush. You remember her. She was always the favorite of the Fattest Bear Contest, and she’d finally won this year, but now... now she was skin and bones. I left to help her and a hiker appeared on the trail behind her. He reached out and she shriveled to death right in front of me. Honey! She’d won at 441 pounds!”

Ace made a sad noise, wondered how a contest for fattest bears was run, and the figure continued.

“The hiker was distraught. Screaming, crying. I couldn’t understand them, so I kept going. They had a weapon and I needed to know what it was.”

“It wasn’t a weapon,” Ace stated.

“No. It wasn’t.” There was a high-pitched keening sound. “He grasped my arm and I felt it. Sucking. Draining. I fell gasping to my knees. Struggling to breathe. My last thought was that I was dying, and I wouldn't see you again... and then he grabbed his hand and pulled it off me.”

Ace saw where this was going.

“And he died. Collapsed next to Honey, all skeleton and skin just like her.” She hadn’t seen any skeletons outside, neither human nor animal. Exactly how long did it take bone to break down?

“Exactly.” The figure stood up, swaying on their feet.

Gloves. Or were there mutations the equivalent of make a new character because the universe of randomness fucked you over? Could she ever erase mutations? Or switch an old one out for a better new one?

“What happened to you?” she asked.

“It took a few days in my case. When you still hadn’t returned yet, I hiked over to Briny Breeze. The town was… unrecognizable. Bodies of all ages lay in the street, adults and children who’d just dropped where they were standing. Others didn’t die. Maybe they wanted to, but they didn’t. Instead, they changed.”

A crack of lightning lit up the room, and Ace couldn’t help but gasp. Their flesh was a pale, dirty green, nothing she’d ever seen on a living human, and both of their eyes were completely white. Then the room plunged into darkness again.

“I saw people whose bodies were growing fruit, others gasping for breath through fluttering gills, and a few who had limbs and torsos bulging with movement beyond their control. I changed, too.” The voice trailed off.

“Into what?” Ace took the opportunity to get to her feet, making sure the cabinets stayed behind her. Thunder boomed, and it almost covered the answer, but she was still able to hear their whispered words.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“I don’t know.”

They both stayed silent. The seconds stretched into minutes, and Ace bit her lip to keep from speaking. Finally, she couldn’t stand it any longer.

“How often does it happen?” asked Ace. Her backpack was still on the floor, but she didn’t bend down to get it.

“Counting never mattered to me. It’s not as if it’ll ever stop.”

That must be where the mutations fit into the system. If enough people had been exposed at the same time, and stretching that thought, if most of them had reacted in the same way that the ranger was talking about, then society would have collapsed. She bit down a laugh. The AI’s conviction that mutations were good or bad depending on how the person used them was a joke. It wasn’t a person’s fault if they grew gills on a mountain road, or sank like a stone when out swimming.

“Maddy?” There was a pause, followed by a snort. “You smell different. I can’t explain it, but it’s almost as if you’re less sweet, and more... salty?”

Ace froze, her mind plummeting back to the very dangerous here and now.

“I changed too,” she said, making her voice break so that it sounded as if she was admitting something shameful. Her mind jumped to figure out how she could convince this person that she was on their side. “I have a backpack. It’s over by the journals, on the floor next to my feet. Inside there’s a shirt that still smells like me.”

The floor creaked as they moved over. A dark hand reached over to the backpack and opened it, then groped around inside. Ace counted the seconds until they found the shirt and brought it up to their face.

“It is you… really you. I knew you’d come back.”

Ace restrained herself from punching the air—victory! Now, to see how long she needed to keep the charade up; it was getting creepy.

“How long, do you think, is this storm going to last?”

“Not that long.” Their voice was confident, and Ace could see their body as they moved to the window closest to them. “They normally blow over in thirty or so minutes up here, that’s the way it’s always been. How did you change?” Their voice dropped. “What happened to you?”

She only had three mutations, and it wasn’t as if she could mention the stat swapping one.

“I have horns now.” She paused, trying to dredge up something that would be believable. They had changed their entire body, so why couldn’t have Maddy? “Ram horns. And everything else changed too. The first person I touched, when the sky went all weird, we swapped bodies.” Tension bled from her shoulders as she continued.

“That’s why I smell a little differently now.”

“Oh.” There was a sigh. “I liked running my fingers through your hair, you know? And that strawberry-scented soap that you had. You left a bar here and the scent of that kept me sane.”

Soap. Ace felt a grin making its way up her face. She ignored poor Romeo. Whatever they and Maddy did in the tower was between the two of them and did not need to involve her. That soap though.

It was a small thing, but that’s what some games forgot, the little details that made them go beyond good, beyond great, and into the realms of excellence. This was supposed to be a fully immersive game, where a player was living a whole other life, and the coders had included showers with scented soap. There had to be a woman or non-binary person on the team; the men she knew were more than happy jumping into a pond, rubbing their body with their hands, and calling it a clean.

“Did I leave anything else here?”

There was a nod.

“I didn’t say anything on the radio, because you would have gotten in trouble, but you left your bear spray here.”

Ace almost moaned right then and there. Bear spray. More silent than guns and it would allow her to gain the upper edge in any fight.

“Thanks.” She took a step away from the cabinets, then stopped. “It’s, um, where I left it, right? Or did you move it?”

She willed them to say they had moved it.

“Under the kitchen sink, out of sight.”

“Thanks again.”

The silence grew between them again and Ace knew she was on the edge of saying something wrong. If, or more likely, when she did, then the shit would hit the fan. She had to be armed before that happened. They didn’t say anything as she walked over to the kitchen area, opened the cabinet and reached for the first can-like shadow she saw.

*1 can of bear spray acquired*

And now what? She was trapped inside until the storm stopped, with a person in love with who they thought she was. And would probably follow her when she left, too, if the sniffing soap action indicated anything.

“I might have to go away,” she said, moving the can to her left hand. “For a little bit longer.”

“No!” The shadow surged up from where they had been standing by the window. “You just came back!”

“I need to,” she explained, keeping her tone even. “I have to find out what happened to the town.”

“But…” the figure lurched forward, unsteady on their feet. “You went there, didn’t you? That’s where you came back from. Maddy, I don’t understand.” The figure took another wobbly step towards her. “You’re not acting like you.”

Shit.

“You look different, fine. So do I. You smell different, okay. Me too. But your behavior is different and that means you’re not my Maddy.”

Shit shit shit this was going downhill faster than she could control.

“Of course I am!” she snapped, coloring her voice with frustration. “I’m the same Madeline that requested to be put here. The same one that agreed with you that something strange was happening with the birds.” They were quiet now, listening, so she continued. “How can you doubt me like that?!”

The darkness, which had been making its way toward her, stopped. She needed to turn this around and get them on a different path completely.

“I read your notes! You thought I couldn’t handle being out here, that I couldn’t hack it! You were wrong then and you’re wrong now!” She lowered her voice. “How dare you say I’m lying to you, after everything I’ve been through.”

“But Maddy… ”

It wasn’t going to be enough. Ace delivered the coup de grace.

“I thought you loved me, but I guess I was mistaken.”

“I’m sorry.” Their voice cracked, broken on tears and pain. “Please Maddy, I’m sorry. If you want to leave, I... I can let you. Maybe. I’ve been so alone since you left… It feels as if it’s been years Maddy, years since you were here with me, years since I’ve been able to talk with someone else that hasn’t run screaming at the sight of me. My soul is barely hanging on to a thread you’re threatening to cut.”

She could believe that. Having no sense of time passing, being by themselves with no one to talk to. And the little bit she’d seen of them had been frightening enough.

“I’ll come back.” There was probably other stuff in here that she’d want to use, and when she leveled up strength wouldn’t matter so much. “I promise.”

“Is that how it’s going to be?” The voice was plaintive; clearly they wanted her to change her mind, to stay and make a new home with them.

She nodded.

“Then… I’ll hold you to your promise.” They let out a large sigh and moved to the cabinet area. “If you have to go out again, I want you to be prepared. I don’t think I’ve eaten all the dried food here and there should be some spare first aid kits to take.”

Best. Outcome. Ever. She was getting more food, more supplies, and hadn’t been murdered.

There was a crack of lightning, and the rolling answer of thunder came several minutes later. She’d survived the storm as well.

“Not bad,” she muttered, grabbing her bag. Putting on the pants and snagging the shirt had been the decisive factor; lucky she’d done that. On impulse, she shaded her hand and looked at the figure currently shuffling about the kitchen.

She saw a light grey outline around them, and it helped her understand the strangeness she’d seen earlier. The lumps around their torso started from their back, arching over their shoulders to drag along the ground. Wings, and either injured or some kind that they couldn’t use, in addition to a human body that displayed signs of dripping.

Briny Breeze. A nearby city might be a good place to set up a settlement. Ace took out her map, but frowned when she saw there were no new markers.

“Guess it’s too easy if a place is mentioned in passing.” She looked to the kitchen. Choice one was waiting to see what clear skies would bring. Choice two was talking to Romeo and getting directions. Either way, it looked as if she had her next goal.