Chapter 12: A Friend?

John felt a familiar presence walk up to him, the woman he had been arguing with returned as the small group broke down into small talk.

“John, you know he was hiding something, we should get him to spill it!” She said with a quiet yet fiery tone.

“Vanessa we just can’t go and just start demanding information from people we have to work together in this situation.” He said a little exacerbated. ‘This was classic Vanessa; she was one of his best team leads and real go-getter, but her personality got in the way sometimes. She was fiery, resolute, ambitious, but a little too demanding and she didn’t know the word tactful,’ John thought to himself. He had known her for a long time, long enough to put up with her attitude. Vanessa was around 5.6ft she had on a nice purple woman’s business suit with a pair of black heels that had small golden bows on the tips. She has long dark brown curls running down one side of her head while the other had cornrows twisted running back into the curls on the other and a pair of dark brown eyes to match. He had complimented her once when they had both just started at the company on how nice her hair looked, and she had never changed it even after eight years. John pondered to himself for a little. She was slim and had great legs though many probably didn’t know that since she always wore a suit to work.

She held a steely gaze at John. “If you know he’s hiding something then we should get it sooner rather than later even if it’s by force.” She said coldly. This is probably why she never advanced from a team lead. She never realized when she took things too far and she never tried to find a compromise. “Weren’t you a soldier John? You could easily take him down; he doesn’t seem that strong. You’re probably twice his weight in muscle alone, you could easily knock down his scrawny ass.” John had done three tours in Afghanistan before coming to work for the company, but he never talked much about the things he did, just that he was over there. So, John could tell there was some edge hidden behind the quiet figure even if he wasn’t that physically imposing.

“Even if I could take him, I doubt he’d go down without a fight, and even if I could that doesn’t mean he would just give up the information willingly.” He said a little appalled at her naive and rushed plan.

“John, we need to know what we're dealing with in this crazy mess, and he knows something,” she said almost pleadingly.

“Look I’ll try to find out what he knows too but just leave it to me, have I ever let you down before.” She grew quiet and held his gaze with a slightly pissed expression.

“Fine,” she said coldly. “Do it your way,” as she stormed away from the group into the woods. All John could do was ‘sigh’ and look up into the sky.

As people were breaking into small groups Aeden saw it was his chance and broke away slowly trying not to bring much attention as he made his way over to the guy slightly separated from the group. As Aeden approached the guy was even taller than him or John, probably around 6.7ft. He had a lanky build, his face still covered in some spots by acne. He had short blonde hair with a pair of green eyes. He wore a light blue striped button shirt with a darker blue tie and some black dress pants. He had a slight slouch. Matthew instantly grew pensive when he saw Aeden approaching him. Matthew knew Aeden caught his attention when he was caught staring when John was asking question about this world.

Even though things had been pretty hectic with their rough arrival, he would probably have died if John hadn’t saved him when he did. As the group had been wandering and arguing Matthew had also found the system with the status page. Matthew was pretty sure this guy was here to interrogate him, and it freaked him out a little because he was almost just as tall with a similar build, but this Aeden guy had a much more intense look on his face while approaching.

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“Hey,” Aeden said casually. “Hi” Matthew responded a little meekly. ‘Okay how the hell am I going to play this,’ Aeden thought to himself as Silenced reigned between the two. It was probably best to just be upfront. This guy seemed like if he tried to intimidate him, he could easily be coerced into giving out information. However, to Aeden that could bring heaps of trouble with this new group if he did that. He would just play it cool and maybe befriend the guy, who knows maybe they would even get along. He internally cringed at himself, when was the last time he had friends.

“I’m pretty sure you’ve already found the status page if I had to guess?”

“Yeah, I stumbled upon it,' Matthew said, a little guarded.

“It looks just like a video game character sheet,” Aeden crossed his fingers and hoped that this guy understood videogame knowledge.

“Yeah, I thought the same thing!” Matthew's expression brightened that Aeden thought the same.

‘Okay,’ Aeden thought to himself, maybe he could win this guy over with a few droplets of information. Thankfully he didn’t have to wait long because Matthew now seemed eager to talk about their discovery.

“Well, I hope my stats aren’t final because they're pretty weak,” Matthew said, rubbing the back of his head a little embarrassed.

“Well, I don’t think you have to worry about that. You seem to gain attribute points when you level up.”

“I was right then! Mathew said excitedly. I had already guessed that it had to be similar because it looked to familiar.” Matthew was starting to get louder.

“Okay but keep your voice down!” Aeden said trying to sush the man. Thankfully the group didn’t seem to notice being entranced by Erika’s friendly and fun energy.

“Sorry,'' Matthew said but he looked a little sad. “I thought about telling my group about it, but I don’t think they would believe me. This whole situation is beyond comprehension to being with just to add-on videogame characteristics, which I’m pretty sure most of colleagues don’t play.”

“You probably shouldn't, Aeden said quietly. “I haven't totally figured it out and this world doesn’t behave like a game in all aspects.”

“What do you mean?” Matthew asked quizzically.

“Well for one we don’t have a health bar and we still feel pain.” Aeden rubbed his leg wound.

“You, okay?” Matthew asked a little concerned for his health. ‘Well, that was nice of him’ Aeden thought.

“Yeah, I’m fine, but seriously we should keep this information to ourselves for now. Eventually we'll tell the group at least the basics of the system.” Aeden hadn’t planned on keeping that a secret forever. Plus, they could easily stumble upon it by accident.

“Why?” Matthew asked curiously.

“We're in a new world where information is the best commodity we have to our advantage, and I plan to make the most of it. We're probably going to run into more people, and they’ll have questions. Everyone’s probably not going to have good interactions or intentions like our groups did today.”

“Wow you're really thinking ahead.” Matthew commented. Matthew seemed to relax a little and even straighten up a bit. Aeden was glad that he got someone form this group to trust him at least a little. If things ever got bad with this group, he could use Matthew to maybe smooth things over.

“One thing you must understand is that we’re still dealing with people. Society as you know it will probably break down and divide and begin to fight with each other, unless by some miracle people actually work together, but I find that unlikely.”

“Okay, but I think we should at least tell John. He’s a pretty standup guy I think he’ll understand, or he'll at least try too.” Matthew said, pleading a little. Aeden didn’t personally like telling more people than he had to at the moment. This John guy seemed intelligent and amicable just from their first interaction alone, but the fact that he was trying to decipher him earlier didn’t go unnoticed.

“Look, he seems like a good guy, I agree and that's the problem. He may just start giving out information to anyone we come across. Like I said before our most valuable commodity right now is information. If we’re able to control information, it will serve us better in the long run. If we just start giving out information, it will level the playing field for everyone. That kind of logic is only good on paper not when it comes to survival, and I don't want that to happen. For now, we keep this to ourselves, and we tell him when the opportunity arises I can you promise me that.”

Matthew felt a little apprehensive, but he agreed to Aeden’s plan. Even though Aeden was a stranger to their group he had barely known him for five minutes, but he had sound logic. Aeden seemed like he was pretty smart, and it didn’t strike him like he was trying to trick them. After giving it a moment to truly sink in Matthew knew he was right because he chose to ignore their predicament like most people would. They were entering the food chain therefore competing with the rest of this world.

Their conversation was broken when Erika called out to them. “Aeden stop being the antisocial loner that stands in the corner and come over here.” ‘How the hell did she know that?’ Aeden thought to himself lacking some self-awareness. Matthew’s group also called out for Matthew to join them as well. Aeden shot a glance to Matthew to make sure he understood to keep quiet for now. Matthew returned a nod and they slowly shambled over to join the group. Neither of them liked group discussions it was in their nature, but they would have to get over it, because it was necessary now.

Another thought just popped into his head as they walked over. He had never asked for Matthew’s name. He thanked the stars that their group called out his name. He would really have to work on his social skills as he internally face palmed.