Four cars have joined us since we rolled to a stop. A black terror descends upon the last of them, its wings stretching wider than the street itself. It crashes onto the roof, talons piercing through the steel like its cardboard. Folding its wings into four distinct peaks, it unhinges a jaw of needle sharp teeth. Then it leans over and bashes its head straight through the windshield.

Its whole body quakes and quivers, the car lurching beneath it. In a matter of seconds, the monster tears through the passengers, chunks of people exploding around it like a backed up woodchipper and raining down on the street in hunks of viscera and blood.

With its head still fully inside the car, its body flips down onto the hood. It claws forward, talons curving around the dashboard, and wriggles itself further inside for whatever juicy bits are cowering in the backseat.

Again, there’s a dizzying tingle in my head. When I focus, a description appears.

💀 Flying Piranha Matriarch (Lv 10)

While not a single one of its inspirations comes from a matriarchal structure, this enemy does. The matriarch is no different than its brood, other than it is larger, meaner, and far more tenacious. Do not get in its way.

Level 10. With a little skull, no less. Christ. I almost got my insides eviscerated by a Level 2. Of course the description tells me absolutely nothing of use. The system controlling this stage is the worst. No tutorial. No guide. No codex. No nothing. I mean, who’s a girl gotta kill to get a list of weaknesses here?

“We need to go,” I say, latching onto the door handle. “We need to go now. While it’s busy.”

“While it’s busy?!” says Elias.

Luci nods. “Let’s do this.”

“Good. Grab your shit. We’re gunning it for the garage. Go!”

I slam down on the handle. The door doesn’t budge. What the-

With a click, the door unlocks.

“Sorry,” says Elias.

I’m going to murder him.

Take two. I slam down on the handle, and the door flies open. We burst onto the street. All I can see are the towers in front of me. I’m dead focused. There’s no point in looking back. There’s no dodging that thing. There’s certainly no fighting that thing. If it spots us and feels like scoring an easy meal, we’ve got zero options.

Well, there’s one option. Sadly I don’t think I have the willpower to slit my own throat. Maybe that’s a skill you learn later on in the apocalypse.

Luci sprints ahead, her studded boots pounding the pavement like she’s been running since birth. I’m not far behind. My legs stretch in front of me, and I’m soaring. My feet feel like springs, launching me from one step to the next. My God, I’ve never run so well. I’m not faster, necessarily. Just better. It’s like I never knew where to put my feet before, and now my whole body is working in tune.

When I think about my stamina, the numbers pop up in the lower right corner. I can see them ticking down, but I’ve got a lot to spare. I could keep at this for a while.

I don’t glance back to check on Elias. Sorry, bud. Mama’s gotta not get eaten.

I have no clue where the matriarch is now, but her brood is still hunting the skies. Across the street, a pair of flying piranhas hook onto some woman and tackle her to the sidewalk. Another swoops low, plucking a goddamned limb off the side of the road before soaring off.

As I reach the apartments, I’m hit with a pungent mix of diesel and rust-scented blood. The towers sit on an intersection now clogged with crashed cars and too many dead to count. It’s a horror show, people smothered like jam between sheets of metal.

The entrance to the towers is even worse. A minivan has rammed through the doors and straight into the front desk, pinning some poor overly dedicated employee to the wall behind him. Another car is smashed into the rear of the minivan, and another three cars are piled onto that one. On top, around, and under the cars are bodies. So many bodies. Some picked apart by claws and teeth, others trampled or crushed by people just like them.

It’s way worse than I thought it’d be. All of this just to get a good view? That can’t be the only reason.

Just as we hit the corner, Luci doubles over and vomits. I get to her in time to wipe wet strands of hair from her face. I glance behind me. With his fire axe in hand, Elias jogs toward us. Just a few seconds away now.

A block behind him, the monster matriarch is still searching the cars, bashing in windows and peeling off roofs like they’re cans of tuna. She’s only got a few more snack packs to rip open before she reaches the intersection.

I don’t think we’ll make it through the front entrance. Given time, we could. It’s an obstacle course, but it’s not impossible. There are actually a couple people climbing over the cars right now. However, if we follow, I doubt we’ll make it inside before the matriarch closes in. If she spots us in her periphery, she’s not going to want to keep snacking on steel.

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I hug Luci around the waist. “Come on.”

Together, we hobble around the corner. A sign points to the parking garage. I can see it from here. There’s no door. Just an opening. Hallelujah. If there’s a secured residents section, it must be down the ramp.

Elias comes around the side of the building. When I point to the garage, he gives a tired nod in response. Just another thirty seconds and we’ll be tucked safely away inside.

A flying piranha dives toward him.

“Watch out!” I scream.

He whirls around.

It’s like I can see it in slow motion. The monster pops out from behind a pillar, rearing its talons directly at his head. Elias can’t defend himself. Not in time. He doesn’t have the seconds or the space to get a solid hit in. Even if he just one-hand flails the axe in the right direction, the monster will already be on top of him, and the swing will go wide. His face will be a bloody pile of ribbons before he gets another chance.

But I have seconds, and I have space.

I don’t think. There’s no time to plan. As fast as I can, I yank a knife out of my makeshift sheath and fling it.

In the split-second that the knife flies, I have this picture in my head: the blade piercing the air, narrowing in on the target like a dart, before it punctures a wing, knocking the bat clean out of the sky before pinning it to a car.

Unfortunately, kitchen knives aren’t throwing knives, and I’m not a knife thrower.

The blade cartwheels through the air and plonks against the monster’s head.

Plonk.

The knife clatters to the ground.

Still, it does the job. The monster veers off course, missing Elias by mere inches. For a moment, it hovers just a foot from his shoulder, rearranging its stance for a second go.

It’s all the time Elias needs. He lands another hand on his axe, hefts it over his head, and slices downward.

It’s like the man was a born lumberjack. The axe cleaves the beast, lopping off its oversized fishhead while the rest of its body flops to the ground.

Elias stands arced over the handle of his axe, his form silhouetted by the noon sun, an untucked flap of flannel shirt billowing in the wind, the blooded blade cutting into the sidewalk with finger-length cracks splitting from the center.

It’s kinda hot.

1.

Enemy Defeated:

Flying Piranha (Lv 2) [Shared with Elias]

Exp: 5

Earned: 25g

Exp to next level: 10/20

2.

Title(s) Earned:

Girl Power: As a woman, save a man from certain death.

Reward: (1) Styling Voucher

3.

Classes Discovered:

Night Watcher

Triggered by: Saving a party member with an attack.

Once immortalized by the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn, the fearless men and women of the Night Watch stand vigilant, protecting the innocent and keeping the peace. That or they’re just a bunch of racist neighborhood dads with itchy trigger fingers. Stay alert, move quickly, and maybe you too can save the day with this versatile rogue class.

Discovered Class Bonus Unlocked:

Saving Hit: Do 20% more damage on the first hit to an enemy targeting another party member.

Sicarii

Triggered by: Damaging an enemy with a knife or dagger.

Named for the daggers (sica) they carried, these terrorists of the ancient were a splinter group of Jewish zealots during the years leading up to the First Jewish Revolt in 66 CE. Their purpose? Kill any and all Romans or Jews collaborating with Rome. But, following a defeat in 73 CE, their leader convinced the entire group to commit suicide rather than surrender. Operate in stealth, kill quickly, and escape unnoticed with this undercover rogue class. And don’t unalive yourself.

Discovered Class Bonus Unlocked:

Disappearing Act: For five seconds, move 50% faster following a stealth-kill.

Yet another insulting title. Still, the classes are pretty damn awesome.

Elias pushes his glasses up his nose before scooping up my knife. “Are you alright?” he asks, hurrying over. He offers the knife, handle first.

“All good,” I say, stashing the blade in my sheath. I say sheath, but it’s really an elastic band velcroed to my thigh with little knife-sized pockets made of duct tape. Did you know you can make anything out of duct tape? My 14-year-old self sure did. What a bad year for eyesight. So cringe.

Luci tucks lightly vomit-crusted hair behind her ear. Somewhere along the way, she lost her knit hat. “I’m okay,” she says. She still looks a tad queasy.

“That was something,” says Elias as we head into the parking garage. “Luci, you killed three of those?”

“Yeah, so,” she replies.

He pats her on the back. “Your mama taught you good, chispita.”

“Oh. Well. You know it,” she says, though not with her usual gusto.

Upon entering the parking garage, we’re met with a long, straight ramp descending to the first floor. By the time we’re halfway down, whatever light the day offered has all but disappeared. The bottom is nothing but a pitch black pit.

“Creepy,” says Luci, her voice echoing. She slides her phone out of her backpack pocket and flips on the flashlight.

“They should have a backup generator,” Elias says. He looks at me for some reason. I shrug.

“You don’t think the flying piranhas live down here, do you?” says Luci as she whips the phone’s flashlight upward.

The wide halo of her light flashes across the ceiling. I swear for a second I see monsters hanging by the thousands. But as far as we can see, there’s nothing but vents and piping.

“Ten cuidado,” says Elias. “If they’d been here, the light could have woken them.”

No shit. In the split second between her statement and the big reveal, I think I lost ten years off my life. I check my health and stamina, half expecting them to have reacted. They didn’t, of course. If I had a sanity meter, I’m sure it would’ve taken a hit.

Elias takes out his cell phone too, using the flashlight to guide our path, as Luci continues to survey the area. As dark as the parking garage is, the phones aren’t much to go on. The lights are wide but they’re not enough to reach the far walls. We have no idea what’s in front of us.

I’m sure it’s just cars.