Lucky for us, while both of Luci’s parents drive to work, they have a third bumble-bee yellow mercedes waiting for the apocalypse in the garage. Elias is reluctant to use it. He rightfully doesn’t want us to scratch up his brother’s fancy wheels. Of course, since in three hours the car will be nothing but a pile of scraps on the pockmarked hunk of earth floating below us anyhow, he acquiesces. If anything, our joyride will keep the car ticking a little while longer.

The poor guy. He looks horrified. I think he’s seriously fretting over Luci. Without her folks around to protect her, it looks like Elias has taken it upon himself to keep her safe. They seem to have a good relationship. When I was Luci’s age, my uncle was chasing me around the living room threatening to pierce my ear with a safety pin. True story. No way in hell I’d trust him to tank for me. And here’s Elias, a 28-year-old accountant, ready to take on the end of the world.

Honestly, when we first talked, I thought we were screwed. Worst party member ever. He didn’t even know what a party member was. However, his ability to take action, even when it’s completely counter to his worldviews, is admirable.

In fact, at this point, I could probably bail, and they’d be just fine. On the other hand, we’ve got the same goals, and while I’m not positive teamwork really makes the dream work, I feel like ditching them only to run into them again at the Lookout Towers would be hella awkward. So for now, the more the merrier.

We haul the garage door open to let some light in. The sounds of a bright and beautiful suburban day serenade our little party as we get ready: leaves gently rustling in the wind, the trill of songbirds, the porch chimes, the crack of distant gunfire. No sirens anymore. I wonder what the police are up to now. I probably don’t want to know.

It doesn’t take long to throw the essentials together. Despite the revelation that the twenty hour timer is a ruse, we’ve decided to keep to the plan: head to the top of the apartment building, check out the view, and bolt for the station before things get too hairy.

Across the street, an old woman casually walking a beagle throws a dirty look our way as Elias hurls a tire iron into a growing stockpile of weapons in the trunk. I smile and wave.

So far, we’ve got two wooden baseball bats, a fire axe, an entire toolbox, a few hangers for some reason, and a crowbar. I also sneak some bug spray and a lighter into my pack.

Yeah, I know, it’s kind of childish, but now that I know there are classes to discover, I want to experiment. What will happen if I use fire? Will I earn a pyromaniac class? A firebending class? I mean, if there’s magic in this reconstituted world-ending game, that’d be a pretty cool class to have, right? Elias is correct. I haven’t thought ahead, and the barbell doesn’t suit me. So useful or not, I’mma try it out.

Luci has already taken position in the passenger seat, the handgun in her lap. She’s switched out her gym bag for a backpack covered in iron-on patches: a mix of rock band logos, anthropomorphized fruit, and dabbing forest critters. Yet another reminder of how it takes less than ten years for the next generation of kids to make exactly zero sense.

I was actually rather surprised to see that she didn’t switch out her outfit for something a little less blood-spattered. When I mentioned it, she said that nothing we take matters anyhow. I’m starting to worry how practical she’s getting.

As for me, I ditch the barbell for a pair of kitchen knives that I strap to my leg with a half-assed belt of elastic and duct tape - which earns me two notifications.

1.

Dual-Wielding Knives

A pair of one-handed slashing weapons

Ability: Basic Attack

[This weapon is not an official reconstituted item. Abilities for this weapon cannot be earned during this stage. All non-reconstituted items will disappear upon use of a portal station.]

2.

New Skill Unlocked!

Handcrafts

You can now craft small objects by hand, for utility or decoration. Improve this skill to create more constructive and durable products.

[Bonus Proficiency: Dexterity]

I wonder what class I’ll get with these. A stabby class would be cool. Something up-close-and-personal. Something dextrous. I like the idea of being quick on my feet, maybe even more than the idea of wielding fire. It feels roguish and mischievous. Shadowy. I’ve been feeling shadowy lately. And while I’ve never knifed anything, I feel like that could be me too. A crazy lady with knives is way better than a crazy lady with a spoon. Plus, my dexterity attribute isn’t the worst, and I still have three attribute points to allocate.

Speaking of…

I open up my Status. Apparently, Luci already distributed her six additional points before we even met: three in dexterity and three in resolve. Once Elias levels, he’s going to stash his in strength and fortitude. So here I am.

Helen Gables

Lv 2

Health: 16/16

Stamina: 15/18

Status: Mild Fatigue [Stamina affected. -1 Dexterity]

Strength: 4

Fortitude: 3

Dexterity: 5 (-1 fatigue)

Wits: 7

Resolve: 6

Charm: 5

Available Attribute Points: 3

Wallet: 75g

Fatigue? Was there a notification for that? Shit. Now that I think about it, I do feel tired. I barely slept. If I’d known the world was going to split in half a million pieces, I would have popped a sleeping pill or something. Instead, I laid in bed for hours staring at the ceiling, woefully cognizant of the empty space beside me, before I gave up. Eventually I lugged myself to the couch to scroll through my phone, browsing recordings of happier times. At one point or another, I must have dozed off. So maybe I got a few hours in. Nothing solid.

Ugh. It’s hard to do this without knowing anything. I could just keep the points in reserve, but I only have a level’s worth, and I need something that can give me a leg up over the flying piranhas. I’ve been surviving by the skin of my teeth. If I want to make it to the portal alive - and I’m pretty sure I do - then I need to use what I have.

Charm I can rule out. If it’s anything like charisma, then it’s a great attribute outside of combat but not so hot for smashing monsters into pieces. Unless these are D&D rules. Whatever. Maybe I can get it later. Right now though, I’m not going to survive with a winning personality.

Strength and fortitude aren’t my strong suits. However, with the starting points so close, I could turn that around. I don’t know if I’m going to stick with Luci and Elias, so I can’t necessarily rely on Elias being the party tank. But if I’m soloing, a tank class isn’t really the way to go either. Plus, I’ll be honest. I don’t like tanking. It feels too out-there for me. Too brazen. So I’m putting those stats aside.

Resolve I have yet to figure out. It likely means I’m either great at resisting debuffs, like poison or confusion or whatever, or it means I have superior health and stamina regeneration. Or I’m just unnaturally determined.

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That leaves wits and dexterity. Due to Elias’ superior skeptism, we know that survival-based classes are a thing. I don’t know how great they’d be in combat, but they’d probably be helpful for scouting, tracking, identifying, etc. Wits would likely be handy there. I wonder if they have artisan classes. Maybe once I teleport, I can retire as a starving artist. Either way, whether soloing or in a team of three, we probably can’t afford that kind of specialization.

My guess is that the wits attribute also determines magic ability, although that’s not so much a guess really as a heartfelt desire. I can’t hinge on that, so adding to my wits will have to wait.

By process of elimination and my new affinity for kitchen knives, I’ll have to choose dexterity.

I lob three points in dexterity, instantly making it one of my highest stats, matching with wits only due to the status debuff.

Huh. I don’t feel any more dextrous or agile. I suppose I’ll have to get moving to feel the difference.

Incidentally, my stamina meter jumps too. I now have 24/24 stamina points. I guess it makes sense to tie stamina to dexterity. Move with precision, you save energy for endurance.

If health and stamina are dictated by specific attributes, then the most likely case is that health is directly related to fortitude. I should tell Elias to aim his stats in that direction. It’s more important that he can take a hit than land one.

Elias drums his finger on the car roof, surveying the garage for what I assume is more weaponry.

“Hey, we should get going,” I say, stifling a yawn. God, I wish I’d gotten more sleep last night. “Time’s ticking.”

“Alright,” he says. “Alright.”

He continues to stand there, the gears clearly turning in his head.

“Elias.”

“In a moment.” He slams the trunk shut, then raps his knuckles against the passenger seat window.

Luci props open the door. “What’s up?”

“I have something to say,” he begins. He takes a deep breath. “If we’re going to do this… If we’re going to do this right, Luci, I need you to follow my instructions. To the letter.”

“Tío,” she protests.

“No. I know you’ve been through a lot already. You’re strong and smart, but you’re young. Until we reach your parents, I’m responsible for you. Understood?”

“Yesssss, sir,” she whines.

“And Helen.” He pauses. “Don’t screw this up.”

I give him an awkward double thumbs up. You know, like an idiot. “I’ll try not to screw this up.”

He eyes me but says nothing.

Then I slump into the backseat where I can privately review all of the ways I will most definitely screw this up.

Despite this entire venture being based on my ability to drive, Elias has elected to take the wheel. He says it’s because the car belongs to his brother, but I think we both know he doesn’t trust me. Fair enough. I’m actually a pretty shit driver. Not in the “running over old ladies” way, but in the “I missed the ramp and now I’m panicking and forgot to check my blindspot and almost accidentally brake-checked that guy” kind of way.

Let’s be real. Anxiety is a weakness of mine (le shock!), and while flashbacks and overthinking are my real kryptonite, 60 mph death machines aren’t real helpful either. Meanwhile, Elias has a full grade above me, so the keys are his.

Once he starts the car, we all get a new message.

1.

Title(s) Earned:

Road Tripper: Ride in a human-made vehicle before it is reconstituted.

Reward: Driving +1

2.

Skill Proficiency Increased:

Driving 6

“That’s ominous,” I say.

Luci grins. “Ooo, I unlocked the driving skill! Maybe I should drive!”

Elias just looks at her.

The car drives like a dream. We end up retracing the path that Luci and I took: past the large houses, past the churches, past the wide lawns.

And then we reach the main streets, the two-story houses giving way to old apartments and corner stores. In the hour we’ve been gone, things have changed.

It begins in a trickle. An abandoned car here. A trail of blood there. They look like props. Like somewhere nearby, there will be a camera rig and a film crew.

A block farther, we cross the street where Luci and I met. Where the monsters first appeared. More cars crowd the road - some crashed, some deserted. Store windows have been shattered, broken glass glinting on the sidewalk. Trash blows down the road like tumbleweeds.

And there are bodies. In the time it takes us to drive across the street, I count five. Five bodies.

My memory flashes with images of the monsters eating that man alive, of teeth tearing strips of flesh from that woman, of people fleeing, blood spraying. All I felt was fear. Fear and relief. Relief that it wasn’t me. Now, looking at the aftermath… I don’t know what to feel. It doesn’t seem real. I know, I was there. I saw it happen. But what I’m seeing now aren’t people. They’re just bodies. Bodies and blood.

“Whoa,” says Elias. “Don’t look, chispita.”

She gazes out the window. “It’s okay.” Her voice lowers to just above a whisper. “I’ve seen worse.”

Two blocks farther, and the state of the pretty little town rapidly declines. More dead. More destruction. When we turn westward toward the Lookout Towers, cars clog the street. Again, some are crashed, others abandoned, and others… I don’t know how to describe it. It’s like the doors have been torn from their hinges, the roofs ripped off like the jeep in Jurassic Park. The classic, obviously. Not the Chris Pratt ones.

The mercedes rolls to a stop, the street jammed in front of us. We’re only two blocks away from the Lookout Towers. The apartments definitely stand out as the tallest point. On a road crowded shoulder-to-shoulder with brownstone bistros and boutiques, the pair of stylish glass high-rises lord over it all.

“I don’t think anyone’s in the car in front of us,” says Luci.

A flash of black swoops past the window.

Elias ducks reflexively, fingers white-knuckled around the wheel. “What was that?”

“Flying piranha,” she answers. “Did you hear me? I think we need to walk the rest of the way.”

“With that out there? Luci…”

“It’s fine. It’s just a couple blocks. We can make it. Right, Helen?” She looks back at me expectantly.

“We can do it,” I say with admittedly much more confidence than I feel.

“Chispita,” says Elias. “If you want to stay in the car, that’s alright. Helen and I can do this ourselves.”

Hey, wait.

“Like hell,” she sneers.

“Luci!”

“I’m not staying in the car. It won’t keep me safe anyway. You know they can go through glass, right?”

He takes a steady breath but remains quiet.

“Elias,” I say, interrupting whatever’s going through that head of his. He thinks way too much. “Is there a way to get to the stuff in the trunk from here?”

He nods to the middle seat. I lower the back, revealing a little hatch that opens up into the trunk, though it’s impossible to see in there. I reach in and fumble around for the first thing I can grab. One by one, I fish out each item. It’s like a horror-themed grab bag. Yup, there’s the axe. The tire iron. Oo, a crowbar. And a couple of baseball bats.

Elias threads one of the bats through the neck of his backpack and into the water bottle sleeve before arming himself with the axe. Smart move. I knew the guy would be resourceful. I do the same with the crowbar. Luci takes the second bat.

“So what’s the plan?” she says.

“Well, to me, it looks like everyone in the zone had the same bright idea as us,” I say. “I'm guessing that's why we're at a standstill. That and, you know, monsters.”

Elias nods. “The front will be crowded then.”

“Crowded with corpses,” I add. Elias glares. “I’m just saying, if those bats saw a mob trying to push into the towers, they would have a field day. But yeah, either way, it’ll be hell to get in the front."

"Then we go through the parking garage."

"Maybe. It's probably secured. It won’t open for just anyone. Unless they have retail parking.”

“Hey,” says Luci.

“Most do,” he says. “Especially the newer apartments like this one.”

“Is that something we want to gamble on?” I ask.

"Hey," Luci says again.

He sighs. “Do we have another choice?”

“I don’t think so. Not unless we ditch this plan altogether.”

“Hey!” Luci shouts. “How big would you say the flying piranhas are?”

“Um, like wingspan-wise?" I reply. "Six feet, give or take.”

“Okay.” She points out the rear windshield. “Then what in heck is that?”