“Seriously, I can’t believe how clear this help menu is!” Linda decried.

Dale looked at her without commenting. After a few seconds, he asked, “If I ask you a question, can you get the answer from your help menu for me?”

Linda shifted her eyes to him and frowned. “Yeah, but why? Don’t you have your own?”

Dale shook his head. “Remember what I said about the author? Well, seems they’re a lot less distant than I figured they were.”

“Okay, sure-,” Linda stared hard at something. “Wait, I was just given a quest saying that if I don’t help you, I get a silver piece and a point of experience. Those experience points aren’t nothing to sneeze at from what I can tell from the help menu.”

“Yeah, I-, wait, did it give you a limit? Here, let’s try something. Can you tell me what S T R stands for and how it affects you?” Dale asked her. He also shook his head at her.

“Uh, no?” Linda stated, then her eyes widened. “Yeah, nah. Can’t tell you anything.”

Dale spent the next few minutes asking question after question and Linda kept telling him she couldn’t answer. It only took ten times for the quest to reach a limit.

“It says I’ve utilized the quest the maximum number of times.” Linda told him.

Dale grinned. “Care to split it?”

Linda snorted. “That’s my money and points!”

“Seriously?” Dale asked her.

Linda sighed and shook her head. “Fine, seventy-thirty.”

“I can live with that.” Dale reached out and she transferred over three silver and three points. “Now for Bobby.”

Linda grinned when Dale started asking Bobby questions and had him tell Dale no. It capped out at ten, just like for his mother.

“Will you go fifty-fifty with me, little man?” Dale asked him.

Bobby nodded to himself firmly and shook his hand. Dale rejected the trade.

Linda was staring at him.

Dale smiled. “I rejected the trade. Just messing with ya.”

Linda reached out and they shook hands, the other two points and silver transferring over. “That’s for not taking from my kid, even though he’d trade away everything to the crazy white guy that taught him how to use a spear.”

“Not so crazy after all.” Dale corrected.

Linda nodded. “I’ll give you that. Alright, what’s next?”

“Where else? Walmart.” Dale grinned, his greed showing. “Oh, one last thing.”

Dale went to the aisle close to the check-out and grabbed a few boxes of candybars and two packs full of boxes of assorted nuts. For their weight, they were the most nutritious food he could think of. A diet of mixed nuts could keep you going for a while as long as you had vitamins. It wasn’t safe or healthy, but it was survivable.

Walmart was across the four-lane road from Sam’s and Academy. It took them a couple minutes of walking to get there. Mostly because Dale and Linda were keeping their eyes peeled. They also made sure they put the sheath back on Bobby’s spear. He was five after all. Expecting him to be careful with a deadly weapon was seriously pushing the boundaries of luck. During the trip his mom had to threaten to take the spear completely away twice because he was trying to play with it. Probably best to stop by the toy aisle in Walmart.

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Each dead body they passed, either monster or human, built up a little more concern about his son and daughter. His daughter was living with him, and his son was living with the kids’ mother. His daughter was currently going to Winthrop University with him, and his son was doing dual enrollment of online high school and York Tech. That was of course over now. Whatever form education was going to take in the future, it was horribly doubtful they were going to be restarted back the way it was. If the bodies were any indication, life all over the world was probably getting thrown for a loop.

“Help!” A voice cried out.

Linda stopped and stared. Dale didn’t want to get too far ahead of her, so he stopped as well.

“What?” He asked her.

What he saw when he followed her eyes was an older woman limping towards them. She was obviously bleeding from a gash on her forehead. There were a couple other injuries, and her hair and clothing were a mess. At one point they must have been well put together from Dale could piece together just looking at her.

“We gotta help her.” Linda stated.

Dale sighed. “She’s going on your cart.”

They pulled the carts toward the woman until they met up with her. Linda reached down and gently grasped the old woman’s hand. Dale couldn’t help his surprise when her hand glowed. The old woman’s wounds closed right before his very eyes.

“How did you do that?” Dale and the formerly wounded elderly woman asked.

Linda shot a sly grin Dale’s way. “The Ability ‘Faith Healing,’”

Dale groaned. “Show me the ability list.” He grumbled, the words tasting bitter in his mouth.

Abilities: None

“How do I get an ability?” Dale asked Linda.

“You purchase it with experience points.” She informed him, still smiling slightly at his anguish. “You know…”

“Catch more flies with honey?” Dale asked her.

She smiled big.

Dale grumbled some more and said a few choice words about ‘flies’ under his breath. “Can you tell me what abilities are available?”

Linda frowned. After a couple seconds of moving her hands through the air and speaking a few random words, a screen popped up. Dale thankfully could see it.

It appeared the system acted much like feats did in tabletop games. They also cost ten experience points each to start. Dale wondered at those words, ‘to start,’ while he perused the list.

“Quests.” Dale said. Linda and the woman were talking among themselves while he went through his interface.

It seemed there were three quests that he’d completed. He just hadn’t turned them in. That was the first time he had to tip his head to the creator of this story. To be able to hold completion of quests so in case someone tried to rob you or whatever you wouldn’t have whatever they were looking for on you.

Dale turned all three in:

Save the family!: Completed: Reward: 5 experience points, 2 silver.

Defeat the Academy champion!: Completed: 5 experience points, 2 silver.

Honor the fallen!: Completed: 10 experience points, 4 silver.

Honor the fallen was the name of a quest he got when he entered Sam’s club it seemed. The goal of it was to kill the orcs that had slaughtered the defenders in the big box store.

Each of the gremlins was worth 1 experience point. The orcs were worth 2. That left him a total of 35 total experience, 16 silver, 6 copper. The exchange rate for copper to silver appeared to be 20:1.

“How much to raise an attribute?” Dale asked her.

“Says it starts at 10 experience as well.” Linda explained.

“Select ability, Mage Initiation.” Dale stated.

Congratulations on discovering magic. Your familiar is on its way.

“Familiar?” Dale asked.

“Yes, oh mighty, great and powerful mage?” A tiny little creature about the size of a gerbil with batlike wings floated before Dale. It had two horns on its head, was purple, and covered in scales like snakeskin. The eyes were slit like a cat and glowing violet. Finally, it smelled like dog crap.

“Ech… Why do you stink so bad?” Dale asked.

“Stink?” It asked him, eyes innocent.

“Smells like fresh cut lemons to me.” Linda commented, leaning in for a second.

“Oooo, Frosted Flakes!” Bobby called out, his hands waving in the air.

Dale turned to the tiny creature. For a second, he saw a slight smile on its face. He blinked and the curiosity was back. It ALMOST had him believing he hadn’t seen what he’d seen. Almost. A feeling of tiredness fell on his shoulders.

“Let me guess, you survive on siphoning off my energy?” Dale asked it, knowing the tiredness hadn’t come from some natural source.

Lips twitched. If Dale had doubts, they evaporated with that twitch.

“I’m sooooo terribly sorry, my wise and brilliant master. I could no more stop than the sun drop from the sky.” The little Imp explained. It bowed low at the waist. “I am of course at your command in all things, oh noble-.”

“Just shut up.” Dale groaned, trying to keep from using his nose. “And please, back up. If I vomit from your stink, I’ll be vomiting on you.”

“Of course, you terror of-.” The imp began.

Dale held up a hand to forestall any further ‘compliments’ from the smelly little beast.

It floated backwards around three inches.

Dale really felt like punching something. He just didn’t want to scare Bobby.

Something tickled the back of his mind. “Hey, if you have faith healing, why didn’t you heal me?” Dale asked Linda.

She shrugged. “I couldn’t. It said your fate was in the hands of another.”

Yeah, that gave him all sorts of warm fuzzy feelings. Like staring into a black, bottomless pit of terror would.