DEATH

"What about you?" I turned to Chloe and asked.

She gave me an insincere smile. "Sure, but who will open the crate, you think?"

"She will," Brad grinned at me. "As the newcomer I think it's only fair,"

"There's danger in opening the crate isn't there?" I asked suspiciously.

"Not all," the Chinese guy grinned. "But some are booby trapped,"

"Sweet," I said. Bastards. Everyone was looking at me so I tried to appear calm, taking deep breaths. Like earlier I threw a few branches at the crate and when nothing happened I walked over to it and pushed the lid open. "Now what?" I asked.

"Now we share," Brad walked over. Like the crate we found two days ago, each weapon came in twos; Two rifles, two handguns, two swords, grenades and daggers. Brandon's group got a rifle and a handgun, Chloe and Dragon got a rifle, while me and Sid got the last handgun. Further more Brandon's and Chloe's group got a grenade each; but I didn't complain, and quietly received the two swords I was handed. The last two daggers was shared between them to finish everything.

It was a little unfair to me and Sid. But we arrived last, so... Plus if you look at it that way we are the greatest winners here, managing to clinch some benefits from this. No use being too greedy, I decided. "Well thanks you two, I guess," I said as I strapped the sword to my back by the buckles on its scabbard. Chloe gave me a dirty look but I just smirked. What did she expect? I gotta survive too. I grabbed the game___ the rabbit that had led us here___ and left together with my sister.

An hour later we made camp atop a small hill after killing three Sheepmen on the way, and I roasted the rabbit while Sid went into the bushes to ease herself. The rabbit was just finished roasting when she retuned holding a heap of grapes in her hands. My eyes widened. "Look what I found!" She said.

"Where?" I asked.

"Over there," she grinned. "There's like, a whole bush of them,"

"Shut up," I gasped in elation.

The sweet juice attacked my mouth as I bit into the grape, and the meat was not too bad. "So what's the plan?" Sid asked when we were done eating.

"We should hunt some more, just around the area, and return here for the night. We'd gather fire wood while we are on it too," I replied. As we descended the hill, I asked Sid if the grape bush were all ripe and she said 'for the most part, yes'. So I suggested we take as much as we can tomorrow when we leave the hill.

Anyway we found and hunted a few more monsters before sunset. Four Sheepmen__ I wonder what they're officially called___ and two goblins. By this time I had gotten eight orbs and Sid nine. So we just had to hunt about seven more.

The next day we awoke ready to end this 'shit', and to find out if this was all true___ if we'll really level up___ and not a big illusion. We were hopeful, however. So after a breakfast of exclusively grapes from the grape bush Sid had found we harvested most of the grapes and carried them in an improvised pack of Sid's jacket, leaving her in only her tank top. I was wearing just a blouse so I couldn't really help there.

We set out further south. Hunting a few rabbits on the way, which we skewered with two branches and carried, and two strange Monsters. This is the first time we are seeing these kind. They stood taller than us and looked like sentient trees, creepy sentient trees; they had dozens of green tentacle like vines for legs... Roots?, two brown branches for arms, a long thick trunk for torso and leaves for hair. Their eyes were two big holes on the tree trunk.

More importantly, our guns barely disturbed them as their trunks hardly took damage and their limbs regenerated quickly. "Haw, haw!" They said, wobbling forward.

Me and Sid panicked and ran. The tree monsters chased after us for sometime before I decided, fuck it, and used our last grenade to take them out. Two monster orbs dropped after their destruction and we absorbed them, taking Sid's tally to ten and mine to nine. Two more and she'd level up, three more and I will___ as it stands, if this is all true.

I felt anxious and excited both at the prospect, hope and suspicion, fear and intrigue. What if this is all real? That there are fantasy like monsters and their hunters, who both possess game like superpowers, hidden away from society. That will change everything I thought I know about the world, but I didn't care much cause, I could be a part of that!

We saw other people today too. Some fighting monsters, others going about; like usuall everyone kept their distance. We sought the stream but we couldn't find it so we had to ignore our thirst for now and just started searching for an isolated spot to camp and eat lunch when a group of five approached us. The group was made up of three guys and two girls all dressed, like us, in casual wear.

The lead guy, a dark haired guy lifted his hands placidly when we pointed our handguns at him when he stepped towards us. "Hey, easy," he said with a harmless smile. "Just wanna talk," He dropped his gun to the ground. "See?"

"Then talk," I said, sounding more nervous than I wanted. "From there,"

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"Paranoid aren't we?" He chuckled. I glared. "Okay calm down, we are the Empire Gang. I am David Nates, the leader."

"What do you want?"

"To invite you to join my team. It'll assure you a more likely chance of survival in this forest and even in Camp,"

"Not interested," I replied.

David nodded and turned to Sid. "And you?"

"Pass," she said.

He frowned, his expression changing so abruptly it startled me. "I have been extremely polite to you two, but you just had to push me to this, eh," He snapped his finger; and his friends pulled their weapons in response. It happened quickly and on prompt that me and Sid didn't have the time react at all.

Surely they'd done this before, I thought sourly.

I frowned as my worst fear came to life. Teenagers dumped in a forest by themselves, surely there'd be a little... Okay, a lot of bullying. That's the nature of things. "What do you want?" I asked trying to appear calm and in control.

David eyed our bundles. "I see you got some good stuff," he whistled. "You hunted rabbits! How did you even do that? We have been going by with the little fruits we can find. How about you give us all your belongings and we'll spare your lives?"

"Or maybe we just shoot at each other," I said sourly.

"You'll die,"

"Yeah, I'll also take at least one of you with me, my sister another."

"Okay fine," he scoffed. "What do you suggest?"

"I'll give you half of what we have," I offered desperately. "But no weapons. You take our weapons and you take our only chance of survival, we can't give you that,"

He thought about it for sometime then shook his head. "No. You'll give us all your weapons and half the rabbits. You can keep the other stuff including the cloths you are wearing. That's my final mercy."

"This is robbery!" Sid snarled. It mirrored my thoughts exactly. We worked for this god damn it!

I glared at the guy feeling like crying. They have the number advantage, the thought kept running through my head, analyzing as I was trained to do in danger. Gritting my teeth I considered just squeezing the trigger in defiance and see what his smug face would look like. Sid noted somehow and warned. "Sam! Take a deep breath. Now calm down, don't do anything stupid!"

"Yeah, listen to her Sam," David smirked at me. My anger must look amusing to him, I noted. I must look weak and totally easy to toy with; he thinks he controls me, controls my life, thinks he's stronger....

I closed my eyes, my body trembled, my heart pounded on my chest. My eyes flew open. A quiet hum followed then David suddenly staggered back and drooped to the ground, half his face blasted off by laser fire. It took me and everyone else a few seconds to realized I had actially pulled the trigger. A sudden silence descended as the impossible happened.

"Oh fuck Sam!" Sid gasped in despair. "Fuck, I told you, deep breaths!"

I came back to my senses with an urgent sense of survival. They are gonna kill me for this! It was the rational reaction, I thought.

I turned to the others surrounding us. I was afraid for a moment as I waited for my demise, then a moment later confused that they hadn't shot at us in retaliation yet. Instead they looked fearful, I was further perplexed by that, then the realization dawned on me. They are out of ammo! In fact they wanted to rob us with empty guns! I was amazed by their boldness. And it could have worked!

Realizing I wasn't in danger, I pointed my gun left then right at those flanking us. They all flinched drawing away, trembling in fear. Only the black girl at the right looked better off, but she still clenched her fist and gritted her teeth like a cornered dog. "So, so," I drawled intoxicatedly, drunk on some odd power. "Still want to rob us?"

"You made your point," the black girl growled. "You don't have to kill us, we'll leave and never bother you again!"

"Oh really?" I lifted an eyebrow. "How do I know you won't come back.... Hmm... for revenge once I spare your lives,"

"We won't!" the black girl insisted. "At least I won't. Why would I? Hell I didn't even know the guy until two days ago when he asked me to join his team. I just did it to survive!"

I didn't know what she did to survive, joining his team or robbing us, but it doesn't matter. "So you all don't know him?" I lifted an eyebrow again.

"We don't," the guy at the other side said. I didn't turn to him as I didn't need to fear him attacking from behind because Sid got my back.

"All of you?"

"Only Harvey," the black girl said. "He knew him before Camp,"

I frowned. "Who's Harvey?" She pointed at the guy standing beside her. My gun hummed again before I thought of it and the guy dropped, a gaping hole in his chest.

"Jesus Christ!" The guy behind me screamed.

"Oh shit," the other girl started weeping. She fell to her knees. "Please don't kill us! We are sorry for trying to rob you, we were just desperate and it was Dave's idea. It was Dave's idea! The rest of us only wanted to invite you to join our team so you share your rations with us. But you refused and he started plan B. Please don't kill me!"

"Shut the fuck up!" Sid snapped.

"Listen," the black girl said. "Please let us go, we won't cause trouble again, I promise."

I wanted to push her further for some reason, not wanting to let them just walk away, but just as I opened my mouth Sid spoke. "Fine go," she said.

"Really?"

"Scram bitches!" Sid shouted. The three glanced at me, seeing me making no move, they turned around and tailed. After they left and the forest grew silent I turned and glared at Sid.

"What the fuck was that!?" I screamed, my body trembling, my gun pointed at her. "How dare you undermine me?" Sid just frowned and walked closer. "What the fuck are you..." I chocked as she lowered my hands holding the gun and gave me a hug.

I started crying.

Sid caressed my head. "It's alright Sam, it's okay," her words were gentle. When I was six I had climbed up the cupboard in dad's study and started crying when I eventually fell off. Sid had held me like this and kept reassuring me.

I cried for a long time and Sid held me close, patient with me as ever, not once complaining. Finally I sniffed and pulled back. "I am sorry," I said, pointedly not looking at the bodies I had killed.

"It's okay,"

I hiccupped. "I killed them Sid," I whispered. "Just like..."

"Don't talk about that!" She chided.

I nodded. "I am sorry,"

"It's fine, come," she grabbed my hand and led me away. We found a natural glade a mile away where someone had camped before and made a fire to roast the game. Well, Sid did all the work, I just watched her blankly. We fell in silence for sometime.

"This place is so fucked up, no kidding," Sid said. I nodded earnestly. "Hey, you want to rest the rest of the day away?" I shook my head. "You up for hunting?" She sounded surprised. I nodded. "Okay, cool, want to set out now?" I nodded. "Or maybe later?" I shook my head.

Sid frowned and stared at me seriously, I held her eyes in challenge. She finally sighed and agreed. "Just let me handle stuff for the rest of the day, okay?" She said. I shrugged. "Good, we eat first then we go. And Sam, you did what you had to do to keep us safe..."

I nodded but I didn't believe her. I did what I wanted to do, like last time, like always. I always do what I want to do. Most of the time.

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