It scurried through the underbrush, darting under leaves and twigs. It could hear the larger predator behind it. It had tried eating the sleeping creature. It was hungry.

It was always hungry.

The creature had been too big. One bite hadn’t been enough. It was small and the bite was small. The bite had awakened the creature and it now gave chase.

It raced through the forest, twisting around the large trees, small feet scrambling for purchase as it ran. The crash made by the chasing creature was loud, drowning out everything around it.

It had been so long since it had eaten. The presence guided it, told it that it needed to eat to grow stronger. It didn’t know what the presence was. It only knew it had to do what the presence said.

It wanted to eat but it was so small.

There was a cry of pain from behind it. The small creature skidded to a stop, turning to face where its pursuer had been. A much larger predator had pounced on it. The creature it had tried to eat, that had chased it to try to eat it, was now being eaten.

Looking around, it found a place to hide.

Rushing over, it scurried into a small opening made by the roots of the large trees. The space was much too small for either predator to enter, barely big enough for it to hide in. It watched as the largest predator killed the other. The creature tore into the medium sized one. Blood and small bits of flesh, muscle and bone were sent flying. It watched, the hunger growing.

It was tempted to run out and try to eat the largest predator but the presence told it not to. The creature was much too big. It would get eaten instead.

For minutes or hours, it had no true concept of time, it just knew day and night and in the dark it was night, the creature watched. Finally, satiated, the largest predator disappeared into the forest and the darkness. Still it waited, wanting to make sure nothing else would approach.

Nothing did.

Slowly, cautiously, it made its way out of the opening in the roots. It’s head looked everywhere, not able to use its physical senses anymore, but used newer ones instead. It didn’t hear or smell anymore, barely saw. The new senses were much better. It could feel when other creatures were around. It could judge their strengths by looking at them.

It knew it was alone.

Reaching the dead creature, it started eating. There was barely anything left, just some meat on the bones. But it was enough for the small creature.

Barely enough.

It was always hungry and there was never enough.

But it would be for now. From this small meal it would grow stronger.

Strong enough to find its next meal.

***

“Hurry it up!”

The command was barked in a slightly nasally voice. Eddie turned and glared at the speaker. Nathan was Max’s right hand man. Small, whiny and weak, the only thing Nathan had going for him was his ability to organize. If Max didn’t find the annoying man useful, he would have been killed a long time ago. Eddie was still tempted, but Max wasn’t that far away and in the gang, Nathan was more valuable.

They used to be a community, but were now nothing more than a gang. There had been a couple dozen people. A small community but growing. At least until they all got tired of Max’s shit and left.

Eddie wondered why he was still sticking around.

Josh Hauser had asked him to go with them, but Eddie had laughed, said that they’d all die without Max and the rest to protect them. Maybe they had. Eddie had no way of knowing.

He looked toward the trees on either side of Route 28. It would be easy enough to run into the woods and just disappear. He had a backpack full of supplies. That would last him awhile. His Class, Striker, would help him hunt and defend himself from monsters. He could survive.

But he’d be alone.

Eddie didn’t like being alone.

He was a follower. That’s what the therapist had been talking to him about before the Connection had arrived. Eddie had spent his entire life finding the bigger and badder person and just doing what they wanted. It had gotten him into fights and even jail. When he’d realized that about himself, Eddie had been incredibly thankful he’d lived in Pittsfield, New Hampshire and not some place like Atlanta, Chicago or LA where there were real gangs.

With his personality and a dominant leader, Eddie would have wound up in prison.

Or dead.

Dead was still a possibility.

The oddest thing, and what the therapist had the hardest time getting through to Eddie, was that he was a big and strong man. Most of the people he followed weren’t as big as he was, they weren’t as strong. What they were was smarter. And had charisma.

Eddie liked the sound of that word. Charisma. It just sounded neat.

He knew he wasn’t smart. He’d barely graduated high school and hadn’t gone off to college, just starting a series of dead end jobs where he did the bare minimum and got yelled at by his bosses.

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When the Connection hit, Eddie had been at the Family Dollar with a bunch of other people, Max and Josh among them. Max had immediately taken control and they’d banded together to hold the store. It had food, clothing and lots of other supplies. Even stuff they could use as weapons. The first looters had been easy to kill and it hadn’t been long before they’d all gotten their Classes. A couple of days quicker. That made them the strongest ones around.

Slowly others had come and made their group stronger. A dozen of them. They’d attacked the group holed up in the Rite-Aid next door and they won. But that was a dozen against five. Easy fight.

Not without losses, but who cared about the weak. That was what Max had said.

“They were weak. We’ll only survive if we get stronger.”

The group grew even taking on some that Eddie considered weak. But as Max said, “there needs to be someone to do the dishes”, not that there were any dishes to do but Eddie understood the meaning.

Servants.

Everything was good. They fought monsters, found something called a Dungeon and barely survived that but it made them stronger. But it didn’t take long for Max to start rubbing some people the wrong way.

And they started leaving.

When Josh left, that was the final blow to Max’s little kingdom.

There weren't enough people to defend the area. The food from the Rite-Aid, Family Dollar and grocery store in town was gone. No one had thought to ration it. What had looked like a lot of food hadn’t lasted long. Especially after the stuff in the freezers and coolers had started going bad. There was only so much junk food to eat and no way to heat up the canned food.

Eddie had quickly grown tired of cold Spaghetti-Os.

Once the food in those stores had run out, Max had brought the entire group up to Route 28. He figured they could wall it off and steal supplies from other survivors. Most would use Route 28 to get around. It was a major road.

An old lady had suggested taking books from the library about how to grow food, blacksmith and other things. Max had laughed. Eddie thought she was one of the first to leave. It had been awhile since he’d seen her.

Now with just a dozen of them, there wasn’t enough to steal anything from anyone. Max figured it was time to head south to the Epsom circle and see if there was a larger group that they could join and then take over. Eddie thought that would be a good time to get away from Max, find that other group and stay as they killed Max.

He smiled at that thought. Max wasn’t the biggest or baddest. There would be someone else.

“Hurry up,” Nathan yelled.

Eddie was tempted to drop the backpack he was stuffing full of clothes, grab his sword and jam it into Nathan’s stomach. Maybe he could arrange an accident on the way south to the traffic circle. Grumbling, Eddie shifted over and started stuffing a second backpack. He’d found a metal frame in someone’s house that was made to hold two giant bags. The homeowner had been an overnight hiker from all the gear they’d found. Most of it didn’t do them any good now but the backpacks, frame, tent and sleeping bag would come in handy.

Their camp on 28 hadn’t been anything fancy. They’d been living better back when they’d been in downtown Pittsfield. Eddie had never camped before the Connection struck. He didn’t like it. He hated it. What he wouldn’t give for a room again.

Nathan, who wasn’t doing anything, kept yelling but the tone of the yelling changed. He started screaming. Eddie looked at the little man, who was pointing south down the road. Others began yelling and screaming. Max tried shouting to be heard, but everyone ignored him.

Dropping the backpack, Eddie drew his sword. He’d gotten it from some creature called a Hob. There had been a nest of them where the bread manufacturer's place had been, across from the cemetery that had been full of skeletons and zombies. A very large cemetery with a lot of monsters. They’d avoided that place except for any of the monsters that wandered downtown.

The Hob had been a pretty weak creature but the sword was better than the camping machete he’d been using. And Eddie had to admit, he was getting pretty good at using it.

He stalked down the road, passing some of the others. He was so aggravated with the damn Connected System. It hadn’t brought anything good, just pain and death. It had messed up everything. His life hadn’t been good before the Connection but it was absolute crap now. Anger flooded Eddie, more than he’d ever felt in his life. He wanted to hurt whatever was coming up the road. He wanted to find a good place to live, to get away from idiots like Max. He wanted to shut Nathan up. Eddie just wanted things to go back the way they’d been.

“Line up,” he yelled, surprising himself.

He was not one to take charge.

But someone had to. Max was being ignored. No one believed in his leadership anymore.

He stopped, watching the monsters approaching.

They were big, ugly misshapen things. The closer they got, the more they looked like trees without the canopy of branches at the top. They still had branches coming out of random parts of their bodies, but they just ended in sharp tips and not leaves. The creatures were humanoid, looking to be ten feet tall. Skinny, their bodies made up of twisting vines and thin trees. Long arms that ended in different numbers of sharp talons. The heads were elongated, with mouths on the lower end and eyes at the higher.

There were four of them running up the road.

Eddie had no idea where they’d come from but they looked angry. He used Evaluate on them, the Skill having reached Rank 2 not that long ago. It felt weird being able to judge a creature’s strength just by looking at it.

GRAYBARK SPRIGGEN

He had no idea what any of the words meant, all he knew was that the creatures were far stronger than his Level Eight. And he was one of the highest Leveled in their group. Only Max was higher at Level Ten.

Eddie felt his anger fading fast as the monsters got closer. He could feel the ground shaking with each of their stampeding footsteps. Why was he bothering to defend Max and any of the others? They weren’t his friends.

Turning he started running up the road to the north. He could keep going, turn down one of the roads that headed to downtown, pick up 107 and head into Northwood or take North Road south to Route 4 and keep going into Deerfield or turn and head toward the traffic circle from there. Lots of options.

He just had to get away first.

“Where are you going,” Nathan screeched.

Eddie ignored the idiot. He’d already seen Max rushing toward the monsters. The idiot was going to get himself killed. Good riddance.

He stopped running when he heard more footsteps slamming into the ground coming from the north. More Spriggans. Only two of them, but Eddie had no faith in his ability to get past them. Cursing, he turned to the right and ran toward the woods. Going on the roads would have been easier but the woods would do.

He could hear the screams of the people behind them. A lot of screaming. He thought he recognized Nathan’s pitiful yelps.

Eddie ignored it all, just kept running, the treeline in sight. His eyes widened as one of the trees moved, revealing itself to be another Spriggan.

It was only one, he could avoid just one.

Eddie kept running, focusing on a gap between trees. He was almost there.

He never saw the spear-like arm of a Spriggan rushing toward his head.