Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the victor I will give the right to eat from the tree of life that is in the garden of God.
-Revelation 2:7
John was dead. Based on the lividity, he must have been dead for more than an hour. As I fell to my knees, my eyes scanned the scene, and I was able to reconstruct what happened with cruel ease. I could only distract myself with the mystery for a few seconds.
When System Integration began, John must have holed up in his room in an attempt to defend himself against the attacking monsters. Splattered obsidian rock provided evidence of John’s resistance. When John realized that his apartment building would collapse under the fury of the Diluvians’ assault, he fled to his car while guiding the golden retriever with a leash. Before John made it to his destination, he was killed by a random Diluvian.
If only he had taken the Knight class, he would have had enough time to flee to his car. Perhaps he would have even been able to dispatch the monsters assailing him. It was only natural that he didn’t take the Knight class, of course. The System must have pushed him toward the Mage or Priest class.
Damn it! Why didn’t the System tell us about [Draconic Integration] first!? In terms of short-term survival, being a Knight was by far the most optimal choice.
Naturally, the System did not care about our chances for short-term survival. It was there to get us ready for war with the Conquering Horde. Knights were probably weaker at higher levels, so the System didn’t want to incentivize us to make choices that would harm our long-term growth.
Not that any of that mattered. John was dead. My friend was dead, and something should be done about that. One day, I would have the opportunity to take my anger out on the Coalition of Light. Justified or not, I would show them that John did not die needlessly.
“Oh, God,” Liz uttered from out of sight.
I stood up and saw that the other three had caught up to me. Liz and Carlos looked like they were about to throw up. The feeling of despair flowed through my heart so powerfully that naked sorrow motivated my expression for several seconds. It was only with a gargantuan force of will that I was able to conceal those feelings.
“He died like that? How unfair,” Carlos said with his lips tight in an expression of barely-suppressed emotion.
My voice level, I said, “He’s dead. There’s nothing more we can do. Let’s get back to the RV.”
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I wanted to fall to my knees and cry, but the words I said to Claire rang loudly in my mind. It would be unfair for me to so callously disregard Claire’s grief only for me to languish in my own grief hours later.
“Hold on,” Carlos said, blinking in confusion.
“Aren’t we going to bury him?” Liz asked, her eyes already wet with tears.
“We didn’t bury Simon,” I said, the anger I felt toward myself manifesting in my voice. “It could take us up to an hour to give John a proper burial. We might not have an hour to spare. If things could get this bad in four hours, who knows how bad they can get in another four hours.”
I began walking toward the RV, but Claire’s voice interrupted my gait. “What about the dog? Don’t you think we should take him with us?”
“Fine,” I said without turning. “If you can get him to follow you, he can come.”
I returned to the RV and pressed my head against the steering wheel. The guilt of leaving John there in the parking lot like roadkill weighed heavily on my mind, and I was only able to lessen this feeling by reminding myself that I would one day exact a heavy toll upon those responsible.
The next thing I knew, a blur of yellow fur ran up the stairs to the RV, and John Sullivan’s dog put his long snout on my lap. I looked around to see who was walking the dog and saw that he had escaped his walker.
Luigi looked up at me, and I slowly began petting the large dog. I wondered if John had trained Luigi to be a therapy dog. Either way, it clearly wouldn’t be hard to get Luigi into the RV.
I remembered the last time I had seen Luigi. As soon as John told him I was a friend, the dog stuck next to me like a big yellow shadow. I was always told that animals were supposed to panic around crazy people, but apparently Luigi didn’t get the message.
“I guess we both just lost a friend, eh, little guy?” I said as I rubbed Luigi’s head.
The others soon got back into the RV, and we departed once more. For the first few minutes, the tone was somber, but everyone began to cheer up quickly due to the golden retriever’s heartening presence. I quickly understood why John got one. It was hard to remain somber when that dog was nearby.
“Vincent, we have to rob a pet store,” Carlos called out after about half an hour.
Within minutes, the floor of the RV was covered in an honestly unnecessary amount of dog food, treats, and toys. It felt disrespectful for everyone to be laughing so soon after the death of a friend, but I was hardly one to complain. The others finally had something to keep their minds off of the state of the world.
Over the next few hours, we slowly made our way south toward Fayetteville. We must have stopped more than a dozen times to fight off waves of Diluvian and Uruks. I quickly began utilizing a tactic whereby I would climb onto the roof of the RV to get a better vantage point while the others engaged the monsters on the ground.
I used my laser rifle to slow the monsters’ when they approached. This tactic quickly used up my ammo, but it was much safer. We had nearly reached Fayetteville by the time I had run out of ammunition for my laser rifle.
[DILUVIANS (105) KILLED! +1,575 EXP, +1,575 CREDITS]
[URUKS (37) KILLED! +1,110 EXP, +1,110 CREDITS]
[LEVEL UP!]
[EXP TO NEXT LEVEL: 315]
[TOTAL CREDITS: 5,855₪]