I looked at my surroundings taking in the scene. Susan was still unconscious with Tina checking on her. Tony was still breathing hard, and Josh was sitting on the ground resting.
“How long was I gone?” I asked, receiving puzzled looks from the others.
“What are you talking about?” Tony asked me. “You haven’t gone anywhere, dude.” The revelation was shocking to me because to me I had been gone for at least half an hour while the sponsorship conclave had been going on. I explained what happened to me and Tina came rushing over to me.
“If you can heal then why haven’t you started helping Susan?” She asked and I smacked myself in the forehead feeling like an idiot for not thinking about that. Pulling out my guitar I activated the song of healing. Once it was activated a piece of glowing sheet music appeared in front of me. The music was more complicated than anything I’d ever seen and with my current skill, there was no way I’d be able to play it as written. The sheet music suddenly changed, and a note appeared at the top of it.
“Song of Healing (Simplified) Practice it’ll grow with you. P.S. You’re welcome. A.”
I looked at the music and noticed that it had indeed simplified quite a bit. It was still at the top of my ability to play but I could play it. I began plucking the strings and as the melody took shape white light glowed from the injuries that my friends and I had accumulated throughout the day. I continued to play and watched as the wounds began to close and Susan began to stir. The music was light, fast-paced and it gave off a feeling of excitement and hope. The entire song’s run time was at least 5 minutes and as it ended the light faded and disappeared.
Susan sat up awake and gawked at me. Josh pulled up his shirt to look at the chest wound he’d received during the fight with the Night Stalkers. It hadn’t completely healed but it had stopped bleeding and scabbed over.
“Woah dude I feel so much better!” Tony exclaimed and I had to agree with him the aches and pains that I’d been dealing with all day had lessened. I received a notification which I quickly read.
“You have performed a Song of Healing on a group of allies after a battle. 2000 bonus essence awarded. 8% removed 1840 essence awarded.” I checked my essence and saw that I had 2065 out of 3200 for the next level. I opened my stat screen to check my growth next.
Nathan Schute: Bardic Archer
LEVEL 6
STRENGTH: 5
CONSTITUTION:5
AGILITY:10
DEXTERITY:27
INTELLIGENCE:6
WISDOM:6
CHARISMA:18
PERCEPTION: 5
1 Free Stat Point
My charisma and dexterity were climbing steadily, and I decided to keep up with putting my free stat into strength bringing it to 6. At this rate, I wouldn’t be able to unlock the use of my dexterity stat until level 10. Sighing in disappointment I closed my status screen.
“Are you guys ready to keep moving?” I asked and Tina shook her head.
“We should camp here for the night; I think it’s too dark out here you should have thought about the light before you made us come out here.” She smiled continuing the joke her twin had started earlier. I gave her the same glare I gave him but gave up when she continued grinning at me. Turning to the others, I asked them what they thought, and everyone else agreed with her. So, we decided to make a guard shift so that we could each get some rest every couple of hours we were supposed to turn over our shift to the next person. Of course, the only thing we didn’t consider was that without our phones we had no idea when an hour had passed.
The night passed by in that fashion, each of us best guessing our way through our shifts. Sleep didn’t come easily to any of us though we couldn’t lie on the ground because of the grass so if we wanted to lay down, we’d have to climb onto the roots of the giant trees. So that’s how we passed the time, one of us awake keeping watch and the others attempting to sleep. I hadn’t managed to get much sleep by the time it was my turn, so I wasn’t too upset when I got to my feet and started walking around the area.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Shortly after I took over, I began to hear what sounded like someone sniffing. I walked closer to my resting friends and in the light of my glowing branch, I noticed Josh shaking. Placing my hand on his shoulder, he jumped looking me in the eye. It was clear that he’d been crying. I forgot all about his attempt to manipulate us earlier seeing my best friend in pain being too much for me.
“Come on walk with me. I could use the company.” He nodded and I grabbed his hand pulling him to his feet. We walked in silence for a while before he decided to start a conversation.
“How are all of you handling this so well? I don’t get it I’m freaking out and all of you just seem so calm. Even joking around!” I hadn’t thought about it like that, but I realized he was right. Susan had just been stoic the entire time this stuff had been going on taking point in our fights, and the twins had been their usual jovial selves. Then there was me, I should have been more scared than I was I should have argued with the rest of them and bunkered down in Josh’s house. Instead, though I had been enjoying myself although I wouldn’t admit it to Josh right now, I had barely admitted it to myself.
I wasn’t a huge fan of all the fighting, but I couldn’t help but think it was cool. My music could heal people and make them stronger, and I was even getting better with a bow which was awesome who hadn’t thought of being like Robin Hood or Green Arrow when they were younger. It had been a while since he’d asked me his question and I realized I’d been staring off into space.
“I don’t know man, it’s not like I don’t think that all of this is strange but… I don’t think I can freak out about this stuff. If I do, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to stop. I don’t know if this is how the entire world is now, and I don’t know why things have gotten so messed up. But I have you to think about. You and Susan, Tina, and Tony you all have family out there, to me though you guys are my family. So, I can’t just break down if I do then I might let you guys down.” There was a long pause as Josh took my words in.
“So, you think that I’m letting you down by crying huh?” He asked me which made my gut sink.
“No holy shit that’s not what I meant.” I said, turning to look directly at him. He was smiling and I punched him in the shoulder. “You asshole!” I said happy that I hadn’t made him feel bad.
“Thanks, Nate. For checking up on me I mean.” Josh leaned over and bumped me with his shoulder. I rolled my eyes and climbed to my feet.
“You think you can get some sleep now?” I asked and he nodded his head, I helped him to his feet for the second time tonight and walked with him back over to where the others were sleeping. He laid back down and I continued my guard.
I decided I’d just do the rest of the shifts for the night knowing that I wouldn’t be able to sleep even if I did lie down. So, I paced until the sun came up. We’d agreed that we’d get an early lead on the day to try and make it the last several miles into town. I woke the others up as soon as there was enough light to see by and they spent the first few minutes stretching out their sore bodies.
“Hey, Nathan?” Susan approached me. “You think you could play that song for us? I’m totes missing my caffeine fix and could use a little pick me up. I agreed to her request and played the Song of Healing again. I’d improved a little from the night before, but I felt like it was still a difficult play. It’d take me a while to play even the simplified version perfectly. I still received an essence notification for it although the essence I received had been cut by 75%.
“You have performed a Song of Healing on a group of allies instead of coffee! 500 bonus essence awarded. 8% removed 460 essence awarded.”
“Let’s get moving the faster we get there the faster we can find your families.” “and a bed.” I added silently. We moved as fast as we could through the forest but climbing over roots and avoiding some of the more dangerous plants made progress slow going. There were more than a few skirmishes with monsters which brought me halfway through level 7 but not much farther. The sun reached high overhead before we made it out of the forest. We were dirty, sweaty, and covered in dried blood that could have been ours or the monsters.
We walked into town expecting to at least see some evidence of people, but what we saw instead turned my stomach. Corpses burned and ripped apart in the street people that we all grew up around lay eviscerated in the street. Josh stepped to the side and vomited which triggered Tony and Susan to do the same. I understood their nausea, my stomach churned, and I dry heaved slamming down on my knees. Tears filled my eyes, and I could feel myself sobbing in between new retching sounds. “Nothing coming up why is nothing coming up?” I thought to myself. It was like something was making me incredibly sick, and I knew I’d feel better if it just came out, but it never did.
I thought back to the conversation I had with Josh the night before and wondered if this is when it would start. If I started freaking out now, I might never stop. I curled my fingers into fists tearing the skin on the tips of my fingers and forced myself to stand it was a good thing that I pulled myself together because in the next moment, a Flesh Mongrel came around the corner and began bounding towards my friends who were still letting out their sick. I pulled an arrow and screamed letting it fly. My first one hit it in the shoulder getting its attention and it started moving towards me. I let another one fly walking towards it screaming the entire time. This one hit it in the stomach. Arrow after arrow landed in the monster until I was standing over it. I threw my bow down and jumped on top of it I punched it repeatedly. I dug my thumbs into its eyes ripping them from its head, then I grabbed its neck and began slamming its head into the ground. I didn’t feel the pain in my hands, the burn in my throat as I continued to scream, or the tears rolling down my face. All I could see was the disgusting monster and all I could feel was disgust and rage at myself for taking any enjoyment from the situation that had brought this massacre to the townspeople in the street.
The next thing I felt were arms wrapping around me pulling me off the monster and pulling me in. I continued screaming and flailing not finished with punishing the monster and not done with punishing myself.
“It’s dead Nate it’s dead you’re ok!” Josh said to me continuing to hold me, that’s when I noticed he was right. I couldn’t hurt it anymore it was already dead. I turned and buried my head in his chest sobbing. The others joined us, and we stayed like that for several minutes until I had no tears left to cry. Sitting up I wiped my face with the back of my hand I hissed in pain as I looked at my hands my knuckles were cracked, bloody, and swollen.
I stood up to go retrieve my bow knowing I needed to use the Song of Healing before my hands were too swollen to play. Bending down I tried to pick it up but it was too late I couldn’t even wrap my hands around the grip.
“Shit!” I whispered knowing that I messed up. Now I couldn’t help my friends in a fight and judging by how many bodies were strewn across the street there was bound to be a big fight very soon. As if the system read my mind I received a new notification.
“Area quest received! Survivors have barricaded themselves in a local stronghold. Break the siege! Reward Variable.”