After the woman introduced herself as Leah, Rose showed her to Emily's room so she could put her little girl down in Emily's sleepover bed and then showed Leah's son Liam to her room to put the old man in her bed to recover. Rose went downstairs into the kitchen and fired up the wood stove to make tea, needing to use the milk up before it went bad. Feeling the need for sleep even though it was barely midafternoon she sat at the kitchen table and waited for Leah and Liam to come into the kitchen.
When they did, they showed the same exhaustion she was feeling. When the kettle started whistling she got three cups out and began making tea, asking how the other two liked their drinks, she quickly made them and placed the hot tea in front of each person. Sitting back down she knew someone had to start speaking so it may as well be her, it was her house after all. " So Leah, how did you and your family end up outside my house? " Not the best start in the world but it would have to do. Leah was sat with an expression that said you will never believe me, so Rose added " Trust me, I'm sure it's nothing on my morning."
With that Leah let go, explaining how they had gone to the doctors for her fathers regular check up for his dementia which as getting progressively worse with no hope for him getting better. Whilst they were waiting for the appointment a wave of energy burst up and through the building and everyone inside. At that point all hell broke loose, Leah described the people mutating into fantasy races and monsters she had no name for. The majority went crazy and began attacking anything within reach while others just looked confused and kinda horrified at what had happened.
Realising that they weren't safe they ran, well as best as they could, and got as far as the main entrance before Leah's father began shaking and moaning, unable to find anyone to help they just pushed on to try and find a safe place. This is what led to them being stood outside Rose's home, desperately trying to get a response out of Leah's dad and completely unaware of the danger approaching from behind.
".... and well you know what happened after that, my father somehow stood up and crushed that thing." Leah concluded her story.
Rose sat in silence as she processed Leah's story, unsure on how best to react. She decided on sharing her story in return. "... and that was my morning " Rose finished with a huff, explaining what had happened and what she had seen was exhausting.
Liam finally burst, after Rose had mentioned the odd screens he could barely contain himself but managed to wait until she was done to say anything. "So you have a character sheet? How do I get one, I want one!! " Liam talked so fast Rose had trouble keeping up, she replied with " Yes I do, like I said it appeared after I boiled that thing, a translucent screen saying I had leveled up and gained access to the interface. Maybe you need to gain experience to have access to the screens."
" There is so much to learn in the new world. I've never played the games you are referring to and don't know much about fighting, but one thing I do know is that it's getting later and we all need dinner, so if you don't mind I'll cook something up using as much fresh produce as possible so less goes off. We need a way to store food so it doesn't go off. Not having any power changes things." Leah added her views to the conversation.
The wood-fired stove made cooking easy but little food storage was going to become a problem very quickly. Rose showed Leah's the pantry and cold store under the house, it wasn't even as cold as a fridge but would have to do for now. Between Rose and Liam they moved everything that need to be kept cold out of the useless fridge and freezer and into the cold storage.
Leaving mother and son to make dinner she went to check on the kids upstairs only to find them sat up in Emily's bed reading a story. When Emily saw her mum she excitedly began talking about her new friend, who was five years old and called Alexia. Getting Emily to slow down and listen, Rose said " it's nice to meet you Alexia, your mum and brother are downstairs making dinner and your grandad is asleep in the room next door. Emily, thank you for making Alexia feel welcome.I'll shout you both for dinner when it is done but you can stay up play until then if that's what you want? " Both girls seemed unaffected by the horrors they had seen that morning and Rose was worried they may have blocked the traumatising situation from their memories. The girls agreed to stay upstairs as they were having fun together so Rose popped her head into her room to check on the old man before heading back downstairs to help with dinner.
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In the kitchen Leah was in her element, dancing around tasting what looked to be a stew on the hob while Liam kneaded some dough from fresh bread. Rose walked in just as Leah scalded herself on the edge of the pot and jumped back cursing.
" Bloody box made me burn myself! " turning to Rose she added " I seem to have one of those boxes you spoke about earlier Rose, it says I've leveled up and have access to some interface? "
" I wonder why you leveled up, if you can see something that looks like a blinking icon try focusing on it and see if you have a character sheet too " Rose replied.
Leah focused on something Rose couldn't see and said " Apparently my attributes and fairly close to what you said yours were earlier but I have the cooking skill apparently. Also it's says something about a Nature Affinity." Leah then listed what her attributes where and Rose thought for a moment before saying " Sounds like you will want to go for a support build, from what you've said and how you act I'm guessing you would prefer not to be fighting"
Leah agreed then looking at the stew she proclaimed that dinner was ready and they could chat some more after, she needed to go get her dad up for food. Before Leah could get very far a deep voice spoke from the living room,
" No need Leah, I'm already here. " Leah ran to the living room to see her father stood tall and proud in the centre. Unable to process the fact her father was stood up on his own and could recognise her, she broke down crying and ran into his arms.
The man looked at Rose and introduced himself, " I'm Jon, feel free to call me gramps, everyone but my daughter here calls me that." Looking down on Leah he said, " Calm down girl, I'm fine. Actually I've never felt better, I feel 30 years younger "
" But dad, we were losing you, you haven't recognised me for months" Came the muffled reply from Leah who still had her head buried on Jon's jumper.
"That was then, this is now. The fog in my mind has lifted and my mind is my own again. I don't know why this happened but I am grateful, it has returned me to my family" turning to Rose Jon asked " I heard you talking about some strange boxes? Well I woke up to these boxes floating in front of me. Apparently I got something called a Gaia's Blessing that unlocked an earth affinity for me, I think that is what let me to save my family. Whatever I did made me very weak and this character sheet thing says I'm running low on essense, do you know what's going on? "
Rose thought hard about what to say, it seemed other than Liam she was the only one who had played games that had a similar system. Eventually she began to speak, explaining everything that had happened to her so far and about her character sheet. She told both Jon and Leah about the information explaining the attributes and how they worked together and what the numbers mean.
Whilst she finished explaining Leah went back into the kitchen and dished up dinner, then called the girls down to eat. Alexia's reaction to her Gramps recognising her was adorable, from the bottom of the stairs the blonde pigtailed little girl ran and dive bombed into his arms and refused to move, even to eat. She ended up sat on his knee to eat her dinner.
Once dinner was eaten and the dishes cleaned, the two younger girls were sent to bed and the adults, plus one teenage boys, settled in with cups of tea to plan. They needed to be stronger and self sufficient. They couldn't wait for someone to come save to them, couldn't count on a lorry arriving full of food. They needed supplies and a way to grow food, they would need to hunt for meat and hope to gather wild plants to supplement their diet. They spent hours writing list of various supplies they would need to become self sufficient and then circled places on the county map that may have what they need. Once their exhausted mind grew too clouded to think straight they decided to call it a night. Bedding and blankets were found so the boys could sleep in the living room and the two mother decided to share Rose's double bed.
As they fell asleep the world outside continued to change. Slowly the various new races were gathering together and making decisions that would impact the remaining humans of the world. New eco systems began working together in harmony and carving their place in the new world.