Adam shook his head. This was not working.

“Can you two stop bickering for five seconds?”

Kyra looked back, eyes blazing. She was standing at her full height, which put her about even with Carl’s chin. Neither was tall, nor intimidating, yet he was reluctant to get in the middle.

“He’s a killer!”

“She’s a liar!”

Adam shook his head. “I don’t have evidence for either of your claims.”

Liz put a hand on his shoulder and stepped forward. “I want you both to sit down, take a deep breath, and then we’ll start from the beginning.”

Kyra’s hands shook with rage, but she broke from the conflict first. She stomped two steps to the wall, turned, and sat with her back to it. She closed her eyes and breathed surprisingly deep. It took long enough that Adam had a raised eyebrow by the time she stopped to hold the breath. He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped when Liz gently touched his shoulder.

Carl finally slumped and followed her lead, going to the opposite wall and sliding down. He hugged his knees to his chest, then buried his face. Adam and Liz both felt uncomfortable as they watched his shoulders heave. He remained quiet, however. They waited until both had settled down. Kyra opened her eyes, and though she glared at Carl, she didn’t say anything. Carl raised his head a moment later, wiping tears away.

“Why are you crying?”

Adam was a little shocked to hear the hint of concern from Kyra. He looked at her, and she was still scowling, but there was a bit of uncertainty that hadn’t been there before.

“I swore an oath. I broke that this week. I had no choice.”

“Oh, what, ‘do no harm?’ That’s a load of crap,” Kyra spat out.

Carl nodded. “Yes. ‘Do no harm,’ or as it is in the oath: ‘Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be facesd with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.’”

He fell silent. They all waited.

“I did my best.”

“You tried to kill me!”

He shook his head. “I tried to end your pain.”

Liz gasped. “You’re an angel of death.”

Carl buried his face again.

Liz looked a Kyra. Adam felt the tension in the room ratchet up another notch.

Kyra looked up at Adam. “He’s a killer. He put morphine in my IV. A lethal dose.”

“I was trying to help you.” His words were muffled. They could hear the tears in his voice. “I thought I was doing the right thing.”

“YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO TAKE MY LIFE!”

The scream was loud enough to make Adam and Liz stumble back a few steps. Kyra was on her feet in an instant, fists tight, shoulders heaving as she fought the urge to pummel the man to death.

“You were already dying.” It was practically a whisper, but it cut through the silence as loud as a crashing boulder.

Kyra sat back down. Tears ran down her face. “I know. But I was fighting.”

“It was in your brain, throat, lungs, breasts, kidneys, stomach… it was everywhere. You were late stage four.”

Liz gasped again, a look of horror on her face. She smashed her hands to her mouth, both in an effort to stifle her own voice, and to stop from sobbing.

To Adam, it finally made sense. Kyra was so small because she had cancer before the system.

“I wanted to go out on my own terms.”

“You couldn’t lift your arms.”

“I didn’t ask you to end it.”

“You didn’t have to.”

Adam took a step forward, which caused the two arguing to stop.

“Carl, I know you’re basically a Doctor forever. Unless someone takes your license, which sounds like it might have happened.”

Carl shook his head. “I administered the dose ten minutes before the System intervened. She had maybe another five minutes to live.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“He killed me.”

Adam looked at Kyra. “That’s not strictly true.”

“Without the intervention of the System, I would be dead right now.”

He raised a finger, then let it wilt. She was right.

“Well, I don’t think you’ll end up being our healer. Kyra already has that down pretty well.”

“You’re letting him come with us?”

Adam looked pointedly at Carl. “Are you going to try to finish the job?”

Carl shook his head. “No. She’s cured. I don’t even need to make an examination. If you had seen her before the System…” he shook his head again. “You would know, too. And no, I think you’re both right. I’ve lost my right to be a doctor. Even the System seems to think so.” He slid a dagger seemingly out of nowhere. It was dark, sleek, dangerous looking. Something that belonged to an assassin. A far cry from a surgeon’s scalpel.

He laughed bitterly. “This is what I was given. It even has a name.”

Adam waited, looking at Liz and Kyra in turn. They were just as curious.

“Well? What is it?” Adam was still on edge, but he took one more step.

“It’s called Angel’s Mercy.”

“What a sick joke,” Kyra said. She stood once more, then offered her hand to him. Everyone watched expectantly. His dagger disappeared as quickly as it had shown up, almost like it was summoned, and he took her hand. She heaved him to his feet.

“You ever do anything creepy near me, I’m going to tear your balls off and staple them over your eyes.”

Adam flinched at the threat. Both men let out a little groan. Carl pinched his knees together and waved her off. “Nope. Never going to get near you again.”

Kyra looked over and up at her friends. “Fine. But if he fucks up…”

Adam nodded. “I’ll hold him down.”

Liz nodded as well. “I’ll find the right rock. Gotta be sharp enough to cut skin, but can’t be too sharp. Can’t have it be a pleasant situation.”

Adam looked at Liz.

“What the actual fuck?”

Liz shrugged. She walked lightly to Kyra, placed a hand on the smaller woman’s shoulder, and they continued walking to the far end of the hallway. “I think it’s time we moved on.”

Adam looked at Carl. They shrugged together, then followed after the women.

“Think I should be worried?”

Adam looked down at the little man. “Yes. But if you don’t fuck up, things will probably be okay.”

Carl dry swallowed and nodded. The four of them gathered at a door. It was just as industrial as the rest of the complex- a solid steel slab without even a porthole to look through. They gathered up, Liz and Adam at the front, Kyra and Carl a step behind. They looked like a special forces team getting ready to breach through a door into a room filled with hostiles.

“Ready?” Adam was still tense from the earlier discussion. They all were. Liz nodded, and he grabbed the door handle. He twisted it slowly, then pushed the door. They spilled through, weapons at the ready.

“What?”

Adam spun in place. The door was gone. All they could see were trees. Undergrowth grabbed at their legs. They shuffled together, eyes on every hint of movement. Though they could see daylight above, the thick canopy made it a murky twilight.

“We’re in a forest.”

“Thank you, Liz,” Adam said through clenched teeth.

“What happened?”

Kyra smacked Carl on the shoulder. “We all arrived here at the same time, dumbass.”

“No fighting,” Adam hissed. “Everyone stick with me. We need to find a clearing.”

They listened, something he was starting consider a small miracle. Adam led the way, with Carl clutching his shoulder. Liz was behind the assassin, with Kyra following. They all had their heads tilted to listen for any noise other than their own.

Moving was slow. They heard little for the first few minutes, aside from their own breathing and the constant wind overhead. They finally found and approached a small clearing. When they were ten feet from the edge of the clearing, Adam signaled a halt. He hunkered down on the balls of his feet, ready to move at a moment’s notice, and the other three followed his example.

“I think we can set up a base here. It’s clear enough we can make some shelter, start figuring out what to do for food, water, that kind of thing. Then we can figure out where we are.”

The three following him nodded, and he took a step. A twig broke under his foot, and all the sound they hadn’t registered went silent. No more rustling of insects. No birds calling, shuffling around, flying to new branches. No animals snuffling about in the underbrush. Save for the wind, it was suddenly dead quiet.

Nobody moved. For some unexplainable reason, they all felt a sense of danger rise up. Adam gently pulled his foot back, making more rustling as his legs moved through the fronds around him. A roar shattered the silence.

“Into the clearing!”

All four smashed their way into the clearing, where they once more assumed a back-to-back formation. They turned in place, working together surprisingly well. Kyra was first to spot the threat.

“Over there!”

She pointed and the other three looked where she indicated. Two golden eyes practically shone with reflected light. They were deep in shadows. None could even determine what kind of animal or creature the eyes belonged to. It lingered, staring at them for long moments, then it blinked and was gone.

“Oh, that is bad,” Liz said quietly. Adam shushed her. Carl started to say something, and all three shushed him. Instead of speaking, he extended a shaky hand, pointing into the depths of the forest. Two pairs of eyes were observing them from the shadows. They blinked and were gone, just like the first set.

Adam growled, pulling the ogre’s club from his back. He readied for a fight. The others followed suit; Kyra drew her staff, Liz her sword, and Carl produced his twin daggers.

Liz looked at his weapons and said “You have two daggers?”

“Not the time, Liz,” Adam said.

More growling came from the forest.

“Actually, now might be the perfect time,” Carl whispered. “You already know about Angel’s Mercy. The other one is called Devil’s Promise. They’re a matched set. And they grant me an ability.”

Adam kept his eyes on where the two sets of eyes had been. “What ability, Carl?”

A moment later he repeated his question. "What ability, Carl?"

“He’s gone,” Kyra said. She closed the gap where he had been.

“What do you mean ‘he’s gone?’”

Kyra shook her head, hands trembling. “He turned to smoke, the smoke drifted into the trees. That’s it. He left us.”

“Son of a bitch,” Liz swore.

“I’m going to cut him from chin to crotch if we ever see him again,” Kyra swore.

A piercing scream cut through the air and chilled their blood to ice.

“What the hell was that?” Liz sounded breathless.

Adam shook his head, readjusting his grip on the club. “I don’t know.”

The scream repeated, this time louder and closer.

“Down!” Adam shouted as he flung himself to the ground. Kyra and Liz didn’t hesitate to follow his direction, dropping to the mossy ground. A black shape hurtled over their heads.

“What was that?” Liz pushed up from the ground, sword still gripped in one hand.

“I don’t know,” Adam started. “But we’re going to have to kill it.”

A third scream tore through the clearing. It was closer still. Just beyond the treeline. They were being hunted by a pack. That much was obvious. And they were in the worst place possible.

“What do we do?” Kyra sounded shaky. Her staff started to glow with light.

“I don’t know,” Adam repeated. “Everything and anything we can to survive.”