“I walk a lot,” she said. “I can walk a long ways.” Then she blushed a bit. “I don’t work out, though. I could be stronger.”
“I think we’ll all get a lot stronger one way or another if this is real,” I said, my voice low and serious.
Danielle just shook her head and looked a little scared. We walked on.
Fifteen minutes later, we found another driveway.
“Same drill?” said Joe.
“Unless anybody has a different idea,” I said.
Nobody did. Up the driveway we went. There was a small car next to the house with an out of state plate.
“HELLO!” shouted Joe. He put more oomph into it this time. The house wasn’t big: if it was a rental, it was for a much smaller group than ours. “ANYBODY HERE? WE’RE JUST CHECKING.”
After a moment, the front door opened and a man stuck his head out. “Who’s there?” he called. He sounded very nervous.
“We had a rental cabin down the road,” Joe said in a steady voice. “We’re walking to town to see what’s happening. Did you see the messages?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Are they for real?” He stepped out from behind the door a little. “We saw them and we don’t know what’s going on. Do… HOLY SHIT LOOK BEHIND YOU THERE’S A SNAKE!” He pulled back until only one eye was sticking out, voice ragged with terror.
“It’s okay!” said Joe. “It’s tame. It won’t hurt anybody.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? That’s a rattlesnake! It’s like fifty feet long!”
Samantha stepped forward a bit. “He’s mine. He’s tame. Watch.” She held out her hand and the snake, which had been several yards away from the group, moved up to her and lifted his head to let her touch him.
The man slipped out from behind the door again, his mouth wide open.
“What the fuck is going on?” he said, voice still breaking. “That’s the biggest fucking snake I’ve ever seen. Who are you people?”
“We’re just tourists,” Joe said. “She got the snake after we read the messages. It’s like a pet. None of our cars would work and neither would our phones. You tried phones? Your car?”
“Phones won’t even turn on,” he said. “Car won’t start. You know why?”
“Something to do with the System,” said Joe. “It made everything stop working. But it gave us Classes and Skills. Did it offer you things?”
“I didn’t know what the Hell it was talking about,” he said. “Do you? How do you know?”
“It’s like a video game,” said Joe. “Some of us are really into gaming. We figured some stuff out. But the messages told us it was going to get dangerous around here so we’re walking to town to find more people, see if we can get more information. If you want, you can walk with us.”
We hadn’t discussed that, but it was the decent thing to do. There was just one of him and we had Kaa and our Class Skills. Unless he had a flamethrower hidden under his shirt, he was no threat to us.
“I’m not walking anywhere with that goddamn snake,” he said emphatically. “Thanks, but we’ll take care of ourselves.” Okay. More than one of him, then.
Mike took a few steps forward. “I’m a doctor. Anybody need any help before we go?”
“No,” he said. “Thanks. Decent of you.” His voice steadied a little. “I’ll talk to my wife, maybe we’ll be behind you.”
“Don’t wait until dark,” I said. “There might be more animals. Bigger. Be careful.”
“We will,” he said, giving me a thoughtful look.
“Okay, we’ll move on then,” said Joe. “Good luck. You want us to tell anybody in town where you are?”
“We’re just here for the weekend, don’t know anybody in town. Good luck to you too.” The man gave an awkward wave and slipped back into the house.
With that, we resumed our trek.
“At least we know other people are seeing the messages,” I said. “Unless one of you tranced him too.” There was scattered laughter.
“I’m good, but I’m not that good,” said Mandy in a playful tone. Joe stifled a laugh, but said nothing.
“Something to say, Joe?” she said, in that same playful voice. She had plenty of breath to talk and walk, so apparently the pace wasn’t too hard on her.
“No, Mistress, not a thing.” His own tone was one of exaggerated caution. It was good to hear a little relaxed banter. We kept it up, quietly, as we moved down the road for several minutes. I could feel it easing my own tension a tiny bit.
Naturally, that’s when the hair-raising yowl came from the trees to the side of the road.
Chapter 5
The Mice Will Play
“What the fuck was that?” said Joe shrilly, looking around with his bat raised.
“Some kind of cat,” said Samantha in a slightly calmer tone. “A big one.”
“What, like a lion?” Joe was almost spinning in place trying to look everywhere at once.
“There’s no lions around here,” she said. “Not even a zoo. Bobcat, maybe. Bobcat wouldn’t bother a group of humans, though.”
“That sounded like it was getting ready to bother us,” I said, hands raised.
“It might be trying to scare us,” she answered.
“It worked,” said Danielle. She had pulled the knives out of her duffel bag and was holding one in either hand.
There was a rustle from the brush on the right side of the road. Something big was moving and not trying to be quiet.
“If the animals are leveling up it might be meaner than a regular bobcat,” said Anthony. “Smarter, too. And it’s probably hungry.”
“Get ready, everybody,” I said. “Move slowly. Face the trees so it knows we see it. It might decide to just let us pass.”
Walking almost sideways, we sidled past the deep brush where the noise had come from. There was no more rustling, and no more yowls.
Until Anthony was nearly past.
Something exploded out of the brush and leapt for him. He braced his crude staff like a spear and the thing collided with it, rolling to one side. It was a bobcat. But it was the size of a leopard. It got back on its feet and crouched, snarling.
COMBAT! Your group is in combat with Adult Bobcat. Since you are fighting as a group you have automatically been placed in a party. You may leave the party at any time.
The words flashed at the bottom of my vision. All I really saw was “COMBAT!”
I shouted, “Anthony, keep it off us! Samantha, send in your snake and shoot when you have a shot! MANA BOLT!”
With the last two words, I concentrated on firing the most powerful Mana Bolt I could. A tiny flare of light shot from my outstretched hand and hit the bobcat right in the face. It yowled and pawed at its nose.
COMBAT: 20 MP Mana Bolt does 20 Damage to Adult Bobcat. Adult Bobcat 160/180 HP. 230/250 MP.
Anthony took advantage of the cat’s distraction and whacked it a good one with his staff. It didn’t fall over, but it obviously felt the blow.