“Is that what I think it is?” I asked.

Behind me Troy had muted the TV, something he never did when college football was on. He stood behind me and put his hand on my shoulder leaning around me to get a better view of the paper Liv had just sent me.

“Mr. and Mrs. Swanson,” I read aloud.

I paused to swat a fly that was buzzing around my ear.

Looking up I saw the couple staring at me. I could see the Liv’s excited face, biting her lower lip and propped up on her tiptoes, practically bouncing up and down.

Troy had a pleased look on his face as well, but his was a more subdued grin, trying to hide his excitement. Troy had a habit of pushing his lips together and narrowing his eyes when he was trying to hide his emotions. He thought that his poker face was better than it really was, which is why I tended to win.

I didn’t need to keep reading, the couple’s body language was practically screaming. I continued anyway.

“We are pleased to announce that your application has been approved…” I looked up at the couple.

“Guys, congratulations. This is great.”

Liv literally bounced before throwing her arms around me. Troy gave me a quick bump on the shoulder before turning the game back on. Apparently, the commercials were finished.

“So, California,” I said. “How much time do you guys have left?”

“We have to be there by next Monday, and it’s a six-day drive” Liv said. “So…”

“Four,” Troy interjected.

“Six,” Liv said in a stern voice, looking at Troy with furrowed eyebrows.

“Shit,” I said. “Fuck, I saw the moving truck outside, but I just thought...Well, I don’t know.”

“Good luck?” I added.

“We leave in the morning,” Liv said. “Thanks for coming, it would have killed us if we didn’t get to say goodbye.

“I know it’s sudden, just with everything that happened…”

“I get it,” I said. “You needed a change. Just, to get away from everything.”

“Yeah, after Je..,” Liv tried to say the name, I could see her fighting back tears. She frowned and squeezed her eyes closed.

“It’s your fault, you know,” Troy said, turning to look at me.

It wasn’t Troy any longer. A swarm of flies obscured his face. I could hear them buzzing in my ears and feel them biting at my exposed flesh.

Beneath the cloud of insects, replacing the face of my friend, I could make out two fiery eyes and a Cheshire grin of long and yellowed fangs.

“She’s dead,” Not-Troy yelled. “She’s dead because of you.”

I turned to see Liv, but she was blue and bloated. Her black hair was matted and beginning to fall out in clumps. In her arms she held a child, rocking it back and forth.

“It’s your fault, Gus. It’s you..”

***

I gasped awake from the dream and fell to the ground screaming while holding my hands over my ears. Had I been asleep? I was almost certain I hadn’t.

Was I having the nightmares while I was awake now? That was a weakness I couldn’t afford.

My head felt like it had been split open, but I finally grew aware of how much of a commotion I was making. I sat up and moved back until my shoulders rested against the seat of the bench while I remained seated on the ground.

My headache began to fade quickly as I rubbed my temples and leaned my head back against the cool metal of the bench.

The memory was a recent one, it had happened just hours before the Hegemony and eldritch monsters had destroyed life as I knew it. God, Earth had literally been invaded by aliens. If only Spielberg’s predictions had been a closer to reality.

Despite having happened less than two weeks ago, I found that the memory itself was hazy. I couldn’t remember the details of the real memory. Only the dream remained.

I could feel the wrongness of the memory, I knew it didn’t happen that way. I just couldn’t conjure the real memories, as if they had been supplanted. Replaced. Perhaps this is what Sebbit had warned me about?

I shook my head and stood. This couldn’t distract me now. I didn’t have a solution, and I had no idea what the Peacekeepers would do if they found out I had lied. Dissect me or throw me in a hole and forget me, no doubt.

It was better for me to focus on what I could do.

A line of trees obstructed my view of the bridge. I got down on my belly and I crept forward, pushing a few branches aside to get a better view.

Catalya had long disappeared, but I could faintly make out silhouettes atop the barricade of cars and scrap. Survivors.

If someone was defending the city, it probably meant that the survivors had some form of organization.

My mother would have been downtown when everything happened. Perhaps she was still alive. I might also be able to track down information about Liv and Troy. I shuddered at the memory of Troy’s face, the twisted grin and burning eyes now a permanent part of my memories of him.

I was trying to move forward to get a better view of the bridge, when I heard a snap behind me.

Reacting on instinct I rolled to the side. A watermelon sized stone landed where my head had been with a loud thump.

I jumped to my feet, but I was still unused to my new strength, so I overcompensated, stumbling as I came down. My mistake caused me to catch a small spear, less than a meter long and crudely carved from wood, in the shoulder. Vines wrapped around the shaft hallway down the spear and attached a stone spearhead to the tip.

The spear had punctured my leather jacket but had been stopped by the armored grey jumpsuit that Sebbit had given me. The movement in my left arm and shoulder was restricted, however. I could already feel swelling and the shoulder joint clicked when I tried to move my arm.

I activated my mana shield just as a small furry creature slammed into my midsection bowling me over. It began to rake at my shield with small vicious looking claws. It was basically humanoid in shape but with a canine snout and entirely covered with a thick coat of brown fur.

The passive effects of my analyze skill gave me some basic information about the creature Nothing I could use, but at least I knew I was getting my ass kicked by a creature that was a higher level than me.

Gnoll (Lesser). Skirmisher. Level 6.

I launched the creature off me with a kick. Before it had hit the ground, I followed up with an arcane bolt and two arcane missiles. I never saw them strike, however, as I was immediately hit by another spear, this time in my left thigh.

I had learned in my spars with Talith that my arcane shield would be down for a fraction of a second whenever I cast another spell. My greed to finish off the creature had cost me. I needed to be more cautious, fight smart.

The spear had once again failed to penetrate my armored jumpsuit, but I could feel an injury nonetheless. My left leg burned in pain and it gave out as I tried to stand from my prone position.

Back on the ground, I tried to roll to the side but two more of the furry creatures launched themselves upon me.

My vision was filled with nothing but claws, fangs, and fur. My arcane shield was blocking the damage, but I knew if I used an offensive spell those claws would make it to my exposed neck and eyes.

With my left hand I grasped the hilt of the short-sword on my hip and I rolled, drawing the sword out of the sheath as I did so. The creatures were too close for me to get any leverage with my blade, but I was able to club one of the creatures with the pommel of the sword.

While the bashed gnoll was stunned I pushed it off me with the blade of my sword. Without the strength of a full swing the blade was unable to pierce fur and thick skin, but it did push the creature back. Another gnoll still clung to my back, scratching and biting at my arcane shield. My mana was slowly draining and was already below forty percent.

I used my right leg, the only good one at this point, to push myself up. Standing I made an awkward lunge at the gnoll I had flung off me while the other continued to cling to my back.

My lunge missed, and the gnoll used the opening to jump on my sword arm, causing me to drop the weapon. I swung my arms around wildly, and the gnoll lost purchase and was sent flying, striking the trunk of a tree.

I was lucky. I still had the advantage of size but had there been more of them I would have been swarmed and quickly taken out.

The remaining gnoll still clung to my back, but I solved the problem by bearing through the pain of my injured arm and palming the gnoll’s face with my right hand.

“Venom Spray,” I yelled. I felt a wetness on my hand and looked down to find the creature lying on the ground, his face completely vaporized.

The first of the three creatures lay several feet away, its body twisted and broken. Looking around to find the gnoll I had thrown against the tree I was met with the translucent status screen of the system.

Congratulations! 3,000 XP gained!

…Calculating Low Level Bonus. XP total...4,500.

Congratulations! You have leveled up.

Congratulations! You have leveled up.

You have four (4) unallocated stats remaining.

Checking my status, I confirmed that I was now level three, though I had no increases to my stats. Either the only advantage of leveling was the paltry number unallocated stats, or I was missing the benefits of a class.

I should probably choose a class before I gained too many more levels, or I may be seriously gimping myself later. Talith had refused to give me any guidance on the matter, other than her speech on specialization. Apparently, it was a taboo for an instructor to dictate the class of a student.

I briefly considered saving my stat gains for later, when I could give the matter more thought. I decided against this, however, I needed every tool I had to survive right now. Intelligence was still my most efficient stat, due to it also improving my physical stats.

I increased my intelligence by four points, to a total of twenty-eight, which increased all my physical stats by a single additional point as well. In essence, I had doubled my stat points, gaining eight stat increases in total.

After searching around the trees, I eventually found the body of the final gnoll. Its neck was snapped, but it had still managed to crawl for quite a distance before dying. I gathered the bodies together, and after a quick search I found nothing useful.

Should I burn the bodies? Bury them?

Burning would attract to much attention, and I didn’t have the tools to dig graves.

I did the best I could by dragging the bodies out of sight and covering them with dirt and rocks.

I was still sitting with my legs crossed, staring at the hastily made cairns, when I heard a familiar voice behind me.

“If I was an enemy you’d be dead,” I felt the side of a baton slide against my throat.

I grunted and pushed her away, not in the mood to play her games. I knew she was stronger than me, but she let me go without a struggle.

“I see you were busy,” she said. Her scaled hand was pointing towards the cairns where I had buried the gnolls.

Now she wants to talk.

“I took care of it,” I said. “Let’s go.”