After walking a little bit farther, the forest around the stream opened up and Susan called for a stop.

“We should camp here for the night,” Susan said. “This is the first area we have come across that’s not completely wooded, and the sun is getting kind of low. We should make sure we have a campsite prepared before night sets in.”

Susan then turned to look at Levi expectantly. He looked back at her blankly, not sure what she wanted.

“Well,” she said, “don’t you know how to set up a campsite, or is all that gear just for show?”

Levi felt his face flush a bit in response.

“Actually, I haven’t ever been camping before. I’ve only done day hikes. I bought this camping equipment thinking I would stay out overnight at some point, but hadn’t done it yet.”

“Well give it here, let’s see what you’ve got. I don’t suppose you know how to fish do you? I saw a few swimming in the stream on our walk and we should supplement our supplies whenever possible.”

Levi opened his mouth to reply that he didn’t know how to fish and then slowly closed it.

“Um, I do know how to fish, I think?”

Susan stopped emptying his backpack to cock an eyebrow at him.

“Why does that sound like a question? Either you do or you don’t.”

Now why did he know how to fish? He had never done it before. It didn’t take Levi that much thought to find the answer. There had been a major part of this apocalypse they had both been ignoring: the System. Once he made the connection, it was obvious his knowledge of fishing came from his survival skill.

“I think it comes from one of my skills. Even though I’ve never done it before, I feel like I instinctively know how to go spear fishing.”

“That System thing, huh? I’m not sure how much I trust some random voice in my head, but if you say it can teach you how to fish perhaps it isn’t all bad. If it can give you vital information like that maybe I was taking it too lightly.”

She threw him one of his pocket knives which she had taken out of his pack.

“You should get to it then. I’m sure you can find a branch somewhere around here to sharpen. Maybe even start a fire to harden the tip.”

Nodding, Levi set to work. It almost seemed trivial. As soon as he thought about what he wanted to do, his skill kicked in, practically spoon-feeding him information on how to accomplish his task. He first found a reasonable sized stick to use in the forest surrounding their campsite. It was more crooked that he would have liked, but his skill told him it was useable. While Susan set about making a campsite and starting a fire, Levi started sharpening the tip before using fire to finish it off.

The creation process was fairly rote thanks to his skill. It left him some room to think about exactly what kind of companion he had joined up with. He had been prepared for the worst once he realized it was the apocalypse, and he hadn’t expected to find anyone else after suddenly appearing in a forest. The odds just seemed too low, but then again, what did he know? Here he was, sharing a campsite with a woman old enough to be his mother, who seemed strangely competent. Maybe she had some sort of skill that made her seem so trustworthy?

Levi decided that he should at least try and find out more about her. His luck would have to be truly abysmal to meet a soccer mom serial killer on his first day in the apocalypse, but better safe than sorry. He wasn’t really sure how to start the conversation, and decided to just go for it.

“Hey Susan, what about your family? Do you have anyone you are searching for?”

Levi winced internally. It sounded pretty suspicious, him just asking her out of the blue. He wanted to find out what kind of person he wound up with, but maybe that was too personal.

“Family, huh? I suppose I do. I have a husband, David, but I’m not sure how much I want to find him.”

Levi let out a sigh of relief internally when Susan answered his question, no suspicion present in her voice.

“Why not?” Levi asked. There had to be a story there. Why exactly wouldn’t she want to find him?

“Let me give you some background first,” Susan said. “I first met my husband twenty-five years ago. We got married three years after that. He was everything I could have wanted. We settled down in a small suburb where he had his own welding business. I joined a yoga studio as a Pilates instructor. We soon had a daughter. She was a beautiful creature, our little Sam. Everything we could have wanted. When she was three years old she caught pneumonia. Less than three weeks later she passed away.”

Susan paused there, mulling over how to continue.

“It was the worst day of my life. I don’t think that will ever change. Watching her, lying there in the hospital bed… But I was able to overcome it, move on with my life. David never could. He always was too caring. It destroyed him inside. He was a husk of his former self. He held it together for years, trying to be the same person he had been before. He just couldn’t do it. I think I reminded him of her. He stared avoiding me when he could. Nothing overt, but all the small things, the touches, the kisses, they slowly disappeared. We stopped having sex after she died. He just couldn’t get it up. For me at least. Recently he has started going off on “fishing trips”. He’s a broken man, but how can I blame him? I never would have left him alone, but now, well, perhaps this is just how it’s meant to be.”

Intellectually Levi knew that other people had their own baggage too, but it was different hearing about it in such stark terms. He suspected the artificial boundaries society had created would never be the same, even if humans were able to creates settlements here. Wherever here was.

“Well that’s enough of dark topics,” Susan said, “lets move on to something a bit lighter. Why don’t we address the elephant in the room and talk about this System thing. I confess you can probably figure it out more than an old lady like me. You already figured out how to use your survival skill after all.”

It took Levi a few seconds to adjust to the abrupt change in topic.

“I guess so? Isn’t it like some sort of video game? With all the stats and skills, I mean. There are even achievements and titles to earn. And I didn’t really figure out how to use my skill, it just, sort of worked. It felt like I needed to know something that my skill thought I should know, and then I suddenly did. If that makes any sense.”

Susan nodded, pondering his words.

“So you’re saying that if I had a knitting skill and my pattern called for purling I would automatically know how to do it even if I had only learned how to knit?”

“Yes?” Levi wasn’t sure what those terms meant exactly, but then again, he didn’t have the knitting skill.

“Then can you explain what you mean by it’s like a video game? These numbers don’t make any sense to me.”

“I meant a specific type of video game,” Levi said, getting more into the discussion as it moved towards a part of his life he thought he’d left behind. “The best example would be an RPG of some kind, likely an MMORPG. That stands for massive multiplayer online role-playing game. It’s the kind of game where you go around adventuring and fighting monsters. The basic premise is you gain experience though combat and quests or maybe crafting or some kind and that experience levels you up and then you gain access to cool new abilities and skills. A lot of games have achievements or title systems, although in many games they don’t give you tangible benefits like this system does. And then there’s items of course. Although I haven’t run into any of those yet.”

“I see,” Susan said with a faraway look in her eyes. Levi thought she was thinking about her status information. “And what do these stats mean? I think the level part is self-explanatory and I guess titles and achievements are easy to understand too.”

“The stats correspond to basic attributes. Like strength is usually used in games for how much damage you do and constitution for how much damage you can take. Charisma would be how good looking you are and how much you can sway others with your words. I’m not sure what all of them mean exactly. Are yours also all level one?”

“They are,” Susan confirmed. “So that means they start at level one? And I guess they increase as you level up, right?”

Levi nodded.

“They should. If you, uh, think about stuff it kind of explains it to you. Not everything, but it kind of feels like remembering something you had forgotten. Like you knew it all along but only now remembered it.”

They had been talking for so long that Levi realized his improvised fishing spear was now finished. He took it out of the fire to examine it while Susan continued staring off into space, her eyes slightly out of focus and her brow scrunched up. As he got up she zoned back in again.

“Is it done then? Can you really use that to fish?”

She didn’t sound dismissive, just curious. Levi was curious too, so she wasn’t alone in that.

“My skill thinks so. Hopefully it works.”

He moved over to the stream, peering into it. It was clear, and surprisingly deep. He hadn’t really noticed before, but he could see quite a few fish swimming in it. He thought they were fish at least. The thought of trying to catch and eat one of those six-legged squirrels had him kind of queasy, but the fish looked a bit safer.

Moving on instinct, he positioned himself close to the bank, frozen, his spear at the ready, his concentration at its peak. It didn’t take long before his skill gave him some kind of signal. A quick thrust later and Levi had a wriggling fish speared straight though.

“Impressive,” Susan said, clapping in appreciation. “Can you prepare it too?”

In response, Levi moved towards the fire, his skill already kicking in. His hands moved like he had done this a thousand times as he sat down. The actions felt rote, like brushing your teeth or unlocking your phone with your password. If he thought about what he was doing it would actually make it harder. That would make skills more difficult to teach to others, but maybe he would get better with practice.

Levi soon had the fish cleaned, gutted, and roasting over the fire. He was very pleased with his work, and even more pleased the fish didn’t have three eyes. He wasn’t an expert on fish anatomy, but two eyes was a good sign in his book. He had a feeling his skill thought the fish was edible too. By this point Susan had finished her camp preparation, which mostly involved clearing the area, laying out her blanket, and setting up Levi’s tent, and she was now sitting around the fire, waiting for the fish to cook.

It didn’t take long. During the final moments Levi concentrated on the fish and his skill, not wanting to miss the ideal time to take it out. He preferred his meat well cooked, thank you very much. It might not have been the sushi that one time, but better safe than sorry. His focus reached its peak as he unconsciously reached out to remove the fish, his skill in full swing. Or rather, both his skills.

As soon as Levi removed the fish a peculiar sensation swept over him. He somehow became, more. He didn’t know how else to describe it.

He unconsciously stopped what he was doing, looking inward to investigate the change.