I

They arrived at the camp just after noon. The others had managed to construct two more shelters and a rack above the fire with strips of meat on top. Rob was not at the camp, but the other three were busy preparing the wolf meat, something she smelled a half-mile from the camp.

“Are you ok?” Eva asked Hideki for the fiftieth time.

“Yes. I need to lie down for a little while first, but I’ll be ok,” he responded.

She nodded and let the man go and plucked a couple cooked pieces of meat after confirming with the others that having some was alright. Rob came back with his arms full of deadfall while she was eating.

“What did you find out there?” he asked her.

Eva explained their discoveries and their run in with bandits. Rob appreciated the knife, and the Russian couple enjoyed having actual clothes—even if they were a bit loose.

“So what’s the plan?” she asked Rob.

“I think we’ll hunker down for another night. Tomorrow, we go exploring and see what else is around that’s farther out than you went today.”

“Sounds good to me.”

II

A bit over an hour later—after fashioning three more spears with the knife—a box appeared.

There are 29 days remaining.

8552/10000 are still alive.

New Quest: Defeat a monster wave. 0/6 killed.

Immediately, Eva pulled out her shortsword and readied herself for the incoming monsters. She Observed▲ the first one that came through the trees. It was a dire hedgehog.

She Charged✦ the great dane sized hedgehogs while Infusing★ her sword with air. The first hedgehog died from a long gash down its side. The second with a neat decapitation. The hedgehogs tried to envelop the humans, but they were repelled by spears. Eva killed three more while Boris impaled the last one on his spear.

Congratulations on completing the quest!

Top contributor: Eva Greene

Reward: Double experience to the top contributor, 1 experience to all others

Eva looked around at the carnage around her. Sadiya had cowered behind Rob and Hideki. Irina had a great smile on her face and kissed Boris. Hideki nodded towards Eva.

“Ok, let’s get these monsters butchered and cooking,” Rob suggested.

With the knife she’d picked up Rob no longer needed her for butchering. The others got to work while she went to gather more firewood.

When she returned, Eva ate dinner with the group while they traded stories. It turned out that Rob was from Australia while Sadiya was from Seattle. They decided on watches for the night. Rob and Sadiya would be first, Eva and Hideki second, and Irina and Boris would take the dawn shift. It was broken up so that each group would watch a roughly three hour period with a little extra for overlap on each side. It was enough that everyone would be able to get an ok night’s sleep.

“I can’t stop thinking about what happened yesterday,” Hideki said when dinner finished.

“Tell me about it?” Eva asked.

“I was coming back from karaoke with some friends after a long week at work, when suddenly, poof! I’m in a forest with no idea what’s going on! I looked around and saw the woman looking equally confused, so I went to make sure she was ok. Then the rats came.”

He shook his head.

“I used the bottle I had on me to take out as many as I could, but they were small and fast and hard to hit. The woman tried to kick them away from her, but they tore her apart. I saw her eyes pleading for help right before she died and I can’t get the image out of my head.”

Tears fell down his face, making Eva’s heart knot up. She grabbed him tightly in her arms and whispered into his ear that it was ok. She wanted to protect the vulnerable—and cute—teddy bear of a man.

“Thank you for listening to me,” Hideki said after a time.

“Anytime you need a shoulder to cry on, I’ve got you. Well, I’m off to bed. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

He nodded. Eva made her way to the lean-to and covered herself with leaves. She ran through the day in her head before she passed out.

III

“—time,” said a female voice.

“Huh?” she answered while rapidly blinking the sleep from her eyes.

“It’s time,” Sadiya said again.

“Thanks. Anything happen?”

The woman shook her head and they switched places. Eva yawned frequently and shivered while she walked to the fire to begin her watch. It wasn’t that she was particularly cold, but her body was still in sleep mode. She jogged in place and rubbed her hands to get her blood pumping, but still shivered. The fire would help keep half her body warm. She pulled up the Tutorial survival quest timer and saw that it was sometime just after midnight. A startlingly lucid Hideki joined her soon after.

Hideki leaned his head on her shoulder while they kept an ear out for any approaching trouble. Feeling the mood, Eva slid her hand through his hair. His eyes closed momentarily before he looked up at her.

“You’re cute, you know,” she teased.

Hideki’s cheeks reddened. He opened his mouth only to close it again right after. When he opened it for the second time, she took the open opportunity and kissed him. He accepted her advance and twirled his tongue with hers. Eva broke the kiss several seconds later.

“That was fun,” she said.

“It was unexpected, but welcome,” he nodded.

“I’m here anytime you get the itch,” she winked.

“S-sure,” he replied, hiding his face.

She laughed quietly. Despite having been married, she’d been around the block enough since to know that she enjoyed making young men blush. He was a lot of fun to tease, however she needed to devote most of her attention to listening for anything out of the ordinary. There would be time for more fun when they were safe from monsters.

The rest of the watch passed uneventfully. She woke Irina and covered herself with leaves before falling asleep.

IV

Eva woke to the smell of roasting meat and the sound of people talking. She brushed the leaves off of herself and joined the others by the fire. Boris and Sadiya were still sleeping. Rob and Hideki were discussing the day’s plans while Irina focused on the food.

“Good morning,” she said, taking the offer of breakfast from Irina. “Are we still planning on going out again?”

“We’re going to look around,” Hideki confirmed.

“Yeah, I figure we can cover more ground and ward off any ambushes if we all go,” Rob agreed. “We’ll leave once the two Sleeping Beauties over there get up and eat something.”

“Ok. Want me to wake ‘em up?” she asked.

“If they’re not up in the next ten minutes, sure.”

Once everyone was awake and fed, they each grabbed a spear and some meat wrapped in cloth. Rob led the way. They followed the stream downwards until it met a river. Along the way, they passed the same abandoned camps that Eva and Hideki had come across the day before. After more than an hour, they started covering new ground. It was much the same, however: abandoned camps and the occasional pile of dead bodies were all they found.

“Wait a minute, Rob,” she said soon after they’d had their lunch.

“What’s going on?” he asked, turning to her.

“I hear some voices to our right. Sounds like a large group—they’re not hiding their noise at all.”

“Ok. Hideki and Boris to my left. Irina, Eva to my right. Sadiya, watch the rear.”

Time ticked by slowly as the sounds of people came closer. Irina was shaking but managed to keep her spear from moving too much. Rob’s breathing quickened. Eva felt her own heart begin to race. Out from the trees came the first few people followed by twenty more in the next few seconds.

They were primarily Asian, with an assortment of others sprinkled in. Some of them carried spears similar—and better quality—to what Rob and Hideki had put together. The rest were varied in their weapons and armor—from clubs to bare fists—and looked like they were tagging along with the better armed people at the front.

“Hello!” came the greeting from one of the spear wielding men.

His spear was slung over his shoulder rather than pointing towards them.

“Hi?” Eva answered.

“I’m Io. I was sent out here to look for survivors willing to come back to the town. We—”

“So you want to lord over us?” Rob spat.

“What?” Io said with a look of shock plastered on his face.

“You heard me. You and the rest of the Chinese just want control, don’t you?! We don’t need your bullshit. Go away!”

“We’ve got a wall being built to protec—”

“You’re not going to order me about!”

“I don't give a damn! It's dangerous and there's strength in numbers!”

Eva moved a step over and gripped Rob’s shoulder with her hand. She squeezed hard enough to get his attention. She wanted to find out if they had a safe place to rest where people like Sadiya could survive. If there was a village like that where the weak could survive the Tutorial, she wanted to check it out. It’d allow for better sleep when the work of watching for threats was divided between more people.

“We've got a shelter set up with a wall being built about five miles from here,” Io said.

“What do we get for going with you instead of staying here?” Eva asked. “And I don't mean a promise of safety.”

“Um—”

“Nothing!” Rob shouted. “They'll treat us like shit! What's the worth of 'safety' if it means living in some dictatorship?”

“It's not a dictatorship! It's a council—”

“Run by the fucking Chinese! Fuck this shit, I'm out!”

Rob stormed off, following the water downstream away from both Eva and Io. She shook her head. People like Rob were just the worst to work with. He’d been fine with Hideki for whatever reason. Logic didn’t mix with that kind of stupidity.

“So, about this council and everything. Could you tell us more?”

“There's a council of leaders of different groups that runs the show. There were a couple hundred people this morning, probably over a thousand now. We're building a wall, housing, and other important things like that.”

“Is there anything we’d be required to do?”

“We’d like it if you pitched in to help, but there’s no requirement. Help build and defend the town from monsters, that sort of thing.”

Eva nodded and turned to the others.

“Now that Rob's gone, what does everyone think?” she asked.

The two Russians seemed up for it. Sadiya looked relieved and Hideki nodded.

“I only have one question before I make my decision,” Eva said. “How is fighting and equipment handled? I'm bringing some fairly good gear with me, as you can see. Plus, Hideki and I… borrowed some weapons from a group of bandits we ran into earlier.”

“What's yours is yours. If you can fight, we really need you.”

“Got it. I'm good then. Are we going straight there or picking up more on the way?”

“We will start heading back now, but we'll be on the lookout for more survivors.”

Eva nodded. Soon enough, the group was on its way. They needed to cross over the stream to go towards the village-in-progress.

Around an hour later, they'd made two miles of progress. In that time, they'd only run into one other group that had declined to join. Right when the Tutorial quest’s timer rolled over to the new day, a couple of notifications appeared in her face.

There are 28 days remaining.

8318/10000 are still alive.

New Quest: Defeat a monster wave. 0/37 killed.

As soon as Eva had read those words, she heard the shuffling of feet through the woods all around them.

“Gather in! Those who have weapons, to the outside!” Io ordered.

She saw no reason to disobey and readied her sword and shield for action. Hideki and Boris—both with spears—stood ready to protect the others near to them. Others down the line did the same.

She could smell the stench of death and decay long before she could see the monsters. Out from the surrounding trees came slow moving zombies. She Infused★ air into her blade and Charged✦. Zombies were easy to kill—she’d certainly had a lot of practice! Well placed strikes to their heads took them out.

Since the zombies shambled towards them in an unorganized fashion. Eva found it easy to mop up the ones near her in only a few moments. When the fight was over less than a minute later, she wiped the rotting brain from her blade. and looked at her notifications.

Congratulations on completing the quest!

Top contributor: Eva Greene

Reward: Double experience to the top contributor, 4 experience to all others

With the extra from the bonus, she added a total of five Stat Points.

“Good work everyone!” Io announced. “Let’s go directly back.”

She saw the others. They'd done well. Hideki had bagged a handful with the crude wooden spear, and Boris had killed one that got too close. Hideki gave her a knowing look. He knew why she had been able to sweep the attack aside like it was nothing.

“Eva?” Io asked over the group.

“Yes?” she answered.

The rest gave her looks ranging from thanks to envy and everything in between. She worried that Io had figured out her secret.

“Great work out there. Thank you.”

She nodded, relieved.