1

At the cliff’s edge, they discovered another illuminated respawn marker. “Figures,” Emma said. “They generally put these in areas that are particularly dangerous.”

Harper agreed.

As they prepared to move on, Jordan stopped them. “We’re forgetting one thing,” he stated, facing Zack. “You mentioned there’s a dead human on the other side. Where it is?”

Zack pointed at where the grass was tamped down from his fall.

“I’ll be right back,” Jordan said, extending his claws. He leaped into the valley and climbed up the far side.

The team watched as he inspected the ground, slashing through ferns and vines. At one point, he stopped and glanced back at them, shaking his head. After a few minutes, he rejoined the team.

“I saw the human,” he said, breathing heavily, “but he’s too decomposed to tell if it’s Dad.” He paused, and his tone became more serious. “I found more dead humans under the grass, some of them only skeletons.” The members stared at him, shocked. “Yeah, I know,” he said, reading their faces. “I’m thinking the same thing.”

“What are other humans doing here?” Emma asked.

Nobody answered. The members were lost in their thoughts. “In any case,” Jordan sighed, “those people died from the acid spit that snake was spewing at us. It killed the horse too.”

They lingered for a few minutes, wondering if Cloud Nine had withheld information from them. Eventually, they returned to the task at hand and left the site, but not before they stumbled upon another dead human in the weeds.

2

They were in dense brush again and the mosquitoes were back, buzzing around the members, making the trek miserable. The temperature got warmer and sweat streaked down their faces. The sun began its descent, tracing sharp lines of orange light through the trees. They slugged through the forest in their V formation, hoping they were close to reaching its end.

Miguel waited until the others were out of earshot and spoke to Harper. “You were pretty rough on Janna back there.”

She glanced at him, annoyed. “No, I wasn’t,” she replied. “I thought Janna was this rugged, outspoken individual?”

“Hasta, everyone has their vulnerable side.”

She stopped and seized his arm. “We are not having this discussion!” she whispered hotly. Janna and Brett, who kept walking, reached them now. Janna refused to look at Harper, but Brett smiled at them. “Is everything alright, guys?” he asked.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Harper asserted, faking a smile, “you go on ahead. We’re gonna fall back a bit.”

Brett nodded and the nurses moved on.

“You better watch your backs, then,” Janna warned.

Harper peered at her, wondering if there was a double meaning to what the nurse said.

Harper and Miguel resumed walking with a heavy silence between them. She peeked at him, angry and disappointed. He was aware of her furtive looks but tried to remain calm. Finally, she spoke to him, her eyes fixed on the ground, unwilling to face him. “I thought you were going to defend me?”

Miguel laughed

Harper looked at him, hurt.

Miguel realized instantly that laughing was a mistake, but what Harper had asked was too incredible for him. Not defending her wasn’t even in the realm of possibilities. He would die for Harper. He peeked at her and saw that she was still hurt… deeply. He reached out and stopped her.

Harper stared back at him, her face straining to hide her emotions. He wrapped his arms around her, but she didn’t welcome the gesture. Her body tightened like a vise.

“I am defending you,” he soothed, “against overcompensating for what you think you must be.”

She turned her head away from him slightly.

“I see the pressure you’re under,” Miguel continued, “you’ve become one of the de facto leaders of this team and you think you have to be some sort of drill sergeant, but you’re not made that way, Hasta.” He held her tighter. “You were too hard on Janna. Think of it. She’s devoted to saving lives.” Miguel noticed from the corner of his eye that the entire team had stopped thirty feet ahead of them. They watched but didn’t approach. “When Janna reacted so strongly to the snake kill, you felt you had to step in. Perform for the group, be its leader, but that wasn’t you.”

Tears started flowing down Harper’s cheeks. He gently ushered her behind a tree to give her more privacy. Once there, she wept openly and settled her head against his chest. “Hasta, be who you are,” he whispered. “Don’t change yourself for this group, or anyone. You’ve got enough grit already. Don’t suppress your gentler side because you think it’s expected of you.”

She peered up at him. Her eyes were red and glistening.

“Miguel, how am I ever going to do this?” she sobbed. “I can’t do this.”

He didn’t respond, knowing her role wouldn’t change. It was out of their hands. Their roles on the team had grown organically and would continue to evolve. He held her as she cried against his chest, waiting for the storm to pass. Between the wet patch on his armor and her red eyes, the team would know she broke down, but Miguel was unconcerned. The team would understand. He knew how they respected her, more than she realized.

Harper coughed into his chest, glanced up, and smiled wanly. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“Baby, that’s what I’m here for,” he replied playfully, attempting to lighten the mood. And she did smile more brightly. He was content with that. The Epiphany experience was turning into more than they ever expected. Miguel thought it was like a crucible, crushing and melting these disparate people together. The journey intensely impacted everything they did, from their roles to their emotions. On that note, Walker had been right; their emotions were supercharged. He had witnessed the dynamic in Janna and now Harper.

And from the moment they were dropped into the Epiphany pressure-cooker, it had done the same thing to them. It accelerated the development of their relationship and created a synergy they both felt now. Whether it was what they bargained for or not, the mission was going to change them forever.

After a few minutes, Harper felt strong enough to move on. They wandered out from behind the tree, their hands joined. The team had waited for them solemnly, with not even a hint of impatience.

3

They stopped to take a break an hour later, resting in a circle. Harper stood in the center and formally apologized to Janna. Her rebuke of the nurse had been public, and, she’d insisted to Miguel privately, she should apologize in front of the group.

Janna graciously accepted her apology and the feelings of resentment between the two girls dissipated.

Damon asked the mages why they didn’t use the new spell, Fire Bullet, against the giant snake. They explained the spell was a one-shot that traveled in the direction of the original cast. The Fire Scorch spell was more easily maneuvered and, with how much the snake moved, that spell was the more logical option.

They tried out the new spells and discovered with dismay that Acid Reflux was a regurgitating spell. The acid projectile shot from their mouths, which opened involuntarily. It felt like a burp. Miguel cast the spell and threw it at a tree. The bark immediately disintegrated under the bubbly purple foam. After regurgitating the spell, Miguel lost his appetite.

The team had a good laugh at the Acid Fly spell. The docile light-source firefly transformed into a hideous insect twice its size. It hovered erratically in the air but was easily directed. It had two oversized, cartoonish bug eyes and a long, dangling proboscis that dripped copious amounts of purple acid. While it looked funny, the team agreed it would come in handy.

Poison Sphere was a large, movable green orb, but they couldn’t try the spell out on anything other than themselves.

As the daylight dwindled, they traveled north again, hoping to find a way out of the forest.

4

The members started shooting squirrels, rabbits, and birds again. The hunters used their arrows and throwing knives while the rest of the team used spells (Fire Bullet for the mages and Acid Reflux for the orcs and healers). Janna abstained from hunting. She was still brooding over the Spitter kill. In order to fill the rest of her inventory, Jordan offered to hunt in her place. He caught seven ptero birds for 126 XP, which raised him to level 16.

Emma hunted two birds, six squirrels, and two rabbits for 126 XP, bumping her to level 25. Brett garnered his first experience points with one bird, five squirrels, and four rabbits, which gave him 128 XP for level 5. Miguel bagged four ptero birds and six squirrels for 132 XP, raising him to level 7. Harper sniped three birds to fill up her inventory, giving her 54 XP and boosting her to level 6. Angie also focused on the birds and killed five to fill her inventory. That gave her 90 XP, which bumped her to level 17.

The orcs loaded their inventories as well. Zack got 164 XP and reached level 7. Damon collected 126 XP for level 8, and Ethan bagged 132 XP for level 14.

5

The team had hoped to find their way out of the forest, but as the sky became darker, they realized they’d be spending another night in the woods. They found a spot where the trees weren’t quite as dense and gathering bedding and firewood. They started a bonfire and cooked the food from their inventories. The team was starving because of the infrequency of their meals. They wolfed down a third of their food. With the forest dark, they wound down from the stress of the day and gazed into the fire.

“Do you guys have family aside from your father?” Damon asked the Harris brothers.

Jordan shook his head. “No one immediate. It’s just the three of us. Our mother died this past year.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Damon said. “No brothers or sisters?”

“No, just us.”

Harper glanced at Miguel, frightened. “You know, I don’t have any family either,” she said.

Miguel mentioned that he was equally alone. “Oh, boy… does anyone in this group have family? Even aunts or uncles?” The members stared at each other. No one responded. Miguel groaned. “And I assume you all signed the same NDA that I did?”

The team confirmed it.

“We were told not to divulge any information to our friends… or anyone,” Brett said.

Emma scoffed and muttered, “Great. So no one knows we’re here. Not friends, not family.”

The members glanced at each other, dumbfounded. “I think we’ve been scammed,” Janna said. There was a murmur of agreement.

“Well, Starkey, our coordinator, knows that Angie and I are here,” Damon said, “but he isn’t likely to say anything.”

Miguel groaned. “So, we could disappear off the face of the Earth and no one would be the wiser.”

Angie shook her head. “Actually, we already have disappeared,” she remarked soberly.

6

As the ptero birds squawked in the black forest, the team members realized Cloud Nine had picked them shrewdly because they didn’t have a family. They hoped they were more than just expendable pawns in a corporate and political master plan. An anxious feeling settled on them for the rest of the night, but they moved onto the next task. “Attribute points need to be assigned before day’s end,” Harper reminded the team. “Who wants to go first?”

Ethan raised his hand. “I have 20.”

Using their telepathy, he displayed his stats for the mages. They argued briefly about strategies, but Miguel eventually won out. “Drop 5 into dexterity, wisdom, intelligence, and endurance,” he said. They asked the other two orcs to drop their numbers into the same stats, although Zack had more attribute points at 24.

Angie and Harper dropped their 12 and 8 points, respectively, into endurance.

Brett dispersed 5 points each into strength, constitution, dexterity, and endurance.

Emma and Jordan upped their constitution, wisdom, intelligence, and endurance by 5 points each.

Finally, Miguel dropped 20 points into strength, constitution, dexterity, and endurance.

With the members yawning, the team settled into the same sleeping arrangements. Because they were in such an open area, they decided to post two guards for the night. Brett offered to be one of the guards, hoping to ingratiate himself to the team. He expected that it would be a token gesture and assumed someone would object to him staying up two nights in a row. But Zack accepted the overture while the rest of the members rewarded him with oblivious silence. Brett was dismayed, and hatred seeped back into his consciousness. Zack offered to take the other watch, ruining his night even more.

While the two men took opposite posts, the eight members settled into their sleeping positions. They laid extra foliage onto the forest floor, hoping it would create a barrier between them and whatever crawled on the ground. While everyone slept in their dry underwear, Damon and Ethan slept with their plate armor on, ready to defend the team if they needed to.

With the crickets churring around them, they nestled into each other to conserve their body heat. Harper, once again, took Miguel’s arm and wrapped it around her. Miguel, as usual, reacted with a tsunami of nervous energy he struggled to contain. Under their cloak of darkness and barely audible, Harper thanked him for the advice he had given her that day.