1

They determined the older man’s name was Ryan, the younger one was Michael, and the woman was Olivia. They weren’t able to make out their last name, but the three humans insisted it was not “Bebbings.” Harper asked Ryan what they needed help with, and he motioned to a larger cabin near the well. They walked slowly with the family to the west side of the village. While they waited for the disfigured humans to catch up, Damon asked them if anyone else lived in the village.

Mike, who’d been celebrating his sixteenth birthday when they got stranded and was now approaching twenty-four, told them they’d killed most of the NPCs years ago when the game characters mutated and became dangerous. He said the NPCs, for the most part, never respawned. He told them that there were exceptions where the spawning went into overdrive, spewing out numerous iterations of the same creature. Olivia gestured toward the only other large cabin. It sat at the end of the village and was completely boarded up. “Mever go bear… bon’t ooopen,” she urged.

While they walked at a snail’s pace, Zack and Jordan peeked inside some of the log cabins. They were sealed with hardened mud and grass, which kept the interiors quite warm. Large wooden doors leaned up against the interior walls, pushed aside from the cabin doorways. “Do you think they removed the doors when they started deforming?” Jordan asked Zack.

“Yeah, handicap accessibility,” he muttered gloomily.

Each cabin had two makeshift beds; hay-filled canvas sacks were arranged inside a wooden frame. The two men rejoined the team.

“What’s it like in there?” Miguel asked.

“Man, this is gonna be like the fucking Hilton!” Zack exclaimed.

They reached the well and noticed another respawn marker glowing ten feet away. Damon peered down the shaft of the well. He saw water reflecting at the very bottom. He tipped a bucket that was hanging from the roof of the well. The water was clear. He glanced back at the team and the three villagers.

“Rink! Goooo waber,” Ryan encouraged.

Damon cupped his hand in the water and sniffed it before attempting to take a drink. As he drank, his throat opened, welcoming the cold water. He gasped. “God. I didn’t realize how thirsty I was,” he enthused.

The other members drank and had the same relieved reactions.

Once the thirteen people started walking again, they could hear the sounds of domesticated animals. “Oh, is that what I think it is?” Brett asked from the rear of the group. But by then there was no mistaking it. Drifting from the large cabin’s entrance were the sounds of mooing and clucking.

2

Some team members laughed breathlessly while the rest just stared in amazement. Jordan’s stomach grumbled just from the sight of the animals. On the right side of the barn, a large horse chewed hay from a wide wooden trough. It twisted its head toward the visitors and whinnied. A dozen chickens clucked from within a lattice-enclosed pen behind the horse. On the left, two cows munched on grass and hay from another trough.

A third cow lay prone on the floor with a heavy wooden beam pinning its hind legs. The beam had dropped from the rafters, weakened by years of dry-rot, and landed on the animal. It moaned weakly. Olivia approached Zack pleadingly. “Peabe, heb.” A prompt appeared in his vision.

#*$^&_-*%%# has offered you a quest: Save Betsy the Bovine. Remove the heavy wooden beam that has injured Betsy. If you complete this quest, you will gain an unknown amount of XP and a 40-point increase to your endurance stats. Do you accept?

“Hey, I’ve been offered a quest,” Zack said proudly, striding toward the crippled cow.

Harper raised her hand, stopping him dead in his tracks. “Are there experience points attached to this quest?”

“Ummm, yeah, but it doesn’t say how many,” Zack replied defensively.

Harper called Damon over. “I want you and Janna to take the quest. You should get the XP points.”

“Hey,” Zack protested.

Harper shook her head. “Reject the quest, Zack,” she ordered. “Damon is our leader and Janna needs the XP.” She smirked and gestured toward his mangled forearm. “Besides, you’re a gimp.”

Zack moaned and shook his head in defeat. “I liked you better when you were unconscious,” he grumbled.

Harper snickered for the first time since the arrow passed through her chest.

3

Janna complained that she wouldn’t be able to lift the heavy beam, but Harper was unconcerned. “You don’t have to lift it. That’s what the big monkey is for,” she said, placing her hand on Damon’s shoulder. He grinned and shook his head. “Just push up and you’ll be fine,” she said.

Janna positioned herself under the beam. Damon hoisted the beam, and the cow moo-oaned noisily. While Damon leaned the beam against the side of the barn, Janna petted the injured cow. “I don’t know if this’ll work on an animal, but it’s worth a try,” she said, and cast Intermediate Heal at the bovine. The cow moaned loudly, but it sounded relieved.

“Holy holstein, it worked!” the nurse marveled. She continued sending the healing spells to Betsy. 200 XP and the endurance stat bonus were divided between Janna and Damon, bringing their stats to:

Damon (Level 18)

RACE: Valhallan Orc

CLASS: Warrior

STATUS: Normal

HP: 216

HPR: 2.88

MP: 39

MPR: 1.02

STRENGTH: 118

CONSTITUTION: 144

DEXTERITY: 54

INTELLIGENCE: 49

WISDOM: 51

ENDURANCE: 67

XP: 428

ATTRIBUTE POINTS: 40

Janna (Level 12)

RACE: Human

CLASS: Healer

STATUS: Normal

HP: 106

HPR: 1.42

MP: 76

MPR: 2.02

STRENGTH: 37

CONSTITUTION: 71

DEXTERITY: 41

INTELLIGENCE: 96

WISDOM: 101

ENDURANCE: 65

XP: 298

ATTRIBUTE POINTS: 16

4

After Janna healed the cow, the family showed the team the rest of the village in their slow, shambling way. The members had a glimpse at the sleeping quarters and were impressed—except for Emma and Harper, who said the beds smelled musty.

“Humph, city girls,” Zack scoffed playfully.

The sun started setting, casting orange and pink rays across the otherwise deserted village. While the team received the ten-cent tour, Zack and Jordan snuck away to get a peek at the boarded-up building at the end of the village. It was as large as the barn. A weathered sign placed above its barricaded doorway read:

Harry House n’ Bar

They could hear thumping noises coming from inside. Zack and Jordan glanced at each other inquisitively, but they didn’t stick around long; the stink from the locked-up building was disgusting. The foul scent of human excrement infested the entire area.

From across the road, Olivia noticed them and became very agitated, shouting at the two men to rejoin the team. As they returned to the group, Olivia rushed over to them. She scolded them in her muffled voice and swung her paralytic arm at both men.

Ethan snickered at Jordan. “Man, I think she just hit you with her purse.”

They led the team past the barn to a vast garden where the family grew carrots and potatoes. Ethan could smell the fresh vegetables even under the earthy soil. Next, they escorted them to the weapons and armor shop, but the team’s initial excitement faded when Ryan informed them it had been raided long ago by the stranded humans.

Still, they found a few useful items. Janna and Brett picked up a short sword, giving them a weapon they could use in close combat. Brett was particularly thrilled with the upgrade. He had moaned on and on about how worthless the push daggers and lance were. The team’s rummaging also produced a long, leather whip that they gave to Janna.

The family ended the tour, bringing the members to an open space between two cabins opposite the barn. They had built a high wooden fence to defend against the south side, facing the orchard. The remnants of a fire glowed from a shallow hole in the center of the opening.

“Oh, man. We are having barbecue tonight,” Zack said, grinning.

Ryan said they had survived over the years by eating produce from the garden along with eggs, milk, fruit, leaves, and roots. They had resisted the urge to butcher the animals, wanting to maintain the sustainable food source. He told them they cooked a vegetable stew in the late afternoon and were usually in their cabin by nightfall. As they watched the sun dip below the treeline, they knew that wasn’t happening this night.

A couple of metal pots and a collection of weaponry, mostly short swords and spears, were scattered along the sides of the fire pit. Ryan told them they liked keeping the weapons around in the case of a sudden attack.

Saving the best for last, he escorted them to the rear of the cooking grounds. Nestled in the corner, near the fence, was a smaller well with a flat piece of stone laying on the ground beside it. A thick, rawhide-twined rope hung from the well’s roof and descended into the narrow well. Ryan hooked his stiff arms around the rope and started pulling on it.

Ethan rushed to help him, but the deformed man pushed him away, determined to haul the cargo himself. Sinewy muscles bulged on the old man’s shoulders as the team watched awkwardly, cringing at his struggles.

He finally heaved the wet and dripping package to the rim of the well. It toppled over and landed on the stone slab with a splattering sound. He turned back to face the visitors, a huge smile dawning on his sagging mouth. His broken teeth glistened like pearls in the day’s fading light. In the tied-up bundle of canvas were the dozen fish Ryan had caught earlier from the waters at the foot of the stone tower.