Endurance Training has gone up 1 level

That’s not the message I expected, so I add that skill to the ‘stay visible’ list and it appears under my Strength Training skill, which is still at fourteen Endurance Training just ticked to 10 and it’s only been ten minutes since I got the pickup moving.

Endurance Training has gone up 1 level

That’s what, another ten minutes? I don’t have a clock on my display. And glancing at my watch doesn’t answer the questions, since I didn’t look at it before. If there’s a way to add the clock, I haven’t found it, and I avoid thinking of it as a question. I don’t want this answer given to me by the system. I have to keep my mind busy as I pull this nearly too heavy pickup. Actively searching for answers to read does that.

Endurance Training has gone up 1 level

More than ten minutes, less than twenty. That’s the best I can work out from a glance at my watch. I consider removing the notification, but I don’t know how to remove a specific one. So I know what to search for.

Endurance Training has gone up 1 level

Still under twenty minutes. No answer yet. I move the message to the side, where it’s easier to ignore. It makes me notice that my stamina has dropped significantly, but seems stable at the two-third mark.

Strength Training has gone up 1 level

Yes. How long did that take? What time was it when I started pulling? My stamina now hovers near half, and my willpower is no longer full. It’s only a sliver, but does it mean I’m continuing solely by will, even while still having stamina? Can my will be turned into stamina, or keep it from dropping too fast?

I smile at the lack of pop-up. I can now ask myself a question without the system answering it.

My Endurance Training skill is now at seventeen. It took… seven levels for my strength to go up one? If they average at twenty minutes each, which they don’t, but I need something to work with, that a hundred and forty. So nearly two and a half-hour.

It’s nearly eleven.

Endurance Training has gone up 1 level

Strength Training has gone up 1 level

I am vocal in the effort needed to pull the trailer up the slight incline on the road. My stamina drops slowly, but steadily, as does my willpower.

I will not dive up.

I’ve lost track of the others, of their existence. It’s only me and the pain of pulling this weight.

It’s a reasonable price to pay for solitude.

Strength Training has gone up 1 level

My stamina flashes red, but there is still some, so I keep pulling. My willpower drops faster now, finally crossing the halfway mark, I think there was a message about gaining a willpower training skill a while back, then levels in that, but I can’t think of how to add it to my ‘stay visible’ list. I also can’t tell how long I’ve been pulling. I know I glanced at my watch, but the position of the hands no longer mean anything.

It’s just me and the pain.

Strength Training has gone up 1 level

I’m still moving, so I still have stamina, even if I can’t make out the yellow on the bar as it flashes angrily. My willpower is also flashing red, but there is some, so I will continue moving.

I will not stop.

“Don’t touch me!”

Someone steps away. They’re only a form intruding on my painful solitude. The sense of touch on my arm only now registers.

They make noises. Meaningless and worthless.

Just like me.

“Chuck, you have to stop.”

“I am not giving up,” I reply through gritted teeth. With the words coalescing into meaning, information comes to me. The form is named John. And I want them to stay away because if they don’t I will hit them. The little willpower I have left is dedicated to keeping me moving, not stopping me from lashing out at others.

“It isn’t giving up.” The words gain meaning quicker this time. “We’ve reached a…” for a moment I think something is wrong with me that made his voice stop registering, but he continues. “Restaurant.”

The word means nothing.

Then it does.

Food.

The pain I feel separates into multiple. My muscles are screaming for me to let them die. I have a headache, my feet hurt, and my stomach is ripping itself apart.

“Oh.”

I drop to my knees. Behind me, something creaks to a stop.

“I need a rest.”

John chuckles. “What you need is a fucking attitude adjustment. Are you trying to kill yourself? You could have asked for help.”

My father laughs, and I join him.

“Helps come at a price, and I’m never paying it.”

“What? That’s insane. Who the fuck told you that, and why did you believe them?”

“One of my father’s many lessons.”

Watch what you say, my father warns, and I obey, closing my mouth. Good boy.

I smile and feel pride. I can count on one hand the number of times the man called me that before he left. I always felt so proud.

I frown.

I’ve never wanted to feel that again.

To feel pride at something my father told me meant I’d given in. Done something no one sane ever would have.

My stamina’s no longer flashing red. My willpower has climbed a little. I notice my health bar is down to half. Maybe there is something to the idea that working out too much causes physical damage.

I pop a vitamin and regain maybe a fifth? I look around. Two other pickups are stopped before a building and people mingle around them. A lot of them are humans.

Hanz leans back against the vehicle, clearly tired, but some of the humans also look tired. It takes a few seconds for me to work out what must have happened.

They helped.

Somewhere along the trek, some of them realized they were expecting too much and pitched in. Elizabeth is among them.

Maybe there is hope for us after all.

I stand and when I take a step, something holds me back. Right, the harness.

“Don’t,” I tell John as I start to struggle with getting out of it.

He stops approaching. “I just want to help.”

“I know, but I don’t have the willpower to spare on social amenities right now. I burned it up keeping myself going.” I look at my health bar. “I think I might have killed myself pulling this thing if you hadn’t stopped me.”

“There is such a thing as being too stubborn, you know.”

Not with my upbringing.

The harness falls off and I stagger forward, almost fall before regaining my footing. John reaches for me, but stops.

I seriously consider another vitamin, I don’t have to worry about side effects for now, but with only adding five points to my willpower, it won’t be enough to make a difference. My stamina will rebuild, and food will be better for me.

“Is it open?”

“The sign says it is. But no one’s gone in yet. And if there’s someone, they haven’t stepped out.”

“Why hasn’t anyone gone in? Why haven’t you?”

“I’m not the guy in charge, and the others are afraid it’s going to turn into another Walmart.”

“I’m not in fucking charge,” I snap. I take a breath. “Didn’t you tell them about the warning that popped up when I touched the door?”

“I thought it was safest if they kept away. Whoever’s there can’t be too sociable if the system’s been treating them the way it treated us.”

“I’m going to need a few minutes if you expect me to deal with someone.”

“Take the time you need. The others are still way behind us.”

I look around. Trees hug each side of the road, and I frown. We’re on highway eleven because, with pulling the trailers, the plan was to make sure we could stop anytime we needed to and have access to a building. I can’t remember there being this much woodland along this road before. As far as I recall, it should be fields between the towns all the way to at least Harrisonburg.

At least they give me something to hit.

I walk between them until I can’t hear anyone. “I’m sorry,” I tell the trees as I pick the one with the largest trunk. I feel nowhere as silly as I should apologizing to inanimate objects. “But I need to let rebuild my willpower if I’m going to not kill anyone today.”

But wouldn’t that feel better? My father asks and I hesitate in summoning my bar at the vision of the man I killed with one blow.

I hate that I did that.

Sure you do.

With a scream, I swing my bar at the trunk and it goes in a few centimeters. I do it again and again until the tree screams in protest before falling toward me. I jump out of the way and roll to my feet, at the ready for it to get up and attack me.

I chuckle at that absurdity.

I look around for another target when a rustling among the trees stops me. I think it’s someone, come to investigate the noise the tree made, but it’s coming from the opposite direction from the road.

The sound is approaching.

I should head back to the others.

I should head toward it.

You know where I stand.

Because of that, I really should head back. He never has good ideas.

Hey, that’s a lie.

He never has ideas that put my well-being first.

We just disagree on what’s good for you, that’s all.

I’d argue that point, but the thing making the noise is now close enough I can see it, and it can see me.

You’re welcome.

It roars at me, going up on its back legs.

That’s a fucking bear with scales instead of fur.

I rush it. At this point, running back to the others will just bring it with me.

Oh sure, altruism, that’s you through and through.

It drops before I reach it and my swings slams into its head and makes the bar vibrate hard enough I nearly drop it. Are those scales metal?

I block its large paw, and the strength of the blow pushed me down to a knee. I need to up my game. I equip the Employee of the month vest and mask, completing the set, and push the paw back. This time when I swing, the impact makes its head jerk back and scales fly off.

I stare as it lowers its head and looks at me. The bleeding line from on the side of its head is the only damage the swing with all my bonuses caused.

I jump back as it brings down a paw and confirm I can’t afford to get hit as it leaves a deep imprint on the ground. And it has claws.

The one advantage I have is how large it is and how close together the trees are. I can move around easier than it and each swing gouges another line through the scales.

I dodge a swing, jump over a swipe, score a hit that costs me a fifth of my not fully regained hit points, and leave three gashes in my vest. I ignore the pain and run at it.

It roars, and I stagger to a stop, then I’m looking for an escape route. I see the debuff flashing red, but I can’t focus on it. I need to escape this coming death.

Thunder explodes, then the side of its head. It turns and roars in the direction of the shooter, but another explosion takes away half the head.

John fires again, and the rest of the head vanishes in a fireball and red-tinted mist.

“Finally,” he says as the body drops to the ground. “Fucking time too. Had to use almost all my mana to power those explosions.”

I’m panting as the debuff vanishes and I can think again.

“I can’t let you go off on your own, can I?” John asked, smirking.

“How did you find me?”

“You kidding? With the noise you two’ve been making, I expect the entire county’s heard.”

“And you’re the only one who came?” I ask, echoing my father’s voice.

“After that drop in health you took, I wasn’t risking anyone else. I charged Hanz with making sure no one followed.”

And you believe him, my father mocks.

I pop in a vitamin and I’m almost to where I was before the fight started.

“You think using those is a good idea? We still don’t know what the side effects are.”

“One of them is reduced strength.” I put the mask away. “Hit while we were fighting the greeter, but with all this equipped, I barely felt it.”

“But you can’t know it’s going to be the same thing the next time.”

“So I’ll stop at three and not risk it.”

“That’s not a good idea.”

“Unless you know how we can get food of a high enough quality, it comes with healing boots. That’s all we have.”

“Isn’t it a good thing we’re parked right next to a restaurant then?” John replies, smiling.