As I walked over to the end of the building where the mountain lion had made a meal of my neighbors I noticed Johnny had knelt over Dave’s corpse and was chanting something in Navajo. Something about the moment compelled me to stop and bow my head in respect for a moment. Dick came down and joined us as Johnny completed his rites.

“Hey, do you know if Dave located the EMT’s kids inside their apartment?” I asked softly. The man was still in no small amount of pain at the loss of his friend.

He looked at me with bloodshot eyes, “No, he didn’t find them, only…”

I nodded in understanding and left the pair and stalked a loop around the back side of the apartment. Another set of apartments, nicer than ours, sat about 50 meters to the North. People were milling about there watching and pointing at the dead lions and all the blood and chaos. I noticed that a smattering of rifles, shotguns, and pistols amongst the group of people. I noticed that several of the mountain lions had also attacked their group. A man with an AR15 slung on his shoulder nodded to me as I walked my perimeter and I nodded back.

I circled around the NorthWest corner of the apartment building and turned to the West and saw another group of people that consisted largely of your average small town white trash layabouts. A man with tattoos from the top of his head all the way down into his boxers, which were of course fully exposed, and a pair of dark loose blue jeans wrapped around his knees stood with his similarly attired homies talking to a young native woman wearing skinny jeans and a blak hoodie.

He looked up when I turned the corner and tilted his head at me in what he must assume was an intimidating pose. I didn’t respond, choosing to go about my business. With my perception I was able to pick up their conversation easily enough.

“Yo! You think that’s the one?” Some random thug asked the man I had already labeled as ‘Mr. Tattoo.

“Dunno, he’s strapped as fuck though.” I heard him say as I checked the length of the apartment building for anything out of place. All I found was a pile of blood and guts at the front end of the building where the EMT and his wife met their grim fate. I absentmindedly listened to the other groups plotting while I examined the remains for any sign of the children's fate.

I paused where the mountain lion had been eating on them and couldn’t tell what I was looking at anymore. I thought I saw a pair of pelvis bones in a pile of mauled and mangled meat and flesh. It seemed the beast ate everything but their hips. And probably only because we interrupted it. There was no sign of the little ones. I remember the man’s kids were young. Younger than the other girl that just died in front of me minutes ago.

I heard the snapping of twigs as I stared at the carnage and spun with my rifle up to my shoulder.

“WHOAH! WHOAH! DON’T SHOOT!” An uncharacteristically slim Native American girl with typical black hair raised her arms in a frantic attempt to shield herself in case I started shooting. She had a purple streak of hair hanging over the left side of her face, and was wearing a black My Chemical Romance hoodie, black jeans and some white canvas shoes. She looked and sounded young.

I lowered my rifle and she visibly relaxed, then went slightly pale when she got an up close look at the bloody mess behind me. “Whatchu need?” I asked flatly as I stared at the tattooed man who silently stared back with an aluminum bat resting gently on his shoulder.

“Uh… I’m Alyssa… I live over there, we were wondering if.. if... you guys managed to kill those mountain lions. We heard them, then we heard, I guess, you, and then nothing. Sooo... “ She motioned about, her hands fidgeting nervously.

I looked over to the group of about five men and three more women, all older than her, then looked back at her as Old Johnny and Dick walked around the corner to see what the next threat was. “They sent you?”

She looked sheepishly over her shoulder then turned back and I noticed some anger in her eyes. “Yeah… so. Is it safe now?”

I looked back over to the group that sent her over. The most dangerous weapon I saw was the aforementioned aluminum baseball bat carried by the guy with more tattoos on his body than clothes. There might be a few small knives in the group but from what I could see the other 4 or 5 people in their group were mostly harmless. I doubted they had yet to kill any monsters and gain any levels.

Veep, is there a way I can view peoples names, classes, levels, health, etc.?

“Yup! Would you like me to turn that on now. It has a 100 meter radius and displays everything you asked for at a thought, for your information, the girl, Alyssa, is a LVL 1 Shadow Warrior. No one in that group is over LVL 1. Mister Tattoo is a LVL 1 Thug.”

Heh. You’re starting to talk like me.

That garnered no response from the little AI which I found even funnier.

“No, I don’t think we are safe. We aren’t in the center of the city, or on the highway where that giant fucker was. I think we are catching the stragglers. But for now, the immediate threat has passed. For the moment anyway.”

Alyssa nodded at me then turned to look at the group that sent her over. Mister Tattoo was clearly anxious to hear what she had found out from me. She looked at me again and began to walk back when KEEN OBSERVATION and BLOODY INTELLECT activated in the back of my mind. Her hair had shifted and I saw a bruise on her neck suspiciously looked like she had been recently choked.

My hand shot out and gripped her shoulder gently. She startled and turned her head to look at me with fear in her eyes. “Are you safe?” She flinched at the look on my face and shook her head.

“Karl, I don’t know if we should get involved.” Dick mumbled behind me as Mister Tattoo’s impatience overcame the fear of the walking arsenal that was, well, me and began coming over with his entire group.

“ALYSSA! LET’S GO!” Mister Tattoo yelled and Alyssa looked torn then reluctantly tore free from my grip and started over to the approaching group.

As Alyssa reached Mister Tattoo he grabbed her by the back of the neck and leaned in close to her. My enhanced perception saw the glint of gold teeth while he swung his bat up to his shoulder and began to grill the girl for information.

“Did you do what I asked? He look like he got good shit?” Mister Tattoo hissed in her face. She nodded silently as he slowly pushed her back and forth by the neck. An intimidation tactic to display strength to people you viewed as weaker than yourself.

“What about the others!?” His face barely a hands space from hers.

“I don’t know. I didn’t make it around the corner.” She tried to look back to me and Mister Tattoo released her neck and smacked her hard across the face. Alyssa stumbled and fell to the ground.

“Alright, here’s what -”

My face flushed with rage and I stopped listening in on their conversation with my enhanced perception. This fucker thinks he’s going to come over here and loot us. I ain’t got time for this shit! Before I knew what I was doing my pistol was in my hand and I muttered “VITAL SHOT”

The shot echoed out across the field and Mister Tattoo’s brains exploded out the front of his face. I think I even saw a gold tooth fly off at an odd angle. His body remained upright for about 3 seconds. No one moved until his body pitched forward into the tall dry weeds.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” Dick exclaimed behind me.

Old Johnny just smiled. He seemed to approve. The old fuck probably had a higher perception than mine, so he knew what was being planned.

Mister Tattoo’s group reactions ranged from stunned silence, to pissing their pants, to indignant rage on one woman that was the spitting image of your typical meth addict. Meth Lady looked at me with rage in her eyes. I guess Mister Tattoo was her supplier.

“YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” Meth Lady screamed at me, spittle flying from her mouth. “I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!”

Alyssa hadn’t gotten up but she was staring wide eyed at the faceless body of Mister Tattoo with a vacant expression. I could tell a war was raging in her mind over whether this was a good or bad thing that just happened. Meth Lady grabbed Mister Tattoos bat and began to stomp in my direction.

Dick took a step back and when I looked at him I saw a hint of fear in his eyes as well. Old Johnny looked content to watch how this went down with a ring side seat.

Meth Lady leveled the bat at me from about 15 meters away and began screaming at the top of her lungs “I’M GONNA FUCK YOU WITH THIS BAT YOU PIECE OF SHIT MOTHERFUCKING COCKSUCKING -”

When she reached a distance under 10 meters she raised the bat up to her shoulder and began to move into a stumbling trot like she was winding up to swing for the fences. Vital Strike was on cooldown still so I raised my pistol and aimed at her midsection and calmly said “MAG DUMP”

I stitched her body from the pelvis to the chest with the remaining 17 rounds in the pistol. She was dead before the 5th round left the chamber. She dropped the bat, then fell to her knees and fell over backwards in an awkward pose with 17 crimson holes across her torso.

I slowly reloaded my pistol then stepped towards the stunned group of would be looters. I holstered the pistol as I reached Alyssa and held out my hand to help her up. She looked up at me with a hint of fear in her eyes that quickly faded as she slowly took my hand and asked “What now?”