“UNLOAD” screamed Mick as he fired burst shots into the trolls face again, green craters appearing on its face with every shot. Other soldiers in the group circled around, trying to get a clear shot on the troll as it dragged the man towards him. Green blood continued to spray from its face as each of Micks shots hit home.

“DAVE, TROY.” Mick shouted again, turning towards the men after the troll fell back limply to the concrete, green blood pooling from its head wounds, “get him out of that things hand!”

Two of the soldiers rushed up to the dazed soldier, and slowly pried the trolls meaty fingers off from his leg. Mick, impatient, walked up to the Troll and fired into its head point blank, as the troll's fingers twitched and fought the two men from releasing their grip on the man's leg.

After freeing the man from its grasp, the two picked him up, supporting either shoulder, carrying him away. Alex took a look at the man, his rising panic slowly dropping back down. Blood was leaking from mans face from his fall onto the concrete, but other than being dazed and slightly bloodied he seemed fine.

Alex turned to Mick, “let’s get out of here before that thing regenerates again.” The tan faced swat man's face soured as he took a moment to look back at Alex. He thought he saw hint of nervousness evident on his face as well.

“Let’s get going!” He shouted after taking a moment to collect himself again. Then turned and hit the Troll with another burst fire shot into the top of its skull, punching a huge gap into the top of its head. The green blood oozing out from the trolls head at an absurd rate. In the few seconds he watched it, he felt like the blood loss had started to slow down again.

Marching around the body and resuming their journal, albeit more quickly, they set down the path they had been following from before their interruption. “No need to move silently just yet guys. If anything is going to come after us they already know we are here. Guns out and eyes peeled!”

They were only a few minutes into their trip before they heard a shrieking peel ripple into the air. “HELP ME!”

“Holy fuck” Alex said out loud, bug-eyed, staring backwards at a hulking shape far in the distance.

They all turned to look nervously at each other at that. Mick looked grimly back behind them “double time guys. Don’t forget, something could surprise us up ahead.” He motioned at their surroundings, before pointing at a silhouette looking back at them from inside one the the homes. “Don’t think about that big bastard behind us or we could walk into some more shit up ahead.”

Nodding, they took off down the trail, faster now than before. They had to slow down initially for the dazed man who had hit the ground with his head, but after a few more minutes he showed signs of recovery and began moving by himself, thankfully the rules included increase healing rates.

Alex had to stop and pick up the raccoon as it lagged behind, panting heavily. He scooped it up and rested it on top of his backpack, he could have imagined it but he thought he saw a grateful look on its face as it looked back at Alex. He looked at his other two summons, the honey badger and rat seemed to be enjoying themselves as they ran. The badger, especially, as it was hissing excitedly and bearing its teeth as they ran. Thankfully the sparrow on his shoulder stood stock still and didn’t call out any more warnings as they quickly moved down the path and he relaxed somewhat.

The tighter suburban areas gave way to larger lawns and more open spaces, each a small vista of the American life. He fought back a grimace as he glanced at the scattered bodies on two day mown grass lawns. The bodies in the city had blurred together, a confused mess, but now that there were less he was able to imagine their final moments as he passed, their bodies telling an awful tale.

By now, the car tunnel had almost completely disappeared and they had started to weave around the random vehicle instead of following a dent filled path, their surroundings becoming more open for them to move around in.

Alex, looked back in the distance and saw a large green shape following behind them at a quick pace. Thinking to himself as they jogged, he called over to Mick, who ran up alongside him.

“Yes?” He asked, eyebrow raised.

“I’ve been thinking.” Alex said, puffing a little as they ran, and mentally cursing himself for not exercising more, “do we have any way to start a fire?”

Mick looked thoughtful a moment before answering back, “I’ve got a flare gun.”

“That’s probably wouldn’t work. Trolls from games can’t regenerate after they get hit with fire or acid.” He huffed again, nearly out of breath from his rushed sentence.

“hmpf” Mark responded before a look crossed his eyes and he called out to the rest of them, hand raised in the air “HOLD! Guns out! Line up on me!”

They all stopped then, and formed a rough line on Mick, raising their weapons at the approaching troll, who still had the same stupid grin on its face as before. Alex slowly brought his pistol up as well, flushing with embarrassment as he realized he had the safety off the entire time he had carried it.

The Troll had gained on them since before, moving at a much faster pace than at the gas station. Alex, thought he understood the dumb smile now as it charged back towards them again. It didn’t think anything could stop it.

They lined up and aimed on the troll as it approached, its speed having increased from when they had first seen it at the bus stop, it had slowly outpaced them as they made their way across the outskirts of the town.

“Hold up” yelled one of the soldiers.

Alex looked at him, it was the same man who had kicked, and was then grabbed the troll earlier. The man looked to be the shortest one in their group by a large margin, and had a cocky look on his face despite the fact that it was still slightly smeared with blood and dirt from when he was grabbed.

“HELP ME!” The troll was getting closer yet and Alex quickly glanced at it. Closer to them now, it no longer looked like had the the same placid look in its eyes, instead it was snarling as it ran and began chanting its phrase, face distorted.

“HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME HELP ME.”It screamed as it ran towards them.

“WHATEVER JUST FUCKING DO SOMETHING THEN MOUZE!” shouted mick nervously, looking at the man.

The short man, still with a cocky grin, ran ten steps in front of the lined up men, turning towards the charging eight foot tall monster and began a serious of postures: cracking his knuckles, rolling his shoulders and then pointing to the charging monster before yelling in a deep voice, “YOU'RE NO MATCH FOR ME MONSTER”

“HELPMEHELPMEHELPMEHELPMEHELPME” the troll continued on, its madness growing as it came closer to them.

“IS THIS GUY FOR REAL?” Alex shouted over the screaming at Mick and Donnie, who both watched the man stupefied. Mick snapped out of it and was about to open his mouth before Mouze shouted again.

“TASTE MY JUSTICE. FIREBALLLLLLLLL!” he screamed, shrilly, the deep voice gone, posed in the Haduken stance from Street Fighter. And to Alex's incredulous eyes, a small fireball grew between the small man's palms and shot off to hit the Troll straight in the chest.

The Troll, blinked in shock from the impact, then roared at them, before catching fire like it had been doused in gasoline, a flaming torch.

“HOLY SHIT” Alex screamed, before shielding his face from a blast of intense fire and heat as the Troll screamed out in agony.

Not willing to take any chances Mick screamed, “FIRE.” But, only the men on the very outside of their line shot at the still charging, on fire Troll. Mouze had blocked most of their shots by walking towards it.

Mouze had shielded his eyes with his hand as well, and looked back at the group as he he took a step backwards to get away from the still advancing monster before tripping and falling towards the ground, slamming his hand and forehead back into the pavement, an almost repeat of before.

The burning Troll howled again and leapt on top of Mouze's back, still taking only a few shots from the men, before opening its maw. Like a destroyed dam washing over a village, green steaming acid boiled out from its mouth and splashed over Mouze's prone body, its eyes gleaming with delight as it vomited on him, before closing its mouth again as the flow ceased. Mouze screamed bloody murder as he violently bucked from underneath the Troll.

“HELP ME” it shrieked triumphantly, before being turned into hamburger by gunfire, the men no longer worried about friendly fire. Mouze was still shrieking underneath him until the butchered burning troll fell on top of him, the monsters frame cutting out any sounds.

They continued to fire on the troll before the men had to reload again, even then some of them continued to put a few shots into its ruined body before giving up and cursing. Alex simply stood there stupefied as he watched the corpse mound that was Mouze and a Troll.

“What the fuck was that” he asked to no one.

“Idiot!” yelled Mick kicking at the ground, he face flustered red. “This is why I told Williams that this was a bad fucking idea!” “Fucking god damn” he spun around, cursing, before looking at Alex.

“And what the fuck was that green shit supposed to be.”

“Acid” he replied dumbly.

“AND HOW THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW THAT?”he shrieked back at Alex.

Alex could tell the man was venting, but he could feel the anger flush up his neck “BECAUSE WE ARE IN A FUCKING VIDEO GAME YOU IDIOT.” He screamed back, before looking back down at the ground. Mick stood there glaring at him before huffing.

“Lets get going” he signed in resignation after a moment of looking at the Troll, its massive frame completely blocking any sight of Mouze out.

“What about Mouze?” Donnie asked, a desperate look to his eyes, a few of the men nodded at Donnie and looked at Mick.

“What about him?” Mick pointed towards the still burning mound. “Are you telling me, we should pull that, on fire, five hundred pound monster, off of him? And then find a spot to bury whats left of him? You heard Gans there, he was covered in ACID and now the two of them” he said pointing again towards the Troll “are slowly going to burn alive from the looks of it.” He paused a moment, looking each of them in the eyes before continuing on quietly.

“We just shot of a fuck ton of rounds here, and just about anything in the area has heard us by now, maybe even a couple more of these....Trolls.” He said the last slowly, as if tasting it. Several of them paled as they imagined the monsters their gunfire would draw.

None of the men responded to him as Mick waited there patiently, looking each of them in the eye, even Alex.

“Lets get going them” he said again, tiredly, waving towards the road.

Alex was the first to snap out of it, surprising himself as he spoke with a sudden irrational surge of energy “I don't know about you guys, but I didn't know him.” He spoke quietly, but with a burning energy in his gut “I want to get out of here before any more of us get killed as well.” He turned, and slowly continued down the path, hoping that the others would snap out of it and follow.

It wasn't too long before the rest of them followed behind, before getting ahead of him and returning to their previous group formation with Alex in the back. He wasn't sure if he imagined it or not, but he thought that Mick might have given him a pat on the shoulder as he passed by.

The uplifting thought and feeling didn't last too long as they continued on their journey through the suburbs. When he had first started out on their journey, he thought the worst thing he would have to deal with would be the monsters again like before. He hadn't worried too much about that however. They still had guns right?

After the gnoll pack and the lone troll he was starting to wonder about that now. What was worse was that he couldn't stop himself from looking at the lone bodies as he passed. Now that they were less than what he saw in downtown, he noticed each one, they all seemed to tell some terrible story.

The easiest ones to deal with were always the lone people, despite the fact that they had been chewed on. The hardest ones to deal with were the families, it wasn't just the adults that had been attacked. There were children and animals lying among the dead, and he chewed on his cheek as he felt the bile rise up from his throat as he noticed how the families were always close together, like they had tried to protect each other.

He could imagine each family waking up in their home, confused by the odd noises outside, but still safe in their individual instances like he had been. Then they open the door to head outside and are immediately attacked. All of their loved ones inside don't know whats happening and one by one each of them had to have met the same fate unless they ran back inside to try and sit out whatever was happening. The people cowering inside their were probably doomed as well. Alex considered how lucky he had been running into a patrol when he was escaping from his apartment complex.

Mick noticed him looking at a doorway “Don't bother” he said, getting Alex's attention “any house you poke into will be empty. Any house that won't let you in means that its still.....instanced. Probably people hiding inside that won't come out. God help their souls.” He paused for a moment before mumbling quietly “Mouze told us that anyway.” Mick said the last loudly enough that the other men grunted, before looking back on their surroundings.

Thinking back he remembered his own instance and wondered about going back, before dismissing the idea. Whatever was happening, he wouldn't be able to make it on his own, better to stick to the military and police guys he was with. He might not have had the most... aggressive, power, but it was better than nothing. He looked at Mick, the rough looking man scanning their surroundings, and thought back to how angry the man had been speaking about game powers. Maybe Mick hadn't been gifted with anything at all?

Slowly, his thoughts began to recede back into unpleasant numbness as he continued along with the group on their journey.

He felt the sparrow on his shoulder twitch again as it pointed its beak to the right.

“AMBUSH RIGHT” He yelled suddenly, as if waking up at the same time. This time he managed to pull the pistol from his stomach holster quickly, cursing in anger as he realized the safety was still off as he pointed it towards a suburban home on his right.

The rest of the squad reacted immediately as well, most of the men slamming themselves against whatever cover their could, while others with no immediate cover crouched or dropped to the ground. All of them pointed their weapons towards the same house as Alex. A slight feeling of pride trickled in his chest as he considered how none of them questioned it this time.

Almost immediately after the thought, he heard several familiar sounding shrieking voices as almost two dozen goblins poured out from inside and around the house, several of them carrying bows.

s

“PICK TARGETS AND FIRE!” Mick shouted, and the world around his erupted in violence.