The Exceptional abomination was all that we came for, and having obtained it, we completely changed directions and began heading west.

I allowed the newly raised undead to run ahead and completely wreak havoc on everything. It was so powerful as a minion that it could kill the snake-headed enemies entirely by itself. I only tested this once though, in fear that something unexpected might happen and I’d lose him.

I didn’t have enough MP to fight another Exceptional enemy today, although the goal was to get a second one. Jessica and I agreed that if she could find an Exceptional snake-headed type we would keep track of its location and kill it at a later time.

By the time I had re-summoned my minions and a second reanimated corpse, I was already depleted of mana again, which by my standards was dangerous. Difficult battles were absolutely something I wanted to avoid today.

Because of that, we skirted around the outer edge of the city as we moved, and the added distance made it take around two hours of walking to reach the main route west. Fortunately though, we did manage to hit level 17 off the brutes and banshees and a few of the stronger enemies before finding the western most exit. The level up didn’t refill my mana bar, unfortunately, but I got a small boost and came back up to 45 MP.

As we looked at the thoroughfare, my heart sank. It was a mess. Abandoned vehicles lay in all sorts of positions, some on their sides and some upside down. Driving west along this highway was likely to be an arduous and slow process. I was, however, underestimating the strength of the Exceptional abomination; it only took only twenty seconds or so for my reanimated corpse to move each vehicle. He simply shoved it along the road and out of the way, sparks flying.

Even if there were no tires on the vehicle and it was just frame, metal scraped along asphalt as he used brute force to move them out of the road. The undead abomination on its own was enough to move a single vehicle, and I could group together the remaining summoned undead to work as a team to move another.

Although this made progress a lot faster than I had first expected, the reality was there were hundreds upon hundreds of vehicles in the way. If we wanted to create a clear road out of the city, it had to be done. So systematically, we set about the task. It felt like a grind, except one without any EXP gain.

Something happened around thirty minutes into our cleaning session though. Jessica suddenly stopped and looked west, “There’s people coming… four of them.”

The road westwards wasn’t purely flat, it rose slightly, which meant the horizon was not that far away. Not far enough away to be comfortable. “In a vehicle? On foot?” I asked.

“They aren’t moving fast enough for it to be a car. I think they’re running.”

I immediately moved my minions to behind a building and out of sight. If the approaching people weren’t hostile, they might take one look at the squad of undead monsters and just end up turning and hauling the other direction upon seeing us. We found a spot to hide and observe as we watched the furthest point we could see down the road.

Only seconds after settling into the second floor of a ruined office, four figures appeared on the hill, and from what I could tell, they were all women. Their faces were red and frantic as they struggled to not trip over their own feet.

“There’s people behind them,” Jessica said. “Two people moving fast, probably in a vehicle.”

Was it our business at all to interfere in whatever was happening? The look on the faces of the women told me they were terrified for their life. Whoever was chasing them didn’t have good intentions. “Let’s help,” I said.

A grim-faced Jessica nodded and we ran back down the stairs and ducked into a side alley where I gathered my team. According to Jessica, the women would not be caught until after our position, which would give us a chance to see what the situation was. None of the approaching women triggered a warning feeling from Sixth Sense, or seemed dangerous at all. It was completely possible none of them had leveled up even once.

As the women reached the stretch of road we had cleared, I could see a jeep coming over the hill at a fast speed. There was a man driving and another man standing up hollering into the air, “Stop running and you won’t be punished!”

Once the women were close, Jessica stepped out and waved her arms overhead to intercept them. They were spooked and if they hadn’t been exhausted, I think they would have scattered rather than give her a chance. But Jessica kept up a steady, calming introduction, “Come here; come here quick. We’re not going to harm you; we’ll protect you. It’s okay, stay behind me.”

All of the women were red-faced; one was crying and another put her hands on her knees and threw up on the spot. All of them were breathing so heavily I wondered if any of them were close to collapse. But they needed to keep moving and get into the shelter of our alley. Since I couldn’t shout without scaring them, even with my skull mask tipped up onto my forehead, I left it to Jessica and this worked, one by one the women came up to us.

With a roar followed by the shriek of its breaks, the jeep arrived at the cleared road, where it came to a stop about fifty feet from the alley. The two men leaped out and started to walk forward, checking the side streets.

When they were just a bit away from where we were hiding, Jessica and I stepped out of the alley. My minions didn’t show themselves and remained hidden, as I didn’t want to reveal any of my cards. The men noticed us, faces caught in a look of shock before they adjusted to try to assume looks of haughty confidence.

When they were barely twenty feet away, they noticed the women standing behind Jessica and I.

“There you are, come over here,” the driver said. “You won’t make this hard if you know what’s good for you.” He was dressed in a black leather jacket and jeans, as was his companion. It seemed to me like a uniform.

“What’s happening here?” I asked, pulling down my mask. “It doesn’t seem like these women want anything to do with you.”

The two men looked at me with a bit of hesitation, no doubt affected by the Skull Mask’s Intimidate Living.

“Listen, this is none of your business. It’s also none of our business either. They’re property of our boss, Ghost Hand.” It seemed that the man – the passenger – was hoping this name would have a bit of deterrent.

“Never heard of him.” I turned back and looked at the four women behind, “Is that right? Are you the property of Ghost Hand?” I asked with sarcasm in my voice. As far as I was concerned, I didn’t care what the men said. Humans were never property.

The women shook their heads frantically emphasizing how completely they disagreed, but none of them dared speak up. “It doesn’t seem like that’s the case. You can leave now,” I said to the two men.

“You don’t want to do this friend. It won’t end well for you…” The driver said.

“I’m not your friend, and you can leave. I won’t tell you again. Stay a little longer and I’ll kill you both.” Their expressions showed that the pursuers felt stuck between a rock and a hard place. “Tell this Ghost Hand whatever you want. He can find us here whenever he wishes,” I added firmly. I was confident I could easily kill both of them, but I didn’t want to unless I really had to.

The two men’s faces turned red, but neither of them dared to attack. I could tell they wanted to test me, but I really wasn’t kidding. Perhaps they were terrible people worthy of death, but who was I to make that kind of judgement and act on it? I didn’t have the full story either, and maybe they were just pawns for this Ghost Hand character.

They started whispering to each other and then turned to leave. That was when Jessica raised her bow and released an arrow. It flew out with pinpoint accuracy and went directly through the keychain in the driver’s hand. The car keys were pinned into the ground, “The vehicle stays. You two can walk,” she said.

It seemed that this entire situation was pissing her off to no end. When she was quiet and reserved like this, I knew she was bubbling inside. The men turned to complain, but she pulled her bow back and nocked another arrow. No doubt she was prepared to put an arrow directly through a skull right now, and I wouldn’t blame her.

Whatever words they were going to say caught in their throat and they started to sprint into the distance. Only when beyond the horizon and beyond the point that Jessica could feel them with her detection did she dare lower her bow.

At her nod, I lifted my mask and turned towards the four women.

“Are you okay?” Jessica asked.

The nearest of them immediately grasped Jessica’s upper arm with both hands, “Thank you… thank you so much. You can’t imagine what we’ve been suffering.” She was wracked with sobs.

“Let’s stop for today and head back,” I said to Jessica, then looked towards the women. “This is no place to have a conversation.”

“We have somewhere safe we can stay,” Jessica explained to them.“It’s at least an hour walk away though. Can you all make it?” Jessica was already in her pack grabbing leftover candy and handing it to the women.

They nodded and Jessica whispered to me, “stay back with your undead. You’ll spook them otherwise.” Then she set off with the women while I waited. I couldn’t afford the MP to use Vast Shadows and then remove my minions from it if there was a dangerous situation, so they would just have to accept that I was acting as a rearguard.

We hadn’t gone far though, when one of the women looked back and caught sight of the Exceptional Abomination who was slow to duck aside. She screamed.

“It’s okay. Those undead have been created by Joseph. They will obey him.” Jessica said. It took at least three minutes of constant soothing before the women resumed walking again. And it seemed to my they were distinctly less enthusiastic than before.

Even after I showed them everything was okay, and that the minions were fully under my control, the women constantly looked my way with fearful stares back in my direction. C’mon…I just helped save you…

I stayed back and allowed Jessica to talk to them, as they seemed completely uncomfortable being anywhere near me. We had cleared all the spawns around here, and because of that the journey back was safe. They hadn’t seen a single enemy at all.

The other group were nowhere to be seen when we returned to the apartment, which I thought was for the best. It would definitely be less intimidating with just us two there to ask questions.

Once we’d given the women drinks and they had refreshed themselves, I let Jessica do all the talking and we heard the entire situation. According to these women, someone called Ghost Hand had occupied the very farm I’d identified as a promising place for a base, and he had been gathering people.

The problem was he wasn’t a good person, or a good leader. There were only four of five people close to him that had any levels and abilities, but around thirty people stayed there: the rest of them being either unleveled or extremely low level.

The problem arose when it came to women. Besides being required to do menial labor, they were treated as prostitutes. Refusal was not an option, and apparently two women had already been killed for refusing to play that role.

According to them, the farm was in good shape and had remained relatively unaffected by the apocalypse. Crops were harvestable and there were animals to be tended. Ghost Hand had already started to fortify the farm as well.

The men of the compound that he trusted were able to level and learn skills, and those that he didn’t trust did hard labor. Apparently Ghost Hand’s trusted men regularly searched in all directions to recruit survivors, whom would unknowingly end up in this slave-labor type situation.

The four women had managed to steal a vehicle and drive towards the city in hopes of escape. It was the one direction that Ghost Hand was afraid to explore because of the density and difficulty of the monsters. Unfortunately, about a mile out from where they had met Jessica and I, their car broke down and they were forced to continue on foot.

As I heard their story, I had felt a growing anger towards Ghost Hand, and Jessica was visibly livid by the time we had all the information. Ghost Hand and his trusted little group were essentially luring in women with the promise of safety, raping them, and forcing them into slavery.

I looked at Jessica and knew what she was thinking.

“We have to go there,” she said.

“I agree, but we’ll have to convince the others.” Our task was clear. To overthrow this Ghost Hand. He had already prepped the farm and recruited people to his cause but was abusing the situation instead of helping humanity survive.

We asked what they knew about him, but they didn’t know the extent of his abilities. Just that he had some sort of telekinetic power or invisible hand. They had been grabbed by it, choked by it—it was some sort of invisible force.

Ghost Hand and his men also had a few guns as well, which I expected but was a concern all the same. Although guns were not as dangerous to me as when I’d been low level, it seemed likely that a high-powered sniper rifle shot to the head could kill me. Hopefully, my HP could absorb a body shot and make it non-lethal.

It was mid-day and with my MP already being dangerously low, I stored the summoned undead away in Vast Shadow and decided it was fine to call it an early night. The women were completely exhausted, and after explaining their situation, just wanted a place to sleep.

Maybe Jessica had caught their names but I didn’t know them. It didn’t matter for now, that would come in time. Jessica set them up in the bedroom we usually slept in and put her own bedroll by the door to be sure that no one would bother them.

I didn’t know how to deal with this situation. It was obvious these women had been abused, and that could go several ways. In a whispered conversation though, Jessica convinced me that once we took the farm, there would be opportunities for all of them to begin the path to levelling up, regardless of how their experience had altered their perception of the world and the people around them. They could be valuable members of the community we wanted to build.