Margie glared at Quinton and felt a vein start to throb in her forehead. “What do you mean you can’t fight?“ She hissed.

The man stared back at her, placid and unbothered. “I can’t fight.“ He repeated plainly.

Margie took a deep breath. “You feel very dangerous. You’re trying to tell me that you aren’t?“ She did her best to keep her voice level, considering what was on the other side of the hill.

Quinton nodded, his beanie bobbing with the motion.

“Yeah. None of my Skills work here.“

Margie took another deep breath and counted to five. He felt scary, but he couldn’t back it up. She had a walking bluff on her side. “Why do you feel so frightening then? Is that a Skill?“

He shook his head. “No.“

Margie waited. Quinton stared at her. Margie waited some more. Quinton continued to stare. “Why do you feel so scary then!“ she hissed. She would turn into a snake if she didn’t stop that.

Quinton stared at her blankly for a few more seconds before slowly shrugging. “People started reacting after I hit level 10.”

Margie blinked. Level 10? How on God's green earth had he already reached level 10?

“How?“

He shrugged again. “Fought.”

Margie counted to five again, slower. “So you fought enough to reach level 10, but none of your Skills will help here?“

Quinton pondered the question like a cow chewing on some cuud. After a very slow count of 10, he answered. “Yes.“

Margie started to take a deep breath, then forced herself to just breathe normally. “OK. So, here’s what we’re going to do. We are going to sneak around the giant bear, no fighting necessary.“

Quinton shrugged.

Margie decided to interpret the grunt as agreement.

She glanced over the hill.

There was a small clearing on the other side lined by birch trees. It would have been a lovely spot for a picnic if it wasn’t for the clearing’s occupant. The massive black bear was the size of a Volkswagen bug and was, thankfully, asleep. But each of its breaths sent flames roaring from its nose.

Margie was in no hurry to wake the beast, especially if she had a traveling companion who couldn’t do anything but stand around and feel scary.

Noodle and Buford looked up at her, and she gave them each a scratch behind the ear. She didn’t need to explain the plan to them. They actually had brains.

They slowly started making their way around the hill, Buford in the front. Even without her Skill active, the dog was still a better trailblazer than she was.

Margie had always trained her boys well, but before the System came, there was no way she could’ve gotten him to sneak on command. Now, she didn’t even question if they could understand. They were smart now. Not human smart, but she wasn’t sure how far off they were from it anymore.

Walking quietly through the snow was a pain, and she was sure the bear already would have heard and charged them if they tried to sneak by while it was awake.

Unsurprisingly, Quinton barely made a sound as he followed behind. Well, at least he had that going for him. Slow and infuriating as the man had been over the last 10 minutes, at least he was good at being quiet.

Margie‘s legs begin to ache halfway around the hill.

She made sure to stay in shape and walk every day, but she was old, and there was only so much you could do against Father Time.

And right now, she didn’t even have Micheal’s buff. And walking through snow was a lot harder than walking on paved or even dirt trails.

Before hitting level five, she doubted she could’ve made it this far.

Despite her rising exhaustion, she pressed on.

Forcing herself to keep moving wasn’t that hard, but her focus took a hit.

Her foot landed on a fallen branch and it broke with a wet snap. Everyone froze and slowly looked toward the bear. Its flaming breaths halted. So did Margie‘s heart, for that matter.

One Mississippi.

Two Mississippi.

Three Mississippi.

Margie got ready to use her Skills. Four Mississippi.

Five Mississippi!

The bear started breathing again, squirming slightly before settling against the snow.

It took an effort of will not to let out a sigh of relief.

They made it the rest of the way without another slip-up. But Margie didn’t fully relax until they were at least 200 yards past the clearing.

Maybe they could’ve taken the bear in a fight, but Margie was glad they didn’t have to find out.

“Why are you in such a rush?”

Quinton had been quiet for so long that it took the words a moment to register. “What do you mean?“

Quinton slowly raised a finger towards the pillar. “Why do you want to get there so badly?“

Margie was about to snap, but when she looked at the man, she saw genuine curiosity.

Her irritation drained away.

“Because there are people there I need to get to, Quinton. Do you… Do you understand?“

The man considered her words in silence as they walked before nodding once.

“Yes.”

Margie waited for the man to elaborate, but he seemed to think that was sufficient.

She decided not to push him.

Something was wrong with him. Maybe the System’s arrival had broken him, had taken something from him.

Margie took a deep breath. She was irritable because she was mad at herself and worried for the others. She shouldn’t take it out on Quinton.

He was strange, and his presence felt even stranger, but she would be kind to the man unless he proved he didn’t deserve it.

“I’m sorry for being so snappy. This whole thing has gotten me on edge, ya know?”

Quinton shook his head.

“No. This whole thing has been… Interesting. The most interesting thing that happened to me in years.“

That was… Certainly a take. Her concerns for and of Quinton rose sharply.

“I see. “ Margie groped for a conversation topic. “What did you do before?“

“Data entry.“

Margie raised a brown. “Did you like it?“

He shook his head once.

“I had a lot of jobs,“ Margie said absently. “I was a journalist for a bit. Had a stint working on research papers, gathering statistics, interviewing people. It was fun.“

Margie glanced at Quinton. And he had the same bored, almost emotionless expression he’d had when she first saw him, but she thought there was a hint of interest in his eyes.

She kept going, prodding him with questions of her own as they walked.

Quinton tended to respond with a single word to most questions. But Margie decided that was better than tense silence. She kept up the quiet flow of conversation as they marched towards the pillar.