Rose let out a deep sigh. The wounds Baron and Drake suffered at the giant mantises’ claws were recovering well. It had been another life-threatening day in what had been the city of Colorado Springs. After nearly two weeks of surviving in the apocalyptic new world, they had each gotten stronger—well except Kassie. She’s too young to choose a path yet. She has three months until she turns eight.

Rose was suddenly torn away from her musings as a familiar crack echoed from outside, followed by several more. Rose hadn’t heard that sound since John had taken her to the gun range on his last home time.

Everyone in the convenience store froze at the sound of gunfire. Baron looked at Kassandra, confusion written across his face as he flexed his gauntlet-like prosthetic hand. He had lost that hand on the first day of the apocalypse, when he had tried to defend his wife and daughter from a mutated cat using his nine-millimeter. The gun—like all guns—blew up in his hand, leaving nothing but a seared and bloody stump where his hand had been.

Baron slowly stood up and quietly approached the thicket Rose had grown to protect themselves from the giant insects. They could hear the faint sounds of people yelling and insect screeching. How do people have guns? How are they able to use them without them exploding in their hands?

After a few minutes of gunshots and yelling, everything grew quiet outside. “It’s safe to come out now. The monsters are dead.” A man called out in the silence.

After a moment of not hearing a reply, he called out again. “My name is Corporal Higgins; my men and I are from the army base and we are gathering survivors together. We have a safe place where we can protect civilians. Come on out, you won’t be harmed.”

Baron, Kassandra, and Rose gathered together and conversed in a whisper.

“Can we trust them?” Kassandra asked.

“I don’t know,” Baron answered. “We’ve all seen how people have turned into little more than beasts, killing over a fucking roll of toilet paper.”

“But what if it’s true? What if they have a safe place? Drake almost died; Kassie can’t even defend herself.” Rose said.

Kassandra looked over at her kids in worry. There had been too many close calls. She turned back to Baron, “Should we try? If they are with the army, they should have food too, right?”

Baron’s stomach rumbled at the thought of food. The convenience store they sheltered in had already been picked clean, and they were all on short rations.

“We know you’re in the convenience store, behind the hedge. Just come on out. We’re not going to hurt you,” the Higgins said. There was an edge of irritation in his voice that hadn’t been there before. He seemed to be losing patience.

“I don’t know,” Baron whispered. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“But what are we going to do?” Rose asked. “They know we’re in here. We don’t have anywhere to go.”

“Maybe I should go scout it out,” Kassandra said.

As they pondered their options, they heard another, much quieter voice speak. “Why don’t we just go in and drag them out? You know Lord Jackson is getting impatient. We’re only a few people short of becoming a small town. He doesn’t care how we get them in, just that we get them.”

“Shit,” Byron swore. “We need to get out of here.”

“How are your Ki levels?” Kassandra asked. “My Mana is full. What about you Rose?”

“I’ve only got half of my Ki pool, but it will have to do.” Baron answered.

“My Mana is full too.” Rose said as she gripped her Soul-Bound staff tightly. Rose Reached out through her beast magic and readied all of her pets. Balder stood up and moved next to her stepson, Drake. The two bearded dragons, Alma and Krom, shifted back to the small tunnel they had dug to get inside and stood just outside of the hole. Apophis just laid there; the nearly ten-foot-long ball python merely twitched her head toward the thick bramble-like wall and flicked her tongue.

Kassandra got up and moved over to where the two kids were sleeping. Covering their mouths so they wouldn’t make any noise, she whispered, “You need to wake up. We’re going to need to run again.” It hadn’t been the first time they had to run away from evil-minded people who wanted to carve out their own little kingdom in all the chaos.

Drake jerked awake and recoiled from his mother’s grip. It took him a moment to come to his senses, then he nodded. Kassie, who was snuggled in with her Soul-Bound spirit fox named Foxy, only squirmed and tried to snuggle in deeper with her warm pet.

Kassandra released Drake as he got up. She then turned her attention to her daughter and gently shook her until Kassie finally opened her eyes. Kassie still looked exhausted. While her mother used Kassie’s minor perk to double the little girl’s Stamina pool, it didn’t help with her Regen rate.

Kassie groaned but sat up at her mother’s bidding.

Baron stood next to the hedge, his prosthetic hand already transfigured into a Metroid-looking blaster cannon, one of the four forms it could take. It had been a struggle to survive with only one hand for the first week. Once the second stage of Initialization began though, he had used his perk on a Soul-bound weapon that could function as his missing hand.

In the silence, just a minute after the second man spoke, the leader spoke again, but quietly, as if to his companion. “Fuck it. I’m tired of this shit. Peterson, burn me a way in.”

Everyone heard a loud whoosh, and the wall of vines smoked.

With the sudden speed reptiles were known for, the two-foot-long bearded dragons and the snake darted through the hole.

There was a snap-hiss as Drake activated his Soul-Bound Mana-blade. He approached the smoking plant wall to stand alongside Baron and Rose.

Rose shook her head and said, “No, stay back and protect your sister.”

“Balder is protecting her. I can fight.” Drake said back.

“Do as she said. Protect your sister.” Baron said in a tone that brooked no nonsense.

Sullenly, Drake moved to the back of the main room, where Kassie stood holding Foxie. Balder’s fur had already taken on the slate-gray coloration that showed his armor ability was activated, and his fangs had enlarged and turned crystalline.

“Where’s mommy?” Kassie asked.

Drake looked around and only just then noticed his mother had disappeared. Her disappearance wasn’t a surprise to him. Kassandra was a Rogue on the Path of Mana and had access to the shadow school of magic. She would disappear, only to reappear from a monster’s shadow and deal devastating damage to it.

Once the fire had managed to burn through most of the hedge, there was a scream of pain from outside, followed by the repeated clatter of bullets being fired. As though that was his signal, Baron brought his hand cannon up and launched a compressed ball of Ki. The attack burst through the remaining few vines and he charged out through the new gap, his cannon already changing back into his sword form.

Rose ran through immediately after Baron, green light glowing over her staff as she prepared her spell.

Once they burst through into the daylight, Baron caught sight of his wife fading back into the shadow of one man. The man had collapsed, blood pouring out of his sides. There were three other men out front. They all seemed to wear some kind of miss matched pieces of armor, comprising a Kevlar vest, and pieces of Chiton covering their shoulders, legs and arms.

The three men—who weren’t bleeding out—all held M4-carbines. They were firing where Kassandra had been. Baron used their distraction to his advantage as he charged in. before he could reach them, a mass of roots erupted from the ground and entangled the men, causing them to stumble and trip.

The reptiles took that opportunity, at the mental prodding of Rose, to charge in. Apophis latched on to the gun arm of one man and immediately coiled itself around him. The beardies couldn’t do much in the way of damage, but they aided the root spell by grabbing onto the ankles of the other two men and chewed on them. Their tiny teeth couldn’t penetrate the armor, but it provided an extra bit of distraction.

Rose made sure Balder stayed in to protect the children. She didn’t want the kids out where bullets were flying.

The fire mage managed to down a potion that stopped his bleeding before he raised a wand in his hand and pointed it at Baron. A bolt of condensed fire flew at Baron, but he simply cut it in half with his Ki-Infused blade.

The fire mage’s eyes grew wide in panic as Baron followed through with his block, reversing the swing and going right for the caster’s head. One gunman managed to tear through the roots holding him in place, and he shoulder checked Baron just before the swing could connect. It threw Baron off balance and he stumbled past. Baron grunted in pain as a three-round burst struck him in the back. Each round managed to penetrate his Ki enhanced natural armor, causing blood to spray out from his back and knock him all the way to the ground.

Kassandra re-appeared in the man’s shadow who had shot her husband, stabbing him right in the kidney before vanishing a second later.

A loud crash, immediately followed by a pained yelp from Balder, caused Rose to spin around. An enormous figure, at least seven-feet-tall, came stomping out of the convenience store, holding Drake and Kassie dangling by their necks. The figure was wearing what looked like a suit of Fallout knockoff power armor. it was big, bulky and felt powerful.

The poor kids were holding onto his forearms, trying to keep their weight off of their neck. A man’s voice sounded out, slightly distorted as though it came from a loudspeaker. “Stop! Put down your weapons and kneel on the ground. If you don’t, I’ll snap one of the kid’s necks like a twig.”

Rose instantly dropped her staff and fell to her knees. She knew she couldn’t do much, anyway. She only had a few spells, and the only one that had any direct combat application was her root spell. She could talk to animals mentally, see in the dark, and use a minor regeneration spell, but that was about it.

The rest of the men broke free of the entangling roots. One of them pulled out a set of handcuffs and forced Baron’s hands behind his back while another kneeled on his neck. As soon as the cuffs were on him, the sword form reverted to looking like a gauntlet and went limp. They dragged him over next to Rose and forced him to his knees.

“Where is the other one?” the guy in the power armor asked.

“Captain, we don’t know. She has shadow powers and keeps vanishing,” one man answered.

“You have to the count of three to appear and kneel on the ground or the little girl dies. One. Two—” he paused in his counting as a mass of sparks fly off of his back. Kassandra had appeared behind him, trying to stab him in what looked like a gap in his armor. Before she could vanish again or do anything else, he swung around with Drake still in his hand and hit Kassandra with her own son.

Drake cried out in pain, and he knocked Kassandra to the side. The man placed his heavy, power-armored boot on her back, making her writhe in pain.

“God damn fucking lizard,” a man behind rose cried. A series of gunshots fallowed it. Rose jerked her head around and saw, to her horror, that her bearded dragons had both been killed, along with her husband’s snake. Tears welled up in her eyes as she slumped.

“You will let the kids go, or so help me…” Baron was saying, before they had clubbed him behind the head with the stock of a carbine.

“Kill him,” the Captain said. The man who clubbed Baron carried his order out. He brought up his gun. It started glowing blue before it unleashed a torrent of rounds. Each bullet found its mark, splattering Baron’s gray matter, blood, and bone all over the ground.

Rose gasped and tried to cry out before she was backhanded across the face. “Shut up, bitch.”

Rose cradled her face. She feared he might have broken something. The strike had taken off almost fifteen Health. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Balder. He was dragging one of his hind legs, but still trying to make his way to the children. A dedicated protector to the end.

“You will each put one of these collars around your neck. For each of you who refuses, a child will die.” The captain declared. Drake and Kassie were both crying. The Captain had yet to put them down.

One soldier dropped a black metallic collar on the cement in front of her. Looking back at the kids dangling in the captain’s grip. She quickly used Identify on the collar.

Suppression Collars, Minor

These Collars are capable of suppressing any energy-based abilities regardless of the Path of Power chosen. Any energy regeneration is halted. Stamina recovery is reduced by half.

This Collar will stun anyone who tries to remove it themselves for 1 minute.

This Collar can only be removed by the control rod it is keyed to.

This Collar must be placed on by the individual being collared

Value: c1,000

It’s over. We’re captured, and our freedom is at an end. Rose thought as she brought the devise up to her own neck. She noticed Balder still trying to creep over. They might have been captured, but that didn’t mean Balder had to be. All her other pets were dead. Balder could survive.

At the moment before she clicked the collar in place, she sent out a mental command to her Soul-Bound Familiar. ‘Run. Run away from here, boy. Protect yourself. Stay safe.’

She felt Balder’s resistance to the idea. He didn’t want to leave her or the kids. Rose had to think fast to come up with a way that would get him to listen. He was a good boy, but like all huskies, he was stubborn.

Go find John. Find John boy. John can help us. Rose included a mental image of her husband to reinforce the command. She pushed hard, and Balder finally obeyed. He limped away, ears laid back against his head and tail tucked between his legs. Rose let out a sigh as no one paid any attention to the dog. She let the collar click in place and lost all access to her Mana.