We followed the Branticore. It was walking on two legs now, like an enormous furry, and it seemed much more cheerful—it couldn't speak, but it was smiling and waving us onward like it was excited to show us something.

  We were led to one of the rooftop's abandoned restaurants, a burger joint that did fast food at restaurant prices. The Branticore found a table that didn't have blood on it, sat on the floor beside it, and beckoned us to join it. As we pulled up chairs, it produced a set of plastic plates.

  [ You survived the Branticore through Time-Out. As a reward, you may choose one of the following snacks to improve your [Healthy Guts]:

  Count Snakula's "Protein" Bar (Strawberry and Creme): Bonus HP.

  Slamboys (Wall Chicken): Bonus damage.

  Warpdrive Jelly (Purple Nootropic): Bonus EXP. ]

  I turned to Chaz. "What do you reckon?"

  Chaz rubbed his chin. "Healthy Guts only lasts the rest of the day, so we won't get much more experience. Something to help us survive the tutorial might be better..."

  "I'm taking damage," Kara said.

  "Are you sure?" I asked. "Extra HP might help with your Death Discount."

  "So does knocking porcs out before they can do anything," Kara pointed out.

  We all picked Slamboys. I'd pondered going for bonus EXP, to get that next essence as quickly as possible, but Kara was right. Besides, that last raid was a mess. We won in the end, but people still got their butts kicked by dollar-store Lord of the Rings villains. We needed to end these fights faster.

  The Branticore waved its paw over our plates like it was sprinkling salt, and piles of crinkled potato chips dropped onto them. Little bowls of dip and shredded cheese were produced from behind the creature's back and added to the table.

  Then it took a selfie with us. Kara grinned and made a peace sign. I mostly just looked confused.

  "I was wondering what Slamboys would be," Chaz said, once we were free to eat. "Some of these brand names are so weird."

  "You got that right," I said, hopping to my feet. The restaurant's drinks fridge was untouched. "I'm gonna get a Bepsi. Anyone want anything?"

  Once drinks were distributed, we tucked into our snacks. I ate in silence at first, partly because I was checking my system windows—Healthy Guts had become Healthy Guts+, and now my attacks did "0-50% extra damage"—but also because I wasn't sure what to say with the Branticore munching on chips beside me. So, you breathe fire at people often?

  Val spoke first. "So, why'd you kill your granddad?"

  I choked on my drink.

  "Don't worry, he's bullshitting," Chaz said.

  "Chaz, that's—" I began, then stopped. The Branticore was giving me a Dude, what the hell? look. "It's not like that, okay?!"

  Kara coughed. "I understand if you really don't want to talk about it, but it's probably better if we get the full story now, right?"

  Lex fidgeted. "I mean, if that's okay with you..."

  Khan slithered into an empty seat to join the conversation. "Context would be much appreciated, young William."

  The Branticore nodded.

  I sighed. "... Fine. I mentioned I helped raise my siblings, right?"

  "In high school, yeah," Kara said. The Branticore shrugged.

  I sipped my Bepsi. "When I was at university, we found out my granddad had dementia. My parents were still busy, so I came home to help out. It wasn't hard. Mostly cleaning up after him, that kind of thing."

  Lex nodded sympathetically. "My gramps had Alzheimer's. We had to put him in a home."

  "We had trouble getting one. Anyway, after a while he started hallucinating. As soon as the sun went down, he'd start packing his bags and trying to catch a bus home."

  "I think I see where this is going," Kara said. Chaz, who knew where this was going, waggled a hand. I ignored them.

  "Anyway, I started locking the doors at night. So he couldn't leave while I was asleep, you know? He'd still try, but mostly he'd just look for the keys for an hour and forget what he was doing."

  "So what happened?" Val asked.

  I leaned back, exhaled, and addressed the rest of the story to the chips.

  "One night I got bored, so I decided to leave him alone for a while and watch a show. While I was doing that, he tried a window."

  Now Kara saw where this was going. "Uh oh."

  "Yeah. He took a tumble, and that was it. We got him to the hospital, but he was gone the next day."

  Awkward silence spread through the room like bad perfume.

  "Ouch," Kara said eventually.

  Val blinked. "Wait, so you didn't eliminate him?"

  "I never said I did!" I ate another Slamboy. "It was just my fault. If I'd noticed in time..."

  Lex frowned. "Okay, but was it just you watching him?"

  "My parents took him to appointments and helped him change and stuff like that. They didn't do nothing. And they worked a lot, remember?"

  Chaz spoke up. "And were they at work when this happened, bro?"

  "No, date night. "

  The others stared.

  "And did they ever drop you on your head?" Val asked.

  Chaz turned to the Branticore and did a get-a-lot-of-this-guy gesture. "You seeing this?"

  "Don't you start," I snapped. The Branticore was nodding way too enthusiastically. "Look, I've heard all of this before, okay? It doesn't matter. If I'd noticed earlier, my granddad would still be around. Simple as that."

  "Is this why you've been freaking out?" Kara asked.

  "Aren't you?" I replied. "Our shift ended twenty-four hours ago and I have a stat window that says I've killed sixty-nine zombies."

  "Nice," Chaz said automatically.

  "You know what I mean," Kara said.

  Khan munched on some chips. "You've seemed more troubled than most. Is this why? The thought that if the lives of others are in your hands, they might slip through your fingers? Or is it the fear that your own life will be consumed by the grip?"

  "...They've been in my hands half my life, and I still screwed up. I don't want to do it any more. Okay?"

  Val thought to herself for a moment, nodded, and stood up.

  "Joe's texting me. I gotta take these to go. Thanks for the food, man."

  We watched as Val fistbumped the Branticore, took a selfie, and ran away again.

  "Yeah, right," I said to the door. "Where do you think she's really going?"

  "What are you, her dad?" Kara teased.

  I turned back to the group and changed the subject. "Fine, Kara. It's your turn."

  Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

  "...To do what?"

  "To talk. You've all been ganging up on me, now I get to ask questions. How are you still so cheerful?"

  "You do seem kind of eager to fight," Lex said. "Um, relatively."

  Kara shrugged. "I mean, this beats retail."

  "Well, yeah, obviously," I said, as the others agreed. Even the Branticore managed a thumbs-up.

  "Anyway, if you're asking me what my deal is, I assumed my sister told you," she continued.

  That did trigger a memory. "I think I remember. Your mum got hit by a car?"

  "We both did," Kara said. "She died, I didn't. Did she mention dad?"

  "...They both got hit?"

  Kara scooped up the last of her chips. "Not at the same time, obviously."

  Lex blinked. "How many car accidents have you been in?"

  "Four," Kara said, and swallowed. "One with my dad when I was like six, and then again with my mum when I was fourteen. The second time I was legally dead for a little bit!"

  I wasn't sure what to say. "I'm sorry."

  "That's rough, buddy," Chaz said.

  "What about the other two?" Lex asked.

  Kara waved that off. "They don't matter. The point is, I locked in the top three worst days of my life before I got here. I can handle this."

  Lex thought about that. "There was a third one?"

  "Oh, yeah. Jerry made me work a double shift and then I had to deal with Poop Guy."

  I winced. "Oh, yeah. I remember Poop Guy."

  Lex didn't. "Poop Guy?"

  Chaz put a helpful hand on her shoulder as we stared into the distance. "You don't want to ask about Poop Guy."

  Khan spoke up again. "While we're trading stories, might I enquire as to why young Chaz is so eager to be transported to another world?"

  Chaz shrugged. "I like adventures, bro. It's not deep."

  "Don't bother," I warned Khan. "No dead people in this guy's backstory, no cars, nothing. He doesn't have shit."

  "My life was alright," Chaz agreed. "I wasn't desperate to be isekai'd, but I'll take it if I'm offered. Sorry."

  Kara nudged Lex. "How about you? Anything bugging you?"

  "I almost got eaten by a wolf and I definitely got framed for murder," Lex said.

  "...Okay, fair."

  I didn't enquire further. At least we could deal with that problem. Right after—

  I sat up. "Oh, shit. I was going to talk to Magic."

  "Oh, right!" Lex said. "We can get to his safe room now!"

  "And he can leave," Kara said. "You wanna go make sure it's in a bag?"

  "No," I said, hurriedly finishing my chips. "Well, maybe. I got an idea. Are we good to go?"

  The Branticore nodded, clapped a hand on my shoulder, and gave me a thumbs up. Was it saying you've got this? I was getting the hang of this guy.

  "Thanks," I said. "And, uh, see you around?"

  The Branticore waved and ambled away. When we stepped outside, it was flapping away over the wall.

  It's Reggie 4:51 PM

  Congrats on surviving, cuz!

  We're all good down here. Cosmo's pretty down, but I reckon he'll pull through.

  Harm 4:51 PM

  We locked up the new Expired. Killing them again felt weird, but we did take their stuff. Got a couple things Lex might wanna look at, if that's okay.

  Lexy 4:51 PM

  Sure. We're coming down, I'll see you soon.

  WillT 4:52 PM

  Is Magic still in his safe zone?

  Harm 4:52 PM

  Oh yeah. There's a few people who just want to talk to him if he comes out. Friends of the guys he unalived.

  WillT 4:52 PM

  Oh, that's perfect!

  Do they have any keys?

  The porcs had completely trashed Gateway. The other survivors were picking through the mess for leftover supplies, using the altar, and taking their spoils back to the safe zone. We'd try to keep an eye on the area, but the supermarket was done as a safe house.

  Magic and his crew were still goofing off in the tobacconist's, vaping and chatting. Tad was in the corner, trying to debate something with Painapple as Dora annoyed him. Magic was having a joke explained to him by Spud. He eagerly broke away as we pulled up to the shutter.

  "You losers are back for more, huh?" he asked, a mocking grin plastered on his face.

  "No, actually," I said. The others had agreed to step back when I explained what I had in mind. "You destroyed Gateway, man. Now you're in there and we can't touch you. Obviously you win. We'll leave you alone now. Pretty good for level one."

  Magic laughed. "We're level two, idiot. Otherwise we'd have exploded like four hours ago?" He gave us a funny look and a little shake of his head. "Duh?"

  Spud butted in. "Haha, and Zeddie would've killed us!"

  His friends laughed. I smiled.

  "Thanks for the info. Level two, huh?"

  Tad's head snapped up. "Uh, Clint..."

  "It's Magic! Wait, ya think he's gonna sit here and wait us out? Leave his little girlfriends hanging? My arse. He's bluffing."

  I folded my arms. "I mean, it'd probably help us. You got six people killed, Clint."

  Magic flinched. "...Bullshit. And if I did, skill issue."

  I held my hand out sideways. "Chaz?"

  Chaz put a book in it. "I got you, bro."

  "Thanks, bro. Now, let's see," I said. "'Death Daddy Mementome: Matthew Jansen.' That's Mad Dog. 'Killed By: Porc (Crossbow). Posthumous Achievements: So Much For Stealth, The Zett-ish Are Coming...' Huh, that seems kind of rude, actually? He risked a lot to help us..."

  Magic rolled his eyes. "What's this supposed to be?"

  I shut the book. "When an ally dies, you get a crate with this book about their life in it. Actually, we think there's some other requirement too? Fighting alongside them, or something. I didn't get one for Max even though I rescued his arse."

  Magic narrowed his eyes. "Where is this going?"

  I held my other hand out. "Kara, Lex?"

  Kara slapped another Mementome in my hand as dramatically as possible. Lex pulled five more books out of Snakpak with absolutely zero drama. Magic and his friends had stopped laughing.

  "This one's Max," I said, flipping to the back. "He owned the bottle-o, by the way. It says here he was killed by Force Braz with a Breaker Spear. He'd just come back from the OddBotz store, and he couldn't escape fast enough."

  "...And what do I have to do with this?" Magic tried, but he'd stopped looking smug.

  I stared him down. "If you hadn't screwed with the safe zones, Max would still be around. Simple as that."

  Magic broke eye contact first. "Fuck off. What do you want?"

  "Nothing, man," I said. "I was serious about leaving you alone. We're not gonna kill you or anything. I truly do not believe you're actually happy about six people dying. You might be a prick, but you're not a fucking prick."

  "Seven, bro," Chaz add. "That Blayden guy should count."

  "Yeah, but I asked Harmony if she could give us his Mementome and she taught me how to say 'fuck off' in Korean." I took the remaining books from Lex and carefully stacked them in front of the shutter, where Magic could pull them in easily. "You can take these."

  When I stood back up, Magic was just glaring at me. If he was freaking out, he was still too prideful to show it.

  "Did I get everything?" I asked the others.

  "I think so," Kara said. "Except for the part where the people you got the books from will be down here in a minute."

  "I think they're here now," Lex said, pointing. A group of survivors of varying ages and similar glares were making their way down the escalator behind us.

  "Yeah, that," I said, as Magic paled. "They said they'd think about letting you out, so... good luck, I guess. We'll leave you alone now. Take it easy."

  I turned and walked away.

  Behind us, Magic hit the shutter. "Hey. Hey! Get back here!"

  "Not bad," Kara said, ignoring him.

  Tad's sister Dora kicked the shutter. "Wait up! It wasn't my idea! I didn't even help these incels! Hey!"

  "I hope they let Painapple out," Chaz said. "I wanna see what happens when I advance his story."

  "Do you think it'll work?" Lex asked.

  I shrugged. "It might? Honestly, it's not up to us. We're not the main victims."

  "I hope they let him explode," Kara said. "I thought that was the point."

  "I was also kind of hoping that he'd blow up," Lex volunteered.

  "Well, it's not our responsibility now. If they trap him in there, you can come back and watch," I said. "What's next?"

  "Altar?" Chaz asked. "But gimme your pillage crates if you have any. I'm doing a thing."

  A Zettachat notification popped up. I checked it idly as we walked.

  "You get one from looting someone, right? Maybe we should ask Harmony if she—"

  I froze.

  VVVVVV 5:11 PM

  Please don't come here.

  WillT 5:11 PM

  What? Where?

  Daddy_Big_Pants 5:12 PM

  Want to guess? Let's play a game.

  How good are you at Hangman?