We’d barely made it half a block when a scream ripped through the sirens—raw, terrified, way too close.

  Ethan froze beside me, nails digging into my arm. “Tyler—” His voice was a squeak, barely there.

  My first instinct was to run. Heroics weren’t exactly my thing; survival was. Every muscle screamed at me to bolt.

  But then the system pinged, smug and unbothered, right in my vision:

  \[Emergency Quest: Rescue the Civilian. Reward: Minor Stat Boost, Mystery Drop.\]

  A timer started counting down in the corner of my eye.

  I swallowed hard. “Stay here,” I said, forcing my voice steady. I pushed Ethan behind a toppled phone booth, hoping it would be enough. “If I’m not back in two minutes—run.”

  He nodded, but his breath came in little gasps, and he clutched his battered Pokémon backpack like it was a shield.

  I edged around the corner.

  A girl—maybe college-age—was pinned under an overturned food truck. Her jeans were torn, her leg trapped beneath the axle. Three of those five-legged chickens stalked around her, slick red feathers, eyes glowing, claws scraping on pavement. She thrashed, swinging a broken umbrella in wild arcs. Hopeless.

  She spotted me—the ridiculous magical girl getup, bows, skirt, hair everywhere. “Please!” she sobbed. “Help! Somebody—please—”

  My heart hammered against my ribs. I wanted to turn and run, to be invisible, to rewind the world to yesterday. The skirt itched. My boots pinched. My hands shook so badly I almost dropped the Heart Rod.

  The system’s timer ticked louder.

  I forced myself forward.

  First chicken lunged. I jerked sideways, off-balance—my center of gravity was a bad joke. Skirt whipped up, flashing too much. Humiliation, terror, and pure panic all at once. I stabbed out with the Heart Rod, not even aiming.

  “LOVE BLAST!” The words tore out of me.

  A burst of pink energy punched the monster, feathers and blood and confetti spraying everywhere. The creature hit the food truck with a wet crunch. I staggered, boots squeaking, barely upright.

  The other two came at me, claws flashing. I ducked, swung. Pain slashed across my arm—hot, real, undeniable. The Heart Rod pulsed, warmth shooting up my wrist.

  “LOVE BLAST!” I screamed, voice cracking.

  Another shockwave—pink light shredded the monsters into gore and pixelated dust. The smell hit me: sweet, rotten, wrong. I gagged.

  I dropped to my knees beside the girl, hands clumsy with adrenaline. “Can you move?” My voice shook.

  She stared up, filth and tears streaking her face. “What are you?”

  “Not important. Come on.” I wedged myself against the truck, muscles straining. System magic, panic, I didn’t care. The axle lifted—just an inch, but enough. She dragged herself out, collapsed against me, sobbing. Blood smeared my hands.

  For a second, neither of us moved. I wanted to scream at the sky, at the system, at whoever thought this was funny.

  Instead, I just whispered, “You’re okay. You’re safe now. I think.”

  \[Quest Complete: Civilian Rescued! +75 XP. Mystery Drop: “Compassionate Charm.”\]

  Ethan peeked around the corner, wide-eyed. “You did it. Holy crap, Tyler, you did it!”

  The girl hung onto my arm like I was some kind of angel.

  Me? I just felt hollow and raw, every nerve ragged. I didn’t feel heroic. I felt like a fraud in a skirt.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  I used to joke with Jay about what we’d do in an apocalypse—baseball bats, a shopping cart full of snacks. Never this. Never a magic wand and a dress. I wondered if my mom would even recognize me. If I could ever get home, or if home was even still there.

  But the timer kept counting down. Somewhere, the city burned. Monsters hunted. And deep down, I wondered if I was rescuing them, or if I was the one who needed saving.

  Down the block, a car alarm blared, then sputtered out—batteries dying or circuits fried. Looters sprinted past a busted ATM, arms full of whatever they could grab. Lights flickered in shattered windows. Someone screamed behind a chain-link fence. Then nothing but static. I checked my phone—screen frozen, battery stuck at 0%. The world was breaking in a dozen tiny ways, and nobody was coming to fix it.

  I missed jeans. My beat-up hoodie with ramen stains from last winter. Being just another face in the crowd—not a target, not a joke, not a hero.

  We limped away from the wreckage—the three of us—smoke curling from the ruined food truck, feathers and blood and confetti littering the pavement. Sirens wailed, distant and warped, like the world was underwater.

  Ethan gripped my hand, knuckles white. The girl—Jamie, she told us, wiping her face with the back of her hand—had a streak of glitter in her hair from the confetti. She caught me looking and made a face. “If we get out of this, I’m never eating chicken nuggets again.”

  It was a dumb joke, but it made me snort. “Deal.”

  Every movement felt wrong; the skirt chafed, my hair kept falling in my eyes, my voice sounded like a stranger’s. I wanted to crawl out of my own skin, but all I could do was keep moving.

  We ducked into the shadow of a mostly untouched pharmacy. I let Jamie prop her injured leg on a crate. Ethan hovered by the door, peering out for monsters, for help, for any sign the world might make sense again. He kept fiddling with that Pikachu keychain on his pack, twisting it around his finger.

  Jamie glanced at me. “You… you really saved me,” she said, voice trembling.

  I tried to laugh, but it came out shaky. “Don’t thank me yet. I still can’t walk in these boots.”

  She almost smiled. That helped. A little.

  The adrenaline faded. My hands started to shake. I pressed them to my face and realized, too late, I was crying—quiet, hot, ugly tears. I turned away, embarrassed, but Jamie didn’t say anything. Neither did Ethan.

  The system pinged, softer now:

  \[XP: 225/300 — Level Up Imminent!\]

  \[New Item: Compassionate Charm (Passive: Boosts defense when protecting others.)\]

  I wanted to smash the Heart Rod through the window. Was I supposed to feel proud? Strong? All I felt was empty and so, so tired.

  Jamie’s voice was gentle. “What’s your name?”

  For a second, I almost said Tyler. But the name tasted strange, foreign in this bright, delicate body.

  I looked at my hands—small, shaking, unfamiliar. I made myself meet her eyes. “Tyler,” I said, voice cracking. “Just… Tyler.”

  She nodded. No questions, no jokes. Just squeezed my hand. “Thank you, Tyler.”

  Outside, the world kept ending. But for a moment, I wasn’t alone. Maybe that was enough to take another step.

  The system pinged again, jarring:

  \[Objective: Search for Supplies. Bonus XP for Medical Items Collected.\]

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, of course,” I muttered, creeping further in, Heart Rod gripped tight. My boots squeaked across broken tile. My skirt brushed a rack of “Get Well Soon!” cards, still sparkling. It felt like a joke only the city could tell.

  Behind the counter, I found a half-empty first aid kit and a box of bandages. I grabbed them, plus a couple of water bottles. Every bit mattered. When I came back, Jamie’s face was pale, but she tried to smile as I knelt.

  “I’m not a nurse,” I said, fumbling with the bandages, “but I watched a lot of YouTube.”

  Jamie actually laughed—a real, shaky laugh. “That’s one up on me. I faint at the sight of blood.”

  Ethan handed me the water, and Jamie drank like it was the best thing in the world.

  For a second, the sirens faded. Silence pressed in, heavy and strange. It almost felt safe.

  Then the system pinged, insistent:

  \[Warning: Hostile Entities Approaching. Time Remaining: 18:54\]

  Ethan’s eyes went huge. “What do we do?”

  Panic flickered, but I pushed it down. I pictured Jay, back before everything, daring me to pull an all-nighter. My mom’s voice, promising things would get better. I couldn’t let them down—not now.

  Jamie looked at me, trusting. Ethan squeezed my hand.

  Outside, a busted drone hung from a power line, its camera lens cracked, sparks fizzing into the rain. Someone had scrawled HELP in lipstick across a delivery van. The city groaned and flickered, caught between what it was and what it was turning into.

  “We move,” I said, forcing the words out. “We stick together. We find a safe zone, or make one if we have to.”

  Jamie nodded, jaw clenched. She wiped her eyes, then grabbed a glass bottle from the shelf. “I’m not going down without a fight.”

  Ethan shuffled closer, holding my arm like a lifeline. “I’ve got your back. Or, uh, at least your side.”

  I led them out the back, away from the street. The alley was a mess of trash and broken glass but quieter. My boots crunched with every step. I kept one eye on the timer, the other on the shadows.

  Somewhere in the distance, a monster roared. Overhead, the sky flickered, blue and glitchy.

  Some part of me wanted to run. Some part wanted to hide, to wake up safe in my old bed, to hear my mom humming in the kitchen. But those wishes felt as far away as the world I’d lost. All I could do was move forward. One step. Then another.

  But right here, for a moment, it was just us—three scared humans in a city that didn’t care if we made it. I wasn’t sure if that made me a hero or just the one who hadn’t given up yet.

  The system pinged again, almost gently.

  \[New Objective: Reach Safe Zone (Distance: 0.7 miles)\]

  I squared my shoulders, wiped my face, and started walking.