"Thank you again, Chlo. I have no idea where I would be without you."
I didn't reply. My focus was split between finding a sturdy ground to plant my tripod-walking stick and watching out for any movement in the bushes.
I already told Andy to be quiet three times. But the man just couldn't shut up. He was also carrying both our backpacks, and they were making a thumping and jangling sound with every step he took.
His memory was fuzzy, and I had to recount the events to him. My throat was raw from talking, my cuts and bruises hurt, and the Sun beating down on our heads was making me woozy.
"Can you tell me again what your card says? What other options did you have? Did you try to open the status page? You must have stats, or class, or traits. Maybe boons..."
I zoned out his mumbling. He had been going on about this for a while, too. If the man wasn't showering me with thanks, he was talking about the system.
As per Andy's theory, killing dinos gave me some kind of experience, and that is what set the system to initiate. He had many more theories, but my headache was making it hard to focus on his words. I also refused to play with my menu under his direction.
All I wanted was a doctor to tell me they could stitch up my forehead with no scarring. And a long nap, that would make me forget this entire situation ever happened.
A rustling of the bushes to our right drew my attention, and I grabbed Andy's hand. The cuts on my palm were stinging from the contact, but I squeezed his hand until he finally shut up. Another bright yellow lizard crossed our path. I breathed out in relief, dropping his sweaty palm immediately.
"It's so weird that those two dinos found us all the way up at the viewpoint. Like, if the monsters are spawning everywhere, there should be more of them here…"
We were almost at the parking lot. The sounds of nails scraping over metal and a high-pitched roar made Andy shut up without a cue from me.
I indicated for him to stay behind. I was quickly learning that being discreet and Andy did not mix up.
On my hands and knees, I carefully crawled towards the parking lot. Tall trees and waist-high shrubs blocked the view, and I could already smell the sun-heated asphalt when the gory scene opened to me.
Two dinos were tearing out chunks of flesh from a body and raising their heads to send bloody pieces down their gullets, like oversized chickens at the watering trough.
I swayed, even though all four limbs of my body were planted firmly on the ground. The site was so surreal that reality came to me in stunted fragments.
A palm, attached to a hand, still covered in an old school Patagonia print jacket, moved with a jerk of a dino's head.
The metal scraping sound repeated itself. I moved my head. A third dino was jumping up a grey Volvo SUV. Its claws were scraping over the body of the car, like it was trying to get inside by ripping the door out. The passenger side glass was full of cracks and was going to break any second now. Someone must have been inside, but I couldn't see them from my low vantage point.
I crawled back to Andy, holding my "spear" close, so it wouldn't make too much noise. The locking mechanism on the bottom flare suffered from the fight, and it was falling open at the most inconvenient moments.
"What's there?" Andy whispered. He was squatting behind another bend in the road and finally acted like he grasped the severity of the situation.
His old Ford Focus was parked at the same parking lot, and it was our best way out. I doubted my leg would survive a two-hour hike to town.
"Three small dinosaurs. It looks like they attacked two people. One is dead, one is still hiding in the car."
To Andy's credit, he looked scared only for a few seconds. After that, his brain kicked in.
"We should help the survivor. We can't leave them," he said.
"And how do you suggest we dispatch the dinos? Wanna work as a bait again?"
Andy paled a little further but still replied firmly.
"No, we should set up a trap."
"You have seen the monsters. How exactly would you suggest we make a trap without a rope, a shovel or an axe?"
Andy rubbed his forehead for a few moments. "Gravity. We should throw something heavy at them."
"To throw something heavy, you should first lift something heavy, and you can barely…"
I shut up, suddenly remembering a spot on the trail I had seen before. A large tree trunk was barely supported by a few boulders. It was big, but Andy was at least six feet tall and close to three hundred pounds himself. Bigger people tended to be able to move more weight, even if they didn't put their time into working out.
"Alright, follow me. There is a convenient spot up the trail. If you can push the tree down the hill, it could work. But I am not doing it without a test."
"You want to squish them with the tree? How will we get them there?" Andy asked.
I could tell he knew how. He just didn't want to be the one to do it.
"Don't worry. You will just have to push as soon as you see the dinos. I won't be able to outrun the things either, but I have this stupid system and a [Leap]."
We walked towards the stretch of a hike near a cliff with a fallen trunk I had noticed before.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
"Ok, get up there, and push it a little. See if you can even move it."
Andy nodded and started climbing up. Small stones tumbled down, disturbed by his heavy steps. I was cautiously looking around, expecting to see the predators any second now.
Thankfully, none showed up.
Andy climbed over a tree and disappeared behind the large trunk. Nothing was happening for a bit. I heard some swearing and shuffling. A grunting noise tumbled down the hill towards me, and the tree finally moved, sending more stones to my feet. The trajectory was perfect. Andy peeked behind the trunk and smiled at me. I gave him a tired thumbs-up in response.
I popped another Tylenol from the bottle in my windbreaker pocket and pulled in a long breath. I wasn't doing this for the poor soul stuck in the car, for Andy, or some other sentimental reason.
I needed to get to civilization, find a hospital and a shelter. Who knew how many more of those things were in the surrounding forests? I needed access to the car. And killing those dinos was the only way to get it.
I walked all the way down to the bend, where Andy was waiting for me before. I was noting the sturdy patches of solid soil for my "spear" as I would be running up. A little scared nerve was trembling inside my stomach, begging me to turn around and hide in some hole. But I knew better. I needed antibiotics. And a safe place to hole up for the night. This forest wasn't it.
Finally, I reached the spot, looked towards the piece of black asphalt peaking through the trees and called "Here, dino-dino-dino."
My voice sounded pathetic. Why the hell am I sounding like a scared child? I was a hunter, and I was on my way to kill these creatures.
"Come here, you fuckers!" I shouted louder.
In fact, that might have been a little too loud. The echo of my words made the forest quiet.
The scraping of claws over pavement reached my ears. I didn't wait to see their shapes in the opening of the trail. I turned around and started hopping up as fast as my injured leg and a broken tripod would allow.
People often say that in a life-or-death situation, time slows down. It was definitely not the case for me. Everything was moving so fast that my brain had a hard time catching up. Heavy steps behind me, my loud breathing and tumbling pebbles: all just a disorienting noise. One breath, in-out, and I was already on a stretch under the fallen tree.
My calf spasmed, and my tripod lost purchase on a soft patch. The shower of rocks from under the tumbling tree peppered my shoulders.
In my single-minded focus, I whispered [Leap]. The image of the landing spot was clear in my view. In a matter of seconds, I was safe. With a heavy thud, the tree landed behind my back.
I whirled around, observing the scene. One dino was skewered by a branch and followed the thumbling trunk off the hiking trail. Another one was lying on its side, somewhat buried under the rubble. It was still moving and trying to get out. But it didn't worry me as much as the third lizard.
This dino avoided the tree and stones altogether, still too far when it fell. And now yellow serpentine eyes were staring at me with menace and the bloodthirstiness of a chicken that spotted a mouse. I only hoped it had the same amount of brain.
My skill was on cooldown, and all that was left was my trusted, deformed "spear". The dino charged, and I stepped backwards towards the trees. But the tree line was still too far.
I dodged the first lunge by sheer luck and blocked the second one with my spear. In a quick chomp of a jaw, the tripod turned into two pieces of useless metal.
I finally reached the trees and hid behind a thick trunk. We circled it for a bit, the dino's steps too large to be nimble around the obstacle.
My vision blurred with another Deal hand, and I painfully fell on my ass, tripping over a root. I crabwalked backward, willing the screen out of existence with only imagining the swiping "close" motion. It closed, but I lost my spot behind the tree. When I came to, I was back on the open planes of the hiking trail.
The dino was on me, ready to chomp on my already injured foot, when a stone smacked him over its thick forehead. The fist-sized projectile occupied the creature's attention long enough for me to get up and run.
The barrage of rocks continued, and I could only marvel at the luck that kept it off me. Almost all of them landed on my pursuer. I was stumbling higher up the trail when I noticed a very good-looking boulder. Two fists' worth of dark grey stone, with a nice, sharp edge, looked like a proper rock and not a solidified piece of clay. I jumped up the hill towards the stone and picked it up just in time to bring it down on the creature's neck from a vantage ground.
The dino was already in poor shape, the barrage of stones bringing some solid damage to its skin. My stone must have been the last straw, because its eyes darted all around, and with a sudden sway, the dino dodged into the forest.
I didn't follow it. I sat on my ass, on the dusty clay soil and tried to catch my breath. All my wounds were throbbing in time with my heartbeat. It felt like they were bleeding, but I didn't see anything seeping through the makeshift bandage on my leg.
"Chloe! Chloe, are you all right?" Andy shouted, running towards me. "Chloe, I got my first card! It's [Precision]. Can you imagine! How timely."
Right, the system.
My chest felt tight. I felt hot all over, and my head was spinning, like I was on a merry-go-round. I flopped onto my back. I didn't care about dangers anymore. I just needed a moment.
"Chloe? What did you get?" Andy squatted beside me. "Did you get anything? It counted your participation in a killing, right? And we got two of them, so you should have gotten something."
"I haven't checked yet, was a little busy," I finally pushed out.
"Well, check now. Go on, I will stand watch."
I wouldn't trust him to watch grass grow. But I should check what I got. I slowly looked around, lifting my head off the ground just a little, to make sure the dino wasn't back. And let it fall back to navigate through this Deal Hand.
It was a selection of three cards again. They were all blue. The first one was a [Leap]. I wondered why the same card was offered over and over again, if I already had it.
The second one was a person leaning away from a flying rock with the word [Dodge]. That was a useful skill, but the third card stole my attention. It was a picture of a hand with a pack of bandages and [Heal Wound] writing. I took the last one without much consideration.
I confirmed my selection and opened the description as soon as I could.
A small burst of healing for a single target area you touch. Cooldown 1 hour.
I immediately touched my hot and sweaty forehead under the bandage and whispered [Heal Wound].
I don't know if it did anything visible. But the heat and the nerve-grating tugging subsided just enough to be bearable. The wound was probably still there, because it was painful to frown.
I was itching to check the progress in the mirror. And shower. And re-wrap my head wound. So many things to do and so little energy.
I rose from the ground with a groan.
"Hey, Chlo, is that fire?" Andy sked, and I snapped to attention.
The small clearing I lay at provided the same overlook as the viewpoint with the ocean and the road. But you could also see the city from here.
A thick pillar of smoke was rising from somewhere near the town center. A helicopter appeared on the horizon and headed towards the smoke.
"We should go," I said, turning towards the parking lot. "Get to the hospital or at least a pharmacy."
"God, I hope my Mom is ok," Andy blabbered.
I didn't know what to say to that. Even if he existed, I doubted God had anything to do with what was happening. I have never read about a game-like system in the Bible.
"Where are our backpacks?" I asked Andy.
"Oh, shit, I forgot them on the hill. I ran towards you as soon as that thing bolted into the forest."
I sighed and started walking up to the hill he was sitting on.
"No, stay here. I will get it."
And I just stayed there. My legs were numb from exhaustion. I couldn't help but look towards the rising gray pillar on the horizon. It wasn't simple bonfire smoke. It had black undertones of burning plastics, like car tires, or polyester furniture. Was it a car, a building, a parking lot? I hoped we wouldn't have to find out.
Chloe's Deck (2/10):
-
Blue Card: [Leap]
Instantly leap forward up to 6 feet. Beware of obstacles. Cooldown 30 minutes.
-
Blue Card: [Heal Wound]
A small burst of healing for a single target area you touch. Cooldown 1 hour.