“Hey Jack, is that outhouse large enough to prop up a spear inside it?”
“Um, I think so. Why? You taking one of those instead of the bat?”
“Yeah, I was remembering something I watched once talking about how the spear was an easy weapon to learn how to use even for someone completely unskilled which is why it was used so much in ancient and medieval wars amongst infantry. I’m just thinking I’d probably want something like that with me instead of a bat if we encounter a bear or something I want to keep at a distance.”

Jack looks at you a bit impressed.

“Well, look at you. Suzy, warrior princess over here. You said you didn’t know anything.” Jack says smiling.

You take the spear and then look over at the shield.

“Jack, help me get that shield down from the wall.” You say.
“What?” Jack responds.
“I want to take the shield with me too.”
“Suzy, you’re just going to the bathroom, not to war!”
“Hey you said it yourself, we still don’t know what this place is all about and I want to feel as secure as possible, so if that means carrying around a shield, then that’s what I’m going to do!”
“…alright…” Jack says and then proceeds to grab the circular shield down from the wall and then hands it to you.

The shield isn’t light and is made of strong thick wood; you definitely feel the weight just holding the thing.

“You sure you don’t want the sword too?” Jack asks.
“Nah, I think this is all I can carry. The shield is definitely heavier than I thought it would be.”
“I really don’t think you’re going to need that.” Jack says wrapping a fur around himself and grabbing the axe he brought with him from the Gray Building.
“And like I said, it makes me feel better. Come on let’s go.”

Upon exiting the cabin you see the sun shining down and you feel the cold wind blow.

“Shit, even with these furs on I forgot how cold it was.” You say.
“We’ll get another big fire started when we get back.” Jack says.
“I’ll look forward to it, so which way?”
“Oh to the left and then past some trees, it’s not hard to find.”

You and Jack make your way to the infamous outhouse. You both look around periodically, but see nothing dangerous. When Jack’s not looking around, he’s studying you.

“So you ready to fight the Persians?” Jack asks with a smirk.
“I dunno, but I have to say I do feel rather empowered.” You reply.

Eventually you get to your goal and it looks exactly like you thought it would.

“Well this is it.” You say unenthusiastically.
“Your shield is going to be kind of bulky, leave it out here with me. Unless you plan on getting attacked from below and if that’s the case, a shield isn’t going to help.”
“Fuck, now I’m going to be worrying about something lurking down there and reaching up to grab me. Thanks a lot!” you say and give the shield to Jack.

You enter the outhouse and endure the unavoidable. Thankfully Jack makes no attempt to speak or make jokes to you while you’re inside.

Eventually you come out and start putting your hands in the snow. Jack watches you and then goes back to looking around.

“Well, wasn’t as bad as I thought, I’m still missing modern plumbing though. Wish we had soap too.” You say.
“I guess if you want to sanitize your hands even more I suppose you could pour some of that mead we have at the cabin on them.”
“Will that work?”
“It’s got alcohol in it, I assume it can’t hurt. You ready to go Valkyrie?” Jack asks and hands you back your shield.
“Yeah, you see anything out here?”
“Nah, just a few more of those white rabbits I always see hopping around.”

As you and Jack make your way back to the cabin, you and he speak on if either one of you knows anything about hunting. You of course know nothing, Jack says he’s not much better, though he thinks maybe you both could start making simple traps or something, especially given that there are obviously rabbits around here to be caught.

“Wish we had the Internet so we could at least look all this shit up. God, I really miss the Internet…I think this is the longest I’ve been without it and I suppose those days are over as well.” You say as you approach the cabin.
“Oh, you don’t know. We’re still just stuck out here in the wilderness, like I said, maybe there is Internet and hover cars somewhere else.”
“Love that optimism Jack…” you say chuckling and heading towards the door.
“Hey Suzy, wait is that blood in the snow?”

You and Jack both stop a few feet away from the cabin, you’re still closest to the door, which suddenly swings open, instinctively you put the shield up to cover yourself as much as you can.

Before you, you see a man with a good amount of facial hair and wearing several furs and clothing much more suited for this sort of weather.

He’s not completely standing upright, but is in a somewhat stooped position as if wounded which judging from the blood in the snow is probably the case. While it’s difficult to tell his facial expression due to the hair, his eyes are wide as if he’s surprised, desperate or possibly even afraid. Maybe a mixture of all three.

The major thing you see however is the crossbow he’s holding and pointing at you and Jack.

The man shouts something at you in a language you don’t understand and fires, but fortunately you had the shield in front of you and the bolt is prevented from hitting your body and merely goes stops half way through the shield instead.

There is the smallest pause in this encounter where you realize that you just came close to being killed again, Jack realizing you nearly came close to being killed and the man realizing he’s failed to kill you.

The man quickly backs inside and hastily attempts to reload his crossbow, meanwhile you don’t think about your near death experience and just act. You charge forward with the shield up and the spear out. You even start screaming like you’re in an action movie.

Your charge is stopped when you hit the man full on. The spear sinks into his body and he cries out in pain dropping the crossbow. You attempt to pull the spear as hard as you can back out, but it isn’t easy because the man keeps you from doing so by gripping the top of the shaft and the man still has enough strength to grab the knife on his side with his other hand.

Fortunately he can’t quite reach you and swings helplessly with one hand. Since you can’t pull the spear out, you instead start wiggling it to the left and right no doubt adding to the pain as well as internal organ damage. The man once again screams in agony and lets go of the spear allowing you to pull it out. He falls to the floor.

Jack who was having difficulty in getting around you before finally succeeds so he can get in closer to swing his axe down at the man on the floor.

“Suzy, hang on I can…agh!” Jack exclaims as the man desperately slashes at the closest leg to him with his knife, which happened to be Jack’s. This causes Jack to reel back and nearly stumble into the fireplace. Fortunately he only falls into a small pile of logs for the fireplace.

You press your advantage by stepping up and attempting to plunge the spear into the man’s neck, but he manages to dodge and you only hit the floor. He grabs the shaft of the spear again in an attempt to keep you from using it. He’s got a weak one-handed grasp though.
> You drop the shield on him
Thinking unconventionally and with a bit of a heft from your shield arm, you drop your shield on the man’s body. He isn’t expecting the sudden weight smashed into him and expects it even less when you decide to jump on top of the shield, putting more crushing weight on his wounded torso.

The man bellows and lets go of your spear. He doesn’t even have the energy to do anything with his other hand holding the knife.

You quickly lift the spear from its original position and looking directly into his eyes, you thrust it directly into his throat and twist.

The man makes sickening gurgling sounds as blood comes from his mouth and neck, his eyes bulge and his body convulses for a few seconds and then stops.

Meanwhile, you’re breathing heavily and just staring at the body.

“Suzy? Suzy? You alright?” Jack asks.
“Huh? Yeah…I just…I just killed a man. Never did that before…well not directly I suppose.” You say and step down from the shield and the dead man’s body.

Jack limps over to close the door and then over to you.

“You…you sure you’ve never fought before? I mean it all happened so fast, but you seemed to just suddenly go into some sort of warrior mode.”
“I dunno. Something just clicked inside my head. Can’t explain it myself either. Maybe it was just a fight or flight response and I’ve been sick of running lately. This guy was trying to kill us and I had no choice but to kill him.”
“Well it was certainly one of those situations.”
“Yeah…I guess. Is your leg okay?” you say moving your shield off the body.
“Yeah, It’s superficial, I guess I better clean it out with alcohol and wrap it up though. I think I saw a roll of linen wrap in one of those drawers.”
“Looks like that’s what this guy was attempting to do too because the wrap you mentioned is right there on the table along with an open jar and a big pouch. This guy was obviously already hurt when we found him. Look there.” You say and point at the man who you now notice has an ugly gash on his arm that looks like some green stuff was smeared on it. You lift up a few more of the furs on his body and notice another wound on his side as well. You weren’t responsible for either of those.

Jack goes over to get the wrap and inspect the open jar.

“I think this might be some sort of ointment. Smells awful and has the same green color on his wounded arm. This pouch looks like it has more of his items. I’m going to take a look.” Jack says.

While Jack goes through the dead man’s bag, you decide to directly search the body. You don’t find anything though except a half full quiver of crossbow bolts and his fur clothing, which you start taking off of him.

“Suzy, what are you doing?” Jack asks when he sees you stripping the dead man.
“I’m looting his corpse. So far this is the only set of proper clothing we have for this sort of weather. Might as well keep some of it, we can always get the blood out and I can sew up the holes later. The boots alone should be worth keeping.” You say.
“…well I suppose you’re right. You need any help?” Jack asks.
“Nah, I got it. Just patch up your leg.” You say.

While Jack does just that, you proceed with your task. By the time you get the man down to his raggedy loincloth, you temporarily stop to just look at the body, exhale and rub your hand over your face.

“Not a pretty sight from here either.” Jack says.
“No, it’s not that. It’s the fact that I’ve just realized that I’ve been sitting here stealing a dead man’s clothes and I don’t feel bad about it. And even coming to that conclusion, I STILL don’t feel bad about it. It’s like nothing.”
“Well I admit, this is sort of fucked up, but he did attack us first.”
“The thing is though is we’re the trespassers. I mean he owned this place. Probably built it with his own fucking hands. From his perspective and any right thinking person’s, he had the damn right to try to kill us. I know if someone invaded my home I wouldn’t like it. We just stumbled in and started going through his shit and stealing it.” You say.
“We needed to survive.” Jack says.
“I’m not debating that. I just…well…does this make us evil? Because if it does, I have to say, I’m perfectly fine with that and that’s probably a scariest thing I’ve just learned about myself this week and the funniest too, because I can also honestly say killing this guy was one of the highest points of motivation I’ve ever had and that includes all the times I was running for my life this week and especially attempting to get a job in a shitty comic shop.” you say.

Jack doesn’t respond, he just sort of looks down and then away, going back to wrapping his leg.

You stand up and grab the man by his feet.

“Jack can you get the door?” you say.
“Yeah, and don’t try to drag him by yourself, I’ll help.” Jack replies as he heads over to the door.
“It’s okay. I got it. Just get that fire going while I’m dragging his body out into the wilderness.” You say.
“Suzy, we’re in this together. I’ll help you.” Jack says.
“Yeah, you’re right. Grab the other leg after you open the door.” You respond.

You and Jack drag the body into the wilderness. You make a mention that maybe you should bury it at some point, but as long as it’s immediately out of sight and away from the cabin, it’s good enough where it is.

The pair of you then quickly make your way back hoping nobody else has shown up at your home. Which is certainly what it is now considering you just killed the owner. You’re still feeling a bit numb about that.

When you’re back inside the cabin, Jack speaks up again.

“Just for the record, I don’t think we’re evil.” Jack says.
“Well evil people don’t tend to think they are.” You answer with a minor chuckle.
“I dunno about that, there are tons of evil bastards that revel in their evilness. I mean I’ll admit I feel a little bad about what we did, but I just don’t want you to beat yourself up about what happened too much. It’s done.”
“I’m not. That’s sort of my point and why I was wondering if I was evil in the first place, but you’re right. It wasn’t something to brag about, but it’s done and there’s no point in worrying about it.”

You close the door and bar it.

“I’m a little tired. I’m going to go lay down on the bed.” You say.
“Okay, I’ll get this fire going like I planned to do before all this happened. I’ll clean up some of the mess around here too.” Jack replies.

You get on the simple bed, which is basically made up of straw, animal skin and furs. It’s not a sofa, but it’s all the comfort you’re going to have in the near future.

Even though you already talked about this with Jack, you still can’t help but go back to it. You start wondering if there is something genetically wrong inside your head and part of you takes after your uncle Ed, or maybe if when you went through all that shit in the Gray Building you “lost” part of yourself somehow.

Then you start wondering if maybe it was just a desperate situation and in such times, people do desperate things even if they normally wouldn’t have done so. Like Jack said, you are trying to survive and like you said, that man was going to kill you and you had to prevent that from happening.

It’s as good as a rationalization as any. Jack seems to be fine with it and you are too.

You sit up slightly from your position and watch Jack clean up the place and stoke the fire. It’s weird to think you met this guy in a comic shop and here you are with him who knows where.

You’ve had more adventures with him this week than you ever had with anyone else. And that includes Bobby because it wasn’t like the two of you ever went anywhere.

As you think on these things, your hands start to wander and you feel a lump in your pocket which you forgot being there. You half expect it to be your dead cell phone, but what it is, is the thousand dollars and the car keys Jack gave you.

“Heh, I forgot these were even in my pocket. Guess we have another reminder of the old world.” You say jingling the keys a bit at Jack.
“Sadly, I doubt if all that cash is going to be useful here, well except for kindling.” Jack replies
“Well at least the keys can be a reminder of your first gift ever to me.” You respond.
“Great. My first gift to you was a car and a thousand dollars. That’s going to be tough to top now.” Jack says.
“Actually I got an idea of how you might be able to match it. Jack, stop cleaning up, I want you over here.” You say.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. I’m just remembering earlier that we were in middle of something, and I’m thinking we need to get back to that again.”
“Wha…oh…” Jack says suddenly getting it when you start taking your clothes off.
“Well, what are you waiting for? Get your clothes off.” You say.
“Suzy, we don’t need to do this you know. I’m perfectly fine waiting.” Jack says.
“Yeah, well I’m not. It’s been a while and I haven’t even been able to set time aside for splittin’ the kitten so this is as much for me as it is for you. Besides, after surviving the week we’ve both had, I think we should have a little celebration don’t you think? What the fuck else do we have to do?” you say.

Jack doesn’t respond, he just starts taking his clothes off a bit shyly. It’s at that moment you remember the fact that he seemed a little inexperienced when you were kissing him earlier.

“Jack, you don’t need to be nervous around me. We can start off slow if we need to and I’m not going to judge. It’s just me and you okay? Just like it’s been all this week.”
“Okay. I just…I’m…I’m a…”
“I know and it’s fine, just come over to me.” You say reassuringly.

It isn’t long before Jack and you are both on the bed naked. Just as you said, you take it a bit slow with him. Feels a little weird being the “aggressive” one, but there certainly is a part of you that’s enjoying the role.

You’re in the middle of it, when Jack says something that makes things slightly odd.

“I love you Suzy.” He says.
“… I… love you Jack…” you answer back.

Well, maybe it isn’t TOO odd, considering you’re probably the only girl Jack has ever been with and spent any long amount of time with too.

In fact you sort of wonder why you even hesitated to say it back, after all, you are fond of him and you’ve had a budding relationship with Jack all this week. You just suppose that “love” hasn’t really been in your mind since you broke up with Bobby.

Still, it’s a nice feeling after all the shit that’s happened this week.

Afterwards, you and Jack hold each other and generally talk about shit that doesn’t pertain to your immediate situation. There is much that will have to be done, but for now the pair of you are enjoying shutting out the outside world.

Just like when you two were living in the basement.

Day eventually becomes night and the pair of you turn in a little earlier than usual.
> Next day…
SATURDAY

You groggily wake up and see Jack over at the table like he was the last time you woke up in this place. He looks like he’s studying a piece of paper and doesn’t notice you waken immediately this time.

After sitting up, you call out to him.

“Hey, cunninglinguist whatcha discover today?” you ask rubbing your eyes.
“Oh hey, you’re up. Just looking at this parchment that was in this large pouch here. It’s a crude map from what I can tell.”
“A map? Well that’s convenient. Anything good?”
“Well I don’t know all the symbols obviously, but I THINK this might lead to a couple towns. Some of these look like roads, I don’t know though until we do some exploring.”
“Let’s do it.” You exclaim.
“What right now?”
“Sure. I mean we’re going to have to at some point, might well start getting some of this shit out of the way.”
“Well okay, guess we better get dressed then.”

You nod and start grabbing your clothing. As much is you might like the furry boots, They’re a little big on you. They’re actually a little big on Jack too, but they at least fit him better, so he gets them. You both of you put on furs much like you did yesterday, then you grab your spear and shield.

“I think I’ll take that other spear. Seems like it worked for you yesterday.” Jack mentions.
“You sure you don’t want to take the crossbow?” you ask.
“If I knew how to use one properly, sure I’d take it. But I think I’m going to have to practice with something like that first. Seems slow to load and it won’t do you any good if you’re in trouble and I can’t use it effectively. At least with this spear I can help you directly.”
“Yeah, good idea.”

After hiding a few of your more valuable items (Like your only pouch of coins) you both leave the cabin.

“So which way should we go?” you ask.
“Hmm, I’m thinking we should follow the tracks of the guy who lived here. They were going to the right before he came back. According to the map, there is a town in this direction. Or at least I think there is, guess we’ll find out.”
“Okay.”

You and Jack head to the right. The occasional blood in the snow makes it pretty easy to follow them though the tracks have been partially covered by snow or stomped over already.

“I’m thinking it was sort of a good thing that guy was wounded yesterday. He wasn’t exactly easy to put down. I can’t imagine the fight he would have put up if he had been at full strength.” Jack says.
“Yeah, but now I’m wondering what the hell he was fighting before he met us and how many.” You respond.

Eventually after a bit of traveling, you and Jack see something lying in the snow. It looks very large too. The pair of you cautiously approach.

When you reach the body, you notice that it’s a massive… creature with grayish blue skin and tusk like teeth. It’s dressed in the barest of fur clothing and has several crossbow bolts and arrows in its body and face. You also see signs of deep cuts across its body. Next to its body is a large club, which resembles more of a broken tree branch rather than a proper weapon. However it would certainly kill someone if swung at them and judging by how massive this creature’s muscles are, it looks more than capable of smashing someone’s head in even without a club. The club has signs of blood on it.

“Holy shit. What the fuck…” Jack says.
“I think we just found what that guy was running from or limping away from rather. Must’ve been quite the fight.” You say.
“I think there is more stuff up ahead, well more blood anyway.”

You and Jack leave the creature’s body behind and follow the rest of the blood trail noting a broken sword along the way.

You soon find a second body, but this one looks human, or at least you guess it was, since the half of the head is caved in. Blood and brains are scattered about the snow. It’s a pretty grisly sight, but you’re long since desensitized by now.

You see a bow nearby, but the body still clutches a bloody dagger in its hand. A fur hat also sits several paces away. You assume it probably was knocked off during the fight.

“I guess this was his friend” Jack says.
“I’m thinking it could have even been his girlfriend, smaller frame, even with the furs on I can see the chest is bigger. Long hair and from what I can tell of what’s left of the face, it looks slightly female…is that ear pointed?” you say.
“…yeah…that ear is definitely pointed.” Jack says looking
“What the hell, did we step into some sort of fantasy world?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. Told you that Gray Building could have sent us any fucking where.”

You exhale, not quite knowing what to make of all this.

“Let’s keep going a bit further.” You say.

Jack and you press on, but you don’t find any more signs of battle. You do eventually find that the wilderness ends and the edge of a road begins however. Sort of hard to tell due to the snow, but there definitely is a road here. Across the road are more trees. Sort of reminds you home that way.

“Well I guess this is one of the roads, which means I guess I got something on this map correct at least. Looks like if we go south, we’ll hit the closest town. Still looks quite the like a walk though.” Jack responds.
“Maybe we should cut the exploration trip a little short for today. Let’s gather all that useful stuff from that battle scene and take it back to the cabin. We can certainly use some of it. The boots on that girl look like they would be more likely to fit me anyway and wearing something like those would be a hell of a lot more pleasant for walking around in.” You say.
“Okay, let’s go back.”

You and Jack return to the battle scene and begin looting the dead girl first. Along with the furs and her weapons, you also find a nearly empty quiver of arrows and a small pouch similar to the one that the man had. You take a quick look inside and see several items for you to inspect when you’re in the comfort of your much warmer cabin.

When you and Jack are loaded up, you and he leave the dead woman mostly naked in the snow, much like you left the man and make your way back.

Upon getting back to the body of the monster you attempt to pull out some of the bolts and arrows lodged in its body, but some are either partially broken off inside or just sunk in too deep and you’re not willing to make the effort to hang around and pull out every single one. The monster itself wasn’t carrying anything save for it’s minimalistic fur cloth around it’s waist and neither you or Jack are interested in taking it.

Soon you both get back to the cabin where you drop your new loot and go warm up by the fire. The pair of you are silent as you sit, watching the flames flicker.
Jack however breaks up the silence eventually.

“So, you really think that woman was the owner’s girlfriend?” Jack asks.
“Maybe wife, I dunno how it works here. Seems like the logical conclusion though.” You respond.
“Just didn’t notice a prominent second set of tracks around the cabin.”
“Well it has been snowing off and on, there is the wind to think of, not to mention animals running around. Maybe she was walking behind him so she didn’t have to get her boots engulfed with snow. All sorts of reasons why you might not have noticed them. Don’t worry about it. Besides, you said it yourself, you’re not a tracker.”
“I suppose. I guess I just feel that missing a detail like that could be fatal given what we’ve experienced as well as seen.”
“Yeah, this does seem to be a pretty harsh place. Still don’t know what the hell that blue gray thing was. Definitely want to avoid encountering those things though…and those.” You say pointing to the ugly head on the wall.
“I’ll get rid of that thing later today. I know it bothers you.” Jack says.
“Nah, it can stay. I’m strangely sort of getting attached to Toothy over there.”

A pause of silence in the conversation follows before Jack speaks up again.

“If that was his wife or girlfriend though, that’s sort of fucked up that he just left her body like that.” Jack says.
“Well, it seems like that thing was still chasing him, maybe he didn’t know if was dead or not and wanted to get to a place where he could better defend himself and heal a bit. He could have always returned for the body.” You say.
“Maybe. I just want you to know I’ll never abandon you like that.” Jack says causing you to chuckle.

“Well that’s sweet Jack, but if I already got my brains splattered on the ground and there’s a hulking monster around by all means run your ass to safety. No point in both of us getting killed.” You say.
“I don’t even want to think about something like that. I just…I can’t imagine a life without you now.” Jack responds and grabs your hand.
“Well with as brutal as this place seems to be, you never know.”
“No, I can’t think about such depressing thoughts. I love you too much.”

Jack’s face displays one of concern, like he’s worried you’re going to die right this very second and he can’t even bear the thought of you gone. It’s apparent he’s fallen for you a bit hard; perhaps a bit more than you’ve fallen for him, but you suppose it’s better that he’s like this rather than not giving a shit.

You give him a reassuring hug.

“Don’t worry so much Jack, I’ll try to last as long as I can in this world before the monsters get me.”
“No, you’re going to survive. I bet you’ll even survive longer than I will. You’ll survive everything.”

Jack’s confidence in you is a lot higher than your own though you have to admit, you’ve been doing pretty well so far. You’re certainly not that “good girl” that hid from the rest of the world any longer.

You have no idea what’s in store for you or how you’re going to deal with it, but whatever the future hold for you here, you will make your best attempt to survive and push through it.
> …
Eternal Mother

The Future…

It’s a harsh world.

“Number 660.”

Possibly more than your old one was, but you eventually learned how to deal with it. You even managed to make a proper life for yourself here despite all the trials and tribulations.

You remember how hard that first year with Jack was. Struggling to survive, learning how to hunt, dealing with the elements, dealing with unfriendly people and creatures, and generally just being a “modern” person who didn’t have too many survival skills to speak of and being thrust into a primitive environment.

You think learning the language was the most difficult part. Jack was always a little better at it than you were. You probably still sound like a retard to some folks, but it gets the job done.

“Number 661.”

During those early years you also ended up having to do a few things you never took pleasure in doing, but it was always it was always for survival.

In those instances you were always a little better at that. Jack would definitely always support you, but then he loved you very much and would have followed you into the Gates of Hell.

You suppose it did get to a point where rationalizations really didn’t excuse what you did, but then you don’t think you ever cared about those anyway. You were a woman who was willingly dating a human sacrificing cultist at one time after all.

You smile upon thinking about your old flame. You think Bobby would have fit in very well in this world.

Maybe to some extent, you did too.

“Number 662.”

You think for a while you might have gotten a little colder and ruthless. Seemed like this was a place where the strong ruled over the weak and fuck you if you couldn’t keep up. From what you could tell people here had three choices:

Beg and hope their tormenters took mercy on them, which was almost never likely.

Die and just roll over to accept death because it was preferable to keep living in this shitty world.

Or struggle and fight tooth and nail for what little you actually did have. And in that case you either won or kept it, or you died and lost it.

You know which one you chose.

“Number 663.”

Things did change a little though when you had your first child. You never planned on ever having a family before, let alone one in a world like this one since it seemed more like a punishment than a blessing…but Jack always had a way of making you see the positive.

You loved him for that.

Another child followed and for a while it seemed like everything was going well. You had a loving family, a larger dwelling; you weren’t struggling to survive any more. You even had another baby on the way and you didn’t even mind it.

Hell, you probably achieved quite a bit for a pair of former basement dwellers.

You were starting almost feel “normal” or as normal as you could ever be or get in a place like this.

And then just like everything in your life, it all eventually went to shit.

“Number 664.”

While the occasional wandering ogres were certainly dangerous, they tended to stick a little further north. Other than that dead ogre you saw the first time you came here, you fortunately never encountered one in person again. The freedom fighting elves gave grief to the government, but never really made raids on civilian settlements. Indeed they tended to stay hidden.

The barbarian tribes however were always an ongoing problem in Rask, but you always figured you were far enough away from them and you knew there was at least an Empire Fort in the area they would attack first before moving deeper into more “civilized” territory.

Of course the Empire has always had a hard time maintaining order in this place. You suppose that was one of the upsides of living here, you didn’t need to deal with the oppressive seemingly monolithic government that controls a vast amount of land here.

But it was also a downside as you would soon experience one dreadful day and the fact it all happened in broad daylight does make it seem all the more horrible.

A small group of seven barbarians from the Wendigo tribe suddenly attacked, possibly the most vicious of all the tribes in fact. They attacked without warning and so fast, that your two children were dead before you or Jack could even spur into action.

While you and Jack had long been experienced in combat during your time here, you and he were no match for them or their numbers. Especially in your condition at the time.

You sometimes wonder if a baby hadn’t burdened you, you would have been able to at least save Jack.

“Number 665.”

Before he tried to hold them off to give you time to run, you remember Jack’s last words to you;

Go. Our child needs to survive. YOU need to survive.

You almost didn’t want to. You almost wanted to meet death right there with him, but you think two things stopped you.

One, your will to survive has always been stronger than your defeatism.

And two, you loved Jack enough to honor his last request.

You remember when you managed to get far enough away to the safety of a town; you broke down in tears and cried over him for at least a couple days. You still do sometimes. You miss him so much.

Your eyes tear up a bit upon thinking about Jack and then you hear your number being called out. It’s time to do this.

Maybe you could look after this child, but it would be a struggle. A struggle you just can’t do. Part of you feels like you’re going back to your “old ways” by taking the easy way out, but you haven’t come to this conclusion lightly.

You stand up and make your way to the front of the long waiting room. A tired looking clerk behind a counter looks at you and the bundle you’re carrying.

“Name?” she asks.
“Suzy McCray.” You answer.
“And I take it that this is the baby you wish to put into the care of the Empire?”
“…Yes…”
“Very well. Sign this, and you’ll receive your payment.”
“I don’t want payment.” You say which causes a very confused look on the clerk’s face.
“Don’t want payment? Well that’s a first. We got some people here all the time bringing in babies. Probably stealing them in fact, but at least it’s better than those dark elves do.”
“Well I don’t want payment.”
“Well I’m sorry, but that’s sort of a law. You have to take something.”
“Can’t you just make sure that he’ll be given a good home?”
“I can’t make that promise, I don’t even do that process! I’m just a damn underpaid government drone. If you’re so damn concerned about him, why the hell are you giving him away?”

Just as you’re about to yell at the clerk, another woman walks over. She has long white hair and very dark skin. She’s very pretty. You wonder if this one of those svelk you’ve heard about.

“Frieda, what’s got you all flustered and generally acting like a typical monkey as usual?” she asks.
“Huh? What the hell are you doing here? You slumming or something? Shouldn’t you living the good life in the Emperor’s Palace like my high and mighty brother?”
“Jealousy is a terrible thing Frieda especially when I’ve spoken to Jacob on more occasions than I’d care to and I can honestly say you have nothing to be jealous about… but then neither would he. However, for your information I’m here on official business.”
“Hrm. Well good for you, now let me get back to my fucking job.”

At this point you intervene.

“Look can we please get back to me?”

Just as the clerk is about to say something. The svelk woman speaks out again.

“Frieda. You’re obviously burned out, why don’t you let me take over for awhile?”
“You? Working a lowly job like this?”
“Sure, I’m no stranger in performing tasks nobody likes to do.”
“Fine by me. I’m going on a LONG break.” She says and storms off leaving you and the svelk woman to talk.

She smiles at you in an attempt to be friendly, but right now you just want this to be over with and you’re starting to think this was a bad idea.

“Don’t pay any attention to her, I’m sure you have a very good reason for giving your child to the care of the Empire.” The svelk says.
“I don’t want to, you know.” You say.
“I believe you. I don’t think any mother truly ever wants to give up their child, but if I may ask, why are you doing it?”
“It’s just…(sniffle) I lost my husband and other children in a Wendigo raid and I barely have anything left. (sniffle) I can’t take care of him the way I want to. I mean maybe I could try, but I just don’t have the energy left in me to do it. I don’t have the drive and if I do a half assed job of it and something happens to him because I can’t do my fucking job, then I’m even shittier mother than I thought. I can’t take another loss in my life.” You say trying to keep it together.

The svelk woman nods.

“I see. I think I understand. So what is it that you were exactly arguing about before? I heard something about not wanting payment.”
“I don’t, I’m not selling my baby for financial gain, I’ll be fine. I’m giving him to the Empire because I’m hoping there is an off chance that the fucking government will do a better job at raising him or finding someone to raise him than I can because I’m too emotionally drained to do it any more.” You say.
“Well, I hate to destroy your hope, but many of the children put in the care of the Empire aren’t exactly that much better off. In fact in some cases they might be worse and as for getting someone to adopt, well it’s a possibility a good family will, but usually they’re just passed off to anyone.”
“Great. So this has all been a waste of fucking time. Nice to know the Empire is fucking incompetent as well as being oppressive.”

To your surprise the svelk woman laughs a little.

“You speak your mind. I like that. Hmm. Well, tell you what I CAN put him in the special E Wing.”
“What’s that?”
“Oh just a place where they often put unwanted babies from higher born families. Bastard children spawned by lust that would create social embarrassments, that sort of thing. Typically these children are very well looked after and special care is gone to make sure they aren’t going to sweat shop owners or something equally hideous.”
“And he would get a good home?”
“Well maybe, I should inform you though that it’s still rare and if not adopted within a certain period of time the Empire still raises them directly. These children are typically raised to be officers and commanders in the military. Their training is severe, but the results create very well disciplined and skilled men and women…are you okay with your child possibly being given that sort of life?”

You look down at your baby. He’s been very quiet throughout all this. Hasn’t cried once. Never been much of a crier really. It’s odd. You begin to think about how harsh this world is, and maybe it would be best if your baby got that sort of life. At least he would be better able to survive this world. Much better odds than you can provide.

You begin to sniffle and cry. You nod.

“Okay (sob) okay. Do it. It’s a better life than I can ever give him now. (sob)”
“Very well. Let me have him.”

You reluctantly pass your baby to the svelk woman who smiles as she holds him.

“I’m usually not fond of the way human babies look, but I have to admit, this one is sort of cute. What’s his name?”
“Name? Oh…yes. Well his name was the same as his father’s middle name.” you say and tell her your baby’s name.
“Hrm. Strange name, but then I’ve always found human names a bit weird.”
“Do I need to sign anything?”
“Nah, I’ll take care of this myself and have two of the best workers here take him to the appointed location. Contrary to the horrible lies about my people, we svelk cherish the lives of infants. You don’t worry about this little one any longer, he’s truly in good hands now and will either get a good home or receive the very best training the Empire can provide. You have my word and I say that as one of the Emperor’s top advisors.”

“Goodbye.” You say, tearfully waving at your baby one last time. The svelk woman holds your baby’s hand up and makes a waving motion with it. You can’t stay any longer and you leave the building as fast as you can.

The streets of the capital are busy, but you still manage to find a secluded spot to release your anguish. You still don’t know if you made the right decision, but it’s done and now all you can do is hope.

Eventually in time you manage to get over your loss and move on with your life. You’ve suffered much tragedy, but above all you’ve always been a survivor and you’ll survive this too. Jack was right about that.

 as years always do and eventually you grow old. Much of the political climate changes within your lifetime, but as a fairly mundane citizen who never makes waves and knows how to keep out of the way during times of strife you’re never ever in the middle of it.

You spend your remaining years living day-to-day and occasionally brightening up you life by dwelling on happier times.

When you finally die, it’s not an important death, as you were never considered an important person. However you and your decisions probably made more of an impact on this world than anyone would ever really know.

For it was your little Francis that grew up and became…

ETERNAL


WEDNESDAY

You wake up and find yourself on a small bed in a gray concrete room. There isn’t much else in the room except a dresser and a lamp which is currently turned on. It almost feels like a cell except there is no door, just an entryway, which looks like it leads into a corridor.

You sit up and find that you’re still fully clothed, so either Jack isn’t a serial killing rapist or he was enough of a gentleman to put your clothes back on exactly right after he was done and is now playing mind games with you. Your girl parts and ass don’t feel sore and you don’t have a bad taste in your mouth so you’re guessing that you weren’t violated in any way. (You hope)

However the rest of your body certainly still aches from the kicks and physical abuse you took yesterday, but when you go to touch your head, you don’t feel any bandages like you were expecting. In fact, you aren’t even feeling any open wound that you’re sure that you probably had. The side of your face doesn’t feel to be scratched up either. Is Jack some sort of doctor?

You check your phone which was still in your pocket to see if anyone tried to call you, but nobody has. You thought maybe Peter would have at least tried calling considering you had his car last. If you ever get back home, you can only imagine how pissed he’s going to be when he finds out what happened to it.

You sit in the bed for a while just wondering what exactly is going on and what you should do next. Honestly, you’re drawing a blank. You had a plan, you tried to follow it and you thought you were succeeding and then it all went to shit yesterday. You’re starting wonder if you’re jinxed.

While you could spend your whole time being introspective like you have so many times before, the fact remains that you don’t know where the hell you are and where your “white knight” is. Jack seems like an okay guy, but you really don’t know anything about him except that he’s helped you out quite a bit which would probably make the average person feel grateful, instead it makes you a bit suspicious and this prison like interior isn’t exactly helping.

Still, you don’t seem like you’re being held captive either, so you take the opportunity to get up and leave your room.

When you enter the corridor you see several other open entryways leading to more small rooms. Since the left part of the corridor looks like it ends at a solid wall, you go right. You peer into a few of these rooms as you pass by to find that they aren’t really furnished, but rather hold several boxes and containers. Some of them do contain furniture; none of it is arranged in a useable way. In general everything is stacked or positioned to resemble a warehouse more than anything else.

Maybe you are in some sort of warehouse, because so far the color of every walls you’ve seen is gray and they’re concrete along with the floor and ceiling. Lights embedded in the ceiling provide illumination, but this whole place doesn’t seem like a normal house of any kind, which you assumed Jack lived in, you guess not though.

You pass a set of stairs leading up, so you’re guessing you’re on the ground floor, the way you’re currently heading it looks like a large open room ahead.

As you approach the large room, you start to hear noise. Sounds like it’s coming from one the rooms ahead and to your right causing you to cautiously approach.

You peek around the corner and see Jack occupied and messing about with some sort of large radio system along with a few monitors set up. You hear garbled transmissions, but some of it you’re making out sounds military related, something about marshal law.

“Well you don’t need to spy on me, you’re welcome to come in.” Jack says without immediately looking in your direction. Apparently you’re not as stealthy as you thought and Jack is very aware of his surroundings.

“Didn’t mean to spy, just wasn’t sure who or what I’d be possibly bumping into after finding myself in a strange place.” You say standing in the entryway.
“Understandable. So I trust you’re doing okay?” Jack asks while still messing about with his radio.
“Yeah, I mean I still ache a bit, but I’m more or less fine. Hey you’re not medically trained are you? Because I thought I’d have some bandages or something what with getting smacked with a brick and glass shattering on the side on my head.”
“Not professionally, but I used some medical gel on your wounds. Glad to see it worked well.” Jack says finally turning to look at you.
“Worked well? I’m practically fully healed, is it magical or something?” you joke.
“No, just highly advanced…um…well if you really need to know, I shouldn’t even have the stuff, but you can acquire a lot of stuff you shouldn’t over the deep web.” Jack says.
“I see. So I take it, this is where you live?
“Yeah, more or less now.”
“Wait, so this is where your mom lived too?”
“What? Oh no. When I lived with mom, it was a regular house in town. In fact after she died, I still lived there, but when shit started getting hectic in town, I decided I better move somewhere less vulnerable so here I am at this gray building I bought years ago online. As you might have already seen, I got tons of shit stacked in rooms, told you I was a big of a hoarder.”
“Well it certainly is very gray, must cost a lot to upkeep it.”
“Not really, place sort of takes care of itself. Just never made a permanent living arrangement out of this place because…well it’s a long story.”

There’s a bit of a pause in the conversation since Jack just abruptly stops talking and starts twisting knobs and then eventually waves his hands at the radio altogether and the garbled transmissions stop altogether when he turns it off.

“What are you trying to do?” you ask.
“I’m trying to listen in on a military frequency. Normally I can get clear messages from Fort Timons near Security City, but I’m not having much luck. All I know is marshal law has been declared in major cities across the country. Well that and apparently Ground Zero is still offering their shelters at low low prices. Those ads are fucking everywhere.” Jack replies.
“Marshall law…that sounds pretty serious.” You remark.
“Yeah, but I can’t say I’m surprised with the way things have been going in the world lately. Anyway…so what are your plans?” Jack asks.
“I dunno. I’ve been trying to figure that out myself. I’m not having much luck either.”
“Well, considering how fucked up things are in town, you’re welcome to stay here. Got plenty of space, food and such.”

It’s a tempting offer. Really tempting, mainly because you don’t have any idea what you’re going to go, but you exhale and try to gather your thoughts.

“(Sigh) Look, I’m not ungrateful for probably saving my life yesterday. I didn’t mind speaking with you before all that shit went down in the comic shop. Hell, you’re even not bad looking and you’re obviously got your shit together enough that you own your own damn building. I’m also fairly certain you were telling the truth about not being a serial killer.”
“But?” Jack says predicting your lead in.

“But all of this…well my gut is telling me that something weird is going on with you. I don’t know what exactly, but I imagine it’s complicated. The funny thing is that it probably wouldn’t even necessarily bother me, but you sort of caught me at an unusual point in my life. While I don’t want to bore you with my life story, but I just recently went through an upsetting break up with my first and currently only boyfriend to date a couple days ago and I’m still trying to mentally deal with that along with all the other shit that’s gone on in my life.”

Jack continues to listen as you go on.

“You think YOU were a basement dweller? At least you seemed to be doing something productive, my whole life was just coasting by and living off of other people and the most recent one was my ex. I’m fairly certain he would have done anything to take care of me had I complied, but even basement dwellers have their limits I suppose and I just couldn’t make that step. All of which left me up shit’s creek without a boat, let along a paddle. I’m trying to make a real effort of being self-sufficient and I sort of feel like if I stayed here I’d just be falling back into my old routine of sponging off some guy.”
“You wouldn’t exactly be sponging off me…” Jack starts to say before you interrupt.
“Jack, I think you better stop right there, if you’re about to imply what I think you’re going to imply. I’m not a damn whore.”
“What? No! I wasn’t going to suggest that! I just meant I have so much that it’s not like I’d mind if you stuck around. It’s obviously dangerous out there and I’d be quite the asshole if I just threw you out.”

You just hang your head down at this remark.

“Well that makes you better than my older sister, but it also makes this harder for me, because it would have been easier if you had been looking for some sort of cynical sex exchange like that.”
“Wait…so you WANT me to treat you like a whore?” Jack asks confused.
“No! Fuck. I just…shit…I dunno what the hell I want…” you say putting your head in your hands.

At this point Jack tries to interpret your complete mess of explaining things.

“Okay, I think I know what you’re getting at. You just got out of a relationship and you aren’t really in the mood for another guy to be sniffing around you right now. You also want to be by yourself and try to make it on your own without help since you’ve never been truly independent your whole life. Am I right so far?” Jack asks.
“Yes.” You reply.
“And while you aren’t exactly thinking the worst of me right now, you’re still wisely suspicious enough to wonder why the hell I helped you out if I didn’t want something. Obviously there must be something odd about me, for all you know I’ve been stalking you or something.”
“Well, basically.”
“Okay, good. Now just let me explain my side of things.”

You lean again the side of the entryway before Jack goes into his own speech.

“First, yes, I do think you’re attractive and from what I know of you, I WOULD like to get to know you a lot better. I thought maybe there was something there during our nice conversation at the comic shop, but I dunno…I sort of…well let’s just say I’m not exactly great at the whole asking someone out thing, so I lost my nerve and had to gather it again by leaving, and of course that’s when those guys showed up. Not to mention I wasn’t really planning on doing that anyway since I didn’t expect to see anyone other than Jake at the register. Which brings me to the second point, I helped you, for the same reason I helped Jake yesterday, it was the right thing to do. I just wasn’t so lucky with him as I was with you. I’m not saying I’m some hero, but I’ve always liked to believe I’m not a bad guy. So when I saw the opportunity to get you help, I did it. I assure you there was no ulterior motive.”

At this point Jack fishes something out of his pocket. It’s keys and a wad of money in a roll. He tosses them to you and you catch them.

“Do I want you to stay here because I like you? Yes, of course I would, but I can’t just keep you here, if you don’t want to be. You sound like you have very strong feelings about trying to make it on your own and being by yourself and I understand that. So since your car was trashed, I’m giving you mine. I’m not going to need it much longer…and no that doesn’t mean I’m going to commit suicide. I just won’t be needing it. As for the cash, well you’ll need it more than I will too. You take them both and go live your life and hopefully it will be a good one.”

You’re pretty speechless. You’ve so rarely had anyone be this cool with you and this doesn’t seem to be a “nice guy” act. If it were, he would’ve been calling you a complete cunt the moment you told him you weren’t interested.

“I dunno what to say except thanks.” You say
“Don’t mention it. Come on I’ll walk you out.” Jack responds

Jack and you leave the radio room and enter the large open room which has a lot of boxes stacked in it’s four corners. On one of the walls is a door, which Jack says, leads to the outside.

“Car is parked right outside, and is in good working condition. Um, just to let you know though we’re several miles east outside of town. It will be quite the drive, but you should get back to town by nightfall. Remember, I want you to know you can come back here if it looks like the town is in just complete anarchy. I…I still worry about your safety. Anyway, just knock three times on the door and I’ll know it is you.”
“I’ll certainly keep that in mind Jack.”
“Okay, well…good luck Suzy.” Jack says opening the door, which lets in a blinding brightness.

You look at Jack and then you suddenly hug him and then kiss him on the cheek. You figure it’s the least you can do. Jack wasn’t expecting it though; he returns the hug until you pull away.

You and he don’t exchange any more words; you just turn around and leave as the door shuts behind you.

You get in the car, and count up the money to find that Jack has given you a thousand dollars in hundreds. Not much in the long term, but it would at least sustain you awhile.

You wonder if you should head back to town or just keep driving east and try to start over somewhere else.
> You drive east
You come to the conclusion that there is literally nothing for you back in your hometown. Given the state it’s in, it doesn’t seem like there is much possibility there either and you’d be better off just trying to make it on your own.

This is very new territory for you just throwing complete caution to the wind like this, but you’re determined to turn over a new leaf. This is going to be a brand new Suzy and your new life starts right now.

You start up the car and drive off.

As you drive you keep trying to form various plans about what you’re going to do when you get to the next town. First thing to do will be to get a room somewhere… or maybe you should just sleep in the car. That would stretch your money out a lot more, but you can’t just do that can you? You’ll need to bathe every once in awhile! Whore baths in a public restroom perhaps?

As you’re attempting to figure out how you’re going to go about your new life, you start to get a headache just realizing how much hard work this is going to be. You turn the radio on in an effort to keep your mind occupied on something else.

“…remember our shelters are the best in the world. Your family’s survival is important to us, so don’t settle for imitations…”

“Ground Zero ads. Of course.” You say.

You try to find a station that doesn’t seem to be bought out by this company, but the only luck you have is a few doomsday preacher type stations. Since you’re not really in the mood for that either, you turn the radio off and return to silence.

You continue to drive for some time. You notice you haven’t even seen another vehicle on the road, which is a little eerie, gets even more so when it starts to get dark.

You haven’t seen any signs of civilization for quite some time, just rows and rows of trees on either side. You never realized just how rural of an area you’ve lived in before.

Eventually the trees thin out a bit and you see a looming structure in the distance on your left.

It’s a Grey Building.

“What the hell? Did I drive in a circle?” you say to yourself.

You can’t imagine that you did considering you’ve been pretty much driving in a straight path the entire time. You suppose it MIGHT be possible since your attention hasn’t exactly been completely focused since the drive itself has been so boring, but this seems pretty damn odd.

Odd or not you’re back where you started and you stop your car near the Grey Building pretty frustrated at your situation.

“Shit!” you exclaim and bang on the driver’s wheel.

You have half a mind to just continue on and go back to town, but you sort of feel like that would be giving up when really this is just a minor set back and you’ve had much worse ones.

Jack probably has a GPS, maps or something in that treasure trove of shit he collects and he’ll probably be more than willing to help you out. You just hope he doesn’t see this as a “sign” that you decided to stay after all.

You park along side the Grey building, get out and make your way towards the door.

Remembering that Jack told you to knock three times, you do so and the door opens up. Jack isn’t there at the door though; maybe he’s got it on an automated system.

The other thing that seems strange is that it’s pitch black inside. You step just inside the entryway and still can’t see shit. Not even the dim moonlight from the outside is providing any minimal illumination within the doorway.

“Hey Jack! It’s me Suzy! Why are all your lights …Ungh!” you start to call out before you get smashed in the head and fall to the concrete floor.

“DIE INTERLOPER! THIS IS MY GREY BUILDING!” a horrible voice screams before you’re forcibly pulled deeper inside and the door slams shut leaving you in complete darkness.

You try to get up to run, but a very strong force is keeping you down. You hear the sounds of a rusty chainsaw being started up followed by insane laughter.

In your last moments before the chainsaw starts ripping your flesh, you realize that you’ve made a terrible mistake.

You didn’t drive in a circle and this isn’t the GRAY Building.

This is the GREY Building

You don’t understand it and you never will, but it doesn’t matter, you’re dead.


Considering you’d rather just sit on your ass and work the register than lift boxes anyway, there doesn’t seem to be much point in engaging in an argument that will lose you this job opportunity. Honestly you’re just lucky that Jake is willing to hire you and isn’t making advances on you (yet).

Jake proceeds to show you how to work the register and the credit card machine. After a few trial runs and examples, you think you got it. The funny thing is, nobody has actually come into the comic shop yet.

“See, not very difficult. So, you think you’re ready to officially take the responsibility of the register?” Jake asks.
“Yeah, I guess, but is it always this empty?” you ask.
“No, not usually. It’s about…what a little after noon now? Yesterday was slow as well, but I’m chalking it up to all the craziness going on in town, which I’m really hoping dies down soon. There is a group of regulars that should be arriving in few moments though. They usually just hang out here all fucking day, but they tend to buy a lot when they actually do decide to part with their money and not drive me up a fucking wall with their banter. However since you’re working the register, you’ll get to put up with them this time.”
“Great, can’t wait.” You say and sit at the register unenthusiastically.

Jake proceeds to tell you that if you need anything he’ll be in his office catching up on going over his financial books. He also warns you not to steal anything, which seems weird since if you were going to steal something, it’s not like you’d listen to his warning.

Without many more words Jake disappears into his office and you sit at the register waiting for customers to come in. While you wait you start looking at the various items near the counter and start reading through some of the comics.

As time passes you continue to hear the sounds of sirens and such in the distance. Through the windows you see a couple of police officers running in the direction where you saw those barricades.

A little more time passes and a short man who looks to be in his mid thirties enters. He’s dressed in casual clothing and just nods at you when he sees you at the register. In an attempt to be a friendly, you smile and wave hi before he goes off to look at comics.

Well either Jake was exaggerating about his customers being sex crazed assholes or this guy isn’t one of the “regulars” he was talking about. You watch him for a moment as he browses and takes various comics off the shelves. He looks like he’s really into comics with as many as he’s taking. Eventually he comes up to the counter with a stack of comic books.

“Can I just sit these here for now? I’m not really done looking yet, but I don’t want to lug around a bunch of comics and possibly dropping them all over the place.” The man asks.
“Oh yeah sure. I guess you really like comics huh?” you say.
“Heh, I suppose I look a little obsessed. I don’t really come in here that much since normally I tend to buy stuff online, but this is one of those times where I don’t have the luxury of waiting for stuff to arrive in the mail. So I’m loading up now that I’m here. Never seen you here before though.” The man says.
“I’m new. Just started today actually and you’re sort of my first customer. Nobody else has come in.” you reply.
“Oh. Well, this is sort of an interesting day to start a new job given what’s been going on in town lately. I’m betting that’s why there hasn’t been anyone else in here today.”
“Yeah, tell me about it. I wouldn’t have left the house if I had the choice.”
“Yeah, I hear you, I don’t like going out too much myself, but I’ve been getting better about it lately.”
“Same here and it still sucks, but bills aren’t going to pay themselves.”
“I sort of got around that by being able to work at home. I used to sell and buy shit on the Internet a lot.”
“What, like Ebay or something?”
“Yeah something like that. Buy low, sell high, that sort of thing.”
“I wish I could do something like that.”
“You can, it’s not really difficult.”
“Eh, I’m not really a wheeler and dealer type. Besides, if I had a job involving a computer, especially one involving self employment, I’d probably just goof off and never get any work accomplished.”
“Well that’s the beauty of working at home. You can sort of be as lazy as you want!” The man says with slight grin.
“Oh I don’t think you know exactly how lazy I can be.” You say returning the smile.
“You can’t be that lazy, you’re working here.”
“Well like I said, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have to be. (Sigh) Events however have conspired against me and here I am.”
“Yeah, always sucks when things out of your control put you in a bad situation. For what it’s worth, sorry you’re in such a bind.”

You didn’t expect sympathy for your minor “pity party” but you’ll definitely accept it. You usually aren’t one to hold long conversations with random strangers, but then it’s been a bit of an unusual week for you.

“Thanks, so selling and buying shit on the Internet works for you huh? I suppose maybe I could do it. There’s certainly already enough crap around the house that surely someone would be interested in. Obviously with as many comics as you intend on buying you’re making a good living at it.” You say.
“Well I probably would be if I wasn’t a bit of a hoarder and kept most of the shit I did buy. However, I made enough that I pulled my weight so my mom didn’t kick me out of the basement of the house. Yeah, I know I’m a walking stereotype, basement dweller in a comic shop. Big surprise right?” the man remarks.

You don’t reply immediately, you just briefly think about how odd it is you’ve got so much in common with a complete stranger.

“Oh, I dunno. I don’t tend to judge people.” You reply.
“Well that’s a rare trait these days. Though I suppose I’m more of a hermit than a basement dweller nowadays anyway. My mother died a few years ago and I’m not even going to be living here anymore soon. Hence another reason why I’m loading up on books now.”
“So wait you’re moving out of town?” you say a bit surprised.
“Yeah…I guess you could say that. I mean under normal circumstances I wouldn’t bother, but it’s getting really bad out there and it’s only going to get worse.”
“Worse? How do you know? You don’t think things will get back to normal in a few days?”

The man starts like he’s about to say more, but stops. Then he stumbles over some words a bit before continuing.

“Um…it’s just…well these things…you never can tell right? I guess I don’t really know. I think I’m just rambling at this point and not making any sense. I didn’t mean to talk your ear off. I guess I should get back to it and let you get back to doing your job.” The man says and then briskly walks to the back of the comic shop.

You nearly tell him to come back to talk to clarify what he meant and that he wasn’t really bothering you, but then you think that would be a bit strange and also you don’t really know this guy.

He’s probably a weirdo anyway; he just said he lived in his mom’s basement until she died after all. You don’t even know why you’re even still thinking about it or him.

“Christ Suzy, you’re taking the break up harder than you thought. You’re starting to latch on to minor conversations with complete fucking strangers. Get a grip already.” You say to yourself.

A sudden brick through one of the shop windows breaks up your introspective moment.

You duck down behind the counter and then Jake comes out running out of his office.

“What the fuck is going on out here?!” he exclaims.
“I don’t know! Someone just threw a brick through…”

Before you can complete that sentence you hear a bunch of laughter and the shop door opening up. You continue to stay hidden behind the counter.

“Did you see that shit? Told ya I could land the brick right in the middle of the O on the window!” a young male voice exclaims.
“Yeah, yeah, let’s just see what we got in here…” another remarks.
“What the fuck do you little shits think you’re doing? You just broke my fucking window! I hope you fuckers got some money to pay for that RIGHT NOW or else I’m going to be kicking all of your asses THEN I’m going to your parents’ houses and kicking their asses for not aborting you.” Jake exclaims.
“Oh fuck off Jake, with as much as you’ve ripped us off by overcharging, I’d say that more than covers the cost of your goddamn window. We’re going to be taking some free comics too.” You hear a voice shout back.
“Look, I dunno what the fuck has compelled you social rejects even THINK you can get away with this, but if you don’t fucking get out of my shop right fucking now, there are going to be consequences you aren’t going to walk away from.”
“Ohhh, so fucking scared Jake.” You hear one say who from the sound of the voice sounds like he’s getting closer.
“HEY! Step back from the counter!”

You hear someone hit the counter and then you look up to see a pimply teenager staring over at you.

“Holy shit guys! Jake’s got a fucking bitch hiding over here! She looks hot too, no wonder he’s fucking pissed! She was probably blowing him before we came in!” he exclaims and then tries to grab your hair at which point you slap his hand away and stand up and away from the counter so you can’t be molested.

It’s at this point you finally see the motley lot. Four teenage boys of all varying shapes and sizes. You don’t know who these guys are, but if they’re the “regulars” Jake mentioned, they’re certainly not acting like what you expected.

“Goddamn Jake how the hell you manage to pull this off? She looks way too fucking hot for you. She a whore or something?” The tallest boy asks.
“Hey, you know who she looks like? She looks like that cute zombie chick.” The fattest one says.
“Nah, she looks more like that chick who controls all the dragons.” The pimply one remarks.
“For fuck’s sake she’s blonde not a goddamn albino, she doesn’t look like either of them, the pair of you are idiots. She obviously looks like the blonde chick that fucks vampires.” The tallest one remarks.
“Which one, Trent?” the fat one asks.
“The one that’s mainly killing them too.” Trent says.
“I dunno guys, I thought she looked like that chick that was a private investigator…” another one begins to say before Jake interrupts their temporary distraction of comparing you to various female nerd culture figures.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY SHOP! I’M NOT WARNING YOU AGAIN!” Jake shouts.

At which point Trent pulls a pistol out of his hoodie pocket. He doesn’t actually point it at Jake, but he’s definitely warning him by just showing it. Jake steps back a bit, but doesn’t lose his cool. You on the other hand are really worried, especially considering you got four hormone addled teenage guys staring at you.

“And I’m telling YOU we’re not fucking leaving without getting our comics! Don’t you know what today is? It’s fucking free comic book day Jake!”
“This is how you want to play this Trent?” Jake asks.

Now Trent points the pistol at Jake and gives a look of less playfulness and more deadly seriousness.

“I’m not fucking playing Jake, just like I wasn’t fucking playing with my mom when she told me to clean my room two days ago, just like I wasn’t playing with those assholes yesterday that used to give me wedgies back in sixth grade or that bitch who wouldn’t go out with me even though I did a whole bunch of nice shit for her. Things are changing around this town and if you ain’t changing with it, you’re gonna get rolled over.”

Trent looks over at his fellows and waves as if he’s telling them to take whatever they want. He continues to point the gun at Jake though he keeps an eye on you as well.

While you’re a little busy worrying about Trent and the rest, you realize you haven’t seen that guy you were talking to before. You can’t imagine he managed to slip out without anyone noticing. He might be hiding, but if he is, he’s doing a really good job, because with the way Trent’s pals are going through the store, it seems like they would have stumbled upon him by now.

While they do that, Trent gets closer to Jake still holding the gun to him.

“So what is the story with the blonde bitch anyway Jake? I know she can’t be your girlfriend. A fat old loser like you wouldn’t have one.” Trent sneers, but Jake is still keeping composure.

“I hired her to work the register today.” Jake remarks.
“Hm. I’d rather see her mouth work my dick.” Trent says looking you up and down. Jake starts laughing.

“What’s so fucking funny?”
“YOU! You’re fucking funny Trent. You’re calling me a loser and apparently you can’t even GET a woman without holding her at gunpoint. Pfft. I don’t give a shit what little emo angsty shooting spree trip you’re on, but I’m not playing. I still remember when you were in here as a little kid and your ugly ass mama beat the hell out of you for shitting your pants. How you cried and cried.” Jake chuckles.

Trent of course is not amused and points the gun closer to Jake.

“Shut the fuck up fat ass!” he exclaims.
“Make me lanky bitch!” Jake says and suddenly grabs Trent’s hand now that it’s close enough. The pair of them struggle with the weapon and Trent begins calling for his fellows to help.

While you’re certainly close enough to help Jake before Trent’s buddies get to him, you see the front door and wonder if you shouldn’t just jump over the counter and get the hell out of here.
> You help Jake
Even if you made a dash for the door, you don’t think you’d make it before Trent’s friends would reach you, better that you help Jake.

You rush over to Jake and also grab Trent’s hand that is still clutching the pistol. Jake and Trent are also hitting each other, though Jake can’t really get a good hit in due to the counter being in the way and Trent being tall and having a long reach. Trent maintains a vice like grip on the pistol.

“Hey you motherfuckers come help me! Fat ass and this bitch are trying to get the gun!” Trent exclaims.

Jake seeing that you have a grip on Trent’s pistol hand, Jake releases one of his hands to try to pull Trent forward over the counter.

He succeeds easily and Trent is half way over the counter, though two of his buddies manage to grab ahold of his legs and waist.

Meanwhile Trent’s third friend has jumped over the counter and grabbed on to you. It’s mister pimple and he’s more like groping you rather than just trying to pull you off of his buddy.

In your attempt to get the little perv off of you end up letting go of Trent’s pistol hand and while Jake still has a partial grip on it and is currently punching Trent in the face with his other fist, Trent manages to at last get his finger back around the trigger and starts shooting.

Of course he’s firing wildly due to getting punched in the face and still not having complete control over his gun, but unfortunately you’re close enough and in the direction he happens to pull the trigger.

You catch two in the chest and his buddy groping you gets one in the throat. The pair of you fall to the floor, him gurgling and spiting up blood and you struggling to breathe and also coughing up blood.

You die in a bloody heap on top of some acne ridden virgin that still manages to be clutching your right tit even in death.