Homegrown System

It was still several hours before they started to move. Though Alice was impatient, she still couldn't properly walk on her ankle, hobbling around the room until her bandages were changed one more time.

During that time, they didn't talk much. Only when he had a clarification about her story did they exchange words. Titus sat against the opposite wall by the stove, his eyes half-lidded as he rested. He kept a careful eye on her as if he didn't fully trust her, which she didn't blame him for in the slightest. But the silence wasn't uncomfortable. Alice used the time to reflect on everything that had happened and the choices that had led her here.

With a bit of distance, her plan with the helicopter and finding the nearest person seemed incredibly short-sighted, not to mention dangerous. Though having met Titus, she was incredibly glad to have someone to help her. The way he moved and his healing skill told her that he would be an asset. Assuming he wasn't a danger to her. And besides that one moment of terror, so far, he'd been nothing but a gentleman.

She found what remained of her shirt. It was torn up into shreds. Parts of it had turned into the bandages around her, and the rest of it was a bloody mess. She looked down at it and tried to find a scar somewhere on her body, but didn't find anything.

"How long was I sleeping?" she asked, and Titus opened his eyes fully before answering.

"About twelve hours."

"So it's already been a day," Alice muttered half to herself, but Titus took it as a response.

"Almost. It's not quite dark out yet," he said. "Late evening, maybe."

Alice nodded and went to check her phone. But her hand froze in her empty pocket as she realized that it was in the helicopter and was likely nothing more than scrap.

"How bad was I hurt?" she asked. "When you first grabbed me, I mean."

Titus winced. "Pretty bad. You had an eight-inch piece of glass sticking out of your stomach. I've seen people die from injuries less severe than that."

Alice blinked, looking reflexively down at her stomach as though expecting to see the glass still sticking out of her. Evidently, that [First Aid] skill was even better than she'd given it credit for. At the same time, Titus's admission somehow surprised her less than she would have expected. He had the feeling of a man who'd seen death before.

"Are you a soldier?" she asked. She had met some Special Forces people before, and they had a similar air about them.

Titus shrugged. "I used to be."

"You look young for an ex-soldier," Alice said, careful to keep her words neutral. She didn't want to sound like she was accusing him of anything, but she was honestly just curious.

"I suppose you could say I got an early start," he said but refused to elaborate more, and she stopped questioning. That was shady as shit, and she didn't want to find out that she was dealing with a hitman or something. He was scary enough as it was without her learning more about him yet.

He changed the bandage on her ankle, and she was ready to move around again a couple of hours later. But her mind was still racing, and as he started packing up the gear he had, she couldn't help but pester him with questions.

"How are we getting back to campus? You seem to have a plan. Do you have a plan?" She hated to sound like she was questioning his competence, but he took it in stride without getting offended.

"Yes, yes, and yes," he said. "We are going to be taking a car."

"You have a car?" she asked.

He shook his head, then shrugged. "I do own a car, and I did use one to get here, but that one kind of got destroyed," he said. "Not that it would be too useful for getting through this part of the forest. But there are cars everywhere. We just have to find one that didn't crash too badly and then take it through the city. There's a road not that far from here, and I can get us there without too much of a problem."

He hefted a small pack onto his back. In his other hand, he held a shovel. It was a small shovel, one meant for old women or children based on the size, but the blade was sharpened to a wicked edge. The way he held it made it look more like a spear than a gardening implement. At his waist was a double-bladed ax meant for felling wood, and a couple of knives were strapped to his chest and belt.

Looking at her, Titus drew one out of the large knives and handed it to her. She took it carefully. Growing up, she hadn't been allowed to touch a knife, even in the kitchen, for a long time. Even as she'd gotten older, she much preferred to order food rather than prepare it herself, so she wasn't exactly comfortable with the tools. It looked to be some sort of survival knife, eight inches long and wicked sharp. She held it in a tight grip as far away from her body as possible. Titus looked at her, then the knife, and rolled his eyes but didn't say anything.

"We need to level along the way," he said. "So you're going to have to kill things."

Alice paled at that but hardened her resolve and nodded. She had already killed one thing. She had bashed that book with her bag when she fled the library. It couldn't be that hard to do again.

"I'd give you my 'spear,'" he said, making air quotes with one hand as he held up his shovel, "But I think it's best if I hold on to that for now. We'll figure something out for you along the way."

Alice nodded woodenly, still not liking the idea of having to fight. With that, he pushed open the cabin door, and the evening light filtered in through the doorway. As they walked out, the tall canopy of trees shaded the area in dim twilight. The sky was far darker than it should have been from where the sun's actual position. Her head swiveled around at every small sound, her neck barely twinging from the whiplash she had a few hours ago.

"Come on, this way," Titus said as he pointed to a narrow gap in the trees. It could have generously been called a hiking trail but looked more like a thin strip of dirt that disappeared almost instantly amongst the foliage.

"Where are we going? We're not lost or anything, right?" She asked when they were only half a dozen steps into the dark and foreboding woods. This was about as far from civilization as she had been in the last five years, maybe even more than a decade since her father had taken her hiking when she was five. There was a reason that they hadn't gone a second time.

Titus let out a small chuckle. "You're more likely to get lost at home than I am in the woods," he said. "Trust me, it's fine."

He walked confidently through the undergrowth, his head on a swivel, barely making any noise despite him being at least twice as heavy as she was. Every time she took a step, she couldn't help but wince at the sound of shuffling leaves and breaking branches as she bulldozed her way through the undergrowth, having to push branches aside constantly. Titus seemed able to slip through, barely leaving a disturbance. He didn't admonish her for her noisy travel, though, just keeping a close eye on her.

A sudden screech pulled their attention to the right. Alice echoed the sound with a scream of her own as something ran at her from the side. It looked a bit like a turkey with teeth, but it was four and a half feet tall and quite angry.

She spun to face it. Alice felt her hand fumble at her waist, trying to find the hilt of her knife even as she continued to scream.

A sickening thud echoed through the dim light as the tip of the shovel smashed into the monster's chest, completely halting its momentum several feet from her. Titus leaped past her at it, his knife plunging into its head before she even had a chance to fully read the now fading tag above the monster's head: [Raptor, Level 11].

Alice gulped, her hand only now grabbing and drawing the knife from the sheath she had clumsily tied to her belt. She held it tightly, still shaking as Titus pulled out the shovel. A fountain of blood spilled onto the dirt, its edge creeping towards her shoes as she stumbled back. She found herself panting, her knife held in her hands, eyes locked on the dead bird.

"What the fuck was that?" She asked as Titus wiped the knife he had pulled out of its brain on its feathers and stood up. He looked her up and down before apparently assessing that she wasn't going to be much use, and he reached forward, grabbing the wrist that held the knife and taking it from her shaking hands.

"Come on," he said. "We need to move. This will attract more predators."

He pulled her off into the forest. She followed in a daze for several steps before she shook herself out of it and yanked her hand back. "What was that?" she asked. "How did you know it was coming?"

"I didn't," he said. "But your scream was useful. If you see something like that, scream again, and I'll be able to help."

She was a little bit hurt by the comment, but based on the slight smile on his face, it was meant to be a joke. She let out a brief chuckle that made her feel surprisingly better. "Thanks, I'll remember that. But how did you get so good with a knife and melee weapons? Like, shouldn't soldiers be good at guns and stuff? Do you really do that much knife training in Army Ranger School?"

Titus never stopped his constant surveillance of the forest around them. "I've never been to 'Army Ranger School.' And, well, the knife's better than a gardening spike."

"A what?" Alice asked, confused.

You know, the little metal thing that you use to stab the ground to loosen it up. Gardening spike. Those are a thing, right? Or is it something else that I'm thinking of," mused Titus, his brow furrowed.

"I don't know anything about gardening," she said, now thoroughly confused.

"Ah. Me neither." Titus said.

They took several more steps before she realized she had been thoroughly sidetracked. "But why were you... Why a gardening spike?"

"Well," he said, gesturing at the shovel and ax, "where do you think I found these? I didn't find the knives until I found the ranger cabin in the woods, and I had to use a gardening spike as a makeshift knife."

Alice nodded, understanding. "Okay, but that still doesn't answer my first question. How did you get so good with a knife?"

He just gave her a smile. "No, you're right, it doesn't." He paused and pointed. "Oh, there's the freeway."

Indeed, there was a long strip of asphalt and a crashed jeep with its top ripped off. As they stepped onto the road, another notification popped into Alice's vision.

[New Zone discovered! Level 31-40]

"Is that the car you had?" she asked, indicating the jeep.

"Sure is. I had a bit of a problem getting here," he said, and Alice just nodded. She hoped that things would start making sense again soon. Maybe the shock from the raptor still hadn't worn off, as things felt a little fuzzy.

There were several stalled cars along the highway, many that had drifted as their drivers disappeared and crashed, but a few had slowed down or were driven into a ditch but looked recoverable. They found a german-made sports car that looked to be quick. It was new enough that the safety features had turned it off. At least it still started when Titus turned the keys.

"There's a full tank," he said as he told her to get in. He pushed from the front as they backed it up out of the ditch.

"Shouldn't we get something more off-road capable?" Alice asked, looking at a Range Rover not that far away.

Titus shrugged. "Well, I don't imagine we're going to be doing much off-roading, and from my previous experience, I'd rather be fast."

Alice decided not to question it as she got out and slung the bag with her laptop and some food and water in the back seat. Then she went around to the passenger side as Titus slid into the driver's seat and started the engine. They slowly weaved their way through the other motionless cars, heading back towards the city.

"So," she said after a few moments of silence. "What happened to you? How did you find the forest? Why did you... Why did you go there?" Her curiosity had been building this whole time and finally exploded outwards.

Titus gave her a look but didn't immediately shut her down. "Well. It's a bit of a long story," he said. "It started when the power went out..."