19 – Predator

Andy’s spear almost caught on the sliding door track, but as he stumbled back, he kept his grip. He whirled, thinking someone had been in the house with the shotgun-toting woman, but it was Lucy who’d pulled him inside. The woman was in tears, her hands shaking, repeating over and over, “I didn’t mean to shoot.”

Meanwhile, the wolf-thing Andy had stabbed was pacing around the patio, sniffing and growling, while several much healthier-looking members of its pack prowled around the yard. Andy moved away from the door and further into the kitchen. “Quiet,” he hissed. “Get out of sight.”

Lucy was already ducking down behind a counter, and the woman, blinking back tears, complied quickly, moving to crouch behind her kitchen island. Andy watched her for a minute while she hunched there, pressing a kitchen towel to her face like she was trying to hide behind it. Then he looked at Lucy. “Are you okay?” he whispered.

She nodded. “The pellets barely broke the skin. I was more startled than anything.”

The wolf Andy stabbed had left big streaks of blood and saliva on the glass door, but he couldn’t see it anymore. He didn’t have to look far; a moment later, a message appeared in his vision:

***Congratulations! You killed an aggressive enemy and have gained experience toward your next Umbral Warden level!***

“It’s dead,” he whispered. “The one I stabbed.”

“How do you know?” Lucy whispered back.

“System message.” Andy stood and walked over to the sink, peering out the window to the backyard. The wolf-things were still prowling around, but only two. The others had moved on. Distantly, he heard barks and howls, and then the two he could still see effortlessly jumped the block wall. “They’re gone.”

“I’m—I’m so sorry,” the woman said, still sitting on the floor, her back to the cupboard by the oven. At first, Andy felt sorry for her, then he remembered her attitude when they’d come to her door, and the fact that she’d shot Lucy. Accident or not, the idea that Lucy could have died if guns weren’t messed up by the presence of mana brought heat into his voice as he whirled on her.

“You’re lucky is what you are. You could have killed her. You’re lucky the damn guns aren’t working right.”

“I-I was just scared, it’s—things have been coming around, and the neighbors…” She trailed off, shuddering.

“What about the neighbors?” Lucy asked, still whispering.

“They were fighting all night! Shouts, screams—it was madness!”

Andy growled, remembering the asshole whistling for the wolves. “Well, I’ve definitely got a bone to pick with one of your neighbors—”

***Attention! Quest, Lost and Found, failed! The children at Catalina Shadows Elementary and Middle School have been slain or captured.

Follow-up Quest Available:

Picking up the Pieces: Some of the trailer park’s missing children might still be alive. Track down the goblin hunting party that raided the school and try to snatch some victory from the jaws of defeat.

Objective: Rescue surviving children from the goblin hunting party.

Bonus Objective: Slay the goblins, removing the threat from the vicinity of your settlement.

Threats: Hostile survivors, mana-induced environmental hazards, and hostile species.

Reward: Experience, (Potential) Improvement Points, System-Generated Treasure, (Potential) Settlement Boon.***

Andy’s mouth hung open as he read the new System message. He read it twice, then three times, and then, as it finally sank in, he clenched his fist and smashed it into a kitchen cabinet, shattering the wood and sending glasses skittering and tumbling inside.

The woman gasped, retreating several steps. “Hey! What’s the—”

“Shh!” Lucy said, walking over to put a hand on Andy’s shoulder.

He whirled on her. “Did you see it?”

She nodded.

“In my head, I’ve been thinking of this quest like a game. It isn’t though—this isn’t a fucking game! They were kids, Lucy. If I hadn’t been dicking around burying bodies and talking to people like I’m some kind of bigshot—”

She shook her head, her dark blue eyes brimming with tears. “None of this is your fault. It’s not my fault. It wasn’t Steve’s fault.”

“We have to go. We have to see if any survived.”

“What’s going on?” the woman asked.

Andy, tired of thinking of her as “the woman,” asked, “What’s your name?”

“I’m Sandra. Sandy.”

“We have to go to the school. There are missing kids we need to look after.”

“What about the, um, wolves?”

“I don’t know. I guess we have to run for it.”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Andy,” Lucy whispered, “we can't save anyone if we’re dead. They’re faster than us and they can smell…”

Andy ground his teeth, racking his brain. After a few seconds, he nodded. “Let’s kill ’em.” He looked at Sandy. “You got a ladder?”

“In the garage. Why?”

“Hold this, Lucy.” Andy handed his spear to Lucy, then hurried through the kitchen, pointing to a side door past the fridge. “That the garage?”

“Yes…”

Andy stormed into the garage and saw a white Range Rover, lots of storage crates, and a neat rack of tools—some beautiful shovels, rakes, hedge trimmers, and, past that, a seven or eight-foot folding fiberglass ladder. He grabbed it and hauled it into the house. “Get the back door.”

Lucy hurried to the door and slid it open. Andy dragged the ladder out, then set it up near the porch roof. “Lucy, you go up with your bow. I’ll lure the wolves to the house and fend them off with my spear while you pump arrows into them.”

Still holding his spear, Lucy scowled at him, shaking her head. “You’ll get swarmed.”

“Nah, I’ll put my back to the brick wall. I’m good with this thing.” He took his spear out of her hands. “They won’t get past my guard, and when you start firing arrows, I’ll give ’em some stabs. Trust me.”

“Can I help?” Sandy asked from the doorway, her eyes fixated on the big, black-furred corpse out on her decorative gravel.

“No, thanks.” Andy tried to smile at her, but he was still raw about the kids, and it came out more like a grimace. “I mean, seriously. Thanks for the offer.” He looked at Lucy. “Go on! Get up there.”

“Just be careful,” she whispered. She handed him her bow before mounting the ladder and deftly climbing up. Andy stretched out his arm, reaching the bow toward the roof, and she grabbed it.

“I’ll pull them to the wall by the garage.”

Her voice came down to him from further along the roofline. “I’ll be ready.”

Andy ran to the gate, opened it, and then jogged out onto the long driveway. He scanned the desert and then looked up the road toward the asshole’s house. He didn’t see him. “Here goes nothing,” he muttered, lifting his fingers to his lips and letting out a shrill whistle. It echoed into the desert. He did it two more times for good measure, and then, a few seconds later, he heard distant yips and a brief howl. They were coming.

He looked over his shoulder, studying the ground, making sure he wouldn’t trip in his retreat to the house. He looked up to the roof, and there was Lucy, standing like a fantasy guardian atop a keep, with her bow ready—arrow nocked. She nodded, and he nodded back. Then, he turned to the desert and watched. A few seconds passed, but then the yips and barks came again, louder, and the pack burst out of the desert up the road. Andy started to back up, spear ready.

The animals were fast, each bigger than any dog Andy had ever seen, loping with tongues lolling, growls emanating constantly from their deep chests. When they saw Andy, they went wild with crying, desperate growls, their excitement evident in the hysterical tone. Their claws clicked on the blacktop as they charged up the road, closing fast. Andy backed up to the brick wall of the house.

When they hit the driveway, Andy heard Lucy’s bow twang and, to his delight, the lead wolf-thing yelped and tumbled, rolling and sliding on the concrete. It wasn’t dead, but it was hurt badly. Andy counted six more as the leader slowly got to its feet. They kept coming, and Lucy fired again before they were on him.

Andy let his System-ingrained reflexes take over as he squatted low in a fighting stance, pivoting and jabbing, viciously letting the wolves know that he was no easy prey. The tip of his spear bit deeply, but he didn’t let it get hung up, pulling it back quickly as the animals brayed and growled, snapping their jaws, but too cowardly to come at him so long as he could keep his spear moving rapidly between them. Meanwhile, Lucy’s arrows kept coming.

He couldn’t count her victims at first; he couldn’t concentrate on anything other than defending himself. Several times, the animals came at him from more than one direction, and he had to use the butt of his spear to fend off their clacking jaws. The shovel handle wasn’t long enough to use ideally, and Andy vowed to find himself a proper spear haft if he survived. Then, he realized things were easier, and he saw not one but three wolves down with arrows deep in their thick-furred bodies.

“Yeah,” he growled, “get ’em, Lucy!”

When another went down, yelping and thrashing, trying to bite the arrow in its flank, Andy went on the offensive. He waited for one of the other two to charge, then stepped into the attack and buried his spear in its throat. The last wolf still standing came at him, but he was good with a spear; he pulled it out of the corpse, whirled, and caught the animal on the side of its snapping jaw with the razor-edged blade, slicing through flesh and chipping through teeth and bone.

The wolf yelped and backed off, licking its damaged face with a half-severed tongue. Andy went after it, and when it turned to bound away, he drove his spear into its haunches, severing its spine. After that, it was a matter of mercy; he went from one wounded, monstrous animal to another, driving his spear into their hearts.

By the time Lucy came down to collect her undamaged arrows, he had a new System message:

***Congratulations, Andy! You’ve eradicated a roving band of hostile creatures! You’ve gained enough experience to reach level 7 in your Umbral Warden class, gained an Improvement Point, and earned your first Notable Distinction.

Mark of the Predator:You have proven you are not prey. The weak flee from your presence, and the strong recognize you as a rising force. Something in the way you stand, in the way you fight, has shifted—you are no longer just surviving.***

“I leveled,” Lucy announced.

“Yeah, me too,” Andy replied, distracted as he reread the message. He called up his status sheet:

Name: Andrew “Andy” West

Species: Human

Active Class: Umbral Warden

Level: 7

Inactive Classes:

Unclassed (2)

Experience toward next level:

23%

Mana: 45/45

Perception: 6

Will: 6

Strength: 8

Vitality: 8

Speed: 8

Improvement Points: 3

Notable Skills or Spells:

(* denotes active bound abilities)

Spears: 4

Sneak Attack: 1

Shadow Vigil: 1

*Piercing Dusk – Bound: 1

*Twilight Steps – Bound: 1

Notable Distinctions:

Mark of the Predator

After reading it over, he looked at Lucy. “Anything other than a level?”

She shook her head. “No skills or anything. You?”

“What about an improvement point? Do you get one every level?”

“No, for hunter, you get one every two levels, I think.”

“Seriously?” Andy scratched his chin.

“Yes, why?” She frowned, stepping closer. “Quit giving me the third degree if you’re not going to tell me what you’re thinking.”

“Hey,” he said, chuckling, “your voice is sounding better. Anyway, sorry, I wasn’t trying to grill you. It, uh, seems like I get a point every level.”

“That’s bullshit!” she growled, some of the rasp returning to her voice. “I hate this damn System!”

“Hey, um, excuse me?” Sandra called out from near the front of the house.

Andy offered Lucy a sympathetic shrug, deciding it wasn’t the right time to mention his “notable distinction”—she was mad enough as it was. He turned to Sandra. “Yeah?”

“If you two need to get somewhere, my husband and I have some bikes. They’re in the shed on the side of the house.”

“Oh shit!” Andy felt something other than guilt and anger for the first time since the System told him the quest for the children had failed. “Lady, you just earned some major points in my book.”