Outside the sun seemed brighter and the grass somehow greener. The light breeze felt great against the sweat I hadn’t realized that I was producing. My back was soaked and my hair was kind of matted down. I hadn’t realized that I was that tense until we came outside.

“Definitely gonna need a bath after this,” said Janet, sniffing her pits.

“Yea,” I said while running my hands through my hair trying to get my hair a little dryer. We kind of strolled around to the front of the building. We took the time to pack everything into our inventories or the rickshaw before we left. I didn’t mess the harness, just pulled the rickshaw around front just in case we decided to leave in a hurry.

Once we got around front we repeated the process of getting in formation in front of the doors. Janet called it again. “Skinny T-Up.” She waited until we’d got into our places. “You guys ready?” she asked.

“Yep,” I said.

“Yeah,” Tanya replied.

“OK,” said Janet. “Remember, no talking unless you are pointing something out. Here be monsters. Everybody’s mana good?” she asked.

“Yep.” “Yep,” we chorused.

“OK,” she said. “Let’s do this. T-Up Door.”

I started ahead marching toward the door. When I got there, I could see into the building. The doorway was black, but some light still penetrated inside through the open windows? Holes in the walls? Inside, basically at the back of what used to be a convenience store area, I could see something glowing with dim, pearlescent light, right where I remembered the cash machine being.

“Anyone else sees the light?” I asked.

“Yes,” they both answered.

“OK,” I said. “What’s our goal?”

“Forward toward the light” answered Tanya. “Keep it close in, that light is pretty close to the nest. Plus it’s pretty close to where you said you left the boxes of supplies. We can do both; check out the light and see if there are any supplies left for us to scavenge. Hopefully, the super-gerbils didn’t take it.”

We stepped in the door and into the darkness of the store. It was gloomy inside, about like an old warehouse that had been abandoned. Like an old warehouse, it had that dusty feel to it, gloom draped over all of the corners. The windows at the front glowed with light, but for some reason, the light from them didn’t penetrate into the room. The smell of rats, or something other than humans, closed in on us; so heavy it was almost choking. The air was a little hot. The dust danced in front of the windows.

“Lord, it’s smelly in here,” I heard Janet say behind me. “Someone needs to change the litter!”

“Shh!” Tanya said. “Let’s keep focused.”

“Sorry boss!” Janet said.

“Anyone see anything?” Tanya asked.

I looked, but other than the light, I couldn’t see anything. It was kind of pissing me off. I mean we had eight windows, big ones too, at the front of the store that ran along the entirety of the front wall of the store. There should be light, instead, it’s almost black in here. I could see the windows, I could even see out of them. I could see the flashes of color as the birds flew from tree to tree, but I couldn’t hear their calls and the light from them didn’t penetrate to the interior. It was like a membrane separated the interior of the store from the exterior world.

I looked towards where the glowing light was and could make out some shapes; it looked like maybe one of the tables from the pizza place or burger bar was turned over on its side in the room in front of me.

“Nope,” I said. “Possible table down in front, to the left.”

“OK,” Tanya said. “Move toward it. Be ready.”

I started moving slowly along the front of the room away from the door. I could hear the sound of shifting coming from the back of the room. Not really noisy, just the subtle sounds of something slightly moving its weight, possibly the sound of fur dragging over wood. I glanced back and the two women were behind me, close up. “It’s been about 30-40 minutes, let’s recast our light spells. I don’t want to be in the dark in here,” I said. Tanya didn’t say anything, but a new light ball appeared over her head. Shortly afterwards, another one appeared over my head when I cast the spell

I settled my shield over my arm and held my sword up resting on the top of the shield, pointing toward the front, and started walking forward, not lifting my feet far from the ground.

As I came closer, it turned out what looked like a table turned over, was just that. It was one of the booths from the pizza place. Glancing down, I saw a hand. I started to panic and then realized that it wasn’t a human hand, but a hand from one of the Indians (Native Americans) in the diorama. Still, my heartbeat had shot up to like 200 beats a minute there for a second. I looked toward the pizza ovens and saw that they’d been replaced with what looked like a masonry oven, something like you might spy in a high-end pizza joint. A big arch of stone bricks sitting over a fireplace. The weird thing about it was that it had no place to put wood or other stuff like coal or even a pipe to burn gas like in your fireplace. Just this big block of whitish stone that had two handprints on it, like a child’s art class picture, but full-sized, and, well, made better than a child would have done. I looked around the area and that wasn’t the only difference. The booths had been changed to wooden, bar trestle-type tables, heavy, thick wooden tables, while the prep-area counter and the cash register were gone, replaced by something that had evidently been dragged off. I couldn’t see the freezers or the walk-ins that used to separate the two food areas, the pizza place, and the soda fountain. Instead, there was just a gap with what looked like another stone oven/grill and then more tables where the soda fountain used to be. It looked like something had been busy rearranging the System’s arrangement. Judging by the big mass of stuff ahead of us, we were going to find out what was responsible soon. Well, I hoped we wouldn’t, but my luck probably wasn’t that good.

I heard a gasp behind me, then Janet said, “Ok, that’s freaky! Warn a girl when you step over human hands, will you?”

“Sorry!” I said. “It’s from the diorama. Just a manikin's part. Not real!”

“Looks damn real in this light,” she said.

“Focus!” said Tanya.

I shifted my attention back towards the glowing light and moved towards it. Once past the table and the manikin hand, the floor was pretty clear. It was still dark, but whatever rubble or pieces of the interior that existed after the System event (I’ve given up on calling it the Apocalypse, too much baggage in that term) had been scooped up and brought forward and dumped into a big pile in front of us. I guess I was growing used to the smell because I didn’t notice it as much; however, as we moved toward it, the ammonia odor grew stronger.

The counters and shelves that made up the convenience area were just gone. They’d probably been replaced with something in the Event, but now, I’m guessing, that whatever they’d changed to was part of the big pile at the back of the room. I could hear our footsteps, but that was about it.

As I got closer to the light, I could make out more details. It looked like one of those really old gas pumps, a big cylinder with an oblong sign glowing on top, only it didn’t have a name like Shell on it, instead, it had a picture of a glowing, golden skeleton key, with the bow on top and the blade underneath, pointing downward. I won a trivia game by knowing those terms once. Just saying, I know my key anatomy. Finally, when I got close enough, about 10 feet away, it was like I stepped into a new room. I stopped immediately. Light surrounded me and I could see; however, not outside the light, but inside - perfectly. It was like a well-lit office before the Event. However, only the gas pump-ish thing and I were in it. And it didn’t smell like hamster piss too! So, yea! And, of course, a blue box appeared.

Welcome to the Store!

As you are the first sapient being to discover this instance of the Store, and you have the appropriate token, would you like to take ownership? Y/N

I said, “What do you mean, ‘take ownership?’”

The blue box didn’t change.

I heard Tanya asking, “OK, that’s new. Monsoon, where did you go?”

I could tell from her voice that she was on the verge of panicking, so I said, “I’m here! Don’t worry!” I was still trying to come to grips with the change in my environment.

“Janet, where did he go? Did you see anything? What happened? He was just there? Just ahead of me. Of us!”

By this time her voice was starting to go up and be a little more unsteady. I guessed that wherever I was, was somehow separate from them. Maybe the word “instance” in the blue box had a specific meaning. I knew in computer games it meant a specific copy of an area (usually a dungeon) that was created for each person or party that entered. ‘Holy crap!’ I thought. ‘This world has really become a strange place.’

“Hang in there!” I heard Janet say. “Let’s give him a minute or two before we start worrying. There are no holes in the floor, we didn’t see him move or get thrown or grabbed or fall in a pit. Let’s give him a second. Monsoon,” she said. “Get your butt back here, now!”

Without answering the dialog box, I quickly stepped back and just like that I was back with Janet and Tanya.

“What the hell, Monsoon!” Janet said. “How about you don’t disappear like that on us, well like, ever again.”

“Sorry! Sorry!” I said. “I don’t know what happened. I took a step forward and I was just somewhere else? It was just me and the gas pump there in a cleaner version of this space only it wasn’t all of this space, it was just about a 3-meter circle. I know, but since the world’s gone metric, I guess I will too. The floors were cleaner and it didn’t smell like rat pee either. Anyway, and then I got a blue box and I tried to talk to you all, but you couldn't hear me. So I stepped back and the box disappeared and then I was back here!”

“Only you! I swear to God!” Tanya said. But she still came up and grabbed my arm too, I guess, make sure I was there.

“What did the box say?” asked Janet.

“It said welcome to the store and then asked if I wanted to take ownership.”

“Store?” asked Janet.

“Ownership?” asked Tanya.

“You’ve got me, ladies. I have no idea what it meant. I just walked up to the gas pumpy thing and it started spamming me with blue screens. Try it yourself? Or maybe if we are all holding hands we can appear in the same place? Oh, and it said sapient, so unless those hamster-rats are more intelligent than I think, I’m betting it’s a safe space. Besides, I think maybe the instance thing would apply. Even if they could get the thing to function, even if they were somehow intelligent, they wouldn’t be in the same space that you were in, I guess.”

Tanya said, “Why do you keep calling it a gas pump? It looks nothing like a gas pump?”

I answered, “Well, not now. But remember those old-time gas pumps? The ones that used to have a dinosaur on them? They were green, I think. Up on their top, they had a round, circular, lighted sign? I don’t think I ever saw one in real life. Maybe in an antique store in Jenks? Anyway, the store/kiosk kind of looks like those old pumps to me, uh, without the gas pump handle.”

“You are truly strange, you know that, don’t you?” she smiled though when she said it and squeezed my arm before letting go and stepping back away.

“Alright, we’ve got to be careful here. We’re about 25 feet from the nest and we’re way too casual. We need to get it together” she said. “Skinny T-Up. Close-in and grab Monsoon. Then slow advance. Let’s look over the Store and then see if we can find the supplies.”

We gathered up. Our focus coming back to us. It is still early days into the Event and we aren’t used to combat, danger. No excuse, but until yesterday, I’d been concerned with applying to Grad School and cleaning toilets. Until I fought the slime, I’d never been in real danger before. And the ladies still hadn’t. Well, except for now, but it is still a potential danger at this point.

“Ok, forward, slow,” said Tanya.

And we stepped forward toward the nest and the pump/store and just like before, the room changed, got brighter, cleaner, smaller or at least more isolated. Only this time the two women were with me. Once again, I got a blue screen.

Welcome to the Store!

As you are the first sapient being to discover this instance of the Store, and you have the appropriate token, would you like to take ownership? Y/N

“OK,” I said. “Got the blue screen again. Is everybody seeing it?”

“Yes,” they both said. “But ours doesn’t say anything about ‘taking ownership’. It just says, 'Welcome to the store. Would you like to shop?'”

“Ok,” I said. “That’s different. Mine still asks 'if I’d like to take ownership?' Should I do it or not?”

“Does it still say something about the token?” Janet asked.

“Yes,” I replied.

“What’s up with that?” she said. “We’ve been with you this whole time. You didn’t get anything that we didn’t see, did you?”

“No,” I said. “As you said, y’all have been with me from the beginning. I haven’t done anything that y’all don’t know about. Except for the slime fight, but you were there. Oh, oh, wait.” We stepped back and the blue screen vanished. I reached down and dug into my pocket. Sure enough, there was the skeleton key I got from the fight with the slime. I looked at it, this time really looked at it, trying to inspect it and the thing finally identified as ‘System Token - Iron Rank’.

“OK,” I said. “Here it is. I found the token. It’s the skeleton key I got from the fight with the slime.”

“What skeleton key?” Tanya said.

“Well, when I squished the slime’s core, the slime dissolved and left this key behind. I didn’t really pay attention to it, I’d just been in a fight for my life and you guys were about to hit me with the door, so I just threw it in my pocket and forgot about it ‘til now.” I said. “When I look at it, identify it, it shows, ‘System Token - Iron Rank’.”

“Huh,” Janet said. “What do you suppose that means? System Token? Iron Rank?”

“I don’t know. Imu, what is Iron Rank?” I asked.

My imu appeared and said it, “In the order of treasures, it is the third rank from the bottom.”

I said, “Oh yeah, what are the others?”

It answered, “Bronze, Copper, Iron, Silver, Electrum, Gold, Platinum, Mithril, Orichalcum, Adamantine, and Unobtanium”.

“Do those ranks correspond to anything else? Like adventurer ranks?”

“Yes,” it answered. “Each rank corresponds to the appropriate adventurer rank. Bronze > G, Copper > F, Iron > E, etc.”

“So that means that there’s an Adventurer’s Guild?” I asked almost whooping with excitement.

“There are provisions that allow for the creation of such a Guild. However, it has not been established yet.”

“Sweet!” I exclaimed.

“What?” Janet asked.

“We can become Adventurers. Hang out at the Adventurer’s Guild. Take missions. Oh yeah!” I may have started to dance a little, but then I remembered who I was with and stopped. Quickly.

I coughed and then said, “Iron Rank is the third rank from the bottom in the treasure rank scale: Bronze, Copper, Iron, Silver, Electrum, Gold, Platinum, Mithril, Orichalcum, Adamantine, and Unobtanium”.

“Who comes up with this crap,” said Tanya. “I’ve never heard of Orichalcum before and Unobtanium, wasn’t that in a comic book?”

“No,” said Janet. “It was in that movie, Avatar. It was what they were mining on that planet I’m pretty sure. I think it was in a couple of other things too.”

“Take it up with the System!” I said. “I’m just telling you what my Imu said. Anyway, back to the dialog box, do I say Yes or No.”

“Hand me the token,” Janet said.

I handed it to her, or at least I attempted to hand it to her, but she was unable to touch it. It passed through her hand like a ghost through a wall. When it did, she gave a little yell and jumped back. I looked at her and she said, “That felt freaky. It felt like a cool breeze blew through my hand. I’ve never felt a breeze inside my hand before. Do it again!”

I did and then had to do it to Tanya as well. They both tried to pick up the key from my palm, but it was like the key was a hologram to them. Out of phase or something. They played with the key for a couple of moments and then I asked again, “Yes or No?”