The contest was decided: who could first obtain the legendary golden bell from the tallest tower of the castle of Archon, guarded by hundreds of soldiers.

Strength tackled the problem head on, crashing through the castle gates and defeating every soldier in his path. While strong, Strength was not subtle, and even his might eventually gave out under the power of numbers. As more and more reinforcements arrived, he was forced to retreat.

Dexterity snuck into the castle and climbed the outside walls of the tower, avoiding the many obstacles that foiled Strength. But after arriving at the room which contained the golden bell, she discovered it to be too heavy to carry back down the way she came. Seeing the failure of Strength to fight his way through the castle, she resigned herself to leaving without her prize.

After much research, Intelligence found old records of an undiscovered secret passage leading directly to the room containing the golden bell, allowing him to bypass all other obstacles. Unfortunately, the heavy stone doors at the end of the secret passage, which hadn’t been opened in decades, were wedged shut, and proved impossible to move by Intelligence. So close to his goal, but unable to cross this single hindrance, Intelligence withdrew, defeated.

- Excerpt from “Fables of the Five Siblings”

I wake up the next morning and enjoy a quiet breakfast with my three companions. I’m normally a late sleeper, but the sun, the chirping birds, and the rough ground act enough like an alarm to make even me an early riser. I try to contain a grimace when Pallas hands me an open can of food. But when I look at our dwindling supplies, I resolve to enjoy the repetitive meal anyway. While it’s nice having lighter loads, if we aren’t able to re-stock within the next two to three days we may start to go hungry.

I fully expect us to reach the town within the next few hours though, so it hopefully shouldn’t be an issue. While I appreciate Melete’s willingness to try and prepare us for anything, I can’t imagine any situation where we aren’t able to find other people and supplies today. Even assuming everyone in the town lost all of their Numbers and had monsters attack them as well, it is a town of hundreds, if not thousands of people. And more than that, they have guns. In a small town this close to the forest, where hunting lodges and deer stands are only a short drive away, half the adults will have their own personal armories. The monsters we’ve seen so far wouldn’t stand a chance.

In the stillness of the morning, I remember my resolution from last night and hesitate. After the stress of fighting the monsters, bonded by the heat of battle, the act of lying to my classmates feels like a terrible personal betrayal. But now, in the light of morning and only a few hours away from help and civilization where we can separate and not have to rely just on each other, my guilt from yesterday feels foolish. There’s not any urgency to reveal myself to them, and what long term consequences could my secret have anyway? Soon, we’ll go back to normal school life, and I can return to my normal loner self.

The thought fills me with a sense of relief, knowing that my charade of leadership only has a few more hours before it can end. But at the same time, some small part of me weeps, knowing that our time together is almost gone. As terrible as this last week has been, I can’t help but feel sad thinking of it being over, of things returning to how they used to be.

Well, not completely how they used to be, I think as I glance back to my right arm. Regardless of how things work out once we get home, I’ll still have this new skill to pursue, and theorizing about how it may work and grow fills me with excitement.

After finishing up breakfast and gurgling our mouths clean (I never knew how much I would miss toothpaste), we get ready to move again. Even as we enter the normal hiking formation, setting our eyes outward with our weapons close at hand, there’s an excitement in the air. We know we’ll see other people soon. Melete’s humming is distinctly more upbeat and even Pallas has a slight smile on his normally stoic face.

“Ok guys! Let’s finish this up quickly -- I’m really looking forward to real food for lunch!” I exclaim as we break out into a fast march.

“I would kill for a giant burger and fries.” Styx states, “Ooh! And a milkshake!” There’s stars in her eyes.

“Pfft, why would you get a milkshake when you could get a giant icy soda?!?” Melete replies, although she’s quick to follow that up with a deep sigh, “Not that there’s going to be any place we can get a soda in the town…”

I chuckle, and ask Pallas, “How about you?”

“Fresh fruit” he replies instantly. I’m a bit surprised by his answer, which counters my expectations based on his huge physique. But after a second I nod. Our reliance on canned savory foods leaves me craving something sweet and fresh as well.

“Candy.” I announce my own preference after deliberating for a minute. “Lots and lots of candy.”

Despite our recent meal, I feel my stomach gurgle, and I smile as the others laugh. We continue our conversation about foods we most look forward to, hiking the last few miles to safety.

Over the last few hours the forest has thinned considerably, and we’re starting to pass more and more road signs. Just a few minutes ago, after passing over a cattle grate, the road changed to paved rather than just dirt. It’s hard to contain our excitement as we see more and more signs of civilization, but I continue to remind the others to stay vigilant.

As safety gets closer, I can’t help but worry that the danger hasn’t entirely passed. With these paranoid thoughts rolling around in my head, I pull us over to the side of the road after we crest a hill and see a building in the distance.

We haven’t seen any cars along the road at all. The hikes along this road are fairly popular, and not seeing any cars would normally be pretty unusual for a...is it Monday already? How has a week already passed since everything first went wrong?

I want to play this safe though.

“So, I know we want to get back as soon as possible,” I begin, “but I don’t think it would be wise to rush into town without any preparation.”

They all nod along, agreeing with me completely. “So what exactly are you proposing?” Styx asks.

I take a deep breath, knowing my proposal is a hard sell. “The city is probably only a mile away, so we could get there in less than half an hour of easy hiking. But there’s a few houses we’ll be passing before we get there. As much as I want to get somewhere safe as soon as possible, I think we’ll need to check all the houses we pass before going any further.”

I wait, expecting some objections.

The silence is broken by Melete’s cry, “Of course! We’ve only had one, maybe two battles with monsters, if you count the birds as a fight. That means we are still due for at least eight more before getting home. Better to get them out of the way earlier than later.”

We all stare at Melete, unsure of how to address her logic, when Styx interjects, clearly deciding to ignore Melete’s statement completely. “I agree, I think. Even if they’re all empty, it’s better to make sure there aren’t any monsters behind us before going further. And any people we find may be able to give us a ride into town!”

I look to Pallas to see his opinion. He’s staring at his feet, but slowly looks up into my eyes, and whispers. “...I want to go home, but...I can wait a bit longer, if it means we stay safe.”

Huh. I guess my idea isn’t as bad as I thought, if they’re all willing to agree with me that easily. Or do they just trust my judgement that much?

Shaking my head, I bring myself back into focus. “That’s the plan then -- we’ll hit each of the houses we see off of this road until we find someone or make it back into the town proper. Same formation as before, call out if you see anything.”

We walk together another hundred yards before we get to the first long dirt driveway. The driveway continues for another twenty yards until it encounters a small house next to an even larger barn. It looks like most of the residences out here are ranches.

We walk the rest of the way to the front porch of the house, and pause at the entrance. Now that we’re closer, I can see the front doors to the barn are ajar, but I don’t see any animals around. Neither do I see any vehicles, although I can see where a car would usually be parked based off of the dead grass.

I push the wheelbarrow off to the side of the house and leave it for now. If an emergency happens, we’ll run and leave it behind. As much as I’ve grown attached to it over the last few days, we have few enough supplies left that most of what we still need fits into the three backpacks.

With only a little hesitation, I walk up to the door. The easy banter we maintained earlier this morning is now gone, each of us tense and ready for anything.

“Pallas, watch our backs.” I whisper to him. “No matter what goes on up here, we can’t let ourselves be caught distracted like we were yesterday.” Pallas nods to me, sets his shoulders, and grips the shovel tightly between his fingers.

Unencumbered, I take a deep breath, and knock solidly on the frame of the screen door.

Styx, Melete, and I each have our weapons by our sides -- ready to bring them to bear if something attacks, but not too aggressive to be threatening if anyone comes to the door. After a minute of no response, I walk up, open the screen door and bang directly on the door ten more times.

After a few seconds of not hearing any noises from within, I reach out and try the handle.

“Locked,” I announce.

“Do we try to find another way in, or move on?” Styx asks.

Part of me wants to explore, but a much larger part of me doesn’t want to waste any more time getting home. “We move on,” I state. “Let’s check the barn first, but if we don’t find anyone, let’s go to the next house.”

The barn looks to be completely empty, with the exception of some hay, lots of farming tools, and some stalls for animals. Cows? Horses maybe? I don’t know enough about ranching to be able to say.

As we leave the barn behind, I breathe a sigh of relief, joined by Pallas and Melete behind me. That barn did NOT smell good. And there wasn’t any artificial light, leaving the majority of the corners shrouded in shadow. Each step into the dark building made me worry more that something was hiding in the gloom just outside of sight, ready to pounce.

We end up not finding anything, and quickly walk back to the road.

“Round two?” I ask as we get to the second driveway a hundred yards closer to the town.

“Let’s get this over with.” Pallas mutters from the back, and I can’t help but agree with his sentiment.

The second house ends up being almost a complete mirror of the first -- no cars, no response to knocking, and the front door solidly locked. The only difference is that the barn at the second house is locked as well, and after fiddling with the door for a few seconds we give up and go back to the road.

I’m starting to regret this course of action. If we’d simply walked past these houses, we would be halfway to town already. But at this point, we’ve committed, and I’m resolved to finish this the right way. And if I’m completely honest, I don’t want to admit to the others that my plan was stupid by abandoning it so early.

As we approach the third house, I notice something that lifts my spirits.

“A truck!” Melete calls out, and I unconsciously pick up the pace, almost jogging as we turn up the driveway. A vehicle means other people -- and other people means safety!

Suddenly, I feel Styx grab my arm, and I’m pulled to a stop.

“Look at the door!” she urges in a quiet voice. I finally turn my eyes away from the truck and bring my focus to the front of the house.

The door is still there...to an extent. It looks like it was broken through with a huge amount of force, only a single hinge keeping it from falling apart completely. The edges of the door are also forced inwards, as if something barely too large to use the entryway forced its way in.

My breath catches in my throat. We’ve clearly found evidence of another monster. Now the only question is what we do now.

As we sit outside starting at the door, I hear Styx whisper beside me, “There could be people in there. Who are hurt and need help.” I consider her words, and finally nod.

“We go in. Slow and silent.” I mutter. Even if there aren’t any people, the chance to get the keys to the truck is too good of an opportunity to pass up.

The speed at which my mind jumped immediately to grand theft auto surprises me before I forcefully ignore it. I have more important things to focus on.

“Keep your eyes out for anything useful, especially car keys or other people.” I whisper. I cringe at my description of other people as “useful,” but it doesn’t look like anyone else noticed my poor word choice. “We stay together. The second we see a monster, we retreat outside.”

We each bring our weapons to bear and slowly stalk up to the doorway. Looking toward the dark interior, I stifle a shudder, forcefully pushing away the hundreds of images my imagination conjures, fueled by years of horror movies.

Before I can put any more thought into running away, I steel my nerves and step into the house.

S: 88

D: 39

W: 47

I: 38

C: 51

52

Skills: Adjust:Self