There are many ways to get your kids started off right. Some claim that what Numbers a person ends up with is entirely up to them and them alone. But as parents, we can have a large impact on the course of our children’s lives. Do you want your kids to excel in strength? Make sure their toys are heavier than the average. Dexterity? Play games of catch with them daily. Wisdom? Listen to classical music with your young children. Intelligence? Play games of memorization. Charisma? Encourage your children to host tea parties and play make believe. As parents, it’s our responsibility to guide our children in the way they should go, and the first step is in their Numbers.

- Excerpt from Parenting 101, by Charles

“Well, that was a bit terrifying. Do you have any other ideas?” Pallas simply shakes his head and tosses the broken haft of the shovel onto the ground.

After each taking our time getting completely clean we decided to explore the house a bit further, looking for any useful supplies to loot. It only took a few minutes for us to find the gun safe in the back corner of the bedroom. Unfortunately it was locked, and despite spending a half hour looking, we could find no sign of the missing keys. That was when I had the bright idea to try to pry open the door by wedging the edge of the shovel into the crack and Pallas applying his not inconsiderable strength to the lever.

“What was that?” Styx runs into the room with her knife ready, followed closely by Melete.

“Don’t worry, it was nothing...just a stupid decision.” I hurry to calm them down. The shaft of the shovel had been bending crazily and I was about to warn Pallas to stop when it broke with a loud crack, sending a chunk of wood flying across the room inches from my face.

My heart is racing in my chest from the near injury, but it doesn’t take me too long to calm down. After all, as bad as this injury could have been it’s nothing compared to being eaten by a troll monster.

Styx and Melete see the broken shovel and realize what happened. I’m thankful they don’t choose to comment immediately on our stupidity, and I’m quick to continue.

“Unless any of you have any other ideas, I think the gun safe is a bust. You two find anything else in the house?”

“Some good stuff,” Melete replies, “but mostly more of the same. Some more clothes that don’t have the state logo on them, mostly they’ll only fit you or Styx, Pallas. Some more cans of food and bottles of water. A flashlight. Oh! And some jewellery.” Melete reaches into her pocket and opens up her hand to reveal a few fancy sets of earrings, a necklace, and a ring.

“Is that really something we should take?” I ask. I’ve come to the conclusion that stealing other people’s stuff is unavoidable if we need it to survive. I have almost no regrets taking their food and clothes. But taking their valuables? That seems unnecessary.

Styx is the one who responds. "I'm not sure, but it’s like you said. We need to treat this as if it’s the apocalypse, as if it’s the worst case scenario. If this truly is as widespread as you said it might be, there may not be any government around to enforce the dollar. And we’ll need something of value if we meet up with other people to trade.’

“That...makes sense.” I reply. “But still, their jewellery? Isn’t there something else we can take, something that might not have huge personal value to the people who live here?”

“Atlas.” Styx answers. “The people who lived here. They aren’t here anymore, and they might not be coming back. This is just like any other supply -- something we need to survive. It’s small, it’s easy to carry, and it’s something that is likely to have value no matter where we go. If everything turns out fine, we can come back here eventually and give it back. But if not...we can’t let this get in the way of our survival.”

“Fine, fine.” I answer. She’s right. I am allowing my morals and hope for what the world might be like to get in the way of what I should be focusing on: our survival, above everything else. I need to be careful -- it’s so easy to fall back into the mindset that once we meet other people, everything will be fine and go back to normal. I can’t allow myself to believe that again, even subconsciously. “If there isn’t anything else in here that we can use,” I turn to Melete, “you ready for a bit more breaking and entering?”

Melete’s only response is a large cheshire grin.

Two minutes later Pallas and I are holding her feet to our chests as she stands above us. “Hold still down there!” Melete yells out, and I feel a small piece of glass bounce off the top of my head.

“Sorry, not all of us can have the strength Number of Goliath.” I reply, glaring at Pallas as I do. I can tell that Melete is already putting the majority of her weight on her right side, on the foot being held steady by Pallas’ hands.

We’re standing against the outside wall of the barn, underneath one of the high windows. Melete is using the handle of my spade to clear away any remaining broken glass before she attempts to climb in.

“Remember to make sure there’s a way you can get back out afterwards, before you go in completely.” Styx yells out from where she watches, a few feet away.

Melete seems to have cleared away the majority of the glass, and is shining her flashlight into the dark barn. “Yeah, looks like there’s a ladder in there I can use. Give me a few minutes, I’m going in.”

Pallas and I lift her feet a few inches higher until she manages to pull herself up and through the window. I see her fingers peeking out, wrapped in strips of cloth to avoid cuts from the glass as she lowers herself down on the other side. Her fingers disappear, and I hear a muted “Ow!” from inside, followed by a shouted, “I’m okay!”

Melete first confirms that she can’t unlock the doors from the inside, and then the rest of us settle down outside to watch and wait. It only takes a few minutes before Melete’s head pops out of the window, I presume from the top of the ladder, and she waves.

“Ho, ho, ho!” She yells down, in a falsely deep voice. “I come bearing gifts for all the good little boys and girls!” She turns to Pallas first. “Have you been good, little boy?”

Pallas raises a single eyebrow in response and doesn’t say a word. Melete grunts and mutters, back in her normal voice. “You’re no fun at all…” Seconds later she pulls a new shovel and lowers it down, where Pallas grabs it and gives it a few experimental swings. He nods in satisfaction.

Melete’s head disappears, and then reappears a few seconds later. She tosses down a machete, complete with sheath. I whistle as I walk over a pull it a few inches out of the sheath, feeling the edge. “That’s a really good find.”

“And there’s more!” Melete shouts from above, before a hatchet drops down and lands in the dirt a foot to my right. I bend down and pick it up before I quickly scoot back away from the drop zone.

Melete makes a few more trips up and down the ladder before she finally declares the barn empty of anything else useful. She lowers herself back down the outside of the window until she eventually lets go, landing on her feet. Her arms pinwheel in the air and she struggles to maintain her balance until Pallas reaches out and steadies her.

In the end, the supplies she retrieved include a shovel, a machete, a hatchet, an axe, a pair of shears, a giant mallet, and a package of disposable earplugs.

After a quick discussion, I take the machete and the hatchet, Pallas keeps the axe and the shovel, and we leave the shears and mallet behind. Tools are heavy, and we don’t want to be carrying so much weight that we’re dangerously slowed down.

Melete and Styx end up replacing their old knives with new ones from the kitchen of the house. They had found a fancy knife sharpener in one of the cupboards which may have been useful, but unfortunately requires electricity to run.

Once we’ve finally sorted out our weapons, we regroup around the map in the backyard of the house.

I’m tracing a route along the map with my finger. “This way will keep us a few miles away from the town of Aliston, and will eventually let us meet up with the highway again, right about here. We can follow the road back home, or if the road is dangerous, we can just stay parallel to it -- it should be easy to avoid getting lost.”

The others are nodding along. Styx asks, “How about those other small towns along the way? We’ll have to pass two if we stay along the highway before we get to Cranton.”

“Probably monster infested traps.” Melete states.

I don’t want to believe her, but my gut tells me that it’s a very likely possibility. Each of the towns is barely larger than Aliston and much smaller than Cranton. “That’s possible. I figure we’ll play it by ear when we get there. We’ll be able to circle around them, or cut through if we see people or supplies. I figure this will take...a week maybe, before we get back to Cranton. Maybe more, if we go off-road the whole way.”

Pallas interjects, “Plenty of time for us to decide later.”

“Exactly,” I say. “Anything else? Let’s move out. I’ll take the lead, and Pallas guard our backs.” With a thought and a swell of effort, skin forms over my ear canal and the world becomes muted as Pallas puts in his new earplugs.

Within a minute, we’re back to walking through the fields, ready to leave the town of Aliston behind.

Two hours later, we finally meet back up with the road. It’s a relief to be able to smoothly push the wheelbarrow again -- navigating it over the bumpy ground, not to mention over the fences, is exhausting. After a quick check of the surroundings for monsters I release the use of my skill for the skin over my ears and regain the ability to hear. I never realized how much I would miss just being able to hear my own footsteps.

I tap on the side of my head, and Pallas removes his earplugs as well. “Lunchtime,” I say.

As we drop contentedly to ground after the hours hiking, Melete digs into her backpack for our lunches and we each reach into our own supplies for water.

“Is there any reason we shouldn’t walk along the road, and go cross country instead?” I ask, munching on a granola bar.

Nobody responds for a few seconds, until Styx says, “I can’t think of any good reason why it would be more dangerous. And it’d be nice to walk on something flat for a while.”

Melete is nodding emphatically. “I almost twisted my ankle like a hundred times from stupid gopher holes.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking,” I say. “Let’s stick to the road then, at least until the next town.”

We spend the rest of the break eating and chatting. My headache from this morning from using my new higher perception has only grown as I’ve continued to observe my surroundings, so I take advantage of our time by laying on the ground and closing my eyes. Within a minute, the persistent pounding in my head has gone away, and I sigh contentedly, enjoying the conversation of my friends.

All too soon, a half hour passes and we get back on the move. I still lead the group with the skin back over my ears, and my headache returns almost immediately. I resign myself to the pain, as long as it gives us just a little bit of forewarning of the next monster attack.

An hour of hiking later, I raise my hand in a fist, stopping in the middle of the road. Up ahead I can just faintly make out the shape of a car off to the right. I point it out to my friends, making sure they see it too before we continue. There’s no use running from a random car in the middle of nowhere, as ominous as it may look.

We slowly approach the car, on high alert. When we get within about thirty yards, I set down the wheelbarrow and pull out my new machete. I want to be ready for whatever we may see.

The car is angled in the ditch on the side of the road, but it doesn’t look as if it were in any sort of wreck. It almost looks as if the owners of the car clumsily parked it right next to the road and abandoned it there.

Slowly we creep around the back of the car. It’s a small, red four-door, and the back seat looks to be filled with different possessions, blocking our view of whatever may be in the front seats -- although I can see something small sticking just outside of the open front window.

We carefully circle around on the other side of the road, keeping at least ten yards away from any of the doors. Eventually, we are angled enough around that I’m able to see into the front seat

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, trying to keep from hyperventilating. The object we could see leaning out of the window is finally revealed. A skull.

Sitting on the wheel are the bony remains of a hand, I presume attached to a full skeleton taking up the rest of the seat. All that is left are the bones, dyed a light shade of red.

I look back at my companions. Each of them is still at the ready, weapons held at the alert, but I see their fear. Melete’s hands are shaking around her two knives, and Styx swallows very deliberately, as if to keep puking. Pallas diligently is scanning our surroundings ensuring no monsters can sneak up on us, but I can’t help but notice his eyes pointedly avoiding the car as he scans the horizon.

In that instant, I make a snap decision. I raise my hand, point back to the wheelbarrow, and lead our small group at a fast pace back to our supplies. As much as those items in the back of the car could be useful, as useful as a potentially running car might be, that car presents a danger. A danger entirely different from that presented by monsters, but a danger nonetheless. It isn’t worth it.

After we’ve gathered our supplies, I immediately turn and trek off of the road to continue our journey. My classmates follow. We don’t look back.

By the time evening comes, I’m exhausted. We’ve been walking all day and the monotony is starting to wear on me. We can’t even play ‘I Spy’ anymore, not as long as Pallas and I can’t hear. And as much as I want the distraction, it’s not worth the risk of leaving ourselves vulnerable to Melete’s skill.

Every once in a while, I can faintly hear the voices of Melete and Styx behind me. About an hour ago I heard their voices rise to a bit louder volume, only to look back and see them staring daggers at each other. Pallas had a hand on each of their shoulders, almost as if he seemed to be holding them apart. He made a zipping motion with a finger across his lips, and since then I haven’t heard a peep from them -- I hope they were able to resolve their disagreement. I’m not looking forward to playing counselor to two angry teenage girls once I can hear again.

The sun is nearing the horizon, and I start to look around for a place which will offer a little more shelter than what we’re currently passing through. Surrounding us for as far as I can see is grassland, only broken up by the occasional tree or gully. Every hour or so we hop a fence, which adds a few minutes as we carefully lift the wheelbarrow over. I assume this area was used for cattle grazing. It worries me that we haven’t yet seen any signs of cattle.

My head pounds as I try to stay vigilant. I want nothing more than to find a place to sleep and close my eyes. But we can’t just camp out in the open. At least I don’t want to, as long as there are other options. We haven’t seen any monsters, but every monster we’ve seen in the past few days has managed to sneak up on us. If it happens again tonight, I want to be somewhere at least somewhat defensible.

The best option I’ve seen so far is a gully we passed almost half an hour ago, wide enough we could camp out on the bottom. I hope to see another soon, but we didn’t notice the last one until I almost fell into it. There’s no way to know if there’s another gully even just a minute ahead.

I continue to swing my head back and forth, eyes peeled for any change in the surrounding scenery.

I feel Styx’s hand on my shoulder, and I quickly turn to face her. Thankfully, she isn’t pointing out some horrendous monster chasing us, and I see her mouth move.

I get rid of the skin covering my ears, and ask, “Sorry, can you say that again?”

With worry in her eyes, Styx asks, “Do you hear that?”

S: 100

D:100

W: 308

I: 73

C: 55 (+1)

0

Skills: Adjust:Self