“People?”

“Two men, just inside,” reported Jessica, and I couldn’t help but lean over her back and take a look. Sure enough there were two men. They hadn’t noticed us, and as soon as I saw them I had a bad feeling.

“Don’t tell them about leveling or anything.” I whispered to her, “don’t reveal anything.” I tasked my skeleton warriors to disappear behind the wall.

Jessica must have seen something in my expression, “What’s wrong?” she asked. “Do you know them?”

“No, but there’s something… something that might be my Sixth Sense skill. Let’s just be smart about it. They could be as dangerous as monsters.”

“We can always avoid them…” Jessica suddenly said. It was true, we could avoid them, but I wasn’t certain how Sixth Sense worked and we could really use more people in our group. Maybe I had a negative feeling looking at them because something bad was going to happen to them? I couldn’t be sure.

“Just be on guard.” I warned before stepping out. It took the two men a moment to notice me, and then they noticed Jessica who also came around the corner. Surprise raced across their faces as they eyed the bloodied spears in our hands.

They were clearly looking for food and water, and from the looks of it had no weapons. Keeping my spear lowered and making myself look as non-threatening as possible I slowly entered the store. Only after entering inside could I get a better look at them.

They were both similar height – a little under six feet I judged - and had short, unkempt black hair. There was a similarity in their long faces: they were related, probably brothers. Age wise, they were both a good bit older than Jessica and I, mid 30s probably. As I looked at them, it was the younger one that gave me a terrible feeling.

“People? Real live people? We haven’t seen anyone in days.” The older one spoke up first, and he sounded genuinely relieved.

“We neither. You’re the first people we’ve seen. Are you hungry? Thirsty?” I asked. It was better to be amicable to start and see what happened. Not only that, we had months of water back at home base, I could spare some now in good faith.

“Both.” The younger one said while moving forward. I tossed him a bottle of water and two candy bars, which he caught without a thank you. My eyes couldn’t help but follow his, and his eyes couldn’t help but stare at Jessica.

The look he gave her wasn’t pleasant, or curious. It was a hungry look, and not for the food he was currently about to eat.

“Excuse my brother… he’s lacking in manners.” The older one suddenly said while letting off a small laugh. “We appreciate the food, right?” He moved behind his brother and gave him a playful smack on the head.

“Right. We appreciate it.”

The more I looked at the younger one, the more I had a bad feeling. Even the older one, whom seemed nice and friendly, felt fake. It felt as if I was talking to someone with a mask on, hiding all of their emotions. He was even harder to read than the younger one, which worried me.

“How have you guys been surviving? Out there, I mean,” the older brother asked, “we have been scraping by like rats… but you two seem well off enough. You even have spare food and water to share.”

I appreciated the fact that Jessica said nothing, letting me come up with our response. “Just like you two, scraping by like rats. We managed to come by these spears, which gives us some protection. We can dispatch the zombies, but have to avoid everything else,” I continued, “finding food and water isn’t that bad if you can move around.”

“Do you have somewhere safe you’re staying?” he asked. I almost felt bad lying, but my Sixth Sense was telling me these two were bad news. Trying to team up with them would only lead to harm, especially to Jessica.

“No, we’re just constantly on the move. We were passing through trying to find any survivors, see if there’s even a small semblance of normalcy in this hellscape,” I responded.

“Right, right,” the younger one forced a smile.

I didn’t want to continue talking anymore, and honestly wanted to get away. My feeling of danger only grew worse the longer we were near these brothers. “We’re going to take our leave now. Stay safe.” I grabbed Jessica by the wrist.

“Wait, please wait.” The older one suddenly said. “Is it possible you can take us with you?”

I turned and said as firmly as possible, “I think its best we part ways here. We can barely protect ourselves. Small numbers seems to be the best bet to go unnoticed.” I hoped that sounded convincing, even though it was not at all my belief. In fact, I believed the way to cope with this system was to create a large group, a raiding party even.

Having more numbers, capable leveled individuals with skills and items, was definitely the best bet. The people though, they needed to be the right fit. These two were definitely not that, and my decision was solidified even more when I saw the younger brother’s expression in response to my words. It was a look of pure malice.

I didn’t wait for his response before turning and hurrying out with Jessica. “The young one is bad news and the older one is crafty as a snake. We can’t trust them: the old one tries to hide it but the young one can barely manage to contain his lust.”

“The younger one was seriously creeping me out,” she acknowledged. “They took your decision surprisingly well, though.”

“I’m not so sure. For a moment there I think the older one dropped his façade. He wasn’t happy about my refusal, but I didn’t want to stay around and argue the issue.” We started to retrace our steps and hurried back towards the truck. “And they’re following us.”

Even though whenever I looked back, I couldn’t see anyone, the reason why I knew they were following was this bad prickling on the back of my neck. It kept coming up and eventually I turned fast enough to spot the older brother jump back behind a corner. Judging by their actions, it didn’t seem like they believed my story. Clearly, they had hostile intentions. My biggest worry was that they might have got levels and skills I didn’t know about.

The brothers had been sneakily keeping pace with us and doing a good job of staying hidden. No doubt they were watching how we handled the encounters on our way. The number of monsters on the outskirts we were moving through was low, and we avoided dispatching anything that wasn’t a zombie. I really wanted to avoid showing my hand, and even if they didn’t know already, to alerting them to the fact leveling was possible. I didn’t use Summon Skeletons the entire way back.

Our EXP gain therefore was pitiful, but not every day could be super fruitful. When we arrived at the truck I was relieved that we could drive off and lose the brothers. But at the same time, I had bad taste in my mouth. Two humans who meant us harm turned out to be scarier than most monsters. We could go back to EXP grinding once the looming threat of the brothers had disappeared.

Slamming the truck door closed, Jessica gave me a smile as we raced out of town. She didn’t seem unhappy to be leaving without having gained another level. Her temperament had grown on me. A steady presence throughout our expedition, she was quick on the uptake.

“We’ll take Route Eleven and try again tomorrow from the north. Hopefully,we’ll never see those guys again. They are serious trouble.” Despite getting away from the brothers and putting miles between us and them, the ominous Sixth Sense feeling loomed over me. Falling asleep wasn’t easy that night.

“Mike, Mike, wake up!” It was pitch black when I opened my eyes, it must have been some time in the middle of the night and an acrid smell made my eyes water. I looked at Jessica and could barely make out her figure in the darkness. “Fire! There’s a fire!” She kept shaking me.

The grogginess of waking disappeared in an instant. Adrenaline kicked in when I realized there was a growing light coming from the back of the building. As I stood, smoke assaulted my face and entered my lungs.

“Grab whatever you need,” shouted Jessica,“we have to get out!”

My head was already resting on my bag, and I scooped it up and packed it with whatever I could grab in a hurry. My hand scraped the pitch black floor and eventually I grasped the spear in my hand.

“Good to go.” I rushed to the door behind Jessica. With no light it wasn’t at all easy to get the gate unlocked. My hands fumbled for the padlock and eventually I managed to scrape it open. “We can store as much as possible in the car, let’s try and make a few trips.”

The gate opened with its normal grating sound and I stepped outside. That bad feeling that was following me must have been this fire. At least that’s what I thought, mistakenly.

Something smacked into my skull with tremendous force and sent me to the ground. “Ahhhh!” I groaned. My vision was swimming and dizziness assaulted me. I turned on my side along the floor in time to see a figure illuminated by the firelight. It was the older brother coming towards me with a rock.

Having seen that I wasn’t unconscious, he came at me again with full force. He was going to bash my head in if I didn’t do something. I didn’t want to kill anyone, but I didn’t want to die. The spear was still half-gripped in my hand.

It was possible he didn’t see the weapon in the darkness, with me being on the ground, but I held it up. I didn’t hesitate to stab it out as he came towards me, and the tip pierced directly into his chest. It stopped him in his tracks immediately.

“Ahhhh….?” He said a low moan that was almost a question. The shock caused him to drop the rock at his feet. His hand reached down to feel what had pierced him, and I felt his firm grasp on the spear tip.

I was terrified, but I used the little remaining strength I had to push it and twist it in his gut. The weight of his body falling ripped the spear from my grip. He was dead… I had killed someone.

Everything was happening so fast that Jessica didn’t even realize what was happening. “Careful!” I yelled at her. The younger one was somewhere lurking in the shadows. No doubt she would be his target. As soon as I had warned her though, I heard her scream out.

“Let go of me!” Jessica screamed. Two figures wrestled in the darkness, the younger brother had grasped her from behind, his hands around her neck.

“Shut up you bitch!” I could make out that he was pulling her backwards. “You’re both going to die.” There was fury in his voice.

I managed to stand despite waves of dizziness and nausea. “Don’t do this,” I said, “this is a mistake… we can work it out.”

“You’re going to stand right there.” He said to me, “and watch while I take care of business.” It was then that he started fumbling with Jessica’s pants with one hand while the other was at her neck. With the moonlight strengthening as a cloud moved, I realized that hand wasn’t empty, but was holding a knife.

There was nothing more to say. This man was deranged, and it was clearly us or him at this point. He was more concerned with vengeance and lust than survival. I needed to edge away from his brother’s corpse, at least a little.

I started to circle while speaking only to distraction him, “This can go a different way,” I said, “if you rape her, I’m going to kill you right after. Stop now and we can all leave here alive.” I was lying. Regardless of his actions, I had steeled my resolve. He was dying tonight.

The younger brother didn’t instantly respond, which meant he was pondering my threat. His eyes remained locked firmly on me, knife to her throat. It was then that I cast Summon Skeletons on his brothers’ corpse, hoping I’d moved around far enough he wouldn’t see the skeletons in the darkness.

Good. His glittering eyes were still on me. I sent my summoned allies all the way around the back of the building and tried to add the thought they should be quiet to my mental instruction. Whether this helped or not, the skeletons moved carefully and soon came around the building to be behind our enemy. I wasn’t sure how to go about attacking him though. If I tasked them to restrain the younger brother, he might slit her throat in the struggle.

In the end, I decided that zero risk was the best option. I tasked one of the skeletons to bash his skull in from behind. An axe to the back of the head would leave no room for error. I made sure the target was specific as possible. I didn’t want any possibility the skeleton might also attack Jessica.

My heart was in my chest as I looked at the younger brother, “Just let her go!” I screamed as if distraught to cover the skeleton’s advance.Moonlight shone on a raised axe that struck violently downwards. A cracking, mushy sound came from where he stood.

Jessica must have felt the knife drop because she staggered forward, gasping, “it’s over.”

Behind her, the man’s body collapsed backwards into a heap on the floor. Jessica rushed over to me and buried her face into my chest clasping me tight. “I thought you were going to die.”

“You did good,” I said. It must have been hard for her, being held captive. And if she had tried something instead of waiting for me to set up the skeletons, she might have provoked him into killing her.

We had survived this ordeal, but we’d lost our base. The fire had spread beyond control. Our home was being burnt to the ground and there was nothing we could do about it. There wasn’t even time left to grab any more supplies. All we could do was check the aftermath in the morning.

My stomach was curdling in disgust. I had just killed two people. The thought continued in my head over and over: It was us or them… I looked at the new corpse and used Summon Skeleton simply to get rid of it. I couldn’t bear to look at it.