June 23, 2025; Clay woke up with Jill on his lap and Tonya nestled under his arm. For a few minutes he just sat there, they both felt nice snuggled up to him. He was so screwed when he got home. How the hell could he choose one of them? He knew it was wrong but he wanted both of them! He mentally slapped himself and as gently as he could say Jill in the spot he just stood up from. It was nearly his turn for watch.

  John had taken the same watch as Clay and he found himself talking about relationships with the man. He didn't even know how it had gotten brought up but by the time everyone had started stirring for the day, Clay found he had a lot more to unbox as far as Jill and Tonya were concerned. He'd have never known the two had been discussing sharing him if John hadn't started ribbing him about it!

  John had thought it one of the funniest things ever and told Clay, "I love my wife, I truly do." He leaned in conspiratorially, covering his mouth with his hand like it helped to hide it better from his own wife's hearing who still slept in the other room. "But two would just be punishing myself to twice the honey-do-list and half the sleep." He chuckled, shaking his head.

  "But I guess it wouldn't be all bad." He continued. "I mean women have their own wiles that make all that worth the trouble, some more than others. Question for you Mr Clay, is do you listen to your brain or your heart." John grunted and winced as if dropping some next-level wisdom on Clay had caused his head to hurt.

  Clay changed the conversation to the next few day's travel having garnered a lot more to think about from John than the man knew. He took out the map and spread it out on the floor. Over the next hour, they discussed the next few days of travel. They decided it would be quicker to travel along the interstate. It would probably be a lot easier by the looks of the number of meandering zombies roaming the neighborhoods they had been traveling past.

  After everyone woke up and had something to eat, Clay went over the travel plans with John adding some sound reasoning as to why they should stick to traveling along or near the interstate for as long as possible. They all agreed and ten minutes later they made their way back onto the interstate and started east.

  Ahead, Clay could see the I-270 interchange and a mess of abandoned cars and trucks littering the eight-lane Interstate 44. Luke and Hope were at point talking, or, rather, Hope was doing a lot of talking and Luke was nodding and now and then asked a question.

  He scratched his head as it looked a lot like Luke was flirting with the woman right in front of Dawn! He looked at Dawn who shot him a hateful look.

  He decided it wasn't any of his business, and turned back to see a massive flock of blood-red birds with black wing tips burst from a small cluster of trees near the southern clover leaf of the giant interchange flying south. He saw several semis parked along the side of the road, their cargo still locked inside as they neared the center of the massive interchange.

  Jill was absently humming to herself softly when Clay smelled it. Something smelled like death warmed over and it wasn't far away. Then like some bad horror film, they passed another semi and stopped dead in their tracks. There not twenty yards ahead of them just off the highway Clay could see a huge black mass of fur with large broken wooden spears sticking out of its back. It tore at another carcass about the same size as it.

  As soon as they had cleared the semi the giant black bear pulled its head up, gulping down a large mouthful of soft innards from its meal. It looked right at them, intelligent eyes locking on to them and Clay froze, his axe instantly appeared in his hand.

  "Run!" Yelled John as he grabbed Amy by the hand and took off at a breakneck pace, Luke and Hope turned to run, He heard Dawn scream from behind him and that's when the fucking thing raised up on two legs to its full nearly thirty-foot height.

  It let out a bellowing roar and then charged. Clay didn't move until it did and as it took two mighty bounds, the ground shaking violently each time it landed towards Luke and Hope. He saw Luke look back as the mutated bear swiped at him. At the last second Hope yelled, "Look out!" And tried to shove him out of the way. Luke turned as he was thrown sideways. Hope shoved him just as the bear's claws caught them both.

  Hope was nearly bisected right in front of him, the claws as long as swords tore through her torso and cut deeply into Luke as they were both flung, bouncing and tumbling across the asphalt several yards before coming to a stop. Clay didn't see any more, as the bear went for John and Amy he grabbed both Jill and Tonya's arms and ran the other way. He passed Dawn and yelled, "Fucking run if you want to live!" And they were past her. He hurried and tossed both women over the concrete divide that separated eastbound traffic from westbound traffic and hopped over himself.

  He crouched behind the barrier watching Dawn run towards Luke. "God damn it Doc!"

  He looked just in time to see the bear swipe at John, and it seemed to miss. Then it let out another roar as Amy threw some sort of minor energy blast that caught it in the side of its massive head.

  The bear swatted Amy with a backhanded swat of its massive paw sending her sprawling hard onto the ground. John leaped at it, whether to protect Amy or to take advantage of its attention being on Amy for a second Clay would never know as the bear snapped its jaws down over John's head and shoulders and whipped its head back and forth violently sending the bottom half of John flying into the side of a red Toyota truck not far from where Clay, Jill, and Tonya were hiding from the damn thing. The truck's alarm sounded and the bear instantly leaped onto it, crushing it, though it didn't stop the alarm.

  It stepped off the truck and sniffed at John's lower half as it placed a paw on his legs and tore another piece of John off to chew.

  Clay cursed to himself. He just wanted to get home!

  "We have to help, do something!" Whispered Jill, "It's just going to run us down as soon as it spots us trying to get away."

  Clay looked at the two women. They were both looking at him expectantly as if he could just pull a brilliant plan out of his ass to save everyone. He looked back at the bear and Dawn scrambling up to Luke's still body. The man was covered in blood and looked pale and near lifeless lying on the ground.

  He owed Amy and Dawn for saving his life. It boiled down to he owed them to at least try. He looked up and down the highway and spotted a large drainage pipe running under the interstate, he could see the end sticking out on their side of the interstate only a few yards off the edge of the roadway.

  He hefted his axe and said, "Well fuck! Stay hidden and if it follows me grab them and fucking run!" He pointed at Dawn and Amy who had just started to move. Then under his breath where he didn't think either woman heard him, he said, "Fuck my life, this is gonna suck..." He leaped over the concrete divide as he exploded away from their hiding spot and rushed across the four lanes of roadway coming up behind the smashed Toyota still making a sickly alarm sound as the bear ate John piecemeal beside it.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  He stepped on the ruined truck's hood and kicked off hard. He planned to hit it as he went by, and then make it to the culvert before it could catch him.

  Great plan. It went to shit rather quickly though as he heard "Mind Blast!" From Tonya.

  Clay, already airborne from his leap, saw the bear wince as if it was struck by Tonya's skill, and jerk its head towards her. Unfortunately, that put its large shoulders and neck right where Clay was heading. He was going to land on the damn thing! "Oh shit!" He exclaimed as he landed straddling its shoulders. He felt something snag his shirt behind him as one of the broken spears poked him in the back and another rested in front of him, much shorter than the other spear shafts protruding from its massive back. He realized he was fucking stuck!

  Getting off the damn bear safely before it was dead was impossible. He was committed.

  With a loud primal roar, it whipped itself around trying to dislodge him as it barreled down the interstate knocking cars and trucks out of the way or smashing them as a couple more sirens sounded.

  Clay let out his own as he swung his axe at the top of the bear's giant head. "Frenzy!" He yelled as he jerked the axe free, and drew back to swing again holding tightly to the spear shaft in front of him so he didn't get flung off. He felt the increase in his stats and Health Points. He buried his axe a little deeper this time reaching its hard, thick skull. He jerked the axe out and drove it back. He missed his mark, hitting just next to the last two blows.

  He knew he didn't have long and the fucking thing would manage to dislodge him. So he gritted his teeth and swung with everything he had. "Crippling Strike!" The axe head sank into the thick skull of the beast as it writhed at full speed down the interstate.

  He was nearly thrown off as he barely managed to maintain his hold on the bloody, broken spear shaft in front of him. He could tell that whatever had his shirt snagged had it caught good as it helped him stay on the bear.

  He jerked the axe back out. Blood splattered his face as it dripped off his axe blade as he raised it for another strike.

  "DING! Congratulations! New Passive Ability acquired: Regenerate. The host regenerates 1 health point every minute until the host's Health Point total is replenished to full." Kris said in his head.

  He didn't have time to think about the system message as he yelled, "Crippling Strike!"

  He felt the axe bite through the bear's thick skull as it plunged deep into the beast's giant mutated brain. He wrenched the axe free to strike again and ate shit.

  Having turned slightly from its wild rampage to try to get Clay off its back it had been facing the ditch line when his axe sank into its brain. It was like a switch turned the beast off as it crashed to the ground, piling up on itself and inadvertently launching Clay off its back.

  "DING! Congratulations! Level 9 obtained. 4 unassigned Ability Points gained. DING! Congratulations! Level 10 obtained. 4 unassigned Ability Points gained. New Skill acquired: Dark Bolt has evolved into Eldritch Bolt. The host can manifest three Eldritch Bolts of dark energy laced through with green lightning. The bolts can target enemies within sight and deal three-quarters of the host's Mystical Point total of damage to the targeted enemy. Cost: 30 Mystical Points." Kris said as he flew through the air oddly windmilling in the air trying to right himself to no avail.

  He slammed face-first into the soft wet ditch line nearly twenty feet from where he had come off the bear. He tried to get his hand up, the other still clutching the axe handle, but face-planted anyway. The giant beast slid to a stop behind him as he groaned and slowly rolled over. He groggily tried to shake his addled brain back to some sort of normalcy as he raised himself onto his elbow.

  "Ohh, I definitely broke something." Was all he could manage as he slowly straightened himself out and raised up to one knee. He placed the axe head down on the ground and used it to finally stand again. He could see Jill and Tonya running as fast as they could along the concrete divider toward him. The beast had taken him quite some distance down the interstate and they were still a ways away from the initial attack.

  He took several slow breaths, wincing as his back popped painfully and he felt a sharp pain lanced through his side from a rib. He looked back at the bear and shook his head. "I'm getting way too old for that kinda shit."

  Everything hurt! He didn't even want to think about what his face had to look like after slamming face-first into the ditch like a fucking yard dart. He gently ran his tongue experimentally around his teeth and lips. All his teeth were still there but both lips were split badly.

  He could hear Tonya yell, her voice winded but steady as she ran full out towards him, "Clay! Are you alright?" Both women had worry etched across their faces as they neared. Tonya was short on breath but nearly a full ten yards ahead of Jill. She was short on breath as she slid to a stop in front of Clay. She reached under her jacket and tore a piece of cloth off her shirt. She used it to dab at his lips as Jill slid up to him, winded and gulping in air.

  She was plainly upset, but Clay wasn't able to care at the moment as whiplash set in and he winced as he tried to turn towards her. He was just thankful to be alive!

  "What... in the... Ever loving... fucks was that?" She continued to gulp in air. "We said... help, not almost... fucking die you crazy fuck!" Jill managed between gulps. She quickly managed to catch her breath though and started her own inspection. "You look like shit."

  "Better than dead." He growled as the two women fussed over him as they berated him for being so reckless. He hadn't intended on jumping on its back. He winced again as Tonya touched his cheek. He could see it swelling already and he groaned as Jill patted his back fondly. "I know I broke a damn rib." He tried to wave off their attention. "I'm good ladies, I'll live."

  He started back to the initial attack where Amy and Dawn were still. He didn't know if Luke had survived but knew the others hadn't.

  It took them nearly twenty minutes to backtrack to the interchange and as they neared the alarm's still going off sounding much louder in the quiet of the surroundings. Nothing seemed to stir but them. He immediately saw Amy, cheeks stained with tears, and a slight green glow surrounding her hands as she tried to heal Luke. The man seemed to have regained some color back to him. Dawn held his head, tears rolling off her freckled cheeks.

  They had made it nearly to the trio when Amy suddenly fainted, hitting the asphalt hard. The women rushed forward to help their companions as he made his way over to John's body.

  He had liked and respected the man. And even though Clay wasn't religious, especially since everything had gone to shit. But he bowed his head slightly and offered him a silent prayer. He then carefully gathered what supplies were strung along the highway and placed them in his spatial storage space. Amy would need them, and he doubted she would be in any shape to retrieve them herself. Then he did the same thing for Hope.

  He looked at the sun slowly descending on the horizon and knew they would have to find shelter soon as lightning flashed in the distance. And he realized once he got closer to Luke and saw his wounds that it was going to have to be close by.

  The man was badly wounded still, apparently Amy and Dawn were only able to do so much even with both of them working on him. By the damage to Luke's legs, he would probably have some trouble walking, at least for a little while. But the man was alive.

  "Well, let's get under the overpass at least, and out of the open." He pointed at the storm clouds. "I'm pretty sure it's about to pour ass on us." He looked around to find something to put Luke on to move him. He spotted a ladder and went to retrieve it, keeping an eye on the surroundings. A couple of zombies moved around idly inside a few cars as he moved by, unable to figure out how to work the handles.

  By the time he returned to them with the ladder, Jill had somehow disabled the few car alarms nearby and Amy was awake, barely by the looks of it. "Is she alright?" Clay asked Tonya as she helped Amy sit up.

  "I think so. She just passed out due to draining all of her Mystical Points too rapidly." Replied Tonya.

  Clay nodded, "Go ahead and help her to the overpass." He placed the ladder next to Luke. "We'll get Luke up there." He nodded at Jill and Dawn.

  Ten minutes later they had managed to move Luke, and Dawn asked, "Clay, can you start a fire, or do you think it'll be okay? I need to keep those wounds clean until me or Amy can heal him, or stitch the worst ones up. I need my bags..." She realized she hadn't grabbed them from where she had dropped everything when she saw Luke nearly killed in front of her.

  "Well, the rain will mask it, somewhat. But I dunno about other beasts being around." He shrugged before continuing. "Or other survivors that might not be so friendly." He looked down at Luke and grasped her shoulder. "We'll do our best, whatever he needs. Jill, can you get Dawn's bags?"

  Jill nodded and hurried off to grab them. He looked at Tonya and asked, "Can you find us some small dry twigs? I'll go get some dead branches from the wood line over there." He watched the wood line like a hawk. While they were walking back he could have sworn they were being watched. But he hadn't seen anyone or anything.

  They set up camp as far up under the overpass as they could which happened to be near the bear's din. Bones littered the outside of the large hole the bear had dug through the concrete of the overpass creating a somewhat gloomy area the beast had called home.

  He soon had some dry fallen branches gathered together and he made his way back to the others. He had been vigilant while gathering the firewood, constantly looking for any other threat that might appear. He stopped as he walked by the remains of the other large beast the bear had been eating on and couldn't believe what he saw.

  The corpse, which wasn't much smaller than the damn mutated bear looked like some mad scientist had combined a wolf and a lion and gave it a fucking set of bat-like wing's just because. It had three sets of muscular legs and a greenish tint to its wire-like fur. He reached down to inspect it raising its lips to see if it had more canine or feline in it.

  "DING! Congratulations! New skill acquired: Bone Spike. The host creates a two-foot-long Bone Spike that they produce from their hand and launch up to twenty feet away. Cost: 15 Mystical Points." Kris said.