June 14, 2025; "Please help me, my fucking leg is stuck!" Came the muffled cry from the badly damaged Bradley. The sound was coming from the front of the vehicle where the Abrams turret had smashed into it. Crumpling the front of the fighting vehicle like a cheap tin can. Spark's arced from electrical systems as he told Jill and Tonya to keep going, he'd catch up.

  "I'm coming!" Yelled Clay as he rushed into the Bradley. He easily found the person, a woman in uniform with her knee pinned. He looked around and found a bar, where it came from originally or what it belonged to he couldn't say but it would work for a lever.

  "Please, I can't feel my leg." The woman cried, her crisp blue eyes wet with moisture.

  "You'll have to help pull yourself out, on three, ready? One. Two. Three." He shoved the bar into the collapsed area and grunted as he strained. He heard metal groan and after a moment felt the woman finally free herself. She was in fatigues, fully kitted out with vest and gear. He didn't see that she had a weapon other than her knife. And her knee was fucked.

  It was a mess, and he could see bone. "I'm going to pick you up and carry you. We need to get away from here. Are you okay with that." He waited for her to nod, pain evident in her face. Another tank went tumbling past the door of the Bradley as he picked her up on his shoulder, the Abrams collided with another tank and exploded."Hold on!"

  He moved, he couldn't run exactly, he was way too exhausted but he managed a slightly faster pace than a walk. The woman grunted in pain when he stumbled but never complained. He kept going finally catching up to Jill, Tonya, Luke and Dawn. And the Orc man and Saint woman. They kept moving. That's when he heard the woman's radio crackle.

  "Dropping ordinance on target. Clear!"

  "It's fucking tossing those tanks like a two year old throws a hot wheels car!" Said the military woman on his shoulder. She wavered on the edge of consciousness but was still lucid. Somewhat.

  "Are we far enough away?" Tonya asked, worry evident in her tone.

  "We should be, it's just napalm canisters. We used every fucking thing else on the bigger ones." She answered as she started to pass out.

  "DING! Congratulations! The host has completed the System Bonus Quest and survived the rampaging ferret. The host will be able to select from the following Abilities or Skills. Mind Lance. Evasion. Infravision. Chameleon. Dark Bolt." Kris said in his head. "Please select your reward." He didn't really have the mental acuity at the moment to think about it much.

  He tried to see what they were but didn't get any information other than the names. Something ranged might be nice. Mind Lance and Dark Bolt sounded like they could be used at a distance. "Fuck it, Dark Bolt sounded better." He focused and soon he heard.

  "Congratulations! New skill acquired: Dark Bolt. The host can manifest three mystical bolts of dark energy. The bolts can target enemies within sight and deal half the host's Mystical Point total to the targeted enemy. Cost : 25 Mystical Points."

  "We need to check on her." Dawn said. Trying to get him to slow down. "She could be bleeding internally."

  "I'm not stopping until I can't fucking see that thing or hear it." Clay said to nobody in particular. He felt the blast wave from this far as a warm breeze, as the military dropped napalm on the ferrets location. He could hear people screaming too. He didn't stop and go back. He didn't put the soldier down. He didn't look.

  He kept moving until he didn't see or hear any fighting anymore. Then he simply picked a house and after the others had cleared it of zombies or hostile enemies they settled in to rest. The Saint woman's name was Amy and the Orc was John.

  The others had been talking while they walked. But Clay hadn't payed much attention. Once he placed the soldier woman down on the couch where Amy and Dawn started examining her leg, he sat down in a cushioned chair and let out a sigh.

  Dawn and Amy were soon cutting the pants leg off. And between them Amy took the initiative and began doing something as her hands glowed while she kept them close to the knee. He could see Amy nod once to Dawn and the woman jerked and pulled on the soldiers leg, then held her down as she let out a bloodcurdling scream and then slumped back onto the couch, still unconscious.

  He heard something heavy hit the floor and as he turned his head he saw Luke had fainted in the doorway. Probably after he saw what Dawn had done. Clay grimaced as his ribs started aching from the overexertion.

  "Now I can heal it fully, great work." Amy said as Dawn just nodded. Jill and Tonya were having a discussion in the other room and John was watching at the windows for any potential trouble.

  He closed his eyes. Maybe he'd see Jake again...

  He was warm. And comfortable. He could smell something... almost like... flowers. Yeah flowers. It reminded him of wildflowers in a meadow. He tried to move but couldn't. Something was preventing him from shifting his weight. It was dark. He couldn't see two inches in front of his face.

  Then someone groaned from his lap as he felt the weight holding him down shift ever so much to get comfortable again and he could feel silky hair tickling the bottom of his chin as their head moved slightly before resting again on his chest. He could tell by the ear that twitched by his neck it was Jill, sleeping comfortably in or rather on his lap in the chair.

  His eyes adjusted a little better and he could make out Luke and John sitting by the door talking softly as they maintained watch. Clay worked himself forward enough to stand up and place Jill in the chair gently, covering her back up with the blanket before making his way over to the two other men.

  As Clay walked up he extended his hand to the Orc, "John was it?"

  The Orc grasp his hand and grunted. "Yessir Mr Clay." He looked at Amy sleeping nearby and pointed with his chin. "That's my wife Amy." He looked at Clay. "If you don't mind, me and my wife would like to travel along with you for as long as we're able. I'm strong and can help fight. My wife can heal. I can assure you we won't be a bother Mr Clay."

  Clay looked over at the Saint, he could see her peeking through slitted eyes as they spoke to each other. Probably, worried about her husband interacting with others. Clay didn't give a shit that he was an Orc though. To him he was just another man stuck in the world's shit show. Same as him or Luke or anyone else for that matter.

  Human, Beastmen, Orc, or Saint, it all boiled down to the same problem. They had to survive, somehow. And if Clay was going to be honest, it didn't look like they were doing so well. Not if they had to resort to using nuclear weapons on population centers.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  "Alright John, I don't mind if you come along. And another warrior and healer joining the group couldn't hurt our chances any." He took a seat next to them. "How much supplies do you all have?" He held up a hand to forestall him. "I know that telling us what you have would be trusting us without us having proven to be trustworthy. So I'll go first, the last I knew of our supply situation was our group had rations and supplies for seven days." He said not mincing words.

  John looked at his wife and then back to Clay. "We have enough for us for three days. Unfortunately a lot of our supplies were left when the ferret attacked that bunker we were sheltering in." John shook his head in dismay. He probably thought that they weren't bringing enough supplies to the group to be allowed to travel with them.

  "Okay, that's enough to keep you going until we can scavenge some more supplies." He thought for a moment and added, "We'll be coming into Springfield before dark if we get to moving shortly after daybreak. We can gather supplies if anything is available." Clay was pretty sure he remembered Springfield Illinois was being evacuated the last time he had been able to watch the news. But that didn't mean everyone left, or other survivor groups didn't move in.

  "Thanks for letting me rest Luke." He patted the man's shoulder. "Grab some sleep while you can. You should too John. I'll keep watch until daylight." John sat there for a moment and then grunted his acknowledgement before standing and walking over to his wife. He slid under the covers and cuddled with Amy as he started snoring softly within moments. He saw Amy still watching with one eye barely open.

  Luke went and laid not far away from Dawn. He shook his head wondering what the hell was wrong with them. He sat back against the wall watching the night pass outside. Nothing moving except the wind, and time.

  He focused on the golden orb to bring his status screen up.

  Clay Benton, Human Male, Age 40

  Level: 4

  Class: Sovereign

  Health Points: 257/320

  Mystical Points: 36

  Strength: 23

  Dexterity: 20

  Intelligence: 14

  Wisdom: 18

  Passive Abilities - Adaptable Conversion; Eyes of Insight; Enhanced Virility; Touch of the Devine

  Skills - Vicious Strike; Frenzy; Dark Bolt

  "I wonder if the fucking ferret quest was because of the Divine attention? I've never gotten a bonus quest before now." He pondered as time passed. He started to see figures moving as it just started to brighten on the horizon. They were in military uniforms, appeared wounded or fatigued, or maybe both Clay mused, as they wondered past the house they were sheltering in.

  While everyone was asleep he pulled out his phone and turned it on. He scrolled to a current news feed that showed a segmented screen with various different views of destroyed city's as viewed from satellite. Seattle, L.A., Dallas, Denver, Chicago, D.C., New Orleans ...The list continued. In every city that was leveled, there was the same report. Gigantic mutated beasts had directly targeted humanities gathering points.

  Not surprisingly, the human-only policy had bitten the government right in their asses do to those policies. Estimates put the current remaining population of humans around 1 billion. Beastmen, Orc's, and Saints estimated population around 4 billion combined.

  Everyone else was fucking dead. Whole countries had been wiped out by the mutated monsters when there only shelter was used as a larder by one or more monsters. Or worse, in the case of one shelter in New Mexico, it was confirmed that a giant mutated spider had used the humans inside to lay eggs in. That's when the government decided to step in with the bigger WMDs to stop them before they started targeting the smaller shelters as well, or multiplying exponentially out of control like the spider incident.

  In another report, the military had used just about everything to kill as many mutated beasts as possible. Due to infrastructure collapse caused by flooding and the government collapse into anarchy the future looks rather bleak. However the military was able to save a couple of large shelters, those being two in New York, one in London, another in Sydney, and Tokyo. There is a rumor two other shelters survived in China and another in India, but those three could not be confirmed by the reporter.

  Apparently the president had mutated into an Orc and violently assaulted multiple white house secretaries before he had been removed and isolated with his family, and his vice-president had implemented the "human-only" policy almost immediately. The House and Congress had been effected because of the mutations, the capitol was a wasteland after being nuked to eliminate a giant mutated four armed gorilla, and as of June 14, 2025, the United States of America was in a state of complete anarchy.

  He shut his phone off to conserve power, amazed there was still News reports. And stood to stretch. His ribs still hurt, but they were getting better. Tonya started to stir from where she slept wrapped up like a burrito and he went to relieve himself outside before everyone woke up.

  He found a tree and was just turning to head back inside when he heard a low growl from the street. He stopped, and slowly turned to see a large mutated Doberman with a vicious looking scar that had one of its eyes a cloudy dead grey as it lowered its head at him and snarled as it continued to issue it's growling. It stepped forward.

  One step. It was only twenty feet away.

  Clay slowly pulled his axe out of its temporary sheath in-between his belt and his waist. It took another slow steady pace forward.

  Clay readied the axe, he could feel it about to pounce. "Come on then." He said. "Dark Bolt."

  He watched three black orbs appear almost instantly and he sent them all at the Doberman. At the same time he dodged behind the tree as the dog lunged forward. He heard the beast cry out in pain as the dark bolts struck it.

  But it had lunged forward far enough that Clay stepped around the tree and swung at its left shoulder, "Vicious Strike!" He called as he buried his axe all the way to the handle just above it's shoulder.

  He put all his strength in the blow, and as it struck he saw the beast go down hard. The blow had driven it down to the sidewalk and Clay could see three deep holes that he figured was caused by his dark bolt, two in it's chest and one in it's right leg nearly severing it.

  He quickly jerked the axe out and swung at the dogs head as it failed to snap at his leg. Even wounded as bad as it was the damn thing was still trying to get at him. The axe found its mark and the dog jerked twice as it died. He pulled the axe out to wipe the head of it off on the beasts fur.

  "DING! Congratulations! Level 5 obtained. 4 unassigned Ability Points gained. New Skill Acquired: Vicious Strike has evolved into Crippling Strike. The host can initiate a sudden attack that has a high chance of stunning the targeted foe and causes double the damage to the target. Cost: 20 Mystical Points." Kris said.

  "Well, that's not bad." He said as he stood and walked back inside.

  Tonya was just getting out of bed, her shoulder length black hair naturally curling around her heart shaped face. Her natural full lips and light pea-green skin tone gave her a very exotic look. And her body. She dressed in the other room, right in front of the open door so he had a full view of her. He couldn't help but seer the image into his brain.

  "When did you get up?" Came Jill's soft voice from the chair as she stretched.

  That's when Tonya chose to come out of the other room he had been looking into, she had just put a thin white almost see through top over her head and was still pulling it down.

  Jill was instantly on her feet. She was staring dagger's at Tonya.

  Tonya gave her a wink, and then as she walked past Clay to the packs next to the wall. As she bent over Clay purposefully looked at Jill. If looks could kill at that moment, Tonya would have been a fried, smoking husk.

  He sighed. This was going to be rough.

  "We'll wake everyone up in ten minutes." With that he walked outside to the porch. Not five seconds after the door closed he could hear the two women going at it, verbally. He just shook his head. "Are you sure that'll work Jake?" He asked. Then turned back to watching their surroundings until he heard Jill and Tonya start waking people up.

  Twenty minutes after that they were on their way. When he was asked about the dead Doberman he said, "I had to take a piss." And just left it at that. John thought that remark was funny and laughed to himself for the next four miles.

  They stopped for lunch, ended up spotting a Costco that they scavenged from. Clay was glad he could find some more cola and bags of jerky. They got some good supplies by the end of their hour long raid and were soon back on the road to Springfield. The soldiers name was Hope Klairmont, 26, from Fort Lauderdale Florida originally. Her and the women got along great and she dispatched two zombies really efficient which Clay made a mental note to check everyone's stats after they settled in to rest for the evening.

  Around four in the afternoon they made it to Springfield Illinois. And it looked abandoned. John and Amy took the opportunity to do some extra scavenging before dark, and Hope asked to join them after everyone agreed to meet back at a particular two story brick house. Clay went inside while Luke and Dawn said they were going to check for medical supplies.

  Which left him with Jill and Tonya. Alone.

  After thirty minutes of non stop bickering he decided to set them both down for a chat. He was nervous as hell but he couldn't see these two friends going at each other like they were.

  "Stop it!" He pointed at the couch opposite where he was standing. "We need to talk." He gave them both what he hoped was a no bullshit look. Surprisingly they both stopped in the middle of there argument and listened. Though Jill didn't seem to happy about it, while Tonya virtually hopped in the seat he had pointed at.

  "Look, I'm not good with words." He said after a moment of them looking at him. He ran his finger's through his hair as he thought. "I didn't intend on anyone falling in love with me. While I'm flattered you two think of me as someone worth fighting over, I would never interfere with anyone's friendship. Unintentionally that is what I see I've done." He paused, and Jill tried to say something.

  "Clay I love you and..." She started, but stopped after he held up a hand.

  "As of right now I have decided I can't worry about a relationship at this time. I won't be interested in possibly establishing one with anyone until I reach my home and can provide for my significant other." He sighed this was fucking hard. "The problem is I like you both, a lot. I don't know how it happened and it's obviously too late to fix it without making one of you hate me. So I'm being upfront with you both. I'm sorry." He turned and walked out.

  He would give them a little bit to process everything and maybe they could work out there friendship now, it was still a long ways from home after all.

  "DING! System Bonus Quest activated. The host must save the Doctor from the Zombie Lord. If completed, the host will receive 10 Ability Points and be able to select one of the following Abilities: Minor Spatial Storage, Aura of Malis." Kris said.

  "Ahh fuck, why's it gotta be doc?" He groaned as he turned to run in the direction Luke and Dawn had taken. He could see the hospital sign and knew that was were they had went. He just had to get there in time!