"What, in the name of all that is holy, have you done to me?" Quint asked, his voice panicked.

  His health sat at 1 and he was all wobbly. Despite that, he stubbornly got up on his own and even shoved me away when I tried to help him.

  This wasn't the thanks I expected.

  "What's your problem?"

  Seeing how Quint insisted on standing on his own, this freed me to go searching for the other half of my cane. Sure, it was a broken chunk of tacky wood. But it just saved my – I glanced at Quint who was visibly seething – saved our lives. I owed it that much. And besides, apart from the clothes I was wearing, the cane was the only part of my old life I had left.

  "My problem?" Quint finally took enough deep breaths to regain his ability to form coherent sentences. "Look around, see if anything jumps out at ya."

  He kicked a nearby tent, collapsing it. As it fell, the fabric wrapped around his leg, forcing Quint to clumsily disentangle himself. I had to push down a chuckle as I watched him flail around in ineffective frustration.

  "We're in a god damn goblin camp," Quint said when he finally steadied himself.

  I could understand his opposition to our predicament, but it sure beat me why he was acting like this was in any way my fault.

  "I saved your ungrateful ass, is what I did," I answered his original question.

  Quint's face contorted into a mask of rage. "Saved me? Saved me? I never wanted anything to do with them Sensates. None of us did." He trailed off, spinning in place to better take in the camp that replaced the compound.

  "It's not like I plugged you into a revitalization machine. I only made sure you didn't croak on me, Quint."

  "That was enough," Quint growled. "I can feel it flowing through me. Changing me. Even when I close my darn eyes, I can still see those bars. It's unnatural."

  "You'll just have to suck it up." His attacks were starting to annoy me. "All your fellow rednecks are now...what did that guy call it? Biomass? And you're still kicking. A thank you would be nice."

  "Thank you?" Quint was gaining even more steam. "I'd much rather join my people in the afterlife than become an abomination with you in whatever this hellhole is."

  Quint's people were gone and he was justifiably upset. That made him miss the true scope of how fucked our situation truly was.

  "Look around, Quint," I said. "It's the same mountains. The same trees. The same sky. Only your base is gone. We're still where we've always been. It's the world that got changed. And I'm not willing to lie down and concede it to the Sensates without a fight. So if we have to," I searched for the right word, "adjust to become a pain in their incorporeal asses, so be it."

  A hint of recognition flashed in Quint's eyes as he surveyed our surroundings.

  "Are we the only ones left?" he asked.

  "Right, you were pretty out of it at the time. That Lucky Charms-looking bastard turned your friends into goop when he got tired of toying with them. Which kind of explains why there wasn't anyone in the city yesterday except for the monsters. Those monsters needed to come from somewhere."

  "Biomass?"

  "Biomass," I confirmed. The goblin corpses littering the ground around the camp were starting to stink. I had this idea they were supposed to congregate here, but Quint's people messed that up. And that necessitated our morning visit. "These greenskins are like Soylent Green. They're made out of people. At least that's my working theory right now."

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  "Theory?" Quint wasn't taking things well, and that apparently reduced him to single-word questions.

  "Look, amigo, I'm as new to this shit as you are. I'm figuring it out as I go."

  "Why?"

  "Why? Because what else are we going to do, wait for another bozo to show up and liquify us so we have the honor of becoming the balls on a dragon? I say fuck that. I'd much rather go out and start bashing goblins. Maybe figure out what those alien assholes want and how to kick them out of our world. You with me?"

  "With you? I've just lost everyone I cared about in the blink of a god damn eye. And you stand there like it's no big deal and are looking to go goblin hunting? I want nothing to do with you, Buck." He really went soft on that B there.

  This didn't seem like the smartest move to me. Still, I could see he was hurting and wasn't about to keep him against his will.

  "Sure, fuck off, I don't care," I said, turning my attention to the two splintered pieces of cane that didn't look like they were going back together anytime soon. Remarkably sturdy, my ass.

  Quint responded in kind and told me to eat shit before storming off.

  I didn't want him to leave. He was the only ally I had in this changing world. At the same time, there was no way I was keeping an unstable trigger-happy redneck around. If he couldn't deal with life's rug getting pulled out from under him, I'd much rather he went off to disappear into the woods.

  He stopped after several dozen steps.

  "Fuuuuuuuck." His frustrated scream pierced the air, scaring the birds off the nearby trees.

  "What now?" Was all I asked in the time it took him to reach me with a raised fist.

  He threw a punch. I didn't bother trying to block or dodge it. The man did go through an ordeal. Rash actions were to be expected. Anger was natural. I wanted him to feel angry. And then to channel this anger at the real cause of his sorrow. The Sensates. Plus with my new physique, I knew he couldn't do any real damage anyway.

  The fist stopped within a hair's breadth away from my nose.

  Quint swore again, this time under his breath.

  "You should've followed through," I said.

  He looked me in the eye.

  "Believe you me, I wanted to." He lowered his arm and took a step back. "I just can't."

  "Yeah, what sort of asshole would punch a great guy like me for no reason."

  "You don't get it, Buck," Quint growled. "I wanted to sock you one. It wouldn't let me. I try to walk away and the thing tells me I have to gather my party before I can venture forth. This gets my blood boiling and I run to give you some pepper. Before I connect, it's like my whole body locks up with a spasm and I get another message. One about how I can't attack a party member. Ain't that convenient."

  "Well, shit," I said. The morning light reflecting off his craggy face gave Quint a pitiful look. "I had no idea this would happen when I added you to the party. Hell, I'm not even sure how I did it. I just know this was the only way to stop you from kicking the bucket, amigo."

  "I don't give a rat's ass," Quint yelled. "I want you to undo it. Release me," he demanded.

  "I don't know how," I admitted. "You're acting like I'm this twisted mastermind here. I'm as clueless as you are. You think I wouldn't save your friends if I had a way to do it?"

  I wasn't lying when I said this. At the same time, I wasn't giving it to him straight either. I was sure if I put my mind to it, I could figure out how this party system worked. But a party of two was still a party. And that was preferable to going at it solo. Now that I knew Quint wasn't physically able to go all psycho on me, I was more inclined to keep him around.

  Quint looked up at me. I could've sworn yesterday we were the same height. I wondered if this was due to revitalization improving my posture or if I'd actually gotten taller after distributing my stats.

  "You really can't do it? You're not bullshitting me?"

  "Sometimes these scrolls appear, other times they don't. I've very little control over them."

  Quint sighed, visibly deflating. "Pretty much the same for me. Like menus from a darn video game. If you didn't mention seeing numbers and health bars yesterday, I would've thought I lost my marbles." Following a brief pause, he added, "Come on, at least give it a try."

  Even if I wasn't about to remove Quint from the party, having access to the party controls could be useful. I stared at him.

  The lawyer's clothes were torn and dirty. A large charred splotch colored his shoulder. At will, I could bring up his health bar and examine him for a brief description.

  Opening the party screen was another thing entirely. I tried picturing Quint wearing a party hat. Thought about sports teams and secret societies. None of that seemed to do anything. Then, as I was about to give up, I saw it. Not the party screen.

  By Quint's health bar there was a familiar burning orb.

  Activating the orb produced a new scroll, one asking me to level up my NPC companion.

  I backed away from the scroll. The orb remained burning there for me to interact with. Whatever was running this show classified Quint as an NPC. I figured it had something to do with me forcibly recruiting him into my party and him never going through revitalization.

  "Hey, what did you do?" Quint asked, startled.

  "Nothing, why?"

  "There's a new doodad here now. Like a glowing orb. When I activate it, it tells me I can level up. But it won't let me do it without your go-ahead. What the hell, Buck?"

  Billy Joel Facts - Chapter 8:

  Story Facts - Chapter 8:

  Story Facts #2 - Chapter 8: