Lucas turned.

  Apollo stood over another wolf, the two locked in vicious combat, jaws snapping. An arrow whizzed past Lucas’s head and slammed into the wolf’s hindquarters.

  It yelped. Apollo got his teeth around its throat and ripped out a chunk. Lucas was there a second later, foot driving toward its head. The wolf’s skull snapped sideways with a crack, bounced off its body like rubber before going completely still. Another ping in the side of his vision.

  He caught his breath. Apollo staggered off the corpse.

  Then something slammed into Lucas from behind.

  His face met pavement with a screech of metal on stone. Isabelle shouted something, but it was muffled; he couldn’t make it out over the growling and yapping. The weight vanished. He snapped his head around to see Apollo wrestling with a third wolf that’d come from nowhere. Lucas scrambled up, his injured leg creaking as blue fluid leaked from the puncture wounds.

  He charged.

  Apollo got kicked off just as Lucas arrived, grabbing the flameback wolf by the neck and hoisting it into the air. Two powerful strikes to its ribs, the creature flailed, snapped its jaws wildly. Then, an arrow found its neck. It yelped. Went still. Lucas hurled it to the ground anyway, raised his foot and crushed what remained of its head under his heel.

  He sighed. Stepped back several times, leaving bloody footprints with each one.

  Apollo limped over, whining softly. The dog had claw marks along his side, but they weren’t too deep, thankfully. Lucas crouched down, reached out, and ran his hand through the creature’s fur. “You’re okay, boy. You’re all right.”

  Stone scraped against boots. Isabelle approached, eyes scanning their surroundings warily. A few curtains around the street twitched. People watching. This would probably convince them to stay inside, at least.

  Lucas’s gaze travelled down the street.

  Richard and Donny were gone. Taken. Richard might still be alive, possibly. Donny was definitely dead, though. A wound like that? You don’t come back from that.

  “We should get out of here,” Isabelle said, adjusting the bag on her shoulder.

  Lucas felt for his own bag. Still there, thank God. Hopefully, the damage to the supplies inside wasn’t too bad. The thing had probably saved his life just now. Or at the very least, saved the puppet body from being destroyed by that third wolf.

  “We should,” he said, getting to his feet, “but first we have to harvest them.”

  Five wolves total. Even split three ways, that was substantial XP.

  Moments later, the materials lay scattered in piles around them. Three blueprints, too—leg gear, arms, and a helmet piece. Isabelle bent down and picked one up. “What are these?”

  “I’m not sure. Let’s just grab them and go.”

  Lucas scooped up everything he could, making sure he had all the blueprints, then hustled across the street with Isabelle and Apollo behind him. They ran back into the building where his capsule still hummed, his original body suspended inside.

  They needed to hook him back up. Get out of this area fast.

  Though a bubble of excitement mixed with fear churned inside him. He definitely had enough XP now to reach the top of those steps. Or at least hit step 100, if that was even the top. He couldn’t be entirely sure. But once he did? A reward was bound to pop up.

  Had to be.

  ????ˊ? ·?? ? ? ? ??· ??ˋ???

  They clicked the door shut. Lucas pressed his back against it, listening.

  Though thankfully, there were no howls of the flameback wolves. Just the harsh cawing of fire crows in the distance, that grating sound that set his teeth on edge. The annoying birds hadn’t spotted them, at least. A small mercy.

  Lucas’s metal frame stumbled to his capsule, moving around to the back, where he adjusted his back until the hook clicked into place. Then his consciousness dropped inward, spiralling into his original head. A moment later, he was out, dismissing the capsule with a thought and collapsing onto the single bed, nestled in the corner, like he’d had his strings cut.

  Isabelle stationed herself by the window. Peeking through the curtains. Apollo flopped down, tail thumping expectantly against the floor.

  Richard.

  The thought kept circling back, a vulture in Lucas’s mind. Richard had been a terrible manager—honestly, one of the worst Lucas had endured in his short five years at Dizzy Dave.

  The man was always demanding they arrive early “for the company,” always spouting that family nonsense like they were supposed to buy it. Laughable, really. But the man didn’t deserve to get dragged off by flameback wolves. Nobody deserved that gruesome fate.

  Could Lucas have saved him?

  The question dug in deep, burrowing under his ribs. Should he have charged in first, letting Isabelle and Apollo handle the other two wolves while he went for Richard?

  But then what—what if one of those creatures had slipped past Apollo and gone straight for Isabelle? She wasn’t piloting a metal puppet like him. Any damage she sustained would be permanent. Maybe costly. Maybe fatal.

  Lucas sighed. He’d made the right call. Someone had just paid the price for it.

  His stomach twisted into knots as the thoughts ate at him.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  A few minutes crawled by, the sun sliding across the sky into late afternoon. Isabelle turned from the curtain, her eyes finding his.

  “I think they’re gone,” she said, glancing between him and the window. “The calls are farther away now. If we’re quick, we can get back to your house before those damn birds circle back.”

  She scooped up her backpack from the side wall where she’d left it, threw it over her shoulder, and adjusted the straps. “You coming?”

  Lucas nodded, though his mind stayed stuck on Richard. Nothing he could do for the man now. Not unless he got stronger, and Richard was miraculously still breathing. He grabbed his bag. Apollo heaved himself up with a growl-like grunt, and the three of them made their way back down to street level.

  Deserted.

  The wolves they’d killed earlier should have been littering the pavement, but since Lucas and Isabelle had harvested them, there was nothing left. Only empty asphalt and abandoned cars.

  People were probably still hiding in their houses, waiting for a government response that seemed less and less likely with every passing hour. Lucas couldn’t worry about them, though. They weren’t his family. And he wasn’t responsible for them.

  The thought stung anyway. Would he want to be abandoned so easily if he were in their situation?

  They moved low, using the cars for cover. Whenever a fire crow passed overhead, they ducked into alleyways, pressed themselves against brick walls, and held their breath. Eventually, they made it back to Lucas’s street.

  That’s when they ran into the brother and sister pair heading back home.

  The older boy was watching the corner, moving from car to car, when he and Lucas nearly collided. Eyes narrowed. Lucas recognised him vaguely—same high school, same street, different social circle. No name attached to the face.

  Lucas raised a hand. “Hey.”

  The boy frowned tightly, stepping closer to his sister, who hovered behind him like a shadow with mild confusion on her face.

  “We’re friendly,” Lucas said. A car alarm started honking somewhere in the distance, and he winced. What could have set it off?

  “I know,” the boy said flatly. “I’ve seen you before.”

  Silence hung between them, thick and awkward.

  “Have you seen any more of those creatures?” Lucas asked, trying to fill the gap.

  The boy stayed cautious, lips pressed tight, but his sister spoke up. “We did. Saw a few dragging people away, further down the street.”

  “Really?” That was odd—they were coming from a different direction than Lucas and Isabelle. Were the wolves dragging everyone to the same place? Or just finding quiet corners to feed? If it was the latter, Richard’s chances had just plummeted from slim to none.

  The girl nodded, pointing over her shoulder. “Down that way. Saw them pull a few people into an alley, too. If I had to guess, they’re all heading toward the supermarket.”

  “Why would you think that?”

  The car alarm cut out abruptly. Lucas’s head jerked toward the sound—or lack of it. Could mean anything. The owner shut it off. The battery died. Or something had smashed it out of frustration. Not that the wolves had the strength to damage a car. Not yet.

  “Just a hunch,” the girl said.

  Her brother raised a hand, cutting her off. She frowned, the small spark of excitement fading from her face. “We have to go. Stay safe,” he said with a clipped tone.

  He shuffled away, sister in tow. She spared one glance back over her shoulder.

  “That was odd,” Isabelle said.

  Lucas shook his head, watching the bulky backpacks shift on their backs as they moved down the street. “Maybe. But I’d say they’re scavenging like we are. Probably want to keep conversation minimal—worried we’ll assume they have supplies and try to take them.”

  Isabelle glanced at their own backpacks. “Don’t we risk the same thing?”

  Apollo whined, as if agreeing.

  “Yeah,” Lucas said.

  The sun blazed overhead as they continued toward the house. They did indeed risk the same thing. Easy enough to spot who was looting and who wasn’t. Those people watching from their windows during the fight? They knew Lucas and Isabelle had resources now. Had the means to get more. That could work to their advantage. Or it could paint targets on their backs.

  “Did you notice how they looked?” Isabelle asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.

  “What do you mean?”

  “They didn’t seem scared. Not ruffled like everyone else.”

  Lucas nodded slowly. “You think they have classes?”

  “Can’t tell unless someone summons something. But we’re definitely not the only two lucky people out here.”

  His thoughts spiralled. Yesterday—was it really just yesterday?—when those wolves had been hunting him; he’d heard gunshots. Had those people levelled up? Started climbing the steps? With guns, killing these creatures would be easier. Acquiring XP would be faster. Was he already falling behind?

  ????ˊ? ·?? ? ? ? ??· ??ˋ???

  Minutes later, they arrived home with little fanfare. His mom had barricaded the front door with wooden planks. She’d asked them to wait in the kitchen while she finished whatever she was doing.

  But Lucas lasted maybe two minutes before his nerves got the better of him. He couldn’t just sit around while others out there were getting stronger, levelling up, pulling ahead.

  He pushed off the kitchen seat, gaze shooting toward the window and the garden beyond. “Isabelle, do you mind if I go try something? I need you to watch me again.”

  She’d been sitting there examining the materials they’d harvested from the flameback wolves after the earlier fight. Curious about how they interacted with the blueprints. She nodded, setting a claw on the table with a soft clink. “I don’t mind.”

  Lucas headed for the kitchen door, but his mom appeared. A clean sheen covered her forehead, with a few droplets of sweat trickling down her brow. She dabbed at it with a cloth. “Where are you going?”

  “Just outside. Need to keep spending the XP I’ve gotten.”

  “XP?” She frowned.

  She still hadn’t touched the system. Refused to acknowledge it, really. Too focused on preparing for an apocalypse using normal means—boards and supplies and routines—when the apocalypse was already here and operated by completely different rules. Hopefully, she’d figure that out before things got worse.

  “I’ll just be out for a minute.”

  “No.” Her hand pressed against his chest. “I want to hear what happened in town. You came back with supplies. And the dog.” Her gaze cut toward Apollo. “Is clearly hurt. What happened?”

  “You can guess what happened, Mom,” Lucas said, shifting his weight. Footsteps echoed from the stairs. Ronald. The boy was probably coming down to investigate what was going on.

  “Can you sit down so we can talk about it?”

  “No, Mom, I have to go outside now. It’s important.”

  “Compared to our survival, how important can it be? I need to know what you brought, what your priorities were. I kind of regret not giving you a list.”

  Lucas sighed, stepping back to the kitchen table. “I agree. Resources matter. But you know what matters more? Having the strength to defend them. What’s the point of stockpiling if someone—or those creatures—can tear down the flimsy boards you put on the door and drag us into the street? It won’t matter if we can’t fight back.”

  Her frown deepened. Her gaze shifted to Isabelle, who shrank away.

  Lucas grabbed his bag from under the table, the one he’d stuffed with medicine and supplies, and moved back to his mom. “I saw Richard today.”

  She frowned. Then her eyes cleared, recognition settling in. “Your old manager from Dizzy Dave?”

  Not really “old,” but considering the state of things, Richard definitely wasn’t his manager anymore. Dizzy Dave didn’t exist anymore, did it? She’d met Richard a few times when she’d dropped off lunch at the restaurant—she never wanted Lucas eating fast food, always worried about diabetes or some other health crisis.

  “How is he?”

  “I think he’s dead. The guy he was with is definitely dead.”