“If you weren’t pregnant I’d punch you,” Caroline said. She was shaking and crying.

  The rest of “the B team” had gotten follow-up messages immediately after they’d appeared, disoriented, in the forest next to Laura. While Laura hadn’t been able to see or hear what the messages contained, she’d seen their faces as they froze in the middle of the chaos, their expressions collectively dropping as they took in whatever information the system was choosing to share with them about their new circumstances.

  Graham sat over to one side looking winded, like he was gathering his thoughts. Nate was perched up on a large rock soaking up what sunshine was filtering through the tree leaves.

  “Holy shit, you’re pregnant?” Brett said, then looked over at the other three. “Damn, don’t mess with those mama bear instincts. Brutal.”

  Actually Laura would have felt better if her decision had simply come from some undeniable instinct to protect her child. But she couldn’t guarantee she wouldn’t have made the same choice regardless of whether she was pregnant or not. Her survival currently depended on other people, pure and simple.

  She sat with her back to a tree, legs tucked tight against her. How long would be a reasonable amount of time to let the air clear before suggesting they get a move on away from this place?

  First order of business would be getting Brett to come with them. As annoying as he might have been to his former party members, he could potentially give Laura and the others a valuable leg up. He was a level 6–several levels above any of them—and was also clearly aware of whatever dangers were in the immediate vicinity, judging by his stash of rocks and his reaction to the occasional giggling that came from the surrounding woods.

  Laura could add people to their party now. Whether that was because she was a higher level than Caroline, or because she’d initiated their entry into the parks she wasn’t sure. She added Brett to their party.

  Caroline’s head jerked up. “You’re just making all the decisions for everyone now?” she said to Laura.

  A moment later Laura received a new message:

  Brett has been removed from the party by Caroline S.

  Laura looked at Caroline. “The only way out is through at this point, and—”

  “Thanks to you, yeah.”

  Laura added Brett to the party again.

  Brett has been removed from the party by Caroline S.

  “I’m not the one who—” Laura had been about to say ‘trapped us here’, but that seemed like an arguable statement at that moment. She wanted to scream. “I’m not the one who created this freaking bubble. And it certainly wasn’t my choice for my husband to be stuck on the far goddamn end.” Laura’s blood pounded in her ears. “Believe me, if I had my way I’d be home right now, getting that happy moment I was supposed to get where I tell my parents they’re going to be grandparents.”

  “Yeah well my mom’s stuck in here now!” Caroline yelled, then started crying as the reality seemed to sink in further. She wrapped her arms tightly around herself.

  Laura paused. She slowly stood up and wrapped one arm around the tree. “I’m so sorry,” she said eventually.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Laura rubbed the bark under her fingers soothingly. She gave the apology the silence it needed to carry its full weight.

  “All the more reason,” she finally continued, pitching her voice as gently as she could, “that we should get Brett to come with us. He’s a higher level and knows more about what’s going on in here than we do.”

  “Laura’s right,” Graham said, a little stiffly. “We need every bit of leverage that we can get.”

  “Then why is he holed up here with his little tent thing?” Caroline said, wiping her eyes with her shirt. “Not really inspiring much confidence.”

  “Woah, woah,” Brett said, stepping in. “As much as I like two ladies fighting over me, this all feels like kind of a dumpster fire,” he waved his hands to indicate the group, “so I’m going to pass.”

  A small figure erupted out of the woods. It looked like a ghost—not a real one, whatever that would have meant, but a kid’s costume. It was like a little kid was wearing a sheet with holes cut out for the eyes, but instead of eyes there were just two black pits. The thing giggled.

  “These little freaks again,” Brett said. He grabbed one of the rocks from the pile and threw it. It beaned the ghost kid in the head and it went down.

  Everyone looked at Brett.

  “What?” he said. “It’s not like there’s a real kid in there.”

  Four more ghost kids sprinted into the clearing from multiple directions. All were level 3.

  Brett snatched a slingshot out of his backpack and started loading his pockets with rocks.

  “More incoming,” Graham yelled calmly, backing up as he grabbed a few more stones off the ground.

  “Hey, watch it, man! I have a system,” Brett said as one of the rocks Graham grabbed caused part of his shelter to crumble.

  “We’ll worry about that later,” Graham said.

  Three more short figures stumbled into the clearing. Their skin was green, and their movements were uncoordinated but still eerily fast.

  “Are those zombies?” Laura screamed.

  “It’s okay,” Brett said. “They’re not like real zombies. It just really fucking hurts if they bite you.”

  Everyone clustered together and moved backward in a group as the ghost and zombie mobs converged on them. Caroline jumped back when one of the zombies snapped its teeth threateningly.

  “There’s more than last time,” Brett said, looking nervous.

  Caroline shrank back even more behind the others.

  “Can you use your magic yet?” Laura asked Caroline as she bent down to grab another rock. She was already winded.

  “No,” Caroline shouted back. “It says I need items to use magic.”

  Brett yelled in surprise as one of the zombie mobs sprinted forward and chomped on his arm. “Motherfucker! That hurt!” He ran back a few feet, nearly colliding with Graham, and then threw another rock at the zombie before fumbling to load his slingshot. “Get in here, man!” He yelled at Nate, who’d broken off to one side and was now standing apparently frozen in place.

  “He hasn’t distributed his stat points yet!” Caroline yelled back. The three zombies were now focusing their attacks on her since she was currently the nearest target, and she was trying to dodge them by running figure eights.

  Brett ran back a few more paces, and fired his slingshot, taking out one of the zombies stumbling after Caroline. The other two zombies turned and lurched towards Brett, who had backed himself into a corner by two trees. He was still fumbling with his slingshot when Nate popped up and knocked the nearest zombie out with a punch.

  Nate had a new designation next to his name: unarmed fighter. He knocked out a ghost that had tried to take advantage of the chaos to sneak up on them.

  “Hey thanks, man,” Brett said. “That was close.”

  “Maybe you all should spread out a bit,” Nate said, curb stomping the ghost, who had fallen on the ground. Its health bar dropped to zero.

  Brett wordlessly boosted Caroline up to grab a high branch on the tree. The last remaining zombie ineffectually hopped a few inches off the ground trying to grab for a branch. Caroline tried to kick it in the face, then concentrated on getting higher up in the tree.

  Brett, Laura, and Graham scattered.

  Or at least, they tried to. Laura still instinctively followed Graham when he turned and peeled off from the direction Brett was running.

  “No, you go that way!” Graham pointed.

  Laura clumsily turned and ran the opposite way and almost collided with a ghost. She jumped to one side, feeling her ankle twinge when she landed. The little fucker fell over trying to pivot but then popped back up again, but by that point she was far enough away to fling a rock at it, and it went down again. Brett finished it off with a well aimed shot from his sling shot.

  They were finally able to divide and conquer the last few mobs.

  “Anyone else think that was way harder than it should have been for level 3 mobs?” Nate asked, wiping something off his shoe.

  Laura massaged a stitch in her side. Then she turned to Brett. “Still want to stay here?”

  “Hell no.”

  “Any objections?” She asked Caroline, who was still perched up in the tree.

  Brett has been added to party “the B team” by Caroline S.

  Party name has been changed to “we suck at this team” by Caroline S.

  “Noted,” Graham said, dryly.

  Then they set off on the path towards Witch’s Hollow.