Earth Dies

An hour later, the girls had made it part of the way to Defiance. As they continued down the road, Alice turned to gripe to Bridgette.

"You know, this dress is absolutely not practical for walking. My thighs are chafing, I'm sweating through it to the point of making it see through, it's just ridiculous. Am I just a piece of eye candy for you, ignoring any practical demands?"

"I'm wearing a dress, too, and you don't see me complaining. You even asked me to wear this dress, remember? Besides, why don't you just heal yourself if you're in pain? Have you even tried to do that?"

"... I didn't think of that."

With that, Alice brought up her status sheet again and focused in on the spell.

Heal Minor Wounds: Restore 3-10 hit points to the target, or remove one minor status ailment.

Okay, that seemed like the right kind of spell. But ... how did she cast it? Was she supposed to shout it out? Maybe put on a robe and wizard hat and sacrifice a possum? Or did she just think it strongly in her head?

Alice wished she was healed. Nothing happened. She said the word "Heal" out loud. Nothing noteworthy happened, but a crow did fly out of the nearby corn field. Alice was definitely missing something, here. She poked herself in the leg and thought Heal! Alice waited a beat. Nothing happened. She poked herself in the leg again, "Heal!" Suddenly, a pink glow cascaded from her finger to her legs, wrapping around her midsection. She suddenly felt a lot of inappropriate touching going on under her dress and squealed "Yipe!"

And just as quickly, the pink glow faded. Her legs no longer chafed from the hike. Alice glared suspiciously at her finger, no longer glowing. "Pervy finger."

Bridgette bust out laughing, nearly falling into the ditch. "You have got to be the worst acolyte of Aphrodite in the history of lusty women. Just embrace your sexual side and go with it. But do you mind hitting me with some healing? I could use a good groping and my legs are sore."

Alice sighed and poked her friend in the legs, "Heal!" and watched as the pink glow surrounded her friend.

Bridgette moaned in a very satisfyingly distracting manner, running her hands up her thighs into her crotch. "Whew, that was good. If that's what it feels like every time you heal someone, you're going to be a very popular girl."

"That's gross. I don't want to make other people feel like that. Only you ... and me." Alice muttered the last part barely above a whisper.

Bridgette laughed, "Perv."

"Takes one to know one."

"I never said I wasn't, but I'm glad you're opening up to the idea."

"Why can't I ever win an argument with you?" Alice sighed, shaking her head.

As the two girls finished their bickering, they noted a small dust cloud coming toward them on the road, maybe a mile distant.

"I thought the system said no modern technology? If that's not a car, that's a lot of people moving to make a cloud like that." Bridgette wondered.

"Or maybe a bicycle? Could be someone riding fairly quickly."

"Let's hope so. I'm not sure if I like the idea of meeting up with a crowd of people just now, not until we learn more about what's going on."

The two girls decided to wait where they were, setting their packs down on the side of the road and watching as the cloud approached. Over the next two minutes, they could see it turn into someone riding a bicycle in their direction. Alice stepped next to Bridgette and a step behind, grabbing the other girl's hand, as the dust cloud and bicyclist continued to approach.

A minute later, the figure started to come into focus, features becoming recognizable. "Is that...?" Alice spoke out loud.

"Colin!" Bridgette shouted with joy, recognizing their friend pedaling the bike as he finally drew close to them. The two girls waved excitedly as their friend pulled to a stop a few feet away from them, hopping off his bike and running over.

"Alice! Bridgette! I'm so glad you guys made the cut. Isn't this absolutely crazy?"

"Wait, made the cut?"

"I dunno, it's what I'm calling the culling. I saw a few other folks back in Defiance from a distance and waved at them, they all looked to be around our age. Nobody younger, nobody really much older. Just a bunch of people around our own age. Also... uhm." Colin paused, looking at the two girls again, both wearing fairly revealing dresses, and holding hands. He blinked. Glanced back and forth between the two of them again. Colin seemed to slowly assemble a sentence in his head, trying to ensure he found non-confrontational words.

"I'm going to assume the world ending cleared a few things up? No lasting damage from the party?"

Bridgette smiled at him and pulled Alice in close to her. "You'd be right about that one. She finally went and did it, the full confession. When she confessed her love for me, I had no choice but to reciprocate." Alice blushed and leaned in to Bridgette.

"I was an idiot, Colin. Thank you for helping get me home."

"Oh of course, it's what friends do. I'm just so glad you two finally got that out. You know there's been a betting pool at the school for like a year, right? Our entire senior year. I mean, I guess we did do our best to keep it a secret from you, swearing ultimate pain and exile on anyone who revealed it to the two of you. But yea. Betting pool. I think we all lost, though, pretty sure nobody bet the 'apocalypse' square for when you two would finally get together."

"They knew? That's so embarrassing!" Alice wailed. "I thought I was good at hiding my feelings!"

"I mean, high school kids are gonna gossip about something. It was pretty obvious, even if you didn't want to admit it to yourselves. But anyway, what class did you guys get?"

Alice blushed. "I'm an ... no, Bridgette, you go first."

Bridgette pinched Alice's ass under her dress, laughing as her friend squealed and jumped in the air, turning to glare at Bridgette.

"I'm a Lusty Warrior of Athena. Just trying to live up to my class expectations."

"Oh wow, that's so cool! A modified class name like that probably gives some pretty impressive skill boosts, plus a direct reference to a goddess? I'll bet you're pretty OP."

"OP?"

"Oh, sorry. Gamer term - means overpowered. Level for level, you're probably able to punch beyond your weight class because of those extra skills. I want to hear everything! But how about you, Alice?"

Alice stammered, a bit flustered by Colin's intensity. On one hand, it did seem rather like one of his role playing games he kept trying to talk everyone into playing. On the other hand, this was their life now. "I'm an Acolyte of Aphrodite, apparently. I think I can heal folks."

"Oh she can heal folks, as long as you don't mind a little groping in the process!" Bridgette chipped in.

"Wow! Another goddess reference. That's incredible. The two of you have got to be so lucky to have classes like that."

"I mean, Fi did say that she was making some changes when we met her, maybe that's it?" Alice wondered.

"Fi? Who's Fi?" Colin turned, narrowing his gaze.

"I ... I don't know who she was. Bridgette?" Alice shrugged.

"I'm not sure if I can explain it any better than Alice can. One minute we were sitting in her kitchen, the next minute a strange woman came in, talked to us and said she was going to help give us an edge, and then vanished into thin air."

"Strange women standing in kitchens distributing overpowered classes is no basis for a well-written fantasy novel. Supreme power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical scullery ceremony." Colin ad-libbed.

"She did more than talk to us," Alice offered with a blush.

"Hah, embrace your inner perv and tell Colin all about it, why don't you?" Bridgette laughed, pushing Alice forward.

Colin perked up, "She did what now?"

Alice tried to step back and hide behind Bridgette, but Bridgette firmly held her in place by the shoulders. "Go on and tell our boy all about what that slutty woman did to you."

"Hey, no wait - it wasn't just me!" Alice sighed. "Okay, well, she was fucking gorgeous. Like, make supermodels look like a homeless person, sex on wheels, follow her around drooling gorgeous. And she was basically naked, except for a dress that weighed less than a tissue and was about as substantial. And she talked to us, and kissed us, and then vanished into thin air. I think she was Aphrodite. And then we unlocked our classes."

"Holy shit, guys. Holy shit. You two actually talked to - and played tonsil hockey with - a goddess. Do you have any idea how insane that is?"

"Yea, I think we have some idea." Bridgette remarked dryly. "But anyway, what about you?"

"I'm a fucking ELF!" Colin shouted with glee, turning his head and pointing to his elongated ears.