The Fool's Freedom

The group closed the distance fast. Alan was both relieved and worried about having more people. It was necessary. There was safety in numbers. And a variety of skills.

He didn’t like where his mind instantly went, though. Betrayal, murder…levels. He had never been one to trust people and he advised people to not trust people. Now he would have to do so. At least for the time being he didn’t expect things to go sour as it was still too early. No one had enough power yet.

There were quite a few familiar faces in the group. It was all people from the same building he worked in.

Salla, the older cafeteria lady was one of those that stood out. She was nice, always giving him bigger portions because she firmly believed food would cure his ailments. There was a cleaver gripped firmly in her hand. She had probably been holding on to it, as Alan had held his cane at the moment the System happened.

At the very front was an older man in a suit. Alan knew him by the name Tim Bishop, a well-known executive in the company, not that they had much opportunity to interact. He was one of the few adequate people.

Alan also recognized Florence; the nice helpful girl who had half the office smitten. She stood with her arms folded in one of her signature sundresses that was sadly not the greatest choice for an apocalypse. Still better than one of the other women in the group, who was carrying her high heels in her hands.

He also saw the inseparable Eldon and Matt. The duo looked rather cheerful compared to the rest and were chatting quietly among themselves and laughing. They were the typical twenty-something guys who were too into whatever game was popular right now.

One of the new interns and probably the only intern Alan knew by name, Rob, was dragging his feet at the back of the group. A small orb of pale light hung above his outstretched palm and chased away the darkness. He looked almost as bad as Alan. His shirt was torn much like Alan’s in the telltale signs of an angry imp encounter. His other hand was held by his neck-tie in a makeshift sling. He sure got fucked up. Damn.

There were others whom Alan only knew by face and even a few he couldn’t remember. Most carried makeshift staves and clubs, fresh from the forest.

What made him happy, however, was the person at the very front of the group. Ashlyn Jeong, his best friend in the company and probably outside of it too. She had her big grin on her face as she hurried towards him and looked good all things considered.

Emerson supported him as they walked to meet the group halfway. Ashlyn reached them first and without a word hugged Alan.

He carefully returned the hug and relished in the feeling before opening his mouth to speak. Nothing came out, his brain drawing a blank. What did one say to a friend when the world as everyone knew it had ended? There were no words of reassurance that would sound anything but empty. Should he go for witty? They stood there for a few moments, locked in a comforting embrace. Alan watched over her shoulder as Emerson excitedly greeted everyone and started unloading much like when he had seen Alan.

“I’m glad you are okay,” Ashlyn said, gently pushing away and examining him from head to toe. She scowled at the torn shirt and even more at the wrapped leg. “At least somewhat.”

“You should see the other guy,” Alan replied with a grin, feeling some tension leave him. It was good to see her.

Ashlyn smiled. “Come on, let's join the others. We'll talk later, there’s no time now.” She gently held his elbow as they rejoined the group. Emerson seemed to have already gone over their situation in detail as he was currently pointing toward the lizard's corpse. Which was curiously still there.

Tim Bishop, apparently the chosen leader or spokesman of the group, caught up with Alan and Emerson on everything relevant in a tone that was more suited for a casual business meeting than whatever situation they were in. Which was just fine for Alan as it did give a sense of normalcy. Not that he needed or wanted normal. It was good for the others.

What was curious was how everyone in the group had different perceptions of how much time had passed since they found themselves in the forest. Everyone had been on their own, be it because they had gotten lost at the very start or because they had separated from their respective companions. And at some point, everyone had fought an imp. The only person who had someone close by when they met the imp was Emerson, and it was only because Alan had followed it to him.

Tim and Ashlyn had met shortly after the man had dealt with his imp. Ashlyn had decided to pick [Basic Tracking] and was currently the only one with the skill. Together they had gathered the current group and there were signs of others nearby. Ashlyn didn’t want to lose the trace so they were in a hurry.

Alan noticed how Ashlyn let Tim do most of the talking which was just fine. But the way she stiffly stood, looking mostly at the ground, was uncharacteristic of her. No one would take such things as signs of guilt, but Alan knew her well enough. Still, it might just be the situation fucking up with his perception. It would be silly if everyone accepted the change without mental issues.

“With that out of the way, I think we should leave most questions for when we find everyone else and finish the Quest,” Tim said. “What skills do you two have?”

Emerson was the first to answer. “I have [Cleanse Water].”

“Good. That one is valuable and we have only one other person who has it. It is… smart to have a backup,” the last part was added almost too quietly. “And you Alan?”

That was tricky. Alan still felt the urge to lie, but then again what was the point? It’s not like it was a particularly useful or dangerous skill. And they couldn’t take it from him… could they? Emerson also knew what it did. Fuck, stop being silly.

“It’s called [Efficient Basic Movement]. It helps me walk and conserve stamina,” he said. There was no point in hiding. Ashlyn shuffled closer to him.

Tim’s eyes flicked to his cane then back to him. He nodded. “That’s also good. Some of us have also picked the second option although most didn’t find what they wanted there…” Most of the group’s eyes turned towards Florence, who didn’t react at all. Gone was the flowery smile, instead the girl just stood there with vacant eyes and crossed arms.

No one mentioned what her skill was and if Florence herself didn’t want to share then Alan decided to leave it for now, no matter how curious he was.

“May I use my skill on your wounds?” Tim suddenly asked. Alan perked up at that, and then his eyes turned towards Rob, the intern. Tim followed his gaze, “we are still not sure how fast the skill works, but trust me, he was much worse when we found him.”

Alan couldn’t imagine someone getting hurt that much worse than him by one of those weak imps, but he wouldn’t hold it against Rob. Still, the boy looked capable enough to deal with one fairly easily. There is certainly a story here.

“Go ahead, I am curious myself,” Alan said.

The man acted fast as he touched Alan’s chest through the tears of his shirt with no hesitation. There was no sensation or obvious change as a wave of pinkish light flashed over the scratches. Next, Tim crouched and carefully unwrapped the sleeve bandage from Alan’s leg. He did the same and this time the pink light lingered for a few seconds, followed by slight tingling, after which he re-tied the bandage.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

It was decided that further introductions and sharing of information could wait for now as the group started moving. Alan found himself at the very front, next to Ashlyn. The girl refused to let go of him and since hers was the only skill capable of finding others he obliged.

They walked in silence. Mostly. Eldon and Matt were excitedly whispering to each other about possible spells and magic. It was understandable, although Alan believed that the reality of the situation would be much different.

The tree tops the bright moons as the group circled around the lake, getting closer to the tree line. A few more light orbs suddenly popped up around them. Tim gave directions and the people shuffled, maximizing the efficiency without straying too far from the rest. [Light Orb] was a really popular skill.

Their pace was not too fast nor too slow. For a moment he decided Ashlyn was slowing the group down for his sake but he quickly dismissed the idea. She wasn’t that type of friend. He was more curious about how [Basic Tracking] worked.

Her choice of direction was made with confidence. They briefly stopped from time to time to let her examine things only she could perceive. It took her mere moments before they were moving again. Alan highly doubted it was that simple. If it was so easy to track people during the night, even if there was plenty of light, then the skill was doing a lot of work.

Ashlyn suddenly raised her hand, signaling the group to stop. They had reached a particularly dark part of the tree line. Alan didn’t know much about trees, but he was quite sure that while similar to the ones from before, those in front of them were different. The branches grew thicker and the leaves wider and darker. They were basically the other trees’ dark brooding big brother that had seen some shit.

It looked like some of the members of the group would have to bend over to pass. Alan turned towards Emerson, who was happily carrying the dead Axolotl on one shoulder, whispering something to the cafeteria lady. Salla was half-heartedly nodding. Does he want to eat it?

Tim went ahead, his eyes staring down the dark forest. His posture remained picture-perfect and the air of confidence around him was almost tangible. It was impressive. Most executives Alan had met could barely function other than delegating anything they had to do to their assistants. He was not a simple man. Maybe a former soldier?

“In there?” he asked.

“Yeah. Straight ahead. It feels a bit strange,” Ashlyn said.

“What isn’t strange in this place? Let’s go.”

With Tim in the front and Ashlyn and Alan right behind, the group entered the forest. Alan found it quite silly how the one leading them into the unknown was one of their former bosses and they followed like good worker bees. What was way stupider though, was that he was the only one with the healing skill as far as he knew. One of the older men with [Light Orb] whose name Alan didn’t know had hurried in front to provide better visibility to Tim.

It was becoming difficult to navigate through the gaps between the trees while holding on to each other, so Ashlyn let go of him and moved to walk in front. Alan followed closely behind. There was a completely different feeling to the forest this time around. Much less light made it through the green wall overhead and the density was almost suffocating. He didn’t remember forests being this drastically different so close to one another, but what did he know of forests?

Alan decided to focus on his feet and cane, making sure to avoid the roots that had broken above ground, lest he fell and killed himself.

That would be a funny story, dying by tripping on a root during the goddamn apocalypse. Ha!

Those in front of him stopped. There were gasps and silence. Alan almost bumped into Ashlyn. Beyond her, he saw Tim, who had picked a menacing piece of wood that looked more like a club than a random stick from somewhere.

He couldn’t see what had made them stop, but Ashlyn didn’t look like she was taking it well.

He heard the older [Light Orb] user curse.

“Ash? Are you okay?” he whispered.

There was a scream and sobbing as one of the women circled and joined the two men at the very front. Alan felt his stomach sink.

Some of the people decided to join the front line and hurried to see what was going on, and he did the same, cane clutched like a weapon. Carefully he passed the frozen Ashlyn, keeping an eye on her. Then he saw it. They were still a few meters away from it, but despite the darkness and gloom, it was clear what it was under the weak light of the [Light Orb].

A body.

An absolutely destroyed human body.

It was on its back, the head leaning on a tree. Multiple wounds were covering every part of it, whatever clothes the person had worn before torn to shreds. The chest was caved in. A deep long gash went from the top of the stomach to the groin. There were pieces of organs and intestines thrown around as if whatever had done this had dug deep and excavated, emptying the body of its internal contents. The limbs lay in unnatural bends, almost all of the fingers of the hands broken or missing, with chunks of flesh torn from the thighs and upper arms.

The face was a gory mess, flattened and broken. The cheeks on both sides were missing. The eyes were just empty holes of blood and a mouth that gaped open in silent agony.

And the smell.

Alan fell to his knees and puked. His vision swam and his body went numb. The burning acidic sensation brought along shortness of breath. He grabbed for anything to hold on to, finding a tree trunk and grabbing onto it as if his life depended on it. Almost crawling he turned its back to it and sat, clutching his cane in his lap.

What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck.

Reality hit him like a truck. Almost like one of those that sent the protagonist on a grand adventure filled with pretty girls and magic, only instead it plunged him into a reality of terror and anxiety. Whoever that was on the ground, they had died a brutal, savage death.

And they won’t be the last.