NOVEL FROG Chapter 4: Confidence
I recover using the magic of corn-based snack chips. The others are cut and scratched, but nobody was as bad off as I was. Turns out you can share a bag of healing chips, you just get a percentage of the healing based on your consumption.
Also, these snacks mention HP, also known as Hit Points, but we don't have HP stats in our menus. We have Toughness and Constitution stats, but neither handles total health points. Toughness makes you harder to damage and Constitution helps fight diseases, infections, poisons and controls your natural recovery. So I'm not sure how the HP recovery system works. I just know that I can heal near-fatal wounds with nacho cheese OR cool ranch.
I have now gotten the gist of my new spells, having used each several times. So I'm doing some math.
“Fire Bat costs 3 AP, and lasts 10 minutes. I have 4 AP. My Intelligence is 33 so I recover 33 AP per hour, or one AP every 2 minutes. If I cast, wait 4 minutes, then cast again, we have 2 fire bats for 6 minutes. Then as soon as the 1st one expires I can renew it. But the 2nd expires at minute 14 and doesn't come back for another 2 minutes.”
“Jun,” Theo says, “while you were doing math it became pointless.” He holds up a short sword that's shaped like a large dog tooth.
“We beat the other dogs like piñatas and we got a short sword, mace and 3 more dollar coins.” Brian holds up a black iron mace. The head of the mace is shaped like a dog skull. It's metal as hell.
Nat glances down at her broken glass shivs. They look like crap by comparison.
Jose puts a hand on her shoulder in consolation. “I'm still unarmed too.” He won't be unarmed for long. I have Fire Bats and MATH.
We look decidedly more ragged than we did half an hour ago. We're healed but our clothes are ripped and torn. And not in the "sexy romance novel cover" way. They're ripped and torn in the "I got attacked by wild dogs" kind of way.
"We can do this," Theo assures us.
I'm increasingly unsure about that, but eh, might as well continue. I'm not particularly attached to my glorious life of retail drudgery.
The hall outside our break room connects to the manager's office and the pet supplies area. The manager's office is behind a large black door. The door frame glows red and is emitting fog. We decide to not enter the certain death room for now. I'd bet it's a boss. We're not ready for a boss encounter. We're more in the "barely surviving against basic wildlife" stage of our adventure.
The pet supplies were nowhere near the break room back in what we're calling “the old store.” In the new store it's the only area between us and stairs down to the 4th floor. It's our only hope of getting out of here.
“Ah. Dogs from the dog department.” I say, sharing my revelation.
Theo looks at me with his supervisor “are you just catching up to the rest of us” look. It's a mix of incredulity and pity. I avert my gaze, trying not to confirm his assumption.
The tan hall opens up into a maze of giant dog cages, cat trees and a ziggurat made of square cardboard boxes filled with kitty litter. We hear scratching, whining, meowing, hissing and one single parrot saying “Lucky you, you get it!” which is our company's advertising slogan. This is going to suck.
“We move slow,” Theo says in a whisper. “Take them on one at a time. Remember, this isn't an RPG or tabletop game. This is some Dark Souls murder ya instantly shit.” He shifts his grip on the dog tooth short sword and takes a small step forward. Brian has the mace. I've given myself and Jose both Fire Bats.
The second he inches a toe into the room all of the animal noises stop. There's an eerie quiet. All of us refrain from saying “quiet, too quiet” but all of us are thinking it. Theo takes another step in and nothing happens. He steps again and everything looks to be fine. The rest of us move in as well.
I creep up behind Jose and whisper, “I don't actually see any animals. Do you think that was just background noise?”
The parrot's creaky voice shoots out of the cages, “Just background noise! Just background noise!”
We all jump, but the trap is already sprung. I hear growling behind me and turn to see two dogs have circled us. How the shit did they get behind us?
Four bobcats appear at the top of the cat trees, their large bodies causing the trees to wobble. The parrot, black with a red crest and a goddamn eye patch flies overhead.
Normally, this is where we roll for initiative.
“Stick together!” I yell. “Back to back!”
As the bird screams overhead, “Die humans die!” a shockwave bursts forth from it and I have to clutch my ears, which are bleeding. The others look like they're in pain too. Theo even drops his sword to clutch his head. I sling my bat at the bird and he drops to the ground. Then I stomp his shitty little pirate bird head.
The dogs rush in, attacking Jose and Nat who are in back. Jose shoves the business end of a fire bat into a dog's mouth and it recoils. The other dog gets the drop on Nat and knocks her to the ground. It gets on top of her and starts biting, but she responds by stabbing it blindly in the back and sides. I step towards her, grabbing Theo's short sword from the floor, and begin to stab the dog.
The four cats leap onto the ground and swarm poor Theo. They tear into him all at once. His legs give out and he falls. Brian whacks at a cat with his dog skull mace but he's only one man against 4 bobcats. The mauling is fast and brutal. I think I can see Theo's throat and it's not in his neck anymore.
Two of the bobcats turn on Brian. He bashes one but the other bites into his thigh and he drops to a knee. At that point the other goes for his face. It's... Oh god.
I turn back to Jose and Nat. The dog on Nat looks dead, but she's not moving either. There's a lot of blood coming from her chest.
Jose has his mutt under control but two bobcats jump him from behind and rake his back. Blood sprays. He falls forward. I sweep with the short sword, trying to get the cats away from him. As I swing a bobcat jumps and bites my hand. I drop the sword and the cat turns away from me to maul my best friend.
I'm standing there alone as animals eat my friends. Jose's twitching but I don't think he's going to make it. I scream. Not Jose. Not after everything we went through together! Rage and sadness flow from me. Blood spills across the floor from different directions.
“Squak!” I hear the parrot again. It wasn't dead. “Die human die!” It opens its beak at me and rings of sonic force shoot out into my face. My ears ring, then I feel my eardrums rupture. I can feel blood gushing from my head. Ah. So at least I don't have to go on alone.
I fall to the floor, dead.
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“The world is changing!” The newscaster's deep, urgent voice goes out over images of beauty and destruction across the world. “Locations across the globe are being altered, seemingly at random, by some unknown force.”
Images of the Louvre, the Sydney Opera House and the Roman Colosseum are shown, each twisted, altered. The Louvre's glass pyramid has grown over the rest of the complex. The Sydney opera house seems to have been turned into a giant sea shell and is covered in starfish and seaweed, as if it just got dredged up. The colosseum looks reborn into a brand new spiraling stone tower some 50 or more stories tall.
“Our first reports say that some locations are being called dungeons, and are filled with horrible monsters. Many who were in these locations have been killed.” A video clip of a lizard man stabbing someone with a trident runs on screen. “Law enforcement and armed forces are rushing to these scenes.”
“Other locations, such as the White House, are being turned into castles.” Four towers surround the White House, each a replica of the Washington monument. “These castles have defenders and they seem to be under the control of the ruler of the castle.” A video of spectral minute men in blue and white coats plays. They march in a line of a dozen or so outside the White House.
“Still other sites are apparently called ruins. These seem to be historic places, and are filled with violent defenders. Certain stadiums have been transformed into arenas, which offer the opportunity to voluntarily fight these awful creatures.”
“This upheaval is causing power outages, pipes to burst and is disrupting all parts of life in the affected areas. Thousands and thousands of people are missing! Please stay tuned for more on this breaking story!”