Chương 73: 71: A Brush with Greatness

"All right, everybody level up?" I said briskly as Danny cheered and the Labs barked their little hearts out. I wasn't sure the dogs had leveled up, but Danny could take care of them: I just wanted to make sure that Katie and Rebecca had entered the System before leaving them to make their own way through the rift. I could see the answer on Rebecca's face. She had one hand to her cheek, fingers tentatively exploring the complete lack of bruising, her mouth open and her eyes glazed.

Her first level up had healed her. I hadn't wanted to ask—there were only so many heart-rending stories I could take in a day—but I was pretty sure the bruise had come from Mr. Bloody Waterfall. It looked to be about the right age, and the damage had been way too thorough to come from a "normal" hit. Airbag going off, maybe. Mr. Bloody Waterfall, more likely. As a completely non-religious person, I'd never really worried about heaven or hell before, but I did kinda hope that dude was burning somewhere.

Danny and Katie were talking, heads bent together, so I trusted Danny was giving her advice on her class choice. I turned to Rebecca. She had a fist pressed to her chest.

"I've got good choices, I think. I mean, Archer, that's an easy no. But the other two are Steward and Healer." I had no idea what a steward might be. A union rep? Someone who did something useful on a boat? But if Rebecca was torn, it must be more interesting than that.

"Those do sound good," I said tentatively, not sure what she wanted to hear. Healer would have been a no-brainer for me, so Steward must be offering her something worthwhile for the choice to be in question. She shook her head. Her eyes still had that distant look.

"I've never wanted to be a doctor in my life. Hospitals, ugh. I hate the smell of them, the feel of them, the lights." She wrinkled her nose.

"Steward is great, it sounds like me, but Healer could save my kids' lives." She sighed and her eyes came back into focus.

"Easy choice, I guess." She smiled at me, and if it looked a little sad, well, we were in the apocalypse. A little sad is always better than dead kids.

"Mom, no, you didn't—" Danny came bouncing over to us, and then grimaced.

"You did. You chose a class already, didn't you?"

"Isn't that what we're here for?" she asked him.

"Yeah, but you should have asked Olivia for advice first."

"It wasn't rocket science, hon. I had two good choices and I chose the one that I think will be most useful."

"Yeah, but—" He heaved a melodramatic sigh.

"Well, maybe you can still get it. Olivia, give my mom some advice. Tell her something useful." I swear, it was just like a teacher asking you a question when you'd been daydreaming in class. My mind went completely and totally blank.

"Never wear white after Labor Day?" I finally offered.

"I mean, I think it's a stupid rule, personally."

"No, not like that." If Danny had been ten years younger, he would have stamped his foot.

"Real advice."

"I have no idea what you want from me, dude. I don't know anything. I don't have some great wisdom to impart." From behind us, Joey snorted.

"I'm gonna call it mildly helpful to know that getting a little XP can heal all your injuries."

"Well, okay, but—" I gestured toward Rebecca's face.

"—I'm thinking Danny's mom probably figured that out on her own."

"You need to tell her something good," Danny insisted.

"Like you told me. Like you told Katie." He flung a hand toward his sister.

"She got it."

"Got what?" Katie did a little shimmy.

"Thorn's Sentinel, my super special unique defender class, thank you very much." She punched a fist into the air.

"Because I have had a brush with greatness!"

"What the—" I glanced at Rebecca and self-corrected my language.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Plus three points of Resilience," Katie went on.

"That doubled my base Resilience."

"Mine was Intel," Danny said.

"Did the same. Which is also the only reason I could use the Universal Language stone, which is the only reason I'm Level 8 now." His grin held a level of smug that sort of made me want to poke him. I was an only child, but I suspected Danny had 'annoying younger brother' down to an art form.

"Ooh, this sounds intriguing. How do I get in on the stat-boosting?" Joey asked.

"Olivia's got to give you advice," Danny told him.

"Real advice. Good advice."

"No, it's significant guidance," Katie corrected him. She got that look of someone focusing on their interface and read aloud.

"Achievement: A Brush With Greatness. You have received significant guidance—tactical, emotional, and otherwise—from the highest-level individual currently active on your planet. Whether this represents extraordinary luck or extraordinary risk remains to be seen. Discretion advised. +3 Resilience." Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"The what?" Joey and I said the words simultaneously.

"Extraordinary risk?" Rebecca focused on a totally different line of the message.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You shouldn't have told her!" Danny objected.

"I wanted to find out what her level is first." I pinched the top of my nose, that spot between the eyes. I could feel the headache coming on. Okay, yeah, it was probably an imaginary headache—with the System optimizing our bodies, I hadn't even had the caffeine withdrawal headache I richly deserved. But imaginary or not, it felt like pressure.

"That's—that's… I don't even know what to say about that." I glanced down at Zelda. The 10, 000 XP for closing a rift had belonged to me alone—none of the dogs had gotten that achievement. So I had outleveled her. But if the System was right—and it was straining credulity to believe it was wrong—then until this morning, my dog might have been the highest-level individual on the planet. I had to laugh. It was weak, maybe not very convincing, but it was either laugh or cry. What the hell?

"Damn impressive," Joey muttered.

"That's what that is. And what have you been doing since the apocalypse began?"

"Killing bugs!" I threw up my hands.

"And exploring rifts, I guess. Plenty of—" I stopped speaking. Chase and Ben had been exploring the rooftop, doing the dog sniff-and-scout, but now they were nowhere to be seen.

"Where did your dogs go?" I asked. Zelda stretched, then turned, her attention sharpening toward the far corner of the roof, where Katie had been standing earlier. That way.

"Oh, no." Rebecca was already moving.

"Chase! Ben!" She hurried across the rooftop and came to a screeching stop at the low wall.

"You ridiculous dogs," she scolded them.

"Get back up here." At a slightly slower pace, the rest of us followed.

"Huh. Not sure they can," Joey said, peering over. I stepped up beside him and looked down. Earlier, Katie had said the stairs were a fire escape, and I could see why she thought so. They didn't reach the ground, and the steps looked more precarious than an actual staircase would have. The dogs were on the dusty ground below. Ben looked up and barked. Then again, sharper this time.

"Ah," I said.

"He's saying it was an accident. Chase went first and slipped." The kids didn't look at me, but Rebecca did.

"How could you possibly know that?"

"Animal communication skill. My absolute favorite part of this nightmare." I reached down to Zelda and gave the back of her neck a solid scratch.

"I'll go down," Danny said.

"You can wait up here, Mom." I shook my head.

"That's a mistake. All of you go down. This is obviously where the rift leads, and exploring the rift is what you're here for." I tilted my head toward Rebecca, waved toward Katie, nodded at Joey.

"You've got a healer, a defensive class, a fighter. Plus the dogs. And you're Level 8, Danny. You can keep them safe."

"You're not coming with us?" Rebecca asked.

"I've been away for too long," I said.

"I wanted this to be a quick in-and-out, but I left a kid, two dogs, and a cat at home, with the possibility of some… well, it's a long story. But I need to get home to stop some murder hobos from breaking into my house. And you've got this."

"Some what?" Joey asked.

"Murder hobos?" Danny said.

"Do you need help?" I smiled at him. He flushed a little, then shrugged, sheepish.

"No, you're right," I said quickly.

"You said it yourself. Everyone's gotta sleep sometime. But I'll be okay and you've got stuff to do here."

"If the dogs can't get back up, how are we going to get out of here?" Rebecca fretted. I'm not sure she'd even heard what I'd said, she was so focused on her animals. To be honest, I liked her all the more for that.

"Well, we're not leaving them there on their own," Katie said. Without hesitating, she started down the steps, then paused, her head barely visible over the edge of the roof.

"Thank you so much for all your help," she called to me.

"And come back soon." Then her head disappeared.

"Katie!" Rebecca objected, before she shook her head and followed her daughter. Danny looked torn.

"They're only Level 1."

"Go," I told him.

"I will be back. Maybe not soon, exactly, but in a few days." He hesitated, then lunged forward and gave me an awkward hug before releasing me just as fast.

"Soon," he said.

"Not too many days." Then he darted across the rooftop to the stairs and fled down them.

"Murder hobos?" Joey asked, not moving.

"It's a title that the System gives. The System…" I let the words trail off and looked at him, really looked. How much did I want to tell this guy? What could [Uncanny Insight] tell me about him? [Uncanny Insight] said: big, protective guy, used to being one of the toughest people around. In his early 40s. Maybe ex-military, currently working with his hands somehow. The work boots looked comfortable, and as if they were worn every day of the week. Construction? Yeah, that felt right.

And not at all okay with letting a woman go off to face murder hobos on her own.

"If you kill a human being," I said, picking my words carefully, "the System assesses your actions and decides whether you were justified. Or not." I met his eyes without flinching and without crying, even though my nose was prickling like mad. I'd told Pen about her father's death and I'd told Katie I'd killed a man, but I hadn't reached a place where admitting I'd murdered a human being came easy to me. Not that it was murder. Self-defense, definitely. Justified, in the System's own words.

But killing a human being still felt like something I ought to be ashamed of. A scarlet letter of its own sort. Maybe K for Killer?

"No reason for self-doubt, then," Joey said. His eyes were a warm caramel color, and none of the warmth had left them, even though I'd basically just admitted what I'd done. I had to look away for a second before I could continue.

"I think people get the Murder Hobo title when they've been killing other people. In ways the System believes are not justified. Bad for species survival, in fact. And I've got a couple neighbors who…" I shrugged. Joey looked at me for another long moment.

"Do you need help? Someone to watch your back while you sleep?" Zelda huffed, then yipped. I watch back, dumbass.

"Zelda!" My mouth dropped open. What? Is true, she said with one small, satisfied tail wag. Me, Riley, Bear. Even cat. Not alone. Never alone. Pack. Now I really wanted to cry. But I didn't, because she was right.

"I've got three dogs, they'll keep me covered," I told Joey.

"Some quick advice for your entire town's sake, though: skills in the [Identify] tree let you check for titles. People with the Murder Hobo title aren't good neighbors. One way or another, you don't want them in your community."

"Gotcha." He nodded, his eyes still steady on mine. I thought about telling him more, but I felt like I was babbling to stop myself from crying on his shoulder—it looked like an excellent shoulder for crying on—so I just tipped my head toward the stairs.

"You should catch up with them." He nodded, said, "Take care," and headed for the stairs. But when he reached them, he turned around and called back, "Hey, how many levels do we need to get before we catch up?" I laughed, and then Zelda and I went back through the gate. The Mercers were gonna be okay. And I would come back, hopefully soon.