Chapter 3: 3. Good Samaritan

“I promise I won't hurt you. But we need to get out of here. It’s not safe with all these monsters around,” Alistair said, putting both hands up to show he meant no harm.

The woman wrapped her arms around her child and said nothing, staring at him with suspicion. Alistair sighed internally, but he understood her position. She had probably witnessed a lot of death in the past few hours.

“If I wanted to kill you to try to level up, I already would have,” he said. It might not have been the best tactic to imply he could have killed them if he wanted to, but he felt this might be the best approach. “My name’s Alistair. I go — or I guess I went to Boston College. What are your names?”

There was a moment of silence but the woman finally spoke.

“Donna,” she said at last. There was some hesitation before she said her daughter’s name. “And my girl is Tamia.”

“Nice to meet you both,” Alistair said. “I was thinking about what to do and I think we should stay hidden until the timer runs out. Normally, I would say we should try to find others on campus, but with [The First Step] quest, I think that would be dangerous.”

Alistair looked around. A couple of blocks down he saw some people engaging the orcs in battle. He could make out their movements as being swift and powerful, clearly coming from a level similar to Jamal. Wait, he could make out details from thousands of feet away? His eyesight hadn’t been atrocious before, but it certainly wasn’t 20/20. Leveling up must have improved his vision.

“Let’s get back to my place.” He beckoned them to come with him as they practically ran across the road, jumping over some of the larger cracks. Alistair did not want to be anywhere near them if more orcs started breaching them. He really wanted to figure out what the hell was going on, with the Quests and monsters coming out of the ground, but such higher-level concerns were suppressed. All that mattered was short-term survival.

They followed him across the street and through the back door of his house. Once they were safely inside and he was certain no one had followed them, he opened his status screen, eager to see the changes.

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