The woman’s body was still lying where she’d last seen it. Looking at it made her stomach churn. It was all she could do to force herself to take the keys from the dead woman’s hand. She felt like she should close the woman’s eyes, but she couldn’t bring herself to touch them. She swallowed down the bile that rose at the back of her throat at the thought.

  “Toughen up, Charlotte. You’re likely to see worse than this before it’s all said and done,” she admonished herself as she turned away and pressed the unlock button on the key fob. Nothing happened. She pressed it again. Still nothing. Then she remembered. It was like when she was younger and the power had gone out after a storm. She knew the lights wouldn’t work, but she’d flick the switch anyway out of habit. She wondered how long it would be before she stopped trying to live in a world that didn’t exist anymore.

  She needed a whole new set of habits, now, if she was going to survive this. She scanned the area and stood silently for a moment, listening to the woods. She didn’t see or hear anything concerning, and Lulu wasn’t agitated. Why was she being paranoid now when she’d sat under that sycamore without concern? She shook her head. More old-world thinking. Every self-defense lesson had told her that getting into or out of a car was a vulnerable moment for a woman alone. That was when you were likely to be grabbed, held at knife or gun-point, robbed or forced away to become a victim to unspeakable indignities. Killed and left in a ditch.

  This wasn’t that world anymore. It was worse. She was vulnerable at every moment, but at least the animals would only kill and eat her. What would she find when she found people again? If the world was all jumbled up, then there would be no authorities. It would be like Mad Max, or The Walking Dead. As much as she wanted to find people, she’d need to keep in mind that people could be even bigger monsters than the ones in the woods.

  Lulu must have sensed her maudlin mood. The dog nudged at Char’s hand, flipping it up and begging for scritches. Char couldn’t help but smile at Lulu’s antics, and the smile lifted her mood a bit. “OK, OK,” she said as she scratched behind Lulu’s ear in the spot that got her hind leg thumping. “I’m woolgathering. We’d best get a move on, I guess.”

  Letting Lulu handle security, she opened the car and rummaged through it. There was a jacket hanging on the back of the driver’s seat, and she used it to cover the dead woman. It wasn’t much. An empty gesture, really, but it made her feel a little better about leaving her there. There was an unopened water bottle in the console, and a pack of gum with a couple of pieces missing, but nothing else useful.

  She had to break the window of the other car to get into it, but it, at least, had a few useful items. There was an emergency kit with some first-aid supplies, vacuum packed trail mix, more bottles of water, a mylar blanket, and a couple more road flares. There was a tool box as well, but it was less well stocked than the one from her truck, so she left it.

  She couldn’t shake the worried feeling as she searched. Several times she pulled her head out of the car to look around, trying to find the source of her unease. She noticed that Lulu also seemed subdued. Occasionally her ears would lie down and her tail would stop as she stared off into the woods, sniffing. She never growled or went on alert, but there was something bothering her. Char wrote it off as nerves. The occasional whiff of the dead body wasn’t helping. The sooner they were away from there, the better.

  With her new finds tucked away in her inventory and one of the road flares in a Quick Access slot, Char decided to head back towards the creek. She only needed three more kills to finish the quest bonus. Something about this part of the woods felt off. It was oppressive, like the chill that runs down your back when you walk past a graveyard at night. She wanted to be back in the more open section of woods where it was easier to see what was around them. She was probably being foolish. The after effects of the psychic attack and the dead woman had her jumping at shadows, that was all.

  With Lulu by her side, she tried to retrace their steps back to the creek. She curved to the right to avoid the clump of brush she’d rounded earlier, before finding the car, but the woods on the other side didn’t look right. She turned in a circle. They’d come this way, hadn’t they? Up the hill? It had to be. Water took the path of least resistance, so the creek would be downhill. They went a little farther, around another thick patch of brush, and there was a large boulder that Char didn’t remember passing before. The ground here was rougher, more rocky than what they’d crossed earlier.

  Something wasn’t right.

  She shook her head to clear the cobwebs. Lulu let out a soft whine. Something wasn’t right. Her heartbeat picked up, and the hairs on her neck stood on end. Her arms prickled with goosebumps. Where was she? Why did if feel like something was watching them? Again, she turned in a circle, her breath coming faster. She hefted her crowbar. Lulu growled. Char spun. Green eyes and white teeth in a cloud of wolf-shaped black smoke hit her like a runaway fright train. Char tumbled backward, the wolf-creature landing atop her, its claws digging furrows in her sides, its gaping maw lunging for her face. Hot drool, thick with corrupting green ichor dripped onto her face. She was going to die.

  Then the beast reared back, snarling. Lulu was latched onto its left foreleg, pulling with all her might. Char finally got a good look at the creature.

  Corrupted Lesser Dread

  Level 23

  It looked like a wolf the size of a Shetland Pony, and it leaked black mist like a shroud of shadows. Wisps of the stuff trailed from it, and when they touched Char they left a chill and a feeling of despair in their wake. A notification flashed across her vision:

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  Status Effect: Dread Touch

  -10 Perception, -10 Willpower

  Duration: 20 seconds

  She swiped it away as she rolled clear. Her head felt like it was full of cobwebs, and she had a strange desire to just lie down and give up. She growled. She didn’t lie down and die when she lost Ty. If she could live through that, there was no way an overgrown emo dog was going to make her give up, either. She swung her crowbar, but the swing was more anger than skill and she missed.

  The Dread snapped at Lulu, forcing her to let go to avoid being bitten. The pittie danced back, avoiding the Dread’s lunge, but just barely. The thing was fast. Char swung again, and missed again as the massive wolf was suddenly airborne, leaping over Char to land behind her. Char jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding a swiped paw. She twisted around behind the boulder they’d just passed. She couldn’t stay there. As soon as she was out of sight, the Dread focused in on Lulu.

  “Think, Char… Oh!” She called the road flare from her inventory. Stepping out from behind the boulder, she sparked it to life. “Here boy!” she whistled.

  The whistle distracted Lulu at just the wrong moment, and Char gasped as her friend went flying from a powerful swipe of the Dread’s paw. Fear and guilt fueling her, Char charged with an angry wordless cry. The Dread spun to face her. She jammed the flare into its face, making it pull back from its snapping lunge. She circled, forcing the beast to turn. The dark mist shrank away from the flare.

  Lulu was getting back to her feet, but Char could see that she was injured, holding one leg off the ground. Blood sheeted down her flank. Guilt and anger churned in Char’s gut at the sight.

  Char feigned a lunge, and the beast shied back from the flare, snarling. “Oh, don’t like fire, do you?” It was holding the beast off for now, but Char couldn’t get close to do any damage. Tendrils of dark mist coiled around her. She ruthlessly clamped down on the creeping thread of helplessness trying to worm its way into her thoughts. It wasn’t her emotion; it was coming from the Dread. The alien emotion slowed her, but she refused to let it rule her. There was a way out of this, she just had to find it. Lulu darted in, teeth flashing, going for the Dread’s hamstring.

  The monster whirled to swipe at Lulu, and Char saw her chance. She ran forward and jumped, landing on the Dread’s back and jamming the flare into the side of its neck. It howled and bucked, but Char got her right arm and crowbar around its neck to hold on. She dropped the flare and grabbed the other end of her crowbar with her left hand, using it to pull up against the Dread’s windpipe. The beast lifted its head, trying to loosen the pressure on its throat, but all it did was reveal its neck to Lulu.

  The black mist thickened, billowing up around Char, getting into her mind and toying with her emotions. Her grip was loosening as she struggled against the emotional attack, but Lulu grabbed the opportunity and clamped her powerful jaws shut on the Dread’s throat, hanging on with all the ferocity she was bred for. The beast shook its head, trying to dislodge the two of them. Char pulled back the crowbar. She gripped it by the hooked end, and with all of her enhanced strength, she drove the pry-bar end down into the back of the Dread’s neck, aiming for the place where the skull met the spine.

  The beast swiped at Lulu with a paw, opening slashes down her side, but the pit bull didn’t release her hold. She only shook her head, tearing at the flesh of the monster. She hung from the creature’s neck, her feet dangling in open air, held up only by the strength of her bite.

  The crowbar came down, slamming into the Dread, driving deep. Char pushed harder, getting her feet under her on the monster’s back and putting her weight into the blow. With a pop, the crowbar pierced through cartilage. The Dread’s spine separated, and it dropped to the ground, limp. Lulu was pinned under its great head, and she whimpered, but she still didn’t release her grip.

  It wasn’t dead yet. It was paralyzed, but Char was sure that if she could heal, then so could it, so she didn’t let up either. Jumping down, she scooped up the still-burning flare and jammed it deep into the Dread’s eye, pushing with all her might, and ignoring the bubbling vitreous humor flowing over her hand as she shoved it all the way in. The Dread shuddered, and the kill notification popped up.

  You have killed

  Corrupted Lesser Dread

  Level 23

  Experience Gained

  ________________

  You have learned a new skill:

  Mental Resistance (Beginner)

  Your mind is your fortress.

  “If that was a Lesser Dread, I really don’t want to meet a Greater one.” Char gripped the lower jaw of the beast and grunted as she shoved it off of Lulu. She stroked the dog’s ears and channeled vitality into her to heal her wounds. “You did good, brave girl. Bestest girl ever, Lu.” She gritted her teeth as Lulu’s pain became her pain, and her health bar dropped as Lulu’s climbed. It was totally worth it to know such a loyal and brave friend had her back.

  Once Lulu was back on her feet and the worst of the transferred pain had passed, Char put a hand on the cooling side of the Dread and looted it.

  You have gained:

  [Dread Fang Dagger]

  [Talisman of Equilibrium]

  46 silver credits

  “I’m not sure if it’s because of my titles, or if that thing was weak for its level, and I’m sure as shit not going to complain, but did that fight seem a little too easy for as high a level as that thing had?” The Dread had been five levels above her, and it was above the threshold for magic. She did a little mental math and smiled, “No… it’s definitely the titles. Damn, I love those percentage bonuses.”

  She pulled her new items out to look them over.

  [Talisman of Equilibrium]

  This bone necklace grants its wearer

  +3 Dexterity and a mild resistance to

  Mental attacks and Fear effects

  _____________________

  [Dread Fang Dagger]

  This crude dagger made from the eyetooth

  of a Lesser Dread has a chance to inflict

  a mild Confusion effect on any creature

  wounded by it.

  Char called Lulu over and looped the primitive-looking bone charm around the dog’s neck. She had just gained Mental Resistance, but Lulu didn’t have any sort of protection. She half-expected to get a notification that it wouldn’t work on a pet, but none appeared, so she could only assume it would work. The Dagger replaced her pocket knife in her Quick Access slot. Its blade was larger, a wicked curve with a razor edge, and it looked like it would do a lot more damage than her little 3 inch blade, even without the Confusion effect.

  As she looked around, trying to get her bearings, Char realized that they weren’t as lost as she’d thought they were. Her head was clear, now, and the sense of worry… of dread… was gone. She smacked herself on the forehead. “It was the damned wolf that was doing it. That’s why we were getting so jumpy, Lu. It must have been putting out some sort of spooky signal that got us all paranoid and confused.” She wished that the corpse of the thing hadn’t crumpled into dust so she could kick it. “Come on, lets head back towards the dungeon. We’ll stop for a little lunch when we find the creek again.”