I rounded back on Michael. “What do you mean this isn’t the only game?”

  He frowned. “In orientation, they told us we’d be divided. That not everyone would go to the same game.”

  My hands tightened around my walking stick, knuckles turning white. “Did they say how many games there are?” He looked down, a shadow passing over his face. “How many?”

  “One hundred.” He took a slow breath. “They said we would be divided into one hundred games, that each of these games would be different, that they’d be on different worlds.”

  Worlds? I stood there for a while, not knowing what to do or what to think. Not only was Avery taken away, but she might not even be on the same planet as me. A chill gripped my chest. She was gone, wasn’t she? Pulled from my grip, just like Mom was.

  “Who is it you’re looking for?” Michael asked, slowly inching toward me.

  “My sister,” I absently answered.

  “Well, she might be here, she might not. But wandering into those woods is going to get you killed in either case.” He looked over his shoulder and observed the chaos. “The sun will be setting in a few hours. Now I can’t be sure, but I figure things worse than the crawlers could be out there at night. Why don’t you stay with us until morning? When the sun rises, we can figure all this out.” He looked at me, same desperate eyes as the rest of them now. “How does that sound?”

  I thought it over. Avery could be out there, but where? I had no idea where to even start looking. The voice earlier mentioned class selection in the morning. Maybe there’d be another announcement, something to help me find her? I had to hope for that, at least.

  “I’ll stay,” I said. “At least until morning. Then I’m leaving.”

  Michael smiled, a small amount of warmth in the expression. “A smart decision.” He was about to say something else when the dude with the bow called for him. After a few parting words, he was gone.

  I walked over to a nearby boulder and eased down to the sand. It was ice cold, my work slacks doing little to protect my now freezing ass. But getting weight off my bad leg was worth it. A small part of me thought maybe the potion would heal it, but I guess wounds suffered before the game started couldn’t be healed that way.

  Game. I rolled the word around in my mouth, chewed on it, did my best to swallow it, but it made me sick. Calling all this pain, all this death a game just pissed me off. I looked up at the darkening red. How many people were looking at the same sky? Was it just me and the others? Or were there hundreds, maybe even thousands of us? All of humanity, cast to a hundred different worlds. It was almost too much to wrap my head around.

  Wanting to focus on something slightly more tangible, I checked my MP bar. It displayed the same 8/8 it had since the orb violated my nasal cavity. It had never gone down no matter how many fireballs I blasted.

  “Weird,” I said, flexing my sore fingers.

  I couldn’t be sure without some tests, but it seemed my MP bar was glitched out or something, probably from the orb. And now a little curious, I opened my skill menu and inspected Fireball.

  Fireball Lv.1

  Spell Tier: C

  MP Cost: 15

  Damage Type: Magical/Flame

  This spell launches a ball of magical fire at your target. The ball’s damage, range, and size will increase as the spell gains levels.

  Warning: This spell will have explosive results after reaching level three.

  Interesting. The base MP cost of the spell was fifteen, yet I’d fired several off one after the other. Looked like even if my max MP displayed eight, my actual reserves were much higher. I’d have to test the limits of my MP reserves when I had the chance.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  There were still a few people shuffling around the crash site. The plane had finally degraded from hellish blaze to engulfed ruin, but that didn’t stop people from trying to salvage what they could from the remains. A few others were heading off toward where the plane first kissed the dirt, probably to loot those luggage containers I spotted on the way here. The wounded were still being tended to, but I noticed more than a few of them had stopped moving. And that guy was still wandering from corpse to corpse. He kept pausing at each one, waiting a second, then he’d reach down and snatch something up.

  “I wonder what that man is doing,” someone behind me said.

  I craned my neck and that old guy with the long beard was standing there.

  “Where did you run off to?” I asked. I didn’t blame him for running, but maybe if he’d helped, that guy with the big sword would still have a head.

  “I saw what was coming and retreated, much like you attempted to do.” He walked around the boulder, his blue robe dragging across the ground. “You and the others handled yourselves well. I am impressed.”

  “Thanks,” I said with heavy sarcasm. I settled into the sand, content to wait out the night there, but the old guy kept standing over me, watching.

  “You should see what that man is up to,” he eventually said, pointing at the corpse hopper. “He is making people uncomfortable.”

  I chuckled. “Buddy, I’m pretty sure people have more important things to worry about than him.”

  He nodded, slow and heavy. “Perhaps, but investigating may win favor with your fellow survivors. And that, my friend, is a currency more valuable than gold.”

  I stared up at him for a second. “You’re one weird dude, you know that right?”

  The old man smiled. “Maybe. But weird is a relative thing. Something I’m sure you and the others will learn soon enough.”

  He walked off after that, humming to himself. Something about the sound made my skin crawl.

  But I was curious about the guy he pointed at. He was up to something, and despite myself, I needed to know what it was.

  It was more effort than I was expecting to get back to my feet. If I didn’t have my walking stick, I probably would never have been able to get up. I used a cane to help me get around at home, but I never used the thing in public. Avery would hound me about it, but she didn’t get it. The accusing glances people would throw my way. The way some would whisper when they saw me tap my way up and down the grocery aisle. It was too embarrassing to even think about. But out here, I welcomed the assistance. I leaned on the length of wood as I shuffled forward.

  By the time I reached Mr. Corpse Inspector, the sun had fallen considerably. It looked like dusk was shorter on this planet than back on Earth. Shadows now carved across the sand, and the air had a biting chill to it. Those brave enough to enter the forest were gathering firewood, others setting up some kind of perimeter around the edges of the clearing. I wished the best for them, but I wasn’t about to risk my neck for strangers. Not again. Not when I needed to find Avery.

  “What you up to there?” I asked, breath heavy in my chest. The guy had kept going from corpse to corpse as I followed. Now he was at the one furthest from the crash site, this edge of the clearing completely swallowed by dusk’s embrace.

  “Nothing,” he said, not looking at me.

  As I watched, he leaned down and plucked something from the air. It looked just like when Michael had produced the health potion.

  “You crazy bastard,” I said. “You’re looting their inventories, aren’t you?”

  That got his attention.

  He was a big guy, about three or so inches taller than me, which was impressive considering I was 6’3. He wore leather armor like most of the others and had a sword at his hip. His hair was long and gangly, his beard thick and wild. There was a crazed glint to his eyes, but I figured this dude had been cracked for a while.

  “Yeah,” he said. “You got a problem with that?”

  The only problem was that I hadn’t thought of it first.

  Michael had said everyone received a health potion. That would include the people who died in the crash and the ones who died shortly after. Each of these bodies had been an opportunity, one this guy had capitalized on.

  “Me? Not at all.” I tossed a thumb over my shoulder. “Them? Not so sure.” My walking stick left a long trail in the sand as I limped closer. “Figure they could use some of those potions, but you don’t look like the sharing type.” He grunted. “But, lets cut us a little deal. That sound good?”

  He stared down at me, brow drawn into an angry line over his black eyes. “And why would I need to make a deal?” He squared up to me, but I wasn’t going to be intimidated.

  “You either give me half the potions you swiped, or I let everyone here know what you’ve done. Some won’t care, but others will. You’ll have a bright red target on your ass. A few of these people could use an extra potion. What do you think they’d be willing to do to get one?”

  At first, he didn’t look convinced. He just kept glaring at me, his nostrils occasionally flaring like he was an angry bull waiting to charge. But then his shoulders sagged and he relaxed.

  “I’ll give you eight,” he said. “That’s less than half, but it’s all you’re getting.”

  I wanted to press him harder, but he didn’t give me the impression he would budge. “Deal,” I said.

  A screen appeared between us.

  You are about to perform an item exchange

  Items: Healing Potion (8).

  Items in return: Absolutely nothing.

  Do you accept?

  After we both accepted the “trade”, I received a notification telling me the items had been deposited into my inventory.

  “You’d better keep your end of things,” he said, shoulder checking me as he walked by.

  I wanted to blast him in the dick with a fireball for that, but I let it slide. I was now eight potions richer. And despite what I’d said to him, I wasn’t the sharing type either. I had no intention of giving any of them away. Maybe that really did make me the world’s biggest asshole, but I would need them. The others would just have to make do with what they had.

  With nothing else to do, I decided to return to my boulder for the night. I was on my way to it when the sun finally dipped below the horizon.

  That’s when the screaming started.