Night came quicker than I thought it would. The days seemed to be roughly equivalent to those back on Earth, but dusk was another story. It zoomed by, plunging us into darkness just as we found a spot to rest for the night.

  My bleeding arm, despite my best efforts, was still seeping through my makeshift bandage. I needed a doctor, probably some stitches. Some RPG games and systems came with passive regeneration, but that didn’t seem to be the case here. But I’d seen how effective a healing potion could be. Problem was, where could I find one in the middle of nowhere?

  “I will watch,” Riu said, eyeing the starlit night.

  We’d found a ring of tight trees along the rim of that giant hill. With it on one side and the trees on the other, we were practically invisible. We also didn’t light a fire. Even if it was freezing cold, that was something we couldn’t hide.

  “Alright,” I responded, settling between two thick roots. We sat in silence for a while, then I spoke. “Hey Riu? How old are you?”

  He turned to me, a little confused by the question. Then he thought about it for a second, probably trying to find the right words. “Sixteen.”

  I raised an eyebrow at that. He was a little older than I thought he was.

  “Same age as my sister,” I absently said. I wasn’t sure why I was even talking, but something about it eased the nerves bubbling in my gut. “But she looks a bit older than that, same as me really.”

  “And you?” he asked. “How old?”

  “Twenty-seven.” Now it was his turn to be wrong with his assumptions.

  Even before the accident, people told me I looked much older than I was. But after losing Mom, after the drinks and pills, the rehab, I probably looked like a forty-year-old man. I’d been forced to shave for my new job, otherwise I would look even older.

  He nodded, then looked me over again. “You don’t look so bad.”

  I wasn’t entirely sure how to take that or what he meant, so I just said thanks.

  “Wake me when you want to switch,” I said, then I leaned back and let sleep claim me.

  Morning arrived, the bright sun violating my eyes as I sat up.

  “Riu,” I said. “What happened to sleeping in shifts?”

  He was sitting on a fallen log, a bow in his hands. He’d looted a few off the snake people. He’d also taken all their arrows and a quiver.

  “You needed rest. I will be okay.” He gave me a thumbs up.

  With no small amount of effort, I used my staff to pull myself up. The night had not made any of my aches and pains better. Turns out, sleeping on sand and bark isn’t good for a person’s back. My arm was still screwed and in need of attention, but there was nothing to be done about that right now.

  I handed Riu one of my protein bars while I munched on the other. Then I drank about half the water Michael gave me and then let Riu finish the rest. That left us completely out of water with only crawler legs left for “food”. I also asked Riu if he had a health potion and he said no. He’d probably given his to one of the wounded from the crash. Kid was too nice for his own good. Would probably get him killed, me too if we stuck together.

  But we have the same goal for now, to find that damned kiosk. Until then, we would stay together. After that? Well, that was a wait and see kind of ordeal.

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  After our meager breakfast, we kept walking. The air today was warmer, but still dry. I found my nose burning as we walked. Where I’m from, the air is humid year-round. But this alien world was dry as bones. Made the air feel funny as it went down. I was also getting tired of all this red sand. That stuff was getting into every crack it could find. If we stayed here too much longer, I was in danger of looking like the Kool-Aid Man.

  In about an hour, we reached a place where the ground on either side leveled out. The hill was still a little too steep to climb, but it was growing shorter the longer we traveled. Wouldn’t be long until I could make my way over it.

  Riu held up a hand and I stopped, eyes picking out hunched shapes in the distance.

  Crawlers.

  There was something else too, a lump on the ground. Looked like it could be a person.

  Riu pulled an arrow from his quiver. I didn’t know much about bows, but he had the thing on his hip instead of his back like they did in the movies. Didn’t know if that meant he knew what he was doing or the opposite.

  But then he nocked the thing, smooth and steady, his motions practiced and deliberate. He took a sharp breath, then aimed. While he lined up his shot, I walked a few labored strides forward and summoned my fireball.

  He shot, the bow’s twang piercing the forest’s silence. The arrow fell a few feet short of his target, but then a fireball smashed the monster, reducing its head to cooked meat.

  The other two crawlers came at us, one on the left and one on the right. Riu drew another arrow while I shot a second fireball. We both missed, but our next attempts were successful.

  The crawler I shot died instantly, but his target was twitching across the sand, an arrow in its weird centipede legs. I finished it off so he didn’t have to waste another arrow.

  Notice: Fireball has gained a level!

  In other circumstances, I may have smiled. But that was a body up ahead, and it was one I recognized.

  “Clara,” I said as Riu approached the corpse.

  She was on her back, her lifeless eyes staring up at nothing. Her stomach was torn open from where the crawlers had begun to feast. Looking at her, I couldn’t tell if they’d been the ones to kill or if it’d been something else.

  Riu stumbled back, a hand over his mouth. His eyes glistened, and he turned, unable to look.

  “There was nothing we could have done,” I said. But was that true? We never tried to stop her, never tried talking some sense into her. Now she was dead.

  I leaned down and squinted my eyes, willing her inventory to appear. It did, and she still had a health potion in it. I grabbed it while Riu was still turned the other way. With my arm getting worse, I decided to drink it. Once I was done, I placed the empty vial into my inventory and followed Clara’s blank eyes to the sky.

  Across this continent people were dying. How many I couldn’t predict yet, but the odds were stacked horribly against us. If I didn’t have that orb’s power, I would have died a few times already. Other people did not have the luxury of a seemingly infinite mana pool. This world was a meatgrinder, and we were caught in the middle of it. And for what? Someone’s entertainment? Some cruel trick?

  “What the fuck do you want from us?” I asked the sky.

  The world trembled in response.

  Greetings players!

  Riu and I exchanged a confused glance, then listened in.

  We said we had more to share, and so here we are.

  A loud ticking filled our ears. Sounded like a giant grandfather clock. Then the air around the massive tower in the distance began to shift and distort. A moment later, the fire burning at its peak exploded, then the flames swirled to form a giant number that floated in the sky.

  600.

  Consider this your official notice that this game is timed.

  Robotic cheers filled the background, the sound grating my ears.

  You have 600 days to slay the boss sitting atop the black tower. If this boss is still alive when the clock ticks to zero, this planet will explode. Game over. But if you manage to win, all humans within the continent’s borders will be returned to Earth with one of three different prizes. What are these prizes, you ask? Well, you’ll just have to win to find out!

  More cheers.

  And remember, killing zone bosses will help. And speaking of bosses, we noticed a few of you have already killed some of the kiosk bosses. Good job! But you did this a little earlier than we anticipated. All Information Kiosks will now provide accurate information about the game and its timer. We’re also giving everyone who killed a kiosk boss a gift. Consider it our apology!

  Our announcements will now come once every ten days. So until then, good luck, and remember to have fun!

  The static that always accompanied the announcer drifted away.

  “Asshole,” Riu said, staring at the floating numbers.

  I looked down from the timer to Clara’s body, pulse pounding in my head, my temperature rising.

  “You motherfuckers,” I said, glaring at the sky. “What is all this for? Why are you doing this to us?” I waited, but there was no response.

  Then I realized something. In my sudden burst of rage, it’d slipped my mind.

  “Did he say something about kiosk bosses?”