Ch.2 Barbarian

Blake was so excited as he read the text and made his character selections. The meat head was practically blind to everything as he became an Folk Hero Barbarian. It made sense to him and with a few tricks he picked up from playing the game for so long he selected his skills a feats carefully.

‘If only Leo could see how quick I am with this or how cool my class is!’ His laugh was heard by most of the gym occupants as he bounced from one foot to the next, “I can’t WAIT for level three!”

Cracking his nuckles he took a deep breath to cool his nerves and quickly pulled his phone to text his brother. As soon as he hit send he frowned at the low service sign at the upper left hand side of his screen. It wasn’t uncommon for some of his messages to take up to a day to get to the recipient.

“Blake?” Glancing over his shoulder at his work out partner and Girlfriend Mira he giggled excitedly, “everyone is acting weird. Seeing all those boxes I think everyone is a Player Character now.”

Sensing her rising distress he gave a cursory look around the room where quite a few of his fellows were still making a selection.

“Yeah?” Blake took her equally calloused hands into his own, “should we run away together my darling?”

She gave a dirty look knowing full well he was too playful do to his excitement, “I mean it Blake. We should leave before anyone else finishes Character creation!”

‘She’s always had a strong intuition, I wonder what class she took?’ His smile shrank as rational started to return, “lead the way.”

Her relief was visible as he shoulders relaxed and she began to lead them out of the relatively small Gym.

“What class did you choose Mira?” She shot him a look over her shoulder, cherry red hair flowing in the breeze.

“What class do I always choose?” He rolled his eyes at her knowing full well that she would always choose Monk.

“Ok Fisty, we should go check on your parents.” The pair fell quite as the walked the bike path that would soon take them to the house that Mira shared with her parents.

The birds were chirping and fish could be heard from the river that ran parallel with the bike path. Silence quickly took over though and the the horror started. People screaming, gun shots filled the air, cars crashing, and as the approached the street intercecting with the bike path they could see mass hysteria at work.

Everyone was doing everything in the power to fight and kill someone or another. Those that weren’t held the line in there homes with bows, rifles, and other such tools. Anyone on the road appeared to me tactically driving themselves home to there own loved ones.

“Oh, my god!” Mira squeezed his hand with her powerful grip. He knew better then to ask, she had a temper and the question ‘are you OK’ was an automatic punch with her.

She wasn’t the only one hurting at the sight. He, a believer in the good of man, couldn’t help but reject the sight before him. The adventurer and gamer in him though…

Mira dropped his hand and in the blink of an eye dashed across the street. With a keep he watched as she landed with one knee in the chest of a man who had just kicked a kid to the ground.

Registering what was happening his heart skipped a beat and then his blood began to boil. Memories began to flood his mind of worse days involving his best friend and chosen brother.

As his vision cleared he found himself kneeling beside the child one arm in front of the little boy. Seeing the blood pool he knew Mira had accidentally, or maybe even intentionally, killed that man. The problem was the seven other adults that stepped out of the house a moment later as his girlfriend squared off to fight.

“Oi! What the hell?” The leader apparent swquaked in a clearly sloshed slur, “get’em!”

Mira took a step back just as Blake stood to his full height of six foot four inches. Built like a brick house it was no surprise that each of the people in front of him hesitated at the sight of his jacked muscles or the murder in his autumn eyes.

“Take the kid. I’ll take care of this.” He gave a small glance over his shoulder only to see the conflict in her eyes.

“Never split the party.” The confidence in her voice was mirrored by the steel in her oceanic eyes. At this moment Blake noted the freckles the spanned the bridge of her nose.

“What class are you little man?” He stopped listening to her as the group before him began to chuckle.

“Yo muscles, you got a death wish or what?” Asked One of the man, athletic by the looks of him, in his basketball shorts and jersey.

“We’re leaving with the kid. Come at us and we will not hesitate to put you down.”

There leader scoffed but threw his hands up anyways. With a gesture the small group geumbled to amongst themselves as they filed back into the house.

“Those guys are not going to drop it Blake.” Kneeling down to meet the two at there level he raised a brow to signify his confusion, “I just know, ok.”

‘That intuition of hers, I tell you what.’ Blake helped the little boy to his feet and watched him carefully. He was fully aware of what these kinds of situations could do to people, especially children.

“We should get going all the same. Anyone coming at your dads house is more likely to catch a bullet let alone ring the door bell.” The boy sullenly watched the house as they walked away. Blake was familiar with this having come from a foster home. The sullen expression the boy wore reminded him of the longing, loneliness that follows, and missing his family no matter how bad things may have been…

Silence fell over the three of them and so with the boys hand in Mira’s Blake lead them down the street.

“There following us.” They could hear there laughter, cat calls, and insults behind them as the walked. After several blocks it was evident they planned to follow them all the way home.

“Don’t worry Mira. I know you don’t like it but go ahead a take the boy home…”

“Zack!“ Blake looked down at the boy to find that he had indeed spoken up, “M-my name is Z-Zack.”

“Read the Message idiot!” Blake chuckled, as he did every time he received a text message, as he pulled his phone.

Answering quickly he allowed himself to fall behind giving Mira as much distance as he could while also checking and answering his brother’s texts.

Mira looked over her shoulder once more and he understood what she wanted to say, “stay safe idiot.”

Taking a deep breath he felt a weight lift from his shoulders, then a moment later a cold chill ran down his spine. From that chill his every muscle fiber throbbed and then burned as blind rage turned into an frozen furry.

Turning to face these would be little gangsters he cracked his neck once before stepping into the ally way.

He wasn’t disappointed as the first guy rounded the corner with his buddy and charged. The both swung there bats but one missed. It looked like he was trying to avoid being hit at the same time he swung.

The other guy hit with a loud THUD! He quickly realized his mistake as the bat bounced off of Blake’s chest appearing to have left almost no damage what so ever.

With out a thought Blake grabbed the two by there heads and picked them both up. Slamming their head’s together he took just a moment to realize they might have died from that one blow.

“Holy BRO! He’s a frickin Monster!” The third guy cried as he started to reach into his pants. Realizing what he was reaching for Blake gave a mighty Spartan kick to the guys chest.

The soung of bone crushing and fluids evacuating almost pulled Blake out of his rage with a sudden but brief desire to hurl. He expected this kind of thing would happen eventually but not this soon.

The four and fifth guy weren’t taking any chances as they came around the corner with a pair of pistols. Both fired a shot off, missing him as he took this time to run, another pair of shots, and this time he took one to the shoulder.

Letting out a scream as he rolled to avoid out right falling as he ducked around the corner to await his pray. ‘How much HP do I have left?’

As if answering the question he suddenly knew,’ 7 out of 16HP.’

“Oh god, can I finish this?” His words betrayed him as the two came around the corner ready to fire. One missed and the other clipped his left knee.

Another stifled scream filled his lungs even as he reached out and snagged one guy by his face. Lifting him up he slammed him into the other guy With a sickening crunch in his hand and a second crunch from the guy who’s head met the corner of a dumpster.

It was then that then that last guy came around the corner with a jump kick to his chest. Blake only just caught sight of the knife in his hand as he hit the ground.

With his vision fading fast he only just made out the words, “You killed my friends you piece of shit!”

A quick but loud whistle range out as the man jolted, there was a sudden but brief warmth, and then thesound of a body landing next to him was all he could focus on as he clung to consciousness.

Foot steps filled the last few threads of his focus as a familiar voice lulled him, “Jesus Blake….”

With that Blake faded into the sweet embrace of unconsciousness.

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