POV : BONETOWN

  A new day had begun in the wasteland, and a new group of adventurers were thinking about their new life. The dry wasteland wind whipped through Jeff's hair as he stared off into the horizon, his black leather armor catching the sun just right. He took a deep drag from his cigarette, blowing the smoke out in a way that reminded Annie of a scene straight from Rebel without a cause.

  "You know, you really do think you're James Dean sometimes," Annie said, adjusting the collar of her neat sweater set. She crossed her arms, looking up at him, her round bangs bouncing slightly as she tilted her head.

  Jeff smirked, "I just got the look, don’t I?" He flicked the cigarette away.

  Behind them, Nicole let out a hearty laugh, her infectious smile brightening the otherwise bleak wasteland. "You sure got somethin', Jeff, but it ain't all looks!" she teased, patting him on the shoulder.

  Abu, silent as ever, wandered a little to the side, his head tilted slightly in thought as he observed an odd rock formation. He always seemed lost in his own world, but when the time came, his quirks had a way of getting them out of sticky situations.

  "Hey, where's Heath?" Annie suddenly asked, looking around.

  The group paused, realizing their oldest member had once again wandered off. "Oh, here we go again," Jeff muttered.

  "HEATH!" Nicole called out, her voice booming through the desolate landscape.

  From a few feet away, Heath’s muffled voice responded, "Over here! Just... trying to remember where I left my glasses."

  Jeff shook his head with a chuckle, "Old man gets lost every five minutes. How’d he even survive this long?"

  Annie smiled fondly. "Guess we’ve gotta stick together if we’re gonna make it in this wasteland."

  "So, how did we do today?" asked Nicole with her usual big laugh.

  Jeff smiled, a cool smirk on his face. "We did all right, as we always do."

  "Oh, Jeff," Nicole teased, hitting him playfully on the arm. "What do we want to do tomorrow?"

  "Tomorrow? I've got to pick up my medications," Heath jumped in.

  Abu chimed in, "Actually, Heath, you can pick them up right now if you need. There's no need to wait."

  Heath shook his head. "Oh, I can't. Pharmacy's closed on Sundays."

  Abu corrected him, "It's not Sunday. And there are no pharmacies. You just go to the MedPod ."

  "Oh, right, right," Heath said. "You kids with your “vending machines.” Next, you'll be having me buy Pokeballs."

  Jeff smiled quietly in the corner, smoking a cigarette.

  Nicole said, "I think it would be great for us to do more adventuring. I want to open up my own sandwich shop in Fort Bone."

  Annie nodded. "Oh, that’d be lovely. Nicole, you've done such a good job when you were making sandwiches for us in the field."

  Abu agreed, "That is certainly true. I would love to eat more sandwiches."

  "Well, it's decided then," said Heath. "Tomorrow, we'll go adventuring right after I pick up my pills."

  ***

  The next day, they headed out into the wasteland, teleporting directly to the Empire Walls. There, they began killing skeletons. But the skeletons were harder and harder to find. In fact, they'd been out for close to two hours and had only killed ten.

  "This isn't going to be enough money," said Annie, looking at the amount of mana coins that had dropped.

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  "I have a suggestion," said Abu. "Why don't we go across the border? There's no one who says we can't."

  Jeff reminded him, "Well, there is that law Jed Lawson put out, saying no citizens of Fort Bone can enter."

  "Well, we're not citizens, are we?" said Nicole, flashing her smile.

  "That's true," said Jeff.

  The five of them walked up to the gate of the walls. The recruits there said, "Stop. You're about to leave the Fort Bone Empire. That's a one-mana coin tax per person."

  "Tax? I haven't heard of any tax," said Nicole.

  "The Empire just instituted it," said the recruits.

  Abu, thinking to himself, ‘This is just a scam, like a lot of Middle Eastern or third World countries. They're probably just pocketing it.’

  The recruit, almost as if reading his mind, said, "Look, there's a sign right there." He pointed above the gate, and there was indeed a sign stating the relevant tax.

  "And you don’t give me the coin," he added. "You just put it there in the box."

  The box was just a box on a pole, but it was securely KrazyBondoglued on and pounded deep into the ground.

  "See, not a scam," said the recruits.

  The adventurers weren’t too happy with this new tax. They'd only made ten coins for the whole day, but now they were being asked for five just to leave.

  "So let me see if I've got this right," said Jeff. "You're charging us five coins to leave, and then five coins to come back. So if we even take this chance, we've lost everything we’ve made today."

  The recruit said, "No, no. Once you leave, you don’t have to pay a tax to come back in. It’s free to come in. It just costs you one coin to leave."

  "I think that decides it then," Jeff said.

  Annie wrung her hands together, nervously glancing at him. "Are you sure this is going to be okay, Jeff? That's half our money. And we don’t have a lot of reserves. We spent most of that on emergency medical supplies for this trip."

  "We’ll be fine, sugar doll," Jeff said with a wink.

  Annie blushed a little, trying to hide the smile creeping on her face.

  ‘‘‘

  Nicole, ever the optimist, clapped her plump hands together with a wide grin. "All right, let’s go on an adventure!"

  In a loud voice, Heath chimed in, "I don’t know about this, guys. That side of the wall could be full of monsters and violence.”

  The group just looked at him in disdain. They had all literally agreed to this plan.

  “I guess, it’s no worse than some of the black neighborhoods I used to drive through, though."

  The group collectively ignored the subtle racism, although Annie did shoot him a sharp look, biting her tongue. ‘Just let it go,‘ she thought, forcing herself to stay focused on the task ahead.

  As they crossed the border, they noticed the difference immediately—skeletons were much more plentiful on the other side. They weren’t everywhere, but definitely more numerous than on the Empire side.

  "This is what I'm talking about!" yelled Nicole as she cracked a skeleton in the head with her hammer.

  CRACK

  The skeleton staggered, but fought back, its bony claws scraping across her armor.

  "Ow!" Nicole yelped, startled by the sting of the blow.

  "I've got you!" Annie rushed over, her shield raised as she deflected the skeleton’s next attack. With swift teamwork, the two women cornered the creature, bashing and slashing until it crumbled to the ground.

  KERFUNK

  Mana coins spilled joyfully from its remains, clinking as they hit the dirt.

  Meanwhile, Jeff was taking on skeletons one-on-one. He held his own—until he ran into one that was armored, wielding a rusted battle axe. The undead moved with unnerving precision, its lack of fatigue giving it the upper hand. Jeff was running out of steam.

  ‘That smoking's going to kill me,‘ he thought as he ducked the axe and struck the skeleton in the shins.

  THUNK

  The skeleton collapsed but scrambled to rise almost immediately. Jeff followed up with a powerful strike to the back of its armored head.

  CRACK

  But the armor held firm. The blow had done some damage, but the skeleton wasn’t down yet.

  "Stay down!" Jeff growled through clenched teeth, raising his sword for another swing. The skeleton lashed out, slashing him across the chest.

  "Fuck!" Jeff cursed as blood spurted from the deep gash.

  The skeleton prepared for another strike, but Jeff, gritting his teeth through the pain, swung again.

  CRACK!

  This time his blade caught the skeleton square under the chin, sending its head flying through the air.

  ‘That was lucky,‘ Jeff thought, panting heavily.

  Seeing him wounded, Annie rushed over, already pulling out bandages and coagulants. "Oh, let me help you."

  "The fight’s not over yet," Jeff grunted, clutching his chest. "Heath and Abu are in trouble."

  Sure enough, Heath and Abu were struggling against a pair of creatures, one that looked like… a demon coyote? It wasn’t quite dog or wolf-shaped, but close enough.

  ‘I'm calling it a coyote,‘ Jeff thought, wincing as he watched.

  The coyote had latched onto Heath’s armored leg, dragging him across the ground like a ragdoll.

  THUMP.

  THUMP.

  THUMP.

  Abu chased after it, wielding his nunchucks with determination. It wasn’t the most common weapon choice in the wasteland, but Abu loved them—he’d been playing them ever since he had bought them. As for skill? He actually wasn’t too bad, emulating the attacks from his experience gained from obsessively watching old Bruce Lee movies.

  "Hyah! WHACK! Hooyah! WHACK! For the honor of Shaolin Temple!" he shouted, each word punctuated with a solid hit.

  WHACK, WHACK!

  Finally, the coyote released Heath’s leg, spinning around to face Abu. Quick as ever, Abu leapt over the creature, raining down blows with his nunchucks.

  They were holding their ground—until the other beast made its presence known. A massive, mutated rhinoceros skeleton barreled straight toward them, dust kicking up behind its powerful charge.

  WHOMP!

  The rhinoceros hit Abu, sending him flying through the air. His skinny frame was no match for the sheer force of the charging beast.