I tossed and turned for most of the night. Mr. Henderson’s final scream kept replaying in my mind, along with the bodies of the people we had seen so far. It was tormenting, how were we supposed to do anything when there was a chance we could run into a cube of Zengoth? I had no idea how to stop a semi truck of flesh, especially with the human-like forms hanging off of it, like someone trying to escape an R.V. through a small window. It was a single level higher than us, yet it felt insurmountable. It was the scariest thing I had ever seen, and I had absolutely zero interest in repeating the experience any time soon.

  Zahra snored lightly besides me, no blanket needed as she slept in a hoodie and pajama shorts. She had grabbed a lot of new clothing from the store, although it had taken an extra bit to figure out her new sizings. She was taller, her shoulders, back, and chest wider than before. I was pretty sure I hadn’t received any similar transformations, but it was still hard to tell. My reflection was still shocking sometimes, the silver hair and limbs Zahra and I gained making it hard to blend in, even with the new clothes we found. They felt like normal limbs, my brain just had trouble coming to terms with them.

  I wasn't happy with the change. It's more complicated than that. It feels exciting and terrifying, but most of all it was weird. Unsettling. So many people were dead, and yet Zahra and I had survived. Two barely-adults who hadn’t accomplished anything important (well, besides slowly dying to a terminal disease). It wasn’t cheap either, staying alive. I was lucky my parents had insurance, but without it, even their high salaries wouldn’t be enough to keep them out of medical debt.

  I was just lost… I didn’t trust this world, the weird symbiote inside me, anything. I went from feeling fine and laughing with Zahra to anxious and hopeless as soon as reality set in. I just didn’t want any of it to be true. My head felt clouded, like each painful memory was layering on top of each other, making rest impossible from the pressure.

  But still, I had to try. I couldn’t afford being out of it tomorrow.

  I stared at the ceiling, the map of cracks spreading to all corners. The creatures we met so far had all been bloodthirsty, and not only fought us, but hunted us. They weren’t all mindless monsters, either. Those goblins had hid themselves when we were in range, and hit us with a pretty powerful explosion before we could react. I won’t let that happen again. My new skills were perfect for some reconnaissance, which meant with a bit of planning, we could take on enemies without any deadly surprises.

  As much as Graxis was focused on us leveling-up, the difficulty of some of these monsters was too much. If I hadn’t killed the Urisflay by blind, dumb luck, it likely would have killed everyone in the cancer center, easily. Just because we had classes and skills didn’t mean our situations had changed. Taking risks for the experience of killing these monsters was just not worth it.

  I drifted into an uncomfortable sleep, hoping that the hunting party would share my sentiment.

  Zahra and I quickly got ready in the morning, her spirits almost as high as the bunny hops she did down the stairs. We ate quickly, meeting with Christian and the group he had put together for our excursion. In the lobby, we found the three of them.

  Besides Christian was a man and a woman. The man’s antlers poked out from the sides of a baseball cap, the same patient we had seen earlier. He was a bigger Indian man, although only around 5’7 in height. He was also fairly hairy, sprouting a full, curly beard which went down his chest. He had on a pair of worn jeans, a simple black belt, and a Toronto Blue Jays Jersey. His arms were crossed, stoically listening to Chritian explain the plan.

  The woman beside him had a shoulder-length green mullet and rosy cheeks, her pale forearms covered in sick tattoos that mixed nature and horror. I could make out a beautiful landscape with a forest and lake, but behind one of the trees was the iconic hockey mask of the Friday the 13th killer. She was looking at Christian but her arms were in front of her, one absentmindedly twirling a curly bang that had grown a bit long.

  I liked her tattoos. Anything somewhat different or shocking, really. When I got my legs tattooed, I refused to get any roses, crosses, or quotes. I just didn’t like how similar they all looked. Getting basically the same tattoo that someone else had was not something I was interested in, but I could get people who didn’t care about the uniqueness part. My tattoos had a different meaning when I got them. More of a final rebellion against what my parents had wanted for me, and my body. My tattoos were ugly, but they were mine.

  I looked down at my legs, instantly disappointed by the reality of the silver, reflective legs that stared back at me. I forgot they were all gone. My tattoos, my legs. My arm and my eye. Replaced by whatever these symbiotes decided to give us. How could I have forgotten?

  It doesn't matter. I’m alive and I need to do something with it. At the very least, that something is to continue to survive.

  I gave my head a quick shake before we walked up, Christian pausing his briefing to introduce us.

  “Good morning you two. Zahra, Levi, meet Maria and Ritesh. Maria is one of our X-ray technicians, and Ritesh was a patient before the System Integration.”

  Ritesh reached out to shake our hands, smiling as he introduced himself. He was around late 30s, his skin tanned and dark.

  “Good to meet you both. You especially, Levi. Thank you. Without you, many more people would be dead, myself included. When I came here, I thought I was treating a sprained ankle. But this place has truly saved my life, so thank you.”

  I didn’t know how to take the praise, so I nodded and scraped together a response.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Don’t mention it, I’m just happy to help.” I mumbled, trying to meet the man’s intense stare. As I did, his stats and class type slowly appeared in front of me. I remembered his Strength being 15 from before, but the rest of his stats weren’t shabby either. 12 or above in everything, with Intelligence at 14. I would have thought he’d have been a Physical class, but his class type was actually Transformation.

  “And I will repay the debt on our journey today. I was lucky to get an Epic class, Animal Lord of the Elements. The skills I have should be useful for combat, from afar and up close. Reading the whole skills and stats section really reminded me of playing WoW, right? I didn’t really think it would give me these weird horns when I picked the class, however.” They were like deer antlers, sprouting out of the sides of his head and coming to a point about a foot above him. They were small, but I know any transformation like that could feel really weird. Ritesh seemed relatively unbothered however, keeping his slight smile despite the tension.

  Zahra: What’s WOW?

  Levi: World of Warcraft, it was one of the first big fantasy role playing games.

  Zahra: Is that like Club Penguin? I loved roleplaying as the pizza chef. I gave everyone mushrooms whether they liked it or not.

  Levi: I don’t… no? You could level yourself up and do quests kinda like this system Integration.

  Zahra: Oh, kinda like leveling up in Card-Jitsu. I got you.

  Levi: I have no idea what we’re talking about right now.

  Garcia introduced herself too, giving us a wave a tad awkwardly. The tops of her ears were pierced, and she was a lot more reserved than Ritesh or Christian. Deep, dark circles dug under her bloodshot eyes. She hadn’t slept that well, either.

  “Thank you for what you’ve done so far. The hospital safe zone and the food, I mean. I have the class Tremor Warden, and one of my skills lets me read vibrations in the ground up to 50ft away. Christian said you needed some way to avoid the monsters out there, so I’ll help out.” She spoke in a monotone, low voice, her face remaining neutral as she spoke.

  Maria’s highest stat was 15, in Health. The rest of her stats were under 10, besides Spirit, which was 13. Her stats were a bit more similar to mine, but lower. Her class must not have been very rare, but she didn’t say. I was happy to have her, anyone who could help us avoid an ambush was incredibly valuable.

  Zahra thanked them both and I nodded in agreement. If we were going to survive, it was a good idea to go out in stronger groups. From what I could tell, there weren’t many people in the hospital with useful or powerful classes, and even fewer who were willing to risk the danger. It didn’t matter who you were before. All that mattered now was that you wanted to survive, and you were willing to do something about it. I silently thanked the universe that Mrs. Sharpe wasn’t joining our hunting party. Extra numbers weren't worth the extra headaches, especially with this being a reconnaissance mission.

  Christian’s plan was simple. Follow the road NE towards Ralph’s, loot it further, and then move into the first building on the UCLA campus. There, we’d see if there were any groups around, and see if we could get to a high floor to be able to survey the city over the smog. We needed to get at least four floors up, possibly more if we wanted to see over Hollywood or downtown.

  “It would be ideal if we had binoculars or something similar to figure out the area better. Our System maps don’t seem to have changed much, but that doesn’t mean anything.” Christian withdrew his map, crossing his arms in thought.

  Wait a second. I can actually help here! I need to pay more attention, I can't lose focus when I’m out there.

  “I have a skill that should be good for checking out the area and what's going on. The symbiote gave it to me so I just lucked into it. If we can get up high enough, I can maybe make out where the smog is coming from?” I said, hating how quiet and unsure I sounded. Ritesh smiled and Maria nodded, while Chirstian’s face didn’t change, his lips maintaining the parallel line like there was a ruler keeping them straight.

  “Sure. We’ll be up there anyway so you can try. You two should just stay behind the three of us, okay? I’m sure you think you’re feeling better, but we have no idea if the System really cured you of anything, or if the change is temporary in some capacity.. Let Garcia know if you feel ill or anything. It’ll make things harder for everyone if you collapse, so here’s your chance to drop out. No shame.” His gaze shifted between the two of us, words igniting my blood like a fire, and I could feel the flames on my face.

  I realized immediately that heat wasn’t from my anger, but from Zahra.

  Silver smoke, grey like ash yet shiny, steamed out from the bottom of her feet and ankles. We heard a small crack in the air near her as she crossed her arms in front of her, and the smoke stopped. Her eyes lifted an inch or two to meet his questioning stare.

  “I wouldn’t worry about us, Christian. We’re a lot tougher than we look. Plus, we’ve already gone out into the smog and returned. That should give us some credit right?” Ritesh looked at us in awe.

  “You two were sick before the attack? What did you have?” He asked.

  “Cancer!” We both replied in unison, which shocked the older man. Zahra was still locking eyes with the larger aid, neither side backing down.

  Mariia seemed to be paying more attention to us as well. There was a hidden determination in her eyes, burning behind her exhaustion.

  “Have you two seen anyone outside? Police or army or… anyone?” There was weight to that final word. A hope that I couldn't be the one to dash.

  “We haven’t seen anyone yet, but the System said around 1.5 billion people were alive. That was before we got our classes and these skills, so I’m sure some people are way stronger than they were before, like Zahra and I.” She nodded and took my words, withdrawing back into herself as Christian broke the stare-off, putting on a backpack.

  “Fine. Just know, if you do something stupid, I'm not risking my ass to save you. Follow my lead and stick together and there'll be no problems. We should head out. If the sun is up, our chances of seeing through the smog will be highest.” He began to move out of the hospital into the smog, and we followed him with the group. As we left, I remembered I had a way to answer some of these questions.

  Levi: Hey Art. Do you think Zahra and I will be strong enough to take on level 0 monsters without issue? What about level 1? Are they as powerful as us as long as they aren’t the weird Graxis S.A.I. experiment things?

  Art: You should be strong enough to take on most level 0 creatures, even some S.A.I.’s won't be difficult. For level 1 creatures, it depends.

  Levi: On what exactly?

  Art: Well, how much life energy the creature has absorbed. A level 0 creature who’s absorbed a lot of… well, anything with blood really, will be more deadly than a creature who hasn’t when it levels up. Those creatures will have some particularly nasty skills.

  6.5 billion people were the fuel for Graxis’ experiment, to strengthen their S.A.I creatures. I clenched my fist, the anger arising anew. Graxis was going to regret giving us the power to take them down. I’d make sure of it.