Richard was out of it. He knew that even if there was something like a mudling or a crawler, he wouldn’t be able to face it by himself. His mind spun like crazy, yet his body stumbled forward, barely able to put one foot in front of the other. He vaguely remembered everyone stopping to get nourishment out of their packs. Some form of tasteless jerky was handed to Richard, and he hardly acknowledged it as he stumbled through the forest, biting chunks of it and going through the motions to make sure it ended up in his stomach.

  He focused on what he knew. He should be dead, but instead of going back in time like what had happened the first two weeks of being at base camp two, something completely different happened. According to his ability, he could jump timelines and got a curse because of it. Did the curse act like a cooldown? He didn’t need to be told that an ability from Chaos would differ from Order’s. He had a feeling that Chaos had just given him one of the most overpowered abilities of anyone in the entire camp, and he was coming to terms with it. Richard had spent a day or two being frustrated at Dmitri for having an overpowered ability that could corrupt him. And now Chaos gave him the mother lode of all overpowered abilities. To never die.

  Richard squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again. They broke through the trees into the section of dead earth before they came to the base camp walls. Richard didn’t know if the others had a conversation or what had happened ever since that enormous wolf had almost killed Richard. Or… killed Richard in a different timeline but shoved him into another one.

  Richard walked through the gates before really understanding what had happened. People were moving around him, whispering, staring, but he was so far in his head that he barely noticed. Was he going to keep this ability a secret? This question was at the heart of his deepest concerns. He was a hypocrite now because he wanted to keep it a secret. There was no way in hell that things would go in his favor if he walked right up to Dmitri and said everything that happened last night, as well as this morning.

  But holy shit, Richard now found himself in a tight spot. It was there the moment he chose scavenger. But what else was he supposed to choose? When he finally decided scavenger, it felt so right. But why was Chaos doing this to him? Did everyone who became a scavenger talk to Chaos? Or was it just him? Maybe Richard could feel around and see if the scavengers had talked to Chaos. When he was in a better state of mind.

  Lucy was at his side, and Richard blinked. How did he get to the healer’s building? He glanced around, seeing Marcus with that slightly ridiculous head of hair, watching Richard with deep concern. Lucy said something, and Richard studied her again, noticing for the first time she had a cup in her hand that she was offering him. Richard took it, staring at the pale blue liquid inside, then back at Lucy.

  “Am I supposed to drink this?” Richard asked.

  “It’d help narrow down some things,” Lucy said.

  Richard stared at Lucy, then at Marcus, then back at Lucy. He then downed it and expected Marcus’s hair to disappear again, but it remained. He glanced at the healer, who studied him with narrowed eyes. This whole slipping into a different timeline was messing with people’s physical traits, not their personalities. From the little he could remember on their trip home, Marcus was still the concerned leader, Savannah was still a decent scavenger who hated Elias, and Elias was still an asshole. Lucy didn’t look any different, and he wondered if the curse touched her personality.

  “Well, damn.” Lucy took the empty cup. “What did you do to him, Marcus?”

  Marcus rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Nothing! Just… went to the dark part of the forest.”

  “Seriously? He’s a freshie, just chose his class and everything. The other newbies are going to come any minute for their apocalypse healing one-oh-one lesson.”

  “I know,” Marcus deadpanned. “I’ve been beating myself up over it the entire way home. He could have died.”

  Freshie? Was that a new term? Or just a term in this timeline?

  “Mmm.” Lucy didn’t sound at all sympathetic, but more curious. “I wonder if he saw Death. The symptoms match up.”

  She disappeared back into her work desk. Marcus rubbed the side of his face, staring at Richard. “Did you see him? Death?”

  Richard hesitated, then shook his head. He thought about lying, but what would be the point? Lucy would give him whatever potion she concocted, and he wouldn’t feel any better. He was simply overwhelmed by what had happened and completely shut down. He didn’t know how to cure that either. Could a potion be given for battle shock? Was that even what he had?

  Perhaps a deep denial that he hated being a pawn, and now he realized he would never, ever die unless a being more powerful than God consented to it. Faced with his own immortality, Richard’s mind simply shut down.

  “Richard?” Marcus asked.

  He glanced at the scavenger leader, wondering how long his name had been called. “Yes, I’m here.”

  The look Marcus gave him hinted his name had been said for a while.

  “Dammit.” Marcus dragged his hands over his face again. “I broke him.”

  Lucy came back, placing two fingers against her glasses to give Richard another hard look. “Nah, you didn’t break him. The apocalypse did. You just shoved him into the deepest, darkest hole with a candle and hoped he wouldn’t break.”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Thank you, Lucy.” Marcus’s tone implied the exact opposite.

  Dmitri walked through the door. “Hey, I got here as fast as I could. What’s going on?” There was something off about Dmitri, but Richard couldn’t understand why until the man stood next to Marcus. Dmitri, though still short, was about a finger’s length taller than before. Richard only stared, and Dmitri became far more alarmed the longer the silence lasted.

  “He’s got an advanced case of apocalypse shock,” Lucy said.

  Dmitri kept watching Richard with deep concern. “Can you cure it?”

  Lucy slowly raised an eyebrow at Dmitri as though he had just asked her to move a mountain. She then lowered it as an idea struck her. “There is an archaic method I could use.”

  Without saying another word, she walked up to Richard, gesturing for him to move so that he faced her. Richard did, and Lucy gave him one more look through her glasses. “Richard?”

  “Yeah?” Richard had hardly finished speaking when Lucy slapped him hard across the cheek. “Ow! Dammit, Lucy, what the hell was that for!”

  Marcus and Dmitri both jumped, then stared at Lucy with their own questions written on their faces. Lucy just shrugged. “Well, that’s my last resort. I’ve done what I can. Don’t leave the walls for the rest of the day, and my suggestion would be for the next week to do something that isn’t so intense.”

  “You know I have very little say in any of that, right? The beach is becoming as dangerous as the forest some days,” Marcus said.

  Lucy held up her hands as she walked over to her desk. “Until someone gets a gift for therapy, I’m not touching this.”

  Dmitri glanced at Marcus. “You took him to the darkest part of the forest?”

  “Richard never went past the lake,” Marcus said. “He and Izzy stayed together to gather muddling loot. But, um…” The way Marcus looked at Richard made him realize he didn’t want to be here for this conversation. Marcus was no doubt ready to talk about seeing the remains of Dennison and Ike. Richard figured this was as good a time as any to leave. He eased off the bed, then rubbed his cheek.

  “Get something to eat. Remember, we’re on dish duty after dinner,” Marcus said as Richard passed by.

  Richard did nothing more than nod as he walked out of Lucy’s. He didn’t realize he was still rubbing his cheek. He was pretty sure every survivor had the same basic tree, so he had to assume Lucy had a strengthening punch ability. Since his head was still attached to his neck, Lucy must not have used that ability.

  Richard dropped his hand and glanced around the camp. He wasn’t sure if Lucy’s slap did anything more than make him realize this was real and not a half-dream. Despite how completely overpowered the ability to never die was, he still felt like a newbie being unable to resist a lure.

  He walked over to the orb, placing his hand on it. In his delirious state, he didn’t notice he’d leveled up. He was now at level thirteen, halfway to level fourteen already. His near-death experience and new ability had been broken down into numbers and points. Getting stronger should help him feel less of a newbie, but he got his ass whipped today in the darker part of the forest.

  He got another ability point to spend and took some time on the way to the mess hall to decide how to use it. The logical thing would be to place it on his scavenger skill tree. That way, all the basic abilities would be unlocked, and the advanced abilities would open up. Then again, he had so many options before him. Only two of the abilities in his farming class tempted him, and he still had a feeling those wouldn’t be chosen until he was way stronger. With his cooking skills, it might be good to choose one if they were on meal rotation so much. Both meal creation and perfection were passive abilities, so every time he cooked, he’d be strengthening them. He also took this short time as he piled a tray with some protein slurry and fruits to remember he had his kicking and punching abilities unlocked, and never used them. Probably because he was too busy running away from a giant forest wolf. Couldn’t exactly turn around and punch it.

  Richard sighed as he sat down at a table and started eating. One day he’d be competent while fighting the apocalypse. He would face a forest wolf and do actual damage to it. Or at least be able to enter the darker part of the forest and know he could come back without being a complete mess.

  Dennison and Ike’s bones would be gone by then, right?

  Richard’s throat closed up, and he had a hard time swallowing the protein slurry.

  He had seen a few people in the mess hall. Some farmers trickled in, but he was mostly focused on his skill trees and deciding what he wanted to do. In the end, curiosity won out, and he mentally chose the resource/monster identifier. With it complete, the next three advanced abilities appeared on his scavenger skill tree.

  Scavenger crafting (basic)(passive)

  (Can make (basic) potions or meals with scavenged materials)

  Weapon (basic)(passive)

  (You may now unlock special abilities for the weapon that will be given you)

  Stealth (basic)(passive)

  (While hiding, monsters have a 10% of not seeing you)

  Oh, there was stealth. So it was an advanced ability. Marcus’s reaction now made sense to him. Richard was happy he had unlocked this section because these were excellent. He was more convinced than ever about rarely touching his farmer’s skill tree.

  Two people sat down, and Richard dropped the skill tree from his vision to see Leylah and Amber both looking at him with concern.

  “Oh, hey.” Richard lingered on Leylah’s hair. She used to have strawberry blonde hair, but now it was a deeper shade of red. That brought a bunch of emotions he wasn’t ready to deal with, so he shoved them down. This was the first time he’d seen Leylah on her feet, though she still looked exhausted and more than happy to be sitting down right now.

  “Despite our going separate ways, we still want to make sure we all stay in touch,” Amber said.

  Leylah smiled. “Yeah. Shouldn’t be too hard, considering we all still eat in the same place.”

  “We heard you had some trouble scavenging and wanted to make sure you’re okay,” Amber said.

  They waited for him to say something, but he just stared at them, curious. “Where’s Fang?”

  The two of them glanced at each other, confused. Richard’s heart plopped into his stomach. So far, the changes were only surface-level. Leylah had darker red hair. Marcus had hair. Dmitri was taller. But what if… what if someone had been erased from existence entirely?

  “The other… the other guy who came with us. In the newbie’s section.” Richard felt his mind collapse. Leylah and Amber both stared at him, alarmed. “Fang. Do you know Fang?”

  “Do you know what he’s talking about?” Amber asked.

  “Fang.” Richard could barely hear himself say the name. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Fang. He… the other member… newbie… farmer.”

  “Hey, sorry I’m late.”

  Richard turned around to see Fang. Not a single thing different about him, not a hair out of place, still fangless and still with blonde sideburns. Fang smiled and gave a small nod toward Richard. “Hey, man, heard it was h—”

  Richard stood up and squeezed him so hard the man grunted instead of finishing his sentence.

  “I thought you stopped existing. Oh, god, I thought you were gone. Forever.” Now that he had been given undeniable proof that Fang still existed, all the emotions hit him at once. How horrible it would be to have his friend simply cease to exist. Would something like that happen with jumping between timelines? Chaos would find a lot of enjoyment in something like that. But for now, in this moment, Fang was a living, breathing person who Richard was happy to hug.