Hell Difficulty Tutorial - When Hell Freezes

I start walking away from the group back to my car, but Mateo notices and catches up to me.

"Sorry for dipping on you like that, I—" Mateo starts.

"Don't worry about it, we're both alive." I say, "Do you have food, water, or a weapon in your car? If you do, you should grab the weapon and hide the other stuff."

"Oh, uh, yeah… good idea." Mateo says, "What skills did you get? I got [Fire Manipulation] and [Mana Infusion], but I have no idea what they do."

"I have [Water Manipulation] and [Suppress Presence] but I don't really know how they work either."

Mateo gets into his car and I pass him, getting into mine and emptying my backpack of notebooks and pencils, taking a big gulp out of my water bottle, and looking around. I don't have any food other than a granola bar, unfortunately. My stomach growls. I definitely should have eaten breakfast this morning. 

A cool breeze comes in through the shattered passenger side window as I eat half of the granola bar. Putting both the bottle and the rest of the bar into the backpack, I lean back and stop to think for a moment. What's the best way to survive this situation, find my brother, and get back home?

I don't know enough to answer the last two parts, but since this place seems to follow game rules, the best way for me to survive is to get stronger, right? I have a stealth skill and a pretty good Dexterity stat, so I should probably try to specialize and go for something like a rogue build for now, at least until I know more. 

I also really need to figure out what [Water Manipulation] does, because it doesn't sound all that useful at the moment. Maybe I can use it to find or create water? That would be handy. 

Sheila is going around to all the cars and buses, writing something down in a small notebook. Some of the people she talks to go to a small group forming near the median. A few of them are moving the bodies of the people who died into the clearing, away from the cars. They don't go very far though.

Eventually she makes her way over to Mateo's car, and he ends up going to join the group. Now she's at my car and she looks kind of pale compared to before. I look out at her through the broken window and she stares at me for a second before asking questions.

"What skills do you have, and what level are they?" She asks.

Starting off pretty strong are we? I mean, I trust her though, so why not share my skills with her? I reply, "I have [Water Manipulation] at level 1 and [Suppress Presence] at level 3."

She nods and starts to write on her notepad, so I ask, "And what about you Sheila? What skills did you get?

I think I can see a flash of annoyance in her eyes when she glances up at me, and her eyes flick back down to the notepad for a moment before she answers, "My skills are [Armament] and [Farsight], but that doesn't matter right now, do you have any extra food or water you can share?"

That was weird, it almost seemed like she was hi… What was I just thinking about? It feels if I think about it hard enough I'll rememb… Uh, what was I… Oh, right. Food? Water? I don't have much, but Sheila is basically family, she was at all my birthday parties growing up. She's probably just hungry, and I don't really need the last half of my granola bar anyways, if anything it'll repay her for being so nic—my stomach growls, loudly. I blink and snap out of my thoughts.

"Uhh, are you ok?" I ask, "You've got a nose bleed."

She seems surprised and touches her under her nose, eyes furrowing when she pulls her hand back and sees the blood on her fingers. It's not a heavy bleed or anything, she should be fine if she pinches it for a bit.

"I-It's no problem, don't worry about it. We might need your skills soon, we're going to get some volunteers together and scout the surrounding forest for water and other people. Since you have a weapon already, you're welcome to join." 

With that she walks away, towards the group she created. What was that all about? She never used to get nose bleeds like that before. Anyways, I'm glad I didn't give her the last of my food. If my stomach hadn't growled, I probably would have. I was gonna ration it out or something but I'll just eat the rest of it now, better safe than sorry. 

While I'm eating, I think about it a bit more, I mean, isn't it such a massive coincidence to have run into such a close family friend here? Like, we… we aren't even in the same state as we were back then. We only moved out here about a year ago, so why is she here? Something is weird about all this, not as weird as the whole teleportation thing, but weird nonetheless.

After my quick snack, I grab my backpack and start heading over. It looks like around fifteen people, including myself, have joined Sheila's group, and for the most part they just look like normal people. A couple of office workers, some college students, and a trio of teenagers. There's also a man stumbling around reeking of alcohol. I don't even know how he's standing to be honest, or why he's out here. 

Sheila pulls Mason aside and a few moments later he climbs onto a nearby car and starts looking around. Guess she put him on guard duty. She climbs onto the trunk of a different car and turns to address us.

"Alright!" Sheila loudly says, "As far as I can tell, we've been completely removed from civilization. Calling for help is impossible, even my satellite phone isn't working right now. So, since we barely have any food or water, we're going to have to go find…" 

She gets cut off by the drunk man slurring, "Heyyy lady, whoo do you think you aare to tell us— *Hic* —what to do?"

She furrows her eyebrows, glancing at the man before saying, "As some of you already know, I am Sergeant Turner of the United States Army, but you may call me Sheila. I think it's in all of our best interests if I take command here, I'm probably the most qualified to do so. And I don't recall asking you to be here either, so maybe you should go back to your car, or was it the bus?" 

"Fuck you, bitch!" He retorts.

Sheila climbs down from the trunk she's standing on, puts her hands up in a non aggressive manner, and as she walks over to the man she says, "Hey friend, I won't take offense to that seeing as this is a tense situation and all…" 

She's standing right in front of him now and he just looks confused, maybe a little angry, until she puts one of her hands on his shoulder, "But you should go back to your vehicle now."

His eyes shoot open, and he still looks confused, but his anger has seemingly been replaced by terror as he stammers, "Y-y-yes ma'am, I-I'll do that right now." 

Sheila wipes her nose as the man stumbles away, nearly tripping into the side of a car as he pretty much jogs back to the bus the wounded are on. I hear some people murmuring around me as I stare at the bus for a little bit, spaced out. I don't really know why. When I turn back around Sheila is on the trunk talking again.

"...and does anybody have any extra weapons? Something we can give to the people staying behind to defend themselves?"

Everyone looks around but other than some guy with a hatchet who apparently has some extra shovels, nobody raises their hand. 

"Alright, Mason will stay behind and protect the others then, so, do I have any volunteers for the scouting group?" 

Mason turns to look back at Sheila, staring with a blank expression, before looking away after a few seconds. People quietly discuss with their neighbors or silently debate their options. They're understandably still on edge from the wolves attacking, and the fact that the High-Vis man never came back after going into the forest, even after shooting so many times, doesn't help. 

I raise my hand though, much to Mateo's shock. It takes her a second to notice me but she eventually nods in my direction. Seeing me volunteer gets someone else to raise their hand, and then another.

"Why did you do that, aren't you scared of going out there?" Mateo asks.

I am scared, terrified even, and honestly I really don't want to go. But I have too. I need to find my brother, otherwise I would just stay safe in my car. If I don't want to die before I find him though, I'll need to get stronger, much stronger. Following game logic the best way to do that is to level up, so that's what I'll try to do. 

My brother never really liked games, so I'm worried he'll fall behind. 

"I'm scared as fuck, but that's not gonna change whether I'm in the forest or not, so I might as well not fall behind." I say, "Do you have a weapon?"

"Yeah, uh, I have this tire iron," which he pulls out of his pants as he mentions it, "and I have some bear spray in my car that I think I should bring too." 

What the hell? That's kind of smart actually, he hung a lug wrench off the inside of his pants so that he could grab the head and pull it out since it didn't fit in his pockets.

"Bring… You want to come with us? We might run into more wolves." I say. If he's going to run at the first sign of a wolf, then he might as well not come. I was going to tell him to bunker down in his car with the weapon.

He seems embarrassed at that and scratches his head, "Yeah… I know, but I can't just sit here in my car the whole time… and it's not like staying here is really any safer anyway." 

"Alright well, stick close to me when we leave then." I say. I'm pretty surprised, from how he reacted earlier I figured he would just stay in his car for a few days. 

He raises his hand and we wait a minute or two longer but only one other person volunteers, which makes our scouting party a group of six. We gather near the car Sheila was on, and everybody else backs up a little. They stick around though, probably to listen to what Sheila has to say so they can stay in the loop. 

The guy with a hatchet is here, along with one of the teenagers and an office worker. They introduce themselves as Daniel, Landon, and Zach respectively. Landon is either really nervous or really excited, and I can't tell. He keeps fidgeting and awkwardly trying to crack jokes to Zach, who looks pretty out of it, but is half heartedly laughing along with him.

"Goddammit, Bandit, get back here!" An overweight man suddenly screams from his truck nearby, throwing his door open and stumbling out. Somebody at the edge of the group jumps and screams, "What the fuck just touched my leg!"

People quickly back away from the car the screamer was leaning on, and staring out at us from under the car with small black eyes, is a chunky raccoon. It doesn't have a name or anything above it's head, so I'm gonna assume that this is Bandit. He looks pretty chill.

The man moves quickly, huffing and puffing as he leans over and grabs at the raccoon, who puts up a weak but ineffective resistance. He mumbles a quick apology to the people who got scared and goes back to his truck.

Sheila doesn't seem all that fazed, clearing her throat before saying, "Distractions aside, we will enter the forest in that direction," She points down the highway in a direction opposite from where the wolves and gunshots came, "and we will circle the treeline, keeping the highway in sight."

She talks some more about our goals for this 'operation', mainly just looking for signs of water or other people, and arranges the formation of the party as well. She'll be taking the lead, Mateo and I will be to her right, Daniel and one of the others will cover the left, and we'll form a kind of triangle formation with the last person watching our backs.

We agree to her plan and start heading out in the direction she chose. The teenager, Landon, talks to Daniel on the way over, but they go quiet as we get closer to the trees. It feels like it gets harder to breathe with every step forward we take, and my heart is going crazy. Sheila pulls out a pistol from a holster hidden under her shirt, which confirms she does in fact have a gun.

By the time we enter the forest I'm covered in a cold sweat, and my eyes are working overtime flicking between the trees ahead of us. There's no birds singing, and no crickets chirping. Just the wind blowing the branches of the trees, which creates an ominous creaking that makes people jump every time it happens. 

Thankfully the forest isn't too dense, and we can travel through it fairly easily. There are occasionally bushy patches, but we try to stay clear of them, out of fear and for ease of travel. I also try to stay away from any plants, just because these things look familiar doesn't mean they are. Getting stung by poison ivy would suck and that's not even the worst Earth has to offer, so I don't want to imagine what an alien version could do. 

Sheila puts a hand up to stop us, something we discussed before we left, and Landon ends up walking into Daniel's back, which causes him to flinch and shout. She turns her head, glaring at Landon, and says, "Take this seriously or go back to the clearing, unless you want to lead the way?" 

His eyes are wide and he shakes his head vehemently in rejection.

She looks back ahead and says, "We're around where the two wolves were pacing earlier, so let's take it slower from here."

Everyone tenses up when they hear that, but we push on and slowly proceed on our loop. Now we're approaching the section where Alex and the High-Vis guy went. Sheila suddenly stops again right before a particularly bushy area, putting her hand up in a fist this time, the sign to be quiet. We creep forward slowly, and I see why she decided to be cautious. 

A large pool of deep red blood is pooled up in front of a large bush, a trail coming from it that leads into a gap between the bushes. The coppery scent of blood enters my nose again and my heartbeat accelerates, the sound pounding in my ears. My muscles tense and I get ready to fight again, even if I don't see anything around. I need to get away from these bushes first of all, the terrain kind of forced us near them.

Well shit, speak of the devil. I notice that the bush to my right is shaking slightly, and it's definitely not the wind. I ready my bat and jump back, shouting as I do, "In the bushes!" 

Simultaneously, Sheila shouts, "What the fuck!" And a volley of gunshots goes off.

A green looking humanoid charges out of the bush at me, some kind of black knife in its hand, screaming in a guttural and primal language. I back up as it swings the knife wildly at me, back and forth in wide erratic arcs. Somebody yells behind me but I can't afford to look away. It's got a fucking knife.

[Goblin - Level 2]

I swing at it once while backing up to keep it away. Shit shit shit, I don't want to get stabbed! That's like, my biggest fear! It just keeps swinging and moving forward though, so I take a chance at the end of its next swing and try to slam the bat into its head. It raises its left arm to block the swing and I end up hitting it's forearm, a loud crack sounding out when I do. It shrieks in what I can imagine is pain and rage, left hand hanging uselessly, and it takes the opportunity to stab at me since it's close. I'm barely able to shift my left leg so that it only grazes me, leaving a pretty bad cut.

Oh hell no, you're not stabbing me you little shit! The goblin had to lunge forward to try to stab me, which puts his face at the perfect height and distance for me to ram my knee into it at full power. The goblin falls backwards onto the ground and writhes for a moment before trying to use its one good arm to get back to its feet. I don't let it. I step forward, raise my bat, and stare into its hatefully glaring eyes as I swing my bat into its temple.

The goblin's head is much harder than I expected, and my hands hurt from the impact, but the attack is effective. It falls over onto its side, but apparently it's not quite unconscious. A few more blows to the head changes that, and I can look around now. 

Daniel is writhing on the floor, and Landon is panicking, kneeling next to him, and pushing his palms onto a growing patch of blood on his side. Zach is nowhere to be seen, and Sheila is coughing, pouring water from her flask onto her eyes. My eyes water as I catch a whiff of an acrid scent I can only assume is bear spray. 

Mateo is standing between Daniel and a goblin, and he drops a can of bear spray as he readies his grip on the tire iron. The goblin is shrieking with closed eyes, swiping blindly with a clawed left hand. Its right arm hangs limply and there's a nasty gash on its shoulder, its bloodied spear on the ground near Daniel. 

Before I can move to help him, he steps to the left and swings at the goblin, smashing the end of the tire iron onto the top of the goblins head, causing it to crumple to the ground. He looks over at Daniel, then back at the goblin, bends over, and vomits.

It's still twitching though, so I grab the knife out of the hand of the goblin that I knocked out and stab it into its neck, pushing until the notification appears. It's actually pretty tough to push the knife in. I haven't exactly stabbed many things in my life, but I didn't think it would be so difficult. It's gruesome work, warm blood covers my hands when the job is done, and I nearly vomit. After a few seconds I get the kill notification, and then a new one.

[You have defeated a Goblin - Level 2]

[Level 0 > Level 1]

So we do in fact level up from killing things. That's good to know, scary, but useful. Onto the next one then. I walk over to it and pause, looking up at Mateo, who is pale, shaking, and leaning against a tree. I hold the knife out to him, but he shakes his head. I'll ask him later if he gets any credit for killing the goblin. I crouch down and stab the goblin in the neck, repeating the process.

[You have defeated a Goblin - Level 3]

My arms are shaking, hands are aching, I feel sick from the adrenaline dump, and my leg hurts, but the goblins are dead. I look down at the one I just killed. It's about the height of a child, or a short teenager. It's mouth is open and I can see that it has some pretty sharp looking teeth, and it's wearing some kind of primitive fur and leather clothing. Below that it has some blue tattoos that look kind of cool, I guess. 

Landon is still putting pressure on Daniel's wound, who appears to have passed out, and I doubt Sheila can see very well, if at all, right now. I pick up Daniel's hatchet and wipe the blade off onto the furs of the goblin clothes and offer it to Mateo, but he looks at the blood on my hands, on the handle, and shakes his head.

His loss.