After defeating the insect and securing the bathroom window, the four strangers finally had a chance to breathe. Lucius took the opportunity to address the group.

  “My name’s Lucius. I’m sure you can tell by my clothes what I am.”

  The clerk introduced himself next.

  “Jack. This is my family’s store, which is why I'm doing this crap job. Try not to trash the place while you're trapped here.”

  The last to speak was the boy and his mother.

  “I’m Mary, and this is my son, James,”

  Mary's appeared distracted as she spoke, like her attention was not on the current conversation, but James, by contrast, shot out a cheerful “Hello!” to the group.

  “So, you all saw it too, right?”, Lucius cast his gaze across the faces of the people in front of him as he spoke, “Before the sky darkened and the bugs attacked, I saw a man fighting a giant monster in my mind.”

  Everyone agreed—they’d all seen the vision—but no one offered any explanation for the events. The boy, James, was the first to speak up about the strange event.

  “I felt really sad when I saw the man fighting the monster,”

  “Yeah,” Jack nodded, rubbing his chin with one hand, “It felt like… I was losing something precious. Forever.”

  “And what about the messages floating in front of my eyes?”, Lucius began to pace back and forth as he spoke, “They said I leveled up, and I gained a talent called Sense Danger.”

  “I got the message that I leveled up when we killed the bug, but I didn’t get any talents,” Jack replied.

  Their discussion was interrupted by fresh screams from outside. Jack and Lucius rushed to the makeshift barricade and peered through the gaps. A man was trapped in a car, surrounded by the terrible creatures, pounding on the windows as he screamed to draw someone's attention to his plight..

  “Why doesn’t he just drive away?” Jack asked, a trace of derision creeping into his voice.

  “He can’t. I have the keys!” Mary exclaimed, her voice cracking. “That’s my husband—Patrick!”

  Her earlier distraction made sense now. She wasn’t just trapped—she was trapped and separated from her husband. The woman's distress seemed to finally get to the young boy, who tugged on her clothes as a nervous expression spread across his face.

  “Is Daddy gonna be okay?”

  “Why don't we wait it out.” Jack suggested, though the uncertainty in his tone was obvious. “Maybe the bugs will lose interest and leave.”

  They weren’t so lucky. The minutes slowly ticked passed like hours, with Mary pacing back and forth near the window, biting her nails as she peered outside again and again, while the swarm of creatures remained as thick as ever. The group continued to do nothing but watch on helplessly until Mary had enough.

  “We have to do something,” she insisted. “We have enough food and water here, but Patrick doesn’t! We can’t leave him like this!”

  No one answered her, each turning their heads away from her anxious gaze as they stood there silently. Lucius turned back towards the window, narrowing his eyes as he watched the menacing swarm buzz around just outside the thin layer of glass.

  “I’ve got an idea,”

  He began rushing about the store, gathering supplies as he awkwardly knocked aside one item after another in his haste, he stacked all the items he collected in the bathroom near the window. His companions watched him with questioning looks that went ignored by the busy young man.

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

  Lucius spent the next hour working alone in the bathroom, as everyone else continued to keep an eye on the threating creatures surrounding them. When he finished wrapping the last piece in a thick layer of tape he called everyone into the bathroom to see his creation.

  In the corner of the room stood a cage, hastily built from chicken wire, pallets, and tape. The opening was pressed against the window so anything entering through it would be trapped inside. Next to the cage was a pile of broom handles, their tops broken off and the ends haphazardly sharpened into makeshift spears.

  “My brooms!”, Jack groaned as he picked up one of the broken off heads, "You could have just unscrewed the tops, you didn't have to break them!"

  “Okay, here’s the plan,” Lucius said, pointedly ignoring Jack’s despair. “I’ll open the window, lure a few bugs inside, and close it behind them so they’re trapped in the cage. Then, we’ll use the spears to kill them. They won’t be able to reach us, but we can reach them. It won’t be fast, but we can take them out a few at a time until they’re all dead.”

  “That’s… kind of genius,” Jack admitted, forgetting about the ruined brooms as he began to grow excited about the plan.

  “I want to help too!” James said eagerly.

  “Absolutely not.”

  James glanced up at his mother with pursed lips as he crossed his little arms tightly across his chest.

  “Take James into the store,” Lucius said. “Jack and I will test the plan. If something goes wrong and we end up dead, just keep the bathroom door shut. You’ll be safe out there.”

  “If we… WHAT?” Jack asked, his brows furrowing at Lucius’ blunt statement.

  Lucius felt no warnings from Sense Danger, so he was confident, though he wasn't sure if the talent was sophisticated enough to warn him if his plans were about to fail. He and Jack opened the window just enough for the bugs to squeeze through and waited. Nervous excitement turned to boredom as nothing happened.

  “Maybe we need to make some noise. They seem focused on the car,” Jack suggested.

  “Be my guest,” Lucius replied dryly.

  Jack took a deep breath and shouted, “HEY, TERRIFYING NIGHTMARE BUGS!”

  The buzzing came instantly.

  BzZZzzZzzZ...

  “Guess that worked!” Lucius said, bracing himself.

  A cloud of insects swarmed the window. Lucius slammed it shut after three got inside, the remainder left buzzing around outside angrily. The creatures went berserk the moment they realized they were trapped, ramming the cage walls with their armored bodies and causing it to scrape along the floor away from the window.

  “I’ve got it!” Jack said, pressing the butt of his spear against the cage to hold it in place.

  “Thank God that window is tempered glass,” Lucius muttered. “Hold tight. I’ll find something to wedge the cage in place.”

  He dashed back into the main room. Mary’s fearful expression met him, but he reassured her quickly. “Don’t worry, just need to grab something!”

  Lucius returned with a cinderblock, making three trips to stack them around the cage. Satisfied, he turned to Jack. “That should do it. You ready?”

  “Uh… you go first,” Jack stammered. “I hate killing bugs, and these are the size of cats!”

  “No. Absolutely unacceptable,” Lucius said firmly. “The world just turned into a nightmare. We watched people die horribly. You can’t afford to be too uncomfortable to help. Pick up a spear—we’ll do it together.”

  “Damn...” Jack muttered, rubbing the back of his head as he looked at the creatures. “Okay, fine! Let’s just do it!”

  Lucius smiled, nodding with approval when he saw Jack overcome his hesitation so quickly. Together, they counted down. “One… two… three… go!”

  What followed was a mess of crunching and splattering, with blue blood spraying everywhere. The hard shells of the creatures made it difficult to actually slay them, however, and the injured monsters covered the floor of the cage with blood as they struggled. Jack gagged loudly but continued attacking. The young men quickly learned to aim for the unarmored weak spots—around the eyes, mouth, and rear—finally killing the bugs when they did so.

  You have defeated juvenile abyssal insectum level 1.

  You have defeated juvenile abyssal insectum level 2.

  You have reached level 3. You have 2 attribute points available for distribution.

  Through effort, you have gained +1 to the Creativity attribute.

  You have defeated juvenile abyssal insectum level 1.

  Through effort, you have gained +1 to the Stamina attribute.

  Latent talent detected.

  You have unlocked the talent Assassinate.

  Assassinate – Level 1.

  Lucius and Jack stood over the bloody mess, panting heavily.

  “What are we going to do with all the bodies?” Lucius asked.

  “We’ve got a big freezer in the break room. It’s empty right now, waiting for a shipment of frozen food.”

  “Works for me.” Lucius nodded. “By the way, did you get any status messages?”

  “Yeah,” Jack replied. “I hit level 2 and got a passive ability called Harden Heart.”