Teenage Soldier

Over the next few hours, Richard and Robin helped Grant cope with the intense pain while occasionally visiting their Mother in the other room to make sure she was doing okay. Unfortunately their wasn't much they could do to help but they tried their best to keep him distracted.

During that time, Grant told the two kids a bunch of stories about what he had been up too the past 24 hours and how he had fought against monstrous cats, dogs, and other kinds of animals.

He made sure to steer clear of anything too violent but he also made sure to stick to the truth as best he could, so they would slowly start to understand what they needed to expect in the new world.

At one point, after finishing the story about his fight with the giant javelina, Grant could have sworn that Richard's eyes were shining as he looked at him. He was slightly apprehensive that he had accidently turned the kid into some kind of worshiper of his, so he subtly started to downplay his achievements to try and curb the kids enthusiasm slightly.

They wasted a few more hours on small talk and discussing their lives before The Path's emergence just to lighten the mood up a bit.

Now that everything before The Path's emergence was seemingly useless, they all had some good laughs looking back on all the things that they thought were so important only to be so pitiful now.

Robin told stories about school and her friends while Richard told stories about learning to drive and which video game was the best one to play with friends.

At one point, Grant asked Richard and Robin where their father was.

Grant knew the moment the words left his mouth that he had touched a sore spot though because the kids faces immediately sank into ones full of sadness. After a few minutes of silence and some stifled crying, Richard finally spoke up.

"Our father was killed a few hours before we met you... We had run out of food in the house so he was forced to go out and try to find some. It had been a few hours since he had left and he still hadn't returned so Mom tried to go looking for him.

Not more than 20 minutes after she left the house though, she returned with the backpack our father had taken with him. It was… covered in blood..."

During his telling of the story, Robin had wrapped her little arms around her brother and was crying with her head buried in his chest.

Grant knew that it must be very hard for Richard too, to talk about the loss of his father and he was going to stop him from continuing, but Richard kept on talking even through the tears that were falling from his eyes.

"Mom said that she found the backpack in the middle of the road just lying on the ground... She said she couldn't find him no matter where she looked..

Eventually she had to give up because she could hear monsters in the area and she didn't know how to fight..."

Grant sympathized with the children. Up until the day before, losing their father probably wasn't something that they had ever concerned themselves with. And yet, that all changed in a moment because he was brave enough to venture into the new hellscape that was now Earth, to make sure he could provide for his family.

Unfortunately, that was probably a common occurrence in the past day all across the world.

"I'm very sorry for your loss Richard and Robin. It must be hard for you.. I lost a new friend yesterday so I understand how hard it is."

Richard, wiping the tears from his eyes, put on a serious face for a moment.

"Dad told me it was my job to protect mom and Robin until he got back, but since he won't be back, it is now my job from here on out. And I will not let me dad down."

Since Grant knew that words would serve no purpose at this moment, he just gave a curt nod to acknowledge Richards determination.

In an attempt to change the subject and lighten the mood, Grant asked Richard to go get his backpack from the other room.

Readily agreeing, he returned shortly after with the backpack in hand.

"Open it up. Inside are all sorts of food, candies, and drinks. Take what you want."

Hearing the word candy, Robin's face went from depressed to happy in short order and she happily dug through the bag until she pulled out a few things to snack on.

Grant found it fascinating how quickly kids moods could change, but he was glad he was able to provide a distraction for her.

While the kids were eating, Richard took a few of the food stuffs to the other room to give to his Mom before returning not long after.

The three of them then returned to meaningless but entertaining conversation to pass the time.

The closer that Grant felt with the two, the more information he shared with them about The Path and how the new world worked. He still wasn't planning to stay with them for very long, but he had started to enjoy their company and could tell they were genuinely good kids, so he didn't want them to die the moment he walked away.

He told them all about how the Random Rolls and the Credits worked.

They seemed confused that Grant knew so much knowledge but when he told them that he was already level 22 and had spent most of his time since The Path's emergence trying to figure out any details about this situation that he could, they seemed to accept it.

While Grant was telling them about The Path, the shine in Richard's eyes seemed to return once again.

Grant had even offered to train Richard and Robin, once he healed of course, so that they could start adapting to their new reality as soon as possible. If Grant managed to help them gain a few levels before he left, it should help them in remaining relatively safe.

Richard got overly excited and ran into the other room to tell their Mom that Grant was going to train them but that immediately backfired because Grant could hear her yelling from the other room about how it was a terrible idea and she wouldn't allow it.

She was obviously avidly against the idea, but Grant decided at some point he would try and convince her that they needed to start taking The Path seriously.

No matter how much she hoped and prayed, things weren't going to go back to normal.

What really caught Grant off-guard though, was that although Richard seemed excited by the idea, Robin was the most excited of the duo.

"I want you to train me Mr. Carrot! The next time a bad monster tries to attack my mom or brother, I want to be able to protect them!"

Grant chuckled softly at her enthusiasm.

"Oh really? You do know that it would be dangerous and you might get hurt, right little miss? Plus some monsters are SUPER scary or gross looking."

Robin tried to fake a deep frown, but in the end she just ended up looking cute which made it hard to take her seriously.

"I know! But if I level up, maybe I can get lucky with one of those random roll thingy's and we can have matching outfits!"

Grant busted out laughing so hard that he had to once again endure an intense burning pain shooting up his arm, but he couldn't help but think that, in this case, it was worth it.

"That was your real goal wasn't it little miss?? You want to be a Jr. Carrot?"

"Don't laugh at me! I was serious about wanting to protect mom and Richie!

But your outfit is cool and funny looking so I want one for myself!"

Since they were having so much fun bantering back and forth, the three of them had momentarily forgotten themselves and the situation that they were in.

They had ended up being a bit too loud. Before Grant could get a chance to respond to Robin, a loud banging sound came from the front and back doors at the same time.

Grant could tell by the sound of the scraping and banging that it was probably a group of zombies so he didn't panic.

The same couldn't be said about the two kids though because they looked absolutely horrified by the sounds. Only thirty or so seconds after the banging had started, the kids mom came through the open door, visibly limping while apparently suppressing a large amount of pain, at least based on the look she had on her face.

With great difficulty, she limped to where Robin and Richard were sitting on the floor and dropped to the floor right next to them.

She acknowledged Grant's presence momentarily with a glance but she wrapped her arms around her kids and started to reassure them that everything was going to be okay and that they just needed to be quiet.

While Grant didn't think that the zombies would be able to get into the house, he thought that this might be a good opportunity.

After propping himself up on the bed, he slowly removed his Tracksuit jacket, grabbed his sword from beside the bed, and held both of them with his good arm, outstretched towards Richard.

"Richard, this is your opportunity to start walking towards your Path.

If you can kill your first zombie or monster and level up, you will be able to Roll for your own item and then start progressively gaining strength with each subsequent fight.

Of course, I will not force you. But if you wear this jacket and take my sword, I can guarantee with almost utter certainty that you will face no danger. Plus, I will be with you every step of the way."

Richard's mom, who was holding him in her arms, immediately began protesting, "You can't Richard! It's too dangerous! What am I supposed to do if something happens to you?!"

Richard didn't answer, he just stared at Grant's outstretched arm, more specifically, at the two items he was holding.

While Richard just stared at the two items for a couple of moments, Grant never said another word and just quietly stared at Richard waiting for his decision.

After a good thirty seconds of silence, Richard turned to look at his Mom and little sister, making direct eye contact with each them for a few seconds. He still never said a word and just silently observed them.

When his eyes turned back to the jacket, Grant could see a new light shining in Richard's eyes.

[Good. He had resolved himself. Lets see if he can perform better than I did in my first encounter with a zombie.]

After waving the jacket back and forth a bit Grant told Richard to take the jacket and put it on, which Richard did without any more hesitation.

While Richard was putting on the jacket, Grant looked over towards the kid's mother. This was his first time actually getting a good look at her. She appeared to be mid 30's, with should length blonde hair just like robin. She had blue eyes and was actually pretty good looking by Grant's standards.

"I am sorry if you do not agree with this ma'am. But I think Richard is doing this to protect you and Robin. I promise that I will not let any harm come too him and you have nothing to worry about."

"My name is Ally. If any harm comes to my son, I will lose half of what is keeping me alive. Please do not let that happen."

Even though Ally was being short and direct, Grant knew it was out of fear for her child so he didn't take it to heart.

He simply nodded his head to acknowledge what she had said.

Once Richard had taken the jacket, Grant used his one good arm to push himself off the bed and get to his feet. The fiery pain in his arm never died down even for a moment and it only increased as he moved around, but Grant grit his teeth and powered through.

"Alright, lets go Richard. I will be right behind you to make sure nothing goes wrong.

I will tell you right now, just because the zombie may look human, it is anything but human. It will not hesitate to bite you or tear you limb from limb.

Do not hesitate no matter what happens. Can you do that for me?"

Richard had a look of concern flash across his face hearing what Grant said, but it disappeared as quickly as it appeared. "I will do my best."

With that, they both walked towards the living room of the house.

Once they entered the kitchen, which had the door to the backyard that was being assaulted by the zombies, Richard drew Wet Noodle from it's scabbard.

Grant told Richard to get into position and prepare himself mentally.

Once Richard looked as ready as he could be, Grant walked over to the door and reached out towards the handle. Before opening the door, Grant looked back one more time to confirm the kids resolve. With a small nod from Richard, Grant opened the door.

Immediately after Grant opened the door, a zombie came stumbling over the door gap. The door gap managed to trip up the zombie enough where it actually fell face forward into the ground.

Seeing that it was his moment to act, Richard only hesitated for a few seconds before he let out a small roar and swung Wet Noodle down onto the neck of the zombie.

Seeing that Richard only hesitated momentarily, Grant was genuinely impressed. Maybe the desire to protect his family and grow stronger for that reason was a stronger motivation for the teenager than he had thought.

Once the head of the zombie separated from it's body, Richard stood up looking dazed, which meant that he was either overwhelmed by the situation or he was looking at his new stats.

Since opening the door, Grant had been actively kicking the rest of the zombies back with his legs while observing Richard.

It appeared to Grant that Richard was in fact ready to handle the pressure of the moment, so he decided to let in another zombie for Richard to dispatch.

"SNAP OUT OF IT RICHARD! Just because you killed the first one doesn't mean it's over! Focus!"

That was all it took for the light to return to Richards eyes and he immediately got back into a shoddy fighting stance to take on the next one.

This time, the zombie managed to cross the threshold of the door without issue and immediately tried to attack Grant who was closest. But after a small kick to the zombie to force it in the direction of Richard, it started dragging its body towards him instead.

With the same initiative as the first attack, Richard didn't hesitate to swing the sword.

Unfortunately his control of the sword was even worse than Grant's was when he first started, so he only managed to lop off one of the zombies arms.

Richard immediately withdrew the sword and tried to take a second swing at the zombie, only managing to cut the zombie in the chest.

The closer the zombie got to Richard the more he became overwhelmed by the fear and stench of death which ultimately caused him to start to lose control of his body and senses.

Grant knew that he was going to need to help, but before he could, Grant sensed a sudden spike in danger coming from the very back of the group of zombies, so he immediately focused his attention there instead.

Staring directly back at him, as if they were two star crossed lovers meeting on a bridge after a month apart, was a skeleton with bright red flames flickering in its eye sockets.

"SKELETOR?!"