Billy happily transitioned to looting the two dead orcs beyond the tree line while I made a beeline to the cars. The police cruiser had all sections smashed beyond repair. The front hood was dented in with a massive rend down the middle, exposing some of the engine block. Both the front and rear seats were smushed under the depressed roof. The driver’s door was open and loose on its hinges. How much strength does that take? The Trunk had axe gashes through it.

  The other car was no better. Joe had removed the dead woman’s body from it. Much of the same smashing was duplicated, but just not as thoroughly as the police cruiser. The orcs clearly didn’t have enough time to really destroy it, but they certainly smashed the hood, windshields, and driver’s door. The kids were huddled near their mother’s body. I assumed it was their mother as they were both sobbing in each other’s arms. I quickly used my last free use of assess. Those three abyssal orcs ate up one each, and the girl would be my fourth. I would finally dip into my mana.

  Human Girl Scout Savant, level 1

  Human Shock Scout, level 1

  Human Teacher, level 1 (Dead)

  The kids were both white, but the girl had a slight tan. She clearly got outside more than the boy. Both were skinny and looked similar enough to be siblings. His Marvel t-shirt could have been jumping on the movies that had been coming out.

  I kneeled next to the kids and their mom, “Hello, you two. I’m Neal Cassland, and I'm genuinely sorry for your loss.”

  The girl looked up at me first, “Why?” Her face told me of the pain, anger, confusion, but mostly of gut-wrenching loss and emptiness. She wasn’t crying, yet tears slowly slid down her face.

  “I… I don’t know.” Any answer I gave her would fail to comfort her. I wasn’t a genius at reading people, despite having an ability that does some of that, but I knew that she didn’t want an explanation. “If possible, would I have your name?”

  “I’m umm… Brittney... This is my twin, Brett,” pointing a dirty finger to the boy next to her.

  “Brittney and Brett. We really need to help you gather what we can of yours and have you come with us. There is safety in numbers.”

  “How is anyone safe?" They looked right in my eyes, "Numbers didn’t keep our mom safe!”

  I nodded and tried to put on my most sympathetic expression. I was sympathetic, but I needed her to see I was. "For now, no one is gonna be entirely safe. Do you have any other family?”

  “We were on our way to our Uncle David. He is just down the road a ways." They separated from each other. Brittney looked at me with a hopeful expression.

  “Is it far? We are headed in kind of the opposite direction. Is it possible to call him and make sure he is there? If not, then it would be best if you came with us. We aren’t the strongest, but we had enough firepower to bring these orcs down.”

  Brett's eyes bored into me, “Why help us? Our uncle is several miles down the road to the south. You have no reason to help us."

  “Because it’s the right thing to do. Also, I feel like we have at least some ability to protect you. One thing, though, if you could explain your classes and abilities, so I could add that to the document I started, then that would be fantastic.”

  Brett looked interested all of a sudden, his brown eyes lit up in intrigue. “Why do you want to know about our classes and abilities?” His grief seemed momentarily pushed aside by his curiosity. Maybe the idea of learning about the system and classes interests him.

  Time for the Sales pitch. “We are trying to document everything we find out about the system. I am dedicating an entire notebook to classes with their stats and abilities. I hope that if we do better to figure out the system, the better our chances.” I didn’t want to get their hopes up much, but the more we knew, the better. There had to be a trick to using this system to help us. So far, we haven't found any real advantages.

  Brett continued, “That’s cool. Like, uh, what do you need to know about my class?”

  “Class name, affinities, the stats, and ability slots you receive. Also, your class ability would be useful. We have only a few useful class abilities between us.”

  They both looked at each other, shock written all over their faces. Brittney started, “We have multiple abilities each. I can turn Girl Scout cookies into magical cookies. I gained a cookie-baking ability to make new magical girl scout cookies, an archery badge ability to make my arrows better, an ability to not leave a trail, and a first aid badge to heal wounds.”

  Brett jumped in after that, “My class ability ups the potency of all lightning-based abilities I use. So my abilities, like shocking touch and lightning bullet, do more damage. My lightning sprint ups my speed, I can create some sort of lightning aura to make an enemy easier to spot, and I can add lightning damage to a melee weapon. I am not sure why you are saying you don’t have a lot of abilities between you. Everyone should have a few of them.”

  I stopped with my mouth half open. I had no words; There were no words. My eyes saw both Billy’s and Joe’s. We looked at each other, and then back at the kids. Were they just kids, though? They had way more power and abilities than any of us did. Our stats were probably higher, but they would grow into adults already integrated into the system. Brittney had healing, actual magical healing. Brett had fucking lightning magic. They could have possibly killed an orc or two between them. Are we the norm, or are they the norm? Why, just why? I had no answers and only more questions.

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  Billy ended the awkward silence for all of us. “Do the two of you have any special designation in the system that gave you multiple abilities? It seems strange to give each of us absolutely zero abilities beyond our class abilities, but fill up all your slots.” This brought only more silence and more awkwardness. The kids looked at us, then each other, and then seemingly at nothing at all. Perhaps this is what it looks like to access your status screens without closing your eyes. I sat there staring at them. Billy finished stripping the orcs of anything remotely useful or potentially magical. Joe took the time to empty both the police cruiser and the other car of whatever gear he could find. A few minutes went by like this.

  As I was getting up to stretch my legs, Brittney shouted out, “I figured it out!”

  Before I could speak, Billy jumped in, “Oh, and what is the answer? We would love to know the answer.”

  “We received a special designation from the system. We are marked as ‘blessed.’ It means we turned 13 around when the system integration happened this morning. Our birthdays were yesterday. So the system filled out some of our ability slots for us and gave us both better rarity classes. This is totally da bomb.”

  My eyes immediately shot to her and then over to Billy. He shook his head in disbelief. “That is so fucked up. Being born on the right date gives you a giant head start over every other human trying to survive. Fuck Me! I can store money, while she gets to be Super Girl Scout to the rescue.”

  I just laughed. Joe followed suit a moment later. Brittney and Brett looked at each other and then joined in. Billy narrowed his eyes at me. “Seriously, Neal. It’s not funny. We still don’t have a way to gain abilities. Half of our class abilities are passive and feel more like a class feature. These two kids have actual magic abilities. He shoots lightning out of his hands, while she can literally heal people and power them up with freakin Girl Scout cookies.”

  Joe jumped in, “Found the Girl Scout cookies in their trunk. Have all of those been enhanced?” He pointed to the stacks of Girl Scout cookie boxes. From my position, they were sealed up in stacks about ten high. There were at least 10 stacks, all leaning on each other, on the ground. About one hundred boxes of cookies were gathered in total. This was better than a Hollywood movie.

  “No. Just the cookies in my bag,” Brittney responded. She pulled off her backpack and opened it up. She pulled out the small box labeled samosa. “These heal wounds and get rid of a few status conditions. You need to eat a full serving of two cookies to get the effect. This box took me almost 2 hours to fully enhance. There are 6 servings left. I ate 4 cookies earlier. I just wanted to see if they taste any different.”

  We all stopped laughing immediately. I blinked. I couldn’t believe it. This girl could thoroughly change our survival chances. There were so many possibilities. In two hours, she created 8 edible mini health potions. I wonder what the shelf life is. If she can do that a few times a day, we would have such higher survivability. Damn, the potential is staggering.

  Billy finally recovered, “So I have questions. Is the casting time 2 hours a box? Is the enchantment permanent? What is the shelf life of the cookies? Did it use mana? If so, how much? Lastly, do they taste any different? Apparently, orc healing potions taste really bad. This would be an excellent alternative. Actually, you should come with us. Healing would be really helpful.”

  “Didn’t you just complain about it being unfair that I have these cool powers? Why should I answer your questions? And to your last point, what makes you think I am just going to give these or any other cookies to you?”

  “Well, umm… You know… I… w-wait! You would use those abilities just for yourself? You wouldn’t help others and keep people alive?” Billy has to have a charisma of 1 or 2. Every time he opened his mouth, I saw her posture getting more set against him.

  “I didn’t say that. You were being a bit much. I will help people. I’m not gonna just go with you people because it is helpful to you.”

  I smiled. Time to pour every once into that persuasion skill and my charisma, and hope the system doesn’t hate me. “No one is saying you have to go with us. I stated initially that I preferred you go with us: safety in numbers. If you can reach your uncle and want to go with him, then we totally understand. We should have everything salvageable from the cruiser and your car here in another minute or two. We’ll even let you two have some of the cops' weapons. We won’t need any of the weapons, but we are taking any you don't grab to ensure that any future survivors are armed to fight back. So, please try to reach your uncle if you want to.”

  She smiled and nodded. Brett pulled out his phone and called someone. It rang for half a minute, only for Brett to have to leave a voicemail. Brittney then tried herself, but left no message. They frowned at each other. I stepped back. They probably needed space. I heard the low rumble of vehicles behind me and turned to see our three SUVs entering the intersection. All of a sudden, the worst thought dawned on me, “Joe, has a single car gotten to this intersection since the gun fight?”

  “No. Not a single car. That definitely means something bad, doesn’t it?” Worry started spreading across his face as his brain considered the possibilities.

  “Billy, if you were running this scenario in a game session, what would be the cause?”

  “It means those three were sent to run amok while a different group was probably closer to the interstate and other highways around here. They are probably causing a massive buildup. I am surprised we haven’t seen scouts. I can probably guess as to why they are doing it.”

  “FUCK! Everyone. Let's load everything up in the SUVs and get down the road. Keep your eyes open for scouts or other roving groups like the last one. Brittney, with your archery ability, we can get you a good compound hunting bow and a few quivers of arrows.”

  Brittney’s eyes darted towards me. “Wait a second. You guys RANDOMLY have bows and arrows? How the hell?” How a thirteen-year-old girl made the word 'randomly' sound like an accusation was a bit disturbing.

  “We came from the family cabin, and I had reasons for grabbing bows and crossbows in addition to pistols, rifles, shotguns, and various knives. Are you declining the offer? I figured that you would want to take advantage of that archery ability.”

  She paused. I wasn’t sure why exactly. “I do. I mean, thank you. I will take the bow and arrows. How many quivers do you have?”

  “6 quivers, but they are a bit bulky. Having more than 1 quiver on you at a time would be difficult. So, carry 1 quiver, but keep 1 in the SUV with you. That plus a handgun and a knife should have you safer than you were.”

  “And what about me. That lightning bullet costs mana,” Brett interjected. His response was slightly whiny, reminding me that these two were, in fact, only thirteen.

  “Take a shotgun, handgun, and any ammo you can from the cop stash we have in that pile by their cruiser. I’d say grab a bullet-proof vest, but they have limited usefulness against axe-wielding abyssal orcs.” We really needed armor that is light and at least a little protective against a big axe. That is certainly something we needed to keep our eyes open for.

  Brittany and Brett came over to me with Brittany looking directly at me, “We’ll go with you. You seem to be prepared. I can respect that. We also like the idea of documenting everything. It’s the smartest thing I have heard since this whole apocalypse started.”

  I nodded and smiled. “Then let's pack up and move out.”