I drop Nancy’s wrist in surprise, taking a step back. The leaves crinkling under my sneaker is the only sound. My heart echoes into my ears.
“What game?” I ask, going for nonchalance. “There’s no game.”
Nancy tosses a blonde curl over her shoulder. “I saw you two, traipsing out here with your weapon on your shoulder. You came looking for a fight. And I saw Ryder. He can produce fire. It’s amazing that he’s able to have such control over the wild magic.”
My heartbeat slows. She doesn’t mean capital-G-Game, knowing about our video game system. She means lowercase-g. My fight or flight response calms down.
My silence makes her ramble. “I can heal, but it’s… uncontrollable. I feel tired, all the time, because I’m always in a state of healing. I can’t turn it off. And I can’t heal myself, just others, and the ambient magic just roils in me and…” She trails off, staring out into the forest. She looks sad and tired now, and I have to admit, I feel a little bad about accusing her.
Hey, Game? You got any thoughts about this girl?
She is an Unknown, as she is not part of my system. But I can confirm that she has a healing ability, and that there is no on or off switch to it. You and Party Member Ryder are able to activate and deactivate your Magical Abilities. It appears that this girl does not.
Okay, so still no insight as to her actual intentions, but the Game corroborated her story.
“So what do you think we can do about it?” I ask, trying my best to not sound defensive. Just curious.
“I don’t know. I meant what I said about liking how the quiet in here makes me feel at peace. Seeing you two come through feels like a moment of kismet. You know how to manage, or—I don’t know, control the magic, the monsters. I want to learn.”
Nancy’s eyes are so earnest. I want to believe her. I do believe her. But what does that mean for me and Ryder? For the Game? She’s not in the Game’s system, so how can we help her?
“We’re making this all up as we go,” I tell Nancy. “We don’t know what we’re doing. Maybe it’s just the nature of fire magic versus healing magic.”
Nancy lifts a hand, fiddles with her hair, with the cuff of her sleeve. It’s not a suspicious move, just one of someone uncertain. Of someone wanting to ask something but not being sure how.
I beat her to it. “Come back to the cars. I meant what I said about lunch. We can talk more. And I need to speak with Ryder before we can move forward at all.”
Relief washes over Nancy’s face and she breaks into a real, true smile. “I’ll take it.”
I start to walk again, following the direction that I know the cars to be—toward where the white dot on my map of Ryder is way ahead. A few red dots are starting to appear too, heading back to where we’re standing, and it’s definitely time to go.
It’s a very convenient thing to have, those red dots. That map.
Nancy trails behind me, saying nothing, and I use the silence to speak to the Game. What can we do for her?
Without her having access to my system, I do not think she will ever have the ability to activate or deactivate her healing magic. If it is truly always on within her, it will eventually burn her up from the inside, and she will die.
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I am learning now that I have the ability to add her into your Party. If she becomes a Party Member, I believe that will give her access to me, and therefore allow her more control over her magic.
Allow her to join your Party, allow her to join our Game, and I do believe that you will ultimately save her life.
Well, shoot. Those are pretty big stakes. I don’t know this girl, but I don’t like the idea of just leaving her to burn up under the weight of all that unspent magic. I’m skeptical and reticent, not cruel.
And what does that mean for every other magically changed human we come across? Will that be the same for all of them?
I took a chance on Ryder and it seems to have worked out for me. It was less than 24 hours ago, true, but I still have no regrets about bringing him into my home, into my life.
Maybe Nancy can add to that.
Maybe strengthening our Party is an even better thing, especially with the nature of magic fights. My skin still tingles from the nicks and cuts from the critters’ nails, despite the totally healed nature of it.
Maybe not being alone in this strange, new world is actually a good thing.
Can you relay all this information to Ryder? What Nancy wants, what her condition is, what our choices are? See his opinion.
The Game doesn’t answer, and I choose to believe that’s because its focus is elsewhere, talking to Ryder.
“Nancy,” I say, and she lets out a small sound of surprise from behind me. “Where were you when that initial magic surge hit? What gave you the healing magic?”
She takes a few running steps to match me on the trail. “I was in a hospital. Oh, no, I don’t work there or anything,” she quickly adds, noting my expression. “And I’m not sick. It’s my—it was my—little sister. Nothing bad, just routine. She was going to be released a few hours later.” She lets out a long sigh. “She and my dad both vanished right in front of me. One second, I was sitting in a room with my family, and then next, boom, I was alone.”
She glances over at me, checking in, and then turns her attention back out to the forest. “I didn’t leave the hospital, thinking that maybe they’d come back. Or trying to find someone else there who would have some idea of what was happening. I heard someone kind of moaning and followed it into a room. He had a huge gash down his arm, bleeding badly, and a bunch of wipes and gauze and bloody garbage lying around. I figured that the nurse that had been helping him vanished with everyone else.”
“So you went to help him?” I fill in.
Nancy nods. “I probably didn’t do a good job, but I was wrapping the gauze around his arm when that first—what are you calling it? Surge?—happened. It knocked both of us unconscious. When we came to, the wrapping I was working on had fallen off… and there was no gash left.”
That first surge really didn’t play around.
“Neither of us were sure who healed it, so we went into a few other rooms to see what we could do and, well…” Nancy lifts her hands in front of her, palms up, fingers spread, and just looks at them. “Here we are.”
“You didn’t stay in contact with anyone?”
Nancy let out a biting laugh. “And be taken advantage of by whatever doctors had survived? Or worse, poked and prodded at like an experiment? No, as soon as I realized I was the one with the powers, I booked it.”
“But now you want to join up with us, who might take advantage of you?”
Nancy smiles, with just enough grit that if I hadn’t already decided that she was okay, I certainly would now. “If I’m offering, it’s not taking advantage.”
Party Member Ryder understands the situation and says, and I quote, “Hell yeah, bring her in.”
Please note, I do not condone cursing.
When we reach the cars, Ryder is well on his way to finishing his first sandwich. I wonder, briefly, how he opened the car when I have the key in my pocket. But I just figure the Game did it, since Dad’s red Volvo is now labelled Official Party Vehicle according to the overlay in the Game.
Ryder jumps off the front passenger seat when he sees us. “Did you do it? Is it done?” he asks me in a rushed, excited voice.
“What, you can’t tell?” My question is somewhat sarcastic, somewhat genuinely curious.
He thinks, his eyes drifting, probably looking at our Party information in the Game. His gaze shoots back to me. “Well, why not? Do it now!”
I laugh.
“Do what?” Nancy asks.
“You’ve told me your story,” I say to Nancy while I fish out a sandwich of my own. “Now let me tell you ours.”
***
Game Updating
Player Nancy has been added to your Party! You can now share your inventory with Party Member Nancy and see her on your map.
…
Congratulations, Nancy!
You have reached Level 1!
New Achievement! You have joined an existing Party!
New Achievement! You have selected the Healer class!
Welcome, Nancy!
Race: Human
Class: Healer
Level: 1
Rank: 1
Statistics:
Mental [5]
Physical [1]
Magical [2]
