Chapter 25

“Who the hell are you?” yelled Sally from afar.

The lizard-man walked away from Logan and the bodies, creating a safe distance between himself and those who were still alive.

“Is that how you say, ‘you’re welcome’?”

Sally balked at the lizard-man.

Logan’s head swerved between the two people. He then scrambled back to his feet. He picked up Garrett’s fallen sword.

“Does that mean you’re not going to kill us?”

“So long as you don’t swing that sword at me,” said the man.

Logan’s heart was beginning to steady.

It had all happened so fast. Sally fighting with Brad, escalating to Garrett placing the tip of his blade at Logan’s throat, to the incoming attacks of the lizard-man. Now, a few minutes later, it was just Sally, the lizard-dude, and himself standing between three corpses.

How did everything escalate so quickly?

Sally let her shoulders fall. “Is that why you just killed three dudes, for our gratitude?”

The lizard man cracked his neck. “Look—you’re the first people I’ve come across on this island. I found your friend—Carl Hendricks–by the way. The three dead guys here clearly killed him. It looked like they were about to kill your pal over here, and who knows what they were gonna do with you, so I made an executive decision.”

“So you kill first, ask questions later, huh?” said Sally.

“Look, I don’t want to be lectured at after saving your life,” said the lizard-guy. “I only had a few seconds to decide what to do. I figured these guys were gonna kill you both—and that seemed like the right thing to stop. Maybe I should have let them kill your friend first? Would that have made you feel better?”

Logan looked at the lizard-guy with a mixture of awe and fear.

What the guy was saying made a lot of sense. There was rationality behind it, but that was what made it all the more terrifying. Humans weren’t meant to fight and kill with such cold detachment.

The lizard-guy placed his spear on the ground and took a step away from it.

“I don’t want to fight,” said the man. “I’d love to exchange information about what you’ve experienced in this place so far. Afterwards, if you want to go our separate ways, that’s fine by me.”

Logan turned to Sally and then looked back to the lizard-man.

“Let’s start with introductions,” said the lizard-guy. “My name is Rob Fischer. I like stabbing things with my spear. Now, it’s your turn. Who the hell are you?”

* * *

Rob looked at the two people before him. They still looked incredibly on edge. He didn’t understand why. He had put down his spear. He was talking to them like a normal human being. Then he felt the skull helm on his head.

Oh, that.

Rob lifted up his arms and slowly removed the lizard skull from his head and placed it on the ground beside his spear.

“I guess you look a little less psycho now,” said the woman–who his Identify skill told him was named Sally.

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Rob stared at her. “I do what I need to do to survive. Now—how about you answer my question.”

Now that the fighting was over, he could take the woman in properly. She had long blonde hair, blue eyes, and was wearing a red and white waitress’ uniform. She must have worked at the same place as Carl Hendricks. The Happy-Go-Lucky Diner.

“Fine,” said the woman, grumbling. “My name is Sally, which you already know as I assume you took a moment to Identify me. I don’t know how we’ve all ended up on this island, but I do know I want to get the hell out of here as soon as possible.”