“I have… forty feet of rope, my camelbak, and a jackknife.” Sancha turned her pockets inside-out. “Also fifty-seven cents and a movie ticket stub.”
“Save it all. We might be able to use it.” Fritz saw her look and correctly interpreted it. “Look, the first quest is always the hardest. you have to equip as you go, and by the time you’re done with this one, you’ll be a lot more ready for the next one.”
She couldn’t help but stare. “This isn’t a video game. This is real life. The really-real world.” Even if the really-real world was going all strange and upside-down lately.
“It’s still a quest. The same rules still apply.” He finished going through his own pockets. “Okay. Lighter. Multi-tool. Gloves. Butterfly knife. Two candy bars.”
“Shouldn’t a quest have a goal or something?”
“We are.” He gestured dramatically. “In a remote creek, having been abandoned by the school bus and everyone else after your little incident. We know which way we came, but also that the rest of the trip probably headed back that way, too. Yesterday, New York City vanished. I’d say our first goal is to find shelter and food, wouldn’t you?”
“My little incident.” She glared at him. “My little incident?” Her voice was rising, which made her lisp around her new teeth all the more obvious.
“Your little incident. Not that it was your fault – it was going to happen sooner or later – but it was definitely your thing.” He patted her head, between the new upwards-pointed ears. “So, our mission.”
She looked down the creek. “One way or another, we’ll get to shelter if we follow the water, right?”
“Right. See, grasshopper? You’ll get this questing thing down in no time.”
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