Chapter Eight #3
Rosie blocked one zombie’s attack, but that left her open to the next one.
She protected me, so it was my turn to protect her.
Using the inside of my sickle, I wrapped it around the zombie’s neck and pulled back, cutting into its skin while simultaneously yanking it away from her.
Between the kick and this, I was starting to learn to fight like more than just a video game character.
I needed to do things that weren’t possible in the game.
The zombie tried biting me as it stumbled backward, but I grabbed onto its hair to keep its head at a distance as it fell.
The good news was that it worked.
The bad news was that I pulled too hard and ended up peeling the scalp off the zombie’s head.
Well, being grossed out was better than being afraid.
I tossed the scalp away, activated Strong Slash, and brought my sickle down against the zombie’s neck. Rosie already got it low enough that I was able to finish it off with that.
Taking out the last zombie with a few more slashes was easy since it was busy with Rosie who got in a bash with her mace at the same time.
[Congratulations, you have leveled up!]
[Level 6 -> 7]
[Health: 100 -> 110]
[Mana: 20 -> 22]
[3 Attribute Points Gained]
I exhaled and raised my hand for a fist bump. “Nice job.”
Rosie, who was wearing a serious expression up until that point, relaxed with a smile and bumped her fist against mine. “You, too.”
“You definitely carried in that fight. You’re a great tank, Rosie.”
“Wh—what makes you say that?”
“During that fight, even though you were scared and going up against two zombies while I only dealt with one, you were still watching me to make sure I was alright. You wouldn’t have known I slipped and called out to me if you hadn’t been watching.”
“That’s… that’s just normal tank behavior.”
“Nah. Trust me, a lot of tanks tunnel vision and only focus on the enemy in front of them while having no awareness of the rest of their party. You’re already far better than them.”
The praise got to her and reddened her cheeks. “A-anyways. Are you alright? You… felt different during that.”
“I’m not sure what happened, but I got scared.”
“You got scared?”
“I… don’t really understand it myself. It—”
No.
I did understand it.
“… I guess I’ve got more issues than I thought,” I said before forcing myself to chuckle. “Anyways, let’s loot them and—”
Rosie grabbed my arm and forced me to stay with her. “Talk.”
“It’s not a big deal.”
“You said tanks have to look out for their party, and one of my party members is distracted by other things, so… talk. Besides… I—I want to be here for you no matter what, so… please, talk?”
The concerned way she looked at me was so... there was no judgement in her eyes, only worry.
“I’ve seen lots of people die,” I said. “Well, I didn’t watch them die, but I saw their bodies.
In the place I stayed—I was almost never alone.
I had a roommate most of the time. They were usually older people who couldn’t live on their own, like me.
Even if their conditions weren’t bad enough to get them put into hospice, there were still a bunch of times they died in their sleep or just…
suddenly during the day. One time, I woke up and my roommate at the time, Henry, was dead.
His eyes were wide open staring at me, his mouth open, and…
I remember having a panic attack when I saw him like that.
Seeing that zombie up close staring at me like that reminded me of him.
It reminded me of Henry… and, of that prison I was stuck in.
I was afraid of ending up like him, or being sent back there. Sorry.”
Rosie reached up to place her hands on the back of my head so that she could pull me down against her for a hug. “It’s okay. You don’t have anything to apologize for. And thank you for telling me about it.”
“I just feel kind of lame. I had no idea something like that would bother me, and it made me mess up, so you had to protect me.”
“I’m a tank. It’s my job to protect you.”
“Still, I—”
“I know you’re afraid of being dependent on others again, but don’t overcorrect to the point where you feel shame or refuse to let others help you. I’ll get mad at you if you don’t let me help you, okay?”
I didn’t know what to say.
I knew she was right, but agreeing with her felt dangerous—like a slippery slope that would land me back in a bed forced to let others take care of me. It was an irrational fear, but still a very real fear.
“I’m… scared of not being able to protect myself,” I said.
“And I’m scared you won’t let me protect you,” Rosie replied.
“I’ll do my best to get over it. I’m just—I’m so used to having no choice but to rely on others that it’s hard to willingly do it now.”
Rosie stroked her fingers through my hair, comforting me in a way I never experienced before.
It was nice.
Addictively nice.
I wanted to stay like that forever.
“It’s okay,” Rosie whispered. “We’ll get over our fears together.”
“Yeah,” I whispered back. “Let’s do our best.”
“Mhm!” Then, without any warning, Rosie pulled me away from her in a hurry. “A-ah! I’m sorry! I—I didn’t realize I was—I—”
“You were holding my face against your boobs the whole time, yep.”
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!”
“I feel like the luckiest man alive right now, so don’t worry about it. In fact, please feel free to hug me like that even more in the future.”
“You’re so weird! Guys aren’t supposed to enjoy being smothered by fat! You’re supposed to be grossed out!”
“Would you rather me grossed out?”
“N-no! But!”
“I’m seriously going to have to drill it into you just how much I love your body, but that’s after I convince you that I love you.”
Rosie looked so red that I was sure I’d see puffs of steam coming out of her ears soon. “You—… you’ve already convinced me of that,” she whispered under her breath.
“Hm? What was that?” I held my hand up to my ear. “I didn’t quite hear that.”
“No-nothing! Let’s—let’s loot the monsters!”
I wanted to tease her some more, but I froze.
Something was wrong.
The way the crows fled the trees, the eerie stillness of the air beyond what was normal, the total silence coming from everything that wasn’t Rosie walking toward the loot—something was wrong.
“Rosie,” I said. “Get ready.”
Rosie stopped and looked at me. “For what? Wait… what’s wrong?”