Much was odd since Kain had come to this time. There were people that were not like him. The six-legged Murinus, for example. Kain’s people were not much for questioning what obviously was, even when it did not make much sense. Kres was obedient. So when Kain told the Murinus to follow him and work hard, he expected to be obeyed, and he was. Following the instructors, the robots as he learned them to be, he found his stat growth to be magnificent, even if he was gaining no levels. He was, in fact, not even entirely certain of the reason for levels in the first place. They seemed to change nothing at all.

  Every time one of his stats went up, he felt magnificent. Stronger. Tougher. Faster. His mind was racing with concepts and thoughts he’d never considered before. Every day was new deluge of information. Already, he was almost as hale as he’d ever been in his life, which in truth had never been all that much. Being a Shaman required a connection with the spirits, not raw ability. It was a mark of favor. It had nothing to do with earning anything. It provided power, and security within the tribe. An exemption from the jockeying for status and resources among its members. He had always been valuable because he was the only member of the tribe that could do what he did. Without him blessing their endeavors, as far as they know, they would never have any successful hunts or battles.

  He could no longer bless anything with his Shaman class. The spirits here were thin, wan things. Beings that darted from machine to machine. Mechanical and uncaring in both attitude and comportment. Nothing like the wild, passionate things he grew up seeing. Indeed, they generally ignored him no matter how often he tried to entreat with them. He still had his patience, though, and it was making him stronger. Less of an easy target. His wardens, the robots took notice as well, and assigned him tasks befitting his increasing health. Cleaning, mostly. Once he showed the knack for it, a bit of repair here and there. It gave him time to think. To study.

  Once the educational ‘bots had taught him enough to know where to go, he had approached the local library. A room full of grey cubicles and rounded seats. One had only to speak out the information one needed, and it would be displayed in detail there for one’s perusal. Eventually, the subject of ‘games’ came up. The whole concept seemed very frivolous to him, but combined with that information and his own experiences with his stats rising, he came to understand that they were markers of his progress, and that they could be used as a concrete way to manage his own growing strength. And it was far more rapid than nature could’ve ever accounted for. Not effortless, no. Still with more result than he should’ve ever shown from such a short period of effort, though.

  He would not complain of a development that produced great results with relatively lessened effort. His days were numbered, he knew. So today, as he jogged, he spoke with Kres. He had to take frequent breaks. As the Murinus could not run very far either, this did not stall their progress overly much, “So *huff* we have *puff* three options *coughcough*. We kill Kyxx’s men until he is exposed and vulnerable. *Huff* We ambush and kill him and hope he does not kill us first. I do not think we will survive that plan, though. I think his tribe will kill us after someone new takes over. Or we do as he bids us until we are free, if we live that long.”

  Kres responds rather quickly to this, “I don’t like ANY of these options.” A pause. “You are my friend. I do not want you to die.” Kain’s response is quick enough, “Time will take me from you eventually my friend, if violence does not. How lucky are you, then, to have a friend who is without any fear?”

  “Your friendship does not warm me, Kain.”

  “I have no warmth to give you. As long as we both live, however, we shall know the other’s back is safe.”

  “You’re kind of a bastard.”

  “Technically true, my brother.”

  “I hate you a little.”

  “Then we are halfway to being a true family already.”

  A moment of laughter, rare in this place, and rarer still for the pair, and then they’re back to jogging until they both reach their limit. They stumble back to their cell, and after curling up in their corner, Kain looked at his status page again. He let his finger hover in the air over ‘Evolve’ uncertainly. After a moment, he sighed and pushed down. Yet another blue box appeared, and it garnered a smile from the elderly hominid.

  Kain looked at the notification and smiled widely. Ever so quietly, he moved to all fours, and crept out of his cell. Down the hallway he skittered, making admittedly little noise. The reddened eyes of the oblong security ‘bots scanned the hallway, but made no effort to stop him, if they saw him at all. Perhaps they didn’t care? After all, he merely headed to the bathrooms, where he clambered atop one of the cubicles and waited, his dark black fur and grey-black skin assuring he naturally blended into the darkness. His shiv, blackened from dirt in the yard did not shimmer in the dim lighting. He waited, for he had been watching. A man. He could be mistaken easily for one of Kain’s descendants, a blue-skinned, human-looking man with fiery red hair and a tired, lined looking face. He was one of the older, weaker members of Kyxx’s tribe. He had never personally harmed or taunted Kain, but he needed to experiment, and he was Kain’s best hope at an easy victory.

  Still stronger than Kain, but taken by surprise, perhaps… The man required urination frequently in the night. A reason he had a cell all his own. There was plenty of room and that way he wouldn’t wake the other inmates. Kain watched the man open his jumpsuit, preparing to release… And dropped atop him. Though his joints protested, he landed and plunged the tiny sharpened metal into the man’s eye. A hand around his mouth assured the man didn’t scream. There was only the awful squishing sound, the splashing of fluids over his hands, and then the thump as he rode the man to the ground.

  “Hssss…” A sound escaped Kain’s mouth, a hiss of pain as the green blood splashes over his hand, causing his hands to tighten reflexively. The shiv snaps in half, and he hurries over to the wash basin. The cleansing waves of energy crash over his hands, disintegrating and removing the burning fluid covering his hand. Then he hurries down the hall, hurrying back to his cell, where he curls up in his corner to sleep, untroubled by conscience.

  ***********

  “You killed me.”

  Kain stares at the floating spirit. The very picture of the chieftain of the white apes,”I killed you.”

  “You’re a shaman. Since when have otherworldly things bothered you.”

  “But I killed you. Why are you here?”

  “This is how things work. Each member of a tribe carries a piece of that tribe’s spirit. When one tribe completely kills the other, that tribe gets the spirit and power of the other. I was the chieftain, so I bore my tribe’s spirits for them. You killed me. Now I am with you forever.”

  “I don’t want you here.”

  “That doesn’t matter. I’m here.”

  “Why did you kill my tribe?”

  “Poor, stupid Kain. Beautiful, but still so stupid. The world was growing colder, my friend. The animals and plants died. One by one. So many people. Yours were competition for what little food remained left. And with your tribe’s power, perhaps mine would be lucky enough to survive the coming coldness. Instead, we died. Sought shelter in your soul. If we had killed you here, perhaps we could’ve survived a little longer in your body. It doesn’t matter now, though, does it? We’re dead. And here I am.”

  “You infuriate me.”

  “Then you shouldn’t have killed me. This is where I stay.”

  Kain lets his gaze rove all over the barren plain. A pool of water rests far from the ruins. Everything is muddy and wet. The sun shines through clouds, the ground is bare dirt. And it is cold. Oh so cold. He suddenly fills with a shiver, and asks the spirit,”Is there nowhere to shelter?”

  “No. Your anger tore it all to pieces. But you can rebuild it.”

  “Rebuild it how?”

  “My people, we built structures once. Only of furs and sticks, though. Here? There were structures of stone. Strong. Grand. Souls, those which aren’t destroyed are reborn. You very nearly ended up there. As it is though, if you don’t rebuild this place, when you die, that’s it. You can’t ever come back. The end. I think I could show you how to rebuild them, though, if you’re of a mind.”

  “It is as good as anything to do. It is cold and that will not change with me standing here.”

  “First you must gather those things there, they’re called bricks. You’ll need mud, and gravel, and some other things. That water over there will help. We’ll make something called mortar. Then, you’ll need…”

  Kain followed directions as she walked him through the process of mixing mortar. It was a slow, tedious process. Gather the bricks. Mix the mortar. Spread the mortar. Stack the bricks. Repeat. He didn’t know how long it’d taken him, but soon he had a small room, set against the giant rock in the center of this barren plain. A scooped out bowl in the center of it had appeared at some point during his work. He didn’t remember making it, but it was there, and of course, he knew exactly what it was for. It was a fire pit. “You’ll have to light it if you want to get warm, Kain.”

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  A sneer forms on the man’s face, “And what am I supposed to burn, then?” The laugh that erupted from her throat set his anger to burning inside of him all over again, “It seems… that there’s only one thing here left to burn.” She gestured, and Kain reluctantly turned his gaze outward. Corpses. So many of them. Dry, despite the rain in this nonsensical place. “Nature won’t take them, Kain. They have to be dealt with before you can move on.”

  A bone weariness filled Kain as he grabbed the first of many corpses that he had made of his enemies. A sigh escaped him, and, throwing it over his back, he began to walk back to his little room with the firepit. He dumped the corpse in the firepit and moved for the next one. And the next. And the next. And the next… Again time blurred on. One task bleeding into the other. Only the patience honed by years of harsh survival sustained him. He didn’t even notice that the task was not so much a struggle any longer.

  His body had grown stronger, and so here in his soul, his perception of himself was stronger as well. It meant that soon, a pile lay in the fire pit, and he stared down at the bloody, stinking corpses. The smell was overwhelming. “Take all that rage. All that anger. Feel it burn hot inside of you, Kain. Then take that hate, and will them to ignite.” The voice was soft, a caress, as he stared at them.

  That familiar anger welled up in him, a fountain of fire. Ready to burn him alive with it. It wasn’t hard to direct it at the corpses of his shattered enemies. In mere moments, there was a fire roaring in the pit. It was like all the energy had gone out of him. Like some fuzzy static was overtaking his thoughts. All he could see, could hear was the fire, the faces of the dead…

  ***********

  “Did you kill him? Did you really have to? He was no threat, even to you.”

  “People are resources, too. And now he has one less. And I have one more.”

  “Is that what I am? A resource?”

  “No. You are not an enemy, and that is a very important thing. Also, I like you.”

  “Why?”

  “You care about food, warmth, protection. And friends. But not for the purpose of gaining the other three. I have never seen that before.”

  “You come from a really screwed up world.”

  “What?”

  “Your world. It’s kind of awful. You know that?”

  “Yes. It is very difficult to survive there. It is like many other places.”

  “I suppose so.”

  “What did you get out of the man you killed, then?”

  “Power.”

  Kain held up his hand and watched barely visible play of heat just over the tip of his fingers.