Allistor’s eyes perked up.  “Spawned.  You’re a gamer?”

Annie’s smile returned, if not as bright as before.  “Yup!  And I know this whole place seems to work like a VR game now.”

“Great!  So maybe what I have to tell you won’t be so hard to believe.  Listen.  We spotted you guys from up on the airport tower.  There’s also a fire going near a warehouse over that way.” He pointed in the appropriate direction.  “Is that another group?  Or is that your home base?”

Dean shook his head.  “That’s not us.  There is another group out there.  We’ve heard gunshots once in a while.  But we’ve kept to ourselves so far.  No way to know if they’re friendly.”

“I hear ya.” Allistor understood completely.  “I’ve been exploring for the last few weeks.  Run across two other groups, besides Helen here.  The first was a good group of people trapped in their own Stronghold by a group of asshat murderers.   Most of the asshats are dead now.” He looked directly into Dean’s eyes as he spoke.  “The others have joined me at my Stronghold north of here.”

Dean nodded his head.  “Glad to hear there are other groups out there.  That damned message on the first day said they were going to exterminate us.”

Allistor sighed. “They’re doing a pretty good job.  Sent this giant void titan thing to my town and wiped it out.  Killed most of us and stomped everything flat before we managed to kill it.  Out of the whole town, there are less than a dozen of us left that we know of.”

There was a long stretch of silence as folks remembered their losses.

Finally, Allistor broke the silence.  “I don’t want to keep you guys from finding what you need here today.  If you’re short on food, Helen and I have some we can share.  How many of you are there, by the way?”

Dean looked suspicious, but Annie answered.  “Nine of us, now.  There were almost twenty when it started.”

Helen patted the young girl on the shoulder.  “We’ve got more than enough food for nine.  If Fuzzy doesn’t eat it all himself first.”   This brought a slight smile to Annie’s face.  But when Helen added, “That is, if you don’t mind grilling up some giant snake meat.” Annie’s smiled disappeared.

“Ew!  Snake meat?”

Dean chuckled, lowering his weapon the rest of the way and relaxing.  “Snake meat is tasty!  You’ll like it, you’ll see.”

Allistor said, “If you guys want to keep foraging, Helen and I will go see this other group.  If they’re friendly as well, maybe we can all gather this evening for a meal, and I’ll share what I know.”

Dean nodded.  “Be careful.  Where do you want to meet up?”

Allistor considered for a few seconds.   He didn’t want to invite them to the mall yet.  But he didn’t want to push himself into their home, either.