He didn't really expect to wake up, and it surprised him when he did. He gasped.
What the hell had happened? The last thing he remembered was getting pummeled by the Cannibal, its bloody fists smashing into his face again and again. The monster's attack had been absolutely brutal; it had demolished his face, shattered his jaw, slammed his skull into the stone floor of the cavern over and over.
He shouldn't be alive. But somehow, he was.
The first thing he saw, after opening his eyes, was an ICON message:
Level 39 Mutate defeated!Level Up! 30-33Gained 6 SP!Access Menu?
He dismissed the message, tiredly; he wasn't interested in this ICON crap right now. Where was he? Where was Luna? He knew the Cannibal was dead, because the ICON system had told him so, but where was its body? How long had he been unconscious?
He thought at first that he was still in the cavern, because it was dark, but after a moment he realized that there was something wrong with his eyes -- everything, apart from the ICON system menu and messages, looked dim and unfocused. His Night Vision had apparently run down some time ago, but the option to reactivate it was present, which meant that at least twenty-fours had passed since his fight with the Cannibal. That was a long time.
Squinting through his dark and distorted vision, he eventually came to the conclusion that he was back in the cabin -- there was a scintillating fire crackling to his right, and he was on the bed, wrapped up in a blanket. It was the same blanket that Luna had thrown over their shoulders, the blanket under which they had shared that kiss.
As the minutes passed, his vision slowly began to improve; his surroundings grew brighter and began to come into better focus. But his head ached, and his whole body felt tender. When he tried to get up, his body rebelled -- his legs wobbled and his vision turned dizzy. He eased himself back down into the bed and sighed.
Luna must have dragged him out of the cavern while he was unconscious. But where was she? Was she all right? Had she encountered another zombie, perhaps?
But a moment later the door to the cabin opened, and she walked in, carrying an armful of scavenged sticks and branches. The storm was apparently still raging outside -- a cold wind rushed in after her, and she had to close the door quickly to prevent snow from blowing in.
"L-Luna?" he managed. His voice was weak.
She dropped the sticks and ran to his bedside, kneeling down next to him. "You're alive," she said, taking his hand and holding it. "I can't believe it."
"I can't believe it, either," he muttered. "What happened?"
"You died. You came back to life."
"What?"
"You were dead. The Cannibal killed you." She took a deep breath. "Your whole head was crushed. You weren't breathing, and I couldn't find a pulse, so I...I thought you were dead. Anyone would have thought you were dead. So I started making my way back to the cabin." She hesitated. "But then..."
"Then what?"
"I wasn't sure if you had been bitten or not. If you had turned into a zombie...I didn't want to leave you down there, like that."
"I understand."
"So I went back, and I saw that you were breathing, so I dragged you back to the cabin." She frowned at the memory. "It took a few hours. It wasn't easy."
"I can imagine."
"Still, I wasn't sure that you'd recover. Your face had been totally smashed in, like I said. Your eyes...it had destroyed both of your eyes. One of them popped out of the socket as I was dragging you through the tunnel. I put it back in."
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
"I'm sorry," he said, wincing. "I'm sorry you had go through that."
"They look all right now, though," she said, studying his face carefully. "You look...well, you look fine, actually. How is it possible?"
"You know I can heal myself," he said. "I've done it before. It's my Regeneration skill."
"Yes, but this..." She shook her head, amazed. "You were dead, Stu."
He shifted uneasily. Was it true? Was the Regeneration skill capable of bringing him back from the dead? Virge had had the same skill, and it hadn't brought him back to life, but then, Virge had been poisoned as well, by the mutate that had killed him. Maybe that had had something to do with it.
Or maybe Luna was mistaken. Maybe he hadn't died; maybe he had simply been on the brink of death. The Regeneration skill could have brought him back from that.
But what if he really had died, and been resurrected somehow? He was grateful to be alive, but the idea that he might have died, and been brought back to life in this way...well, it was more than a little unsettling. Was he some kind of immortal now? He wondered, again, whether all of the various powers he had accumulated through the ICON system would remain with him forever. What would it be like, taking these powers back to his own world? What kind of life could he expect to lead? Would the Regeneration skill prevent him from aging? Was he doomed to live forever now, like some kind of vampire?
Luna interrupted his reverie. "How are you feeling?"
"I have a bit of a headache," he said, "and my eyes are a little sore, but other than that I feel all right."
She was looking carefully at his eyes. "You have really pretty eyes, you know. It was one of the first things I noticed about you."
"They didn't used to look like this," he admitted. "They were brown before. They only turned this weird shade of blue after Virge passed the ICON system on to me."
"Really? Why did they change?"
"I don't know," he sighed. "There's a lot I don't know."
"I can't believe you're alive. I can't believe I'm talking to you right now. You..." She looked troubled. "Are you a god or something? An angel?"
He started to laugh, but she was obviously serious, so he stifled it and said, "No. I'm just an ordinary guy."
"You're not an ordinary guy."
"I was before," he said, "and I hope to be again, someday. What happened to the Cannibal?"
She pointed to a burlap sack sitting in the corner of the cabin. "I cut off its head with the machete. I'm pretty sure you killed it, when you shot it in the mouth, but I wanted to be sure. And the people of Silent wanted proof that it was dead, besides."
"Ah. What about the weather?"
"As bad as ever. We'll be stuck here for another night, at least. I managed to collect a little firewood, but it won't last long. It's going to get cold in here tonight. Do you want some water? Something to eat?"
He realized that he was, indeed, rather thirsty, and rather hungry as well. Luna melted some snow for him to drink, and fried up a can of "PrestoMeat" -- that strange SPAM-like meat product -- which he shared with her. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep their hunger at bay. When they finished, Stu tried to get out of the bed again -- he wanted to walk around a bit, to stretch his legs -- but discovered that he was still a little dizzy, and wound up sitting back down.
"It's amazing you can walk at all, considering what happened to you yesterday," Luna remarked.
"It all worked out, didn't it? We did what we set out to do. We killed the Cannibal."
"We almost died."
"Yeah, well, what else is new?"
She snorted. "You did it again. You got yourself into some crazy situation, and only barely made it out alive. How do you do it? You are not an ordinary person, Stu. Any ordinary person would have died a long time ago."
"I have the ICON system."
"So you say." Her face grew troubled again. "I just about fell to pieces, when I thought you were dead. I've had people die on me before, but..." She trailed off and tried again. "You're special. I know I haven't known you that long, but...I guess I was surprised to find out how much you meant to me. And if you had died...and right after I kissed you..."
He wasn't entirely sure what she was trying to communicate here, but he nodded as if he knew.
She nodded back, then sat down on the edge of the bed and started taking off her boots. "What are you doing?" he asked her.
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm getting ready for bed."
"You're sleeping here? With me?"
"Where else am I going to sleep? On the floor? Besides, I told you it was going to get cold tonight." She removed her jacket and slipped under the covers, her body next to his. But she remained clothed, as he did.
He liked having her next to him, because she was soft and warm, but he wasn't sure what her intentions were...in fact he wasn't sure what his own intentions were. All this stuff with Luna seemed to be happening pretty fast. Was she planning to make a move on him again? Was she expecting him to make a move on her?
She soon made it clear, however, that the only thing she was interested in tonight was sleep: "Good night," she said, and she rolled onto her side, turned away from him.
"G-good night," he replied.
But it took him a long time to fall asleep.