A jeep cruised through the dirt ground as the ride was a bit bumpier than the passengers expected. Even with their seat belts on, Esther and Hakeem were having a lot of airtime considering they were inside a jeep.

 

“Drive properly!” Esther glared from the back.

 

“The road man, use the road!” said Hakeem. His eyes kept glancing between the front and to the left.

 

A few seconds later, both of their butts went off their seats as the jeep was in the air.

 

DUM.

 

The jeep landed on the asphalt road as it swerved left and right. Jason spun the steering wheel a couple of times until the vehicle finally ran on a straight path.

 

“You driving is wack, man,” said Hakeem. He adjusted himself on his seat as that last jump made him sprawled a bit on his seat.

 

Esther who was lying on the back seat got up and smacked Jason by the head with her eyes glaring like shooting lasers.

 

“That’s for driving like a maniac,” said Esther.

 

Jason brushed his head as that smack barely did a thing. Rather than pain, it was a bit like a little push.

 

“I didn’t force you guys to come along,” said Jason.

 

He maneuvered through the empty dark street, a road that ran just beside the prominent Ontario Lake.

 

Esther crossed her arms as she leaned back on her seat. Her legs crossed over like a scene in basic instinct except she was wearing military-issue camo pants and not a white one-piece short dress. She stared at the back of Jason’s head with a slight frown. Jason took a peek through the back mirror and saw his sister’s face. A silent chuckle as he kept his eyes back on the road.

 

“Aren’t you concern about what the military will do?” she asked.

 

Hakeem looked back at Esther and then glanced at Jason. He knew full well that this would turn messy and as a man with a fully developed brain, he made a mental note not to get involved with these sibling's arguments. There was silence as Jason kept his lips sealed. Her frown got deeper and Esther couldn’t stand being ignored. She pushed her body to the front coming in between the two front seats.

 

“You know I’m going to bother you for the whole ride if you keep ignoring me, so why not answer a few of my questions and then I’ll keep my mouth shut,” said Esther.

 

“What is it?” Jason asked. It wasn’t a bad deal. Hearing his sister’s nagging would definitely be torture even when he had his energy guard still on.

 

“Why did Ryan said I can complain to you? Did he meant that you can stop whatever they’re planning to do?” Esther asked.

 

“Literally speaking, I can stop them through some… forceful ways and what Ryan meant was, I can relay that complains of yours to Neil since he’s the big boss of some part of the military,” said Jason.

 

“Then call him then! We need to stop that bullshit plan of theirs,” said Esther.

 

“No, we’re not and I’m not going to do a thing about it,” said Jason.

 

“Why not? Lives are at stake here, didn’t you hear what I said? An artificial earthquake can lead to…” Esther was vehement in relaying her logical reasons but Jason cut her off.

 

“Are you hearing yourself? I know you’re valedictorian and all, but do you really think you’re smarter than those scientists employed by the military?” a smack of facts right at his sister.

 

Esther fell speechless. Yet she couldn’t back down.

 

“But-”

 

“and do you think you can stop the horde? If we don’t stop them in some way, that horde will come to Toronto and our parents are there,” said Jason.

 

The mentioned of their parents left her words stuck in the middle of her throat. Although the repercussion from an earthquake might be bad, but the safety of her parents triumphed over the latter.

 

“Hmph,” she leaned back on her seat with her arms crossed.

 

“So,” Hakeem saw it was his time. “Want to tell me about these people you feeling guilty about?”

 

Esther perked her ears as she too was interested in that question.

 

“Nothing much, I just found a few people while fighting the orcs,” said Jason.

 

“People? You mean they’re someone crazy enough to still stay here?” Hakeem asked.

 

“Rather than crazy, I think the word bold suit them better,” said Jason with a light smile.

 

“Bold? You’re also turning crazy. There’s no way anyone can live in a place with those things running around,” said Esther.

 

“They do, and sorry to burst your bubbles, one of them is even stronger than you two,” said Jason.

 

Esther narrowed her eyes hearing that remark and Hakeem couldn’t shake off his curiosity. To his knowledge, he was well cemented at the second place position according to level just below Jason, and hearing this new fella made him curious.

 

“Who is this guy?” Hakeem asked.

 

“Or a woman,” Esther chimed in.

 

Jason smirked seeing these two getting rattled by a new player that was even stronger than them.

 

“He’s an Inuit, a fisherman at level 23,” said Jason.

 

“A fisherman?” Esther was drawn to that word.

 

“What do you mean a fisherman?” Hakeem had the same thought in mind.

 

“It’s his job, he chose to be a fisherman like I, choosing an assassin,” said Jason. He glanced at his pal who was a bit thrown off.

 

“You better step it up Hakeem, cause even I don’t think I can win over him that easily,” said Jason.

 

“Why? You’re a lot stronger and your attacks are no jokes,” said Hakeem.

 

“But he’s tanky, so if things come down to a war of attrition, I might lose you know,” said Jason as he saw that mass of points as an undeniable strength. If that man also had a restorative type of ability than he would definitely be an unstoppable force.

 

For a moment Jason frowned as he was still frustrated for the lack of defensive type of skills, having a few layers would definitely increase his survival rate.

 

Hakeem looked down as he thought about Jason’s words. If a man like Jason gave such highly-rated comments to a person like that, then Jason was definitely telling the truth. Hakeem stared at the blue window in front of him as he still didn’t decide yet.

 

“Did you choose yet?” Jason asked glancing for a while at Hakeem.

 

“No, not yet,” said Hakeem as his eyes stared at a list.

 

“Choose? Choose what?” Esther was still out of the bubble.

 

“Hakeem reached level twenty just now, so he’s having a tough time choosing his job,” said Jason.

 

“What?” Esther grabbed on Hakeem’s shoulder and pulled it a bit, but much to her disappointment he barely budged.

 

“When did you level up? I’m still at level nineteen,” said Esther.

 

Hakeem wasn’t listening to Esther as his full concentration was to his job picking. There wasn’t much a difference between him and Jason except a few things. The basic classes were available for him to choose like warrior, healer, archer and energist, but he too had a few extra options.

 

Guardsman? Battle-Energist?

Those extra options caught his attention. Both were leaning to two extremities. One mainly used a shield and the other used element-based close combat. He was torn apart at a junction, a forked path that would determine his future. Be an exclusive meat-shield or a close combat energist specialist?

 

“Hey Hakeem,” Jason said.

 

Hakeem snapped out from his daze after hearing Jason’s voice. He glanced at him and saw Jason driving with his eyes on the road.

 

“Don’t mind about others, choose what you want to be, what you want to become,” said Jason.

 

Hakeem for some reason felt relieved like a burden was lifted off from his shoulders. The thought of him needing always to be the tank was rather hindering him down. He wanted to be strong, strong at the same level, or surpassing even Jason and he knew that even a tank based job could be strong but he too had an ambition, an ambition to be the strongest. He smiled as he finally decided.

 

“I’ve chosen,” said Hakeem.

 

“Hmph, show off,” said Esther. “So what do you choose?”

 

Jason stole a few glances at Hakeem as he too was curious about his friend’s job.

 

“I…”

 

Swoop!

 

BOOM!

 

The jeep exploded in flames as the bright orange flames gave light within the darkness of the road. The burning jeep was upside down as smoke and ashes rose up in the air as the flame kept burning violently.

 

Not far from the burning jeep, a person was kneeling on top of a roof. He was clad in an all-black military outfit, rested upon his shoulder was a shoulder-missile launcher, a M72 LAW. The black-clad man put down the missile launcher on the floor as it eyed through the night vision goggles. Then a voice came through his intercom.

 

“This is Bravo-1 reporting, target has been hit, I repeat target has been hit,” said Bravo-1. “Commencing second assault.”

 

The last order rang in the ears of other black-clad men standing by on top of their own rooftops. All of them shouldered the same M72 LAW as they targeted the burning jeep. At short intervals, missiles were launched in succession.

 

Ten missiles went flying as it all bombarded the burning jeep. One by one, it exploded and exploded as a deafening explosion kept resounding in the air.