Attack the spider and distract it until the Men crush it? But can they reach it?

So try to cut the web? If she can, and can keep a leg and an arm free, she can keep cutting it as fast as the spider makes more -

and the spider will still bite her with its venom - aah - she slashes at it

(more to keep it away than to hurt it; she doesn't really want to touch it)

"Pass me a hammer? Or something lighter and sharper! Something to cut the web?"

The webs are sticky and thick, resisting her claws and sticking to her fur if she tries to claw herself free. It spits more web, trying to trap her arms. But Sam starts throwing boxes of deodorant at it! While swearing repeatedly! This turns out to be pretty bad for aiming, and only one arm is only sort of stuck.

Instead, it hisses and starts pulling on the web, pulling her even higher, before trying to drag her into the rafters above the main store area.

John has looked around frantically and found a box cutter. "Here! I'm going to toss it up, be ready to catch it!"

Nooooo, that's not what she meant, she wanted a sword, so she could cut her legs free without curling upwards into a vulnerable ball. Because clearly there are swords just laying around here.

Well if it works better than her claws it's still something. She holds out her free hand, ready to stab the spider as soon as she catches the box cutter.

Toss!

She catches it... by the very end, gapes at it, brings it to her trapped hand to open it - stab!

The spider, needless to say, is not very happy about this.

It bites her on the leg, a painful scar, seemingly out of spite, even though this lowers it down enough for Sam to clip it by actually throwing his sledgehammer, making it fall to the ground. John smashes it for good a moment later.

You have been afflicted by Venom. -0.2 HP/second for 10 minutes or until cured!

Snare Spider Lv. 4 defeated!
Your contribution: 45%!
Bonus experience awarded for defeating a monster above your level! (+0.3)
Bonus experience awarded for defeating a monster significantly above your level! (x1.25)
293 Experience awarded!

The venom burns. It sears her insides, spreading up her leg at a fairly alarming rate.

"Fucking fuckity fuck!"

"It had to be spiders! I levelled up, but fucking spiders!"

"Are you alright, Ches- Uh, Kestuh?"

"SPIDERS!"

Ow ow ow  -

need to - suck out the venom? - bending up hurts

no the first thing is to cut herself loose - bending up hurts

she manages to not break her neck getting down - can't tell if she broke anything else - now suck out the venom -

can't move her leg - ow ow ow ow ow ow ow - can't breathe

It becomes difficult to make out what happens next. Shouting. She's being dragged, turned over. Something's pressing on her leg. More shouting.

They're shouting her name. It's oddly... Quiet, for shouting. Why are they shaking her shoulders? Something important is going on... Though it's hard to care. Hard to think.

There's a sharp prick in her leg. A different kind of sharp to the awful, congealing venom. And then something is shoved over her mouth and nose, and there's a hissing noise as some sort of vapor goes up her nose and down her throat-

You have been afflicted by the Class Skill "Where's the Doctor?"/"Street Meds".

Existing affliction Venom has been changed to "Where's the Doctor?" - HP regeneration reduced by 50% until HP reaches 100% and remains at 100% for eight hours, or proper medical attention is gained.

The box is oddly easy to read, even as the rest of her vision is blurry and confusing.

And the world begins to come back, slowly.

Oh no. Hit Points? Actually this is better than the Venom. She's going to be okay!

Wait, can she die? Not if this is a Nexus hallucination. And if it's a rogue telepath? Unsure. Too hard to think.

"...sir?"

HP: 12/60

"Deep breaths. How are you feeling? I took a power to help you."

Breathe. Breathe. Thinking is easier now.

John made a permanent decision for her sake? Wow. "You - have my - dearest thanks, sir." 

Breathe.

12 out of 60, what does that mean? She should have decided before asking. Wait, then the telepath and/or her subconscious would have changed the number; it's accidentally brilliant that she didn't think it through first!

So, 12/60. That's - ambiguous. 3/60 would have been an obvious narrative hack to make this feel dangerous, so that would actually have reassured her that she isn't in danger. Unless the telepath could have guessed that she would react that way -

oh fucking Bank drop it, if the telepath can erase her memory, he could try things multiple ways -

If the telepath can erase memory so easily, that makes it more likely that he'll let her go when he's done? Maybe... does the subjective duration being erased or the number of times he erases something matter more?

Anyway, if she had felt this bad at like 30/60 HP, that would have meant - she would have taken it as meaning - that death at 0/60 was plausible.

Logic isn't helping here, but she's leaning toward thinking that, if this is a telepath's game, she can actually die. If that's his game, if her being tested against high stakes is itself what entertains him, she should be trying to survive, and taking this seriously in all other ways, not thinking about how to be amusing. Not that she had been doing a great job of that, anyway.

Does that mean that if she succeeds at this game, she'll get a corresponding reward? Or that, if he already has a plan for making her disappear, he's going to kill her at the end either way? Sigh.

Or what if this is a Nexus of some sort? Then she can still take this seriously, she should just expect to suddenly find herself back home at any time, and maybe her father will kill her once he's gotten all his data, but maybe not; if she survives getting ripped out of an Adventure Nexus without regrets about her imaginary world, and she's capable of doing useful work, he might keep her, and she might be able to escape. And run away to the wolves. She eats a lot less than a wolf and might be worth sheltering. She won't be able to accomplish much, but she'll have friends, and that's what really matters.

"Sir... if I die, the Pack Rats here like wire and copper pipe and - batteries and - there's probably a bunch more copper pipe in the refrigerators... I tore one of them up a bit when I thought the store was abandoned. Anyway - come back here, and if you see the Pack Rats, drop the stuff on the floor and" squeak/meow/mu "say 'hey' three times and sit far away until they leave."

"That's not imp- Like hell am I gonna let a kid die in front of me! I'm just worried about - System said there might be 'side effects'. 'Sometimes you need to dose something right now. You can use any item intended as a healing aid to stabilize creatures, but there might be side effects. Better than nothing?' God. This fucking thing is evil. These monsters are evil. Dammit."

Her pain is rapidly receding. She's starting to feel like she could stand up again. A lot faster than is medically plausible. (The mana inside her is thrumming slightly, diffusing outward.)

She stands up! Bows.

Hug?

"The system, sir? How did it start? Sorry, I've been - it's a long story. Did it create the monsters, or make them from natural animals the same way it made us?"

Hug, sure, he will hug the teenager who has recently had a near-death experience and only be slightly hesitant about it first.

(Sam is keeping a lookout so they don't get ambushed again)

"You know just as much as we do. Just a few hours ago, we started seeing these boxes- Telling us the System was coming. Then telecommunications started to fail, then all electricity. And then the monsters started appearing."

"I think they're getting stronger. It was all just level 1 pigs at first."

"It's like some sort of video game, it wants us to kill the monsters maybe... And that's all I got."

"I found a broom we can use to poke ahead of us for traps," Sam says, sounding tired.

Slightly hesitant? She's doing it to comfort him!

It's only been a few hours? "I beg your pardon, sirs, what levels are you at? I'm level one..." ugh math "about halfway to level two. Oh, more than halfway, I got some experience from crafting too. What loot did you get from the spider?"

Mana Points?

MP: 89/110

"Level three," John says. (And then unhugs and shuffles a bit, awkwardly. Her clothes are somewhat disheveled from the spider mess.)

"Two now," Sam comments. "I was level 0 for a while but it sent me straight to 2 when I chose the class... It's weird, I'm seeing how to take apart these shelves and build stuff now."

"A big bundle of thread and an... Eye, for some reason. I think we should - we should carefully check the rest of this place, but I think it's empty now. We need more stats, more levels..."

"It's a huge rush to level up, but that might be a trap. I don't want to get in the habit of chasing danger."

"Did you get additional points to spend when you leveled up, John, sir?"

Specializing could be a trap too, but... "I picked my Class Powers when I thought I was going to be by myself and I think I should focus more now, and craft something to gain experience.

If I put everything into Pounce - that's my ambush attack - from now on, maybe the thread could help me restrain a monster while you get in the later hits? No actually that's a bad idea, if I can get away and hide I can Pounce again. Maybe a trap for you to use before or while I Pounce?

I wonder if the spider eye could do something for hiding..." She could take Inconsequential Presence to stack with it, and she could probably even claim that as an innocent Bard skill for, like, accompanying another performer. "I could maybe make a good sentry?

Or I can get the Enthralling Performance power I passed up earlier. Maybe some of your landscaping collaborators know whether powers like that work on monsters?

Sam, sir, do you think there's a construction tool the thread could be part of? Like something to hold parts in place, or make things snap into alignment?

...Oh right, we get experience from exploring locations too. I'm ready to continue through the store."

They glance at each other. 

"...5 points per level. I think... It might be a bad idea to spend them all right away. We don't know enough."

"Are you sure you're alright, Chestuh? The spider was nasty. I'm not alright, for Pete's sake."

"Alright... a break would be nice." He's the type that feels better when he has someone else to comfort? "I'm down to uh a-bit-over-twelve hit points."

She sits down, straightens her clothes. "What are the possums like, sir? I haven't seen any of those."

The two guys sit. "Yeah, a break sounds nice. Uh, they weren't quite as big as us, maybe like a Great Dane or Golden Retriever. But they were even madder than the pigs, and darn quick."

They continue describing their previous fights for a bit.

C'Esther listens attentively.

This is actually pretty nice.

"I don't think it counts as looting anymore. We did pest control. Services rendered."

"You can't charge for unsolicited services, you know that. That's not the kind of shop we run."

"Uh, hmm... Salvage laws."

"Isn't that for like, wrecked boats and stuff?"

"The power's out and the food would go bad anyway. We're salvaging. It counts."

"End of the world laws. Not much is gonna be the same next week."

"Yeah, my car insurance is pointless now."

"Can you imagine Capital One sending a monster after me for my credit card debt."

"Ha! No, the suits are probably sitting around an office building confused why it's dark right now."

"Suits, am I right?"

They chatter a bit more, just trying to wind down the stress a bit. And then the chatter stops and they sit quietly for a bit, just breathing...

But eventually, they get back up and dig through the store, carefully checking for more monsters- But none are around. They eat vigorously from the rack of hot food, cooked taquitos and hot dogs still warm enough to be fresh inside a gas heater, and encourage C'Esther to do so as well. It's just gonna go bad anyway, and they both agree that the manager's kind of a jerk. Justification secured, they proceed to loot without guilt. More shiny tubing, more random bits and bobs. Lots of food. Whole things of meat, some ice cream, a bit of milk, packed in slowly-melting ice from the big freezer full of bagged ice, fetched outside and into the wheelbarrow and truck bed. Some bags of packaged snacks and drinks too.

They suffer two more Glutton Pig attacks, but the pigs are distracted for a second by a thrown hot dog, allowing the sledgehammer-wielding men to dispatch them easily. There's the occasional distant, sharp sound. The landscaping guys nervously point them out as gunshots, and try to be optimistic. Gunshots probably mean a dead monster. The Pack Rats come back out of the treeline eventually, and a sufficiently large collection of shinies nets two more Essences. They see a few people walking or running along the streets, but nobody approaches the dead truck in the gas station parking lot.

Then, with a loud hum and road noise like an electric engine, a huge 18-wheeler truck pulls into the 7-11 parking lot, ignoring the concrete curbs and grass to trundle in. The machine is big and imposing, particularly with the two odd bulges on either side, where a gun is pretty clearly sticking out and swiveling around.

Oh, and the fox standing carefully on the roof, foot claws hooked into some sort of thin grooves, head on a constant swivel and binoculars held up to her eyes, dressed in a hoodie and jeans, takes a brief pause from her lookout to smile and wave!

John and Sam are extremely relieved when their buddies, a bunch of other work-clothes-wearing men, pile out the back of the truck once it stops.

They all crowd around the boss, Dave, who starts barking out orders to load the truck and says that they have to move quickly.

And then John introduces C'Esther to Dave, whispering something to the boss that makes his look of shock turn to one of pity.