When they returned, most of the survivors had already settled in to sleep. Those on watch nodded as they entered, and Allard greeted them, but after perfunctory politeness he pulled Jenny away. Oli watched them leave, fully aware that Allard's priority now would be interrogating her as to the day's events.

One other person showed up, as expected. Elle looked happy to see them, and mildly perplexed at the sleeping child that Isaac was currently carrying.

"Wow. You really do pick up all sorts of waifs and strays, don't you? Is this one going to turn out to be some kind of super strong child-prodigy too?"

Oli laughed, glancing over at Bjorn, who paid no heed to Elle's teasing. "No, I don't think that's too likely. But she is exhausted, and probably traumatised. It's probably best for her to not be left alone, but the hall might be a bit much for her right now. I was hoping you'd let her sleep in with you tonight?"

"Well, if you really want an audience, but that seems a little..."

Oli cut her off before she could finish her sentence. 

"Obviously, I'd be sleeping in the hall with the others."

Elle laughed out loud as she saw Isaac trying to conceal his own amusement at Oli's attempt to look dignified. Oli shook his head at the pair of them in mock despair, and turned to leave. Before he left however, he looked over his shoulder.

"Thanks Elle. We can talk to her in the morning, but for now I want to just let her sleep. And hey, so you know, she is deaf. If you want to talk to her you need to make sure she can see your face."

"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on her. Sweet dreams honey!" With a last flirtatious wink, Elle turned to lead Isaac towards her room. Oli and Bjorn followed in the footsteps of the other men, heading towards the central area in order to get some rest.

-    -    -    -    -

"So, Imogen... Am I ok to call you Imogen?" Oli looked at the girl questioningly. Waiting until she nodded, he continued. "You were with a small group of survivors, less than 20 people, until two days ago. You were attacked, but you don't know how, or by what?"

During the few minutes they had been speaking with Imogen since breakfast, he had realised that she was quite proficient in lip reading. Although he still spoke more slowly and self-consciously than normal, there was no major barrier to her understanding. Her communication however, required a little more effort. She couldn't speak, or at least chose not to. It was something he vaguely recalled was common with people who had been deaf since birth. Until Isaac fetched a pen and notepad from a nearby stationary store, they had been struggling to understand her.

"Yes," she wrote, in a rounded, childish handwriting. "We fought other things before, but this time the group just gave up. They just left everything and walked off. I tried to stop them, but one of them hit me. I think he knocked me out. When I woke up they were gone. Those rats started chasing me after I started looking for my group."

Elle spoke up, questioningly. "So, you ran into the ratmen separately? They weren't the things that attacked your group?" While Imogen nodded in agreement, Elle noticed Oli and Isaac looking at each other, troubled. "What is it?"

"We saw something like this before. Cars left running, meals half eaten, as though everyone just left. I think I know where this creature might be." Oli informed Elle and Imogen about what they had found at the Visitor Centre, when they returned from the mountains. He also told her about the extreme sense of danger they had all felt, the undefined pressure that had made them rush to leave.

"This is too dangerous to rush into blindly. We have no idea how it attacks, or even what it is. For all we know they could have the power to wipe out this entire group. We need to inform Allard and Jenny, they need to know about this."

"Does this change our plans Oli?" asked Isaac.

Oli paused, lost in thought. "I don't know. For now, no. We spend the next couple of days levelling, and gathering supplies, and then decide what to do. Allard and Jenny need to know now, we'll tell them before we head out, see what their opinion is, what they intend to do. We either investigate, and figure out what is happening so that we can defend against it, or we break camp and run, hoping that it is staying in this area."

While Isaac looked distinctly unimpressed with the idea of cutting and running, he didn't say anything. He knew as well as anyone that with all the changes that occurred, they couldn't help everyone. He knew that Oli's priority was the survival of their group.

While the others talked, Imogen began to look confused. They were facing each other, and talking faster, and she was beginning to struggle to follow the conversation. Since she had awoken this morning, she had felt calm and safe for the first time in days. Her outburst of tears yesterday had left her feeling self-conscious, but she was beginning to return to her normal behaviour, more mature than you would expect of a child her age. She turned and tugged on Elle's sleeve, holding out a quick note.

"If you leave, take me with you? I can help, I won't slow you down. I promise."

Elle immediately saw through the note, to the sadness and fear of abandonment behind it. She pulled Imogen into a hug, which the younger girl resisted briefly and futilely.

"She'll be coming with us, either way," she said to Oli, looking at him sternly. While Isaac nodded as though it was a matter of course, Oli hesitated slightly. He had no intention of abandoning a young girl, but at the same time, there was a fairly high chance that she'd be safer with Allard's group than with them. 

He looked at Imogen curiously. She was a level 5 Cleric, according to his [Identify]. Her relatively high level, he assumed, was due to the more dangerous introduction to the system that she had experienced compared to the survivors in the Mall. From what he remembered of RPGs he had played, Clerics were generally a healing and support type class. She would fit in well with his group.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Under the combined pressure of Isaac and Elle, and with the temptation of a possible healer, he nodded helplessly.

"We won't leave her."

-    -    -    -    -

The following two days went exactly according to plan. They left in the morning to scavenge stores, playing bodyguard to vehicles gathering as many non-perishable supplies as possible. In the early afternoon the ratmen patrols became more active, and Oli would lead his small levelling team in a circuitous route around the identified area. Bjorn would lead them to patrols, which they would slaughter. Over the two days they got closer and closer to the Church in the centre of the district. However, whenever they got too close, Bjorn would warn them of a strong response and they would pull back. It looked very much like the base was indeed under the church. And it was by no means weakly defended, there hadn't been a dip in ratmen patrols despite the wholesale killing.

Whilst the survivors from the mall were now strong enough to fight the patrols themselves, Oli, Isaac and Bjorn maintained an active role. By taking it in turns, they made it look like they were limiting their own experience gain out of consideration. However, their link, combined with the fact that whichever of them took part generally killed nearly half of the group they attacked, meant that none of them were falling behind. Obviously, the survivors were not made aware of this.

The attitudes of the group had an appreciable change over the two days. Surly was still... surly, but Jenny was much more approachable. She tended to talk to Isaac a lot more than the others, showing mild dislike of Oli, and seeming nervous around Bjorn. It helped that Oli had set Isaac with his near-instant movement skill as the main defence of the group, and so on several occasions he had pulled Jenny from under an attack, or blocked it himself. The two younger men were still only really talking to each other, but they showed none of the earlier hesitance in taking orders from Oli.

At the end of the two days, the gains were impressive, both in levels and in material goods. Oli had risen to level 14, and Isaac and Bjorn were both level 13. From what they guessed, the two would reach level 14 before Oli moved on. Of the survivors, Jenny and Surly both reached level 10, and the young men weren't far behind. As far as goods, Bjorn now wore a light leather upper armour over a tee-shirt, as did Surly. Jenny had gotten a bow, and subsequently took a bag of arrows from a sporting goods store. However she had thus far avoided using it, even though her class should have given her the skill from what Oli understood. Oli himself had found a new dagger, which he equipped for the added agility, even though it didn't quite match up to the hunting knife he had been using to date. The group had also gathered a fair amount of coin, and several more of the minor healing pills.

They were now gathered back at the mall, seated around one of the tables in the dining area. Allard was with them, as well as Elle and Imogen. They were deciding what to do about the mysterious threat that had overcome Imogen's previous group. The discussion had lasted for several minutes, and was beginning to go in circles, growing more heated as it did.

Surly was firmly against the idea of meddling, and was surprisingly vocal about it. "I've been hunting before, plenty of times. You go with a target in mind, you don't just wander around, or you'll get nothing, or worse, end in trouble. We have no idea what this threat is, what it can do, if we can even hurt it. We would be stupid to go after it, we might just end up bringing it down on us."

"You have a point. But if we assume that the same thing happened at the Visitor Centre, then you either have more than one of these things in the immediate vicinity, or just one that has attacked multiple large groups of people. Either way, as the largest group of people in the area, you will butt heads at some point." Elle had no problem pointing out the opposing argument.

Allard spoke up, holding his hand out to stop Jenny from speaking. "You're both right. The main point that we keep coming back to is that we have no idea what we're dealing with. I would like to resolve this deficiency before you leave us Oli. Would you be agreeable to this?"

Oli mused for a moment. He looked over at his companions. Isaac nodded to him, while Bjorn shrugged uncaringly. Elle just smiled in that sardonic way she had.

"I have no intention of fighting something I don't think we can beat, and I have no intention of risking any of my people pointlessly." Again, Jenny's outburst was pre-empted by an outstretched hand, leaving her spluttering ineffectually. "However, for now we are in as much danger as you. I will agree to help you scout for information. Anything beyond that will depend on the situation. Good enough?"

Allard sighed with relief before nodding. "Jenny and Mark will accompany you. I won't send all 4 of our high levels, I hope you understand." It took a moment for Oli and his companions to realise that Mark was the real name of Surly.

"Not a problem. Tomorrow morning then, I think we should head out and re-examine the Visitor Centre. It's the only place we know where we think something happened, if Imogen still can't remember where she ran from." Oli had a strong suspicion that it was fear of what would be found, not lack of memory, that stopped Imogen from revealing the location that her group was attacked. However, the Visitor Centre also held the supply depot for the park rangers, making it an ideal target, and so he wasn't too concerned. "If we find any traces of what happened, we follow them up. If not, we scavenge what we can and return to regroup."

After the people present agreed, they broke up to find food, before they settled down to rest for what promised to be an early start.