Two people walked through a forest. Their footsteps were loud as their boots crunched against the layer of dead leaves that covered the ground. As they moved, Jaco glanced back over his shoulder. Following from several feet behind him was the redheaded Warrior, Evelyn.

They had hung around the house for some time. But the building itself had already been picked clean of food and other essential supplies. To the point where it was kinda surprising that it still had the mattress for the bed. However, Jaco did still have plenty of rations and such within his Bag of Holding. Since one of the benefits of his high Stats was a decreasing need for food and sleep, he’d mostly just been saving up the rations he did find.

So it was with those and some fire magic that Jaco decided that what both he and Evelyn could use was a hot meal. It hadn’t been anything fancy, just canned food cooked with dried meat into a heavily processed stew. While they ate, Jaco had attempted to strike up some conversation in the form of small talk.

However, that wasn’t exactly something Evelyn had proved to be receptive to. As she mostly gave just short answers in a few words or even simpler replies as shrugs. For the most part, the failed attempt at conversing and learning more about her had only led to an air of somewhat awkward silence.

But after they finished eating, Jaco ultimately decided that it was time for them to leave. There simply wasn’t just much point to staying in a building that had nothing else to offer. Sure it was a roof over their heads. Yet in terms of somewhere safe for them to stay while Evelyn recovered, he actually had a better location in mind.

And so she had willingly decided to follow after him. Jaco knew that there were vast swathes of forest directly to the east of the city. Which was where they were currently at as he led them through the woods. He was less certain about exactly how long they’d been walking now, however. But it felt like it might have already been somewhere close to an hour or two.

I do wonder where she’s from or what exactly she’s been up to all this time. I know she wasn’t part of the camp when I was last there. She’d have to have been a reasonably high Level those couple weeks ago to reach Level 30 by now, and I don’t remember anyone like that named Evelyn. Granted, that’s assuming that Evelyn is even her real name. And since I was only there for a few days, it’s not like I actually had the chance to meet every single scavenger that might have been gone at the time, Jaco thought to himself.

Yet the Druid had decided against airing his curiosities out loud for now. Evelyn had proved herself to not exactly be the most avid conversationalist. And she became especially clammed up when he even vaguely tried to learn more about her as a person in the Apocalypse. Out of the little he had gotten, Jaco wasn’t sure how much was the truth, lies of omission, or just flat out lies.

Yet when it came to the fact that she’d been betrayed, that was something Jaco did believe. There’d been an aspect to her voice that felt too full of venom and hurt to seem like it’d just been made up. And he trusted a gut feeling that told him that it was truly genuine.

So that was partially the reason why Jaco had gone with his decision to insist on helping her. Perhaps those with Evelyn had tried to kill her for her Experience. Or maybe there was simply more to the story that he didn’t know yet. A “falling out” wasn’t exactly the most descriptive of stories. Which meant that there could be any sort of reason behind the instigating events leading to what happened.

From that perspective, Jaco fully understood why she’d be wary of trusting anyone immediately. Especially when said someone was so many Levels above her one and could kill her at any time. But at the same time, that fact had actually been helpful in getting her to eventually calm down. Since he was so much stronger anyway, there was no need to play the game of fake trust just to get her guard down.

“So… where exactly are we going anyway? You weren’t exactly specific about it before,” Evelyn asked, finally breaking the silence. The Druid paused in place as he then turned back toward her.

“Hmm. Dunno if you’re aware of it, but there’s a camp of survivors a few miles outside the city. It has a fair number of people and its location means that it’s pretty out of the way in terms of potential dangers. So I figure that it’ll be a safe place for us to hunker down for a while until you recover. Plus I’ve actually been meaning to get back there sooner or later, for my own reasons,” Jaco answered.

As he spoke, the young man carefully watched his new companion’s face. Yet there didn’t seem to be any real noticeable changes in expression at the mention of the encampment.

“I see, that’s fine then. As long as it keeps me out of that damned city for a few days, I honestly don’t care if it’s a legit camp or just a shit hole. So just how much farther is it? Evelyn asked.

“Well we’ve been walking for a bit now. But I think we were almost on the opposite side of the city from where the camp’s located. So at this pace, it’ll probably still be at least a few more hours. Our Agility Stats should be high enough to shorten that by quite a lot if we actually moved at full speed. But we’re not really gonna be able to move any faster than this for the time being.”

The redhead didn’t respond, but they both knew that it’d be due to her internal injuries. From what little Jaco could tell, Evelyn’s build seemed to highly skew toward Agility as a main Stat. And since the internal wound was still bothering her even after some time, he assumed that her Endurance was probably pretty low for her Level. But it meant that they wouldn’t be able to move very quickly without it acting up again like just earlier.

Yet that was actually not such a bad thing in his mind. With everything that had recently happened, Jaco could actually appreciate the chance to enjoy a somewhat relaxing walk through the forest. The relatively clean air was a godsend when compared to the city where it was constantly filled with ash and other particles. It made for a good opportunity to clear his thoughts a bit. After the events inside the giant fortress, a mental reset would be nice.

However, there was a bit of an issue. One that he had just now realized after taking the time to stop and look around to try and pinpoint where they currently were. Jaco’s actual sense of direction had never quite been the best.

It’d just been easier to orient himself in the city after the second stage of the Apocalypse, since there was the megastructure in the center. Before that, there’d been a reason why he accidentally drifted toward the inner city where there was more danger.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Which was to say, Jaco actually didn’t know where they were anymore.

“So to be completely honest. I… I think we might be lost,” he admitted.

—--

Sam was currently taking a stroll through the camp. It was a nice day out. Or at least as nice as it could be when the weather was seemingly never changing. At least it felt just a little bit warmer than usual, anyway.

“Hey there Granny, everything alright today?” Sam asked an older woman she passed by. Granny was probably one of if not the oldest member of their encampment. But she was also arguably the hardest working outside the scavengers that ventured into the city’s dangers.

Warrior (Human)

Level: 16

It was also thanks to Granny that she and a lot of others had managed to raise their Levels. Because while Alex had been responsible for recently bringing a splinter of an undead horde for people to kill, convincing the non-combatants to actually do so could have been much harder.

But Granny had been the first to put her foot forward. Like the youth before her, she’d been inspired by the spark of the Druid that quickly entered and left their company like a tide. So when the person that did much of the cooking and handing out rations said that it was time to be brave, people were quicker to listen when getting to eat was on the line.

“Oh I’m fine dearie, just the same as ever. I heard Alex came back not long ago and gained another Level. I still think that poor boy’s pushing himself too hard though. I swear that whenever I see him, he’s gained three new scars before the last one fully fades away. Even with magical healing, it can’t be good for him,” Granny said with a small shake of her head.

Sam gave a light smile. “I can try and ask if he’d wanna take a day or two off. But I don’t think my suggestion would amount to much, if I’m being honest. When it comes to stubbornly charging forward, I think an actual bull would get out of his way before he stopped. Yet I can say that he is being smart about it, at the very least. We have a rotating schedule set for expeditions that give each team a chance to rest. So even if Alex wants to constantly keep moving, he’s responsible enough to not push his team ragged.”

Granny nodded, and Sam moved on to continue her stroll through the camp. She occasionally stopped by to talk to a few more people though. Just to see if there was anything that needed her attention and just as a general way to actively gauge the current mood of the gathered survivors.

But at the moment, there didn’t seem to be anything new that’d be of real importance. Their ration store was in a good place now at around a month’s worth of reserves. If there was one main benefit of additional scavengers, it was the greatly increased rate of supplies brought back.

Yet her stroll was paused as she spotted a tall man. It was exactly the person she’d actually been keeping an eye out for while walking around the camp.

The person Sam then approached was her leader, Noah. Having just recently returned to their commune a little while ago, she wanted to catch him up with the latest happenings. He’d been gone for some time now in a bid to get stronger in the city, so there was quite a bit to go through.

After greeting him, Sam started on a basic rundown of all the important updates that’d happened in his absence. There were only a few things, which was never a bad thing considering the current times. But after that, she started to give him a further summary of recent events as they walked together.

“So I can now confirm that the average Level has now gone up from 14 to 15 while you were away. We did have one death in the meantime, however. Unfortunately, a boy in Alex’s group attempted to fight a pair of Ghouls after being split up from his team with the intent to cover more ground. Or at least, that’s the story they claimed after returning,” Sam explained.

“They claimed? Do you suspect that it was actually foul play?” Noah asked. The Mage frowned , deepening the wrinkles on his forehead.

Despite having only turned 30 a few months ago, the weight of leadership had visibly aged him by several years. But that was only really true for his face and expression. Even with a Mage’s halved progression of physical Stats, the cumulative bonus from his gained Levels did their job to return his body to its physical prime.

“Not necessarily. But right now they’re effectively under house arrest while Alex grills them for answers. Since they’re his group, he’s taken it upon himself to find out exactly what happened. The fact that it even happened is unfortunate. However, I’m glad that he’s at least acting like an actual leader and taking responsibility. I know that he gets along well with the other teens, so it’s good that he’s not trying to excuse them too easily or anything like that,” she explained.

“Hmm, alright. We’ll keep a close eye on it then. But for now, I’ll trust Alex to handle it as he thinks is best. Is there anything else that I should know about? ” Noah asked.

“There actually is just one more thing. As soon as you came back, Alex actually wanted you to know that there’s something else he’s worried about. When he returned from a mission earlier today, he said there was something off about the number of undead. He believes that there were a lot less of them around right before he made his way back. Alex felt that it was strange, and said it was serious enough for you to know about.”

Noah’s head tilted slightly to the side as he considered what she just said. “Well… that actually makes sense. On my way out of the city, I also noticed that there were less undead in the way than normal. I didn’t think too much of it at the time, but-”

His next words were interrupted by the sudden bellowing of an alarm. Multiple people were banging metal against metal, signaling a major emergency.

“HORDE! There’s a massive horde of undead coming straight toward us!” a voice cried out.

Sam’s eyes widened with surprise. She turned toward her leader, who also seemed shocked for a moment. But his gaze quickly narrowed as he glanced over to her.

“Come on! We need to head to the wall and see what’s going on!” Noah exclaimed with a serious look. Nodding, Sam followed right behind him as they quickly moved to the side of the perimeter where the panic was coming from.

There was chaos across the camp as they moved. Nobody had expected a sudden emergency like this as the air was filled with the sound of panicked yelling. Noah was shouting left and right at people, telling them to hide away the children too young to defend themselves.

Sam’s heart was rapidly beating within her chest. Even the splinter horde led here by Alex hadn’t caused this kind of alarm. At least when that happened, they’d been warned a bit ahead of time. They eventually reached the wall, where many others had already gathered. Sam nodded at Burt and Adam as she stepped beside them. But when she looked out to the area past the wall, her eyes widened with fear.

Slowly and steadily moving ever closer was what could only be called a sea of undead. The hordes she’d seen before easily had hundreds. But this was something else entirely. There had to be thousands upon thousands of Skeletons in the collectively shambling mass.

“There’s just way too fucking many. It’d be one thing if there were just normal Skeletons. But do you see how many Ghouls and Skeleton Mages are mixed in there?” Burt muttered.

Sam glanced over at Noah biting his lip as he stared at the grey ocean of bones. Would they try to hunker down? Grab everything they could and evacuate?

He was their leader. So they all looked to him to make the decision that could decide their fate.