Sam couldn’t help but sigh as she surveyed the camp. Or at the very least, what was left of it. Once all the non-fighters were evacuated and the rest also temporarily left the area, most of the horde just moved on without anything around to draw their aggression. And those undead or Sirens that did become idle and hung about instead were quickly cleaned up.

She glanced over to Noah as he walked beside her. His clothes were covered in muck and grime. And he, like the majority, looked worse for wear as his expression was that of a tired man.

Sam rubbed the soot out of her eye as the two of them stopped in front of the corpse of a Martial Artist. Since it was lying face down in the dirt, she knelt down and turned the body so that they could see its facial features.

“Ah damn it,” Noah muttered. “We don’t need the reference for this one. Even if his face is damaged, I can still recognize him. Poor guy, lost his only family in the initial explosion of the Apocalypse, and now this is what fate had left for him. Sam, go down to the Bs and mark George Brown as one of the deceased,” he finished with a heavy sigh. They had both already sighed much on this day, and would likely do so many more times.

They needed to count the dead. And the only way to do that was to manually try and identify each corpse and mark the name in their registry. The registry had originally been made as just a way to keep track of all their members. But now it showed another purpose through a more morbid usage.

Yet things weren’t really as simple as just finding a body and crossing a corresponding name. It was easy enough if the face was actually identifiable enough for either of them to either know the person or if it matched a listed description. Like while there were plenty of people named David, there were only so many with tanned skin, green eyes, and light brown hair. And then narrow it down even further through their listed Class and comparing the starting equipment with a corpse’s worn gear.

But things got a lot harder when the deceased’s head was too damaged to actually be identifiable. Then trying to use their list of registered people basically went out the window. Their initial idea to deal with that had been to simply make a comparison and contrast.

If someone wasn’t counted amongst the survivors, then they could be considered at least one of the unknown corpses. Then they could start from that point and work from there. However, Sam and Noah had quickly realized that wouldn’t work. Simple and obvious solutions like that seemed to almost never do.

Between the known survivors and the dead, the total numbers hadn’t quite added up. Which meant that there was a third group. Those who were simply missing entirely. According to their initial estimate, about 15% of their populace was gone. It did make sense though. That rather than following the evacuation plan, a fair number of people would just run away on their own.

Noah hoped that as time passed, those who’d left would start to trickle back in. That once they soon realized the camp hadn’t been wiped out, they would return. Yet Sam didn’t quite share in that hope of his.

A few hours had already passed by since the fighting had completely finished. And so far, none of those who’d left had returned as of yet. If Sam was being honest with herself, she wasn’t sure what to do if or when some of them did start to come back. She’d already heard the first reports of people who’d joined the defenders, only to run as soon as things went sideways according to witnesses. And there would likely be more of those reports to come over the next couple days.

They weren’t an actual military, government, or anything like that. So it was hard to say just what kind of rules or regulations should even apply anymore. But that kind of thing wasn’t just something that could be glossed over, as if it didn’t happen. What some of them did was straight up desertion. Something that when added up between the total amount of deserters, could very well have made the difference.

Certainly, not everyone who’d run away was a defender that left their post. A fair number were likely the civilizations who would have been evacuated anyway. But if Sam had to make a guess, she believed that probably around 10% of their unaccounted for population were actual deserters though.

Would they even have actually changed things by staying? Nobody could know for sure, to be honest. Yet if they could have helped hold a stable line of defense for even just a little bit longer, perhaps a few deaths might have been avoidable. In any case, it was the principle of it all that truly mattered.

That was not a headache Sam was looking forward to. While she doubted that many of the deserters would ever come back, at least one likely would. And if that person was confirmed to have been a fighter that broke the line early and abandoned the camp, they’d have to decide what to do with them.

Crimes hadn’t really been an issue so far, so they had no need to recreate any kind of legal system. But that might soon need to change. They couldn’t afford to let people think they could just desert and then think they could come back and all would be forgiven. Especially when the Chosen had made clear their intention to return and finish the job.

It was unknown when the Chosen Few would come back. Sam wished she could provide an estimate based on what she knew about Levi’s way of thinking. However, that wasn’t something she could do any more. Over the course of the Apocalypse so far, her brother had already become like a completely different person.

So Sam didn’t know if they would have time to rebuild. Or if it would even be safe for anyone to venture into the city, where the Chosen could be lying in wait. Which would make it even harder for them to regather lost supplies or gain Experience Points to get stronger. After today’s events, the future was already looking rather dour.

But if nothing else, it could have been so much worse. Sam was alive, Noah was alive. And so were so many others due Jaco’s intervention. If he hadn’t drawn the collective attention of the Chosen Few when he did, many more would have died today.

The two of them continued to walk around the battlefield. It didn't take them long to go from corpse to corpse, continuing their routine. Find a body, identify it, mark a name off the list. Find a body, identify it, mark a name off the list. Find a body, identify it, mark a name off the list. Find a body…

Sam’s chest felt tight. And it was only partially due to all the smoke and various odors still in the air. Within her mind, a question bounced around inside her skull for what was more than the dozenth time today. Could things have been different if she’d been kinder to Jaco and didn’t add to his reasoning to leave?

If that Druid had been here from the start, there was every chance that things could have played out differently. That with his power, some of these names on the list might not have been marked off. If they could’ve been saved, then wasn’t it her fault that they ended up dying instead?

It was impossible to know how things could have been different. Of what might have happened if Jaco had chosen to stay at their encampment. The main reason for why he’d become so high in Level was due to being in the city 24/7, after all. But even so, Sam couldn’t help but consider the alternate road that could have been traveled.

Noah had spent some time in the city to gain a few Levels. So if he’d stuck around, Jaco could have still done the same thing by going back and forth every few days. Perhaps the end result would have been Jaco being a couple Levels lower than he currently was. Yet even so, that still might have been enough. Especially if he’d taken the scavengers deeper into the city and helped raise their Levels further in turn.

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In that kind of world, perhaps the camp might not have been overrun. Maybe they would have been able to hold the wall as the first and only line of defense. If she had just been more trusting from the start, that potential reality could have been their current one.

“Come on Sam,” Noah said as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “I think we’ve done enough on our end for the time being.

She looked back at him, then around at bodies that had yet to be cataloged. “But there’s still so much to do. How have we done enough when there’s still… all of this left?”

“There’s still plenty more work to be done, yes. But it doesn’t have to fall on your or any one person’s shoulders alone. I’ll hand this copy of the list to someone else, and they can take it from there. Go on and head back to my tent and take a break with the others. I’ll be just a few seconds behind you.”

“I can still keep going though,” Sam continued to insist. “I’m fine, really. I-”

“Sam, you’re not fine. None of us are after today. But there’s no point in having a community of people if we can’t cover each other’s work. So go on and head back to my tent,” Noah said, putting his foot down.

With most of the RVs now wrecked after the battle and many tents trampled or burned, they were scrambling for temporary accommodations. And so their leader’s current tent was the largest. But while being his living space, it also remained multifunctional as their meeting area. So it’d only really be Noah’s whenever he needed to sleep. Which with their System enhanced bodies, meant it wouldn’t be solely his space very often .

Sam hesitated for a moment as she glanced off to the ground. At the moment, that was where several people were, Jaco included. Then with a small nod, she turned and started in the direction of Noah’s tent.

—--

Jaco stood against a wall of the tent, his arms crossed against his chest. The last couple of hours had been quite taxing in the mental department. Right after the Chosen Few left, he’d kept watch while circling the area. Just in case their departure had just been a trick to get their guard down.

It was only just a short while ago that he finally allowed himself to relax. As far as he’d been able to tell, the Chosen had truly left the area. For now they were probably already back at the inner parts of the city.

While he hadn’t seen any evidence for it, Jaco believed that an organized group like that probably had some kind of central point. A location for them to meet or at least rendezvous on occasion. The central area of the city was only so big, even with how chaotic of a ruined urban environment it was. If he set enough of it on fire, then eventually, the rats would be flushed out. Then they’d be able to fight without any worries of innocent casualties to make him hesitate.

For the time being, however, Jaco decided to stick around in the camp. If he left now while they were still vulnerable, then it really would be an act that basically begged for the Chosen to strike. So for now, he’d act as a high Level wall that’d make them think twice about attacking. And as he was staying anyway, it also made for a good opportunity to catch up with some people.

“I still can’t believe you actually managed to hit Level 40,” Alex said. “I didn’t really get a chance to actually see it after I got taken out of danger. But I still felt that massive explosion from the supermassive fireball. Were you really able to reflect that with just a single thought?” The teen’s tone was filled with awe as he stood in front of the Druid.

Jaco waved his hand. “Ah, I wouldn’t say it was as easy as you’ve heard. It honestly took everything I had to force it to reverse direction. If I’d messed up by even the slightest margin, it would have just exploded early right in my face.”

“But still! That alone cleared out a large portion of the horde. It’s probably the thing that actually grabbed the leader of the Chosen’s attention. If it hadn’t, I don’t wanna know what they would have done if they had more time to execute their plan. So that alone might have saved a lot of lives,” Alex insisted.

“Well, I am glad that I at least came when I did. And that I’m actually strong enough now that even their leader can’t act carelessly while I’m around. But that being said…” Jaco thought to all the corpses he saw that were strewn around. Of the front entrance he once walked through, now destroyed.

“Honestly?” he continued. “I just wish that I got here sooner. And that I was even stronger than I am now. Strong enough to take on all the Chosen right there and then without any worries. But since their leader, Levi, is only two Levels behind me, I couldn’t take a risk like that. Not without knowing what kind of Abilities or artifacts he has hidden up his sleeve.”

At that moment, two people entered the tent. The first was Sam, with Noah then following just right behind her. But while the former kept a slower pace, the latter sped up and directly approached him.

“Jaco, aren’t you a sight of sore eyes? Out of every face I’ve looked at today, yours’ is probably the one I’m happiest to see,” Noah warmly greeted. The Mage held out a hand, and Jaco took it to clasp together for a firm handshake.

“I’ll take the compliment. How’ve you been, Noah?” Jaco asked. It’d taken him a second to fully recognize the leader of the camp. The poor dude looked like he’d aged several years since Jaco had left.

“To be frank, a part of me is really hoping that this whole Apocalypse will turn out to be just one long nightmare. And that I’ll wake up at any second and then forget it after a few cold ones. But other than that, I’m fine.”

The two of them proceeded to catch up for a bit. Though after just a minute or two, Sam walked up to Jaco. He turned, and when their eyes met, she almost immediately broke eye contact by looking off to the side. Additionally from what he could tell from just her general demeanor, she seemed to be a bit nervous about something.

“Hey Sam. I already caught up with Adam and Burt before they had to go do some work. But it’s good that you guys all managed to get out of that mess okay. How are you holding up?” Jaco asked as he held out his hand.

The young woman paused. But then just a second later, her posture seemed to relax a bit. She took the offered hand, her face turning into a small and tired smile.

“I’m… okay. I guess that I’m just thankful that the two of them managed to survive. Since Adam was posted to be farther off on the side of the wall, that let him avoid the brunt of that ice attack. That was just luck more than anything else. But I’ll take it,” Sam admitted.

“Yeah, I’m with you there. After all the shit the Apocalypse has made us go through, I think we’re all overdue on a bit of luck,” Jaco agreed.

“Mhmm. Maybe more than just a bit, at this rate. So how have you been Jaco?”

“I’m as alright as I could be, I suppose. I was actually planning on stopping back at the camp soon as it was. Just didn’t expect it to be in these kinds of circumstances. It was just lucky that I looked in this direction after the Chosen attacked. ” he said with a heavy sigh.

“But even now, there’s still more messes that’ll need to be dealt with. And I’m honestly not sure what to do for some of them,” Jaco continued. His eyes darted over to one figure standing by herself.

The redheaded Warrior, Evelyn. The person who he helped just earlier that day. And the person who was apparently a former member of the Chosen Few.

Though it was only a quick look, Sam picked it up as she then also glanced over. Though she didn’t say anything, the small frown that formed on her face spoke for itself. Nobody had acknowledged Evelyn’s status as a former Chosen as of yet, since they were unsure how to handle that information.

Just the knowledge of that fact was still kept contained to only those who’d been close enough to hear it from Levi at the time. If the people of the camp were to learn about it so soon after the attack, it’d just spark a mess of its own. So for the time being, it was pushed aside until they could make a plan about it.

“Yeah… I’m with you on that one. But actually, there is something I’ve been meaning to ask you about. If you don’t mind it, I mean,” Sam said.

“I mean, that kind of depends on what you want to ask about, right? But sure, go on ahead,” Jaco said with a nod.

“Alright. Just what happened to you in the city? Because while your high Level is already one thing, what caused your Species change? You don’t seem any different, but the implication of being Hell-Touched…” she trailed off, seemingly hesitant to go any farther than that.

The Druid let out a deep sigh. “Yeah, that. Well since you guys are already here, I might as well share what my last… God, it really is still the same day, isn’t it?” Jaco said, seemingly asking himself the question.

“The same day?” Sam asked, looking a tad confused.

“Ahhh, I think I’ll just start with how things went right after I left, just to get you fully caught up. So the first big thing was when I was near the inner city, and had my first run-in with the Chosen Few.”

Everyone within the tent had already started listening in as he began. Even when compared to what they all just went through, they already knew this was going to be quite the story.