"Oh right. Of course, Katie, this is Captain Snyder. He has assumed command of the rescue operation." Drew said separating enough that they could both turn and be looking at the captain but not actually letting go.

"A pleasure to meet you, captain, I'm OS1 Sabin. We've got food for your people, they can sit and eat, for now, it should be relatively safe."

Snyder glanced at Katie, an obvious frown at her lack of salute. "Very well." Snyder turned, addressing the group, "Everyone get something to eat, try to get the numb to eat something. We'll be setting out in 45 minutes." With a nod to Katie, the captain stalked off towards Hoffecker.

Katie poked Drew's side, "Don't you know better than to piss off the brass?"

"He asked for it, we lost a lot of people, I was trying to get everyone out before they turned into wereghouls. We just barely got to safety before they started turning." Drew gestured to the numerous corpses around, "What happened here?"

"Well, last night, there was a flash of blue light and then all the insects sort of went crazy, swarmed this place until a bunch flashy lights started appearing over by the baseball fields." Katie pulled him aside, "That looked a lot like your storms, you didn't by any chance piss off some insect queen or something did you?"

"Well, no, but I think I know what the blue light was. The lights were me though, we were going to exit the tunnel last night. Bugs were swarming the entrance so we took up a defensive position and I cast storms over the entrance, that was easier than trying to kill everything individually." He slid a hand down her side until it was resting against her hip.

"I'm starving though, think I can catch you up while we eat?"

When Katie nodded, they wandered over to one of the shopping carts full of food. Everyone was grabbing an item with both hands. Drew managed to snatch a cup of ravioli, some Vienna sausages and a can of pringles no one seemed to begrudge him the extra item while Katie pulled out a can of green beans, and some ranch style beans. They sat down next on a relatively clean section of grass away from everyone else and shared the food, although neither of them seemed very interested in the Vienna sausages.

Everything was served cold, and Drew couldn't help but compare it to a lunch at the pizza place down in Kingstowne. They made the best spicy feta pizza. "I can't wait until we get some real food," Drew said, as he slurped down a ravioli. There wasn't a polite way to eat them out of the can, Katie was doing something similar and the two just enjoyed the relatively normal experience of sharing a meal together.

"Don't talk about real food, it'll just make this stuff harder to eat."

Drew responded with a bitter laugh, while he watched Daryl use his necro alchemy xatherite on several more corpses, clearing the area for more people to sleep while hopefully gathering important resources. Min Sun and the other crafters were already sorting through the various results, putting them in the newly emptied shopping carts.

"So, what was that blue light?"

Drew explained how when the troll shaman sacrificed the humans a blue light had shone. Drew assumed this was the system transporting them off world. Katie nodded and gasped at all the appropriate places, even though she had been privy to JP's play by play describing the assault and final fight. After that, they had been too busy to peek in. They had lost a few people to the digging bugs, one type of beetle had a paralyzing bite that killed a kid before anyone even realized he had been injured.

"We managed to build a sort of flooring after that, and we mostly were left alone. I think that must have been when you started blasting your storms like crazy. You managed to pull everything away from here, I'm also pretty sure they were visible from everywhere. After a while the sky just sort of glowed in alternating waves of red, yellow and purple. It reminded me a lot of the Star Spangled Banner actually. You know how he says the cannons bright glare proved that the flag was still there."

Drew blushed, it was strange to hear something so normal compared to such a monumental event. "We pulled into Charleston harbor once, when I was on the Spencer, got to go on a tour of the Fort."

They talked about small pleasantries after that, neither of them wanting to talk about the terrors of the night before. Drew could read his own emotions in the way Katie held herself. It felt like he should have done more, should have been able to save everyone. His mind kept returning to the faces of the dead, Angela, Juan and Mitch featured prominently but the faces of Frank and a few hundred others who he only knew as lifeless bodies slaughtered by the trolls in the pit also made themselves known.

Katie kissed him, driving the thoughts of the dead away, "We'll mourn later." She said squeezing his hand. "We still need to figure out a way across the bridge."

Mention of the bridge reminded Drew that he had been warned that Robbi had been communicating with someone. He had told them to meet them at the bridge. Looking around he found the cop, eating breakfast and talking to JP, Trista, and Trey. "Daryl gave me a note, written by someone named Kara. Do you know who she is?"

Katie pulled back a bit to take a measure of his expression, "What did the note say?"

Drew pulled the small piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Katie, who read it while he summarized it's contents: "Robbi was using some sort of device to communicate with someone, Kara thought he was trying to hide it from JP but he was planning on having them meet us at the bridge."

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Katie turned and looked at Robbi again, concern written on her face. "What do you think that's they want?"

"I honestly have no idea. I want to trust Robbi, if he had wanted harm to come to us he had plenty of opportunity in the tunnels. But..." Drew trailed off, unsure how to express his doubt. The longest he had known any of these people was Katie, and he had barely known her a week. There was a sense of fraternity with people who had shed blood with him though. He didn't want to think ill of any of the five people he considered part of 'his' group.

"So, what are you going to do?"

"What can we do? We make our way to the bridge, we have to get these people somewhere safe."

Katie leaned turned and then leaned back into his chest, her head resting against his shoulder. Then pulled his hands around her stomach clasping them together. "Alright, we'll worry about it then. Who knows, maybe they're friends and hiding from a faction in the stadium."

That was cold comfort, if there was a faction in the stadium that already merited a secret resistance then bringing all these people there was a terrible idea. Not that Drew had much of a choice, they had food there, food was going to get harder and harder to come by. Without anything positive to add he just took a moment to enjoy the embrace.

Hoffecker approached them a few minutes later, "Hello IT2, OS2." She said with a smile. "Sorry to interrupt but I was hoping to go over some logistics with you." Katie extended her legs and with a quick bounce back against Drew stood up, she then turned around to help him up.

"How can I help you, Ma'am?" Drew asked Hoffecker was the kind of officer he liked: practical and down to earth.

"We're hoping that the group is large enough that we don't need to worry about any attacks, but we're gonna have you and JP split up, have each of you about a third of the way from either end. Then split the rest of the people with real firepower up. Station a couple at the front and back and some spread out throughout."

"Sounds good, I'd like to rotate up to the front when we get closer to the bridge. JP and Robbi said they lost three people going across last time, I'd like to get an idea of what we're up for."

"No complaints here," Hoffecker said and was about to head out, but Drew interrupted her.

"Major, there might be some trouble at the bridge, try to keep Robbi towards the back if you can."

She raised an eyebrow, "Care to explain?"

"I wish I could, all I have right now is pretty vague. Just something with Robbi and the bridge."

"You have some sort of clairvoyance xatherite?" Drew could tell the woman had been dying to ask him about his xatherite for a long time and saw this as a golden opportunity.

"Something like that." Drew kept his poker face. The major clearly wanted more information but could sense that she wasn't going to get anywhere questioning him.

"Alright, I'll keep him in the back."

"Thanks."

She nodded before heading off, a single thoughtful backward glance and Drew was alone again. While the various survivors all seemed to be gathering in different groups, there was a small bubble around him, everyone going out of their way to give him plenty of space. He wondered if this was going to be the new normal. Stepping into one of the groups he noticed that their conversation died off almost immediately they all turned to look at him expectantly.

Awkwardly he glanced around then seeing Daryl looking his way, made a lame excuse and headed over to the scout.

"Daryl, we get anything good?"

"A lot of chitin, Sun Min seems to think she can use it to augment most of the armor, maybe even make something close to a breastplate with some of the larger pieces. At least I think that's what she said, she started talking Korean towards the end there."

Drew laughed, "Sounds good, you eaten yet?"

Daryl nodded his head, "Yeah, I managed to grab a bite early."

"Ahh, good for you. Walk with me? I have something to give JP."

Daryl nodded and the two men walked around the crowd to where JP, Robbi, and the others were still conversing.

"Hey, Drew." JP greeted him when they got close enough.

"Howdy, I hear congratulations are in order. Katie told me you leveled." The groups nearest them had stopped talking, everyone focused on the exchange between the two powerhouses of the group.

The taller cop smiled, "Sure did."

Drew reached out a hand to shake, "Well done. I have a bit of a present for you. Courtesy of that lightning caller." Opening his interface he traded the final xatherite he had harvested from the shaman to JP who accepted and then got the glazed look in his eyes that Drew was learning to associate with people staring at their maps.

"I was hoping you could link it with some of your other elemental skills. The linked skills are pretty significant force multipliers and you're really missing an area of effect skill."

"Thank you!" JP said pulling Drew into a hug. The cop's exuberance infectious enough to make the hug less awkward than it would have been otherwise.

"No problem, hopefully, you don't need it, but..." Drew trailed off with a shrug.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Man, this thing is awesome. I have the perfect spot to slot it, right between sonic gun and fire shot."

Drew nodded his head in agreement, that would almost complete one of his linked sections. Not to mention giving him two potentially powerful linked skills. Actually, come to think of it, sonic and fire should probably already have linked up.

"Nice, did those two create a linked skill?"

"Yeah, I upgraded fire shot last night and that triggered a linked skill, firecracker shot. I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but I think it'll make something like a flashbang wherever it lands."

"That is pretty awesome." Glancing at the three other combatants near him, "Don't worry, as soon as we get everyone safe I intend to delve into some more dungeons, we'll start harvesting xatherite and spread it around, everyone who wants to fight will get some, we'll make sure everyone can defend themselves if they want to."

Trista, Trey, and Robbi all nodded their heads, but what was more important is the look of determination on the faces of about ten other people who had been listening in. They would work hard to earn the right to get combat xatherite.