"Hey Bob. My eyes are up here. If you're going to take on the show I expect at least a few rare card pieces for my trouble. Also, you have a bit of a smell about you so maybe take a dip as well? I heard that someone has a cleaning power?"

Stella didn't mind Bob looking. She did mind him smelling like he hadn't showered in a long time.

"Bob, go jump in the river. Stella can handle herself," Finley said.

Stella could see that Bob was still locked up and she snapped her fingers in front of him several times. That he finally broke out of it.

"Oh yes, uh sorry. Who had the cleaning powers?"

Bob began to strip down in front of her, a choice that she wanted to avoid. True his muscles were a choice cut-Stella had to remind herself that they were in a life or death situation and she probably shouldn't have jumped into the cool clear water. Her hair was still dripping wet.

"Hey, I really hope that you have a towel or two in the caravan. Some of the canvas material was clean. I wouldn't trust it though," Stella said once Bob was down to his shorts.

Bob stripped off his pants and instead of running to the stream, just casually strolled without a care in the world.

"Cleaning?"

"Oh yeah," Finley said, "I got this card that I meant to give to Sonya. I thought she would be the first out but-"

The look that she gave him would have melted an already viscous cheese.

"-or you can take it."

"Or I can take it, yeah," she said.

Stella took the card and held it out.

"Alright. What do I do with this again?"

"Just place it above your heart, then will it into your soul deck. Since you already have the cryomancer magic this should be easy."

Stella pressed the card against her bare chest then gave it a little push. She could feel the skill and immediately activated it on herself. Instantly, she felt like she had spent a day at the Korean spa she loved and was now cleaned inside and out. Blue flames tingled her skin as the affected part extended from her in a large cylinder.

"Finley, I could kiss you but-oh hell yes this works on my clothes," she said.

She ran back to where her clothes were, not even noticing the circle of cleanliness that she left behind. The pile of clothing by the river sat all alone as six people splashed around in the water.

"Oh, boys and girls! Who wants to be clean as a whistle?"

"Stella?" Bob said, as she dipped into the cool water.

"The one and the same. Now everyone come closer to me so I can show you all the best card power I have seen so far."

---

Anthony watched as Stella used her cleaning power over and over. Each time the blue flames washed over her companions she giggled. Then he turned back to look at how the group had set up. They didn't have camping supplies to set up a tent, but they did have enough canvas to finish the top of the wagon in case it rained that night.

Now he just needed to wrangle all of the cats. Six people were in the River, which left him, the dwarf, and Finley in the center. He felt like he needed to unload, but he didn't have anything to unload. And setting up an elaborate camp wouldn't help them in any way. Their primary needs were in his eyes, first security. If the cards and card pieces they got from Bob's Quest power could fill in that gap then he wouldn't need to find a way to get bows and swords.

Their next need was food and water, but they had enough for for a few days if they kept eating the way that they had. Once everyone was done getting clean then he could refill the water barrel in the wagon, but it didn't need filling now.

Some form of shelter would be their third objective. If they needed to, they could sleep in the caravans. Some of the horses already looked asleep, judging by their stillness. Some stood up to rest, but most lay by the way stone.

He thought back to all those nursing classes where they went over Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Then he remembered his favorite meme where someone had replaced the entire thing with getting railed in a sundress, and smiled.

He could start with their basic needs and security first. That meant that he needed to set a watch and begin planning for the short term. He had no idea what Yil or Mork wanted them to do against all the zombies. Some guidance would have been nice. It felt like someone had just given him the keys to an airplane and just told him to figure it out. Anthony didn't even know if airplanes needed keys. They probably worked off some ridiculous key fob.

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With fifteen people, they could work in shifts. That was when he ran into his first problem. In the dark on this new world, he didn't have a way to know exactly what time it was. He hadn't found any pocket watches, and had not thought to get a clock so how would they even think about doing shifts?

"Hey Finley," he said, drawing the elf away from his work piecing together more cards for them. "How do we mark time here?"

"Do you mean like a calendar?"

"I mean, like the hours. How can I mark it when several hours have passed?"

"That's a good question. I have one wind up clock in the caravan that nobody would ever buy. So I just kept it. I never really needed it for much. You want it?"

"We're going to have to set a watch. There are fifteen of us, I needed some way for them to track time, especially if they're splitting shifts, and need to wake someone at a particular time. I don't want those zombies to show up as a surprise. I think we lost them in the shuffle."

"Let me grab it."

Finley pulled out a clock from the caravan. He passed it over to Anthony. It looked straightforward at first glance. A crank on the back made it look like a jack in the box. Anthony handed it back. Finley chuckled and turned the box a few times and the clock face began to tick.

"Alright, now we need to gather everyone. Not the horses I don't think so. Question about the horses- this is some power you have right? They're not intelligent and trying to not die to zombies, correct?"

"They're not intelligent the way that you and I are. They're smart enough to know that if they stick with us, they'll survive what's about to happen, but they're tired. My two bay mares are unaccustomed to all of this drama and well," Finley pointed over to the river, "You can't see it but they're both sulking."

"Ah. Next question was if they would be able to go in the middle of the night if we got attacked. I need to know if I can count on them."

"You can count on them. I switched the horses leading the carts and the ones that are there now understand that we might have to leave quickly."

A small crowd began to gather around the way stone. Anthony counted ten with himself and Finley.

"I guess we need to talk as a group. I thought I had more time."

"You were wrong," Andrew said from off on the right, "Now you have all the time."

Finley cast a dark light and tied it off in the air above them. He made it intentionally dim, bright enough for people nearby to see, but not a flashlight.

"Hey. Gather around, you lot," Anthony said. "As everyone filters in then we can kinda get a sense of what's going on. I guess we should think about what cards we have, but since Bob has the most of the loot, we should bring him in.

"Can someone get Bob from the stream?" Sophie said from the front, clearly drying her hair in a blanket.

"I'll get him," one of the monks said, zipping out.

The group heard a splash and then a yell.

"Did that monk just?" Anthony said.

"Yes he did. He just jumped in," Sophie said.

"I feel like I should bust out the holy finger guns. I should just call this meeting to order," Anthony said.

"Alright..well since all of you elected me the leader of this little caravan through the apocalypse, I should set a few ground rules. First thing. I know we're all tired but I need five people to take up the watch immediately after this. I would prefer volunteers but I'll pick people if I have to."

Five hands went up, including Sophie.

"Great. You guys will be responsible to be on watch tonight. As thanks, I expect unless something strenuous happens you all should be sleeping during the day. Sophie do you want to be in charge?"

"Got it, boss man."

"Don't call me boss man. Maybe think up a better title?"

"Caravan Commander?" One of the warriors said.

"That might work. Though I am also the medic. I expect Bob will be in charge of acquisitions and intelligence. Finley here, who saved my ass twice already, will be the caravans quartermaster. Assuming that works for you?"

"Fine with me," Finley said.

"Great," Anthony said, turning around to look at the assembled crew, "Now we got a haul of cards from the past day and I wanted to make sure that everything got used. Some cards, like the woodworking card could be useful for one or two people. Others like the cleanse card, we all really want. Then there's cards that give ice magic like Stella got since she is in charge of food, but the rest I want to split up evenly. I'll remind you all that survival is our number one goal so as fair as I want to be, not everyone is going to get everything they want."

"If you want we can do some sealed bid drafting," Finley said ,"If we figure out some way to set up our own economy. All the gold that I have been hoarding is now useless, as well as the bartering skill I had been working tirelessly on."

The elf sighed, slumping against the wheel he had propped himself up against.

"Also there's the matter if I combine cards to make better rares and uncommons. I have five cards that I think will make a rare class card based on my understanding of how this works-some."

There was a murmur among the crowd.

"What kind of class exactly?" Bob said from the back.

Bob, faithful servant of Mork, stood there in his birthday suit. Anthony sighed inwardly. Of course the cake baker was a nudist.

"Bob, uh I think you can afford the time to put on your clean clothes. Stella can dry you off and clean your clothes with her new card," Anthony said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"That would be an excellent idea."

Finley tossed him a set of white clothing from out of nowhere. It was stamped with the Irumian crest on the arl in gold-a hammer and chisel crossed.

"What? It's what we were all thinking, I just had the robes handy."

Bob quickly donned the white trousers and robe, then sat more towards the front.

"Do what did I miss?" Bob said, inspecting the crest on his arm.

"Oh you're the acquisitions guy now," Sophie said, "Finley is in charge of quarters, Stella is in charge of food and we have to be on guard in shifts."

"Outstanding. My mother always said that I was good at getting things," Bob said.

"If we could get back on track. I think we need to give out some cards that cannot wait and make a decision or two," Anthony said. "I would prefer a straight up or down vote, and I can be the tie breaker if that comes to it. First thing: do we make another class card and if so who gets it?"

"Not one of the mages or Stella. They all already have magic and mana. I suspect that I'll make a druid card with the specific combination that I have. As such whoever takes this will have to help with the animals."

Finley waved to the horses.

"So animal handling is one of the skills?" Bob asked.

"Yes. And divine magic, though that can change a bit. Combining cards is a well recognized phenomenon. I think everyone is here now and I can go over what I have to allocate out."

"It's as good a time as any, Finley. Tell us what we've got."