George was juggling two different phone calls and working on his computer when they opened the door to his office. One of four on the top floor of the building.

He pointedly eyed a few chairs in front of his desk with a nod before refocusing on both conversations.

“No, Trissa! I don’t care what you say. I am not giving your family preferential treatment of any kind.” He slammed the first phone down into its cradle. “And as for you, Lisa! Get your bloody family over to the Chrighton compound where it's safe and keep that woman in line before I lose it.” George hung up his cell phone in a much more controlled manner and placed it face down on his desk.

“How are things going?” Nate asked.

The older man’s head sagged. “Everything is a mess right now. We’ve been keeping it from the news, but even before the wall broke, things weren’t going well. The cultivators on the walls are overworked, and starting to accumulate injuries as they push their bodies and their cores. That goes triple for my people.” He pulled his head back up and stared at Aura. “Enough about me though. I see you have been holding out on me.” A small grin graced his tired face as he spoke.

Nate was relieved George wasn’t mad or insulted they had hidden her existence from him. “Our last expedition was an interesting one, to say the least. I would have told you on Sunday when you came by, but Claire was there…” Nate quirked his head in sudden thought. “Have you heard from her at all since this began? Was she able to make it through alright? Is she safe?”

“I have, and yes, she managed to get home safely. Thank you for asking. She is also raising awareness of what is going on here, and what the visiting cultivators did to ensure it happened.”

“Is that safe?” Nina asked, leaning forward. “I mean, this was all sanctioned by their local governments. If she says the wrong thing, and they found out…”

“I did mention that to her,” George suddenly looked even more tired than before. “Thankfully, she actually lives a couple of cities away from us. So, the risk is minimized somewhat. It was something that she insisted on doing.”

“Where do you want me to put the items we grabbed from your house?” Nate asked a couple of minutes later.

George waved to the open space around the room. “Just put it wherever you see space. Do you need help bringing it up from your car? I’ll have a few of my minions help you.”

Niall’s face became a tad cramped as he turned to his son. “Yeah, Nate, do we need help bringing it all up here?”

He chuckled awkwardly and walked over to the corner. “There’s no need for that. We have everything right here.”

With that said, he began pulling everything that George had specifically requested he retrieve out of his storage. He had kept his requests to a minimum due to the belief that their space would be at a premium.

The guild master watched with wide eyes that slowly drifted to Aura, and then back to Nate with a look of partial dawning comprehension. “You have a storage bracelet and a beast companion. I’m beginning to think that you have more secrets than the average cultivator.”

“Maybe a couple,” Nate admitted with a wry smile.

George nodded and then shrugged. “Well, I admit that I am curious. However, some things should be kept private. Now, where are you all off to?”

“Where would you suggest?” Nina wondered. “Leaving the city is all but impossible at the moment, and the roads are only getting more and more congested as people try to flee. We had to get out of the house, but now I’m wondering if just holing ourselves up in the basement would have been a smarter plan. Without the ability to leave the city, we’re trapped no matter what.”

“Go to the Chrighton’s estate,” George told them firmly. “It’s where Lindsay and her family should be heading to right at this moment. They have the best setup for creating a defensive position of some kind. It’s where I’ll be going after I’m finished here. I’ll call ahead and let them know to expect you.”

Nate looked at the items he had just offloaded and sighed before storing them all over again with a roll of his eyes.

“Thank you, I appreciate it. That’s one less thing I will need to worry about in the heat of the moment.”

Nate nodded and looked at his parents. “Are we done here?”

Niall stood. “Yup, let’s go. George, stay safe, and we’ll see you at the Chrighton compound, estate, or whatever you want to call it.”

Back outside, the previously congested roads had taken on a whole new level of driver stupidity. Accidents of one form or another were everywhere they looked. In their haste to escape, people were rear-ending the cars in front of them, side-swiping their neighbors, and causing damage all about as they drove up on the sidewalks and through people’s yards.

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Unfortunately, unlike before, they were no longer heading in the opposite direction of traffic. Not that it would have mattered anymore, as people had completely forgotten what the rules of the road were.

All Niall could do was to join in the madness and do his best to keep them all safe.

Over the next few minutes, the SUV was sideswiped countless times and rear-ended twice. By the time they pulled off the main road and onto the road that led to Angie’s place, the windows of the car were either shattered or riddled with cracks. Luckily, all the damage had been cosmetic and didn’t affect how the engine handled in any way.

Of course, that didn’t stop Nina from calling them a bunch of ‘savages’ as they left the crowded main thoroughfare behind.

They started to make better time at that point, but the roads were still crowded. The only difference was that people were a little less insane in this area.

Pulling up to the gates at the Chrighton estate, Nate couldn’t help but feel his jaw loosen a little. Since becoming friends with Angie and Lindsay, he had been to Angie’s house several times. It was always an intimidating experience, just in regard to the physical reminder of their social disparity.

Now, however, it had become an intimidating experience for a whole new reason. When George had mentioned that they had the best setup for a defensive position, he hadn’t been joking.

Since he had last been there a few days before, towering walls of impacted dirt had been created that circled their entire property. The sole opening was the gate, which had been turned into a large tunnel with a series of drop gates.

Nate hopped out as they reached the gate and approached the guard. “My name is Nathan Holmes, and this is my family. Angelica is expecting us.”

The guard looked him up and down and then took in the battered state of their car before nodding. “I’ve seen you accompanying the young miss a few times now. Word came down just a few minutes ago to expect you.” He spoke into his radio and the gates near the back of the tunnel that had been previously dropped were raised.

“Has Lindsay and her family arrived yet?” Nathan asked him with a polite nod.

“She has, though portions of her family have yet to arrive.”

“Alright, thanks. Stay safe out here. People are getting crazy out there.” Nathan hurried back to the car so his dad could drive them through the tunnel.

Despite having been to Angie’s place several times, he had actually only been to her house one time, when he first met her parents. Every other time he had visited, he had gone to the training facility.

Angie and Lindsay were ready and waiting for them when they pulled up behind the line of other cars already there in front of the mansion.

“I hope you’re ready for this,” Angie said to Nate in a way of warning and welcome as he stepped out.

“Your mom in a mood?”

“She always is when Lindsay’s parents are around.” Lindsay nodded at that assessment.

Both girls squealed in delight as Aura hopped out of the car and stretched in front of them.

“When did you get a beast companion?” Lindsay demanded as she bent down and began petting Aura.

“This last weekend,” Nate quickly told them the same story he had given George, with a few minor tweaks to accommodate why he hadn’t told them on Monday.

As his parents joined them outside of the SUV, the girls brought them inside the house. Both sets of parents were sitting inside Aden’s rather large study and presumably office. It had a solid wood desk in between a pair of towering windows by the far wall.

Closer to the middle of the room was a rather chunky-looking table with a display embedded in it. There were multiple maps of the area currently displayed across its surface. One of the city as a whole, four different ones for the wall around the city, and then five smaller maps for the Chrighton compound.

At the moment, they were gathered around the table talking about how they were going to defend everything.

Lindsay’s father, James, tapped one of the upper corners of a map and it grew to encompass the entire table. “I’m telling you; it is still too much size. We need more people and supplies. A large part of the reason the wall around the city is failing is because of cultivator shortages. We just didn’t have enough people to man the walls properly. The local government made them too long, in the hopes that the city would continue to grow. Which admittedly, it did, but not enough to take up even a fraction of the space they prepared.”

“We are more than willing to do our part and participate in any defensive operations,” Nina said, butting into the conversation before it could get too heated.

“Mom, dad, the Holmes family just arrived,” Angie said, motioning to the people beside her.

Nate waved to them. “I hope you have prepared a hefty stock of arrows and crossbow bolts.”

Niall nudged his son and subtly shook his head. Meanwhile, Lindsay turned her head to the side to hide the smile that suddenly bloomed into being.

Lisa Travers and Trissa Chrighton scowled at Nathan, their eyes taking in every detail about him and finding him wanting in every way. No doubt they both thought that their girls were interested in him in some way. Which, if true, Nate would be flattered. They were both gorgeous young women. However, he hadn’t caught so much as a hint of interest that they were attracted to him in that way. So, he had been careful to keep his own feelings completely non-sexual toward them both.

They were his friends, and nothing more. If either wanted to change that, then they would need to be the one to make the first move, not him.

“We have been stocking up supplies for years now, in case something like this ever happened. Both of our families have.” Aden replied to Nate.

“Alright, well, it was nice to see all of you again. But I know when I’m out of my depth. Why don’t I just leave my parents here with you all and go somewhere else with Angie and Lindsay? I’m sure we can find someplace else to cause trouble.”

He spun about and quickly escaped from the room before they could say anything to contest him. Aura was hot on his trail as he wandered back through the halls of the massive house.

Angie found him a minute later, with Lindsay joining them a minute after that.

“How many families have your parents welcomed into their home?” He asked, stopping beside a window that looked out over the back garden. The grounds around the house were immaculate, outside of the dozen large expedition-style RV trucks. They were the sort of comfortable trucks that his family could only dream of owning.

The truck his parents had bought was large, but was designed to mostly haul a large number of people. It possessed what was known as an extended crew-cab. It was a truck with a short bed in the back, but it had a third passenger row inside.

It was large enough to be comfortable for sleeping, if needed, but that was it. However, it would never be mistaken for an RV.