After deciding to find shelter, Jamie, Kylie and the newest member of their group, Ralph, made their way to Jamie’s spot of choice. Knowing the area, it was the only place for miles which made sense to try and defend. To meet the needs of the middle class living in the area, a large outlet mall was built four or five years ago. “Garling’s” was the largest building in the area, but when they arrived it was mostly empty. People were still panicking, running around aimlessly and dying.

The stores inside were boutiques, but with some savvy looting on their way and with Ralph promising to try butchering anything which looked edible, Jamie was confident they could sustain a group if people worked together. There were some restaurants with pantries which hadn’t been emptied, more than enough almost-designer clothing to replace the disgusting rags their clothes had become in surviving the change and, with only a little work, easily defensible entrances.

As she slammed an empty wardrobe down to barricade a side door, it struck her firmly. She was strong. Stronger than anyone she had ever met, most likely. The large wooden piece of furniture didn’t even cause her to sweat. Jamie was surprised at herself. It was just about the only emotion she felt through the glacier inside herself. The pain which came with the realisation was almost physical as it added another layer of ice to her frozen core.

Not strong enough when it mattered.

It took all of two days for things to fall apart in the suburbs bordering London. While the inciting incident was hard to place due to the multitude of things which went wrong at once, there was a common denominator between them. Jamie and Kylie had done well, both of them would later agree, but the underlying issue was clear.

Other people were dumb, greedy and useless.

The plan had seemed sensible, and it would have been in a more normal scenario. When groups began to notice the safe space Jamie and Kylie were creating, they hurriedly begged to join their growing group. With the addition of monsters to the world, people’s more mundane woes lessened in importance. Only somewhat, though, as the biggest problem was keeping everyone sane. Food was lasting longer these days due to a lack of appetite as well as the System’s attributes changing people. They simply required less sustenance.

Which made the fact the whole thing fell apart over a packet of cookies even more ridiculous.

The two of them left the large shopping centre they had spent the last days barricading and fortifying, heading out of London. They had tried. The false acts of compassion, smiles and assurances, taking the time to learn people’s names and faces. Encouraging people to try and hunt monsters to gain their own strength. It hadn’t been enough. The walls would have remained strong, but not all monsters tried to break through the front. All it took was a whisper from Jamie’s most hated creature to bring it all down. Ironically, it wasn’t a monster from the System, but a more ancient one altogether.

Doubt.

“How can two women protect anyone?” That was the spark which brought the whole place down within hours. Jamie wanted to go back and punch Ralph, who had seen their strength and said nothing. A combination of complacency and cowardice served to bring a group who thought they knew better to the front. A group of men who said they could “more easily handle the stress of leading.”

As Jamie had no interest in leading and all Kylie wanted to do was find something else to kill, they took a backseat on decision making. Within minutes, the carefully rationed food stores, which Jamie had been filling as she looted the surrounding area, were raided. It was most easily noticeable as the new leader of Garling’s, Boris, walked through the common area with a packet of chocolate chip cookies.

The ensuing fight had apparently been what the nearby monsters were waiting for.

Jamie wasn’t actually convinced the monsters had been intelligent enough to do such a thing, but the timing was brutal for the potential of Garling’s as a safe space. A trio of large dog-people tore through most of the ranks while a swarm of smaller creatures attacked the rest. It was a massacre which Jamie should have seen coming.

Not caring about anyone else, Jamie and Kylie escaped. Taking their anger out on a pair of ugly overgrown hyena men, the women were efficient. Kylie had been a woman possessed since the arrival of her quest and her first level up. Placing all her points into strength had made the club she struggled to swing look deft in her hands. The subsequent levels had rounded her out.

Jamie had only gained one more level in the two days since, while Kylie had risen to level five. The monsters in the area weren’t really a threat to them anymore, which was why their levelling speed had slowed. Spending time maintaining the peace in Garling’s had been a pointless waste of time. “Where are we going now?” Kylie asked, having looted the two Gnolls. She shared the coins, which had them both rolling their eyes. What good were coins in the apocalypse? It just made greedy people more covetous, and therefore dangerous.

Jamie wanted to say she didn’t know. She wanted to say the wind would carry them to where they needed to be, or that nothing mattered so she had chosen a direction at random. Except, as they passed her abandoned car on the road without comment, Jamie knew where they were heading. She was unsure why she was heading back towards where all of this started for her, but it was the only place which made sense.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

It was where she had started abandoning the world. Perhaps, it was a place she could begin to take some things back, too. “I think we had the right idea, but the wrong people.” As they walked towards Thistledon, Jamie gave Kylie the whole plan, which had the other woman nodding along with confidence by the end.

Honestly, Jamie knew any plan which involved the terms “completely cleared out” and “no one but us” would have been enough for Kylie. Jamie often found her gazing fiercely into nothingness, which would have been worrying in the past. Now, Jamie knew she was just staring daggers at the System prompt which told her to get stronger for a reward. Kylie would get her daughter back, the System said. Any moment not chasing another portion of experience was one which infuriated Kylie.

It would take a few hours to reach the quiet university town, so they moved with the morning sun. Jamie had fully intended to keep Kylie as her only ally until they met Cate. Heading in the same direction, slower due to being alone, Cate was the first person the pair had met who was taking the fight to the monsters, too. Jamie was tentatively impressed by what she saw as the woman took down a large wolf before they could even jump in to help.

Cate Denton was closer to Jamie’s age than Kylie’s, maybe even a little younger than Jamie herself. She had a tight bob of black hair which had matted with the blood dried into it. Her clothing suggested she had been at the gym or jogging when the terror started. Leggings and a tight top weren’t the best survival gear, but the wicked looking spear she carried had done a lot to out-survive the wolf. She was wandering, so more than happy to join them in their plans.

The rest of their journey was uneventful, despite looking for trouble. Though, once they reached Thistledon, the want was flipped on its head. There was a kind of grim satisfaction in seeing the destroyed area. Only the university itself could be described as intact, nearly every other building in sight flattened like some kind of shockwave had started here. The general desolation gave Jamie a hollow sense of victory. She had been right. Staying here was a death wish.

No one could have survived, unless they were in the university. Jamie supposed that was likely the case for most people in the area given the graduation occuring at the time, but not for everyone. Not for anyone who mattered. The three women followed the opposite direction to the signs of damage, looking for the epicentre of the blast before exploring the university. Given the lack of safe spaces, the place was likely a gory mess they would sooner avoid anyway. Better to take their time.

What they found defied explanation. As far as Jamie could tell, the local park had been covered with some kind of dome. Taller than a building, but not very high, the curving space was the strangest thing any of them had ever seen. When Cate threw caution to the wind and tried to touch it, she disappeared. Jamie and Kylie hesitated for a few seconds before she reappeared, looking sheepish. “That could have been dangerous,” Jamie noted, not really caring one way or another. It would have been a shame to lose Cate’s ability and her spear, though.

“I think it just put me on the other side of the thing,” Cate shrugged. “I didn’t even feel anything. Like, I didn’t feel a barrier or whatever.” She turned back around and poked the barrier with her spear. The weapon had appeared when Cate killed her first monster, which made Jamie a little jealous. All she’d gotten so far were short knives and the club which Kylie still used. When the tip touched the pale pink barrier, the dark-haired woman vanished again before returning just as quickly. “No touching, apparently.”

Though it was interesting, and apparently the source of whatever explosive force had flattened Thistledon, there wasn’t much they could do with it. Jamie resolved to keep an eye on the strange place, but the three made their way to the university to see how bad the damage was there.

Bad.

Very bad.

Stone-faced, Jamie looked at the walls of the building with barely a twitch. An angry thought surfaced and was crushed, only to worm back up through her clenched fists. It was unfair. Why… Even thinking it placed a blame on others they didn’t deserve but Jamie couldn’t stop the vicious feeling from forming within the ice, sculpting the frozen edges with frigid thorns. “Why didn’t they fucking fight?” She asked, glad to be alone as the words forced their way out.

Then she cried. A portion of the ice broke away and it hurt. It stabbed her in the chest like she had fallen onto the knives she carried. Falling to her knees in the blood stained hallway, Jamie screamed and sobbed at the injustice of it all. They hadn’t found a single survivor in Thistledon, and when it became clear there were none in the University the other women had gone to wait outside. It was just her, alone in the echoing halls. Whatever monsters had torn through this place had left it empty after the fact.

Once her emotions had run their course, the river of tears solidified once more. Jamie left the university, dry eyes and her face impassive, stating what she wanted to do. Neither Cate or Kylie cared much one way or another. None of them much fancied the idea of clearing out the bodies anyway.

Somehow, though, Jamie wanted to claim this place. Which required starting over. The world had ended and a new world had taken its place. So, they started a fire. It wasn’t hard to find accelerant with so many unused cars around. The diesel and petrol spread around, all it took was a spark.

Jamie revelled in the heat as St. Gerrard’s university burned down. With its ashes went her old life and the memories of the past. The disgust, fear and self-hatred went with them, too. The apocalypse had caused her to bend and buckle, but it wouldn’t break her. Unblinking, she made a promise. She would use the ice inside herself to grow stronger, even as she sought the warmth of blood and fire. They would save Kylie’s baby and survive these trials until they could make a place safe enough for a child.

The game was rigged but so what? Surviving the next day was a victory, and Jamie would never stop winning against this evil System.