It’s nighttime at Camp Trin. The night watchmen have just taken up their post by the main gate. Behind them, they hear the gentle din of conversation, laughter, arguments. The sounds of civilization. It isn’t much, but it’s a stark contrast from what they see in front of them. Outside of the iron fence that surrounds the entirety of the town, they see a tangled forest nestled beneath the silhouette of the fallen city. They hear the rhythmic chirping of crickets, a calming and far removed sound from the groaning buzz of the bugs. They settle in for their very important job of defending Camp Trin from those who would want to sneak in or do it harm. Unbeknownst to them, Tay wants to do both.

Camp Trin is a fairly small town. It’s a converted college campus complete with dorms, plenty of people, and a huge, looming stone chapel in the center of the town. That chapel is precisely why Tay is here. She doesn’t know exactly what’s in the chapel, but, well, look at the damn thing. It’s big, it’s beautiful, it seems like it’s almost glowing under the soft light of the moon. There aren’t a whole lot of buildings from the Good Ol’ Days that are still standing, and even fewer that have been kept in such good condition. For the chapel to have survived so well for so long means that the people here must care about it a lot. And, if people care about it a lot, there must be something in there that’s very, very valuable. Whatever it is, Tay plans to steal it.

Unfortunately, as she recently found out, sneaking in is going to be a bit harder than she thought. A ten foot tall iron fence usually wouldn’t be any sort of issue for her. She’s nimble, it’s kind of her thing. But that tangle of barbed wire at the top of the fence, that’s a non starter. Stealth is the name of the game here, she wants to be able to hide in plain sight. Tay’s smart enough to know that it’s hard to hide in plain sight when you’re bleeding profusely from barbed wire induced wounds. Luckily for her, there doesn’t appear to be any barbed wire on top of the town’s main gate.

Unluckily for her, those two guards are sitting watchfully at their post just behind the gate. She’s a sneaky little bastard, but it’s hard to clamber over a huge fence without alerting someone who’s standing literally right next to it. That said, she is pretty damn good at this. Unbeknownst to our two guards, Tay is standing no more than two or three yards away from them. The edge of the forest is just so far away from the main gate, and she’s standing right on the liminal between tree cover and open air. She is, of course, wearing the trademark garb of her clan. A long black cloak that covers her entire body, as if to wrap her in the night itself. She’s nearly invisible. There’s no magic going on here, she just knows how to blend in with the shadows.

She’s been here for quite some time now. Almost an hour of crouching at the tree line in front of the gate. To be honest, it’s getting pretty boring. Boring and frustrating. She’s on a bit of a time crunch, and this mission is pretty damn important. She keeps waiting for some kind of opportunity. A distraction, a fight, a pee break. Anything that will allow her to get into town unnoticed. She needs this. She needs this more than she’s ever needed anything. More over, she needs to stop listening to their stupid conversation.

“You know what I heard?” asks the guard on the left, who Tay has surmised is named Ethan.

“No, what’d you hear?” responds the guard identified to be Wendy, as if she was Costello to Ethan’s Abbott.

“I heard that up north, they don’t have bugs.”

“What? Not a chance. My first post was Portland, I’ve been about as far north as the kingdom goes. Let me guarantee you, plenty of bugs.”

“Damn it Wendy, I know you were stationed up in Portland. I mean further north.”

“The hell is further north than Portland?”

“Not bugs. At least, that’s what I hear.”

“Too cold?”

“Guess so.”

“Must be nice.”

“No, even worse. They have mooses.”

A slight pause. “You mean, moose?”

“I’m pretty sure there’s more than one moose up there, Wendy.”

“No, I mean-- never mind. I’m not having this conversation with you again. I’m taking a leak.”

“Wha-- Wendy, you know you’re not supposed to relieve yourself until after your shift is up.”

“Oh relax, I’ll be gone for five minutes. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Bug army. Seven Cities raiding party. Or worse.”

“Listen, Ethan. Anything happens, just ring that bell. Sheesh, you act like this is the first time you’ve been on gate duty.”

Ethan looks at the giant bell behind him, and Tay followed his gaze. She hadn’t noticed it before, its shape was too obscured by the darkness. Now that she knew what she was looking at, though, she could see its outline clearly enough. A warning bell, an easy way for the gate watchers to alert the whole town to intruders. She assumed they’d have something like that, but now knowing just how close it is to the guards makes the threat all the more real. If she’s going to do this, she’s going to need to ensure that Ethan isn’t able to ring that bell. No time to debate. Wendy’s out of the picture for at least a couple of minutes, so now’s the time to act. Get in, get the goods, and get out.

Ethan looks out into the night. He sees nothing. Well, wait, he sees something. He squints, tries to get a better view. The forest in front of him is almost pitch black, guarded from the moonlight by a thick canopy of branches and leaves. He swears, though, that he can see another black inside the regular black. A vaguely human shaped black that’s maybe moving, maybe getting closer? He leans forward, trying to get a better view. Suddenly, he sees two small flashes of light, something reflecting the glow of the moon. Then, very quickly, he sees nothing at all. Because he’s dead.

Tay waltzes up to the gate, her nighttime camouflage starting to come undone as she approaches the torchlight emanating from behind the fence. She sheds her cloak and tosses it to the side. The cloak was great for getting in, but it won’t be so great for blending in. Underneath the cloak, she’s wearing a tough beige tunic and plain green shorts, her thick brown hair tied up into a bun. It isn’t the most normal outfit, but also isn’t terribly out of place for Camp Trin. Trin isn’t a bad place by any means, but as the southernmost bastion of New English territory, it has a reputation for attracting grizzled border types. Drifters, vagabonds, and other ne’er-do-wells that tend to find themselves in fights at bars. Tay thinks she’ll have an easy enough time blending in as one of those types.

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Without any eyes on her, she makes quick work of the fence. Ambles up like a spider, lands on the other side like a cat. This is her bread and butter. Her other bread and butter is now lying at her feet. The deceased body of Ethan. She regards it for a moment. She hadn’t really wanted to kill anyone here, but something something eggs and omelets. Without thinking too much about it, she leans down to the guard’s corpse and finds her weapons: Two metal, razor sharp credit cards. She yanks them out of Ethan’s neck and places each in a small satchel on either side of her waist with the rest of her card arsenal. Without wasting any more time, she heads into town.

The street beyond the gate is pretty lackluster. Tay is genuinely curious to see what a real city looks like, and so far, it is a disappointment. Dilapidated brick buildings line both sides of the street, and plenty of destitute vagabonds are hanging out on their front steps. They largely pay Tay no mind, they’re mostly either asleep or zonked out, but Tay does feel like she’s being watched by one particularly vagabondy looking vagabond. This particular vagabond has on an oversized gray hoodie that covers up most of her skin, and whatever skin isn’t covered by the hoodie is covered up with straps of cloth. Like, all over her body, not even her face is visible, just her eyes. Tay makes a mental note and moves on.

The street eventually turns left towards the south. She follows it and she suddenly finds herself on the main drag. Now this, this is cool. Tay’s never seen anything like this before in her life. There’s a long stretch of road in front of her. On her right is a long brick building that spans the entire length of the road. On the left side of the road is a huge, sloping green lawn. Everywhere she looks, whether it’s in the windows or sitting on the grass, are people. So many people. Families, couples, groups of friends, Tay’s never seen this many people before in her life. Everything is so busy and so alive. It’s breathtaking. Tay didn’t know this existed. For a moment, she forgets all about why she’s here. She knew that towns and cities existed, obviously, but she’s never seen so many people doing so many things and all looking so happy.

As fascinating as the people are, though, they’re not the most awe inducing thing in view. Towering above the yard is the magnificent stone chapel. Tay’s seen tall buildings before. She’s even seen skyscrapers on the horizon. Hell, the fallen city outside Camp Trin has its fair share of them. But those are usually less like buildings and more like skeletons of concrete and steal, their life and flesh long removed by the course of time. This chapel is just so big and so well kept and so beautiful. She takes it in. Then, the moment is gone. She no longer sees the beauty. Back to reality. The chapel is nothing more than an oyster shell that needs to be pried open. There’s gotta be something good in there.

Her suspicions are more or less confirmed by the swarm of guards posted around it, as well as the fact that it’s lit up by so much torchlight that it may as well be daytime. Braziers, torches, candles. It’s beautiful, and it also helps to explain why it seems like the white stone is glowing, but the truth of it hits Tay like a truck. How the hell is she going to get in there? She takes a step away from it and leans up against the long brick building behind her and thinks. She doesn’t think for very long, though, because she sees a guard coming sprinting towards the chapel from the south side of town. Tay tries her absolute best to look nonchalant as she eavesdrops on their conversation.

“You guys! You guys! Shut up and listen. Ethan is dead.”

A murmur of confusion from the rest of the group. Tay recognizes the guard’s voice as Wendy, peeing gate guard. Shit.

“I left for a minute-- not even a minute-- and when I came back he was dead. Throat slit in two places.”

More concern and confusion.

“How’s that possible?”

“When did this happen?”

“What about his wife and kids?”

“And what about his toy drive for children in need?”

“Or his gripping yet whimsical one man show?”

Tay smacks her forehead. Of course the one guy that she killed is the guy that the entire town loves. If they find her, they probably won’t care to hear her side of the story. Guess her schedule is even tighter than she thought. She needs to get the goods ASAP and get out without anybody catching her.

“Good evening, ma’am.”

The voice comes from just inches away from Tay and she nearly shits herself. She was so dialed in that she didn’t realize the man next to her. Judging by the fact that he’s wearing the exact same thing that Ethan and Wendy and all those other guards are wearing, he’s probably the exact kind of person who she can’t afford to have know about her.

“Hi,” Tay says, trying to pretend that her full body flinch a few seconds ago was nothing.

“Erm, hi. You okay?” His eyes look kind, but Tay doesn’t allow herself to look at them for too long.

“Yeah,” she said, looking anywhere but at him. “Yeah, just, you know, admiring the chapel.”

The man smiles at her, then looks up at the chapel. “Yeah, it is pretty great. One of my favorite things about living here. You new in town?”

“Who, me? No, no. I mean, no, not very new. But not very old. I’ve been here a pretty normal amount of time, I’d say.”

“Right. Well, unfortunately, I’m going to have to ask you to--”

“Why? I’ve done nothing wrong.”

He squints his eyes at her a bit. “Yeah, no, I was just going to say that I’m going to have to ask you to go back inside. As you can see there’s a bit of a hubbub right now. Not exactly sure what’s going on. But not to worry, I’m sure its nothing. It’s possible that there’s a,” he drifts off and looks her up and down. He takes a step backwards. “I’m sorry, what did you say your name was?”

Tay is frozen. She looks around. Some of the other chapel guards have started talking to other people out and about. A handful of them have broken off and are heading back to the north side of town where Tay came in from, no doubt looking for whoever killed Ethan. Further down the road to the south, she sees that the long brick building eventually turns and runs across the road, forming a tunnel over it that partitions this section of town from another one further south. She notices that, despite the fact that guards are spreading out through this part of town and the souther one, none of them look to be going south. Interesting. They must be trying to prevent this little piece of paranoia from stretching further into town.

The man takes a step back towards her and lowers his voice. “Miss, what are you doing out tonight?”

A voice in her head echoes the same advice that she’s heard from the day she was born. Act now, think later, feel never. Tay acts quickly. With her left hand, she karate chops the guard’s throat. He tries to shout in retaliation, but can’t find his voice. She jabs him in the gut. When he doubles over, Tay reaches her right hand into one of the satchels on her waist and grabs three sharpened credit cards between her fingers like Wolverine claws. In one well practiced motion, she swipes across the guard’s left cheek. He falls to the ground, coughing and reaching but unable to make any more noise than that. Tay looks around. Everyone is either in their own little world or is talking to one of the guards. Perfect. She’s got a few seconds of a head start. As nonchalantly as she can, she sprints towards the tunnel that leads to the next part of Camp Trin.

When she gets to the other side of the tunnel, Tay looks around. This section of town is much less green, much less impressive. It’s almost entirely brick and concrete, arranged in a sort of hodgepodge jungle of branching and conjoined buildings. Throngs of people amble about drunkenly, shouting and getting into small fights. This district is clearly where Camp Trin gets its reputation from. The northern district is for the destitute, the central district is for the wealthy, and this southern district is for the drifters. If she’s going to blend in anywhere, it’ll be here.

While her mind spins madly trying to think of a way to use this information to get safely back towards the chapel, she spots the town fence. She suspects that she might be fighting a losing battle here, and that fence is starting to look might appealing. She could scramble up and over and be out in just a few seconds. She’d be bleeding from the barbed wire, sure, but that hardly mattered now. Bleeding is better than being caught. She thinks about what she would do once she got out. What would be in store for her back home if she came back empty handed. She shudders. Getting caught is better than going home. As fucked as this mission has become, she needs to see it through to the end. She needs to find a place to lay low for a while so she can plan her next steps.

She spots a building just a few strides away from her a large number of people hanging around outside of it. The more people, the easier she can blend in. She heads towards it. It’s a bar, from the looks of it. And from the smell. Even from the outside, the smell of bad, flat beer punches her nostrils and tongue. Not the kind of place that she’d necessarily choose to go, but she can’t really afford to be choosy right now. Through the cloud of conversations around her, she hears footsteps coming from the direction of the tunnel. The guards must be moving into this district. No time to find a better option. The bar it is.

When she walks in, she immediately finds herself swallowed up by the loud din of the bar. People talking, yelling, and laughing so loudly that she can barely hear herself think. She pushes her way to the bar and orders herself a drink, trying to relax a bit. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees a guard poke his head in the place, look around, and head back out. She breathes out a huge sigh of relief, only now realizing that she’s probably been holding her breath since she struck down that guy by the chapel. She takes a long sip of beer. It’s pretty bad, but getting herself out of the limelight tastes pretty damn good. Even if the guards were to do a thorough search of the place, they wouldn’t find her because they’d be so distracted by the very, very loud guy a few seats away from her at the bar wearing a full lacrosse uniform carrying a stack of piping hot pizza boxes.