When I woke up I was delighted to find my migraine had faded to a mere headache and the fatigue that had been needling me for the past few hours was mostly gone, my stomach still felt like it was burning a hole in my core though. Stretching in a way that was probably more akin to a cat than a snake I lifted up my head to check the lighting conditions outside.

I absolutely did not trip and yelp like a frightened child when a giant moth fluttered towards my face. As a giant snake it is impossible for me to do so. Clearly I hissed in surprise and assumed a defensive coil, no tripping over nonexistent legs occurred.

"Feeling better after you nap?" Matilda asked from her regular perch atop my head.

"Can you give me a bit of warning Matilda? I just woke up!" I huffed placing my tail over my thudding heart, "And yes. I'm feeling much better. A bit peckish though, how's food prep going?"

"That's part of the reason I'm here. Catching you up on everything you missed while out and about as well as napping." she turned to look me square in the eye, "If you make a single comment about me being your secretary I will stuff your nose full of moths."

"Well fine little Ms. No Fun Allowed," I feigned a childish sulk before smirking up at her, "So how are things going."

"At current count we have one hundred and twelve people gathered at or near the stadiums," Matilda began, "All of them adults of ages ranging between twenty and ninety two. Seven of them are wounded from injuries sustained before we found them, but are recovering nicely after basic medical attention from Anthony. Well, one of them was a near thing, but using that trick you used with Jeremy we were able to stabilize them. Currently, only sixteen people have evolved, two of them only evolved in the last three hours."

Meaning that me and the original group made up the majority of our evolved forces, "Have you been told about how we don't want that trick getting spread around?" I asked worriedly.

"Yes, but Damian felt it was better to swear them in on the secret than let the poor man die after he was injured protecting people from more of those jackal snake things."

"Bloody things are everywhere," I grumbled, "They must breed like rabbits. I wonder if we could domesticate them as a food source."

"Jeremy is already looking into it." Matilda ruffled her wings, "He had some of his rotwalkers challenge some of the pack Alphas for leadership and a few accepted the challenge and lost. He's already got a few people working to fence off the fields and lot by the apartments to the south of the stadium as a sort of breeding and taming area. He believes we can keep them suitably fed with offal meats and anything that goes sour seeing as the creatures are willing to eat infected or rotting meat."

"How'd he figure that out?" I inquired, "Have the scorpions already gone that bad?"

"They are starting to spoil quickly in the heat," Matilda confirmed, "But Jesus, a former fry cook who's taken over our cooking industry, thinks that we should be able to get most of the stuff prepped before it's too far gone for cooking to save. No, he figured that out when they tore apart and ate that scorpion thing he made, which then infected them with whatever evil was in that abomination."

Well at least food wasn’t going to be an issue, which was certainly a relief to be sure. Still, why does your skills have to be such a collection of nightmares Jeremy? I motioned for her to continue.

"We've gotten most of those seeds you brought back planted, excluding those we're going to need to dig flooded pools for. Most of the stuff is growing so quickly as to be nearly visible to the naked eye, that spitter plant has already fully regrown and is making a nuisance of itself up by Muskoge stadium. Thanks to the additional seeds we will have about a dozen more of the weeds thanks to Saul. If they are as flavorful as both he and Shaniqua claim, they will be a solid food source if we can find a way to safely harvest them."

"On that front we should be fine for the short term," I commented, "I managed to get a trade deal struck with the current leader of the Veranda community, "They've got a surplus of fruit and veggies they're willing to trade for some of our meat surplus. Could you talk to Jesus to find out how much he thinks would go to spoilage?"

"I'll get someone on it, a trailer should be loaded and ready to go by first light tomorrow."

"Did we manage to find any more trailers today? I figured we would, but I did also offer one as part of the trade so..." I trailed off.

"We did that and more." Matilda stated with a happy little wiggle of her antennas, "We found a distribution center full big rigs, looks like they had been pre-packed with emergency relief supplies so as well as dozens of trailers we've now got a massive surplus of blankets, MREs, non-perishable medicine, and bottled water. In fact, with the Generic Motors plant, used car dealership, and autobody shops nearby a couple of our more mechanically inclined people think we might actually be able to get several of them actually running again."

I blinked in surprise at that, "That is a rather surprising windfall. Is there any bad news today?"

"Nothing really bad per say, but there are a couple of things that could be considered unfortunate," I motioned for her to continue, "Despite raiding the Soft Bedding and Salvation Navy, we are well short on the number of mattresses needed for everyone to sleep on, even discounting people like you who would need more than one."

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Don't worry about me, with this metal coating everything feels equally soft." I effortlessly lied.

"Noted," she nodded, "Currently we plan to raid some nearby hotels for some 'good enough' bedding for the night and heading to some further out stores in the morning to make up the difference. The second issue is that Kyli found a large number of the books in the library to be badly damaged by either weather or pests. She still managed to recover enough that she's talking about sealing off hallways to make a library, but she's also near frantic in her desire to explore other nearby libraries to try and save what she can."

"As long as she doesn't go too overboard I don't see an issue in it." I empathize with the shy woman, each of those books lost was an irreplaceable treasure gone. "Anything else?"

"Yes, the last issue is the biggest one." Somehow Matilda managed to look grim despite her immobile face, "A small team went over to the Texas Vitality Hospital at Arlin," I knew the place it was just a few blocks west of the stadium, "It was already being looted when they got there, they think it might have been some of those gangsters you encountered. I happened to have some of my moths with them so I managed to get eyes on them. None of them looked to be evolved, but it seemed like a single member was leading a team of captured civilians in the task. A few of them seemed to be nursing ideas of either escape or rebellion, but some of them were openly aiding the group leader."

"So we likely only have a day before they reach the stadium and find us," I grumbled, "I don't suppose you have the range to follow them home did you?"

"I do actually," Matilda said smugly, "I'm actually keeping an eye on them as we speak. They're working out of the Centrist Bible Church just off I-30, not far from the water treatment plant. I've counted two evolved and another two who seem to be full members leading about three dozen people, though by the sounds of it they still have a couple groups out and about in the city."

"That's, what, six miles from here?" I scowled thinking of that post modernist idea of a church that felt more like an office build or mall. I'd considered making the place my main church when I was working at the plant for a couple months but after a single service I had come to despise the place. A church without a soul is not a church! "That would certainly explain why we've been running into them so much. Might need to organize a posse to go and have some words with them either tonight or tomorrow. See if we can't get them to be reasonable, I'd rather not have to kill a half dozen men and risk more in the scrum." My scowl fell into a full grimace as I considered what needed to be done. "Can you gather up everyone in the know about our secret ability to come and meet here if they aren't in the middle of something vital."

"I'm already on it," she nodded, "Most people are just pitching in with various projects and should be here shortly. I'm having a bit of trouble finding Damian, but he's been making a game of trying to ambush my moths all day." he wings fluttered in agitation, "For a man so unnaturally black he is frighteningly good at disappearing even in the middle of a sunny field."

It took about fifteen minutes for Matilda to find everyone and convey via her mini-moths to gather on the stadium field.

"We really need to work on some sort of signaling system with those moths of yours," Damian grunted, now casually rocking a set of biker leathers that seemed almost made for him. Mind it might be a woman’s set based on the cut, but having clothing that fit must feel simply divine. "The way you had the thing flailing I thought we were under attack or Joe dying or something."

"I think we have some books on semaphore and Morse code," Kyli hummed. I noticed the red robes I let her borrow were looking almost comically small on her now that she’d evolved. Might need to try and figure out something for her to wear. "If you can learn those, we could start teaching those to others to relay messages."

"It's certainly not a walkie, but it's a lot better than nothing," Nolan grunted. He sighed with relief as he settled down. It seems having an abdomen four times the size of the rest of his body made getting around difficult.

"So why are we here?" Anthony asked, the small cockatrice looked about nervously next to a chunky toad. I guess that was the man he'd been trying to save at the time. "Something to do about that healing technique you want to keep a secret?" Oh! He was wearing fingerless gloves on his little chicken feet. Looks like the tradition of wearing clothes was sticking around even without my prompting. Nice!

"It could certainly be doing a lot to make people safer to spread it about." Jerry huffed as he glared pointedly up at me. Was he wearing a tablecloth on his back? I mean it certainly worked, but for some reason I found myself surprised the grumpy man would go beyond the bare minimum.

"I've asked you all here to explain what all I've uncovered about it and for us to all practice with it." I said ignoring the jabs. "Specifically because the technique, which I have currently been referring to using a placeholder name of 'Focus', does more than enhance healing. When using it to focus on one of your skills, mutagens, or abilities the effects are magnified, but cost far more stamina than normal. This isn't always in an obvious way either, when I use it on one of my defensive skills it makes it nearly impossible for me to be moved, up to stopping me midair. So I'm wanting everyone to practice to find out what Focus does to your stuff and get used to using it. Any questions?"

"Why call it Focus?" William asked, "Why not call it ki?" "Or chakra?" "Or magic?" "Oh! Oh, or a Contract!"

"First off," I said firmly, cutting off both of his heads’ suggestions, "Weeb."

"Fair." Both heads answered with unrepentant smiles.

"Second," I continued with a smile, "I'm calling it that because you use it by focusing on some aspect of you. That and if you use the term around someone not in the know they wouldn't really know you're talking about some secret technique to let you hit way above your weight class. They'd probably just think you were telling someone to keep focused on a task. Any more questions." When no one else spoke up I nodded, "Alright, Anthony, you're first. Get over here and hit me."

"Excuse me!?" the chicken snake squawked, "I have several questions now!"

"Yeah Joe, you aren't turning into a BDSM freak on us now are you?" Omar heckled.

"Not without a hefty pay raise I ain't." I shot back, "But yeah, I noticed in my own training that the skills don't really improve unless you're hitting a target. So seeing as I have a massive health pool, multiple defensive options that could use some grinding, and an increased resistance to most statuses I figure I'm the perfect target for training. Don't worry, I'll let you know if I start getting low on health or stamina. Not come on chicken boy, give me your best shot! I can take it!"

I slammed the flat of my tail against my chest and flashed a cocksure smile to the tiny chicken man. He inhaled deeply and let loose the most shrill and unmanly battle cry I'd ever heard as he charged me.