Alex found herself back on the platform. For once, the sky was as cloudy on Earth as it was in the other world. It didn’t quite look like it was going to rain, but it seemed close. The weather hadn’t been the best sign that things would go well when they went in, but now she just grinned and went to join her teammates.
The reports were…not going well. Liliana still had the same insincere smile pasted on her face, but it grew more and more strained the more her team told her. It was fairly obvious that she was more than ready to sanction them for Chaining Skills together, but something seemed to be holding her back from saying much about it. Perhaps the fact that they kept coming back from the worst possible conditions.
Liliana, to her credit, managed to restrain herself during Alex’s report on her own advancements. Her eyes glittered with hatred and anger as Alex spoke, but that false smile remained steady, almost as if the team captain was holding onto it from sheer spite. As Alex turned to go, however, Liliana stopped her.
“You know, Alexandretta, your choices have been disappointing of late, but I hope you realize that the assignments I’ve given you have been an effort to assist your work at the company. Unfortunately, you have chosen to disregard that help and go your own way, and your bad behavior has somehow… infected other members of the Group.”
Alex stared back at her. She could feel the attention of her teammates, who were waiting closer to the bus. “I’m sorry to hear that you feel like I have been performing badly.”
“Your performance has been exceptional, Alexandretta, but you could be doing so much more if you listened to proper guidance.” Liliana shook her head, and the hatred twisted her smile a little more. “Unfortunately, because of the effect you are having on others, the Group has made a decision. Starting from today, you will no longer have access to the containment area for Skill training.”
She felt the blood drain from her face. “What?”
“I’m sorry, but this is for your own good.” The insincerity of those words was shining in Liliana’s smile, which had become both more genuine and more malicious. “Until you start listening to the guidance of the company, we cannot allow you to utilize resources belonging to the Group to encourage others down incorrect paths. Do not worry; the others will not be permitted to use it either. In the spirit of fairness, of course.”
Alex didn’t respond. She couldn’t. Half her Skills were now at zero, and she was going to have no way to raise them before the Survey that was probably waiting for her on Wednesday. A Survey where there would be even more danger than there had been before. When she looked back at her team, she saw shock, horror, and anger on their faces too, and realized that she’d dragged them all into it.
She gave Liliana one last look, resisted the urge to flatten her with a single punch, and then got back on the bus. It was a very quiet ride home.
“So we’re dead, right?” Brian didn’t even sound angry anymore. More just despondent.
It was hard to argue with him this time, though. They’d all just reset their most important combat Skills, and they weren’t going to get the chance to rebuild them before the next Survey. None of them were going to have the same level of combat efficiency as they’d just had; they’d still have the Attributes, but that would only go so far.
“You could always just come straight back through the portal, right?” Clara tried to sound encouraging, but she didn’t sound like she expected them to take the option. Something about the way she looked at Alex made it seem like the Acolyte thought she would be the problem.
Alex shook her head. “Only if we wanted to screw you guys over. We’d be letting the portal get even more out of control, with another day to get worse. We might be safe, but you guys would be hitting a meat grinder.”
Sam nodded glumly. “Not only that, but there’s no chance it would ever be better. How long before it gets back enough that the Killer is waiting for us right at the portal, and our Skills are all still at zero?”
Something about the way he’d said it made Alex think of her mother. Her mind raced as she thought back over her mother’s stories. The others at the table—Joanna’s team and her own—continued to talk over the situation, but she tuned them out as she came back to a few stories that she’d made Muriel tell her, over and over. It was probably an enormously stupid idea, but it was also the only one that Liliana and the Group had left her. If only Forsmith had managed to stop whatever they were doing before it got this bad!
“Alex?” Joanna’s voice brought her back to the moment. She looked up and saw the others watching her. “What do you think?”
She blinked and shook her head. “Sorry, I was thinking. What did you say?”
“We were saying we might need to refuse to enter the portal, at least until they allow us Skill training again. It’s a ridiculous restriction for no good reason, and there’s no way—”
“I think the Group is going to support her on it. She wouldn’t be sticking her neck out just to get us, at least not yet.” Alex shook her head a second time. “There must be another reason why, even if Liliana is using it to set us up. Or at least, to set me up and bring the rest of you along.” She offered her teammates a sympathetic smile, and Brian grunted sourly.
“Besides, we can’t let that portal get out of control. It’s why we are Surveyors, right? The whole point of us doing this is to keep that thing under control, so it doesn’t get dangerous for people who aren’t Surveyors. I don’t want to fail that responsibility just because the Group is crap.”
There were a series of reluctant murmurs from the others, with various levels of enthusiasm. Clearly, some of them felt a bit more strongly about the solemn duty of Surveyors to risk their lives, when it meant actual, unreasonable risk was involved. Not that she blamed them; what she was about to suggest was insane.
Still, it was the best option. Better to be about it.
Sam was watching her closely. There was a spark in his eyes that told her he suspected she had figured something out. “So what do we do? Even a short mission is probably a good way to get killed right now.”
“Then we don’t do a short mission.” Alex grinned at the baffled expressions on their faces. “Alessa, Brian, can you make sure to get a bunch of extra ration packs for our mission on Wednesday? We usually don’t carry much, but we’ll need whatever we can stomach for the Survey.”
The two Surveyors exchanged a look. Rations weren’t common equipment to carry, since normal food would evaporate on the way through the portal. Rations were food looted during a Survey and brought back through the portal—either from vacant grocery stores or harvested plants. Alessa nodded slowly. “Yeah, I think I can get access to some of that. Technically, we have permission to check it out whenever we want.”
“See if you can get it without Liliana finding out.” She looked at the others. “Joanna, Sam, put your heads together over the next while. I want to know every location where patrols have been seen, and where Camps have been located. Sam, I think you should be able to requisition a fresh map of the area, if you need it; they definitely have it, since I brought back a couple of atlases that one time.”
Sam nodded slowly. “Sure, Alex. You got it.” Joanna looked mildly mystified, but she nodded as well.
Clara spoke up, her voice soothing. It was almost like she was trying to reassure someone. “Alex, what are you planning? We’ll find some way out of this, I promise.”
“Sometimes the best way out is through, Clara.” Alex looked at her. “You don’t have any access to health potions or anything, right?”
The Acolyte paused, her eyes wide. “No. The medics here have those pretty well locked down. Not many people sacrifice their equipment slots for them, and they are really rare on the other side of the portal, so the Group considers them restricted material.”
Alex nodded. As expected. “Okay. I have a hunch about where we can find some. We’ll need at least one or two, I think.”
Audrey tilted her head to the side, studying Alex with narrow eyes. “What are you planning, Al? Cause it sounds like you are gearing up for a big battle. Not a last stand, I hope?”
She broke into a low chuckle. “No. Kind of the opposite, actually.” Then she pushed away from the table, picking up her tray. “Joanna, you guys can go through with your Chaining plans if you want. We’ll cover the problems with the portal, so it shouldn’t be any more dangerous than normal. Trust me, you guys, we’ll get through this.”
“Well, Alex, I’m sorry to tell you this, but it sounds like you’re screwed.”
“Thanks, Zach. I really needed to hear that from you.” Alex gave him a glare and then settled back into her seat with a sigh. She’d been pacing back and forth in his office, explaining the situation. “I already know Liliana is trying to get me killed, but I don’t know what Forsmith is doing. He’s supposed to be a cleaner, right? So why isn’t he trying to stop this? He has to know that the next Survey for us is going to be a death trap.”
“Maybe he wants it to be one.” Zach shrugged when she looked at him. “Maybe whatever the Group is doing has some kind of cutoff, and if there are enough Surveyor casualties, they’ll stop the program.”
She thought back to the conversation he’d had with her, about people using her survival as an excuse. “Well, screw that. I’m not dying just to give the Group a wake-up call—assuming they wouldn’t just make excuses about how we died and move on with things, anyway.”
Zach snorted. “You’re probably right about that one. Odds are they might point to your Skill strategy as the reason rather than whatever nonsense they’re up to.” He sighed. “I still haven’t figured out what they’re doing, unfortunately. Every time I stumble across something that might give me answers, it seems like I hit a brick wall or a red herring. I wish I could give you better clues, but…”
“Don’t worry about it.” Alex leaned back in her chair, scratching at her scalp for a moment with both hands. “We’ll figure it out eventually. We just need to get through Wednesday first. At least then Liliana won’t be able to try to kill us as easily.”
Zach’s expression seemed a little distressed now. Maybe it was starting to become clear that she was at very real risk of not coming home from the next Survey. “Still, if I could just find something out before Tuesday, maybe I could talk them into not doing whatever it is that they are doing. It would make your next Survey that much easier, and we wouldn’t have to worry quite so much.”
Alex lowered her hands from her hair, feeling just slightly better. “Actually, there is something you could do. You have access to some of the material Surveyors bring back, right? That’s how you got those extra monitors?”
He raised his eyebrows and leaned back. “I can requisition some of them, yeah. It helps when I say I’m doing a study of some kind. The RDD tends to loosen up when they think I’m helping with their work. Why?”
“I need health potions. At least one, preferably two.” Alex saw his eyes widen a little and decided to press a bit harder. Might as well have it out in the open all at once. “Extra Survey rations too, if we can get them. Just about as many of them as you can get.”
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Zach stared at her. “That’s… quite a big ask, Alex. A lot of that stuff gets reserved for either higher level Surveyors or special projects. They’re rare enough that the Group doesn’t have any guarantees about replacing them, so if I request for all this stuff and can’t account for it…”
Alex met his eyes and nodded slowly. “Yeah, I know. I wouldn’t ask if I had any other options, but Liliana has me backed into a corner here.”
“She does.” He didn’t look happy to be agreeing with her, but he nodded reluctantly. “I’ll see what I can do, Alex. I promise.”
“Thanks, Zach. I won’t forget it.” She leaned forward and grabbed his hand for a moment, squeezing it slightly. He met her eyes, his mild gaze turning a bit…warmer than she had expected. Her breath caught.
Then she stood and headed for the door, suddenly feeling a bit nervous. “Be careful, though. Liliana and maybe Forsmith are going to be asking questions after Wednesday, and I don’t want you getting caught.”
“You Surveyors aren’t the only ones who can deal with a little risk.” Zach stood and opened the door for her. He smiled. “I’ll see what I can do. Just…don’t do anything crazy, okay?”
“I won’t. Or at least no more crazy than normal.” She returned his smile and went out. It promised to be a tough next few days.
Alex stood before the portal with her team, feeling her heart pound in her chest.
She’d spent the past few days quietly preparing for this moment. Her teammates had worked just as hard, gathering a handful of extra supplies; Zach had come through as well, with two health potions and a few packets of rations, which he had slipped to her on Tuesday during their meeting in the PAD. Now all that remained was making sure she and the others survived what she had planned.
Liliana was smiling at them from one side of the platform. Beyond her, Forsmith was waiting, a mix of resignation and resolve on his face. Their expectations for her team were clear. None of them expected all five Surveyors to come walking back through that portal.
Which was exactly what she planned on doing.
She stepped forward, and the light claimed her once more.
The infinite void was becoming almost comforting by comparison to the politics outside of it. Alex wasn’t sure how she felt about that fact.
[E Rank Surveyor Alex]
[Ascension Level: 2]
[Role: Page (Role Skills: Running(11)]
[Role Level: 2]
[Experience: 420/600]
[Attributes: Strength -> 2, Speed -> 4, Life -> 0, Devotion -> 0, Control -> 0]
[Current Skills: Combined Arms–Axe/Shield(0), Anticipate(0), Recovery(0)]
[Permanent Skills: None]
[Current Titles: War Maiden (Increases Skill grade of Combined Arms and Weapon Mastery by one.),
Ferocity (Increases Skill grade of Melee, Weapon Mastery, and Combined Arms Skills by one.),
Quick Reflexes gained (Increases Skill grade of Dodging, Anticipate, and Evasion by one.)]
The summary of her abilities was a mix of encouraging signs and clear problems. With no Skills, her Titles weren’t going to be very helpful. If she could survive long enough, though, she’d be a powerhouse in no time.
[Quest Issued! Destroy eight Grue Soldiers.]
[Quest Issued! Explore the Grocer’s Market.]
[Hidden Quest Issued!]
[Hidden Quest Issued!]
Alex bared her teeth at the sight of the Quests. She’d thought the Camps were respawning faster, but here was proof. Joanna had told her that they had cleared out the Camp in the Market during their last Survey. There should have been no way for it to come back that fast. By now, though, she didn’t even need Zach’s text to tell her that things were much harder than they should have been. It was obvious how badly the deck was stacked against her.
She was going to survive anyway.
Light surrounded her…
The other world was no different than before. A grim sky and ruined homes. Grue graffiti and claw marks everywhere.
Her team came out of the portal next to her, already gripping their weapons. She looked at them and nodded. “Where are the Quests this time? Mine’s in the Market.”
“Library.” Alessa’s expression was bleak, but she was still holding fast to her staff.
Tim was shaking his head in apparent disbelief. “The Bank again. Isn’t it supposed to be a while before a Camp comes back?”
Sam nodded. “Yeah, it is. Thank the Group.” He looked at Alex. “I’ve got the Library too.”
Brian sighed, a desperate, hopeless sound. “I’ve got the Mall. The Mall.” He tilted his head back and glared at the sky. “So we have to hit four Camps this time. I’m not even sure we could hit one right now. Alex, what are we doing?”
Alex reached over and squeezed his shoulder. “Stay with me on this. We aren’t dead yet.” The Squire gave her a skeptical look, but he nodded eventually. She turned to the others. “Okay, we’ve got extra rations and a couple of healing potions. Don’t ask me how, but we are well supplied for this.”
Tim smirked. “Are you expecting dying to work up an appetite? We just ate lunch an hour ago.”
“Yeah, we did, and most of our Surveys have only lasted three hours or so.” She took in a slow breath. “We’re going to be in here for a lot longer today. Probably at least eight.”
They stared at her in shock. Alessa was the first one to speak. “Eight hours? Don’t we die if we are in here too long?”
“Twenty-four hours is the time limit.” She didn’t intend to stay nearly that long, but she’d have to see how badly things went. “That gives us plenty of time to do what we need to do.”
“Which is what, exactly? Are we planning a picnic?” Brian’s voice was on the edge of panic, but he was still in control. For now.
Sam was the one who answered, though, his eyes showing sudden recognition. “No. She’s planning a Raid.”
The others stared at her again. Raids were something higher level Surveyors did to hit crucial targets, normally in large enough numbers that it would drastically lower the magic from a portal. They’d go in with supplies and potions, and stay for hours until the job was done. E rank Surveyors did not go on Raids. Not until now.
Alex drew in a breath and nodded. “Yeah. We’re doing a Raid today. Our targets are going to be all four Camps, but not right away. We need levels for our Skills first.”
Sam started to nod slowly. Brian, on the other hand, opened his mouth as if he wanted to interrupt, but she held up a hand. “So we’re going to start by hitting patrols. They’re probably in groups of fifteen, so each one should give us a few levels of Skill training. The potions will keep us from getting knocked out if we take damage, so we can afford a few risks.”
Alessa broke in before Alex could continue. “And when we get so tired we can barely fight anymore?”
“Then we pull back to a rooftop and rest for a while. An hour or so should give us enough time to go back to it.” Alex held Alessa’s gaze for a moment, and the Porter struggled to find some objection before nodding. She continued. “We’ll try to pace ourselves, only fighting a few at a time. Then, once we’re ready, we’ll hit one of the Camps.”
Tim nodded slowly. “Then the Killer will be after us. We’ll be on a timer.”
“Kind of.” Alex shrugged. “We can probably get to a second Camp before they get reinforced, or the Killer finds us. After that, or if the Killer gets too close, we can change plans.”
Sam blinked. “You’re planning on backing off for an hour or so. Hiding until it loses interest or wanders off.”
She nodded. “Yeah. We’ll have the supplies here to eat a few times. To rest. We’ve always moved at a rush before. On the schedule the Group has for us, or at the pace the Killer started. We’re not doing that today.”
Brian was looking so shell-shocked that he’d passed on through to some kind of calm. “So we do some kind of hide and seek with the Grue for the next eight hours or so. Maybe twelve, if the Killer keeps chasing us off. That’s the plan.”
Alex nodded. “It’s not going to be easy, but it means when we walk out of that portal, we’ll have won. Liliana sent us in here to die. If all we wanted to do was live, we could turn around right now and walk back out. I don’t want to just survive. I want to win.”
She looked around at them, meeting each of their eyes in turn. “Will you help me?”
They found their first fight only a few minutes later.
Fifteen Grue, all with hatred in their grey eyes and spears in their hands. They howled and charged, and her team braced itself for the fight. It wasn’t like before, where they tore through the things. This fight was going to be much closer to their first encounters, where every enemy was a lethal threat.
Alex caught the first spear dead center on her shield, and it threw her back instead of snapping. She grunted, just barely dodging a second spear from the side, and hacked up into the Grue’s torso. It yipped in surprise, and she had to step forward and hit it twice more before it fell. As it dropped, another Grue shoved it out of the way and stabbed at her head. She got the shield up in time to block it, but it shoved her off balance enough for another spear to hit her right in the chest. The point didn’t penetrate her armor, but it still hurt.
Which was when she saw another Grue coming in at her, spear held low and aimed for her gut, below the brigandine. She half-closed her eyes and grimaced, bracing herself for the pain.
Then Sam was there, his teeth bared in a snarl. The Adept’s spear caught the Grue in the side, shoving it off balance. He yanked the weapon free and stabbed twice more as the downed Grue thrashed. Alex took the opportunity to get a couple of quick hacks in at the Grue that had hit her shield, sidestepped another spear coming at her and knocked out its owner with a smash from the edge of her shield, and then shield-checked yet another Grue that was lining up to skewer Sam.
She left the downed Grue for Sam to finish, charging at another Grue that was preparing to lunge at Tim over the improvised shield wall that he and Brian had made. It pivoted to face her, snarling, and she blocked two quick stabs before she lunged in and started hacking away at it. The thing went down on the third hit, and she straightened up to see two of the others turning to face her.
One of them took a step before Tim put his spear into its spine. The other hesitated long enough for her to shield-check it; it slammed into its other friends, turning the line of Grue into a tangled mess. Tim and Brian fell on them instantly, sword and spear stabbing, and Alex turned to look in Alessa’s direction.
The Porter was fighting hard, bleeding from at least two spear wounds. One of the Grue facing her was already down, but the other two were still dancing around her, their spears driving her back. Alex charged, yelling loud enough to be heard over the clash and snarls of battle. It caught the attention of one of the enemies; its head snapped around, and it turned to face her. Alessa took the opening immediately, lashing out with her staff to knock the other Grue down, and then bringing her staff around for a two-handed, overhand blow.
Alex, for her part, just kept the other Grue’s attention for long enough that the Porter laid it out with another overhand blow from behind. As it crumpled, Alessa gave it another hit, and then slumped, still bleeding. The battle was over.
She looked around. Alessa wasn’t the only one wounded; Tim was limping, Brian was holding a wound on his arm, and Sam had picked up a scratch on his ribs from somewhere. “All right, here’s the potion. Try not to drink too much; we’ll need it for later.”
Alex passed the vial to Alessa first, who took a mouthful. Her wounds sealed up a heartbeat later. The Porter passed it to Brian, who took another sip before passing it to Tim. He looked at Alex. “Think we’ve got another eight hours of that in us?”
She paused long enough to check the text that now floated in her vision. It was backlit a little curiously by the purple flame consuming their enemies.
[Combined Arms–Axe/Shield has advanced to level 2!]
[Anticipate has advanced to level 2!]
[Recovery has advanced to level 1!]
[Main Quest Progress: 3 of 8 targets destroyed]
“Did everyone get at least a couple of Skill levels?” The others nodded, and Alex looked back at Brian. “Another couple of fights like that and I think you guys will at least be back to where you were, Skill-wise. At that point, we’ll rest and decide what we can do. Okay?”
The Squire nodded, his expression unreadable. They spent a few moments gathering up the crystals, and then they moved on.
[Combined Arms–Axe/Shield has advanced to level 5!]
[Anticipate has advanced to level 5!]
[Recovery has advanced to level 3!]
[Main Quest Completed!]
Alex slumped slightly, standing over the burning wreckage of the third set of Grue they’d hit. She was bleeding this time; a Grue had slipped a spear past her guard, and the point had dug into her gut, piercing her armor. The pain was more intense than she had expected, but she still handed over the potion to one of the others first. Alessa had taken more hits and was looking a little pale.
“We ready to rest?” The others nodded numbly. If it had been a normal mission, she would have been leading them back to the portal already; the amount of damage they’d taken was beyond anything they’d suffered before. Only the potions were keeping them standing, but they hadn’t even hit a Camp yet. They still had a long day ahead.
She waited until the others were taken care of before she took the potion. A sickeningly cloying gulp later, she felt the hole in her gut seal itself over. Alex gasped in relief, and then carefully stoppered the vial. She checked the contents carefully; it was already about two-thirds of the way gone. They’d need to be more careful if they wanted the things to last.
Sam was already consulting the map as she put the vial away. “There’s a parking garage that way, about two blocks. I think we could make it without running into any more Grue, but we’ll have to see.”
Alex nodded. “Let’s go, then. We can camp out at the top, and then see if there are any big groups looking for us.” The others nodded, and they moved through the vacant streets at a quick pace. There were enough patrols that sticking around had proved to be a bad idea. It was bad; the numbers of patrols were beyond anything that even Alex had estimated.
They had no choice but to follow through with the plan, though. The horns had sounded thirty minutes ago; by this time, the portal was surrounded by an army of Grue, and the Killer would be waiting for them. Either they started taking down Camps, or they’d be stuck here until the twenty-four hour limit. Alex had no desire to find out what would happen then, and neither did anyone else.
Her team reached the parking garage just a short while later. It was a tiny thing, barely more than three stories, next to a business complex it had obviously served. She led the others past the broken gates, watching carefully as they made their way past empty cars of an unrecognizable make and model. No Grue were waiting to ambush them, though, and they made it all the way to the roof without a problem.
There were some cars there too, and a van that Sam pried open. The team piled into it, with Alessa and Brian both sprawling out along the rear and middle seats. Tim slid into the driver’s seat up front; he was apparently taking the first watch. Sam took the passenger seat, curling up into it, leaving Alex to push her way through to the trunk. It should have felt uncomfortable folding herself into that space, but the fact that it was a chance to breathe and rest was glorious.