“So we didn’t learn anything from him?”

Everyone turned to stare at Nicola. She raised her palms.

“Hey, someone has to be the voice of detached reason here. We can grieve, or we can make sure this never happens again.”

She’s an asshole, but she’s right.

Kaveh had just spent the past ten minutes alternating between self-flagellation and justification for the deaths of both Ayanda and the fourth human they’d encountered in this place. Well, fifth if you count the poor soul eaten earlier.

They had reached the burrow a while back and now supports and Classless from inside were scurrying to and fro, packing all the food from the food team’s journey into designated storage rooms. The Ascendants, along with Andrew, Jabulani, one of the Cavalry Legends, and a guy called Maxwell were standing outside the burrow getting debriefed.

Mandla understood why Kaveh was venting like this and the spearman would’ve listened to him for however long he needed. But he’d revealed something game-changing and he hadn’t realised it yet, especially as Karl specified that he got almost no energy from the kill.

Nicola seemed to be grasping at the same loose threads that were just now spinning into a tapestry in Mandla’s mind.

A Classless who wouldn’t say where he’s from. Sent to a specific location. Carrying a crossbow. Afraid of Ascendants.

It was crazy. It was paranoid. He was making incredible leaps in logic, but even with pieces missing, the tapestry made sense.

They needed to kill that Hegemon as soon as possible.

“Okay, Nicola’s psycho tendencies aside, that bunker is where you found all this food?”

She shot him a glare while Kaveh nodded, glum.

“Yeah, none of us could bust through the door, but our other [Sapper], Brian, managed to take it off its hinges. The place was half flooded and there was no sign of the townspeople, but there were shelves upon shelves of non-perishables still above the water. Modern stuff too, like the food store had been updated over time. Nothing like guns or medicine, but that was all probably underwater. They had to have all been heading there, right? Maybe they found another way out, like a boat or something.”

Gathering in a central location in the middle of a crocodile-and-god-knows-what-else infested swamp? Great plan normally, but wrong time and definitely wrong place.

Mandla didn’t want to crush his friend’s small, wavering hope but realistically, they were all animal shit by now. There weren’t just crocs in the Crocodile River. And hearing about how tough the actual crocodiles were to deal with made the conclusion obvious to him.

“They’re obviously dead.”

Everyone turned to look at Nicola again. She shrugged, uncaring.

“We’re all thinking it.”

Mandla sighed.

“Man, shut the fuck up, Nicola. We’re not dead yet. There’s a chance they’re not either. Kaveh, you were saying?”

She pouted as Kaveh gave him a grateful look.

“Yeah so we went back to the commercial part of town, found a supermarket, stole all its trolleys and rigged up this train contraption behind us. We carried as much as we could but the place is huge and we only had one [Sapper], we’ll probably need three or four trips to get everything we can.”

That was fantastic news! A glance at the foodstuffs being carried, box by box, into the burrow revealed that it would be mostly bland, dry victuals they’d be subsisting on. But it was edible.

Nicola chimed in with real input this time.

“No need to expose ourselves that much. Let’s get more [Sappers] and more soldier Legends, then go there and take it all at once. Like an armoured convoy.”

Either way was fine with him. Mandla had had the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that they were going to have to try hunt for food, a suicidal prospect now that nature had seemingly risen up against humanity. None of them knew how to clean or butcher meat either, and the thought of super parasites made him shudder. Luckily, none of that mattered any more. This was one problem permanently solved, at least for the short-term.

He then updated the gathered people about meeting the three refugees. Kaveh curled his hand into a fist.

“We’ll have to wipe out those hyenas sooner or later.”

Everyone around nodded. All their other battles had been somewhat on their own terms. The hyena attack had come out of the blue and devastated them, leaving large unhealed mental wounds and a deep feeling of injustice.

Leading us to do the same to the meerkats. Huh. I guess it is a cycle.

Kill or be killed. This was the reality of their world now. It always had been, really, but humans’ sheer dominance had sanitized nature, caged it up and pruned it back until they thought they’d mastered it. If life on earth was a contest, humans were thoroughly washing the competition. But like the meteor ending the age of dinosaurs, the System had descended from the sky and upended the natural hierarchy. Now, things were… competitive.

That series of notifications from the beginning of it all hadn’t left his mind. Mandla had thought deeply about them, but with no information, he couldn’t make any sorts of guesses as to what they meant or why the Ascent had even come to earth, or revealed itself or been cast upon them, however it had manifested.

But those were questions for a safer time. Right now they had to get to work. Debrief over, they all split off to prepare for the second food run. It was too late in the day to go now, but they wanted to be ready to leave as soon as dawn broke. No one even brought up the idea of going at night. Mandla gave Maxwell a nod of acknowledgement, which the man returned before going down into the burrow with the others.

Maxwell was the Classless he and Nicola had identified as a natural leader. Like Karl, he’d been an influencer but of the more entrepreneurial kind. The kind that wouldn’t turn down a good deal. They’d raised him up and publicly tasked him with helping organise the other Classless during their removal of the meerkat corpses. He’d eagerly grabbed the opportunity, directing teams of his peers with an easy confidence. The two schemers knew they were growing ever distant to the Classless, and having a liaison would make their instructions go down easier.

The arrival of the refugees and their information had suddenly made him critical. They were going to need people, many people to populate their eventual [Settlement], and a way to keep those people on their side. So they knew to lock the situation down as quickly as possible.

After the successful clearing of the burrow, he and the Classless were being lauded as the real heroes for turning the grisly mausoleum they called home into an actual living space within when the two Ascendants saw the food team appear on the horizon. They were still far off, so thinking quickly, the pair descended into the festivities and found Maxwell, the centre of attention and loving it, as he was telling people about his come-up story from before the apocalypse.

Calling him over, they’d offered a simple choice. This prominence could be a one-time thing or they could figure out a more “long term” arrangement. They could see that he fed off the attention, he loved the rush of being the main character. True to form, he jumped at the chance, but was smart enough to realise there was some catch. Daring to ask what their real motive was, Nicola had told him plainly.

“You want a seat at the big table? You’ll excise Karl from the hearts and minds of your brethren, and put me-”

“Us.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Put us all the way in them. You get me?”

Eyes lighting up, Maxwell grinned.

“I was the youngest finance and sales guru in KZN. I can push any shitty crypto on my audience, as long as the pot’s sweet enough.”

Mandla chuckled.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Fuck off, we’re not some shitcoin, we actually know what we’re doing. Imagine us as the good guys and Karl as the secret bad guy. Either way, you want to make real decisions? Join us.”

He raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“Riiight. We are definitely the good guys. Cool though, I’ll keep them together and united under me, you can do your petty infighting. Keep me on the big table and I’ll sing whatever song you want.”

Deal struck, he’d returned to the celebrating while the pair made their way back up to wait for the food team to arrive.

Now that Karl was back, their anti-Karl measures were in full effect. Instead of talking about how he had bravely held off giant crocodiles, Maxwell relayed the story greatly downplaying their danger and playing up Kaveh’s role. He framed Ayanda’s death as an unavoidable tragedy caused by the savage instincts of a man born to kill, a weapon made flesh as opposed to the diplomat and leader Kaveh had tried to be.

The fact that the refugees all had glowing things to say about Nicola and Mandla helped as well, and over the course of the night, as they ate dinner from their first batch of dried rations, the main topic of conversation was the body disposal and marvelling at all the new space they had, rather than the adventure Karl had gone on.

No doubt, the reality of the possibility of starving hadn’t really sunken in yet and most people didn’t realise just how massive a find this cache of food was, but such was the burden of leadership. People only noticed when things went wrong, not all the things you did to prevent that from happening. Not to mention most of them had been actively involved in the clean-up.

On the face of it, it was a roaring success. In reality, Nicola was the only one celebrating, as Mandla found out Karl had supplanted him as Andrew’s favourite Ascendant. He’d stared open-mouthed when he first saw the swordsman flitting around Karl like his personal handmaid.

He’d given Karl a jab, and he’d responded with a gut punch. Still, the game wasn’t over. Still, this all simmered under the surface. Until something broke the peace, the situation could be salvaged.

I can use Jacob.

Gears turning as he ruminated before his nightly [Janna] and [Glima] practice, he came up with a rough plan. Jacob, his friend Monty’s boyfriend, had been pressured to pick [Light Swordsman] by Nicola and had soured on her, thinking the heavy armour was objectively superior, though after Andrew nearly died because he couldn’t climb fast enough that opinion had no doubt shifted.

Either way, he distrusted her and had always felt like the odd man out among the other swordsmen, especially since he hadn’t been on the rugby team Andrew and the others were.

Mandla hadn’t told Nicola, but he’d noticed a slight rift growing between the heavies. Nothing major, but the swordsmen hung out with Andrew and the Ascendants, while the spearmen usually hung with the [Defenders]. Now that Andrew was on team Karl, Mandla needed to break the Infantry from under his control and that meant installing his own man, just like they’d done with Maxwell.

The Cavalry were still firmly under Nicola’s grip, but even now, Karl was eyeing them, laughing, joking, regaling them with the tales of his badassery. Mandla saw her from across the room, sat down and glaring at Karl’s back, stabbing her [Rondel] into the ground next to her every time her supposed allies laughed at one of Karl’s jokes.

No, the game was far from over. Karl had won this round, sure. But winning a battle is a far cry from winning a war.

----------------------------------------

As everyone else started waking up the next day, the four tireless Ascendants made their final preparations for the excursion to empty out the bunker. In a twist, Karl volunteered to be the one staying behind to protect the burrow. Nicola had leapt on this, vigorously agreeing, no doubt thinking up a way to set herself up as the main reason this larger food run was happening.

Mandla, however, was more cautious.

He has an angle here. He has a reason to want to stay behind. Probably the same reason we did yesterday.

He couldn’t deny the opportunity though.

Somehow, five more refugees had arrived, miraculously surviving through the night and getting spotted by Nicola as she stood watch outside. As more and more people trickled in, diluting the first-hand knowledge the Classless as a group had, reputation would become more and more important. One of the reasons he and Nicola had acted so swiftly in stamping out the “myth” of Karl among the Classless was because they’d realised that at some point there were going to be a lot more of them and they needed to see the Ascendants gathered under one banner. They couldn’t agree on whose banner that would be, of course, but they made sure it wouldn’t be Karl.

Congregating outside, the entire beefed up food team was ready to go. Three Ascendants, seven soldier Legends and nine Supports, it was nearly double the size of the first. Hopefully they didn’t attract double the unwanted attention.

Setting out as the sun crested the mountains, Kaveh led them in a trek back to where they’d found the bunker.

They passed quite a few different beasts roaming this way, likely because it was closer to water. Mandla saw a flock of ostriches, usually opportunistic omnivores, running down an impala before kicking it to death. He saw a cheetah make a kill, then hide in the grasses as vultures circled overhead. When they landed to feast, it blurred out of hiding and managed to slaughter most of the large birds. A pack of African wild dogs, once the most efficient predator on the continent, were getting bullied by a huge, squat warthog.

He saw nature in its raw, untamed glory play out on this new meta. Now that everything was enhanced, how much death would be needed to restore some semblance of a coherent food chain? And how would the existence of skills change things?

Making their way past all the craziness on the savannah, they approached the swamp. Using the map, they circled around to the closest entrance point they could and walked right into the muggy, foul air.

Mandla gagged.

“Jesus fuck, Kaveh, you didn’t say the air was poison.”

The bastard just laughed at his reaction.

“Well, those of us that aren’t little bitches got over it pretty much instantly.”

“I’d gladly be a bitch if the alternative was going through whatever catastrophe that caused you to lose your sense of smell. God this is so bad.”

Nicola joined in, smirking.

“Bet you’re used to hearing that, huh.”

Mandla frowned as the comment drew laughter from the team.

Fine, I’ll give her that one. I did push her off the burrow.

Pushing deep into the swamp, the group came upon the bunker and got to work. Mandla, Jacob and the [Heavy Spearmen] would escort the five [Sappers] they’d brought to one of the homesteads, which they would strip for parts in order to build the containers necessary to carry all the food. Andrew, Nicola and the [Heavy Swordsmen] would be roaming scouts, warning them of any approaching danger, while Kaveh would remain at the bunker with the four [Doctors], giving orders to fall back to the bunker if worst came to worst. At the very least, they could seal themselves in.

Surprisingly enough, their plan went off without a hitch. He didn’t know if the swamp was just sleepy today, but they hadn’t encountered anything they couldn’t chase off. Mandla didn’t like to look a gift horse in the mouth, but he kept feeling like something was going to go wrong.

Kaveh told him it was just trauma from the other excursions they’d made, which always ended with the two of them running away, and it seemed he was right, as literally nothing stopped them from collecting the materials or constructing the trolley-sleds. Even the long process of packing all the food into the trolley-sleds, something which took them hours, was achieved unmolested. Now Mandla knew something was going to go wrong.

Making their way back out of the swamp, the [Sappers] had rigged up a sort of harness, meant to be pulled by Mandla, Kaveh, and the soldier Legends with their superhuman physicality. Nicola, of course, stood atop the train of sleds “keeping watch”.

Their slow pace meant the trip had taken them most of the day and they only approached the burrow again as the light was rapidly falling.

Expecting joy and adulation for managing to solve their food problem for the next year, they were instead greeted by raucous noise from below. Maxwell came outside to greet them, sheepish.

Mandla questioned him.

“Yo, what’s going on down there?”

Maxwell grimaced.

“It’s… You see… You won’t like it.”

Frowning, he and Nicola took him aside as everyone else started unloading the food.

Nicola snapped her fingers.

“Speak clearly dude. Tell us in plain English.”

Maxwell took a breath.

“It’s Karl… He took the Cavalry Legends out on an excursion-”

“He did WHAT?!”

Maxwell grimaced again.

“And they went out to the old campsite. They brought back a lot of the booze we left behind, and a collection of hyena heads. What you hear is the party that started afterwards.”

Nicola stomped away without a word, silently fuming. For once, Mandla could sympathise. Karl saving Andrew was luck, no way the spearman could have accounted for that. But this was calculated.

Outplayed by an amateur. Damn.

As far as bribing the crowds, you didn’t get much better than getting them free alcohol. Free alcohol during the apocalypse? Fucking Messiah.

He knew that eventually, singular acts like this wouldn’t matter more than the long-term narrative being set up, but this was a masterstroke. He needed to stop underestimating the Viking.

Following after Nicola to make sure she didn’t do anything dumb, he saw her slip past carousers and revellers to get to Karl, who was holding court with the Cavalry Legends.

Seeing her, Karl’s eyes lit up.

“Nicola! Welcome! You came back with all the food, ja?”

He was slightly slurring his speech. Nicola picked up on it as well.

“Are you fucking drunk?”

Karl thought for a moment, then shook his hand.

“So-so. You wouldn’t believe the amount of hard liquor it takes just to get buzzed now. I should be dead after drinking this much, instead I’m only tipsy.”

Taking another swig straight from a bottle of whiskey, he loudly swallowed.

“Ah nothing like some good firewater, especially after battle. You should have been there, small woman, the brave Cavalry were swinging their sabres like true warriors!”

Barely containing her rage, Nicola responded through gritted teeth.

“Maybe next time I will be there.”

Karl laughed as if she’d made a hilarious jest.

“I was simply joking, dear Nicola. You’re only first Rung. You’d die.”

Oh boy.

Nicola’s face went from barely restrained fury, to blank impassivity.

She’s gonna do something stupid.

Having gone to school with her for so long, as well as being around Kaveh on one of his worse days, Mandla knew that Nicola hated a few things. She hated non-punctuality, a first among all the stoners Mandla knew. She hated looking stupid, it was the only way to consistently get her to blush. She was otherwise shameless.

But above all, having her skills dismissed or belittled was the only thing he’d ever seen send her flying into a rage. She worked very hard to be taken seriously, especially as an attractive blonde girl, to the point Mandla honestly thought she had some sort of complex about it. Whatever the truth, the fact that she wasn’t raging right now was not a good sign.

As he watched Nicola just stared blankly into Karl’s eyes, then turned and trudged out of the room.

Following after her, he tried to convince her to stop, think and plan instead of doing something rash, but she ignored him.

Reaching the outside of the burrow, where the few sober people and the least drunk had been commandeered to help pack all the food away in the darkness as night fell, Nicola strode through without slowing.

Kaveh was on watch atop the mound and called out to her.

“Hey, where are you going? It’s dark out! Nicola? Nicola!”

Without looking back, she disappeared into the grasses.