I continue to watch the swarm of Husks stumble, like a giant herd of sheep but far scarier. While I could make it out, I couldn’t exactly make out finer details like what types were mixed into that swarm, but the idea that more than one of these swarms were wandering the land made me reconsider our plans heavily.

“Can we even do anything?” Looking at Lemon, his face reflected one of fear, the only one in the group to have such a face. Everyone else had some form of panic but they also started to think of a solution.

“Lemon, I know this is basically one of the worst case scenarios but don’t sink yourself into fear about it. Now we are aware of the swarm, or swarms, we can plan around them if we do end up making a base. Don’t give up yet, we’ve made it this far, alright?” Giving Lemon a pat on the shoulder, he nodded slowly before tearing his gaze from the horizon while he calmed down a bit.

“Sorry…”

“You have nothing to be sorry for. It’s a terrifying sight, that much is for sure. Just keep calm, alright? We’ll work it out.” Giving him another pat on the shoulder, I looked at Sheep. “Should we keep moving towards our next location?”

My second in command scanned the group before looking back at the horizon before speaking. “The town is getting more dangerous. At this point I think if we were to go back to the town we’d have no chance. At least here we can see them coming, the only problem is if they approach us at night. While the full moon gives us a bit of light, we won’t be able to see the swarm coming until we hear it, which means it’ll be too late.”

“Once we advance in technology a bit with machinery we might be able to make motion sensors?” Ghost spoke next as I nodded.

“There are ways to defend against mindless swarms like that. A moat with spikes at the bottom would help, though it would require cleaning frequently. If we expand we’d have to rebuild it.”

“We can always build large stone walls as well, though we don’t exactly have the know-how to make stone walls.” Responding to Aerith, I noticed we all started to think along the lines of how to defend. Even Lemon had suddenly started to think as well.

“It’s well and good that we’re already thinking of ideas but we should focus on reaching our destination first. We’ll arrive before nightfall but if we delay we’ll have to stop short.” Winter finally spoke and with her words I got everyone to return to their cars, telling them to think over ideas on how to face the horde.

As Aerith and I got back into our car, we both fell silent as my mind kept thinking of ideas on what to do. Sheep hit the mark, we were committed to building a base at this point, the town had been getting dangerous and what we had seen yesterday when leaving had only reaffirmed that point. A mindless swarm is very easy to handle, but the problem would be if there is an intelligent lifeform commanding that horde of Husks. Then that is what becomes difficult, though we have yet to encounter such a lifeform it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

After all, how did the previous iterations fail? If they were only against mindless Husks then surely they would’ve had a technological or magical advantage eventually. Hell, a decent minigun and flamethrower set up would wipe a swarm out with ease, and though we didn’t have those two weapons we still had a plethora of ideas already on how to deal with a horde.

“It just doesn’t get easier…” With a sigh, I glance at Aerith who gives me a tight smile in understanding. Picking up our usual small talk, we continued to drive while also being slightly distracted by our own thoughts. Though I didn’t show it, I did feel fear about our situation and knew the best way right now is to find more people, but that’s like finding a needle in a haystack without long distance communication. Even with the Radio blueprints, you’d need others to also have the ability to receive our calls.

Frustration replaced the fear that had been building up as I started to realise just how far we were from being able to survive, problems just kept stacking up and the stress on my shoulders to make sure everyone survived started to reach a boiling point. I remained focused, I couldn’t break, not yet. If this next destination held nothing of value for us and turned out not to be a water source, I wasn’t sure if I could stay calm.

“Exit is on the right, Midnight.” With the sun starting to set, I heard Aerith speak as I looked towards the right. In the distance there is a road and with Aerith double checking the map I knew this would lead to our destination. Making the turn, we continued down the road for thirty minutes as a problem arose, causing my heart to sink.

I couldn’t see anything that resembled a dam, much less a river or anything at all. For the first time since arriving here, I felt my stress hit its limit. I wanted to slam my hands on the wheel, scream at this ridiculousness of everything but I knew doing so would be useless. Grinding my teeth slightly as I continued to drive, soon a cluster of buildings entered my sight.

The road ran through the cluster of buildings and deciding to stop here, I indicated and pulled over in front of a rather small building. Breathing deeply in, I cleared my mind as best as I could and stepped out and waited for the others to gather.

“We have less than an hour of daylight left. Grab something to eat, we can’t heat anything up for now and get ready to rest for the night. In the morning we’ll explore these buildings before deciding on what to do next.” Watching everyone move to eat, I decided to climb onto the small building to scan the horizons. I didn’t have an appetite right now, it felt like if I were to eat I’d only throw it up.

Giving the horizon a scan and seeing nothing like a swarm, I relaxed a bit before plopping onto the ground. I knew I was close to my breaking point, having only realised the signs today and knew if nothing came from this location I may very well break. My thoughts swirled, not able to make sense of anything as I continued to sit there, trying to think of a solution as it’s unlikely for this place to actually have any water.

Feeling my hand be grabbed, I looked to the side to see Rebecca sitting there, placing a can in front of me. She didn’t say anything, just sitting there looking at me with a gentle smile as always, holding my hand. Feeling my tumbling emotions spill for a second as I trembled, I felt myself pulled into her grasp as she hugged me wordlessly. Feeling everything pour out, I cried in frustration, fear and stress onto her shoulder, not saying a word and letting my emotions spill out completely.

I don’t know how long passed, but the sky had gotten dark while once again no Husks appeared. Slowly leaving Rebecca’s embrace, I wiped the tears from my eyes as I felt her hand stroke the back of my head, calmness soothing out from my core as I leaned against her.

“Thanks, Bek.”

“Mm. Rubes you’re doing it again.”

I didn’t need to ask what again meant. This isn’t the first time I’ve bottled things up while putting a tough front up, it’s my bad habit. Usually I would talk with Rebecca about everything, but we haven’t truly had a moment where the two of us had been alone since before the Nexus event.

“Want to tell me about it?”

Opening my mouth, I spilled out everything I had been frustrated about, what had started to cause the stress and the fear that had started to settle into my heart. The more I spoke, the more that was lifted off my shoulders. When I finished speaking, I had somehow ended up in front of her, leaning completely into her embrace while staring at the night sky.

“Come to think of it, this is the first time we’ve actually been able to look out at the stars outside since arriving in this world, isn’t it?” Hearing Rebecca’s words, I smiled slightly as I held her hands firmly.

I couldn’t help but find the night sky in this world oddly beautiful. Though the moon had a strange yellow hue to it, the stars were perfectly white, just like in our world. My eyes looked around at the stars but I couldn’t see any constellations that I remembered, though I wasn’t exactly expecting any.

“Say, Bek?”

“Mm?”

“I love you.”

Feeling her embrace on me tighten as her head snuggled into my shoulder, I closed my eyes to enjoy her.

“I love you too, Ruby.”

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After spending nearly two hours on the roof, we slowly separated and turning my head slightly I deeply kissed Rebecca before separating completely as we stood up.

“Want to send Aerith out for a while?” Picking up on the joking tone of her voice, I chuckle.

“Tempting, but later. I need to sleep, I feel mentally drained.”

“Mm, then Aerith can have first watch.” Smiling at her while climbing down the building, we headed back to the campervan, asked Aerith who seemed to look at me with some concern to keep watch and fell asleep with Rebecca in my arms.

Feeling myself shaken awake, I rub my eyes as I look at Aerith standing before us, daylight seeping in. She had bags under her eyes and it took only a second for me to realise why.

“Aerith, did you stay up all night?” I didn’t need to ask, I already knew the answer and seeing her nod meekly I shook my head. “I appreciate the gesture, Aerith, but we need to be well rested. Make sure to wake one of us next time. Hey, Bek, wake up.” Poking Rebecca’s face, she opened her eyes with a slight frown before shaking her head.

“Mmmm, it’s too early Rubes.”

“It’s morning, Aerith stayed up the night.”

Rebecca’s eyes flung open as she sat up and looked around before locking eyes with Aerith. With a sigh, Winter pats Aerith on the head before standing. “Get some sleep, Aerith.”

I stand as well and with Rebecca we close the door to the bedroom and start making coffee and rice. Looking at Rebecca’s back while she made the coffee and unable to resist, I hugged her from behind as she giggled lightly, leaning back as I wrapped my hands around her waist. Before we could say anything however, I heard the sound of running coming towards us and looking at the door as it flung open, I saw Ghost there looking at us.

“Water.” For a moment I found myself puzzled as to why Ghost was asking for water before it dawned on me what he actually meant. “We found water!”

Releasing Winter as she turns off the oven, we quickly exit the campervan and follow behind Ghost at a run, passing two buildings as Sheep and Lemon enter our sights, behind them a well that is covered, the size of a normal well you’d see in a TV show. Stopping just before Sheep while panting a bit, I look at the bucket he is holding and take it, looking at the water that it contained.

It’s a bit foggy, but otherwise clear. Looking at the place the bucket is chained to, I see a small hole only big enough for the bucket to go down into. My eyes however quickly landed on a pipe that came out from the other side. Shoving the bucket back into Sheep’s hands, I quickly circled the well and saw what I could only assume to be a water pump, clearly damaged and eroded.

Checking the well itself, I saw that the cover is nailed down, no damage to it so there were no risks of Husks contaminating the water. I felt a flood of relief spread through my body as realisation fully enveloped me. It’s a source of water, water straight from the ground!

“It’s good to see you grinning again, Midnight.” Looking at Sheep, I touched my cheeks and found that I had indeed been grinning.

“Well, we found water! A renewable source at that!” It solved so many of our problems, my mind ran wild with what we could now do once we sorted out the next lot of problems.

“Glad you like our early morning present.” Ghost chuckles as I turn to him, a question quickly blooming in my mind.

“That’s right, why are you guys out here so early?” These three were beyond morning people, so for them to just decide to go exploring in the morning perplexed me.

“Ah, um no reason.” Lemon answers while Sheep and Ghost look away. Turning on Lemon, he nervously scratched the back of his head before also turning away. I had an inkling as to why, and remembering last night on the roof I felt a blush of embarrassment creep onto my face before shaking my head of those thoughts.

“Alright, let’s go have breakfast and coffee! We’ll be busy from today, so we’ll get to planning right away!” Cheerfully moving over to Winter and grabbing her hand, I led everyone back to the campervan, the mood noticeably much happier between the five of us as we planned out our day.

Our first order of business is to clear each of the buildings, then check the damage of the pump while gathering anything remotely mechanical so I can hopefully repair it or build a new water pump. While we had machinery including water pumps in the town, we now realised going back wouldn’t be easy so unless we had no choice we would avoid it.

We had brought several bags of rice so we had plenty to last us a while, and if we could set up a proper system we could even start growing crops, making use of Ghost’s Farming Job. A question lingered on my mind though, and deciding to discuss it first I brought it up.

“How long can a well last for?”

“Depends on so many conditions. The well there seems to be rather large, and assuming we are a bit frugal, it could last months and if it continuously recharges while we use it then it’ll sustain itself.”

“So hot showers…”

“Possible, absolutely, but would need to be in moderation. We also need to purify the water and store it so it doesn’t get contaminated. Then we also need to set up a plumbing system and after all of that is done then we’ll be truly set.”

“So a lot to do, got it. We’ll clear out the buildings then organise tasks for everyone to do.” After Sheep and I conversed, I looked around and saw no one else wanted to bring anything else up, and finishing our breakfast we grabbed our weapons and started to breach and clear the buildings.

We found no Husks in any of the buildings, and after we cleared we checked the condition of these buildings and found most were damaged, most of it erosion and similar to houses in the town nature had been slowly reclaiming the land they stood on. All up there were six buildings, two seemed to be residential while four seemed to function as storage. Broken down machinery laid in all buildings, ranging from what appeared to be water tanks to random appliances.

“Alright, the buildings aren’t exactly in the best condition. I think it’ll be best if Aerith does take Builder, being able to dictate what types of buildings we have and the layout will be far better than relying on mostly eroded buildings, plus Build pairs extremely well with Lemon’s Tradesmith Job, being able to use Carpenter, Plumbing and Electrician trees will be very helpful.”

Sheep and I stood next to the well, with Sheep dismantling the water pump like machine while I talked. We had found that the pipe that ran down into the well had also eroded, meaning we would have to replace it. Thankfully we had brought all of the piping we had found, which is what Ghost, Winter and Lemon were currently unpacking, along with Ghost’s Farming tools.

“I tend to agree, though I do hope young Aerith isn’t forced into a position where she has to do all of the work herself. I don’t want to see her work herself to death, she has that mentality that won’t allow her to say no after all.”

Knowing what Sheep meant, I also knew that taking Builder didn’t mean Aerith could just point to an empty area and have a building appear. We all would have to work hard from here on, I wouldn’t just sit back either.

“Say, Deven, how are you holding up?”

“Honestly, until this morning, I was nearing my limit. I hadn’t released just how much stress had accumulated until I heard you crying last night, Ruby. Every night I keep having the same dream, being able to hold Diana in my arms, as if all of this is just a shitty dream. I envy you, Ruby, you get to have Rebecca here yet I can’t do anything but yearn for Diana.”

I didn’t know what to say, from Deven’s tone of voice I could tell he’s also on the verge of tears, but before I could actually say anything he sighed and looked up at me.

“Sorry, Ruby. I didn’t mean to blurt that out.”

Sitting down and leaning against the well, I smiled slightly at Deven. “Mm, sorry, Deven. I hadn’t realised you’re at this point.”

“You’re not at fault, Ruby, don’t apologise. I just…just wish I could’ve at least spent more time with Diana before this bullshit happened. Our anniversary had been coming up, and I had been planning a big holiday with her. I hadn’t spent much time with her cause we’d been preparing for the launch of that game so I always told myself once the hype had died down and we had done our job for the main team I’d go on that trip with her.”

Moving my knees up to my chest and hugging them, I looked at Deven. “Where did you plan to go?”

“Paris. She’d loved that city but has never gone. I managed to book a really fancy hotel for a month, a tour guide to show us the best places and after that I planned to take her to Disneyland.”

“In America?”

“No silly. There is one in Paris, the plan had been to finish our anniversary with Disneyland as the final place I took her. She didn’t know I had this planned either, I wanted to surprise her.” Deven shakes his head as he picks up a spanner. “I’ll be okay, Ruby. Once we’ve stabilised ourselves I can finally get some free time to think and clear my head.”

“Mm, talk to me more, Deven. I might not be the best at helping with these sorts of things but if you need to vent, please talk with me, okay?”

“Heh, I’ll do that. I know you’re not great at handling emotional baggage so don’t worry. You do far more than enough for us, I can’t expect you to also be our therapist. Who knows, maybe being Worthy means we’ll get a chance to ask for a reward in the future? Maybe we can go home, at least for a short while.”

“Mm, if that happens I’d love to eat Mum’s cooking again.”

“You just had to bring up food, didn’t ya. God, I tell you what Ruby, I could really do with a damn cheeseburger from McRonalds. Oh, can’t we buy the assortment of food from our world? What would it have though?”

Looking at the shop, it had indeed been sitting there and resisting the urge to click it, I swiped the System away.

“One hundred and fifty Prime Coins. We have two thousand nine hundred Prime Coins, while I’m tempted I think it’s best we wait till we’ve set up what we need. Then we can buy it and use it to celebrate our success.”

“Fantastic idea. Oh I really hope there are Bars Bars in there, chocolate and caramel would hit the spot. Oh, Tepsi or Dr Salt would bring me to tears, I miss drinking those.”

Chuckling, Sheep and I discussed what could possibly be included in the package and seeing him smile and laugh happily caused me to feel glad that he had brightened up from earlier, even if it’s only slightly.