Mark was woken suddenly by the sounds of Daphne moving around the room.
Still dazed he took a moment to adjust to the light streaming in.
“Mark you may want to get up, I’m packing up the tent in five minutes. So unless you don’t want everything out on show to the whole camp, I’d get dressed.”
Mark blinked at her as a grin slowly tugged at the corners of his mouth. She was using her commanding tone, and Mark had to say he liked it. But he waited there just long enough to see her composed mask crack and that gentle side flash through before answering. He was all too happy to be the one to bring that look out. But, she was right it was time to put on their game faces.
Pulling on his gear, Mark left the tent just as Daphne was putting the last of her personal items into her inventory.
Walking out, Mark saw the mass exodus, the camp had become. All around them, equipment was being stowed as last-minute rations were being handed out. Tents were rapidly being collapsed and stored. Mark looked back at Daphne to see her partially collapse the tent in seconds and in much the same manner, store it in her inventory.
As they began walking down the now sparse rows of tents, Mark put his earpiece in and spoke.
“Morning people, the Knights will be packed and ready at the Northern gate in thirty minutes for the eight o’clock send-off. How's everything on your ends?”
The comms came to life almost immediately with Jonathan's voice.
“Right, SAGE is ten minutes out, bet you we’ll be the first there.”
Sam followed up shortly with.
“Both the Prophet’s people and ‘The Raid’ led by Henry are already there and seeing as they were my responsibility, I win.”
Mark expected Jonathan to counter but another voice came through the comms.
“Right, that's enough out of you two, if you got time to talk, you got time to work. Samantha come help me sort the Vulnerable Pop Evac. I want a meeting with the team leaders on the wall before we set out, Make it happen, Jonathan.”
“Yes Major” they both responded quickly.
The line went dead as they all went about their tasks.
Mark saw he wasn’t needed as Daphne got on a roll, so he chose to go check on some things.
Heading towards Donny's tent, Mark took in all the last-minute preparations, as people moved busily around the space. He saw George and Joslin packing crates and rations into their inventories, checking things off a list. Their kids ran around them, infected by the excitement, and periodically Joslin would shout for them to stay close and out of the way.
Andy, Noah, Sophia, and Jackson were moving about and relaying information to each group, keeping them up to date. If Mark had to guess Sophia was around six weeks at this point, and though it was hard to tell, she definitely had a small bump near her belly. It was still early in the pregnancy, so she was still able to move around freely.
Mark kept moving and as he hit the main communal area, he saw Boe come bounding towards him. Strangely enough, there was no Ethel in sight.
Dropping to one knee, Mark ruffled Boe's coat. Boe stuck around, and at first, he thought Boe wanted to bring him somewhere but it turned out he was just wandering around. As Mark continued, Boe followed closely at his side for a time before trotting off to go sniff some more people.
When Mark arrived at Donny’s tent, he saw it was already packed away, and the guy was helping his neighbor pack away hers. He saw Mark approaching and waved a greeting.
When Mark got there he asked.
“Yo my dude, how you feeling?”
Donny just nodded and a pleased look appeared on his face.
“Actually, feeling worlds apart from yesterday. She’s still in there but it is nothing compared to what it was. Feel like shit for how I acted yesterday; I have some apologies to hand out now.”
Donny tapped his temple and looked slightly embarrassed as he said this.
Mark then asked his next question.
“Are you going to be joining us on the trip?”
Now Donny looked a little more hesitant.
“For now yeah, still trying to get a handle on things”
Mark couldn’t blame him. To Donny, Mark was still a stranger he had a lot of history with, which was a weird place to be. Grace had been worryingly thorough when it came to erasing Mark from his memories. Everything else had been optional, which is why Mark had been able to recover them. But, it seemed that she despised even the thought of Mark. The feeling was mutual. It would take time for them to get back to what they were.
“Well good, I’m sure you are welcome to stay with the Knights for as long as you want. Let me know if you need anything”
Suddenly a familiar-looking woman spoke up. She had been the one Donny had been helping to pack up, and she had gotten nearer as they spoke.
“Don’t worry I can keep an eye on him... If you want. My name’s Abby… do you remember me?”
Mark blinked, and it took him a moment, but eventually, he put a name to the face. This woman had been part of Josilin’s group. In fact, she had been one of the injured Mark had healed. The woman with the broken spine.
Right away Mark said.
“Yes, I do Abby”
Her awkward smile turned to a natural one.
“At the time I said thank you to you. But, I also wanted you to know that you got me out of a bad place. I’m even trying to become a healer like you. I want to be able to do for others, what you did for me.”
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Mark was floored, when he healed people he never expected anything in return. Thank you’s were good enough, but as he looked at this woman now, he realized this was a direct result of his choices. Mark had healed hundreds of people by now, but Abby was proof that what he was doing was worth it. If he could save even one more person it was worth it. Mark couldn't help but feel satisfied.
The three of them continued to talk in a much more relaxed manner. Donny seemed to fit easily into their conversion, and Mark even saw the old Donny shining through in some of the wisecrack comments he made. Without even realizing it, Donny was more himself than he had been in weeks. Mark wasn’t sure what was going on between him and Abby, but Mark was glad the guy had found someone else to talk with.
All too soon, Mark said his farewells and reminded Donny that he needed to find Mark for regular check-ups.
They had chatted for close to twenty minutes, now Mark headed to the northern gate a little early. Before even getting there, Mark could see the traffic jam caused by the crowds of people on the roads. Realizing that he wasn’t getting anywhere, Mark rose into the air and continued moving towards the gate. Soldiers were coordinating the flow of people, and names were being called out for the open civilian slots. Mark had heard these names had already been decided on and the relevant parties informed, but people were still taking chances. He didn't blame them, but they were clogging up the walkways. Further up, Mark saw a procession of armored vehicles. The hummers would be in the center of the formation where the Civilians and important personnel were heading.
Approaching, Mark saw Captain Martina holding a clipboard and directing some incoming people. Beyond that, in the area that had already checked in, Mark saw several faces he was familiar with, hard at work.
Dr. Haley and Dr. Johnson seemed to be arguing about how best to transport their volatile resources, while Elizabeth stood nearby with a team of fellow engineers. They were loading a large metal container into the back of one of the humvees. Which reminded Mark that they still had the seed. He wanted to put it back into his inventory but even now the seed was still resting in that potent liquid, he didn’t want to call it back when it was still gestating. And, unless he died, it was still his property, so he could summon it at any time. If things went wrong on their end, then he would have to pull it, but for now, it was safe where it was.
Mark spotted Friedrich currently directing a good number of medics. The Doc and his men would probably remain at the core as well, to provide any assistance they could.
Mark tried to get closer, but suddenly stopped as several dozen rifles pointed at him. Warning him to back off. While their bullets posed no direct danger to Mark he still backed off.
It looked like they weren't taking any chances. Anyone who approached was met with a show of force to discourage people from hanging on. A rather extreme, but effective measure. The Major didn’t want any civilians latching onto the convoy, that shouldn't be there.
Mark looked around for Chloe and her people, spotting them set up near the outskirts of the departure point, along with Henry's group. Mark looked around for Major Liam and found him organizing the core soldiers himself. They were loading up onto the two remaining helicopters, which Mark found strange because of their vulnerability. But, they were probably going to use the advantage of the vehicle's speed to respond to threats and deploy their heavy hitters where they needed them the most.
All this activity took place below Mark as he watched them complete their final checks. Mark noticed a burst of blue fire going off on top of the wall. It turned out to be Sam trying to get his attention. Getting closer Mark saw all the leaders gathering on top of a distant section. Major Karter was there along with Davis, Jonathan, Chloe, Henry, and Ethel. They all stood by, watching the activity down below.
Mark landed next to them shortly, getting a round of greetings. Major Karter was the first to speak though.
“Right, as soon as they depart, I want us ready to move out. Samantha, what are our numbers looking like?”
Stepping forward she read off her tablet.
“In terms of fighters, we have three hundred and twenty-one from SAGE, three hundred and eighty-eight from the Knights, a combined force of two hundred and thirty-six fighters from ‘The Raid’ and the Prophets people. Finally, factoring in the ninety-eight soldiers willing to stay behind. We have a grand total of one thousand and forty-three capable fighters to cover nine hundred and sixty-one non-combatants.”
Hearing the raw numbers spoken out loud put things into perspective. They had managed to gather enough forces to match the number they had to protect, and then some, but the difference was nowhere near where Mark had hoped it would be.
Everyone stood there silent until the Major spoke up once more.
“If there's any hesitation, now is the time to speak up. There won’t be time for it later”
When no one spoke the Major nodded.
Mark suddenly thought of the spell he had just gotten.
“Actually I have something that may help”
All eyes were on him now.
“I recently got a spell that I think will allow us to communicate over long distances, I’m not sure if it's any better than a normal comm device but I wanted to offer up any advantage we could get”
Sam’s serious mask cracked and she held out her hand freely.
Mark nodded and triggered [Telepathic link].
The spell never required contact, but the person he was linking with did have to be within his line of sight.
The connection took around 10 Mana to form and after the initial cost, it seemed to have almost negligible maintenance costs.
Sam said she felt something trying to connect to her mind, but it couldn’t approach unless she lowered her guard and allowed it past her will. At any point, she could snap the connection if she wanted to. She also said that it took a small amount of her Mana to assist the connection.
Once she allowed it to connect, Mark could feel an intangible connection to her. Stage one was nothing like what he and Donny had experienced.
Conscious effort had to be put in to send a message across the connection. Basically, all her thoughts were her own until she wanted to contact Mark. By sending him a direct thought. Which was converted to information and arrived on his side, sounding very much like she was taking in his head.
The pros of this method were that once it was cast it was almost entirely free and faster than direct forms of conversation. Duration and distance were still unknown but Mark had felt no strain on the connection, even when she put a decent amount of distance between them.
Then Mark sent connections to the others. Once he had, the spell opened up into a network. Everyone acted as a node, they could send thoughts to one another or to the whole network if they wanted.
The Cons were that Mark acted as the hub for this mental matrix. All messages and information passed through him.
He soon realized why there was a limit to the number of links he could create. Just like his [Force bolt], using the theoretical limit was difficult. His mind simply wouldn’t be able to handle the constant information flowing through it. As it was, 7 links turned out to be his limit at the moment. Luckily, he could restrict it so that he wasn’t always hearing every message between them, only those directed at him, but it was always there in the background, like a constant buzz of electricity.
It took some getting used to, but once everyone got the hang of it, it was much faster than the comms.
Chloe looked up at the first departure and sent down the link.
“It's time, they're calling it”
Moving to the edge of the wall Mark noticed they were further away from the activity below than he first thought. Less than a second later, a loud shrill 'Beeb' went up amongst the crowd of soldiers below.
A group of what looked like twenty casters moved the gate, and only then did Mark realize why their group was so far away. The ground shook as the casters began pulling down a huge section of the wall to make room for the evacuating soldiers. All at once the walls that people had been dying on for the better part of two weeks crumbled, and reshaped themselves to fill the surrounding moat.
The empty street beyond revealed itself to the crowds of people, and beyond that, miles of infested city, before dropping off into the surrounding ocean. And just faintly in the distance, one could make out the gray outline of Manhatten, their destination.