Daphne and Mark were walking down the sidewalk of one of the old main roads. They were just passing next to the old city hall. After things had gone up in smoke this had been one of the first places people had gone for refuge, and apparently, they’d found it.
Neither of them had spoken since they broke from each other's arms, but they hadn’t let go of one another either, simply walking down the road hand in hand.
Mark let her lead him to wherever she wanted.
Finally, she broke the silence.
“Donny, Sam, and Jonathan are alive”
Mark smiled while nodding, he didn’t think any of them would go down easily, but it was good to know they were doing alright.
They had both been hesitant to start talking because it would make the losses more real. But it had to be done.
“How many did we lose and does anyone have a plan now?”
Daphne looked at him and took a quick breath.
“Sam finished tallying the number three hours ago. Of the two thousand and four souls that left Prospect Park, we lost five hundred and thirty-two people more than half of those were fighters.”
Daphne’s voice quivered slightly.
“Sandy didn’t make it, and I’m told neither did Noah”
Mark squeezed her hand. Sandy had been her third in command and very close to Daphne and Tom, that must have been why Mark saw tears.
Noah had been a great guy too, he would have to find Andy and give his condolences.
Daphne had only glimpsed the roster of lost souls before coming to wait for Mark so if there were any more he knew she wasn’t sure.
Right now she was leading them toward a large highrise that had been assigned to them.
Those who had not chosen to immediately be absorbed into the city factions had decided to stay with the camp's people.
They were just over a thousand people now. Sitting at one thousand one hundred and twelve souls. Luckily space was one thing the city had a lot of after the sudden population dip. They had been assigned a building on the outskirts of the city. It was considered a more dangerous area but they would be left to their own there.
Their walk was not long but Mark realized why the comms hadn't worked.
When they got to the highrise, Mark looked up at the skyscraper. The building had once been part of an expensive hotel chain and was probably in great demand back then. Now after making sure the structure was clear of the dead, it had been abandoned, in favor of buildings closer to the city center.
Walking in the front door, saw a large reception area with dozens of people shuffling around awkwardly. When they entered a couple of heads turned to look at them, then quickly looked away. Only, whenever they thought neither of them was looking, people would steal glances, watching them move through the lobby.
An odd sensation crept into the room, Mark frowned and tried to shrug it off.
Daphne kept walking unaffected but said.
“We are still trying to get everyone settled and the missing people located. Many are still resting after the journey”
Mark nodded as they passed a reception where several women worked crossing names off stacks of forms. Behind them, an announcement board had been repurposed into a long list of names.
At the top it said “Never to be forgotten”, every now and then one of the women would go up to the board and write another name. Mark paused infront of it for a time, searching for any names he recognized. Looking for anyone he may know, on the third round of searching Mark spotted Ava’s name up there.
Mark had literally seen her just before all of this went down
She had been an incredible woman. Mark never did get the chance to meet her girlfriend like he had promised.
After a time Daphne pulled Mark by his elbow towards the staircase. They were still fixing the elevator, so they took the stairs.
The climb gave Mark a moment to digest everything and by the time they got the level Daphne wanted, Mark realized they were pretty high up, they must have climbed close to fifty floors. Thanks to his attributes, Mark barely even felt winded.
When they exited the stairwell he could see that they were in the penthouse overlooking the city.
They weren’t the only ones in here, it looked like they had decided to make the large open space an operations room.
It was kind of funny to see the large lavish floor, the peek of luxury. Contrasted by equipment setup all over the place and expensive furniture moved to make more room for desk space.
The little floor held moderate activity, everyone going about their business, but there was an air of calm about the place. Everyone was still reveling in the fact that they had survived.
Daphne suddenly released Mark’s hand, abandoning him in favor of dodging the approaching body.
Mark was almost knocked off his feat when someone crashed into him and pulled him into a crushing hug.
Sam’s voice came from his left.
“Damn, it's good to see you, Mark. I’m so sorry I left you there, but they insisted on talking to you”
Mark waved her off, she had hundreds of people to look out for. He could take care of himself.
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“No need, you did the right thing”
Another voice came from his left.
“See told you he would say the same thing, priorities Sammy”
Jonathan walked up to them at a more reasonable pace and bumped his fist against Marks.
“Glad you’re safe dude”
Mark grinned, neither of them looked like they had been through hell just hours ago.
“Didn’t doubt you for a second, so what's going on? Daph caught me up on most of it but where do we move for here?”
Sam seemed only too happy to keep the flow of conversion going.
“Well after we escaped the bridge -appreciate that by the way-, we were able to talk our way in. As you can see we’ve gathered everyone here. But it's a precaution really. See there are a bunch of unknowns right now. My dad reported to HQ and we haven't heard from him since.”
Mark could tell she was worried about her dad, even if she tried to keep up a strong demeanor.
“We aren't sure whether SAGE will be disbanded or not and at this stage, all we can do is plan for the different outcomes”
Someone came up from behind them, making their way out of the stairwell.
“Honestly, even if I have Aura, an old woman should not be expected to climb so many godforsaken steps, let's put the elevator at the top of the list boys and girls”
Mark turned to see Ethel and Boe walking toward the group.
Last Mark had seen of the ‘old woman’ she had been riding Boe into battle, shooting bolts of energy from her bow like some fictional warrior. Complaints notwithstanding, Mark was happy to see her.
Clicking his tongue, Boe rushed straight over to Mark, who gave his coat a good scratching.
“Ah, and if I’ve taught Daphne anything over these last few days it's that there’s always ‘something’ you can be doing. All of you with me now”
Daphne cocked her head in confusion as Ethel led them to a more private room.
“I just had a chat with an old friend. I have a contact that can get us aligned with the Guilds”
Everyone looked pleasantly surprised, so Mark was clearly missing something.
Sam eventually put him out of his misery.
The reason this was good was because The Guilds were one of the major factions within the city right now.
Ethel had gotten a lay of the land as soon as they arrived. She had ferreted out that there were three main ruling powers and several hundred smaller factions that fell somewhere between them.
First were The Loyalists, this group was made up of the bulk of the army and was run by the bigwigs that had held power before the fall. They were the ones who attempted to keep public order. The structure they represented still held huge economic power and a lot of people liked the familiarity and safety of it.
Next were the Guilds, they were made up of the most numerous factions. The Guilds probably had the least military power -predominantly made up of Generalists-, but they made up for it with the research and creation of new system advancements. Not only that but they had no hierarchy system and their restrictions to join were not strict. This was the group with the most freedom. It wasn’t really even a faction as everyone in it was free to choose how they went about their business, but as a safety thing, they banned together to avoid being absorbed in other more ethos-based factions.
Lastly was NAS, with which Mark was familiar. They were a collection of people who believed one should change to fit in with the apocalypse. They based their ranking system on their system levels, the higher the level the more authority one was afforded.
To a lesser extent, all the factions were subject to this rule, but NAS embodied this. It was no surprise that Henry had chosen to join this group as soon as he had found out what they offered, taking all his people with him.
They had gathered a ton of information and they hadn’t even been here a full day, so much could change when you were in a coma.
What made Ethel's connection important was that every faction needed to be registered as its own entity or risk being divided up into the others. Everything from a place to stay, to a permit to leave the city, relied on their group being registered.
As it was, if SAGE was disbanded, its trained soldiers would be absorbed by the loyalists. Anyone that didn’t want that would need to have a new group to move to. Unfortunately, because they had just arrived they needed to quickly create a faction if they wanted to stay together.
There was also the option of ignoring the permit and going about their business but if they did that, then they would have no right to decide what happened to their people. Where they lived, what jobs they did, or even whether they were allowed to hunt outside the city walls.
If no one vouched for the individuals, then the loyalists being the primary army would have the final say.
It was sink or swim.
Mark frowned, they had just gotten here. To what they thought was safety and Mark had been waiting for the other shoe to drop. He thought they would have longer than a day but it looked like that wasn’t in the cards.
However, looking around the room Mark knew that no one here would take this lying down. They just needed some time to get on their feet and soon enough they would find a way to deal with all the turbulence, and it looked like Ethel had a plan moving forward.
“It's simple, if we can get registered by the end of the day we are in the clear. Then we’ll have some breathing room. I’ll need a small group of representatives to go with me. Is Karter back yet?”
Sam nibbled at her lip.
“He’s still in debriefing, but I was hoping to fetch him in the next twenty minutes”
Ethel nodded.
“Fine, then I’ll need all of you, we can fetch him on the way, we need Chloe for this too”
Chloe walked into the room as soon as Ethel finished the sentence as if she knew she’d be called.
“Hi, Mark glad you are alive, gonna be honest your chance of survival was pretty low at the end there”
Mark squinted at the woman, both glad to see her and mildly annoyed. He also noted that only one bodyguard was following her. Mark had learned the woman’s name was Gena and though still faithful, the woman had been crying just recently. Mark could tell by the absence of Chloe's other shadow what had happened.
Maggie walked into the room three steps behind Chloe, followed shortly by Cara.
Ethel spun her finger in the air
“Alright let's go people, all of you, let's go. Mark, Daphne you too. ”
Ushering them all toward the staircase.
Mark moved, but he hadn’t even had a chance to meet up with Donny just yet. He wanted to find out how the guy was doing and to refresh his ‘mental bandages’ as it were, but Ethel stoked them all along like a grouchy personal assistant trying to get her boss to a meeting on time.
Making their way down the staircase reluctantly they arrived in the lobby.
Walking forward as a group drew everyone's attention and murmurs began to fill the room. Slowly people started to approach and the strange sensation was back, Mark tensed slightly. He wasn’t sure who started it but someone began clapping softly.
That gesture seemed to set off a chain reaction, all across the lobby people began to clap quietly. The people around them stood with appreciative looks and smiles.
Their group kept moving through the lobby as people surrounded them and on multiple occasions, Mark was thanked, patted on the back, or hastily given a handshake.
Many people moving to Mark directly. The others also all seemed to have their own fan clubs as they got to the glass doors.
All Mark could do was smile and let the hordes wash over them. When they finally made it out of the lobby, people calmed down, dispersing happily.
The whole experience had been surreal to Mark.
Ethel just grinned at them, walking up the street.
“Right, now don’t get a big head ladies and gentlemen”
Mark was completely baffled when he saw a sleek black car pull up and a driver got out to open the car door for them.
All of them except Jonathan paused and gave Ethel a ‘what the heck’ face.
“It's on lone from the friend I mentioned, let's move while we ask questions, please. Sam my girl where did you say we could pick up your dad?”