The video of the Major he’d watched the other night came back to him.

“Should you come across any soldiers wearing blue arm bands please seek their help, they will guide you to the nearest safe zones”

Mark watched them make their way down the street. As he was right now he fully believed he could make it to the safe zone.

However, that was assuming nothing went wrong or that the system didn't change the rules of the game again.

Having someone to watch his back was appealing. Especially if that someone was a unit of highly trained soldiers.

It would be a lie to say he wasn't tempted to let them pass and make his own way there, but his promise came back to bite him in the ass.

He needed to get to the safe zone for multiple reasons and that squad was probably his fastest way.

The gunfire was becoming more distant.

Mark sat there with his arms crossed in thought.

On the one side, he had a potential fast track to safety.

On the other, new people meant new problems.

Unfortunately holing up and living alone in the apocalypse wasn't viable. His build was focused on team play, avoiding others was like shooting himself in the foot, by giving up one of his greatest strengths.

As if he didn't need another reason, the comfy queen-size mattress beneath him squeaked, pleading with him to stay. He hadn't slept in a proper bed in days and quite frankly he’d been looking forward to it. There it was waiting for him to come snooze the evening away.

With a sorrow-filled sigh, he said.

“No rest for the wicked, Boe let’s head out before we lose 'em,”

He got up, throwing the bed one last longing gaze, and hopped out the window onto the fire escape.

He climbed down a level, hopping over to another building.

Using that one he tucked and rolled just as Andy had done and dropped to the next roof. Finally, sliding down the ladder to get to ground level.

Boe made the jumps with little difficulty, landing right next to Mark.

Together they followed the sound of the receding gunshots. It didn't take long to catch up.

As he got nearer Mark cast [Shape Mana] and wrapped it around himself, making it clear.

He really didn't need to get shot after everything he had been through last night.

Getting nearer he noticed they were moving at a constant pace with purpose. Not all too sure what they were doing, Mark hung back to observe them.

From what he could tell they weren't moving too fast or too slow. Probably for the civilian's sake.

Fortunately, over the last few days, he had learned to move stealthily to avoid the Corrupted.

Unfortunately, the group he encountered weren’t Corrupted; they were intelligent human beings, not to mention trained soldiers.

So when the call went out directed at Mark, he was surprised.

“We are currently on a search and recovery mission on behalf of the US government. You have been identified as following this squad. You have precisely five seconds to present yourself and state your business or we will treat this as an act of hostility. If you need assistance, we are required to offer it.” a masculine voice shouted out.

“5”

“4”

Mark looked down at Boe, who just looked back at Mark. Taking that as the dog equivalent of a shoulder shrug, Mark frowned.

“3”

“2-”

“Alright, I’m coming out, without any weapons drawn. If you shoot me, Ima be pissed!” Mark shouted.

Stepping out from behind a jeep, Mark got a better look at the group.

There were ten soldiers forming a tight circle around what looked like a family of three. The man and woman pushed a small boy behind them protectively.

“I mean no harm, I heard that soldiers with blue armbands were guiding people,” he said with his arms up and palms open facing towards them, showing no hostility.

Boe popped out from cover too and one of the soldiers jumped and pointed their gun at him.

Mark's eyes narrowed dangerously at the man.

“Son, we need you to approach slowly and state your name” The voice was the same as before. It belonged to a giant of a man, Mark was fairly tall, but this guy was something else entirely. If Mark had to guess he was probably nearing 7 feet tall with the bulk to match.

He had a small scar running horizontally on the bridge of his nose and his light brown hair was cut into a short buzzcut.

“Alright. As soon as your man stops pointing his gun at my dog, I’d be happy to oblige” Mark said.

They all stared at him in stoic silence. Mark simply stared back, never taking his eyes off the soldier.

The big man finally seemed to come to a decision.

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“At ease,” he said.

Mark was now sure this mountain of a man was in charge.

Guns lowered, not all the way, but they were at least making a show of seeming less threatening.

Nodding at the man, Mark made his way forward, stopping just in front of the squad.

“Sir, the name’s Mark Young and I’m looking to get to Prospect Park. I’m not looking for protection. I’m more than capable of defending myself, but if you are traveling in that direction the smart move on my part would be to travel with a group” he said

The big man grinned at Mark and said.

“Good to meet you Mark you can call me Sergeant Davis

Prospect Park is our destination. It’s good to know you can fight, that’s usually the first question we ask. You understand that by choosing to follow us you will have to follow my orders”

Mark pursed his lips.

“As long as you understand that there are certain things I won't do because of my beliefs. Treat this like a partnership we’ll get along fine”

Davis looked at him, clearly not satisfied with the answer.

Mark wouldn't budge on this, he didn't need someone lording their station over him.

At the same time, he understood the need for a command structure.

This man would be putting his men and everyone under his protection in danger if he just let every rouge element tag along.

Mark got this, but he still felt the need to make his stance clear now.

If things didn't work out he could walk away at any time and he needed Davis to know this.

“That’s fair, but keep in mind the orders that I give are to make sure everyone gets out of this in one piece. Your system level does not make you a soldier”

Mark simply nodded.

“Right, we're chatting out in the open here, join the civs in the formation and we’ll walk and talk”

He said while opening a gap for Mark to pass.

Mark clicked his tongue at Boe and they both moved into the space left by the soldiers, joining the family in the middle. Mark dissolved his [Shape Mana].

As he passed he noticed a couple of details.

The first was that the soldiers weren't only men, there were eight men and two women here.

The other was that Davis and one of the women were both clearly wearing system items.

For Davis, it was a set of bronze armor poking out from the collar of his uniform.

For the woman, it was some kind of crystalline earpiece that molded to the left side of her face. Spiraling intricately to her left eye.

Other than that they all seemed to have standardized gear. Which frankly was a good sign.

The group began moving once more.

Mark turned his eyes to the people in the center.

The Man was a rather portly older gentleman.

Who for some reason, was wearing an expensive suit. The days weren't exactly sweltering, but with all those layers, he couldn't be comfortable. The beads of sweat building up on his forehead attested to this. The woman and child were dressed more casually.

Mark nodded when the man made eye contact.

One of the soldiers near the front opened fire, killing two approaching Corrupted. The sound bounced off the rooftops

Then Daivs spoke up.

“Alright Mark, you said you could fight, what am I working with here”

Mark was a bit hesitant to outline his abilities to them even if they were soldiers.

However, Davis had shown him a level of respect by lowering their weapons when they were still unsure if he was a threat.

Mark decided to do the same.

“I’m a caster, I can do a bit of everything. But my focus lies in Healing, Battlefield control, and Defence,” he said

Davis’s eyebrows rose. Some of the squad members stole glances inward.

“Healer? Out here alone? That’s rare. Don't usually see you type without a group surrounding them. Though that does lend credibility to your story” Davis said.

“Ah, it became necessary to leave my old group,” Mark said, not explaining any further.

Davis bobbed his head like he understood.

“Right, well it will be good to have a caster around. How would you rate your killing potential”

Mark cocked his head in confusion, there were ten soldiers here, was he implying that not a single one used Mana.

“Wait are you all Aura users? And I can output a pretty consistent amount of damage, but if something big shows up it would be better for me to focus on keeping it pinned down” Mark said.

A complicated expression came over Davis’s face and he said.

“Right now, Mana users are seen as too valuable to deploy in the field. They are helping reinforce the perimeters around the safe zones.”

Mark found something strange about the way he said that. It felt too prepared, but before he could follow it up Davis hit him with another question, obviously trying to steer the conversation in another direction.

Mark let him, it wasn't his problem and they’d just met so he’d try again later and see what he came up with.

“Could you demonstrate your damage rep, I need to see how much you can handle,” he said

“Damage rep?” Mark asked

“Oh, I thought that was a pretty common term nowadays. I need to see your damaging repertoire, your spell rotations.”

Mark was becoming more lost by the second. But shrugging his shoulders he’d simply do what he could.

Mark lifted his palm upward and cast 8 [Force bolts]. They drifted lazily around his left hand.

Then spotting four Corrupted coming from different directions he launched the bolts straight up and arced all four up and over the soldier's heads. Sending them off in four different directions. The distance was pretty far, but not out of his range. Four Corrupted heads exploded at once dropping to the ground. Three [Force bolts] still spun around his arm.

Davis whistled

“Gotta admit haven't seen that kind of range and precision with multiple shots, you usually only see people firing off one those at a time. But seeing as that’s the only spell you used I’m assuming the rest of your spells focus on healing or defense.

If that's the case then I’m putting you on supporting fire. You simply call out what you are hitting so my men know. I'll have you focusing on all sides except the front. Save your healing for light wounds, I don't need you collapsing in the middle of combat”

Mark nodded. He wasn't sure of the strength of healers Davis was used to, but right now Mark had enough Prana to heal the entire squad without blinking.

The rest was a fair assessment.

He added developing another hard-hitting spell - when he had the chance - to his list.

Finally, when it seemed like Davis had run out of questions, Mark decided to ask one of his own.

It had been bothering him for a while now, so he brought it up.

“Sergent Davis I gotta ask, surely you would want to move quieter on rescue missions, such as these.”

“You are correct, drawing attention to ourselves puts the civi’s in harm's way, something we don't like doing”

“Okay so then why aren't you using silencers? The noise is no doubt drawing a lot of Corrupted this way.”

Once more a complex expression appeared on his face. Only this one was more along the lines of exasperation.

“Mm, at the start of this mission, we were under the impression that we’d be with another unit. As such it wasn't deemed necessary that our unit be supplied with suppressors.

Unfortunately this morning we were separated from our other unit due to unforeseen circumstances. So right now we are simply working with what we have” he drawled.

“Well, can't you just buy them from the marketplace? They can't be that expensive and you guys must have earned a ton of points so far,” he said.

“No can do. We have orders to collect all the Sp we earn out here during our mission to give to command”

Mark didn't know what to say to that, but he did know joining the army was a lot less appealing if they wanted to take away all the points he earned.

Though it did raise the question of what they were doing with all those points.

Also why the hell hadn't thought to get himself a suppressor sooner? It would have saved him so much pain last night. After checking he found the whole gun needed to be modded.

Well, either way, they looked like they had the firepower and coordination to get to their destination.

So feeling confident he fell into his role. Firing a shot every minute to keep himself regenerating but always near full Mana. Only throwing out extra attacks when he saw a build-up happening.

Like this, they began to cover ground rapidly, until finally, near last light, Davis made the call to find a place to hunker down for the night.