When they arrived back at the checkpoint Mark saw a good amount of people had left the area.

Though a lot still hung around, asking to be let in.

When Mark, Ethel, and Boe had gotten there Ava was still manning the gate.

“Mark! That was you right? I thought I heard your voice!” Ava whispered

“Well, I spoke to a guy and the rest worked out that way,” Mark said.

Ethel snickered from the sideline.

“Right, well thank you for de-escalating that. Now, I’m assuming you guys are here about the Assembly?”

When Mark nodded.

“Okay this way, we’ll enter from another location, this one is too crowded”

She led them to one of the less populated areas and let them in. From there they made their way to the command tent.

They arrived just as Major Grantwood called the meeting to order, having just enough time to find seats.

“Right, I’ll do away with pleasantries and move to the first order of business. We received orders from command. As per our previous meeting, it would seem that the rolling blackouts are going to get worse. Our on-site power generators can not keep up with the demands. These blackouts are being felt throughout the city. The good news is it’s a cascade failure, which I’m told can be fixed if caught soon enough. Our deadline is a week”

A series of murmurs went up as he continued.

“Command narrowed it down to somewhere in our neck of the woods. Luckily there is only one real option at this stage. Unfortunately, it’s overrun with hostiles. So we’ll need a team leaving in two days to tackle this. Seeing as though they proved so effective last time I recommend a small team from SAGE and an engineering unit”

Mark was surprised he was so willing to use SAGE again.

Major Dureal then stood and addressed the room.

“Thank you for the glowing review, Major Liam. SAGE accepts the mission from command. Although I would propose a failsafe mission. Procuring more generators should become high on our priority list. Fuel can be synthesized from components acquired from the system however no complex machinery has shown up yet. We need to be ready for the worst-case scenario”

Major Grantwood agreed. It looked like when the orders came directly from command he had very little to say

From there the meeting changed direction to the sudden increase in Corrupted numbers. The floor was open to anyone with thoughts that may help the situation.

During the next couple of minutes, Mark listened to all manner of ideas from the room.

Ranging from bombing the Corrupted's initial charge to sealing up the underground entrance so that night raids were not so bad.

That idea got a lot of traction but was eventually discounted. Staying that the exp for their soldiers was necessary, though it would be kept as a last resort.

Of course, drafts were proposed once more and promptly shot down.

Sam even put forward an idea. Stressing the importance of a caster rotation to help on the wall.

Eventually, Major Karter directed a question toward Mark.

“Mr Young. Given what you have seen on the wall now, is there anything you can think of that would improve our chances?”

Mark had been thinking this through and he had one solution. When he was on the wall last night he had noticed many of the casters had small personal shields but only one or two could actually extend their protection to others. What they were sorely missing right now was barriers for the wall. Especially if the Ghouls were going to start becoming more common.

Mark was not going to be able to block everything, nor was he always going to be there every time.

Mark said as much to the room. Suggesting the creation of caster units that focused on defense.

Mr. Joseph stepped out from behind Major Grantwood and asked.

“Well, now that is a more niche idea. Training that into our soldiers would be difficult. Unless you were willing to train them yourself?” he asked

Mark did not mind this, he had been thinking the same thing.

“Sure, I can do a crash course, as long as I am being compensated,” Mark said.

“One would argue that this will help the camp as a whole and is part of your duties on the wall. Is additional payment all that matters to you?” Mr. Joseph asked.

Mark could tell the man was acting, probably to make him look selfish in front of the room. Like he was only moved by money.

To be honest, Mark would not have minded doing this for free; after all, it was his idea.

The thing was where did something like this end? They would keep taking from him under the guise of duties until he didn’t have any hope of saying no.

At that stage, he would just be a puppet dancing to their tune. No. Putting his foot down was the only way, regardless of what they thought of him.

“And my duties on the wall have nothing to do with this. You want me to teach? Make it worth my time” Marks said, his eyes moving through the faces in the room. Coming to rest on Joseph.

“Alright, we will see what we can do,” Major Grantwood said breaking the silence.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Mr. Joseph simply smiled and backed off.

Finally, they got near the end of the meeting. The department heads were just finishing up their reports when Ethel stood saying her greetings to everyone.

“ For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Ethel and I am the acting intermediary for a neutral party called ‘The Knights’. I don’t want to bore you with the details so I’ll cut to the chase.

We would like to leave the camp”

The whole room froze.

Mark's head snapped around in shock, locking eyes with her.

After a pregnant pause, she continued.

“Oh, my apologies. Not in the manner you think, we would like permission to send out hunting parties. The walls are very crowded during the days, to the point where not even half of our fighters can get up there. For those that do, it's slim pickings. We believe that taking a well-organized group out and returning before dusk will garner greater results.”

Mark relaxed straight away.

Major Karter was looking from her to Jonathan. Who looked as shocked as anyone else.

“Miss Wilson, do you realize what you are asking right now?” Major Grantwood asked.

“Please call me Mrs, my late husband would turn in his grave if he heard you now. And yes, we realize the danger involved, and thus no blame will be placed at your feet should we run into any issues out there. The creed of The Knights is to protect others, but we can't do that if we can't even protect ourselves.”

This then sparked a debate among the parties as to whether she should be allowed. Questions came from all directions. Ethel calmly answered each one in turn disarming every theory the others came up with.

Eventually, it was decided that they couldn't actually stop The Knights from doing this but they would have the leader and all the people going out making statements that the army held no responsibility for their safety.

The meeting, which had been on the verge of wrapping up, had unexpectedly extended for another whole hour.

When they finally left Mark followed Ethel out. When he got outside Jonathan was already there speaking to her.

“-So you are going out too?” Jonathan asked.

Mark only caught the end of his sentence but he could guess what he was worried about.

“I'm not sure Pumpkin, we haven't decided yet. I just saw a good opportunity and took it.” Ethel said patting his cheek.

“Ah Mark, let's head back. I’m certain you have a bunch to get done today”

She was referring to the fact that Mark had agreed to teach a squad today in the afternoon. Which didn’t leave him a lot of time.

He also didn’t miss how she was using him as a shield against Jonathan. Clearly, she had not told him anything.

“Oh no, you two take your time chatting. I’ll just wait” Mark said with an evil smile on his lips.

There was no way he was letting her off that easily. Not after she had scared the shit out of them like that.

A guilty look appeared on her face.

“Come now, you can’t be that mad”

Mark just shrugged and walked a couple of steps ahead of the duo.

Though he caught snippets of Jonathan chewing her out for not mentioning any of this to him.

They didn’t stop until they made it to The Knights section. Which Mark saw now spanned over four tents.

Frowning Mark turned to the bickering family.

“Hey Ethel, how many people do you guys have now?”

Happy for the diversion she said.

“Well, the last accepted candidate just took us over the one hundred and thirty threshold.”

Mark's brows arched in surprise.

Last he’d checked they arrived here with around fifty people. Their numbers had more than doubled in such a short time.

He also saw that they had equipment upgrades. They wore basic sets of medieval armor, just a couple of pieces really. But he noticed that the stronger one was the more pieces they had. Leading up to the main tent. All of the people here wore white armbands with a picture of a shield painted on it.

He saw more people in the area without the bands but assumed they weren't part of The Knights yet or under their protection.

Ethel led them into the tent where Sandy stood guard.

Daphne walked out of the tent as they arrived.

As Daphne moved her armor clinked. She was kitted out from head to toe in medieval armor. Holding a simple helmet under her arm.

The system items actually fit in well with the motif.

Mark wore a sly grin on his face.

She held up a single finger in a ‘wait’ gesture.

“Not a word on the new uniform,” Daphne said with a threatening look.

Mark happily bit back his comment.

“He wants to speak to you,” she said.

Mark looked at her searching for signs of exhaustion. Running an entire group like this could not be easy. All he saw right now was determination.

“Thanks. How are you holding up?” he asked

"I'm fine. Really. But you owe me" she said.

Honestly, he couldn't agree more. She had been in his corner since the beginning. He wanted some way to show her what that meant to him.

So as not to draw too much attention or embarrass the boss, Mark leaned forward and dropped his voice to a whisper.

“How about that meal I promised you, you still interested? Say... tomorrow evening if we’re still kicking?”

Daphne froze.

Mark’s back blocked the people behind him and only Daphne was close enough to actually make out Mark's voice.

Looking over his shoulder she nodded with a very short head bob.

Mark backed off smiling and said.

“Alright then. We’ll keep you posted on that.”

Only breaking eye contact when he entered the tent.

The room was empty except for Marco, and Fred. The body was nowhere in sight

Mark went right over.

Fred was laying down on one of the bunks and looking up at the ceiling.

When Mark got there he was Marco was sitting next to his father. He wasn't sure but the man looked like he'd been crying.

“Hi,” Mark said.

“Hi, Mark”

Mark was about to ask what he wanted to do now when Marco started speaking again.

“Listen, I just wanted to say I’m grateful. Daphne helped me figure some things out. She offered to let me join the knights… I said yes.”

Mark had not expected to hear that so soon, but he was happy for the guy either way.

They talked and he got a better idea of what had happened.

Marco and his mother had stayed late at work and on their way home they had been attacked by a Ghast. In some respects they had been lucky, managing to avoid the Corrupted before arriving here. Sadly that left all of them at level 1. Marco had managed to kill the Ghast but he could not save his mother. When his father found out he broke down and dragged them to where Mark had found them. He had been unresponsive since.

Now Marco wanted revenge on the Corrupted, but he refused to join the army now.

What he wanted was to get even with those creatures that had done this, for that he needed strength. The Knights could be that for him.

Mark was no psychologist, Marco seemed like he'd be okay. He had a goal and now the strength to see it through.

Mark's eyes landed on Fred.

He wanted to help the man but he was not sure what he could do for emotional wounds. At most, he might be able to find and perhaps destroy the memory with [Read memory], but he didn’t want to become a judge and executioner.

Even if it was something he could do. It was not something he should be able to decide.

That’s the whole reason he hated Grace’s actions. He couldn’t become something like that. The man had to make the decision to wake up and deal with life on his own.

They all did.