Locked in for the night just before eight pm, with their bodies aching from the long hike and extremely unaccustomed weight they’d been carrying, everyone but Danielle voted for dinner next; Heather wanted to eat while laying down. Sadie and Akari talked her into coming into the kitchen and perching on one of the tall stools, instead, so as not to get crumbs on the bed. Danielle got their ‘boxed dinners’ out of the cold box and passed them down the row.

  The cardboard lunch boxes were familiar from school events and field trips. Opening them, they found the expected sandwich, bag of potato chips, apple, juice carton, and one large cookie; the only oddity there was the use of waxed paper to bag the potato chips. Condiment packets offered ketchup, mustard, and mayo for the sandwiches, but instead of plastic or foil, the packets were again formed of waxed paper. The sandwich and cookie were likewise wrapped in waxed paper. “Look at all that tinder for tomorrow’s fires!” Akari joked.

  Underneath those mostly expected items, they found two packets of instant oatmeal and a waxed paper packet of dry apple slices – a slightly sneaky breakfast plan, presumably – and then, under an entirely unexpected cardboard divider, a thick handful of seed packets nestled between two small net bags of seed potatoes and garlic bulbs. The label said “heirloom potatoes,” and there were seeds for turnips, and carrots; large- and small-fruiting tomatoes and a variety packet of sweet peppers; pepperoncini and green onions; strawberries and blueberries; chamomile, mint, echinacea, and lavender; rosemary, thyme, and sage. And looking like a sort of afterthought, two packets of wildflower seed mix.

  Heather grinned, holding up a packet of strawberry seeds. “Now this is a food source I can get behind!”

  “Yeah, but… it’s a bit late in the season for starting most of these, isn’t it? You plant in spring and harvest in fall, right?” Danielle asked. “And we don’t know where it’s safe to plant them. The seed packets say they’re System sealed, guaranteed for 4 years. I think this is a long-term goal they tossed in for us.”

  Akari leafed through the packets. “It’s weird that they’re in the box dinners instead of the decision-line gear, isn’t it?” she mused.

  “Maybe they’re a gift from the cafeteria ladies,” Sadie suggested. “Everyone was upset about them Sending us so young, right? It might be kind of sneaked in.”

  “Huh. Could be,” Danielle said, adding the seeds from her apple core to the bottom of the box. “I could totally see Mrs. Braun taking up a collection to make sure we had veggies to eat. Thing is, as far as I know, picking veggies doesn’t give you mana. Killing fish and animals does. The Ranger’s food plan might be heavily slanted towards encouraging System growth, you know?”

  Sadie nodded. “Not to mention, we have a severe lack of flowerpots, greenhouses, or gardens where animals and other people can’t just come in and snatch our stuff.”

  “Yeah.” Danielle set the packets back in with the seed potatoes. “Still and all, though, we’re gonna need some way to get vitamins and minerals and, um, fiber and stuff, right? I bet you could make some flower pots, oh Crafter. The system probably has Skills for growing stuff, too. It might not be a great idea to go out and pour a bunch of these on the nearest patch of dirt, but it’s probably not a terrible goal, to figure out how to grow some potted plants in here. Or maybe to get a community garden thing going outside? It’s probably not a task for tomorrow, but we should keep it in mind, and definitely not waste the resources.”

  Heather fidgeted with the seed packet in her hand. “Maybe, um. Maybe you guys could hunt and stuff, and I could grow veggies, and you could trade meat and mana tokens for my veggies, and I could level with the tokens?”

  Akari shook her head immediately. “No way. You’d be living off of us until the veggies grew, and not growing yourself. Didn’t you hear our guide’s last piece of advice? “Don’t let anyone make you completely dependent on them for food.” That includes us – we’ll stick together and help each other, but that includes helping each other get strong and be able to take care of themselves if they have to. Right?” She looked to Danielle and Sadie for agreement.

  The two of them nodded solemnly.

  “Listen, Heather, it’s not a terrible plan for later, but right now, we need to all get good enough at this survival stuff that those jerk Predator guys can’t just kill us walking down the street. Or wherever,” Danielle said. “If we leave you here all the time, not getting any more Skills or anything until the veggies grow – if they even have time to grow – it won’t even be safe for you to go outside with those guys around. Besides, you’re our Healer, we’re going to want you with us. You know, to keep us alive if something goes wrong, or at least, to keep us moving and hunting if someone gets a twisted ankle or whatever.”

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  Akari got up and went to the bookshelf, where she tilted her head and started reading titles. “Looks like we’ve got two copies of A Firmitatem Ranger’s Guide to the Outside, one Guidebook to Edible Wildlife – oh! That’s how the rangers figure we’ll get our vitamins and fiber, I bet, from foraging! And here’s one for you, Sadie. Useful Crafts for Skill and Trade.” She pulled out all four of the books she’d mentioned, and came back to hand them across the counter.

  Sadie took the Useful Crafts book. “Huh, it’s actually got bookmarks in it already. This one’s in the page for making cordage, maybe I’ll start there like she said.”

  “I guess I’ll start with the Ranger’s Guide then,” said Danielle, adding “Thanks,” as Akari passed her the book.

  “Do you want the foraging guide, Heather?” Akari asked, putting the other copy of the Ranger’s Guide under one arm and holding out the Guidebook to Edible Wildlife with the other hand.

  Heather took it, a bit reluctantly. “Guys, we really are going to stick together, right? A-and keep doing our best to keep each other alive and everything?”

  Danielle looked up from trying to keep the book open with one hand while eating with the other. “Well sure. I mean, that’s my plan, anyway. Going it alone is just asking for trouble – we’re all bound to have bad days now and then, where we get sick or hurt or overwhelmed and need someone who can take care of us for a day or two until we get back on our feet. Plus, I always got the impression that this mana-wilds living stuff was just, you know, a lot of work. Especially at first, when we don’t have a lot of Skills for it. In the books and stream shows, people always get Skills hand over fist, but right now I have 4 mana in my pool, and if the stuff I saw at the Access Point was anything to go by, it takes at least 100 mana to actually take a new Skill.”

  “How are you down to 4 mana?” Akari asked. “Don’t tell me you’ve been doing your illusions all day!”

  “No, I – I think it’s my Focus skill,” Danielle admitted. “I’ve been trying to pick up a lot of information in difficult circumstances today, you know? I was listening in on all the gossip outside the fence, learning what kind of things people saw and got and so on, and then I was trying to pay attention to that whole orientation thing while also staying upright and keeping all my gear with me. I don’t always actually notice when I’m activating that Skill, you know? It just happens when I’m trying to absorb information in a distracting environment.”

  Sadie, all too familiar with Danielle losing mana to unintended activations of Focus, simply nodded. “That makes sense. It would only take two activations, right? Or – four? Weird, I have 8 mana. I always thought mana came back when you were asleep. I definitely only had six right after the Dome, though.”

  “Everyone should have had six at the dome, right?” Heather asked. “I mean, I guess someone could have used a skill before they got to the front of the line, but other than that? We’re all level one.”

  “Uh. Mm. If we’re gonna seriously do this whole sticking together thing, should we be telling each other about all our Skills and Traits and stuff?” Akari asked. “You know, so we know how to help each other grow, and what everyone can do, and so on? Danielle?”

  “Aheh. That’s probably a good idea. At least, as long as everyone agrees to keep it secret, just between us, right? We don’t want to share everything with just anyone.” Danielle looked down the row of stools at the others.

  “I’m in,” Heather said with a tentative smile. “I’ll really feel better knowing I’m really not going to get left on my own out here.”

  Sadie nodded agreement. “Sure. We should make it an official organization – like those stupid System clubs people kept making at school, except much more serious. We can make keeping each others’ secrets one of the status requirements.”

  “Oh – I like that. We shouldn’t call it a club, though; like you said, this is way more serious than that.” Danielle closed her book; this felt too important for distractions.

  “We can call it a party,” Akari suggested. “Like a hunting party, or like an adventuring party in a game.”

  Heather smiled at that. “Heh, do we want to be the 6024 Room Party? Like, you know. Kind of a joke on the room parties we had in the dorms?”

  “I think we should come up with something better than our room number,” Danielle said. “We might not want that written on the top layer of our Systems anyway, if Skills that let you see other people’s status are as common as our guide thought they were.”

  “I agree. We should be the Hunting Party. Maybe add one more word?” Sadie proposed.

  “Ooh, I have it!” Akari said excitedly. “The Shade party! Like S for Sadie, H for Heather, A for me, D for Danielle, and we pronounce it with a long A because it sounds cool that way.”

  “I like that one,” Sadie said.

  “Heh, it sounds kinda edgy,” Heather said, “but I like how it comes from our names. It works.”

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