Danielle drew in a long breath, her mind trying to run in half a dozen different directions. Healing needs; safety needs; promises to keep; truths to share; the desire to help others because it was right; the desire to be paid and see Heather paid for their work – she didn’t have time to stand around thinking. She let out the breath as a stream of instructions.

  “Everyone make sure your Dome Career is active. Sadie, take the meat, get it in the room for later. Akari, make sure everyone gets fully armed and ready to go. Dig out any tokens you’re willing to gamble on payment rendered. Heather, make sure your first aid kit is stocked, but leave home the party reserve-backup if you won’t have the self control not to use it; the rest of the reserve is fair game if they’ll commit to paying it back. Also, take your weapons, I don’t care if you don’t want to use them, we are not counting on the wildcat to back off. Cassy, do you have a bow?”

  “I have one, but I barely know how to use it,” Cassy said grimly, “and to answer the next obvious question, no, I don’t have a sling. I have materials to make a sling, but I haven’t done it.”

  “Tomorrow’s priority, then,” Danielle said. “Stay with our guide here while she waits for the rest of the party to finish in our room, and – wait.” She turned back to the crying girl. “What’s your name?”

  “Me? Um, Jennifer.”

  “Jennifer, healing uses a lot of mana, so Healers use a lot of tokens. When you say three members of your party are ‘down’ did you mean, injured and unable to walk?” Danielle asked.

  “Yes – the cat, it, oh rot-stink, the claws – ”

  “While my party is getting armed, I’m going to try and get a second Healer involved. Do you have any mana tokens you can grab to support the healing?” Danielle interrupted her.

  “I – a few? How many do we need?” Jennifer asked.

  “We don’t know yet. The bigger and worse the wound, the more mana it takes. Two more question: are you willing to pay the Healers back for the mana they spend on you and the time and expertise involved, and have you called the Rangers yet?”

  “The Rangers aren’t going to help us, have you not noticed they dumped us in these rotten excuses for apartment buildings and left us to fend for ourselves?” Jennifer sobbed.

  “They answer emergency calls, but their Healers aren’t terribly close,” Danielle said. “Go to your room, place the call, then bring whatever mana you can. We’ll meet you here. What about the ‘paying us back’ part?”

  “If that keeps everyone alive,” Jennifer said.

  “We can’t promise that, but we can promise to try,” Danielle said. “If the Rangers respond, then we might be able to keep the worst injuries stable with non-System first aid until their high-level Healer gets to us. That’s what I tried to do the last time we had one of these – that’s what they tried to do too; their close responders did what you’re doing, they got a nearby Healer and called for backup from a stronger Healer.”

  “Wait, you’re saying you’ve seen them – already?!? Who – how – did they live?” Jennifer asked.

  “Some boys who got in a fight in their room; one died before the Healer could get there, one got healed by Heather, and one went crazy and tried to fight in the middle of the Healing, and I put him down,” Danielle answered grimly.

  “You, uh?” Jennifer stepped back, looking like she wasn’t sure she still wanted Danielle’s help.

  “Deadly Defender, for the record,” Danielle said. “OK, your action items are, radio the Rangers, get mana and first aid supplies, and come back here. Tell me what you’re going to do, Jennifer.”

  “I – um, go to my room, radio the Rangers, come back here with first aid stuff and mana tokens?” Jennifer said, wording it as a statement but giving it the tone of a question.

  “Good. Cassy, get anything you need from your room, then meet back here. Sadie, handle our dinner; Akari, double-check everyone else’s kit. I’m running for Lauren’s party and Nathan,” Danielle said.

  She got back a chorus of “OK,” and “On it,” and gave everyone a firm nod before taking off like the wildcat was chasing her.

  Danielle had done a lot of walking since coming Outside five – six? Six days ago. She had not had prior occasion to run, and especially not to run flat out. She grabbed a balcony support pillar to help her corner, and heard it groan as she left it behind, pelting down the walkway to 6011. She pounded on Lauren’s door, then stood back against the retaining wall so anyone using Skills at the door wouldn’t see her as waiting to pounce on whoever opened it.

  There was a long pause – too long? She activated Detect Mana Source even as she reminded herself to have some patience; it took time to move, and this was a “speed not haste” situation if ever there was one; everyone needed to get to the injured people fully kitted out and ready for anything – or at least ready for a difficult Healing and a possible wildcat attack. If they weren’t ready for that, there was no point in going.

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  The Skill revealed a fluttering mana source right behind the door, and others moving around the room; Danielle waved at the person using the Skill, not knowing what sort of Skill it was or if they could see her in that sense. The door opened a moment later regardless, and Lauren looked out.

  “Hello? What’s up? Did you have to pound on the door like – ” Lauren began.

  “Yes, it’s urgent, there’s a call for Healers for three victims of an attack by a large cat, the cat’s backed off but still in play, may I have permission to get Nathan?” Danielle rattled off, all in one breath.

  “Wha - ? Oh. Yes, sure, um. Let me send Dana with you,” Lauren said. “I assume you came here first because you understand we’re all coming too? Especially if the cat that took down three people is still out there.”

  “Yes, exactly, please also bring any first aid supplies or mana tokens you’re willing to gamble on the other group’s ability to pay us back, I don’t know how it’s going to go, but it sounds like three serious injuries and that’s gonna take a lot of mana to heal. Also, I recommend sword and bow, or staff and bow, or all three. I have Speed Improvement at level 2, will Dana be able to keep up with me?” Danielle replied.

  “I have it at level 1, I’ll catch up fast enough,” Dana said.

  “Do you need time to arm yourself and stuff?” Danielle asked.

  “Don’t you?” Dana replied. “You’re not even wearing your poncho. You do have one, right?”

  “I’m going to get everyone else moving, then run for my room,” Danielle said.

  “Nathan’s in building seven, like the Wolf Pack boys,” Dana said, pulling on her own poncho. “Don’t go alone.”

  “I – argh, OK, good point, let’s move then,” Danielle said. “If I outpace you, I’ll wait at the stairs at seven.”

  “I’m with you, go,” Dana said.

  Danielle took off running again; rooms ending in 11 were only two doors north of the stairs, so it was a few paces down the walkway, three long strides up the stairs two at a time, and then Danielle was flying again, across the pavement, between buildings one and five, across the road. She passed Jennifer going between the buildings. She could hear another set of footsteps behind her, presumably Dana. She waited as promised at the stairs to building seven, controlling her breathing and counting seconds until Dana caught up. Only six; not six eternities, only six seconds. She waited another four while Dana heaved for breath; then the other girl gave her a nod and they started walking up the stairs, quickly, but one at a time.

  Nathan was in 7214, so it was two flights up. By the time Danielle exited the stairwell, she had already confirmed that the buildings on this side of the road were mirrored; instead of even numbers to the west, they had evens to the east, so the odd numbers were always facing the road. That meant the longest possible route around the balcony, from the front stairs to the back ones, but Danielle kept it down to a jog so Dana could keep up. When she got to 7214, she even restrained herself from pounding, though she still knocked loudly and urgently before standing back against the railing again.

  Her Detect Mana Source Skill was still active, so she could see the four people inside getting up from their beds and moving towards the door, or at least the kitchen. She thought she had seen one change orientation, but it was hard to be sure. “I think someone was actually laying down,” she muttered, “rather than just sitting on his bed.”

  “What?” Dana asked.

  “I have a Skill that lets me see mana sources,” Danielle told her. “I’m trying to push how much detail I can understand. It’s not actually very detailed, people kind of look like floating balls of plasma or something. Anyway, someone’s at the door now, we’re probably being looked at with a Skill.”

  “That’s half the reason I’m here,” Dana said.

  The mana source at the door retreated, and two others came towards them. Gonzo opened the door, sword in hand. “What’s up, Dana?” he asked suspiciously, glaring at Danielle.

  “Our new friend from yesterday’s campfire says she’s got work for Nathan,” Dana said calmly.

  Behind Gonzo, Nathan asked “What do you mean? What kind of work?”

  “Someone ran out of the woods in tears, saying half her hunting party was down due to a wildcat attack,” Danielle reported. “We’re getting both of our Parties armed and equipped to go see if we can save the injured. There’s three people down, and the cat retreated some but it was alive at last information. Lauren and her room and my party are arming up to escort you and Heather.”

  “How do you know it’s not a trap?” Gonzo demanded.

  “We had someone use Hostility Sense on the girl that asked us to come, and she wasn’t hostile,” Danielle said. “If it’s a trap, she’s not the one setting it, and we’re taking at least seven fighters with us, not counting the healers or the two members of the attacked party that are still up. Or you. Are you coming, Gonzo?” Danielle asked.

  “I’m coming,” Nathan said. “Get out of the way, Gonzo.”

  “You don’t even have your staff with you!” Gonzo objected.

  “Get your bow, your preferred hand-to-hand weapon, any mana tokens and/or first aid supplies you’re willing to gamble on the other group’s ability to pay us back, and your rain poncho,” Danielle instructed quickly. “We need to be ready for more injury than you can heal, and for the rain, and potentially even for the cat. Someone’s calling the Rangers, probably as we speak, but we’ll almost certainly beat them there by many minutes.”

  “OK – OK, fine, I’ll get my weapons,” Nathan said. “And my first aid kit.”

  “And your knife, if the kit doesn’t have one,” Danielle said.

  “It’s got scissors!” Nathan said.

  Gonzo closed the door with a glare, preventing Danielle from clarifying the need for a knife; perhaps just as well, this wasn’t the best time to explain the use of a blooding pin. Danielle could lend him hers, anyway. She stood back with Dana again. “They’re both at their footlockers, I think,” Danielle told her.

  Dana nodded. “Gonzo’s a good guy, underneath all that paranoia,” she said.

  Danielle shifted impatiently from foot to foot. “I should’ve told them where to meet us, so we could go get ready ourselves rather than waiting for them,” she said.

  “Actually, we should go up a floor and get the other guys,” Dana said. “You’d think seven fighters would be enough to protect two people from a cat, but if it took down three out of a group of five, hard to say.”

  “Yeah, who knows what System enhancements it has,” Danielle agreed uneasily. “Let’s run up and get the other two informed, then – “

  “Well, well,” a voice called out from down the walkway, in the direction the girls had come around. He was perhaps three rooms away, walking towards them quickly. “Looks like I have a couple of Lost Girls wandering around, offering me a promotion!”

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