Morning came early, but not quite as early as Wednesday morning. Anticipating that others would also be sleeping in after the busy day and the late arrival home, Akari set the alarm for 6:30 instead of 5:00.

  The very first thing Danielle did when she woke up was check her System status. The new organization and its org status were still there, as were the new Trait and Skill. “Not a dream,” she whispered to herself.

  Sadie and Akari picked up Cassy and brought her to the room for a breakfast of nutria slices and red cherry tomatoes. For their meals on the trail, they chose dried fish and venison. They were out of purple cherry tomatoes, but packed red ones in the extra canteens for variety in their meals. They made sure to bring the distiller pots too, as well as the tents and weather gear. Naturally they also had their first aid kits and sunscreen and all their other usual outdoor supplies. Danielle had her enhanced token pouch, but she had noticed Heather and Akari stuffing tokens into satchel pockets as well.

  The group was meeting at the end of the road again, and this time when the SHAD party got there, they found easily a dozen people ahead of them, sitting in a rough circle with bags around them. Everyone seemed to have upgraded their plans to include the overnight campout, even the ones who hadn’t been on the deer hunt. Danielle recognized the four boys from the Lemonade party, the three boys from the other mixed party that had come on the hunt, Jordan, Tom, and all four of the CYC boys who had come to the prayer meeting.

  “Are we the first people from the girls’ side?” Akari asked.

  “Well, some of us are from the guys’ floor of building one,” said the boy sitting next to Tom. “You’re the first actual girls, though.”

  “You should go knock on Lauren’s door again,” Gonzo said. “I know she said we didn’t have to leave at the crack of dawn today, but it’s been an hour!”

  Danielle laughed. “Come on, let’s go see if her room’s at least awake,” she said.

  “All of us?” Heather asked.

  “Seems excessive; anyone want to volunteer to go with me?” Danielle asked.

  “I’ll come,” Sadie said.

  Heather promptly sat down next to Nathan.

  “I’ll stay here with Heather and everyone,” Akari said.

  “I’ll come with you two,” Cassy said. “Maybe Akari can watch my bags, though?”

  “Sure,” Akari agreed, and Cassy set her two satchels down.

  As the three of them headed back towards building six, Cassy muttered, “I don’t know if I could keep my mouth shut to the CYC guys about yesterday and your new org status, honestly.”

  “Oh, please don’t spread it around, Cassy,” Danielle said. “I don’t want people getting funny ideas about it. Seriously, it’s just asking for trouble.”

  “I kind of get why you’re worried, especially about the Systemist reaction,” Cassy said. “That’s why I’m here, avoiding temptation. It’s just so exciting, though! Think about what this means!”

  “It means people can’t just grab me anymore,” Danielle said.

  Cassy rolled her eyes. “Well, yeah, because of the Skill, but I mean – “

  “It just means I’m Christian, Cassy,” Danielle said. “It’s saint like it’s used in the New Testament letters, not like how your church uses it for extra special people who are dead and in heaven already. I’m sure about that, because I’m not dead and I’m still here.”

  “I, um – OK, that’s a good point, but it still has to mean something,” Cassy argued.

  “It means that even the System can’t ignore religion when God himself is altering someone’s System,” Danielle said exasperatedly.

  “Are you serious?” Cassy asked.

  Danielle sighed. “Look, God saved my life in a particularly spectacular way yesterday. I don’t know why, and maybe there’s something big he wants me to do later, but as far as I’m aware right now there’s nothing special about me except that a miracle happened to me. I didn’t do a miracle, Cassy, I didn’t do anything at all. I didn’t even activate the Skill on my own after he gave it to me. I’m awed and grateful and determined to live out that gratitude, but I’m still just a 14-year-old girl that has way too many enemies. I agree that it means ‘something,’ but I don’t think the org status means I’m going to start attracting more miracles, or doing miracles, or – or anything like that, and I’m worried about what’ll happen if other people start thinking it does mean that. Keep it quiet. It’s in my status, so it’s a party secret anyway!”

  “I – fine. I’ll keep it quiet for now, but if God can protect you when you have two blades at your throat, what can he not protect you from?” Cassy asked.

  “God can protect me from anything,” Danielle said. “He told us to be both innocent and wise though, and bragging about that status message to people who are likely to misinterpret it isn’t wise.”

  “There’s something we agree on,” Sadie said. “Let’s stop talking about this before we get too close to the building.”

  They were practically to the stairs, so Cassy dropped the subject and they went to knock on Lauren’s door. The Lemonade girls were at least awake this time, but Lauren was still frustrated to learn how late it was, and sent them to knock on some more doors. Following her instructions, the three of them ended up waking up Lucy and Angela’s room, Melanie and her roommates (Danielle let Cassy do the knocking there), and another roomful of girls they didn’t know at all yet.

  As they went out to rejoin the group waiting at the end of the road, Danielle added up the numbers and commented to Heather and Sadie, “That’s at least 30 people going.”

  “More than that, now,” Sadie said, pointing to the group as they came back out of the gap between buildings.

  Danielle looked and saw that there were six more girls there, presumably from another building, as well as another contingent of boys – five, she thought, including both Zephyr and Robin from the conversation and experiments around the campfire during the Systemist meeting. “At least, um, 41 then?” she said. “Yeah, 41, if there are no more surprise people showing up.”

  Zepher looked over and noticed them. “Oh, hey!” he called out cheerfully, waving to Danielle, “it’s my favorite new denier friend!”

  Danielle cringed. “Do you have to call me that?” she asked. “I have a perfectly good name, you know?”

  Zepher had the grace to look embarrassed. “Well, yeah, but I might have forgotten what it is. Tell me again?”

  “Danielle,” she told him, and came the rest of the way up to the group. Cassy went to sit down by Akari and her bags. Sadie found a spot near Marc. Danielle was about to go sit next to Heather and Nathan, but Zephyr spoke up again.

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  “Oh, come on, I’m sorry I called you a denier in front of everyone,” he said. “Come sit with me! I want to talk mana with you again!”

  Danielle briefly found herself trying to figure a way out of it, then decided she was being excessively paranoid. Zephyr had been nice, and he was still trying to be nice; he was still excited about the trick she’d helped him figure out. It wasn’t as if she didn’t enjoy talking about mana and Skills either. Maybe he’d even be able to teach her another System symbol if she got him talking about wind again. “All right, we may as well talk while we wait for everyone else,” she said, and went over to sit with him.

  Everyone wasn’t in a single big circle anymore. Zephyr’s clump of people had Peter and Lucas on one side of him, and Robin and one of the unknown girls on the other side. They were arranged oddly, not in a circle but more a sort of arc. Danielle wasn’t sure what to make of that, but she sat down opposite Zephyr anyway, since it would be awkward trying to talk to him across two other people. There was no obvious reason not to sit in a rounder group, anyway.

  “Good morning, Peter, Lucas,” she said. “And Robin, right? I don’t think I’ve been introduced to you, though?” she added, turning to the people on Zephyr’s other side.

  “I’m Element Shaper Brooke Smith,” the girl introduced herself. “Working on water, for the record.”

  “Please to meet you, Brooke, I’m Medic Danielle Falconer,” Danielle replied.

  The girl gave her an odd look. “Medic? Is that some weird kind of Healer?”

  “It’s about Skills that support our natural healing, instead of Skills that actually perform healing,” Danielle told her. “Like, my hunting party’s Healer has Close Wound, right? But if I was correctly informed about the unlock requirements, I should be unlocking Guided Suture today, which is about giving people stitches. Close Wound takes from two to hundreds of mana, and won’t even start if you don’t have the mana to finish. Guided Suture is a duration Skill, and will let you stitch as many wounds as you can get to in that duration for only two mana.”

  “Oh. Weird,” Brooke said. “What does that have to do with the elements, or mana or anything important at all?”

  “It has to do with not running out of mana while there are still people with open wounds,” Danielle said.

  “I didn’t ask her to come talk because of the Class she already had, Brooke,” Zephyr said in tones that suggested he was already thoroughly annoyed with the girl. “I asked her to join me because of the Classes that both of us are likely to unlock today.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Brooke demanded.

  Zephyr sighed. “You’ll find out eventually. When I have the mana to actually take it and prove it. Otherwise everyone will just spend the time from now until then calling me a liar. SO. Danielle! Have you done any more interesting experiments since – ”

  “Brooke! Zephyr! Hi!!” an excited girl broke in. “Are you coming to the Access Point too? It’s so exciting! How many Skills do you think you’ll get to add to your count?” The girl squeezed herself between Danielle and Zephyr and sat down, pushing Danielle back and out of her way.

  Danielle favored the back of her head with a disbelieving glare for about five seconds, then simply moved over and put her back to the girl, putting Peter on her left. “So, Peter, how has your week been so far?” she asked, ignoring the ongoing conversation among the systemists. “Did you hunt up some good trail rations?”

  “Don’t worry about them, they were like that in school too,” Peter said nodding towards the girl now behind Danielle.

  Danielle gave him her best bland face. “Who’s worrying? I’m just moving on to a different conversation. My party’s had a wild ride the last couple of days. Let me tell you, Lucas, when you were worrying about infected thorn scratches in the Dome? Good call. There’s some seriously septic thorn monsters around here. You were one hundred percent right to be concerned with that.”

  “Oh wow – are you OK?” Lucas asked with concern.

  “Oh, yeah, we’re all fine now – but two days ago, we got to see the Ranger healers again, and Ranger Michael busted out a ten-ten Skill on a couple of us,” Danielle said. “Systemic Antibiotic. How’s that for a Class goal?”

  “Whoah. When you say ten-ten, you actually mean tier 10? With level 10 on top of that?” Lucas asked incredulously.

  “Yeah. It was incredible. He wasn’t even using it on me, but I could still feel the power of it,” Danielle said. “I only got a couple uses of regular Disinfect Wound, although I’m pretty sure those were level 10, too. That seems like the kind of Skill that isn’t going to lag behind for any Healer that’s doing enough healing to have ten-ten Skills at all.”

  “Did you learn anything good from the Rangers this time?” Zephyr asked, leaning around the girl that had interrupted him.

  “I learned how to suture moderately severe lacerations,” Danielle said dryly.

  The girl huffed. “Zephyr! We’re talking here!” she complained.

  “You weren’t talking to me, though, you were talking to Brooke,” Zephyr pointed out.

  “Feel free to join us!” Brooke said exasperatedly. “Come on Zephyr, can’t you be serious for five minutes?”

  “I am being serious,” Zephyr complained.

  Danielle turned back to Lucas and Peter. “So yeah. I hope your week’s been a bit less exciting than mine.”

  “It definitely has been,” Lucas said. “Rabbit snaring was going better over the weekend, but we’re back to cut or missing snares being as common as actual catches.”

  “Are you setting them within a convenient walking distance of the Rooms?” Danielle asked.

  “Well, yeah, where else?” Peter asked.

  “Further away. If it feels convenient, it’s almost certainly too close,” Danielle said. “Wild predators want our small game; if everyone’s catching small game real close to the Rooms, we’ll have big predators prowling around stealing stuff because there’s a high concentration of easy food here. Then we’ll hunt out the local area, and just have hungry predators for a while.”

  “So you’re saying, plan to run the gauntlet of hungry predators to get out to where I actually set my traps?” Peter asked skeptically.

  “If you got actual food out of it, would it be worth it?” Danielle asked.

  Peter was spared the need to answer when Lauren called out, “All right, I think we’re all here! Everyone please group up with your actual groups so I can make sure, and get ready to move out! We’ll walk to the other end of the road, and then I’ll tell you all the updated plan for finding the trail to the Access Point.”

  “I guess I better go find my hunting party,” Danielle said. “See you guys later. Maybe we can find something more fun to talk about then, like crazy Skill unlocks to try.”

  Danielle headed for where she’d last seen Cassy and Akari. To her surprise, Zephyr followed her.

  “Shouldn’t you be getting with a group?” Danielle asked.

  “I don’t actually have a hunting party,” Zephyr said. “Can I join yours?”

  “W-what? Are you – you barely even know me! We talked once! Do you even know who else is in my hunting party?” Danielle sputtered.

  “Right, um, I meant can I hang out with your party on this trip?” he backpedaled.

  Danielle stared at him in consternation.

  “Please, I don’t think I can take two whole days of Brooke nagging me to take Basic Element Shaper at first opportunity, as if I had 400 mana hidden in my back pocket,” he said.

  “You don’t already -? Never mind, not relevant,” Danielle said. “I can’t exactly stop them from talking to you, though, and they show no compunctions about interrupting and literally shoving me away.”

  “So you’re going to metaphorically shove me away instead?” he asked disappointedly.

  “Well, no, and it’s not like I can tell you who to walk near anyway,” Danielle said. “I’m just saying, I don’t know how much it’ll help.”

  She started walking again, and Zephyr followed her again. By the time everyone had clustered up with rooms or hunting parties, the SHAD party girls were standing next to a group of three boys: Jordan, Zephyr, and Tom. The CYC guys were the next group over, variously frowning at Zephyr and giving him suspicious looks. “How did that happen?” Cassy asked Danielle quietly, giving a subtle nod in Zephyr’s direction.

  “I’m not sure, but I think it’s a problem with being more famous than popular,” Danielle said. “He seems to think I’ll be a buffer between him and some people that like to annoy him about his reputation in Systemist circles.”

  “This is going to be interesting,” Cassy said.

  Danielle shrugged. “Only if the other Systemist don’t herd him back into their group as soon as we get moving again. They seemed pretty determined to keep him from talking to me a few minutes ago.”

  “All right!” Lauren announced a moment later. “Everyone’s here – let’s go! Next stop, the north end of the road.”

  It was almost eight am when they got started, which was a pretty late start in terms of hours after sunrise, but still meant that if they made halfway decent time they could quite possibly reach the Access Point by lunch time. The Lemonade party took the lead, setting an aggressive pace down the road, and the overall group didn’t spread out too much, so they reached the other end in barely ten minutes. Danielle hung back for a few minutes early on, scanning behind them and to the sides with Detect Mana Source and Hostility Sense, but she didn’t see anything – at least, not behind or to the sides. She did notice with a groan that the Systemist girl who had pushed her away from Zephyr was hostile.

  When the group was all at the crossroads, Lauren called out, “All right! The original plan was to spread out and search, but the SHAD Hunting Party have saved us some work – they found the trailhead a few days ago! Come lead the way now, SHAD party!”

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