They all agreed to take a few minutes to organize their thoughts and deal with personal business before meeting back by the Obelisk. For David this meant a trip to the public restrooms next to the playground at one end of the park. He didn’t even have to leave the safe zone. Which made him pause, he couldn’t remember whether the playground had been in the safe zone when he first arrived.

  He lost that thread when he realized he couldn’t get in, at least until Billy told him the code to open the municipal lock box, muttering that a good man had given him that and not to spread it around. Once they had access and found out the water was indeed still running there was a general shuffle to clean up a bit.

  Business taken care of David took a moment to review his status screen and organize his thoughts. The interface materialized in his vision, familiar now but still faintly unreal. Blue text floating in the air like the world's most aggressive pop-up ad. He immediately added to his mental list figure out how to customize and suppress the system information.

  After reviewing it wasn’t too bad:

  He was vaguely irritated by the all caps and the vague terms in places but it seemed to be reasonably logical – he again tried to remember, not sure if the system arrangement had changed since he last looked at it or if just the numbers changed.

  Then he paused. Recalling his flippant idea to put overflow experience into his bloodline unsure if he could trust the system and its advice to get system initiate up quickly. His pool of available experience was full at 200 points, and he had apparently earned more that flowed into his bloodline.

  337 more and no advance to level 1. He seemed to recall that getting his second level of system initiate had cost him 100 points.

  David stared at the bloodline number. First off he had earned at least 447 experience since then. He cursed his distraction, they needed to figure this stuff out. Another item on the list. He could already hear the others complaining in his head as he and Charlie nerded out over this.

  Now he wondered what the consequences of his act of defiance would be; did he have enough free experience to get more attributes and a resource like health?

  By the time he rejoined the others everyone was looking a bit more put together and Katie was going through the supplies they had piled in the back of the two cars.

  “I can’t find the stove, we did bring it didn’t we?”

  “Yes Babe, I distinctly remember getting it and bringing it down the stairs, it’s not here either…” He emerged from the back of the other car where he had been rummaging around.

  Katie hauled out a bag of groceries they'd grabbed from her apartment. "I'm making sandwiches then. We need to eat while we figure this out."

  The domestic normalcy of the statement created cognitive dissonance in David's brain. Making sandwiches. Like they were planning a picnic instead of survival in the apocalypse.

  But his stomach growled traitorously, reminding him they hadn't eaten since... when? This morning? Yesterday? Time had become fluid in the crisis.

  “Do you mind if we get started while you fix them?” David waved the others over to help move stuff closer to the Obelisk as Katie agreed to get started. He rummaged around for a couple of things himself and a few minutes later they were all gathered sitting in the grass by the Obelisk with a picnic blanket spread out and Katie prepping on a plastic plate.

  “First up, does anyone want to take notes? I have pen and paper…” without even realizing it he slipped into work mode. Note taker for meeting? Check, at least when Mark threw his hand in the air. Again he was struck by the dissonance, assigning meeting roles in the shadow of an alien Obelisk during the apocalypse.

  “OK, I figure we have three topics. First, System stuff. What do we know, how can we exploit that. Second, supplies – what do we have and what do we need? Third, what do we all want to do next? I deliberately phrase it that way because its dangerous out there and I think we all have the best chance of coming through this if we stick together.”

  When nobody interrupted him or added topics he figured he touched on all the bases.

  “OK, first topic – System or our systems or however we want to refer to it. We are right next to the Obelisk so we can ask for help but it’s expensive so let’s pool what we know.”

  A quick run through resulted in the conclusion being not much. Four people with skills. Interestingly Billy had Psi as his resource and willpower for Beast Bonding. As the discussion continued the topic of builds naturally came up.

  "Did everyone set their overflow like we were told?" Katie asked as she continued to prepare a pile of sandwiches. "Because I'm pretty sure that's what kept me alive when you brought me back here, I already had everything I needed to get health and vitality which led to the Obelisk helping me to regenerate."

  "I set mine to Magic," Charlie said immediately. "Seemed like the right choice because I was going for a spell. Of course I haven’t increased my Magic level yet…"

  Mark and Camila both indicated they had set system initiate and it had leveled to Four. Mark added that the title was kind of glowing in his status and Camila agreed.

  “Cool, that probably means that it is like ready for you to do stuff because each level lets you define a resource or attribute. So assuming you both have Stamina and one ability you can get like two more.” Charlie sounded excited. Then added “Maybe I should switch to filling that up too?”

  David watched Charlie gushing as he continued to speculate about builds while the others started to look less patient while his analyst brain chewed on his own choice. The bloodline had progressed significantly. Was that good? Bad? He had no baseline to judge against.

  "I set mine to Beast Bond," Billy said quietly, still focused on Bessie. The dog had settled into deeper sleep after her brief moment of wakefulness, but her breathing was stronger now. More like normal rest than unconscious stupor.

  David filed away his concerns about the bloodline for later. Right now, they needed to understand what they were working with.

  Katie had set up an impromptu kitchen on blanket with piles of peanut butter, jelly, plus lunch meat and cheese sandwiches. She worked with the efficient movements of someone trying very hard to stay busy.

  "So let's break down what we actually know, beyond the tutorial" David said, forcing himself to focus. "Katie, you said you learned a lot from the healing process. Can you walk us through it?"

  Katie spread peanut butter with methodical precision. "The obelisk offered me Regenerate as a method to heal because of how badly I was hurt. It said something about 'appropriate skill developable."

  She paused, knife hovering over the bread. "But I had to have Health first. And the combination of Health and Stamina together made it way more efficient. Like, exponentially more efficient than just using one or the other. I think that is what let me actually learn the skill."

  "Resource synergy," Charlie said through a mouthful of the sandwich Katie had just handed him. He swallowed quickly. "Sorry. But yeah, that's a thing I can see especially as the resources seem to fuel everything. That healing was way cool and hella complex so combining resources gives better results if the resources are each specialized in something."

  Mark accepted a sandwich from Katie with a grateful nod. "What about the cost? You said you were exhausted after."

  "Both pools were draining," Katie confirmed. "Plus I got hungry and thirsty. Like my body was burning calories as well as magic resources."

  She finished the sandwich she was working on and handed it to Camila. "But the wound closed completely. What should have taken weeks happened in minutes. That's not just game mechanics. That's actual magic rewriting biology."

  David's analytical mind catalogued the information. Resource combinations created synergies. Skills had real costs beyond just the abstract resource pools. The system seemed to favor learning skills based on circumstances and actions rather than just through levels or quest rewards.

  "How did you get your skill, Charlie?" David asked. "You used the practicing method from the initial quest?"

  "About a thousand repetitions," Charlie said, already reaching for a second sandwich. "The system gave me the pattern for Firebolt when I asked the obelisk for help. Then I just had to do it over and over until it 'took.'"

  He gestured enthusiastically, nearly dropping his food. "It's like building muscle memory, but for magic. Eventually my body and mana just knew how to do it automatically."

  "And you chose Magic plus Arcane?" David asked.

  "Yeah. Arcane is like the general spellcasting stat. Makes all magic more powerful and efficient." Charlie paused. "What did you pick? You said Willpower, right?"

  David nodded, accepting a sandwich from Katie with quiet thanks. "Magic plus Willpower. Willpower gives mental defense and better mana control. Seemed like a good idea after almost getting possessed during initiation."

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  The reminder of the ghost bound to his soul made him unconsciously touch his chest where that strange core of twisted mana sat. The entity was quiet now, but he could always feel it there. Watching. Waiting.

  "You got Halt as a quest reward though, not from practice," Katie observed. "Does that mean there are multiple ways to get skills?"

  "At least three," David confirmed. "Quest rewards, practice until the system recognizes it, and apparently emergency offerings like your Regeneration. I get the feeling that the system or the Obelisk helped out there quite a bit I just don’t know why only then." He paused. "The obelisk also mentioned something about Patronage giving access to pre-made skill templates, but that's not available to me."

  The others nodded, with Charlie speaking up. “Yeah, it’s a bummer that after biggin it up they first thing we get is a greyed-out section and all the help can say is forge a connection between this place and the wider system so the Lords and Ladies can aid you. I even got a quest…”

  David felt an unpleasant surge in his gut as he kept quiet. He had been coming clean that something was different about his system but it seemed the others didn’t have the option to use patronage yet so he either needed to speak up or…

  After a brief period of reflection, he kept quiet. He needed more information before sharing, though a little voice said he was embarrassed about Necromancer, like he had been caught with a dirty secret. At least his introspection hadn’t been obvious as everyone worked on food.

  Mark finished his sandwich and wiped his hands on his pants. "So we have four people with skills and three people without. What about you, Billy? You said Beast Bond?"

  Billy looked up from where he sat with Bessie, clearly uncomfortable being the focus of attention. "Yeah. Let me feel what she feels. Know what she needs. When she wakes up fully, we'll be able to work together better."

  "But you chose Psi, not Magic or Stamina," Camila pointed out. "Why?"

  "For her." Billy's answer was simple, absolute. "The obelisk said Psi worked better with animal bonds. So that's what I picked."

  The single-minded devotion in his voice made David's chest tight. Billy had optimized his entire build around keeping Bessie safe. Nothing else mattered to him.

  The smell of peanut butter and jelly seemed to permeate the safe zone as he lifted his food to his mouth. David took a bite of his sandwich and forced himself to chew slowly despite his hunger, the comfort of a childhood staple was surprisingly real.

  "OK," Camila said, setting down her half-eaten sandwich with decision. "We understand the basics. But we need to talk about what comes next."

  She looked around the group, her gaze lingering on David. "Carl left to get his own supplies. That's his choice. But the rest of us need to decide what we're doing. Together."

  Mark's deep voice carried an edge of frustration. "We need skills. All of us. We're vulnerable without them."

  "Which takes time we don't have," Camila countered. "People are dying out there right now. Every minute we spend getting stronger is a minute someone else might be transforming into one of those things."

  David saw the argument building and tried to head it off. "We need to do both. Get stronger and help people. We also need supplies if we are going to help people. Do we have enough food if we save say twenty people? What about a hundred? The question is how to balance those priorities."

  "It's like an MMO launch," Charlie said, then quickly added, "I know, I know, it's not a game. But hear me out. When new content drops, the people who move fast get advantages. First to level, first to gear, first to claim territory."

  He gestured at the obelisk. "We woke up early because we were near this thing. That gave us a head start. But that advantage won't last forever. Other people will start waking up, and some of them might not be friendly."

  "Or might be monsters," Katie added quietly.

  Mark shook his head. "That kind of thinking gets people killed. We're not competing with other survivors. We need to work together, help each other. Approach this like the military does—everyone comes home."

  "But we're not the military," Katie said, and everyone turned to look at her in surprise. "We don't have training, command structure, or support systems. What we have is magic and each other."

  She touched her shoulder where the wound had been. "I nearly died today. But my skill saved me. David's skill saved all of us. The system works, and we need to use it."

  David noticed Mark's jaw tighten, but the other man didn't object. The argument that should have erupted just... didn't. Tension deflated instead of escalating.

  He'd seen this pattern before. Conflicts in the safe zone seemed to resolve themselves more easily. People actually listened to each other instead of just waiting for their turn to talk.

  Was that the obelisk's doing? Some kind of calming effect woven into the protective barrier?

  David filed the observation away and tried to articulate what he'd been thinking since Mr. Lopez's attack.

  "Look," he said carefully. "I know this sounds crazy. But the system saved Katie's life. My Halt spell saved all our lives. Without that magic, we'd be dead right now."

  He paused, watching their faces. "I'm not saying we abandon everything we knew. But in this world, skills aren't a power fantasy. They're survival tools. The sooner we accept that and start using them, the better our chances."

  Camila nodded slowly. "I agree. But we still need to help people. We can't just focus on getting stronger while everyone else dies."

  "No one's suggesting that," David said. "But we need to be smart about it. Plan instead of just reacting."

  He took a breath and launched into what he'd been building in his head for hours. "Think about what's happened so far. It's been three days since everyone fell unconscious. Three days of zero infrastructure maintenance."

  "Cell towers are dying," he continued. "The ones still running are on backup power that's probably almost gone. The internet requires a massive network of systems all working together—routers, servers, data centers. How many of those are still functioning?"

  Mark's expression darkened as he followed the logic. "Water pressure depends on gravity sure but even it uses pumps that need electricity. Natural gas systems need maintenance or they can become dangerous."

  "And everyone who depends on daily medication..." Katie's voice trailed off.

  David nodded grimly. "Diabetics. Heart patients. People on blood thinners or seizure medication. Anyone with chronic conditions who couldn't go three days without treatment."

  The group fell silent. Even Charlie's enthusiasm dimmed.

  "It gets worse," David said, hating that he had to spell it out. "Most of those people are probably either dead or transformed by now. And the ones who are still alive and unconscious? They're running out of time."

  Camila met his eyes. "So what do we do?"

  "We help who we can, while we can," David said. "But we need to be realistic. We're not going to save everyone. We can't. What we can do is set up a base here where people who wake up can find safety."

  He gestured at the obelisk. "That beacon will attract survivors once they start waking up. The quest system will literally tell them to come here. But right now, we're completely unprepared."

  "No shelter beyond a couple tents," Camila added, catching on. "Limited food and water. No medical supplies beyond Sarah's camping kit."

  "And no weapons," Mark said. "Carl had the right idea about that, at least. We need real weapons if we're going out there."

  Billy spoke up quietly, startling them all. "There's a homeless shelter near St. Augustine's church. Lots of people there. Probably thirty or forty on any given night."

  He kept his eyes on Bessie as he talked. "Most of them got health problems. Chronic stuff. But if anyone's still alive there, they'll need help. And I know how to get in."

  The offer hung in the air like a gift. Billy was giving them something valuable, his knowledge of the city's hidden spaces, the populations others would overlook.

  David saw the moment Camila made her decision. Her face shifted from uncertainty to determination.

  "OK," she said. "We have a plan. We go to St. Augustine's and see who we can help. But we also need supplies. Food, water, medical gear, weapons if we can find them."

  She looked at David. "You mentioned hitting a twenty-four-hour store?"

  David nodded. "Yeah. Places that were open when the wave hit. We need to move before monsters start waking up and moving around."

  "Looting," Mark said flatly. "You're talking about looting."

  "I'm talking about survival," David replied. "Those stores are on day three with no power. The food will spoil. The supplies will sit unused while people die. We can use them to help people."

  Mark's jaw worked, but after a moment he nodded. "Fine. But we leave money or IOUs. Something to show we're not just thieves."

  "Agreed," David said, relieved. His mother would have killed him for stealing, but his analyst brain knew it was necessary.

  Katie had finished making sandwiches for everyone. She passed the last one to Billy, who accepted it after a moment's hesitation.

  "So who goes and who stays?" she asked.

  "I need to stay with Bessie," Billy said immediately. "She's sleeping and I won't leave her."

  "Someone should stay with Sarah too," Camila added, glancing at the unconscious woman. "In case she wakes up alone and confused."

  Charlie raised his hand. "She will wake up sometime tonight.” He flushed as Camila turned to him at the reminder “I’m not saying we don’t have someone stay with her for safety but I don’t think she will wake up quickly.”

  David realized they had hit that magic point in meetings when the agenda has all been touched on but no real decisions had been taken. They needed to have a concrete plan that deferred to everyone’s needs.

  “OK, how about this – Billy holds the fort here, he can let Carl know where we are if he arrives, get other people to start their tutorials if they roll in. That lets him take care of Bessie too. The rest of us need to get skills and weapons. Or use the ones we have. So we head out to get supplies. Dump everything in the cars we don’t need and then we head to the Shelter. We need to start hitting up places where people are gathered in the early morning when it all went down.”

  He paused then continued “Importantly, as we save people we make sure that you guys – he indicated Mark and Camila carry them into the safe zone. That will get you skills the way I got Halt.”

  "I'm going to help people," Camila said firmly. "If that means we get loco magic skills OK. We can use them to help people."

  Mark nodded. "I'll go with you. Medical training might be useful and I can pull my weight even without a skill."

  That left David looking at Katie.

  "I'm coming too," Katie said before David could speak. "I have Regeneration now. I can take more risk than the rest of you."

  Mark started to object, but Katie cut him off with a look. "I'm not asking permission. I'm telling you what I'm doing."

  The steel in her voice surprised everyone, especially Mark. After a moment, he nodded reluctantly.

  Charlie grinned from ear to ear “You have my Fire!” he seemed inordinately pleased by the line, though David quietly groaned hoping Camila wouldn’t see what he did.

  "OK. We'll need two trips. Supply run first. That's quick, we know where to go. Then the shelter. We should try to do both before dark."

  He checked his phone. "We've got maybe three hours of good daylight left. Four if we push it."

  "Then we need to move," Camila said, standing up and brushing crumbs from her pants.

  "Wait," Katie said. She looked around the group seriously. "Should everyone buy health right now? Because we're about to do dangerous things, and you need to have that sorted."

  David felt a spike of guilt about his bloodline choice but pushed it down. "Good point. How useful it will be without a skill I don’t know but I think we each need to decide for ourselves.”

  Before the others could complain he held his hands up. “Look, this could be life and death. Even if it isn’t it’s going to shape your life going forward, we know some stuff closes doors as well as opening them.” He paused as he tried to remember if anything other than Chi came with that warning. “We are all adults and we need to own our own builds not just for ourselves but so we don’t blame each other if it isn’t perfect.” He left unsaid the blame ourselves if it doesn’t work out but everyone heard it.

  Nods around the group indicated he had made his point. “Still, I think that Katie makes a good point; far better to pick up health right now and have it when you need it. Plus the tutorial implied that just having a resource and a relevant attribute let you freeform stuff.”

  Everyone stopped at that and looked thoughtful.

  His eyes drifted to the bloodline entry again. Hundreds of points and no movement. What was that doing to him? What was he becoming? Something powerful or something inefficient?

  The ghost stirred in his chest, as if responding to his attention. David felt its presence more clearly now. Quiet, bound, not him, but somehow more integrated than before.

  "Let's get organized," David said. "Check our gear, figure out who's driving what, and get moving."

  Camila was already heading toward the cars, that decisive energy driving her forward. Mark followed, calling after her about makeshift weapons.

  Katie paused beside David, her voice quiet. "Are you OK? You looked worried at the end there."

  David forced a smile. "Just thinking about everything that could go wrong."

  "That's your job," Katie said with a small smile. "Thinking through the problems so the rest of us can focus on solutions."

  She squeezed his arm briefly. "Thank you. For earlier. For figuring out how to save me."

  Then she was gone, following Camila to prepare for the mission.

  David stood for a moment, watching his unlikely group of survivors organize themselves. A bunch of misfits who probably wouldn’t give each other the time of day normally. United by being up at an ungodly hour after the most exciting night in human history when the world decided to end.

  The fact that he slept through it and still only had a vague idea of what happened on that last normal night caused a pang. Maybe he should ask the others see if he could piece more together. Unconsciously his hand moved to his phone, the itch to go through his socials spiked for a moment then felt oddly muted.

  He turned to follow the others. Not exactly the A-team. But they'd survived this far. They'd learned magic. They'd saved Katie's life.

  Maybe they could actually do this.

  David touched his chest where the ghost resided, feeling the strange weight of his corrupted system. Whatever his bloodline was turning him into, he'd have to trust that it was part of the path forward.

  The safe zone hummed with power around them, keeping the horrors at bay for now. But now, they'd have to step back into the silence and face whatever was waiting in the dying city.

  Time to find out if preparation and magic were enough to survive the apocalypse.

  Or if they were just delaying the inevitable.