With the army gone people started to disperse rather than continue the chaotic argument. The goal had after all been to get the army to do something, though nobody had actually been aiming for leave. There was a great deal of muttering and complaining, aimed at the now absent troops, about the brief visit.

  Everyone agreed the army did the wrong thing, they just disagreed on what the right thing was.

  David and his friends were firmly awake now and rather than going back to sleep they started to circulate, speaking to other raiders and finalizing plans for the morning. David also took the opportunity to grab Charlie and speak with him alone.

  The young man was blinking and yawning, clearly struggling to stay awake after getting so little sleep on the back of hours of magical healing.

  "Charlie, walk with me a second. We need to talk about your build."

  "Dude, seriously? It's like three in the morning and you want to have a stat discussion?" Despite the complaint, Charlie perked up slightly, blinking away fatigue. System talk was his sweet spot, even now apparently.

  David gestured toward the edge of the safe zone where they could see the barrier curling down from the beacon to envelop the protected corner of the city.

  "We're going back out there in a few hours. You nearly died yesterday. So yeah, we're having this conversation now."

  That sobered Charlie quickly. His hand went unconsciously to his head where the wound had been, traces of dried blood still flaked off his hair and scalp despite their sketchy efforts to clean up before crashing.

  "Look, man, I know you love optimizing for damage output," David continued, keeping his voice low. "But I need you to invest in Health and Stamina. Yesterday proved that being able to hit hard doesn't matter if you're bleeding out on the floor. Or unable to keep up. Everyone else in the team had Stamina, notice that you’re the only one dragging? Give it a week for the rest of us to build up our stat base and I don’t think we will be stopping for more than a couple of hours of sleep…"

  Charlie's jaw tightened. "I've been thinking about that actually. The healing thing really drove it home, you know? Being out of commission while everyone else had to carry me."

  "Good. Because I'm not asking." David's tone stayed level but firm. "We are building something here and I want you to be a key part of it. One of the first rules is that everyone needs to be able to take risks that would be insane in the old world. We just can’t operate with the kind of safety margins that will keep everyone safe, so you need to be able to bounce back fast. That is Health."

  "Yeah, yeah, I get it." Charlie rubbed his eyes. "It's just, it feels bad spending XP on stuff that doesn't immediately make me stronger against the zombies let alone the mutants, those fuckers are way scarier, well I guess the smart zombies are the worst but still."

  David stopped walking and turned to face him. "Charlie, you got hit literally once and you were unconscious. You weren't strong against anything. I’ll tell you a secret. The only reason I won was because I had Health, and a skill to make use of it that I got above level ten. That kept me in the fight long enough for my magic to matter."

  The bluntness of it hit Charlie hard, even as he saw a flicker of interest in David’s explanation of how he did what he did. The younger man's shoulders slumped as he internalized the point.

  "Sorry," David added, softer now. "But you needed to hear it. We all need you alive, more than we need you throwing fireballs. Get Health. Get Stamina. Then we can talk about the fun stuff like grinding..."

  Charlie nodded slowly. "Alright, man. I'll do it. How much are we talking?"

  "Enough that you can take a hit and keep moving. Enough that fatigue doesn't knock you out of a fight. I know it’s going to be a process but you’re the best at switching your overflow on the fly to make quick progress. I need you locked onto the goal of being able to stay in the fight. Your fire magic is plenty scary, and it makes you a target."

  "Fine, fine." Charlie's eyes unfocused as he examined his own system. "Damn, this is going to cost me some serious progression on my fire skills."

  "Nah, I’m willing to bet you have your fire skills high enough that progress has slowed right down, trust me progress past level ten is incredibly slow. You'll still be able to pick them up later. You'll just survive long enough to actually use it."

  “Dude, you have a point but let me offer the counter point; I’m close to the level where I find out if there is a third fire skill unlocked by leveling Fireball. Plus, I picked my fire skills for my half-step evolution, so I need to exploit that…”

  “As I said, we all need to shore up some glaring weaknesses and round out our skills. Speaking of which, I have the power to give you a free skill, Meditate. So I’ll tell you about it and do that for you once you have Health and Stamina sorted.”

  Charlie nodded in agreement, clearly wanting to ask more about the new skill but realizing that David wouldn’t budge having made the offer.

  They stood in silence for a moment, the distant glow of the barrier casting long shadows across the grass. The night air was cool, carrying the faint smell of smoke from somewhere beyond the safe zone.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  "There's something else," David said. "I need you to hold off on using the safe zone upgrade credit you earned."

  Charlie's head snapped up. "What? Dude, those are huge! We could get so many improvements."

  "I know. But we need to understand our options better first." David glanced around to make sure no one was close enough to overhear. "The Herald gave me some information. We should coordinate with everyone before we make choices that affect the whole group. Plus we know that there is a cap of what, ten of those things in total. We hold seven of them and we have no idea if we can even get more."

  "Is this about the Domain thing?"

  "I don’t think so. I think it’s about certain options which we can’t see yet. Also, about making smart long-term decisions versus grabbing quick wins."

  David pulled on the link to the Obelisk, checked how to do what he wanted then addressed Charlie.

  "I'm going to give you increased access to the information I can see through my Squire title. I need your brain on this, figuring out what synergizes with what we're trying to build."

  Charlie's exhaustion seemed to evaporate. "Oh man, yes! Finally, unrestricted access to the good data."

  "Don't get too excited. It's still unorganized ask and hope but I have more access. Not total access I’m sure…"

  David couldn't help but smile at Charlie's enthusiasm.

  "Think of it like the world's worst designed interface for the most important decisions of our lives."

  "Story of my life, bro." Charlie grinned back. "Alright, hook me up. I'll start building a spreadsheet on my phone or something."

  David reached out through his link to the Obelisk, adjusting Charlie's permissions, then nodded. A moment later the younger man's eyes unfocused, then went wide.

  "Whoa. Okay, this is a lot more than I expected."

  "Welcome to my world. I swear ignorance is going to screw us."

  "This is actually kind of terrible design," Charlie muttered, his eyes flickering as he navigated invisible menus. "Like, who thought hiding crucial information behind a search function was a good tutorial system for people who don’t even know the right terms to use?"

  "The System is, I think, a lot more optimized for the Lords and Ladies than for us plebs. I get the feeling we are meant to be working for one of them by now under normal circumstances as some kind of apprentice or something."

  David watched Charlie's face cycle through confusion, excitement, and concentration.

  "Take your time with it. We've got a few hours before dawn."

  "Yeah, about that." Charlie's focus came back to the present. "We're really doing this? Going back out there?"

  "We are." David's voice was quiet but certain. "Billy, Bessie, the rest, we have to bring them home. Plus, anyone who ran and hid could still be out there cut off and alone. We bring them home."

  Charlie nodded slowly. "Nobody left behind, right?"

  "Right."

  The rest of their group had scattered through the park, each working a different angle on the morning's mission. David could see Sarah and Camila in animated conversation with a cluster of raiders near the cooking pavilion. Mark and Katie were making rounds through the medical area, probably coordinating with Dr. Chen about supplies. Carl had vanished entirely, which likely meant he was doing something practical like securing vehicles or weapons.

  David and Charlie made their way toward where the raiders were gathering. As they approached, David noted the body language. Some looked eager, leaning forward in conversation. Others seemed to shrink back, arms crossed defensively. The group was splitting.

  Sarah spotted them first. "David, Charlie. Good timing. We were just explaining the plan."

  "And how's that going?" David asked, though he could read the answer in the tension.

  One of the raiders, a woman in her thirties who had apparently found clean clothes somewhere and looked to have showered, so probably a local with an apartment in the zone, spoke up.

  "Look, I appreciate what you all did. Getting us out of there. But going back? That's suicide."

  "We lost people," another chimed in. This one was younger, maybe early twenties, with the hollowed-out look that came from seeing too much death too fast. "I barely made it out alive. You want me to go back into that meat grinder?"

  Camila's jaw tightened. David could see her preparing to launch into one of her passionate arguments.

  He spoke before she could. "No one's forcing anyone to go anywhere."

  That got their attention. Even Camila looked surprised.

  "We're going back," David continued. "Because our people are still out there. Some of them are dead, and we need to stop them from turning into zombies. Others might still be alive, trapped or injured. We're not leaving them."

  He let that sit for a moment, meeting eyes around the group.

  "But I'm not going to stand here and tell you that you have to come. This is dangerous. People died last time and while we will do everything to limit that we have to take the risk again. If you don't want to do that, I understand."

  The yoga pants woman looked relieved. "Thank you for understanding."

  "I do understand." David's voice stayed level. "I also understand that those people out there took the same risk you did yesterday. They went out to help save strangers. Now they need help, and some of you want to stay safe instead."

  The relief on her face curdled into shame. A few others shifted uncomfortably.

  "I'm not judging," David added. "Fear is rational. The apocalypse is terrifying. But we're building something here, and it's built on the idea that we don't abandon each other. So, you need to decide what you're part of. The world is changing and we started to ride the wave yesterday. We fell off pretty quickly but if we don’t get back on we are going to drown. I want all of us to have the strength to keep everyone we love safe in this new world."

  Sarah picked up the thread smoothly. "Those of you who want to help, we need you. Not just fighters. We need drivers, spotters, people who can carry the wounded. We need scouts and supply runners. There's a role for everyone. All you need to do is face the fear and stop it eating away at you."

  "What about those of us who fought yesterday?" A man in his forties, construction worker build, spoke up. His name was Tony, David remembered.

  "You saw what we can do. We want to bring our people home."

  Several others nodded in agreement. The eager ones, David noted. The ones who'd found something in themselves during the chaos.

  "Then you're with us," David said simply. "Dawn's in a few hours. We'll meet at the vehicles. This time we go with better supplies and a clear plan."

  One of the younger raiders, a kid who couldn't be more than nineteen, raised his hand hesitantly. "I want to help, but I'm not much of a fighter. I can drive though. I've got my CDL."

  "Perfect," Carl's voice came from behind them. David hadn't noticed him approach. "We're going to need more trucks. You're hired."

  The group began to fragment naturally. Some drifted away, their body language broadcasting relief at the escape. Others clustered closer, asking questions about equipment and timing.

  David did a quick count. Roughly forty raiders looked committed to the mission. Not the full hundred-plus they'd had yesterday, but enough. Maybe better than enough, actually. These were the ones who'd made a choice knowing how bad it was going to get.