[Laura POV]

  The su, and Laura wao colpse into bed. Every day of this robably the worst day of her life. People expected her to know things, and all she knew was that whatever had created all this was the worst.

  “Penelope. Please stay in your house.” Laura anded as she walked past the firehouse that’d bee a makeshift nursing home. “You ’t see well in the dark, and it’s almost night.”

  “But you still need dinner, honey!” Insisted the kindly old woman. “I know you haveen much, and I made sure to set some of the eggs aside for you. You’ll get too skinny if you just pad work all day!”

  Laura sighed and rubbed her forehead before nodding and walking into the open garage of the firehouse. The engine had refused to start, and it’d taken five men w together to push the worthless lump of metal out of the garage and into the road. That a all had been able to move it was a blessing, and Laura thanked her lucky stars that they’d been able to get the additional enclosed space by moving it. Jeff and Ricky insisted they could get the thing running again, and Laura let them fiddle away at the unresponsive beast.

  The fires were r and the space, set up with a half dozen folding tables from the church down the road, was funal, if not cozy. Laura o a half dozen people that greeted her as she walked in, and with their enthusiastic greetings and barely retained questions, she regretted her first words upon arrival more than ever.

  “My name is Laura McDougal, and I’m the current mayor of Kingma’s work together and see if we ’t get out of this alive.”

  She’d been one of the unluckier current residents of Pine, as she’d been teleported nearly half a mile away from the tower. The most unfortunate had had to hike all the way from the furthest edge of the girls’ camp, braving assaults from all sorts of mythical beasts each step of the way. At this point, they were fairly certain there wouldn’t be anyone else turning up, but the hunting parties they sent out tio search for any signs of survivors they could help.

  Since her initial decration, Laura had bee the de facto leader of the 177 people currently living in Pine. Nobody else was willing to grease the wheels and pao the stubborn the way that she’d learned how in her nearly two dozen years as a public servant. Now, instead of schmoozing boards and maneuvering with the governor for funding, Laura listeo the dozen elderly folks pin about the cold and talked down the raging bloodlust of the two dozen teenagers. The young twenty somethings weren’t much better, either. Talks of gamifying the damned apocalypse were on at their tables, but they were also their highest-leveled individuals and their protectors, so Laura didn’t really mind the way their minds worked.

  In trast, that she didn’t o leave the retive safety of the ter of town to level her Occupation and Css was a blessing, since Laura still felt faint at the sight of blood. She’d hoped that her Disciple Css and its Skill Cure Wounds would purge her of her hemophobia. It had not, and she’d vomited the first time she’d had to deal with an open wound. Her Skill didn’t require her to look at the wounds now, so she struggled much less with healing.

  “Here you are, sweetie. Thank you for taking stock of all our food, since we’ll o make sure we all stay eating!” Penelope hobbled over with a steaming pte of eggs banced on her walker’s seat. A side of three strips of ba apahe scrambled eggs, and though Laura had made a New Year’s resolution to go vegetarian this year, she found that starvation and ralized heating, among other things, served to disabuse her of that mi very quickly.

  Sitting on the etal folding chair, Laura shivered but devoured the meal set before her. With so many hungry people here, they would eat through the ey of the general store’s stores before the System’s mawo weeks were up. And, who was to say that they would be able to go anywhere else afterwards! Pine had no arable nd, and even if it did, there were several months before they could hope to pnt anything with the io harvest. Uhere was some Farmer Occupation. Laura’s mind opped, and she tio wo different possibilities throughout her meal, short though it was.

  “Thank you, Penelope. I o ensure I eat my fill. My mind doesn’t work quite the way I’d like when I’m too tired.”

  “And we don’t want you to be a bicycle, we need our mayor!” The petite dy cackled with glee at her apparent joke. Laura bliwice, trying to uand whatever the sweet, if er, older dy was trying to say. After a beat, it clicked.

  “Too tired. Two tires. Got it.”

  “Oh, my Fred made that joke all the time.” Laura nodded politely, unsure of how to answer, but Penelope tiaking away from her the o respond. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing him soon enough. All this fighting stuff isn’t for me. To God’s embrace I go. One of these days, at least.”

  Penelope’s iious hope and positivity was overwhelming, though Laura wondered what heaven there could be, given that the apparently omnipotent System decred that God had died. Or, at least abdicated the Throhat gave divine power. Those thoughts, though, weren’t worth much. Instead, Laura finished her meal, sg her fork on the paper pte to pick up every st bit of the food from the ers. Then, she stood ao take her pte back to the kit. Penelope, as always, interposed herself and insisted that Laura allow the elderly woman to do what she could to help.

  “Have you seen Zig?” Laura asked as she apanied Penelope towards the kit. “I haven’t heard from the hunters for today.”

  “I think she was getting some rest.” Penelope answered as she deposited the dirty dishes in their correct locations. There wasn’t enough water to wash any dishes or utensils, but they tried to keep everything as as they could. Thus, paper ptes. They’d gohrough the disposable utensils much more quickly, and had taken to ing the utensils as best as they could between meals.

  “Ok. Are she and her people still in that ‘hunters’ lodge’?”

  “Nobody told me otherwise. Then, they don’t tell me much.” Penelope giggled as she reached up and patted Laura’s shoulder. “Have a good night. Make sure to get some rest.”

  “Of course. See you in the m.” Laura bid the older woman good night before finding a couple people to escort her the hundred yards or so to the “hunters’ lodge”. The chill air blew through her business clothes, but appearances were important, and Laura remained in her work best as they made the trek. Nobody had ever seen any enemies in the bounds of the town, but that didn’t mean that anyone was willing to take the ce. If tonight was the night that the little goblin things appeared, Laura refused to be caught out in the open all alohus, a little voy of five people made their way to the little antique store with an adjoined home. Laura had thought that they should leave people’s homes as untouched as possible, but, again, the hunters were a valuable part of the unity, and people who weren’t here didn’t matter as much as those who were.

  Zig and her people had dragged whatever antique furniture and wood carved accouterments struck their fanto the home. When they opehe door, Zig and Charlie were draped over each other on a Victorian style loveseat, huddled under a thick quilt. It wouldn’t have been the first time for Laura to have stumbled in on two (or more) of the hunters indulging in the pleasures of sex, but this time, it was a mere panionable cuddle. Or post coitus. Frankly, Laura didn’t care. She’d been young and hormonal once, and it was the end of the world, who’d care if they wao bang all over the house.

  The twenty-something with bright red hair turned and drew ahereal bow with supernatural speed, her breasts exposed. Laura cursed her mind as she mentally filed away the hunters’ state as “post-sex”. The animal side of her brain flinched and nearly screamed in fear, but Zig quickly realized who was at the door a her bow disappear into glowing motes of light. Then, she seemed to uand why they were there and hung her head as she looked for a shirt to pull on.

  “Shit, Laura. My bad. We… we should have e see you. Nothing worth eating today, again. And… we lost Hannah.”

  That expined why they’d gotten distracted. Soldiers these kids weren’t, and Hannah wasn’t the first of the huo have died in the past days. Charlie stood and shrugged on his own shirt, oained with blood, dirt, and who knew what else. Laura fought to keep her ge from rising.

  “I’m so sorry. How’s Seth doing?”

  “Bad.” Charlie responded. “He’d promised to protect her this m. Then… a pukwudgie got her in the eye with a spear. It was too quick to do anything.”

  Laura sighed, again cursing her mind for calg the slight excess in rations that the 19 year old’s death provided. “I’m so sorry. Have you all eaten?”

  Zig swiped the tears from her eyes as she nodded. “Yeah. We had food here. Had a little wake for her.” Her breath caught in a strangled sob as she tinued, “Haven’t even known her long enough to tell all the good stories.”

  Their situatioled over Laura. Nobody in this whole town knew another before they’d appeared here. Some came from as far as eastern California or western New Mexico, but nobody’d had time to truly get to know anyone else. “Do you want to talk about your day any more than that? Any news for the rest of us?”

  They g each other and Charlie shrugged. “There’s more and more of them out there by the day,” Zig answered, “doesn’t seem like us killing them does a whole lot. The System says that it will, long term, though. That’s all we really trust for now. We got oracker Occupation, that was Nat. System told her it was because of how she was following the tracks, but the rest of us are doing the same, so who knows. We found some elk tracks, but too te in the day to follow out. It was on our way back that we were ambushed. Seth figures it's his fault, cause his Perception is the highest. Freak act is all, though.”

  “Again, I’m sorry. If there’s something we do to help, let us know. We realize that you’re all the most valuable asset we have at this time, and want to ehat you feel our support and appreciation at every step. Let us know if there’s anything else we do.”

  “We’ll keep you posted.” Zig answered. “If there’s nothing else, it’ll be safer for you to travel before the sun’s all the way dowill don’t know if they’ll gank us sometime.”

  “Alright. We’ll see you in the m, make sure you get your ration allowance for the day.” Laura bid the grieving kids in the house as she let herself out of the house. Jeff, who’d tagged along, rubbed the back of his head as they walked out of the fenced front yard.

  “Feels pretty shitty that we’re letting a bunch of kids fight for us while we stay safe in town. I don’t think I vince myself to keep w on this truck when a kid just outta high school just died for me today.”

  Laura fought to figure out what to say in respoo that. How could they possibly keep morale up like this? Which was, of course, the moment that the pagan snake god decided to appear with a suffering, heavily bleeding man in its mouth.

  Thanks for reading! If you're dying to read more, joireon, where you read up to 28 chapters ahead!

  Join the swarm! https://disc/RqzsKj8hkD