After speaking with the other raiders, they quickly left the safe zone and despite the dramatically increased activity still found the privacy they needed in their abandoned training spot. The expansion of the safe zone had dramatically slowed, so they were still outside the area wrapped in the Obelisk’s barrier, though they wondered how long that would last.

  David felt a pang of sadness, remembering the last time he had been here with Billy, Charlie and Carl as they trained. The others nodded as they settled in and unsurprisingly it was Charlie who first broke the agreed upon quiet and lack of discussion.

  “Dude, you can’t just drop things like that! I mean sure, for you, talking to the freaking Herald, not it’s pre-recorded tutorial speech but to actually having a two-way conversation is like totally normal. The rest of us make do with scraps and a badly organized wiki made by people with apparently little more expertise than us. One that is accessed through the magical equivalent of a pay to use fax machine.”

  Carl nodded. “You clearly have a plan, and pieces we are missing. So, spill.”

  Seeing the others in agreement David quickly filled them in on the points the Herald had made, emphasizing the strange way the being communicated and how it seemed to be like dealing with a bureaucrat eagerly looking for helpful loopholes, but unwilling to talk about them. Then he got to why he was taking so long to fill them in on the Herald.

  “Look, I’m ninety percent sure that we have a few big advantages that the Herald was practically hitting me over the head with. It’s precise in its language and it kept telling me to buy up my new title. It also offered to help with making our rewards work together if we want to be a fighting team going forward. It also basically told me how to handle the stress and trauma that comes with this life and tailored a reward to letting me give people the power to do that.”

  The others watched him, and after several awkward seconds he finally spoke.

  “So, is that something you all want to be part of?”

  “Hell yeah dude!” Charlie didn’t even hesitate. David had been counting on him.

  “If you keep working to save people I’m in.” Camila’s response was just as quick.

  Mark glanced at Katie, she nodded and he spoke for both of them. His deep voice filled with conviction. “You saved Katie, again. We are both in. This world is mad and dangerous now and we don’t see the old order saving anything or anyone.”

  That left Carl and Sarah. If David had to guess he would have said they were going to be the two with the most questions.

  The two of them shared a glance and Carl nodded politely.

  “Ladies first.”

  “Thanks Carl. So, David. You gave a speech that makes me feel you see the raiding group as being a long-term thing, one which you want to be in charge of. Do you have an actual plan?”

  David nodded. “We have been dealing with this mad world for three days now. Most people are a way behind us, at least around here. I see two things going on that really matter.

  First, the world is getting dramatically more dangerous. We were in a race to wake up before our enemies as a species. Even with the Herald helping we have mostly lost that race.

  We know that both zombies and mutants became active ahead of most of those who kept their humanity. That, combined with survival rates that I estimate to be dismal, means everyone is waking up massively outnumbered and surrounded. That might be something that preppers and militia types can handle but in the big cities we don’t have the weapons or the supplies for this to go well.

  Second, we, I mostly mean this little group right here, are ahead of the curve. I want to work on expanding that advantage to encompass the raiders as well, that is how we get a small starting advantage to really snowball.

  Look at Phil, I would bet that since awakening he has earned almost no experience, basically whatever he can passively gain. By fighting we have all earned thousands, if not tens of thousands of points. I’ll be honest I haven’t really been keeping track.”

  Charlie interrupted. “Low tens of thousands for most of us. You are quite a lot higher I’m guessing with your zombie massacring cheat.”

  David picked up the thread before Charlie could dig into system mechanics further.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “The point is that almost nobody here has those kind of points, let alone the quest rewards we have grabbed. As a team we are incredibly strong compared to other humans and that means we can take more risk, get more rewards and keep growing. As long as we stay in front of the pack we keep that edge.

  The next few days are going to be key to that. There will be large numbers of weak foes with a few stronger deadly ones mixed in and we can get involved in the heaviest fighting. We in fact need to get involved in that fighting for everyone’s sake.

  We have left the world we used to live in behind. Most people don’t see it but those with power are going to decide what shape the world has going forwards. I’m going to brag for a second to put things in context.

  I personally, through luck and my choices, can defeat literally dozens of zombies single handed, I can also detect them better than anyone else, they literally can’t hide from me. That is the effective power of multiple modern soldiers. By the end of the week, I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m as effective in combat against zombies as a literal company of soldiers.

  We need to rise as far as we can and bring as many trustworthy people along as we can. Because the literal survival of our species is on the line. Not to mention that I wouldn’t trust Micky not to quietly murder us so we can’t threaten his power down the line, that man is a snake and we know he is keeping secrets and grabbing personal power.”

  Carl nodded along. Sarah looked thoughtful, then challenged him.

  “So, what do you want to do with all this power? Is it David’s power or our power?”

  “Our power, each person who has the strength to make a difference will have real power. Mostly because raw Mana based power will replace money as the currency that matters.”

  Sarah smiled at that. “You’ve really through this through. Also, for the record I agree with you about Micky, the man’s a creepy snake. You are missing one fairly large piece of the puzzle though. So it’s good you have me…”

  After giving it a dramatic pause she spoke with deadly seriousness.

  “What are you planning to feed people while you take over the world?”

  “Huh, I’m not planning to…”

  “No, silly, you miss the point – what are people going eat, where are they going to sleep, go to the bathroom. I chatted with people while we were grabbing food. I chat with people more I think than all the rest of you put together…

  The increase in population means that despite the massive stripping of a damn Costco we only have food for a few days. Frankly the only reason it’s that long is because a lot of the people who came by today are local and live in places that are close enough to be safe. They still have access to houses, and many are not eating here but suing the few days of food they already owned.”

  Carl spoke softly. “You said it first, before all these people woke up. ALL our logistics are broken. It’s what is going to kill the old world, not the actual monsters. Though they won’t help.”

  He looked at Sarah, seeing she had made her big point, he took up the questions.

  “So, my question for you is simple. I’m here because you saved me. You understand this crap better than me. Heck, y’all get this more than I do. My question is are you willing to do what it takes to lead people through this?”

  David nodded.

  Carl wasn’t done though. “No David. This isn’t nod and try to do your best. You have just drawn a line in the sand. It’s one everyone understands – nobody left behind. What are you willing to do for that promise?”

  David paused looking thoughtful. Carl kept right on going.

  “If you have to kill Micky to save one of us. Will you do it?”

  “Yes.”

  “What about civilians. Will you put your raiders above the life of a civilian? Let’s say we are going to get critical supplies for an attack. Radio’s say. We see a dude loading all the radio’s at the store we hit into his pickup. How far will you go to get us the comms we need to avoid a repeat of today?”

  Now David looked troubled.

  Carl kept right on going.

  “It’s easy to say might makes right. That isn’t quite true. Might with will behind it makes right.”

  David nodded. “I’m always going to respond in the same way. I’m going to weigh the scenario in front of me and make a call. I expect no safety net now and that changes the calls from a week ago. I can’t promise more than that.”

  Carl nodded. “Last question then. If it’s all collapsing and we can’t save everyone, will you cut and run with a group that has a chance of making it?”

  David looked at Carl, exasperated but unsurprised.

  “IF that’s all I can see as possible. I will point out that I won’t agree with anyone else on when or if we end up in that situation. As I said I’ll make a call based on what’s in front of me. You would all be dead if I jumped to that scenario easily…”

  Carl nodded. “Hell, I’m in. I owe you and I can’t see you changing your whole mindset in a week…”

  Sarah spoke softly. “I’m in with a condition. You want to be the best fighters. We focus on that. Let Phil and Dr. Chen and the Padre plus whatever politicians crawl out of the woodwork run logistics and stuff for the masses. Fight them on it when they become too passive. Otherwise, you will end up spending all your time arguing about septic tanks and where to get flour.”

  David nodded. “I can agree not to replace the Obelisk Council. I can also acknowledge that Phil has done a good job or organizing a lot of crap that I wouldn’t have wanted to tackle.”

  Looking round at them all David took action.

  “Now let’s get onto the fun part. I -think- this will work. We all have these Domain rewards, and we can collect them as a group.”

  David focused on his Status sheet and let free experience flow into his Squire title buying it to level one. Then he reached out to the Obelisk forming a new connection, despite not being in the safe zone the link formed easily. Unable to resist the drama he held out his hand.

  “Take my hand if you want to level.”

  Charlie grinned, clearly getting the reference and grabbed his hand, the others all hesitated.

  “No, seriously. Take my damn hand so we can get our rewards together, oh and brace yourselves – this might be your chance to meet the Herald.”

  With a blend of emotions each of them stepped up until they formed a cramped circle with their hands linked.

  Then David reached out deliberately towards the Herald for the first time.

  We are ready to accept our Domain rewards together.