“I have to thank you for this. We managed to send some messages out beforehand, so quite a few of the patients should be just around the corner. I think in the next hour we should have most of the patients that we know about—and maybe even a bunch more—here where we can care for them. If you were in the Boy Scouts, I would say that your good deed of the day has been done.”

  “That’s alright. Did you manage to deliver the letters?” Ben asked.

  The doctor nodded. “I did. Everyone seemed happy to receive a note from your sister.”

  “Very good. Thank you. We can stay for about 45 minutes or so, then we have to go. You should probably leave us before those idiots wake up and see you with us.”

  The doctor nodded, threw them a mock salute, and then walked to a nurse who was directing the first new patient to get healed.

  Jamal and Michael cut off the Warriors’ T-shirts and used the strips to bind their feet and gag them.

  “Won’t hold them for long, but it should make supervising them a bit easier while we are still around…” Jamal mumbled.

  During the next 45 minutes, Ben was constantly expecting the worst—reinforcements for the Warriors or some other catastrophe—but to his surprise, nothing much happened. The Warriors woke up and cursed them, but didn’t do much, given that Michael sat in one of their own camping chairs by their side, playing with his dagger.

  At the end of the agreed time, Ben waved in the direction of the hospital doors, and then they left, only followed by the increasingly loud curses of the Warriors.

  They returned to Brickham’s and found their prospective new citizens in what seemed to be good spirits. Many had taken the opportunity to change their clothes into something more practical, and only a few trolleys remained, which Ben decided to ignore—as people would learn that lesson soon enough once they hit the wilderness.

  He reconnected with Adam, who had used the opportunity to chat with Rose and Professor Gunther. He indicated that from his perspective they were good to go, so Ben corralled the group without further delay to start the march toward the Settlement.

  They had agreed that Jamal would lead the way and Ben would bring up the rear. Adam and Michael were to leave them shortly and deliver the message to Luz’s sister. The two of them should be easily able to catch up afterward.

  While the youngest child in their group was Rose’s granddaughter, few of the other kids were below the age of 15; therefore, they were still able to make good time. Ben was more worried about some of the out-of-shape adults than the kids.

  They attracted lots of attention from the people on the streets, but most steered well clear of them, and none gave them any trouble. A few asked what they were all about, but Jamal typically just smiled and shook his head.

  As they reached the city limits, Adam and Michael had not yet caught up to them, so Ben signaled for a short break, which nobody complained about.

  After about 15 minutes the duo arrived, with a middle-aged woman and an older teenager in tow.

  "Hi there—sorry for the delay. This is Bernice, Luz’s sister, and her son, Carlos," Adam introduced the newcomers to Ben.

  Ben smiled warmly. “Welcome. Luz is family to us, so it is great meeting you. Are you ready for the hike?”

  Bernice nodded. “Yes. I have to be honest—I’m not looking forward to it, but I got kind of desperate. Our pantry was pretty empty when all of this began, and we started running out of food. Thank you for taking us with you.”

  Before they resumed their track, Ben addressed the group. “We're now entering the forest. I don’t expect any major threats while we are close to the city, but you never know. Therefore, we need to be disciplined. We need to stay closely together—no running about. We need the kids in the middle of the group and all those that have weapons on the outside. If you feel like you want to contribute to the defense but don’t have a weapon, please come forward—we have a couple of large knives that we can hand out for now.”

  Almost all the adults from Jane’s group had some form of weapon, from baseball bats to tire irons and hockey sticks. Professor Gunther had a long, gnarled walking stick with him.

  The share of armed people was much lower for the Brickham’s group, but there were still half a dozen men and women with baseball bats, and three more stepped forward to receive one of the long knives from the Warriors.

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  “If we get into a fight—most likely with a group of wolves or similar—we need you to listen to what we say. If at all possible, we will not have you engage and keep you as a last line of defense only. We have done this many times now, and I am sure it will all work out. Let’s go!”

  Ben was not too worried about the risk of attacks based on their recent experience. With Michael scouting ahead, they should be able to prepare for whatever the forest had to throw at them.

  As they started their ascent for real, many people wanted to talk with Ben—often just to introduce themselves, many times to understand the Protectorate a bit better and what to expect.

  At some point, Kevin, the teenager who had traveled together with Anne and Sarah in Ben’s car on their first trip back to the city, appeared by his side—casually, as if by accident. Ben winked at him. “Hi there, what’s up?”

  “Not much.”

  Ben just raised his eyebrow and decided to let the boy say or ask whatever was on his mind in his own time.

  After a few minutes, “Mr. Jackson?”

  “Ben is fine.”

  “Are Sarah and Mrs. Solomon doing alright?”

  “Yes, they are doing very well. Mrs. Solomon has joined me on quite a few dungeon runs by now. If I had known what this trip would turn into, I definitely would have brought her along.”

  Kevin grinned happily. “Great!” There were another couple of minutes of silence. “Ben?”

  “Yes?”

  “Before the tech breakdown, I read online that the Arrival is the apocalypse. That’s bullshit, though… Right?”

  Ben noticed Kevin watching him from the corner of his eye.

  “Arrival? Is that what people call the day that the Energy hit us?”

  “Yes. How are you calling it?”

  Ben shook his head. “To be honest, I haven’t had a chance to think about it. ‘Arrival’ is just fine, I guess. Now, to answer your question…” Ben thought about it for a moment. “If you mean apocalypse in the sense of some divine punishment or judgement… I personally would say no, but I have no problem with people believing in whatever they want. But ‘apocalypse’ in the sense of a massive hit to humanity—to our civilization—then I’m afraid it is not completely wrong.

  “But that is one of the reasons why we want to build the Protectorate up, so that we defend as many people as possible and retain a civilization that goes beyond pure survival. One that allows us to grow and meet the challenges that this new world brings.

  “Does that make sense?”

  Quite a few people had listened to Ben’s answer, as they all stayed close together. Based on the nods and small smiles around him, it seemed to Ben like he had hit the right note.

  Kevin also nodded forcefully. “That was also Mrs. Solomon’s reason to join you, right?”

  “Yes, I think it was, and we are happy to have her.”

  As always, under the canopy of the forest, sunset came earlier and quicker than elsewhere. They had certainly been slower than during their last hike up the mountain, but Ben thought it was still fine.

  They managed to find a clearing that was large enough for the group and set up a central fireplace—less for warmth, as it was summer, and more for the calming effect it had on stressed kids, parents, and everyone else. They hadn’t hunted anything, so people lived off the food they had brought with them. One man had valiantly carried his trolley for the last few hours and now decided that it would be better to share the food he had stored in there than keep carrying the heavy luggage for the next two days. Morale seemed decent, despite the new and uncertain situation that people found themselves in.

  Ben organized watch shifts and was happy to note that there was no shortage of volunteers. He had agreed with the rest of his team that two of them would stay awake at all times. He was sitting at the campfire chatting with one of Jane’s daughters when Cackett sat down next to him.

  “Maybe we haven’t had the best of starts, Ben, may I call you Ben?”

  Ben just shrugged. “Sure.”

  “Fantastic, I am Arthur, by the way. I just wanted to come back to my offer from earlier today and get your take on it…”

  It had been an intense day for Ben, so he struggled to remember what the offer was that Cackett talked about and frowned slightly.

  “I think Arthur is referring to his offer to help ‘coordinate’,” Adam remarked.

  “Yes, yes, exactly. I feel that I could be of tremendous help. I was not just the President of the Advisory Board of Brickham’s but also Partner in one of the most prestigious law firms in Simonston, you see. Given your young age, I can only imagine that all this responsibility is weighing heavily on your shoulders.”

  “Thank you, Arthur, for your kind offer. I am sure that you do have a lot to bring to the table. Now, to your point on my age, I am 29 years old. Do you know that compared to many of the ‘founding fathers’ when the United States declared independence, I am positively ancient? A lot of them were in their early twenties…”

  “Yes, of course, I am well aware. But of course, times have changed a bit since then, wouldn’t you say.” Arthur chuckled loudly.

  “Probably. Not sure how old Bill Gates was when he created his company, but let’s not go there. Anyway, what did you actually want to ‘coordinate’ to use your word?”

  “Well, I found it always helpful in my career to have responsibilities clearly laid out, and I am just offering myself up to take a leadership role if you so wish.”

  “Again, I appreciate it. I think for now we are good. In case I die, this entire journey would be moot, because without me the Protectorate dies as well. Should I be just incapacitated, Jamal and Michael are responsible for defense, Adam is responsible for everything else. Is that clear enough?”

  “Very clear. Apologies for interrupting your conversation.” With that the old man got up and walked away stiffly.

  Jane’s daughter Ashley laughed quietly. “That was awkward. He must be intelligent enough to understand that this was not fated to succeed. I wonder what he expected to happen.”

  Her mother stepped out of the shadows where she had apparently followed the conversation. “Sometimes ego trumps intelligence. It helped me greatly when I was young and building the business. Anyway, it was good that you were very clear, Ben. Some people need to hear something several times, very clearly spelled out, otherwise they fall back on what they think the answer should be.”

  The night went by mostly quietly, but it was quite clear that few of the group had had a good night’s rest.