The thing about everything trying to kill you is that it becomes boring after a while. Where were the normal animals? Not every human was mana corrupted, so where were the normal animals?

That was my thinking as the giant rats came running toward us down the street. The beasts came up to my knee in height. They died quickly though and barely put up a fight. Carter’s shotgun tore into them before they reached us, Chavez’s crossbow took two of them down, and the three that were left didn’t make it past the length of my sword.

“We’ll, that was strange,” Chavez broke rank to retrieve his bolts and wiped them down with a towel. “It’s like they weren’t even trying.”

He was walking back toward us when the enormous rat behind him disappeared. I glimpsed the flashing movement of something large and whip-like before all I could see was the body of the rat following the movement.

“What the shit!” Carter squeaked next to me. Chavez hadn’t even noticed that anything happened behind him, and he spun around, fumbling as he tried to fit the bolt to the crossbow.

“Back in formation!” I barked.

Chavez backed toward our group, his head on a swivel until he was safely back in the group.

“What happened?” the big man breathed.

“It was too fast,” I said.

“Do we go after it?” Andy asked.

“Are you crazy?” Carter’s voice came out in a frantic whisper. “We wouldn’t even be able to get near that thing — whatever it was!”

“We keep moving,” I agreed. “Leave the rat corpses, but take the cores.”

Each of us took turns cutting open the bodies and touching the core. Unsurprisingly, when I touched the core, nothing happened. I pulled it out, and tossed it to Bragg, who was last to collect his core. Bragg caught the core, much to the surprise of everyone there. It was the most movement he’d made all day, aside from walking. But the core landed in his hand, and nothing happened again. He looked at it in his hand, shrugged, then dropped it to the ground.

“Bragg,” I said, walking over to him to pick it up, “what do you see when you look at the core?”

“I can’t see anymore,” he said. He didn’t look up to meet my eyes. I looked down as well, but there was nothing interesting on the ground.

“What do you mean you can’t see?” I asked.

“I can’t see mana anymore.”

“How long has this been happening?” I asked.

“Since I tried to kill the tiger,” he said.

For a moment, I couldn’t say anything. “The tiger took your ability to see mana?”

He shrugged. “Don’t exactly remember. I don’t think so.”

“Hey, Bear?” Andy interrupted. “You, uh, wanna make a decision about that core?”

I looked sharply up at Andy, the uncertain tone in his voice immediately catching my attention. When his eyes met mine, though, they immediately flicked around us. I caught his meaning and looked at Carter and Chavez. They were both looking hungrily at the core in my hand.

“Not yet,” I said, and I tucked the small core into the top of my backpack. “We need to practice something tonight when we finally make camp. In fact, let’s get clear of this place and whatever that thing was hunting the rats. We’ll find a house to sleep in here, then finally make it out of the city in the morning.”

Grudgingly, the other two agreed. I could see in their cores that the amount of black swirling among the other colors was growing. We would have to work on destroying the corruption.

***

It didn’t take long to find a stopping point. It wasn’t a house or apartment complex, as I’d been planning. We knew that was where we would stop as soon as we saw the hospital.

“Medical supplies,” Andy said.

“Could be more people there,” Chavez said.

“It doesn’t matter,” Carter countered.

“If we can get a core, then the energy from the core will heal instead,” Chavez said. “You saw what happened to Forest’s leg with the crocodiles?”

“Yeah,” Carter shot back. “I also saw him pick up a core yesterday, and nothing happened. Bragg too. We need medical supplies, and they are bound to have some.”

“And medical supplies may help stabilize someone who’s bleeding out before we can get a core for them,” I added. “And it’s not like a hospital won’t have lots of beds.”

***

There was a line in front of the hospital. Apparently, the local national guard had made their way to the hospital, and they were keeping the peace everywhere in the medical center.

I examined the faces around us. It was too early to see any signs of severe weight loss from malnourishment, but the signs of hunger were already there. I’d seen it overseas in third-world countries before — people bundled in blankets, and sitting on the ground with vacant looks in their eyes. When they moved, it was ponderous and slow, as if every shifting of every joint pained them. Lastly, there was the mood of the place. It could be felt like a cloud hanging over them. They’d come to the hospital for help, but the one thing they needed most was what the hospital didn’t have.

“You all look completely healthy. What do you need?” The man who asked it had — until recently — a youthful appearance. Now, as he looked over us and met my eyes, I could tell that the last couple of days he’d been forced to use the M4 in his hand. He eyed the weapons we were holding as well, but with the other four soldiers behind him, he felt confident in his position. I was at the front of the group, but my MP4 hung loosely, and I kept my hand away from the sidearm strapped to my thigh.

“We are just passing through,” I answered. “Hoping to get some medical supplies before we head north.”

“What’s north for you all?”

“Corpus Christi. Planning on connecting with the navy base, and hopefully get a better idea of what the hell is going on.”

“You military?”

“We’re Army,” I gestured to Andy. “The two of them are Border Patrol.” I pointed at Carter and Chavez.

“And him?” The man nodded at Bragg, who kept his eyes on the ground.

“It’s complicated,” I said. “PTSD.”

“A lot of that going around,” the soldier said. “I can’t let you in to just take supplies. I’ll need to get the sergeant, and he’ll probably have to talk to the LT.”

“If it helps, this is Lieutenant Anderson, and I’m Lieutenant Ward.”

“It might. I’ll let them know. Please wait here.” He turned and walked up the front steps.

“Did you see his core?” Carter asked. “He has collected almost as much energy as me and Chavez.”

“Yes, I saw it,” I said. “In fact, most of the soldiers seem to have a decent amount of energy in their cores. Everyone else though…” I trailed off as I looked around. No one sitting outside looked like they had absorbed a single core.

“Forest,” Andy said quietly, as if he was about to say something I wouldn’t like. “We need to help these people.” He was right. I didn’t like what he had to say.

“They have soldiers here,” I said. “They’re protected.”

“They have no food.”

“What do you want us to do? Do a hostile takeover? We don’t know anything about the problems they’ve been going through.”

“Of course we do!” Andy fired back. “Because we’ve been through the same shit.”

“And they have soldiers,” I said. “You want us to settle down here and play soldier along with these boys and teach them how to be men?”

“You saw the look in that kid’s eyes. How old were you before you killed your first person in action? I’m betting about the same age.”

“Andy…” I thought for a moment about how to say it. I opted for the blunt truth. I wasn’t eloquent like my wife. I just had to give it straight. “I need to get back to my family.”

“Would your family want you to avoid giving help to someone on the road, just to see you a little sooner. You have thousands of miles to go. One day more or less won’t kill them.”

“Except that it fucking could!” I growled. “Except that I have no idea what is happening to them on the other side of the country, and you want me to slow down, when they might need me.”

“One day won’t make a difference.”

“Damn your stubbornness…” I took a breath as he calmly met my eye. “And damn you for always being right.”

“That’s why I’m the senior LT,” he said with a wink. Then, more seriously, he added, “Think it over more. We have to stay here tonight anyway.”

“Lieutenant Anderson, Lieutenant Ward.” We looked up at the mention of our names. “I’ll show you inside.” The man who gestured us forward had close-cropped hair, graying at the temples. He stood stiffly, as if he was so used to standing at attention that he’d forgotten what it meant to relax. I knew his type immediately. Even in the midst of chaos, his uniform was clean and pressed. The pattern of the insignia patched on his right arm just above his elbow designated him as a Sergeant, but I had no doubt it had been a while since this grizzled old man had served. His hair was cropped close to his head, the gray at the temples a match for his weathered face. While his frame had no doubt been muscle at one point, he carried more weight than allowed on active duty. His green eyes coldly flicked over every inch of me, noting every weapon on my body. “Leave the firearms.”

I shrugged my MP4 off my shoulder and handed it to Chavez.

“I thought you loved this gun?” he asked.

“I’m out of bullets,” I shrugged. “It’s about as useful as an unwieldy club.” Next, I handed him my sidearm. “I still have six rounds in here, so if you lose it, I’ll feed you to that sergeant.”

Chavez glanced over my shoulder at the sergeant waiting as patiently as any sergeant. Which is to say, not at all. At least he wasn’t yelling at us. “Honestly, I’d rather take a chance with the zombies,” Chavez said under his breath. “I’m just glad he’s on our side.”

“That’s fair.” I let out a dry chuckle.

“Good luck,” he said, after I’d handed over my guns.

I turned to find Andy had likewise handed his weapons to Bragg, leaving Carter the only member of the team with his hands free.

“See you when you get back.”

I nodded to her, then turned to follow the old sergeant. We walked through the hallways of the hospital, not straying more than one hallway from the outer edge of the building. The hospital lights, that usually cast their clean light on everything, remained dim. The sergeant stopped outside a stairwell, the large metal door propped open with a piece of plastic wedged under the base. The sign still read, “This door to remain closed at all times.”

“No lights inside, so you have to feel your way up the stairway.” With no other instructions, he opened the door and stepped into the darkness waiting beyond.

Honestly, the darkness wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. The door at the base of the stairs was open, letting in a little light, and a door was open on every landing. It was enough light for me to pick out the outline of every step as we made our way up, though Sergeant Old-school and Andy held on to the handrails.

We climbed two flights like this to finally arrive at a landing. The wind blew through the corridor. I could see a shattered window at the end of the hall, the clear culprit of the wind tunnel. Thankfully, we turned away from the whipping wind as the sergeant knocked on the first door on the right. He waited a moment, before stepping into the room. The glass window of this room was still intact, letting in plenty of natural light. The conference room had been turned into a war room. Two maps covered either end of the rectangular conference room. The one closer to the light looked like someone had thrown a pad of sticky notes at it. The yellow paper had numbers on it, clearly designating points of interest. To the side was a stack of notepads.

The other map had a single note on it. I recognized the region. After all, I knew generally where I was. The note covered the city of Brownsville.

“Thank you, sergeant,” one of the men standing in the room said. He offered his hand to Andy then me, introducing himself as Lieutenant Vance. He introduced the others two as Sergeants Monroe and Olson. “Please, everyone, take a seat.”

All conference room chairs are the same. Designed for style, they were made to be looked at behind glass from the outside. You would wonder how comfortable those chairs were, if you could only be invited into the room. Well, chairs like that are shit. You might be able to sit in them for an hour or so, but after that, you can’t get comfortable in them.

I still sat down. Hell, they were chairs. I’m bitter, not a sadist.

“Thank you for seeing us, Lieutenant,” Andy said.

“From what we were told, you’re both Lieutenants as well, correct?”

Andy nodded. “Yes. In the Army.”

“I’m curious what brings two Lieutenants here. And where are your platoons?”

“Why we’re here is classified, but suffice to say we operate as part of a smaller team.”

“I see.” Clearly he didn’t as his eyes flicked from Andy to me.

“We are heading North toward Corpus Christi,” Andy moved on. “I was hoping to establish contact with the navy base there.”

“Yes, that makes sense,” Vance said. “One of my enlisted mentioned you’re hoping to acquire some medical supplies for the trip.”

“That’s correct,” Andy said.

“Then I would propose a trade. You can see that food is scarce at the moment, and your team clearly has experience surviving. If you give us enough food to feed ten people for seven days, then we could give you the equivalent of an EFAK.”

“Hell no,” Andy answered immediately. “I’m not about to put my team in present danger for a glorified first aid kit. We’ll need at least two Casualty Response Kits.”

“Are you planning on losing one of them?” Vance scoffed. “I might be able to supply you with some supplies for a single CRK, but we can’t do everything. Frankly, we need those supplies too much.”

“Lieutenant,” I cut in. “If we don’t make it to Corpus Christi and potentially send help, then whether you have enough medical supplies to treat the injured won’t matter. You can’t eat a tourniquet.”

The Lieutenant looked at us for a long moment before he finally broke eye contact. “If you can get enough for a hundred meals, then we’ll give you as much medical supplies as you can carry.”

“How many under your command?” I asked.

“Excuse me?”

“How many enlisted under your command, Lieutenant Vance?”

“What does that have to do with the price of butter?”

“We’ll train them,” I said. “Make them stronger. Give us five people from your teams. In three days, you’ll have your food to feed a hundred, and you won’t recognize your team.”

“What could you teach them that my sergeants couldn’t teach them?”

I opened the door and strolled across the hallway into the next conference room. The glass in this room had not fared as well. I stood in the middle of the room, next to the conference table, the mirror of the one next to Vance. Everyone just watched me. I raised one of my fists above my head and brought it crashing down onto the table.

The wood shattered under my fist, sending cracks out from the impact and causing the table to topple inward.

“Could your team teach that!?”