As he followed the others outside, Aran noticed two long knives hanging from Alice’s hips. He raised an eyebrow, turning to see if the others also sported weapons. Rick was leaning on a large sledgehammer, waiting for them to join him. James picked up a long handled, two headed axe from where it leaned against the wall outside. Rick noticed Aran’s look, lifting his hammer onto his shoulder. “Mr. Briggs, we’ll get you a weapon soon enough. For tonight, you’ll just be watching.”

Aran cleared his throat, unsure of what to say to that. “Uh, yeah. I am wondering though, why you’re not using, ya know. Guns?” James grinned in response as he shouldered up next to Aran. “Ah, see, you won’t want to be using guns. They’re too loud, draws more stuff out when you start shooting. Besides, we’ve only got a few left that still work, and like, no ammo.” Aran nodded, he hadn’t considered the noise. He cocked his head at the last thing James had said, peaking his interest. “What do you mean you’ve only got a few left that still work? I thought Alice said the police distributed guns, doesn’t that mean you have a bunch?”

Rick stepped in at this point, lowering his voice a fraction. “We can discuss this more as we walk,” he said, turning on his heel and setting a brisk pace. James kept pace beside Aran. “We’re not sure why, but most modern metal rusts almost immediately these days. Most of the guns we have have rusted all over, even the stainless steel bits. Mr. Crawford thinks it's all the magic in the air that has the whole world changing, causing metal to degrade, and making people do crazy stuff. He’s the guy that built the wall, and he’s been researching stuff ever since.” Aran fell silent, pondering what that meant. It made sense, especially having seen rusted cars the whole way here. He remembered the knife he had found, rusted almost completely away. “So, what, we can’t use iron or steel at all anymore?” He blurted, incredulous. That would pretty much cripple every city in the world and the military… He blinked. James shrugged, continuing to walk behind Rick. “We don’t really know. Crawford is really good at this stuff, but he’s just as new to this weird magic stuff as the rest of us. Some stuff is affected more than other, our weapons for example, we’ve found them much easier to maintain, but guns seem to degrade much faster. We imagine that's why we haven’t seen nearly anyone else in weeks, as cars just stopped working. That's not even counting all the shorts and weirdness with other tech we’ve seen. From what we’ve seen, most tech is pretty worthless now. So that’s why we’ve got these,” he said, twirling the axe in his hand for effect. Aran found himself grinning back in spite of himself.

No tech, huh? Well, at least we got magic. Or, at least I did. The last thought made him turn to look at the others more thoroughly. They hadn’t done anything magical that he’d noticed so far, but maybe he’d see some tonight. “So, James. Mr. Crawford can do magic stuff with walls and stuff, can you, uh. Can you do anything like that?” He found himself blurting. James laughed. “You’re pretty blunt, huh? I love it. I can’t do anything as impressive as make walls or buildings, but I’ve got a trick or two. I can add a little something special to my axe here, makes the beasties sick. Does a number on em after a while.” Aran’s jaw dropped. “What- what do you mean you can do something to your axe?” James grinned in response, nodding. “After Ben figured out how to do what he does, we all started experimenting with mana. Oh, that’s what it's called, in case you didn’t know. The stuff inside you, that lets you do magic.” Aran nodded, he remembered. “Anyway, it’s pretty gnarly stuff. Hopefully we’ll have a quiet watch, but if not, I’ll show you.”

Rick turned his head, speaking back to them. “If we encounter anything tonight, Mr. Briggs, stay back. Until you’ve gotten a feel for how we work together, I don’t want you in the middle of it, where one of us might accidentally hit you. You can defend yourself of course,” he added, almost as an afterthought. Aran felt his cheeks flush, a little embarrassed to be so obviously not needed. He felt eyes on him, and as he looked up, Alice quickly looked away.

He didn’t have a chance to decipher that further, as they arrived at the base of the section of wall they’d be guarding. Rick exchanged a few words with a man from the previous shift, before they filed up the small stone stairs to the top of the wall. Aran’s eyebrows came together as they made it to the top. He’d been expecting some fantastical view, but only thick forest met his gaze, interspersed with small trails through the snowy underbrush. James gently nudged him, bringing his attention back to the group.

“Alright, I’ll start at the next tower to the east. Alice, you and Mr. Briggs will remain here, and James, you’ll be at the western tower. In four hours we’ll rotate, as usual. Mr. Briggs, as you’re new, Alice will go over the basics with you. When we rotate, you’ll be with me afterwards. Any questions?” Rick placed his hammer head down on the ground, waiting. When nobody offered any, he nodded, and walked to the right along the walkway, headed for the next stone section of the wall. James laid a hand on Aran’s shoulder, gave him a thumbs up, and left without another word.

Alice sighed, walking to the edge of the wall, resting her hands along the battlement. She stood like that for a long time, appearing lost in thought. Aran fidgeted awkwardly, not sure if he was supposed to be doing something.

“Might as well get comfortable, we’ll be here a while. So you can stop fidgeting.” She turned her head to look at him out of the corner of her eye. “Come on. I’m not going to bite.” She waved him to come up to the battlement. He joined her, staring out past the wall, upon the ruined streets beyond already being reclaimed by the forest. “Pretty weird, right? Just a few weeks ago, people lived there. Now…” She didn’t finish the thought, voice trailing off. Aran nodded anyway. It was the reality of the world now. People were gone. A lot of people. They stood that way as the sun slowly sank toward the horizon, before Alice broke the silence again.

“So. What's your thing? I’m supposed to get a sense of what you can do so we can build a strategy around having you around. Ya know, so we all work together better.” The last bit she said in a rush, though Aran wasn’t sure why. He shifted his weight from side to side. “Uh, not really sure, to be honest.” He chuckled when she raised an eyebrow. Seemed to be a thing with Alice. “Seriously, I don’t like, have some cool axe or knife magic. I’ve mostly just punched anything that was trying to kill me, and running like hell. And this-” He gestured vaguely to himself, “-I just woke up like this one day. I don’t know exactly what changed, yet.”

Alice turned, facing him fully as she leaned a hip against the battlement. “So, you survived all this time by just… punching stuff?” She gave him a once over as she said it, clearly trying to see how someone as lean as he could just punch monsters to death.

“Well, I mean, I didn’t come out unscathed, if that’s what you mean. You hit stuff enough and it usually stops hitting back. I didn’t have anything else when this started, so I just kind of kept doing it. But it's been a while since I saw anything out there. Besides that snow monster thing.” Alice perked up at that.

“Snow monster? Like, a big snow drift that tries to eat you?” Aran nodded, and she continued. “And you actually killed one? By punching snow?” She looked disbelieving.

“Oh, uh, no. It had this… I dunno, a heart? This orb in the center of it. I killed that, and the rest of it died too. I can… I’m not really sure, to be honest. But I pushed my mana into it, and it died.” He neglected to add that he was pretty sure he consumed it’s mana. That would just be his ace in the hole. Alice seemed to take this in stride, however. She turned away, thinking.

“Hmmmm. So you can attack things by touching them… Well, regardless, pretty cool, if nothing else.” She looked at him with a grin. “I know all this crap is weird as hell, but magic almost, almost makes it okay.” Aran shared her grin, feeling just a little bit better.

“So, on to how to actually be a ranger…”

After that, they spent the next few hours going over the patrol schedule, and how the shifts worked. Aran didn’t really grasp how the schedule worked, but figured he didn’t need to, he’d just show up when the rest of the 3rd did. Apparently, there were 15 teams, with between 3 and 6 members each. The number of members was based on what the teams were best at, with 3rd primarily being reconnaissance. The other teams all had different specialties, and usually there was a good mix on the wall duty at any one time in case any one team couldn’t handle a threat. Wall duty turned out to be very simple. Just observe the surrounding area, and monitor the walls to make sure nothing was trying to cross. Anytime a threat was detected, there was a bell on the inside edge of the tower mounted on an upright plank, and whoever was monitoring would ring it as long as possible, until they were needed for defense. Runners, those not able to actually defend the town, were posted throughout the edge of town to help with getting the message out when a bell was rung. It was an effective enough system with as many people as they had, especially seeing as the walled in part of town was only about 1 square mile.

Still, even with the Towers, occasionally something would get past the Rangers on shift, and the only thing to alert anyone were the sounds of screaming. Typically the Rangers closest would leave the wall to investigate, or if some were nearby off shift and able to help. There just weren’t enough people to patrol an area even this small. According to Alice, they’d been losing people at a steady pace, even after the wall went up. Sometimes it was some creature killing folks, but just as often people would just… give up. Some had taken their own lives, others just walked into the forest when it became too much. At that, Alice had grown very quiet, and conversation between the two guttered out, and they spent the next few hours simply watching, and waiting.

---------

At the 4 hour mark, James arrived, still cheerful as ever. “So, how’s your first wall duty so far? Exciting, thrilling? Everything you hoped for in an apocalypse?” Aran couldn’t help but grin. “In a word, thrilling, I’d say,” he replied, voice dripping with light-hearted sarcasm. Alice smirked, sharing a nod with James. He looked past the two of them, to the east along the wall.

“So, where’s boss-man? He usually beats me here.” Alice frowned, following his gaze to the east, where they could just make out the shape of another tower in the overcast starlight. “Hmmmm. Agreed. He should be here by now.” The three of them shared a look. Alice sighed, “I’ll go check. James, you keep an eye out back towards the other tower. Aran, you stay here, keep watch, and listen. I’ll whistle if I need help.” After they both nodded, she crouched a little to keep low, and moved off across the thin walkway, almost melting into the shadows. Aran raised an eyebrow at that. She definitely hadn’t mentioned being able to do that. But he turned back, eyes straining in the dark for anything outside, or along the wall. James had moved back toward his own tower, about halfway, where he stood, axe in hand.

The wait seemed interminable. Aran kept looking back towards the east tower, for any sign of Alice or Rick, but it was too dark to see much of anything. Aran was nearly ready to ring the bell when Alice finally stepped out of the shadows directly beside him. He jumped, nearly yelling, before mastering himself. “You could have warned me!” He hissed, keeping his voice quiet. She ignored him, waving at James who jogged over.

She looked at both of them, with eyes that seemed to glow in the darkness. “He’s gone. There was blood on the stone.”

“Shit.” James had lost all humor. “I’ll alert a runner we need this section covered, then we’ll go.” He ran down the stairs, dashing into a nearby building.

“Uh, what? We’re just going to go after him? How are we going to even find him in the dark like this?” Aran asked, not loving the idea of heading back out into the forest after having so soon found civilization.

“Of course we are!” Alice looked at him sharply. “We’re going, and you’re coming too. I don’t care if you don’t know what you’re doing, you survived a month on your own, and I’m sure your little mana trick will come in handy if we do find whatever took him.” She turned away as James arrived. “Let’s go. The Captain may not have very much time, and we don’t know how far they’ve got.” James grabbed a coil of rope from where it had been placed for just such a purpose, tying a line at the top and shimmying down immediately. Alice gestured, and Aran slid over the crenellation, reminded of gym class back in high school as he slid down the rope, not worried about burns.

He alit on the hard-packed snow, joining James as he twirled his axe. “Just follow our lead, and don’t speak unless it’s absolutely critical,” he whispered, eyes scanning the treeline. Alice joined them, taking the lead at a light jog as they reached the base of the tower Rick had been stationed at. Alice crouched, checking the ground for any sign. After a few seconds, she motioned them close.

“Tracks. Look like Rick’s size, leading away from the tower,” she whispered.

“He was walking? But why wouldn’t he have said something?” James asked.

“Not sure, but only one way to find out.” She turned and started following the trail at a jog, James and Aran close behind. Aran moved into the center, keeping his eyes on Alice as James pulled up the rear. After several minutes of running, she pulled up short, turning slowly in a circle. Aran caught up, controlling his breathing. Alice squatted studying the tracks that seemed to end here.

Aran turned around, to find James gone. He was instantly on alert, checking in the brush to either side of the trail, but there was no sign of him. The hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up, and he felt his mana uncoil across the connections in his body, energizing him. He could see a little better now, even in the gloom of the forest. He listened for a sign, but only his breathing marred the silence of the night. The sound of leaves scratching against each other made him whirl around. He froze. Alice was gone, too. He held still, listening, eyes panning the forest as his mana raged within him. Some instinct told him to move, and he leapt, straight up, grabbing an overhanging limb and scrabbling on top. He glanced down, eyes searching. A single, glowing white arrow jutted out of the tree below him, at exactly chest height.