Five people are sitting around one of the many improvised tables in the Wu’s Gym, the place where the local survivors have taken shelter. They softly talk, discussing their plans for the day, where to go, what to gather. Each day, the teams have to range out further, looking for stores that have neither burned nor been already looted, to gather more supplies. Each day, the amount of food, water and fuel that is gathered by the various teams gets less and less, and the time needed to find the supplies gets longer and longer.

Luckily, the water situation might have taken a turn, the demonstration the previous night was certainly promising but just how promising, time would have to tell. The magic demonstration, something none of the five survivors would have taken seriously, if not for the obvious, easily visible and almost impossible to deny, demonstration. But after the initial disbelief had worn off, it felt strangely acceptable, almost expected. The world had gone to shit, blue windows were floating in your view as if this was some sort of video game, so why not magic? To say nothing of the description of an actual video game that somehow foreshadowed the change, even giving benefits to those who had played.

And that Samantha certainly has received some benefits, Cheng Hu, the leader of their group, is certain of it. He has seen her before, training with Mrs Wu at the gym, not just the usual martial arts but something more demanding and a lot more dangerous. He has been curious about what the two petite women were up to, but at the end of the day, it hasn’t been his business. And now, that same petite woman is walking around with an intimidating air of confidence, her mere gaze enough to send shivers down his spine. Cold, dangerous, those are the words his instincts whisper in his ear when he looks at her. Don’t mess with her, is the warning his guts scream, even as a part of him worries what she might do, even without getting messed with. But what she has shown, what she had her student show, it is an unbelievable feat. Sure, she spoke of rules, of affinities but at the end of the day, a bit of weird finger waggling and suddenly, water appeared. Clean, drinkable water, what others have to spend hours searching for, dodging or destroying their former neighbours, friends and families. A miracle, in this trying world.

“Cheng Hu, I need a word with you and your group,” the voice of Wong Chehai addresses the five of them, his attention focused on their leader. If one had to put a title to Wong Chehai’s job, it would be commander, for he is the one making the plans and keeping records of the already explored and cleared areas.

“What is it?” all five of them rise, not quite coming to attention but not far from it. Each of them, just like most of the others who go out and gather supplies, has served in the military in some form or another. Habits, ingrained by long hours, days or even years, of training, are hard to shed and in a situation like this, they serve their purpose. Maybe not quite the original purpose they had been trained for, but the purpose of protecting their people.

“We’ve gotten word that there’s some light out at Apple Gate Farm, or there about. Could you take your team and check it out, might be other survivors, might be something else,” for a moment, their commander’s voice dropped, obviously trying to avoid being overheard, “You know that our position here isn’t tenable, not in the long term. We can’t deal with all the dead and soon, there’s going to be a plague. We need options,” he explains and all of them nod. They, too, have noticed the smell out there slowly getting unpleasant, the bodies in the streets and the various houses. There’s simply no way to deal with them, they don’t have the numbers, tools or time to deal with this many bodies.

“Wait, you got word? How strong is that light and who saw it?” Cheng Hu asks, not sure how far even a strong light can be seen during the day. If there’s some sort of large fire, he’s not sure he wants to march his group out there, just to witness more death and destruction.

“Samantha Jacobs, the old lady’s student, told me. Fuck if I know why she prefers to run around at night, but she was in that direction and saw it. Said it’s just a normal, small fire, nothing big,” Wong Chehai explains, getting nervous swallows in return. Venturing out during the day is bad enough, but going out at night? None of the five men would voluntarily do that, but to prefer doing it?

“The old lady has been training her in some weird shit, maybe that’s part of it? Some sneaky stealthy stuff, maybe that’s why Jacobs only has that monster of a dog with her. Or maybe she’s just utterly nuts, I’m not sure which,” one of Cheng Hu’s group suggests, having obviously noticed their training before, as well as the sheer intimidating presence of the petite woman.

“Maybe, don’t know, don’t care. She could be a vampire, as long as she gets us results and doesn’t harm our people, I can’t be bothered to worry about her,” the commander admits with a snort, aware of the sheer weirdness of the woman but also aware that she is most likely able to take them all out if she so wishes. Maybe not the old lady, that one is far more dangerous than any physical indicator suggests but that doesn’t make things better. Those two are cut from the same cloth, maybe that’s why the old lady trained the other before things went to hell.

“Guess we’ll go and check out that farm,” Cheng Hu nods and immediately, the other four quickly wolf down their food, while he waits for their commander to add any additional objectives.

“Go there, find out who’s out there, talk to them, that stuff. Maybe exchange some notes on this insanity,” the commander adds, before bidding Cheng Hu a quick farewell and walking off. Once the boss is gone, Cheng Hu, too, focuses on his food, so the group can use as much of the daylight as possible. Apple Gate Farm is some distance away but easily reachable in about two hours if they rush or four if they take their time and are cautious about it. And they will have to be cautious, with the Shattered wandering the streets and the tales of stronger variants, with burning hands that can throw fire, only adding to the danger out there. To think that somebody goes out alone, with only a dog. At night, too. Madness.

Soon, the five of them gathered the necessary supplies, making sure that they can last a few days out there, and checked their equipment once more. Yes, they might look silly in their damaged and haphazardly thrown-together gear, but looking silly and being alive is far more important than looking good and being dead. Only a few people can pull off looking good and surviving.

Moving in formation, they all cover their individual vectors, making sure that they miss no Shattered and prevent from stumbling into an ambush. While they have yet to see those, other groups have, and have lost people to them. To say nothing of the groups who never came back in the first place. Only three groups never came back but that’s still fifteen people, vanishing without a trace. Maybe fleeing, maybe dying, but just not coming back.

Either way, they have a farm to reach and so their focus is less on exploring, or even checking potential supplies but keep moving, steadily making progress. A lot of progress, one might even say too much progress.

“What’s going on, boss?” James, their archer and rearguard quietly asks, after they didn’t see a single Shattered for half an hour. At least not one that as still moving, there were quite a few dead ones.

“You heard that the commander said Jacobs was out here, didn’t you?” Cheng Hu asks in response, “Guess this is all her doing.”

“Fuck, have you seen some of them? They look mangled,” another one of them remarks. He made the mistake to be a little too curious and check one of the broken bodies, only to realise just how savaged it actually is.

“The dog, I guess. Fucking monster,” James remarks, shuddering at the thought of a giant dog, with a bloody maw ripping through Shattered with bestial ferocity. No matter what they are now, Shattered used to be human. Killing them is one thing, but to destroy their bodies like this?

“Fucking monsters, I don’t believe for a second that the dog is the more dangerous one,” Cheng Hu reminds them, trying to make sure nobody sees the petite, almost childish body and the baby face and thinks to take advantage, or some other idiocy. Nobody trained by the old lady is harmless and Jacobs doubly not. Just the idea is enough to make his gut churn in fear.