[I’m 1+ Day older today XD]

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Michael woke up before everyone else and lay on the floor for a moment staring at the ceiling and listening to the building.

It sounded different with twelve extra people in it, with the presence of more bodies in more spaces, the occasional sound of movement from down the hall where Gareth’s men were, a cough from somewhere, the distant pulse of the perimeter panel doing its steady amber thing.

He sat up and checked the pulse immediately the way he did every morning and the first thing he looked at was the signature eight blocks southeast that had appeared last night.

It was still there.

Still stationary. Still not reading like anything in his existing categories, not Rotter, not Stalker, not Brute, not Crawler.

Just a presence at the edge of his range that was either something new or something old that he hadn’t encountered yet and either way needed attention he wasn’t ready to give it this morning.

He filed it and looked at the rest of the pulse. The building was quiet and Gareth’s men were in their apartments with two signatures in 603 and three in 605.

Gareth himself was in room 607 at the end of the hall not moving yet. His own people were in the barracks and bedroom, all present and fine.

He got up and opened the Blueprint Interface.

Tier 3 was sitting at zero percent and the list of what it needed was long but not impossible and he had been turning it over in his head since last night and had a sequence that made sense.

The perimeter wall first because Gareth’s presence in the building had moved that from a nice to have into a necessity. Expanded barracks second because twelve people and counting meant the current sleeping arrangements were already strained. Clinic expansion third because Dr. Kang had been patient long enough and the hospital run had given them the supplies to actually use a proper setup.

He was deep in the material calculations when the barracks door opened and Anya came out.

She stopped when she saw him on the floor and they looked at each other for a second and then she crossed to the kitchen and stood there and looked at the water collection tap and the supply storage and the general state of a kitchen that had real infrastructure in it.

"You can help yourself," Michael said.

She opened the storage and looked at what was in it and took a protein bar and sat on the counter and ate it and looked at the apartment in the early morning light with her eyes moving the way they always moved, taking inventory of everything.

"Warehouse logistics," Michael said. "That was your job before."

"Yes for six years," she said. "I started right out of school."

"You knew that building."

"I knew buildings like it. The layout was standard enough." She looked at him. "You figured out the crane pretty fast though"

"You figured out the crane," he said. "I just asked if you could use it."

She looked at her protein bar. "Gareth never asked what I could do," she said. "Just what I could carry."

Michael looked at her and she looked back and her jaw was set slightly, not angry exactly, just stating a fact she had been sitting with for a while.

"What else can you do," he said.

She blinked. Like the question was unexpected. "Inventory management. Supply chain logistics. I can map a building’s load bearing structure from the outside given enough time." She paused. "I was good at my job."

Michael thought about the Tier 3 build list and the expanded base and the supply management that was going to become significantly more complex as more people came in and nodded slowly. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"I could use someone who’s good at that," he said.

Anya looked at him steadily. "In exchange for what."

"A bunk and a place in this," he said. "Same as everyone else."

She was quiet for a moment and then she looked at the reinforced door and the perimeter panel and the clinic visible through the open doorway and the general shape of something that had been built carefully and with intention.

"Okay," she said simply.

*L[Bond Event — Finding A Role: Anya. +1 Bond Point. Current BP: 4 — Anya.]

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Rei was awake when Michael looked in on the barracks an hour later.

She was sitting on her bunk with her knees pulled up and her eyes on the window covering and she turned when he appeared in the doorway and looked at him with dark eyes that were clearer this morning than they’d been last night, the deep sleep having done something real for her.

"Morning," he said.

"Morning," she said quietly.

He leaned against the doorframe and didn’t push anything and after a moment she looked back at the window.

"How long has this building been yours," she said.

"Thirty days."

She was quiet. "We were in that warehouse for eleven days," she said. "Before that we were in Gareth’s office building." A short pause. "Before that I was alone for four days after my building got hit."

Michael didn’t say anything and let the silence do what it needed to do.

"He wasn’t always like that," she said. Her voice was flat, not defensive, just accurate. "The first week he was just someone who had a plan when nobody else did." She looked at her hands. "Plans change people I think. Or maybe they just show you who people already were."

Michael looked at her and she looked small on the bunk with her knees pulled up but her eyes were steady and direct and he thought she was probably stronger than she looked which in his experience was true of most people who made it this far.

"You don’t have to go back," he said. Simple and direct with no conditions attached.

She looked at him. "I know," she said. And the way she said it meant she’d already decided and was still adjusting to the fact that the decision was hers to make.

[Bond Event — First Morning: Rei. +1 Bond Point. Current BP: 2 — Rei.]

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Sera found him on the watchtower at mid morning and stood beside him and looked out at the city and he told her about the signature eight blocks southeast without preamble because she was going to notice it on the squad tracker eventually and he’d rather she heard it from him first.

She looked southeast. "Since when."

"Last night. After the horde moved."

"The horde uncovered it."

"That’s what I think."

She was quiet for a moment looking in that direction with her eyes slightly narrowed. "What is it."

"I don’t know yet."

"Is it big?"

"Well it’s fifferent," he said. "Not big exactly. Just different."

She looked at him sideways. "That’s not reassuring."

"No," he agreed.

They stood looking at the city for a while and below them the building was waking up, the sounds of it drifting up through the structure, and somewhere on the sixth floor a door opened and closed and the pulse showed Gareth moving in 607, up and active and probably doing his own version of assessing the morning.

"He’s going to push today," Sera said.

"Probably."

"What’s the play."

Michael thought about the perimeter wall sitting at the top of his Tier 3 list and the materials he needed for it and the SP he had and the sequence he’d worked out this morning.

"Give him something useful to do," he said. "People with a task are easier to manage than people with time."

Sera looked at him. "And when the task is done."

"Give him another one."

She held his gaze for a second and then looked back out at the city and he could see her thinking through the angles of it with the practical focused intelligence she applied to everything.

"He’s not going to stay managed forever," she said.

"No," Michael agreed. "But forever isn’t what I need. I just need long enough."

"Long enough for what."

He looked at the Tier 3 blueprint list in his vision. At the perimeter wall. At the things after the perimeter wall. At the city beyond and the signature eight blocks southeast sitting at the edge of his range like a question he hadn’t answered yet.

"Long enough to be ready for whatever comes next," he said.

Sera looked at him and then out at the city and nodded once like that was a complete enough answer and they stood on the watchtower together in the grey morning light and watched the dead city do what it always did.

Below them the building hummed and the pulse ran its steady sweep and somewhere eight blocks southeast something that didn’t fit any of his categories sat still and patient in the ruins of the city and waited.

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HBD TO MEEEEEEEEEEE!