Gareth had been awake since four. He was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling as he always did, methodically reviewing everything.

He looked for angles he hadn’t yet explored and those still accessible if he adjusted his approach.

The problem was Cole, not Michael. Michael was understandable, he was a builder who kept his head down, stayed busy, and managed people by providing clear, tangible goals.

Gareth could interpret and adapt to that style. However, Cole was different. When Cole entered through that gate, he integrated seamlessly into the building’s structure, as if he was made for it without friction or a need for adjustment.

He was immediately trusted and useful. This all happened within a single afternoon, which revealed to Michael that he had seen in Cole what he hadn’t seen in Gareth over five days.

That bothered him more than he was willing to admit. He sat up and surveyed the room. Fetch was asleep on the floor, while Caro was at the window, taking the early watch as they usually rotated it. Gareth glanced at him when he sat up, then turned his attention back to the street. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Wren was in the next room with Damon.

Damon.

Gareth reflected on Damon for a while. Since week two, Damon had been with him, having met in the northern district as the first organized groups emerged.

Damon was the ideal person during a crisis—calm, physically capable, intelligent enough to follow a plan, and honest enough to admit when it was flawed.

Over thirty-three days, he had been the most dependable member of the group.

And two days ago he had probably warned Michael that he was planning something.

Gareth knew because he’d seen the change in Michael’s gaze afterward.

The expression on Michael’s face remained largely the same but something behind it had shifted.

Gareth was skilled at reading people, so he could tell when a man had just received new information and was contemplating his next move.

Damon had switched sides.

His conclusion was that Michael’s building surpassed Gareth’s leadership, and Gareth couldn’t even argue the calculation was incorrect.

Because, if he was honest with himself the building was better than anything he had achieved in the past month.

That was the other problem.

He stood up, moved to the window, and stood alongside Caro, observing the finished wall in the grey pre-dawn light. He reflected on what it meant that such a thing existed and that he hadn’t been the one to build it.

"What do we do," Caro said quietly. He wasn’t asking about the watch.

Gareth gazed at the wall, then at the gate, and finally at the watchtower above the building where Michael would be in two hours, operating something that allowed him to see things others couldn’t.

"We’ll just have to wait," Gareth said.

"For what?" Caro asked.

Gareth glanced southeast, where he’d seen Michael searching for days.

Whatever was out there was the unknown factor that none of Michael’s structures had yet anticipated.

The wall was formidable, but a wall’s strength depends on its defenders. When a threat large enough approached, the question of who stood on which side of the gate became crucial very fast.

"For the right moment," Gareth said. "It’ll come."

Caro looked at him and then back at the wall and said nothing else.

Fetch stirred on the floor, pulled his jacket tighter, and went back to sleep. The room was quiet, and outside, the city was dark and still.

Gareth stood at the window, contemplating angles and patience, thinking about the unique kind of opportunity that arises only when misfortune befalls someone else. He just needed something to go wrong.

---

Three floors above, Michael was unaware of all this because he was sleeping for the first time before midnight in four days.

He woke up at six to the scent of something warm.

He lay still for a moment, trying to identify it, then sat up and looked at the kitchen.

Yuna was standing at the counter, working with the ration components and the water collection tap, her focused concentration showing she had decided to be helpful before anyone asked.

She looked at him when he sat up. "Morning," she said.

"Morning," he replied. "What are you making?"

"Something hot," she responded. "I’m not sure what to call it. It has protein powder, the grain from the ration pack, and some dried vegetable mix." She glanced at the container. "It smells better than it sounds."

He looked at her, and she returned his gaze with her dark eyes and her usual sharp attention before turning her focus back to the container.

"You didn’t have to do that," he said.

"I know," she said. "I wanted to do something." She paused. "I’ve been taking up space since yesterday. I don’t like taking up space."

He looked at her thoughtfully. She had arrived yesterday, running for her life with a wound in her side and a pipe in her hand.

By six the next morning, she was in the kitchen preparing food for people she had known for less than twenty-four hours because she didn’t like taking up space.

He got up and went to the kitchen and looked at what she’d made and it smelled genuinely decent.

"There’s enough for everyone," she said.

"I can see that," he said.

She looked at him sideways. "Is that okay."

"More than okay," he said.

She nodded, returned to the container, and he stood in the kitchen beside her, thinking that Yuna had walked through that gate yesterday with nothing and had already found a way to contribute.

She was the kind of person who improved everything around her just by being there.

[Bond Event — First Morning: Yuna. +1 Bond Point. Current BP: 3 — Yuna.]

---

By the time everyone was awake, the kitchen was filled with six women and Michael on the floor in his usual spot. The room was loud with all trying to understand each other, full of overlapping conversations, occasional silences, and the sound of Yuna explaining her creation to Dr. Kang, who was observing it with clinical curiosity.

Shin sat on the floor next to Michael, eating with her knees raised, watching the kitchen with a small, unconcealed smile.

"It’s "Loud," Michael said.

"It’s good type of loud," Shin responded.

He glanced at the kitchen, where Maya was explaining something about the south face panels of the wall, using her hands to show the angles. Anya listened intently, her head slightly tilted as she focused on what she found technically interesting.

Sera leaned against the counter, eating quietly while observing everything in the room. Dr. Kang had apparently approved Yuna’s food for medical reasons and was eating it while reviewing her clipboard inventory.

Rei was at the table, actually speaking to Maya about something. Her voice was soft, but it was the most Michael had heard from her since she arrived.

He watched Rei talking and reflected on her comment from two days earlier, where she mentioned that some people need a safe space before they can figure out what they want to say.

Apparently, she had found that space.

"How’s the leg," he said to Shin.

"Good," she said.

"Properly good or Shin good," he said.

She looked at him. "What’s Shin good."

"Fine enough and done discussing it," he said.

She held his gaze for a second and then looked at her food. "Properly good," she said. "Dr. Kang checked it yesterday. It has full mobility." She paused. "She said I can train."

"The training room went up yesterday," he said.

Shin looked at him, her eyes widening briefly before she regained control. "Already."

"Yeah," he said.

She looked at the floor, and he saw a quiet, genuine smile spread across her face, pleased with how things had turned out.

"Today?" she said.

"After breakfast," he said.

She glanced at her food and ate more quickly. He nearly smiled, then looked back toward the kitchen where the loud noise persisted.

-----

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