When morning came, the school was no longer the same.
No one had devised a plan for it
There had been no assembly, no address, and no individual at the helm directing everyone else on what they should do. People had simply begun doing things, because simply standing around and doing nothing no longer had any meaning.
A woman had taken charge of the food supplies and was double-checking every single item. Two men were reinforcing the front gate using pieces of metal they’d salvaged from a nearby work site. And somewhere in the hallway, a whiteboard had been brought out and someone was marking off which roads were safe and which roads had monsters milling along them.
Marcus stood near the entrance, observing it all.
A boy came running full-tilt with two bottles of water in his hands and nearly ran Marcus over.
"Sorry,"
Marcus caught one of the bottles before it could hit the ground
"Slow down."
The young man nodded and hurried away.
Marcus turned his sights onto the street.
Three people were walking back
Adams was leading the group, Elena at his side and Riven trailing at the end.
Marcus already knew what that meant.
"You’re leaving,"
Adams simply nodded.
"Yep."
Marcus crossed his arms. "Did you find a safe place?"
"No,"
"Then why are you leaving?"
Adams glanced at the school.
"Because staying here isn’t going to make things any safer,"
Marcus considered that.
He had no argument.
The school had become overcrowded overnight, and every mouth that opened needed to be fed. Worse yet, they had no idea how long the building itself would remain intact.
Marcus turned his attention to Elena.
"You’re taking the medical supplies,"
"Whatever we can carry,"
"Good,"
He hesitated before asking the next question. "Do you think the woman in Room 6 is going to make it?"
Elena’s lips tightened. "She’ll live,"
"That’s not what I asked,"
"I know,"
Marcus waited.
Elena glanced at the hallway. "She’ll lose mobility in that leg. Possibly more. I can’t say anything for certain beyond that,"
Marcus nodded.
"She’ll hate you for that,"
"Probably,"
"You okay with that?" "No,"
Elena offered him a tired smile. "But I can deal with someone hating me. I can’t deal with pretending to be something I’m not,"
Marcus turned his gaze away.
"That’s two of us,"
Riven came up with a bundle of weapons.
Marcus looked down. "You’re leaving those?"
"Yep,"
"You don’t need them?"
"I’ve got enough,"
Marcus took one of the fixed blades and tested its weight.
"Are you sure?"
"Keep them sharp,"
Marcus examined the weapon again.
"I’ll make sure they do,"
Riven smiled.
"That’s all I wanted,"
Adams adjusted the strap on his shoulder.
"We should go,"
Marcus nodded.
Then he grew serious. "If you’re going towards the coast, don’t,"
Adams came to a halt. "Why not?"
"Three people came through yesterday saying they saw something huge heading that way,"
Riven’s expression changed.
"The World Boss?"
Marcus shrugged. "I don’t know what you call it,"
Adams looked towards the eastern road.
"Where exactly?"
"None of them could agree,"
"That’s reassuring,"
Marcus offered a dry smile.
"Welcome to Heavenfall,"
Adams chuckled. "We’ll stay away from the coast,"
"Good,"
Marcus pushed the gate open.
Adams went first, with Elena and Riven at his heels. Marcus watched them disappear between buildings before shutting the gate again.
He turned.
A woman stood behind him.
"Are those three returning?"
Marcus stared out the empty street.
"I don’t know,"
"Do you trust them?"
He thought it over.
"Not enough to give them control of this place,"
The woman smiled. "And that is probably why you’re still alive,"
Marcus turned his gaze back to the school.
"Get everyone inside. We need to decide how long we can stay here,"
"Already?" "We can’t stay here forever,"
Several kilometers away, Amara Okoye was having an entirely different discussion.
"Our antibiotics are running low,"
The words lingered in the air over the supermarket.
No one responded.
Amara leaned against the counter with her arms folded as the others rummaged through the remaining supplies.
A man named Chidi sat on the floor by the shelves, his injured leg stretched out before him.
"We’ve got painkillers,"What we need is antibiotics,"
"We can deal without them,"
Amara looked at him. "Can we?"
Chidi said nothing.
Tunde, another survivor, leaned against a shelf.
"Maybe we should check out the military checkpoint,"
Amara shook her head.
"You don’t know if it’s still there,"
"There’s no guarantee this place will still be here tomorrow,"
"That’s not an argument,"
"It is when our food is running out,"
Silence.
Amara glanced around the supermarket.
Six people.
Three-days-worth-of-food.
One man, injured.
One fighter, awakened.
And no idea what lay beyond the next street.
At last, she bent down and grabbed her bag.
"We’re heading to the pharmacy,"
Tunde stared at her. "You’re serious?" "Yes,"
"What if there’s a monster?"
"There probably is,"
"That’s not a good plan,"
"It’s not a good plan,"
She pulled the strap tighter. "It’s the only plan we have,"
They were three streets away when something rustled under a parked car.
Tunde stopped. "Wait,"
The creature wriggled free.
It was small, fast, and disgusting.
Chidi shouted from behind them.
The awakened survivor ran forward.
His skin hardened as the creature jumped on him, sending him against a wall.
Amara whirled the bat in both hands.
The first blow came across the creature’s head.
It reeled.
Amara swung again.
It lunged at her with its teeth.
The awakened man grabbed it from behind and slammed it against the pavement.
"Again,"
Amara hit it across the neck.
The creature convulsed.
Then it went still.
No one moved.
Tunde looked at the body. "That was close,"
Amara was catching her breath. "No,"
He looked at her. "We were close because we got lucky,"
She wiped the blood from her cheek. "Next time, we might not be,"
No one argued.
They continued on towards the pharmacy.
Adams, Elena, and Riven had stopped to eat their lunch in the shade of a ruined structure.
Riven tossed Adams a bottle of water.
Adams drank half of it. "You’ve been quiet,"
Riven shrugged. "Just thinking,"
"That tends to get you killed,"
"I was thinking about something else,"
Adams waited.
Riven glanced at Gravemarsh. "Does it feel any different?"
Adams looked down at the curved blade. "No,"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes,"
Riven frowned. "I swear it reacted yesterday,"
"Maybe it did,"
"And you’re not interested?" "Of course I am,"
"Then why don’t you ask it?"
Adams looked at him.
"How?"
Riven opened his mouth to say something.
Then he shut it again.
"Fair point,"
Elena burst out laughing. "You two are impossible,"
Riven settled against the wall. "I just want to understand what I created,"
Adams looked at him.
"You didn’t create it for me,"
Riven’s expression changed. "I know,"
That was more than it should have been.
Neither of them mentioned the designation.
Or the need to have one.
The Last Archon.
Even now, it hovered between them, unwritten.
Elena broke the silence.
"We should go,"
Adams nodded.
They gathered their things and headed down the street.
None of them saw the shadow watching from a rooftop several kilometers away.
The stranger lowered the binoculars.
For nearly an hour, he had followed their every move.
Gravemarsh wasn’t of any interest to him.
Not at the moment.
His attention remained on the three figures walking beside it.
He put the binoculars down and turned away.
There were other things he needed to do before he did anything else.
Night fell over Lagos.
Back at the school, Marcus stood on the roof with two other survivors.
Far away, a flashlight picked out shapes in the darkness.
Then another.
"people?" asked one of the watchers
Marcus studied the beams of light.
"Probably,"
"Should we signal them?"
Marcus considered the question.
Then he shook his head. "Not yet,"
The lights disappeared behind a building.
No one spoke.
Marcus tightened his grip on his weapon.
Below, the survivors prepared for another night.
Fear still clung to them.
Confusion.
Grief.
But a new realization had settled in their hearts.
The old world was gone.
And, whether they understood it or not, they had already begun building something new in its place.