We stayed beneath the sheltered seating area for another ten minutes.
The message must have had injected fresh energy into Hana. The exhaustion from earlier was still there—her shoulders sagged beneath the weight of the bag and there were dark circles beneath her eyes—but now her gaze stayed north of the road. Every few minutes she refreshed her messages despite the network icon sitting stubbornly empty. I didn't tell Hana to stop.
The afternoon had grown strangely bright. Thick clouds covered most of Eden, turning the sunlight pale and diffuse, and the concrete beneath the housing blocks reflected enough of it that everything seemed washed out. Lincol had always been green for a city district. Trees between blocks, narrow strips of grass beside the roads, vines crawling over pedestrian bridges. Eden's urban planning had roots from many decades ago. It helped with the air quality, and humidity here.
Today the greenery swallowed the silence. No traffic, trains, no people. It had merely been four days. Almost surreal to think that tens of thousands of people walked by here not too long ago. I had to remember this abnormal environment was caused by a sudden zombie outbreak.
The world had come to a slow stop.
I pulled up Hana's cached map with a stronger grip.
"North Lincol's around four kilometres if we go direct."
"Three point six."
I looked at her. She had apparently been measuring.
"Direct means the main road." From above, I recalled seeing quite a gruesome scene there. An entire bus was swallowed. I shook my head, Hana didn't say anything more, and immediately returned her attention to the map.
She zoomed in with two fingers. "This way?"
"That's longer. ...But it could work."
Hana passed the phone back. A route through the residential estates, cutting between blocks before following a canal north. There was a pedestrian bridge farther up that would bring us across one of the larger roads without spending too much time at street level. From there, North Lincol began almost immediately.
Hmm.
"When did you become good at this?"
"I live here."
"So do I."
"Yeah, but you're an unemployed uncle who stays at home."
This bitch.
I redistributed the supplies before we moved. Canned food and drinks were heavy. It only starts weighing on you the longer you carried them. I took most of the drinks. She kept the lighter food, first-aid supplies and whatever snacks she'd quietly claimed.
I checked the System once more: 1,000
Ten pulls. Still there. Still whispering. I closed it.
We started north.
Walking through Lincol felt different once we had somewhere specific to go.
Before, every movement outside had been about reaching the next safe place. Now there was distance involved. Distance meant exposure. Every junction became something to examine before crossing. Every blind corner made me slow down. We stayed beneath the void decks where possible, moving through the long strips of shade beneath apartment blocks while the humid afternoon pressed against everything outside. Sweat gathered beneath my shirt within minutes.
It's not easy. I hadn't worked out much, my stamina wasn't the greatest.
Hana stayed close. She simply maintained a distance of around one step, matching my pace automatically. Whenever I stopped, she stopped. Whenever I looked behind us, she usually already had her head turned. She was matching my rhythm perfectly. Under extreme conditions, four days was enough for a human to adapt.
The first estate we crossed was quiet. Someone had pushed several rubbish bins against one of the stairwell entrances. A handwritten sign had been taped across the glass.
INFECTED INSIDE. DON'T OPEN.
The paper fluttered whenever the wind passed through. We went around. A bicycle lay on its side near the playground. There was dried blood across the rubber flooring beneath the swings, dark enough now that the colour had gone almost brown. No body.
Hana stared for a second. Then kept walking. I did the same, silently. The playground equipment creaked softly behind us. I hated that sound.
At the next block, we found people.
A family of four came down the opposite walkway carrying backpacks and several plastic grocery bags like they'd just done a raid from a nearby supermarket. Father in front. Mother behind. Two young boys between them. Everyone stopped when they saw us. For several seconds, both groups simply looked at each other. The father had a hammer in his hand. I had a folding shovel.
Civilisation had really improved over the last few days.
"North?" he eventually asked.
"Yeah."
He shook his head.
"Main road's bad."
"How bad?"
"I don't know. Heard shooting earlier."
He pointed east. "We're going west. The community centre there was taking people yesterday."
Yesterday. That information could be ancient by now.
I thanked him anyway. Free information was good. It would become harder to get as the days go by.
The family moved past us. One of the boys looked at my shovel and whispered something to his mother. I didn't bother covering the blood on it. Everyone knew the circumstances.
Their footsteps faded beneath the block.
Hana turned slightly to watch them leave.
"You think the community centre's still safe?"
"No idea. Maybe the supermarket's safer."
A pause.
"You think?"
"Yeah."
The main road appeared between the buildings around fifteen minutes later. And immediately justified avoiding it.
Cars had been abandoned across three lanes. Some were neatly stopped at angles that suggested their drivers had simply gotten out. Others had collided hard enough to scatter broken plastic and glass across the asphalt. A delivery van had mounted the curb and buried its front end into a tree. I saw the bus from day 2. The windows were splattered with blood.
"Hold it in." I stopped Hana, who had placed a hand over her mouth with a frown. The stench of dead bodies worked into my nose too, but throwing up meant giving up the valuable nutrition of our earlier meal.
Farther down, smoke curled lazily from something I couldn't see.
No fire, just smoke. There were infected too. I counted...
"There's six... maybe seven of them."
"Six sevennn... ...Sorry."
Walked right into that one. At least she feels much better to be making jokes.
One of the infected wandered between the cars with its head lowered. Another stood beside a bus stop, perfectly still until a loose advertisement panel rattled in the wind. Its head snapped towards the sound immediately.
Hana pulled back behind the wall, and I remained there long enough to check our route.
The pedestrian bridge crossed roughly eighty metres east. Unfortunately, reaching it required following our side of the road for most of that distance.
"There's another crossing."
"How far?"
I checked.
"Maybe seven hundred metres."
Hana looked through the gap again. Her mother was north. I could see the calculation happening without her saying anything.
"We'll use this one," I decided.
She didn't argue.
There was a covered footpath running parallel to the road. Shrubs and several large trees partially obscured it from the vehicles, which gave us enough concealment as long as nothing wandered directly onto the path.
We moved slowly.
Twenty metres.
Thirty.
I kept watching the infected through gaps in the greenery.
One disappeared between two vehicles.
That bothered me immediately.
I stopped.
Hana nearly walked into my back.
"What?"
I raised a hand.
Nothing moved.
The wind pushed dry leaves across the pavement. Somewhere above us, a residential unit's wind chime clicked gently against itself.
Then a hand appeared beneath one of the parked cars.
Hana saw it too.
We backed away.
A woman crawled out from underneath.
Half her blouse had been torn away. One leg dragged uselessly behind her, twisted at an angle that made my knee hurt just looking at it. She pulled herself forward with her arms, skin scraping over asphalt, leaving a thin dark smear behind.
Her face turned towards us.
—Fuck.
She screamed.
Every infected on the road reacted.
"Run!"
The nearest one came between two cars hard enough to bounce off a side mirror. Another vaulted the low roadside barrier with considerably more coordination than I appreciated.
Hana's shoes slapped rapidly against the pavement behind me.
The bridge stairs were maybe forty metres away.
Thirty.
Something crashed through the shrubs.
"Shit!"
I grabbed Hana's arm and pulled her sideways.
An infected man stumbled onto the footpath directly ahead. Office clothes. Tie still hanging loosely around his neck. His jaw was wet with blood.
He lunged.
I didn't have time for the shovel.
Inventory.
The PZ400 materialised into my hand with that familiar wash of blue light.
I raised it.
BANG!
Miss.
Of course.
The infected kept coming.
BANG!
Shoulder.
"FUCK—"
Third shot.
His head jerked backwards and his body folded onto the pavement.
No time to celebrate.
"Move!"
We reached the bridge stairs.
Hana went first.
I followed, turning halfway up.
Two infected had entered the path.
I fired once.
Missed.
Again.
One stumbled.
I didn't wait to see if it stayed down.
We took the stairs two at a time.
By the time we reached the bridge, my lungs were already burning.
Hana bent forward with both hands against her knees.
"You... suck..." In between breaths, she snarled.
"What?"
"At... ...shooting."
I stared at her.
She was panting so badly the words barely came out.
"I saved you."
"You missed... like... three times."
"Shut up, keep moving."
She laughed, the first time since our encounter. One short breathless sound, almost hysterical from adrenaline.
Then we ran across the bridge. The infected gathered beneath us but didn't immediately find the stairs. Their cries followed through the open air while we crossed above the stalled road.
From up there, I could see farther north.
Lincol stretched in rows of pale apartment towers broken by strips of greenery and old neighbourhood centres. Beyond them stood the denser skyline of North Lincol, where several taller buildings clustered around the hospital district.
Smoke rose from at least three places. One of them was disturbingly close to where we were going.
I didn't point it out.
Hana had already seen it.
Her laughter disappeared.
We kept moving.
By the time we reached the canal, the System chimed.
I almost ignored it. Then remembered that ignoring supernatural notifications had already worked out spectacularly once.
I opened it while we sheltered beneath a pedestrian underpass.
"...Five?" That seemed wrong. Then I remembered the earlier convenience-store trip, the rubbish shaft, wandering around the estate and all the other movement it had apparently been tracking.
A second notification appeared.
Achievements huh.
I stared at the number for a bit. Hana sat on the low concrete edge beside the canal and drank from her bottle. She'd gone quieter over the last kilometre. Her phone came out every few minutes, but there were no new messages.
I looked north, but my gaze stayed on the interface that only I could see.
There would never be a perfect time.
Waiting until we reached Hana's mother meant crossing several more kilometres with bad aim... and a shovel.
If the pull gave me equipment, good. If it gave me medicine, even better.
If it gave me a Character... My thoughts stopped there. Mira's face surfaced too easily.
I closed the window. When did I get so sentimental?
Opened it again.
The canal water moved sluggishly below us, green-brown beneath the afternoon light. Several leaves drifted along its surface, circling slowly around a plastic bottle caught against the concrete bank. Farther upstream, a flock of small white birds had gathered beneath the shadow of another bridge.
The whole scene was strangely peaceful. Leave Eden alone for a few more months, and it'll probably turn even greener.
That thought unsettled me more than I expected.
A few months. I was already imagining staying alive long enough to see weeds crack through pavement.
With this ability.
...The ability to summon.
"... Hooo..."
Recruit ×10
Cost: 1,000
I pressed it.
The confirmation appeared.
[Confirm Standard Recruitment ×10?]
I pressed yes.
60 remaining.
"...Fuck." The hoarder in me screamed.
Hana looked over again.
I raised a finger. She went back to her water.
The Recruitment interface darkened.
I expected the old animation. CWO used to show a transport craft accelerating through a cybernetic gate while the colour of the surrounding particles hinted at your highest rarity.
Nothing happened.
For several seconds, the screen remained black.
Then:
[Recruitment request accepted.]
A second line appeared beneath it.
[Preparing deployment.]
I frowned.
That wording again.
Deployment.
"...Where?"
The moment I muttered those words, I felt my vision project itself far out somewhere.
This is... space?
Something fell down towards... Earth.
Flares shot out of this falling block of metal. Ten streaks of light, slowly changing colours.
"Hey, look! There's something in the sky?"
Hana's voice interrupted that weird vision that I just saw. I looked up at where she was pointing at.
"What the fuck?"
I connected the dots immediately.
Ten small lights appeared across the interface.
Blue.
Blue.
Another blue.
I knew this part.
Three-star.
Blue.
Blue.
Blue.
My enthusiasm died piece by piece.
Blue.
Blue.
Eight.
Ninth—
Blue.
...Come on.
The final light flickered.
Purple.
I sat straighter.
"Hana."
"What?"
"Look for a purple light."
She squinted at the sky with me.
"...What are you talking about?"
For a moment, there was nothing except pale cloud and the distant outline of apartment towers. Then another streak tore through the haze, blue-white this time, bright enough to leave a thin afterimage across my vision.
Hana stood up.
"Oh. Isn't that dangerous?!"
Another followed.
Then another.
They were spreading apart as they fell, ten separate trails carving themselves across the afternoon sky. Most burned blue, their light strangely clean against the clouds, while one farther north carried a deeper violet glow.
So she could see them.
That was important.
Also extremely bad.
The System finished revealing my results.
[Standard Recruitment Results]
My eyes stopped on the last line.
Lunallu Verionlight.
Electra. Chains. Lightning. And, if I remembered correctly, quite a few story quests involving her in the beginning.
Then another problem occurred to me.
I looked back toward the sky. "...Where the hell are you going?"
The answer came as another roar overhead.
One of the blue streaks passed low enough that the air seemed to tighten around it. Hana flinched and ducked instinctively, while I looked up just in time to catch a dark shape buried inside the light, tumbling only slightly as it vanished beyond the apartment blocks.
A few seconds later, the district answered.
BOOM.
The sound rolled through Lincol like distant thunder. Windows rattled beneath the underpass. A flock of birds tore out of the trees farther upstream, scattering into the pale sky in a hundred frantic directions.
Then another impact came from somewhere south.
Another from the west.
The peace we'd been sitting in disappeared all at once.
Hana had gone very still.
"...What the fuck is happening now?!"
I kept staring north, where the violet streak was descending behind the taller buildings.
The purple light slipped behind the skyline.
For half a second, the clouds above North Lincol glowed faintly violet.
Then came the impact.
BOOOOM.
Deeper than the others.
Not enough to knock us off our feet, but I felt it through the soles of my shoes and up into my legs. Somewhere nearby, car alarms began screaming. One after another, mechanical shrieks waking up across the estates.
The System chimed.
[All Recruitment Deployments successfully landed.]
Then a new icon appeared.
[Map]
"...Of course." I opened it.
Lincol spread across my vision in dark translucent lines. Roads, canals, apartment clusters, rail lines. Ten markers pulsed across the district, each labelled with the result I'd already seen.
The closest one was less than a kilometre away.
★★★ Universal Ammunition x20
Another blinked somewhere behind us.
★★★ Emergency Ration Case
Further east:
★★★ Reconnaissance Drone M3
I ignored them.
My eyes went straight north.
★★★★ Lunallu Verionlight
2.9 kilometres.
Almost directly along the route we were already taking.
I stared at the marker.
That was either absurdly fortunate or the System had a sense of humour I didn't appreciate.
Hana watched my face.
"What?"
"The purple one landed north."
Her eyes moved toward the skyline.
"Near Mum?"
"Same direction."
That was enough for her. She stood and slung her bag over one shoulder.
I remained seated for another second.
Nine other things had just fallen somewhere across Lincol.
Weapons. Medicine. Supplies. Equipment that had no business existing here.
The thought of leaving all of it lying around made something deep inside me itch horribly. Forty-eight days of hoarding had apparently done permanent damage to my brain. Still, there were limits.
I wasn't about to drag Hana through half the district collecting loot while her mother was somewhere ahead.
Especially when one of those drops was ...a person.
I got up.
Then Hana's phone screamed.
The emergency alert tone echoed beneath the concrete underpass so violently that both of us jumped.
"Fucking hell!" She nearly dropped it.
The message loaded in pieces.
EDEN CIVIL DEFENCE NETWORK
MULTIPLE UNIDENTIFIED AERIAL OBJECTS HAVE IMPACTED WITHIN LINCOL DISTRICT.
DO NOT APPROACH IMPACT LOCATIONS.
EDF AND EMERGENCY PERSONNEL ARE RESPONDING.
Hana read it once.
Then slowly looked at me. I looked away.
"Mister."
"Yeah?"
"What exactly did you do?"
A siren rose somewhere beyond the canal.
Then another joined it. I tightened my grip around the shovel.
"I'll tell you when I understand it myself."
"..."
We left the underpass.
The difference outside was immediate.
People were appearing.
A man stood on the second-floor corridor of the opposite block with his phone held toward the sky. Two women had come out beneath another building and were pointing west, talking loudly enough that their voices carried across the empty road. Someone farther away shouted that something had crashed into the basketball court.
Four days of hiding indoors, and apparently falling stars were enough to bring everyone back outside.
Curiosity was going to kill a lot of people.
The infected had noticed too.
A distant scream rose between the buildings.
Then another.
I picked up the pace.
"Hana. Stay close."
She did. We moved north with the sirens growing behind us.