In the end, it turned out that the souls only persisted for about fifteen minutes after death before they began losing consistency and fray at the edges. Another five minutes later, and they completely dissolved into the surroundings. It was a long and yet short time frame.

Most notably, it was so short that Alice could no longer dodge the work. Sure, as the only one capable of seeing souls, she could just keep sitting there and act like she was busy. But not only would it make her feel guilty about letting the elderly do all the work, but it would also be very, very boring.

Even with souls to look at and trying to figure out more about them, it hadn't exactly been the most exciting job. Without any souls, though? She would just be staring into empty air, with nothing to accompany but her own thoughts. And as laden with stress, fear, and general existential dread they were at the moment, they weren't exactly the best company.

So, in the end, she had to help carry corpses. As many as there were, they luckily didn't have to carry them over a long way. Basically, all they did was throwing them into the forest, only keeping the parking lot free.

Of course, they didn't do that with all of them. One group began walking around, pointing at several of the creatures that then got brought inside the building. Alice later found out that those were the butcher and cooks who were planning to turn the monsters into their breakfast. And since they didn't have freezers, the rest would be turned into beef jerky, the backup generator being sufficient for that much at least.

It was impressive. Not even twenty-four hours since the coming of the apocalypse had passed, and there were people already preparing for the winter half a year later. Sure, Alice adapted quickly to the situation, but that kind of foresight required a particular type of skill-set that she definitely doesn’t have.

Sooner than Alice had expected, they got done with the cleanup. After which, they then got called to the cafeteria. Everyone had to come, only excluding a few people who were on guard duty. Even with someone capable of predicting the future, there was no reason to take unnecessary risks.

In all probability, the cafeteria wasn't expected to accept a lot of visitors, considering how quickly it got crowded with just over seventy people, almost fifty of whom were elderly.

However, she quickly found out the reason when she was looking for a table where she could sit with Ava and her mother. One part of the room was blocked off, and instead, a small, improvised podium had been built there.

It was when everyone got more or less settled in their places that Michael stepped up to the podium and started clapping until he got everyone's attention. Only when the people had gone silent did he finally start talking, his voice a little hard to understand since he didn't have a microphone.

"I'm sure all of you are hungry, and our kitchen staff is already working on the food, but that still takes a moment. Until then, I would like to address a certain issue. To be specific, the issue of organization.

Most of you probably know that somehow the job of organizing security fell on me, and if you didn't, you do now. However, if we want to survive the current situation and not fall into total chaos in the process, we are going to need more than just security.

I and a few others decided that we needed to organize a leadership for that purpose and finally settled on a council consisting of five people. We think that any more than..."

He couldn't finish his sentence as suddenly a man stood up and interrupted him, "Who gave you the right to make that decision?!"

Heads turned towards the voice, Alice included. The speaker was a big man wearing a tank top, showing off his muscular and tattooed arms. He also had his head shaved. He could barely be any more stereotypical, Alice mused.

Alice was immediately corrected when a much smaller woman stood up next to him. A loud slapping sound rang through the room as her flat hand impacted the back of his head. The man immediately shrank back down, and silent arguing could be heard, mostly consisting of the woman chastising the man.

"Please continue," the woman finally said.

Michael nodded to her and did as told, "Please spare any more complaints and questions until the end. Thanks. Where was I... Right. Five people. We decided on five people since less seemed like not enough different groups would be represented, but any more would increase the time it takes us to make decisions. Considering the current situation, fast decision-making seemed to be vital. As such, we decided on a council made up of five people.

We also already decided on who those five people would be, and just in case you think this is some kind of elaborate scheme, two of those five don't know that they were chosen. You can ask them afterward.

Also, this is just a temporary solution. If the situation has sufficiently stabilized until then, we are going to reorganize the whole thing in exactly one week.

Now, the five leaders we have chosen are, first of all, myself in the position of head of security.

Secondly, I would like to ask Mister Brian Jackson to join me up here. He is the original owner of this facility and will be responsible for internal organization."

A thickly set man in a slightly disheveled-looking suit stepped up to the podium, "If you have any problems, need something, or have ideas or knowledge that can help us all, please come to me."

"The third person is someone most of you already know. Considering his abilities and the fact that he managed to give us a great advantage before this all even began, we decided that Albert Galdera should also be part of the leadership. Although, since he is still young, we decided that his grandfather would help him in that regard.

In addition to that, he will be in charge of intelligence regarding the system, magic, monsters, and pretty much everything related to it. If you find anything that seems even remotely magical, even if it seems unimportant, tell him. We know next to nothing about the current circumstances we are finding ourselves in, and his Class and Skills are specifically geared towards gathering and processing information."

Some people started murmuring, but Michael quickly talked over them, causing them to become silent again, "The fourth person we decided on is Grandpa Fred. He is currently overseeing our armory and will represent the interests of the elderly in the council. In addition, he held the highest military position and has ample experience in a lot of fields."

"Can't stuff like that be left to ya youngsters? Why bother us old folks?" the man grumbled, easily recognizable thanks to his cap.

"Please. We need all the help we can get."

"Fine, fine," the old man agreed, still grumbling, however.

"Lastly, we would like for miss Margaret Liddell to join us. She was chosen to represent the... Visitors and external workforces," Michael managed to frame the word 'outsider' in the least offensive way possible.

Alice looked at her mother in surprise, who in turn was only confused: "W-why me?" was all she got out.

"No reason, really. We needed someone to do it and decided on you. That is all."

"Okay," she suddenly got a determined look on her face, "I don't think I'm very suited, but I will try my best to help out."

"Thanks. Now, the kitchen just signaled me that the food is ready, so let's get to eating before it gets cold! We still have a lot of juice in the backup generator, and there were a lot of ingredients we didn't want to waste, so for today, we will have one last feast!"

Some people cheered, but most didn't. Michael had probably thought he was bringing them good news. But for most people, Alice included, all it told them that food would get significantly worse in the future.

And that would probably only change once they had enough people and resources to waste them on something like growing spices. And that was still a long time away.

At least we won’t have a problem getting meat if the monsters keep attacking like this, Alice mused.

"You were fighting this morning, right?" Alice's mother asked between two bites.

"Hmm..." her answer was a noncommittal grunt. She didn't quite know what more she could say to that.

"Are you fine?"

"Yes," Alice was uncomfortable talking about this. She knew for a fact, she was absolutely not fine at all.

But she also knew, the moment she admitted that, she would lose. She had no grand aspiration of fighting against the apocalypse, god, the world, destiny, or whatever it was that had brought this onto them. No, she would lose against herself. She would get scared, hide in some dark room, and not come out until Golden Glades fell or the monsters were gone.

But she had things she needed to do. Help her best friend get revenge, as pointless as it might seem. She had to find her brother and bring him back home, or at least bring him to their new home. And then, she had to be strong enough to protect them. After that, she didn't know yet. Maybe they could try and get Ava's parents from Hawaii if they were still alive. After that, she would figure something out.

She had decided to act tough until either the lie became reality or she crumbled under the pressure.

"Are you sure you want to continue fighting? I'm sure we can find a different way to bring your brother back."

"I'm fine. I'm going to find him, and then we are all going to come back. You don't need to worry."

Looking into her mother's concerned eyes, she wavered for a moment. Her eyes stung, and pressure began to build up in her throat. She quickly suppressed the tears before they could show, but she knew her mother had noticed.

"I am your mother. I will always worry. I won't forgive you if you don't come back."

"It's okay. Worst case, I will die and come back as a zombie," Alice attempted to joke. “But I will come back, no matter what.”

"You can do that? Right, Ava told me about that already. And here I thought making plants grow with my thoughts was already weird."

They finished the rest of their meal in silence. Neither Alice nor her mother had anything more to add, and even Ava wasn't exactly in the mood to talk. Or she just failed to find a topic that wouldn't feel inappropriate. A task that was by no means easy, given the situation.

"I have to get back to work, and I'm sure you two will also be busy. You know? It's a little sad that the world had to end before I could start working my dream job. But then again, at least I can do what I always wanted now," Alice's mother stood up with a heave when the three of them were done eating.

"You wanted to be a plant whisperer?" Ava asked with a chuckle.

"No, just a normal gardener. But I'm sure if I got a skill to talk to plants, it would be quite fun."

Alice shuddered at the thought: "You could never go on a picnic again. And any information you could get from it would have gone through an endless game of telephone. there is no way the information survives intact."

"Isn't that the fun part about it?" her mother asked with a smile.

Alice shook her head. Now she knew who she inherited her superpowers from. She still had arguments against a Skill for talking with plants being fun, mainly because farming and gardening would turn into acts of mass slaughter and maiming of conscious creatures. Still, she didn't voice any of them.

Her mother was right. There was something she needed to do. Alice looked around while they brought their dishes back to the kitchen.

"What are you looking for?" Ava asked her.

Her friend's smaller frame meant she wouldn't be of much help in her search, but she had no reason not to tell her anyway: "Our newly appointed internal organizer."

"Over there," Ava pointed in a direction where Alice had already looked before. Only now, after looking a second time, she noticed the small group surrounding something.

"Turns out that trying to listen in on other people is a great way to increase my Hearing Stat."

Apparently, Ava hadn't talked when they were eating because she was otherwise preoccupied. She should have known that that was the case. It also turned out that having good hearing was more useful than being tall when trying to find someone in a crowd. Even more useful than being able to feel souls. Ten meters was a pretty big distance, but even if she had stood in the middle of the room, the corners would have been blind spots. And in the first place, she didn’t yet know what his soul felt like.

She was definitely going to give that Skill another level or two, sooner or later.

Having dealt with their plates, the two girls started to weave between the tables towards their target. Well, Ava did the weaving while Alice was either pushing or asking people to make space.

When they finally got there, the two girls found the poor mister Jackson besieged by a particularly ferocious group of elderly that apparently wanted to organize a game night. Alice had to agree that having some form of entertainment would become necessary one day. But she also agreed with their organizer that that day would not be today.

When the man finally noticed the two girls, he wasn't above using them as an excuse to get away from the discussion, albeit temporarily if Alice judged the looks correctly the group was giving him.

"Please don't tell me that you too are here because of the windows. You would be the twenty-first person to tell me that."

To be truthful, that had been what she wanted to talk about. Completely closing off the windows might be safer, but it left the rooms in absolute darkness. An inconvenience she had experienced herself not an hour earlier when she got woken up to join the defense.

She couldn’t believe it hadn't even been an hour since she was in a gunfight with a herd of dinosaurs, of all things.

However, there was also something else, now that she thought about it.

"Actually, since we have the know-how in this place, we were thinking of asking someone to give us some military training."

"Sorry, but I doubt our food reserves could support such intensive training," the man immediately declined her.

"No, no. I'm not talking about physical training. We can just increase our stats after all. I mean techniques. Hand-to-hand combat and how to crawl correctly. That kind of stuff."

"So low-intensity training, but you are going to need space and maybe equipment, right? I will have to talk with Fred and Michael about the viability of that first. You can probably expect some kind of announcement on that tomorrow. I will get going then," the man quickly left, looking over his shoulder to check if the game night group was going to follow him. They were.

"What now?" Alice asked the question just as much herself as she did Ava.

"I would say we are a part of security, right? Then, shouldn't we check in with Sergeant?"

"I'm pretty sure it's Captain. Or Michael. But yes, we probably should ask if he needs us for something."

Michael was much easier to find. Remembering souls was much easier than remembering faces, and Alice had spotted his already on their way over.

"Can we help you somehow, General?" Ava asked the moment they stood in front of the man.

"Please, just make it stop," Michael groaned at Ava's antics.

"Sir, yes, sir!" Ava saluted him.

"First, a real captain would make you run a few times around the compound for such a sloppy salute. Second, Alice, can you hit your friend for me? If you do it, it shouldn't count as violence against subordinates."

"Sure can," Alice agreed, opting, however, to poking the cheeky redhead in the sides, eliciting a shriek from her. Ava was surprisingly sensitive.

"Also, yes, I was actually going to look for you later. We were planning to send out a group to scout out the shopping center, and I wanted to ask you to help with that since you two have the most experience surviving out there."

Alice looked at Ava for a moment before she nodded: "Sure, we can help with that. But we only got as far as we did as fast as we did because of our bikes."

"Don't worry, we have two more bicycles here, and Uncle James is also going with you."

"Uncle James?" If that was supposed to tell her something, it didn't.

"His Class is Scooter Rider. He can easily recharge and strengthen those things to a ridiculous degree. Most of all, he can carry a lot of resources."

"Like, one of those electric Scooters? Well, I guess it's still better than a Garfield rider."

"Garfield rider? What's that supposed to be?" Michael couldn't help but ask.

"No idea, but I was offered that Class. When do we go?"

"You can go as soon as everyone is gathered. Oh, right! Your bikes looked still pretty new. Did you get them from a bike shop after it started?"

Alice was happy that he didn't say 'steal', because even if it didn't matter, it still made her feel a little guilty.

"Sure, Major, EEEK!"

Interrupted via side-poking, Alice continued in Ava's stead, "Yes, we did. Why?"

"Could you make a stop at that place as well?"

"Mmmmmaybe."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Well, there is a dragon."

"Seriously?"

"Sadly."