After Tom and Tirdad left, it was time to give a detailed rundown of our adventures in Cotton Acres. Colonel Zwerinski was patient and precise as he asked questions, trying to draw out every detail of our experiences. Eventually, though, his questions stopped. He flipped back and forth in a notebook he’d been writing in, a frown growing.

At my side, Micah was quiet, his eyes wide, though he’d grabbed onto my arm when he’d heard about the people attacked and killed by the Dragons, and his grip had grown tight enough to be painful when we’d gone over our interaction and attack on our stealthy pursuer.

The colonel slammed his notebook closed, the pages slapping together with an audible clap. “Damnit!” After a moment, his eyes trailed over Micah and Anju. “Apologies for the language.”

“Of all the things we’ve said tonight, that’s probably the one I’m least worried about him hearing,” I said.

The colonel nodded, absently. “I’ve made contact with twenty retired members of the armed forces in our neighborhood, but only two aside from myself had a second ability, as of yesterday. In addition, there are four personnel in active service. Of those, two have three abilities, one has two, and the last has only her starting ability. It’s not enough.”

I drew Micah closer to me.

“You want to go fight them? The Dragons?” George asked in that too-calm voice you use when you’re talking to someone you’re worried is out of their mind.

Colonel Zwerinski had been staring off into space, eyes twitching as he considered logistics. George’s words distracted him, and he looked right at Priya’s husband as he responded. “I served in the military for near on three decades. Went all over, during that time. I’d been thinking of this like a possible Somalia - widespread starvation, desperate people doing desperate things. That’s what I wanted to prevent. Hearing about these Dragons… I’ve got to think more like Lebanon. Hezbollah. We’ve got too many vulnerable to truly protect them all, and if these… terrorists… run rampant, we’re going to... No. Not going to have losses. We've already lost people. They’ve killed people in their neighborhood. American citizens have died in their own homes.”

It was a weighty realization for him, and he paused for a second before sighing and continuing, hand flexing into a fist. “You can’t truly defend against terrorism even in the best of circumstances. You can make it harder. You can stop specific incidents. But reactivity is a losing battle. If we want them to stop, we need to stop them at the source. And, well… we can’t. Attacking a strong group with fewer, weaker people… I don’t have to tell you it’s a bad plan. With the resources at my disposal, I’m having difficulties even formulating a viable defensive strategy. Nearly a third of our people are under the age of 15. More than a quarter are over 65. While I’m proof enough that age alone isn’t a barrier, almost all of our elderly have few Points, and many are infirm enough that joining the combat groups isn’t an option.”

“Worse than that…” He flipped through his notebook.

His wife pulled a page from the stack on her lap and offered it to him. “Looking for this, Dane?”

He grabbed it from her and skimmed it. “Thanks, Tammy. Right. So, that leaves about 40% of our people. Looking just at those, just under a quarter are under age 18, and about half of the rest are sole caregivers to children and elderly. Realistically speaking, if we’re looking for defenders, we’re looking at maybe 150 people right now.”

“And that would include people like George and I,” Priya said quietly.

“Well, one or the other. But yes, families lucky enough to have both parents at home make up a lot of that 150.”

“And a lot of the rest won’t be leaping to help. Tori’s in that demographic. Not having responsibilities doesn't necessarily correlate with being excited to take some on.” I’d met a lot of people so far who would qualify as potential defenders under the colonel's metrics - Dog Guy Scott, Mason, Carlos, Tori - and for a second it seemed odd to me, that they should make up such a slender portion of our neighbors but such a large proportion of the people I'd met. It did make sense, though. A lot of the people the colonel was talking about were still hiding inside, and those of us with more responsibilities and poorer health would be overrepresented among them. The people I’d met so far were mostly those in better situations, more able to face the trials the aliens had thrown at us.

“Indeed. Even if all 150 were willing to help full-time though, we couldn’t defend this neighborhood as it is now.”

“What do you mean?” Alexandra asked.

The colonel waved a hand toward the kitchen, where the map-in-progress blanketed one wall of the breakfast nook. “It’s too big! There are other problems as well. Roads aren’t all straight, lines of sight are frequently poor, we’ve got few high vantage points, but at the end of the day, it’s just far too big for such a small force to defend without technology and transport. I think we’re going to have to look at trying to consolidate people. I’d wanted another transport specialist tomorrow, but I think we need to look at raising some sort of fort or barracks instead.”

Tamara walked to the other room and picked up another notebook, running a finger down the page. “Hm… Looks like we have a retired architect near the top of our list of Points Siphon candidates. She’d be a good bet.”

“Why do we need a fort?” Anju asked. She sounded scared. Both she and Micah looked shaken by what we’d let them listen in on. “Do you think the Dragons are going to fight us?”

Colonel Zwerinski paused, looking at Anju and Micah. He seemed to hesitate.

“Go ahead. I mean, correct me if I’m wrong," I glanced at Priya and George for confirmation, "But they’re here because they need to take things more seriously. If that means learning some scary truths, so be it.”

Priya nodded. Of the three of us, George seemed the most hesitant to let his daughter face reality. He neither agreed nor argued, just sliding an arm around his Anju to pull her closer.

“Alright.” The colonel’s voice was rough as he spoke, and he cleared his throat before continuing. “Alright. So, these monsters we’ve fought, they’ve seemed to follow rules. They appear and attack in predictable fashion. We’ve seen some evidence of teamwork amongst the Bladetails, but their attacks are otherwise uncoordinated, and even the Bladetails seem limited. The monsters attack people directly, and buildings and structures only when they directly bar the monster from reaching a person. Native animals, like dogs, will be attacked only if they attack the monsters first."

“People are different. Human beings are limited only by what is possible and their own moral compass. The aliens’ system has drastically increased what is possible, and the intelligence we have about these Dragons is… not encouraging. They have killed on multiple occasions, and have threatened to continue killing. They view the weaker among us not as community members to be protected, but as liabilities living on borrowed time. They believe that the end of this calamity will come not from cooperation and success, but from failure. They believe that protecting weaker members simply delays that failure and prolongs everyone’s suffering.”

He’d been pacing as he spoke, but he stopped now, shaking his head. “It is a reprehensible, but not wholly illogical, viewpoint. It leaves me with an unpalatably large list of options when I attempt to determine their next actions. It’s possible that if we show ourselves to be a strong opponent that they will simply withdraw, rather than tangle with us, but there are other options. We know they have a stealth asset, and we don’t know how resilient the Shop is. We have no true way to test without risking damaging it ourselves. Attack or sabotage are options, and it is impossible to overstate the value of the Shop as a strategic asset. It must be protected at all costs. Raising stone walls around it would protect it from every long-distance attack I’ve seen so far, making it feasible to guard it with a small number of defenders.

“Beyond that, raising a fortress would allow us to create safe places to sleep for at least some of our number.”

Alexandra frowned, “Some? Not all?”

“Not initially, I imagine. Getting the Shop protected is our top priority, then we’ll make as many safe bunkers as we can. I figure we can charge contribution points for the privilege of using them.”

Cold… but reasonable, I had to admit. Safe shelter wasn’t like food - people wouldn’t necessarily die without it - and it wasn’t like we would have enough to go around anyway. It would also likely end the eye-rolls a lot of people had about “contribution points” for helping out. They’d been useless up to this point, with no guarantee they’d ever be useful, but that was about to change.

“There are probably a lot of people who’d help out with guard or sentry duty in exchange for a safe spot to sleep,” I said.

Colonel Zwerinski cracked a small smile. “I would be lyin’ if I said that did not occur to me.”

“It’ll be early afternoon before the Points Siphon is available again,” Tamara said. “We should get our candidate here early so they can make plans and have ample time to consult Pointy’s ability database.”

The colonel sighed. “I’ll make an Announcement about our change of plans.”

“Great. More complainers here tomorrow, then. Meghan, George, one of you gets to help Tammy. My fingers aren’t very squishy anymore. It makes holding a pen a pain in the butt.” Priya held up her hand and clicked her scale-covered fingertips together audibly.

“Won’t some of us be gone tomorrow?” George asked.

Priya shook her head. “No. There are lots more people who want to go out on Points-gathering expeditions than there are slots available. We won’t get a slot tomorrow or the next day. Maybe the day after, depending.”

That was fine by me. I was in no hurry to leave the neighborhood again. Actually… “Are we sure we want to keep sending groups out, after what happened today?”

Colonel Zwerinski nodded, back straight. He could be casual, sometimes, but in discussions like these his military background shone through clearly in his posture and attitude. “Absolutely. These Dragons were an unexpected surprise, but we’d be in more danger if we didn’t know about them. Getting the lay of the land is vital. There may be other threats we need to prepare for, and I am certain there are potential allies out there. Getting to them now, before their situations become desperate, is critical.”

That… made sense. In the early days of this apocalypse, I’d thought that building a community of people prepared to face this new world would give my kids the best chance at survival. I still believed that. The sight of a few hundred hungry people from Royal Woods arriving on my street had been intimidating, and they hadn’t been hostile. Better to go to those around us now, before they arrived at our doorstep as an angry and starving mob. The longer we waited to make contact, the more likely we were to find people who’d done hard and ugly things to survive. Still… “We’ll need to warn the people going out. I’m sure we’ll still have takers, but some won’t want to risk it. And each group should take a full six people and a healer. We weren’t prepared enough.”

Priya groaned. “Ughh.”

I blinked at her. “You disagree?”

She waved a hand at me. “No, no. You’re right. We’re going to have to contact them and re-do everything. It was just so much work getting the groups organized in the first place.”

“I can take over,” George said. “Tammy, can you get me the paperwork?”

“I’ll come too. If you show me the lists, I can try to get in touch with people from tomorrow’s groups,” the colonel offered.

Tamara, George, and Colonel Zwerinski left the room to work, and Alexandra and Sofia withdrew to their room. That left Priya and me with our oldest kids.

Micah shifted, trying to get a look at my face. He met my eyes and flinched at my serious expression.

Anju was the first to speak. “Ms. Meghan, are there really people that look like Mom killing people?”

“There really are.”

Anju bit her lower lip, thinking for a moment. Then she shook her head. “Well... damn them!”

“Anju! Language!”

“I don’t care, Mom! People are already treating you bad, and if they think you’re like these Dragons, they are going to be even meaner! That’s not fair.”

Priya’s eyes softened. “It’s just the way it is, sweetheart. The world isn’t fair.”

“We should get you a uniform or something, so people know you’re on our side and not part of those evil people.”

I raised my eyebrows. “That’s… actually not a bad idea, Anju. There are getting to be a lot of people around; it would be good to know who was a stranger on sight. I think we’re getting away from the point though. Why did the two of you go outside alone? You know better!”

Micah buried his face against my side. “I didn’t like that you made me stay home. I thought if you saw that we went outside and we were okay…”

I sighed. “That’s not how this works. Keeping adults with you is more like… wearing a seatbelt. Most of the time, you’d be fine riding in a car without a seatbelt, but if we got in a car accident you might just die. And you don’t know when you’re going to get in a car accident, so you need to wear one all the time. I’ve seen the two of you fight. I know you’re strong. I know you could probably handle most normal situations just fine.”

“But you’re worried about the weird situations?”

“I’m worried about the weird situations,” I confirmed. “And this… sneakiness? Trying to do things you know we don’t want you to do? It makes it hard to trust you.”

“You don’t let us fight by ourselves even when you’re with us,” Anju argued. “You and Mom and sometimes Dad do the killing. The rest of us just help.”

Another good point for Anju.

Priya met my eyes. “Maybe we can let the kids try to fight monsters by themselves while we’re with them. We can intervene if they get in trouble, but it’s probably a good idea for them to learn to fight without our support, in case…”

She trailed off. In case. Yes.

I thought for a moment, then nodded. “I’m not sure when we’ll get a chance to do that, though.”

Priya looked thoughtful. “The neighborhoods can’t all be full of Dragons. We’ll probably finish scouting out places nearby tomorrow. If we find a place that’s a little safer, I’m willing to wait a few days to get a trip out there and teach the kids. Or, we could just get up early and head out for a walk north, into those cotton fields. It sounded like there were a number of monsters there.”

“We could probably get in an hour or two before the sun got too hot… but that still leaves these kids’ poor judgment to deal with.”

“I didn’t know people were dying,” Micah said quietly. “I didn’t know there were bad people… I thought there were just bad monsters. I’m not going to do it again.”

“I hope not.” I sighed. “Still need to punish you… I’m thinking ration bars only for breakfast and lunch. Maybe dinner too. We’ll see how your attitude is tomorrow.”

“I like that!” Priya said. “Same for you, young lady.”

Micah flinched. “Ugh! Really?”

I hugged him. “You’re getting off light, buddy. I’m low on good punishment options, but what you did was really bad. You could have died.”

“I don’t think I could have died,” he muttered.

“Well, you’re wrong,” I told him frankly. “I don’t want to give you nightmares going down all the possibilities right before bed, but we can talk more tomorrow if you still feel that way. I need you to take this seriously.”

Micah pushed himself to his feet, shooting me a glum expression as he started moving up toward bed. Anju followed him, her face a war between anxiety and anger.

Priya sighed as we stood to follow them. “I’m not sure we got through.”

“Me either.” I rubbed my eyes. “I’m beat, though. Maybe we can figure out better options in the morning.”