“Maryanne, can you pass the ketchup?” A man, not much younger than herself, asked with a smile. She had known him for a few months now – Alex was his name – and she was fairly certain he was interested in her. She shuddered. Romantically interested in her.

Either way, she muttered the condiment’s true name – tomato sauce – under her breath and fished it out of one of the packs laid nearby them. It was just one thing among many in there: preservables, salts, seasonings. Really, anything that wouldn’t expire and could be eaten or used was jammed into the bag.

The one beside it was filled with an assortment of gathered weaponry, and even if they were slowly becoming more and more ineffective as the average level of monsters rose, it was still a comforting presence. Unfortunately, both bags looked identical, and she had learned the hard way that that didn’t apply to what was inside.

“Here.” She leaned over the table and deposited the faded red bottle right in front of Alex’s plate. Most didn’t even look up, too enamoured in today’s meal, but a few called out to get the sauce next.

She for one, would abstain from such a taint on her food. She would never ruin the spicy perfection of tacos with something as simple a tomato sauce. Instead, she yanked out a jar of salsa – albeit an expired one – from the bag and poured some over her dinner. Their Constitution voided most expiries anyway and expiry was mainly just a ‘check if its mouldy’ thing now.

She lifted the food up to her mouth and took a bite. It was incredible.

Emma, her closest friend among the bunch, as well as probably the closest friend she’d had in years, jabbed her in the side with her elbow, her considerable Strength enough to threaten to make Maryanne puke, “Keep eating like that and you’ll get big, Mary.”

Mary didn’t reply, only throw her an unimpressed glare. The woman knew she was worried about her weight, even if the System now made weight gain seemingly impossible. Emma shrugged like she hadn’t been the one who said it and got back into her taco with relish. Honestly, the woman was looking far healthier than she had been when they’d met.

While she hadn’t been overweight perse, she had certainly been a bit chubby before. Maryanne thought it was fine, and even that it gave the woman a certain charm, but slowly she had slimmed down, and revealed lean muscle, among some still stubborn chub. Maryanne herself was becoming more toned too, but as her Ascendancy specced mostly into Dexterity and Intelligence, it wasn’t as considerable.

The two of them had been through thick and thin together, and just because of that, Maryanne felt certain that she had gained a lifelong friend. All that time ago, when they had been forced to confront that horde of small aquatic beasts – Bottom Feeders, if she remembered correctly – that was when their friendship had really blossomed.

Despite that, there was no way in hell that two unarmed middle-aged women like themselves were going to beat dozens of those horrid creatures in a fight. Even then, Emma would have probably been the only one fighting, as Mary had been frozen stiff with fear. Commonly, she used humour and banter to avoid her emotions, though that time, it seemed it wasn’t enough to overcome the fear of death.

Months later, she had no idea if any of her children were still alive, but she couldn’t help but think that her oldest son, Brock, was much like her in that regard. His chattiness in the worst of times was part of the reason that that ‘Jordan’ kid bullied him so much in high school, the little shit.

A small name calling always became worse because Brock just kept talking.

As for why they were sitting here, happily eating amongst the others, and not dead on the beach being torn to pieces, it was simply due to the priorly mentioned ‘others’. They had originally been a group of four, Alex, Thomas, Carla and Cheyanne. None were particularly powerful people in their respective Tutorials, nor did they have any real combat experience.

All they had in common was that they had been transported to the same place, and that they all possessed an admirable bravery. At the time, it had all been a blur as the two women ran for their lives, one screaming bloody murder and one cursing. Maryanne could happily say she wasn’t the one who had been screaming.

And then, as the monsters were beginning to catch up, that group of four had arrived in their time of need.

They had no weapons, yet they armed themselves with shipwreck and fought back to protect them. The four of them hadn’t exactly won the battle, or killed anything at the time, but they put up enough of a resistance that the creatures decided to retreat back into the water and give up.

It wasn’t until later that night, as they joined together and built a campfire far away from the shoreline, that Maryanne realised the only reason they were still alive was Emma’s raving screams. Apparently, they had heard it echoing through the area and come running.

They had said to have ended up on the plains connected to the beach when the Tutorial ended, and it wasn’t until Carla saw the beach that she had recognised exactly where they were. Mexico. She had admitted she wasn’t a local, but she had been to the country on vacation with her ex-husband a few times and knew the beach vistas quite intimately.

Maryanne did think the woman was a bit young to have had a husband, being twenty-six, but she didn’t voice it, as she knew it was only because she’d gotten married around the same age as her. Needless to say, her marriage had been a disaster. Nonetheless, people were free to live their lives, and she even had friends who were still married to the people they married right after high school.

Well, she used to. She wasn’t sure if they were still alive anymore.

The rest after that fated meeting was relatively straightforward. They slept through the night next to the campfire, then began a trek through the plains and to what they hoped was any remnants of civilisation. They had kept the shipwreck, just in case, and it had turned out to be a good decision, as the old wood was the only reason they weren’t killed by a herd of small, multi-tailed boars.

A few more people had been picked up along the way, growing their group to sizeable proportions, and while the two women and some of the others called out for the friends and family that had been with them before the Tutorial’s end, it proved futile. Even months later, Mary could still see how much Emma worried for her boy daily.

She too felt a ceaseless seed of dread nestled in her gut every time she thought about her children.

The boars had been enough to feed the group for a long while, before they started to become a sparse sight. Emma’s ability to change ‘states of matter’ was extremely useful in starting the fire every night, though Thomas, who was a camping enthusiast, had been quite disappointed he couldn’t display his skills in the field of fire-starting.

Then, as they were hungry and desperate, they stumbled upon that which they had been looking for; civilisation. It had come two weeks late in their search, but it was there, and it saved them. The place already had an existing population, not too much larger than a few tens of thousands, or so she’d heard, but it was safety. Undeniable safety.

Contrary to what they had expected, however, the city wasn’t built on the skeleton of the old world, nor was it just repurposed. The sizeable city of ‘Plainsward’ was built from the ground up by a group of people with the ability to manipulate flora. Stationed on a seemingly endless stretch of plains, Mary had to admit the unique wooden architecture mixed in with leaves and flowers was quite the stunning sight.

Apparently, they had even set up a farmstead not too far from the place, where they reared a group of boars and feral cattle. The resulting milk tasted a tad bit weird compared to what she was used to, but it was a welcome addition, nonetheless.

The city had limited items from the old world, mainly letting people keep whatever they found during their travels, and among broken towns and run-down buildings, Maryanne and the group had collected quite a lot. More than anything though, after all the fear and trekking and nights under the stars, she was content with finally being safe.

In the months they had lived here, never once had the city truly been attacked by beasts. One time, a rogue boar had wandered over and raged in the town, though it was quickly put down by Carla, who had cemented herself as the leader of their group. Unfortunately, two people had been gored by the monster’s dangerously sharp tusks, and one died several hours later.

Occasionally, they ventured out as a group and collected supplies they found or increased their levels, though they were smaller now since they arrived in the city. Quite a few members had migrated into the city proper, content to live their days in laziness and blissful ignorance. It was back down to the original four, Mary and Emma, and another guy named Drake.

Everyone that had chosen to stay had someone they wanted to find and knew that they needed the power to do so.

But back to the topic, those ventures were why they were eating tacos right now. They had found a rundown restaurant, though thankfully the freezer was still working, albeit on its final legs, and they had stolen a lion’s share of frozen minced meats.

Mary sighed in contentment. Life was easy, it was simple. Her level was relatively high compared to those in the group, sitting at around 30, and she had even managed to get an epic graded Shard of Awakening like everyone else had. Unfortunately, she wasn’t willing to settle for this.

Her children might still be out there. Maybe they were thriving, or maybe they were cowering in fear, scared for their lives, hoping she would be there to care for them as she always had before.

She couldn’t sit by without doing anything to find them. The others knew, and much to her surprise, they supported her, and were willing to see her through as they pursued their own searches. They all had people they craved to find, and they all had become restless with their sedentary lifestyle. That was why today was such a feast.

Seasonings, condiments; the lot. They were bringing it all out and enjoying their final meal under the comforting umbrella of safety, for tomorrow, they set out once more. Carla had mentioned that the entire stretch of plains – which was utterly massive – was new, and decidedly not a part of Mexico before the System, so they were well prepared for a vastly altered landscape.

Maryanne let out a small smile as she gulped down another bite, and she met her friend’s eyes. Emma smiled back, and instantly prepared herself another taco, despite earlier comments about Mary getting fat. The mother of three laughed and finished her own. It would be quite the journey, treacherous and deadly, but no journey was too long nor too dangerous for her family.

Because for them, she would give everything and more.