Over the years, the standards of military strength have changed drastically. Historically, the most important Number for any prospective recruit has been strength, followed closely by dexterity. Beyond those two, all other Numbers had largely been regarded as useless. The famous general McAllen is quoted as saying, “The ideal foot soldier has the strength of a bull, the speed of a cheetah, and just enough intelligence to reload a gun. Any more and you’ll have to make them an officer, and they’ll become just as useless.”

- Excerpt from ‘Numbers of War: A Historical Look,’ by Chang

As I continue to watch the Number on my palm get smaller and smaller, I begin to question my earlier logic. Even as I can feel my thoughts changing, become more solid, I still doubt my resolution, and my stuttering finger just above my scar pauses.

But only for a second.

My increase in wisdom and depth of thinking only reinforces my previous resolution. This is no guarantee that my decision is correct -- after all, I’ve made more terrible choices than I can count in my life and my wisdom Number is barely higher than it had been before this whole catastrophe started.

No, a higher wisdom Number won’t guarantee that my future decisions are correct. But it will make my decisions better -- or at least more thoroughly thought out.

And that is exactly what we need right now. For some reason I still can’t comprehend, these people have decided to follow my leadership, have obeyed the choices that I’ve made -- those choices made carefully and those choices made with barely a second’s thought. And a single decision in the future can save or lose our lives. I can’t afford to make any decision without my fullest capability.

Sure, the other Numbers are useful. Essential, even. I would never have gotten this far without the increases to Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma that I made. They can help me to overpower a monster, outrun a monster, react to a monster ambush, and heal from the last monster attack.

But wisdom. Wisdom is what will let me avoid the monster encounters entirely. It will be what ensures that we are prepared when we inevitably DO have to face the monsters.

These thoughts flash through my mind as I tap out the last few times on my arm, bringing my wisdom total to over two hundred. I have a momentary feeling of vertigo as I look at the huge Number -- my wisdom had already been higher than average for my age with my old Numbers, and my current Number is higher than that of the majority of thirty year olds.

My friends are still looking at me, and I finally clear my throat and begin to speak. “We’ve been...or at least I’ve been treating this as all temporary.” I gesture to the surrounding world, indicating what I’m referring to. “All the monsters, losing the Numbers, the cabin burning down...our classmates’ deaths. I’ve been thinking that as long as we can find other people, other adults, we’ll be fine. Everything will go back to some semblance of normal. And I’ve been acting and choosing as if that were true.”

I pause, gathering my courage. “But I don’t think that’s true. This isn’t some isolated incident just our class faced, in this one random corner of the woods. If it were, we would have been rescued days ago. But we haven’t seen ANYONE. And now, we can see this entire town is...gone.”

Styx sniffs loudly, and I can see tear tracks running down her and Melete’s face. Even Pallas’ eyes look watery. “Even if I’m wrong, and rescue workers are going to pop out of the bushes in five seconds, we can’t treat it that way.” I stop and look to the surrounding bushes, part of me waiting for the universe to prove me wrong, but before five seconds pass I force myself to continue. “We have to treat this as if it’s the end. Of the world.” I make eye contact with Melete, and say, “As if it’s the apocalypse, and we’re all on our own.”

Despite her continual doomsday statements for the last week, Melete looks crushed to hear someone else saying the same thing. But we can no longer allow ourselves to be blinded by naive hope.

“...so what exactly does that mean?” Styx finally asks.

I think before answering. “I’m not completely sure yet. First of all, we need to allocate all of our unspent Numbers. There’s no point in saving them for later when there may not even be a later unless we’re at our very peak.” As I talk, I grow more confident of my statement and speak faster. “Do you have any un-allocated Numbers?”

Despite our close proximity to each other, I’ve made it a habit to not examine the left arms of our classmates -- for Styx, with her armband constantly covering her Numbers, this would have been impossible anyway, but for Pallas and Melete I’ve had enough chances when they rolled up their sleeves throughout the days. But with so much angst tied together with the constant comparison over the last school year, I’ve gotten into the habit of simply ignoring others’ Numbers whenever possible.

The three of them roll up their sleeves and display their arms for us all to see. Pallas has one hundred forty on his palm, but Styx and Melete have allocated all of theirs into the rest of their Numbers and have a zero on the palm.

“After that last fight, I...really don’t want to be too slow again,” Styx explains. Her dexterity sits at one hundred seventy, with each of her other Numbers sitting at around seventy. “Before we beat that troll, everything was about equal, but I put almost everything into dexterity afterwards. I was fairly fast before...I don’t like being slow now.”

“Most of mine went to charisma. Well that and strength.” Melete interjects. Her strength is at an even one hundred, with her charisma at two hundred. Each of her other Numbers is abysmally low, none higher than fifty. I raise an eyebrow, silently asking her to explain her decisions. “I’ve never been strong before. I thought it might be cool.” Melete shrugs, clearly unapologetic about her whimsical choice. “As for charisma…” Melete seems to struggle for words, and for the first time away from a catastrophe, she seems to lose her confident facade. “...it just felt like what my skill wanted. Ya know?”

No, I really don’t know. What her Skill wanted? I shake my head in response to her statement. I’ll definitely have to talk to her more about that later. But for now, I turn to Pallas.

“...I don’t really know how I want to allocate them,” he mutters. His Numbers each sit within one to two of sixty. He’s clearly spent some of his free Numbers, but none focused on any attribute in particular.

Pallas seems to shrink in on himself as we stare at him, seemingly ashamed at being the only one left with a large amount of unspent Numbers.

“That’s not too bad!” I exclaim, hoping to bring back some of Pallas’ confidence. “Our Numbers are a lot lower than they were before this all happened, but they should improve over time. But for now, we need to remember we aren’t as capable as we were...at least individually.”

“Power in variation.” Styx interrupts, quoting the motto of our country’s elite military marine branch.

“Exactly. We can choose how our Numbers grow. If we are careful to work together in how we invest our free Numbers, we can have at least one of us always prepared for whatever obstacle we face. Styx is faster than any of us -- she probably could outrun that troll easily now, which would let her lead it on a merry chase while the rest of us sneak off. And the rest of us each have our own strengths.” I don’t think it will be quite as easy as I make it sound if we are to face another troll monster soon, but I don’t want to panic Styx.

I am only half successful as Styx cringes, clearly regretting her indirect volunteering to be the distraction in any future encounters. But then her expression hardens and she nods resolutely, accepting her responsibility.

“Oooh, and I have the highest charisma! Which means I can be the one who talks to other monsters and people when we see them.”

In the silence that follows her statement, I imagine I could hear a pin drop. Finally, I look away from Melete’s pleased expression and say, “Yeaaaaaahhhh.” I decide to completely gloss over her assumptions, and continue.

“We can’t leave any of our other Numbers too low though. We’ll all need at least some of each Number -- just that I think it’s best for us each to focus on a Number.” I look to Pallas, “So what do you want to focus on?”

Pallas stares at his hands. He clenches them into fists, clearly thinking through his decision, before he eventually responds, “I think...we need strength. Styx has speed covered, you have our decisions, and Melete can do more than any of us with her skill. But we need someone who can stand strong. Who can hold off and fight the monsters when everything else fails.” He hesitates, and his mouth morphs into a grimace, “And it’s always been my highest Number anyways.”

Looking at the way the muscles in his forearm bulge as he squeezes his fists, I don’t doubt his last statement at all. “Yeah, that’s definitely still our major weak point, in my opinion.”

Styx cuts me off before I am able to go on. “Are you sure that’s what you want to do? I mean, it will help us, but It is your choice in the end, after all. Don’t let Atlas force you into anything.”

I give her a little glare. Since when did I try to coerce Pallas in any way?

But Pallas is already nodding his head. “No, it’s a good choice, and it’s what I want.” With only minimal hesitation, he starts to tap out above his strength Number. But before he can get more than a few taps off, I yell out.

“Wait!” He pauses and everyone looks at me, his finger just above the small arrow on his arm. “This is the perfect opportunity for some testing...I mean, I’m not sure we’ll get another chance, and strength really is the only Number we can measure with what we’ve got now. Before you increase it...can you test to see how many pushups you can do?”

All three of them look at me like I’m insane before Styx questions, “Umm...are you sure this is a good time for this. Right now?”

I shrug in response. “I mean, it obviously isn’t optimal, but it may be our only chance with this big of a change in a Number.” I try to convey as much earnestness as I can as I look at the three of them. “And this could be important. Obviously, the Numbers have changed from what they were. But we don’t know what all has changed, aside from them being reset. Any chance we can take to learn more, as long as it doesn’t put us in too much danger, I think we should take.”

Styx still looks doubtful, but Pallas seems to accept my explanation without issue and drops to his hands to start pumping out pushups, his form perfect.

I turn to Styx and Melete. “Uhh...for the science...we probably should all test it out too.”

I see them both glare at me out of the corner of my eye as I turn to peek through the bushes at the edge of our grove to ensure we’re still safe. But after I come back and drop to the ground to start my own pushups, they hesitantly join me in the unwanted exercise.

After a few seconds, the only sound is the controlled breathing and occasional grunt of effort. None of our forms are quite as nice as Pallas’, but having gone to CNA we all know how to do pushups without resorting to super arched backs or going to our knees.

Pallas finishes his reps first, having started a good minute before the rest of us. But after he stops Styx manages only a single extra pushup before collapsing as well, as if the only thing keeping her going was the dedication to not collapse first.

Melete gets stuck halfway up before she finally stops. I manage to crank out another ten pushups, my arms shaking crazily, before I drop to the ground as well.

“Thirty-two,” I gasp out.

“Twenty-five,” Melete says.

“Twenty-three,” Styx adds.

“Forty-eight,” Pallas contributes. He doesn’t even look tired, and is sitting reservedly. A sharp contrast to the way the rest of us are splayed out on the ground.

For a minute we just lay there, catching our breath, before Styx asks, “What just happened? I mean I know Numbers aren’t an infallible way to determine the result, I’ll be the first to campaign for that, but shouldn’t the pushups be at least a bit more related to our Numbers than that?”

I'm not even that surprised when they all turn to me, waiting for an answer.

"I…have some ideas. They're just ideas though. I want to wait to see how many Pallas can do after he increases his strength Number first before I say anything. In the meantime…dinner?"

Styx grumbles at my reticence, but I can see her thinking of her own theory to explain the discrepancies. Almost every student at CNA is extremely competitive, and the fact that I may have figured out a crucial clue from the same amount of data is clearly irritating her.

Pallas and Melete surprisingly appear completely unbothered by having to wait to hear my theory. Although from the way Melete seems to be savoring the last of her share of the beef jerky, it could just be that they are hungry.

My stomach rumbles, and I decide my share of the jerky needs some attention as well.

About an hour has passed, and we're all gathered in a circle around Pallas as he performs a second set of pushups. His strength Number is now at two hundred and two -- coincidentally exactly the same as my current wisdom Number. It's still a lot less than the two hundred and seventy his strength Number was at prior to this weekend, ridiculously high for his age.

"Thirty-three, thirty four, thirty-five…" We count out his pushups in unison, encouraging him at a low volume to keep going. Hopefully our cheering him on won't affect the outcome too much, but it's impossible to watch him push himself to his strength limits without getting just a little excited.

"Fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine…" He is starting to show some signs of slowing down. There's a slight hesitation halfway up the most recent pushup, but his form stays impeccable even as I notice a slight shaking in his elbows.

"Eighty-two, eighty-three, annnnd…eighty-four!" At the last pushup, Pallas drops to the ground, clearly spent.

"So, what's your big theory?" Styx asks, clearly impatient.

While Pallas lays there recovering, I start to speculate. "Theory may be a strong word. They're just thoughts for now. He's clearly much stronger now than before he increased his strength Number. Which makes sense."

"Obviously," Melete chimes in.

"Yeah. But he was also much stronger than he had any right to be before he increased his strength Number. All of us were."

"Well, yeah." Styx agrees. "And the Numbers seemed so arbitrary, compared to our actual strength. Melete had by far the highest Number, but still barely beat me in pushups."

"I think…there may be more than just the Numbers in play here. Hear me out -- the Numbers have never gone down before, have never been reset to zero as far as we know. So the Numbers have always perfectly represented people's actual attributes -- they've always gone up right along with the capability of the person.

"But when our Numbers reset to zero, I certainly felt weak, but not nearly as weak as I should have. If I had an actual strength Number of zero, the strength of a newborn baby, I wouldn't have been able to even pull myself up off of the ground. So clearly something between the Numbers and my physical attributes don't match.

"I think it may come down to my body. Even though all my Numbers were reset to zero, the actual physical muscle mass I have was unchanged. Usually, my Numbers just reflect my muscle mass, but in this case they didn't. Which meant my actual strength lay somewhere between what my body says it should be based off of my muscles and what my Numbers say it should be."

"Which would explain why I couldn't do more pushups than you or Pallas, even though my strength Number was higher." Melete pouts, disappointed that she still is lacking in the strength department even after spending her free Numbers on it.

"If our biology is unchanged though, how do our Numbers affect the attributes?" Styx asks, "How can Pallas do more pushups after increasing his strength Number, even though there doesn't seem to be any change in the biological sense. At least his muscles don't seem to have grown in the last hour. "

I feel a twist in my gut as Styx looks intently at Pallas' bulging biceps, and hurry to continue.

"I really don't know. But it obviously does. I'm curious too as to how it will affect our attributes when the Numbers grow past the 'biological' values of our attributes, but that's something we don't have to worry about for now. It seems like it was a good idea for you to increase what you were good at, Pallas: none of the rest of us would have gotten nearly as much improvement to our strength after spending the same amount of Numbers."

Pallas shrugs. He doesn't seem entirely pleased with his decision, but what's done is done, and I move on without commenting.

"We should also figure out what we're doing next." The mood instantly darkens. With all the pushups and experimenting with the Numbers, we allowed ourselves to forget the realization we, or at least I, came to earlier

"We'll obviously have to circle around town." Melete states. "I guess, that's if we're still trying to get back to Clayton?"

We sit in momentary silence before I say, "I think that's a good plan, in the long term. We're going to have to try to find our families at some point, and that's the best place to start. We just can't let that goal get in the way of our immediate survival."

Styx is nodding along with that statement, but then asks, "So what does that mean for our immediate plan? Do we try to follow the road? Try to bushwhack our way there?"

"I'm…not sure yet." I hesitantly state. "But before we do any of that…we need to go back into town."

S: 89

D: 53

W: 202

I: 41 (+1)

C: 53 (+2)

26

Skills: Adjust:Self