Another man came to stand next to her. Noah recognized that face: it was Xavier, a white guy in his early twenties, short and bulky, his short hair somewhat curly. Instead of carrying a gun, he held a fire axe instead. As he approached the group, his eyebrows arched in surprise. Isaac immediately mimicked his expression.

“Holy shit! Xavier, what are you doing here?”

The newcomer stared at them silently for a second, baffled, his mouth open, searching for his words. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“You know these people?” the woman asked.

“Know us? Xavier moved in with me and my mother like a year ago, we went to school together for almost our whole lives!”

Xavier frowned as if something was inaccurate with what Isaac had just said. However, whatever the issue was, he didn’t correct it, opting to simply nod.

Karim came back. With a sorry face, he reported that Brett had passed, never having a chance of surviving such a wound. The woman, who appeared to be the leader, lowered her head in disappointment and grief. After a moment, everyone introduced themselves: her name was Kaycee. She and her companions were from a well-defended town called Basin.

Both groups established a basic line of trust. After a few minutes of ensuring neither wanted to harm the other, they decided to abandon Brett's corpse—no way to safely and efficiently carry him—then they were back on their way to La Grave. Xavier had something important to do there, they claimed. Noah, Jacob and Isaac agreed to stay with their new allies for the time being, knowing it would be much safer to travel in a larger group. There was also an opportunity to fill in the blanks, figure out what happened before they got kidnapped by the Jester, and maybe even understand why and how they got there.

Besides, Noah thought, they really needed the help. It was clear to him that his current companions simply didn’t have the survival skills to make it, and after everything that had happened, he didn't trust himself to lead them anymore.

Karim offered to take a look at Jacob's wound. Changing the bandages and disinfecting the lump was more than overdue: without proper care, the boy could have lost the rest of his arm, if not more.

"Thank you," Jacob softly said, before wincing from the pain.

“Are you a doctor?” asked Noah.

Karim shook his head. “I’m a nurse,” he said with a light arabic accent. “Well, I would have been a nurse, but the staff of my school was killed before graduation.”

Despite the sadness of his story, Karim spoke in a gentle voice, his tone delicate and caring. He never took his eyes off his task either, his focus unwavering. Jacob stared at Karim’s face instead of the work being done. His eyes were wide, probably a bit delirious because of the fever, but there was something else there, like a spark. To Noah, it was clear: Jacob had a crush on his nurse. Isaac apparently came to the same conclusion as he rolled his eyes and sighed heavily.

“You guys can stare at each other later. Let’s get going already!”

Karim lingered for a little longer to make sure he did everything as well as he could, then offered a confident smile to Jacob. “All done,” he said. Jacob timidly nodded.

They packed what little supplies they had and got on their way. Noah took the opportunity to gather some information from their leader, the priority being to heed Matt’s warnings.

“Kaycee… We were told to be careful around the Corrupted. Do you know what or who they are?”

“Tsk, nice one,” she said without offering more than an insincere smirk. After a few seconds passed without getting an answer, Noah doubled down, confused.

“So… What are they?”

The woman looked at him as if he had just said something very offensive, like he had taken a joke too far. Noah was now even more baffled, and she must have understood that he really meant it.

“How do you guys not know what they are?”

Noah told her how they had been kidnapped for some time, purposefully omitting that he had no recollection of anything prior to it. The explanation was enough for her, and she became very forthcoming with information, telling them that the Corrupted were shadowy monsters that mostly came out at night. They were extremely dangerous, everyone has lost someone to them. They had caused the collapse of the Islands’ leadership, as well as seemingly forcing the government to place them in quarantine, effectively dooming everyone living there.