As soon as the Imp was off the palace’s premises, Rory was inundated with pent-up achievements.

New Achievement!

Hunter Gatherer! You’ve secured your own food. Just need to figure out how to replenish it before you run out.

Rewards

Perishable food decay reduced by 25%

New Achievement!

Purge Specialist! Even the almighty poisons and venoms can never last long in your presence.

Rewards

10% Increased resistance to poison for all party members

New Achievement!

Multitasker! You have successfully split off and achieved different goals in the same direction. Divide and conquer, as they say.

Rewards

Smaller parties get temporary 20% boost to stats

Rory didn’t get to stare at the words for long as they faded. He did appreciate all the bonuses they were getting, though. They weren’t anything game-changing, but every little bit added up. Curious how the system chose to reward them for splitting up after they left the palace’s confines, and not when they’d done within the palace grounds.

The first thing they took care of was the Ifrit’s poison. Evelyn had Rory, Viv, April, and Bo all sit down as she observed them with a critical eye. She didn’t find any overt symptoms of any kind of poisoning, but she still wrapped them in her golden bandages and used her Vital Rejuvenation on them all the same.

Rory did feel a little better afterwards, though the idea of the poison still remaining within them was worrying. Evelyn promised she’d look into a proper antidote. They knew the Ifrit’s flames had been the ones Dez used. That would have to be their main lead.

The old newcomers didn’t look happy to be back in the palace. Both the elderly man and the old woman glared at them all, the former wielding a bloody makeshift wrap on his leg, the latter limping along just behind him. The other middle-aged man had a similar disposition, though his son looked relieved. They both sported several nasty cuts and burns.

Alves was missing. A quick inquiry revealed that he had passed away during their journey, giving his life when a monster had attacked. Rory didn’t want to blame them for Alves’s death, but the fact was that it wouldn’t have happened if they hadn’t doggedly refused to come to the palace.

“Take it easy,” Rory told Trish when he saw glaring disapprovingly at the entire lot of them.

Her mouth twisted, but she said nothing and stalked off. Allen tutted, sighed, then went after her.

If the others had any similar misgivings, they hid it well. Sue and Viv welcomed the rescued folk and guided them into the palace. Last Rory saw of them, they were being treated with Evelyn’s healing and given some food and drink to help with their hunger.

Neither Rory, nor most of the others had time to monitor them. There was a lot of work to do after the Imp had departed. First of all, they had to remove all the salvage Rory’s group had retrieved from the Djinn-haunted grocery store, including the large freezer that would help prolong their fresh produce stores. For a while, at least.

Rory needed to figure out their power situation. They’d need electricity to continue to run the freezers and make good food last longer. Plus, they were bound to run out of fuel for their vehicles at some point. Rory had to find a solution for that future point before it was too late.

But those, and putting in his latest Settlement Sigil, were for a little later. He had to listen to the doctor for now.

The man in the tweed suit was staring around everywhere with wide eyes, drinking in the palace and everyone in and around it. “I can’t believe you all have set up something like this here.”

“Took some effort,” Rory said. “But I think we’re settling in well.”

“Sorry, my surprise overtook my manners.” The man smiled apologetically and offered his hand to shake. “I’m Adam.”

Rory shook it. “Rory.”

Adam smiled. His hair was receding and had splotches of grey in them, but he couldn’t have been past his mid-thirties yet. Rory wondered how much of it was the stress of the apocalypse.

“So, what’s your story?” Rory asked.

Adam looked away, a little twist marring his expression. Rory wondered if he was uncomfortable. He was a little impatient to get to work on other things, but he waited and gave Adam some time.

Eventually, the doctor spoke. “The hospital I came from has a lot of survivors. When everyone was evacuating, no one cared about taking the patients with them.” He grimaced. “Who cares about sick people, right? They’d only hold everyone back.”

“That’s awful,” Rory said, his heart squeezing tightly at the fact that all these helpless people had been abandoned.

“It is. Most of the hospital workers stayed behind, promising to take care of the patients. We did fine, initially, but then the monsters started coming. It was hard fighting back. We lost a lot of good people.” He swallowed. “We need help. They’ll overwhelm us with the next attack.”

Rory could imagine the situation with frightening clarity. A hospital overflowing with patients who couldn’t defend themselves well, a few nurses, doctors, and other staff running ragged trying to maintain some semblance of order. It had to be a mess.

“Are all the staff alright, Dr. Bueller?” Evelyn asked.

Rory started in surprise. She had sneaked up on them. It wasn’t surprising she was here though. After all, she and her husband had worked at that hospital, if Rory was remembering right.

Adam considered her with his lips pressed tightly for a second. “They’re fine enough, given the circumstances. But the longer this goes on, the more frayed we get. We can only keep it together for so long.”

“They’re a resilient bunch,” Evelyn said.

She sighed, a heavy frown clouding her brow despite her words. Rory wanted to pat her shoulder. He wondered if she was considering that the same thing that had happened with her family would happen with her colleagues at the hospital. No, Rory wasn’t going to let something like that pass. Not again.

“What sort of monsters are attacking you?” he asked.

“Airborne ones,” Adam said. “They’ve been swooping down everywhere. It’s a good thing the hospital building is pretty sturdy, or we’d all have been dead by now. We’ve kept out the most of the big one, but smaller ones keep getting in no matter what we do, and it’s always a pain when that happens.”

Rory nodded. “We’ll help you. We just need to take care of some business here and then we can head out and find what’s going on at your hospital.”

“Thank you. It’s just… we don’t have much time. The sooner you get moving, the sooner we can protect everyone.”

“Good point. Just need to discuss with the others, set up our teams, and then we’ll head off.” Rory was about to walk off to do just that, but then he paused. “How’d you meet up with the others?”

Adam looked uncomfortable again. “Uh, things were getting very unstable at the hospital. We needed to get help, so I volunteered to get out and see if there were other options than… being sitting ducks until we were killed off one by one.”

Rory grimaced. “Don’t worry. We’ll get moving as soon as we can. Come on inside and freshen up.”

“We don’t have time for it. Every minute I waste here is another minute they could be attacked back at the hospital.”

Rory sighed. “You’re right. We need to move.”

Leaving Adam behind in the garden, Rory and Evelyn went inside the main hall. There was a lot of activity in the area.

With the help of the office workers, April and Bo were lugging the freezer and the new food supplies farther back inside the palace. Viv and Sue were watching over the old newcomers as they ate and drank. When he reached them, Dez had joined the group too, Trish and Allen not far behind.

“What’s wrong?” Viv asked, taking one look at Rory’s face and, as ever, knowing exactly what he was feeling.

“It’s the doc, isn’t it?” Dez asked. “What did he say?”

“You’re right,” Rory said. He explained what he had learned about the hospital with all the trapped patients. “The situation over there is dire.”

“It sure sounds like it,” Viv said. “But it gives me a bad feeling too. How long has an entire hospital survived for… what is it now, five days?”

Rory shook his head. “I don’t know. But I’m glad they have. We’ve got people we can save now.”

“A hospital full of patients,” Trish muttered.

She left the rest of it unsaid, but Rory got what she was angling towards. Here they were, trying their best to survive, in a situation that needed everyone to pull their own weight. Taking in a bunch of patients that they’d need to subsequently look after didn’t sound like something that would improve their chances of survival.

“It’ll be fine,” Rory said. “We’ve got a decent number of people who can help”

“The staff from the hospital will be able to take care of them,” Evelyn added. “And I’ll help too, of course. They’d be fine, but I think it’s just the situation of being in constant danger that has Dr. Bueller and the others worried. Once they reach the relative safety of the palace, things should go more smoothly.”

Rory nodded. Another good point. They wouldn’t really be overwhelmed when the hospital staff were already there to take care of the patients.

“Then we shouldn’t waste any more time,” Viv said. “Let’s get a team ready and head out.”

There was a little back-and-forth about who ought to go. Almost everyone seemed to agree that Rory didn’t need to involve himself personally again, and there was a point that he could stay behind to take care of things in the palace while the others ventured out.

But the thing was—everything within the palace would be waiting for Rory when he returned. Everything outside of it, however, was a fleeting thing. They might have need of his Weaving, and if he didn’t accompany the excursion group, they’d be screwed. It wasn’t a chance he was willing to take, and the others needed little convincing to see his point.

Besides, they needed more Settlement Sigils to get the Safe Zone going, and Rory suspected the hospital would provide one.

“I intend to go,” Evelyn said with no less resolution than Rory.

No one argued against it.

“I’ll go too,” Sue said. Everyone turned to her, most of them, including Rory, unable to hide their surprise. “What? I can’t be useful outside the palace just because I was opposed earlier?”

“No, no,” Allen said. “Just thought you might want to stick close to May.”

“I do. And I should. But I also want to contribute. I don’t want to stay cooped up here forever. And I know I can trust you guys with May.”

Rory looked past Sue. From farther back in the hall, May grinned at them all. he had asked Evelyn to check her condition and she had replied that, while she had found evidence of blunt force trauma, there was little she could do. The injury’s effects had settled in deep.

In the end, it was decided that Dez, Trish, and Sue would accompany Rory, Evelyn, and Adam back to the hospital. Viv didn’t look happy to be left behind, nor did Allen, but they couldn’t take everyone. Some of them had to stay behind to keep the palace safe and make sure the others had a place to return to.

But more than that, Rory also wanted people to stay back in reserve just in case there was something wrong with the doctor’s story. He didn’t like not trusting the poor guy, but it would be foolish to go all in without knowing more.

Rory left the others to prepare and headed over to the newcomers. It irked that Alves wasn’t with the lot of them, but Rory tried not to feel too sad about the missing officer.

He put on his best smile and went to welcome them to their new home.