Alyssa returned to the meeting, the rage at the stupid young man she had just dismembered and cooked bolstered her confidence in a way that she silently appreciated. The meeting of course moved away upwind of the fire in an attempt to avoid the smell of burning flesh and hair. She now stood in front of them all and considered her words as her rage began to slowly simmer out.

She looked at the faces of the people gathered before her and registered the many looks of fear she now elicited. The younger or weaker willed residents avoided her eyes altogether. While the harder and older nodded approvingly as her gaze swept the group.

“I’ll make this short.” She with a croak, then cleared her throat and steadied her voice as she continued. “Karl made it clear to me and Johnny that if people wanted to stay within the safety of the settlement they would be required to prove useful. ‘No freeloaders’ were his exact words. To that end he trusted me to organize those with the ability to defend and patrol the settlement, and organize hunting groups to secure needed resources.”

She let the first bit of information filter through the gathered people. A young girl in her early 20’s spoke up from the back of the group. “What if we can’t fight? Or are too scared to?”

“If you don’t think you have the ability or will to fight the monsters, talk to Johnny when we are done here, his office is on the bottom floor to the right. I was designated by Karl to be the Captain of the Guard.” She looked to the side where the dumb kids body burned in the bonfire then looked back at the group. “I’m sure I’ve demonstrated my resolve. If you’re interested in working for me, my office is on the top floor to the left. I’ll be there in a half hour.”

The group shuffled about talking excitedly amongst themselves. Alyssa left them to it and headed for the coyote kennel as Johnny retreated to his office. She watched Lulu and Brother play with two new slightly smaller coyotes. Lulu saw her approach and shot forward to tackle her in an assault of fer and wet tongue. Alyssa giggled and rolled on the ground letting the tension of the previous encounter ease from her being. She sat up and scratched Lulu’s ear and the big coyote leaned approvingly into the attention. Then she reluctantly extracted herself and leapt onto the wall.

She approached the older hunter guy and greeted him casually “Hey.”

The man looked up with a warm smile but didn’t move from his firing position, “Oh hey, one sec.” He returned to the sights of his rifle and Alyssa looked to where she thought he was aiming. She could make out a large animal of some kind moving amongst the field of tough bushes and weeds about 300 meters out. As he watched the creature slink about she heard the man slowly release a breath and flinched when the rifle went off with a loud crack that echoed off the distant buildings.

The man studied the creature in his sight then looked up at her and smiled again, “That’s number 73. How ya doing? I don't think we met yet.” He stood and extended an open hand to her which she took with a slight smirk “William Hargreaves, everyone just calls me Bill though.”

“Alyssa. I thought it would be a good idea to meet you and that other woman that’s been manning the towers with Carly.”

“Well, thank ya for thinkin’ o me. What would ya like ta know?” He asked as he casually settled into a nearby lawn chair.

“Well, I guess I want to know what your plans are? Staying? Going? Class? Level? If it’s not too rude to ask at least, uh… I dunno, heh.”

To his good natured credit he just smiled and gave her a rundown. “Well, I unno what I plan to do. Pardon my language but the shit has surely hit the fan. I like having walls and a nice spot to shoot from but I dunno. I’ll probably hang out for now and make myself useful, eventually I’d like ta go n’ see if I can get back to my Mom and Dad in the Valley.” He looked thoughtfully at Alyssa and continued, “As for the last two I assume you know how to analyze people so you already know my class is Survivalist and I’m level 11. I assume you want to know what I can do?

“Yeah, sorry, was a bit vague.” She responded with a pained look on her face after forgetting she could scan people.

“So it basically makes me more… survivable.. Heh. I have greater elemental resistances and am good at tracking and spotting anything I consider prey, man or beast. I also have some basic crafting ability, the kinda stuff ye see on those survival shows, something from nothing and all that.”

“Cool, well, I’ll leave you to it, I’m glad you’re sticking around Bill, if you need anything let me or Johnny know.” She smiled and turned to leave the man and headed out to find the archer woman.

She found the woman she sought on the opposite tower watching the road into town. Carly was also there sitting cross legged in deep concentration as she juggled several orbs of ice in front of her. Alyssa could feel the cold rolling off the similar aged young woman and the white hazy tendrils of breath that escaped her nose when she exhaled. She took a moment to carefully observe the woman she had come to meet with before introducing herself.

Nandi Thrush, Age 33, Red Sands Archer Lvl 10

The woman stood casually on the wall with a short umber colored cloak around her shoulders with her back to Carly. She wore tan loose fitting cargo pants and boots to match. A leather breastplate was worn over a black t-shirt. Black curly locks of hair descended from a heart shaped tan face beset with sparkling green eyes. An ordinary looking recurve bow was held casually in her left hand a simple nylon quiver full of the typical plastic vaned carbon fiber shafted arrows sold in most sporting goods stores.

Nandi turned and smiled at her as she approached and then looked down and frowned at Carly “OI! Turn the bloody AC off girl!” Alyssa was surprised as a sharp Australian accent burst from the lovely woman’s mouth.

Carly burst into giggles “Fine, I was wondering how long it would take for you to notice.” Instantly the temperature seemed to rise in the immediate area.

“Evening, Alyssa, is it?” Alyssa nodded and Nandi continued, “Finally, I’m Nandi. Have to say, I’m a bit of a fan of your work earlier.” She smiled as she nodded at the fire. “That toasty bloke and his mate were spending way too much time eyeing the assets of us lovely women, if ya know what I mean.”

“THAT SHIT WAS INTENSE!” Carly blurted out. “I knew Karl was a badass, and I knew you were tough to have survived the last two days out in the desert but DAMN!”

Alyssa sighed at the attention “Yeah, I didn’t notice it now but that dude did give off a bit of a rapey vibe. He’s not our problem now though.”

“Amen to that.” Nandi affirmed, “Glad to formally meet you by the way.”

“Same here, you’re… uh, not from here are you?”

She leaned forward a bit with eyebrows raised, “Caught that didja? Was in Cali for an archery competition, mates decided it might be fun to take a roadtrip across America after that, so when everything went pear shaped, I was in this shithole town.”

“Fuck, that sucks.” Alyssa mumbled.

“Indeed. Was staying down the road at some bug infested motel. Mates bought it when the first oversized cat tumbled through the building, I was outside making sure our equipment hadn’t been stolen. I managed to get my recurve strung and dropped an arrow through the beastie’s eye. Then in the middle of the night I heard the announcement that a safe area was opening up and high tailed it here.” Nandi explained with a full range of emotion on her face.

“Sorry, everything really has gone to shit, hasn’t it?”

“Either way, I’m here to help, whatever you need, you lemme know. I don’t think I’ll be catching a flight home anytime soon. “

“Awesome, I think I might hit you up sooner than you think. If you need anything of me feel free to contact me. I will be in my office trying to form a town guard.” Alyssa waved to the two women, and left them with a grimace on her face directed at the imposing task she had taken on.

She approached the admin building and saw that a line of people were waiting outside the front doors. One on the right and one on the left. The line on right was shorter than the one on the left. Guess I’ll be busy this afternoon. She glanced about and saw the little boy they had saved from the dungeon kicking a soccer ball around with some of the other surviving children. She looked for the other two rescuees and found Danielle standing in Johnny’s line and curiously Samantha was in her line. The woman nodded to her and she nodded back then entered the lobby and headed upstairs where several men and women waited in front of her office door.

“You’re first.” She indicated the person closest to the door to follow her in and then she took a seat behind her desk and began reviewing the candidates for the town guard force.

The first man in the door was thin with brown hair. He looked as nervous as she now felt. What the fuck am I doing? I can’t be in charge of this shit. She asked the man a few questions about his class and where he was from, etc. He was one of the original residents who lived in the opposite building that had been completely trashed by the time she had returned. He was a level 6 Brawler. Said he thought it sounded cool until he watched Dave get split in half. She sympathized with his hesitancy, then sent him out and told him she would let him know when to report for duty and asked him to call in the next one.

She settled into a routine of asking them simple questions and letting them carry the conversation as she got a feel of the class and level breakdown of the settlement. This went on for several hours and by the time Samantha had walked into her office the sun was on the opposite horizon. Alyssa stood up as the woman entered and greeted her with a gentle hug then looked her over carefully. She wore a simple long sleeve shirt with the left sleeve tied off around the stump of her upper arm, a pair of bluejeans and simple white tennis shoes.

“How are you?” Alyssa asked with a gentle smile.

“Fine, actually. Oh, losing the arm sucks, and I still don’t sleep well, but my Class was a good choice.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, it basically makes me a telekinetic. I can move shit with my mind. I literally tied my shoes with it!” Samantha beamed at the younger girl. “I saw you looking, hahahah.”

Alyssa blushed a little, “Sorry, and I was wondering how hard it was to tie shoes with one hand, for you I guess not a problem at all, heh. Tell me what you can do.”

“Ok, so my class is basically a psychic front line fighter. I have limited range on my telekinetic abilities but in close they are brutal. I can generate psychic blades and armor, and use my energy to empower my body. I’m impervious to mental attacks and I can put up a mental shield around my allies.”

Alyssa just looked at her in surprise.

Samantha beamed again, “So, will I be useful?”

Alyssa laughed, “Yeah, fuck yeah. In fact, Nandi, Carly and Bill have been covering the wall all day, I’d like you to take the night watch if you think you got the energy. I’ll have four more join you and, also, if you’re up to it I’ll put you in charge of the watch tonight, they will answer to you.”

Samantha considered momentarily then replied. “Yeah, I can do that.”

“Good, go relieve the others and I’ll notify your people to meet you on the wall.” Alyssa said, getting up and embracing Samantha in a warm hug. As Samantha began to turn away she paused and looked up into the air at a notification.

“Oh?”

Alyssa was about to ask what was up when a notification appeared in her sight.

Samantha has accepted the settlement quest, “Command the night watch until relieved of duty” issued by SooHoo Settlement Captain of the Guard, Alyssa Nightraven.

“That’s new.” Alyssa muttered and shrugged. And there's that fucking last name again.

“Nets some easy XP and UMC, so I’m not complaining. See ya.” Samantha said with a smile and left the younger girl to her thoughts.

Alyssa went about assigning the four other individuals she picked for the night watch. All of which had some kind of projectile based attacks. Seems almost everyone had chosen a class they didn’t have equipment for. Fortunately there were a fair number of magic types in the mix. She reviewed the total breakdown of people in the settlement willing to take part in defense of it.

Of the 33 people that currently resided here, 21 had chosen a combat oriented class. Only four were melee type fighters. Three were healing or support. And the remaining 14 were ranged fighters of some kind. Ten of those remaining fighters were magic casters. Most of the classes were fairly generic. Only Bill, Nandi, and Samantha had truly unique classes. Samantha was the most unique as she was more of a hybrid tank type magic fighter.

Looking at the numbers she decided to break the fighters into four five man squads. These squads she decided would make a Platoon. She spent a little bit of time figuring this out using information from the system and the internet. I am so in over my fucking head here. Hurry the fuck back Karl! She didn’t include Carly in the formation, Karl had indicated she shouldn’t be staying once he gathered her father from the prison. A knock came from her front door so she moved to answer it.

Speak of the devil.

Carly stood at the door and smiled. “HI! Ummm… I was wondering if I could crash on your couch?”

“Uh?” Alyssa thought about it for a moment and decided she didn’t really care one way or the other. “Sure, I guess, I was about to crash myself, any specific reason why you want to stay here?”

Carly stepped in and gave her a sheepish look, “Well, it’s kinda stupid, but no one in the bunk house right now is my age and it’s mostly men, so…”

“Gotcha. Knock yourself out, I know I am about to hit the sack myself.”

“Thanks!”

Hopefully I can sleep without interruption tonight.