“Grab something to take notes with, don’t want to have to repeat any of this.” Xavier said as Jeremy and Yasmina walked out. Brian looked around, quickly spotting a pile of notebooks in the corner of the room and bringing them over, handing Arnold, Finn, Connor and James one each. Finn distributed a few pencils to the group as Connor and James pulled some chairs closer to Xavier. Brian smirked. It was almost like they were all going back to the leadership lectures, only this time it was mostly staff instead of a bunch of campers being lectured.

“We’ll start with maintenance. Some of the security ideas will spill over into maintenance duties, but those will come later once we’re more settled.” Xavier continued, leaning forwards in his chair. “We’ve already established that we’re moving the campers into the meeting halls for the nights, so we’ll need maintenance to get enough mattresses from the good cabins to fit everyone. We’ve got 121 campers and 24- No, 23 staff members. That's 144 mattresses total.” Arnold and Finn quickly write that into their notebooks.

“How many can we fit into each meeting space? Are we splitting each gender between two meeting halls each or trying to cram them all into one?” Finn asked.’

“We’ve got a near-even split, so roughly 72 per gender, staff and campers included. Also gotta factor in the injured will be staying in Andromeda, so you’ll have to take some of them over there instead. Get enough extra to Andromeda that we don’t need to take mattresses out of there when the people on ‘em are recovered, we might need more there later. How many injured we got right now?” Xavier asked.

Brain tapped the pencil in his hand against the open page of the notebook in front of him. “Katsuki said 26 total if I remember correctly.” Brian replied, and Xavier nodded.

“Double that number of mattresses just in case. Don’t want to have to go hunting for more if something drastic happens.” Xavier said, and Arnold and Finn both wrote that down as well.

“We might have to see how many of the mattresses from the cabins that got destroyed are still usable, that's nearly 200 total and we only have 250 beds across campus.” Arnold replied.

“260 if you count the ones in the Health Center, those should be the first to Andromeda anyways for the severely injured. You’ll have to take a count of how many cabins are gone to see how many mattresses are left. Might end up having to share some beds in the end if there aren’t enough to go around, the night shift for security won’t need extras.” Xavier replied. Brian nodded in agreement.

Finn made a quick tally on his page. “That’s gonna take hours. Do we have access to the maintenance truck, or are we carrying them by hand?” Finn asked, and Xavier gave him an odd look.

“Why would I ask you to carry them? Speed is of the essence, that and not exerting energy where we don’t need to.” Xavier replied.

Finn ducked his head, scratching out some of the tallies on his page. “Sorry, just used to doing things the hard way I guess.”

“Well get it through your head now, anything that will make your job easier to do, you do it. Doesn’t matter if you gotta raid all of the maintenance bay for tools, or ask for my keys to get into something. Getting the job done is the priority, and whatever you need to do it right is on the table.” Xavier replied, and Finn nodded.

“If we’re digging out the mattresses, what do we do with...you know? The bodies.” Arnold asked.

Xavier sighed, rubbing at his face with his good hand as he leaned back against his chair. “We’ll have to get them out of there while we’re going. You’ve got your volunteers for that. Any suggestions for what to do with them?”

Arnold and Finn looked at each other, their faces pale. “I agree with Allison, we shouldn’t cremate them. Once this is all over, the families will need closure.” Arnold’s voice wavered as he spoke, and Xavier nodded his head.

“In that case, you’ll need to figure out somewhere to store them. Wrap ‘em up in extra sheets and bury them. Not too deep, or it'll be harder to remove them later.” Xavier replied.

“Does maintenance have any tools for that? Like a backhoe or something?” Finn asked.

Xavier shook his head. “Unfortunately, all we’ve got is shovels. Anytime we’ve needed heavy machinery, we’ve borrowed it from the town. Hope you like digging, you’ll be at it for a while.”

“Where would you suggest we bury them?” Arnold asked, and Xavier looked towards the ceiling.

“Best be away from the rest of camp, where the rest aren’t likely to stumble across them. Away from any plumbing or other facilities. And not by the lake either, don’t want to dig into the water table by accident and have them rot faster.” Xavier replied. Arnold and Finn shivered.

After a moment, Brian’s mind sparked, and he looked at the wall to the west. “What about the back end of the shotgun range? It’s a pretty large area, and no one’s going to use it as a range anyways.”

Xavier hesitated for a moment before nodding. “That’ll work. I’d suggest security get everything they need from both ranges and bring it to operations, there’s some exclusive locks there that’ll keep all the extra ammo locked up tight. Don’t need just anyone taking stuff.” Brian nodded, and wrote that down in his notebook, even as Connor and James copied him.

“Next up is communication. Find someone who is good with heights and take a look at the radio repeater on Andromeda’s roof. If it doesn’t look broken, give it the old unplug-replug to reset it and give it a test. If that doesn’t do the trick, just leave it unplugged. Radio’s will have less coverage that way, but at least we can get them working again. If that isn’t the issue, I’ll have to do some research to see if it’s something else.” Xavier said.

Arnold looked a bit pale as he fidgeted in his seat. Brian hadn’t taken him as being afraid of heights, but that was something he was just going to have to overcome in the coming days. “Where can we find ladders at?” Arnold asked.

“We’ve got a few in the maintenance garage. You’ll need at least a twenty-footer to get up to the roof, there’s a few extendables there. Make that a priority, having communications around campus again will make life much easier.” Xavier replied.

Finn nodded, and noted that down on his list. “I’ll take charge of that, I’ve done some roofing with my dad before, no problem with heights here.”

“Good. Take someone with you to steady the ladder, don’t need you falling off and getting injured too, they’ve got enough people to look after already.” Xavier replied.

Arnold looked a bit better having the ladder job taken from him, and he moved onto another noted point. “What about the generators? How do we shut the ones we don’t need off?”

Xavier turned to look at him. “In my office there’s an instruction manual for them. Right hand shelf, with a blue spine, shouldn’t be too hard to find. There’s shutdown procedures in there. You’ll want to leave the middle one running, that’s the one running power for the dining hall and operations.” Xavier said.

“Won’t that mean we’ll lose power in the meeting halls?” Brian asked. Xavier nodded at him.

“We’ll have to run some cables from operations over here. We’ll focus on getting Andromeda running first, then worry about the others.”

“Can the generator power that many things at once? Isn’t that why there’s multiple?” Arnold asked.

Xavier nodded, his eyes going towards the ceiling as he thought. “The generators were donated by an outside party, luckily they gave us enough money for three. We could have run the whole camp on just two, but having three let us make sure none of them reached their maximum threshold. We’ve got enough to spare on one to get the meeting halls running, but not much more than that. We’ll disconnect everything but the treatment plant at operations, we won’t need anything else from that building for now. I’ll have to be brought there, don’t want none of you messing with that and having an accident.”

“No point in worrying about siphoning the extra gas out of the other generators just yet then, we’ll have to keep track of the gauge to see when it needs to be refilled.” Arnold scribbled some more notes in his notebook as Xavier nodded.

“Check it at each meal. Once it hits a quarter tank, refill it. Don’t let it get down to the red, or it’ll start having some issues.” Xavier replied, and Brian smirked to himself as he heard Arnold quickly underline his most recent notes several times.

“So Finn’s taking the repeater, and I’ll work on the generators. Who’s going for the beds then?” Arnold asked.

“Security will start with that with the rest of the maintenance team, you’ll both join them once you’re finished with those.” Xavier replied, and Arnold frowned.

Arnold frowned, looking back up at him. “Then how are you working on the re-wiring?” He asked.

Xavier waved his concern away. “We’ve got a wheelchair in the health center, Allison promised the lifeguards would get it for me. Brian will come with me for that, we’ve got some stuff to talk through anyways.”

Brian frowned, putting the pencil down as he rubbed the back of his neck. “What about security then? Beds are one thing, but we need to start looking at what we’ll need to secure the camp.”

“First step is getting everyone centrally located, which is why security’s helping out with the beds. With both security and maintenance working on that, we’ll have the mattresses sooner so we can split up after to focus on what’s next.” Xavier replied.

Connor frowned, quickly outlining a table on his page. “We’ll have to make a security rotation. We’ve got the three of us and 18 other campers assigned for security, we’ll need an overnight team as well.”

“Two shifts for security is going to be stretching it. I’d like three, but we only have two team leaders.” James added, and Brian’s heart pounded. Should he speak up and ask for the third shift to be under him? Would Xavier agree to it, after speaking up for him earlier? He did mention supervision, but what form would that look like? Did he expect to have someone looking over his shoulder the whole time, or just someone available to call on? He wouldn’t get anything done if he didn’t at least try.

“Uncle Xavier, if you make me the third lead, we can split the shifts in three. I can lead a daytime shift when you’re awake, and have Connor and James do evening and night.” Brian suggested. Xavier eyed him for a moment.

“It’s not a bad idea. If we do eight hour shifts, that's a lead and 6 campers per shift.” Connor replied.

Xavier shook his head, eyeing Brian from the side. “We don’t need as many for overnight, most everyone should be at the meeting halls overnight so we don’t have to patrol the whole camp. We’ll table that discussion for now, till we have a better grasp on who works well together. Can’t have a security team that can’t work together or doesn’t trust each other.” Xavier’s eyes bored into Brian, and he understood the underlying message the older man didn’t say. It frustrated him, knowing that his uncle didn’t trust him enough to have his own group, even during the day when there would be plenty of other people around. What did he have to do to prove himself? Saving the camp from the demon bears wasn’t enough?

“We’ll need to take some time to assess some of them. I know we did our best to only ask people who have confidence in their aim, but I know for certain that a few of them are going to need some help with that.” Brian said, pointing at the list of names written in front of him. “I know for a fact that some of the boys from Sagittarius haven’t scored that well recently, Will and Steve said as much from their first class at the range.”

James nodded. “We’ll have to give them some pointers, but we don’t have any way to get more bullets now. As good as our stockpile may be, we shouldn’t waste it with target practice.”

“How are you supposed to know if they need help unless they show you their targets then? If they don’t practice, how can we expect them to hit anything if they attack again?” Brian argued.

Xavier interrupted with a sharp rap of his knuckles on the table. “We’ll ration it. Both of you got a good point. Take inventory of our stockpile. We’ll need to see who else is good with a gun, we’ve got enough guns for more than just the security teams.”

“Jeremy and Yasmina are both good shots, they should definitely have some of the extras.” Brian replied, and Xavier nodded.

“Agreed. They’ll be useful, especially if they’re out and about trying to figure out what’s going on.” Xavier said.

Connor snapped his fingers, pointing at the roasted he had written out. “The hunting team should have one too, in case they run into anything out there.”

“Shouldn’t they have two, just in case?” James asked.

“How many rifles are there?” Connor asked.

“We’ve got 12, plus the two shotguns. Shotguns should stay with the security team, they’ll need the stopping power. Two rifles to Jeremy and Yasmina as floaters, one to Charlie for the hunters since they’ll have access to the bows and arrows from archery. That gives us 9 rifles for the security teams.” Xavier made a quick tally on his paper allotting where the guns should go, mumbling for a moment to himself before setting down the pencil. “That should be just enough to go around. We’ll have extras at night, which is good, if something attacks, at night, we’ll be able to adapt to the threat based on who on security gets to them first.”

Brian thought to himself for a moment, a bleak hopelessness running through his mind. “We should have more weapons than that, especially if we get overrun. Jeremy and Yasmina were able to take one of them out with nothing but that mast that was struck by lightning, we should have more weapons like that available in case the number of guns we have aren’t enough.” Brian said.

Connor frowned, nervously tapping his pencil against the table. “What kinds of weapons are you thinking of? In the wrong hands,, that could be a poor decision.”

“Well, we’ve got plenty of bows and arrows at the archery range. Even if the whole hunting crew takes a bow each, there’s, what, thirty or so of them in there? And plenty of arrows. Heck, we could probably make some rudimentary arrows, they don’t have to be perfect.” Brian continued.

“That’s a start, what else?” Xavier asked, and Brian caught a gleam in his uncle’s eye that he had never seen before.

Brian’s mind raced for a moment before his eyes landed on Arnold, sparking a memory from the previous night. . “How many of those swords do you have from the Craft Shop act last night?”

Arnold frowned, shaking his head. “Only the four, and they’re just for show. Just spray-painted wood cutouts with handles.”

“But if you took some sharp metal and put it along the edge, you’d have something there. And we’ve got plenty of metal from the cabin roofs.” Brian replied. Finn frowned.

“What’s the roofing made of?” Finn asked Xavier.

“26 gauge corrugated stainless steel.” He replied.

Finn shook his head. “I don’t think we have anything that can cut through stainless steel. I’ve got jewelry saws for silver and copper, but those won’t get much of anywhere, they’d snap before we got more than an inch.” Finn replied.

“We’ve got circular saws at maintenance that should do the trick. We’ll have to see how many blades we got, it’ll chew them up after a while.” Xavier said.

“Okay, so we may be able to cut the metal. The chainsaws worked pretty well on those bears, the one we fought off definitely felt pain too, so they’re not invulnerable. A good sword, or even a spear, might be enough to hold one off until the guns arrive.” Brian continued.

James piped up from the other end of the table, scratching at his head. “And who’s going to get these weapons? I don’t know if I feel that outfitting everyone with deadly weapons is a good idea.”

Brian gestured at the rudimentary map of the camp Finn had idly sketched on his page. “We’ll stockpile them at key points around the camp.” Brian marked several points on the map, mostly places where buildings were near pathways that converged for easy access. “Only for use in emergencies. I’m sure we can find places to stash them that only the staff will be able to get into, or the security team on duty. So long as they’re inside somewhere those things can’t get into, the people inside will be safe until they can fight back.”

“What about armor? Corrugated steel is pretty tough, it won’t fit too well, but we could make some armguards or leg guards.” Finn added.

Xavier held up a hand, interrupting the conversation as the whole table looked his way. “Let’s put a pin in that for a moment. Weapons aren’t a bad idea, so long as they’re in the right hands. But more important is fortifications. We need several places people can evacuate to easily around camp, in case they can’t all get back to the meeting halls.”

“The cabins are obviously out, so which buildings are the most sturdily built?” Connor asked.

Xavier pointed back to Finn’s map. “The shower buildings are a good place to start. Concrete with steel rebar, and plenty of piping through it, should hold up good. Craft Shop, Operations, and the Dining Hall.” He replied.

“What about the Boathouse?” Brian asked.

Xavier shook his head. “Mostly timbers, other than the foundation. Anything really trying to get in there could, given enough time.” Xavier replied, and Brian frowned.

Brian frowned, shooting a glance over his shoulder towards the doorway outside. “There was a group that hid in there safely, we saved them after the group in the Craft Shop.”

“Must have been lucky. We’ll have to look at the building later, if it got jolted off it’s pilings, it could be at risk of going in the water. In any case, we’ll need to make fortifications at those buildings. Use the timbers from the cabins, and the metal roofing, to make walls out front for people to duck behind.” Xavier replied.

James made another note in his notebook as Xavier talked. “How big are we thinking?” He asked.

“Big enough to cover a large group. Twenty or thirty people. Thick enough to slow them down so people have the time to get inside.” Xavier grunted.

Connor snapped his fingers. “So like a vestibule?”

Brian nodded, making a quick sketch on his paper as well. “Should have small windows in them as well, or places to poke a gun out.”

“Think of this like a war, gentlemen. What kinds of fortifications would you want in front of you if the enemy was charging?” Xavier asked, and Brian’s eyebrows rose as an idea popped into his head.

“What about traps? Spike pits or something like that?” Brian asked, but Xavier shook his head.

“Can’t be anything that might accidentally injure anyone. Wouldn’t want one of the patrols to stumble into something like that at night.” Xavier replied.

Brian deflated a little, angry at himself for not thinking of that possibility. “Well, what about on top of the walls then? We don’t have barbed wire, but we could put a bunch of spikes on the top so if something tried to knock it down, they’d get caught on that.”

Xavier hummed for a moment as he worked it through his head. “Better. What else?”

Brian’s mind continued to churn. “Sniper nests. In the trees.” Brian pointed to several spots on the map once more as possible locations. “Better vantage points to fire down on an enemy, while keeping safe. We’d need to make sure they’re the thicker trees, possibly have to clear out some of the trees around them for a clearer shot.”

Brian was almost sure he saw the corner of Xavier’s mouth rise. “Good, good. Focus them around the same buildings, we don’t need to cover the whole camp in them.” Xavier replied.

Brian’s mind raced, on a roll, ideas pouring out of him. “What about a perimeter wall? If we could encircle the camp-”

“Gonna stop you there. If we get through everything else and still have the time and materials, sure, but let’s focus on what we can do in a reasonable amount of time first. We can start with a wall between the meeting halls to make a safe zone there, see how long it takes us before we get too ambitious.” Xavier interrupted, and Arnold nodded.

Connor hummed to himself, crossing his arms in front of him as he looked at the ever-growing list on the page. “How long do you think it’s going to take to build some of these things?” Connor asked, and Xavier hummed to himself.

“If we get going quick, and everyone from maintenance and security on board, could start having some of the easy bits done by end of tomorrow. Walls may take a bit longer, could see ‘em done by end of day Saturday if we really hoof it. We’ll work on the easier things first once you’re done with the first things on your lists, sniper nests don't have to be complicated, just a way up into a tree and somewhere to perch.” Xavier replied.

Another idea sparked in Brian’s head, and he leaned back into the conversation.“If we have enough to go around, each location should have a floodlight with a car battery to power it. Blinding them slowed them down a bit last time, plus it’ll help us see them if they attack at night again.”

“We’ll focus those around the shower buildings and Craft Shop first, since they won’t have power. Dining Hall, Meeting Halls and Ops will have to make do with the lights mounted on the buildings. Anything else?” Xavier asked, and the whole group looked at each other for a long moment before Xavier nodded. “Looks like a good start to me. You’ve all got something to work on for a while, so get to it. Brian and I will be at Operations in a bit if you need me. Now get going.”

Xavier dismissed them, and Brian watched as the other staff members stood to leave. Brian met his uncle’s eye as they waited for the meeting hall to be empty. As soon as the door was shut, a shudder went through him, and Brian’s heart dropped as he seemed to age a few years in an instant.

“Uncle, you okay?” Brian asked, standing to move closer.

Xavier sighed, slumping slightly into his chair. “Took more out of me than I expected, I guess. Told me not to push myself too hard too fast.” Xavier groaned, looking down at his legs.

“Are you sure you’re up to going over to Operations?” Brina asked., concern rising in him.

Xavier waved him off. “I’ll be fine. Like I said, don’t trust anyone here to fiddle with the wiring over there. Someone’s like to cross a wire and electrocute themselves.” Xavier grumbled, before turning a baleful eye towards him. “Don’t think you’re getting out of our chat. You’re on thin ice, son.”

Brian bristled. “I thought I told you not to call me that.” Brian snapped, and Xavier paused for a moment before he shook his head.

“Right. Forgot. Either case, you need to watch your step. I can only help you so much. I won’t be out there with you, so if you cause another incident like yesterday-”

“Nothing’s going to happen. Like I said, Zeke and I will be fine. Hell, you could put him with Connor or James if you think it’s such a big deal.” Brian interrupted.

Xavier eyed him for a moment before nodding his way. “Might just do that. We’ll need experienced people on each team, so the rest of your cabin might get split up too.” Xavier replied.

Brian’s stomach twisted, anxiety rising within him as his suggestion seemed to have gone the wrong direction. “We work best as a unit. They listen to me-” Brian tried to backpedal, but Xavier shook his head at him.

“And that’s part of the problem.” Xavier interrupted. “If they listen to you instead of whoever’s in charge, that’ll cause problems.”

“If I’m in charge of them, then it won’t be a problem.” Brian argued.

Xavier sighed, looking older than Brian has ever seen him. “Brian, you got a good head on your shoulders, and a good heart too. But I worry about you.” He admitted, and Brian’s brow furrowed.

“Because of my dad again? I told you already, I’m not him.” Brian growled..

“Yet I see so much of him in you. I just don’t want you making the same mistakes he did. I only want the best for you, you know that, right?” Xavier asked, and a flash of guilt ran through his heart.

“I know. I just…” Brian struggled to find the words.

Xavier nodded, streaking his beard as he thought for a moment. “Tell you what. You want to be in the army, here’s the chance to change my mind. You’re right, we do need three shifts, and I’m putting you in charge of one.” Brian’s heart leapt. A grin spread across his face before Xavier put up his finger. “There’s conditions though, so pay attention. One, you’re on day shift, and you’re checking in with me every hour. Gonna make that a condition for each shift anyways, so that’s not gonna be a hard one to follow.”

“How are the others going to check in with you for the other shifts?” Brian wondered aloud.

Xavier rolled his eyes. “Meant that each member of each team will check in with their leader each hour, you’ll just also report to me. If we get the radios working, that’ll be fine as well. If I don’t hear from you, you’re out, and I’m sending you over to maintenance.” Brian nodded as Xavier held up a second finger. “Two, any arguments that get out of hand, and I’m sending you over to maintenance. Shouting is one thing, but soon as you lay hands on someone else, you’re done.”

Brian wanted to roll his eyes, but nodded instead. That wasn’t going to be an issue either, he wouldn’t be stupid enough to do that again.

Xavier held up a third finger. “Three, you’re gonna keep seeing Katsuki.”

Brian’s brow furrowed, confused. “Sorry, I don’t follow.”

“Katsuki’s a licensed therapist. You’ll see him, and talk with him every night. And if you don’t, or if he tells me you’re done, that’s it.”

Brian’s blood went cold, and his heart dropped. “What? No, he’s going to suggest removing me the first time I see him. He’s the one who brought up removing me from security entirely in the first place.”

“Katsuki’s a professional. I’ll be talking to him as well, lay out the ground rules. If I feel his feelings are getting in the way of his decision, it won’t stand. But I’m warning you, he’s good. There’s a reason why we sent for him yesterday. I’ve never known him to let his personal feelings change his opinion, so if he says you’re out, it’s as good as done.” Xavier replied.

Brian’s heart beat loud in his ears, and he struggled to keep from arguing again. Instead he nodded, and Xavier looked pleased. “See, you’re already learning. I’ll keep the right for final say, so if he’s being unreasonable to you, we’ll all talk it out. This is your chance, Brian. You’re lucky to be getting one in the first place.” Xavier continued, and an absurd sense of irony shot through him as Brian snorted.

“Only took being attacked and trapped to get that chance. Thanks, but I wouldn’t call that lucky.” Brian replied.

Xavier shrugged, a dismal look in his eyes. “Luckier than some. You’re still here, aren’t you?” Xavier replied, and Brian’s mood sank faster than a rock in water. Mark’s blank, lifeless eyes flashed through his vision as he rubbed at his forehead.

“So, checking with you and Katsuki, and no getting physical. Anything else?” Brian asked, and Xavier looked thoughtful for a moment before he shook his head.

“We’ll revisit this later if things go well. For now, we’re good. Lifeguards told me there’s a wheelchair in the health center I can use, go and grab that and we’ll be on our way.” Xavier replied, and Brian nodded. He closed his notebook on the table as he passed it, only hesitating at the door when he saw that his shotgun was missing.

“Xavier, you see who took the shotgun I left here?”

Xavier nodded. “Connor grabbed it on their way out. Shotguns for the leads, remember? You’ll have it when you’re on duty later. Now get moving, we’re wasting daylight.” Xavier replied, and Brian nodded as he stepped outside.

The sun was high overhead, and Brian stretched as he took a deep breath. It felt like he had been cooped up in there forever, which, after checking his watch, wasn’t far off. His stomach rumbled, and he wondered if lunch would be delayed due to the reorganization of all of the campers into their new jobs. Probably best just to wait and see what happened, hopefully Finn and the others would get the radios working soon, or they’d have to send runners around camp to let everyone know when food would be ready.

Brian broke out into a jog, heading down the dirt path towards the Health Center. It felt strange, not carrying the shotgun with him after holding it for so long. His eyes automatically scanned the trees on either side as he passed, almost expecting to see red eyes and huge shadows. Luckily, the trees were thin enough along the pathway to see far into them, and it was obvious there was nothing hiding in wait.

He had to admit, it stung a bit, having Xavier impose the conditions on him for staying on in security. Brian had tried to explain to his uncle that he was mistaken about the fight, but the man seemed determined to only see it from his own, limited perspective. At least he had been willing to let him continue at all, for a moment Brian had been worried that Xavier was going to call for him to be removed entirely. Having his own uncle speak against having him there certainly would have changed Jeremy’s mind, and it was only his support up to then that had kept him from being booted out immediately.

While Xavier certainly trusted Katsuki to be objective, Brian wasn’t so sure. Xavier hadn’t heard how forceful the Nature Center Team Leader had been in speaking against having Brian in charge of even having a gun let alone being part of the security team. Hopefully he’d be a bit more reasonable now that the decision had been made, and wouldn’t try to remove him. At least his uncle was keeping that decision to himself instead of giving Katsuki the power to make it, or else Brian knew he’d be working maintenance before the end of the day. And hopefully, with some time, he'd be able to change Katsuki’s mind as well.

As Brian neared the health center, his eyes strayed to the corpse of the demon bear against its wall. He blinked a few times as he stared at it. Hadn’t it been much larger than that? It seemed to have shrunk since they saved Allison and Finn from it. Dark smoke wafted away from it into the air, and Brian shrugged. Maybe it had been a trick of the smoke during the night, making it seem much larger in the dark.

It was easy to find the wheelchair, and as he brought it outside, he saw Jeremy and Yasmina in the truck as it turned down the path towards the meeting hall. If only he had been a few seconds faster, then he could have caught a ride back with them. He eyed the bear’s corpse in annoyance, and kicked at it as he passed.

His foot passed through it, and he stumbled. After a moment, he looked back at it, his eyes wide.

A furrow had opened up where his foot had passed through it, and thick, black smoke billowed out. After a few moments, the smoke thinned, and he could see that where his foot had passed through it, its flesh was just...gone. Brian let go of the wheelchair and stepped back towards the bear’s corpse. He kicked at it again, and another large billow of smoke erupted as he jumped back. It wasn’t just disappearing, the bear’s flesh was literally turning into smoke wherever he hit it.

Brian stepped back, taking care not to inhale any of the smoke. Despite feeling fine after being covered in the bear’s blood, he wasn’t about to take any chances with inhaling some of it. With that thought, he looked over himself, frowning. He had barely been able to clean any of the blood off earlier, it being so thick and sticky that the cloth he used just ended up getting stuck as well, but now there was barely any left on him. Had it been evaporating as well?

Brian turned away, eyeing the corpse as he pushed the wheelchair ahead of him back towards the meeting hall. At least it seemed like they wouldn’t have to work too hard to clean up the beast’s corpses, given enough time and they’d probably take care of themselves. They’d just have to make sure that no one went near them until they were sure they had dissolved completely. No telling what inhaling some of the smoke might do, and Brian certainly didn’t want to be the one to find out the hard way.

Brian pushed the wheelchair back into the meeting hall and was surprised to see Jeremy and Yasmina talking to Xavier again. He looked them over as he approached, noting that the bear’s blood that had covered both of them was also almost gone.

“Got the wheelchair.” Brian announced as he approached, and they all looked up at him.

A smile crossed Yasmina’s face as she stepped forwards. “Good. Jeremy just got done telling me about some idiots making a break for the barrier. We’ll have to put that on our list for security too.”

Brian frowned, his gut clenching at the thought. “Were they trying to go through?” He asked, and Jeremy shook his head as he stood.

“No, thankfully. Just wanted to get a look themselves. But we can’t discount other people trying the same thing.” Jeremy replied.

Xavier sighed, scratching at his beard once more. “Just another problem to solve, on top of all the others.”

“Well, there's one less thing you have to worry about. I looked at the bear’s corpse outside the health center and it seems to be evaporating.” Brian stated, and got funny looks in return.

“Evaporating? Like, into the air?” Yasmina asked.

Brian nodded. “I kicked it, and where I hit it just turned into smoke. Pretty sure it was smaller than last night too, so it might just be evaporating naturally as well. All that smoke coming off of it.”

Jeremy stepped forwards, a concerned look in his eye. “You didn’t inhale any of that, did you?” Brian shook his head.

“Figured that’d be a bad idea, then again we got plenty of blood on each of us, and that didn’t hurt us any. Almost all gone, too.” He motioned towards his face, and Jeremy and Yasmina both looked at each other, their eyes widening.

“Hadn’t even noticed. Well, hopefully that’s one thing we won’t have to worry about. We’ll have to keep everyone away from them until they’re gone, or figure out an easy way to make them evaporate faster that doesn’t make it dangerous to be close to them.” Jeremy replied.

Xavier waved towards the two of them, catching their attention once more. “Can we leave that to you? We’re headed to operations to take care of some power rerouting. Keep the meeting halls powered with a single generator and all.” Xavier grunted.

Jeremy nodded. “We’ll take a look. Did you see which way the rest of your group went? We were going to help out with the...cabin cleanup.” Jeremy asked.

“They’ll have headed up north first, unless they had the idea to split up. Thanks for helping out with that, best if the younger folk don’t go seeing what they shouldn’t.” Xavier replied.

Yasmina took one of Jeremy’s hands in hers, a fond smile crossing her face before looking back down at Xavier. “We’ll head that way once we take a look at the bear.” She stated, and Jeremy nodded.

“If you’ve got a radio handy, keep it with you. Finn should be getting near to looking at the repeater soon, should have radio contact back if it’s the issue.” Xavier added.

“Sounds good, we’ll be in touch.” Jeremy took a step towards the door before he paused and he turned back. “Before we leave, do you need any help getting into that wheelchair?”

Xavier snorted, throwing a thumb over towards Brian. “Unless you think Brian can do it all himself?” Brian blanched at the thought, glad that someone else had thought of it before he had to go ask someone else for help.

It took them a few minutes of awkward maneuvering and lifting until Xavier was comfortable in the wheelchair, his face slightly pale as a few beads of sweat dripped down his forehead. Brian wiped at his own forehead.

“Anything else before we head out?” Jeremy asked.

Xavier shook his head. “Can’t think of anything. We’ll be at Ops for a while if you need anything.” Jeremy and Yasmina nodded, waving goodbye as they headed for the door. Brian came around behind the wheelchair, looking down at the top of his uncle’s head. It was a weird feeling, he had never seen his uncle like this before, and Brian wasn’t sure how to feel about it.

“Ready to go?” Brian asked, and Xavier grunted in affirmation. Brian pushed the wheelchair towards the door, his mind awhirl as they headed outside.

There was a lot still to do, and Brian just hoped that nothing happened while they got to work.