"If we don't know what it means for a Challenge to be multiplied tenfold, shouldn't we be getting the hell out of here?" Tasha asked.

"And give up every damn thing we've built? We've got a defensible position here. Won't find anything better out there," Joseph said.

"But it'll be hundreds, maybe even thousands of beasts, and all the soldiers have run off along with that psychopath. Couldn't we just come back and rebuild once the Challenge has passed?"

"One thing to consider," said Dericka, "is that we don't know what direction the beasts will be coming from. If the Challenge is meant to start in only a day, the beasts might already be coming here, in which case all the surrounding areas would be at high risk to travel through."

It was an exercise in self-control for Dmitriy to not exclaim that he would hold the walls and protect them. He had no right to make such claims after his recent failures. So he just stood there as the crisis meeting continued, his neutral face not betraying the shame and frustration he was feeling.

Those leaders who had not yet left stood in the Major's old office, maps and lists of specialists and Quests still hanging from the walls. A glance out of the window showed the campsite in chaos, some groups rushing to form traveling caravans while others tried to push to the front of the queue to get inside of the town's walls. Many had already left, most notably Major Russo and his loyal soldiers, but still a few thousand people remained.

"I don't believe for one second that we can just run off and come back once the Challenge is finished. The whole damn thing is meant as a punishment, or at least a way to keep us fighting," Joseph said in his usual gruff voice. The short, stocky man wore dirty overalls and had held a grimace on his face throughout the entire meeting.

"We don't have enough knowledge of the Challenge to make the right decision", Tasha said. "It would be worth it to check with the population here for people who've experienced it before."

Despite arguing in favor of caution, Dmitriy thought Tasha looked fierce in her padded jacket, like she would be ready to fight at any moment. Her eyes were much harder than those of the timid young lady he'd met in the green zone.

"We don't have the time," Dericka said with a shake of the head. "If we're going to evacuate, we should decide to do so now."

"I have prayed for the Lord's guidance. My flock shall stay and seek shelter. We believe in God's protection of what we've built. After withstanding this latest trial, we will create an even more glorious center of worship," Gabriel said with a solemn smile, blue eyes staring up at the ceiling.

Joseph rolled his eyes and snorted. "Yeah, I already talked to my boys too. We put it to the vote. We're done running away. We're stayin'. For better or worse."

"I won't decide for anyone else," Dericka said, meeting first Tasha's eyes, then Dmitriy's, "but I will stay as well. I got us into this mess, now I'll do my best to get us back out."

There was a short silence as people nodded at each other with worried yet determined expressions, which was broken by a man Dmitriy didn't know. He thought his name was Jakob.

"Good, now that that decision is made, we should talk logistics. In a surprising turn of events, Tony had apparently deputized Candy, who in turn deputized me. Since both of them have left the settlement, I now hold the proverbial keys to the thousands of Value left in the wallet. We should decide on the best way to invest that Value," the man said. He spoke confidently and matter-of-factly, like he was used to presenting information and running meetings.

From there, it became a long discussion of logistics and tactics until the meeting concluded with each person taking information and orders back to their respective groups. It would be chaos, a whirlwind of last-minute preparations to maximize their chances of surviving the Challenge with minimal casualties.

Any time not spent helping with barricades or setting up fixed weaponry, Dmitriy would spend training. His resolve was stronger than ever. He had to be better. This time, he would not watch his friends die.

***

Despite the Extract's calming touch, Tasha could not shake the thought that she should be getting the fuck out of here, as fast and as far as possible.

It may be true that beasts were spawning out in the surrounding zones, making them that more dangerous, but that seemed like a problem that could be solved with good scouting and mobility.

She finished dipping a set of arrows in poison, returning them to a closed quiver clearly marked with 'CAUTION: POISON ON ARROW TIPS'. It was a particularly potent contact poison, which made her the perfect person to complete the task, as she could do it without touching anything at all.

Everywhere around her, people were running around, building things from wood and metal and preparing weapons. Below, there was a press of people in front of the closed gate to the town. She could hear the shouts from the guards and leaders.

"Stay calm people! We need to keep a clear space inside to set up barricades! The gates will open in six hours!"

Her instinct was to get out, but who would she even go with? There were some caravans forming, but she didn't want to team up with a bunch of strangers. Besides, Kobe still hadn't returned, though he should be arriving soon. She'd have to wait for him, at least, though she wasn't sure what he'd want to do.

She sighed as she overheard a group of young men whispering amongst each other while walking to the next quiver of arrows.

"...heard some guys calling her 'Carrie'. Because she's got the same powers, you know? Telekinesis, or something like that. Heard she killed five Tier 3 soldiers all by herself."

"Wow that's crazy. What's 'Carrie' though?"

"It's a really old movie where this crazy girl goes apeshit…"

Some rumors had already started to spread and it wasn't getting any better now that she was displaying her powers out in the open. Some of what she could do was explainable as normal usage of Momentum Abilities, but not the finesse and variability.

They had been trying to replicate the Direct Manipulation unlock in other soldiers by giving them the Extract as well, but so far it hadn't yielded any results. There had only been a few days to experiment before everything went to shit. Deborah had left along with the Major, and she'd taken the majority of the researchers with her.

Tasha grimaced as she thought of that, while part of her mind was occupied with making arrows float to a thin jar of poison and then back into the quiver. It appeared that it was in no small part Dericka's fault. She couldn't have helped the timing, and getting rid of that psycho was a good thing, but some parts of it were just her being deceptive and manipulative. If she hadn't convinced Kobe to sabotage those critical missions…

There was no use crying over spilt milk, but she wasn't sure that she still wanted to be around Dericka after that. If she saw a good option to get out of here, she might well take it. But for the time being, the best she could do was help with preparations while she waited for Kobe to get back.

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***

Kobe leapt over a bush, turning and slashing out with his spear as soon as he landed. A roar turned into a wet gurgle as the ape went down with a cut throat.

"This fucking zone," Kobe spat.

He'd spent too much time messing around with his new Abilities and now he had to hurry back, so he'd decided to cut through this zone to save some time. But the apes with their needle-like fur and huge claws were as fast as they were persistent. He'd be fine dealing with a few, but there were so damn many of them.

He spotted another one jumping down from a tree and he activated [Manipulate Magnetic Field] and [Infuse Charge]. A small, gleaming round ball shot out, blasting a hole straight through the ape's torso before it came shooting right back, piercing through the beast a second time.

One of the researchers who was working with Tasha had shown him a little trick. It was well hidden and annoyingly complicated to do, but it was apparently possible to program Abilities in a certain way. Kobe had spent the last days experimenting with this, bringing his experience as an engineer to bear. If applied correctly, these pre-set instructions solved a critical Ability weakness: the clunky interface.

By creating two powerful magnetic fields and charging a metal ball with the opposite charge, he could now make it bounce back and forth with violent speeds. The trick was in the targeting. He now had a pre-set programs to place the fields directly out in front of him, or at a forty-five degree angle upwards. But anything in between still needed his manual input.

Still, it was great progress. He couldn't wait to show Tasha.

Back in the settlement, things should be coming to a head if they hadn't already. He'd succeeded in convincing two out of three teams to abandon their mission, so that should have put more pressure on Russo. In the meantime, if things had gone to plan, Dericka should have gotten the votes to oust him, but nobody knew how the Major was going to respond to that.

He picked up his speed again after catching his breath and having a drink of water. Better get there as soon as he could.

***

Alert! You have failed to reach your Quota! You must defend against a Challenge to maintain your Settlement and reset your Quota.

Alert! Challenge Multiplier (x10) detected due to repeated Quota extensions.

Challenge start: in 6 hours

Challenge duration: 72 hours

Dericka wasn't sure that she could still trust her own judgment.

The decision to stay was made quickly and intuitively, out of a sense of obligation to see things through. Then, she'd quickly thrown herself into a pile of tactical and logistical responsibilities that she thought she could easily manage.

But as she stood, gazing vacantly at the anthill that the town had become, she wasn't sure she wanted even those responsibilities. In fact, she didn't feel sure of anything at all anymore.

It seemed every time she made a decision, no matter how well considered with the information available to her at the time, it led either to people dying or people hating her. Or both. Perhaps it was time to take a break from making decisions altogether.

She was beyond exhausted, being jostled left and right as people bumped into her, the noise of construction and shouted orders washing over her. Why had she wanted to be a leader in the first place? Had she actually even wanted it, or had it just… happened to her?

"Dericka!"

She blinked twice, realizing that someone was shaking her by the shoulder, but it took a moment to place the face.

"Jakob," she said, absently noting that the man was frowning at her.

"Did you see the alert?"

Again, it took her a moment to realize what he was referring to.

"Yes," she said with a slow nod. "The Challenge will start in six hours."

"Right, but more importantly, it'll last for seventy-two damn hours! We're not set up for that at all! We need to change all the teams, agree on a rotation schedule…"

Jakob paused his nervous rant for a moment, looking at her through narrowed eyes.

"When was the last time you slept?"

"Uhh.. I don't know. Maybe before the trial?"

"That was three days ago."

"...Was it?"

"Alright, you know what, come with me. You're no use to anyone like this."

She let herself be dragged along by the arm as Jakob pushed through the crowd, heading for a series of barracks that were guarded by people without uniform. After a short exchange, he pushed her inside and into a small room.

"Rest, at least for a few hours, then come and find me, alright?"

"But I need to…" she began to protest, only to realize she didn't know how to finish that sentence. What did she need to do? Hadn't she finished her to-do list an hour ago?

Closing her eyes for just a second, she allowed herself to be gently pushed down onto the bed, falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

***

With his improved connection to the energies of light and sound, it was trivially easy for Barry to observe the campsite from his hiding place in the bushes. It barely took any concentration at all to display a zoomed-in view of the people there, tilting from left to right like a moving camera.

It did make him feel like a creep.

He regularly had to hide from groups of people passing by as they fled the town. Though also that was as easy as turning on his Abilities, still he imagined someone stumbling onto him. That poor soul would get the fright of their life, finding a disfigured man hiding in the bushes, with a good quarter of his face and skull replaced by a strange white material. How would he even be able to recover from something like that?

"Oh, hello there, sorry to startle you. I used to go by Barry, but you can call me Quasimodo."

He shook his head with a sigh as he sat back down on the ground. Still no sign of his family, though they might be inside of the walled town. The entire settlement was a hive of activity, people either fleeing or elbowing to get inside of the walls.

He could just walk up there and check it out for himself, of course. But he wasn't ready to deal with all the questions and what would only be reactions of shock and disgust. They might even think he was one of the damn aliens. It felt like that would make it all real, somehow, that as long as he sat here, he could still pretend it had all just been a bad dream. He could still pretend that he wouldn't be horribly mutilated for the rest of his life.

With a grimace, he brought up his own image again, making it rotate as he stared at the hairless white material that covered the top right quartile of his face. It would already be a vast improvement if his eye wasn't an unsettling black orb. With a flex of concentration and a twirl of the fingers on his artificial hand, he adjusted the image, making the missing right eye match his left.

That would be better, yes, but still… He made another adjustment, putting his normal ear back in place of the small antenna that was actually there. Then, he added back some hair on top of his head, continuing to make small changes until he realized something.

He mirrored the left part of his face and overlaid it on the right side, tweaking it until it looked normal. Then he did the same for his arm. Soon, he was looking at an old image of himself, the way he looked just over a week ago, before that damn grenade had gone off in his hand.

Then, he made it move, the image lifting its right hand and waving at him. Next, it went through a series of facial expressions. After that, he made the mouth move as if the image were speaking. It proved too difficult to judge, until he added sound. Barry would say something, record the sound and replay it.

He shook his head.

"Too hard to fake footprints. Any thrown object or a single touch would also mess it up."

After spending some time thinking through the problem, he held out his artificial arm, then cast a projection of light around it. It took the better part of an hour, but he managed to create an overlay that made his arm look normal. As soon as he moved it, though, it passed through the illusion and the white material became visible again.

It was hard, but it wasn't impossible. With renewed energy, he settled in to continue working on the problem. It's just a temporary solution, he told himself, until I feel more stable.

Barry lost himself in the work, so laser-focused that he didn't even notice when the first beasts began to arrive.

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