Laws of New Earth

Other than the slight widening of his eyes, Marcus tried his absolute best to keep a straight face. Staying calm would be the only way to at least avoid being restrained himself. "Of course we were just as scared as you and were worried you were planning to ambush us," their leader's voice resembled everything that was pain and everything that was pleasure. Neither malicious nor kind.

Anyone could see that it would be impossible for Marcus to ambush them with just one person assisting him with a bow. The whole idea of them suggesting it as a possibility was nonsense. 'How did I miss those other two people on the map?' Pulling it up now, Marcus could see at least two more groups of people staying hidden.

"I don't know if you have unlocked the skill tree yet but enhancer skills are VERY useful for hiding your presence. Not even the map can identify them." It was as though he could see Marcus' entire thought process. "We spotted you on the map early on and thought we'd just ignore you but then you came to us and here we are." He spread his arms wide as though he'd just revealed a great secret. It was also a sign to show that he'd won.

Marcus was about to beg for Lana's freedom but the leader jerked his head to signal her release. They removed their hand from her mouth and shoved her toward Marcus. She gasped for air and silent tears fell like rain. It was from the fear of being held captive with no hint as to what would befall her.

Marcus' knuckles were white with rage. He had been powerless and about to beg for her safety. "Don't look at me like that," sighed their leader. "The name's Rowan and it was only fair. People will do anything to survive out here." He paused for a moment, resting his hands on his hips. "Why not come with us? It's obvious you guys are newly awoken and need our guidance. Tell me, where is your guide?"

Marcus took a deep breath to calm himself. He didn't like how afraid they'd made Lana feel but they didn't seem like bad people. The two people who'd held Lana captive hadn't seemed all too comfortable with what they'd had to do and although Rowan could have easily just said that to manipulate them, the pure honesty in his eyes revealed no lies.

"We'll go with you for now. Our guide died after being attacked by a zombie so I accepted the responsibility of being our group's new guide." Marcus tried his best to explain the events of how the zombies had swarmed their valley. He didn't want to tell Rowan about the location of their home but he just kept asking questions.

Lying would lose their trust so Marcus tried to stick to half truths. He so desperately tried to only reveal as much as necessary but Rowan would only pressure him for details until he'd given him an entire recount of his awakening to where he'd arrived now. By the end of his conversation, they'd arrived at the base camp Rowan was in charge of. Marcus felt utterly defeated.

Lana had composed herself as they arrived and the rest or Rowan's group introduced themselves. His right hand man was the guy with black hair who's name was Tarik. The girl with darker brown hair and eyes was Mord. Her lighter counterpart said her name was Jessica.

The ginger guy called himself Michael and the also red headed girl was Clarissa. Only she preferred Clary. They obviously all had a tight bond that was built on trust which made it easier for Marcus to accept them as possible allies.

There were three other groups in their base. However, one of these groups had a member count of three and the other two groups only had four. Lost to monster attacks, bad awakenings and accidents. There were no hospitals anymore so if someone lost too much blood or got an infection from an unclean wound, it was potentially game over.

You could drown, fall down a perilous drop, get rabies, become wolf fodder, succumb to unexpected health problems like an appendix bursting. It was all so unfair to die literally for no good reason. For your death to leave no positive impact at all. Everyone here had buried someone or mourned a friend just like Marcus' group.

Here they lived in one of the bunkers and had dedicated nearly all their time to mastering the system. Marcus put a base marker on the map so he could always find them. They had all sorts of weapons like crossbows, machetes, bows, hatchets, knives, axes, the list went on. Most were probably used as tools though. None of them had been made, they were all bought using the system.

They had lots of canned as well as dried food for winter too. All also bought using the system. Some were of course already found in the bunker but they'd obviously acquired much more. Maybe through raiding other bunkers.

It definitely wasn't the most sustainable way of living. What if the system stopped working? It was obviously the foundations of their power. Regardless of how much wit Rowan had. With numbers and modern weapons, they could easily dominate other groups and form a powerful organisation. After all, there weren't really a lot of people out there to stop them.

Apparently their stats weren't all too high though other than the two guys who'd captured Lana but strength was their only advantage. Rowan and Clary seemed to have really high intelligence however. It was only equal to Lana's and her's was higher than Marcus'.

"We've experienced memory loss just like you," Rowan explained. "But we can still answer some of your questions." They all sat down around a campfire on logs. Marcus and Lana graciously accepted their tea. It seemed as though Marcus had only unlocked a fragment of the shop compared to them. Mugs made of porcelain were a peculiar sight to see.

Marcus picked out his first question, "do you know anything about the logo on the clothes, the flasks and the other equipment provided by the system?" Rowan smiled at this. He obviously liked the question but couldn't provide much of an answer. He guessed that it was the company who had set up this survival program.

Marcus moved on to his next question, "Our previous guide mentioned training and a mission brief. Do you have any recollection of either?"

"Yes!" Rowan responded eagerly, glad to share something he had some idea of. "The people... their faces... the commander... I can't picture any of them clearly but I remember being taught how to use the system as well as basic survival skills. My mission brief was to look after my group and locate other survivors." It checked out since that was exactly what he'd done. He had found other survivors and his group was alive and well.

"Tell me about how things work around here," said Marcus in a purely curious and interested tone.

"Well, here we have some laws for the new Earth. I guess I should explain them to you in case you decide to bring your whole group here and join us."