Morning sunlight filtered through broken windows as Faultline stirred to life. The air buzzed with quiet urgency—rations were running low again. Jaden stood near the exit, eyes scanning a hand-drawn map pinned to the wall.
Tess approached, her recently healed arm wrapped in light gauze for support. "You sure you want me to stay behind?"
Jaden nodded. "We need someone holding the fort. If anything happens, you're the best one to respond. Kira's still getting her footing, and we need someone steady guarding the base."
Tess gave a short nod, swallowing her frustration. "Fine. But if you're not back in six hours, I'm coming after you."
Jaden smirked. "I'd expect nothing less."
Marcus and Raya approached next. Marcus checked the magazine on his rifle, while Raya twirled a short-blade spear she'd salvaged from one of the fallen elites.
"You good to go?" Jaden asked her.
Raya nodded. "Supplies or no supplies, if we don't move fast, someone else will."
Jaden turned to Kira, who looked nervous but ready. "Stay close. We'll handle the heavy lifting—you keep your eyes sharp."
Together, the four of them departed Faultline and slipped through the fractured city streets. The air was still, the silence eerie, broken only by distant groans and the wind brushing shattered glass.
Their destination: an old commercial strip—part of a former logistics hub that might still hold medical supplies, canned food, or battery packs.
Once there, Marcus led the breach into a partially collapsed supermarket. Jaden and Raya flanked him while Kira brought up the rear.
"Keep it tight," Jaden said. "In and out."
Inside, the shelves were ransacked but not empty. Marcus found a crate of energy bars under a fallen shelf. Raya discovered unopened bottled water stashed in an office mini-fridge.
Jaden reached toward a medkit behind the counter—when a growl broke the silence.
A bloated, twitching zombie burst from a corner door, jaw slack and limbs unnaturally quick.
Jaden lunged forward, slashing his combat knife in a clean arc. The steel-tipped blade sliced through the zombie's neck in one motion, aided by Phase Trigger.
The corpse crumpled, but the familiar system chime never came.
No stat boost. No loot.
Again.
Jaden's brow furrowed slightly, even as three more zombies burst out—one leapt for Kira, who froze.
Raya moved like lightning, stabbing her spear through the creature's chest and yanking it free.
"I had it," Kira muttered breathlessly.
"Sure you did," Raya said, grinning.
Marcus fired twice into the other two zombies before they got close.
Within minutes, the store was cleared.
Still, no system notifications. No flashes of gained Strength or Agility. Nothing.
Jaden sighed internally.
It had started happening more often—fighting lower-tier zombies yielded nothing. No stats, no items.
The system had grown stricter.
Only higher-tier threats—Elites or worse—seemed to count now. Everything else was beneath the threshold. He wasn't even sure the kills registered anymore.
Like the system was silently saying: You've outgrown them.
"Still breathing," Marcus said, wiping his brow.
They loaded their haul quickly: canned goods, painkillers, clean bandages, some broken tech parts—and a strange, locked steel case Jaden found buried under a shelf. He opened his inventory and stored it immediately. The Lock System labeled it: [Unknown Medical Kit].
They made it halfway back before something stirred in the ruins. Growling. But whatever it was, it didn't follow.
Once back at the base, Tess stood at the entrance, arms folded, rifle ready.
"You're late," she said.
"We're fed," Jaden replied, hoisting the duffel.
Raya rolled her shoulders. "We found enough to last a few days. Maybe more."
Kira immediately went to sort the supplies and re-inventory the medical stock, clearly eager to help.
As the team unpacked and shared what they'd found, the mood in Faultline lifted.
More food. More medicine. More strength.
It was more than just a scavenge run—it was proof they could survive together.
Faultline wasn't just a shelter anymore.
It was their base.
And Jaden, looking around at the people he'd fought beside—Tess, Marcus, Raya, and Kira—knew one thing clearly:
This was his team.
And if the system demanded bigger challenges to grow stronger?
Then he'd find them.