The return to the camp was swift and without problems.
The sun was still halfway in its path towards noon, but the heat was already almost unbearable, so they were sticking to shaded spots as much as possible.
Well, Noara and Marcos were.
"I hate summer days like these… Not a single cloud in sight."
Noara said, wiping the sweat off her forehead.
"What nonsense are you spewing, my girl? Summer is the best."
Lu countered while jumping happily almost in the middle of the street.
"And even better without cars! Don't you agree, Marcos?"
…
"Huh? Marcos? Why are you so quiet?"
The boy was looking downcast, despite Noara's skill's effects.
"No, it's nothing."
"You can't call that nothing! You weren't so gloomy bef-"
"Lu, leave him be."
"But…"
"Pressuring him will do more harm than good. But Marcos, know that the moment you want to talk, we're here."
"Okay…"
***
"Noara, Lu, Marcos! You're back! Is anyone hurt?"
Julia was on them the moment they set foot in the shelter.
"No, not really… There was a fight with a monster, but the damage was mostly emotional. How are things here? I see some new faces…"
Julia glanced at the people Noara was talking about, then back at Noara, with a big smile.
"Yes. They helped with the hauling of the food you found. Ten survivors from the surrounding area. There were other survivors, but they preferred to go to the area dominated by the drug gang. They thought that they would have a better chance there."
"I see… Welcome, everyone. I'm Noara, and these are Lu and Marcos. We were exploring outside, and we don't bring good news."
She tells them everything they saw in their patrol.
"So… nobody's coming to rescue us?"
"Well, it was to be expected if nobody has come even now."
"We're fucked up, man. Fucked up."
That moment, Clara stepped forward.
"We'll find a way out of this. Our way. We can't rely on anyone else, so we'll do it together, one step at a time. This is the center of the biggest metropolis of South America, so there's food for grabbing around us. We'll carve a safe space for us to survive until this ends."
"I agree."
It was Julia, with her Big Mommy smile, who spoke right after Clara.
Those two… They rehearsed this.
"We've already secured food for a couple days. There will be supermarkets, malls, restaurants, and other places with stock. Even if we miss the perishables, we'll still have the nonperishables. But before that, we have a more immediate task."
Despite Noara's thoughts, the words of the two seemed to calm the now thirty-five inhabitants of the makeshift shelter.
"Most of you might have noticed a faint smell rising, right? It's only going to get worse. We have a few corpses on the second floor of the bar, and there are several outside, on the streets and inside buildings. They are already rotting under the heat of the day."
Everyone looked around, sniffing and nodding.
"Yeah, it's smelling of rotting eggs already."
"Exactly. The highest priority is to bury all the corpses in a fifty-meter radius around us. Leaving those corpses there will only invite all kinds of scavenger animals and monsters, plus the miasma. For now it's still bearable, but under this heat it won't take long."
I see. Giving them a specific and attainable goal will keep them from thinking about all the bad things. I shall join too.
Noara nodded and complemented the other two.
"Everyone who's not injured, let's make teams of five and begin working!"
"Yes!"
"Bora!"
"But… how will we do it? We don't have any tools for digging graves, and all around here is asphalt and concrete…"
The one who pointed out the obvious was Marcos.
"The city won't just open up for us. We need to find another way."
"If we can't bury them, we burn them. We just can't have them staying there like that. Let's go! Bora, bora, bora!"
Julia quickly organized the groups for corpse hauling and designated an area thirty meters down the street to pile them up. One of the groups was to enter the surrounding buildings and scavenge all the wood they could to make the pyre.
Nobody complained or objected this time. They knew that the other option was to just wait for the stench to rise in force, making an already difficult life even worse.
***
Noara and Marcos were in the same team, along with three newcomers, Sara, Jota, and Felipe.
They had just delivered a corpse to the pile and were walking back to the area they were assigned to when someone called them from a nearby building.
"Hey! We need some help here. There are two corpses inside. We can see them from here through the bars of the window, but we can't open the fucking gate."
"Okay, going!"
Noara went to the other group and looked through the bars.
"Yeah, they're there. Hm, the hinges in this gate are good. Marcos, any good ideas?"
When she turned to him, he had become completely pale, like he had just seen a ghost.
"Huh? Marcos?"
***
PoV: Marcos
It was just another night delivering food in the central areas of the city, following the app's directions, when the world turned upside down.
He was walking out of an apartment building when the system message flickered for the first time in his sight.
Before he reached the gate, he heard it.
Behind a door at his right, in the area of the ground floor, screams of terror and pain echoed.
He paused for a fraction of a second, then bolted towards the street.
When he finally looked back, he had already closed the gate behind him. He was safe from whatever was inside, he thought.
He was now facing that same gate.
***
"I'm sorry, I spaced out. I'll do it."
He took some tools from his pouch and began to work on the lock of the gate.
"What? You sure?"
Noara asked as he moved with determination, already working when she finished the question.
Whaaa… Why did he change so suddenly?
She switched her vision to the emotion perception.
Marcos' emotional core is deep indigo, an indication of deep grief packed tight in his chest, while oil-black lacquer crawled along his shoulder and hands.
That's a trauma response. He's using the work to numb himself.
Over his whole body, bands of a shade of gray that resembled fog drifted amongst dark green threads stitching the bands.
He's almost dissociating… but holding together through sheer determination. What did that guy see?
She remembered the words he said when the Mandated Listener used its ability during the earlier fight.
Wait, does that mean…? No…
"Marcos, it's oka-"
"This shit won't open!"
Only then did she notice that his hands were shaking and he was failing to even insert the tools in the lock.
"Marc-"
***
PoV: Marcos
As he was trying to keep his hands steady, a system message appeared in his vision.
[SYSTEM INITIATION - CLASS SEED RESONANCE DETECTED]
Emotional Density Threshold exceeded.
Survivor-Surveyor Trait confirmed.
Symbol Layer alignment: Construction / Urban / Streets.
A Class Seed has formed.
Your actions, intentions, and psychological imprint have shaped the following outcome:
You have unlocked the Class:
✦ STREETWRIGHT - Tier C (evolvable)
A class born from:
— your refusal to keep running away
— your instinct to build to protect others
— your ability to read weak points
Accept Class?
[YES] [NO]