Lucy was deep in her head, swirling with rage. Richard wanted to ask about her and Elias, but he also didn’t dare ask directly in case she exploded.

  “So… the crawler got to my legs. I’m not sure how far up,” Richard said, trying to change the subject.

  “Fine.” Lucy opened the door for him. “Strip down and cover yourself with a blanket. Were there thorns?”

  “Yes. It also broke my ankles, but my healing ability lets me heal two wounds.”

  Lucy grunted. “Good. I’m glad that ability upgraded for you.”

  “Yeah.” He put little heart into his words. Both of them remembered why Richard’s healing ability got upgraded, which brought back fresh memories of the attack.

  There was no one but him and Lucy, so she turned around as Richard took off the scavenger clothes they gave him, already feeling the loss when he took off the gloves and two boxes from his inventory disappeared. He now had the two healing potions and the whip in there.

  He climbed into the bed, keeping the blanket covering him.

  “How are your arms, by the way? From the splicer attack?” Lucy asked.

  Richard held them out. “Fine. The healing ability is miraculous.”

  A sadness hit Lucy’s face that Richard didn’t understand. “Yeah. It is.”

  Richard didn’t want to ask about Elias specifically, but he also didn’t feel like he should let this go. “Are you okay?”

  “I hate Elias.” Lucy lifted the blanket enough to see the marks on Richard’s legs. She put on her glasses, touching them on the side. “Death can claim him for all I care.”

  “What did he do?” Richard asked, bracing himself for the story.

  “Nothing. And that’s why I hate him so much.”

  Richard couldn’t help but stare. “Huh?”

  “Nothing I can prove. But he’s always leering at me, and I refuse to be near him.”

  Lucy stopped, her hands trembling as she placed her wrist on her forehead, shaking her head. “Forget I said that. It doesn’t matter. He doesn’t matter.”

  “Isn’t there something Dmitri can do?” Richard asked.

  Lucy started pumping water into a bowl, then grabbed a rag. “He already is. Elias isn’t allowed to take a step in the healer’s quarters, or my own. If he does, he gets banished. If he touches me, banishment. He won’t make it to banishment, though, because if he ever does those things, I will break his neck.” Lucy closed her eyes, gave a tiny shake of her head, and then smiled when she opened her eyes again. “Forget I said that too. Tell me about your first trip to the forest.”

  “Right.” Richard wasn’t sure how to react, but if she gave him an opportunity to change the subject, he found the smart thing to do would be to take it. “Yeah, it was, um… good.”

  Lucy dumped something from a bottle into the water. “And the crawler?”

  “Uh… yeah. That was a close one,” Richard said.

  “Not bad when it only reaches your thighs. I’ve seen worse.”

  “I bet you have. And I’m not asking for stories.”

  At that, Lucy laughed. It sounded unpracticed, and maybe a bit like a dam about to burst before quickly getting patched together again. “You’re a smart one, newbie. You might live a while.”

  “Will I live long enough to develop a dark sense of humor?” Richard asked as Lucy began washing the cuts on his legs.

  “We all cope in different ways.”

  Richard stared at the ceiling as they fell silent. The deeply uncomfortable feeling returned. He heard nothing but the sound of water dripping from the rag when Lucy squeezed it and her washing his legs.

  “Alright, you’re at full health. And whatever mental shit you’re going through right now, pray to Order that one of you newbies gets the gift of being a therapist, because I don’t want to touch it.”

  Richard kept staring at the ceiling. “Is it that obvious?”

  “You’re squirming like crazy. Also, you just came back from your first mission in the forest.” Lucy dropped the rag into the bowl. “But I don’t want to hear it, newbie. You’re cleared for regular duties. No doubt that means farming.”

  Richard nodded as Lucy went to clean up. He got all dressed, and was putting on his gloves when he hesitated.

  “Wait, do I need to return these?” Richard asked.

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  Lucy glanced at him. “Right. I guess you haven’t chosen your class yet. It’s surprising how well that fits you, though.”

  Richard winced, but she remained silent as though she had already answered the question. Richard gave a partial shrug. “So… what should I do?”

  Lucy wrung out her rag, then draped it against her bowl. “Beats me. Check with Dmitri.”

  “Right.” He took that as a sign that he was done.

  He walked outside, glancing around the walls. Evan, Izzy, Shrub, and Timick were watching their area of the wall. Richard felt nauseous as he realized he knew them all. Base two was supposed to be so big that he wasn’t supposed to know all the people. But there had to be about twenty members now.

  Richard saw a difference in the farm from this morning. It looked like they had fixed all the damages, and now everyone was working on spreading the fertilizer. Richard walked up to Dmitri.

  “Do I need to return the scavenger clothes?” Richard asked.

  Dmitri didn’t bother looking up. “Are you planning on going with the group to the beach later today?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then keep them.”

  He supposed that made sense. Dmitri straightened, handing Richard a bucket. “Fill that up, will you?”

  With that, Richard knew it was time to farm. He went through the motions of filling up the small bucket from the much larger bucket. They spread it over the large farming fields. They worked long hours on the farm even before their numbers were cut in half. Some crops might be sacrificed because they didn’t have the people to work the land. Which should be fine, if there weren’t nearly as many people to feed.

  “Hello,” Richard said to a man he knew as Ebbo. The man glared at Richard, then kept on spreading the fertilizer into the plants. Richard was used to the random head nods and then returning to work, but this was different. Ebbo glared at him. He glanced over at Rochel, who at least wasn’t glaring at him, but there was definitely some distrust in her eyes.

  “Lots to do today, huh?” Richard asked.

  Ebbo grabbed his rake and moved away from Richard. He didn’t know what else to do but watch the man march away.

  “What’d I do?” Richard asked Rochel.

  “You got a weapon when you weren’t supposed to,” Rochel said. “Brittany will talk to Ebbo. He… lost a lot of friends when Death came.”

  Richard glanced again at the man working with another woman he assumed was Brittany. “He can’t possibly blame me for that.”

  “He shouldn’t, but he does,” Rochel said.

  Richard grumbled to himself as he began spreading the fertilizer. “Well, I wasn’t responsible for it. I’m just a newbie.” He raised his voice so Ebbo could hear.

  Nothing more was said. Richard quietly went to work. If Ebbo wouldn’t talk to him, he doubted he’d be able to knock some sense into the man. Richard didn’t know what else to do but to work hard so Ebbo and others like him could know that he was hit just as hard as everyone else.

  Basic health (basic) > Basic health (advanced)

  Reduce hunger by 10% > Reduce hunger by 40%

  It was then that Richard realized they must have come back after everyone else had lunch. It was for the best. He should have had this the first day, but was with Fang instead. He actually preferred the time he spent with Fang making a hasty lunch.

  A few hours later, Marcus walked over to him. “You’re certain you’re ready for the beach?”

  “Yes.” Richard handed his bucket over to Brittany, the woman he’d been quietly working with.

  “You’re not—”

  “I’d like to go, Marcus.”

  Marcus shrugged. “Alright. We’re gathering at the potion building. Savannah said that she and Meredith had set some traps the last time they were at the beach before…. Savannah would like to check them.”

  Richard pulled his gloves on as Marcus walked past. Yeah. Death hurt everyone.

  Richard was waiting near the potions building for a moment before Amber walked over.

  “You okay?” Amber asked.

  Richard glanced at her, wondering if she was asking to be nice, or if she was asking because she had heard something. If she had heard something, Richard wondered what she had heard. It made him flinch a bit to realize the long list of things Richard needed to keep track of just to communicate with people.

  “Richard?”

  He realized his mistake in not talking immediately. Amber stared at him with wide, terrified eyes. Richard gave a smile he knew was fake as he raised two thumbs up. Amber kept staring at him as if she were dissecting him with her gaze.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Why do I get the feeling you’re hiding something from me?” Amber asked.

  “Because… I don’t actually know what you know. And there’s no point burdening you with… with…”

  “I’d like to know, anyway. If it’s distressing you, the best thing to do is let other people know so they can help you,” Amber said.

  Richard tried to keep his smile, but it noticeably dropped from his face. “I mean… ideally, yes. That would be great.” Cold sweat appeared on his palms, and he wasn’t sure why he had reacted like that.

  “You don’t think getting help from others benefits you?” Amber asked.

  “Obviously yes. I just… um…” He didn’t remember. But somewhere in his past life, he had admitted needing help, and then he ended up dying alone.

  “Leylah! Marcus! Hey!” Richard sounded a bit too excited to change the subject.

  “Richard! Nice outfit!” Leylah said.

  Richard glanced down at his borrowed yet incomplete scavenger outfit, beaming. “Thanks!”

  “It’s not fair. You get to go off being a scavenger in your chosen class, so why can’t I borrow some gear and go be a guard?” Leylah asked.

  “Oh.” Richard deflated a bit. “I don’t know if I—”

  Marcus swung his head over and stared Richard down as though seriously wondering why Richard still wasn’t sure if he would choose scavenger after this. Richard stopped his words from escaping. Instead, he cleared his throat, trying to keep track of how many things he needed to hide.

  “I… don’t see why not.” Richard stared right back at Marcus. “We’re so short on numbers, see if they’ll let you be a guard for a day or two.”

  “Besides farmers, the newbies are the biggest class,” Marcus said.

  Richard flinched when he heard that. That put into perspective just how bad the attack had been. Marcus nodded toward Shrub and Fang as they approached.

  “Let me check with Dmitri. I’m pretty sure, now that the farmlands are mostly put together again, Dmitri can let you four go back to studying in the different classes,” Marcus said. “He might even have you going exclusively with the class you want for a while, just so you’re sure you want it.”

  Marcus must have glanced toward Richard, but Richard busied himself with studying one of the stone blocks. He remembered that conversation with Dmitri. He thought about also being a potion maker. Richard considered it again, now that everything had happened. Scavenger was a class he could see himself taking, but he also couldn’t deny that something had drawn him to potion making.

  “Alright,” Marcus said as the last of the group came. “We have a long list of things we need that will only get longer the more we stay. Those insect bodies bought us a lot, but the more we can gather, the less of a pinch we’ll all feel.” Marcus headed toward the gates. “Come on, newbies. This time you’ll be on seaweed duty. But please, to be safe, don’t touch the water. We can’t afford to lose anymore people.”