Richard woke up on the morning he was to choose his class and stared at the ceiling above him. He almost wished it had happened last night, but at this point it was all up to Leylah. She was practically comatose and could not wake up. He heard from everyone else that despite everything, his group of newbies were getting their classes a day earlier than everyone else had. If it had just been Richard and Leylah, they would have got their class four days ago. Richard was happy to wait for Fang and Amber, though.

  Dmitri told them the plan at breakfast. The entire day was to be dedicated to the class they wanted to choose to make sure that class was the one they wanted. The entire newbie table relaxed at that. Fang and Amber were more than happy to finish their breakfast and head toward the farmlands. Dmitri slid into the seat Amber had previously occupied.

  “What about Leylah?” Richard asked.

  “Still recovering. Part of the reason we’re doing this later in the day is because she should be awake by then.”

  Richard flinched. “Should be?”

  “Lucy feels pretty confident about it.”

  Richard rubbed his forehead. “Alright, then. At least I won’t have to farm anymore.”

  “Eh, don’t be so sure,” Dmitri said.

  “Yeah, I know. Sometimes farmers need help.”

  Dmitri shrugged. “Yeah, and sometimes Order wants you to be a farmer simply because you don’t want to.”

  Richard’s eyes widened. “You’re joking. That’s a joke, right? You have to be joking.”

  He waited for Dmitri to do anything. Holding back a smile or a laugh, any sort of tick that meant he was making a horrible misunderstanding, but Dmitri did none of that.

  “If it makes you feel better, I don’t think Order will force you to be a farmer, but I’ve seen some weird class choices since being leader.”

  Richard ran a hand down his face. “I hate you.”

  Dmitri finally laughed at that, but Richard did not feel like joining. After having such a hard time picking a class, Order wouldn’t make him be a farmer, would she? Sometimes life was so much easier when he knew no higher being was up there.

  “It’s been a while since I’ve scavenged,” Richard said. “But I’d also still like to do some potion making. Is that still okay?”

  “Because of the strange experience of the past week, I will be okay with it. Plan on working with Kali in the morning, then Marcus will get you in the afternoon. He’s got a plan to enter the forest and do more scavenging with his group.”

  Richard finished his breakfast and was happy to walk outside and not go to the farmlands. It was strange when he sat down and thought about it, though, that potion making was simply a different version of farming. He gathered the ingredients, then placed them in the pot before Kali came around and used her gift to start the pots cooking.

  “I’m alright if you don’t become a potion maker,” Kali said.

  Richard studied her, confused. Usually their conversations comprised very surface-level things, like the ingredients for potions or strange concoctions Kali had made in her year at base two. Their last conversation was about how Richard seemed to want to be a potion maker. Now it was a conversation about how he didn’t have to.

  With all this confusion, Richard opened his mouth to ask her what she meant, but it came out as, “Huh?”

  Kali had a faraway look in her eyes. “Perhaps it’s just a feeling. You’re really easy to talk to, and you’re clearly the leader of your little newbie friends.”

  “I, uh…” Richard resisted the urge to shudder. It was different when Fang thought he was a leader. Fang always had a puppy-like trust of people, and it seemed odd but not out of character for Fang to think the best of people. But if others noticed? “It’s not…”

  “Deny it all you want, but we’ve all seen how you help your newbie friends adjust to base two. I wouldn’t be surprised if you got a healer-type gift, like a therapist or someth—”

  “Absolutely not!” Richard covered his mouth, not realizing that suppressing a shudder would make him scream those words. He cleared his throat as Kali looked at him with surprise. “I am… no. Shit, woman, Order would never trust me with something like that. She shouldn’t do that to me. Or base two.” Richard shook his head, grounding the plant roots with his pestle and mortar. “That sounds like the opposite of a gift. That’d be a curse.”

  Kali started giggling. Richard glared at her. “What?”

  “Nothing. It’s just… the whole point of a gift is Order helps you with something you’re unfamiliar with. You’d get abilities to help you.”

  Richard rubbed his temples. “But Order certainly considers what you yourself want, right? She won’t force a gift onto someone who doesn’t want it.”

  Kali shrugged. “I mean… don’t you want to help base two?”

  “Not as a therapist.” Richard finally released a full-body shudder. “That sounds like the worst.”

  Kali giggled again, and Richard felt a fresh fear being unlocked. He was glad Kali had waited until now to tell him, because if she had told him this last night, Richard doubted he’d have gotten any sleep at all.

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  After lunch, Richard left with Marcus, Savannah, Elias, and Izzy for the dark forest. It was a sad state of Richard’s mind that he was in the twisted dark forest. His mind was scattered and scared because of what might happen tonight instead of the creatures that lurked in this place. He needed to focus on not dying, because a distracted mind could get him killed out here.

  They found the same clover field, and Richard didn’t know how he felt about those clovers being fully grown again after a few days.

  “Don’t question, just be happy for what Order provides,” Marcus said in response to Richard’s thoughts spoken out loud.

  His face screwed up in annoyance at that answer. More importantly, he realized Elias saw that look and was amused by it.

  When Elias and Savannah were farther away, Richard fell in step with Marcus. The scavenger leader seemed to realize he wanted to talk, so he told Izzy to go help Elias and Savannah.

  Izzy wasn’t even out of sight a few moments before Richard let it out. “So, I can have a conversation with Order, and we can come to an agreement about my class and my gift, right?”

  Marcus raised an eyebrow at Richard’s word vomit of a sentence. “Yes. Order is an extremely patient person. Or… higher being. She just looks like a person because that’s how she reveals herself to us in that form.” Marcus waved a hand like he was waving away his own words. “I’ve never heard her force a gift or a class onto someone. There’s usually some back and forth until everyone involved agrees.”

  “K,” Richard said, staring ahead.

  Marcus grabbed Richard’s shirt and pulled him back. Richard’s dagger was already in his palm when Marcus stabbed the tree they had almost walked past. A vertical slit in the trunk opened to reveal razor-sharp teeth as it screamed. Richard didn’t hesitate and stabbed the tree, too. After a few more stabs, the creature shriveled up and died, and Marcus looted the creature.

  “Sounds like you have some reservations about a class?” Marcus asked casually as though they hadn’t almost died.

  “Not really. More like Kali got it in my head that I might have a different class I don’t want. A healer class or something. Like… therapist.”

  Marcus’s lips twitched into a smile as he grabbed floating bark and slid it into his inventory.

  “I can see that.”

  “No, you can’t. Why do you think that? Why the hell would I be a good therapist? I’d be the worst.”

  “Okay, maybe not a therapist, but Lucy might always need an assistant.”

  Richard hung his head, not sure how he felt about that either. “You realize that makes scavenging sound less dangerous, right?”

  Marcus shook to stifle some loud laughter. “I’m telling her you said that.”

  “Can you at least wait until I have my class and gift so I have a fighting chance against her?” Richard asked.

  Marcus had to lean over and cover his mouth as another laugh shook his entire body. “Dammit, Richard, you can’t get me laughing like this.” The smile was still obvious on his face. “We’ve got to be on watch here in the forest.”

  Richard rolled his eyes, but smiled anyway. Honestly, he felt like this solidified it. He doubted he would ever feel at home as a scavenger, because nothing about the apocalypse was something he could get used to. But he enjoyed Marcus and Savannah’s company. He liked the thought of being a scavenger and bringing back things for the good of the camp. More importantly, he remembered that map. There were places to explore here. He wanted to know where these supposed portals to hell were. He couldn’t deny that part of him wanted to figure out why this apocalypse had gotten so bad.

  All nice thoughts, until he was back with Dmitri at base two, setting up a large tent over the orb for the class choosing ceremony. He was legitimately nervous about this. He, Fang, and Amber were all asked to help Dmitri set this up as part of the ceremony. Richard was so certain he’d choose scavenger until he saw Kali and Lucy in under a minute, walking around and talking to people. Weren’t they in need of more healers? He was pretty sure Lucy’s main class was a scavenger, but her gift was healer. Would he have something like that? Maybe he would be a traveling healer, but he wasn’t sure about that, either. He had so many questions he felt like he would burst, and yet it took forever to set up this tent. He needed these answers already.

  He was at level twelve, which many people were surprised that a newbie reached that high. But Richard sort of lost track of his leveling. If he couldn’t use any of the level points to get more abilities, the experience bar was something in the background that he occasionally glanced at. Now when he got his class, he would have three whole level points to choose abilities, whatever they might be. No doubt he’d be a bit more focused on the leveling aspect once he could unlock more from his skill trees.

  Lucy walked into the tent with armloads of clothes, and Richard watched with furrowed brows as she disappeared inside. He glanced at Dmitri, and the man smiled.

  “Those clothes have all been washed and sanitized. Lucy lays them out on the healer’s table, and a few of them get sewn up and fixed the next day. She always takes advantage when Order comes, because everything inside the tent becomes more organized and clean. Lucy figured out a year ago all the clothes get mended and sewn, so she takes advantage of that.”

  Richard swallowed, then tried to smile. He hadn’t considered just how much wear and tear an apocalypse had on clothing, even though he himself had gone through multiple pairs since coming here. Lucy always seemed to have a supply on hand.

  “Take your time talking to Order,” Dmitri said as he saw Lucy’s silhouette flinging clothes around the tent. “The longer you’re there, the more clothes Order is likely to fix.”

  “Oh, don’t worry. I intend to have a long conversation with her.”

  Dmitri gave a sad sort of smile as they finished hammering in the stakes.

  Dinner was a blur, and it didn’t help that Richard had no appetite. Before he knew it, Izzy and Evan brought out a bench, and Amber, Fang, and Richard sat on it in front of the tent, prepared to meet Order.

  Shrub walked over, carrying Leylah in his arms. She was awake, but barely. Richard’s throat tightened as he saw how much like a rag doll she looked. The remaining survivors of base two moved behind the newbies. Timick, Marcus, Izzy, and Elwyndor stood beside the door of the tent. The nerves in Richard’s stomach made him glad he had eaten little. He wasn’t sure if he would ever be ready to talk to the pure, personified being of Chaos.

  “As this group of newbies has a member of Callro in it, I will make the opening statement brief,” Dmitri said.

  Richard could not hold still. He was tapping his foot on the ground, staring at the base of the tent.

  “Do not under any circumstances look Order in the eye. You are not strong enough, and it could do damage to you.”

  Richard closed his eyes, giving a tiny shake of his head. He didn’t know why a line of sweat had formed on his forehead, but he just wanted to get this over with.

  “You may ask her any questions you’d like. Make sure it’s on topic. Don’t… disagree with her too much.”

  Richard could have sworn Dmitri glanced at him when he said this. He didn’t know what he did to give off the impression that he would disagree with Order. If he hadn’t seen Death, he was pretty sure he’d still be wondering if Order was even real. Perhaps it was facing the truth of some group of beings that were supposed to be over him and his wellbeing that made a bead of sweat trickle down his neck.

  “When you’ve finished talking with Order, it is customary to walk out of the tent and tell us all what class you’ve chosen. We don’t need to know your gift, as it is often too difficult to define in a single word.” Dmitri smiled at the group of newbies. “Alright, let’s begin.”