Enjoying the walk back, I tried to not dwell too much on Ani. Instead, I worried about the reality of the situation in this place. Not exactly an improvement, but it was the least anxiety inducing of the two. Between trying to unravel the mysteries of the mind of a woman and figuring out the mystical elements of this place, I would much rather worry about the latter.

The camp was mostly quiet when I arrived. Most people had already decided to rest and the few who still lingered did so in small groups, but spoke in low tones. I saw Mrs Aya getting ready to sleep when I reached the upper floor. We exchanged a very brief good night and I started my daily process of looking for a good resting place. I did find one, and I fell asleep in no time.

---

The break of dawn was still a few minutes away when I woke up. The eerie silence of the morning permeated the air, as the cold of the night slowly slipped away. It was cold, more cold than usual. Even with my jacket I felt it. I stood up with spring in my step, glad to get my body moving and warm. I made my way to the supply stash and caught myself when I saw Will and three others on guard duty.

‘Should I get my share? I did donate 100 points worth of it.’

I had indeed earned my share, and after spending so many points on food, I wasn’t willing to spend anymore. I had already set myself back a lot from my goal of a magic weapon, with currently only 100 points. With renewed purpose, I approached the stash.

“May I have a couple of protein bars and water?” 

My question was met with silence and a stern look from Will. The others were happy to pretend it wasn’t happening.

“Are you going to get it or will you make me go through the stash myself?”

“Try it. I dare you.”

I had just woken up and I was feeling in a good mood, despite the cold. It would take more than that to piss me off.

“Is this really how you want things to go down? Me and you coming to blows before the wave starts? That won’t help the group at all if they have one less fighter. Especially with John out of commission, can he afford to have you out as well?” I think Will popped a vein at my statement.

“You cocky son of a bitch! You caught John distracted and you think you are the shit? You are not-”

“Here, Leo. Some of us need more time to accept what happened.” One of the guys who stood by the side offered me the items I asked. Will was so surprised at the ‘betrayal’ he didn’t manage a reaction before I grabbed it.

“Thanks. I am happy to give you guys plenty of time.” Before they started the obvious argument they were about to have, I turned and walked away. We didn’t have an alarm system, but I am sure Will would make a great one if we ever had need for it with how loud he could be when he wanted.

I walked around the perimeter, but eventually decided to approach the alleyway. To my surprise, there was a shoulder high platform placed just at the entrance of it. I got close to it while munching on my protein bar. It was made of tied up boards, which were probably parts of some cabinet. They were stacked and tied together with a few placed diagonally to give it greater stability.

‘Is this a shooting platform? When did Noah build this?’

I gave it a shake for good measure and it was steady. Hauling myself up on it, I sat down and looked down the alleyway. It did give a good vantage point, but I wasn’t sure how effective it would be at the furthest barricade. It was still better than him standing beside me. I wondered if Ani and Sarah would join me in the alleyway defense. With Sarah beside me and Noah giving support, I doubted we would be in much trouble whatever this place threw at us.

The sun broke over the horizon as I dangled my legs and enjoyed the view. Minutes passed and I finished my water and food. With nothing else to do, I decided to start my warmup routine. It was still almost two hours before the wave, but my body’s newfound stamina levels were ridiculous. After a good hour of spear movements, which I had somehow become better at in a day’s span, I heard someone calling up for a meeting. Johann and John would probably just allocate the people in the defense line. I didn’t really need to attend, since I knew where I would fight, but I decided to join them nonetheless.

Which proved to be a waste of time. Johann spent some fifteen minutes talking about the strategy we were all used to followed by a pep talk. I didn’t need to hear either, and was mostly bored. Not as bored as Noah though, the big guy even had trouble keeping his eyes open and even yawned a few times. It even got to the point I thought he was lowkey mocking Johann, which I definitely wouldn’t put past the Aussie.

The meeting ended and everyone got going about their tasks. For me, it was basically standing in the alleyway and waiting. Noah came along with his fairly decent supply of arrows.

“When did you have that made?” I pointed to the platform.

“Oh, that? After the meeting yesterday, I asked a few guys to give me a hand. It’s awesome, right?”

“Yeah, but who is going to help me cross the barricades when it’s time to retreat?” Noah’s eye grew a little wide as he realized the obvious shortcoming of his new tactic.

“Right, right. I can only use it on the last barricade, then.”

“Lucky for you, Sarah and Ani are joining us. If she decides to fight with us in here, you might just be able to hang back.”

“Now, that, is some bloody good news. I get to watch her all the way from here.”

“What do you even mean? You know she is fully dressed in riot gear, right?”

“So? You lack imagination my friend.”

“I-. Nevermind, I don’t even want to know.” Noah smirked at my clear discomfort with his statement.

Happy to ignore him for a while, I went back to my spear forms. My body still felt warmed up and I wasn’t going to let it cool down. Noah sat on the platform fiddling with his bow and arrows. I wasn’t familiar with the whole archery preparation process, but he seemed to know what he was doing.

Like a German clock, Sarah and Ani showed up at the end of the alleyway as the sky clock marked thirty minutes before the next wave. As they crossed over the barricades, I wasn’t surprised to see Sarah doing it so with ease, but Ani’s sense of balance was unexpectedly good. She hadn’t struck me as the athletic type. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Ani calmly dropped the bomb on us.

“We need to reorganize the group’s defenses.”

“Why?” Noah questioned without missing a beat.

“Spiders.” Ani paused for a moment before continuing. “The creatures on the next wave are spiders. They can crawl on the walls and the ceilings. The barricades will mean nothing to them.”

Noah was quiet after hearing the answer. If he suspected her, he chose not to say anything.

“Do you have a suggestion on how we should fight, Ani?” I decided to ask preemptively.

“I do, but we don’t really have a lot of time. Can you take us to Johann and John?”

“Sure. Although, I am not sure if it’s going to be easy to convince them.”

“It’s going to be fine, they will listen if it’s coming from you.” I wasn’t so confident about that.

Both leaders were standing in front of a large gathering of people. They were probably giving some final instructions when our presence interrupted. I wondered what shocked them the most, seeing the two girls finally joining us for a wave or the four of us together. I would wager it was a mixture of both.

“Johann, John. Can we talk inside for a minute?” I fired off with confidence.

“Can it wait? We are almost done here.”

“I am afraid not, Johann.”

“Right. John?”

“Let’s hear it. It must be something urgent for Leo to come all the way here.”

John had been mostly neutral in his way of speech, mostly. I couldn’t blame him for not moving on in less than a day.

We made our way inside and out of earshot. John and Johann stood side by side as they faced the four of us.

“This here is Anichka. Her and Sarah,” I pointed to the woman in full riot gear with a sword hanging off her waist. “They saved me during the last wave. I can assure you I have total confidence in both of them. Ani has important information she wants to share with us.”

“The next wave will be spiders. We need to change strategies and implement a different formation. Barricades will mean nothing to them.”

John frowned, but Johann asked before the big man could do so.

“How do you know that? Is there a way to predict the wave?”

“I have a gift. It’s something close to premonition, but more intuitive.” John scoffed and Johann was the one to frown this time.

“Is this real, Leo?”

“I can assure you it is. She has shown me more than enough for me to believe in her, and considering everything that has been happening, is it really so hard to believe?”

“You do make a point there. John?” Johann crossed his arms and seemed unable to reach a conclusion.

“We have been facing all sorts of crazy shit, now we have mumbo jumbo. I already gave up trying to make sense of this situation. Let’s hear it. It just gets more ridiculous with each passing day.” John wavered between irritation and dejection as he spoke.

“The spiders won’t respect your walls or barricades. I can see you reinforced all the windows in the ground floor, but you haven’t done so in the upper floors.” Ani gestured to the reinforced windows. “I doubt they will be able to break through the reinforced ones, but the ones above they will certainly go through.”

“Wait, how big are these spiders?” Noah interjected.

“The size of a large dog, but they do vary. Some will be a bit bigger and some a bit smaller. They are generally knee high and a meter wide. They look like tarantulas, but with no hair, a hard chitin shell and powerful pincers in front of a toothed maw.”

“Bloody hell, mate. That is truly nasty.” Noah vocalized our feelings in accurate words.

“Assuming you are right, how do we fight them? We hold at the building entrance and the stairs?” John kept focused on the goal, not allowing himself to be sidetracked by the grotesqueness of our enemy.

“Yes and no. You will hold the entrance in a semicircle formation, but you must defend the outside, not at the door. If we put enough people outside they will be less inclined to climb the building and enter it.” Ani pulled a pencil from her pocket and started drawing on the floor what she had just explained. “You can also keep a reserve force, but it’s better if you keep it outside the building. Meanwhile, Sarah and Leo will hold the stairs leading down from the upper floor. You obviously need to move everyone from the upper to the lower floor.”

“What is stopping them from simply going around our encirclement and surrounding us? They can move on the walls.” Johann raised a good point.

“These creatures are going completely off instinct and impulse. They do not have much care for strategy, I am sure you have realized that. They are also drawn to humans, especially a large gathering like this. They would rather crawl over their brethren than take a detour. Although some might slip and go around, they will be a negligible amount that the reserve forces can take care of.”

Considering what Ani said, the plan did make sense. If they prefer to rush towards us, it was better to bait them than to let them overwhelm us with numbers.

“Your plan sounds good. I can see a few potential improvements, but it’s good enough. Since you will be here fighting with us, I have little reason to doubt you. I agree to implement it.” John spoke with finality. Johann agreed, having no objections or comments to make. It was unusual to see him so quiet when discussing things related to the group. I wondered if it was the lack of an audience, the subject or both.

“Alright. Plan spider extermination is a-go!” Everyone turned to look at Noah and his self satisfying smirk.

“What?” He scoffed at us. “You people have no sense of humor.”

---