Chapter 16
The morning sun filtered through the canopy of trees above the camp. Smoke from the cooking fires drifted lazily into the sky as people moved with purpose—each person given a task, each role now essential.
Axel stood near the center of camp, his boots planted firm on the dirt. He scanned the list of names Emily had given him once more, then called out with a calm authority.
"Mark."
A man in his late forties stepped forward. His face was weathered, his hands calloused and cracked. He wore a faded flannel shirt and a quiet expression. Mark had barely spoken since arriving at the camp, but when Axel looked into his eyes, he saw something most others missed—knowledge.
"You were a farmer," Axel said, holding his gaze.
Mark nodded slowly. "Whole life."
Axel walked him toward the edge of the camp, where a patch of sunlight kissed a clearing in the soil. "Can we grow here?"
Mark squinted at the ground, knelt, and took a handful of earth between his fingers. He rubbed it, sniffed it. Thought.
"We'll need to till it, clear the roots. The soil's not bad, but it'll take time. Patience. We won't eat from this land for weeks, maybe months."
Axel nodded. "Do what you can. I'll give you the tools."
He turned and called again.
"Ray."
Another man came forward—thinner, younger, with sharp eyes and soot still beneath his nails. His hands were made for delicate work. Before the fall, he built statues—realistic, intricate, things people paid for online. He wasn't a blacksmith in the traditional sense, but he knew how to shape metal with fire.
"I need tools," Axel said, voice low. "For Mark. Things to cut and till. Things to plant."
Ray's brows furrowed. "I'll need metal. Heat. Time."
"You'll have all three," Axel said. "We'll find scrap. I'll bring what you need."
Axel placed a hand briefly on Ray's shoulder. "What you build might keep us alive."
That was enough.
Ray nodded and walked off, already scribbling mental designs, imagining how he'd shape what little he had into something useful.
As the sun began to lower, Mark paced the edge of the clearing, planning rows, imagining the future. Ray stoked the fire near the old forge site, hammer ready.
And Axel, as always, stood at the heart of it all.
He didn't smile. But deep inside, something quiet stirred.
Not hope.
Just control.
And that was enough for now.
---
The camp had grown quieter in recent days—not with stillness, but with purpose. People worked. Some cleared the land, others guarded the edges, and some began to hope for more than just surviving one day at a time.
Axel stood near the center of camp once again, watching, calculating, always thinking ahead.
He looked down at the list in his hand, then raised his eyes and called, "Kara."
A tall, broad-shouldered woman stepped forward from the tool tent. Her arms were thick with muscle, her jaw hard and sharp. Her gaze, when it met Axel's, was cold and steady. No fear. Just calm instinct, the kind born from long, silent stalking through woods and wilderness.
She was stronger than most men in camp. Stronger even than Axel in sheer physicality—but strength was more than muscle.
"I read your file," Axel said, voice low and direct. "You were a hunter?"
"Twenty years," she said flatly. "Tracked elk in Colorado. Trapped coyotes near the borders."
Axel gave a small nod. "Then I need you."
He motioned to the map spread on the wooden table nearby. "I don't want dead meat. I want animals. Breeding stock. We're going to live, not just survive."
Kara leaned over the map, eyes scanning the treelines marked in charcoal. "I can trap. Herd small prey. Might take time."
"No pigs," Axel added sharply.
Her brow rose, amused. "Why?"
"They're dirty. Disease-prone. We don't have the medicine to risk it." He stepped closer, his voice edged with resolve. "Chickens. Goats if you're lucky. Maybe a cow. A bull. Something we can build around."
Kara studied him for a long second. "You want me to build a food chain."
"I want you to build a future," Axel corrected. "And I chose you because I know you can do it."
She stared a second longer, then gave one curt nod. "I'll leave at first light."
Axel nodded once. "You'll get what you need. Take someone if you trust them. But if they slow you down—leave them."
Without another word, Kara turned and left, already forming the route in her head. Already picturing tracks in the mud and claw marks on trees.
Axel watched her go.
He didn't believe in luck.
But he did believe in people like her.
People who knew how to hunt—and more importantly, knew how to bring something back alive.
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