Survivor's Gacha; Endless Improvisation

Fort Aegis survived another major monster attack.

Not just survive, the wall managed to repel the attack of a D Rank monster, forcing it to retreat under the bombardment of the wall force.

To the civilians, it was proof of the sovereignty of Fort Aegis, it was proof that the quarantine zone was built to stand and last even in the apocalypse.

Compared to 6 months ago when the quarantine zone was hastily built and it didn't have a unified leader, just a bunch of military commanders who realized that to survive, they had to come together and erect a quarantine zone, Fort Aegis was much stronger now.

Within the first 2 days of the Apocalypse, there were no Ranked human Awakeners, just Unranked men who learned to survive the disaster that tore through the whole world.

But after 2 days though, humans learned, they adapted. They learned to not just survive, they learned to thrive as they became Ranked, F Rank Awakened.

And that was when humans realized that just maybe, the apocalypse did not mean the extinction of humanity and the world like they knew it.

When they first got their special abilities, all they thought of was surviving 1 more hour in the apocalypse, surviving 1 more day, just like Ethan back then.

But with time, ranking up, they learned that just maybe they could thrive even in the apocalypse if they played their cards well.

Military Generals in Washington DC and New York reacted fast and put their heads together, birthing the idea of the quarantine zone.

Within less than a day, the structure of the quarantine zone was orchestrated as the founders gathered all the survivors and Awakened warriors that they could in record time before huddling down within the walls of the quarantine zone.

At first, they thought that was it, but after surviving their first and second monster attacks against the wall, they realized… alone, they could not survive.

They didn't have enough Awakened, they couldn't resist the monsters alone.

And so they made a broadcast, calling for other survivors and Awakened out there to come to the quarantine zone.

It was a call to safety for survivors out there, but it was also a call for reinforcement in the form of the Awakened who were born by the Rift.

Their plan worked.

On the first day, no new survivor came but from the second day after the broadcast, they began coming in waves, one group at a time. By now, it was already clear that it was impossible to survive the apocalypse alone.

Awakened cohorts braved the wild and the baptism of the apocalypse just to get to the quarantine zone, Fort Aegis.

It was only when they arrived that they realized that Fort Aegis was not the bastion of safety that they thought it was.

Fort Aegis was just as threatened and in danger as everywhere else in the world. What the quarantine zone offered was temporary safety, and what it took was freedom in the desperate quest to defend the wall.

For most Awakened, by the time they realize the truth it's already too late.

And so, gnashing their teeth, they accept that it was the truth of the apocalypse. Freedom was a thing of the past; nobody was safe in the apocalypse.

So they willingly sold their freedom to join the wall force and defend Fort Aegis from the monsters that attacked every day, wanting to tear it down.

Like most Awakened, Holt, Jonas, and Travis also accepted the truth of the apocalypse and joined the wall force, but Ethan, Reid, and Kara refused.

They refused to sell their freedom.

And so, Reid and Ethan became civilians, while Kara became an existence hovering between both identities. She was not a civilian, neither was she part of the wall force. She was something in between, a mercenary.

For 6 months, Kara met up with other mercenaries beyond the wall as they formed external expeditions outside the walls.

Of course, they paid tax like everyone else, they suffered from the same restrictions like everyone else, but outside the walls, they were free.

In the end, no one was truly right or wrong.

In the end, all that everyone sought was survival.

…

After the battle…

The chamber smelled of steel and oil, like every corner of Fort Aegis, but inside here in the council hall, it was sharper and colder.

The old war table was a relic dragged from some bunker during the early days of the apocalypse, a slab of alloy scorched and beaten by a dozen forgotten battles. Tonight, it bore the maps of a war still unfolding.

Immediately after the battle, the Supreme Commandant called for a council meeting among the upper echelons of Fort Aegis, the defenders of the wall.

The Supreme Commandant sat at the head, his uniform immaculate despite the soot and blood still smearing it.

His presence was iron forged into human shape, his D- Rank aura pressing down on every Captain gathered in the chamber. Behind him, the black banner of Fort Aegis hung stiff, the emblem of a shield wreathed in flame.

Around the table sat Holt, Jonas, and the other senior Captains of the wall force, men and women whose names were whispered with awe in the barracks and spoken with reverence by the civilians.

To the world outside, they were the wall made flesh, they were the immovable legends whose presence ensured that Fort Aegis would never fall.

To the civilians and to even their soldiers, they were invincible, inviolable.

But here, behind sealed doors, the weight of that illusion sagged.

The Supreme Commandant's voice cut the silence like a blade.

"You all felt it," he said. "The wall held tonight, but barely. And that was against a mere D Rank."

Months ago, calling a D Rank mere would have been seen as heresy, but since the emergence of C Ranks, and the possible emergence of even higher ranked monsters, it no longer felt weird calling D Ranks mere.

As soon as the Commandant spoke, chairs shifted but no one spoke first.

At last, one of the older Captains leaned forward, his face a mask of scars. "Our scouts returned yesterday," he shook his head. "They sighted something worse out there".

His face turned grim. "There's another C Rank out there". His voice cracked despite the steel in it. "It hasn't turned toward us yet, but it's there."

The words fell like a hammer.

No one breathed for a long moment.

Jonas, broad-shouldered and slouched in his chair, muttered, "We almost died last time. If it comes here…" He left the words unfinished.

His fists clenched anyway, knuckles pale.

Another Captain, younger, with hair pulled tight into a soldier's knot, slammed her hand on the table. "Then maybe we don't wait for it to come, maybe we leave".

"We can't fight the apocalypse alone!" He said in a loud voice that betrayed his fraying nerves.

"We've heard the transmissions… Africa, China, England. Those zones stand stronger than we do. We're not chained to this place. With our strength, we could cross the wilderness, reach one of them, and survive."

"Are you suggesting we abandon the zone, and its hundreds of thousands of souls?" Another Captain asked, his voice cold.

The first captain didn't answer.

The controversial suggestion hung in the air like smoke. Some eyes wavered, betraying the crack of temptation.

But Holt's gaze cut through them all.

"You think you can outrun it?" His voice was low and steady; he scoffed. "I tried. When the Rift first broke, I ran. I tracked miles thinking if I put enough ground behind me, the monsters wouldn't follow."

His eyes narrowed, haunted but unyielding. "But the apocalypse doesn't let you go. It grows teeth where you run, and it makes new jaws where you hide".

"You can't outrun it. You fight, or you die."

The silence returned, heavier now.

Holt's words rooted in the chamber like iron stakes.

He leaned forward. "If we wait for it to come here, Fort Aegis falls".

"You know it, I know it. The wall won't hold another C Rank… not yet".

"But if we prepare, if we choose our twenty strongest Awakened, if we arm them, drill them, and bleed them until they breathe as one, we can meet the beast in the field".

"We hunt it and kill it before it reaches us."

The Commandant's eyes flickered toward him.

Holt didn't falter. "It's not safety, it's not escape either… its survival, and it's the only chance this fort has."

One of the other Captains shifted uncomfortably. "You're asking us to gamble everything on one strike team? What if they fail? If they fall, we're worse than dead. We'll be broken."

"We're already breaking," Holt said.

His voice carried no anger, only fact. "All this order, all these walls, they only buy us time, and less every day".

"The Rift grows faster than we do. This is the only road left, fight it head-on, or watch everything we've built burn."

The words bled into the chamber, filling every corner.

Even Jonas, brash and reckless as always, didn't laugh or argue. His jaw was set, his muscles tense, but his eyes held something fierce… agreement.

At the head of the table, the Commandant leaned back in his chair. His face revealed nothing. His fingers tapped repeatedly against the metal armrest, and it was the only sound in the chamber for a while.

Every eye fixed on him, waiting for him to speak.

The weight of Fort Aegis itself seemed to balance on that decision.