Chapter 54: All or Nothing

*Some time ago — outside the university building, shortly after the others scattered from the Audimax*

The crowd spilled out through the doors of the university's entrance hall, some already standing on the open plaza beyond, others still packed shoulder to shoulder just inside the frame, pressing forward. Whatever discipline had held them together inside the Audimax had already begun to fray the moment the first person laid eyes on the open street. Every instinct in the crowd screamed at them to run, all at once, in every direction.

„Wait! Don't go any further!“

The voice cut through the noise, sharp enough to make a few dozen heads turn. Rudolf, twenty-four years old, Level 3, stood a step above the rest on the building's low entrance stairs, one hand raised. He wasn't the strongest person in the crowd, and he knew it — but he was, at least, one of the few still thinking clearly. „There are countless monsters out there. We already had trouble with small packs. This is hundreds of them.“ He swept his hand across the plaza, toward the street beyond it, toward whatever was waiting in the streets ahead. „Most of you aren't even Level 3 yet. Your stats are barely above normal. Right now, nothing separates you from an ordinary human. You'll die out there for nothing!“

For a moment, the crowd wavered.

Then a voice shouted back from somewhere near the front. „I don't care what the rest of you do. I'm going.“ Jakob pushed his way to the edge of the stairs, not bothering to look back at Rudolf. „I can't afford to waste any more time.“ He gestured toward a tight cluster of people near him, all of them already moving with a battle discipline that came from having survived real fights. „Most of us already have talents. Take care of yourselves.“ And with that, he turned and walked straight toward the open street, his group falling into step behind him without a word of protest.

Right after Jakob more groups left without saying a word. It seemed like they already made up their next moves.

*Damn it. Jakob was the strongest one here. And the others are also quite strong. Now only the weaker ones are left. I wish Julian was around. Or that Michael. Either of them would have known exactly what to say to stop this from turning into a slaughter.*

But neither of them was here. So Rudolf raised his voice again, louder this time, forcing the words out before the remaining of the crowd could follow Jakob and the others into the street. „I have the ability to create barriers!“ he called out. „Anyone who's close to Level 3 — come here. Now. Please.“

As he tried to wrestle some kind of order out of the chaos, he caught a few faces twisting in the crowd — a flicker of something sour and disappointed. Some of them had been hoping the whole mass would simply bolt into the open, uncoordinated and screaming, so that in the resulting chaos they could slip away unnoticed and kill while the monsters were distracted. Even if it meant plenty of the people around them wouldn't survive it. But when they saw just how many were already gathering around Rudolf, falling in line instead of scattering, they swallowed whatever plan they'd been quietly forming and decided to play along instead.

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„Okay,“ Rudolf said, once a solid knot of people had formed around him. „Whoever has the most experience comes with me. With my barrier protecting the group, we can manage to save kills and get more people to Level 3 to unlock a talent. That would make us way stronger and increase our chance of survival.“ He scanned the faces in front of him. „Is there anyone already at Level 3?“

Roughly twenty hands went up. Five of them belonged to people from Michael's old group — Matteo Rossi, Amir Al-Sayed, Alina Sokolov, Fabian Lindt, and Valerie Wagner, all of them already carrying themselves with the settled confidence of people who'd done this before, weapons resting easy in their hands instead of clutched white-knuckled like everyone else's.

Rudolf was pleasently surprised. He didn't expect such a big group of talented people to be left behind.

Amir stepped forward first. „The five of us are already battle-tested. We fought together and killed the hell out there.“ His eyes swept over the gathered volunteers. „We can take twenty people with us. But you do exactly what we tell you, when we tell you.“ He paused, scanning the crowd once more. „And only if you're actually headed toward the twenty-third district. That's our route. Anyone going somewhere else, this isn't your group.“

The moment the crowd realized all five of them already had talents of their own, most of the remaining people raised their hands without hesitation — relief plain on more than a few faces at the idea of following someone who actually knew what they were doing. But once the direction requirement filtered through, plenty of hands dropped again, people peeling off toward whatever part of the city their own families were in. What was left was a tighter knot of about sixty.

Alina looked over the sixty faces in front of her, something apologetic tightening around her eyes. „We'd take every one of you if we could. But we can't guarantee anyone's safety past a certain number.“ She shook her head slowly. „It has to be twenty.“

What followed was an attempt to narrow sixty people down to twenty, and it fell apart almost as soon as it began. Amir tried asking for the strongest fighters to step forward first, hoping the rest would fall in line behind whoever proved themselves — instead, nearly all sixty stepped forward at once, each one convinced they belonged in that number. Fabian suggested picking by proximity to the twenty-third district, cutting the group down by distance instead of ability, but the moment people realized where the cut would fall, the ones on the wrong side of the line started arguing, insisting they could keep pace, that the distance didn't mean anything if they died along the way regardless. Valerie tried simply asking for ten volunteers to hang back and wait for a second group later — nobody moved. Nobody wanted to be the one left standing on the plaza while the others walked away. The arguing grew louder, voices overlapping, a few people grabbing at each other's sleeves, until it was clear that no version of the selection was going to work. Sixty people had decided, independently and all at once, that being left behind was worse than any risk waiting for them in the street.

Amir finally exhaled and raised both hands for quiet. „Okay. Fine. All of you come.“ His voice hardened. „But we're not responsible for you if you don't make it. None of us. That's on you.“ He looked around at all sixty faces, making sure every one of them understood. „The one thing that isn't negotiable is that you listen to us. Completely. No exceptions.“

Although most of them were not pleased, nobody dared to argue any longer because of the fear of being lefr behind.

They organized quickly after that. A group of 60 was too big to move together. That‘s why they splitted the fifty into five formations of eleven, each one built around one of the five from Michael's old group standing at its point. The rest was following Rudolf. Together, they were ready to move as one toward the twenty-third district, and toward whatever was waiting for them between here and there.