Blackdragon Province, Everrest Town, Everrest Won’s Penitentiary.
It’d been over a month since the Anomaly Zone hit. What they went through was nothing like Coldre Correctional Facility, but no less brutal. Out of the town’s 70,000 people, barely 300 survived.
Over these few months, 177 won turned the penitentiary into a fortress. Among them, 132 were forr inmates, one used to be a prison instructor, the rest just regular won from Everrest.
But numbers weren’t the shocking part. The real kicker? All 177 of them were Second Awakening survivors - every last one ca out of the Anomaly Zone alive.
That’s 177 won, each with over four tis the average speed and strength of a normal human. Their combat power was terrifying, sothing not even 354 ordinary Awakened could stand against.
Picture it - if each was ard with one tal Crystal, and thrown into a battlefield of tens of thousands... At their speed, power - how many could stop them?
The oldest among them was Glenda Forbes, 53. Just a rural housewife once. She got into a fight during a poker ga at a village store, snapped, and crawled into soone’s house at night with a kitchen knife. Maid a family of three. Thankfully, no one died - just heavy injuries. Got sentenced to life.
The youngest was Paige Fisher, 15. Not an inmate. Just a middle school girl. Survived the Anomaly Zone with help from the other won... and Awakened too.
The leadership? Dakota Delaney, 27, used to be the prison instructor. Lana Stewart, 35, a white-collar criminal - forr deputy CFO of a state-owned company. Mia Hadid, 29, did ti for attacking a mistress - threw acid on her face. Georgia Hawthorne, 32, used to run a prostitution ring. Managed thirty girls and fifteen rooms in a big KTV. Got hit with seven years.
Their fortress was solid. But even the toughest wall couldn’t hold off hunger.
Dakota and Lana gathered the key won in the guard’s quarters. Six of them, scattered on the lower bunks. A rickety table in the middle, floor littered with cigarette butts. Smoke choked the air. But the power still worked - the lights were humming bright.
Dakota laid out the facts. At best, they had food for three more days. Silence followed. One cigarette after another, no one spoke.
Finally, Georgia broke the quiet. She’d been staring at her knees the whole ti. Her voice was calm. "We hit Riverside Village. They got stores, no guns. We take half, leave them the rest."
"I don’t agree," Dakota cut in instantly, face dark. "They’re just farrs. Most of you ca from villages yourselves. Think how it’d feel if soone raided your ho."
"I said we leave them half. What are you so worked up about?" Georgia looked up, steady as ever, eting Dakota’s glare.
"That’s not just about how much food we leave them!" Dakota stood up, pointing fiercely out the window. "Put yourself in their shoes - if soone ca into your village and took your food, would you stay? You’re forcing them to move! And even if they don’t, if we rob them today and people hear they’re easy targets, what happens tomorrow? More folks show up to take from them. How the hell do you expect them to survive after that?"
"Heh..." Georgia leaned back, one leg crossed over the other. She took a drag from her cigarette, exhaled slowly, mockery dancing in her eyes. "So what’s your big plan then, Miss Morals? You want us to go cozy up to their n and trade bodies for food? Hahaha. Brings back mories... I used to tell my girls, ’Spread your legs, get a bag of rice. Beats your parents breaking their backs in the fields.’ Looking back, guess I was ahead of the curve."
"You!" Dakota flushed red with anger.
Lana cut in with a heavy exhale, clearly losing patience. "Enough already. Arguing gets us nowhere. We need solutions, not a damn shouting match."
"I’m with Georgia."
Glenda raised her hand, then turned to Dakota. "Look, sweetheart, we’re all knee-deep in shit here. Don’t act like you’re any different. Didn’t see you crying moral tears last month when you led that raid on Titan Mart."
"That was different!" Dakota shot back instantly, her voice sharp. "That place was run by thugs. They were parasites preying on civilians. They deserved what they got!"
"Deserved it, huh?" Georgia let out a cold chuckle. "So what, now that we’re the ones starving, we deserve to die too? Is that what you’re saying, Miss High Horse?"
Dakota rounded on her again, fury in her eyes. "You should’ve died back when you pimped out those girls! If the centipedes out there didn’t chew you up and spit you out, then the heavens must really be blind!"
"Oh, give a break," Georgia snorted. "You think I forced anyone? Think again. You law-enforcing jokers weren’t saints either. When I was scrubbing dishes in the city, it was your kind who first conned - sold a dream and used up. It was the sa bastards handing out raid warnings and demanding ’protection fees.’ You know how many of those girls’ earnings you pigs pocketed? And now you want to act righteous in front of ?"
Dakota went silent, her face twisted. She couldn’t deny it - she knew damn well the kind of backdoor deals that kept Sinovar’s pleasure districts running. People said the biggest criminal gang in the country wore police uniforms - didn’t feel like a lie.
"Enough," Lana said flatly, cutting the tension like a blade. She swept her gaze around the room. "Show of hands - who’s in favor of raiding - borrowing - from Riverside Village?"
Georgia raised her hand first. Glenda followed without hesitation. Mia looked over at Lana. No words were needed. Lana slowly lifted her own hand. Mia glanced down, then put hers up too. Finally, Heather Kirkland, barely in her twenties, lifted her hand as well.
Six won, five hands in the air. Only Dakota held back. She looked around, disbelief in her wide eyes. So avoided her gaze, others stared back without flinching. But not one of them wavered.
The air thickened with tension - until a whirlwind burst through the door. Paige, just fifteen, skidded to a stop, breathless and wide-eyed.
"Dakota! Lana! They just caught soone outside - he says he’s from Queenstead City!"
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