In the kitchen, the fluorescent hum feels loud enough to fill the whole house. Jenny sets another glass into the sink and keeps moving, because stopping would mean thinking. Louis stays folded against the counter, staring at nothing.
From the living room, Mara’s breathing thins to almost nothing. The others grow quiet on the other side of the door, close enough to hear, too far to help.
Then the house goes still. No struggle. No words. Just the soft weight of an ending settling into the walls.
Elias
She’s gone.
Dane
We should have had more time.
Benjamin, Louis, and Jenny wait while Elias and Dane grieve with the body. The kitchen feels smaller for it, but also quieter, like the whole house is holding its breath.
Jenny finally wipes her hands on a dish towel and looks toward Benjamin, exhausted and steady at once. Louis drags in a slow breath, then lets it out through his nose.
Jenny
Give them a minute. Then we figure out what comes next.
✓ Quest Accepted
Figure out what comes next
“I will check our remaining food and water supplies to plan for the coming days.”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +2)
Benjamin moves to the pantry first, then the shelf by the back hall, counting cans, dry goods, and bottled water with a quick, practiced eye.
He pulls the medical kit aside, checks the cache below it, and starts stacking the supplies into rough day-by-day portions.
Benjamin
Four days if everyone stays tight on portions, maybe five with the hidden pantry.
The water is better than expected, more jugs than he remembered, enough to keep the house going if they stop wasting it.
A little extra turns up behind a box near the pantry wall, a sealed pack of crackers and two more bottles tucked out of sight.
Benjamin carries the count to the table and sets the portions in neat rows, turning the stockpile into a plan instead of a worry.
Jenny
So we ration, keep the watch posted, and make the shelves last.
“"With the nearby houses and such already looted, we'll have no other choice but to press into Old Orleans. It'll be dangerous, but it might be our only choice."”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +2)
Benjamin leaves the ration rows on the table and looks up at the others, the plan taking shape in the quiet between them.
Benjamin
The nearby houses are spent. If we keep living off what the neighborhood already gave up, we run out. Old Orleans is where the rest of the supplies are.
Louis goes still, then gives a slow nod, eyes tracking from the windows to the barricade like he is already measuring the road home.
Louis
Dangerous, but honest. We can’t pretend the blocks around us will keep feeding the house forever.
Jenny
Then we go prepared, not desperate. Mark the next route, and I’ll want angles, exits, and a return path.
Benjamin taps the map and slides it closer, landing his finger on the city blocks beyond their scavenged circle, where fresh territory waits in hard lines and empty streets.
Elias lifts his head from Mara's side and watches the map, grief still heavy on him, but attention sharpening at the new boundary.
Quest Complete
Figure out what comes next
Attribute Upgrade: Reasoning Good→Great