The valley opened before them.
Reidar stood at the crest of the last hill, looking down at what had once been a natural clearing.
Now it was something else entirely. Something far larger than a simple clearing. The central space sprawled across what must have been several acres, ringed by ancient trees whose branches reached the sky. But that was not what made Reidar pause.
It was the hundreds of survivors in the valley. A camp could be seen from their position. Then they got closer. At some point they got close enough to see what was going on inside.
"That's a lot of people," Jake said.
Reidar had to agree. He'd expected other survivors, but not this many. The System had called everyone within five hundred kilometers, and it looked like most of them had answered.
The camp had no real organization. Groups clustered together based on whatever affiliations they'd brought with them, creating islands of familiarity in a sea of strangers.
