The room was spectacular, but the bed was the best part.

After the day that she had just gone through, Kalli felt no guilt in flopping down for a short nap. She wouldn’t be out for long, and she had the window open so she could hear what was going on outside.

It was an old habit born from living in a bad neighbourhood.

Extra bars on the windows, but leave the window open a crack so that you could hear people sneaking around outside without alerting them that you were listening. The technique worked perfectly, even here in a strange world.

Two hours into her nap, the sound of shouting voices and metal on metal brought her out of a deep sleep. Then, she heard diesel powered vehicles, and knew that the army was here with more people.

Perhaps some of the students had been brought back.

Kalli searched her closet for a more practical set of clothes, only to find that there was nothing but uniforms. Not even a set of civilian clothes she would have arrived here in.

She had no option but to wear the school uniform or the cloth armour that she got.

It was actually a fairly decent looking black robe with blue trim, somewhat eastern traditional for her tastes, but comfortable enough.

She decided on those, instead of the short skirts of the uniform.

That decision seemed to be the common consensus, and when she walked downstairs, everyone was in their armour from the beginner box.

That made them fit in a bit better with the soldiers in their uniforms, but they still stood out in a painfully obvious way.

Not by age, most of the soldiers were around their age, barely out of high school, except the officers. But the fact that everyone else was wearing matching uniforms of some sort, while the students were in an assortment of different battle gear.

They almost looked like a mercenary force from a bad action movie, Kalli thought.

The students gathered at the military camp to collect ration packs, and to see who else had arrived. The gates were closed, and plates of metal had been welded to the outside, but they could hear movement outside.

They had almost certainly attracted a crowd of desperate people to the Academy with their messages, and now they were struggling to get anyone in and out.

"There aren’t any more. It’s just us and the soldiers. Fewer soldiers than there were before. Some that went out didn’t come back yet."

Most likely, they got ambushed.

Or recruited.

It was worth noting that the students at Marimgar Academy were mostly the children of powerful families, business moguls and crime bosses. Once they got home, they had absolutely zero incentive to come back to the Academy "for the good of humanity".

Kalli should have been more surprised that as many soldiers came back as they had seen.

"Do you know how to work the ration pack?" The soldier asked as he handed Kalli a pack labelled [Menu A2 Scalloped Potatoes and Ham].

Kalli gestured to the back of the bag. "Even if I didn’t know, there are directions on the bag."

The soldier looked to his left, where a few of the students were struggling to get the bag open.

"Point taken. Yes, I know how to operate these."

Similar ones were kept at the office in case of emergency. They expired after a few years, so workers doing overnight shifts were encouraged to eat them if they got hungry, just to keep them cycled through the stock.

They weren’t great, but they were hot food.

She cut the top of the resealable bag open and fished out a dried fruit bar to peel and chew on while the meal heated.

"Just take the bag marked [heater], insert the food pouch you’ve taken out of the box, then add a bit of water and put it all back in the box. Close the box and lean it against a rock or something as it heats. Ten to twelve minutes," she instructed one of the boys.

"How do you even know that?"

"I’m reading it off the back of your meal bag."

"Oh."

From behind him, Reggie started to laugh. "It really does say ’lean it against a rock or something’. That’s awesome."

The soldiers chuckled. Some people needed practical advice.

Now that they had been made aware, everyone else hurried to read the instructions so they didn’t look like incompetents.

There was actually a lot of food in that pack, snacks and such plus the actual meal pack, and Kalli ended up storing half of it for later, while most of the warriors and mages polished theirs off even before it was properly warm.

Reggie began to gather all the students together for a meeting, and Kalli patiently waited along the edge of the group.

She didn’t know what they were up to, but it was likely to get everyone in trouble.

"We should head out of the Academy and raid a grocery store," Reggie began.

"Brother, you’re like twelve hours late. Didn’t you see the smoke? That had to be coming from the same block as the grocery store. There isn’t another one near here, and if there were riots that close, the place is already empty and people are fighting over the food," one of the other boys informed him.

"Well, do you have any other bright ideas? We can’t just rely on the army for meal packs forever."

A few of the students turned to Kalli, who nodded. "I think that we should wait until after things get ugly tomorrow. Once it all kicks off, and we’ve got the area stable, we can counterattack and go collect anything that hasn’t been looted. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

It’s like when you’re fighting off a server hacking attempt. Contain, stabilize, then counterattack before locking everything down. It’s the only way to know for sure."

Most of the students nodded. Programming courses were part of their mandatory curriculum at the High School here.

"Alright. Before that, we need a list. What don’t we have? What can’t the Academy supply for itself? The soldiers were saying this place is supposed to be mostly self-supporting."

"Basically food and weapons. We’ve got the solar fields for power, we’ve got the wells and cisterns for water. That’s basically what you need, right? Food, shelter, water, power and porn?" One of the boys joked.

"The campus net is down. It went out just before I came out. I think that one of the stations went down, but my phone is still working."

The boy held up a fancy phone with a large antenna, and the other students laughed.

"That’s a satellite phone. If you lose signal, we’re all in trouble."

"Well, for now, we’re still getting live updates."