"Keira, you... you're being even bolder than me tonight?"Keira's lashes fluttered, her eyes half lidded with a teasing glint as she leaned in close to Caleb Mercer's ear, her breath warm against his skin. "I heard men like it when a girl plays hard to get," she murmured, voice dripping with mischief. "But I'd rather take the lead myself. Do you like that?""Of course I do." The corner of Caleb's mouth curled upward. He tipped Keira's delicate chin up with two fingers, his tone leaving no room for argument. "Though I should warn you, I'm not the type to sit back and let someone else run the show. Especially not in this."Before Keira could respond, he flipped her over in one swift motion, catching her completely off guard and drawing a startled cry from her.Some time later, though neither of them could say exactly how much time had passed, Caleb finally stepped out of Keira's room."If you're still that clumsy, maybe you should spend more time practicing,"

Slaughtering an entire street's worth of zombies: the method was simple, actually. I stumbled onto it by accident.Along the sides of the tracks the train travels, wooden crates sometimes spawn. Crack one open and you can get all sorts of things out of it. Blueprints included.If you spot a chest, you can stop the train and get off to grab it, but be careful. Zombies or other dangerous creatures are usually lurking nearby.As far as I know, there are three kinds of chests. The lowest tier is the wooden chest, then the black iron chest, and above that the bronze chest. Whether there's anything higher than that, I honestly don't know. The best we've ever come across ourselves is a bronze chest.Oh, and here's a secret for you.If the train stops somewhere without a platform for more than an hour, it draws out a certain kind of monster. Tall, taller than you'd believe, with a pair of claws sharp enough to gut a man in one swipe.I only found out because it

"You're saying you can actually build surveillance cameras?" the group exclaimed, practically in unison.Caleb Mercer's eyes went wide, disbelief written all over his face. Something like this could be a game changer. If the train kept growing longer, and there was no way to keep watch over every inch of it, who knew what might sneak aboard without anyone noticing. There was no way they could keep eyes on all four sides of the train at once, not with just the people they had. A working camera system would be nothing short of a miracle.Clara Whitfield nodded, a faint flush of pride warming her cheeks. "My ability is an invention system. As long as I have the right materials, I can build small devices from scratch, things like cameras, little fans, light bulbs, and even a basic generator. As long as I have enough raw materials, I can piece them together one by one."She hesitated, then added with growing embarrassment, "Oh, and I can also make... something else." Her v

The moment that scene played out, the girls all wore expressions of satisfaction, as if a debt had just been settled. Caleb Mercer, by contrast, barely reacted at all. To him the man was nothing but a clown prancing across a stage, and he could not be bothered to spare him even a flicker of attention.After dinner, Caleb hooked the surveillance feed up to his computer, setting it to watch over the crates somewhere outside the train. With the camera doing the tedious work for him, the rest of the afternoon turned into a steady harvest: three more wooden crates and a single iron crate, all of them appearing one after another along the route. He took every last one without hesitation, hauling them back to his room, and he only let up when the alarm finally fell silent deep into the night. It seemed the crates showed themselves during the day and vanished once Darkness settled in, though he had no idea what mechanism could possibly be behind it.They ate a simple meal, and the

Sylvia's pretty face went pale with alarm. Her first instinct was to bolt for the door, but then she noticed the lock already turned from the outside, and her heart sank right along with any hope of escape. She could have cried out of sheer frustration, because none of this was an accident. Every step of it had been planned in advance. Fine, she thought, a reckless smile tugging at her lips despite everything. Let him have his way, then. She would make sure he remembered exactly who he was dealing with.The next morning, Caleb opened his eyes before anyone else stirred and found Sylvia still beside him, fast asleep, her breathing slow and heavy. One look at the exhaustion written across her face was enough to make him shelve his morning training for the day. He dressed quietly, made no move to wake her, and slipped out of her room without a sound.Back in his own room, he sat down on the edge of the bed and began sorting through everything Sylvia had pulled out of the supp