The Zodiac Cycle

3.5 The Troll

(Note: the time on this is late June-Early July, so its been more like two and a half years.)

The next morning, Mark had us all sit in a small conference room to explain the situation we had on our hands.

"We are limited on resources, but not on space." He fiddled with something on the side of the table for a moment, then we heard a click and the table lit up. There appeared a map detailing bases and geographical structures on it as he pulled out some pieces.

"What is this?" George touched the map as Mark stood from his crouch, also holding a tablet connected to a wire.

"Its a screen. Abbadons technology is far more advanced than the rest of the world, and they refuse to share their knowledge with the rest of the world." Mark explained, setting up the pieces. "The main thing we are out of right now is weapons. The supplies to make them are harder to find than other resources. We are going to be sending out a raid in four days to a supposed storehouse that was abandoned to see if we can get more supplies."

"We dont really need weapons." Carson pointed out.

"No, but you need armor, and for that we need more steel." Mark pulled a stack of 16 chips out. "These will be you guys and us chairs. So far our plan is still in the works, and imput is accepted. George," he looked up at the troll. "I heard there was something trolls can do that might be useful."

"Jörd." George tilted his head slightly.

"Sorry, Jörd, I thought there was something that trolls can do."

George shook his head and pinched his nose. "No, Jörd is what it's called. My name is still George."

"Oh-" Mark's cheeks turned a bit red. "Sorry. What does it do?"

"I can move the earth," George looked at his hand skeptically, "but I'm not too good at it yet."

"Okay, good to know." Mark produced a notepad and wrote something on it. "We might need it."

George nodded, and Avery put his hand in the air.

Mark looked at him, confused. "what are you doing?"

Avery slowly lowered his hand awkwardly. "I- with all due respect, George, I'm not sure you'll be able to use Jörd like that. You need a lot of concentration for just small amounts, and any little thing can break that, like when others call you-" he bit his lip at George's glare and scrunched his shoulders, looking away.

Mark looked skeptically between the two, then shook his head, raising his eyebrows for a moment and taking a breath. "Also noted. I think Olive knows about it better than I do, so she might be able to help you train it a bit more."

George agreed and Mark asked if there was any other questions over it
When we all said no, he continued.

"Our biggest strength against Zach is the element of surprise. We need to be able to catch him off guard." Mark picked up 4 pieces. "For that, our lead players will be Clementine, George, Avery, and Elizabeth. Since you left last time the group faced him, he doesn't know what you look like."

"What about Ash and Nolan?" Carson asked.

"Didn't they both have two run-ins with him before?" Mark asked.

"Yeah, we did." Ash confirmed.

"Yeah, but we also need to catch his attention, and we believe Amber would be best at that." mark motioned toward me.

I raised an eyebrow at him, doubts and questions tugging at the back of my mind. something was off, but I couldn't place it yet. "How come?"

"Well, you were the one who nearly killed him." Mark remarked.