The road to the north was a pre-invasion road that connected a few small cities and farms leading to Canada. The region had almost no vegetation, only small bushes and sparse trees, and from time to time, they saw abandoned farms. Because of that, they didn't encounter any beasts along the two days on the road.
"How much time will take?" Mark asked, while looking at the withered crops outside. Because without proper care, the crops could not survive in this arid region.
"We are almost there. We should reach the Spotted Lake any time now. How much food do you have?" asked Frank, because by now he already knew about his 'gourmand' needs.
"I still have a few jerkies from yesterday, but it will last only for today," Mark said while furrowing his brows. This diet of his was a bit problematic for his taste. After all, he considered himself a practical guy. If he could, he would eat army rations all days during a trip, but having to always think about what to eat and how to get food was annoying as hell for him. But he was glad that no one destroyed the lab from the mining town, otherwise he would be starving by now, or hunting.
Just as Mark said that, he saw a small wooden gate with the words "Spotted Lake - Okanagan Nation" in the distance. The gate could barely be called a gate, and looking at that, Mark thought about the words on it, 'Okanagan Nation', he guessed it was related to the indigenous reserves, but as he knew nothing about the topic he avoided saying anything to not make himself look like a fool.
Mark's truck stopped close to the gate, and he kicked Jane to wake up the girl, "What?! Noooo!!!! You guys drugged me again????" screamed her aloud, seeing she fell for the same trick for the second day already. "I swear!!!! It will be an eye for an eye!!! You two just wait!!!"
Mark laughed softly seeing her reaction, but avoided joking about it. He didn't want to be killed during his sleep today.
"Ok, lets unload." Frank said, avoiding eye contact with Jane. The girl was out for blood and he would not throw himself at her.
"Arghhh! You two! Just wait! Just wait!" Jane shouted while storming out of the truck.
Frank looked at Mark, and both almost burst on laughing, but they controlled themselves. They didn't want to provoke the 'beast' anymore.
Once Mark came out of the truck, he walked a few steps and finally saw the Spotted Lake. It was a minuscule lake, no bigger than a soccer field, and Mark saw why the lake had that name, because right now the lake was dry and several multi color spots were on the ground.
It was not beautiful, it was just 'weird' Mark thought.
Mark looked around, and the vegetation was low around the area, but he could see a small forest far in the sight, behind some hills in the west.
"Now I understand why they abandoned this entire area of Canada... There is nothing here. Nothing." Mark said, while looking around and only saw hills with barely no vegetation.
Seeing Mark complaining, Frank came closer to him and said, "But we have a spotted lake"
Mark didn't know if he was joking or not, but if he was, it was a bad joke. Because Mark had to constantly find mutated animals just for him to be able to survive. He was starting to doubt Frank's plan by now. The entire area only had that small forest that Mark saw behind the hills.
"I know what you thinking. This place sucks for you, right? But that is because you are thinking just in you doing stuff as always. We have 48 people right now. If all that people together can't hunt a single mutated rat in a day, I will be your personal maid for the rest of my life." Frank said, while putting his right hand over Mark's shoulder.
"Do you realize you just put your hand on my wounded shoulder, right?" Mark said in a grim voice without moving.
...
After unloading what they needed from the trucks and making a circular formation with them in front of the lake, the 48 people made camp inside the truck formation by setting up several small tents.
All of that barely took an hour to accomplish because everyone already had experience with that from before. Seeing that there was not much to do, some people made fire and begun to cook while others cleaned up their guns or adjusted minor details about their tents.
Frank looked around and felt it was the right moment to make things clear to everyone.
"Ok! Listen up Everyone!" shouted Frank, attracting the attention of everyone.
"We can't lose time, so I will explain things straight forward!"
Hearing that, Mark too stopped adjusting his tent and looked at Frank.
"This lake here behind us, the Spotted Lake, is a unique lake in the world, and for some reason that we don't know yet, the beasts fear this place. We only know this because my group of survivors was chased by beasts when we were leaving the Canada and going to US in the firsts months of the invasion. It was because of this lake that I'm alive now."
Once Frank said that, everyone finally stopped doing what they were doing and paid full attention to his speech.
"At that time, I had no idea it was because of the lake, I just thought it was coincidence or luck, but once I joined the rebels, I passed this information to them, and they looked for other places like this, and they found many more. But this is not important. The important thing is right here and right now, RIGHT?!!" Frank shouted and just as he expected, everyone nodded their heads or mumbled something under their breath. It was good to know that there were places like that, but they cared for their own lives.
"Right!!" Frank shouted as if answering himself, "Right here will be the start, the place where you all will gain abilities! This place here behind us will be our safe spot! We can risk as much as we want as long as we can come back here! Doesn't matter if it is a single beast chasing us, or an army of beasts, as long as we can come back here we are safe! Safe to hunt mutated animals, and become and ability user just like Mark!" Finished Frank while pointing his arm in Mark's direction.
No one would ever know in the future, but it was at that moment when the term 'ability user' was first mentioned aloud and begun to be freely used.