Marcus

It had been two days since they left the cave, two days of hiking through the woods dragging all their supplies with them—tents, crates, food, weapons, luggage—following Kenny's slow march to the south.

They would sometimes follow the winding of the river, then divert back into the woods for a few miles before coming back to the river again. The only thing that changed was that the river carved deeper into the woods, weathering down into the dirt until it created a shallow gorge from thousands of years of erosion. They found themselves getting higher and higher up the trail.

Most of the group weren't too happy being back out into the wild. However, the snow continued to thaw, which made their path at least easier to traverse. Sometimes, Marcus missed the protective enclosure of the cave's walls, and surprisingly, the cave's mouth provided a great defensive barrier. Still, Kenny argued he and Hyun found something better: a roof and four walls.

"It'll be worth it, you'll see," Kenny reassured him with a smile, but his enthusiasm didn't pass on to Marcus. The others were also skeptical of moving the camp again.

"We have walls here and a so-called roof," Roylan said, "and remember, we barely made it out last time when we walked through rough terrain with at least thirty pounds on our backs."

Marcus murmured in agreement. Over the past two weeks, all of them had shed an average of fifteen pounds—an unhealthy rate to lose weight that fast in such a small amount of time.

But Kenny didn't budge. "Ah. But this one has beds, rooms, and…"

"Are you saying you found a house—an actual proper shelter than this dump?" Easton asked. He quickly shot a narrowed look at Roylan, having caught his tongue. "Sorry, Roylan. I'm just being honest."

Roylan shrugged. "None taken, kid."

Kenny's grin broadened. "Better. We found a village."

Marcus was reluctant about moving the camp far away from where they first found Jacob's trail. He still hoped that if his son managed to escape, he might think of going back to their original encampment. He fiddled with the idea of leaving a small group behind in the cave, but splitting up their resources might not be ideal in the long run. In the end, everyone unanimously decided to go down south together, and Andy, most of all, was most excited about the trek.

With Jacob several miles away in the south, it was impossible to tell if he could hike back north and head in the right direction. Marcus believed the boy would only end up getting lost, and worse, succumb to hypothermia. For a twelve-year-old with atrocious outdoor survival skills, it would be easy to get lost in the sea of green and white.

Marcus believed he should've prepared Jacob better, but it was hopeless to linger on it further now that it's too late. Growing up, his son would refuse to join any activities that involved the outdoors compared to his other siblings, and no matter how he tried to encourage him, Jacob ended up burrowing into the company of his books and video games.

If I was hard enough, If I was strict enough…maybe, Marcus thought, but that won't be Jacob. Besides, he didn't know that they would end up getting sucked into a portal and flung onto an alien planet. He found his fingers twiddling the hilt of Jacob's dagger dangling at the side of his belt, relieved that they at least picked up his trail once again.

I'm close, son. You just gotta hold on a little longer.

"Will Jacob be waiting there, dad?" Eli asked him on the first night they made camp.

"Don't be stupid, Eli!" Connor jeered before Marcus could reply. "Kenny would have brought Jacob with him to us. He'd be here by now."

"Connor! Don't speak to your brother like that," Marcus hissed, glaring at him. The boy merely shrugged, took a small stick off the ground, and started poking on the dirt, avoiding his gaze. When he was sure Connor wasn't going to make another retort, Marcus turned back to Eli, said, "Jacob isn't there anymore, but he did stay there. We're going to find out where he went next."

"The safe place?"

Marcus nodded. "Kenny believes we'll be better off there than in the woods. I trust him. We'll be okay."

"I miss him," Eli said, his lips curling.

"I do too, son. We'll find him. Don't worry."

Connor sneered. "Well, if you let us help out, then we'd find him sooner!"

"And what if something bad happens to you out there? You're still a kid. You are only fourteen."

"You let Noah come with you."

"Noah's almost eighteen, close to being a full-grown adult, and he's a Boy Scout. He has the necessary skills—"

"He's an asshole," Connor added.

"Language."

"But it's true! He doesn't care about finding Jacob. He only went along because his dad forced him to."

"Connor. That's enough. Go to your bed."

"But I'm not tired yet."

"Go. To. Your. Bed. Now."

"Urgh! This is so unfair!" Connor exclaimed, tossing the stick onto the campfire and stomped off toward their tent. Marcus heard him rustle in there, trying to slip into his sleeping bag.

Eli was silent for a while, watching the flames. "Is he having a pubescence?" He asked suddenly. "Mom says Connor might start growing devil horns as he grows older because of homins."

"You mean hormones?"

Eli cocked his head to the side. "Are they the same thing?"

Marcus barked a laugh, coming out of him like a sprung leak. He welcomed the warmth it brought, like an anchor had snapped, freeing him, and realized he hadn't had a good laugh since they left the city.

* * *

The next day, Andy kept bugging Kenny about the details of the village, questions like what kind of fortifications it had, how tall were the houses, how big, and where was it built. If other people were living there, and what did they looked like.

"It's a typical village, man! The kind you'd see on Braveheart or King Arthur or something," Kenny said, annoyed. "And no, there are no people. It's abandoned."

"You mean it's a medieval village reminiscent to that of our own history?"

"I don't know," Kenny shrugged. "I can't describe in minutia every little thing I saw there. I am no historian like you."

"You just said it's like Braveheart."

"Andy, it's a freaking old, decrepit, primitive village, but it's big enough to fit all of us. You can have a house of your own, and I can have mine, too. Is that enough information?"

"Lots of things can fit us. That cave back there was an example."

Kenny groaned. "Man, I don't know what else to tell you. You'll just have to see it for yourself, and you can geek out directly from there."

Andy rolled his eyes and huffed, but didn't say another word. He hung back to walk beside Easton, and they both discussed the possibility of a massive civilization on this planet, and how advanced they were. Still, given that they resembled the technology of the Middle Ages, they were probably less developed than they initially thought. Marcus found himself scoffing at the assumption. Back then, humans didn't ride on the backs of dragons like it was a fighter jet.

"If that's the way they lived, how can they transport an entire city into another planet?" Easton asked.

Andy was left stumped, and the two men continued spewing a multitude of theories why and how they did it, continually avoiding the word Magic on their lips. To Marcus, somehow, that was the only thing that made sense.

Marcus thought that if they had a village, then they also had large cities somewhere. A large city filled with those murdering, dragon-riding butchers gave Marcus the shivers. But the image of burning them to death, like what they did to San Francisco, put a little smile on his face—a good old case of payback. He gripped on his gun a little tighter from the thought, shook it away, and jogged toward Kenny alone in front of the pack.

"So, how far are we?" Marcus asked.

"Given our pace, I think we'll arrive there by tomorrow morning," said Kenny. He looked back and curled his lips, sighing at the heavy supplies they were dragging. "I didn't realize we were going to be walking like a turtle."

"And who would you be? The rabbit?" Marcus snorted.

Kenny patted on his bulging gut, which now looked a lot slimmer from the first time they met. "Can't you see I've been exercising a lot lately? Who knew staying alive from monsters and starvation is such an effective diet?"

"What do you expect? This is our food and provisions that would last us at least another week or two. Beyond that? Well…its gonna get rough. Plus, we have children with us."

They both spared a glance at the back. Blake carried Willie on his back, nestled inside his large hiking bag with only his head and neck peeking out of the hole, bundled in a thick layer of blankets and a large knitted beanie that almost covered the toddler's face. He looked awfully comfortable, and Marcus felt a little jealous that the little guy looked warmer than he was, wishing it was him inside that bag instead. He started to regret leaving the warm comfort of the cave.

"I'm just being an ass, complaining and spewing shit." Kenny fussed on the straps of his backpack, filled to the brim with clothes, food, and other wares. "I practically jogged my way up to the cave, only resting for a short amount, afraid that if I stopped for too long, something was gonna eat me."

"How did you find out about this place anyway?"

"By accident, actually. We heard something creeping in the woods one night. Freaked our shit, so we ran off, abandoned our camp, and bang! We stumbled onto it. It seems like our best option was to hide in there and let whatever scary shit pass in the woods."

"And you didn't think that maybe it's occupied?"

Kenny paused, a flush of red filling his pale cheeks. "We were scared, man, and we don't want to be in those woods any longer with whatever made that awful racket. We were just glad that there's a wall between them and us, you know? We got lucky no one was home. It seems no one had been for a long time."

Marcus nodded. Damn lucky, he thought, hoping that the same luck would rub on everyone else. Though, he could feel that Kenny wasn't telling him the entire thing. There was something different in the way his lips curled and the way his eyes moved every time he talked about the place. He wanted to ask him more, but he decided not to annoy him with it, feeling like he'd double down further after Andy's questions.

He glanced down to Jacob's dagger, hanging snuggly on his belt next to his own. "You found it in the village, right?"

"Yeah. Whoever took Jacob decided to make camp there. And they left in a hurry after, like there were bodies everywhere. Some old. Some fresh."

"Not human?" He thought of Jacob injured and cold in the woods. If his kidnappers encountered something that ended up in a bloody fight, he wondered if Jacob got out of it unscathed. He hoped he did.

Kenny nodded with a frown. "Something bad happened here, not just in the village, but to this place, this land. It's giving me the creeps, worse than strolling through the woods alone, dirty and cold."

"I've been feeling that way since we left San Francisco, Kenny."

"You and I both." Looking up, Kenny's lips suddenly broadened, and he snorted. "Heads up, Ward."

Kenny pointed to the right, and Marcus followed his gaze. A hundred paces forward where the river had carved a shallow, narrow gulley, stood a wooden bridge.

"Don't tell me we had to cross that rickety thing," Marcus said.

"Yeah, bud. That's the fastest way."

The bridge spanned sixty feet to the other side, and from where he stood, it looked stable enough to cross. Maybe. A bunch of images of them stepping onto the wrong plank, their feet shooting through the hole with only the frozen river waiting for them thirty feet below. He could feel the weight of his heavy backpack and the broadsword just from staring at the steep hill they had to climb.

Marcus turned to Kenny with a smirk. "Well, you're the guide. After you."

Kenny sucked in a breath. "Ass."

Marcus gathered everyone around him, letting them know that they had to cross the bridge to get to the next trail. He paired some of the men with the others carrying the more massive crates and containers, spotting them in case they lost their balance as they climbed up the hill.

"Put your backs into it! It's only a hundred steps, men! You can all do it!" Marcus bellowed, encouragingly at the top of the hill.

One by one, they managed to get up onto the foot of the bridge without anyone slipping off the narrow trail. Marcus was surprised to find a road—an actual dirt road—snaking down from both directions and big enough to drive an entire car through it. The bridge was also wide enough to do the same thing.

Oh, what I would give to have a car right now, Marcus moaned. It would make everything so easy.

With the weather warming, the thawing snow cleared off the area in the middle of the road, pushing the white mounds of ice to the side, distinctly bordering where the road ended, and the forest began.

Then, a ruffled thought formed. Roads like these didn't just sprout out of nowhere—bridges and villages, too. It wasn't that surprising given that they had encountered some of this planet's inhabitants back in the city. The only question remained was who among the aliens built it? The Dragonriders or the ones that created the wall of fire? Either way, Marcus didn't like any of the options.

"That leads south, towards the village," Kenny said, pointing across the bridge. He then turned around and pointed to the other direction, "And I think that leads north. We didn't check that direction yet."

Marcus nodded, watching the northern road, knowing San Francisco might be only hundreds of miles away. He wondered that if they waited for daylight back in the plains instead of going into the woods, they might eventually find this road. It would undoubtedly make their trek in the past couple of weeks a hell of a lot easier. However, he realized it would be difficult to spot it through all that snow.

"Is this what got you two staying a day longer down here?" Marcus asked.

"Yup. It is too tempting not to check it out and follow it down. Who knows? The kidnappers might have used it. Still, we've never encountered any of the strange people that attacked the city—that are alive, I mean. Not even once. Weird, right?"

"Very."

"Maybe we're too far out from whatever hole they came from," Roylan suggested, standing between them. "Maybe we're in their frontier — the wilds. Or whatever you call it. At this rate, if we keep going south, we might finally meet them."

"Now, that's a horrifying thought. I wouldn't want to come face-to-face with the people that tried to murder me, and also slaughtered an entire city filled with innocent people," Kenny said, shaking his head.

"Good point."

"This way," said Kenny, stepping first onto the bridge. "We'll walk for another two miles or so before we make camp for the night. Then, the village will be there."

The next morning, the road strayed from the river, winding up and down, left and right, but at least they didn't have to walk through a ton of foliage and undergrowth, making their trek smoother.

Marcus noticed Kenny kept hiding his grin as they drew closer to where he said the village was—an amused smile as if something was funny that he alone only knew. Marcus struck a few small talks with him, trying to gouge out some of the answers by sneaking a question or two, letting him describe to him what the village looked like. Still, Kenny insisted that he should wait to see it for himself.

When they were within seven miles from the village, Kenny hailed Hyun over the CB radio and told him to wait "by the main square." He then gave the radio to Blake so that he and his son could talk to him. Willie's smile lit up the entire morning upon hearing Hyun's voice.

"Papa's gonna be waiting here for you, little puck. I'll be where the smoke is."

By the fourth hour of daylight, when the trees dwindled, and the breeze had picked up when the wood's thick canopy had thinned to reveal the blue skies, Marcus realized why Kenny had been dodging the questions about the village.

It wasn't just an ordinary village nestled at the bottom of a hill…

Looming on top of the hill was a castle.

* * *

"You gotta be kidding me, Kenny," Marcus blurted out. He glanced back to Kenny, who was grinning like a madman. "You didn't tell us there's a castle, too."

"I want to see your guys' faces. Hyun and I had the exact reaction," he said, letting out a laugh.

"And it's abandoned?" Easton asked, confused. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. All of it. Not a single soul. Except for the dead bodies." Easton cringed, and Kenny barked a laugh. "Relax. It's all bones now. They had been dead a long time ago. I've stayed here for the past two days, Hyun stayed longer, and nothing bad happened."

"Yet," Easton scoffed. "Anyway, are you telling me they died in their homes?" Easton asked again, bewildered. "Because that's kind of creepy."

"Could be the dragon did the same thing here," Marcus replied, but he didn't see any signs of damage like it had inflicted on San Francisco. Granted, there was a possibility it had happened years ago, given that its inhabitants were supposedly long dead, and the damage weathered by the elements.

The group marched onward.

The dirt road broke through the forest borders, widening as it entered into a dozen pastures long abandoned, tall grass and weeds grew high among the empty fields, separated by rotting wooden fences. Cobble walls at waist height bordered the side of the road. Standing in the middle of the pastures were thatched houses made of straw and wood, looking like small farms that sprung up around the fields, and encircling the hill. Most of the houses were in ruins; their roof had caved-in a long time ago, walls missing—no signs of life from within.

Cutting through the field was the same river they had been following south for the past three days. However, it was only a small tributary for a much larger river that was half a mile wide, joining its deep blue waters, and then twisting southward.

On top of the hill, the castle loomed, enclosed by stone walls. It stood almost at the edge of a cliff on the hill's left flank, a sheer drop that plummeted dizzyingly a hundred feet down onto the large river below. One of its two towers faced the cliff's edge, the other facing the opposite direction—to the village below. Due to the distance, it was hard for Marcus to observe the castle in detail.

The dirt road snaked toward a small village sandwiched between the cliff and the bigger river. There, another set of thatched houses made of stone were clustered together, counted at least a dozen of them, some were two stories high, and in one house, white smoke billowed out of its chimney, which Marcus realized was probably where Hyun was staying.

They marched down the dirt road, looking around with wide eyes and gaping jaws, and they noticed two signposts standing next to the bridge, one was pointed toward the village. Inscribed were some alien language that they couldn't understand, filled with irregular lines, geometrical symbols, and lots of dots. The other sign pointed in the opposite direction, toward where they came from. He was intrigued by what both the signs said. Brett walked over and started copying the inscriptions onto his notebook.

"For later reference," Brett mumbled.

They crossed the wooden bridge. Fortunately, the bridge was built over the smaller river, and surprisingly, sturdy enough to walk on. Marcus looked over the edge and saw that the river had thawed dramatically. He could see the stream cutting through the middle, yet the waters close to the embankment were still frozen solid. Further on, at the side of the large river, a small village harbor stood, three large boats long rotten, half-sunk into the waters, which was a lot deeper than Marcus initially thought.

As they drew closer to the village, Marcus dreaded what he was going to find inside.

They saw the first of the dead by the village's dilapidated gate semi-covered in drifts of snow and ice. As Kenny said, they were basically skeletons. He saw another one lying beside a broken front door, two by the middle of the road, and four more close to the well upon the village's main square. The houses were in various state of decay, neglected for whatever many years since it had been abandoned, while some were burned down to the ground. Surrounding the village was a twelve-foot wooden palisade, though half of the sections were ruined from deterioration, and most of its wooden platforms were gone entirely.

"Whatever happened here, I guarantee it was a shitshow," Roylan said.

Marcus heard some of the men grumbled in agreement.

Roylan unsheathed his sword strapped around his waist and poked a skull sticking out of the snow. "Yep. That's not human at all."

The dead had similar bone structures of a human. Still, there were some other oddities, which Easton described for the rest of the group: their jaws and bony arches too pronounced, six canine teeth more striking, their forehead and skull a little elongated, their ribs had four more extra pairs, their digits missing two on both hands and feet, and their bones too slender and sylphlike—oddly protruding in impossible angles for a human to survive. What's more was that their tailbone was eight inches longer than a human, which told Easton that they possibly had tails that had decomposed a long time ago.

"It is very impressive," Andy breathed out. "Quite magnificent. Whoever these people are, it is clear they are in the height of their own Medieval era. This feels like I stepped foot into the past…" His eyes darted up toward the looming castle up the hill, and the old man's smile broadened. "Yes, very magnificent, indeed."

Andy continued talking about the structures, and types of engineering that came with building such a fortification, how a village like this might have been built close to the river, the kinds of workers and citizens it constituted, leaders of the sort that once ruled it, but Marcus tuned him out. He didn't know half of what he was talking about anyway. He caught Easton and Brett was the only one listening to Andy's winded lecture.

They approached the two-story, white-painted house with its chimney spouting off smoke. Hyun stood at the entrance, and upon seeing him, his family ran up and pulled him into a tight embrace. A few in the group cooed and awed, and Marcus couldn't help but welcome some of the warm feelings inside his chest. It was always wonderful to see a family reunited.

The others surrounded them also to greet Hyun, murmuring their relief that he was okay after being alone in the village for many days. Hyun then proceeded to usher everyone into the house for breakfast. "I cooked a feast!" He said enthusiastically, and wafting out of its doors and windows oddly smelled like fish.

The house's interior was large, and given Marcus's six-foot-and-four-inch height, he had six more feet to spare above his head. There were two rows of communal tables that could fill at least twenty people situated in the middle of the room. Three round tables were propped against the windows close to the entrance, and another three by the wall, next to the bar where seven high stools stood empty. On the western side, stairs ascended to the second floor. The house seemed to be some tavern or an ancient pub like what he had stepped into a movie studio.

Hyun proceeded to put a stack of wooden plates on the table for everyone to use. "This came with the place, fortunately," he said. "No more icky Tupperware that hadn't been washed for how many days." It earned a chuckle from everyone around the table as they readily sat down, ogling at the steaming plate of fish.

Hyun had already cooked a dozen grilled salmon that he caught directly from the river, and one giant pot had them fried with mushrooms that Hyun foraged directly from the woods. A large rectangular wooden plate filled with sliced-up salmon was already sitting in the middle of the communal table. To Marcus, they didn't look like the kind of salmon he and his father and brother used to fish up in the rivers along the Willamette Valley. The fish was big. A lot bigger, almost taking the full length of his upper body.

"Don't worry. I washed the plates, but you all are gonna have to eat with your hands," he said. "And the mushrooms aren't poisonous. I checked. Also, I've been eating them for five days, and I didn't get a stomach ache."

"This is salmon?" Andy asked, poking at it. "It looks bigger."

"Kenny and I thought the same thing until he pointed out that its real salmon."

"Like Earth's?"

Hyun eagerly nodded and flashed a smile.

"I've cooked salmon at my diner fresh from the harbor. I know what that fish looks like from flesh to bone," Kenny said. "It's the same fish, but almost twice the size."

Hyun nodded and said, "I've been eating off of it for the past six days. I didn't grow any extra thumb or ears. Kenny ate some, too."

Kenny playfully waved his fingers for everyone to see. "Still ten fingers," he said, chuckling.

"Did you catch them with a stick?" Roylan asked.

"My uncle taught me how to catch fish in Korea. He lived in a small village like this, next to a river, and far away from any modern comforts. All I need is a basket, and there's plenty of those around here," Hyun said.

Hyun proceeded to explain that he caught the batch in a span of three days, and due to the cold, he was able to preserve most of the catch by making a makeshift ice freezer made out of snow and ice from the river underneath the house's cellar.

Roylan suppressed a smile, but the old man was clearly impressed. Marcus was, too. It had been a long time since they ate actual fresh food that didn't come out of a can or from a dried package container. Then, he announced that underneath their feet were six casks of untapped kegs of mead and ale, still well preserved after all these years. Everyone whooped and cheered. Kenny and Paul carried one wooden barrel up from the cellar and opened it. Blake handed him a plastic cup, and Marcus eagerly drank it, sliding down his throat so easily. He didn't know how he missed the taste of alcohol so much until he had it.

Staring at the fish, Marcus was salivating, and his stomach grumbled.

"Hyun, why aren't you staying up in the castle?" Easton asked. "It seems like its safer up there than down here."

From that, Hyun wrinkled his nose. "No way. I don't want to stay up there."

"Why not?"

"One: the castle is locked-up tight. Only its courtyard and its stables are accessible, and they're cold as if I'm sleeping in a giant freezer. The other doors in the castle were barred shut from the inside, and Kenny and I tried prying and hacking through it, but we can't get access to the rest of the castle."

Kenny nodded, taking a bite of his plate. "It's all true. Damn near broke my wrist."

"And two: The castle creeps me out," Hyun added. "Sometimes, I hear voices, but I know I'm alone. Then, there's the case of the bodies. Most of them are up there on the courtyard. Finally, I had enough and packed my things and moved down here. I never had trouble since then."

"Are you saying that the castle is haunted?" Brett asked, intrigued.

"I'm not saying that it is. I just don't want to be surrounded by dead bodies."

"How many?" Marcus asked.

"A lot. My guess? Its the rest of the villagers you didn't see down here."

Marcus nodded and didn't press on further. The mental image was enough.

Hyun passed him two plates, and he filled them quickly with some of the fried chunks and an entire grilled salmon. He then led Connor and Eli to an empty spot on the communal table, taking a piece out of the grilled salmon and popping it into his mouth. He almost groaned as the salt and juices danced around his tongue. It seemed like he never tasted something like it. He licked his fingers and took another piece, then another. He then broke up the giant fish into three chunks, one for him, one for Connor, and one for Eli. The two boys merely stared at it.

"Eat," he told both of them.

"But dad. This one's staring at me," Eli said, pointing at the fish's eyes.

Marcus chuckled and gave Eli his tail-end of the fish, which seemed to perk up the boy's willingness to eat it. Marcus grabbed the head and proceeded to pick it apart—damned the eyes and all. Food is food, after all, he thought.

"Aren't we going to search for Jacob?" Connor asked, pointing at the direction of the castle.

"Yes, but you haven't eaten anything since last night. Be thankful that Hyun made these beforehand."

"I want to find Jacob," Connor said stubbornly.

"And I want you to eat first. So, eat."

"Fine. But I'm coming up there with you when you do."

"Me, too!" Eli squeaked.

"Alright. You two are coming with me. On one condition: If I smell any signs of trouble, you two are going to hang back with Uncle Easton, got it? No arguing. You heard what Hyun said. He hadn't explored the rest of the castle, and it sounds like it could be dangerous."

The two boys quickly nodded their heads. Eli already had a mouthful of the fish while Connor drew a cross on his chest where his heart was.

"When you finish your breakfast, we'll go up there. Together."

"Can we drink some of Hyun's keg?" Connor asked, a glint in his eyes.

Marcus shook his head. "No, you're too young."

The two boys pouted, but they continued eating their food.

At the corner of his eyes, he saw Arjun and Malik sit on the table closest to the windows. Malik excused himself to grab Arjun a plate of the food.

"Don't just sit there gawking like an idiot," Arjun said without turning to look at him.

Marcus gulped, excused himself from his two sons, and walked over toward him.

"You've been avoiding me," Arjun said, but there was no hint of animosity behind his voice. "I understand if I creeped you out that night."

"You could've at least been upfront from the start."

"I have been."

"In riddles."

"I thought I spelled it perfectly clear for you, didn't I?"

Marcus clenched his jaw, glanced back to his two kids sitting by the table. "That was uncalled for."

"I know it was hard to hear, but you have the right to know. I have been a parent much longer than you. I know the feeling."

"Threatening my kids—"

"That wasn't a threat. I am merely stating what I see, connects the dots, and I sometimes fail at that. I am, however, correct that we had a long journey ahead of us, don't we not? Ha! I almost think we're not going, and then you wouldn't believe me."

"So…you guessed?"

Arjun hid a smile. "A damn good guess, don't you think?"

Arjun glanced at where Connor and Eli were sitting, eating their meal. "But, I didn't say they couldn't live long lives. We all die in the end, after all."

"Riddles again, Mr. Kapoor," Marcus hissed. "Maybe you guess that from your visions."

Arjun smacked his lips. "One is a coincidence, but a cluster of them makes it a fact."

"How about Jacob? You think you can find him from here?"

Arjun thought for a moment but then shook his head. "Doesn't work that way, remember? I can't force a vision. It comes and—"

"—and it goes. Said that last time."

"I'm sorry if I am no help of this matter. Truly. I am." For the first time, Arjun flicked his eyes to Marcus. Marcus took a seat across from him. "The violent ones leave a lasting impact on my memory rather than the happy ones. Ha! What does that say about me, Mr. Ward? Am I prone to such a sadistic proclivity? Hmph! I don't think I am."

"And the violent ones are…"

"Deaths, blood, hunger, tears, war…them," Arjun looked out the window to the skeletal remains huddled around the well, a frown replaced his smile. "Especially them."

Marcus also looked out the window and gazed at the skeletons. "Are they the enemy?"

"Ah, Mr. Ward, thinking single-mindedly like a soldier, fearing the malevolent other. Americans. So predictable. Perhaps you should start looking around this room on who and what your enemies truly are."

Arjun leaned forward and whispered, "You have many enemies, Mr. Ward. Your children will also have plenty. Some already here, others out of reach, the rest yet to become one."

"Then tell me who they are so I can deal with them sooner rather than later."

"And that lies your first mistake—trusting me so easily. If I know everything, muddied they are, isn't it safe to assume that if good or bad things are going to happen to myself, to my grandson, that I will do my best to steer away from that reality or guide it to its ultimate destination? What is the possibility that I might be manipulating you to have what I want? If I am telling you the entire picture? What's the possibility that I steered you right here, right now?"

Marcus tensed. He never really thought about that. He believed that Arjun was on the same side as him, surviving this strange world, hoping that they had similar goals. If the old man really knew what was going to happen next, the successes and the failures of every decision they made, then tampering with the choices—no matter how small—could swerve the results to something better or worse. Unless he saw something significant that Arjun was adamant at keeping, something he might be trying to avoid.

"Frankly, Mr. Ward, I myself don't understand the extent of my capabilities. But I do know what's at stake from what it showed me."

"So you do know where Jacob is."

"And if I did and refused to tell you?"

"I can beat it out of you. I've done it before."

"To terrorists?"

"To bad men."

"Beat an old man? I don't know if you had that bone in you."

"Then you don't know who I am."

"Perhaps. Then, would you believe me if I tell you that if I divulge the whereabouts of your son, then you may never see him again? That he may die? The thing about the future is that its such a fickle thing. Fragile. Volatile. One move and it goes through another path. Obviously, you won't be able to tell the difference. But I do. That vision will visit me the next time I sleep, the next time I close my eyes."

"I hate playing games, Mr. Kapoor. I have enough of that talk from Brett, and I want none of it from you."

"But life is a game, boy, and the future plays it incessantly. You should learn to play it as well. Haven't you noticed? This world eats it like cake for people like us. If you want to survive, if you want to see your boy again, you play to win. I intend to do just that."

"Baba." Malik reappeared again, walking toward the table, holding a full plate of food. He shot Marcus a confused look but dropped it as he placed the dishes on the table in front of his grandfather.

"Ah, it seems I get to enjoy a warm meal at last," Arjun said, smiling. "Hyun's cooking is the one I can tolerate. Same for Kenny's, seeing that he used to own a diner and can actually cook an impressive meal. Others, however, are just downright atrocious."

Marcus got up from his seat and let Malik sit on it.

"We're gonna have to share this one, sorry," Malik said.

"That's alright, boy. I don't mind," said Arjun. He looked up again at Marcus. "Malik, why don't you accompany Mr. Ward to the castle later?"

"The castle? But I'd rather stay here and take care of you."

Arjun sneered. "Ah, what nonsense! I am not some cripple, and neither am I senile to require constant supervision. Go on. You need to do other things aside from sticking to an old gnat like me. Go with Mr. Ward up to the castle. I know you also want to see it for yourself."

"But Baba—"

"I won't be alone down here."

Malik turned to Marcus with a look begging him to disagree with his grandfather. But knowing Arjun in such a short amount of time told Marcus that the old man wouldn't be taken down so quickly. And quite cunning with words, he realized. Marcus wondered if Arjun's crazy episode of demented tirade was him pretending to be mad, or he was actually horrified by knowing he could see the future. Now it seemed he had accepted what he had become and taking it at its full advantage. He remembered what Arjun told him that night, how Malik would become someone he could trust in the future. However, it could be just one of Arjun's games. He did admit that he shouldn't be trusted that easily, but Marcus didn't think he had any strength left in him to form a successful argument.

A game, Marcus thought, then what are you playing at now, old man? Sighing, he nodded. "You should come with me, Malik. I need all the help I can get. We'll resume the search after everyone's done with breakfast."

Malik frowned, but he nodded, forcing a smile. "Okay. I guess I'll go if you want, Baba."

"Excellent! See? Mr. Ward doesn't mind."