After a time, the blackness lifted. Reece’s consciousness slowly returned to him from a disorienting fog. Lying on his back, his ears picked up the sounds of rustling leaves and chirping birds coming from above him. His flight suit and the rest of his clothes were gone. A breeze blew across his skin, cooling him from the warmth of the sun. There was a coldness over the entire back half of his body. Reece felt around with his hands and discovered grass, still damp from morning dew.

Feeling light play across his eyelids, Reece squinted before slowly opening his eyes to see the sun twinkling through the leaves and branches of the maple tree he was lying underneath. He let his eyes adjust before looking around at a small clearing in the trees. The clearing hosted a clear pool of water the size of a tiny pond, probably fed by an underground water source. It seemed like a good spot for deer and other animals to come and drink. Looking around, he didn’t recognize anything.

Reece had the sensation that he was alone. Carefully approaching the pool, nothing seemed amiss. His thirst was intense, so he kneeled by the pool, cupped his hand, and plunged it beneath the surface. Using his hand as a ladle, he drank his fill of the refreshing water of the pool. As he drank, Reece tried to think through the last things he could remember. Everything he had just gone through abruptly came rushing back to him. Gasping, he quickly sat up to get his bearings.

His black boxers covered part of him, but that was all. There was no sign of anyone or anything around. He wondered how he had gotten there, figuring the strange blonde girl must have somehow moved him to the spot. Moving his fingers to his neck where the girl had bitten him, Reece discovered that there was no wound at all. In fact, he felt great, physically. However, despite the tranquil environment, he felt a sense of dread...as if something was missing.

“Where was Aika?” he thought to himself, remembering the horrors of that night. “Oh no! No, no, no...!”

She had taken a direct hit from that enormous wickedly spiked ball and been knocked back to the edge of the quarry where they had crashed the shuttle. The last he had seen of her, she looked dead. Reece couldn’t be sure though. Someone must have healed him, so maybe they had rescued and healed her too. It was a long shot, but he had to cling to some shred of hope. The alternative was unthinkable.

“Aika!” Reece called out weakly, unable to keep the emotion out of his voice. He did keep enough of his wits about him not to yell too loudly. It would go very badly for him if something else heard his voice, like the infected, so he raised his voice just enough for someone nearby to hear him. Reece hoped it would be Aika. It wasn’t.

“Keep it down,” came a girl’s voice from behind him. “I already told you. She didn’t make it.”

“What do you mean? Please, tell me!” pleaded Reece as he turned to see a slender girl with her head cocked to the side. She seemed to be dissecting him with her gaze. She was the same girl who had just single-handedly dispatched three gigantic zombies and saved his life.

As she stepped closer to him, he was able to view her in all her glory. Gone was the dark-colored shift she had worn when he first encountered her. Now she wore a light blue sundress that hugged her slender form. In stark contrast, she had on a pair of tiny black combat boots and she still wore the collar around her neck. Her fine hair was platinum blonde, and she was wearing it down. It was long so that it covered her upper back and her chest.

She had smooth, unblemished skin the color of creamy beige and her eyes were a fiery red color which gave her an otherworldly look. Other than her eyes, she was the most innocent and beautiful girl he had ever seen. Her beauty and demeanor were ageless. She may have been twelve or twenty. Reece shook his head, breaking the enchantment, and focused on the conversation.

“You said you did the only thing you could for her,” he continued once he regained his composure despite the vice grip on his heart. “I need to know.”

“Ah, yes…I did say that, didn’t I? I’m surprised you remembered,” she answered sadly as she pouted and tilted her head cutely to the side. “I made her a grave. She’s in it now. It was the least I could do. After all, you two did something I’ve never seen any human do. You took down a behemoth. Not to mention the pile of zombies you both left in your wake. I was impressed. Your lady friend deserved better than that.”

“So, she is dead then,” Reece whispered to himself, barely croaking it out past the lump that had formed in his throat. He felt tears trickling down his cheeks as he looked back up at the mysterious girl. “I don’t know who or what you are, but…thank you. And she wasn’t just a friend. I loved her.”

“I see,” she said, sitting silently for over a minute before asking a question of her own. “Where did you come from, anyway? I saw the fireball in the sky. I assume that was you.”

“Yes and no,” replied Reece after taking a long, deep breath to settle his thoughts, still incredibly distraught. “Aika, Pasha, and I were on a shuttle attached to Zhengzhou Space Station. The space station was the fireball, we had used it as a diversion to try and safely land our shuttle.”

“Ah. Then I have you to thank as well,” said the girl. “Your timely arrival gave me the opening I needed to escape my captors. By the way, I need your help. Could you help me with this collar? I cannot remove it myself. It shocks me terribly every time I try.”

“Okay, I’ll help you. Although, won’t it still shock you if I try to remove it?”

“Unfortunately, yes. It will be painful and hurt me gravely. I will be greatly weakened as a result. Regardless, you must take it off. My captors can activate it remotely when they get within range, and I’m sure they are already looking to recapture me while they still can.”

“Are you sure?” asked Reece nervously.

She approached him and twirled around, moving her hair to the side to expose the ugly metal and leather collar covering the smooth skin of her slender neck. As he touched her skin, he saw goosebumps rise on her neck and across the arm that she was using to hold her hair. He examined the clasp that locked the collar in place. It was a crude locking mechanism, but it was attached to her spine. It looked extremely painful. Reece discovered what looked to be a weak point near the lock. It was a small section that was all leather. He figured he now had a way of removing the device. However, he wasn’t sure if he could pull out the mechanism from her neck without killing her.

“I think it’s attached to your spinal column. If I break the collar and can’t pull the mechanism out, it could kill you. Even if I get it out, it could still kill you.”

“It’s okay,” she replied, “Whatever happens, I’ll be alright. Just don’t go anywhere after you’ve removed it, okay?”

“Alright, I promise to stay right here with you,” responded Reece with trepidation. “Where did you leave the katana that I was using?”

“You mean your lady-love’s katana? I found the pair with her body and liberated one for your use. Interesting craftsmanship, by the way. I’ve never seen anything quite like them. Your katana is up there with the rest of your gear,” Karina replied as she raised her arm, indicating the top of the slope that led down to where they were standing.

The mention of his “lady-love” brought forth thoughts of Aika that threatened to overwhelm him and drive him to his knees.

“Okay,” he managed to whisper. “I need to use it to break the collar. I’ll be right back.”

Suppressing his emotions, Reece left her to find his gear and the katana. They were right where she said they’d be, so he grabbed the katana from the pile and returned to her.

“Ready?” he asked her as he prepared to slide the katana between her neck and the collar’s weakest point.

“I’m ready,” she answered, her voice filled with determination.

Reece got the feeling that she would rather die than live with the collar for long. They had made this young girl a slave. He couldn’t imagine what she had gone through. Even if she hadn’t saved his life, he’d do everything he could to help her escape those horrors.

“Okay, grab the collar with your hands in the front. I’m going to cut it, but it’s going to pull against your throat hard as I do.”

She responded obediently, grabbing the collar tightly with both hands. Prepared, she nodded. Reece carefully slide the katana into position, making sure he didn’t mar her perfect skin. Once the blade was pressed against the leather strap, he wrenched it back out violently as he slid it hard against the leather. He didn’t want to do this to the girl more than once. The strap was severed but the collar started sending electrical current into the small girl almost immediately. She screamed out in pain and dropped to her knees, spasming badly.

Reece dropped the katana and grabbed onto the locking mechanism with both his hands. As soon as he touched it, electricity began coursing through his body and forced his grip even tighter on the mechanism. He used that and all his strength to press his knee against her back for leverage. He pulled hard on the device, ripping it from her spine with a sickening sound and a spurt of dark blood. He tossed the collar away and saw the horrible gaping wound left behind as the girl gasped and coughed up blood. He instantly kneeled beside her to cover the wound with his hand in a futile effort to stop the bleeding. As he did that, she turned into him and latched her mouth onto his neck for the second time.

“I’ll have to ask her about why she does that,” he thought dumbly as he passed out again.

Waking up with a start, he bolted upright. It was now dark. Looking back and forth, he relaxed a bit. Moonlight revealed that he was still in the small clearing with the pool. He had heard something which woke him, but what, he didn’t know. All he could hear was the chirping of insects and a slight rustling of leaves from the gentle breeze blowing through the mostly open area. He saw that he was dressed again, and the katana had been laid by his side. He stood, picked it up, and scanned the area. The girl was nowhere to be seen, though he could only see a couple of feet into the shadowy tree-line that surrounded him. He listened carefully while he tip-toed down to the pool and got a drink of the cool water.

While he quenched his thirst, he heard an unnerving sound that was loud but far away. A howl like that of a wolf, but deeper and somehow wrong. The raspy forlorn wail called out again. It was answered by several additional howls that seemed to come from even farther off and in several different directions. Fear gripped him. He felt that something awful had caught his scent and was signaling its pack to move in for the kill. His heart sank. The odd girl must have abandoned him once he had freed her. After all, she had no further use for him. He couldn’t blame her. She knew nothing about him, and she had already saved him once. Reece figured they were about even.

Thinking quickly, he glanced around for an idea. Any idea. He scanned the area again but didn’t see any options until his gaze stopped on the pond. Not coming up with anything else, he ran and dove under the surface, sucking in a huge breath as he did. He turned and opened his eyes underwater to look out into the clearing as best he could. He didn’t have to wait long before he saw movement at the tree line. Something large and dark paused and he could just make out another loud howl distorted by the water.

Not knowing how long he’d need to stay submerged, Reece felt around for a reed. He had noticed them growing along the edges of the pond. Close to panic, his hand finally rested on one that was stiff from death. He broke it off as close to the base as he could, then broke it off a couple of feet up the stem. He carefully blew through it and saw a couple of bubbles leave the other end. Placing it in his mouth, he used the makeshift snorkel to breathe and continued to watch the large shadow slowly descend towards the pond. Whatever it was, he noted that it was big and dog-like as it swung its head from side to side and raised it up, deeply snuffling the air.

As it drew closer, Reece got a better look at it. The beast had the rough features of a wolf, but it was several sizes larger. It had a mange-like diseased look to it. The thing looked like it had been dead for weeks. It was probably another creature altered with mutagenics before being infected. Its eyes caught the moonlight and seemed to glow a sickly yellow.

“Fuck,” Reece thought to himself as the beast seemed to notice the slight movement of the reed he was breathing through. Despite his best efforts, small ripples emanated from where it stuck out above the water. The wolf creature’s hackles instantly came up and it stared hard in his direction before carefully making its way down to the edge of the pond. It stepped into the pond and hung its head over the top of the reed, sniffing at it. Pausing, it seemed to take in Reece’s face below the surface.

Not waiting for the beast to make the first move, Reece plunged the katana up and out of the water. With all the force he could muster, he managed to jam it straight through the bottom of the wolf creature's jaw and into its brain. Twisting the sword for good measure, he wrenched it from the beast’s collapsing body as it splashed down into the pond. Standing up in the pool, Reece noticed the horrid smell. It was an awful mixture of wet dog and the rot of flesh. He gagged as he trudged out of the pond and away from the downed monster.

As he stood dripping at the edge of the pool, he watched the rest of the pack step out of the confines of the trees and into the clearing one by one. There looked to be at least six of the creatures. They cautiously wound their way down towards him as if they sensed what he had just done to one of their own. Whatever had been done to them, they still had their instincts. Then, as if they were of one mind, they charged him. Reece quickly backed into the pool and readied his katana. He was going to take out at least one of the beasts before they tore him to shreds.

As the wall of teeth and claws closed in on his location, the blonde lass was suddenly right in front of him. She was still wearing the sundress from before. Now it was ruined, stained with dark red blood. In fact, her once beautiful platinum blonde hair was matted with dried and drying blood and gore. Her skin had several ruddy red streaks from bloodstains. She was covered head to toe in it.

Wielding the wicked-looking spear, the girl swung it with skilled precision like it weighed nothing. With the well-placed swing, she halted the advance of the massive undead wolves. The arc of the spear sliced through beast skulls and limbs, spraying more blood on herself and the ground as well. One of the beasts landed next to Reece, its momentum carrying it forward despite missing a front paw. It got back up and started limping towards him, growling menacingly.

Reece grabbed his katana with both hands and readied the weapon. When the creature was nearly within reach, he stepped towards it. Using the momentum of the step, he plunged the katana through its left eye and twisted. It instantly dropped and twitched violently in death, nearly wrenching the sword from Reece’s hands. He swiftly withdrew the blade from its head before he lost it.

With the immediate problem resolved, Reece snapped his head around to survey the situation. The blonde girl had her hands full with four of the foul beasts. He saw that one had slipped around behind her. Reece charged the thing before it could launch itself at her blind-side. Sensing movement, the beast turned, growled, and launched itself at him instead.

His charge at full speed, Reece leaned back onto his lower legs which he sat down on, allowing him to slide along the blood wet grass as he raised the katana and gutted the beast as it passed over him. He immediately dug his fingers into the earth to stop his slide and face his foe. Once stopped, he pushed off the earth with the hand, standing back up to face the beast. It wasn’t dead, but its front legs had gotten tied up in the entrails that were spewing from the long gash running the length of its belly. Its unnatural growl sounded weak as it struggled.

Reece didn’t waste the opportunity, and before it could free itself, stabbed this one in the eye as well. Like the first beast, this one dropped heavily to the ground. Blood gushed from its wounds in rivulets down to the pond at the bottom of the slope. It released one last growl, a gurgling death rattle before falling silent.

“Not bad,” came the voice of the girl from behind him.

He turned to see that she had dispatched all the creatures that had attacked her, adding to her gore-covered appearance. She walked down to him and examined him for a moment.

“Are you hurt?” she asked with a hint of concern in her voice.

“No,” answered Reece. “I got lucky. Uh, are you?”

“I’ve been around a long time,” she replied. “There’s no such thing as luck in matters such as this. And no, I’m not hurt. You’re sweet for asking though. Thank you. Now, I need to clean up. Then we need to move on from here. These are the Purifier’s hunting dogs. There will be many more before long.”

She jabbed the butt end of her giant spear into the mud of the pond and peeled the defiled sundress off her small frame. She wasn’t embarrassed to expose her body to Reece. At least the parts that weren’t covered in gore thanks to the modest protection of the ruined garment. With a look of disgust, she tossed it to the ground. It made a sickly plopping sound as it landed in a messy pile at her feet. She strode out into the pool wearing nothing but her boots and submerged her body. Reece waited for her to surface. After a couple of minutes, he started to worry.

She surfaced just as he decided to go in after her. The girl had used the water of the pond to clean the blood and gore from her body and hair. A minute later, she strode back out of the pool with no more than a trace of filth on her. She didn’t seem embarrassed at all by her nakedness or the fact that there was a man standing right next to her as she stepped out of the pond. The nude girl squeezed water from her hair as she looked down at the sundress and frowned.

“I’m going to need some new clothes,” she said, smiling when she noticed him staring at her. “Do you like what you see?”

Reece finally came to his senses and spun around, his mind whirling at what had just happened and what he had just witnessed. The girl’s entire body was unblemished, with soft curves hiding the warrior beneath. Her breasts were small and perky with light pink nipples that he had just been caught staring at.

“Sorry,” stammered the mortified man, shame heating his face. “I didn’t mean to stare, I’ve just never met anyone so brazen and unabashed.”

“And beautiful?” she asked from behind him.

“Yes...NO! ...what?” Reece stuttered, thoroughly flustered by the strange girl that was now walking around to his front and into plain view.

He turned again, keeping her to his back as he said, “Let’s go and find you some clothes. And then we need to have a conversation, you know. One that isn’t interrupted by zombies or monsters or zombie monsters, okay?”

“Okay,” she agreed, her sweet smile contrasting with her nudity.

Reece removed his flight suit top for her. Society in his country had changed greatly over the last few decades, but Reece was raised old-school and he still tried to adhere to those traditions. Leaving a girl naked and staring at her body simply wasn’t acceptable. Especially for a girl who looked as young as she did. He knew he looked longer than he should have. He was glad he still had his undershirt on and proceeded to untuck it to make himself more comfortable.

“Here, put this on,” he said as he handed her his top.

He felt her take the garment and could hear the cloth rustling behind him. Somehow, the girl made him think of Aika. He fought his feelings by concentrating on his situation. At this point, there was only survival and opposing the Order. He had evidence and intel aboard the shuttle that would help. A tickling sensation in the back of his brain reminded him of another priority...the nightcore. He needed to keep it out of their hands.

“Do you have any idea of where we are? I need to go back to the shuttle. I left some very important things there.”

“We can’t go back,” stated the girl matter-of-factly. “By now, the Purifiers will have their army swarming the area and there are things in that army you haven’t seen yet, and trust me...neither of us wants to face any of them. They had been conducting experiments for decades and had several very powerful bioweapons. When the zombie infection got out of hand, it affected most of those too. The Purifiers maintain some control over their experiments, even in the creature’s zombified state. You understand why we need to leave?”

“Yes, but you don’t understand. There’s something vitally important on that shuttle. It cannot fall into their hands under any circumstances.” Reece explained to the girl.

He turned around for her answer.

“Are you talking about the journal and hard drive on that shuttle that exposes their entire network of operations, or the big black rock?” she asked with an evil grin on her face.