Lots of talking in this chapter. Sorry if the story has been a little slow lately!

We're building connections, characters, and opening up some theories and ideas about the world.

It's setup I swear.

Before the sun was up, Vas woke. He’d fallen asleep after being relieved from his watch by Tapo. Tapo was sleeping nearby, so the large man had apparently been relieved as well.

They’d only had one person set on watch duty, since the opening of the front door would be fairly obvious to anyone in the building.

Vas would not normally allow for such lax security measures, but the day had been particularly taxing.

Vas’s first thought was to wake Jade so they could practice. However, it was Selene sleeping next to him.

The Scouts started moving at dawn, after a quick helping of rations. Vas had distributed feminine supplies to Alex and Selene before they left the house. He packed the whiskey bottle back into his pack.

Today they would be marching straight south and hopefully would find another building. Tapo and Azul were the forward scouts at about 20 paces ahead of the group.

“Why do you think it stayed inside for years?”

Alex was behind him, so Vas had to turn around to raise an eyebrow at her.

“I mean, the door opened to the inside. It could have dug its way out. We know they’re not scared of the snow.”

“Maybe,” Selene began, “It was waiting.” Selene walked beside Vas. She hadn’t gone back to her cheerful self yet, but she finally seemed calm. The crying had helped.

“Waiting?” Joust seemed interested. “For humans to kill? That’s a lot of commitment.”

“There were two bedrooms. Maybe they do remember a little. Maybe it was waiting for someone to come home.”

“For years? Still a long time to wait to kill.”

“What if it wasn’t planning on killing? What if it was hoping for family?”

“That’s. . . Really sad.” Alex took the idea hard.

They walked in silence for a while.

“Do you think it’s the apocalypse? Like maybe some god or another got ticked off at all of us and decided this was it?”

Joust laughed, “If God decided to end the world, why not just throw us into the sun?”

“I think,” Selene began, “There is some kind of magic making this all happen. Not only are dead people rising, but there is no electricity or even fire.”

Joust snorted and rolled his eyes.

“What,” Selene snapped, “You have a better idea?”

Joust shrugged, “Has to be a scientific reason for it all.”

“Like what?” Fem was butting in now.

“Uh, Such as, I haven’t really thought about it. Maybe it has to do with climate change?”

“Sounds more mystical than rooted in scientific theory,” Selene taunted.

“You said the dead are rising and that there is no electricity or fire like they are the same,” Zy entered the conversation suddenly. “But I believe they are isolated events. Where the Risen are likely a global phenomenon, the EMP has been proven to disappear once one walks a certain distance to the north.” Zy barely stopped for breath before continuing, “Therefore, we can deduce that the EMP will also lose its effects if one walks a certain distance south. If this distance is the same as the distance to the Wall, is it not possible that the same distance applies in all directions? Obviously this is speculation, but. . . What?”

They were all staring at Zy.

Vas was impressed by not only the man’s well thought-out explanation, but his extensive vocabulary as well.

“Well, what about the Risen then?”

“God got angry at us? Airborne illness? We don’t have enough information. What happens if you chain a Risen’s hands and don’t allow it to claw its eyes out? Will the change revert, making normal people essentially immortal like the Risen?”

Vas felt bile rise in his throat as he thought about the answer.

It was Selene who spoke, “No. Their eyes melt.”

Zy’s brow furrowed.

“I always thought that the world ran on specific laws that could be scientifically proven,” Vas stated. “So if you were to somehow break a law, it could cause a chain reaction. Sort of like how splitting a nuclear atom creates a chain reaction that leads to excess energy and consequently ends up being a bomb. What if somebody somewhere made a big mistake and split the wrong atom or law or something? I don’t know the science behind things, but I feel like nobody really knows.”

Joust clapped Vas on the back, “Another member of the science team!”

“What he’s saying is almost complete gibberish! It sounds as mystical as what I said.” Selene was very defensive of her magical explanation.

“There are a lot of things science can’t explain yet. Real systems and laws that we don’t know the explanation for are mystical and even magical. They’re scientifically provable, but we don’t have the means to understand them. It’s all science, and it’s all magic.”

Joust shrugged, “I guess.”

Selene nodded excitedly.

Tapo turned around to face them all and whistled. They immediately came to attention. Tapo walked to Vas and spoke quietly, “Risen marching right through our path. Azul saw them in his binoculars. Don’t seem to be heading this way.”

Vas nodded and looked around him. The area was a fairly large clearing and seemed to be the top of a hill. There were a few trees to their left about 500 paces away. “Let’s head to those trees then lay low for an hour or so.”

Tapo smiled. “Good call.”

Vas appreciated the feedback, but it wasn’t like there were other options.

A couple minutes of walking brought the Scouts to cover. They sat down as a group.

Vas pulled bandages and gauze out of his pack.

“Pairs, change your partner’s bandages.”

He didn’t need to explain. Everyone knew the dangers of infection.

Selene crawled over so she was directly in front of Vas, then carefully removed the pieces of cloth he’d stuffed into the cuts on his face.

“You’re lucky he didn’t get your eye.”

Vas raised his brows.

“Don’t move.”

“He?”

“Hades,” Selene waved aside the question.

Had Alex already spread a story around? When? It’d only been a day or two! They’d all been together almost the entire time!

That woman was a monster.

Selene finished bandaging his face, then bandaged a few smaller cuts on his legs and arms.

“What?”

“It. Not he. If we start pretending they’re human, we’ll just be making the same old mistakes.”

“Vas,” Selene turned around and pulled her jacket and shirt off to allow Vas to bandage a cut along her back, “We can’t pretend they’re mindless zombies either. It spoke to you. It even had a name for you! That’s incredible.”

“It was the wanderer I killed in camp months ago. It revived.”

“What?! They revive!”

“Stay still.”

Selene obviously focused on staying still because her body stopped twisting around.

“So it remembered meeting you? And you killing it? Then did it revive again? Could it be searching for us right now, knowing where it last saw us?”

Vas should have thought of that. He cursed himself. They needed to make significant progress to lose Hades. Maybe change directions? No, that wouldn’t really work. Hades didn’t even know where they were heading in the first place.

“Still, it took him a while to find us again. Months.”

“He said it was by chance.”

“So maybe they revive in a different body randomly?”

“A different body?”

“If we killed his body where can he go? When a person dies, they turn into a newborn Risen with no memories. So can we assume that the Risen have a fixed number? It isn’t like people who were already dead rose. Graveyards stayed the same. Do you see what I’m saying?”

Vas shook his head. Why would the Risen have a fixed number? He couldn’t follow her train of thought.

“No.”

Selene spun around. She sure was pretty. She held her arm out for him to bandage.

“How many people were there before the Risen?”

Vas thought for a moment before replying, “Ten billion? Eleven?”

Selene nodded. “Do babies turn into Risen if they’re stillborn or die from disease?”

Vas shook his head, “No idea.”

Selene frowned. “Well, let’s just assume there are eleven billion Risen. The total number of the human population at the moment the epidemic began.”

Vas shrugged as he bandaged her arm carefully. She was hard to bandage when she kept jerking around in excitement. “Okay.” At least he could follow her logic so far.

“So if there were eleven billion people, they will all turn into Risen when they die. Therefore, there are eleven billion Risen.”

“Yes.”

“So when we kill a Risen what happens? If you die, can that Risen jump into your body?”

“I hope not.”

“No! Vas! No! It can’t! Because you’re already a Risen. The Risen that is killed will have to go find a body that isn’t already Risen. It grabs a skeleton from a graveyard or something.”

Vas got it now.

A fixed number of Risen that never dwindled.

When he died he’d be his own Risen.

He was already a Risen.

Even when they cut his head off, he’d just revive endlessly.

“So we’re all trapped in an undying state of purgatory forever after we finish our times as humans.”

“Don’t be so grim! There’s a bright side!”

Vas locked eyes with her.

“What is it?”

“We’re free from death, Vas. What do you think happens when you die?”

“Maybe I go to heaven or something.”

“Maybe you wake up as a Risen and realize you were wrong. You realize that you’re already going to live forever. You’ll go find Jade and everyone we’ve lost. You’ll have forever to do it. You’ll kill as many humans as you can so they can join you in eternal life. What if the Risen are trying to save us from real death? What if the Risen are just the product of someone finally finding the way to live forever?”

“Maybe.”

“Isn’t that wonderful? You’ll wake up and realize life was just a bad dream.”

“Selene.” Vas grabbed Selene’s arm. “Stop moving.”

“Why aren’t you excited?”

“Why think about death when you are still alive? If you’re right, when I die I’ll lose my memories and turn into a Risen. Are you suggesting we kill each other to become enlightened? What can we do with this, even if it is true?”

Selene stared at him with sad eyes.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to be a downer.”

“My parents both committed suicide. I wouldn’t suggest we kill each other.”

Vas almost cursed. Hadn’t Jade told him that?

Stupid! Why couldn’t he have remembered!

Selene stood up and put her shirt and jacket on. She offered Vas her hand.

“Time to go, Nocturnal.”

She was smiling.

“What’d she call her story?”

“The lord of night versus the lord of death.”

Vas smiled and shook his head.

He let her pull him up. Then he put his hand on her shoulder.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. We should talk more.”

Vas looked south. They’d make it to a city within the next few weeks. What were they even going to do? Walk from building to building and search for survivors? There weren’t going to be any.

The Scouts watched him, waiting for commands.

“Let’s head south carefully until we’re sure they are gone.”

They all nodded and picked up their packs. They looked tired already.

“Alex, I heard you have a new story.”

Everyone in the group perked up slightly.

Alex gave him a wide grin, “Oh DO I!”