Was Ben dangerous? I had no idea.

Had he joined forces with the priest?

Was he crazy?

Did he just save us?

Is any of this real? Or am I already dead?

I snapped open my eyes. I was holding Maria tight. We were hidden behind a rack of clothes.

How long had I been out?

I didn’t realize it at first, but Ben was standing right over us.

He was covered in blood. So was his battle axe.

Naturally, he scared the hell out of me. “Stay away from us!” I shouted as I held out my blunt flick knife, like that would do anything. “Don’t come any closer!”

But he kept coming. He took the knife off me and pushed me aside.

He checked Maria’s pulse. “She’s out. But she’s alive. She’ll be fine.”

He then walked out of the store, back towards the church and the bank.

The whole world was spinning. The ground felt like it was once again made out of quicksand.

“Hey,” I said to Ben. “Hey, wait up.”

My voice came out as a hoarse whisper. Ben either didn’t hear me, or he chose to ignore me. He kept walking. Man on a mission. A man possessed. A gladiator from ancient Rome. Battle axe in hand. I got the feeling he was out for blood. I picked up Maria and walked after him.

I eventually caught up.

We were out the front of the church, in the middle of the street. Ben was standing over someone. A man. He was kneeling on the ground, in the street. I couldn’t see properly at first because my vision was still blurry. But I think it was Ed. Even when I got closer, I couldn’t tell. His face had been beaten in. It was covered in blood. His right eye had completely closed over.

But then I noticed his moustache. Caked and stained with blood. Ed was on his knees. His arms weren’t tied up. They didn’t need to be. They were both broken and dislocated. He had been beaten to an inch of his life. But Ben wasn’t done yet.

Ed seemed to be passing in and out of consciousness, drooling spit and blood.

Ben leant down and spoke to Ed. “What the hell happened here? What happened to you people?”

Ed spat blood on the dusty road. “We were just doing what we had to do.”

“Killing innocent people?”

“It’s not like we enjoyed doing it. We had to. We needed to do it. The people we sacrificed were sick; they were a liability, a burden to the group. The elderly. This is no place for an old person. Not this world. Not anymore.”

“And the children?” I asked.

He lowered his head. His whole body shook as he broke down in tears. “I’m sorry. We’re all sorry. Please. Please don’t kill me.”

I couldn’t believe it. These people had completely lost their humanity. They had turned into the worst possible version of themselves in a matter of weeks.

Ben raised the battle axe high above his head. Ed closed his eyes. But before Ben could go through with it, we heard a loud hissing noise, like a snake and a group of cicadas combined.

The noise was getting louder.

Ben hesitated.

Ed lifted his head. He looked up and down the street, his one good eye, darting frantically from side to side. “Oh God. You have to let me go. We have to hide.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Please! It’s coming!”

The hissing sound grew louder.

Maria was awake now. “What’s… what’s that noise?”

Ed kept saying it’s here, over and over.

“Maria, are you all right?”

She was holding her head with both hands and rubbing her eyes. “I’ve got the worst headache in the world, but other than that I’m fine. What the hell happened?”

“These people tried to sacrifice us. They drugged us, tied us up. Tried to kill us!” I kicked gravel at Ed. “Isn’t that right!?”

Maria closed her eyes again and leant heavily against me. She still wasn’t completely with it.

Ed ignored me. “Please,” he begged. “We need to hide. It’ll find us. We can’t be in the open like this.”

He was genuinely afraid.

“Maybe we should do what he says,” I said to Ben.

Ben smiled. He had a better idea. “Let’s get up to the bell tower. Check things out,” he said as he pointed the blade of the axe at Ed. “Stay here. Do not move. Can I trust you to stay put?”

Ed was begging for his life. He tried to stand and make a run for it. But Ben pushed him back down. He then swung the axe high above his head, and using the blunt end, crushed Ed’s ankle.

Ed screamed in pain.

“That should do the trick,” Ben said with a wicked smile on his face.

I should’ve been afraid at this point. Ben was becoming more and more violent. He was slipping into a dark place. I should’ve been afraid. But I wasn’t. I was in shock that we were still alive. I had to keep reminding myself, that even though Ben looked like an absolute maniac, he had just saved our lives. He was on our team.

And besides, I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t know where the guys were. I had Maria’s life in my hands. Literally. I was holding her up; taking most of her weight as the sedative slowly worked its way out of her system.

So I followed Ben up the stairs, to the top of the bell tower. And I suddenly realized what he was doing. He wanted to see what we were up against. The thing that was making the noise. The thing that had scared the priest and his men. He was using Ed as bait. A sacrifice if you will. Giving him a taste of his own medicine.

In the bell room, two men lay slumped over in the corner, on top of each other. They had no doubt been beaten to death by Ben.

I scanned the horizon, trying to ignore the fact that we were standing right next to a couple of dead men. My vision was still cloudy. Everything took a few seconds to come into focus.

Maria was leaning against the wall for support. The climb up the stairs had exhausted her. I must admit, I was breathing hard as well. Whatever they had used to drug us with wasn’t completely out of our system yet. I was staring, gazing, transfixed at this one little house on the edge of town.

I was just thinking about how useless I was at that point in time. If something attacked us, or if we had to run away, I’d be done for.

Suddenly, a dark blur, a shadow, flew across my line of sight. I raised my arm, surprised at how heavy it was, and pointed towards the small house on the far edge of town. “There.”

“What is it?” Ben asked.

“I… I don’t know.”

“Is it the big one?”

“I can’t tell. It keeps hiding, moving in and out of the buildings. A shadow.”

I was staring off into the distance. My eyes were glazed over. Trying to focus.

It was a shadow, I thought.

But that can’t be right.

“A shadow?” Ben asked. “Where?”

“Right there. Near that small house.”

And then I saw it again. The shadow. It seemed to be moving in and around the buildings. Moving like a snake. It was making its way slowly towards the center of town. It was similar to what I saw the other day at the mine pit, I thought. The black, horizontal tornado. Maria had thought it was a heat mirage. But there’s no way it was a heat mirage.

“What the hell is that?” I asked.

Before Ben could answer me, a walkie-talkie that was strapped to the belt of one of the dead men crackled to life. “Hurry up!” the voice said. “It’s coming.”

“We’re going as fast as we can!”

Ben picked up the radio and cleared up the reception.

“Stevens! It’s coming!” the voice repeated.

We then heard gunfire, coming from the edge of town. I guess it was the other men, the ones who had gotten away and saved themselves from the violent hands of Ben. They hadn’t made it very far though.

Ben saw them first. “There they are.”

The men were shooting in all directions, seemingly at nothing. Suddenly a dark cloud, a shadow, the black smoke, came out of nowhere. It slithered in and around their feet, pulling the men to the ground, engulfing them completely.

The gunfire ceased. And for a few seconds the only noise that filled the town was the screams of dying men.

“We better get inside,” Ben whispered. “Hide in the bank vault. Now. Let’s go.”

I put my arm around Maria to help her down the stairs. This was going to be tricky. My legs were still made of jelly. And Maria was still slumped against me. But before we even attempted one step, Ben grabbed us both and pulled us to the ground.

He had his index finger up to his lips. “It’s here,” he whispered.

He moved to the corner of the bell tower and slowly peered over the wall, down into the street below. “Look.”

I followed his gaze. He was looking at a small alley between the hardware store and the pharmacy across the street. The alley was filled with a dense, black smoke. At first I thought maybe the building was on fire. But then the smoke continued to seep out into the street. It was moving. It was almost as if it was alive. It began seeping out between the buildings, into the main road. Up close it looked like black smoke. Every now and then the sunlight would catch what looked like a flash of silver.

Ed was lying in the middle of the road. He was crying to himself. The smoke began to circle him. Moving in closer, tightening like a noose. It then completely engulfed him. Ed let out a scream. It only lasted a second. He seemed to choke up. He began coughing. He then made this weird gargling noise, as the smoke dragged him back into the small alleyway between the hardware store and the pharmacy.

Yes. The smoke dragged him. Physically.

And just like that the smoke was gone. Ed was Gone.

“What the hell was that?” I whispered.

“Black smoke,” Ben answered. “Rogue nano-swarm.”

“What?”

“Trust me. It’s bad news. We need to get inside right now. Our only option is to hide. We can’t fight it. Standard weapons are no good.”