Should I go back? I questioned myself, looking at the sky.

I'd just gotten to one of the trees I'd marked, but the sun was gone, and I was still nowhere close to 01 — maybe halfway? I shouldn't have spent so much time exploring.

In the worst case, I'd have to spend the night outside. What worried me was that it was still too early to trust the information I'd gathered on those zombies. Yes, theoretically speaking, spending the night outside, perched on a tree, was possible — I just had to make sure to be as quiet as humanly possible — but it really didn't seem to be the right choice. Too much could go wrong, and I still wasn't sure those zombies were the only thing I had to worry about.

I kept trekking, paying attention to my surroundings and avoiding making noise. The air was now slightly chilly, but I was sweating anyway. I knew that if I met something out here, I'd be in deep trouble.

Reaching the next checkpoint, I heard a distant roar to my south — the same direction I'd come from. Damn it. They are out now, I thought. Would that roar attract the creatures to my general direction, or would that clear the way forward?

I looked around, eyes stopping at the tree next to me. It was decently tall and definitely sturdy enough to hold my weight. Hmmmm...

Touching the trunk, I felt the rough, prickly bark scrape against my skin. I had some experience with tree-climbing, thanks to the birdwatching sessions with my grandmother — she could be very dedicated to her hobby sometimes.

"Let's give this a try," I murmured under my breath.

The start was the hardest part. With nothing much to hold, you had to use all your muscles to climb it, always maintaining three points of contact with the tree, at least. Besides, my hands felt strangely soft, making each rough edge bite a little harder than I remembered.

After suffering for a while, I reached the first low branch, and from then on it was easy work. The tree had plenty of knots and handholds — far from the hardest I’d scaled. The worst trees were those with smooth, bare trunks, with almost nothing to hold onto.

Breaking into the canopy, I found a thick branch, straddled it, and took a few moments to catch my breath. Hopefully, this would be enough.

I needed to wait and watch. That roar in the distance was troubling — no reason to risk stumbling into a horde of those things.

I kept looking out for any signs of movement on the horizon. Those guys could be extremely fast when they wanted to, and I didn't fancy being caught by surprise. On the other hand, if I hadn't seen any by now, they probably weren't that close by.

One thing that kept surprising me was how dead this place seemed. It brought a sense of peace and serenity at times, but it mostly just creeped me out, especially at night. Shouldn't there be, I don't know, crickets chirping? Birds? More ants? The only things moving at night were those zombies, apparently.

Absentmindedly, I gazed up at the sky. No moon was in sight, making the stars stand out even more — just tiny, brilliant points of light amidst the dark expanse of the night. It was a pretty dazzling sight, I had to admit. I'd never learned how to identify constellations or anything of the sort, but that didn't make the view any less enjoyable.

Suddenly, a part of the sky flared a brilliant blue. A ray of faint, azure light, like an aurora borealis, painted the sky, stretching like a splash of ink. Then a pulse and then... poof.

It was gone.

I blinked repeatedly, doubting my own eyes. Wha—

Again, another pulse. This time a vivid orange, even farther away. A circular arc appeared across the sky, followed by a beam of soft orange light.

A second later it vanished, much like the blue one. Just gone, completely. I kept looking up, waiting for more, but nothing.

The sky returned to its previous state as if nothing had happened. Had I imagined it? I pinched myself, just to make sure I wasn't sleeping, and looked around, confused.

Was that an aurora? I lived closer to the equator, so even if I was kidnapped and transported somewhere far away... this didn't make sense. Could those lights happen somewhere else maybe? Was that even a natural phenomenon?

I really wasn't on earth anymore, was I?

My jumbled thoughts were interrupted by some distant growling and the rustle of grass. Alert, I glanced back down at the ground.

Silhouettes. A bunch of them. They raced across the green hills in a hurry and on all fours, just like animals. My muscles tensed; I felt fear. A different kind of fear — not the terror I felt when I saw those bodies. This was more primal, more... natural. It was the same one I'd felt when inside that wardrobe. The natural fear of being hunted, of becoming prey.

Most of the silhouettes, however, were running in the opposite direction of those distant lights. As if fleeing from something, afraid. Interesting.

I kept observing, careful not to make a sound. A few of them came dangerously close to the base of my tree, making me hold my breath a few times. That did give me the chance, however, to confirm that they really were zombies. From a distance and in the dark, they could almost pass for a pack of wolves or something.

It also gave me the chance to confirm some numbers. I was able to see close to twenty of those things frantically running away. Considering the sheer size of this place, and by some simple extrapolation, that meant that my problems were way bigger than I had expected. This was a bona fide infestation.

I waited a few minutes until I couldn't hear or see anything moving. Damn, I thought. How am I supposed to survive this hellhole?

It didn't seem I'd be going back to 01 tonight. With all that just happened, the zombies got too erratic. It didn't seem smart to try and continue the journey now.

Unfortunate.

Resting my head on the trunk and trying to make myself comfortable, I sighed. My body was exhausted, but my mind refused to stop. Every time I closed my eyes, those mutilated bodies showed up, or the face of that chained man down in the basement, or those numbers and those warnings, or the fact that I could be next if I made too loud of a noise, or... or a million other terrible things that I really didn't want to think about.

In the end, I wasn't able to sleep at all.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

*********

The first thing I did was stretch my aching back. Staying the whole night up in a tree had a way of making you feel ancient. Since I couldn't catch a wink of sleep last night, I wasn't even close to my top form, both physically and mentally.

I chose to leave as soon as possible, a little while after the first light; I didn't want to delay returning much longer. The sun was rising on the horizon, and after the chill of the night, its warmth was a welcome relief. I had to remember to watch out for sunburns and heatstrokes, though.

Walking around a bit to shake off the stiffness, I enjoyed the sensation of solid ground beneath my feet again and yawned.

"Let's go back. I need to refill my canteen and rest."

Making sure I was facing the right direction by checking the markings I'd left behind, I promptly started walking.

It didn't take too long to reach 01 — maybe two hours. Nothing unusual happened on the way, so it ended up being a relaxing stroll through the green hills of... I don't know where.

The front door was just how I'd left it, and after checking all corners, just to make sure, I made my way to the kitchen.

Belly full and thirst quenched, I debated whether to leave again and explore or crash out and try to get some rest. I knew that wasting sunlight wasn't smart, but I could feel myself getting slow and sluggish. If something happened, I needed to be as sharp as possible.

Before, however, I paid another visit to the dining room/library to look for more clues. Those numbers that the table gave me resembled a video game a little too much, and if that were true... there had to be a way to increase them, right? Like, stat points or something?

Out of the titles that I could read, one stood out to me: "Spiritus and Vessels" by Cordus Vilimar. I picked it up and began reading.

"The connection between the Spiritus and the body has been the topic of major interest and research of..." blablabla

"The main open questions that remain in the field are..." blablabla.

"The prevailing understanding nowadays is that the Vessel is of secondary importance. That is, the Spiritus is considered the primary manifestation of a being, possibly—and I urge the reader to pay close attention to this lexical choice—possibly containing the blueprint of the Vessel. In this regard, as observed with powerful late-stage Aspect wielders, the body adapts to the rate of expansion of the Spiritus, not the other way around. This phenomenon also explains why non-Aspect wielders remain at the mundane stage indefinitely, even if their Vessel boasts significant potential or capacity. This consensus is upheld by all Librateriums across the [...]"

"Great. Amazing," I said, annoyed. If I recalled correctly, that magical table was quite clear that I had nothing going on for me in the Spiritus section of the diagnosis — assuming all that crap actually meant something.

A bit disappointed, I left the room and went upstairs. Truthfully, there was another reason I chose to stay inside today: those night lights. I didn't know what was happening or what they were, but it'd be foolish to ignore them and sleep throughout the entire night. They were too big of a change and caused too big of a variable to be dismissed.

Before going to bed, however, I tried the glass ball in the meeting room again. Days ago, the ball showed me the same thing the first part of the table projected — that "Aspect and Qualifier" section. I had been so out of it that I had basically forgotten the whole 'sphere incident'.

I placed my hands on it and...

Nothing.

"You've gotta be kidding me." I repeated the action a few times, but still, nothing happened.

"Wha- Why...??"

Tapping the sphere a little and looking at it closely for a while, I ended up giving up fairly quickly.

You know what? Whatever. These things make no sense anyways.

I still wasn't entirely convinced this was real life.

************

Looking outside, I saw that it was still afternoon. I'd just woken up, but the sleep had not been comfortable. I could only nap in short bursts, even though I was exhausted; all the stress had severely affected my capacity to sleep.

Nevertheless, I did feel a bit fresher.

That reminds me, what about those two down there? I should check on them.

Besides, I was curious about something: had those lights affected them in any way? Could this be a way to figure out if they were "infected" or not?

Well, another reason to pay them a visit, I guess.

I intended to take my time, though; that place was... terrible. It wasn't easy for me to go down there, especially after everything that had happened over the last two days.

I decided to step outside, just for a short while, to verify the area around the house — see if there were any footprints or signs that someone had been near. The erratic behavior that those things displayed yesterday worried me; a change in their patterns and habits was entirely possible. They could've maybe relocated closer to 01, for example. In fact, I still didn’t understand why 01 was supposedly "safer" than the other areas — that note hadn’t exactly clarified things for me either.

Oh shit.

I crouched down and inspected it closer. It wasn't footprints, but a long trail on the grass, completely irregular, sometimes disappearing completely. I looked back at the house. This was to the east, maybe 200 meters from the entrance. There were some small holes around the long trail, a pattern of some kind as if someone grabbed sticks and carved them into the ground repeatedly.

The traces got more and more irregular after a while until they disappeared completely. It seemed that something got closer to 01 but ended up... leaving? Honestly, they were too enigmatic for me to interpret.

That left a bad taste in my mouth. I returned to the house, thoughtful, and prepared to go down that basement again. Maybe it was time to reconsider some things.

The bookshelf slid easily enough, and soon I found myself descending those dusty stone stairs. Those trails hadn't come from the house directly. The direction was off too.

So what was it?

My steps softly echoed in the dark, humid walls. Yuck, had this place always smelled this bad?

I passed by the first cell and arrived at the second. Nothing was different. The girl was still in the same uncomfortable position as last time, unconscious.

Heading inside, I called her multiple times, but she didn't react to my voice. Only when I gave her some water did she seem to wake up.

"Urghgh—d—doro?"

What?

"Hey, hey. Are you okay? Can you talk?"

I needed to keep her engaged. Figure out if those lights had any effect on her. Some information would be good too.

"Hhrugh- wa- oher," she mumbled.

"More water?"

I tilted the canteen to her lips again and watched as she drank almost all the water inside.

To be honest, her whole situation didn’t even make sense. I mean, four days of sleep? Really?

Well, it didn’t matter at this point—I was already used to postponing judgment and accepting nonsensical stuff. Suspension of disbelief and all that.

"Huff... huff, w- where?" she asked.

Sigh.

"I don't know either. Do you know something? Anything that could help? Can we call for someone?"

"N- thegh ag me... "

"What?"

"Thge thwhains."

Huh? 'The chains,' maybe? I wasn't sure I was ready to free her just yet.

"What's your name? Do you know who put us here?"

"...Tri...l.."

Annnnnnd her eyes were closing again. Gosh, what had they given this girl?

"Hey, oi." I waved my hands in front of her face. No response. She was back unconscious already.

"Dammit. Come on." I complained.

This was so frustrating. I started pacing around the room. This girl was the only one who was not trying to kill me in this damned place; I had no one el-...

'Schhhsss'

I stopped all movement and froze immediately. A low hiss echoed from outside the door, mist invading the space.

'ScSHssshss'

Again.

I was more or less used to playing statue by now. My body was completely still, but my mind was racing. Shit. What now for God's sake?

'Trô uema krer. Trô uema krer'

Oh no.

It was that thing from the last cell. It was free.

And it was passing by the door this instant.

Those lights, I thought. This has to have something to do with those lights.

"Shadam hohem glot'toitili. Rorhein hohem biytilha..."

It was farther away, closer to the stone stairs that led upstairs, by my estimations. Thank God.

How did it get out? Everything was locked and...

No, I corrected myself, remembering that particular cell. No.

This was on me; I didn't consider all the possibilities. If my guesses were right, this was much worse than I imagined.

The sounds stopped, but I didn't dare leave. If that thing catches me... sweat trickled down my right temple. But it hadn't detected me. I was probably doing something right.

I kept in the same place the entire time, not even sitting down. I thought more than a few times about making a run for it but decided against it. What if the thing was in the living room, chilling?

'SchHhssschs'

It was back. It passed right by the door and continued down the corridor.

"Trô uema krer. Trô uema krer..."

The whispering and hissing were now far away, but I could still hear it—low, threatening. And then, something that should've caused me relief, but instead made my blood run cold:

'BAM'