Vas opened his eyes. He was in a house. His house.

Vas shut his eyes.

It was a dream.

He could hear the banging. The banging he always heard when he dreamt.

Next was would be the power.

Suddenly, everything got very dark.

The sounds of electronics shutting off.

A lightbulb popped.

All of the doors unlocked and clicked open.

“I. . . Will find you.” A raspy voice stated, “And I will kill you.”

His father.

Only, it was wasn’t his father.

A dream? How could this be a dream?

Vas opened his eyes, panicking, looking for somewhere to run.

His entire body was shaking.

What could he do? Vas couldn’t beat his dad in a fight.

He’d always disliked fighting.

He’d refused to learn how.

When the Risen appeared he had just run away. By then it was too late to learn.

Vas regretted running away more than anything.

The shame was the worst of all.

He would do anything to forget the shame.

Anything to make him forget.

“I can. . . SEE you,” the voice was like chalk on a chalkboard.

Vas stared at his hands. His eyes hadn’t adjusted, and it was too dark to see anything.

But he could see his hands, somehow.

Maybe he could escape out the back door, maybe. . . No.

Vas would never lose himself to fear again. He knew he couldn’t win a fight, but it didn’t matter anymore.

He couldn’t feel his fear or shame anymore. He didn’t hate himself anymore. He felt light.

Something clicked in his mind. Or was it a snap?

And then he felt angry. Angry at the world itself for wronging him.

He was going to make them pay.

All of them.

Humans, dead humans, anyone and everyone.

He wanted to roar to let some of it out, but he kept it inside instead.

Instead, he smiled. “I see you too.” Vas’s wide eyes went to the monster.

It hesitated, and Vas took the opportunity to attack.

It tried to grab him, but he stepped back.

Vas punched the monster in the face. The monster smiled and punched him back.

Vas felt the world spin, only to refocus in an instant.

This wasn’t going to work.

He needed something. The monster jumped for him, and Vas let it scratch him. He jumped past it and dashed to the far room. His dad’s old room. There would be weapons there.

He reached the room. There were dozens of weapons laying around, but they looked too big to use indoors. Vas grabbed the first one he reached anyways.

A two-handed katana or something like that. He couldn’t remember what it was called.

Vas pulled the weapon out and swung at the Risen when it ran into the room. He missed.

The creature rammed him against the wall and punched him a few times.

Vas flipped the sword around and stabbed the creature, pinning it to the wall.

He was able to step away from the monster’s flailing limbs, but knew if he let go the monster would be able to move again.

Vas felt around the wall on his side with one hand while holding the sword with his other.

His seeking hand finally found something. He pulled it and saw it was a medieval buckler.

Vas snarled and used the buckler to attack the creature’s face.

A minute later, Vas stood over the body.

He was covered in blood.

He was crying.

Then he felt a warm hand on his cheek.

----------------------------------------

Vas woke up.

Jade had her hand on his cheek, rubbing it. She had a concerned expression, but said nothing when he met her eyes.

She was lying next to him in the sleeping bag, which meant she must have come back after investigating the night before. Vas looked around and observed that everyone was in their sleeping bags.

Vas sat up and felt his cheeks. He’d been crying.

Jade stood up and gave Vas his sword, grabbed her own, then unzipped the tent and exited. It was still dark outside, but the sun was just over the horizon.

Vas followed Jade and practiced with her just outside their tent in silence.

As the sun rose, he was able to see the headless corpse of the Risen he had beheaded the night before. He only gave it a glance before completely dismissing it.

Vas might use his anger as fuel when he was fighting, but it wasn’t as though he violently hated everything that had to do with the Risen.

He realized they were just dead people that became something else.

There was a cold hatred that he had built up for years, but it wasn’t something that made him lose control of himself.

After a few hours, the four other squad leaders approached Vas’s squad. The others had joined Vas and Jade in practice when they had woken up.

Vas sheathed his sword and followed Kara and the other leaders. “We’ve all agreed that extra scouts will be necessary during the day from here on out. A wanderer finding our camp on the first night was awful luck!” Vas nodded.

“I have suggested your squad to help me with the scouting jobs,” announced Tapo, “I believe our two squads are the most prepared for small-scale combat if it comes to it.”

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“Also,” Ishone added, “Your eyesight must be incredible to be able to fight in the dark.”

Vas could deny neither point. His squad would probably appreciate the straightforward scout work.

“Just tell me what you need from me.” Vas nodded to Tapo.

The squad leader with a mustache shook his head. “Don’t you all think this is a sign? Our first night out, and one of them finds us. Who’s to say they don’t have telepathy? What if it warned its friends?”

Ishone snorted, “We’d all be dead if they had telepathy.”

The members of their group shifted uncomfortably. They all knew they were only one misstep away from certain death. “The scout charts we had when we made this plan were recent. We’re dodging the biggest groups in the area by going now, Serj.”

Serj, which was apparently the mustache man’s name, spread his arms wide.

“For a hundred miles, maybe. Maybe even two hundred miles, if we pretend the Scouts are that good. But what about after that? What if we run into a swarm of those things? Even a small swarm would be a thousand of them. The further south we go, the more there will be. Millions of them.”

“We aren’t going there to fight,” Tapo stated.

“We are going there to scout.”

“The commander is sending us there to die. I’m glad you’re all so passionate about it, but can we face the reality of the situation. Please.”

No one refuted him further.

Serj sighed loudly.

“I know it’s important. But it’s crazy. This is only worth something if someone survives to report.”

Vas found himself nodding. He completely agreed with Serj.

In fact, he thought that going south was suicide without purpose.

But in some ways that made life easier.

No more waiting for surprise attacks to jump in while he was trying to live a normal life.

Instead he lived every day like it was his last.

He and his squad were constantly practicing, always on alert.

Vas felt more alive because of the mission.

And maybe because of his squad, too. He smiled.

“Something funny,” Serj growled at him.

“At least we were all crazy to begin with, right?”

Serj smiled. “Fine, let’s get on with it.”

The squad leaders all nodded and broke apart.

When Vas reached his group, they had already packed up the sleeping bags and tent.

“We might start having scout duties,” Vas warned them. Fem nodded, unfazed. He looked at Alex, “you were right, Lex.”

Alex grinned and patted Vas on the shoulder. “Best eyes in the camp.”

Vas watched Alex, puzzled.

Eyes?

He looked at Joust.

The big man shrugged, “She’s been telling everyone in camp about how you valiantly slew a Risen in the dark. Has a whole story. Attack, dodge, kick, full of details. Without mentioning that she couldn’t see anything. Without mentioning that she was still sleeping like a baby when it happened.”

Fem snorted in amusement.

“The best part is where he cuts off the head. What’s he say again?”

Alex blushed a little, then shook her hands. Her expression went serious. “Just as the Risen performed his counter-attack, Vas gave it a hard kick! The monster hissed as its sword hit the ground with a CLANG! Vas knew it was disarmed and jumped at it. He beheaded the creature with ease, and then the sickly gurgling of the blood annoyed him. ‘Silence!’ Vas shouted. Then it stopped.” Alex smiled, having finished her story.

Jade and Joust clapped and Alex bowed.

Fem fell to the ground rolling and laughing.

Vas couldn’t help but smile.

The story was absurd.

Alex saluted him seriously.

“Ready to go when you are, sir!”

Fem, who had been about to get off the ground, started laughing again.

He fell back over, laughing. Tears were coming out of his eyes. “It. . . It hurts. . . Ahh.” Fem tried to take a deep breath, but failed as another bout of laughter hit him.

Vas looked at Jade, “prognosis, medic?”

Jade beamed a smile back at him and poked Fem with the butt of her halberd.

“Ow,” Fem protested.

“I think he’ll make it, sir.” Jade said.

More laughter followed.