Chimes echoed roughly a half hour before the sun came up on Moonlight. Chimes from where, exactly? My eyes had only just opened minutes prior, newly escaped from a terrible dream.

My prison wasn’t part of the dream, however. It wasn’t a mirage. I was being held. The room, a mud floor chamber, had a body width strip of canvas for a bed, and a rickety pine stool in the corner.

There was a lone portal cut into the rock wall, barred with three thick lengths of iron. As far as I could tell from my limited view, the rough path outside the window led into thickets of evergreens off to my left.

North end of the village?

A panicked thought came to me. Were you even still in the village itself? From my small cell, I couldn’t see any hint of the giant concrete wall.

As per usual, the early morning was chilly. I was forced to do my business in a rusted pail in the corner. I rubbed my teeth, and gums with my index finger. Oh, how I longed for a toothbrush. I told myself that my friends would find me. I only hoped they even knew I’d gone missing.

Strangely, I suffered no headaches, though I could feel a welt on my forehead. Sensitive, and hot to the touch. A flash of memory. The huge rock being brought down on me. But, more than that, images of me smashing human bone with relative ease. Just to test myself to see if it was actually real, I dropped forward, and banged out a long set of push ups, and it was effortless. My strength gambit had worked. Yet, I still wound up in this squalid place.

I’d spoken to one person since finding myself locked inside the hut. It was a man on the other side of the window. He’d kept himself concealed in shadow, but had come to give me oat loaf. I’d asked him where we were, and he told me it was ‘somewhere safe’. Obviously a lie.

Could I expect anything different? Everyone interested in holding me captive was going to lie to me. What were their intentions? Like they were ever going to tell you. Everyone lies. Meh, you’re a liar too.

I don’t know if it was depression over finding myself in this precarious position, but I started to feel guilt over having been imposed on this village in the first place. It would be jarring to have this foreigner arrive, and see them fundamentally change the geography of your home.

Doesn’t give them an excuse to try and beat you to death though.

Fair point.

I’d been in solitary for what… one day? And, already I was arguing with myself.

You have to pass the time somehow.

Pass it quietly. Can you even turn off your mind enough to do that?

An hour went by like this. Well, I’m guessing it was an hour. It might’ve been two. Then the same man who came by before, crouched near my window again. He passed me a tin of water.

“For drinking?” I asked him. I still couldn’t see his face, but I saw the back of his head bobbing to indicate a nod.

Was I really going to trust the word of a liar about the potability of the water?

Do you have a choice?

You don’t have to drink it.

But, I was dead thirsty.

I drank it down in three swift gulps, and handed the tin back through the slim opening.

“Thanks,” I said. Might as well be friendly, especially to someone bringing you food and water.

“Something else,” the man muttered.

“Huh?”

Then a dark object slipped between the bars. A roll of brown leather. Something solid inside. My first thought was goat jerky. But, when I unfurled the leather, I was stunned to see a black dagger.

“What is this?” I said.

“Hold it close,” said the man. “Keep it hidden. They’ll come for you soon.”

He quickly shuffled away, out of view.

“Wait,” I said. “Who are you? Where are we?”

He was gone.

Needless to say, after that little exchange, relaxing on the half broken chair while waiting for ‘them’ to come wasn’t happening. Instead, I paced the mud floor. To keep as calm as I could I counted steps. Then I’d lose count, and start again.

This lasted several minutes when the sound of people talking caught my ear. Men speaking, in the distance, conversational tone. The voices came closer. I watched through the barred window, and over the crest I saw the faces of a half dozen men before I ducked down. I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, but I heard laughter amongst the voices. There must’ve been at least six of them.

Adrenaline had me shaking. I shoved the dagger up my cotton sleeve.

How are you going to do this?

Remember your strength. Hit hard. Be first. Don’t hesitate. Pedal to the floor right away.

The men drew close to the hut, and I could make out individual words, but it was a bunch of conversations happening simultaneously, and I couldn’t discern anything.

There was a bang on the heavy wood door. I stood near the hinges, opting for an ambush position once the door would swing inward.

But, right after the noise at the door, I heard a booming voice holler outside the window.

“You there!” The depth and ferocity of the voice. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think it was my friend, the reformed barbarian, Gak.

“Stop!”

Yes, it was Gak.

The heavy door swung into my cell. Two men, one I’d recognized from the fight near the soda machine came at me. Immediately, I grabbed one of the men by his shoulders, and when I turned to my right I’d swept the man right off his feet, and I let go to send him hurling into the rock wall. His shoulder crunched against the stones, and he was slow to get up.

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The other man grabbed my arm, and the dagger slipped from me and fell on the frozen mud. The man glanced down at the weapon, and in the instant he thought to go for the thing, I fed him an uppercut with such force that my fist exploded his nose. Blood went everywhere, I had huge splotches of it all over me.

The man screamed, and he fell backward onto the canvas on the floor.

“Adam?” A baritone voice called to me from outside the hut. I recognized it as Trevor’s.

Another ugly gang member ran inside the hut.

“Here!” I called back to Trevor. “I’m in here.”

I lifted the man in the front of me off his feet. I gave a kick to the man I’d first thrown into the wall, and he fell again. Another man came in, and tried grabbing me.

Someone appeared on the other side of the portal. It was Gak.

“There you are lad!” He shouted.

“Get me out of here!”

“Back up!”

I chucked the man in my hands downward into the solid muck with enough force he wasn’t in a hurry to stand again. The other man retreated back through the door.

KABOOM!

A huge blast.

Large rocks slammed against my side, and I tumbled over. One entire wall of the hut disappeared. Dust, and mud filled the air.

The man with the broken nose clumsily got to his feet, and scurried through the barely standing door. Half the hut laid in ruin. As the dust cleared, I could see Trevor hovering above me, and Gak stood in his shadow. Then I saw Proctor appear from behind one of Trevor’s legs.

“He’s here!” Gak shouted.

Then I saw Dillard run over the crest, smiling as he jogged up the path.

I don’t know what came over me, but when Proctor walked over to me with genuine concern on his face, I reached out and gave him a hearty hug. It surprised him a bit, I could tell at first, but then he hugged me back.

“Glad to have found you,” Proctor said.

Alright, I admit it. I had a tear in my eye.

“Glad to be found,” I said.

“What happened?” Trevor asked.

“These guys,” I said. I didn’t even know where to start.

“Took him, didn’t they?” Dillard said. “Look at your head.”

I touched the welt on my forehead, as I could see by Dillard’s eyes it must’ve looked pretty bad.

“They hit me with a rock,” I said.

“They’re gone now,” Gak said. “Bloody bastards.”

“Who are they?”

“Them Quallons, ain’t it?” Dillard said. “I told ya before.”

“Huh? Quallons?” I said.

I’d assumed it was a random gang of angry young villagers. Turns out they were all related.

“They were upset about the wall,” I said. “They were attacking the soda machine. I guess I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Puttin’ you in a stew is what they was up to,” Dillard said. “Bloody Quallons.”

I touched the puffy wound on my head, and grimaced.

“Cannibals,” Proctor said. “They’re a family of cannibals.”

“Well, they’re angry,” I said. “And, I’m worried they’re not alone.”

“Are you alright?” Trevor said. He reached down to me with his huge hands.

I shook his finger for reassurance. “I’ll be fine,” I said. “I’m just glad you came.”

“I knew it’d be the Quallons,” Dillard said. “These fools thought you’d be in Murphy Mountain.”

“I wouldn’t put it past those mountaineers,” Gak said. “Would you?”

“So, we’re still in the village?” I asked Proctor.

He shook his head.

“Just outside,” he answered. “This family, or clan, they live about a kilometer outside the limits.”

“They won’t be bothering you no more,” Dillard said. “Put the run to them.”

Proctor surveyed the pools of blood in the mud around us.

“Looks as though you’d done a fair bit of damage yourself,” he said.

I nodded, gravely.

“I’ve done some… uh… damaging things to a bunch of these guys, I’m afraid,” I said.

Proctor appeared a bit worried. “Oh dear.”

“Why be afraid?” Dillard said. “This lot deserves all they got coming to ‘em. That, and then some.”

“Aye,” Gak agreed. “A dangerous bunch.”

“What did you do?” Trevor asked.

“I defended myself,” I said. “But, in doing so, I might’ve caused further trouble.”

“They attacked you,” Gak said.

“They had the trouble coming,” Dillard said.

We stepped away from the ruined prison shack. Then we walked slowly down the beaten path which led through a small wooded patch. When we came through the trees, across a vast pasture, we could see the outline of the village’s perimeter wall on the horizon. It glowed under the morning sun.

Proctor walked closest to me. Gak led the way back, and Trevor brought up the group’s rear.

“I’m afraid I used the soda’s magic,” I told Proctor.

“How do you mean?”

“I still had some effect left over.”

“From the wall, and the trench?” Proctor said.

I made a cringe face, and nodded.

“You used the magic,” Proctor said, and he paused. “You used it… how?”

I scrunched my face, and then I motioned toward the biceps on both arms. I made a flexing pose.

“On yourself?” Proctor said, surprise in his tone.

“Strength,” I said.

We just stood there looking at one another for a minute, and everyone else stopped too, wondering what we were talking about.

“Oh dear,” said Proctor. “Did you do it more than once?”

“Two times,” I said.

Proctor’s eyes cast downward. “Deary, deary me,” he said.

“What happened?” Trevor said.

“What did ya do?” Dillard said. “I didn’t hear ya’s.”

I tried to look away from Proctor’s concerned face, but even in the corner of my vision, I could see he wouldn’t stop looking at me. I think it was out of genuine concern for my health. And, I suppose that was understandable.

I wasn’t interested in talking about it with everyone else. Not in that moment anyway.

“We should get back to Moonlight,” I said.

And, we all began walking again.

There was a feeling of deep relief within my bones walking with this group. We walked through open country well outside the perimeter wall, and yet with these men I felt ultimate safety.

I realized then and there we were becoming a team. We had each other’s backs. Best believe if it was one of them who’d been captured I’d have run to their rescue as well.

We walked mostly in silence, westward toward the village wall. When we got within a hundred meters, and the thing was towering over us, I could feel the sun’s heat radiating back off of it, showering down like a pleasing embrace. Still, I was worried about the mentality of the rest of the villagers who’d seen a lot of upheaval of late, thanks to me.

“What are we walking back into?” I asked Proctor, as we neared the entrance gate.

“Despite what’s happened,” Proctor said, “it’s been more positive than I’d expected. People seem to understand. It was explained by the System before you’d even arrived. I think most knew to expect the unexpected. They know you mean them no harm, even if a lot of Moonlighters see you as the System itself.”

“I hope you’re right,” I said.

“There’s been troubles,” Trevor said. “But I don’t know if I’ve been as hopeful. Moonlight has a future.”

It warmed my heart to see the giant smile.

“Aye, lad, you needn’t worry,” Gak said. “You have done what we’ve wished to do as a people… for a long while. Let Murphy Mountain try and come now.”

We made it close to the wall at the northeast corner. As we walked along its base, and neared the archway gate, there was a gathering of locals. To me, it looked like maybe they were anticipating our arrival. The villagers pointed at us as we approached, and their faces appeared receptive. It caused me to relax all the more.

“Maybe we can focus on baseball now?” I said. “Finally?”

Proctor chuckled at my comment. “Perhaps,” he said. “Here’s hoping.”