Alejandra was anxious. She was always anxious, but it got worse when she sensed other people feeling anxious. By the time they paid for dinner and were on their way, it felt like they’d taken too much time, and who knew what undead they’d see? Mr. Anderson and Señora Florez followed behind the group.

“Can you sense the undead like Calawit?” Rafael asked Ezekiel.

“Um… no? I don’t even know how Cal does that.”

“Do you have any idea what kind of undead they are?” Clarissa asked.

“If Calawit is right, which she usually is, there’s probably a lesser wight or something out there who’s building their animal undead army,” Tyler said, scrolling through a list on his phone.

The silence was long enough that Tyler glanced at everyone looking at him. “It happens. They probably couldn’t turn humans here on earth, which is great, but I still hate that the animals are getting turned.” He rubbed his jaw, his eyes on the list of monsters. “The two worlds shouldn’t be colliding like this.”

“We also better kill them before they join forces with a Vampire Lord or a Wight Lord. I’d rather kill the minions before getting the big boss,” Derek said. There was more silence as the gazes shifted to Derek. He kept his eyes on the road. “You’re seriously telling me no one else studied and color coded the list of monsters we’re facing?”

“Oooh, color code? Care to share?” Tyler asked.

Derek pulled out his phone. “I got you.”

Alejandra rubbed her forehead, trying not to stress out as her pre-fight jitters appeared. It had been a while since everyone fought together. Sure, Nick still wasn’t here, but all five of the CCNC characters were together. They should be okay. It was a while, even, since Hraktar was in a fight.

They split up into separate cars, all agreeing to follow Derek’s van. Alejandra climbed in, trying not to prepare for the worst, as Derek started the van.

They needed to level up. That’s what it all came down to. They had planned for a heist mission to Mr. Stower’s house to find Akshi and steal something valuable of his. They couldn’t possibly do that at level three. Even level four was pushing their luck.

Derek pulled the van into a dirt parking lot. It was fully dark as Alejandra pulled out her phone, turning on the flashlight.

“Now can anyone sense them?” Derek asked.

Grizzizzik folded his arms. “Is that your way of asking politely if you’d like me to scout ahead?”

Derek glanced at him. “I suppose.” Grizzizzik didn’t smile as he headed into the darkness. “Ugh, I miss not having Nick here to tell me what he rolled for stealth. Makes this far less stressful.”

Alejandra glanced at Hraktar, her character that had dark vision. “Can you still see him?”

The fighter shook his head. “He disappeared behind a boulder.”

“And we’re sure he’ll do what he’s supposed to and not lead us on a false trail, right?” Rafael asked.

Derek sighed. “Another reason I miss having Nick here.”

Señora Florez and Mr. Anderson met up with them, catching the tail end of the conversation. “Rogues, huh?” Señora Florez asked.

Derek gave her a knowing look.

“Hey, um, Hraktar?” Milo asked.

Hraktar had his arms folded as he glanced at Milo. The mana fusor reached behind him, pulling out his void bag. “We’re about to face undead.”

At first Hraktar was confused, then his face fell. He touched his great sword as he stared at the void bag. “Um, give me a moment.”

Milo nodded. “Take your time. Hopefully, before we face the wight.”

Alejandra glanced down at her shoes. The silvered great axe. It would be a tremendous help, since a lot of the undead couldn’t be touched by anything that wasn’t magical. Meaning they wouldn’t get hurt by the great sword. Hraktar would choose the great axe, but as he said, he needed a moment to come to terms with it.

Her thoughts drifted to the session next week at Nick and Evelyn’s house. Maybe Rafael was more nervous, but the whole idea created a pit in her stomach. She didn’t want to see Nick again. She was still processing what had happened. Maybe processing was the wrong word. Perhaps, instead, she was shoving the image of Nick pulverizing her brother to one side and pretending that was processing what happened.

It took all of ten minutes before Grizzizzik returned, pulling out his hell dagger to inspect it. “This kid is right. I spotted the lesser wight. There’re a couple of ghouls, and a creature I was pretty sure looked undead.”

Tyler rubbed his forehead, giving Grizzizzik a worried look. “You’re pretty sure it’s undead?”

Grizzizzik shrugged. Derek glanced at Evelyn with a prolonged grimace on his face. She sighed, pulling out her phone. Alejandra folded her arms, looking away.

“Hey, pretend it’s my pink chap stick this time. What’d you roll?” Evelyn asked into the phone.

Grizzizzik rolled his eyes. “Does nobody trust me?”

“Can you blame us?” Hraktar’s question caused Ezekiel to give him a gentle shove with his shoulders.

Grizzizzik leaned against the van, his arms folded. Evelyn and Nick talked some more, this time thankfully off speakerphone. Rafael noticed her fidgeting, giving her a curious look, which surprised her. “Aren’t you nervous about next week? Seeing…”

Rafael glanced at Evelyn, who had her back to him. He then shrugged. “I mean… a little.”

Alejandra folded her arms, feeling the anxious jitters. Maybe she was more nervous about it than Rafael was.

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“Bye, Nick.” Evelyn placed her phone in her back pocket. “It all checks out.”

“Can we go now?” Grizzizzik asked.

“You brought this on yourself.” Evelyn pointed at the rogue. “Become trustworthy and maybe we won’t have to triple check everything you do.”

Grizzizzik said nothing as the group moved toward the undead.

“So, this is what you do?” Señora Florez asked. “Walk toward monsters?”

Alejandra nodded. “Our characters always keep the monster’s focus. We’re not in any danger.”

Her teacher shook her head, looking toward the horizon. “It’s still really unsafe.”

“You’re serious about this?” Derek asked, turning slightly. “You expect us to stay home while our characters fight every time?”

“I expect you to be safe. We know about this, too, and if any harm were to come to you, we’d—”

“Forget,” Derek filled in for Señora Florez.

Tyler poked Derek with an elbow as they walked. Mr. Anderson and Señora Florez turned their attention to Derek.

“What was that?” Mr. Anderson asked.

“Uh…” Derek started to say.

“So, Neal, the founder of CCNC, he told us if any of us were to die in the next year, we’d all forget their existence,” Evelyn said.

Mr. Anderson and Señora Florez stopped short. It took a lot more of a trickle for everyone else to stop.

“Hey!” Milo jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Can we focus on the undead trying to turn some earth creatures into zombies?”

“This is… incredibly dangerous!” Señora Florez rubbed her forehead. “How can any of you not see this?”

“We do see it,” Derek said, his palms open. “It’s… you know.”

“No, I don’t think I know, Derek. Enlighten me,” Mr. Anderson said.

“In my defense, we didn’t realize how bad it was until recently. The creatures couldn’t touch us before,” Evelyn said.

“And now they can. So, we take the proper precautions to—”

Tyler’s hand came up, his eyes widening, cutting Señora Florez off. “Wait.”

Señora Florez looked surprised. “Tyler, this is not—”

“Shh.” Tyler’s gaze bounced around the pavement, then he closed his eyes real tight. “We… need to do this. We need to be there near the fight.” He opened his eyes, not looking at Señora Florez and Mr. Anderson, placing his hands around his head. “Their pull is always so exhausting, but I sense it. Chaos and Order. If we don’t do this… if we fight the battle from the comfort of our car, Chaos will make it impossible for us to stay at Nick’s home to control them when we steal something from Akshi. And of the two battles, it’s far more important to stay inside for next week’s mission than it is for this one.”

Señora Florez deflated. “But you are kids.”

Tyler tried to straighten his shoulders, making the gray line across his neck more visible. “I’m twenty years old.”

Mr. Anderson shook his head. “Again, Tyler—”

“I know, Mr. Anderson. I know I’m still a kid in your eyes. But the fact is, if we don’t attend this battle, we won’t be able to stay at Nick’s house next week. Chaos, Order, they need balance. By respecting this balance, we get through it. Do Chaos’ X, we get Order’s Y. Refuse both to choose our own Z, we’ll be forced to choose Chaos’ X, and… and Chaos is…”

“Not someone we want to cross?” Rafael suggested.

Tyler sighed. “He’s fine, as long as we don’t cheat him.”

“He seems rather toxic,” Hazel said.

“What do you expect from someone who’s the personification of Chaos? At least there’s Order to keep him in line.” Tyler turned around, moving toward the battle.

“Have you met them?” Señora Florez asked.

Tyler almost laughed. “Hell no. Almost feels like it with how much they occupy my mind, though.”

Alejandra folded her arms, feeling uncomfortable. Talk of the overarching game masters of their lives never left her with a comforting feeling. They started walking again. Grizzizzik, Hraktar, and Clarissa lead the way with their dark vision.

Derek jogged to catch up with Tyler, his flashlight bouncing in the light. “You once said Order allowed Chaos to put Akshi in the bubble. One favor to cash in another later.”

“Yeah,” Tyler said.

“Has she cashed in on the favor yet?” Derek asked.

“I don’t think so.”

Derek raised an eyebrow. “Are we allowed to petition her for suggestions on how to cash it in?”

Tyler gave him a look. “I’d rather leave that up to her to decide.”

“I know, but…” Derek gestured toward Ezekiel. “How are we getting a deity or minion to crush the bar of silver Milo has? Gods and Goddesses really don’t walk around on earth. Unless we get creative with the interpretation, we’re at a standstill with that.”

Tyler sighed. “I know. And… I don’t know.”

Derek’s face dropped. “Thanks, Tyler.”

“Hey, if you think you can do better, I’d happily give you responsibility and I can take over Milo.” Tyler tapped the side of his head. “They’re exhausting.”

Alejandra was struck with an idea. “Can Order crush the silver?”

“No,” Tyler said, folding his arms. “She’s order. She… doesn’t destroy. But you can’t petition Order for something and not have Chaos eventually show up. Despite how opposite those two are, they are a packaged deal. And Chaos might not grind it to powder. He might turn it into flowers instead, because he can.”

Alejandra felt defeated, but there was no point in arguing further. Of course the person who was the personification of order wouldn’t be able to crush something to powder.

“The biggest thing right now is next week,” Rafael said. “We get what we need to from Akshi, then we can look again at the text and figure out what it means.”

“If we can get what we need from Akshi,” Grizzizzik said quietly.

That caused a silence to fall over everyone as they continued to follow Grizzizzik. Alejandra glanced at Rafael, and was surprised to see her brother looking about as pessimistic as the rogue.

They kept walking, with Hraktar and Ezekiel especially looking lost in their own minds. Alejandra wanted to talk to her character, but wasn’t sure what to say.

Grizzizzik pulled to a stop, glancing behind his shoulders. “This is as good a place as any to split off. Stay here, we’ll go on ahead.”

“Okay Milo,” Hraktar said. “I’m ready.”

Milo nodded and stopped, pulling out his void bag as Derek held out a flashlight for him to see. There was a flicker of determination on Hraktar’s face, but it was almost smothered by grim acceptance. He walked over to the void bag as Milo struggled to get the great axe out of the bag.

The two of them were silent as Hraktar unbuckled his great sword and dropped it in Milo’s hands, the mana fusor’s knees knocking together under the weight. Hraktar pulled out the silvered great axe, resting it on his shoulder.

“I want my sword after this battle,” Hraktar said.

Milo struggled to get the great sword into the bag. “I’ll keep it safe.”

Alejandra turned her attention toward Ezekiel, who had been quiet this entire time. He had a hand around his stomach, looking ahead. There was clearly a battle going on in his head between himself and the lycanthropy, but it didn’t look like he’d connected the dots as to why Hraktar had a silvered great axe. Ezekiel reached out until he found Clarissa. She took his hand, rubbing his arm as they walked forward, with Clarissa leading the way in the darkness.

“I’m really close to creating dark goggles,” Milo said, placing his void bag in his inventory. “But until then…”

Hraktar grunted. “Come on. I’ll lead you.”

They walked forward into the darkness. Alejandra somehow found herself by Evelyn, and she wasn’t sure how. The pit in her stomach grew, and she tried as coyly as possible to distract herself with her phone as she walked over closer to Rafael and Hazel.

Tyler squinted into the darkness. “I wish I had dark vision,” he mumbled.

As he said that, the battlefield lit up with light. All of them looked over to see Milo chanting something as some sort of scrap metal in the trees was infused with light, giving the two humans the ability to see enough of the battle. They weren’t far. In fact, they must have practically stumbled on the undead.

A burst of radiant light exploded from Ezekiel’s hands, giving off a light that almost made the battlefield light up like it was noonday. There was a tall, thin creature completely ghost white. At first Alejandra thought it was a ghost, but the armor was real, and there wasn’t any sort of transparency to this creature. It had long white hair, and the long, sharp teeth were on display as it snarled. This must be the wight.

There was another creature, even thinner than the other. It was a mummy, almost skeletal, with rotten wrappings clinging to its dehydrated, blackened body. The final two creatures were hunched over, grey skin pulled tight over their thin frames. They gnawed on some raw meat, shrieking at the sudden light.

The wight shrieked and leapt out of the way of the radiant burst of light before turning toward Ezekiel, snarling.

“Yeah, um… he missed that one,” Rafael said.

Time slowed down.

Roll for initiative.