We pulled on our clothes as quickly as our unsteady hands and uncooperative fingers would allow. The thickness that seemed to permeate the air as soon as the siren began to sound felt heavier and heavier on my body, like the earth beneath my feet had suddenly gained a great deal more mass and was pulling me towards it with a gravitational pull I hadn't even thought possible before this moment. The sun looked weird. Like it was being viewed through a piece of red parchment that was staining the sky around it, painting cuts of deep purple into the dark blue sky like a seeping wound. The wind stopped, but the trees still moved like they were caught in a storm.

"Do you feel that?" Brinna called over the shriek of the siren, her eyes wide.

"Yeah!" I said quietly, nodding.

"What?" she called.

I looked up at her. She was still buttoning her shirt, her fingers slipping on the small buttons. She was watching me, her eyes dark and dread-filled.

"Yeah!" I said again, louder this time. Probably still not loud enough, but she was able to read my lips.

I slipped into my boots and pulled the strings on them tight, lacing them carefully. Brinna was doing the same.

"What's happening?" Brinna asked.

"You know what's happening!" I said, perhaps more harshly than I should have. I was scared. She was scared too and I should have been comforting her, but my own mortality was fresh on my mind.

As soon as I stood back up Brinna was beside me, her hand in the crook of my arm, pulling me up the grassy hill towards the dark trees ahead. She let go of me once we reached the treeline and we made for the dirt path that would eventually lead to the village. Animals were scattering, deer racing along the stream on the opposite side of the path from the lake. Birds fell from the trees, landing on the ground beneath our feet. Some managed to jump up into the air and regain their flight, adjusting to the strange saturation that had filled the air. Other flailed there, squawking loudly.

Everyone on the continent knew what the siren blaring across the sky meant. It meant radiation. It meant the quickening. It meant some of your neighbors losing their minds. It meant disaster.

"This way!" Brinna grabbed my hand and pulled me from the path. When I looked ahead I realized why: a giant black bear, impossibly large, stood on its hind legs, staring up at the sky from an opening in the cloud cover. If Brinna hadn't pulled me off of the path I would have barrelled into it within seconds. I let her lead me through the mess of plants and branches ahead of us. We reached the small stream that ran along the path and ran through it, unbothered by the water soaking out shoes. That was trivial.

We splashed across and began to follow the stream from the opposite side.

A scream cut through the air somewhere ahead of us, relentlessly shrill.

"What was that?!" Brinna asked, looking back with a wild look in her eye.

"Ignore it!" I said. It was probably somebody being killed.

The radiation drove men insane. It drove many to incredible acts of senseless violence. Deep in my mind I wondered if I would experience the same thing. I thought about the way Volter slowly slipped away, being replaced by something sick and confused that reveled in the simplicity of violence. Would that happen to me? I'd finish myself off before that ever happened.

"Back across," she said, pulling me through the water again and into the trees. She let go of my hand once we were on the path once more and we powered ahead. The village wasn't too much farther.

The sound of the siren seemed to change key before the drone began to falter and fade away, growing quieter and quieter until it sounded like we were underwater. Then it died entirely.

"Is it over?" Brinna asked, coming to a sudden halt in front of me. I barely managed to sidestep her.

"Come on." I grabbed her arm and pulled her forward this time. "We need to get back to your dad's place. He'll be worried about us."

"Maybe it was a mistake," she said quietly. We were still moving with purpose, but our pace had slowed considerably. I was breathing heavily. "Maybe they didn't mean to sound the siren."

It was wishful thinking. It was also incredibly naive. I looked around the forest and realized that all of the animals had disappeared, perhaps deeper into the forest. Maybe Brinna was right and it was an accident and the animals had lost their minds because of how loud the siren was. It had been decades since it had rang out in this region after all. The sound would probably scare them. Deep in my heart though, I knew that wasn't it. Its warning was legitimate.

Another scream cut through the air and we both stopped dead. Then we heard the sound of something crashing through the forest. We turned towards the sound and Brinna let out a gasp.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

A woman was stumbling through the forest, her plain work clothes stained red with the blood that was seeping out of a gash on her chest. "Help me!" she called. "Please! Somebody—anybody!"

Brinna moved forward but I twisted her arm, pulling her away. She shot me a dirty look and I nodded my head in the direction of the woman's pursuer. It was a man, not one that was familiar to me. He had an ax in his hands and he followed her with a frantic speed. I barely had enough time to register the situation, really recognize what I was seeing, before he swung the axe at her hard. It struck her neck and he screams were immediately cut short.

She fell and he didn't stop. He pulled the axe from her neck and brought it down on her again and again, viscera dripping down his face and chest, streaks of blood up his arms and staining the sleeves of his shirt.

Brinna was in shock, but she let out a whimper that I didn't muffle in time. My hand shot to her face, but it was too late. The man looked up at us. The axe glinted in a ray of purple and blue light that filtered in through the trees and time seemed to slow down. I looked into his eyes and he looked back. Then he was running towards us, the axe above his head.

A scream caught in my throat as he brought the axe down. Brinna pulled me away hard and I fell to side, the axe buried in the ground where I had just been standing. He pulled it out in one swift motion and raised it above his head again and I scrambled away, fumbling and slipping in the dirt beneath me.

I heard Brinna cry out behind me and I closed my eyes, half expecting the world to just end for me right there, to be enveloped in complete, painless black. Maybe that would have been better.

There was a whoosh and Brinna cried out again. The axe hit the ground near my leg, close enough for me to feel the movement of the fabric of my pants. When I opened my eyes the man slumped to the ground in front of me, his arm landing across my leg. His body convulsed like he was having a seizure. There was blood on me. My pants were covered with little flecks of it and I could feel its warmth on my face.

There was an arrow sticking out of the man's forehead and and he couldn't fall completely flat to the ground because of it. Blood was seeping from the wound and pooling beneath us, the warm sticky liquid beginning to seep into my pants. I let out a scream and pushed him off of me, backing away, my hand slipping in the warm, wet blood.

"Calm down!" the voice behind me commanded. It was a voice I recognized. Suzana.

I turned to her and tried to formulate a sentence. All I could manage was a hard swallow. She was down the path maybe eight feet from us, her bow held in her hands. Suzana was a hunter like my father and they knew each other well before he lost his mind to the rot and forgot her name one day. They had been so close that I almost thought perhaps they were secret lovers. Then one day he never mentioned her again. I remember passing her on the street while Volter and I were walking together and the pain in her eyes when he didn't acknowledge her. Of course she knew he had been infected with the rot, but she couldn't help her feelings. I had similar ones.

She walked forward, bringing a finger to her lips. "Be quiet. Be honest with me, Krill. Do you have the rot?"

"What?" I asked stupidly.

She notched another arrow in her bow, slipping forward and taking aim. "Volter had the rot. He didn't pass it to you? You know what it means if he did."

Brinna found her voice. "He doesn't have it!" she sputtered. "We were just swimming. He doesn't have it!"

She relaxed and pointed the arrow at the ground, relieving the tension in the string slowly. Her long, black hair blew as a gust of wind rushed through the trees. It felt like the forest had just started to breathe again after holding it in during the siren's call. Then we heard the droning of engines above us. Through flailing branches of the trees I could see a skyship moving through the air towards the village. I realized that's where the wind was coming from.

"Ship that big has to be the Queensguard," Suzana said, relief in her voice.

"What's happened?" I finally managed to say. My own voice was shaking. It was the meekest it had ever sounded and it embarrassed me.

"Don't know." She closed the distance between us and lowered herself onto her haunches to be somewhat level to me. Brinna leaned against a tree and exhaled. "Was out hunting when the siren started. Air got all thick. This deer I was tracking? All of a sudden it fell to the ground and started shaking as the siren was going off. Wildlife started going nuts around me. That's all I know."

"Who was he?" Brinna asked, pointing at the man on the ground.

"Don't know that either. Got back to the path and saw him attacking that woman. I followed them, hoping I could save her, but... you saw how that worked out. And then he went for you two."

"Thanks," I said, shaking my head. "If you hadn't..." I trailed off.

"Don't mention it. I told Volter when he got the rot that I'd take care of you. Didn't expect it to be that literal." She laughed a short, nervous laugh. "We should get back to town. Someone there will know something."

She stood, reached her hand out to me, and smiled gently. "It's gonna be okay, Krill. You're just in shock. Come on."

I took her hand and let her pull me to my feet. I was unsteady, but I could manage. I mostly just hated the feeling of the man's blood that had saturated my pants and caused the fabric to stick to my leg. The warmth of it unsettled me.

"Let's go." She took off ahead of us, moving at a brisk walk.

Brinna shot a worried glance my way but followed. I fell in line behind them, my hands worrying at the bottom of my shirt. My fingers were sticky and I remembered there was blood on one of them. I wiped it on the front of my pants as though it was burning me like acid.

"What do you think is going on in town?" Brinna asked. "Is it safe?"

"I don't think anywhere is safe anymore," Suzana answered. "Unless we're going to flee to another region. Though I'm not sure they'd let us in."

"Will the region be on a lockdown?" I asked, moving ahead of Brinna in line. "What happens now?"

"You got me. I only know what I've been told. Sylstra's Damsel passed when I was around your age. Twenty years ago? Something like that. The Queensguard descended on the region and reinforced the borders. Then they do what they always do. Kill those driven insane with rot. Gather up the women who have been touched by Afterbirth. Try to keep order any way possible until a new Damsel undergoes the Quickening."

"How long does that take?" Brinna asked behind me.

"Sometimes days, sometimes weeks. You'll know when it happens. Some poor girl is about to become a new vessel for our god."

I swallowed hard again. I could lose my mind from the radiation and the rot, but at least I'd never have to worry about that. Damsels lived a long, cruel life. Better to be insane than locked away inside of a tower until your connection with a dead god finally destroys your body.

"Stop right there!" a gruff voice said from farther up the path. I looked past Suzana and fixed my eyes on the impressive form ahead. Then I saw the heavy gun held in his hands and my blood ran cold.