For all his determination though, Cain wasn’t sure where to begin. Brian and Rose, now dressed in office attire, stared at him apprehensively. Joe, for his part, was staring expectantly.

“Well, my night started the same way as Brian and Rose’s, I also felt sick for a moment, but was driving at the time, and I had to pull over,” Cain started. “Joe’s already heard this before, so I’ll sum it up for you two as well.”

Cain explained what he had done on the interstate and what he and Joe had done in the forest but once again left out anything regarding the Numeral.

“That’s all well and good, but there’s still something you’re not telling us son,” Joe pushed.

Cain sighed, suddenly aware he had been doing that frequently these past few minutes, and composed himself by looking straight into Joe’s eyes. The older man was taller, but only by a couple centimeters. He held his hand out and said, “book,” aloud. The Numeral appeared in its black and gold glory, resting on his palm as if it had always been there.

“What book? You need to write something down?” Joe questioned, a confused look on his face.

Cain looked back and forth between Joe and his hand, which appeared empty to the other three people in the room, and managed to let out a single, “Oh.”

“Does your friend have a few screws loose Joe?” Asked Brian.

“Shut it Brian,” Joe said, giving Brian a pointed look.

Ignoring the bickering, Cain took a wrench and offered it out to Joe. pulling the sleeve up on his other arm.

“Hit me,” was all he said.

“Maybe more than a few,” Brian muttered.

“What did you just say son?” Joe asked.

“I said hit me. With the wrench.”

Joe reluctantly took it, but made no move to use it on Cain.

“Look, Joe, it’ll make sense, I promise,” Cain assured the man.

Joe still looked doubtful, but he said, “don’t regret this now,” and swung down at Cain’s extended arm. There was no cry of pain or meaty thwack or crack of shattered bone, the wrench hit Cain’s exposed forearm and just...stopped. Joe, Brian, and Rose all blinked, unable to take their eyes away from his undamaged arm.

“How-how did you…” Brian said, mouth opening and closing but not forming any other words.

“Go ahead and ask for your own books,” Cain offered.

He didn’t know if it would work, but since they all exhibited the same symptoms, with the exception of Joe who must have forgotten due to his crash, Cain believed that everyone in the room had their own Numeral. And his guess proved right as all three were suddenly holding what looked like patches of solid air. Cain gave them a moment to poke and prod and explore their Numerals, but it wasn’t long until Brian spoke up.

“Are we dead?” He asked Cain in a quiet voice.

“I don’t think we are, but I also don’t know what’s going on,” Cain replied. “I do know some things though. But first, do you all see plenty of strange terms such as Arc and Edge?”

Three nods.

“Then be careful what you do with your Numeral. It looks like if you use your Origin you can make yourself stronger with Edge, or tougher with Arc. That’s the real reason why I could kill all those wolves and the bear.”

Three blank stares.

“I know what it sounds like, I know I sound crazy, and I don’t understand it either, but you all saw the proof,” Cain finished, pointing at his still undamaged arm. The action reminded him of his other arm, which was gouged into by possibly unsanitary wolf claws. He unwrapped the flannel off of his arm and while the standard for normal had changed significantly in the past hour or so, an unblemished arm was pushing it.

He unwrapped the flannel around his right calf and saw a more mild version of the same miraculous healing. The chunk of leg he was missing was already filled in and scabbed over, with the rate it was going, maybe not even taking another hour to look as if his hike in the woods wasn’t interrupted by a hungry wolf. The others were too stuck in their own heads to notice his actions though, with Rose having sat down on the desk, fanning herself with a stray piece of paper.

“Cain, how did you use this Origin to get stronger,” Brian asked with a strange look on his face.

“I sort of just...touched it?” Cain responded with a question. “I’m still not really sure myself.”

“So, what now?” Joe asked Cain. The man seemed to already discard his Numeral, but Cain didn’t know what that said about him. But the question was a good one. Both of them would still have been walking along the interstate if they hadn’t found the Lookout Pass and heard Rose’s scream. But now that they had another two people to worry about besides themselves, perhaps it would be a good idea to wait out the night under a roof. The more he thought about it, the more Cain was welcome to the idea of some sleep.

“We could wait until the morning to head to Mullan, I wasn’t expecting to find somewhere we could stay so this,” Cain said, gesturing around him, “is a good sign to hunker down for a bit.”

“I agree, but just to check...Brian, could you go check if your car works?” Joe directed at Brian, who looked up from his empty hands.

“I don’t know, there might still be things outside,” Brian said apprehensively.

“It’s alright, I checked around the entire building, and I didn’t see anything else,” Cain placated Brian.

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“Alright then,” Brian assented. He left the room but came back shortly with his keys in one hand and the other waving in front of his nose.

“Did you have to kill it in front of the door?” He asked Cain angrily. “Do you know how much it’s going to cost to redo the building if the smell soaks in?”

“Never mind that Brian, did your car work?” Joe broke in.

“No, it didn’t Joe. Now if you’ll excuse us, me and my wife have some talking to do.” He said, looking pointedly between Cain and Joe. Understanding what he meant, they both walked out of the office and Brian closed the door behind them.

“He doesn’t seem awfully friendly tonight, what do you think, Cain?” Joe asked with a smile.

“I think I might not be the only one with a few screws loose.” They shared a short laugh. “But after thinking on it some more, maybe we shouldn’t stay the night here.”

“How’s that?”

“Well, we’re the only ones that know what’s going on, but some things have been nagging at me the past hour. Those cars we found on the interstate, I don’t see any of their owners here.” Joe furrowed his brows, beginning to understand the point Cain was trying to make.

“I don’t know if we got lucky or unlucky, but we’re the only ones that made it to the Lookout Pass, and I don’t think that this part of montana should be this full of wolves and bears, right?” Joe shook his head, disturbance plain on his face.

“Then what about Mullan? A small town filled with people, surrounded by the forest, wouldn’t they be in danger?” Cain finished, and Joe nodded in understanding.

“I’ll tell Brian and Rose, they should know that we aren’t staying,” Joe said, opening the door to the office. The couple in question were huddled next to the desk, Brian whispering something to Rose. He looked up and glared at Joe, stepping in front of his wife.

“Don’t you know how to knock?” Brian asked through tight lips.

“Don’t you know you don’t have a door to knock on?” Joe replied, chuckling. “More importantly, Cain and I decided that we’re going to head to Mullan right now.”

“What? Why? You should stay here until help arrives, not go running off into the forest like a pair of hooligans. You’re too old for that Joe,” Brian finished with a smirk.

“You aren’t looking too spry yourself Brian, and we weren’t asking for your permission.”

Joe met Brian’s glare with his own calm look, seeming at ease in this encounter. For all his talk of friends, Cain didn’t think Joe got along too well with Brian at all.

“I demand that you stay here and wait until help arrives,” Brian said with finality.

“The phones don’t work, the cars don’t work, and maybe your head isn’t working either Brian, you have no right to demand anything at all. We have bigger problems than you two. Hide here or come with us, doesn’t matter, but we’re leaving.”

Cain kept being surprised at how little Joe acted his age, and he began to think that maybe the man wasn’t just some plumber.

“Now listen here you-” Brian began in a huff, but was interrupted by Rose putting a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s alright sugar, let it go,” she said meekly. Brian, to his credit, hesitated a moment before nodding and slumping back, anger gone as quickly as it had come.

“Fine. Go,” he said, waving Cain and Joe away.

“We’ll send help once we get to Mullan, try not to get eaten in the meantime,

Joe said as a retreating remark.

The two slipped out of the building and resumed their walk through the forest, following the interstate as it began turning West again. They passed more cars and trucks, some bloody, some not, and even an eighteen-wheeler but still saw no sign of other living creatures. Cain also noticed that at no point during the night had there been animal calls from deeper within the forest except for the black bear. No howls from the wolves, no hoots from owls, nothing. He decided to break the silence in a hushed tone, trying to distract himself from such dark thoughts.

“So, Joe, when did you meet Brian?”

“When I met Brian isn’t that interesting of a story, about thirty years ago. Where I met him, now that’s the fun part. Believe it or not, we actually met at a baseball game. The ‘88 world series between the Dodgers and Athletics. I tell you son, I have never seen a game as good as that one since. The final pinch-hit by Kirk Gibson,” Joe brought a hand to his face and mock-sniffed,”brought a tear to my eye.”

“But anyways, we were at the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, although I haven’t visited in over a decade. But when taking my seat in the bleachers, I saw Brian was struggling to carry multiple beers to the seat next to mine, so I offered to help in exchange for having one. Back then he was a friendly fellow, always having a laugh, and he gave me a beer, we watched the game, and we became friends on a dime.”

Joe paused in his reminiscent ramble, temporarily lost in the memories of his mind. Cain saw a man who was twice his age, but looked as if he had lived many lifetimes. The wisdom of the elderly, he thought. Switching to a pensive expression, Joe continued.

“Brian wasn’t always so uptight. He was always off cavorting with someone or other, usually someone from his job, and me and him got into all sorts of trouble. But the good times couldn’t last, since a couple years after we met, I enlisted, and went overseas to Iraq and Bosnia,” Joe said, pausing again.

“Thank you for your service,” Cain said, saluting the veteran. Joe smiled and went on.

“We kept in touch with mail, but halfway through my tour, he stopped sending me letters. I thought he was busy with life and didn’t fault him for it. He wasn’t the only one I had waiting for me back home anyway,” Joe said, winking. “When I returned home, lived in Brooklyn at the time, I took a drive up to Boston where Brian was staying for a surprise visit. Imagine my surprise when he wasn’t there.”

Cain understood what Joe was implying. That Brian had just decided to stop being a part of Joe’s life out of nowhere. Joe didn’t seem to be handling it hard, but Cain wouldn’t be surprised if there was a storm raging underneath that stoic demeanor.

“And wouldn’t you know it, I find him prancing around in Lookout Pass of all places. I haven’t been here in years, and there he is, talking about having a wife of all things. You know he really was quite active back in the day, I’m surprised he managed to settle down at all,” Joe laughed, remembering younger times.

“I’m glad he found a new life for himself, I just wish he could have said goodbye before doing so,” Joe finished, voice trembling near the end. Old enough to be his father, Cain didn’t know how to comfort Joe, uncomfortably continuing to walk alongside him.

“I owe you an apology Cain,” started Joe.

“What for?”

“When I woke up, I wanted to get to my truck and just get driving, you remember. Well that’s because I was heading home to Spokane, where my grandchildren are. You should have passed it if you were heading from that way. I’m just...I was in a rush to get home, and wasn’t thinking straight, you have my apologies son.” Joe said with a bowed head.

“Lift your head Joe, it’s alright, and it’s going to be alright. It’s been a crazy night and if you have people that you care about back home, I get it. So let’s get to Mullan and hope they have someone who knows how to fix whatever is wrong with the cars,” Cain reassured Joe. The older man slapped a hand on Cain’s shoulder with gusto.

“That’s the spirit son! It shouldn’t be more than another hour to get there. And you have a point, everything is going to be just fine,” Joe said, more to himself than to Cain.

The hour passed by quicker than Cain expected, with no accompanying pain to boot. The hole in his jeans was a strange sight, but Cain expected any onlookers to have bigger problems to worry about. Soon, Cain and Joe passed by a few houses on the side of the road, but they looked empty. Deciding they had a better shot at finding others in the town proper, they ignored the houses and finished the short trek from the outskirts of the town to its center. And even with their night vision, the duo couldn’t spot the columns of smoke rising from the half of the town until they were practically right next to the burning buildings.

Mullan was on fire.