“Stay low and follow me,” I said as I crouched down and slid up next to the closest table and chairs. Tala fell in behind me a little too close and almost made me fall on my knees. She whispered sorry and shrugged her shoulders. I shook my head and kept moving forward. All of the tables were decently spread apart so that there was plenty of room to move between them. A few of the tables had thin plastic covers over them making it easier to hide behind.

We stayed behind the farthest set of tables near the wall to our left. I would move forward almost sliding on my knees and trying to keep my head as low as possible. Once I got to the next set of tables I would peak my head out to make sure that I wasn’t noticed. Once I felt things were safe I would motion for Tala to follow. So far everything was going slowly till something hit me in the face. I swore under my breath as my nose took the brunt of the hit. I thought I felt blood trickling down my lip.

“What happened?” Tala asked, coming up next to me.

I didn’t answer her right away instead I wiped my upper lip against the sleeve of my jacket and luckily didn’t see any blood. I then put my hand up in front of my face and came in contact with nothing. “It’s… a wall.”

“A wall?” Tala put her hand forward and it firmly stopped in the middle of the air. “An invisible wall. That’s kind of cool,” She put her other hand into the air and started searching.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m seeing how wide it goes,” She scuttled to her left until she came to the cement wall. As far as I could tell from her hands the invisible wall cut off this direction to the stage. I reached my hand over the chair I was crouched behind to see if the wall reached over the table. It did.

“Okay, well that’s not great,” I sat down and let my head rest against the back of a nearby chair. My stomach growled and another wave of nausea hit me. Tala knelt down next to me.

“Ward, you doing okay?” She asked.

“I really need to get some food. If I don’t get something soon I think I’m gonna pass out.” I put my head in my hands and focused on trying to stabilize my inner eye.

Tala put her hand on my shoulder then peaked up over the table. “I bet there is food over there.” She motioned with her eyes towards the piles of boxes, bags, and junk scattered across the patio near the Shamblers.

“Are you kidding?” I asked. “There’s no way we are going over there.”

“No… Yeah you’re right. It would be suicide to try,” She turned and sat next to me.

“Monsters, magic, and invisible walls. You never know what you’re gonna encounter in the Fallen States,” I couldn’t help but let out an exhasperated laugh at the nonsense the world was. But it’s all I knew. A dangerous world of chaos and death. I loved the old world stories my dad would share. Food available literally at the press of a button. Skies so blue that you could watch the clouds drift by without a care. Streets filled with all sorts of interesting people all walking about their day: no sense of fear whatsoever. What an amazing feeling that would be.

“What’s so funny?” Tala asked.

“Just thinking about some of the old world stories my dad told me,” I said.

“My dad doesn’t like to talk about the past. Says letting our minds stay in the past is going to get us killed in the future,” She folded her head into her arms and rested it on her knees. I didn’t know what to say to that. It was a grim thought. My dad was the complete opposite. He used the past as a way to make the future brighter. To give our fate that glimmer of hope it so desperately needed. However, after seeing the world for what it is I was starting to think that hope of a better world was a myth. A children story that my dad would tell to help me sleep at night. Tala began to cry.

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“Hey,” I wrapped my arms around her and paused in my thought. I didn’t know how to comfort someone let a lone a girl. I couldn’t believe I had even reached my arm onto her shoulders. I almost pulled it back but she suddenly rested her head into my chest. I let her cry for a minute, more out of sheer awkwardness of not knowing what to say then trying to comfort her. Finally I spoke up and said the only thing that came to mind. “When we get to the top of the tower what Class Pathway are you going to pick?” I think my question staved off the sadness that had filled her heart. She sat up, rubbed at her eyes then turned to me with a gentle smile.

“I’m going to pick Preacher with a Specialization into Medicine. I want to help people. Not only by fighting but also be able to heal. Not a lot of people seem to want to pick it though. Everyone goes for something a bit flashier. Not me though. I’ve always wanted to be a Preacher. My…” Tala let out a sudden dry cough then turned away from me. “What about you? Any ideas?”

“Not really,” I said. “I mean I have some idea of what I want to pick. Something a bit flashier I guess,” I pulled my arm away from her and nudge her on the side as I let out a chuckle. “My dad wants me to go Scavenger. Says he can help me level up quickly and that I can help him with the harvests. Be a better asset to The Quarters.”

“Is that what you want?” Tala asked.

“No.” My own answer took me by surprise. I had said it with such finality and assurance. Something I definitely wouldn’t have been able to have done a few days ago. The Fallen States will change you. “I want to join the Outriders. I don’t want to cower underground anymore. My dad talks about a better future. About a hope for something more but all he does is tend to his garden. He’s never tried to step up and really make a change. Well I do. I will. If I’m going to be out in the Fallen States then I need to be stronger. I’ve been thinking about picking Thief and specializing in Blades. Seem to be getting pretty good with them.”

I got back into a crouched position and peaked over the table at the Shamblers. They still hadn’t noticed us and were tumbling around like mindless ants seeking dropped food. “Tala follow me.”

I moved away from the invisible wall and towards the center of the dining area. I kept my head low and did my best to avoid knocking over any chairs or disturbing any of the discarded silverware left on the floor. I thought about seeing if I could find a better blade among all the discarded plates and dishes but nothing popped out to me. The knives I did come across were much smaller then the one I was already holding.

I finally came to the center of the dining area without running into another invisible wall. It made me think that the wall was there to keep us from simply walking around the danger. If we wanted to solve this issue we had to face it head on. Tala and I turned towards the stage and continued our way forward. It was a bit slow and my legs started to cramp from crouching for so long but we had made it to the closest set of stairs without any hassle.

I lead the way up, still crouched, and got behind the podium. Tala came up next to me and when we felt it was all clear and that the Shamblers hadn’t noticed us, we stood.

On the podium was a dark book. Not dark in the sense of its coloring. No, its single grey tone was dull and lifeless compared to the light around us. It wasn’t it’s color that made it dark. It was something far stranger as if it leaked a poisonous gas of shadows. It was hard to look at and it gave off a sense that it didn’t want to be touched. Or in the least that it would cut off the hand of anything that tried to touch it, like a foul beast trapped in a corner ready to claw its way to freedom.

Tala reached her hand for the book but I caught it before she could touch it. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why?” Tala asked.

“Why? Look at it. That thing is not okay,” I said.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

I didn’t know how to explain to her what I felt. What the eye of my mind was seeing. I knew it looked like an ordinary book but something was deeply wrong with it. “Look at it. It’s… It’s not right.”

“I think it’s calling to me,” Tala reached her hand out again. “As if I was meant to find it. To read it.” Before I could stop her again she picked up the book. That’s when the glass walls of the patio shattered and all the Wretched Shamblers turned to look at us.