Summers sat, poking at his eye. The pain had mostly faded to a dull but manageable ache. To Cortez’ credit, she’d been able to get it back in mostly without issue. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that it sat a little looser than it had been.
“…You have someone else in your head?” Cortez watched Summers skeptically.
“It’s not someone.” Summers chided. “It’s… they’re memories, I don’t know if this thing that kept me from seeing them, but it’s like I can remember someone else’s life.”
“So, it was it trying to… what? Turn you into itself?” Nowak asked.
“No. It’s bigger than that.” Summers rubbed at his head. After taking the hamr out, things had started to get a little clearer for him. Everything he’d lost had been replaced, fragments, but there were a few things that stuck out. “…It’s hard to explain, I think it’s a machine, like an archive.”
“An archive of… what?”
“…People. It breaks them down so it can build them back up. Makes you crazy so it can spread, survive. It came here for us, our bodies.” Summers gestured to himself. “…Bottom line is, I don’t think it wanted me dead, I think the attack on the city, everything it’s been doing was just to get more of us.”
“…Why?” Nowak watched Summers with a distinctly uncomfortable expression.
“To change others, like it did to me. I can remember when I… when the guy in my head died. Something killed him, killed everyone he knew. And the hamr was their way out, their ark. He was searching for a world like this one for a long, long time.”
The group was silent for a moment as they took that in.
Summers could remember things about the hamr that he wouldn’t have ever believed. Centuries of work, maybe. He, no, the man whose memories he had was one of the few trying to find a way to escape. From what, Summers hadn’t a clue, only a vague feeling of dread.
“…Summers this all insane.” Cortez moved beside Orvar near the pot, the man was holding the lid down so the thing inside didn’t escape.
“Trust me, I fucking know. And I think this thing might keep trying to change me, I’m not sure. My gut tells me this was more of a temporary fix.”
“Do you know anything about Nevada? What we’re heading into?” Nowak looked expectant.
“No, not really… But… there’s a lot of it coming, and soon.”
“Like more of that monster in the city?”
“No. Like an entire world’s worth of them. It spent so long just...” Summers ran a hand through his hair. “Look they’re not from this world, the guy it was trying to turn me into was looking for somewhere they could live. A new world. A new home.”
“Wait…” Cortez held up a hand. “You’re telling us we have to deal with a planet’s worth of those fucking things? We should be taking as many people as we can out of this… place...” She trailed off as her eyes landed on Asle. “Oh, fuck…”
“Asle…” Summers started. “You said the army came and got you, right?”
“…They took everyone.” Asle responded.
“…Guys remember we got here with the army.” Nowak explained. “How they managed is anyone’s guess, but if this thing’s just after people like us, it might not have stopped at this world.”
Summers sat back in his chair. “…Right.”
----------------------------------------
“…If these things are coming for everyone, then we need to get to Nevada.” Nowak argued. “Maybe Summers knows something that can make a difference for everyone there.”
“I’m not sure I do.” Summers responded.
Summers and the others had retreated to their cabin, mostly to think. Memory isn’t something you’re entirely aware of at all times, so trying to figure out what changed was proving a little more challenging than he’d have expected.
He was used to finding holes in his memory by now, it was an entirely different experience to find someone else’s thoughts in his head. From what little Summers could piece together, the man whose memories he shared was name was Dyer, he was a doctor, or some kind of equivalent. There wasn’t much he could say about the man, all he found were flashes of his life. The people he knew, those he’d deal with day to day, his lover. And odd, alien beings he could only see in brief glimpses through the other man’s eyes.
Summers felt a small amount of resentment that so much of him had been overwritten by so little. There was nothing that could give him a complete picture of anything in Dyer’s life, even the hamr, something Dyer had dedicated years to, was still a mystery for the most part.
He was also now intimately familiar with a type of math that utilized time as the sixth dimension. That was both worrying and confusing, given he was fairly sure he’d forgotten how to do long division years ago.
“It’s not like we can wait out the end of the world.” Cortez mused. “…I still can’t see the armies’ place in all this, according to you that black gunk came here, so how’d they manage to get to this world?”
“I’ve been thinking about that…” Nowak started. “Suppose someone like Summers came along, and he remembered things. Things that would let him build a machine like the one we saw. What are the odds you think the army would be doing everything they could to learn what that man knew?”
“…Okay just so we’re clear we’re talking about the army capturing someone who just had their brain eaten, and making him build them shit?” Cortez scowled. “See, this is why I stick to blowing shit up, it’s simpler.”
“There’s still a few days until we hit port.” Nowak moved to his hammock, slipping inside. “We still don’t have the full picture here, but we stand a better chance with the army at our backs.”
Cortez hesitated a moment before she nodded.
Summers had to agree, even if he wasn’t optimistic about their odds, or that the army would be welcoming him with open arms, it was still the best chance his friends had.
----------------------------------------
“…I am so screwed.”
Summers shifted atop a crate in the storeroom. After rumors of what Summers had done got around the ship, the sailors they were travelling with had begun avoiding the place as much as they could.
So, he sat in the relative silence, trying to quietly think with a little more elbow room than usual. The problem being that thinking about his situation only seemed to make things worse. Thinking led to him combing through his memories, which prompted his realization of just how fucked they were.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Before, he’d thought the hamr some kind of magical, otherworldly being. That’s exactly what it was, but now Summers had more insight into just how far beyond them it had to be. It was technology, at its core. The army fighting the hamr was like… well it was like his friends fighting a war with guns against spears and swords.
He reached over to a small metal pole beside him, then bent it. He’d torn out a lot of the hamr but seems as though it hadn’t affected most of his “powers”.
Footsteps roused Summers from his thoughts, and he found Synel in the hall, watching him.
“I don’t suppose you’d like some company.” Synel looked at him with the slightest smile.
The gesture wasn’t lost on Summers.
“Can’t hurt at this point.”
He motioned the seat beside him.
“How are you doing?” Synel asked.
“About as well as you could expect.” Summers rubbed at his temple. “How about you? You just saw me pull something out of my head.”
“I find my ability to be surprised at this point worn thin. My time with you and your friends has been possibly the strangest experience of my life.”
“To be fair, it’s been pretty weird for us too.” Summers cracked a smile.
They sat in silence a moment before Synel glanced over to Summers’ journal.
“Asle told me she and your friends wrote passages in here.” She picked up the book, examining it. “And a little about me too.”
“Really?”
Synel offered him the book back.
“She was worried I wouldn’t be able to manage on my own. You haven’t read it?”
“I’ve been… distracted.” Summers admitted.
Synel considered him.
“Is it… still necessary?”
“Maybe, I might have to do what you saw again eventually… Either way, doesn’t hurt to be prepared.”
She nodded.
“You should find the time to read it, don’t take the people in your life for granted. I should know better than anyone, they don’t last forever, and it can be very lonely out there on your own...”
“Right…” Summers muttered. “You uh, know where we’re heading is dangerous, don’t you?”
“I’m aware, and I assure you that I have no intention of dying young.” She sighed. That took Summers off guard for a moment, this was about the most emotion he’d seen from the woman. “Whatever happens, I’ve enjoyed the change of pace, short as it’s been.”
Synel stood, moving towards Summers, and pressing her lips to his forehead.
“Truth be told, I started following you with the intention of trading with your people.” Synel put a hand on Summers’ journal for a moment before she turned, heading for the door. “But I’m not one to let my greed blind me… most of the time. You have no need to worry about me.”
“…For what it’s worth…” Summers started. “I wouldn’t mind if we had a little more time together.”
She gave him one last smile before she left.
All Summers could do was watch her go. As he sat, he took another look at the journal before he reached down and opened it.
----------------------------------------
“…Are you still reading that?” Nowak watched as Summers turned another page in his journal.
He’d been sitting in his hammock, flipping through the pages for some time now.
”Yeah…” Summers thought for a moment. “Cortez what the hell is a ‘Carnal’?”
“…It means brother.” Cortez rolled her eyes, but she looked a little more tense than normal.
“Oh.”
That was all Summers managed as he kept flipping through the book.
Nowak eyed the two. “…What else did she write?”
“None of your damn business.” Cortez responded.
Summers ignored the two as he got to Asle’s entry. He’d seen the dream she wrote for him, but he never managed to read what she added about herself.
It was… surprisingly in depth. It talked about how they met, how he’d rescued her when they first came to the world and travelled together, as well as some other things.
“Has Asle ever saved me from a pack of wild… Kulve?” Summers turned to the others.
“…No?” Cortez answered.
“Oh, thank god.”
Summers added a note that Asle may have been exaggerating, or straight up lying at some points during her writings.
Of course, the line ‘this is absolutely true, and you should not question Asle about it’ had tipped him off. Still, all in all it was kind of sweet.
Even Nowak had written something about himself, though it read more like a report. Summers had asked him to fill in some blanks as he tried to keep track of their time here. It wasn’t an easy thing to do, especially with the people they’d lost.
He just hoped he wouldn’t need to add anyone to that list.
----------------------------------------
Asle had climbed her way into the crow’s nest, looking out at the ocean that surrounded them.
She watched as Ms. Cortez and Orvar sparred at the back of the ship. They’d been doing that a lot lately. She thought it might be the woman’s way of dealing with being stuck on the ship for so long, but after a while Asle understood it was just fun for her. The small smile of satisfaction on her face seemed to reinforce that.
Asle took a deep breath as the ocean rolled passed them, it was peaceful up there, but it was also boring. After a few seconds, she began to make her way to the deck.
As she landed, she noticed they were taking bets on the fight, and that Bard seemed to be winning.
Nowak glanced over to Asle as she sat.
“And what about you, little lady? Who do you think’s going to win?”
Asle had come to appreciate Nowak a little more of the past few weeks. She’d noticed the man went out of his way to try and keep the group’s spirits up. Especially after what had happened with Summers. She’d wager the betting was something he’d started to give them a distraction, even if it was only a small one.
“…Ms. Cortez.” Asle replied, plainly.
In truth Orvar only won maybe one in five of his fights with Cortez, so it wasn’t an unreasonable guess.
And as she expected, Orvar failed to block a blow from Cortez, sending the man sprawling to the ground. Cortez leaned over, offering him a hand a second later.
Bard pushed the pile of coins over to Viggo, who deposited it into a bag between them. She was fairly sure the twins just pooled their money. That wasn’t an uncommon thing to do with families, but it did make the bet all the stranger.
“Whoever bet against me is next.” Cortez approached the group breathing hard.
Asle pointed a finger at Nowak.
“Nope, screw that.” Nowak put his hands up in mock surrender.
Cortez moved to him and tried hauling Nowak to his feet, the playful smile on her face must not have gone unnoticed by Orvar as he started over.
“I’m ready to go again, teacher.” Orvar gave Cortez a slight bow.
Cortez stopped what she was doing and arched an eyebrow, though she managed to catch the motion quickly.
“You know.” Cortez spoke in English, glancing in Asle’s direction as she did. “He’s cute but I’m not really into the jealous types.”
The blush that Orvar tried to hide told Asle that he’d picked up enough English to piece that together.
“Come on big guy.” Cortez finished. “Let me show you how to really fuck a fella up.”
Orvar swallowed, and Asle felt a little bad for the man.
As she watched them go, she allowed herself a small sigh. They only had a few more days on the ship, and she knew that their time together was coming to an end.
They’d been the only people she’d met since she’d lost her family that had seen her. Tried to know her. And they’d be leaving without her if she did nothing.
It was only a matter of time.
----------------------------------------
Summers stretched as the others made their way onto deck, it had been nearly three weeks since they’d last seen civilization. Come what may, he was at least glad they’d be getting off the boat soon.
Their next port was their last, one of the few that stood this far south. Summers watched as the foggy coast came into focus. The others were just as eager to get back on to dry land.
“Don’t get too excited.” Nowak cautioned. “Still a long road ahead of us.”
“Yeah…” Summers agreed.
“Be careful.” Summers heard the Captain say from behind him. “…The spirits are uneasy here.”
Summers eyed the man, the entire trip he’d stayed mostly kept to himself, but Summers was smart enough to know that warnings shouldn’t be taken lightly. Even if they came from possibly insane elves.
“What makes you say that?”
The Captain put a hand to his chin in thought.
“At this time of day, there should be fishermen at work, children playing. The buildings stand, so they’ve not seen war, but I see no one. This, isn’t normal.”
Summers considered that as they approached.
The larger village was quiet, but as they got closer, he realized the Captain’s warnings weren’t entirely unfounded.
“Sarge, you loaded?” Summers turned to the others, checking them over.
The man nodded in response. Cortez moved to warn the others as the village came into view.
It was the same as many of the other towns they’d come across, and the captain had been wrong, there were people milling around the town center. Most in armor, with spears in their hands.
That in itself wasn’t what worried him, no it was the figures they saw hanging from trees. A dozen, maybe more. Summers would hesitate to call them elves. Even from this distance he could see their odd features, their skin an assortment of colors, some even looked to have fur or scales. Horns that Summers had become intimately familiar with only a short time ago were attached to the head of a man hanging from the town’s center.
Summers watched as the people in the town reacted to their approach, moving to the long dock that lay in front of them. He took a breath, and double checked his appearance.
Whatever happened here, one thing seemed certain. If he wasn’t careful, things could get messy.