“Hell of a day,” Jonathan said.

“Yeah, no shit,” Gary agreed.

The two of them were walking around the edges of the farmhouse’s surrounding fields, as Jonathan filled in his internal map. The air was chill, a November frost approaching. Jonathan was carrying a torch as they walked the outskirts of the property, along stone walls and barbed wire fences. There were six fields in total attached to the converted farmhouse, most of them plain grass but a couple of them holding small clumps of trees. A stream ran through the fields, heading towards a nearby river. In the distance, a train viaduct broke the horizon, its enormous stone arches supporting a railway line.

No trains were running.

“So this is your uncle’s place?”

“Uncle David, yeah. He bought it eleven years back. It was a bit of a wreck back then, but we did it up.”

“Oh yeah, you worked on it?”

“When I was fourteen, for six months, at weekends, yeah. Skivvying. I haven’t been here since then. We’re not that close a family.”

“You think he’ll mind us setting up here? If he shows up?”

“I hope not. We’re not close but he’s still family. Got started in double glazing, from what I know, then went into property.”

“Right. And he’s alright, is he?”

Gary considered, “Honestly, I always thought he was a bit of a dick. But he’s family. So there’s that.”

The conversation fell silent again as they navigated the uneven terrain in the dark. Gary’s memory of the area was sound. Now that he thought about it, he’d barely seen his uncle since that summer working on the farmhouse, except at the occasional family gathering. He was always off on some business or other. Gary’s impression of the guy was that he was a bit of a chancer, if the truth be told. Always working on some scheme or scam, getting by on charm and persuasion. He knew that his mum and his uncle hadn’t seen eye to eye on a lot of things. Then again, he’d made the big bucks, or so Gary had been told.

“Okay,” Jonathan sighed, “So I guess we better talk some stuff through.”

“Go for it.”

“First off, look, everyone here appreciates everything you did, but there are concerns. Lots of them if I’m being honest.”

“Excuse me?”

“Look, I don’t want you to take any of this in the wrong way, okay? I just figure it’s best for us to be open and up front. This is all fucking crazy and we need to trust each other.”

“Mind that,” Gary nodded at a pothole in the path they were on as the route brought them back round to the rough road leading to the farmhouse. Jonathan’s torch had been pointed a little way forward, and he hadn’t seen the dip.

“Thanks. How did you even see that?”

Gary frowned.

“Uh, I think I’ve got nightvision,” he said, “Switch the torch off for a second.”

Jonathan did so.

Sure enough, Gary could see through the night clearer than he’d be able to normally. It wasn’t as bright as day, but everything around him was visible as a series of greys.

“Yeah,” Gary nodded, “I can see in the dark. That’s useful, I guess.”

“Right,” Jonathan nodded, “We’re all of us getting new powers and so on. Crazy.”

“You were saying?”

“Yeah, right. So, there’re concerns. The others are a bit freaked out by you. I’m just being honest here. No-one doubts that you’ve been helping or anything, or that your intentions are good, but you are technically a zombie.”

Gary frowned.

“What is this, some kind of Big Brother eviction speech?”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“No, no, of course not, don’t be ridiculous. We’ve got to stick together, right? It’s just for now I think it’s better if you let me take the lead on things for the next couple of days.”

Gary frowned again.

“Look, they’ve turned to me for leadership, and...”

“It’s fine,” Gary said, cutting Jonathan short. “I get it. Back in the church, people were looking to you, anyway. I’ve never considered myself a leader. Mostly I just go my own way, always have.”

Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief. He’d been half-expecting Gary to bristle at the suggestion he left the leadership to Jonathan. That he hadn’t made things easier.

“Cool. You get that this isn’t coming from me, though, right? We’re on the same side here.”

“Sure. Though what does that even mean right now? Aren’t we all on the same side at this point?”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. Wait... are you humming?”

“Fuck, sorry, yeah. I’ve got this damn tune playing in my head on a loop. Vivaldi’s Spring. I’m on hold.”

“You’re what?”

“On hold. I’ve been speaking to the admin. You know, the people who started this all, I guess.”

It was Jonathan’s turn to frown.

“Sorry, what?”

Gary explained about the glitch stone and Juliet.

“I talked to her at the service station.”

Oh terrific, Jonathan thought, Gary is hearing voices. This is not good.

“Right,” he said, “That’s, uh, interesting. And you say Rain gave you the glitch stone?”

“Yeah. That’s how they found me.”

“Right.”

Jonathan’s limited imagination was already stretched to breaking point by the events of the day. Taking much more on board was too much for him to handle. He filed a mental note that there was every chance Gary was losing his mind.

“Okay, moving on. Rain. The blue skinned woman. What’s her deal?”

“I’m still trying to understand it, to be honest,” Gary replied, “But she’s on our side.”

“I mean, is she? Really? She showed up with those other bastards and then turned on them. Looked like a pretty brutal betrayal to me. Can we trust her?”

Gary stopped walking and lowered his voice.

“Honestly, I have no idea.”

“Well, that’s not great, because from what I saw she’s a stone-cold killer who could slit all of our throats whether we were sleeping or not.”

Gary couldn’t deny that was true.

The two of them had stopped walking. They were at the furthest point from the farmhouse, as close to the viaduct as the farmhouse’s lands stretched. It had taken them fifteen minutes to get halfway round.

Jonathan checked his map. He could see all the new residents of the farmhouse listed on it, but there was no sign of Rain.

“Look, I don’t think we can trust her,” Jonathan stated, “She is by far the most dangerous person here. I mean, do we even know what level she is?”

“Haven’t got a clue, but I’d guess it’s high.”

“Right. So if she turns on us, we’re dead. Pure and simple.”

“I’m not as worried about her as you are. So far she’s done the right thing, hasn’t she? I mean, more or less.”

“Yeah, more or less. It’s the less part I’m worried about. I guess what it comes down to is, if we have to make a move against her, take her by surprise – are you in?”

“What?”

“Gary, I’m serious here. If it comes to it, and we have to restrain her or worse, are you on our side?”

“Bloody hell, Jonathan, what are you talking about? We’ve got no reason to think she’s a danger to anyone. If anything, the opposite. Also, she knows stuff that we don’t. She’s an information resource, if nothing else. Are you suggesting we should, what, kill her?”

“Gary, I don’t want to argue but face up to it, man. She could turn on us any second. I mean, I’m not even sure she’s human, is she? With that blue skin and everything? She’s not from our world, is she? We don’t know how she thinks, what she wants.”

Their hushed whispers were rising now.

“All I’m asking, Gary, is if the worst comes to the worst, are you going to be playing for our team?”

Teams, sides, Gary thought, Why the hell is everyone so quick to start choosing sides and making divisions? We’ve got to work together if we’re going to make it through this.

“I don’t see why this has to be like this, to be honest. I’m also not sure it’s a smart thing to be thinking about Rain on a different side to ‘ours’. She’s the most capable and powerful person here. We should be making sure she’s... well, on our team, if you like, rather than working out how to push her out.”

Jonathan nodded. “Yeah, I see your point. So how do you want to do that?”

“Let me talk to her, okay? I’m still trying to figure her out. For now, she has some weird prophecy thing going on with me, and she also seemed sure that killing people was wrong.”

“Prophecy?”

Gary briefly filled Jonathan in on what Rain had told him about the Messiah of the Eternal Night, and that she thought that might be him.

“Oh, well, that’s brilliant, isn’t it? An assassin who, what, thinks you‘re some kind of end-of-days chosen one but at the same time she’s pretty sure that killing people is wrong? I’m just glowing with confidence over that reference.”

Jonathan’s sarcasm wasn’t lost on Gary.

“I’m just saying I don’t think we should be too quick to judge, or try to push her out. Let me talk to her.”

“Fine,” Jonathan said, “But I need assurances that, if it comes down to it, you’ll be on our side and not hers.”

“Okay,” Gary said.

He kept his tone non-committal. “We should start heading back. This is the end of the lands here.”

“Right. Though I doubt land ownership means anything anymore.”

“True, I guess, but it’s good to get the layout. We don’t know what’s out there or how long it might take for them to come for us.

“Wait, fuck,” Jonathan said. “I can see movement on my map, heading in this direction. Five figures.”

“Can you see if they’re living or undead?”

“No, I can’t see that until I’ve got a visual on them. Until then they’re just grey spots on the map and not that accurate. Hang on.”

He pulled his long-sword out of his stash.

“Detect Undead.”

The sword started glowing.

“Brilliant,” Jonathan muttered.

“Yeah, okay, but that could be me, right?”

“Fuck. Yes, it could. So that tells us nothing.”

“Okay, are they moving fast or slow on your map?”

Jonathan grimaced.

“Slow.”