Elias stood with this back to the wall, nervously watching the nurses fuss over his friend. Terric looked terrible, pale and sweating, blood oozing from a head wound that stained the pristine sheets of the bed red.

It was really a miracle he’d survived, that any of them had survived, after encountering a chimera. All throughout their training, the dangers of such monsters had been drilled into them, over and over again. They should have run, really. Fought a running retreat to fetch reinforcements and returned with overwhelming numbers. That’s what their training had always reiterated, but no. Borin just had to be the tough guy.

That was so typical of him.

Where was the man anyway? When he’d returned, he’d looked… wrong. His face stiff and his eyes unfocused, like he was seeing something far away that the rest of them couldn't. He’d just dumped Terric on him and disappeared off somewhere without so much as an explanation. Elias could cut him some slack, given he’d taken on the chimera single-handedly and saved Terric, but still…

Poor Terric. Oh gods, please let him be okay.

He should never have been hurt. This was supposed to be a safe posting, on the far borders of the empire, in one of the most thoroughly subjugated lands that made up its vast reach. That’s why all three of them had applied to come here, travelling so far from their sleepy hometown in the rolling hills of Lightire. A simple posting dealing with weak barbarians, the acquisition of a mageling the only instances of any kind of challenge in the whole affair.

A groan of pain drew Elias’s attention back to Terric. It was worrying, just how sick the man was, despite the ministrations of the nurses. People trained in the prestigious institutes in Lightire, they should have been able to cure anything. Yet even under their expert attentions, Terric wasn’t getting any better.

Another groan ripped itself from Terric’s mouth, followed by a flurry of activity from the people surrounding him. They spoke to each other in low voices, gesturing at Terric’s body.

Elias strained his ears and was just about able to pick up a few phrases.

“... body, shutting his…” Said a man, his face covered in a cloth mask.

The nurse beside him gestured. “... unable to… too weak…”

A guttural howl from Terric made Elias jump, stumbling backwards away from him. The man on the bed arced his back, thrashing about. The nurses around him sprang forward, gripping his arms and legs tightly, one of them trying to force a leather strap between the man’s teeth.

Terric struck out with an arm, catching a nurse across their masked face, sending the person reeling away. The others redoubled their efforts to restrain him.

Elias watched in horrified fascination, rooted to the ground where he stood. His friend's face was twisted into a snarl of pain, or maybe anger. His eyes were wide, his pupils dilated. Drool ran from the corner of his mouth, dripping down his chin. He thrashed from side to side like a wounded animal, straining to get free.

Then, with one final rumbling growl, Terric fell still. The nurses restraining him stumbled as his body slumped. One of the group placed their ear to his mouth for a moment, before waving the others away. Immediately, he began thumping on Terric’s chest in a rhythmic motion, every few dozen strikes pausing to blow into his mouth.

Seconds dragged into minutes as the man continued his strange pattern, but to no avail. Terric didn’t move, the only sound coming from him the wet crunches from his chest as one rib after another broke from the man’s ministrations.

Finally, the nurse stopped and stepped away. Elias fell back into a chair, watching the people all leave the bedside of his friend until Elias was alone in the room with him. With his friend’s body.

His corpse.

Elias buried his head in his hands, no longer able to hold back the tears. There wasn’t supposed to be any risk out here. They were supposed to be safe.

It wasn’t supposed to go like this.

—

A noise startled Elias from his thoughts. How long had he been sitting here? Looking up at the window, night had just barely chased out the evening, covering the sky in a velvety blackness tinged by hints of deep purple. So, maybe a half hour at most.

Another creak.

This time, he was sure it came from the bed. Elias rubbed at his eyes, letting out a long yawn. He must be truly exhausted if his mind was playing tricks on him like this.

Again a creak, this time accompanied by a faint grunt. It definitely came from the bed. From his friend.

His dead friend.

Elias stood, shaking his head to clear the discomforting thoughts. He should probably return to his bunk and at least try to sleep, maybe find Borin on the way and share a quick drink before getting some rest. He had watch duty tomorrow morning, and being found asleep at his post was a flogging offence.

Just as he’d opened the door, a shuffling sound came from the bed. Followed by a low groan. Elias turned back, his heart starting to pound as he took in the scene with horror.

Terric was sitting upright in the bed, his eyes wide and his jaw hanging slackly.

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“T-Terric, are you okay?” Elias asked, his hand shaking.

At the sound of his voice, his friend's head snapped around to face him. The man was a pallid corpse-grey, dark blue veins clearly visible like worms beneath his skin.

Terric pitched forward out of the bed, tumbling to the floor in a tangled mass of limbs. Elias went to step towards him, but stopped, his eyes drawn to a sickening detail. The fingers on Terric’s left hand were twisted at unnatural angles, broken from when he’d fallen from the bed. And yet, his friend made no sounds of pain, no signs of discomfort at all.

Nothing but the low, unnatural growl.

For a moment, Elias stood there, watching his friend get his legs back beneath him, slowly pushing himself back to his feet, ignoring his instincts screaming at him to flee.

Then, Terric’s eyes met his.

The bloodshot orbs contained nothing but a ravenous hunger, rage, and hate. Terric’s mouth opened wide, and once again that horrifying growl rumbled out.

That was finally enough.

Elias span and sprinted out of the room, running down the hallway to the entrance. There would be help there. There had to be.

He barrelled into the foyer of the infirmary building, almost slamming into a nurse walking in the other direction.

“Help! Please!” Elias shouted in the man’s face, grabbing his shoulders. “My friend, he was dead and now… Please!”

The nurse pushed Elias’s hands away, stepping back. “Calm down. Just breathe and take me to him.”

Turning, Elias led the man back up the corridor. As they rounded the bend, Terric came back into full view, shambling down the corridor. He seemed to have regained better bodily control, no longer looking like he was about to collapse at any moment.

The nurse held his hands up, walking towards Terric. “Are you okay? Come, let’s get you sat back down. How are you feeling?”

Looking at Terric, Elias’s instincts screamed out again. Something was horribly wrong, he should run, flee as fast as his legs could carry him. But Elias shook his head. No, the nurse would solve things. Make his friend better. Maybe they’d made a mistake when they’d pronounced him dead?

Suddenly, Terric exploded into furious motion, flinging himself towards the nurse. The man barely managed to shout out before the pair of them slammed into the wall with a thud that reverberated along the corridor. Terric fell on the man in a frenzy, teeth and nails tearing.

The nurse didn’t stand a chance.

In a moment, the man lay still, blood pouring from his mutilated face and neck. Slowly, Terric stood back up and began walking towards Elias as if nothing had happened. His face was covered in blood, one eye ruptured and leaking from where the nurse’s finger had caught it in the struggle. The wound didn’t seem to slow Terric, or even bother him at all. In fact, he didn’t even seem to notice it. He just continued his slow walk toward Elias.

Then, the nurse twitched and began to stand, a low growl rumbling from his mouth too. The same as Terric.

It was too much.

Elias turned, and this time fled properly, sprinting as fast as he could go, the sound of his pounding heart and his panicked breaths filling his ears. He slammed into the building’s outer doors, throwing them open to smash against the wall, before sprinting through and out into the cold night air.

The compound was silent, devoid of the people normally filling it during the day. Everyone must have turned in for the night, the earlier commotion entirely forgotten. Those fools, those idiots. How could they not be aware of what was happening behind him?

Elias sprinted on, past building after building, only stopping when the wall towered over him. Putting his hands on the cold smoothstone, Elias bent over, struggling to get his breathing back under control.

Just what was that? What had happened to Terric and that nurse? Was it related to the chimera that had attacked Terric earlier?

And where the hell was Borin?

No, this was wrong. He must have been dreaming. Must still be dreaming. There was no way that was real. None. Shaking his head, Elias pinched his cheek, trying with all his might to will himself awake.

“Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.” He muttered to himself, squeezing his eyes shut.

A scream broke the silence of the night.

Elias snapped his eyes open, looking around frantically. No, this wasn’t right. He was still in the dream. Why wasn’t he waking up?

Another scream, this time from another direction. Elias looked back at the infirmary building. It was connected to the research centre on one side, and the barracks on the other, and then further on the canteen. A complex of buildings that ringed the mageling prison in the centre.

A horrible thought wormed into existence into his mind. What if those… things hadn’t followed him out, and instead turned back up the corridor and onwards into the barracks beyond. The other soldiers would be getting ready to bunk down, playing cards or eating a meal, their armour and weapons stowed safely in their trunks.

Entirely vulnerable.

He had to get to the Lord Seeker. He would know what to do.

A low groan sounded from his side. Elias’s body locked up, and he turned his head slowly, dreading to look.

Terric stood there, half-hidden in shadow. He stepped forward again, towards Elias. With one trembling hand, Elias fumbled at his side, only to find his scabbard empty. Oh gods, he’d dropped his sword in the woods in the encounter earlier. With shaking hands, he pulled out his knife instead, the short blade seeming puny in his hands.

Elias swung it over to point at his former friend, gripping it in both hands to try to stop it shaking.

“Terric, please, don’t come any closer. I don’t want to hurt you!” Elias shouted, his voice shrill in his panic. “Just go back… Go back to being dead… Please!”

Terric paid no attention, just walking steadily closer. Elias froze, all his training fleeing his mind in the moment of terror.

Then, an opening.

Terric stumbled a little, his foot catching on the ground. The momentary sign of weakness did something to awaken his survival instinct, and broke Elias from his daze. With a yell, he dashed forward, swinging his blade at his former friend. It hit Terric’s armour with a screech.

And then skidded off, failing utterly to break through the metal.

Elias stepped back, his mind numb, detached, focusing on irrelevant details instead of the horror of the situation he found himself in. He’d always wondered how effective that mail was, how it would fare against someone with a blade. It had seemed tough, but he’d never had a chance to test it.

And, well, now he knew.

He raised the blade again and thrust, aiming higher this time. The knife sank hilt-deep into Terric’s neck with no more resistance than cutting a piece of meat. Blood gushed out around the wound, flooding down to coat Terric’s side with a glistening red sheen.

Terric stepped back. Just one step.

Then his face came up to stare at Elias, his eyes filled with that hateful anger. Elias stumbled and fell, all ability to stand forgotten in the face of his terror.

Then, Terric was on him.

Then, it was over.