“Oh, Freddy. What do I do? Should I leave with that stranger?” I asked the fish but he gave no response except for flared gills and flowing fins.

“This place is safe, warm, has nice people and it’s fun to see kids around, but… I feel like I have no connection here. Donovan could still be out there somewhere and if that priest says he has a community, then maybe he’s there? If not, I suppose getting some faith counseling and brushing on the bible couldn’t hurt, especially in times like these. I’m sure you don’t care either way. If I stay here then you’ll just become a class pet getting overfed and overstimulated by kids tapping the glass.”

Freddy seemed to not mind, but as long as Don was gone, I’d keep him in my care. However, my other survival buddy seemed to have issues. Ralph burst through the teacher’s lounge door, hot air steamed off his body.

“You know I don’t trust that fucker, Sage,” he said with a firm finger.

“He’s a priest, Ralph. He’s not going to do anything.”

“HA! Like that has stopped them before.”

I rolled my eyes. “If he was going to do something he would’ve when I was alone. Hell, he could’ve snuck out when Mr. Ellis was asleep.”

“Maybe that’s what he wants you to think!”

“Maybe you’re being paranoid. What are you? Some vampire or possessed demon afraid of a few crosses at a church? I have to keep looking for my brother.”

Ralph paced back and forth. He’d stuff his hands into his pockets just to pull them back out to stroke his rough facial hair. “Okay, Sage. Okay. We’ll go there for your brother but we have to be on edge. I don’t want to be part of some cannibalistic cult.”

“Alright, Ralph. I promise I won’t eat anyone,” I said with a laugh.

“And no drinking flavored water either!”

Our spare clothes, blankets, and toothbrushes were packed in suitcases and hauled to the SUV. The day was bright and the sun was shining. Everyone was out behind the elementary school. Children climbed the playground equipment while the staff observed from lawn chairs.

“Freddy is the last of it,” I said to Ralph. “Let me say goodbye to the teachers first.”

“Sure. I’ll keep an eye on our friend,” he nodded toward the parking lot where the priest sat idle in his station wagon.

With Freddy in my arms, I approached the staff. Mr. Ellis was asleep in a magazine while Coach Varner and Mrs. Cescov were hounding the kids for playing too rough.

“All packed?” Sarah asked beneath her sun hat.

“Yup. Just saying my thanks and goodbyes.”

“Well, we appreciate you coming and helping when you could. Be sure to visit us sometime soon, huh? We could always use extra hands.”

I hummed my agreement. “Be on the lookout for my brother Donovan or his friends Alex and Carmine. If you see them, let them know I’m still around.”

Sarah gave a lipless nod of understanding before other teachers and a swarm of children began to notice my departure. The half-sized-humans badgered me with questions of what I was doing and where I was going while the staff acted as my bodyguards.

“I’ll be in the neighborhood still!” I said to the disheartened kids.

One of the students, Kyle, pressed his face against the glass of the fish tank, yelling ‘Goodbye, Drago!’

“Drago?” I repeated with a furrowed brow. “That’s not his name, goober.”

“But he looks like a Drago!” the boy exclaimed.

With the help of the teachers, I was able to escape the crowd of nearly 40 children. They all waved at me from afar and said their farewells to Freddy. Jessie, however, managed to slip beneath the wall of teachers and rushed to give me a folded piece of paper. He gave a quick hug and then disappeared into the crowd.

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I unfurled the paper when I sat in the passenger seat of the SUV.

“What’s that?” Ralph asked.

The wrinkled sheet had a note at the top that read Thaks for the canby. Missing and backward letters added to the charm of the crude drawings. Scribbles of myself, Ralph, and Freddy were the main highlight. Freddy stole the show with bubbles coming from his mouth while Ralph held a permanent frown with a cube-like gun at his side.

“I don’t look like that!” he exclaimed. “Do I?”

It was late when we left Plains Keeper Elementary. The drive to our sanctuary took longer than expected. Mangled cars void of occupants piled along the main roads. Ralph followed the priest down side streets and back alleys until we parked along the edge of Logfall Lake.

Spotlights illuminated the shining copper dome of the capitol building. From across the water and above the forests, we could see the entirety of downtown in the dark of the winter evening. Its light flooded the sky while we sat in the serenity of nature.

We were waiting for the reverend to give us the okay to start unloading our bags until we saw the sky turn black and the stars shine bright. Like a synchronized light show that performed the beginning of a new chapter. A low resonant boom echoed from afar.

Then all was silent.

All was dark.

“I told you it was going to happen at some point… I just didn’t expect it to actually happen,” Ralph mumbled.

I looked out into the black nothing. Downtown was invisible except for the silhouettes of skyscrapers blocking the twinkling horizon. “Humans made it happen before, we can do it again.”

“That is, if we survive the Dark Ages.”

“I knew they’d come in handy!” the priest exclaimed. He rose from basement steps with arms full of cardboard boxes. Through the window, they saw flickering flames of lighters passed around the congregation to light the candles. The priest, following a dirt trail revealed by a dinky flashlight, went up to our car and beckoned us to follow him into the church.

Ralph and I passed by inattentive strangers and were led to a section of wooden benches ahead of us.

“You’ll be sleeping here,” the man said with a smile. “If you need any extra blankets or pillows let one of us know, we’ll be grateful to help.”

We both looked at the benches with a cock-eyed stare. Other people were getting ready to sleep on them but it felt weird to do so in such an open space with this many people.

“Don’t you have somewhere a little private?” I asked.

“And somewhere with a bed?” Ralph added.

The priest let loose a small chuckle, “I can assure you this is the only room we have left. The pews are cushioned and are quite comfortable to rest on.”

The man then left us in the dim candle-lit room and sea of strangers. I could tell Ralph and I were having the same idea of sleeping in the car instead. However, once I placed Freddy’s tank at my feet and sat down on the wood bench, it was quite comfortable. The blue cushions embraced me in this world of darkness and transported me to a land of slumber.

* * *

Wisps of wind grazed my face and hands. Flat plains of salt and sand unfamiliar to me had sprawled to the ends of the horizon. Between the heat waves, I saw a glint of light and a silhouette of a figure in the far distance. The person called my name from miles away with a soothing voice that I recognized as my brother. Though his voice nor his figure didn’t get any closer, the light that shimmered from his person did. A silver cross appeared before my prints in the sand. Donovan was far gone. I reached for the necklace yet it turned to grains that sifted between my fingers.

“Don!” I cried aloud. The shadow of his silhouette faded in the glimmering sun. I waded through the coming dunes, the heat, and the spirals of cyclones until I was graced with a shadow ahead. What I thought were roaring dark clouds looming beyond turned out to be a beast flying above.

The wings covered the white lands while its head blocked the sun. Lightning shot the barren earth, shooting it into the sky like artillery fire. Sand turned to glittering glass. It wasn’t until another roar came from the dragon that I gained my consciousness; I willed for the dream to end and to wake from my coming death but my eyes failed to rise. Thunder resonated from its flapping wings. Bolts of electricity surrounded me. The flying serpent slithered through the once-blue skies and dived toward me.

Sapphire irises bore down upon me. And as the lightning crackled in its ire, so too did a great weapon of sharpened steel. A double-headed axe, one that towered taller than I, had fallen from the heavens. As the beast plummeted with grimacing razor fangs, I took hold of the mythical weapon. The blades buried themselves deep upon its landing yet I was able to twist the axe free.

Raising it was the hard part.

The entire mass of my body pressed against the steel handle of the axe, weighting it between my shoulder and neck. It was an iron girder ready to crush me or split me in two. Yet, through gritted teeth, the blade rose to the shadowed sky. Its handle was planted in the salted ground. Its head faced toward the dragon.

My eyes were clenched shut as the thunder deafened me, the winds toppling. The breath of the beast bore down upon me. I waited to feel its teeth sink into me. Its jaws clenched around me. Yet, with my senses overwhelmed, the axe quaked the earth.

I felt the blade rend flesh and scales from the colossal creature. A hurricane had ripped through me and I was left standing because I held the planted axe with all of my weight.

I heard no cries of pain or howls of torment from the dragon. The storm passed and I stood alive with the scratches of windblown crystals of salt across my skin. I looked to the horizon and saw the beast retreat into the dark azure.

The lightning fizzled.

The silence came.

And the sun rose.