We spend a week in Sanctuary.

That first week is... hell. It feels like hell. And every minute of it is spent either clearing the forest, building camp, or conditioning. Swimming laps in the reservoir. Running miles along forest paths. Racing through an obstacle course. Burpees, pushups, sit-ups, squats- some assholes set up a rope climb.

Fuck them.

And then the shooting practice. Having some vet or former cop breathe down my neck while I try to shoot cans off of stumps, describing the same mistake the same way every single time I make it...

Hell.

I find myself passing out at night, sore and sorry I ever left the dorm, then shivering in the pre-dawn cold when they wake us to stretch and do it all over again.

Rinse and repeat.

Not once do I see magic. No monsters. No cosmic mysteries. Just a terrible bootcamp. Tired and itchy, covered in bites of all kinds, sweating from my scalp to my soles, hungry and irritable. There's no rest for the wicked, and apparently, we made a mistake by coming out here. better to fight off the end of days from the comfort of my couch.

That's not even the worst of it.

They collect food, water, weapons and first-aid supplies from everyone, to be counted and rationed out. All the work we put in, the money we spent, the effort to build a survival kit- and by we, I mean the trio- wasted on strangers of all things.

The others blew their fucking tops. The guy that came to mug us with the stick up his ass had to call for reinforcements.

"You're being difficult," he said at first. "This has to get done and we don't have all day long."

"We paid good money for that shit!" Caesar said. "Are you kidding me?! I'll give you a foot up the ass and a bottle ‘a water, but that's it!"

Even Arthur was pissed, which I don't see often. And usually it's Caesar that does it, so when Arthur stopped trying to hold Caesar back, and took his glasses off, even the bastard trying to empty our doomsday survival kit like a bandit could tell: shit just got serious.

"Calm down! This is just part of the process!" He held up his hands in surrender. "We're asking everyone for the same things. It’s all fair."

We groaned and grumbled. In the end though, we gave up the goods. Most of them, anyway.

After this incident, we get another surprise when they tell us we'll be separated into camps, squads, and teams. About 100 people a camp, 25 a squad and 5 a team.

They promise to keep people with those they know as much as possible, but they say each camp will have a specific role, some who will finish building and maintaining the camp, working in construction and organization, others who will manage resource stores and keep track of what we're running out of, doing logistics and such, then the militia camps. They'll be training harder than anyone else to defend Sanctuary, in case monsters attack. Even venturing out of the safe zone when necessary.

I find it funny that I've wound up as a grunt in some kind of post-apocalyptic paramilitary cell.

By that I mean I'm flummoxed, baffled, dumbfounded and full of regret.

My only saving grace is that I'm not alone. The others are with me. In fact, they're much more prepared. When I'm lagging behind on group runs, they're there urging me on. when I'm frustrated by the instructors, ready to throw down my gun, they step in to offer advice. When my arms are shaking from pushups, my legs shaking from high steps, my abs trembling from holding my heels up off the ground, they count my reps and tell me I'm almost there, even when I know I'm not.

And every time I start to feel myself falter, I peek at them to see if they'll give in first. They don't. And I think that... I would be letting them down, if I just stopped. So I keep going.

Lola's a fitness fanatic, who eats more protein than a bodybuilding world champion. Despite Arthur's bishounen librarian cosplay, he's the type to hike and rock climb on his time off. And Caesar's more stubborn than half the camp combined.

I borrow a little of their strength. Maybe more than a little. And I don't even have to complain. Caesar and Lola do more than enough of that for all four of us.

"What the fuck?!" Caesar shouts. He collapses back on a stump, then winces when his ass meets hard wood instead of the couch cushions we're all accustomed to. "Why are we here?!"

"Exactly!" Lola kicks a tree. “I'm out here working my ass off-"

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"Slow down there, sister! It'll take more than this to affect that thang-"

"Shut up. This is... just... why can't we see the node?"

"Not our turn."

"That's the point! We're still out here running laps, while other people chill and cut down trees, like... really?" She puts on a voice: "'Oh look! I'm standing watch! Doot-da-doo~!'"

"Rather run than chop trees though."

"Ugh..."

"What's the rush?" Arthur asks.

"I wanna see it…" She whines.

"Why don't we just go then?"

"Eh?"

"Tonight, when everyone's asleep, let's swim out there."

"You sure that's a good idea?"

"No?"

"Fair..."

"Good 'nuff fer me!" Caesar says. "Mariah, you in?"

"If I pass out and sink, who's carrying me?" My statement is met with silence. Nobody meets my eyes. "I'm... not really joking guys..."

I watch them all walk back towards camp.

“Guys?”

***

And the night is bright, there's a cool breeze stirring the leaves, and people are singing around campfires, while we crouch in the tree line by the shore.

"You guys really want to do this?"

"No. I'm actually gonna turn around and go back."

I look at Caesar and Lola as they start to bicker. Arthur watches them affectionately, but I feel there's something missing from their conversation.

"Um..." I point out the silver-skinned man with his arms crossed and his feet in the water, watching the reflection of the moon.

"Oh shit!" Lola jumps like I slapped her. "Damn, he's fuckin'..."

"Tch!" Caesar clicks his tongue. “What now?”

"Go back..." Arthur starts to do just that, taking slow steps deeper into the woods, when the alien calls out without looking:

"Come out. I can hear you."

His rumbling, echoing voice shocks the shit out of me. I look at Lola and find the whites of her eyes glowing bright in the shadows of the trees.

"There's nothing to fear." He says.

I’m ready to bolt anyway, but Caesar steps out. The rest of us follow, like a bunch of college students caught sneaking to see an extraterrestrial artefact without adult supervision. I wonder how bad it seems. For a moment I feel younger, like a little, little kid. But I shake it off. We do have the right to check this thing out. Why are we here if not to find answers?

We stop a dozen feet away and wait. Then he beckons us over with his head.

"Closer," he says. "You are too cautious by far. There's little danger here, at the heart of the most powerful shield you'll ever find."

The closer I get, the more I can tell that his metal skin moves just like the real thing. He's not taller than me, but he's built like goddamn Hercules. When he moves, I imagine I hear the metal stretched close to breaking. It could even be natural. For all I know, his people are born this way.

When he looks at us, I see his eyes are flesh, just like ours. Slitted like a snake's. He reveals sharp teeth when he speaks:

"Hello. What brings you here tonight?"

We shuffle our feet. Someone coughs.

"Well..." Arthur begins.

"I don't suppose you're here to see the moon?" The alien sounds amused. He chuckles, then he points over the waters with his chin. "It's beautiful."

I think he means the light in the sky, but my eyes draw towards the tower of stone looming out of the water. We can see two of its faces from here: one cast in moonlight, the other in shadows. One side glowing white, the other nearly pitch-black in contrast.

Now... maybe it's the week I've spent digesting things, calming down, maybe it's the difference between night and day, or because we're closer than before, but it feels more alien now than it did when I first laid eyes on it.

I want to tell him what we really came for, about our curiosity, about the frustration of being refused answers that've sat here all along. I want to tell him if there's any power in that thing, we should be getting it now. Where's the proof we even need it? What's the point in being here?

But all those words stick in my throat. I swallow them down and feel my mouth dry out, glancing at the side of his metal head.

I spend the next minute staring at the node, heart pounding. What if they won't let us see it? If it's broken like the reports say? If it says I'm weaker than everyone else? What if it proves I'm helpless? Will you still protect me then?

His head shifts. His strange eyes fall on us. He's so close, I can see the veins in them. The slits expand while I watch, like black holes opening up.

"You want to know?" He asks.

I nod.

"Go find out."

After a second's hesitation, we leap to obey. We're each halfway through stripping the first piece of clothing when he speaks up:

"The water's cold." We look his way, and he gestures to a shape against the rocks: something pale and hard to make out by moonlight. "Most take the boat."

***

We keep our clothes on us while we paddle out, which I'm glad for, because as hot as the days are, the night air is still cold.

The closer we get, the more I feel... different. I blink as things seem to come in and out of focus. There's something wrong with my eyes that I can't put my finger on, until I see my hand against the wood. The colors are bleeding into each other.

I'm… fusing with the boat?!

I try to let go the oars, but my body's moving on its own. Between one pull and the next, I see the head of the canoe stretching out to a horizon, far away and filled with water, ending at a tower that rises into a sky of stars. Lines slip away and everything I see becomes a mess of shapes, until I start to lose track of what's what.

Then the hull bumps against the node.

For a second, I sit in silence, listening to the water slapping against the sides of the boat. I take my hands off the oars and stare at my palms, then I look back at the others.

"Did you feel that?" I whisper.

"Yeah." Arthur says. He shivers. "Goosebumps."

"No..." My fingers move while I fumble with my hands and my words. I'm grasping for something I can't name. "That... thing. Y'know?"

I just get blank stares. After a handful of blinks, they look at each other.

"What do we do?" Caesar asks.

"They say all you gotta do is touch it, right?" Lola holds up a hand. "The stone does the rest?"

"Then… Mariah, you going first?"

I'm at the front of the boat. I look up. The node stretches far overhead, like a giant. It really is massive. Something like this crashing out of space should’ve demolished this forest. I lean farther back to take it all in.

White and black. Moonlight and shadows.

"We can all do it together?" Lola suggests.

At my nod, they crowd around me, warm bodies in the night, deep breaths at my back.

I unclench my fist and reach out with fingers that barely tremble.

We each touch the node at the same time.