In the middle of a forest, a soldier was waiting beside their leader.“Sir, do you think they got out of there alive?” Gyrard asked Normand, the leader of the camp. “Let’s just hope they did,” Normand replied as he looked beyond their campsite, waiting for the other half of the group to show up unharmed and uninfected. He sighed deeply, and turned around.

Before he walked away, Gyrard pointed to the direction he was previously looking at, “Sir! They’re coming!” He quickly looked and saw two horses with people riding on them. It seems that they came back alive after all, as he sees familiar faces but also two more he doesn’t know of. “We have visitors,” Normand remarked.

The horses and their riders came to a halt as they got to their leader again. The two visitors were a short girl and a young adult man. The girl quickly jumped off and walked up to Normand with a serious look. He looked down to her as they met face to face. “Who’s your leader here?” she asked.

Normand scratched his head, “I’m the head of this group. Do you need anything?”

“Next time, you should clean up your own mess!” She scolded him as if she was trying to remind him.

“Huh?” Normand only returned with confusion. He had no idea what she meant so he tried to figure it out, “I’m sorry we left our men back there?” Gyrard reacted with a small sigh, “Really, sir?”

“Riley, you should at least explain the situation before you get angry for no reason,” The unknown man came closer. One of the riders marched forward to Normand. His name was Lancelet, one of the three men they left behind. “Sir! Excuse Miss Riley’s irritated look, but it seems that our jobs aren’t done yet.”

Normand’s confusion got worse but the unknown man continued Lancelet’s message, “You only burned the zombies, but you weren’t able to kill them.”

…

Lancelet guides you throughout the camp.

A bunch of camping tents are laid near the large campfire. One of them is used as a supply storage. There are quite a number of soldiers loitering around the camp while others are going inside their camps to sleep.

You stop by an empty tent and he shows you inside, “It isn’t cozy or anything, but we’re fine with it so I hope you guys will be too.”

“Thanks,” you reply as he walks away. You now wait for Riley who’s busy talking to Normand.

…

Riley, with her arms crossed and still making an angered look, was walking to you.

As she stops walking in front of you, she only stands in silence.

You try to ask, “How did it go?”

She doesn’t answer, however, the leader appears near the camp fire along with Gyrard.

“Everyone, get over to the campsite, we have a new plan,” he calls everyone’s attention.

Riley lowers down her arms and looks at Normand. You followed right after.

…

“What is it boss?” One of the soldiers asks.

Normand clears his throat, “Our operation hasn’t solved anything but rather has made it worse. Throwing our improvised explosives doesn’t kill them apparently, but it would make them stronger.” The soldiers widen their eyes as their leader continues, “It seems that we have to go back and kill them by hand.”

All of them began feeling a sense of shock and fear.

Normand sighs, “We’ll be starting tomorrow, so take some rest. There will be no excuses.”

…

As Normand returns to where he came as the soldiers make small complaints on this new task.

“I do not want to fight huge groups of them.”

“I should have not come on this mission.”

“I just want to go home!”

You made no response to the situation and you moved your eyes to Riley.

You see Riley as her angry face disappeared, replaced with worry and guilt.

…

“Hey!” Someone calls you, “you must be Hunter and Riley, right? Normand needs you.”

You see who was calling, a young calm man with glasses and wearing a blue robe.

Riley switches her emotions off her face to a more serious look once again, “Tawa, was it? I’ll bring the both of us over.”

“Oh. Okay, you know where to go,” Tawa waves as he goes away.

Riley holds your arm, “Hunter, follow me.”

“Uh, yeah,” you say as you get slightly dragged by Riley.

…

A little far away from camp, you find Normand and Tawa standing near the table.

As you get a clearer view of the table, you find a map and small objects resembling that to a chess piece.

Once you reach the table, Normand starts the discussion, “Well, do you think you can help us?”

Riley responds, “We’re gonna help you in clearing our way. We don’t have time to kill various hordes of zombies.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“That is more than enough, we needed some confidence boost for our soldiers.”

You realize that Riley was making a deal, so you think of something.

…

“Hey, can I get a map?” You quickly ask.

Tawa and Normand look at each other for a second, before the former saying, “I’m gonna go find one.”

“Sorry if I’m interrupting something,” you quickly whisper to Riley.

“No, I forgot you’re new around here,“ she shrugs it off.

Tawa returns with a rolled up paper, “It’s not the whole thing but it should be usable.”

You take the map and tell Riley that you are gonna check it after the meeting.

…

“So do you need anymore?” Normand asks one last time.

Both you and Riley stay quiet for a bit. You answer, “No, I think we’re ready.”

Normand nods, “Good, we are gonna be up early tomorrow.”

“Early?!” You instantly respond, “I- I don’t think I can be awake really early.”

Normand raises one of his eyebrows as he remarks, “We need to finish our jobs as soon as possible.”

…

Riley then adds, “I forgot to say this earlier but, you were so heavy in your sleep today that I couldn’t wake you up at all? We even had to skip breakfast because we were getting so late.”

You move your hand at the back of your head, nervously smiling, “Yeah, I cannot explain it very well but I’m just a heavy sleeper. Hehe…”

“We are in a dire situation right now, and we need all the help we have,” Normand begs.

You look up with a hesitant face. You sigh and look back at the concerned camp leader, “Fine, I’ll try to wake myself as early as I can but I cannot guarantee that.”

Normand placed his right hand at his chest, showing a sign of relief, “Thank you.”

…

“Oh if you need food, you can ask one of the soldiers,” Tawa says as you walk away from the table.

Riley, walking beside you, asks to see if you want to eat.

“I’m fine, I’m just gonna check the map,” You look at your map, “You can go ahead.”

“Alright, I’m nearby if you need anything,” Riley walks out of the scene while you get to your tent.

You sit on some nearby logs, and view the map.

…

Tawa didn’t lie, the map looks incomplete but more so suited for planning on a relatively small area.

You see a castle surrounded by some kind of wall and a bunch of drawn grouped trees.

You find a campfire symbol surrounded by trees so you assume that’s where you are.

That was all you can find in the map and so, you couldn’t make up much about it.

The only other thing you can gather from this is that the castle seems to be where the soldiers came from.

…

“You must be Hunter?” Lancelet, one of the soldiers you saved before, was going towards you.

You look away from the map, “Yes, Lancelet, was it?”

“Hah, you remembered my name,” he cheerfully responds.

He sits beside you, “So, what are you doing?”

“Just looking at this… bare bones of a map,” you slightly crumple the sides.

He peeks at it, “Hmmm… maybe I can mark some stuff for you?”

You widen your eyes and hastily turn your head to him, “Yes! Please do so!”

He smiles nervously, as though he just met a child, “Um, don’t… expect it to be accurate.”

…

The map has now been updated. It only has a few new things however.

There are three arrows pointing to the left, right and bottom, with labels near them.

The castle also has a label, “Prouddapia Kingdom.”

The arrow pointing to the right has “Umi Kingdom,” the one pointing on the bottom says “Taigary Kingdom” and the last arrow just has “Hell.”

You know it isn’t accurate, yet you figure that it is their real names for the kingdoms aside from “Hell.”

…

But, you don't know which is which aside from the Prouddapia Kingdom, thinking that was the Human Kingdom and Hell, obviously knowing what the label represents.

You show the map to Lancelet, “Hey, uh, where do I find the Beast Kingdom and the Elven Kingdom?”

Lancelet points first at the right arrow, “That’s the Kingdom of Beasts.”

He moves his finger to the one below, “and that’s the Kingdom of Elves.”

You pinch your chin, “How come Marisa didn’t outright tell me the actual names of the Kingdoms?”

You quietly exhale as you thank Lancelet. He returns by saying, “I should also thank you for saving me back there, that’s why I came here.”

…

Without nothing else to do, you ask, “So, how long have you and the group been doing this job?”

“I think it has been a few weeks,” He answers.

“A few weeks?” You respond, and without holding back, “So how many men did you lose?”

He stays quiet. Thinking it was too far, “I’m sorry, that was terrible of me.”

He breaks out of his silence, “It’s fine, it isn’t that big of a deal. Things happen, that’s all.”

…

You deliberately move on, “Let’s get to another question, uh.. So what’s the state of the other kingdoms?”

Lancelet is only knowledgeable on the Prouddapia Kingdom, where he came from, but is certain that all the other kingdoms are heavily affected by the infection and is dealing with it, except for the Demon Kingdom. He thinks because that’s where the infection originates, it’s probably destroyed.

Though you hesitate, you wanted to know, “I see, can you tell me the name of the Demon Kingdom?”

He reacted as if he didn’t like it, “Delux, the Kingdom of Demons.”

“Okay,” You look back at your map, “I understand, I won’t bother you about that anymore.”

…

Lancelet isn’t done though, “Why are you so unknowledgeable? You don’t even know the names of the Kingdoms?”

You nervously move your finger on your cheek, “It’s quite a story but long story short, I supposedly came here as a hero.”

“Hero, huh?” Lancelet became gloomy, “I don’t think even heroes can save us.”

You put down your hand, “What’s wrong?”

Lancelet says, “Our so-called guardian lost to the infection.”

…

You knew Riley couldn’t take down Substance-C despite being strong at using the fire element, but it didn’t click for you to have one of the most powerful beings in this world be under the control of something very dangerous.

Lancelet continues, “I don’t know about the others, but our Kingdom got taken over.”

“So, where do you guys live?” You try to ask.

Lancelet gets rid of his gloomy manner, “There’s refugee camps outside the castle walls, but even then, it’s still dangerous.”

You feel a little relieved, even if it’s that small.

…

You figure out how they’ve been surviving, “What brought you out here anyway?”

Lancelet puts his arms together on his lap, “We’ve been tasked to clean up groups of the infected, but now I’m not sure if what we are doing is right.”

You only thought that that’s a really stupid way of wasting resources and soldiers.

“Lancelet, if I were you, I should just go back and protect the refugees,” You suggest.

“Maybe you’re right, now that we know that our situation has gotten worse,”

…

Lancelet stands up, “Enough of this, I need to go to bed.”

“Yes, I should too,” You responded.

“It was nice talking to you Hunter,” He bows his head before walking to his camping tent.

You face the campfire, as it crackles over the forest… “Hmmm, I can only hope.”