They were an hour and a half, at their marching pace, from reaching the highway and being back in the relative safety of the town, when they encountered what looked like Ghulam and Hugo. They weren’t moving, or talking, so Frank ended up stumbling upon them along the way back.

Two men, one laying against a tree, the other leaned over his stomach. Both of them were bloody. The one laying looked like Hugo, while Frank couldn’t quite tell who was bent over him. He turned and stopped the others. Maria in the back couldn’t see yet, and Frank didn’t want her to in case she reacted by running over there or calling out to the two figures.

He looked them over carefully. Given the presence of skinwalkers, there were two likely possibilities.

Either Hugo and his companion were both high level skinwalkers, and they had killed Hugo but been injured in the process, or Hugo and his companion had been wounded by skinwalkers, either fleeing from them or defeating them. Both possibilities were ones that had Frank thinking.

If they were skinwalkers he could get a lot of experience. If they weren’t then he’d be helping someone out. The question was, how to identify between them.

He motioned Rina over to him, and mimicked throwing a stone. He kept Maria and Bill back, to avoid complicating things. When she got close to him, he took a stone from her little pouch. He held his sword with the hand his shield was strapped to, and got ready to throw. It was about fourty feet from where he was to the pair. An easy throw for him to make, but not necessarily for Rina. She could make the distance easily, given her improved strength. Accuracy though? He’d have to see.

Frank motioned to her to throw, and then readied himself to follow up. Her throw flew true, fortunately hitting the individual Frank didn’t recognize. He followed up as soon as he’d gotten a rough idea where she was going to hit by smoking Hugo in the leg as he broke into a dash towards them, sword drawn. The man Rina had hit collapsed immediately, slumping onto Hugo’s prone form. Hugo didn’t react, indicating he was unconscious.

Frank covered the distance in only a few seconds, getting a sword against the neck of who turned out to look like Ghulam, before the man could fully recover.

He kept his eyes on both Ghulam and Hugo, ready to act if either made a move. The other three of his group followed out after him. Maria saw her father and immediately started running over.

“Dad!” she couldn’t help but exclaim, excitement and fear evident, though she did manage to control her volume and avoid shouting.

“What are you doing?!” She said to Frank as she ran towards them.

“Stop where you are.” Frank said. “We don’t know whether they are actually who they look like.” He kept his voice low, just barely loud enough to be heard clearly.

Maria continued forward a few more steps, but Frank glared at her and she halted. She was about to say something, her face looking panicked, when Ghulam spoke up.

“Please don’t do anything. There’s a sword against my neck right now. Hugo is not in serious danger.” he said. “Presumably, to be treated like this, you’ve seen them too?”

Bill and Rina made it to where Maria was, and stopped beside her. Frank replied to Ghulam.

“Seen what?” he asked.

“The ‘skinwalkers’.” Ghulam replied, trying his best to keep his voice level.

“Yea. So you understand why this situation is like this then?” Frank said.

“Unfortunately, what you are doing makes sense.” Ghulam answered.

Frank was in control right now. With Ghulam laying on Hugo, he could deal with either were they to turn out to not be human. The problem was how to tell. He’d only encountered skinwalkers once. They’d been among final group of refugees fleeing the heartland of the United States that had made contact with Frank’s group, three years before the end.

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The consequence of their infiltration had been disastrous. Three of the strongest fighters in the group had been killed in ambush, before the first to reveal themselves were struck down. Once someone realized that high enough knowledge revealed them, every piece of equipment with knowledge on it was dumped on David, who, once sufficiently equipped, had been able to root out two more, who had fought to the death when discovered. The only psychic in the group had noticed one more. His information was limited to what had been learned from that single encounter.

Frank collected his thoughts, noting the others getting fidgety. “We need to figure out whether or not they are skinwalkers.” he said. “As far as I know, skinwalkers can perfectly mimic anyone they kill, but only hold their disguise when others are around.”

Maria looked at Frank, the anxious fear evident on her face. He worried she might act in defense of her father. Understanding in principle that the figure might not be her dad was much different than being willing to subject someone who might be her dad to the interrogation of a borderline stranger. He first needed to defuse that.

“Maria.” he said.

Maria looked at him, and then at the sword pointed in the direction of Hugo and Ghulam. She didn’t say anything.

“Get the rope out of your pack.” Frank told her.

“Bill, draw your sword, I’ll need you to keep it trained on Ghulam.” he ordered.

“Rina, be ready with a stone, if necessary.”

Bill and Rina moved to act immediately, and after some hesitation Maria did too. Rina kept a stone in hand, and Bill walked over and held his sword over Ghulam’s head. He looked deeply uneasy doing so.

“Ghulam, in a moment I’m going to ask you to move off of Hugo. Do so slowly and carefully, by crawling backwards. Bill, when Ghulam does this, keep your sword at his neck.”

Frank then looked at Maria. “Once Ghulam has moved away from Hugo, I want you to tie his hands and legs. When that’s done I won’t need to keep my sword on him. Then, you tie up Ghulam as well.”

“Okay.” Maria said. Her voice wavering.

“Ghulam. Start crawling, slowly.” Frank told him.

“Yes, of course.” Ghulam replied, his tone betraying his fear. He cautiously moved himself off Hugo, crawling away.

Frank motioned to Maria, sword still pointed at Hugo. “Tie his hands first.”

She looked like she was about to cry, but she still did it. Hugo didn’t move. Slumped against the tree, he was completely limp, though his chest rose and fell regularly. Maria successfully bound his hands, then his feet.

Frank let his sword fall to his side. Maria audibly choked off a sob, the tension leaving her. She didn’t break down though.

“Next, tie up Ghulam. Same deal. Ghulam, roll onto your side and put your arms out.”

Everyone obeyed, and soon Ghulam was also tied up. With both of them suitably restrained, Frank’s tension level dropped. “Everyone, keep an eye on the surroundings, and make sure you are always in someone else’s sight. I’m going to get Ghulam’s story and figure this out.”

None of the three of them looked him in the eye. They were all somewhat distraught, and newly fearful of him. Frank understood. He focused on Ghulam.

“Explain why you ended up out here with Hugo.” Frank told him. Each skinwalker he’d dealt with last time had been imitating someone known to others. None of the replaced people were ever found. Unfortunately, there had been opportunities to try and interrogate one. He didn’t know if they took the memories of the people they imitated, so he started by testing whether that was the case.

Ghulam considered his words for quite a while. “I left to find you, because you are going to Seattle, and my daughter lives North of there.”

“Why did you travel here, specifically?”

“Hugo suggested it. I am not a woodsman, but he is. He wanted to make sure his daughter was safe, I wanted to meet up with you.”

“Why didn’t you wait until I returned?”

“I felt Sasha and Greg might choose to deny me the right to choose. I am the only medical doctor here, so I have an inherent value to the survivors as a whole.”

Frank nodded. He turned to Maria. “Do you know Ghulam?”

“Yea.” she said, hesitantly. She avoided his gaze.

“Can you ask him a question only he would be likely to know the answer to, something he couldn’t have gleaned from your father or others in the past few days?”

Maria nodded. “What did you give me a prescription for that I asked you not to tell my dad about.”

Ghulam thought for a moment, then replied. “Birth control.”

Maria was taken aback by the answer. “That’s not it…” The realization hit her and she took a step back. “Oh god.”

***

Ghulam was running. He had been for quite some time. Back towards the highway. The bloody stumps of the two smallest fingers on his left hand were pressed against his torso. He knew he needed to attend to them. There had been medical supplies in his pack, abandoned as he fled.

The agony was something he’d never felt before in his life. It took every bit of will he had to keep himself moving. That thing had bitten them off. His muscles ached from the exertion. When the system had offered him the ability to improve his capabilities, he’d taken strength. That had saved him, let him throw that thing off when it jumped on him.

A skinwalker, the message had said. He’d panicked when it attacked him. He had never thought he’d be the type. Hugo had been left behind, struggling with another. If he had turned back, he might be able to save him. He had strength of body now. He did not have it in him to stop fleeing, though.

His daughter was the priority. He couldn’t risk his life, even for a friend, until he knew her fate.