Everyone dropped their weapons and sagged to the ground. Everyone was breathing hard and trying to stop the trembling of their hands.

“Ha… Haha… Hahaha!” Laughed Aaron

Soon everyone was laughing.

After a few minutes of continuous laughter Sarah stood up and said, “Well then, let's all go to bed.”

Everyone stood except for Aaron, “Hold up guys. We need to keep watch. I suggest that we have two of us at a time, so Saber and I will have first watch.”

Sarah agreed and Saber groaned, which caused everyone to laugh.

Once everyone had gone into the hut Aaron turned to Saber.

“How did you make that shot?”

“I’ve been practising.”

“Saber, no one can make that great of a shot with only a few days of practise.”

“I don’t know. I just feel like something is natural, so I do it. That usually leads to me doing it correctly.”

“So you are saying you are a natural?”

“I don’t know! Remember when you had me climb the building and it took half an hour?”

“Yeah.”

“The next time I climbed a building, it took only five minutes. I think I just learn quickly.”

“That would explain a lot.”

“How so?”

“Because, you learned the alphabet and how to talk in a week. It generally takes few years for newborns, but you weren’t a newborn, so I thought it would take you a month to learn. However, you learned in a quarter of the time.”

“Cool, that just means I should soon be better than you!” Saber said with a smile

Aaron chuckled, “That’s good. I can’t protect everyone by myself, so I need you to help me.”

After two hours, they switched with George and Adam.

By the time the sun came up, everyone had a turn at keeping watch.

Once it was bright enough to see, everyone was up and on the wall.

“We need to get rid of the corpses.” Said Adam

“Yeah.” Everyone mumbled

“Actually, Evelyn make a fire. The smokest you can make.” Said Sarah

“Why?” Evelyn asked.

“If the Vermi are going to surround us and force other Humans in their hunting circle, then it would be best if we can all get together.” Sarah explained

“What’s up with Aaron?” Asked George.

Everyone looked over at him. He looked like he was sleep walking.

“That idiot. He is dreaming about leading an army against the Vermi.” Sighed Adam

“That sounds like him.” Laughed Sarah

Saber nudged Aaron.

“Huh?” Everyone laughed.

“Let’s get to work.”

They pulled the Vermi off the spikes. After Adam examined the corpses, which included cutting open their chests, they threw them over the side of the cliff. When they went to retrieve the corpse that slid into the trees, it wasn’t there.

They decided that it wasn’t worth looking for.

Once they had thoroughly washed and scrubbed their hands, they worked to cut down as many trees as they could before the Hunting circle arrived.

After Evelyn had made the smoke fire, instead of helping, she played with the Wolf pup, or at least tried to.

The pup refused to leave Saber’s side.

While the pup was but a baby, it was still strong enough to carry small branches.

George was assigned to cutting down the trees.

For the thinner trees, about six inches in diameter, it took three for four strikes.

For the thicker tree, about a foot in diameter, it took seven to eight.

Adam and Evelyn were assigned to making more axes, while everyone else was supposed to drag the trees through the wall to be taken care of at a later date.

Once Adam and Evelyn had finished another axe, Aaron helped George cut down trees.

By the end of the day, Aaron and George had pushed the forest back by eight feet.

George and Aaron then started to chop off the limbs of the trees, using torches for light.

They stacked the trees and threw the branches in a pile, in between the pile of rocks and the rack of weapons and tools.

The next morning, after the usual complaining, they got up and thought of ways to use the lumber they had while George continued to chop down trees.

“How many Vermi did the nice one say there was going to be in the Hunting Circle?” Asked Adam

“He hinted that there would be anywhere from two hundred to one thousand, but those are only those actively hunting. The ones in the Circle could very well number thousands.”

“So we have to survive an initial attack of a thousand, then thousands more once the circle breaks apart. Meanwhile we only number seven and our full attention was taken by twelve.” Sighed Grace

“I actually have a plan to thin them out before they reach us.” Said Aaron

“What?” Asked Sarah

“I have a pretty good understanding of the surrounding forest. I think I could ‘convince’ the animals to attack the Vermi.”

“How?” Asked Adam

“There is a plant that I have noticed annoy the animals. So to see what it was, I crushed it to examine it. When I had crushed it, the animals around me started to rush to that location. I had to quickly climb up a tree and throw the powder away.”

“The powder,” Aaron continued, “landed on a boulder and regardless of the strength or size of the animal, they all threw themselves at it to destroy it.”

“How do you plan to weaponize it?”

“I think that if I crush it with another plant I found, it should prevent the animals from attacking for a short period of time. During the time, I wish to place it in a container that will break if I throw it.”

“So you want to make a grenade?” Asked Grace

“Yes.”

“I like it. Can I help you?”

“I have a better idea,” Said Sarah, “These Vermi number in the thousands. So according to our logic, they will be the weakest version, therefore easy to kill. Grace you will help Adam make traps and defences capable of killing mass numbers. Evelyn will help me make more ammo and bows, and make sure the smoke signal stays alive. Saber will help Aaron with his grenade. Meanwhile George will continue to chop down trees. The sooner we can see them, the better. Agreed?”

Everyone did.

Everyone went to where they were assigned.

Aaron and Saber went into the forest, Aaron teaching Saber about the forest.

Adam and Grace worked on attaching Log Rollers across the wall.

Sarah and Evelyn worked on making more arrows, bows, spears, and axes.

Meanwhile, George just slammed away at trees.

The further they went the less Aaron talked and the quieter his steps were, so Saber followed his lead.

Multiple times Aaron stopped and pointed at a plant or a tree or an animal to explain it.

Soon Saber knew about as much about the forest as Aaron, which wasn't a lot compared to what there was to learn.

Once they reached their destination, Aaron opened the fur bag he brought and started to fill it with pink flowers.

“Only grab the ones that are pink and have thorns.”

Soon the bag was full. Saber moved to return, but was stopped.

“Where do you think you are going? We have another bag to fill.”

Saber moaned and complained, but obeyed. After that bag was full, they moved further in.

“What now?” Saber asked, but was silenced by Aaron.

Aaron led them to a field of White flowers. Saber inwardly beamed. He had to move around from one patch to another to get the pink flowers, but he should be able to fill an entire bag within a few seconds.

Aaron pulled out two more bags, tossed one to Saber, and started to fill his. Once they had filled those, he pulled out two more.

The bags weren’t heavy, but they were large, making it hard to carry them. Once they filled the last two, they shouldered all six and returned.

Adam and Grace chopped the trees to the needed size and slowly brought them to the top of the wall.

Once they had the needed materials on the wall, they started to build.

They first made a simple square, tying ends of trees to one another.

Then they made a box, except the top was slanted. Grace worked on making another further down the wall, while Adam worked on a release mechanism.

Slowly, but surely, they made the Log Rollers all across the wall.

Each Roller was six feet wide by four feet long, and the wall was nearly one hundred fifty feet long.

They placed fourteen Rollers.

After they had finished the building they had to load the rollers.

It took them hours of back pain and arm aching to fill every single Roller, but Adam liked the result.

According to Adam, each log could take out a one to eight Vermi, and each Roller had five logs. Once they had finished, they collapsed against each other and fell asleep.

Evelyn worked to made rope while Sarah made everything else.

At the beginning, Sarah could make five spears to Evelyn’s one rope, but Evelyn quickly sped up to only one and a half spear to one rope, and each rope was good enough for a bow.

After Evelyn had made a dozen bows, she worked on making arrows.

Once Sarah had made twenty spears, five combat, fifteen throwing, she worked on making axes. It was tiring and made their fingers cramp, but they ended the day by tripling their weapon stash.

George, who had the simplest job, also was the happiest about his job.

He loved physical work. He liked to think that his mind had two modes, active, and trance.

He chopped and chopped, while thinking about ways he could help increase the defences.

“Maybe,” He thought, “we could light them on fire! No, that would just alert more and light up the forest. Wait, with all their screaming the nearby Vermi would still come. So we could do it! No, there is still the issue with the forest fire. Maybe we could dig a trench and place dead leaves and stuff. Then light that up, but if we did that we would need to have some way to keep them in. Could we build a simple wall in front of the fire pit, then they would have to climb over it, meanwhile they are burning. If only they wore some kind of clothing, then it would be much more effective. Still, the fire pit could kill a pretty good amount, and wound a vast amount. From the last attack, we saw that they still have self preservation instincts and that they do feel pain. With just the pain aspect, if we burn them, they will at least be slower, or even disabled. I need to tell everyone!”

George stopped chopping and turned to see that the wall was much farther than it was before. He had chopped the forest line back nearly three dozen feet.

Everyone returned exhausted and they all fell asleep before setting up a watch.

When they woke up the next morning, they promised themselves to never let that happen again.

Aaron worked carefully to mix the plants, while Saber made mud half balls.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

Once Aaron had finished mixing and crushing, they would pour in as much as they could in one half ball, then place a layer of clay on top and place the other mud half ball on top.

Soon they had used up all the flowers and made nearly two dozen grenades.

George continued to chop, while everyone else worked to make the fire pit George suggested.

Taking the undergrowth and ripping it apart they placed it all in the four foot deep trench they made.

The ripped up undergrowth had filled up an entire foot of the trench, and that was when it was packed down.

They then made a five foot wall out of logs, placing two logs upright in holes, then tying the rest of the logs to the vertical ones.

To get out of the firepit, the Vermi would have to scale a nine foot wall, while burning up. To get over the wall, they built a simple ramp.

After the ramp, wall, and fire pit was all done, they worked on making spikes all the way to the tree line and in between the stumps.

On the stumps they would place vertical spike and placed spikes in front of the stump so the Vermi would step on it, trip, and be impaled on the spike in front.

With all that done, Adam hypothesized that they would take out nearly a thousand, without their interaction.

Adam also had some new ideas.

They went to bed with a watch in place.

The next morning, Adam told everyone to dig a large hole.

It took awhile, but once the hole was to Adam’s demands, he and George pushed a tree log into it then filled it in.

“Ok, now we all need to carve it down from this two foot thick log, to only three quarters feet thick.” Ordered Adam

“Why?” Asked Evelyn

“I want to hollow out another log, except this one will have spikes sticking out of it. Then we place it on top of this one, and it spins. It will kill a few before filling up, but I want a wall on the other side that will scrape them off as it spins.”

“What will keep it spinning?” Asked George

“The Vermi. As they run into it, they will get impaled, but the ones on the sides will push it.”

“That won’t work.” Said Aaron

“Why?” Asked Grace

“Because if they come at it as one huge wave, it will brake, only taking the first few, but I think we can do something else with this.”

“What?”

“They are attracted to meat and blood right?”

“From the data, yes.”

“Then we put a fresh, bloody, slab of meat at the top. They will charge at the closest source of food, the meat, so we dig around it, placing spikes in the trench with more undergrowth. They get stuck in the trench and get burned and impaled.”

George continued where Aaron left off, “We can even put spikes around it and in the walls, pointing upward.”

“Man, why can’t I come up with a good and complete idea?” Complained Adam

Aaron placed his arm around Adam’s shoulder and leaned on him.

“Don’t worry, you are the smartest of us, but George and I are more militarily minded. We are good at killing people. You are good at basically everything other types of intelligence.”

“Yeah, I guess you are right, but I wish I could be better at killing.”

Aaron stood back up and shoved Adam, causing him to fall.

“Ow!”

“Never! Never wish to be better at killing!” Aaron yelled at Adam before walking into the forest

Everyone was quiet for awhile, before Saber couldn’t stand it anymore.

“What was that about?”

Sarah looked at him for a second before replying.

“Aaron… he loves people. He loves talking and playing with anyone. He is a very loving person, and hates death. But as fate would have it, he was blessed with skill for death. He killed his first person when he was only four, since then he has killed over eighty people, and he is only twelve, not counting the ones from our escape. I didn't count, but I know for a fact that he knows the exact number, each of their faces, and their names if he knew them.”

“Why is death such a bad thing? I think it is beautiful. It is always so peaceful. I have yet to see someone die without a look of peace. Death releases us from this cruel world. Why would it be a bad thing?”

“You don't fear death?” Asked Grace

“No, I don't wish to die, I love to eat too much, but I don't fear it.”

“Then you are the opposite of Aaron. He fears death, but believes that he deserves it, and welcomes it.” Said George

Saber looked after Aaron, “Do you know when he will be back?”

“Don't worry. He will be back before nightfall. Come on, we got to get to work, we still have to kill thousands of monsters.”

They continued to make the bait traps until it was nearing dark.

Aaron came back at that time.

Saber went to greet him, but was held back by George.

“Let him talk first. He’ll be brooding for a while.”

“Hey George?”

“Yeah?”

“Aaron said that both of you were geniuses at warfare. Do you hate death like him?”

“Not as much as Aaron. I think of War as a game. If war didn’t require death, then I would be perfectly fine. But Aaron… He thinks only about the death.”

Everyone went to bed quietly that night, with Evelyn watching.

The next morning, they set up the smoke fire, and went to work on their own defence.

No one wanted to talk.

Adam and George worked together to build a watch tower.

Crisscrossing logs, they managed to build a sturdy ten foot tower.

That was where Adam was when he saw it.

He called down to the others, who immediately responded.

Everyone got to the wall, equipped in their weapons, while Aaron walked out to meet them.

“Hello there.” Said Aaron to the newcomers

“I can’t believe it. There are actually other survivors. We saw the smoke. We thought it was just some idiot wanting to die, but day after day it showed up.”

“What is your name.”

“Soaen Mex.”

“Is it just you or are there others?” Aaron asked

“There are four others. May we talk with the adults of your group?”

“Have the other four come out. Please don't try to do anything, or we will place an arrow in your skull.” “...Come out guys!” He shouted behind him

Three men and a woman slowly walked out of the forest

“May we talk with your adults?” Asked Soaen.

“What adults?”

“You managed to build all this without any adults?”

“Yes. We have also survived Vermi attacks. We know our weapons and how to use them. Please don't make us, because we will not hesitate.” Aaron said with a disinterested voice as he crossed his arms.

The four adults hesitated, before Soaen said, “How did you survive? You should be constantly moving around, running from the Vermi.”

“That is stupid. You can face thousands at a time, how do you expect to survive that if you don't have devices that will take them out.”

“How many do you think you can kill at one time?”

“Nearly one thousand. As you should know, the Vermi just blindly charge. Using that against them, we have spikes placed, trenches with spikes, fire pits, Log Rollers, and other weapons. Now then, please follow me, and remember that we have ranged and melee weapons.”

Aaron turned around and walked back, saying, “Please be careful around the spikes. We spent a long time making them as sharp as we could.”

They slowly followed Aaron.

Adam, Grace, and Saber had arrows trained on them.

Sarah and Evelyn had spears ready to stab down at them at anytime.

George had two stone axes ready to chop them into pieces.

Two of the grown adults nearly messed their pants.

“Seven,” Thought Soaen, “Seven young children. That large one looks to be sixteen, but all the others look to be anywhere from nine to twelve, except for that small boy, he looks to be about seven.”

The four adults were led into the base.

“What is that black stuff?” Asked the Woman

“It is called Dark Moss. It blocks out all light and most sound.”

“So you are able to have fire at night?”

“Yes.” Explained Adam

“Alright listen up, currently there are thousands of Vermi coming to surround us. They, while dumb, are making a hunting circle to hunt us for sport. They will also corral other survivors here, which is probably how you got here. With these defences, it will be hard, but we believe that we can survive without casualties. And with more survivors coming, we expect it to be easier.” Aaron explained

“You have two choices. First, you can stay and obey us. Or, you can take your chances out there with the hordes of Vermi.” Said Sarah

The four adults looked at each other and silently conversed

“We will obey you.”

“Sweet!” Exclaimed George “Hey, my name is George. I am eleven, and I love building traps.”

Aaron facepalmed himself.

“I’m Grace. I am ten, and I like sewing.”

“I am Evelyn, most just call me Eve. I am nine and I love small animals!”

“I am Adam. I am eleven, and I love puzzles.”

“I am Sarah. I am twelve and I like reading.”

“I am Saber. I am six, and I like making stuff. Oh, and this is Silver!” Exclaimed Saber as he lifted up the pup.

The pup just looked at them with its tongue sticking out.

Everyone looked at Aaron next, but he was already running into the forest with his bow.

“Where is he going?” Asked one of the men

“Hunting. Don't worry, he will introduce himself eventually. Just give him time.”

“Why is he so broody?”

“He has had a hard life.” Said Sarah

“How? You know, before he came to the surface.”

“Well, he loves people, but every adult he has met has either tried to kill him, or trick him.”

“How did he survive?”

“By killing them first. Take this advice to heart. Until he opens up to you, do as he orders without question. He will not hesitate to kill you if you endanger the rest of us. He won't order you around unless it is for a good reason.” Said Sarah

Soaen walked away from the group and motioned for Sarah to come over.

“Are you saying that that kid is blood thirsty? Is he dangerous to all of us?”

“Aaron is not bloodthirsty. Trust me, he would never harm someone. Unless they attempted to harm him or someone he loves.”

“Point taken. Don't harm him or any of you. So what do we do to prepare for the Vermi Hordes?”

“Simple. First we try to attract more humans. While we do that, we build more traps.”

“What kind?” “The kind that will kill a lot of those monsters.”

“Is there any other kind?”

Sarah smiled, and called to everyone, “Let’s get to work!”

George and the two other men, whose names were Hujin and Entin, worked to push the forest line back further.

Adam, Grace, and the woman, whose name was Mabel, worked on preventing any possible Vermi climbing up the cliff face.

Sarah, Evelyn, and Soaen, kept the smoke fire alive, and build better weapons.

Aaron returned an hour before nightfall with a deer.

He didn’t say anything as they cooked it, or as they ate it.

He only spoke when they were deciding you would have first watch. Even then he only said, “I will take it.”

Everyone went into the hut and shared the blankets with the Dark Moss on the inside.

Once they had all laid down and quieted down, Soaen asked, “He is thinking about all the people he has killed, isn’t he?”

No one replied for a minute before Sarah said, “He sees the faces of each and every person. Most deserved it, not all. For the most part, he is able to forget them.”

“Does this mood affect his ability to fight?” Asked Entin

“Yes. He becomes more violent. George and I have seen it before. The people that attack him during one of these episodes. I despised those people and wanted to kill them myself, but no one deserves what happened to them.”

“What happened?” Asked Hujin

“In the City we came from, the Guards were equipped with bayonets. Aaron was fascinated with them, so he would steal them. After a while he starting adding handles to them, making knives meant for stabbing. When George and I finally caught up with Aaron, he had cut his victims to ribbons. The remaining parts of the bodies had the bayonet knives sticking out of them. Snapped in half. I have said this before, but for your sake and ours, don't make him mad.”

“Does he get mad easily?”

“No. I have known him since we were toddlers. He has only been truly mad twice. The first was when someone had raped and murdered his mother. He was six, and he had ripped the man’s throat out with his own two hands.”

“When he is angry, he is much stronger than I am.” Said George

“The second time,” Sarah continued, “was when he was betrayed by some of his gang’s members.”

“He was the leader of a gang?”

“No, number two. He forbade any innocent harm, but the squad he worked with broke it. When he called them out, they attacked him. He beheaded one of them simply by twisting until it popped up. Eight full grown, muscular, men, and only one survived. Even then he survived only when Aaron had stabbed him in both legs and hands.”

“Let’s go to bed. We should only have two days until the Hunting Horde comes. Plus we should be getting a lot more Survivors tomorrow.” Said Adam as he yawned

Everyone agreed and went to sleep.

All four adults had the best sleep they had since they were forced out of their cities.

The next morning, Adam was right. Two groups, one of two, and one single survivor, found them, before noon.

Aaron had yet to talk.

He spent the morning making arrows, which gradually became straighter, stronger, and sharper. At lunch, there was laughter and joy.

“I forgot to ask, what did you guys do before you came to the surface?” Asked Grace

Everyone told each other what they did.

Soaen was a Guard that got caught smuggling weapons to the rebels in his city.

Entin and Hujin were the two rebels Soaen was supplying.

Mabel was a member of a gang that got caught. In the three others, two were recycle factory workers, and one was a farmer.

After lunch, they continued to build defences.

During the remainder of the day, twelve more survivors managed to find their way to them.

They now numbered twenty six, twenty male, six female.

While everyone was a criminal, they were all polite, and agreed to let the women have the hut while the men made do outside.

They increased the watch to three people.

Aaron was on first watch and stayed up in the watchtower with his personal bow, and a quiver of his own arrows.

The other two on watch was on the wall with bows and spears.

Given the free time to think, Aaron recalled the moment he saw mother, dead at his feet.

He remembered the feel of the man’s blood as he avenged her.

The faces of every person he has killed since.

He felt rage build up in him, waiting to release, when one of the men on watch shouted.

Aaron looked up and saw about a dozen Vermi standing just in front of the tree line.

He smiled and dropped his bow and quiver.

He quickly climbed down the tower and up the wall, as everyone woke up and rushed to the wall.

Aaron took off his shirt and draped it over the battlements.

Underneath, was his Bayonet vest, which he took off as well. He drew three of the bayonet knives, put on in his mouth, and one in each of his hands.

“Aaron, don't do anything stupid.” Cautioned George. Aaron responded by jumped onto the battlements and turning to face everyone.

He smiled through the knife and leaned backward, falling off the wall.

Multiple of the newcomers shouted for him to get back, but he ignored them and charged at the Vermi, weaving through the obstacles.

“Everyone shut up and watch why we have survived this long!” Shouted Sarah, siencing everyone.

Aaron was more than halfway through before the Vermi charged. They clashed only a few feet away from the beginning of the spikes.

The first Vermi Aaron confronted, swung at him, but Aaron ducked, twisted, stabbed, and withdrew it. All in one motion.

He kicked another Vermi’s knees, causing it to buckle and fall to the ground.

A Vermi charged at Aaron, but he sidestepped and stabbed through its back, piercing its heart.

He saw another charging at him, so Aaron threw one of his knives.

It pierced its neck.

Aaron plucked the knife from his mouth just in time to jam it into the chest of one, while he used his other knife to stab up through another’s chin.

The one he kicked down stood back up, but Aaron charged at it and jump kicked it into a spike.

Aaron flipped midair, and landed on another Vermi, which he stabbed through the top of its head.

As the Vermi fell, Aaron jumped off and landed behind another.

He sliced the hamstrings, causing it to fall to the ground.

Two Vermi charged at Aaron from different sides, but Aaron just charged at one of them and stabbed it in its heart.

He sidestepped just in time for the second Vermi to slam into the first.

Aaron stabbed it as it fell.

The last two held back, and slowly advanced together.

The one, whose hamstrings were severed was attempting to crawl at Aaron, but he easily just walked away.

When the last two Vermi got within ten feet, they charged.

Aaron charged as well, but dropped to the ground and slid the rest of the way.

As they sprinted past, Aaron sliced at them.

They dropped to the ground, and Aaron stood.

He saw that the crawling Vermi was trying to crawl away.

Aaron casually walked towards it and grabbed its neck.

He dragged it towards one of the spikes and shoved its skull through.

Aaron walked back towards the wall, which was open by the time he reached it.

They let him in, and closed the gate, locking it.

Everyone surrounded him, but Sarah shoved them away.

“Let him calm down. He might attack you otherwise. Wait until morning.”

Everyone backed off and let Aaron lay down and fall asleep.

Slowly everyone returned to their beds, leaving another three for the Watch.