"Everyone rested for the day?"

The woodsman's sarcastic comment was met with glares from the student and store clerk, but the rest of them gave almost imperceivable smiles. Little jokes and jibes could work wonders to keep spirits up in times of trial. The woodsman continued.

"I'd like everyone to put their two pence in for this decision, so if you could all gather round please?"

She blinked, surprised. She couldn't remember a single time in the last week anyone had been asked about the course of action; the woodsman had the most experience and skill out of all of them, so there had been no need for anyone else to question his decisions before now.

"Sure thing kid, what is it?"

The woodsman grimaced at the comment from the man they'd rescued last night, a teacher from a secondary school before the collapse. She bit the inside of her cheek as the woodsman took a deep breath.

He clearly didn't like being called a kid. He was one of the youngest members of their group, but with what he'd lived through he wasn't a child anymore.

He muttered under his breath, just loud enough for them to hear.

"I was a woodsman before the collapse. Still am."

He might not have said anything else, but the subtext was apparent. Your old profession was what people called you nowadays, or some other descriptor for who you were. She was a college student, the man was a secondary teacher etcetera.

To call the only member of their group who had any idea what was going on a 'kid' didn't sit right with her, nor the rest of the old group, she imagined, but then the man hadn't meant anything by it, not maliciously anyway.

"I can get you to safety, as I promised these four last week."

He gestured at the four of them who had been travelling along the road for the last week.

The woman, a clerk, smiled.

"That's great, thank you!"

"Where will we be travelling?" The teenage boy inquired.

The young woodsman smiled humourlessly.

"Our destination remains the same no matter what; there's an old village to the east, repurposed and fortified by sleepless like me. You'll be safe there before continuing east, where there aren't any shadows. The village is as far east as they go. I'll lead you too it and you'll be able to eat some hot food and sleep in an actual bed before continuing east, where other sleepless and wakers have been starting to rebuild society, so I've heard."

He paused, took a breath, and continued.

"The problem is this. Do you have any supplies on you?"

"Supplies?"

"Food, drinking water, medicine, fuel, blankets?"

The teacher looked down slightly, somewhat embarrassed.

"Nothing. Sorry. When we woke it was to the sound of one of those things scratching at our door. We grabbed the kids and ran out as fast as we can. We still don't know what's happened."

The teenage piped up.

"What's a 'waker'?"

"People like you, who fell asleep a few months ago and have been able to wake up since then."

"And a 'sleepless'?"

The woodsman smiled and pointed to himself with his thumb.

"People like me, who, unlike the rest of the world, never fell to sleep."

He raised a hand to pre-empt any further questions.

"No, I have no idea what caused the sleep. No, I don't know exactly what these 'shadows' are or where they came from, and no, I certainly do not know why I remained awake through it. God knows I wish I knew why."

He stared out into the distance a moment, and the teacher coughed politely to regain his attention.

"Ah, right. Our destination remains the same, but we've got two routes we can take. I was going to take the road and try and get us there by tomorrow, but now... well, I don't mean to be rude, but I don't think you're all capable of a forty mile march on no sleep and empty stomachs."

The man and woman both nodded, conceding the point.

"Even in my fittest state I would have struggled with that. So what's our alternative?"

The young woodsman sighed.

"It's not much better. The route itself is actually longer, but there is a point we can resupply at and stop overnight to get some rest. It's fifteen miles to that point, then five to re-join the road and another thirty along the road itself. But that's the problem."

She swallowed.

"We'd be leaving the road."

The teenager spoke, and although he may not have truly understood the words he was saying, she knew he'd heard the woodsman say them, and that was enough for all of them.

"And the road is life."

Their guide nodded back at the boy, the words having long since become his mantra, his hope, his prayer.

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"Aye. The road is life."

----------------------------------------

In the end they'd decided to take the detour along a small uphill lane through the forest, sheer stone cliffs rising above them to one side. It was hard walking, but most of them were used to that by now. In order to give the two parents some reprieve the six year old was currently being given a piggyback ride by the university student.

She sidled up to the side of the woodsman.

"So where exactly are we headed?"

He nodded at her to acknowledge her presence.

"Tonight or the village?"

"Tonight."

He nodded again.

"I don't know if it ever had a name, but it's an old clearing in these woods with a shallow pool. There should be an apple tree there and a few wild root vegetables, so with any luck we can eat some proper food without me spending too much energy on hunting and the like. The water's pretty clear as well, so as long as we boil it first it should be safe. The only problem is..."

He trailed off, but she carried on for him. She'd known what the main problem was with heading up here, even if no-one else had cottoned on yet.

"It'll still be thirty-five miles tomorrow, and we only have one more night of fuel. If we can't make it to safety tomorrow, we'll be out in the open with no heat and no light."

He turned, looking slightly surprised.

"You knew about the fuel?"

She shrugged.

"You pressed us hard yesterday and told us we needed to be back at the village today, and then refused to let us use the petrol on the fire. That tipped me off. Given that we used a cup of it for the fire in the night I think we're in quite a dangerous position."

He sighed to himself.

"Yeah, we are. I don't wanna worry anyone since, no offence, but you wakers act irrationally if there's danger to their person or to their families."

She shrugged. She wasn't the biggest fan of all 'wakers' being lumped in together, but she didn't really care. He was trying to look out for them as best as he could, but a group of panicked, inexperienced wakers making their own judgement calls was probably about as shit an idea as their situation could possibly allow.

"I won't say anything. You might want to bring it up on the road tomorrow, in case people start flagging."

He nodded a final time.

"I'll keep that in mind, miss. Thank you."

She smiled slightly.

"No worries."

----------------------------------------

Ten miles down the lane and the teenager was clearly starting to tire, as was his mother. The lad's father had moved to the front to speak with the woodsman, she suspected to slow him down slightly by distracting him with small talk.

If the woodsman recognised what he was doing, he didn't say anything.

"You were a woodsman before everything fell apart?"

"I was. Still am. I've lived in these woods my whole life. Since everything fell apart I... well, I guess I don't really live anywhere anymore. I resupply back at the village, then I head back out down the road into the west."

"I heard some of the other people in this group mention you'd lost something in the collapse. Would you mind sharing, if you feel up to it?"

He shook his head.

"It's not important to any of you. Maybe it's a person I'm looking for. Maybe it's a place, a thing, perhaps even just a state of mind. For all intents and purposes, for you and them it matters not a jot."

The teacher sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Have you always been so closed off?"

That got a chuckle from their woodsman.

"Probably. It's hard to remember, to be honest."

He smiled.

"Maybe that's what I'm looking for. Maybe I'm searching for memories. Wouldn't that be pathetic of me?"

She wasn't sure what he meant by that, but then nor did anyone else. The woodsman was strangest of all of them, the most and the least. She didn't know if even he knew what it was he was searching for in the west, but whatever it was, she hoped he'd find it one day.

If people like her stopped waylaying him by needing to be escorted to safety, of course.

"What about you?"

The man looked back at the woodsman, having not been paying real attention.

"Huh?"

"Did you lose anyone?"

The middle-aged school teacher shook his head.

"No, and I thank whatever God or Gods are up there for that."

The woodsman nodded.

"Good. That's what's important."

The other student scowled at them and moved further away. She didn't blame him particularly. To have lost all your friends then hear someone else say they hadn't lost anyone could only be described as crushing, no matter how selfish the feeling might have been. The woodsman raised his voice and turned to the rest of them.

"We'll be there in less than two hours if we keep this pace up. Then we'll set up camp and get some rest. I'll look around for some food for everyone, but there'll be no meat; any game that didn't flee these woods after the collapse is long gone."

He turned and continued walking, still shouting back to them.

"I'll have to cut up one or two of the sleeping bags so everyone has at least some shelter from the elements tonight. It'll be unpleasant but you should be used to that by now."

She sighed to herself, knowing she'd volunteer her sleeping bag for this later. The old cobbler probably would as well. Neither of them had much trouble getting to sleep, not with how tired they always were at the end of the day.

She wasn't sure how, but she'd ended up walking side-by-side with the woodsman again, the two of them engaging in conversation with what the cobbler sarcastically referred to as "boundless optimism".

"Think the others will make it to the village?"

"No idea. It isn't looking very likely, all told."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? Why not?"

He snorted.

"Out of the eight of you behind me only you and the cobbler seem to understand that we don't have the time to take breaks or wait to rest our legs for a bit. Its like none of them really understand that if they want to live, they need to push themselves."

"They are pushing themselves. We do want to live, all of us do, but not everyone has the endurance you've built up over the years."

He rolled his eyes.

"You want to live?"

He snorted again.

"Don't hold your breath. It's only been fifteen miles north up this country lane to get us to the old clearing, and half the group are already dead on their feet. Tonight we need to hope we have enough fuel to last us the night, then tomorrow its five miles to get us back on the road, and another thirty miles down the road to the village. If walking a little over fifteen miles today has done this to them, how the hell will you all keep up tomorrow? On top of that, even if we have enough of the fuel for a fire tonight, we'll have nothing left come tomorrow. You'd best hope you can all keep up, cause I don't intend to leave anyone behind."

She blinked in confusion.

"Why do you say you won't leave us behind like it's a bad thing? That means we don't need to worry about being left behind, that's good!"

He shook his head and smiled mirthlessly.

"No, it isn't. If I don't leave anyone behind, that means the group only moves as fast as the slowest member, and if the slowest member can't move fast enough to have us in the village by sundown tomorrow, then they've gotten all nine of us killed."

He turned away and looked back to the lane.

"No one wants that on their conscience."

She turned away. Two more hours of walking and she'd get some food and some rest, but for now, she would walk. Her feet ached like nothing she'd known in her life, but she walked.

She had to. There was no choice.