"The bear talks. It actually talks." Marco mumbles before Archie clamps a hand over the knight commander's mouth.

"Keep quiet. Or it will hear us." Archie whispers urgently, his eyes probing the darkness for a way to escape.

No dice though. The moment he and Marco broke cover, Xir would be able to see them. As the fog clears, the sad remnants of the pursuit team stare spellbound at the shredded patty that was once King Edward, the jewelry the man was so fond of sparkling in between the bloody gristle. Corpses are scattered all over the ground and the cloying stench of death had become overwhelming. This wasn't a battle. It was a massacre. Without any hesitation, the survivors drop their weapons and raise their arms in supplication, begging for Xir's mercy.

"GOOD. THE MEAT FINALLY UNDERSTANDS." the bear growls from its muzzle, drawing a whimper from the crowd before it. The Immune woman folds herself into a fetal position, using her body to shield the baby from the horrors taking place.

"Have we gone insane?" Marco asks desperately, his worldview being washed away like a sandcastle.

"I don't think so. Not yet at least." Archie hisses back, groping the pallets of cash under his clothes for reassurance. If it really came down to it, could he survive long enough against Xir to escape? Probably not. Dead presidents never fared well against the terrors from beyond the wall.

The bear's form begins to twist, shedding fur and revealing a ragged set of clothes underneath. Its body shrinks to human proportions, arms and legs growing out of the bear's stubby limbs. A human head pops out of the bear's neck, bearing a mane of rainbow colored hair. With a noise sounding like the ripping of fabric, the human hands peel away the remnants of the ursine pelt like a bathrobe, revealing a gangly man standing within. But there's one thing that never changed.

Those inhuman yellow eyes, gleaming with palpable greed at the Immune woman and her baby. The beast's face cracks a leering grin as it addresses the crowd once more.

"Behold the perfect being, neither man nor woman." Xir pronounces, dramatically throwing the spent bear hide to the side. Deathly silence greets this declaration.

"Did we die in the siege and go to hell?" Marco despairingly asks Archie in their hiding spot.

"I think we've been in hell this whole time." Archie mutters back, trying to restrain the near primal terror gripping him.

"Oh Jesus, Jesus." Marco stifles a sob and tears begin running down his cheeks. As Archie fights back the overwhelming fear, he idly notes that Claire is nowhere within the crowd. Pity. It would have been amusing to witness her freak out at the revelation that a rainbow haired abomination was the perfect being she had been worshiping all this time.

"I have come for the woman and child marked by the virus." Xir demands, "Bring them before me."

And with that command, the crowd parts, revealing the Immune woman lying crouched in the middle of the clearing all by herself. Her baby cries in protest at the fracas, unaware of how dire their situation had become. Xir stalks up to the pair, licking its lips in anticipation.

"Closing your eyes won't make me disappear, woman." Xir sneers as it lifts the Immune woman up painfully by her hair, "Great Xir is your reality from now on."

"Wh ... what do you want?" the Immune woman stutters, forcing the words out, "I'll never help you. Not after what happened to Jack."

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"Your husband?" Xir laughs mercilessly, "No one cared about him. Nobody came to help after he died, correct? Even the boy you put your faith in abandoned you."

"Danny didn't abandon me." the Immune woman insists between sobs, "He said we would meet again!"

"That brat was running away!" Xir sneers, "Its what he does best. And that's why you're here right now. With Great Xir."

"Lies." the Immune woman shouts, "You lie! You did something to Danny! Admit it!"

"What of it?" Xir chuckles as a forked tongue emerges from its mouth, tracing its way down the Immune woman's shoulder, "It changes nothing. You will give me what I want."

"I won't ..." the Immune woman protests but she abruptly screams as Xir bites down on her shoulder, drawing blood.

"Oh fuck ..." Marco moans, "We're fucked. All of us are fucked. How are we supposed to deal with that?"

Archie was about to say 'just shoot Xir enough times' but stopped himself. Xir had clearly grown stronger in the intervening decades. Archie had no idea how the beast managed it, but its host body could now resist multiple volleys of gunfire without breaking a sweat. Archie even suspected that Xir had become outright immune to any mundane weapon.

"Your blood is not pure enough." Xir rasps as its tongue retracts, "It will serve as a building block of this world's new paradise, but nothing more. For the foundation, Great Xir needs ..."

"No!" the Immune woman cries as she clutches her baby with all her might.

"Give it to me, woman!" Xir snarls as it grabs at the baby with a free hand.

Archie shudders in sick anticipation, morbidly curious about what Xir intends to do with the baby. Eat it? Absorb it? And what's this about a paradise? When suddenly the harsh bark of a shotgun pierces the silence. Xir's head is snapped forward and as the beast struggles to keep its balance, its grip on the Immune woman loosens, allowing her to scramble away to relative safety. Xir pays the woman no heed, confident in its ability to capture her again. The beast instead whirls about to confront whomever launched that attack.

"Who dares?" Xir shouts in fury.

A single man stands in the darkness, clad in T-shirt and jeans, a double barreled shotgun in his hands. The man lets the shotgun drop to the ground with a clatter, apparently satisfied that he has the beast's attention. Xir howls, sending a shock wave across the clearing, causing everyone to cower impotently. Everyone except the man, who simply starts walking towards Xir.

And laughing at the top of his voice.

At first the laugh is a tiny sound, a single voice in the darkness. But then it is joined by the laughter of another. And another. Until there must be thousands of voices laughing alongside the man. But strangest of all, is that all the voices are perfectly in sync with each other. Thousands of people, laughing in unison.

"Look!" Archie says, pointing to the treeline where the man had appeared.

More and more people start drifting out of the darkness, laughing along with the man. And as they begin to draw closer, Archie notices what they all share in common. Bloodshot eyes. Mucus stained faces. And the trademark unhealthy wheezing of someone down with the coof.

"The Herd." Marco groans in pure defeat.

And the Herd speaks in a single voice to the Great Xir.

"I DaRe."