There were some close calls after our fiasco last night. Abigail caught us with our hands up and our pants down quite literally. She both checked us again and I asked "Are we also gonna be able to check you ladies again too?"

"No," Abigail said with a flat expression. "Hey! It's unfair for us to be checked and we don't get to check you ladies you know! It's inequality I tell yah!" I argued. Bennie just shook his head and ushered me to hurry.

Bennie and I then proceeded to have shifts through the night to make sure one was watching all the time. Amber insisted on being included but she relented when I said that we need her to heal as fast as possible because out of all of us, she only has the proper military experience. Which could mean life and death out there.

Ben then proceeded to go to sleep first, in the room opposite the ladies sadly. It was cramped if we were gonna get in the same room as them. I kept watch for a couple of hours through the window. I kept wondering where to go next. I was tempted to charge my phone earlier but Bennie slapped my head and asked "With what exactly?" I realized we didn't have chargers on us. The motel didn't have chargers also so it's a bust. We agreed that turning on the generator for long will only end up luring more unclean too. We could go to the nearby port city. Which was the next destination after the border town but if it was bad in the border town, I can't even imagine how bad it would be for a port city. By looking at how the bikers yesterday looked. I guess wherever they went. they encountered the unclean too.

After watching a few stragglers of unclean pass by near us, I looked at the watch. 2 more hours. These unclean are too unpredictable. They stop for a few minutes then continue in a random direction. If they acquire better hearing then we are all fucked. Even farting and snoring would be lethal. They don't tire, they don't sleep and they don't stop. Killing one is easy but once you do, you better expect there is a swarm nearby. It's not worth killing them unless it's absolutely necessary and they are starting to stink as fuck! As I observed, if there is no certain stimulus to the unclean they seem to stop and become inactive but after a while, they start to move again.

I'm not a medical student but I'm pretty sure something is making the dead bodies move. The brain obviously, but I just don't know what. Not my particular field anyway. But hey, I'll take any advantages I can get. They seem to be more active in the night. The intervals of movement are quite often during the night too, compared to what we observed in the parking lot earlier in the day. I felt a soft tap on my shoulder. As I looked back it was Bennie. Was it two hours already? Damn, thinking about the behavior of the unclean was fascinating.

I went to sleep, relaxed, and thought Bennie had my back.

~~~~~~~~

In a certain manor in an undisclosed location. A woman in a stylish white coat in her late 40s sat in a decorated chippered chair, in front of a medieval age style fireplace.

Without any accompanying lights, only the fire provides a natural light source to the room. Scattered all around a lacquered table and shelves were books of old, anecdotes of famous historians, and records of all kinds of artists, musicians, and politicians of all ages laid strewn about.

"Would you like anything more madam?" A butler asked. "I'm quite alright Matthew. Thank you," she uttered. The butler bowed and exited the room.

She picked up a modern recorder and pressed record.

"My name is *redacted*, a member of the Web of Intrigues. My family has been burdened to be protectors of humanity for generations. To what exactly you might say. Protectors against itself." she paused,

"Human extinction is in itself the result of humanity's own inevitable end. My family has been plagued by this problem for centuries. Ever since the dawn of empires, all the results only end with humanity's assured annihilation, which will be caused by itself. I have always believed in our creed.

"To humanity, it's own."

"It's a creed that reminds us that unless humanity unites to a common purpose, its end will always be, extinction. And so the Web of Intrigues started its crusade. To save humanity from itself."

"The Web was embedded in different major countries and nudges them in certain directions to achieve balance. Albeit a fragile one. This has been repeated again and again and again for centuries, by the Web."

"But alas, humankind can never be a monolith. For as long as there is a difference in any way. A set of values that is different from another, there will always be conflict, and at the end of that conflict? Extinction."

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"So what did the Web say should be done to ensure humankind survives?"

"Dialogue? Pointless. Through conflict? It defeats the purpose. They never found the solution until me that is.."

".. and I only found one answer."

"A common enemy." she takes a sip of the wine and looks at it with a glint in her eyes,

"Not just any enemy," She continued "The original members were plagued about what could this enemy be. Disease? They can be cured. Hunger? They can be supplemented. Through conflict? They will end sooner or later and the cycle will begin anew."

"Humanity needs a constant and ever-existing threat, an absolute variable that exists to make humanity think twice of ever tearing itself to oblivion. That, on the occasion they don't decide to unite, all of us will cease to be. The Bubonic plague was a good example, as the crusade, and the wars. But they always end up short."

"Only a few shared my vision even inside the Web of Intrigue. Most of my colleagues were consumed by their own greed, self-interest, and the power of control. Only 3 of us were looking at the bigger picture. 3 genuine strings amongst the web of lies."

"Sooner or later humanity's instinct of greed, power or jealousy would fester into our web. It is already showing signs even now. Those pigs!" she screamed as she threw the glass of wine across the room.

"Only thinking about money and power after I found the solution the entire web was set upon!" she screamed heaving.

She calmed down. "No matter, where was I oh yes, That .. is when I encountered IT." she smiled with satisfaction,

"The missing puzzle piece, maybe it was fate that I was the one who found it. My raison d'etre." she stood up and spread her arms.

"No one will say that I was a hero, but rather a murderer, the one who committed mass murder and genocide. But my vision is to restart humanity anew. Not with a selective few but those who had the will to survive."

"No rich, no poor. But only survivors. It's up to them to craft the new world. It may end up on the extinction of the human race again but it will give them a chance to restart."

"Overpopulation may become a problem, differences in religion will cause wars, power will cause imbalance, greed will corrupt."

"But in the end," with a dark smile, she sat down again. Prim and proper.

"Those who will be left will be united by a common enemy. The enemy I would like to call the risen ones."

"Even if they managed to overcome this, Humanity will never be the same again," she said as she filled the spare glass with wine.

"An enemy that defies death. An enemy granted immortality!" she moved the recorder closer to her lips and grinned again.

"... and the bulwark of this enemy, the pinnacle of my creation. The demons, ......"

"....MY demons." she lifted her chin proudly.

"The die is cast, it's humanity's move now," she said with a laugh as she sipped the wine in her hands.

~~~~~~

Day 5 4:15 AM

We were driving towards the port town, thinking that it was better than staying in that motel out of fear of being found out by those bikers. That motel was designed to be a trap. A false sense of a secured place. Then if the bikers later found you. You know what I mean. I'm too scared to think what they did to the women and children based on the corpses that were lying around and the man that was dragged through chains.

"If only we can find somewhere abandoned but functional." Bennie muttered "Then we don't have to go through the port city with unknown variables." he added. "Yeah," I agreed. Those movies and books were a scam. All of them. For normal people like us. Nowhere is safe. A bunker? Where would that be? In a jungle? For how long? Boats? It's a prison in the sea. In the city? Humans will be more dangerous than the unclean there. Now that law and order is gone and possibly anarchy followed. I don't think I can sleep well at night.

We're not even preppers. We didn't expect this kind of apocalypse would happen. Nuclear? Maybe. Asteroid? Eh, maybe that too. But this? We thought this would only exist in movies! Unless we make it somewhere and make it safe. Away from all of this. Abandoned and functional. Wait... Abandoned BUT functional.

My eyes widened and I looked at Bennie. "What's up," Bennie asked. I smiled and laughed "Bennie! you're a fucking genius!" I exclaimed.