16 : 18

Yellow opened his now one good eye realizing that the other had been eviscerated, he could feel the wind gently blowing across the hole on the left of his face, and the blood oozing down his body. He sat up, stumbling. He turned back toward the hilltop and saw the creature in the sparkly fog yelling at others of his kind. Once again, he had come to disrupt the feeding, but while in the past he had been only a nuisance, this time he and the others that Yellow had been accustomed to feeding on had managed to kill off most of the other hunters in his pack. In fact, they had killed many from the other nests he knew of as well. Even Red had been killed, dashed effortlessly, right in front of Yellow and the others.

Yellow looked down to Brown, his sister and Red’s mate. She had always treated Yellow with such kindness, although he never knew why. Yellow had been the runt of their litter and would have died many times if Brown hadn’t fed and defended him. He had never been able to repay her. Now she was struggling to breathe as blood gushed from her broken jaw and the holes in her stomach.

Yellow looked into her eyes and saw her motion with her eyes towards the nest. He knew her meaning, but he couldn’t bear it. She stared at him, pleading for him to do as she asked. Yellow sighed, realizing he had no choice. To feed the younglings and nesters he would have to kill his only remaining friend. She was going to bleed out regardless, that was clear to Yellow. He growled, disgusted that this kill of mercy was all he could do to repay his sister. He put his face to hers, and breathed a goodbye, before snapping her neck with his teeth. Yellow slowly began to drag Brown’s body out of the valley’s edge and into the forest, in the direction of their nest.

“Without Red I am the Alpha now. I’ll have to bring Brown back as food for the nesters, and the younglings. We’ll have to merge with survivors from another nest. I’ll be lucky to survive until the next feeding, much less protect our nesters and younglings.”, thought Yellow as he slowly stumbled through the forest.

Yellow held his head low as he dreaded his future. He would have to submit to a new Alpha all over again, loose his females, and have to fight for his food and place. Yellow had always played it safe in order to survive. He never got to fully realize his plans with Red, the only Alpha that would even consider them.

“Without Red’s muscle the grand nest is doomed. No one’s going to listen to me. At least Red got to live on top, now I’ve got to struggle to survive with one eye.”, he thought in frustration.

Yellow stopped walking as he thought, “Is it really so bad to die? Could it be worse than this fate? If I was like Red, if I challenged to be Alpha of a new nest, I could have whatever I wanted. Maybe I would get killed, but if I win I could have it all.”

Yellow’s eye pierced through the forest as he found his resolve, “I’m done submitting to the others. I will become even more feared than Red and take everything I want, or I will die trying! I will lead my own pack, and we will reign supreme over the feeding ground.

Yellow thought about the last feeding when the big ones made their move and killed the shiny creature’s pack.

“We’ll wait in the forest until they strike and distract that foul creature, then we will kill his new pack.”, thought Yellow with a killer smile.

. . .

Tomita pondered what to do while Justin hysterically cried on the ground. She looked to Ono, who sighed and began to walk over to Justin. The group of red, furry aliens Tomita had seen earlier came through the small crowd. Tomita got a better look at them as one of them stopped Ono. Despite their furry arms, legs, and tails, they looked surprisingly human. They didn’t appear to be as hairy under their cloth attire and their head hair resembled human hair, but they had large cat-like ears poking through it. The one stopping Ono was red and appeared to be female based on her breasts and curves. There was also a red Male with two lever action rifles, and a pink female. The females were about four and a half feet tall, while the male was slightly over five feet.

The red female approached Justin as the male spoke to her in their language.

She turned back to him for a moment and said, “Morcant.”

The male sighed and crossed his arms as the female knelt down to Justin and pulled out her radio.

“Justin what happened to Morcant junior?”, asked the woman.

Justin didn’t look up as he whimpered, “During the last drop, we tried to save everyone like this, but he died, everybody died.”

“I see, I’m so sorry that happened to you Justin.”, said the woman, sliding her hand into the shimmering cloud surrounding him and putting it on his teary, bloody face.

“But we’re all alive. That’s what’s important now.”, said the woman reassuringly.

“No! His mother is dead now. I could have saved her, but I just sat here wasting away like I always do!”, wailed Justin.

The woman listened to him sob for a moment, and began to tear up herself as she said, “Justin, everyone here has lost someone to, but none of us know what’s going on, or what to do. So please, help us.”

Justin stopped shaking and crying, becoming very still as he said, “I’m doing it again aren’t I? I could be helping people but I’m just lying here. What’s your name?”

“Ardara Kath. This is Junior’s father and my son, Morcant and Junior’s sister Vernis.”, said the woman looking back to her family.

Justin finally looked up to Ardara, with a stare of anger and determination that seemed to cut through the world, and said, “Ardara, I’m definitely, gunna save you.”

The two stood up and Ardara walked back to her son who sighed and gave her a hug while Justin rubbed his forehead.

Justin cleared his throat and said loudly through his radio, “Alright everyone listen up, I’m sure yall’ve all noticed we’re in danger here. I will try my best to keep ya’ll alive, but I’ll need everybody to do as I say.”

“What exactly is going on here?”, interrupted Ono.

“Mm”, grunted Yoshioka in agreement.

“I will explain everything in detail on the way to the shelter. Right now, time is of the essence.”, said Justin.

Yoshioka and Morcant both growled, then made eye contact before looking back to Justin.

Justin grinded his teeth and sighed before saying, “In short people are routinely brought here every five of this worlds days just to see if and how they will survive. We were all given walkie talkies and I was made invulnerable with this Nanobot shroud, just to make things more interesting.”

“So, someone did this, and is watching us?”, asked Tomita.

Justin nodded.

“How barbaric.”, Tomita thought to herself as she heard gasps in the crowd.

“Everyone listen, we’ve got less than twelve hours of daylight left before twilight and nighttime, and believe me, we don’t want to be outside when that happens. So, first we will gather what we can from the hill and take it to the graveyard.”, said Justin pointing behind the crowd, “Then we will take what we can carry to a cave nearby and these guys will stabilize and clear out the entry way and dig tunnels.”, he said while pointing to Feverend and Sherva.

“Us?”, asked Feverend excitedly.

Justin nodded and asked, “What are ya’lls names?”

“Sherva and Feverend.”, Sherva plainly stated, “I assume the others will gather food and water during this time, yes?”

“Of course, for starters we can take some of the raptor bodies with us for food, and I have some small farms made back at the cave. Also, I will go and get some water at some point.”, said Justin.

“What about a burial?”, asked Morcant.

“I’m afraid as painful as it’s gunna be for everyone, we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to bury the dead. It’s too dangerous to stay here.”, said Justin.

“You can’t really expect me to leave my wife out there in the dirt. Is that what you did to my son?”, growled Morcant senior.

“Morcant is buried with the others. I did it the proper way that he showed me to, and you can’t expect me to let everyone stay here and get eaten by the carnosaurs. We can come back tomorrow when it is safe and when they’ve had time to rest. They can quickly dig graves for everyone and go back to the cave.”, said Justin pointing back to Feverend and Sherva.

“Carnosaurs, that’s what made that sound earlier?”, asked Yoshioka with a nervous laugh.

Justin nodded and said, “Mm, they’re the main threat on the land, during the day.”

“Still Justin-san I don’t think we can leave before burying the fallen. You said we have about eighteen hours, will that be enough time to clear and secure a cave entrance?”, Ono asked Feverend.

“Well it depends on the cave, but this is what me and Sherva do for a living, I’m sure it will probably take less than six to eight hours.”, said Feverend while rubbing against Sherva’s stalk.

“It should only take us an hour or two to gather supplies and bury the dead, how far away is this cave?”, Ono asked Justin.

“Ono you don’t understand! If the Carnosaurs come back your all toast. I can’t take all four of them on at once and ya’ll are almost out of ammo. Those things won’t come down as easily as the raptors.”, said Justin with a raised voice.

“Morcant we should think about Vernis. I know it’s hard but…”, said Ardara.

“Mom, I can’t just leave her there. I’m sorry, but I won’t do that.”, interrupted Morcant senior.

“Neither can we, it would bring us dishonor.”, said a large, scaly, lizard like man who stood with two others of his kind, one of which was holding a pistol.

“Ono-kun, don’t ask me to leave them.”, said Yoshioka.

“I won’t. Justin-san we need to stay as well.”, said Ono.

“We will go with him.”, said Sherva suddenly, looking to Justin, “I will do whatever it takes to keep Feverend alive.”

Feverend and Sherva looked at each other for a moment, before Feverend’s stalk took on a low posture, as if Feverend was upset.

“We wish to leave as well.”, said a small bug like creature that emerged from the center of the crowd.

It had five other bugs with it, they looked like a cross between a beetle and a wasp. They all varied in color and wore small pouches on their sides, below their winged backs. The one speaking was yellow and brown, and seemed to shake as it spoke. It was smaller than the other bugs, and less than half the size of the bug in the center, which looked rather swollen.

Tomita took a stock of the crowd. There were the three lizard people, a mix of greens and whites, wearing medieval looking clothes and armor, all being about seven feet tall, even though they stood in a slouched, almost quadrupedal position. The crowd also consisted of the people she had already met or heard speak, another giant weasel, this one being a swirl of browns and whites, and another group of four, red and furry aliens. In total she counted twenty-seven survivors. The other group of red aliens and William’s family Tomita had met earlier had both yet to reach a decision about whether to stay and bury the dead.

“This is bad, at this rate the group will splinter.”, thought Tomita.

“Alright!”, Justin growled, “We will quickly bury the others before leaving, but if I hear hostiles we’re moving, or I’ll distract them and tell ya’ll where to go. Is that fine with everyone?”.

The crowd appeared to come to an uneasy agreement as everyone mumbled amongst themselves.

“Alright then, everyone loot from your own kind and take what you can along with the bodies to the graveyard. After that help the others until everyone is finished and then we can pay our respects before heading out.”, said Justin before pointing to the bug people, “Tic Tac, I’ll help you and the other Ticke first so ya’ll can form an aerial perimeter around the valley, and listen, fly at around six to eight feet off the ground. Don’t fly near the ground, near the trees, or above the tree line. There’s hostile flyers in the trees, above them, and trapdoor raptors along the ground.”

“Goodness, they’re even under ground?”, thought Tomita.

“Before we get started, is anyone here injured?”, asked Ono.

“Good point.”, Justin mumbled.

Slowly the Lizard man that spoke earlier raised his bloody arm into the air.

“One of those things bit right through my chainmail and tore up my arm, but honestly I don’t know if there’s anything more that can be done. It’s torn up pretty bad, I think I might just loose the arm for now.”, he said calmly.

“Please, allow our medic to take a look at it.”, said Ono looking over to Tomita, “Tomita-chan help the injured here and then come find us.”

Tomita wanted to contest his order, but she could tell from a look on his face that she had seen before that he wasn’t going to change his mind.

“Yes sir, sergeant major.”, she sighed.

“Alright everyone let’s get to work’ in. Fev and Sherva, ya’ll don’t ware yourselves out, and save your acid.”, said Justin as he turned around.

He reached out his right arm and glanced back to Tic Tac. The bug, three feet long, and less than two feet tall and wide, took flight and grasped onto his forearm. Tomita felt shivers down her spine witnessing the creature wrap its six, pronged legs around Justin’s arm. He however, appeared completely unbothered by it, like it had happened many times before, as he and all but the two largest Ticke went down the hill.

Feverend and Sherva also left, heading towards where Tomita had found them earlier. The red aliens, which had been arguing amongst themselves during this time, seemed to reach an agreement as they left two of their own behind as well before going down the hill. The two that were left came over to Tomita, one male, and the other female.

The female smiled as she spoke, “Hello my name is Maeve, and this is my son Drustan. I was a doctor, perhaps I can lend you a hand?”

Tomita nodded to her and said, “Mm, I’m Tomita. Let’s see if there’s anything we can do about that person’s arm.”

Yoshioka put his hand on Tomita’s shoulder and nodded to her before he and Ono began to walk down the hill. The giant, white weasel finished a conversation with the other weasel before quickly approaching Ono and Yoshioka. They all spoke for a moment before walking down the hill together. Tomita, Maeve and Drustan walked over to the remaining lizard man, as the other two had walked down the hill, and began to unravel a cloth dressing from his arm as William argued with his mother.

“Momma please, let us help you.”, pleaded William.

“Dammit William, stay here with Jayda. I’m just going to move your father a little bit. I’ll let ya’ll see him again before,”, she cleared her throat and put her hand to her chest, “Before we bury him.”

“Excuse me?”, prodded the remaining weasel, “Perhaps I can help you. There isn’t anymore of my kind here for me to bury or sort through. Oh, my name is Arnaq by the way.”

“Is that so? Yes, that would be a big help, thank you. My name is Aeisha, these are my kids William and Jayda.”, said Aeisha.

“Nice to meet you, don’t worry little ones, we’ll take good care of your father.”, said Arnaq.

Jayda made a small smile and waved as Arnaq and her mother walked down the hill. William made a tsk sound and sat down near Tomita and the others. Jayda sat slightly behind him and held onto his arm. Tomita finished unraveling the cloth on the lizard man’s massive arm and saw a gruesome bite filled with broken scales and bits of his chainmail armor. She and Maeve carefully cleaned his wound with the lizard man’s water flask and some of Maeve’s rubbing alcohol as the group began talking.

“So, none of you know what’s going on here either?”, asked the Lizard man as he winced in pain.

“No, but Justin had said he’ll explain it to us.”, said Tomita as she carefully cleaned his wound.

“You’re of the same race as him, correct? So, I ask you, can we really trust that man? When he found us earlier, he punched strait into one of those creatures and killed it without taking a scratch. I saw some of those monsters tare my men almost in two with a single blow, and there’s that shiny aura surrounding him.”, he said.

“I think we should try to trust him for now.”, chimed in Maeve, “The way he was crying for Ardara’s grandson earlier really touched me. Besides is there really anything we could do against him? Ardara said that her son shot him multiple times, and he didn’t even flinch.”

“Seriously? That’s awesome! Didn’t that guy say his shroud was made of nanobots?”, asked William enthusiastically.

“Mm, I wonder just what his limits are with something like that.”, said Tomita.

“He saved Tic Tac and Isk earlier.”, said the smaller of the bug people while looking at the swollen one, “I don’t think we have a choice but to trust him for now.”

“Ah, pardon my manners, my name is Nechiss, my brother Sothe and his wife Shenner are the other survivors from my people.”, said the Lizard man.

For almost an hour, Tomita and the others exchanged names and their experience arriving at the hill as she and Maeve bandaged Nechiss’s wound with some of Maeve’s supplies. Tomita learned that she once was an army doctor and kept first aid supplies on her husband Arthfael’s ship, which her family had been traveling on. Her son Drustan seemed to be rather upset over being asked to stay behind with his mother, and Tomita thought he might be on bad terms with his father. From what she heard it sounded like Maeve’s people, the Kettans, were about to enter their industrial era, and Nechiss’s lizard people, the Lacerti, were in the medieval era. Tomita found it hard to believe but, Nechiss said that he was a knight who had just returned home after defeating a genuine, fire-breathing dragon.

The smaller bug person was named Ticker and the larger one was Isk, whom they said was their new queen and, couldn’t fly. They lived in what might resemble tribal federations from the Americas, with each nest being an individual tribe. Their language was a mix of hissing and clicking with their pinchers, although they said they could also communicate certain things with pheromones over a distance.

William seemed fascinated to learn about the other creatures and their cultures, while Jayda simply stared off into space, as if in her own world. William acted as though Jayda’s behavior was normal and told the group that he had just turned eighteen years old and that Jayda was fifteen.

The group discussed their ages of maturation and Tomita did some ruff calculations on the differences between their world’s years. The Kettans were the most similar, having around sixteen Earth years, or fifteen Tallamos years until adulthood, and living around seventy to eighty Talamos years. The Lacerti did not fully mature until about twenty-five Earth years, or twenty years on Corcodi and could live for over two hundred Corcodi years due to their regenerative abilities. In fact, Nechiss said that his entire arm should heal within just a few days.

Ticker said that her people, the Ticke, took just four Saettel years to mature and lived for around forty years, or just two Earth year and twenty Earth years respectively. Eventually Tomita and William began describing the human world to the others, and they seemed rather shocked at their technological prowess.

“I sure wish we had more of your people’s advanced weapons here Tomita.”, said Nechiss as they finished bandaging his arm.

“Mm.”, said Tomita, wondering if Ono would want her to tell everyone about the truck.

“William!”, yelled Aeisha.

Tomita and the others looked to see Aeisha, Arnaq, Sothe and Shenner walking towards them. Tomita saw everyone gathered at the graveyard behind them, with supplies and bodies.

“Come on kids, it’s time.”, said Aeisha taking William’s hand.

Jayda put her arms in the air and stared intently at her brother. William sighed and squatted down to give his sister a piggy back ride.

“Jayda, we don’t have time for that, your brother is tired.”, scolded Aeisha.

“It’s alright mom, I’ll let her down when I’m tired, ok?”, said William with a toothy grin.

Aeisha shook her head as the family began to walk down the hill with Arnaq. Arnaq got close to Jayda and smiled at her, and Jayda slowly reached out her hand, as if asking for permission to touch her. Arnaq let out a squeaky laugh and put her face onto Jayda’s hand. Tomita and the others watched Aeisha and William stop and stare in shock as this happened.

“Is everything alright?”, asked Arnaq.

“Mm, sorry, it’s just that ever since she was a little girl, she’s never let anyone but us touch her without screaming. Ya see, Jayda has what’s called autism, and it makes her act, well, different.”, said Aeisha.

“I’m sorry to hear that Aeisha, is she going to be ok?”, asked Arnaq.

“Yes, it’s just something we have to live with.”, answered Aeisha as they continued walking down the hill.

“Brother, we’ve finished gathering supplies and are ready to bury the dead. How is your arm?”, asked Sothe

“Fine work young brother, and my arm will heal without amputation thanks to these fine women hear.”, praised Nechiss.

“Women?”, questioned Sothe.

“Indeed, Maeve was once a doctor for an army, and Tomita serves in her nations military as a medic in what they call a squad.”, said Nechiss.

“Drustan, I believe we should be going now, I can see your father waving for us.”, said Maeve.

Drustan nodded with a grunt, but before everyone left Ticker and Isk approached Drustan.

“Excuse me, would you mind helping us? Isk isn’t meant to be walking that kind of distance, we would be deeply grateful if you were to carry her.”, requested Ticker.

Drustan grinned and slowly reached down both arms to pick up Isk. He lifted her into the air and raised his eyebrows at his mother.

“You’re a good man son.”, she said with a sigh while patting his head.

“Please tread carefully.”, Ticker said as she took flight.

Tomita saw Ono and Yoshioka wave to her from the graveyard as she and the others walked down the hill, with Ticker hovering above them. The graveyard was just behind the tree line and was made up of hundreds of graves, surrounded by a wooden fence. She saw Feverend and Sherva covering graves at an immense speed with their two front arms and Justin talking with the white weasel near a grave. Tomita’s group split up as they merged with the other and Tomita went to Ono and Yoshioka. Behind them, amongst the crisp fall leaves, lied two open graves and lying next to them were two bloodied bodies covered by old, dirty clothes. Tomita clenched her chest, knowing who they must be.

“Tomita-chan, sit-rep.”, instructed Ono.

“Ono-kun, you cold bastard.”, mumbled Yoshioka.

“Mm, it’s alright Yoshi-kun. Sir, I learned about the lizard men, the red people, and the bug people, or the Lacerti, Kettans, and Ticke respectively.”, answered Tomita.

Ono nodded his head and began rambling, “Good, we learned about the Ermine, the weasels, from the white male, Tiriaq, and more about Feverend and Sherva’s capabilities from them. Apparently, their people are hermaphroditic, although Sherva is the stronger of the two. Oh, did you find anything specific worth mentioning?”

“Maeve, the Kettan woman that stayed with me, was a doctor. The queen Ticke can’t fly or move on its own. The Lacerti all seem as strong as body builders, but not as strong as Justin-san. Out of all the species here I think we are the most technologically advanced, but that might make them more adapt at surviving in this wilderness than us. Um, I think that was all that was relevant.”, listed Tomita.

“Great job.”, said Ono in English before switching back to Japanese, “Feverend and Sherva’s people apparently have a hive mind that they communicate with and join upon death, however they are still less technologically advanced than ourselves. They live in underground catacombs and should be able to make us a secure shelter at the cave, also they said they can dig out the truck tomorrow and we can get the weapons and ammo. We’ll be informing the group about that shortly as well, so don’t worry if you let it slip.”

Tomita shook her head and said, “I didn’t inform the others about the truck sir.”

Ono smiled and said, “Great job.”, in English again.

“Can we get on with this Ono-kun?”, grumbled Yoshioka.

Ono grunted and nodded at Yoshioka before turning to Tomita.

“If there’s anything you’d like to say to him before the burial, now’s the time.”, said Ono.

Tomita gave Ono a nod and walked over to the body on the left as Ono made a gesture to it. She knelt down and put her face unto the clothes covering Nagataka. Finally, she let the grief overwhelm her again as she began to quietly sob. She wrapped her arms around him and put her head to his chest, feeling the torn flesh through the cloth. She opened her eyes and was greeted with a small patch of white flowers glancing up to her. The sunlight glistened off them as a butterfly walked across them. It took flight and disappeared into the swaying autumn canopy.

“I love you so much Naga-kun, I’m truly lost without you. I’m sorry I wasted so much of our precious time together. I thought I was all alone in that cruel world when you were just waiting to be at my side, and now I’m truly alone again in a far darker place. Don’t worry about me though, I know you’re watching over me. I still have Ono-kun and Yoshi-kun, and our baby. I promise I’ll won’t let her become afraid and miserable like me, I’ll make her strong. Here I go getting ahead of myself like always, assuming it’s gender so soon. I wish I could join you and Mama and Papa, but I must stay here and take care of our baby, Naga-kun. One day I promise I’ll find you again, until then, I’ll be missing you, my sunshine.”, Tomita thought as she wept on his corpse.

“Ito-chan, I’m sorry I didn’t let you ride shotgun. I promise I’ll find who did this to you.”, said Yoshioka nearby, standing over Masato’s body.

“I’m so sorry, I wish so desperately that I’d have saved them.”, said Justin.

Tomita looked up to see that Justin, Tiriaq, Feverend, and Sherva had joined them. Tiriaq bowed his head to the ground as their eyes met.

“Don’t you go making this about you, asshole.”, growled Yoshioka.

“Yoshi-kun.”, scolded Ono.

“It’s fine Ono. Just remember Yoshi, you’re not the only one who’s had to burry friends at this hill.”, said Justin.

“Oi, I’ve known my friends here for years. How much can you really care about someone you’ve only known for a few days?”, angrily asked Yoshioka.

Justin remained silent for a moment, before looking Yoshioka dead in the eye and saying in a cracked voice, “Enough to wish you could have died in their stead.”

Yoshioka sighed and leapt into the grave near him before he and Ono gently lowered Masato’s body inside, Yoshioka stopped and grabbed Masato’s dog tags before they got out of the grave. Tomita uncovered Nagataka’s forehead and kissed it before standing up and walking over to Justin and Tiriaq as Ono and Yoshioka moved his body as well. Ono saluted them and said a prayer while everyone lowered their heads. Feverend and Sherva quickly covered the graves and Ono and Yoshioka put crosses they had made from twigs at the forest’s edge at the heads of the graves, before patting down the loose soil.

Justin lead the group as they walked over to the Kettans. Their graves were far more spread out than the others and the Kettans were all surrounding a single grave with a carved stone in front of a freshly growing tree sapling. There was another grave nearby that seemed freshly buried, aside from that there were two more with stone headstones, and many unmarked graves with saplings growing from them. Maeve held her daughter’s hand, whom she had told Tomita was named Deirdre, and smiled at Tomita as they approached them. Tomita noticed some of the other survivors joining them as well as they arrived at the grave.

“This is him, yes?”, Morcant senior asked Justin.

“Yes.”, said Justin.

“What does it say?”, Morcant senior asked, referencing the English engraving on the headstone.

“Morcant.”, said Justin.

“Hm, is that so?”, said Morcant senior, letting is voice trail off.

“Sorry, he didn’t teach me how to spell in your language.”, said Justin apologetically.

“That’s alright, I’m sure we can come back sometime and write his name in above this one.”, chimed in Ardara with a broken smile.

“How did it happen?”, asked Morcant senior suddenly in a louder tone.

“During the second drop, the carnosaurs attacked and we were surrounded. I was able to damage the one that bit him and get away with his body, but he died from his injuries.”, said Justin hanging his head down.

“He died trying to save others? That doesn’t sound anything like the son I knew.”, said Morcant senior.

“I couldn’t imagine him doing anything else. From the moment I met him, to every moment I spent with him, he was the strongest person I’ve met.”, said Justin.

“Strong?”, questioned Morcant senior, “The boy I knew was weak. He always shied away from a fight, he abandoned his duty.”

With teary eyes Justin said, “He told me that this was a fight actually worth dying for.”

That seemed to strike Morcant senior hard as he knelt down over his son’s grave and let the tears escape from his eyes.

“That’s why I couldn’t honor your request earlier Senior. Until everyone I save with these blades is feasting off the corpses of those monsters, I have to bear them as I carry this burden with me. When I’ve made this valley safe for all those who find themselves here, I’ll give them back to you, and then I’ll find the spaceport and conquer this hell.”, Justin angrily whimpered.

“That had damn well better be soon.”, said Morcant senior as he shot Justin a deadly glare.

“Spaceport?”, questioned Ono.

“Mm, that’s where I have to go.”, said Justin.

“I think it’s about time you inform everyone as to what exactly is going on here Justin-san.”, said Ono.

“Alright, let’s gather the supplies and start walking and I’ll tell you everything, it’s quite a long story.”, Justin instructed to the group.

“Speaking of revealing things, and in the interest of raising everyone’s spirits, we have something to say.”, said Ono.

He cleared his throat and continued, “My group was transporting, with what’s called a truck, dozens of crates worth of rifles and ammo like the ones we’re carrying. When we arrived here we found that truck, buried under us. Tomorrow after the shelter is secured, we can come back here and unearth it. Hopefully the weapons and ammo will still be there, and we can have a fighting chance against the monsters that roam this world.”

Tomita saw the general spirit of the group improve as they went about gathering packs of supplies and several raptor bodies. They loaded Tiriaq and Arnaq to the brim with their side packs, and Isk rode on Arnaq’s back. Tomita ended up carrying a backpack on her back and one in her arms, since she was out of ammo in her rifle anyway. The group formed a small formation with Justin taking the lead, while Ono and Yoshioka held the flanks with Nechiss, Morcant, Sothe, and Maeve’s husband, Arthfael. William, Drustan and Tomita held the rear with the groups two pistols. The rest of the group shifted about awkwardly in the center as the carried and dragged the supplies. They followed a path of twigs Justin had made prior as they crunched on dead leaves and a grassy undergrowth. She let her eyes wonder on the small creatures and large insects that darted throughout the treetops.

“Oi, out with it cloud boy.”, spat Yoshioka without stopping.

Justin sighed, “Alright, where to start? Like all of you I was transported here, but this wasn’t the first place for me. The black sphere surrounding most of the sun, it’s called…”