Mask of Humanity

‘Hey! Hey!’ John raised his arms, ending the argument before Nicolai could share his views, which was probably for the best. ‘Enough. There’s no point in all this arguing. Come on people, we’re not on earth, now, are we? We’re surviving day-to-day, so what does any of that matter?’

‘Yeah, what does it matter?’ Karl smirked at Ben, apparently considering himself to have won the argument.

‘Ben is right about one thing at least,’ said Cait, glaring at Karl. ‘We ought to try and act with some decency.’

Nicolai observed as Karl looked around, the man frowning at the glares coming his way. Karl’s expression firmed at first, then he noted Elena’s sour visage and there was a brief tangle of guilt which Nicolai felt through his Soul Sense. ‘That’s fair,’ said Karl quickly. ‘If that’s what he meant, I’m on-board with that.’

‘I just think we all ought to try and get along,’ muttered Perro into the silence.

‘Exactly,’ said Ben.

‘The boy’s right.’ Karl nodded.

‘Well said.’ John smiled at Perro.

Nicolai wanted to laugh. He wasn’t entirely sure why. He managed to wrestle the urge down. The more he learned of these people, the more it became clear that they were only here, together, because there was no choice. They needed one another to survive. It was a wonder they’d lived so long, in his honest opinion. In fact, how had any of them even survived the Trials?

‘How did you all survive the Trials?’ he spoke, surprising them and surprising himself. His inside voice had gone loud, driven by curiosity, and something else. His Mask avoided his mental gaze.

‘The beginning of all this?’ asked Cait.

‘Yes, the Trials.’ Strangely, she didn’t seem to immediately recognise that. They all looked a little confused. How could anyone forget the Trials?

‘It’s different for everyone,’ said John. ‘For me and Azure, we went through somewhere called the Meadow. Weird place.’

‘I liked it,’ said Azure, smiling. ‘It was peaceful. Mostly.’

‘Peaceful?’ Nicolai all but spat the word, a memory of burning air and treacherous water ambushing him from the depths of his mind, then he laughed. ‘Sounds nice,’ he said in response to their confused gazes. ‘The Trials I went through were not peaceful. You were in it together?’

‘We both joined at the same time.’ John sighed. ‘I told her not to accept the invitation, but of course she did.’

Azure grinned at her father.

‘I had to fight,’ said Cait. ‘It was called the Arena, for me. Had to survive against these monsters.’ Her gaze darkened. ‘It wasn’t pleasant.’

‘It was the same for me,’ said Karl. ‘The Arena.’ He smirked. ‘It wasn’t so bad.’

‘I just had to talk to this… being.’ Old Ben shrugged. ‘It asked me what I wanted. All kinds of questions.’

Nicolai frowned at all of them. There must be some underlying logic Heaven was applying when it filtered people into these different starting experiences. Ben’s sounded the easiest. Because he’s old? Then John and Azure in the Meadow, which sounded similarly easy though there’d been an odd look in John’s eyes when he spoke on it. Maybe because they were together, father and daughter? He snorted gently. Who knows? Little point thinking on it. Time’s wasting.

Perro spoke before he could. ‘What about you?’ asked the boy, ‘what did you go through?’

‘I went through three Trials. Each of them was difficult, in their own way.’ Perro looked about to ask a followup question but Nicolai had things to do so spoke quickly. ‘I’m going to see if the other two are up and awake,’ he announced, rising and stepping towards Jo and Beth’s chosen room, then pausing and looking back. ‘I expect you to be kind,’ he said.

‘I have no problem with either of them,’ said Elena, shrugging, while Perro, Azure, Cait and even John nodded. Nicolai could see that most of the others were more conflicted.

‘Good. For those who do, remember that this is their home which they have allowed you into, so keep whatever you may feel to yourself.’ Nicolai smiled without humour and knocked on the door.

He could feel them on the other side, his Soul Sense interacting amorphously with Beth’s. She was still worried after last night. He pushed mental reassurances at her. She wasn’t buying it. He was always at his most controlled in the morning, after completing his routine, and he tried to show her that side of him through their connection.

The door opened, revealing Jo, and Beth behind her. She looked past him, eyeing all the others.

‘How are you doing?’ he asked.

She didn’t reply, busy frowning distrustfully at the rest. Glancing back, he saw them looking back her with similar distrust. Looking at the girls again he noticed that, for whatever reason, Beth had a bunch of plasters stuck to her hands.

‘You all met Beth,’ said Nicolai, deciding to move things along. ‘This is Jo. We’re all friends, now,’ he added, a statement that had little effect on the grim faces, the wary frowns and tight lips.

‘Hello,’ said John, breaking the silence.

‘Hi,’ Jo grunted.

‘The sniper,’ said Cait, wary and watchful.

‘The sniper,’ Karl echoed with a snort, arms crossed.

Nicolai tugged Jo by the arm and jostled her along toward the middle of the room, eager to get things going. Beth trailed behind. He could feel her eyes digging into his back, her Soul Sense hovering protectively around her sister. There was a vague sense of heat to her, which suggested to him that she’d successfully broken in the Crawling-Fire Centipede.

There came an awkward moment then everyone grudgingly greeted Jo, or at least most of them did, while saying their hello’s to Beth with slightly more enthusiasm.

Nicolai waited until Jo was looking towards him then raised his eyebrows meaningfully, hoping she would understand.

She frowned back at him, confused.

He raised a hand to scratch at the side of his face, blocking it from the others view, and mouthed trade link at her.

Her eyes widened then she cleared her throat and looked at the rest of them, her expression growing focused. ‘I am going to the Trade Link,’ she announced loudly. Her eyes flicked back to Nicolai to check if she was doing it right.

She was not doing it right. Nicolai restrained an eyeroll, instead checking the others’ faces and mimicking their interested expressions.

‘But none of you can come with me,’ Jo continued robotically. ‘Because I only trust Beth. And Nicolai. Uh.’ She chewed her lip. ‘They can come with me. But not the rest of you.’ She looked at Nicolai again, and the expression on her face communicated: what do I say now?

He wanted to put his face into his hands.

‘You know where the Trade Link is?’ asked John at the same time as a still-suspicious looking Cait said, ‘I thought only the Chosen could get to the Trade Link.’

‘This is…’ Jo frowned, obviously trying to remember what Nicolai had asked her to say in response to that particular question. He was realising with some dismay that though she was competent in many areas, acting was not one of them. ‘Uh. It’s different. A different Trade Link. I found it.’

‘So, what, you don’t trust us?’ asked Elena, apparently upset.

This pulled Jo out of her terrible performance, the words prompting her to shoot Elena a look that said obviously not.

‘I trust him,’ Jo said, pointing at Nicolai. ‘Because of our earlier… interaction.’

‘What was—‘ Elena began to ask but Nicolai spoke quickly over her.

‘What can we buy at the Trade Link?’ He’d asked yesterday, of course, but there was a purpose to this interaction and he wanted to achieve it quickly, and move past Jo’s terrible acting. Ensuring the others understood that they needed things from the Trade Link was one part of it. His Mask had convinced him not to simply seize their points-tags, so he had to resort to a more roundabout method.

‘Lots,’ said Jo, and received a barrage of expectant stares. Nicolai saw her wither under them, blinking, and more words were pulled out of her. ‘Guns. Clothes. Food. Supplies. Pretty much anything.’

‘Hmmm.’ Nicolai nodded thoughtfully. ‘How much does a gun cost?’

‘Depends. Hundreds of points, though, all of them.’

‘Alright, give me a moment and I’ll be ready to go. Lots to do today, it’ll be nice to buy the things we need.’ Nicolai flashed a smile around.

Now, he wanted the others to give him their points-tags, so he could work as the go-between. But he didn’t want to suggest that himself. He was hoping that after the information he’d just broadcast to the other sunk in, he wouldn’t need to.

He’d just bustled in and out of his room, collecting what he needed, when John approached.

‘We need food and weapons,’ said the man.

Nicolai nodded seriously. ‘I’ll see what I do, but there’s stuff I need, too, and I don’t have that many points-tags.’

‘If I provide you points-tags, will you get everything we need?’ John asked.

Nicolai straightened up, adopting a thoughtful facade. ‘Of course, that’s a good point.’ He nodded again. ‘Not sure I can carry it all, but I’m willing to do multiple trips.’

John leaned closer. ‘Once you know where it is…’ His eyes shot left and right, checking who was near to them.

Nicolai immediately knew what the man was going to suggest. Then you can tell us, and Jo’s opinion doesn’t matter.

Nicolai shook his head, twisting his face into an expression of dismay. He spoke in a hushed tone. ‘I can’t. I made a promise to her, and I stick to my promises.’ He put a little emphasis on that, aiming to remind the man of the time John had not stuck to his promise regarding the band. This was an indirect way of saying: I am a better human than you. ‘I think if you guys just wait a bit, wait until everyone has gotten to know one another better, and keep a lid on Karl, she’ll be willing to share. In time.’

John sighed, straightening up. ‘I understand. I’ll see how many tags we can dig up.’

About five minutes later, Nicolai left the safe room and headed down the stairs weighed down not only with what John had said was half of the groups points-tags, plus his own tags, but also with the groups hopes for equipment and supplies. Almost all of them had requested something or other in specific.

He was fully equipped. The shimmer poncho was quite low on charge, but higher than it had been the last time he used it. He’d put it on the safe place’s tower top roof the night before so it had charged a little in the morning, but it would need a full day up there to get back to full.

Still, it had enough that he opted to take it with him despite the low charge. Even just a few minutes of near-invisibility could be very helpful on the travel to the Trade Link, and he was too eager to go and investigate it to wait around for the poncho to charge to full.

Nicolai had returned to Jo her sniper, serviced and ready to go. She’d warned him she only had six rounds left. Both her and Beth wore a combination of earth-style techno-camouflage, effectively urban camouflage but with some colour-shifting patterns layered throughout that would automatically change depending on surroundings to help them better blend in. They wore a mish-mash of random bits of armour looted from undead atop this, and a modern machete of carbon steel hung from Jo’s hip. Jo’s drone zipped up and around in the air above them, then out through the crack to check their route.

Nicolai imagined that this was the first of many such trips with just himself and these two. It would be a little while longer until he was able to usurp John’s leadership of the group and start to make more serious use of the others. In the meantime, these two would be his primary backup, a role he believed they were well suited for.

He called out as they moved through the picture room, the picture itself blessedly quiet, and the other two paused. ‘Before we head out, let me see your maps.’

After explaining to Jo and Beth how to share, their maps became visible, floating over their Marks. He looked them over carefully. Beth’s was significantly less filled out than her sisters, so he focused on Jo’s, though noted once again that Beth appeared to have injured herself.

‘Why are you wearing those?’ he asked, looking at the plasters on her hands.

‘That bloody thing burned me,’ she muttered. ‘The centipede. I got it though,’ she added, satisfied.

‘This is the Trade Link,’ Jo said, drawing his attention back to her map. ‘We have to go over the top of the castle, it’s covered with this like, overgrown garden. There’s a little hole with a ladder hidden in the middle of it all, here. We go down the ladder, travel down this tunnel and over a bridge that spans a chasm, and it’s there.’

‘Anything else of note?’

‘I think this is the entrance to the Chosen’s place,’ she said, pointing to an area on the opposite side of the Trade Link from her own entrance to it, which he assumed approached it from the other side. It matched up with the location he knew of as their base, confirming it. ‘This is the Radio tower, this is the Kill Me tower,’ she added, pointing out two spots near to what she’d called an overgrown garden.

‘Kill Me tower?’ This was a place he was interested in, having heard of the tower a few times in the past on the Radio. However, no one had gone into detail on it, simply using it as a landmark.

‘There’s something up there, you can hear it yelling when you’re close. All it says is “kill me, kill me,” so people call it the Kill Me tower.’

Nicolai blinked at her, momentarily taken aback. ‘Weird,’ he managed, then pulled his mind back on track. ‘You ever see people in the garden?’

‘Now and then, in groups and singly. There are animals there, I’ve seen people hunting them.’

‘Ever been spotted by these people?’

‘Not so far as I know.’ She shrugged. ‘I covered the ladder up, too, it’s well hidden. No one’s found the Trade Link yet.’

They moved out, Jo taking the lead to show him and Beth the way. She led them down hallways, up stairwells, across bridges, through series of rooms. Their drone and Soul Senses moved ahead, warning them of occasional patrols of undead, which they avoided.

In due time they emerged from a stairwell up into sunlight and greenery, Jo pausing to give them time to look around.

Nicolai was surrounded by leafy trees, scraggly clumps of grass and brushes, all emerging from soil that carpeted the ground. It was dense and humid, sunlight squeezing through gaps in the leafs to throw lances of light down, and there was a continuous hum of insects spotted with the chirp and whistles of birds and animals. He knelt beside a tree, examining where it emerged, seeing stone cracked and pushed aside. His Soul Sense pressed close and pierced through the thin layer of soil to find stone beneath. ‘Strange,’ he muttered, pressing at the crack in the stone.

‘What’s that?’ asked Jo.

‘How do you think these things grew here, originally? There is soil now, but that must have come from years of plant matter falling and decaying. I doubt there was soil here to begin with. It doesn’t make sense. Unless someone placed soil and seeds here?’

‘Does anything make sense?’ came Beth’s cheery voice from where she’d pressed forward a few metres into the jungle. From where his Soul Sense brushed hers, Nicolai could feel her joy and excitement, presumably because she was finally out and about, free from the confines of her room and her illness.

‘Beth!’ hissed Jo. ‘Get back over here. Don’t stray. It’s not safe.’

‘Yes mother,’ Beth singsonged, skipping back over and performing a sudden spinning pirouette, ending with arms spread wide, grinning. ‘It’s so nice to move, my body feels so clean and fresh and smooth! Ever since I integrated my Seed, I feel better than ever!’

‘That’s great, but stick close, okay?’ Jo said. She was holding her rifle tight against her and peering through the dense greenery.

Nicolai moved over to join her, his Soul Sense searching out and finding only plants. But these plants pricked at him, arousing his interest.

He could feel their vitality, their hunger for sunlight and nutrients, the silent and endless war they were raging as they competed to rise upwards and spread, to cut off their rivals and claim all the light for themselves, while below their roots twined and writhed. There were some nutrients, sort of, in the stone. His Soul Sense pressed deeper, investigating more closely.

‘Hey.’ A hand waved in front of his face and he snapped back to reality, seeing Jo staring at him.

‘This isn’t a time to lose focus,’ she said.

‘Right.’ He blinked, his paranoia frowning at him, his Mask embarrassed. ‘You’re right. Thank you. Which way is it?’

‘We trek for about half a mile that way,’ she said, gesturing to a place where he saw someone, presumably her, had hacked a route through the undergrowth.

‘Let’s go, then,’ said Nicolai, and put his words into action.

It was easy going because Jo had clearly been along this path quite a few times, the earth trod, plants hacked out the way. That wasn’t a good thing, in his opinion, but he opted to withhold judgement until they reached the Trade Link.

After some time, Nicolai bade them all to stop because his Soul Sense had found a group of animals, spotting them from afar. He gently pushed a bushes leafy branch out the way, peering through the gap to see a group of about a dozen creatures which very much resembled deer standing in a clearing some distance away.

They had brownish-red fur, little fluffy tails, petite snouts, large ears and eyes. The majority had their heads bent to the grass, biting and chewing, but amongst them was one significantly larger deer with a great rack of white-yellow horns and a mane-like tuft of fur around its neck. Its head was raised high and proud, ears perked, watching out for any threats.