Perceived Fate

With a scrap piece of cloth, Malum pulled it around a particularly nasty cut on his leg. It wasn’t deep but the pain was starting to drive Malum mad.

The person who came out with the least injuries was Jake and he was using his healthy body to nurse the rest of the team back to health.

Bruises were common, muscle strain even moreso. Whether it be arms, or legs both looked like they had been tortured of everything it had.

Malum watched as everyone around, the people he cared out most wept from their injuries. Having the cloth being pulled as tight as possible around the wound made even a grown man cry.

The sky was cloudy over the dirt desert. The fires had long become the only sources of light and Malums group huddled around the shack.

He could hear Tim’s group. With Trout using a torch to lure beasts as Tim stayed around the 12 corners. Agatha was somewhere, in the abyss of darkness. Occasionally an arrow would find it’s way on demon.

This was the safest she ever was, demons mainly relief on sight just liked humans and other senses were easy to mask.

The bow being a target wasn’t so much of an issue at night when that target was hidden so well. Seeing it be used to it’s maximum potential, Malum had to admit that this group was on a different league of efficiency and skill.

Malum had tried to kill the beasts quickly but desire never quite matched reality. He would end up cutting to shallow, or not getting the angle right leading to barely cutting the beast in the first place. He had to do better.

Sadly, he needed to rest now. Overwork wouldn’t do him any good so he sucked it up for when he woke up.

Jake couldn’t sleep, and neither could Jerome.

Alicia, Gerald and Malum all managed to doze off but the two never managed to catch any sleep. At some point they gave up and instead decided to talk.

The sounds of beasts fighting behind them soon became white noise as they began to chatter.

“You really do tend to copy Malum don’t you.” Jake wandered sometimes why he looked up so much to Malum. In Jake’s eyes Malum was too ambitious, it would end with him achieving whatever goal he wanted or he would die trying. Why would somebody want to copy that?

Jerome looked at Jake, “Have you always felt that their was meaning for your life?” He let Jake think before he continued, “When I was younger I had several siblings. Our family was always about results and it was why we were successful.

The family house was large, the vault had several golds locked inside and the business we ran was doing well.”

Jerome looked away, towards the sky.

“I wasn’t like the rest of my family. They wanted the money, the woman, the house. You know I’m the oldest son, I would have gotten everything if I had wanted. Yet, I didn’t.” He looked back at Jake.

“Care to guess why?”

Jake’s mind went into overdrive. Several ideas sprouted and were eliminated however no answer was guaranteed so he found the most likely one.

“You didn’t want it. You lack the motivation and was likely cast away here because of one of your siblings.”

Jerome smiled at Jake, “Your partly right. Yes I lack the motivation, but I wasn’t cast here just by one of my siblings. It was a family decision to send me here. My father, mother, other siblings, I was there for the vote. Who to send on the death mission.

I hate them. Sending me to death, I by right should be the next head of the family and yet I’m here soon to die. The reason I look up to Malum is because he holds the same desire as me, survival. He is my role model, if I follow him because by doing so I increase my odds of returning home and claiming what is rightfully, mine.”

Jake found Jerome confidence to be astounding. Never had he seen the man so determined in his words before. If before he was meek, he spoke now like a lion. Once he was done, Jake began to tell his own story.

“I feel like I should start by saying I’m an only child to a father who I’m pretty certain isn’t actually my father. Our looks are too dissimilar and whenever I ask he always moves to my mother.

He’s a crook. He man of lies, and yet I’m supposed to believe in only his word. Luckily his family was pretty well off as they had some horse business so he managed to avoid the gallows more than once. After a particular incident he was exiled to live in the village we lived in.

As many of the children in the village, I wanted to be a scholar. I did the screening test and passed with flying colours and not a year later I went to do the Scholars test expecting the same results.

I failed, with a score not even half of what you would need to pass. I have never failed in anything knowledge based and yet I didn’t even come close. Many would accept their own stupidity but I know my own intellect so I researched into the Scholars examination.

That year, those that did pass had a strange correlation. Every one of them had an already qualified teacher or was linked to a certain organisation, whether that be nobility or a merchants company.

I looked deeper; the whole thing was rigged. At some point it wasn’t even hidden. Offers of jobs came with the benefit of getting a passing grade and with-it years of labour would be needed in service.

At the time I figured this all out me and Alicia, finally decided to get together. I moved away from all that and took a job and as a mail runner. I can ride a horse you know, real fast as well.

I won’t go into why I was drafted; me and Alicia were a package but it’s her story to tell. That my life,” He chuckled, “soon to end by one of these demons I’m sure.”

Jerome and Jake continued to talk about there best memories and aspirations. Death made embarrassment fade, and pride shine as they talked about what made them, them.

They talked for several hours, untill they found Tim and his squad return to the outpost. Something they quickly noticed was that Trout had suffered a heavy injury and even Tim had caught himself a few bad cuts.

As Jerome went to get the first aid, Jake asked Tim, “What happened?”

Leaning on Roger’s arm Tim looked at Jake and showed a rare frown.

“Variant 28 was what happened. Get your friends up they should cover us while we get healed up. We’ll cover whatever time we have left.”

Jake looked to the sky for the time and found it to be around 4 ish, the sun was about to come up and he could see its first sliver of light around the horizon. That and his mental clock was always about right.

He quickly followed Tim’s words, gathering the rest of his squad and quickly getting out into the field. By right, Jake had realised long ago that he could have forced Tim back into the field, but friends were always better than enemies especially when they were surrounded by Demons.

He had informed Malum of Tim’s words and surprisingly Malum reacted positively to the news. He didn’t understand why, but he trusted his Leaders instinct.

Jerome was searching the outpost for the medical supplies. `What bag are they in!` he thought as the rummaged through the bags of the other squads.

He found several interesting items that clearly came from the city, but he hadn’t the time to judge them when he felt that wasting time could lead to a bad infection.

Not finding anything in their bags, Jerome looked through his own squads and found them in his own bag. He knew they were carrying supplies but next time he swore to find this out beforehand.

With the entire bag in hand, he ran over to the bleeding trout where he found Agatha holding down a cloth on his wound.

He looked for his squad but found them all to be protecting them from the demons. He soon ignored that fact and focused on treating Trout’s wounds. Looking at the injury, Jerome guessed he would be there for several hours. Instead of panicking, Jerome focused and began to work.

As the sun rose Malum found himself waiting on some of Tim’s group and Jerome to do the rest of their time. Occasionally he looked to see what they were doing but with demons at his heals he couldn’t exactly go and check up on them.

He assumed the worst at times and stamina was really starting to cause issues on the battlefield. If Agatha hadn’t started providing covering fire, Malum guessed that they wouldn’t have seen the sun begin to rise to its peak.

Malum was tempted to go and ask her but found the demons never gave him a chance. He had to give it to Gerald as the man had really begun to find his element.

Even compared to himself, Gerald was starting to become a demon slaughtering machine. The man had a talent and Malum could only thank the Gods that the talent was on his squad.

With demons blood now colouring his clothes, Malum looked up to see the Sun rise to its peak. He laid back onto the dirt as he gave his muscles some rest.

He couldn’t sleep there though, demons still roamed the outskirts after all so he dragged himself back to the outpost where he found the rest of the squad gathering up.

He could now see Tim and his group, Jerome seemed to be doing something but Malum was to tired to care. Who would stay on lookout, who would lead the group?

All were questions Malum couldn’t care about as he fell sound asleep in the safety of the outpost.

Tim looked around to see Malums group had crawled back in. Looking up he noticed that the wave was already over.

He breathed sigh of relief as he continued to look over Trout. The injuries of that man was directly his fault and Tim wished nothing but the man to survive.

He had taken a blow clearly meant for him and so Tim owed him immensely. Jerome’s help was invaluable and so now Tim would also owe him considering how Trout’s life might have been saved in most part due to his actions.

For an ambitious man like Tim, owing so much bothered him to no end and because he was also injured he also owed something to Malums squad for covering his Squads shift.

He held his hand to his head. Then he looked down to his torso where he found a large cut going across his peck. Tim could only thank the Gods that Trout had given him enough time to get this little of an injury. If the variant had succeeded in it’s attack he wouldn’t have come back in one piece.

He was alive, that was the important part and with it his debts would be repayable and his ambitions could be fulfilled. First he needed to heal, so he assigned Roger to stand guard and let everyone else fall asleep.

Everyone rested from the disaster of a day. Considering none had died it count as a wildly successful first wave although it would take them until they returned back to camp to realise how much that was true.