The Awakening

by Ryan Sova

  Talmadge then asked, “And how many of THEM are there?”

  The sorcerer looked frightened as he answered, “Millions my lord, millions upon millions and they keep coming, more and more by the hour.”

  King Noah then whispered something under his breath. What the king had said to himself was not readily apparent to anyone nearby, but due to how close Nephal was to the king at that particular moment, he was able to make out the words that the king had whispered to himself. What the king said was, “Time’s up. Here they come.”

  After a few moments of silence, King Noah spoke to the sorcerer who had greeted them, “Raganoff, inform the soldiers to open the gates and let the crowds in. Then I want you to gather together all of the sorcerer’s and company commanders so that we may have a meeting to discuss the things that are about to occur over the next few hours. You have somewhere appropriate that we can go I assume?”

  Raganoff responded, “Yes my lord. I know of a place that will suffice. I will see to it that your orders are carried out.”

  Talmadge interjected, “Aren’t we going to check them first to make sure that the dead are not mingled in with them?” Talmadge was referring to the masses just outside the gates when he spoke.

  King Noah answered, “No Talmadge, I have seen this moment before several times now. They are all living and, if we take the time to search them, it will just slow down the speed of their exodus, meaning that even fewer of them will escape before the massacre comes.”

  Heragald then addressed King Noah with a look of concern on her face, “When is this massacre coming my king?”

  King Noah responded, “Soon Heragald, very soon.”

  All conversation halted after that. Raganoff immediately left Nephal and his comrades to go and carry out King Noah’s orders. Nephal and the other three sorcerers who were with him stayed where they were and quietly observed everything that was happening.

  After a few moments, Nephal noticed several soldiers opening the gates to the wall. Then without hesitation, people started pouring in through the open gates. As people started coming in, there were several soldiers lined up in front of the gates, guiding the masses and instructing people not to stop or veer off the road. The refugees would be required to continue on the road all the way to the first village that was still occupied by civilians. This village would be a full sixty miles away from the gates.

  Nephal and his comrades continued to quietly watch the refugees as they entered the kingdom through the now open gates. The exodus was progressing fast. People were in a hurry now to make it through the gates and away from the dead masses behind them. In just thirty minutes, Nephal had already seen thousands of refugees pass by him as they continued on their journey inland to the village of Ellsworth. To Nephal’s relief, he had not felt any undead amongst the crowds that had passed by him thus far.

  While Nephal was carried away in his thoughts, he heard the voice of Raganoff, “My lord, I have gathered together all of the sorcerers and company commanders as you have ordered. If it pleases you, we will meet at the town hall in Othagar (Othagar was one of the abandoned villages nearby the wall). I have brought horses to speed along your journey.”

  King Noah nodded in approval, then quietly mounted his horse. Nephal, Heragald, and Talmadge quietly did the same. As Nephal was riding to the town hall, he observed the group of people that he was now riding with. He was traveling in a group of some fifty to sixty people. Out of those people, nearly two-thirds of them were sorcerers. The sorcerers all looked to be fairly young, most in their twenties and thirties with a good mix of both male and female sorcerers in their ranks. Nephal also took notice that most of the sorcerers who were stationed here at the Borderlands were Acolytes with only a couple of Adepts in their ranks, Raganoff being the most senior ranking by the look of things.

  The entire group of sorcerers and company commanders traveled together as a group on horseback until they had reached the town hall in Othagar. Everyone in the group then dismounted and tethered their horses, then filed into the town hall.

  The town hall was fairly large. It was a single roomed building that had seating for nearly two-hundred and sixty people in its assembly hall. At the far end of the room was a long, raised courtroom-style bench where the leaders of the town would normally sit and conduct meetings with the general public. This bench had enough seating to hold the entire town council, which consisted of twelve seats. However, today only four of these seats would be occupied. King Noah had invited Heragald, Talmadge, and Nephal to sit with him on the bench while everyone else was instructed to file into assembly hall seating below.

  Once everyone had finally taken a seat, King Noah addressed the crowd in a loud voice, “Ladies and gentlemen, you have all been summoned here so that we may discuss the crisis that is now at our gates. Therefore, make no mistake my leaders. While this exodus may be going along peacefully at the moment, that will not be the case for much longer. These people are being hunted by the dead and the dead are about to find them. When this happens, this peaceful exodus that you are now witnessing will quickly turn into a panicked stampede of bodies. People will be climbing over each other to get through our gates like a herd of wild boar. If we fail to close our gates before the dead arrive, there will be no stopping them. Our kingdom will fall today if we fail to close our gates in time. So, when the time comes, I will force our gates shut on the crowds. Company commanders, have your men bar the gates when this happens. As for our sorcerers, I want our full complement of sorcerers to take positions on the wall just above our gates. The dead shouldn’t try to breach our walls during this engagement, but if they do, I want us to be ready. Talmadge and Heragald will go and bring the other leaders of the council here so that we will be ready to meet the dead with our full magical strength.”

  King Noah paused a moment, then continued, “Millions of people are going to be slaughtered by the dead today. While we will be safe here behind our walls, we are still going to have to listen to their screams. Company commanders, prepare your men for the horrors that we will be facing today. Also, all of our soldiers that are currently on liberty, recall them at once. The dead will be coming back soon and I want the full strength of our army here to meet them when they return. That is all I have for you. Everyone is dismissed.”

  There was an eerie quiet in the room after King Noah dismissed the company commanders and sorcerers. There were some quiet, hushed conversations that took place between some of the members of the audience immediately following the king's speech but, other than that, total silence. After a few moments, everyone in the audience had left the room, leaving King Noah, Heragald, Talmadge, and Nephal alone in the room.

  Heragald then softly spoke to King Noah, “You have seen the future, my king. What is going to happen next, after this massacre is over?”

  King Noah responded, “I don’t want to think about it right now Heragald. Let’s just get through the day. We can discuss the future at another time.”

  Then as an afterthought, King Noah added, “We still have some time left Heragald. Before the end comes.”

  Heragald and Talmadge then left to go and gather the rest of the council. King Noah and Nephal mounted their horses and made their way to the wall. As Nephal was heading to the wall, he gazed at the line of refugees that had already crossed through the border. The line of people now stretched for miles on end. As he gazed, he quietly speculated at how many people had already escaped the massacre. Nephal calculated that at least a three-quarters of a million people had already crossed the border by what he had just seen.

  Nephal and King Noah approached the wall. As Nephal got closer to the location on the wall where they were heading, he saw the stairs that allowed the soldiers to man the wall. Between every lookout tower on the wall, two sets of stairs had been carved out of rock and built into the wall. One set of stairs rose from the left side while a second set of stairs rose from the right side. Both sets of stairs led to the top of the wall, forming a sort of trian
gle shape. These stairs were used by soldiers for the purpose of manning the wall and allowed the soldiers to both ascend and descend from the wall without tripping over each other in the process.

  After making their way to the stairs that were nearest to the gate, Nephal and King Noah ascended the stairs, quickly reaching the top of the wall. Once they had all arrived at the top, Nephal looked around. There were very few people aside from Nephal and King Noah who were currently on the wall. In the distance, Nephal could see some soldiers manning the towers but, other than that, it seemed like Nephal and King Noah were the first people to have arrived thus far.

  Nephal looked out over the horizon, past the wall into the territories of the Vestillian and Yessitic Empires. Just past the wall and on for several miles, the landscape consisted of nothing but a continuation of the grassy plains from the Kingdom of Noah. In the distance to the north-east in the Yessitic Empire was a large, glistening blue lake that extended out past Nephal’s view. Surrounding this lake was miles and miles of thick forests. To the south-east in the Vestillian Empire were large, rolling hills that were so large they blocked Nephal’s view and prevented him from seeing anything out past the hills. Straight ahead from where Nephal was and due east from his current location, the grassy plains extended on for as far as the eye could see. These plains were located directly on the border between the Vestillian and Yessitic Empires and, from where Nephal was standing, they looked like a sort of physical marker between both territories.

  Nephal could see two towns from where he was standing. One was located about ten miles north-east of here and was perhaps twenty miles from the brink of the forest. The second town was located to the south-east and looked to be between thirty to forty miles away. This town was only about a mile or two from the rolling hills behind it. Man-made roads could be seen extending from the forests of the Yessitic Empire and the rolling hills of the Vestillian Empire. These roads traveled through the two towns and merged together several miles off in the grassy plains to the east. This road then led directly through the gates and into the Kingdom of Noah.

  Directly in front of the gates, Nephal witnessed the massive crowd of refugees. This crowd swarmed a huge area of land, encompassing the gates and all of the surrounding area. For several miles to the north and south of the swarm, lines of people could still be seen pouring in. Nephal was relieved, though, to see that no one else appeared to be filing into this crowd, so perhaps this was the last of the refugees. Just looking at the crowds, Nephal estimated that there had to be at least twenty million people still trying to get through the gates and into the Kingdom of Noah. We haven’t even made a dent in these numbers yet, Nephal suddenly realized.

  Nephal noticed one more thing that he found strange as he was watching the masses. Just past the wall, there was a fierce upward draft that the crowds would pass through just before reaching the gates. This wind could not be felt at all from the wall where Nephal was standing and seemed to be just outside the gates at the perimeter of the wall. The wind was not so strong as to prevent people from moving entirely, but it did make walking a challenge for those who were caught in it.

  Curious about this strange wind, Nephal addressed King Noah, “Where is all that wind coming from?”

  King Noah answered, “It’s an enchantment that surrounds our land. Its purpose is to keep foreign birds and insects from flying through our borders undetected. It pushes flying things up and away from our borders, much like how a riptide in the ocean pulls swimmers away from land.“

  The sorcerers then began lining up on the wall. In total, there were forty-three sorcerers and, of those sorcerers, forty-one of them were Acolytes, and two were Adepts. Just at this moment, Heragald and Talmadge reappeared. They were followed by the twelve other members of the council.

  Everyone on the wall quietly watched and waited. There was an eerie quiet in the air, a sort of peaceful calm that came right before the storm. Nephal and all of his comrades on the wall continued to quietly wait. Time dragged on slowly. After several hours of waiting, the sun started to set. From what Nephal could tell, at least three-fourths of the masses were already through the gates. Nephal observed the crowd that was still on the far side of the gates. He estimated that there were still at least four to five million people left who hadn’t crossed through the gates yet.

  Nephal then looked into the horizon and gasped in horror. He could not feel the terror of the dead just yet but the mere sight of them was enough to take anyone's breath away. Their numbers were simply beyond reckoning. Men, women, and as Nephal would later learn, even children were mounted on horseback, armed to the teeth and charging at the refugees. But this was not all. This was not even the most massive part of the dead army. What made the army of the dead unlike anything ever before seen on Earth was that more than eighty percent of it was made up of animals ranging from just about every hunter species imaginable. The hordes of the dead swarmed in towards the gate at an incredibly fast rate of speed. Their numbers seemed endless.

  The feeling of panic started spreading through the remaining group of refugees. This panic started at the back of the crowds with the people who could actually see the dead armies coming and then quickly spread forward through the crowds. People started running, pushing each other, and climbing over people who had already been knocked to the ground in the chaos. The panic continued to worsen. People were getting more and more desperate to make it through the gates to safety.

  Then, a sudden increase in the sound of the screams coming from the distance caught Nephal’s attention. Nephal looked into the distance from where the screams were coming from. The army of the dead had now reached the refugees. This army looked like a tide of bodies washing into the mainland at an extremely fast rate of speed. They now completely covered the visible landscape for as far as the eye could see. The boundaries between the living and the dead could be easily tracked by following where the chaos was at its worst. From what Nephal could see, within just ten minutes they would be at the gates.

  King Noah started chanting. Within seconds, the king had finished his spell. He then waved both hands forward. The massive gates on the wall were then thrown forward and slammed shut with a loud bang. People who had been pushing through the gates at that moment were tossed back violently into the crowds behind them. A few unlucky souls were pinched between the two massive gates and were cut in half when they closed. Moments after the gates had shut, the soldiers slid a massive steel bolt in place and secured the gates in a closed position.

  King Noah then addressed the other sorcerers nearby, “I am going cast a spell that will harden our wooden gates and make them fireproof. Keep an eye on the dead army and, if they try to climb the wall, first wait for me to finish fireproofing the gates, then incinerate them.”

  King Noah then started chanting. Nephal took a step closer to Talmadge and asked, “How could to dead possibly climb a wall this large?”

  Talmadge answered, “By piling on top of each other, that’s how. You would be surprised how quickly they could scale a wall this size.”

  After a slight pause, Talmadge continued, “Now Nephal, the only way to kill these creatures is to destroy their flesh faster than they can regenerate it. Fire can do the trick but it needs to be crazy hot. So if they start climbing the walls, follow my lead, okay?”

  By the time that Talmadge was finished speaking, the last of the living had been slaughtered. An echo of the screams that these final survivors made could be heard momentarily, followed by total silence. Moments later, King Noah finished with his spell. The eerie silence continued. Then suddenly and in complete unison, millions of faces from the dead army looked up at the men and women on the wall. They stared at the sorcerers on the wall in silence. This awkward silence continued for another three minutes. Then, the dead moved quietly away from the gates, disappearing slowly into the horizon.

  Everyone on the wall silently watched the army of the dead leave. After an hour had passed, Talmadge spoke up, “Maybe this i
s some kind of trick, my king?”

  King Noah responded, “No Talmadge, it’s no trick. This battle is over, for now at least.”

  After a slight pause, King Noah continued, “We should return home, there is much to discuss.”

  King Noah then spoke to Raganoff, “Raganoff, keep a watch out over the horizon both day and night and let me know the moment that they return.”

  Raganoff responded, “I will my king.”

  King Noah then started chanting. Heragald, Talmadge, and Nephal immediately began with their own chant and soon, all of them were back again in Bragsdale.

  The four reappeared back in King Noah’s office. After they had all arrived, King Noah took his seat by the desk. After a few moments, Heragald broke the silence, “So what happens next?”

  King Noah paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts, then he answered, “We have about two and a half weeks, then another attack is going to come to our gates. This time though, the attack will come at us from two directions. One army will come from outside of our gates while another will come from inside of our gates. Our forces at the wall will be sandwiched in by both armys.”

  “They’re going to bring an army at us from inside of our borders? How?” Talmadge asked, astounded by this news.

  “I don’t know,” the king responded.

  Talmadge then rose his voice in anger, “You will have to forgive me my king, but you don’t know? We just let millions and millions of people through our gates because you were SURE that none of them were undead!”

  King Noah shook his head and then responded, “Talmadge, there are some things about time travel that you don’t understand.”

  Talmadge shot back, “Then enlighten me, please!”

  King Noah responded, “It is true that I have seen the events of today play out time and time again when I would look into the future. But the events surrounding today were hazy, I could not pinpoint exactly when all of this would happen. Some futures showed that this day would occur months ago while other futures showed it happening years from now. There was just no way to know exactly when this day would come or exactly how the day would play out. This is a normal dilemma whenever you look into the future. There are countless possible futures that you could see and there is just no way of knowing if the future that you are witnessing will, in fact, come to pass. In this respect, my time traveling experience was normal up until today. From today on, though, every version of the future shows the exact same outcome. The countdown to our doom has begun my friends, starting with today. All possible versions of the future show two and only two possible choices that we could have made. We could have either chosen a quick death or a slow death. Our quick death would have come if we had denied entry to the refugees today and watched them all die. Had we chosen this option, we would have had three days, just three days until our doom. Our second option was to let the refugees in, allowing as many people as possible to cross our borders before closing our gates at the last minute. Choosing this option has bought us two and a half weeks. Then our doom will come all the same.”