The Awakening

by Ryan Sova

  Karn looked astonished, he turned to King Noah and said, “We searched the kingdom day and night! Where did they all come from?”

  King Noah responded, “Like I have told you before, I don’t know.”

  A woman from the Vestillian Empire then asked, “What do we do?”

  King Noah responded, “We need to keep the gates shut at all costs, or all is lost. My sorcerers and I will fight the armies to the west that are attacking from our lands. You will fight the armies to the east. Your task will be to keep the dead from climbing over the wall. They will try to pile up on top of each other to gain access to the top of the wall. You need to incinerate them before they can do this. If we all work together as a team, we will hold the dead back and come out of this thing victorious.”

  The woman then responded, “Will this work? I thought you said that all possible futures end in our doom?”

  King Noah answered, “Yes, this will work! Last night, Nephal saw a vision of a future where we all triumph over the dead. This strategy is how we will defeat them. If we all work together, we will come out victorious in the end.”

  As the dead armies both neared the wall, King Noah took to the air. He was joined by eighteen sorcerers from his own Council of the Magi. Nephal and Atonick were numbered among these sorcerers.

  King Noah and his allies circled around the armies attacking from inside the Kingdom of Noah, or in other words, the dead armies attacking from the west. Sixteen sorcerers from the Vestillian Empire had also taken to the air, focusing their attention on the sea of bodies rushing in from the east. The remaining eighty-eight sorcerers were all those who were unable to fly, and thus remained on top of the wall.

  Nephal focused his attention on the armies closing in from the west. There were about five-hundred-thousand soldiers in this dead army. This army was a human army and each person in this army was riding a horse into battle. The dead army continued to charge rapidly at the living army. The nineteen sorcerers on the west side of the wall all made one pass, circling around the dead army that was still charging at the gates. As the first of the dead soldiers came within range, several sorcerers on the wall bombarded them with lightning bolts. These lightning bolts branched off in several directions, striking multiple dead soldiers at once. The sorcerers from the air also joined in and heavily bombarded the front lines of the dead army. None of these lightning bolts actually harmed any of the dead, but they did deliver such a shock to their bodies that they all dropped to the ground, paralyzed and unable to move.

  This attack did little to slow the dead army though. Riders further back in the dead armies’ ranks trampled over the paralyzed bodies of their comrades. The dead army then crashed into the living army. As soon as they had reached the front lines, the dead men jumped from their horses and started attacking the living army on foot. The horses also continued fighting as well. Even after their riders had dismounted, the dead horses continued to charge into the ranks of the living army, violently kicking and trampling anyone unlucky enough to stand in their way.

  Nephal and the others circling in the air quickly dragged the paralyzed dead into a large pile using their telekinesis magic. Then one of the circling sorcerers shot fire at the pile of bodies, igniting them. Another sorcerer then instantly joined in, commanding the fire to bellow out of control. The flames then quickly changed color, turning blue then bright white. The intense heat of the conjured flames was so great that it caused several dead soldiers who were passing by to spontaneously combust and fall to the ground. Thousands of high pitched screams could be heard as the intense flames fully consumed the first pile of dead soldiers.

  Meanwhile, a short distance away the living army was not faring so well. The dead horses were wreaking total havoc amongst the entire army. The soldiers were eventually able to slow them down using their spears. Then, once several men were holding the dead animal in place, other soldiers would join in and cut the animal to pieces with their swords. Stopping these animals took a considerable amount of effort and teamwork and was still, even then, only a temporary solution. If they left the dead animals alone for any length of time, they would regenerate and rise again to attack the living once more. This, combined with the troubles they faced from the dead humans and the fact that every living soldier who died instantly joined the dead army, made the armies’ situation turn desperate quickly. Within just moments, the living army was already dropping like flies.

  The sorcerers from the wall bombarded the dead army with a second lighting attack. This was followed by a second air bombardment. After the second lightning attack was over, tens of thousands of paralyzed bodies lay strewn across the battlefield. The sorcerers in the air then quickly went to work again, dragging these dead soldiers into another massive pile to be burned.

  While this was all going on, Nephal could also hear multiple high pitched screams coming from the east side of the wall. He didn’t have time, though, to worry about what was going on over there. He had his own problems to deal with at the moment.

  After a few minutes had passed, it became clear how this battle was going. The sorcerers were destroying anywhere from ten to twenty thousand dead soldiers with each pile they burned and it was taking them two the three minutes to stun, gather, and destroy each pile. Nephal could clearly see that the living army was falling fast. The only question that mattered, though, was who was falling faster, the living or the dead?

  It was now apparent to every sorcerer here that this fight was a race to see who could kill the opposing army faster? If the dead army destroyed the living army and reached the gates, the battle will be lost. There will be no stopping the sea of bodies from the east once it is finally set loose on the mainland.

  The battle waged on for what seemed like an eternity. At first, it seemed like the dead army was going to win the killing race. But as time went on and the size of both armies dwindled, the speed at which the dead army was killing the living army slowed down. There were several factors that caused this change. The first factor was the size of the two armies. In addition to this, though, the living soldiers were now starting to become more and more accustomed to facing dead horses and were also much less intimidated by them. The dead also didn’t have the advantage anymore of having just charged into battle. This initial charge and the chaos that it caused when the dead animals trampled their way through the ranks of the living was what caused the greatest number of casualties during the opening minutes of the battle.

  As the dead slowed in their killing race, the sorcerers hastened in theirs. The tide of the battle was beginning to shift in favor of the living. Then, Nephal suddenly heard a scream coming from the east side of the wall.

  Karn yelled in a loud voice, “THE DEAD ARE BREAKING THROUGH! WE NEED SOME HELP OVER HERE ON THE EAST SIDE. WE CAN’T STOP THEM ALL ON OUR OWN!”

  King Noah then yelled, “HERAGALD, TALMADGE, AND I WILL TAKE IT FROM HERE. THE REST OF YOU, GO. HELP KARN AND THE OTHERS, NOW!”

  Nephal took a quick glance at the east side of the wall. There were literally hundreds of body mounds up and down the wall where the dead were piling up on top of each other to gain access to the top of the wall. This side of the wall was also blanketed with a thick layer of ash. This was due to the wind enchantment that would suck the dead remains up into the air immediately after they had been cremated. Karn and the others had done reasonably well at destroying most of these body mounds before they could reach the full height of the wall, but the dead were now building them up too fast for Karn and the others to keep up.

  Nephal flew south along the wall as quickly as he could. At this far end of the wall, there were dozens of mounds that had reached the full height of the wall. The dead were rapidly charging over these body mounds and casting themselves from the wall, landing on the west side. After the fall, they would recover within seconds and start charging at the center of the wall where the gates were.

  Some of the sorcerers who had flown with Nephal had already begun attacking the mounds. Nephal
was about to, but then hesitated. He looked at the dead that had already crossed the wall. There were at least twelve thousand of them that had already managed to cross the wall on this end alone.

  Nephal suddenly changed his mind. He abandoned his fight against the dead and circled back to the center of the wall. When he had finally reached the center of the wall where gates were, he landed next to Eliak. Eliak was in the middle of a chant when Nephal interrupted him.

  “What are you doing?” Eliak asked.

  Nephal grabbed a hold of him and chanted. Within moments, Nephal had teleported back to Bragsdale with Eliak.

  After appearing back in Bragsdale, Eliak waited a moment, still feeling sick from his journey through the roads of magic. Then, once he had finally recovered, he said, “What are you doing Nephal? Why did you abandon the others?”

  Nephal answered, “Because I refuse to watch you die again!”

  Eliak was confused, “But we would have won this fight! King Noah said…”

  Nephal interjected, “King Noah lied! There is no happy ending here, there never was! It was all bullshit to keep our allies in the fight!”

  Eliak responded, “But why would he do that?”

  Nephal answered, “Because he wants to go down fighting and take as many of the dead with us as he can. That’s why! I left because I don’t want to go down fighting. I want to spend the final days of MY LIFE with my wife and son. That’s how I want to die Eliak! Not in some battlefield thousands of miles away from the people I love! And I think that if given the choice, you will feel the same way too! But If I’m wrong, please, let me know and I’ll gladly take you back!”

  While looking down at the floor, Eliak spoke in a soft voice, “You’re right Nephal. Thank you.”

  Eliak paused for a moment. Nephal could see that he was holding back his emotions. Eliak didn’t want to start crying in front of another man. Once he had finally regained control over his emotions, Eliak asked, “How long do we have before the dead reach Bragsdale.”

  Nephal answered, “About a week.”

  Eliak looked confused, “But it took us a year to make that same journey? How could they travel such a distance so quickly?”

  Nephal answered, “Eliak, we were traveling on foot back then and we were resting for two to three days between every town and village. The dead won’t need any rest. They will ride on horseback at a full gallop both day and night, nonstop until they finally reach Bragsdale.”

  Eliak then addressed Nephal again, “You said that you saw me die?”

  Nephal answered, “Yes, I have seen the future now, just like King Noah did. I saw what would have happened to you, had you stayed.”

  Eliak continued, “Then why were you surprised to see that I had become an Acolyte.”

  Nephal thought about this for a second, then answered, “Hmmm, you have a point Eliak. When I saw you in my vision, you were an Apprentice. I never even made that connection until you pointed it out to me just now.”

  Nephal and Eliak continued talking to each other for another ten minutes when a flash of light suddenly appeared in the room. It was Heragald, she looked completely exhausted. She paused for a moment regaining her composure, then asked, “Why did you leave us Nephal?”

  Nephal gave her the same answer that he had just given Eliak. Heragald answered, “That’s what I suspected when you left.”

  Eliak then asked, “How is the fight going?”

  Heragald answered, “The gates have been breached, dead are pouring into our lands, our sorcerers on the wall are all dead, and our king had gone mad. But other than that, we're doing great!”

  Heragald then continued, “He is leading an insane attempt right now to somehow close and bar the gates again. It will never work though! He is just going get the rest of us killed!”

  Heragald then looked at Nephal and asked, “So Nephal, is there any hope?”

  Nephal shook his head and said, “No.”

  Eliak then added, “We have a week before the dead will be here.”

  Heragald responded, tears were now running down her face, “Well, we can still at least enjoy the time that we have left, I suppose. Maybe, I will go and drink myself to death before the dead get here.”

  With that, Heragald started walking off. She then stopped and said, “I’m too tired right now to die just yet. Maybe in the morning after I get some sleep,” with that she started laughing and then walked off toward her bedroom. Before she could leave the room though, she suddenly started crying uncontrollably. Heragald quickly regained her composure and then exited the room without a word.

  Eliak and Nephal soon parted ways as well. When Nephal returned to his room, he was greeted by his wife and son. He spent the rest of the day with them, trying to take his mind off of things. By nighttime when his son Joseph had finally gone to sleep, Nephal finally broke down and told Debra everything. They stayed in bed for several hours after that, talking about how they wanted to spend their final days on Earth.

  After several hours of quiet conversation, Debra finally fell asleep. Nephal continued to stay up for hours, still deep in thought. If the dead hadn’t attacked us from inside of our borders, we could have focused all of our attention on the invaders to the east. With our combined might, we would have stopped them. We would have won! How did the dead get into our lands? What did we miss?

  CHAPTER 25

  Garry didn’t want to leave his tent. In time though, his stomach decided that it was time for him to get up and eat breakfast with Detective Grant and his family. Anna was warming breakfast over the fire in a pot that they had taken with them to the island. This morning the meal would be Campbell’s chunky baked potato with steak and cheese soup. Anna had added six cans of the soup to the pot and was preparing a meal large enough to feed the entire group.

  Breakfast smelled good and made Garry’s mouth water. Garry gladly helped himself to a full serving of the soup and then even had seconds. As Garry ate his food, he continued to reflect on the dream that he had last night. It’s hopeless, he thought to himself in despair. They had no hope back then and we have no hope now. It’s only a matter of time before we all die, just like what happened to the people of old.

  For the first time since all of this started, he had finally given up. As the day passed on, Detective Grant asked Garry about what airfield he was planning on attacking today. Garry responded by telling him that he was done with fighting the dead. All he wanted to do now was enjoy what little bit of life he still had left before he and everyone else on this wretched world would die.

  The day passed by slowly for Garry. Most of the time he spent during the day was in quiet reflection. Garry’s mood didn’t improve, though. He spent the entire day quietly sulking and then finally collapsed in his tent when night had come. Tears were streaming down his face as he laid in his tent. I don’t want to die! I don’t want Detective Grant, or Anna, or Jesse… Poor Jesse, that little girl doesn’t deserve any of this! I don’t want any of them to die, damn it! It’s not fair, it’s just not fair!

  ****

  Nephal was awoken by the sound of knocking on the door. He rose from his bed and looked out the window. The sun is already starting to come out, Nephal noted. Someone knocked on the door a second time. Nephal threw a robe on and answered the door.

  Heragald was standing just outside the door. Nephal asked, “What is it?”

  Heragald responded, “I would like to talk to you in private, if you don’t mind.”

  Nephal responded, “Ok, just give me a moment to get dressed.”

  Nephal closed the door and then started changing into a new set of sorcerer robes. Once he was finished getting ready, he walked over to Debra and whispered in her ear that he was leaving. She moaned and rolled over. As Nephal was walking to the door, he looked at the small toddler bed that he had brought from his house at the Homestead Village for his son. Joseph was still in bed and sound asleep as Nephal left the room.

  Heragald led the two of them to the Conference
Room. On the way there, Nephal asked, “Has anyone else returned from the battle?”

  Heragald responded, “No one.”

  Heragald then opened the door to the Conference Room and took a seat. Nephal followed her into the room, closing the door behind him. Then he took a seat at the table opposite to where Heragald was.

  “What’s on your mind?” Nephal asked once they were both seated.

  Heragald answered, “I have been thinking a lot about the future, Nephal. And I know that you have seen it. So tell me, couldn’t we just hide from the dead, for months, years, maybe even the rest of our lives if need be? We may not be able to stop the dead, but we can still teleport away from them, right? We could take your family and Eliak’s family to safety tonight and, if the dead ever find us, we could just move again. So, what do you think Nephal?”

  Nephal answered, “I have looked into the future with this exact same question in mind, Heragald, and this is what I have seen. After the dead finish sweeping the entire face of the Earth, they will disappear, never to be seen or heard from again. After the dead vanish, the world will grow cold. Darkness will cover the face of the Earth, ash will fill the sky, and the smell of sulfur will taint the air. This condition will worsen until the world is blanketed in ice and the air we breathe becomes a poisonous fume. Heragald, nothing will survive under these conditions.”

  Heragald responded, “What causes these calamities?”

  Nephal answered, “I don’t know. In my visions of the future, I have searched the Earth far and wide and I haven’t been able to find the cause anywhere. I have also never found what will happen to the dead or where they will all go when these calamities come.”