I was long in slumber when Emmanuel woke me up, the fire was out and the moon had disappeared. He was scared.

“Keep your head down. It’s the EPoB.” He whispered to me. I woke right up, but stayed low. It was so dark, I couldn’t see a thing. I heard the sounds of footsteps in the grass over yonder.

“Listen, we need to crawl into the tall grass.” He whispered. I could hear his voice from my right. I looked that way and nodded.

“Follow me.” And with that he began to crawl slowly through the dirt and into the tall grass. The footsteps gained volume as the agents grew closer; it sounded like there were dozens of them. I could feel the sweat falling down my chin. I had never been more scared in my life.

Listen – dealing with raiders in these wastes is one problem, but they are mosquitoes compared to the threat of the agents. These were people who had spent lifetimes dedicated to athletics, martial arts, and firearms training. One of these agents could destroy entire cities singlehandedly. Even with my immortal being, Eternal Protector Agents are incredibly difficult to kill. I have never heard of a single soul who had survived an encounter with more than one. Two of us versus twelve of them would be a massacre on our end.

Emmanuel and I lied down in the tall grass against the hillside around a hundred feet away from our campsite. There we would lie low and observe the agents, we were too close to flee.

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness I had realized that my abrupt arousal and fear had exaggerated the threat. Standing at our campsite was four agents.

“Wood’s still smoking.” The tallest agent said, staring at the fire pit.

“It seems like they planned on spending the night.” The shortest agent said, holding up my sleeping bag.

“Maybe they’re still around.” The fattest agent said, doing nothing.

“That’s a good idea. Why don’t you go look?” The skinniest agent said. He had already begun scanning the area. Emmanuel and I made sure to keep our heads down. We heard them scanning around the area for what felt like an eternity, though probably no longer than a minute.

“Hey, wait a second…” The tallest agent said.

“What?”

“Did anyone of you nitwits care to note the large disturbance of dirt leading into that pile of large grass?”

All the agents looked right at the grass surrounding us.

“Oh, fuck.” The fattest agent said. He was right. Oh, fuck.

The four agents began to walk straight for us, the tallest and fattest pulling out their electrified batons, and the thinnest and shortest brandishing pistols. We had no choice but to get up and run. I looked over at Emmanuel, who had taken his rifle out, ready to go. He looked at me. I shook my head no. He looked back at them and fired. And that’s when I ran.

I ran up the hill as hard as my legs could take me. I swung my arms for momentum despite my sore arm. Shots rang out behind me as I heard the bullets whizzing past my neck. I kept my head down. I heard Emmanuel laughing, maybe he had shot one, and maybe he was laughing in the face of death. I’ll never know. I never saw him after I went over the crest of that hill and I knew it.

I fell on my ass, sliding and tumbling my way down the hill. I could hear the fabric of my clothes ripping. I could feel my bones hitting the dirt and rocks. I could feel my bullet wound opening up.

I landed on my back as I stopped rolling at the bottom of the hill. I immediately got up and ran. The gunshots had stopped, but that didn’t mean my running would, too. I wasn’t going to turn back around to find four agents and a dead Emmanuel. In that case I’d be joining him sooner than expected.

I ran for hours. I ran until the sun came up. I ran until exhaustion and dehydration took over my immortal body and collapsed me into the dirt. I ran no more.

A rustle in the dirt behind me, once again I had been snuck up on. With all my remaining energy I turned myself over and went for my Beretta, which I now realized I must have lost in the fall.

Standing in front of me was a young, blonde haired, bearded man. His hair was messy and his beard tangled. He looked like he hadn’t washed in days. He was wearing all white robes and holding my rusty Beretta like a plate.

“Is this yours?” He asked in a calm and soothing voice. I was so dehydrated that breathing felt like my throat was getting fucked with sand, so talking deemed impossible. I only let out a heavy breath grunt. The man knelt down beside me.

“Are you okay?” He said as he examined my body. Touching me, I tried to squirm away, but I was too weak.

“You’ve been shot.” He said, feeling my wounded arm. I groaned as he felt the sore spot. He moved his face up so I could see him.

“I need to get you help, but I will be back. You need to stay alive.” He said, his voice never losing its cool. I simply nodded, and off he was. It sounded like he was sprinting away.

I lied down in the hot sun for the next few minutes, and it all became clear that I had just hallucinated. Of course I had. I had my Beretta on me the whole time; no blonde bearded man in white robes guaranteed my safety. That was all in my head, like right now I see the headless body of Hanson Burrows carrying his own head by the hair, next to him is the young little Marley Burrows, skin missing, naked and all.

They were staring at me but they weren’t saying anything. It all became too much. I tried to scream, but my voice was too worn out and dry. It was no use. Marley began to approach me. I tried to move away but felt as if binds were restraining me to the ground below. He straddled on stop of me; I could feel her bloody skin sticking to my clothes.

“You didn’t save me.” She said.

“I couldn’t.” I said, my voice suddenly back to normal.

“Why didn’t you save me?” She asked, putting her bloody hands on my face. I could feel the bones.

“I couldn’t!” I shouted. I looked deep into her eyes. She was going to kill me.

“We trusted you. We named you. We took you in. You were supposed to protect us.” Hanson said, standing behind Marley and watching over me.

“I had no choice! I had to protect myself!” I shouted, trying my best to move, but to no avail.

“You don’t deserve to live. You don’t deserve to be alive.” Marley said, her voice echoing.

“I don’t! I don’t! I don’t!” I began to shout over and over again.

“It’s okay. I can help you.” She said, smiling. She grabbed around my hand, which was held around my Beretta, and began to bring it to my head. I started to cry.

“It’ll all be over soon.” She said. Her voice seemed to echo through my body.

I was lying on the ground, grunting to myself, tears down my face, gun to head. I was shaken awake by the blonde, bearded, white robed man. He had a sack carrying a blanket, a pillow, water bottles, food, and first aid. He threw the gun out of my hands.

“What was all of that about?” He shouted. I had no energy to argue.

“Look, I brought you some things.” He said, laying the items out in front of me. He took the pillow and put it under my head, rolling me on top of the blanket. I was still weak, but at least I was comfortable. This comfort was immediately subsided when he started to stitch my wound.

He gave me water from a canteen, and when I was finished he set it next to me. He tried to feed me, but I wasn’t ready for that yet. First I drank a whole lot of water. It was then I had the strength to sit myself up.

“I’m sorry.” I said.

“Everything is okay.” He said distantly, as if he was talking to himself.

I finally asked him for some food, so he and I talked over bread, cheese, and water.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“My name is Solomon. I am a member of The Angels.” He said. My eyebrows peaked.

“I think I’ve heard of The Angels, think I might have met a few, too.” I said.

“Mm.” He said, taking a huge bite from a block of cheese.

“Who are you?” He asked me as he swallowed his cheese.

“I’m The Mechanic. Well, that’s what they call me, at least. That’s what Marley called me.”

“Was Marley your wife?” Solomon asked. He thought I was mortal, no immortals are married. There’s no point. I chose not to tell him of my immortality.

“No… She was… Someone I helped.” I said.

“Oh, so you help others, sort of like us?” He said, meaning him and The Angels.

“Yeah, sort of. Do you guys help the mortals?” I asked.

“We try our best. We’ve been trying to occupy territory in Beauland, but to no success.” He said.

“If you help anybody, that’s success in my book.” I said, raising the canteen. We gave solemn cheers and continued with our meal.