He sat in the room, staring at the wall. Trying to remember something he had forgotten. He felt it was important, but still it eluded him. As it had for a long time. He couldn’t have said for how long, but that didn’t matter.

Outside, the Sun was shining. As usual. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time it had been night. That felt significant, though he couldn’t have said why.

He frowned.

Why was he sitting here anyway? Shouldn’t he be enjoying the Sun? It looked like a beautiful day. Aside from the wind. It had been whistling through the trees for a long time now.

Standing, he made for the door.

It was peaceful outside. Trees surrounded the cabin, which was made of wood. He knew there was a beach nearby... He must have gone there at some point, or how would he know?

Though he could hear the wind, he could not feel it against his skin. This, too, seemed significant.

Perhaps he should go for a walk on the beach. It would do him good. Fresh air would clear his thoughts.

As he walked, he remembered something he had noticed before and wondered how he could have forgotten. There were no sounds here. Aside from the wind, of course. As if there were no animals in these woods, or even insects. Nor had he seen any. At least, he didn’t think so.

He remembered something else. A pain in his chest. It had faded with time, though. He sensed it now, but it was very slight and distant, barely noticeable... Then it was gone again.

Through the trees, the sea appeared—or was it a lake? He couldn’t say.

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The whistling of the wind grew louder as his shoulder caught on a branch. He pulled free, but it caught him again. And again. Each time he pulled away, it would somehow come in his way once more.

He slowly opened his eyes.

Everything was blurry.

Though still he could hear the wind and feel the tugging branch on his shoulder.

He blinked to clear his vision.

Fear-filled eyes looked at him. Familiar eyes.

Around them, a room. Gray walls and ceiling.

The tugging stopped, but not the whistling.

Though, he realized now, it was not the wind at all.

It was a siren.

He looked to his right and saw the girl pull away.

It had been her tugging at his shoulder. Not a tree branch.

Ondine.

The girl’s name came back to him.

Kaine was lying in a bed, in what likely was a hospital room. Memories slowly came back to him.

He grimaced as he remembered getting shot. Reaching for his chest, he looked down and saw a large scar.

The girl made wide gestures to catch his attention.

He remembered the fear in her eyes—which was still there—and the siren.

Why was there a siren?

It kept wailing, on and on.

“What’s going on?” he finally asked.

His voice sounded hoarse. How long had he been here? And where was Val?

And where exactly was ‘here’ anyway?

He slipped out of the bed and stood... Then immediately sat back down as he felt his head spin. Taking a deep breath, he counted to ten.

“Hang on a moment,” he told Ondine, who still was urging him to do something... Though what exactly she expected him to do, he could not guess.

When he felt the dizziness fade, he slowly got back to his feet and, leaning against the wall, made his way to the window.

The first thing he noticed was that this wasn’t Derkanash.

The second thing he noticed were the fires and the chaos in the streets.

He looked to the sky and his eyes went wide.

It was filled with small black specks that shot down like bullets toward the city. There were thousands of them. Tens of thousands. The downpour never seemed to stop.

He looked back down, trying to spot a place of impact... It was not difficult. They were everywhere. And everywhere they hit the ground, they would burst open and spill out a stream of spike-covered creatures. These tore into any human they found, leaving a trail of blood and guts.

“Oh, hell no...”