Once they’d finished the morning rations, John took some water, then Eve, and finally Zach. They disappeared into their room, leaving him alone in the living room. As he waited for the bucket with the dispenser to fill his smaller washing bucket, he glanced around the room.

  His eyes landed on the mirror in the corner of the room, just opposite the kitchen area. Wrapped in small, silver chains, he thought it looked like a captured prisoner. He looked down at his bucket, found that it wasn’t yet full, then walked over to the mirror.

  Every other link had small silver feathers dangling from it, their sides purposefully stained with rust. Their reflection in the mirror multiplied them, making it seem like there were a lot more than what was actually there.

  Seeing them, it was hard not to think of the chains dangling in Severity. He could almost hear them swinging in that strange wind. He could see the black field, burned down to a crisp. The rotting stink of the old pelts.

  He shook his head, pulling back from the strange call he felt in his chest.

  He focused once more on the mirror. Was this one of the objects the Emerys had bought at auction?

  He peered into it, studying his reflection. With all the strangeness of this world, he wouldn’t be surprised if he found something staring out from within. Thankfully, there was nothing.

  He managed to take one step before a headache worse than anything he’d experienced before exploded just behind his eyes. He cried out, slapping his hand against his forehead. Distantly, he was aware that he’d fallen to his knees.

  But that was a distant issue. He glanced back at the mirror, and the headache intensified. There was a thud echoing in his mind, emanating from beyond that black wall. A memory, trying to make itself known.

  The headache intensified; it felt as though someone were trying to split his head open from the inside. Then he saw it, a quick glimpse that flashed by so fast it might not have even existed.

  There was a black room, a large mirror on the ceiling. A diamond shape that drank in the candlelight thirstily, offering a slight break from the darkness that covered all else. There was a table in that room, as well, but he refrained from looking at it.

  It didn’t help.

  In the large mirror, there was a flash of white fabric, clinging loosely to a body. He didn’t know what it meant or what it was, what any of it was, but his mind screamed against it. The room quickly faded, the candlelit mirror with it, and left him kneeling there, the memory of the headache almost as bad as the real thing. A sharp taste of blood on his tongue.

  He knew it should’ve bothered him, how easily the wall still seemed to respond to his desire not to remember something. After all, it stood to reason that if he could tell it to suppress his memories, he could tell it to let all his memories through.

  Of course, he’d only know whether he could or not if he tried.

  But he couldn’t. He wouldn’t.

  You are weak.

  He shied away from that. It was only his voice. It didn’t really bother him if he thought himself weak; it was only threatening when others thought it. It hurt, but he wasn’t as driven to prove himself wrong as he might’ve been had someone else said it.

  “Oliver!?” Eve shouted. “What was that?”

  “I’m fine!” he called back. “I just burned myself!”

  “Okay...”

  He glanced at his bucket and found it was seconds away from spilling over. Remembering the small amount Eve and John had taken, he winced, running over and closing the dispenser.

  This was hardly his first time, but he still found bathing from a bucket somewhat awkward. The wind blowing in through the window carried the sweltering heat Eve had mentioned. That, coupled with the hot water, was almost unbearable. But he couldn’t do anything about it. The bucket full of excrement demanded that the windows stay open.

  When he finished, he emptied the water into the excrement bucket. Thankfully, he didn’t need to relieve himself this morning. As always, John and Eve were already waiting for him, their own buckets already standing outside in the hall, waiting to be taken down.

  “You ready?” John asked.

  Zach nodded.

  “Good. We’re going to the Store so you can meet everyone. It’s better if we just get it out of the way now.”

  Out of the way.

  Zach knew exactly what they were getting out of the way. If they were anything like the Function heads had been, it was not a meeting he was looking forward to. Still, he put on his best face as they made their way out of the apartment, down the hall and stairs, and out into the street.

  Already, there were other people standing there, their buckets lined up neatly before the building. Thankfully, they found the wagon there; some were already getting on. It was difficult to pretend he didn’t see their faces drop at the sight of him, but he remembered Eve’s words from the previous morning. Fighting those looks would only make it worse.

  But he couldn’t help but remark on how quickly their sympathetic glances had returned to these fearful expressions. Expressions that said, Only prayer will save us now.

  “I forgot to ask,” Eve said. “You came to get your hand checked yesterday, didn’t you?”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Lucas checked it,” he said with a nod. “Said everything’s fine.”

  “That’s good. I didn’t touch the wound with anything when I redressed it, but I think we can air it out soon.”

  Zach swallowed the lump of worry in his throat, nodding in spite of himself. All three of them got on the wagon, some giving them as much space as they could allow, others opting to walk or wait for another wagon. Just then, Ava came walking out of the building, a jacket thrown over her arm.

  “Good morning,” she said, boarding the wagon.

  Unlike the others, she didn’t mind one bit standing so close.

  “Where’s Pete?” John asked, glancing back at the doors.

  “He left already,” she said with some amusement.

  “Where to? The Store? Doesn’t he know it’s Inceptday?”

  “I swear, we’re both married to the same person,” Ava said conspiratorily to Eve. “Yesterday, before we turned in, he went down to Mark’s to get a roll and heard about the Rade’s brother who came back from the hold. He left earlier, thinking the Functions would have to place him somewhere.”

  Eve gave John a levelled look, almost as if to say he should’ve thought to do the same. John simply stood at a loss for words, then turned away, mumbling something about how it was still morning, and it was already this hot.

  “You get enough sleep?” Ava asked Eve.

  “Not really, but that won’t change anything, will it? What about you...”

  The two broke into a conversation as Zach’s mind went back to the journal. Would Cardinel have written about a way to get back home? His excitement at arriving on the continent suggested otherwise.

  No. There was no sense in wondering what he’d written about. He’d read the rest soon enough. So, his mind went on to Noah, who would apparently be placed in a Function as well. Would his placement go any better?

  On the way, they rode by many others who were still waiting for a wagon. The first stop they arrived at was the medical ward. Eve and Ava got off, both of them giving him a hug and wishing him luck for the day. That only worsened his expectations.

  Others got off as well, waiting at the corner of the ward for the next wagon that would take them to their Functions. This one continued up Buys Street, past 1st, and into Cache, picking up more citizens who were on their way to the Store.

  Of course, no one said a word to him. To John, they’d offer a quick greeting, and at other times, they’d mutter something about Creation saving their souls, or infusing them with the strength to face trials and tribulations such as these.

  The weather didn’t ease one bit. As the day gradually approached noon, Zach could’ve sworn the sun had a personal agenda against the people of Camp Twelve. The heat beat down on them with a vengeance, a punishment for what had been done to the world.

  When they finally arrived at the Store, the concrete of the old parking lot had absorbed a good amount of the heat so that when they walked, the heat pressed them in from overhead and beneath their feet. At least there was no ash.

  Ava had been right; there was already a meeting going on. Zach steeled him as they approached the group. He didn’t know what it looked like on the other side of the mall, but the entrance on this side was past the parking lot, so you had to walk past the group to enter the building.

  Like before, there was a small line of people standing a little away from the group, waiting their turn to speak. Zach spotted Noah seated beside Peter, watching everyone with an indifferent expression that looked out of place on him.

  Still, he also wore that frown of his that hinted he was deep in thought. Most likely pondering what they’d done to the Dorsi last night, or wondering who had sent him. Seeing Noah, Zach couldn’t ignore the thought anymore.

  It had sat with him from the moment he’d opened his eyes, temporarily pushed back when he’d read the journal, but not anymore. He walked beside John, wondering how they’d all react if they knew he’d actually done what they all feared he would. He’d killed someone with his bare hand.

  He relived the deceit he’d felt last night when Noah had Stepped them back, so he could quickly wash his hands at their place and wet the cuff of his sleeve with some of the ash from outside.

  “I suppose you got all your beauty sleep, huh, John?” Richard asked.

  Again, he’d come in Kevin’s place, speaking for the Security Function. A fact John took full advantage of. “Peter’s here, isn’t he? He speaks for my Function as much as I do. I’m surprised to find you here. I would’ve thought Security needed both its heads to handle the mess you let slip past you.”

  There was no taunt or reprimand in his voice. John was simply voicing a thought that had most likely occurred to him right at that moment. Still, Richard glowered in his seat, his lips going white and thinning into a straight line.

  John nodded to the other heads, his eyes finally going to Noah. “You must be the Rade’s brother?”

  Noah glanced at Zach, then glanced back at John. “I’m Noah.”

  “It’s good that you’re out and about, Noah,” John said. “You’ve already been put in a Function?”

  “He has,” Peter said, giving him a strange look.

  John sighed softly. “I expected as much,” he said, his eyes going over the heads present. “You’re all fools, and you know it. Given what happened at the hold, I’d have thought you’d all do your part to ease tensions, not stoke them.”

  He shook his head, as if disappointed in his children.

  “I did warn you, didn’t I?” a voice called from the line.

  Zach closed his eyes in resignation as they glanced to where Michel stood, papers clutched in her hand.

  “Michel,” John sighed. He paused when his eyes fell on her, however.

  “Recognize them?” she said, her voice right on the edge of glorious triumph. “I have enough to submit and call a council.”

  “We haven’t called on you yet,” one of the other heads called. Zach couldn’t remember her name.

  John just shook his head.

  “Noah,” he said, “since you’ve already been placed, you’re not needed here. I was about to introduce Oliver to the others; you might as well come along.”

  Without hesitation, Noah pushed himself up and walked around the group. He was eyeing Michel with a deeper frown, his eyes slightly narrowed. The woman barely noticed, her eyes fixed on the papers in her hand, flipping through each one with a look of approval.

  John started down toward the old mall, not saying another word. Zach and Noah followed behind, Noah finally pulling his eyes off Michel. As they walked, Zach heard him mutter under his breath, “That woman’s going to be a problem.”

  Instead of taking them to the outlet John had taken Zach to last time, he led them farther through the mall, passing dozens of empty units. Somewhere halfway across the mall, they went down an escalator, walking into an underground parking lot.

  The darkness was somewhat broken by the chain-link fence barely visible on the far end. He could hear voices echoing down from that direction. When they reached the last step on the escalator, Zach felt Noah stiffen beside him.

  John paused when he realized Noah had stopped. He glanced over his shoulder, asking, “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” Noah said. “I just need a moment. I’ll catch up with you.”

  John nodded slowly, sharing a look with Zach. He went on. Zach looked back at Noah and found him repeatedly dragging his left thumb over his right palm, rubbing excessively. He watched for a moment before he turned around and followed after John.

  Behind him, there was a soft squeak, and he heard Noah’s ragged breaths. John was too far to have heard anything, but when Zach looked back, he found Noah glancing around wildly, searching the surrounding darkness for whatever had made that sound.

  Noah’s afraid of the dark?

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