At the exaent the field horn souhe door burst open.

  "Arada!"

  Arada looked up from her sketomentarily distracted from the various faces she was trying to draw. In the doorway stoos, breathless and gripping one of the doorposts. He showed fear, and sweat trickled down his face.

  "Your father wants to see us. Now."

  Irgos's voice was tense, fearful, and serious, ing out in short, panting phrases. Something was clearly wrong.

  "He says the vilge is utack. We don't have time to waste. Cura has something important to tell you."

  Arada was initially fused. Whenever an arm was raised, the people of Overmore were supposed to follow procedure: stay indoors with windows and doors shut, waiting for the horn to sound agaihe danger had passed. Going out to visit someone was a dangerous move in such situations. Why would Cura want to see them sently?

  Arada stood up and opened her mouth to say something, but Irgos had already turned, left the room, and ran into the street. Arada quickly followed, leaving her sketchbook behind, saving her questions for ter. Outside, Irgos pointed wordlessly to the left. Arada followed his finger and saw clouds of dust rising above the distant sandy path. In those clouds, she made out figures moving on horseback, though it wasn't clear how many there were. She trailed after her brother toward her father's house.

  The sand, warmed by the evening sun, kicked up as they ran through the dusty paths of Overmore. A soft breeze provided slight relief, hinting at a thuorm set to break within hours. The swirling sand drew the attention of those peering out their windows, curious to know what was happening. A few, disregarding protocol, opeheir windows and shouted warnings about the danger of staying outside after the horn had sounded.

  After some running, Arada and Irgos arrived at Cura's . The front door en, and a middle-aged, balding man waited for them on the covered wooden porch. He was missing the lower half of his left shin, repced by a steel pte ao pensate, he leaned heavily on a wooden e whenever he stood or walked. He wore wide, gray-blue denim pants and a frayed bck t-shirt. His ft face was grave but calm, his brown eyes behind small round gsses sharply alert. He spoke in a low, grounded voice.

  "Arada. Irgos. e in quickly. We don't have much time."

  He let them in and closed the door behind them.

  Immediately, a loud bang sounded outside, followed by a high-pitched scream.

  Arada jumped. "What was that?"

  Cura cursed as he moved further into the hallway: "The attackers have already arrived. They're wielding hammers and tearing down houses. It won't be long before he's here."

  "He?"

  Without eborating, her father entered a doorway to the left of the hall. Arada and Irgos followed, and Irgos shut the door behind them.

  The room was about three by four meters, simir in size to the rooms Arada and Irgos had. On the left stood a wooden table with a few chairs, and on the right, a bed that took up nearly half the space. Behind the table was a rge wardrobe where her father kept his clothes. The only light in the room came from a window across from the door.

  More loud bangs and screams echoed.

  Without inviting them to sit, Cura began speaking right away.

  "They're going to raze the vilge. You both o get out of here as soon as possible."

  "Where to?" asked Irgos.

  Outside, they could hear hurried footsteps on the sandy paths. The number of houses being demolished and people being killed was rising rapidly.

  "Aquinox."

  Without pausing, Cura walked to the opposite wall. "You o get to Aquinox." He pried a slightly loose stone from the wall with his fingernails. Behind it, Irgos saw two hidden items. Cura took them out and turo face Arada and Irgos again.

  "There are still people in Aquinox." Nos could see what his father had retrieved. In his right hand, he held a gss vial taining a reddish-pink liquid. In his left, he held something that looked like half of a small silver . He ha tos. "Find the person with the other half of this amulet. They help you; we don't have time to discuss more." Then Cura hahe vial to Arada. "This is the only thing that stop him, and it must not fall into the wrong hands."

  Irgos pocketed the 'amulet,' just as Arada did with the vial. She was struggling to process all the information. "Him? Dad, who are you talking about?"

  The door to the house burst open.

  "Shit, he's here. You two, quickly, through the window." He opehe window, and Irgos climbed out immediately. Arada was about to do the same, but it was already too te. The door to the room slowly opened.

  "My deepest apologies for interrupting your little gathering..."

  A tall, thin man appeared in the open doorway. He wore a long, bck robe and walked in socks and slippers. Long, bck curls cascaded to his shoulders, a stark trast to his vampire-pale skin. His face was wrinkle-free and sisted of an oversized nose, absurdly high cheekbones, and a grimaewhere between a sneer and a straight line. But the most striking thing about this man was his eyes. They were the first thing that caught Arada's attention. Even a child a few weeks old would reize that glint.

  Pure evil.

  In the hallway behind him stood two other people. The left one was a bald, burly man, whose face was a mess of wrinkles. He was dressed in an eroded bck suit, with a strange, pink piece of cloth with a poiip hanging from his colrbohe right person was bald as well, but clearly resembled the slim figure of a woman. Her clothes seemed as if she'd worn them her whole life, and some sort of metal bracelet was tied around her left wrist. Remarkable was that they both kept their eyes closed.

  The man tinued speaking, his voice embodying all the ess and sadistic pleasure the world had to offer.

  "...but we have some unfinished business, Cura."

  Hearing his name, Cura froze as the man's mouth twisted into a grin that stretched from ear to ear. He dropped his e, which cttered to the floor, causing him to lose his band fall backward onto the bed. He wao say something but couldn't, either from ck of words or fear.

  Arada couldn't hold back. "What the hell is going on?" she shouted.

  Without answering, the man broadened his grin. He approached the bed where Cura y, pushing him bato the mattress. He fished around in one of the robe's pockets and pulled out a long, sharp knife.

  "Get away from him!" Arada yelled. She tried to e to Cura's aid, but the two people with closed eyes in the doorrang into a. They rushed frabbed her, and tried to pin her against the wall. Due to her position, only her lower back pressed against the wall, with her upper body partially through the window. Despite the awkward ahey held her firmly.

  They did all of this without opening their eyes.

  "Let me go, you bastards." She struggled to break free by twisting and kig, but to no avail. Their grip was iron-strong.

  Cura tried to resist, but the man with the knife held him down. He pressed the bde against his throat, relishing his trol.

  "The past always catches up with you, my sweet Cura," he said. "Holy, I must admit, I didn't expect it would take this long for us to cross paths again."

  "How did you cross the Ebros?" Cura asked. "It was destroyed een years ago." A small droplet of blood appeared on his throat.

  "Eighteen," the man corrected him. "We rebuilt it. Using wooden poles. I wanted a perma bridge to the eastern part of this nd."

  "And that took you eighteen years?"

  "Does that seem long to you? I'm in no rush. Isn't it o enjoy yourself before everything goes down?"

  The man's grin broadened even more. "I've waited a long time for this day, Cura. Overmore was the st pce where people remained. And finally, we're here." He threw his hands up in a celebratesture. "While my men deal with the vilge, I savor o glimpse of my—"

  "Shut up!" Arada shouted, struggling against the force of four strong hands. "Do you even know what's ing out of your mouth, you idiot? You should—"

  "Don't wirl," the man interrupted her. "I kly what I'm doing."

  And then, everything happe once.

  The man pulled the knife away from her father's throat and plu deep into one of his arms. He shouted with such a powerful voice that it must have echoed through the entire vilge. Arada watched helplessly as it happened, but she didn't have long to process it. She noticed the grip of her ttors had suddenly weakened. She was yanked by her upper body and pulled backward out the window.

  * * *

  Irgos sat below the window, listening to everything being said. He saw his sister pressed up against the window above him.

  I have to help her, but how?

  He looked at his palm, where the half- still y. He pocketed it a something else inside. Pulling out the sharpener bde, he remembered he'd fotten to return it to Arada yesterday. She'd to sharpen her pencils.

  Irgos thought over his options. Looking up, he could make out three, no, four hands gripping the open window frame. He gathered his ce as he started to devise a pn—

  Cura's scream was deafening.

  Without hesitation, Irgos stood up. He saw his sister being held by twely dressed—bald individuals with their eyes closed. He she sharpener bde in half, driving each piece deep into one of the hands gripping her. It worked and their grip lessened. Irgos ed his arms around her waist, pulling her out of the window. Her legs swung through the air, and they tumbled to the ground, nding atop one another.

  * * *

  As Arada fell out of the window and saw the sharpener bdes stig in the hands of her captors, she realized what her brother had done. She rolled off him, stood up immediately, and helped him to his feet.

  "We have to get out of here. Now."

  She couldn't believe what she had just witnessed. Right before being pulled out of the window, she'd had to watch as that horrible man had stabbed his father while his screams were getting louder. There was nothing they could do. These people were crazy, and they couldn't stay another minute.

  "And your father?" Irgos asked. "We 't just leave him—"

  "Master," called the voice of the bald female attacker from inside. "She's esg."

  The man inside had heard it and ended Cura's torture. He withdrew the knife from his arm and slit his throat. A gurgling sound came as blood spilled from his mouth, and seds ter his body y lifeless on the bed.

  For a sed Arada's world stopped pletely.

  "Go after them," ordered the 'Master.' "Ohe rest are done dismantling the vilge, we'll send reinforts."

  The other assaint—the one in the big bck suit—looked up in surprise. "Them?"

  "I could sense another presence," said the Master. "There are two of them."

  Arada looked at her brother with a panicked expression, then gnced back at the window. The bald man and woman began climbing out.

  "Run!" she shouted.

  "Don't let them escape!" came the Master's shout from behind.

  Like lightning, they bolted dowreet. Their bald pursuers were close on their heels. Arada gnced back.

  Please, let them not be as fast as we are.

  * * *

  Arada and Irgos weaved through the chaos. Arada looked around. Overmore was in ruins. The Master's minions were everywhere. Houses were being leveled with gigantic hammers nearly two meters long. Screams filled the evening air. Skulls were crushed, leaving blood sptters on walls and paths. It was a nightmare.

  Most of the attackers were more focused oroying homes than pursuing two fugitives. Their footsteps were drowned out by the many screams and hammer blows. No one paid them any mind.

  But Arada noticed something: all the followers she saw were bald and had their eyes closed. How could they carry out such acts if they couldn't see?

  They turned down a left street, heading back toward Arada's . For a moment, their pursuers were out of sight.

  Arada was struggling to think clearly. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she recalled what the Master had doo her father.

  Hold it together. Emotions e ter.

  They ran dowh and reached a-jun in the vilge. They turned right. Immediately on the left was Arada's , or at least what was left of it. They stopped to catch their breath, staring at the wreckage.

  Her had been pletely leveled. Stones and pieces of wood were strewn everywhere. Among the debris stood a small, stocky figure holding a hammer, who was as bald and blind as all the others. They looked disappoihat there wasn't a victim ihen the figure looked up and saw them standing there.

  With wide eyes, the stocky person raised the hammer and charged at them with a scream. From the sound of it, she was a woman.

  Arada and Irgos bolted away, and Arada flinched as something whizzed just past the back of her head. The stout woman had thrown the hammer, crushing the stones of a house to their right. If she'd been even a sed slower, the same would've happeo her skull.

  They sped down the short road, out of the vilge. Fortunately, the stout woman didn't have the stamina of the two siblings; she gave up the chase halfway. But to their horror, Arada gnced back to see their twinal pursuers—the ones who were with the Master just minutes ago—rounding the er. The stout woman looked surprised as the bald man and woman raced past her.

  For Arada and Irgos, there was only oion: run. Ohey were out of the vilge, they tinued over the fields that surrounded Overmore. They were in good shape, better than the Master's followers. But that was no reason to stop. After a while, the rural ndscape gave way to a forested area, which offered some relief from the blood-warm evening sun. The residents of Overmore rarely ventured here, only in summer to pick fruits, cool off, ather wood for campfires.

  Occasionally, they'd find a falleree, which they reused as building material for more homes. But no o further north than this forest—it was simply too dangerous.

  Irgos realized this too and came to a halt.

  "Stop!" he called.

  "What?" His sister stopped and turned around.

  "We 't go further. The forest marks the boundary of the danger zone."

  "We have to. The danger behind us is greater." She pointed back toward their vilge.

  They looked at each other. There wasn't much choice.

  And so, Arada and Irgos were forced to cross through the forest. After another half-hour of running, they reached the edge and emerged into a more opehey stopped, panting, and hid behind a tree at the forest's edge, listening for footsteps. After five minutes without hearing anyone following, they started to calm down a little and took in the surroundings beyond the forest.

  In front of them y a long, wide gray strip, which clearly resembled a road. The road, divided in two by a white line in the middle, came from the west and veered northward.

  Weeds had rown maions - some lightly, others so dehat the surface was barely visible. The setting sun cast a glimmering yer over the road, and the faint, hot wind grew stronger, as if giving a siint to what had just happened in Overmore. In the distance, dark clouds gathered above the ndscape.

  During their frantic escape, they hadn't said a word to each other, saving their breath for running. It created a terrible, pressing silence, an unfortable feeling they'd never experienced before.

  Arada was the first to break the silence.

  "We'll have to keep moving. On foot."

  "Wait," Irgos responded. "Cura told us not to go into the Old World. That it's too dangerous there. Besides, there are the jelly monsters, which—"

  "That was before that deranged gang attacked our vilge," Arada interrupted him. "We don't have a choice."

  "But—"

  Arada walked over to her brother and put her hands on his shoulders. "I don't want this either. But look, if I had to choose between a murderous madman chasing us with his gang, or a few jelly monsters wandering through the remnants of the Old World, I'd still prefer the tter." She lowered her head. "We'll have to take the risk and follow this road on foot to get as far away from here as possible. Along the way, we'll see if we find food and supplies. With any luck, we might find horses."

  Irgos was still in shock from everything that had just happened. It was clear he couldn't uand how his sister could think so practically and quickly. "H-how you think like this after everything that's happened?" he stammered.

  There ause. After a moment, she said, "If I don't…" She raised her head again, a tear rolling down her cheek.

  "...we won't survive this."