"Go, girl, GO!"

  Misabelle had barely spoken before Flox took off, with Zinzia and a paralyzed Morbus trailing closely behind.

  What the hell is going on?

  The screech of car tires echoed alongside the pounding of galloping hooves. The wild ride made Morbus dizzy all over again, his vision blurring once more.

  Even the weather decided to join in. Raindrops began to fall, quickly turning into a torrential downpour that hammered against his bare back.

  After a while, Morbus felt the horses' hooves pounding over a solid surface. It seemed they'd reached the other side of the dried-up riverbed. The old highway was far easier to traverse than the swampy ground.

  Morbus found it hard to gauge where they were now. When they'd set out, they'd followed this road continuously, then turned left and crossed the river. Now that Flox and Zinzia were racing at full speed, they must be almost there.

  Morbus grew even dizzier, hearing the blood rushing in his ears. His body trembled in rhythm with Zinzia's gallop, so much that he could barely feel it anymore. Even with his eyes closed, strange shapes began forming in the darkness behind his eyelids. At first, he thought he might pass out, but something strange happened.

  The shapes behind his eyes became sharper. They took on colors and clear forms—a head, four legs, a sixteen-year-old boy.

  That's me.

  In his mind's eye, he saw himself: how he bounced limply on Zinzia's back, bare-chested. Misabelle's blood-stained t-shirt was still securely tied around his waist. His legs dangled on either side, his feet in the stirrups. His arms loosely wrapped around her neck like a hug. His face looked utterly exhausted, his mouth hung slightly open, and dark circles ringed his closed eyes.

  The image zoomed out. Ahead of Zinzia ran another horse, ridden by a woman in just a tank top. Sweat streamed down her body, and she looked genuinely afraid of something.

  The view shifted, tilting to give Morbus an overhead view of Misabelle and himself. He rose higher and higher, and the two horses grew smaller and smaller. At a certain point, he was so far above that he could see something chasing them, the source of the shrieking, screaming sound.

  Holy shit.

  It was a horde of people—a complete mob. Hundreds, no, thousands of individuals chasing them like mad. Their thin arms dangled limply at their sides, seeming almost muscleless, filing in all directions. They ran so fast that Misabelle could barely shake them off.

  Wait a minute.

  Morbus focused on the figures, trying to see what they really were.

  These aren't people; they're—

  As if the vision could hear him, it immediately shifted. The aerial view disappeared, repced by a close-up of their mysterious pursuers.

  If he could still feel his body, he was sure he'd be sick from what he saw. The 'people' chasing them were more like zombies straight out of a horror movie. Their mouths were so unnaturally rge that they took up nearly their whole faces. Where their eyes and noses once were, there was now a dark, gaping void. The void had expanded so much that it pushed the rest of their features up to their foreheads—small nubs that once were noses, tiny slits that once were eyes. Tendrils hung out of their mouth, and were swinging in all directions with every step, longing for blood. Their hair had fallen out, and the rest of their heads appeared pale and withered.

  Their tattered clothes hinted that they had once been human. But their movement was completely different. They ran far, far faster than any human Morbus had ever seen. Their arms and legs seemed thin, yet full of energy.

  The view shifted again, back to an overhead perspective. His vision focused on Misabelle and himself, with the horde of zombies chasing after them. Morbus could hear the shrill cries that echoed across the pins from deep within the monsters' throats. Rain poured down, and the sky crackled with electricity.

  After a while, he saw the towering Walls of Aquinox come into view on the left. He watched the guards on the Walls point at the situation unfolding on the pins. One of them grabbed his radio and shouted urgently. Not long after, the gate began to rise, clearing a path for Misabelle to enter.

  The guards drew the snipers from their backs and started firing, picking off the screaming monsters one by one. Morbus saw from his vantage point how a few creatures fell onto the road. But there were simply too many to manage.

  When the gate was high enough, Misabelle darted under it. But the zombies seized the opportunity, maintaining their speed and making a move to follow her into Aquinox.

  Morbus was now so high up that he could see both sides of the Wall. To the left was Misabelle, frantically gesturing to two people in uniform. On the right, the horde of mad creatures was approaching rapidly.

  One of the guards moved to a control panel, took out a card, and inserted it. He pced his thumb on the scanner while the other officer barked commands into his radio.

  But it already seemed too te, as the pack of screeching creatures had reached the gate. At least, that's what Morbus thought. The guards had decided to abort the opening process.

  At the exact moment they ran under it, the gate abruptly stopped rising. Within a single second, thirty thousand cubic meters of steel came crashing down.

  The impact was so powerful that the entire city of Aquinox would hear it. Morbus wasn't on the ground, but he could feel the vibrations from up in the air. The noise even drowned out much of the screaming—or was that because three-quarters of the monsters had now been fttened into pancakes?

  The guards on the Walls immediately got to work, shooting down the remaining intruders unlucky enough to still be on the other side of the Wall. Moments ter, the area was cleared.

  Finally. Rest.

  When Morbus thought he would soon wake up from this bird's-eye view and return to his body, the exact opposite happened. He started floating higher and higher. Misabelle and the horses turned into small bck dots, gradually disappearing entirely.

  He was now so high that he could see all of Aquinox. Completely surrounded by those towering Walls, and cut off from the rest of the nd.

  Wow, this city is really massive.

  Suddenly, something changed. The city disappeared, and the rest of the nd faded away. Slowly, a strange white light surrounded him.

  Am I already dead?

  From the light, two figures emerged. The first was a girl with bright red hair, crystal blue eyes, and pearly white skin. She wore a purple jacket and raggedy pants. Beside her stood a boy with messy dark brown hair, thick eyebrows, and a dark blue t-shirt. They were both about the same height and had something about them that made them seem perfectly matched. Morbus estimated they were about the same age as him.

  They had a peaceful expression on their faces, as if they had known him for a very long time.

  Everything's alright, a female voice sounded in his head. You're free now. You've suffered more than enough.

  Morbus wanted to open his mouth when he realized he didn't have one. He could only think.

  What... Who are you? he tried to send to them.

  The red-haired girl reached out her hand, and the boy joined her.. We forgive you, they said telepathically. It is not your fault and never has been.

  Fault?

  Morbus wanted to grab her hand in his mind, but as soon as he tried, the two figures shriveled and dissolved. Instead, a new figure materialized. It had a bck face with big faceted eyes and a long pointed needle as nose. It was dressed in a strange outfit: a bck robe, with a cape on its back and two pairs of thin wings.

  Morbus felt the figure wanted to make contact with him.

  Morbus? he heard in his mind.

  Is that... a mosquito?

  The figure with the mask came closer. Just like the boy and the girl, they offered Morbus a pitch-bck hand.

  "Morbus?" he heard again.

  Wait a minute. That voice isn't coming from them.

  The creature patiently waited for him to accept the handshake. They gave him a wide, uninviting smile, their white teeth a perfect contrast against their bck skin.

  "Morbus. Please!"

  Just as quickly as the figure had appeared, they vanished again. The image began to spin, faster and faster. Morbus was caught in a spiral and realized he was being sucked out of his dream. He felt his heart beating and heard raindrops spshing onto the ground.

  "Oh, thank god."

  Sleepily and with a pounding headache, he opened his eyes. A panicked Misabelle had both hands pressed against his stomach.

  "Morbus, I really thought you were gone. Your heart stopped for five minutes."

  Behind her stood two men in uniform. Hank and Fish Eyes, who were on the evening shift at the northeast gate.

  "You're weak and have lost a lot of blood," Misabelle said urgently. "Medical help is almost here. Just hold on a little longer."

  None of what she said registered. For a second time, his eyes closed, and he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.