The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

  - Socrates -

  My eyes linger on the text box. Dread becomes my muse.

  [ Quest: Herb Gathering ]

  It’s going to happen again, all of it. The system is fucking with me. There’s no way that I can defeat the Lich, no way that we can survive… I need to warn everyone… I need to… my eyes blink through the tears as Tran and Barlow hide me from everyone. There is something strange budding up from the ground in front of me. Something intimately familiar. A small vine.

  My nerves begin to fray as I see the red sparking energy beginning to form on the quest text box. It’s coming. I want to stand, I want to scream, but I’m somehow entranced by the vine. My hand traces the small vine as it begins to grow faster, spindling into the bud of a small purple flower… the same kind that I put on Cortez’s chest when she… A voice flows into my mind, soft like an autumn breeze on a warm day. Time crawls as it speaks, the wheat swaying more slowly. The flower blossoming in my hand as each word strikes inside me.

  Those who call to me shall not find me

  Those who worship me shall not know me

  Only the one who does not seek me shall feel my love

  Embrace my blessing

  Know my power

  Champion of Death

  The flower fully bloomed falls into my hand with barely a tug. Time flowing back to normal. The quest text box rolling with red energy suddenly shifts.

  [ Herb Gathering Quest: Completed ]

  My eyes blink at it, then down to the flower in my hand.

  “Completed?” Tran says, swiping at the air, “Is my system interface glitching?”

  “No,” Barlow says, staring intently in front of him, “Mine says the same thing.”

  “That’s got to be a record, right?” Tran asks.

  More text boxes appear. The standard gate clearing ones we see before it sends us back to Earth.

  [ Congratulations Hunters ]

  [ Gate closing sequence initiated ]

  [ Goodbye ]

  A gust of wind, and everyone is gone… except me. Why didn’t I get sent back? My heart begins to thud in my chest. The skies begin to darken. A new series of text boxes appear… all in red text.

  [ System Notice ]

  [ Warning: You have been marked as… deviant ]

  [ Tread Carefully Hunter ]

  Lightning arcs in the darkened skies ominously. The thunder rumbling my chest. Then, the air snaps suddenly, and I feel that familiar feeling of being pulled through a gateway. My eyes blink and I’m… back. On the flight line. Hundreds of aircrafts bearing the UWO crest emblazoned on them in the distance. Around me, spaced evenly apart are people. All the people we brought, all the vehicles, everything. Just like a regular run. Except that wasn’t a regular run. A blue text box appears.

  [ System Notice ]

  [ Rewards for gate completion issued ]

  [ View rewards now? ]

  [ Yes / No ]

  Swiping the box out of my way, I look around for Tran and Barlow. There.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “Tran! Barlow!” I yell, rushing to them.

  “Yeah,” Tran says, swiping through his interface, or I assume he is, I can’t see it.

  “You good now?” Barlow asks, also in his interface, “Dude, what’s up with the quest rewards?”

  “Right?” Tran says with a smile.

  Tran and Barlow are alive. The gate is over… it’s actually over.

  Looking around, I see the old off-worlder elf Trevanius, alive. Moving further, I see Sergeant Brussels, even the bubble popper Sergeant First Class Romero is alive.

  If they’re alive… my feet turn toward the Platoon hangers. It starts as a lengthened stride, I hear Tran yell something, but I need to know. I’m supposed to wait to be dismissed, but fuck it. I have to see.

  Rushing faster now, my jog becoming a sprint, sweat beading down my brow in the high afternoon heat. Doesn’t matter, I keep going, until I see someone. A person who burned the memory of their bravery into my mind. Walking briskly is Lieutenant Tenny. Rendering a salute I rush up to her, startling her a little as she returns the salute.

  “It’s good to see you, ma’am,” I say pulling my salute down after she does.

  She looks at my rank and then my nametape before asking, “Have we met before, Specialist Novak?”

  Shit. That’s right, she wouldn’t know me. I’d never worked with her directly before… before the gate that killed us all.

  “Are you alright?” she asks, scrunching her face.

  “Yes ma’am, sorry ma’am,” I say.

  “Right, well, carry on.”

  She leaves, giving a confused look backward after a couple paces. Fuck. I’m glad she’s alive. We need more people like her. Good officers are hard to come by with the way promotions can work in the UWO military.

  A flicker of memory brushes my senses, there’s someone else more burned into my memory than Lieutenant Tenny. My head spins, my legs moving without asking me.

  Rushing, I’m almost there, when I see him. My jaw tenses, raw fucking emotions welling up as I remember his sacrifice. Hold the Line. I shake it off. Coming up to him, he gives me a confused look.

  “Why aren’t you knee deep in a green gate right now?” Staff Sergeant Mwangi asks me.

  Changing my stance to parade rest, “Gate’s cleared, Sergeant.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “No bullshit, Sergeant.”

  He squints at me, pulling up his system interface to send a message I’m guessing. His eyebrow raises.

  “Well damn,” he says, then looking at me sternly, “Did you skip close out formation?”

  I pause, he shakes his head letting out a sigh.

  “It’s an honor working with you, Sergeant,” I say, more sincerely than I ever have before. He stares at me for a few moments, doing that thing he does where he measures someone.

  “I’m not giving you a weekend pass,” he says, raising an eyebrow at me, “You’re still on extra duty.”

  “Roger Sergeant, hooah.”

  He nods to me and cracks his neck before leaving me, a faint smile on his mouth. My legs move again, more hurried this time, more desperate. I need to see her. There’s so much that I wish I would have said. I’m not losing this chance.

  Making it into our Platoons hanger, most people are still hitting the weights or playing games at the tables. My eyes trace over to Cortez’s perch, empty. Heart pounding I step further in. Heading for it.

  “Novak?”

  The voice hits me so hard that I can’t move, air doesn’t even want to fill my lungs. Cortez. She’s alive. Everyone is alive. She walks in front of me, even in a standard issue uniform she’s ridiculously beautiful.

  “Weren’t you supposed to do a gate run with Second Platoon?” she asks, tilting her head at me.

  “Cleo,” I begin, suddenly nervous, fuck, I died, we all died, man up.

  She gives me a look hearing her first name, people are starting to stare, but I don’t care, I don’t fucking care. Not right now.

  “I think I’m in love with you.”

  She blinks hard. Then again. Her mouth moving like it’s going to say something, but it doesn’t. The flower is still in my hand, so I hold it out. She looks confused but she grabs it.

  “Oh shit,” someone says behind me, “Guys! Novak’s confessing!”

  People start piling around like a bunch of dumbasses, hooting and hollering, whistling. But I don’t care. I’m here for her.

  Cortez walks over to her spot on the couch, everyone becoming silent as she sets the flower down, grabbing her canteen. Walking up to me now, right in my face, less than a breath. She raises the canteen over my head and pours it on me. Ice cold water runs down my face.

  “Is that a cold enough shower for you?” she asks loudly enough for everyone to hear, raising an eyebrow at me, the other twitching. It always twitches when she’s mad, or in this case, given the flush of her cheeks, embarrassed.

  For some reason though, seeing her like this, able to show her emotions again. It makes me smile.

  “Not nearly cold enough,” I say quietly, just loud enough that she can hear over everyone laughing at my expense.

  She swallows, squinting her eyes at me before turning and leaving.

  “Damn,” a guy next to me says, “That was hard to watch.”

  His forced back smile makes me think differently. All of them are smiling, and laughing. I would have too. Doesn’t matter, she knows. Balls in her court now.

  “Yo!” a familiar voice yells, “Novak, what the fuck bro?”

  It’s Tran, with Barlow close behind.

  “Where’d you go? You missed close out formation, Romero is pissed,” Barlow says between breaths.

  “There was just something I had to do,” I say.

  “Why are you all wet?” Tran asks.

  “Long story.”

  “He just got rejected,” the guy from before says, “Hard as fuck too.”

  “Who?” Barlow asks, he knows who, but him and Tran know it’s supposed to be a secret. One that I just made very public.

  “Cortez.”

  “I fucking missed that?” Tran says, eyes bulging, “Novak what the fuck?”

  Him and Barlow slap me on the shoulder.

  “It’ll buff,” Barlow says, pulling me closer, “Come on, let’s close out so we can get some fucking beers.”

  Following with them for now. How do I tell them that I’m not in the mood? How do you tell someone that you watched them get split in half by a flaming sword and then unsplit in half by some kind of… I don’t know what she is. That… entity? Should I call her a Goddess? I don’t really believe in that stuff. A frustrated sigh comes out. Ulana, whatever she is, she told me in no uncertain terms to not talk about what happened. Is there some kind of punishment if I do? Do I really want to risk pissing her off? Fuck. I don’t know.

  What I do know is, I wasn’t ready for what happened. Now that I’ve seen everyone is alive, I need to figure out what the fuck happened. That ominous red text screen is playing through my mind again. Something tells me that being marked by a system that has killed half the Earth’s population isn’t a good thing. I need information. I need to prepare. But above all… I need to get stronger, much fucking stronger.

  “Bro?” Tran asks, giving me a look, we still haven’t talked about why I was crying before. That’s the first time either of them has seen me like that. First time I’ve cried since… my dad.

  “I’m good.”

  “Yeah?” Barlow asks, giving me a glance.

  “Yeah.”

  “Good,” Tran says.

  “Good,” Barlow says.

  “Paperwork, then beers,” Tran says with a sigh.

  Not really like us three to talk about feelings. We’ve been through plenty of shit before. Not like that though, never that bad. That was… bad.

  ***

  After dropping off our rifles at the Armory, conducting the close out briefing, and being cleared by medical. We made our way to our assigned barracks, and downloaded our rucksacks in our barracks rooms, it’s nearly nightfall. Tran and Barlow are wearing civilian clothes even though we’re on extra duty still. Probably going to get chewed out for not reporting to the Staff Duty, but whatever, we technically cleared a gate. Comes with a mandatory 24 hours off.

  “You ready Jimmy?” Barlow asks from my room’s doorway.

  I’m still in uniform, I kind of zoned out thinking about everything once I dropped my rucksack.

  “I think I’m going to stay in tonight guys.”

  Tran gives Barlow a look, then a sigh.

  “We can stay with you if you want?” Barlow offers.

  “Nah, I’m good, have a few beers for me.”

  They both nod, both with a worried expression, but they respect that I don’t want to talk about it. Not yet at least. Not until I figure it all out.

  As soon as they leave and the door shuts, I sit down on the edge of my bed. Pulling up my system interface. There’s a bunch of notifications. Messages from people. Sergeant First Class Romero, probably to chew me out, Staff Sergeant Mwangi, probably to tell me that Romero wants to chew me out, and her. Cortez.

  Before I get to those though, I need to check out the Gate Rewards, everyone was saying they were extra, and besides that, I need to check what the fuck a Witherbrand is. Plus that skill… Respec on Death. My hands about to pull it all up, when I hear a knock at the door.

  Fucks sake. I know they just want to be there for me, but I need to decompress. Sighing, I stand up and move to the door, turning the handle, cracking it.

  “Guys, I’m fine, I just need…”

  “Open the fucking door,” a very not Tran and Barlow voice says.

  My eyes blink, the door swinging open.

  It’s her, Cortez.