Harvey flinched as the serene night was interrupted by the growl. Turning around, he saw what he could only describe as a living corpse ambling its way toward him. The sickly green flesh, bedraggled clothing, and stuttered gait all fit the description of a zombie given by hundreds of movies and video games, but there didn’t appear to be any flesh rotting off of its bones. It had human eyes trained on Harvey as he began to shuffle nervously backwards.

  Harvey couldn’t explain why, but an uncontrollable panic overwhelmed any sense of reason left in his reconstructed body. Of course, watching a real-life zombie stroll out of an onyx black forest was reason enough to be terrified, but it was as if he was fighting some magical paralysis.

  His brain told him to turn and run, but his body wouldn’t listen. The zombie was barely moving at a walking pace, but Harvey’s terrified stumbling wasn’t much faster. His hands shook like a massage gun as adrenaline flooded his system, and an unholy scream escaped his lips as he began fumbling with his robes. He was trying to get to the wand held snugly in his belt, but his jerking motions kept getting caught up in the folds of the loose cloth. When the zombie was within 10 feet, he finally yanked it free and pointed at its head.

  “Ah ha!” He yelled, triumphant

  Nothing happened.

  “Um. Um! Ah.” Harvey stammered as he continued shuffling backwards. How did he actually use a wand? He could imagine what a minor arcane bolt could look like, but that didn’t tell him anything about conjuring one.

  “Arcane Bolt!” He screamed, the sound coming out like the yelp of a child who had a spider leap towards them.

  Nothing happened.

  He furiously waved the stick up and down as the zombie continued its emotionless march. When the creature was within arm’s reach, his fight or flight response finally beat out his panic, and he turned to run. And run he did, straight into a tree. A loud smack came as he barreled headfirst into the black trunk, dropping his wand and stumbling back towards the zombie. Brown blood began leaking from his nose just as a bony hand grabbed his left shoulder.

  The creature swung at him in a wide arc, punching him in the side of the head before straining to put him in a chokehold. He heard the vicious snarl and felt the cold breath of his attacker as it tried to pull him in and bite his neck. Nowhere left to run, Harvey went deadweight and flopped to the ground before its teeth could sink in.

  Luckily, the billowing robe did not fit snug to his skin, and he managed to slip out, leaving the zombie holding empty cloth. Harvey scrambled away on all fours, black grime coating his hands and clothing as decaying leaves squelched beneath him. The sick taste of iron coated his tongue as blood dripped into his mouth through haggard breaths.

  Unfazed, the zombie dropped his robe and continued its pursuit. Harvey did the only thing he could think of. Running towards a tree with a low branch, he jumped up and got both arms over it. The branch held, but he struggled to get a strong enough hold to hoist himself up onto it. Cursing all the time spent playing video games instead of climbing trees as a kid, his feet kicked empty air as he scrambled to climb. Cold fear shot through his spine as a bony hand grasped at his flailing ankles. With the branch solidly held in his armpits, he placed his boot on the zombie’s face and pushed off. The zombie stumbled back, and he boosted himself to safety.

  Scrambling, he climbed a few branches higher until he was sitting in the tree crown 15 feet or so above the ground. He felt like his lungs might collapse as he gasped for breath. His hands were slick black with grime, and his shirt was nearly soaked through in sweat. Looking down, the zombie glared up at him, human eyes devoid of everything but hunger.

  Rustling cut through the branches, and a man burst into view holding a short sword and wearing the same leather armor he had been offered in the void. With no hesitation, he slashed toward the throat of the walking corpse, cutting a deep gash until the blade bit into bone. Thick, black ichor bled from the wound as the zombie turned to send a haymaker at his head, but he effortlessly ducked the strike before hacking down on it like a lumberjack chopping wood. It wasn’t with the grace of a swordsman, but the power of an athlete that he dismembered the corpse.

  He was tall and muscular, with a square jaw and the same strange amalgamation of tan and gray flesh Harvey had. A high and tight cut of chestnut brown streaked with jet black hair covered his head. He stood confidently, shoulders back and eyes sharp as he searched the clearing. The tattooed weave looked almost natural on his exposed skin, while Harvey felt out of place wearing his new ink.

  “Hello! Miss? Run to my voice, I can help you.” The man called out as he inspected the fallen wand and discarded robe lying on the ground near the slain undead.

  “Up here.” Harvey wheezed as he began coughing

  Alarm flashed on the man’s face as his head whipped to face him. For a moment, he saw the eyes of a wolf deciding whether to hunt or run, but it quickly softened when he realized Harvey wasn’t a threat. One deep brown eye was surrounded by healthy skin, while the other matched his gunmetal gray with a teal iris set into concrete.

  “Was that you who screamed earlier?” The man asked.

  “Yeah, I got ambushed by that thing right when I got here,” Harvey responded.

  “Was there a woman with you?” The man continued.

  “A woman? No, it’s just me. Why?” Harvey asked.

  “I just thought I heard…” The man began before stopping himself. “Never mind. Need a hand?”

  “Nah, I got it,” Harvey said as he began climbing down the tree. He moved awkwardly, his hands still shaking when he reached to shake the stranger's hand. “Thanks for the save, I’m Harvey.”

  “Julian. Glad I could help.” The man replied. “Do you have any idea where we are? How we got here?”

  “No idea, I had just… Well.” Harvey began, not feeling comfortable explaining that he had just purposely crashed his car. “I was in some void where I couldn’t feel anything when a mirror showed up, and a voice started talking about my legacy.”

  “The same happened to me. One moment I’m trying to get a family out of a collapsing house fire, and the next I’m floating in space.” Julian replied nonchalantly.

  “A house fire? That’s pretty intense,” Harvey responded

  “You’d think so, but after a few years, you realize we’ve got a pretty great system for saving what matters most. As long as we're notified in time, we can usually get everyone out. Then it’s just about salvaging as much of the home as possible.” Julian added.

  “I’ve never heard anyone put it like that before. You’re a firefighter then?”

  “Yeah, have been for about 6 years now,” Julian confirmed.

  “Well, you’re great at saving people. Thanks for killing that thing.” Harvey remarked.

  “Don’t mention it, I had my own zombie breathing down my neck when I showed up.” Julian sighed. “By the way, did the mirror also call you a veilstrider?” Julian asked.

  “Yeah. Didn’t seem like the most important detail at the time, but looking at us, I guess it’s true we’re not human anymore.” Harvey answered.

  “Do you have any idea what that is?” Julian continued.

  “Not exactly. But growing up in church, I remember hearing the veil described as the divide between life and the afterlife. Maybe that’s what this is? We’re somewhere between living and dead.” Harvey suggested.

  “That sounds about right.” Julian said, prodding the dead zombie and examining the strange forest around them, “This your robe?”

  “Yeah, these are mine,” Harvey chuckled nervously as he stepped over the corpse and extracted his gear before the growing pool of ichor soaked it.

  “Well, I think it’s smart for us to stick together. I have no idea where we are or how we got here, but the Boy Scouts use the buddy system in the wilderness for a reason, right?” Julian laughed. “Know how to use that thing?” He said, pointing at the wand Harvey was returning to his belt.

  “No idea. I think it comes with a spell, but I didn’t have time to figure it out before I got attacked.” Harvey explained as he took a closer look at the wand. Suddenly, he felt a gentle nudge in his mind that opened a screen when he focused on it.

  Item: Infantry Wand | G Grade | Common

  Effect: A basic wand capable of channeling raw essence into minor arcane bolts. The power of each bolt scales with the user’s Wisdom stat.

  “Wait, a description popped up. It says I can channel essence into it to create bolts of magic.” Harvey announced, prompting Julian to take a closer look at his own weapon. “How am I supposed to channel essence into a wand though…” He mumbled

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  “This is so cool,” Julian said, staring at his own weapon. “Apparently, the sword sharpens itself.”

  Harvey didn’t hear him as he pondered the problem of channeling raw essence. He didn’t even know what essence was. If he compared it to a game, essence should be mana. Raw power transformed into magical effects by the wand or the wizard. Simple in theory, but there wasn’t a blue bar anywhere telling him he had any essence at all.

  There were a few strange sensations in his body that he couldn’t quite put a finger on. Some were obviously due to the panic and confusion of everything changing so fast, but others had to be due to becoming a veilstrider. The thought of not being human anymore almost sent him over the edge, but he bottled up the anxiety and put it on a shelf for later. He couldn’t afford to lose his cool again so soon in front of Julian. Harvey knew he was hopeless on his own and couldn’t risk looking like a liability at this juncture.

  As he thought about his new race and the changes to his body, he remembered the thin tattooed lines snaking down his arms, into his palms, and ending at his fingertips. The System had called it his weave, and they reminded him of veins covering his entire body. He imagined those lines connecting him with the wand, and something in the wood responded.

  The stick didn’t become an extra limb or anything, but he could feel it was an empty vessel waiting to be filled. A battery waiting to be charged. Feeling what the wand wanted, Harvey was able to find the energy floating around his own body and urged it to flow through his weave.

  A small, steely-blue ball emerged at the tip, and when Harvey flicked his hand towards a nearby tree, it shot into the trunk. A firecracker sharp boom rang out, leaving splintering cracks in its wake. It didn’t singe the wood, the bolt acting more like a cannonball.

  “Whoa!” Harvey yelped as the crack of the impact broke his concentration, visibly shaken by the noise.

  “There you go!” Julian laughed. “You’re a wizard. Now all we need is to find you a pointy hat.”

  “How are you so calm right now? You just killed two zombies and learned that magic is real?” Harvey sputtered.

  “Honestly, I don’t know,” Julian replied. “When you put your life in danger every day, you start to trust that you’ll make it out the other side. And if you don’t, it’s not like you’ll be alive to care.”

  “I’m not sure that’s true. It sounds like you might have died in that house fire.” Harvey said

  “Well, if I did, that just means even death can’t stop me!” Julian responded, putting a comforting hand on Harvey's shoulder. “You make a good point, though. What happened to you before you got here?”

  “I was…” Harvey began, unsure whether he should tell the truth. “I think I was in a car crash.” He finally said, deciding the specifics weren’t important right now.

  “That’s terrible. At least it looks like our stories are not over yet. We need to keep moving and see if we can find anyone else.” Julian consoled

  “Agreed, just watch my back in case any more zombies try to eat my neck,” Harvey replied.

  The two walked together through the blackened trees, making small talk as they surveyed their surroundings. There was forest on all sides, so they moved where the ground gently sloped upward, hoping to find a better vantage point. Julian shared that despite being only a few years older than Harvey at 28, he had a wife and two young kids at home. He spoke with a reverent smile as he talked about them. Slowly, it fell to a concerned frown as he realized they most likely thought he was dead.

  “What about you? Got a girl? Kids? Family?” Julian asked as he glanced back.

  “Umm, no wife or kids, but I do have some family in Arizona. I’ve got two younger brothers and a sister. The youngest, Max, has Down syndrome and is the cutest 12-year-old you’ll ever meet. Give him some fries and he’ll scream like he just won the lottery! I hope I get to see him again someday.” Harvey replied, joy turning to sorrow.

  “You gotta keep the faith burning, man. We’re alive, aren’t we?” Julian asked.

  “I think so? The System said something about an Integration trial. If Earth really is being added to some multiverse, hopefully there’s a way back for us.” Harvey sighed.

  “Where there’s a will, there’s a way. I need to raise my children, and you need to hug your brother.” Julian encouraged.

  As the pair continued walking, Harvey felt like he was being watched. Julian must have felt the same as they both went silent, the only noise coming from the fallen leaves under their feet and the gentle sway of branches in the wind.

  Looking up, he saw a black shadow amongst the leaves. His heart skipped a beat until he realized it was just a bird. It had the round shape of an owl, and appeared to be facing away from them as Harvey couldn’t see any eyes reflecting the moonlight at him.

  Suddenly, it exited the tree crown and flew straight at Harvey, beak open wide. He was shocked to see empty sockets in a black skull where its eyes should be. Rotting skin with mottled black feathers covered half of its body, with the rest exposed bone leaking tar-black viscera. The owl screeched as it aimed its taloned claws towards his face, and Harvey screamed before raising his arms to block. Claws dug into his forearms, piercing flesh before pulling back to strike again. Black rot from the bird's gaping chest joined the brown blood leaking from his own wounds, and an unholy stench assaulted his nostrils while he struggled to keep the sharp beak away from his face.

  The bird lunged once more before a strike by Julian’s blade threw it away. The clatter of bones grinding together rattled in Harvey’s panicked mind as the owl was thrown to the ground. The bird shouldn’t even be alive, let alone flying. It had no eyes. No brain. The shoulder where one of its wings connected to the body was pure bone, with no flesh or muscle holding it together, yet it still managed to flap itself upright with a jerking, impossible motion.

  Reaching for his wand, Harvey began frantically channeling essence as he aimed to destroy the monstrosity.

  The first bolt grazed its wing, knocking it off balance as shards of bone shot into the night. Another struck the owl's chest, throwing it backwards, and the third broke its form entirely, scattering bone and rot across the forest floor. A gentle ding rang out in his mind, and a mental nudge like when he inspected his wand called for his attention. He answered, and a screen appeared.

  You have slain Level 1 - Carrionwing. Essence gained. 47 Merit Earned

  Harvey read the message, calling the sick bird a Carrionwing and confirming he’d killed it. When he was done, it disappeared with a thought.

  “Kill notification? I couldn’t see yours, but I got one too. I guess we both get credit if we’re both in the fight.” Julian asked.

  “Yeah. What was that thing?” Harvey exclaimed.

  “A carrionwing? Did your screen not have a name?” Julian asked, confused.

  “It did, but have you ever seen anything like that before! The physics alone make absolutely no sense.” Harvey shrieked as he tenderly dabbed at the bleeding gashes on his forearms. Again, his mind raced at lightspeed while his body lost all control. He was in pain, but not enough to feel so hysterical.

  “Well, what does physics have to say about magic wands?” Julian laughed.

  “I mean, you’re right, but.” Harvey began before they heard a scream nearby.

  Without hesitating, Julian ran towards the noise, and Harvey scrambled after him. He quickly learned that it was not fun running in a robe, and wondered why that was always the clothing of choice for wizards in movies. He tried his best to keep up, but Julian outpaced him by quite a bit. Ahead, he saw what appeared to be a slender woman sprinting in their direction. She shrieked again when she saw Julian running towards her, sword in hand, and tried to dodge to the side, only making it a few feet before tripping over a root. Without a word, Julian moved past her and stood guard.

  “Don’t worry, we’re here to help,” Julian said as Harvey caught up, moving between him and the woman.

  “D-Dog!” The woman managed to yell as a rust-red hound came bounding towards them. It barked and snarled as it charged, taking mere seconds to reach Julian’s awaiting blade. Harvey flinched with each bark and instinctively moved to place Julian between himself and the hound.

  Slashing his sword towards the beast, it jumped back and coiled low to the ground, wiry muscle showing through the furless, rust colored skin covering its legs. The hound gnashed its teeth and stared up at Julian, but didn’t pounce for fear of meeting his blade.

  “Stand behind me! Harvey, if you have a shot, take it!” Julian yelled.

  The hound was bounding from side to side as it tried getting around Julian, but with careful footwork, he moved to keep the beast between him and the fallen woman. Whenever it tried to dash around him, Julian slashed down to block its path, forcing it to retreat.

  Harvey looked for an opening, but worried the constant movement might cause him to hit Julian instead. Something needed to break the stalemate, but he couldn’t bring himself to step out of the cover Julian provided to get a cleaner shot. He could see crimson blood dripping down the hound’s midsection where an arrow protruded from it, sunk barely past the arrowhead. Its eyes were filled with rage, but it maintained the keen determination of a hunter, laser-focused on its prey.

  Harvey was holding the wand with a white-knuckle grip, nearly paralyzed by fear. Being startled by the weird skeletal owl had overwhelmed his panic and shocked him into action. The pain of its talons piercing flesh gave him the presence of mind to react. But now, facing this snarling beast the size of a husky, spraying saliva as it looked for an opportunity to tear them apart, he was paralyzed. Neither party had committed to a full-on attack, but Harvey could see the hound wouldn’t back down. Julian was stalwart, but didn’t have much experience with a sword, swinging it more like a bat than a blade.

  With a jerking motion, the hound feinted right before darting through Julian's legs and charging towards Harvey. He stumbled backwards, falling onto the ground as the hound used his body as a springboard to leap at the terrified woman. He heard a crash and turned to see the hound pin her to the ground, raking sharp claws across her chest and moving to bite down on her throat. Acting quickly, Julian charged into it, throwing it off the screaming woman and pinning it on its back, where it began awkwardly clawing and straining to bite into him.

  “Shoot this thing!” Julian yelled as he strained to hold the dog in place while staying as far from its razor-sharp teeth as possible

  Something about Julian’s voice shook Harvey from his stupor. He rolled over onto his stomach, pointed the wand, and launched bolt after bolt into its torso. Each bolt caused it to convulse from the impact, yelps of pain and anger turning to scared whimpers. Even when Harvey got the notification confirming the kill, he kept manically shooting until the body stopped moving.

  You have slain Level 1 - Bloodrunn. Essence Gained. 45 Merit Earned

  A warm glow shone from Julian’s weave as the hound died. The woman was violently shaking and grasped the bleeding wound on her neck, gushing blood. Julian knelt beside her.

  “Drink,” he commanded as he took one of the red vials from his belt, opened it, and poured the ruby liquid into her mouth. She gurgled a bit, but he closed her mouth, forcing her to swallow. The instant she did, her wounds began visibly closing, and within seconds, the gashes on her throat and chest had closed. She was still covered in blood and muck, but miraculously, all of her wounds had healed.

  “Th- thank you.” She said with a shaky voice.

  “No problem,” Julian replied just as a bright light erupted from his forearm. He groaned in pain as the energy collected into a small pattern before attaching to the tattooed vein that stretched up towards his torso. Julian extended his hand to the fallen woman to help her to her feet. After pulling herself up, she kept hold of Julian’s hand and turned it to get a better look at his forearm.

  “What was that?” She asked.