The Dead Scout's Handbook of Afterlife Survival

Chapter 32: The Invisible Thing

The group spent a few hours scrounging a suitable breakfast, unchallenged in doing so when freezers were stocked and the weather negated the need for the freezers to keep themselves cold. The five gathered a few changes of clothes and met outside the hotel, now fully collapsed and sunken into its deep foundation. Between the breezes, the stray fires dotting the town hissed as they churned their contents into the air. The corpses of buildings lay strewn into the roads, amongst each other, yet completely alone without their founders.

"I still can't believe what we managed to do here," Charlie marveled.

"We won't be doing it again."

Rebecca nodded firmly, scowled and Cayden thought she muttered: "never again." Apparently, everyone else caught Rebecca's words and were actively considering their meaning.

"Well, we're almost there," Martha broke the silence. "There isn't a lot of ground to cover between here and Cody."

#

And so they marched through the fields, over rounded hilltops, and past jagged boulders. Occasional snow dusted vine structures were still intact, interspersed amongst miles of blank white canvas, waiting for Spring to paint it over. Their conversation was amiable, their stride, bounding, and a smile spread across each face, gazing at the monotonous surroundings with a new appreciation.

However, in Cayden's mind, a turmoil boiled. Cayden was a warrior, an unstoppable force for whatever cause he deemed worth fighting for. Despite this, he wished to never raise a hand in violence again, to never dive deeper into the madness that consumed his dreams. He begged with invisible forces that his hallucinations would be fever dream over prophecy. Nothing responded.

Their trudging continued on through the day, the snow trickling to small streams under Cayden's shoes, and the hills rose as waves, rolling to the horizon until crashing landfall at the hazy, razor-sharp mountaintops. With a few hours of travel, their path brought them to the first crack in the homogeneity. Atop one of the husks of hollow plant matter, rested a towering oval, shifting and reflecting the sunlight.

"What's that?" Sarah asked.

"Let's check it out," Charlie said.

"I don't wanna keep 'checking things out'" Cayden found something familiarly unnerving about the shining thing.

"I'm going with Charlie for once. I'm bored," Sarah said.

"Whatever Charlie says" Rebecca's voice wavered as Charlie sent her a glance as confused as it was concerned.

"The best learning is by experience," Martha whispered to Cayden as his spine stiffened.

"Okay." Sarah shrugged as she led the way, with Cayden parting the snow before her toes ever reached it. To Cayden's relief, they approached with caution, stopping every minute, scanning for any movement. Within a hundred paces, they could see the thing towered forty feet above the hollow it rested on, a jagged outline giving the appearance of a lopsided pinecone. With each gust of wind, sheets of paper-thin metal covering every part of its figure rustled like tinfoil. Each metallic surface oriented to the sun but reflected minimal light.

"What is it?" Sarah whispered.

"Dunno but my curiosity is satisfied, let's go," said Charlie.

"Fine. What an insightful detour, guys." Rebecca turned toward their original path. The rest followed her, shoes crunching atop the now bare dirt. And beneath their audibly shuffling steps, the tinkling of the metal paper changed pitch and shifted in unison. They all twisted to the pinecone. As a wave spreading over the formless object, the thin sheets twisted to flatten against itself, light now reflecting in blazing rays. Cayden's heart raced, realizing the tinfoil sheets were, in appearance, much more similar to tinfoil feathers.