"Everyone rested for the day?"
The woodsman's sarcastic comment was met with glares from the student and store clerk, but the rest of them gave almost imperceivable smiles. Little jokes and jibes could work wonders to keep spirits up in times of trial. The woodsman continued.
"I'd like everyone to put their two pence in for this decision, so if you could all gather round please?"
She blinked, surprised. She couldn't remember a single time in the last week anyone had been asked about the course of action; the woodsman had the most experience and skill out of all of them, so there had been no need for anyone else to question his decisions before now.
"Sure thing kid, what is it?"
The woodsman grimaced at the comment from the man they'd rescued last night, a teacher from a secondary school before the collapse. She bit the inside of her cheek as the woodsman took a deep breath.
He clearly didn't like being called a kid. He was one of the youngest members of their group, but with what he'd lived through he wasn't a child anymore.
He muttered under his breath, just loud enough for them to hear."I was a woodsman before the collapse. Still am."
He might not have said anything else, but the subtext was apparent. Your old profession was what people called you nowadays, or some other descriptor for who you were. She was a college student, the man was a secondary teacher etcetera.
To call the only member of their group who had any idea what was going on a 'kid' didn't sit right with her, nor the rest of the old group, she imagined, but then the man hadn't meant anything by it, not maliciously anyway."I can get you to safety, as I promised these four last week."
He gestured at the four of them who had been travelling along the road for the last week.
The woman, a clerk, smiled."That's great, thank you!"
"Where will we be travelling?" The teenage boy inquired.
The young woodsman smiled humourlessly.
"Our destination remains the same no matter what; there's an old village to the east, repurposed and fortified by sleepless like me. You'll be safe there before continuing east, where there aren't any shadows. The village is as far east as they go. I'll lead you too it and you'll be able to eat some hot food and sleep in an actual bed before continuing east, where other sleepless and wakers have been starting to rebuild society, so I've heard."
He paused, took a breath, and continued.
"The problem is this. Do you have any supplies on you?""Supplies?"
"Food, drinking water, medicine, fuel, blankets?"
The teacher looked down slightly, somewhat embarrassed.
"Nothing. Sorry. When we woke it was to the sound of one of those things scratching at our door. We grabbed the kids and ran out as fast as we can. We still don't know what's happened."The teenage piped up.
"What's a 'waker'?""People like you, who fell asleep a few months ago and have been able to wake up since then."
"And a 'sleepless'?"
The woodsman smiled and pointed to himself with his thumb.
"People like me, who, unlike the rest of the world, never fell to sleep."He raised a hand to pre-empt any further questions.
"No, I have no idea what caused the sleep. No, I don't know exactly what these 'shadows' are or where they came from, and no, I certainly do not know why I remained awake through it. God knows I wish I knew why."

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Short Stories From Fading Worlds
General FictionA collection of short stories that, for one reason or another, never needed to be expanded upon any further. From deadly road trips in slumbering worlds to empty bars at the edge of the solar system, there's a little bit of something for everyone he...