"Move!"
Nadia told the group, and they did, wasting no time, with Cassian leading them back to the house he had found.
On their way, the group saw the town slowly come to life, awakening as if from sleep.
They saw a man coming out of a house. Passing by him, he turned and stared at the group, his eyes hollow as if he were nothing more than a puppet, following their movement, tracking them.
More figures kept appearing in doorways and windows—a blacksmith at his forge, hammer in hand;
a child behind a fence, slowly climbing over it—all turning their heads with the same marionette jerkiness toward the group,
as the sound from the saloon became louder with each passing second.
"They see us," Myron said, his voice trembling, unable to hide his fear.
"Faster," Nadia urged.
"We're almost there,"
Cassian said, when he suddenly stopped. Next to the house he found was an old woman standing on her porch, staring at them.
A creak of wood was heard as the woman on the porch took her first step toward the group.
Then Nadia ran to the front, reaching out with both hands. She clenched her fists and twisted them at the same time, and the roof of the porch came crashing down on the woman, burying her beneath piles of wood.
"Go!!"
Cassian was the first to reach the house, holding the door open as the rest of the group entered one by one, with Nadia coming in last, looking fatigued as if she had just finished running a marathon.
When everyone had entered, Cassian shut the door and grabbed the furniture he had previously used to block it.
"Double-check every corner,"
George told the group as he helped Nadia take a seat.
As the rest searched the house for any of that black substance Cassian might have missed, he walked up to Nadia with multiple questions burning in his mind.
"The fuck was that?"
Nadia looked up at Cassian with a tired smile.
"You're gonna have to be more specific."
"What did you do there? When you reached out and the porch collapsed—that was your doing, wasn't it?"
By now, both Maria and Jonathan had gathered around them to hear Nadia's response.
"It's my power."
The trio remained quiet, waiting for Nadia to continue.
"I discovered it on my tenth day here, when the man I was with assaulted me.
I had a small knife I tried to defend myself with, but failed miserably, as he simply slapped it out of my hand.
He had me pinned to the ground with the knife out of reach. Then, at the peak of my frustration, I reached for it and it just flew over to my hand.
You can guess how the rest of the story played out," Nadia told the group, a grim smile forming on her face.
"Nadia, the place is clear. We're good."
"I got a couple of bottles I filled with water from the pump,"
Cassian said, moving to fetch them but stopped by Nadia.
"No need.
In this place, we don't need food or water or sleep to function."
Maria looked out from a window facing the street and saw multiple people going about their business as if it were normal.
Some chatted in the streets while others carried what she assumed were buckets filled with water.
Jonathan grabbed her hand and dragged her away from the window—something she didn't particularly appreciate.
"Put your hands on me again and I'll make sure you lose them."
Maria's threat sounded a bit too real to Jonathan as he backed away.
"Both of you shut it," Cassian told them as he turned to face Nadia again, urging her to continue.
With a heavy sigh, Nadia started giving the trio the information they had gathered.
"I don't know what this place is, but this town is just a part of it.
This place looks like an American town from the nineteen hundreds.
When I first arrived here, I found myself in a modern mansion, and from there I traveled to different places. Each place had one thing in common:
the black spots.
And each night, the place I was at came to life with its residents doing normal things—
until they noticed something that didn't belong there.
Then they become aggressive, attacking anything that doesn't belong.
I was fortunate enough to find someone on my first day here.
It was thanks to him that I survived until now.
My best guess is that we're inside a museum."
"A museum? That sounds crazy."
"Really? That sounds crazy—that's your response?" Maria mocked Jonathan.
"It's the best way I can explain it.
A frontier town, a modern mansion, an African village—all with their residents going about their days or nights, repeating it time after time.
It's like God plucked these places from our world and brought them to this place—
His very own museum of human civilization.
And we are trespassers.
The people here won't bother us if we stay out of sight, so long as we don't disturb their routine.
And fighting them is a waste of time; they don't die no matter what you do to them.
You can attack them, like I did, in order to escape—that works. But when their eyes turn black, they're like a hive mind. They stop everything they're doing, and their only goal changes from going about their business to eliminating you."
"How do we escape?" Jonathan asked.
"Each place is different.
From the mansion, all I had to do was exit it. For this place, I guess we run out of town."
The group stayed silent for a bit until Maria broke the silence.
"What about your power?
What makes you special?"
Nadia chuckled at Maria's question.
"I'm not special.
Everyone has a power here; it just takes a bit to manifest.
George can phase his body through solid objects, while Myron can step on air.
It takes time and practice, but you get better at it.
At first, it took everything I had just to move a small knife, but now, as you saw, I can do much more."
"What's our plan?" Cassian asked Nadia.
"For now, we just wait till morning. Then we'll leave town."