"Command, this is Beta Actual. Come in. Over."
Static.
Nothing else.
The soldier tightened his grip around the radio handset.
"Garddale Command, this is Beta Actual."
His voice rose.
"Come in. Over."
KRRRRRRSSSSSHHHHH...
Only static answered.
"Goddammit."
He slammed the handset back against the dashboard.
The armored truck tore down Main Street.
Fast.
Far faster than anyone wanted to drive through streets covered in abandoned vehicles and debris.
The engine roared.
Tires screamed around wreckage.
The suspension slammed violently as they clipped the edge of a curb.
Inside...
Everyone was breathing hard.
Weapons remained raised.
One soldier leaned halfway out a shattered rear window, rifle aimed into the darkness behind them.
"Still there?!"
He looked back.
And immediately regretted it.
"Yeah!"
"How many?!"
"I don't fucking know!"
Because counting them was impossible.
The Soulbound Revenants poured through the streets behind them.
Dozens.
Maybe more.
They didn't move like corpses.
They didn't stumble.
They didn't drag broken limbs behind them.
They ran.
Fast.
Some sprinted upright with long skeletal arms swinging wildly at their sides.
Others dropped onto all fours, claws striking pavement as they bounded forward with horrifying speed.
One vaulted onto the hood of an abandoned sedan.
THUMP!
It crossed the roof in two steps.
Then jumped.
The soldier's eyes widened.
"CONTACT!"
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Rounds tore through its chest in midair.
The creature twisted.
But didn't stop.
"HEAD!"
The soldier adjusted.
BANG!
Its skull exploded backward.
The Revenant dropped.
Its body struck the pavement and disappeared beneath the creatures behind it.
More simply ran over the corpse.
"Jesus Christ!"
The driver jerked the wheel.
"Hold on!"
The truck swerved around an overturned pickup.
Everyone inside slammed sideways.
"Watch the road!"
"You wanna drive?!"
"Just get us out of here!"
The soldier in the passenger seat grabbed the radio again.
"Command!"
Static.
"Garddale Command, Beta Actual!"
Nothing.
He switched channels.
"Beta Three, come in!"
Static.
"Beta Four?"
Nothing.
His face tightened.
"Any Beta element, respond!"
The speaker hissed.
No voices.
No friendly callsigns.
Nothing.
He slowly looked around the vehicle.
There were fewer men inside than there should have been.
Far fewer.
No one said it.
No one needed to.
The soldier pressed the transmit button again.
"Command, this is Beta Actual. We are withdrawing from FairHaven."
Static cracked through the speaker.
"We have multiple hostile contacts in pursuit."
He looked through the rear window.
"Correction..."
His face went pale.
"...massive hostile pursuit."
He waited.
Nothing.
"Command, acknowledge."
Silence.
Then—
THUNK!
Something struck the roof.
Everyone looked up.
"No."
Claws scraped across metal.
SKRRRRRRRRAAAAAAPE.
"Roof!"
A soldier raised his rifle toward the ceiling.
"Don't shoot!"
"What?!"
"You'll put rounds through the fucking roof!"
A skeletal hand suddenly curled around the passenger-side window frame.
"RIGHT!"
The passenger turned.
A dead face appeared outside the window.
Empty sockets.
Blackened flesh.
Exposed teeth.
Its jaw opened.
SKKKRRAAHH!
"FUCK!"
BANG!
The soldier fired point-blank.
The round struck its shoulder.
The creature barely reacted.
"HEAD!"
BANG!
Its skull snapped sideways.
The Revenant disappeared beneath the truck.
The vehicle bounced.
THUMP-THUMP.
The driver gripped the wheel.
"Everybody stay inside!"
Another impact struck the roof.
BOOM!
The metal dented inward.
"There's still one up there!"
The rear soldier leaned farther out.
He tried looking upward.
A claw slashed past his face.
He recoiled.
"Shit!"
The Revenant dropped partially over the rear window.
Its head appeared upside down.
The soldier stumbled backward.
The creature reached inside.
"GET IT OFF!"
Two soldiers grabbed its arm.
The strength behind it shocked them.
It pulled.
One soldier slammed against the rear door.
"Shoot it!"
"I don't have the angle!"
The Revenant's claws closed around the man's vest.
"GET IT OFF ME!"
The second soldier drew his sidearm.
Pressed it beneath the creature's jaw.
BANG!
Black fragments sprayed across the roof.
The grip released.
The body rolled sideways and disappeared.
For half a second...
Nobody spoke.
Then the driver shouted—
"Intersection!"
Everyone looked forward.
The road ahead was blocked.
Three wrecked vehicles filled most of the intersection.
"Left!"
"Can't!"
"RIGHT!"
The driver yanked the wheel.
The armored truck jumped the curb.
BANG!
A side mirror shattered against a street sign.
The vehicle tore across the sidewalk.
A Revenant appeared directly ahead.
"MOVE!"
The driver didn't brake.
WHAM!
The creature struck the front grille.
Its body folded against the hood.
The windshield filled with blackened bone.
Then it rolled over the roof.
The truck dropped back onto the road.
The driver corrected hard.
"Everybody good?!"
"Good!"
"Good!"
"Still here!"
The passenger looked behind them again.
His expression fell.
"So are they."
The Revenants had barely lost ground.
Worse...
More were joining.
They emerged from side streets as the truck passed.
From alleys.
From shattered storefronts.
From between abandoned houses.
One climbed down the side of a building almost like an insect.
Another jumped from a second-story window and landed in the street.
They weren't merely chasing the truck.
They were converging on it.
"Why the hell are there so many?!"
"Don't know!"
"Where did they all come from?!"
"No idea!"
The passenger grabbed the radio again.
"Command!"
His voice was desperate now.
"Command, this is Beta Actual!"
KRRRRRRRSHHHHH...
Nothing.
"Garddale, do you copy?!"
Static.
He struck the dashboard.
"Come on!"
The driver glanced toward him.
"How far to the town line?"
The passenger checked the navigation display.
"Two-point-three miles!"
"That's it?"
"That's it."
The driver pushed harder on the accelerator.
The engine roared.
"Then we don't stop."
Behind them—
A Revenant launched itself onto the trunk of an abandoned car.
Another followed.
Then another.
The first jumped.
THUD!
It landed on the rear bumper.
The truck dipped slightly.
The soldier watching behind them raised his rifle.
"Got one!"
The creature began climbing.
BANG!
Miss.
BANG!
Chest.
It kept coming.
"Damn it!"
BANG!
The third round struck its forehead.
The Revenant fell away.
But another immediately replaced it.
"Another!"
BANG! BANG!
"Another!"
BANG!
"I'm running low!"
"Then make them count!"
The truck barreled through another intersection.
The driver glanced at the navigation screen.
"Two miles!"
The passenger pressed the radio again.
"Command, Beta Actual."
His voice was almost pleading now.
"Come in."
Only static.
He lowered the handset.
For the first time...
Nobody cursed.
Nobody shouted.
Because a terrifying possibility had settled over everyone inside that truck.
They might be alone.
Completely alone.
The soldier at the rear window looked back once more.
Hundreds of feet behind them...
The dark street seemed alive.
Skeletal shapes filled the roadway.
Climbing over vehicles.
Running across sidewalks.
Leaping from rooftops.
Following.
Always following.
And farther back...
Standing motionless in the center of the ruined intersection...
Was one Revenant that wasn't chasing them.
The same one that had first appeared on their vehicle.
It simply stood there.
Watching the truck disappear into the darkness.
Then its head slowly tilted.
As though listening.
As though waiting.
The soldier couldn't explain why...
But seeing that one creature standing still frightened him more than all the others chasing them.
He slowly turned back around.
"Sarge..."
"What?"
The soldier swallowed.
"I think they wanted us to run."
The team leader looked at him.
Before he could respond—
The driver suddenly shouted.
"ROAD!"
Everyone turned forward.
Something moved across the headlights ahead.
Not one figure.
Several.
The driver instinctively eased off the accelerator.
The passenger's eyes widened.
"No."
More shapes emerged from the darkness.
One from the left.
Two from the right.
Then five.
Ten.
Stepping into the road ahead.
Blocking their escape route.
The team leader stared through the windshield.
Behind them...
The pursuing Revenants continued closing.
Ahead...
More waited.
The truck was being squeezed between them.
The driver tightened both hands around the wheel.
"What do I do?"
The team leader looked forward.
Then backward.
Then toward the speedometer.
His expression hardened.
"Don't slow down."
The driver glanced at him.
"Sarge—"
"You heard me."
He raised his rifle.
The soldiers beside him did the same.
"Everybody brace."
The Revenants ahead began moving toward them.
The driver pressed the accelerator.
The engine screamed.
Forty.
Fifty.
Sixty.
The team leader stared through the windshield at the wall of dead things rushing toward them.
Then shouted—
"PUNCH THROUGH!"
The truck surged forward.
And the Revenants charged to meet it.
Sixty miles per hour.
Sixty-five.
The engine screamed.
The creatures filled the headlights.
Twenty yards.
Fifteen.
Ten.
One of the soldiers braced against the dashboard.
"IMPACT!"
Five yards.
Then—
Something happened.
A faint shimmer passed across the windshield.
The driver blinked.
"What the—"
Light spread across the hood.
Not from the headlights.
Not from the dashboard.
From the truck itself.
Thin lines of pale silver-blue light raced across the armored frame.
Up the doors.
Across the roof.
Around the windows.
They moved like veins.
Like glowing cracks spreading across invisible glass.
Then—
WHUUUUMMM.
A translucent barrier erupted around the entire vehicle.
It completely surrounded the truck.
A dome.
No—
A shield.
Almost invisible except for the pale silver glow tracing its surface.
The soldiers stared.
Nobody understood what they were seeing.
A perfect shell of shimmering energy surrounded the truck.
Transparent.
Almost invisible.
But unmistakably there.
Symbols flashed across its surface.
Ancient markings.
Runes.
Patterns none of them recognized.
They appeared for only fractions of a second before dissolving back into the barrier.
The passenger's mouth fell open.
"What the fuck is that?!"
Nobody answered.
They didn't have time.
Because the first Revenant hit.
BOOOOOOM!
The creature never touched the truck.
It struck the transparent barrier several feet ahead of the grille.
Silver light exploded outward.
The Revenant was thrown backward like it had been hit by a speeding freight train.
Then—
BOOM!
Another.
WHAM!
Another.
CRACK!
Three creatures slammed against the shield simultaneously.
The barrier flashed violently.
The truck never slowed.
"KEEP GOING!"
The driver didn't need encouragement.
He buried the accelerator.
The vehicle plowed directly into the mass.
But it wasn't the truck hitting them anymore.
It was the shield.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Revenants flew in every direction.
One was launched over an abandoned car.
Another smashed through a storefront window.
Two struck the barrier together and were hurled across the pavement.
Claws scraped against the glowing surface.
They couldn't penetrate it.
Couldn't reach the metal beneath.
Couldn't reach the soldiers.
"What the hell is happening?!"
"I DON'T KNOW!"
"IS THIS OURS?!"
"DOES THIS LOOK LIKE OURS?!"
A Revenant leapt from the side.
Its claws struck the barrier.
KRAAANG!
Silver energy rippled around the entire vehicle.
The creature was violently thrown away.
The passenger stared through the windshield.
His face illuminated by the strange glow.
"This is impossible."
The team leader grabbed the back of the driver's seat.
"I don't give a damn what it is!"
He pointed ahead.
"DRIVE!"
The truck burst through the other side of the formation.
The road opened.
"CLEAR!"
"GO!"
The driver kept his foot down.
Behind them...
The Revenants scrambled back to their feet.
Some immediately resumed pursuit.
Others hesitated.
For the first time...
They seemed confused.
The shield continued surrounding the truck.
Faint.
Transparent.
Pulsing softly.
One of the soldiers slowly reached toward the passenger window.
His fingers stopped inches from the glass.
A thin layer of silver light hovered beyond it.
"That's impossible."
The man beside him laughed once.
Not because anything was funny.
Because his mind had simply run out of appropriate responses.
"You're worried about impossible now?"
The soldier didn't answer.
His eyes remained on the strange barrier.
Then—
Something caught his attention.
A flash.
Far beyond the houses.
He frowned.
"What was that?"
The team leader looked toward him.
"What?"
"Light."
"Where?"
The soldier pressed closer to the window.
"There."
Beyond the edge of FairHaven...
Past the last row of houses...
The terrain rose into a series of wooded hills.
And on one of them...
Something glowed.
Faintly.
Silver-white.
The soldier stared.
For a second...
He thought it was a streetlight.
Maybe a utility tower.
Then the light moved.
His expression changed.
"Hold on."
He reached down.
Grabbed the binoculars hanging against his chest.
Raised them.
The truck bounced violently beneath him.
"Slow down!"
The driver shouted back—
"Absolutely fucking not!"
"Just keep it straight!"
The soldier braced himself against the window.
Adjusted the focus.
The distant hill sharpened.
Trees.
Rock.
Tall grass.
Then—
He found the light.
His breathing stopped.
There was someone standing on top of the hill.
A man.
At least...
He looked like a man.
Long robes moved around him in the night wind.
One arm was extended toward FairHaven.
The other held something tall.
A staff.
The soldier adjusted the focus again.
His heart began pounding.
The staff was glowing.
Bright silver light burned from its tip.
And around the stranger...
Symbols floated through the air.
Circles.
Lines.
Shapes the soldier had never seen before.
They rotated slowly around him.
One inside another.
The same silver-white light surrounding the truck.
The soldier lowered the binoculars.
Looked at the shield.
Then raised them again.
The figure remained there.
Staff raised.
Light burning.
His arm extended directly toward them.
"No fucking way."
The team leader looked over.
"What?"
The soldier didn't answer.
"Simmons."
Nothing.
"Simmons!"
He finally lowered the binoculars.
His face had gone completely blank.
"Sarge..."
"What?"
Simmons looked through the window again.
Then back at his team leader.
"I think somebody's helping us."
The team leader stared.
"What are you talking about?"
Simmons held out the binoculars.
"Look."
The team leader grabbed them.
Raised them.
Simmons pointed.
"Top of the hill."
The team leader searched.
"Where?"
"Left of the radio tower."
"I don't—"
Then he stopped.
His entire body went still.
There.
The figure.
The robes.
The staff.
The glowing symbols.
The team leader slowly lowered the binoculars.
For several seconds...
He said absolutely nothing.
Simmons watched him.
"Well?"
The team leader looked at the transparent shield surrounding the truck.
Then toward the distant hill.
Then back at Simmons.
"What am I looking at?"
Simmons gave a helpless laugh.
"You're asking me?"
"You saw him first."
"Yeah, and I was hoping you'd have a better explanation."
The team leader raised the binoculars again.
The figure was still there.
Still holding the staff toward them.
Still glowing.
Another Revenant raced from a side street.
It jumped.
BOOM!
The shield hurled it away.
The team leader lowered the binoculars again.
His expression became even more confused.
Simmons swallowed.
"Sarge..."
"Yeah?"
He hesitated.
"What do we call that?"
The team leader looked at him.
"What?"
"Him."
Simmons pointed toward the hill.
"When Command asks what happened."
The team leader stared.
Simmons continued.
"What am I supposed to say?"
"That some guy on a hill saved us?"
No response.
"With a glowing stick?"
The driver glanced at them through the mirror.
"Staff."
Everyone looked toward him.
The driver kept his eyes on the road.
"If we're already this far down the rabbit hole..."
He shrugged.
"That's clearly a fucking staff."
Nobody argued.
Simmons looked back through the window.
The distant figure remained visible.
"A staff."
He nodded slowly.
"Great."
A pause.
"So what?"
His voice became almost incredulous.
"We tell General Hanson we were chased through FairHaven by dead people..."
He pointed toward the glowing barrier.
"...and then some guy with a magic staff put a force field around our truck?"
The team leader opened his mouth.
Stopped.
Looked toward the hill again.
Then finally muttered—
"I'm gonna need a drink."
Despite everything...
One of the soldiers laughed.
Short.
Nervous.
Exhausted.
Then Simmons raised the binoculars again.
His expression slowly became serious.
Because the figure wasn't looking at the Revenants.
He wasn't looking toward FairHaven.
He was looking directly at them.
Even from that distance...
Simmons somehow knew it.
The stranger lowered his staff slightly.
The shield around the truck flickered.
Simmons stiffened.
"Uh..."
The team leader looked over.
"What?"
The figure moved the staff.
Not toward them.
Away.
Pointing down the road.
Toward the outskirts of FairHaven.
Toward escape.
Simmons slowly lowered the binoculars.
"He wants us to keep going."
The team leader looked forward.
The road ahead was opening.
The town limits were getting closer.
Behind them...
The Revenants continued pursuing.
But none could penetrate the glowing barrier.
The team leader stared toward the distant hill one final time.
He didn't know who the stranger was.
He didn't know what he was.
And he sure as hell didn't know how he was going to explain any of this to General Hanson.
But one fact was becoming impossible to deny.
Whatever that man was doing...
He was keeping them alive.
The team leader turned toward the driver.
"Keep moving."
The driver pushed harder on the accelerator.
"No argument here."
The truck surged toward the edge of FairHaven.
Protected by something none of them understood.
While far away...
On the dark hill overlooking the town...
The lone figure tightened both hands around his glowing staff.
Silver light burned through the night.
And held the darkness back.