I stepped back into headquarters and leaned back into the door with my hands behind my back and my breath held. I hadn’t yet made my presence known. It had still been possible at this juncture to act as if I hadn’t seen anything. I could have continued on as planned and escaped the capital with Karen and Paula. Even if I had ignored this discovery, certainly someone else would find out if all it took was putting water to filth. But there was also a chance it wouldn’t have been so simple to discover. In the worst case, I had thought to myself addressing the vague unformed recollection that had haunted me since morning, what if it really was only me?

  But even more than that, I knew deep down that I didn’t want to advert my eyes any longer. Not after what I had just promised, even if I hadn’t expected to be tested in such a way so soon. When I walked into the next room, I couldn’t help but feel that there was a tightness in my left cheek as if I had been grinning just as lopsidedly as a certain mask I couldn’t, at that time, remember.

  “Guys…I think there’s something we might be able to do after all.”

  When I had explained everything we all went outside to try to recreate the phenomenon. For everyone present the same thing happened when they spread water of the filth with the exception of Paula. That clinched it. It had to have been scrubbers alone who could erase the filth for whatever reason.

  “I think it’s a bit too early to make such an assumption with such a small sample. There could be some other factor that singles Ms. Plumelied out, but yes, for the time being we should operate as if that is the case.”

  That was what Jossette had to say when I stated what had become clear to all of us.

  “How we should operate you say. So, what do you all think?”

  The implication had been clear, but the hurdle had, maybe, been too high for us. What we had found meant we would be able to erase all the filth that was sprouting within the capital just as we had always done in the ether ways, but what had this meant in regard to the queen? We weren’t, after all, fighters and she had moved like an animal even without the demon's shifting.

  “Nothing for it is there? We gotta go after her. I mean c’mon, she was practically made of filth. If I can get in there and pin her down I’m sure we’ll be able to…kill her?....cleanse her? Well, we’ll see what happens.”

  “We’ll get our heads ripped off is what will do. She was like a beast that crawled out of the pits. I can’t fathom we’d be able to get within an inch of her on our own.”

  “Wild boars are plenty speedy, and they’ve never been any issue. I’ve even bagged a subterrier at full sprint before.”

  I hadn’t known if subterriers were able to use their extra leg to reach otherwise unheard of speeds in the animal kingdom so I didn’t comment on that, but I knew we wouldn’t get anywhere with just Thomas no matter how good of a hunter he was.

  “We can’t do anything, but if we could reach some soldiers and convince them to join us…even as otherworldly as she seemed she shouldn’t be able to fight off a whole crowd indefinitely.”

  I had spoken with confidence, but I had little to back up the assertion. I had seen the scholar and the queen shift through space in the same manner of the demons they contracted with, but it was assumed that for the most part, outside of the immortality the demon granted them, that the possessed had the constitutions of normal humans. So, I had not been expecting any great power from the queen on account of the demon, but that wasn’t the real anomaly. I had no way of knowing just what that coat of filth had made her into nor how dangerous it would be, but if that coat had been something we could erase with our own hands, then maybe with enough manpower…

  “I think for now we should head back towards the plaza. If he isn’t dead then Colonel Ray should still be there passed out. He’s not the first person I would have chosen, but it’s at least a starting point since we don’t know where any other royal guards or soldiers will have gone. Since she almost immediately ran off, I think it will be safe to get our bearing and assess the situation there.”

  Karen looked towards her sister.

  “Paula…I think I should go with them. There’s only four of us and we might be the only scrubbers remaining in the city.”

  Paula had been growing increasingly anxious as the conversation had headed in a direction that didn’t involve her and her sister leaving together, but she hadn’t voiced anything yet.

  “But…but, how will I know if you’ll even come back. I…”

  It wasn’t like when we had just asked her to wait for us outside the dream. We really hadn’t known what might happen to us.

  “Paula listen…go to the nearest exit and try to find the evacuees. Go with them, whether they choose to camp out in the woods or head towards another city, even if it’s all the way to Vealt. We’ll come for you after everything is over.”

  “But…but, why can…can’t you come to? This…it shouldn’t be your job…”

  Karen embraced her and whispered into her ears just load enough we could all still hear her.

  “We’re going to be fine. Before long I’ll come and find you in the dream, just like always.”

  A part of me had wanted to suggest that she go with her after all, but I knew that part of me was wrong so I spoke to Paula instead.

  “We’re all going to look after each other and we won’t do a thing unless we can gather enough force to keep us protected. This is the capital, I’m sure we’ll be able to find a veritable army.”

  “…fine”

  Her eyes darted around us, and she simply turned around and left. She hadn’t appeared okay with the situation at all, but at least, I hoped, she would be safer than if she had followed us.

  Before leaving we searched the closets of the headquarters, finding only one mop. I took it and everyone else grabbed a rag. We didn’t bother trying to take water with us, it wouldn’t have been practical so using the moisture from melting snow would have to do. Thomas managed to find I knife that didn’t particularly look like it was meant as a weapon but was at least sharp enough.

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  Now just the four of us began making our way back the way we had come. The closer we got to the plaza, the more pronounced the presence of the filth became. At first it had been just like what I had found outside headquarters. Normal in appearance to what I was used to, but almost more benign than I would have expected, but slowly but surely it increased both in quantity and its gravity. Before long, it was as if some advent garde artist had painted the walkways of Monderlow and that same paint had taken on a life of its own to slink about the walls and rooftops above. I had almost felt as if an ominous presence hung about it observing us even as it pulled our eyes. We had yet to see any person walking about or any movement at all for that matter until…

  We all quickly ducked behind an alley though we had no way of knowing if the thing could even respond to sight. It had not been another human, but instead something more akin to a thornjelly only without its telltale thorns. It was made entirely of lines of filth and was roughly the size of a barrel as it gently drifted in the air. It was made of segmented colors, but it seemed as if they had all been slowly blending into each other.

  “Let’s not look at it directly yea?”

  The jelly thing radiated more than pulled, just like the queen had, but we tried to resist having our eyes look directly at it or focusing on the impressions it sent out. Instinctively we worried that that the attention might go both ways.

  “What do we do?”

  “Pounce it?”

  “c’mon”

  “Let’s pounce it!”

  “You to?”

  “Ultimately our goal is the queen. I imagine if this…thing isn’t something we can deal with our prospects don’t bode well. I vote for pouncing it.”

  “Alright, pounce it it is then.”

  Well, they weren’t wrong, but the idea was a bit intimidating. Thomas went first sneaking up to it with his knife. I had somewhat doubted the knife’s usefulness of the amorphous being, but the outcome landed somewhere in the middle between my expectations and hopes.

  The knife cut into the hide of filth and I think I had seen a blueish sheen on it as it had done so making me question whether or not the reason it had cut was only because Thomas had wielded it.

  “Interesting, you know I think we might have the wrong idea about what we are doing by focusing on water.”

  “You might be right, but I don’t think it’s the time to get experimental either. Look, its reacting.”

  It may have been cut, but it seemed hardly damaged. The tentacle-like appendages reached out and grabbed Thomas. He struggled and cut at it as we all readied ourselves to rush out. I had been worried it would pull him into itself, but instead he was tossed and, in that instant, I had run out and rammed it with the mop. It was surprisingly light, so it immediately carried with the head of the mop into the nearest wall. It had probably looked more than a bit silly, but Karen and Jossette rushed in and went to town on it with their rags.

  In the end it felt like it broke apart too easily, less from our efforts, and more because it hadn’t been held together well to begin with.

  “A shame really. It was quite cute.”

  “Well, when this is all over, we’ll find one and keep it as a pet. I’m sure they’ll be everywhere by then.”

  “You mean it?”

  “No of course n…well actually, you know what? Why not?”

  “It’s promising we were able to “clean” a being made of filth, but I don’t think it gave us very good experience for the queen. It was much too passive.”

  “You’re only saying that because you weren’t thrown.”

  “But you’re perfectly fine? I’m sure there’ll be more, but I think we should just avoid them for now after all. They will be something to revisit when the time comes to clean the city.”

  I had questioned the wisdom of letting such an unknown element roam free, but otherwise I agreed with Jossette. We had bigger issues we needed to focus on. We indeed ran into more filth jellies but we didn’t attempt to fight them again. At first we dodged around them through alleys, but eventually realized we could walk right by them if we didn’t do anything.

  Before long we reached the plaza where the atmosphere had hung heaviest of all. Only a few people remained and they were all on the ground unconscious with filth growing over them. We took the mop and rags and washed it off of them, but they did not immediately wake up. From what we had been able to see, they didn’t seem to have signs of the disease on them, but they did appear drained in an altogether different manner I couldn’t quite place.

  As I had been washing one of them off, I went through a shock when he rose up almost as if jumping and swiped at me with languid hands and no light in his eyes. In a panic I struck him with the mop and, with the filth falling off, he collapsed. Jossette knelt down and put her fingers on his neck.

  “He’s dead.”

  “D…did I kill him…or had he already been dead to begin with?”

  “We have no way of knowing that, but if he’s going to attack us, there’s little else we can do.”

  “Well then let's just hurry and clean the rest so it doesn’t happen again, right Douglass?”

  “Right…thank you.”

  I calmed my heart. Just like with the jelly, we would have to save our search for answers until later. When every unconscious body had been cleansed only one remained up on the amphitheater. Surprisingly he had no filth on him, almost as if it was avoiding him and I felt a slight chill approaching him as well, though it was nothing like what I had felt from an actual demon. I knelt down and shook his shoulder.

  “Wakey wakey Ray. The city’s gone to shit and you're officially on duty.”

  His eyes popped open and he looked at me with astonishment that had felt too lively for his pale face.

  “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I had no idea. It wasn’t suppose to happen that way, its not what he promised me. She was supposed to be fine in the end. Just…just what happened?”

  He had been confused with sweat breaking out on his forehead, but Thomas approached him with an annoyed look at his words.

  “Just what do you mean by that? How exactly was it supposed to happen?”

  Ray gulped and then flinched after looking into his eyes.

  “We made a deal with him. Me and a couple other dreamless. He said he could put an end to the disease and the scrubbers…make the ways pure again. It was me who suggested the idea to the king on his behalf. Under the premise of the trial, we'd gather a bundle of you up in the capital, decrease coverage all around, and then when the hanging was taking place he’d come in with his demon friends and slaughter the lot of you. You and the other scrubbers of Monderlow. The other two…the ones who left…I imagine they are already dead.”

  I’ll admit I kicked him when I heard that. Matt and Trevor… Thomas had growled while gripping his knife, but we let him continue.

  “There would be an outbreak, but that is what would heal us. In the chaos I would run away with Seidria, away from the fallen capital. We had been lovers, but she had been trapped by her life as the queen. We’d escape over to Unduroc, her homeland and lay low while that scholar healed Hypnoise.”

  “You fucking scum. That healing would kill thousands of people.”

  I raised my hand in front of Thomas and took a deep breath, focusing my mind. I had only one question to ask myself.

  Did any of this really matter anymore?

  It was likely only my years of detachment that made me capable of asking it and only my newfound resolve that gave me the motivation to follow through. I fixed my gaze on his.

  “Colonel Ray! The outbreak you’re telling us about is just some hypothetical. It never happened, that scholar of yours clearly failed and his action hardly matter at this point. Look around you, do you think this is his work? Our world changed and right now we need every able body to help face that change no matter how stained they are.”

  I reached out my hand to him. I was sure my eyes had contained no forgiveness, only the gravity of our situation and resolve. He hesitated with fear and shame, but eventually took it. We had gained our first ally. He had been the most untrustworthy and useless of all who would join us, but at this time every recruit mattered.