The rickety wheels creaked as they passed over an irregular lump on the road, most likely a small stone, and the tousling carriage helped to settle the drooping of my eyes into focus. It was unusual for me to feel this exhausted during waking hours since the one thing my position guaranteed me was a full night’s rest. I felt the strain of my work as I performed it, but that all evaporated when I opened my eyes and was left an entire day’s time without further responsibilities apart from what I owed myself in taking care of my life. But today my normal rest was cut short as me and my new cohorts were all shuffled out of the town and on to the road in rapid succession after the situation was explained to us by Rayngo.

  My sleepy eyes stared out the window as my head rested upon my fist and I tried to process what didn’t yet seem real to me. Through the window I saw a Nachtenwarb gliding over the plane of sparse dirt and trees in a field of grass. The sunlight reflected off its sleek midnight wings causing a refraction of light as contrails. It was significantly larger than other birds in its family, but still possessed an oddly puffy chest despite its otherwise sleek appearance. Its unearthly song, which was said to be a combination of both its voice and the whistle its wings caused in the air, threatened to lull me back into a deeper stupor. It was said that, in dreams, these birds foretold the coming of some change that pertained to a global scale, but I didn’t have enough real dreams to take dream symbolism seriously. Yet knowing what had taken place and seeing this bird in an almost dream like daze, I’ll admit I felt uneasy.

  “Well, it would have to have been some kind of serial killer, wouldn’t it?”

  I was in this carriage with four others, Bennie and the strange smiling woman, who I now knew to be named Karen Plumelied, among them. We had split into two groups with only one of us staying behind as I had expected. The camps of our nation’s army that had been dispatched to the border had been congregated to two locations which we would head to first. A larger group would clean the ether ways at those locations before breaking into smaller groups to clean all the locations they had held previously.

  “Serial killers slash folk in the street, they don’t poison wells. That’s the work of armies.”

  Thomas Grillmin and Raechel Rijtferd, the former more animated than even Bennie and the later completely sour and ignoring our conversation. Thomas wore a loose fitted white shirt that seemed to be made with a thin fine fabric, but the loose buttons and the unevenly pressed color ruined the air of elegance his outfit may have given. Rachel wore a gothic black dress with modest frills on the cuffs and lace draped along the buttons from the collar. Her accompanying brimmed black suede hat had similar lace hanging off the side veiling only a portion of her face.

  Those were the other two scrubbers that had joined us and right now we are postulating possible causes for the emergency that had summoned us. The emergency that was far worse than what I had presumed from the amount of scrubbers being dispatched.

  It was multiple scrubbers in multiple locations as I had imagined, but it wasn’t as simple as even something that unheard of. It was all of them. Every scrubber at every camp had been killed damning both sides of this conflict. That’s right they were all definitively killed rather than passing as accidental casualties meaning someone was purposefully targeting us. And even knowing how absurd it was I had made my comment implying it was carried out as a military tactic. I wasn’t really that na?ve, I just saw the idea of it being carried out by a simple murderer equally as unlikely.

  I had thought to question why we hadn't been informed of this situation until the morning we left, but the news made the answer obvious to me. They didn't want to risk us racing to the front lines on our own and getting killed before the soldiers arrived to escort us. Whether we actually would have is an entirely different matter, but me and the scrubbers from Duskhovel could have theoretically reached the camps on horseback far before the carriage we were currently riding, and begun the cleansing process, but with our killer being a complete unknown, it seemed that wasn't a risk they were willing to take.

  “We may very well poison wells, but we don’t kill scrubbers. Might as well poison ourselves at that point.”

  Sitting to the right of Bennie and thus diagonally from me was a man in a stiff grey uniform, the fabric almost seeming like cardboard with large circular golden buttons lining the front and short red tassels hanging from the collar and cuffs. Only a singular badge decorated his uniform, a red pentagon with the image of an elderly man laying a large tome into the ground as if he was putting it to bed signifying nothing more than that he was a soldier of our countries army of some middling rank important enough only to perhaps lead a platoon or more importantly be dispatched as a guard for important guests. He wore only light armor around his shoulders and wrists but had heavier armor in a satchel by his feat. His right hand gripped a halberd he seemed ready to use despite planting it in front of him with stiff militaristic posture. Until I had made my careless comment he hadn’t spoken a word, so I had forgotten his presence, but he was now pointing a stern glare in my direction.

  “Sorry sorry, I didn’t mean to imply anything. I just disagreed with Mr. Grillmin and that was the best counter point I could think up. Chalk it up to my lack of sleep.”

  The soldier visibly relaxed after I gave him a bit of lip service with a smile. I had been speaking more bluntly than I usually would have without taking him into account. I don’t normally put on a front around other scrubbers, they would see right through it, so it really was my lack of sleep that caught me off guard and made me forget I wasn’t alone with them.

  “Oh, that makes sense I suppose your used to getting a full night’s rest with your position. I have to admit that makes me a bit jealous.”

  The soldier lightly smiled and seemed ready to warm up to us, which was probably a good thing if we wanted to smoothly integrate into our time with the army, but the lightening of the atmosphere was interrupted by Rachel who was sitting to the left of Bennie and had until now had her face turned away from us while resting her chin on her open palm.

  “Then a suppose you’d be okay with trading places with us?”

  There was an edge in her voice and a tenseness in her brows. While I imagine this was mostly in part due to our current circumstances, the crows feet and lines on her face made it clear that she spent enough time holding a high strung demeanor to permanently mark her looks in her middling age. Or perhaps a bit older than that. If I had to guess I might put her closer to sixty than fifty. It wasn’t too unusual. It wasn’t impossible for us to retire, but most stayed for life whether through circumstance, responsibility, or simply knowing no other way to live. In a sense our job did give us more time even if it was unpleasant time.

  “Ah, no I didn’t mean it that way.”

  It is a testament to how unwilling most were to join our profession that even a soldier who should have a claim to the sorest hand dealt with their very life on the line balked at the challenge. Still, she had no leave to snap at his small talk like that, and she didn’t stop at that either.

  “In the first place your army wasn’t able to protect a single scrubber. How are you expecting us to trus…”

  Bennie interrupted her by slapping his hands loudly against his knees.

  “Woah woah woah, let’s all just calm down for a second. Before anything else how about you offer us your name. We’ve all introduced ourselves, but we haven’t gotten to know you yet. That was very rude of us when you’re here to protect us.”

  Bennie was a people person. He had done a lot for me when I was first starting out as a scrubber and helped me acclimate to my newfound place in society. If I could disarm others with my smile he could bring them to his side. What’s more, unlike with me, it didn’t seem to be a front. At the very least he didn’t drop it when we were alone.

  “Davis Togl, Lieutenant Davis Togl.”

  Davis rang the base of his halberd against the ground with is introduction and Bennie gave him a salute with which we all followed suit with varying degrees of delay apart from the still sulking Rachel.

  “Well Lieutenant Togl, as was mentioned before, we’re all low on sleep which we’re not used to and we’ve been thrown into an unprecedented situation where our lives, which are still civilian lives despite our position, may be on the line. Please understand that our anxiety doesn’t come from a place of mistrust. Without understanding what could have killed the other scrubbers so systematically we aren’t going to be able to feel safe.”

  Davis let out a long sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. He dropped the air of professionalism, letting the weight of their situation show for the first time.

  “Don’t worry, I understand. I’m in no position to explain anything, but we have no means to guarantee your safety with the information we have at hand. What I can guarantee,” he looked over each of us in turn with a look of determination, “not one of you will die before I do.”

  Bennie met his stoicism with a charming smile.

  “And that’s the most we could ask for. Here’s to us all getting along”

  They heartily shook hands, but Rachel looked back away in a huff.

  “You don’t speak for me.”

  But suddenly Thomas burst out into laughter and scratched the back of his head.

  “Guess you can’t win ‘em all huh? But that’s just like an elder gal. The aging is where you get the term sourpuss”

  Rachel turned back around and glared daggers at him while Lieutenant Togl stifled a laugh doing his best to maintain dignity and not acknowledge his off color humor towards one of his charges. I turned his way and grinned sheepishly.

  “I’m a bit jealous you and Bennie can be this chipper even in these dire circumstances.”

  Bennie imperiously crossed his arms putting on the comically fake airs of an instructor.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “That’s not it Douglass. You just need to learn to loosen up. Every night we stare the abyss in the face, why can’t we do the same with death”

  He put the back of his hand over his open mouth and laughed manically like some noble woman. I relaxed a bit. He must be as anxious as the rest of us, but he was making a point of lightening the mood. I found that comforting.

  Suddenly.

  “That’s right, I bet you’d look cute with a smile on your face.”

  Huh?

  Was I not smiling just now?

  That had come from Karen to the left of me. My skin broke out in goosebumps. I could tell she was leaning slightly towards me, but I couldn’t look in her direction. I remembered that disgusting smile she had worn as she slept. I hadn’t wanted to think about that. I had been doing my best to put it out of my mind and ignore her, but now I was conscious of her being right next to me. This wasn’t good, I was taking too long to respond.

  “Ah don’t mind Douglass; he’s a bit on the shy side. At least when it’s just us scrubbers. You’ll see him open up more once we’re around the rest of the army.”

  Bennie bailed me out before I could force myself to respond most likely because he sensed my reticence. He wouldn’t know why though. He most likely hadn’t seen her sleeping since he always makes it in to work so early. Or maybe the others had arrived even earlier. Was it just me reacting this viscerally? I suppose it can’t be a secret, you can’t have our job without anyone seeing you sleep. Still… I waved my hand as if to say it is what it is since I didn’t want to respond to her directly.

  “Well, that’s a shame. But I’ll be sure to put a real smile on your face before we’re done here. Now it feels like a challenge.”

  A real smile?

  Her tone was teasing, and I could feel that her hand rested on the bench only the length of a hand away from me. It sounded to my ears like an insidious promise. Like she would drag me down to her level. Smiling at the filth. Suddenly she sat up straight and clapped her hands.

  “I know, lets play the cloud game.”

  The cloud game? I hadn’t played that since when I traveled to Vealt for training and even then, I had done so ironically out of boredom.

  “Ha! I haven’t played the cloud game since training and even then, it was only ironically.”

  Thomas echoed my sentiments.

  “Same” “It was during my induction into the army for me as well”…“Same.”

  Me, Bennie, and Karen all replied in unison with Davis chiming in afterwards. We even got a muffled reply from Rachel. I guess traditions hold strong.

  “Well then, what better time to get in touch with our inner child. I’ll go first.”

  She looked out the window for a short period of time.

  “Alright I got it, go ahead and guess.”

  The cloud game was a silly children’s game where a leader decided what a cloud looked like to them and the others had to guess what it was. It was always either too easy or too hard and relied entirely on the good faith of the leader thus it was only a game children could enjoy in their innocent ignorance. Even then it usually devolved into everyone complaining that the leader was cheating, which was usually true. I mean why wouldn’t you when snacks were on the line?

  “Goat?” “Rabbit?” “Sheep?”

  We headed directly west on a trip that would take us five days, but only because we would be pushing through the night and only stopping to camp twice during the trek. We were on a timer and had to reach our destination as soon as possible. From what I understood the deaths of the scrubbers had caught them completely off guard and the emergency dispatch had been organized in a single night which was why I never learned about it until I showed up for work. The army will already be showing early signs of the disease by the time we reach them. It will be my first time seeing it. The very thing I have spent my life preventing.

  “Crab?” “Star?” “No no, that’s not a separate cloud. It’s a tree.”

  We were headed to a camp stationed near the border of Hypnoise and Unduroc. We were not at war with Unduroc themselves. Near their border lived sparse tribes that held old beliefs and did not recognize the authority of the country they lived under, but unfortunately for us they had their own negotiations and treaties with their kingdom that protected their autonomy. I say it’s unfortunate on our part because the barbaric bastards would often cross the border and raid our country. We would be able to deal with them all swiftly, but despite the fact that those tribes that call themselves the dream wardens don’t claim Unduroc as their home, crossing the border and retaliating would constitute an invasion with a country we have an oath of peace with through the marriage of our king to our queen that hails from their royal lineage. For years our politicians have lobbied Unduroc to either take the dream wardens under reign or to at least give us leave to deal with them ourselves, but they refuse to rekindle the internal conflict they had finally assuaged after many long decades.

  “A bird” “Some kind of fish” “Ha! That there is the shadow under one luscious pair of tit…OW. Don’t be mad at me. I wasn’t the one who hung tits in the sky you old bat.”

  As for the dream wardens themselves they were much like the dreamless from our country, only more a more nomadic and archaic people who revolved around the remnants of an old culture just as much as they did around religious beliefs. They would come off as homely if seen in their own lands, but to modern civilization they were even more hostile than the dreamless. In their eyes our rampant use of the ether ways justified pillaging. For my own home town it was both a blessing and a curse to be so close to the front lines. The raiders rarely made it passed actual army bases and mostly kept their victims to sparse farmlands and smaller villages on the fringes the army couldn’t completely cover. Only once during my lifetime did they break through and that was when was studying at Vealt. The pillaging had been quelled quickly, but not before some serious damage had been done. There was still a corner of town with remnants of fire damage amidst a memorial. It was after then that old man Chester developed his drinking habit something that just like the burnt ashes by the memorial no one has the heart to clean up.

  “Honestly, I don’t know. It just looks like a blob.” “A ball?” “What do you mean a well entrance? Your lying, aren’t you? I bet it was a ball after all.”

  But now they were in the same boat as us, exposed to the disease by the polluting of the ways. With their beliefs they would despise scrubbers just as much as the dreamless, but despite their guiltless aggression they never purposefully killed us despite the tactical advantage it would give them since the still used maidens to traverse the ways and had no need of scrubbers themselves. But the disease was indiscriminate. Generally, filth only appears in locations where people first enter into the ether ways, but once the disease sets in that changes. It festers and spreads in the dream as it festers and spreads across the land. Slowly but surely. No one knows if the spread of the disease causes the filth to spread or vice versa, we only know that once its victims are beyond saving, the bodies must be burned in conjunction with a large scale scouring of the ether ways far beyond our usual radius of activity. Even local plant life and animals will be burned for good measure though they will have already been wasting. This has rarely ever taken place however, we only have ancient records detailing the phenomena. We shouldn’t have to worry about the disease reaching that level though, it will be enough to treat the inflicted and clean all the infected areas of the ways at this point.

  But what if we’re killed as well? What would have even done this to begin with. I think of the conversation I had overheard from the dreamless, of the demon sighting on the other side of the border. But no, demons have never attacked humans. As long as you’re healthy they are in theory completely harmless, only flocking to you as a parasitic vulture when you are already in anguish at death’s door to put you under their twisted spell. At least that is how it should be. But what creature would benefit more from the spread of the disease more than the demons. They would have their pick of the litter if it got out. If not them then maybe the dreamless themselves. But they only hate that we abet what they see as the misuse of the ether ways. They should want to keep the ways clean more than anyone else. And if I’m going to suspect them, I may as well suspect the dream wardens after all.

  “And you good sir, over there stuck in a daze, haven’t taken a guess for the past two rounds. So, I will be taking it upon myself to nominate you as the next leader.”

  At her words I lazily looked out the window and found a large cloud that seemed sleek yet puffed up in the front. Just like the bird that I had seen fly by earlier. The Nachtenwarb.

  “Alright, I got it. Go ahead and take your guesses.”

  On the second night we finally stopped to make camp. We had all managed to sleep to varying degrees within the carriage, but it was restless and paired with the lack of sleep we had before departing we were all exhausted and irritable, but before resting we had to make sure to get a proper meal. Both now and in the morning. On the road we had eaten nothing but rations made from either oats, corn, or bread. We made a small campfire and the six of us as well as two more soldiers that had been at the front of the carriage gathered around a boiling tin can of soup stock. The other two were named Terry Gutberg and Ben Trael. They wore plain undecorated uniforms and were private class currently under Lieutenant Togl’s charge. We had gotten to know them as they rotated with their leader for driving duty in order to rest inside the carriage.

  “Private Trael, I spied a boar in the small thicket of trees we passed before stopping. I want you to go and see if you can’t get us a bit of meat to add to this meal.”

  Ben nodded his head standing up and dusting off his leggings before grabbing a spear and beginning to head off.

  “You don’t mind if I join in do you? I do a fair share of hunting during my free time.”

  Thomas began to stand up as if to follow, but Davis raised his hand to pause him.

  “Normally that would be fine, but right now your all essentially precious cargo under my charge. I can’t allow you to do anything that would put you out of my sights or in potential danger.”

  The lieutenant had greatly warmed up to us over the past two days, almost feeling more like a friend than a keeper, but he still held his responsibilities towards us with an unshakable seriousness. Thomas squatted back down looking a bit out of sorts.

  “Aye having it put like that really sends it home that I have a target on my head. Honestly, I can’t believe this.”

  He rubbed his hand through his short hair to exorcise the stress he was under, but it seemed his anxiety was all the fuel needed to set off the powder keg that was Ms. Rijtferd.

  “And why should we believe it? I’ve spent half my life making sure this very thing wouldn’t happen, staring into the dregs of your disgusting hearts all the while. And suddenly the army can’t protect a single scrubber? People no one in their right mind would be trying to kill in the first place. How do we know this isn’t pretext for a damnable invasion!?

  “RACHEL!”

  The tension was palpable, and it felt as if we were all on the cusps of leaping to our feet, but suddenly she was being hugged from behind.

  “Rachel Rachel, you’ve had a long hard life haven’t you. One the rest of us are really only at the beginning of. Here take this loaf of bread and I’ll get you put to sleep. You deserve a long sleep in a real dream far away from the ether ways.”

  We were all stunned speechless by the sudden turn of events. Rachel, likewise stunned, was herded wordlessly to her tent by Karen. We could all see that tears had begun to pool in her wide shocked eyes at hearing Karen's words. For a long moment pregnant with silence, we kept to the crackling of the fire until Bennie finally broke through the atmosphere.

  “She’s a kind woman.”

  His eyes flicked in my direction as he spoke fast enough that the others likely didn’t notice. His tone seemed to hold an insinuation as if he said the statement as a demand towards me imploring me to take it as a fact. He had most likely sensed my discomfort directed at Karen both now and before. As wrong as it felt after what she had said, I couldn’t help but interpret her tone and expression as mocking towards Rachel as if rather than meaning to comfort her she had been reveling in amusement at her loss of composure. Unlike during my first impression, I at least understood how unfair I was being now, but that disconcerting smile had been there all the while, and I couldn’t banish it. Bennie curled up a tuft of grass and flicked it into the fire.

  “I really wish…that those words hadn’t been spoken out loud.”

  He spoke what we were all thinking, but none of us wanted to address the idea. We were all people who see the worst of humanity, but we were also all people who, in our own way, wouldn't address it.

  “They wouldn’t.”

  The lieutenant’s voice seemed to shake as he said it quickly to speak in defense of the country he served. Bennie nodded sadly in response but said nothing more.

  Eventually Mr. Trael returned, and we all enjoyed a hearty share of soup before retiring, but little else was said in the meantime. In the next few days, we remained on friendly terms and at least on a superficial level the atmosphere lightened, but a lingering tension remained, and we did not play the cloud game again before arriving at the encampment.