If I hadn't been forced to leave my phone behind, I could have done some research on who the man is. I had other questions, but Nine's general disposition means she won't respond well to me asking anything else. Neither of the women seems to want to help Forty-four, or let him know what I discovered. I understand their faith in him after seeing his strength, but why not tell him?

"If I were you, I'd take a breather. Forty-four is giving us time to get ready, and we might not get another chance tonight," Nine said, directing her comment at me.

"Understood," I said.

I go back to the kitchen and grab a dish towel. Wrapping it around one of the knives, I put it under my windbreaker. It may not work on the shadows, but at least two of them are quite stabbable. Depending on the exact specifics of the kid's power, it might be impossible to kill him. If his sphere can be overwhelmed, then I could trick him into a building and somehow collapse it on him. If it can't, I'll have to figure out the exact parameters of his bubble. Is it a passive thing that is constantly on, or is he consciously controlling it? There has to be a hole in order to let oxygen in or he'd asphyxiate himself. Unless he somehow doesn't have to breathe, which makes my idea moot. If he does need air, then all I have to do is repeat what happened with Vixen. I check under the kitchen sink to see what kind of chemicals I can find. Bingo. I don't currently have a way to take everything I need and keep it hidden from them, but I make a mental note of them for later.

I pull one of the worn-down wicker chairs from the living room over to the windows so I can sit and watch the continuing fight. Knowing he isn't trying to destroy them, merely buy time for us to relax, is a welcome surprise. The three of them are all on edge around me, either because of my late arrival or whatever Technologica deemed to reveal to them. There's a good chance that Nine doesn't even know about my power, merely that I'm a Cowl who doesn't believe in the cause. Technologica is a controlling bitch with a superiority complex and hoards secrets more than I do. She wouldn't tell her people everything, especially not things that cannot get out. She understands how important I am to her plans, and telling these people about me runs the risk of them defecting or kidnapping me. I'm right. Of course I am. If God exists, I alone am his favorite. I need to get them all to lower their guard around me. If they don't know who Nobody is, then I can pretend to be someone completely different.

"Is there anything I can do to help? Sitting here twiddling my thumbs while the rest of you work feels gross," I said, smiling earnestly.

Nine pauses what she's doing to turn and look at me. Her eyes are burning a hole through me; she's staring so hard. But my mask is perfect, my facade unbreakable, and I continue to smile kindly at her. I've spent years crafting these faces, and they won't crumble from a little stare down. Whatever Nine sees reflected in the projected face of my helmet passes the sniff test of sincerity. I never thought about the connection between my helmet and myself. Both of us project false faces onto the world. I chuckle at the realization.

"Something funny?" Nine asked.

"I just remembered a stupid joke. But I'm serious about helping. I want to do my part."

"What can you even do?" Nine questioned.

"If the boy wants to help, let him. We're down a man anyway. It would be stupid to keep treating him as an invalid," Eleven said tiredly.

Nine looks like she's about to start something, but she just exhales and goes back to doing whatever she's doing over there. There's history here. Nine is in charge, but she's following Eleven's orders. And I'm not under any false assumption that what Eleven said was anything but an order. She just showed me that there are cracks in the bedrock and those are the best places to plant seeds of doubt.

"I have a little bit of self-defense training, I'm a quick learner, and I'm okay with a gun," I answered.

"You aren't getting a gun. I'm not giving a Cowl I don't know a gun, so that they can shoot me in the back," Nine said aggressively.

She is a tough nut to crack. What the fuck is it going to take for her to trust me? Nine might be one of those who only value actions over words. So I guess I can give her a show. A triumphant display of teamwork and self-sacrifice is in order. Out of my chair, I head for the hole formerly known as a doorway. Flashlight in hand, I bravely wade into the darkness of the night.

"Hey, Forty-four, sustained light works as a permanent solution. Toss me one," I shouted.

He turns his disdain toward me, and I steel my facial expression. Don't blow it now. Just you wait, Forty-four. I'll get the last laugh as you choke to death in front of me. The thought of his little kid face going red as chemical burns eat up his face helps me keep the friendly face on. I've killed so many Neuvohumans, all with stronger abilities more suited to combat. You are not special, Forty-four, and you'll join the list soon. Even though he makes a face, he does send one of the shadow monsters blasting forward at me. Not too fast that I can't react, but fast enough that it would be dangerous if it crashes into me. The flash of light from the lantern turning on blasts a hole through the center mass of the monster, and a few swipes cut it to charcoal chunks. It dissolves into the dirt, and I start to destroy every inch of the mark. The hound is gone, and I've destroyed two of the shadows; eight more is doable.

"Look at that, I'm helping. We make a great team, you and I," I said, waving at him.

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Nine and Eleven come out of the house, and Nine looks upset with me.

"Told you I could help," I said.

"What part of take a breather did you not understand?" She asked.

"I understood it, but I couldn't just sit back while he fought. That's just not in my DNA."

Eleven has a pleased look on her face at my declaration. Nine is pissed and heads back inside. She is a lost cause. The older woman slowly crouches down on her knees with her eyes closed and hands clasped in prayer. More of the same or something new? Less than a minute later, a white gauntleted hand bursts through the ground and then another before a new creature pulls itself out of the ground. It's big and wide, eight feet tall and five feet from shoulder to shoulder. Speaking of the shoulders, they're covered in spikes like they're pauldrons. The gauntlets cover the wrists and hands, but it's not like armor. It's a solid part of the body like the spiked pauldrons. The head is as faceless as the others, but shaped like a helmet with a T shape left uncovered. The top of the helmet is covered in battlements like the top of a tower. Definitely new. What can you do?

Forty-four shoots another shadow at us, or more specifically, the new guy who smacks the incoming monster so hard it explodes. That makes the guy smile, and he separates the group for the two of them to take on a couple each. I ignore the battle, focusing on burning away the mark of the exploded one. Watching the armored golem fight reminds me a lot of watching Vivienne. It's less refined, and she flows like water, but it's still a spectacle in itself to see such pure strength displayed. Out of the corner of my eye, I spot movement, and even as I shout to watch out, I realize that no one is close enough to protect Eleven. Her golem is on the other side of the crater, fighting off three of them, and Forty-four's back is turned to us. The hound. It didn't run away; it was waiting. These things are more intelligent than we thought. It jumps at her, but Eleven stands there unafraid. I guess she's made peace with her death. A white blur enters my peripheral, and then the golem is in front of the shadow hound, slamming its hands together on the monster's head. Shadow splatter dots the dirt, and the body decomposes rapidly after. The golem is a Traveller? What the hell? The golem disappears in another flash of white, going back to fighting the remaining creatures.

______________________________________________________________________

With the combined efforts of Forty-four, the golem, and me, we get them all, scouring their marks from the earth. I don't know how long it's been since Waters picked me up in Quinstin, but I'm getting sleepy and I doubt the others will let me take a quick power nap. The four of us gather inside the cabin so Nine can give us our marching orders.

"We need to split up into groups of two so we can cover more ground. I don't want to be here for a week. Now that we know that light is the only way to destroy them truly, we need more flashlights. There's no power here, but that doesn't mean the rest of the town is the same. Forty-four, you and Nobody will be one team, and Eleven and I will be the other. I was looking over the maps of the town, and there's a general store in the center of it. We should meet up there in, we'll say, five hours," Nine explained.

"Just happy to do my part, guys. Anyone of us would've figured out the light thing. It's me and you, kid. You excited? I know I am," I said.

"I am over thirty-five. If anyone is a kid, it's you. Just follow my lead and don't slow me down," Forty-four said.

"Happy to be working with you too, sir," I joked.

The three of them check their phones, and I'm not able to get a look at the time. The old man who looks like a child starts moving, and I trail behind him. Soon. He decides to walk directly on the snow-covered road. The snowflakes stopped falling at some point, but the ground is still blanketed in an undisturbed sea of white. We pass cars buried in snow, yards and driveways that don't look like they were shoveled even once. The only sign of people is the bootprints we're leaving behind us. This place is abandoned. If it weren't for the buildings and vehicles, I might not believe anyone ever lived here. Not wanting to antagonize my partner, I stay silent as we explore. Every place we pass, I expect him to stop so we can look around, but he doesn't stop, and we keep moving.

"Shouldn't we go inside and see if anyone's in there?" I asked.

"There isn't," he said, annoyed.

"How do you know if we aren't checking? There could be someone in the basement hiding from those shadow things," I suggested.

"Just listen to me when I tell you there isn't. We haven't passed a single building with any people in it."

"But how do you know that? I'm agnostic, so I'm more of a seeing is believing type," I joked against my better judgment.

I'm acting out of character for myself, but this kind of annoying and harmless guy works well as a disguise. It occurs to me that I am perhaps acting very similarly to how Tuesday is. I just know she'd have a bunch of stupid jokes if she were here. After learning everyone goes by a number, she'd make a dumb bingo joke. Forty-four stops moving, standing perfectly still in the middle of the intersection we're walking through. He turns around to face me, and I can tell I've set him off with my questioning.

"You are a tag-along body with no combat ability. You are dead fucking weight. You have nothing to offer this mission, and I still don't understand why you're here. You wanna know how I know? Because there isn't any motion ANYWHERE AROUND US!" He screamed at me.

"You'd think a man whose over thirty-five wouldn't be throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of the street. But what do I know? I'm dead fucking weight," I said.

I hear them before I see them. But when I see them, I realize that antagonizing Forty-four might've been a bad idea. Coming out from behind the buildings are more shadow monsters. My rough count puts their numbers at around a hundred, and more are running down the street. This could have gone better.

"FUCK!" Forty-four shouted.

I like to think I thrive under pressure. That the more dangerous and hectic things get, the better I am. But I might've bitten off more than I can chew this time. This situation isn't good, and I'm going to need to get creative to survive the night. If the only options are to succeed or die, then I know what I have to do. The general store Nine mentioned is only a street over. With the two of them, this situation becomes less dire. And the store might have some items I need. The more narrow the path ahead becomes, the easier it is for me to see where the right path is.

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