"Right. Hemelstead Mansion is up that winding path ahead of you, unless there are any other giant castles built into the sides of cliffs in the neighborhood," Sam says, which gets an eyeroll from Nicole. Ellie clasps her hands together, her eyes bright.

"It's fascinating! Who did you say owned it before Z-Day?"

"Um... no info. Sorry, Ellie. A collector of Dark Age antiquities."

"Also a collector of fragments of the Edda of the Wakened Warrior," Jody adds, and my chest wells with a small bit of hope. It helps give me a bit more energy, in a way. It's been a few days since I received that weakening agent from Sage, and it's definitely doing its job. I've had no trouble getting my eight hours of sleep at night because of how drained I've been feeling.

"And why is it we're after the Edda again?" Nicole asks. "I mean, the reason we were looking into all of that last time was so Veronica could make a cure for the zombie virus, which she's already done."

Sam tsks. "Well, yeah, she did that for the regular zombie virus. But we're hoping the Edda might help us tackle the V-Types too, seeing as how-well, you know, the Vikings actually created them."

There's a bit of a bite in his words, but I don't comment on it. I've long accepted the fact he will never like Nicole and vice versa, although Nicole mostly acts like an ass to mess with her brother-in-law. Sam simply dislikes her.

Still I nod in agreement. "Yeah. The first V-Types we found were protecting that Viking tomb. They'd been waiting in those dark tunnels for hundreds of years until we came and woke them up."

"I remember when you went on that mission," She replies. "Hindsight is a bitch, isn't it? But we found a good chunk of the Edda. I remember because you," She gestures to Ellie, "were always looking like a teenage girl at a One Direction concert when someone found something new about it."

That gets a laugh from Ellie, and she nods. "I've been researching on what we have, but we don't have all of it. That's why I went to work with Colonel Sage, because his people have maintained good libraries. Anyway, he said Veronica said it was okay to let me in on the secret about... what she is now. Is it just me, or does it feel really weird?"

"It does take some getting used to," Sam says with a hum, although Nicole just shrugs.

"It's not the weirdest thing I've discovered since coming to the UK."

I cringe at the pointed look she gives me, and I can't look her in the eye. She hasn't said anything to anyone else about the Feive Project, either because no one would believe her or possibly it wouldn't benefit her if she did. I have no idea how much she's told the A.M.T.B. if she's told them at all. Still, it's obvious she's still upset about it.

"Yeah." Sam awkwardly drags out the word, and I can feel the questioning looks coming from Jody and Ellie. "But Veronica being a uh, AI does have some advantages though. Ronnie collected Ellie's Edda research in about two seconds. She thinks she's reconstructed the whole thing. Except for three stanzas."

"But those stanzas are about how the wizard Loki laid the zombies guards back to rest. In other words, the part we actually need." Jody frowns.

"Yeah. Veronica thinks that this is a good lead because she has that theory that the V-Types might be animated by some kind of fungus which could have been dormant for a long time, so whatever the Vikings knew might still be relevant."

Now it's Ellie's turn to frown. "Didn't she the murals about that inside the Viking tombs?"

"Well, yeah. Except when she saved Callista and Maxine, she blew up a lot of memory along with her labs. She reckons there was probably stuff in there that might be relevant to this, but she hadn't prioritized."

I look down at my feet, a twinge of guilt gnawing at my inside. There obviously was no other way, but sometimes I still wonder if there was something we could have done to keep that information.

"So because of that we need to get what we're missing of the original manuscript here in Hemelstead Mansion," Ellie says with a nod of understand, and her face breaks out into an excited grin. "Come on, I'm itching to get my fingers on those manuscripts!"

Her excitement is almost contagious, but honestly a lot of my memories about finding anything out about the Edda or its manuscripts have Moonchild attached to them, so I can't be too happy about it. Whenever I'm reminded about her I'm reminded that she's still here in my head, that I never managed to actually get rid of her, despite previous efforts. I mean, she's been pretty quiet. Haven't heard anything from her in months. The most I did hear of her voice was from one of the dreams I've told Sam about, something he seems to take interest in whenever I try to talk to him about his view of himself as an operator. (I didn't forget him saying he thought he was terrible at his job).

But other that, Moonchild has been surprisingly dormant. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing, since I'm sure in some type of way she could be helpful in this whole V-Type situation. She is real, after all.

"Wow, this path is a lot longer than it looked from below," Jody says after a few minutes, her green eyes wide. Ellie gives her a half grin.

"Nearly there. And at least no V-Types."

"Oh!" Sam shouts, causing us all to jump. "Ellie, have I not told you about my jinx rule for runners? Talk about something else. Literally anything."

Her face scrunches up. "Um, okay. Uh, I heard the last round of peace conferences were going okay?"

Both Jody and Nicole cringe.

"Yeah," Nicole says, before giving a so-so gesture. "Well-ish. Since I can't run as much due to my hand, Sam's the main operator and I have to keep up to date with things in order to report back to the A.M.T.B. on the V-Type situation, I've gone to a few with Four as a fill in for Colonel De Luca. People are talking, at least, but most of the talking is bickering." She rolls her eyes. "I'm the youngest person in the room and somehow I'm the one telling everyone we don't have time for pointless fighting. Singer's dealt with the V-Types at the necropolis for now, but Veronica's pretty sure that the horde gets more clever the more of the there are, so we can't wait for numbers to rise again."

"Humans are often pretty good at uniting against a common enemy."

I frown. Does she not remember what happened during the first apocalypse?

"You'd think," She scoffs. "It's obvious that these zombies think as one. We don't have that ability, but we need to be working together, at least."

"Preferably with one township leading the country," Jody adds.

"It can't be Abel. The Ministry's already spread too much doubt about us," Sam says, and she nods.

"Can't be New Canton and Amelia, obviously. Eagle and Scorpion Fang are too divisive. Psychoanalysts Enclave is too secretive. Hebrides Outpost is too remote."

"Could have been Mount Seneca, I suppose." Ellie pauses solemnly. "Before they..."

The sigh from Sam holds the weight of hundreds of lives. "Yeah. We sent them some burn cubes for zombie defense, told them they were very volatile. They stored them in a building near the generator and... Well, you can see the crater from where you are, actually. So that's more burn cubes gone forever."

Nicole looks out at the crater, her face pinched and brows furrowed. There's no pity, no sorrow, just anger at the stupid choices that came with extreme consequences. "Supplies we can't afford to lose. A waste."

"I think the Exmoore Militia is going to end up leading the V-Type efforts," I chime in. "They're organized enough. Only problem is they've made so many enemies that getting agreements is like pulling teeth."

"I think Sage would support it, anyway," Ellie replies. "He's all about order."

I don't give a reply until we reach the door of the mansion. I lightly push on the door, and it opens slowly, light from outside invading the dark, dusty entrance room.

"Looks deserted. Should we just head in, sweety?"

"Yeah. Be quick though." His voice holds the slightest hint of nervousness. "I didn't realize how close you were to Mount Seneca. The whole cliff could be unstable. I want you in and out fast. The library's at the center of the building, straight ahead of you. Run."

We head inside, passing through the entrance hall and into the other rooms. The windows are thick and foggy from age, but light still manages to pass through. There's odd trinkets in each room, and I'm reminded that previous owner of this mansion was a collector. I think about snagging some of the jewelry that sits behind glass cases, but I know we don't have time for me to stop and break the glass.

Shame. I'm sure such pretty items would help moral. Maybe we can come back to get some of the goods here.

That thought immediately flies out of my head when we pass through a hallway full of stuffed animals. Not cute little toys, but like the animals that were killed and then stuffed. I know people who used to do that in America during or after hunting season, but even they didn't go to this extent.

I keep my eyes ahead until we get to the library, although a shiver runs up my spine as if the animals are watching us.

"Okay. We're in the library, Sam," Ellie announces.

"Do you think we can go out a different way?" Jody asks with a shudder. "It was like if Noah's ark employed a taxidermist back there." She pauses and eyes something in the corner of the room near the ceiling. "I can see surveillance cams. Are you gettin' anything, Sam?"

"Not a sausage. Network's isolated."

Ellie walks over to the camera, pushing up on her tip toes, just barely able to reach the cam. She pulls something from her backpack. "I think I can help with that. If I just fix this break. If I just fix this breaker to the cam-"

I don't see what she does, exactly, but I know a second later the device beeps, making Sam gasp in surprise.

"Bloody hell! The feed went live. How did you do that?"

She shrugs nonchalantly. "Sage got his people to design it. He studied the Abel Runner method and looked for ways to refine it."

"The Abel Runner method? Never though of us having a method. More of a sort of muddling along."

"Oh, it's all methods and honing techniques and '30 steps to a more efficient run' with Sage."

"Hey, guys! Four and I found this," Nicole calls from a different section of the library. She points to a library index that hangs on the wall, and Ellie gasps, her eyes lighting up.

"Brilliant!" She grabs my hand and practically drags me over to it while Sam laughs.

"I love how that excites you."

She lets go of my hand in order to look at the index. "What have we got here? The Book of the Battle of Yahweh, Cardenio, Inventio Fortunata! This is some collection... Ah, here it is! Fragments of The Edda of the Wakened Warriors." A frown suddenly pulls at her lips. "It's not in the main library. Sam, do your plans show a bibliotarium?"

"Mm, no. Wait, yes. Sorry," He says sheepishly while I refrain from giggling. "Uh, reached via a tunnel out of the back of the library. It's build deep into the cliff."

"Secure storage, I guess," Jody states.

"Yeah. The plans don't look complete, the entrance is under the huge portrait of-oh. Oh, crap. Five, look, to you left. You recognize her too, don't you, Five?"

I do as told, looking at the portrait of a woman with dark black hair and deep sunken eyes. "Uh, no."

"No? What do you mean no?"

"I mean, no, Sam. Who is she?"

"Yeah, we would like to know that too," Nicole says.

"It's Xenobia, a mad scientist Sara Smith took down before Z-Day, only she didn't really and-Callista, how do you not remember this? You went and helped Sara Smith take her down, and she tried to kill you!"

I huff and cross my arms. "Do you know how many people have tried to kill me? You can't expect me to have perfect memory? I'm not mad at you or Ellie for never pointing out how I look like Catherine."

"Who?" Jody asks as Ellie's head snaps over to me.

"What did you just say?"

I shake my head. "Never mind. Darling, you're going to have to fill us in on what happened because I honestly have no clue who this woman was or what she did."

"It doesn't matter, not right now," He replies. "But if this was her house, then you don't want to hang around." His words falter slightly when moans of zombies come from down the hall. "Make this fast, guys. Get going."

•

"This doesn't seem too dangerous," Jody comments, and I cringe. That is not the type of things you should say on a mission like this. I may not remember Xenobia, but from how Sam describes her, she wasn't a lovely person.

It's hard to keep track of all the people who have tried to kill me.

But I suppose she has a point. It's dark, stalactites dripping water, making the floors a bit gross, but it's basically a cave.

"So far," Sam says skeptically. "I've still you got you on surveillance cams, so this is all a part of Xenobia's lair. She was definitely a lair person."

"I think I've read the mission report." Her face scrunches up. "She was into genetic experiments, right? Melding things together that should have stayed... unmelded."

"She and Dr. Tomorrow would have got along like a house on fire, but Sarah definitely killed her. I'm still surprised you don't remember, Callista."

I sigh. "Sam, my head is so full with crazy hippies and... other things, you can't blame me for not remembering."

"But you remembered Ephraim."

"I remembered Ephraim because I remember when you told me and Sarah to leave him to Van Ark because he betrayed us, and I kept thinking you sounded incredibly attractive when you were angry."

There's a beat of silence. "O-oh."

"But if Sarah killed her, we should be fine, right?" I ask, changing the subject. Ellie nods.

"She always was efficient. Bit like Sage, really. But I'm glad I'm on this mission with you guys. Less 'follow the method precisely' and more fun."

A growl echoes through the tunnels, and Sam sighs.

"Sorry, but this mission is about to get a lot more unfun."

"Same zom from earlier?" Nicole asks.

"No, it came from a tunnel that's redacted on the floor plan."

I see it coming towards us, hands reaching out like any other zombie, but there's something different about its head. It's not gone like a V-Type, but there's... more of it? As it gets closer it becomes more clear. There's something surrounding its head, growing from it. Wooden branches shaping around the head, roots growing through its eyeballs. At a closer glance, growing out of other parts of it as well.

"It's like a zombie Worzel Gummidge!" Jody shouts, and I draw my gun from its holster on my hip. I fire, the sound echoing through the caves. It would have been a clean headshot if the bullet hadn't lodged itself into one of the branches. They're like a protective cage around the head.

I grab my axe. "Looks like I'll have to take this thing down the old fashioned way."

Nicole grabs my arm. "We don't have time. We have to get the Edda, remember? This whole cliffside is unstable and you can't waste time trying to lumberjack your way through that wood to get to the zombie."

"Nicole's right," Sam says, although he says it as if the words themself taste like sour lemons. "If you can't kill it quickly, you need to get away from it. The left-hand tunnel leads to the bibliotarium. Run!"

With a slightly clenched jaw I put my axe across my back, turning with the others and running down the left hand tunnel. The zombie stumbles behind us, snarling and growling. It doesn't sound like a V-Type, which is good for us, I think. Although regular zoms can be dangerous, they're not nearly as much trouble as a V-Type.

Our steps echo against the stone as we all keep running, and I can feel my breathing quicken and my skin become hot even in the coolness of the tunnels. I look over my shoulder at the zombie. It's keeping pace with us.

Xenobia did it, obviously, but I can't tell if she did it while the person was a zombie or before. I guess it doesn't really matter though, but this makes Sam's statement from before true. Xenobia and Dr. Tomorrow-the real Dr. Tomorrow, the owner of Dr. Tomorrow's Island-would have gotten on like a house on fire. Or maybe the two would have set houses on fire.

I know that owner of the island would have. He... he did a lot of bad things to people, and he tried to hunt me. I was younger-fifteen or sixteen or somewhere around that age. That stupid owner kept talking about how he liked to hunt, how he thought it was a shame he was hunting a cub, but I'd still do since I kept meddling into things.

I shudder at the memory.

But then I push myself forward when I finally see a door at the end of the tunnel. The others do the same as the zombie behind us snarls and growls.

"Zom's nearly on us. Hurry!" Jody shouts as we all rush through the door. Nicole and I both push against the door to slam it shut, and a moment later there's a loud bang on the other side as the zombie tries to break through.

"You've done it!" Sam cheers. "That zom's looking very frustrated. I mean-well, I think it is. It's kind of hard to read the expressions on an undead human-tree hybrid. So uh, what's it like in there, you guys? I don't have surveillance anymore and you're headcams are looking a little grainy."

"Labs," Ellie replies as she takes a look around at the beakers and dissected animals that have mostly rotted away to skeletons. "Pretty evil vibe. Life-size model of a cockroach-human hybrid, for example."

My entire body recoils at the model in the middle of the room.

"Its eyes are huge!" Jody exclaims. "I used to hate roaches, but Tom loves them, so I've been makin' an effort to be less judgmental. He kept a couple of pets when he was... you know."

"How's Tom getting on with Kytan and the Last Riders?" Sam asks as we all start looking around.

"Good, actually. He said it's nice to do somethin' useful that doesn't involve killing people. And the Last Riders are very all or nothin'. Total chaos or total loyalty, you know? Tom says he gets that."

"He'd get on with Sage then," Ellie pipes up. "That's not a man who believes in half measures. Until we talked about the Edda, he'd only said one thing to me in the last month. 'I suggest you tidy your room, Ellie. A tidy environment begets a tidy mind.'"

I blink. He's seen the coms shack. I can only imagine how hard he judges me and Sam because of that.

"Uh, guys? Wasn't that cockroach-human model thing in the center of the room last time you looked?" Nicole asks, and my head snaps to the stand it was on.

There's nothing there. My heart stops in my chest.

I hear a squeal above me, and I look up to see the model with spread wings dropping down from the ceiling above me. I scream, and Nicole grabs my arm and pulls me out of the way before it can fall on top of me. We get away before its antenna can reach out and touch us.

"What the hell?!" I shriek.

"Oh no. That's not half human, it's half zombie!" Jody shrieks. "We have to get out of here."

"I saw something through Nicole's headcam. There's a door behind the centrifuge," Sam says. "Go! Now!"

I sprint for the door, my heart pounding in my chest as my stomach churns in disgust as that thing behind us squeals and hisses. Every time I think I've seen it all, I'm proven wrong again. Why would anyone create something like that? A zombie with huge eyes and antennas and wings. Bile burns my throat and I resist the urge to gag.

The zombie follows us out the door, squealing and hissing in the most horrible way. I sprint as hard as I can, grabbing my gun and spinning around to fire. I hit it, but it's not a headshot. I only manage to hit it in the shoulder, which makes it even angrier.

"Shit!" I curse.

"Shoot it again!" Jody cries.

"Do we even know if shooting it will kill it?" Nicole asks, her eyes wide. "Cockroaches can survive five days without its own head!"

A hundred curses fly through my head as the zombie-roach hisses again. I don't look back at it. I don't want to see its bug eyes staring at us, or its mouth gape open. I think it was a good thing I don't remember Xenobia, seeing that this was the shit she was into.

Although I don't think I'd forget something as terrifying as this, so maybe my encounters of her with Sarah weren't as terrible as this.

"I've got you back on cams, guys," Sam says. "You've pulled ahead of the cockroach zom."

Nicole glances over her shoulder. "Not by much. And we aren't losing it."

I look at Ellie desperately. "I don't suppose Colonel Sage gave you an insect-zombie hybrid killing device, did he?"

She blinks, and it seems as though a lightbulb goes off in her head. "Actually-"

"Did he really five you an insect-zombie hybrid killing device? Talk about being prepared," Sam says, very impressed.

"It's more of an 'in case of dire emergency' explosive device. Actually, it's a grenade."

"Handy!" Jody says. "Give it to, Five. She doesn't have to get a head shot. If it's near the zom, it should take it out."

Ellie hands the grenade to me, and I pull the pin, twisting around before hurling it at the zombie. It flies through the air and goes off right when it hits the zombie's chest. The ground rumbles slightly as zombie bits spatter onto the cave wall.

"You did it!" She cries as we slow our pace down slightly to catch our breath. "There's no way it survived that."

My attention leaves the bits of the zombie strewn around when I notice the ground and walls are still rumbling even after the explosion.

"What's that sound?" Sam asks, and I pale.

"You said the cliff was unstable earlier, didn't you? That grenade going off probably didn't help." I pick up the pace. "Come on. We have to get the Edda and get out of here before the entire place comes down on us!"

•

My head pounds at the loud sounds of rocks cracking and breaking, caving in on itself completely. I vaguely hear Sam calling out to us, trying to make sense of what he can see through the headcams since the surveillance ones have now been destroyed, but it's not until the rock fall stops that I can hear him clearly.

"Are all of you alright?" He asks. "Callista-"

"We're okay, Sam," Jody interrupts. "We got clear of the cave-in. If there was anything left of that zom, it's buried under two tons of granite."

"It's opened up a new tunnel mouth in the mountain," Ellie says, and I look at daylight coming from the new opening. My shoulders slump in relief as fatigue racks through my body. "We can use that when we leave with the Edda. Now I can put a positive spin on me 'unauthorized use of a high explosive in the field' report. Sage is very big on those."

"You know, if he's such a pain to work with, you can always come back to Abel," Sam suggests. "I mean, he sounds-"

"Unfun?" Jody finishes.

"Yeah. Unfun to the extreme."

Ellie nods dramatically. "Oh, God, yeah. He's a nightmare. 'Rules are there for a reason, Miss Maxted. I don't care how compelling The Journal of Modern Anthropology is. Lights out means lights out.'" She sighs. "But here's the thing. What he does works. I might find him irritating as hell, but he's helped people turn their lives around in the middle of an apocalypse. Look what he's done for Peter. I've seen him smile more in the week he's been here helping Sage set up a fitness program than the entire time I've known him."

That hurts me a lot more than it probably should.

"Yeah. So you're staying put."

She nods again. "For now. This Sage-Abel alliance is a great thing, and I'm going to do what I can to make sure it works."

"Right. You're close to the bibliotarium. Any sign of uh, like uh, bibliotares?" He asks, and I snicker as we keep moving. We don't get to far though.

"Crap," Nicole sighs, placing her hands on her hips.

"Another rockfall?"

"No. Here, I'll get closer so you can see it through my headcam," She rubs her temples in frustration, and I stare at the rocks in front of us, my heart sinking.

The rock in front of us is melted, and it's got the weird red color that we only see on something that was in the surrounding area of a burn cube explosion.

"Oh, buggar. I think..." Sam pauses, and I hear a shuffling of papers for a few moments, before he sighs. It's one of those heavy sighs of annoyance. "Yeah. You're basically under Mount Seneca settlement now. The one that blew itself up with burn cubes."

"You've gotta be shitting me," Nicole murmurs.

"So The Edda of the Wakened Warriors is buried under a mountain in the blast radius of a highly toxic and volatile device?" Ellie asks, and I can see the heart break on her face when Sam replies.

"Mm, yeah."

A/N: Our protagonists can never catch a break, can they? Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Please be sure to vote and comment! Thank you and have a blessed day!