Rise of Myth: Heir to Valor

Standing against his bike, Val was fiddling with and marveling at a modern looking black pocket watch. It did not have a cover, but it had a couple small dial knobs on the side. It rhythmically ticked as a thin red needle moved regularly, rotating around its fulcrum.

"Are all humans as foolishly obsessed with capturing time as you are?" An annoyed voice spoke from a bird with a bored expression. Huginn had observed with increasing impatience as Val familiarized himself with the watch, adjusting and readjusting the dials for several minutes.

"You just don't get it. To a bird who sleeps when he pleases and lives for thousands of years, time might be boring. To us who have much shorter lives and live day-by-day, to count the passage of time is an invaluable comfort." Val answered, not looking up from the watch.

"You *do* realize the irony in simply counting time as it passes?" Huginn jabbed.

Finally putting the watch away, Val grumbled. "Can't have anything nice with you around."

"Hmph. You said so yourself, we do not have time to waste if we want to curb the rise of ghouls." Huginn stated with impatience.

"Fine, we'll get to work, but I need to go talk to the Doc first." Val said, getting up and heading off to the pharmacy.

Richard had shown him a map and pointed out some areas in the direct vicinity where they had seen ghouls retreating into, as well as the locations of the hospital, morgue, and the coroner's office. All three locations were reasonably far away, maybe a mile or mile and a half, and the coroner's office was the least of the three major concerns due to its small size. Val decided to focus on the immediate areas to clear out some breathing room so the survivors could start working again. He also asked for any information they had about the ghouls behavior. Richard mentioned they were afraid of bright light and did not venture out into the sun, but when asked why, Val was referred to the Doctor for clarification.

He found Doctor Chen at a desk, taking inventory of various categories of over-the-counter medication they had. Painkillers, cold medicine, various vitamins and other supplements, it seemed like he was categorizing the bottles by active ingredients. He had a few papers scribbled with diagrams looking like conversion tables for people of different weights. Whether to repurpose some medications or combine some to achieve specific prescription-strength effects, Val was not sure.
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"Hey Doc, Richard sent me here to ask about the ghouls, said you had some thoughts on why they don't come out in the day." Val said.

"Hmm? Oh, right, the zombies— err, 'ghouls', you called them." The Doctor did not seem upset by the interruption, but continued his work for a moment before putting it down to give attention to Val's question.

"I haven't had the opportunity to perform an autopsy on one, though I don't particularly want to. I'm not even sure how beneficial that'd be, I'm general practice, family medicine, you would need a more skilled surgeon or coroner if you want to want more details..." The doctor seemed to start rambling on about his background.

"Just the quirk about their fear of light." Val interrupted.

"Right, sorry. It's just a theory, but it doesn't seem like the ghouls have fine control over their bodies like living humans do. Whether it's due to decomposition or some other factor, they move in clumsy, but forceful motions, nothing delicate."

"Aaand this has to do with their fear of light…?" Val raised an eyebrow questioningly to the doctor.

"Their pupils. Specifically the muscles in the eye. When the body dies, the pupils tend to dilate and become unresponsive because the muscles responsible for constricting them relax. I believe it's not that they're afraid of light, as much as it must be blinding to them, much like if you have ever had your pupils dilated at an optometrist." He explained.

"Got it, okay, so I shouldn't rely on light entirely to fend them off."

"Yes, or that's my recommendation anyway. We've been relying on floodlights and flares to ward them away from the base, but occasionally there will be one that ignores the light completely, though the few we've seen do that just charge aimlessly."

"One more thing Doc. Dan's infection. That was… just a normal infection, right?" Val awkwardly asked. He had a rather obvious concern in his mind, having seen zombies in media as the product of some infectious super virus or bio weapon.

Doctor Chen just stared at Val blankly, it took a moment for him to pick up on what Val was getting at.

"Oh! Right, yes, normal infection. I would avoid being bitten regardless, obvious harm aside, the bacterial fauna festering in these ghouls are likely the reason for why Dan's infection was so severe." He explained.

"Super, not zombie virus, just everything else. Thanks doc, I'll let you get back to your work. I'm going for a stroll."

"Wait! You're not planning on going out there right now are you? The sun's setting now." Alarm appeared in the Doctor's eyes.

"Hmm? Of course I am, I just arrived, sights to see, things to do, it's a decently large city." Val casually replied with a grin.

Alarm turned to horror on the Doctor's face as Val strolled out of the pharmacy.

. . .

"So? What's your plan tonight? My staff have been informed you might be coming and going at odd hours, but are you really going out tonight?" Richard was watching as Val transferred supplies between his bike saddlebags and a few boxes.

"Mhmm… You mentioned the buildings out front have not been cleared. I think I'll start there." Val was stuffing the largest two saddlebags with road flares and noting an area in front of the base on a map. A red square had been drawn around the area along the streets in pen.

"And the road flares? We have literally a couple tons of them, but what do you need thirty of them for?" Richard asked curiously, both of his eyebrows were raised as he watched Val pop the caps off, and pack his saddlebags to the brim with hazard orange plastic tubes.

"You'll see, don't worry, if the Doctor was right, this will work, and the flares will go to good use." Val reassured the Chief. Finished with his preparations, he took out a couple energy bars which would end up being his dinner. Actual dinner had been served an hour before, but Val did not want to draw too much attention by involving himself in the crowd near the kitchens. He had already become the talk of the town as a few passing residents could be heard whispering among themselves about a magical man with a sword.

"Alright, I'll trust you on this. I've doubled the patrol tonight. I'll be out there myself, if shit hits the fan, get back here and we'll try to scare them off with the floodlights."

"Thanks, really though, don't worry, just keep your folks off the streets. I can't guarantee I'll be able to help if any of them get caught up in this mess. It's little after seven now… I'll set out in two hours, give the ghouls some time to come out." Being able to tell the time was a dearly missed capability Val had lived without for a couple weeks, grateful for the watch the Chief had given him.

Richard returned to his office, likely discussing details of the night's patrol to several officers in blue.

"So what *is* the plan anyway?" Huginn asked.

"Well, mark off a large area, round up the ghouls, hack 'em to pieces. Then I just mark all the bodies and light 'em up."

"Hmph, sounds brutish."

"Think it won't work?"

"No, with your strength now, it probably will. Just don't get careless."

"I'm touched by your concern." Val replied with sarcasm.

"Ingrate! I simply cannot complete the task my lord assigned if you are eaten by ghouls." He retorted.

"Hey, Muninn, how many ghouls do you think there will be in this area?" Val ignored Huginn, pointing to the red square on the map.

"Hmm, a hundred maybe? Perhaps less." She replied, eying the map carefully.

"Alright, when I begin, I need you two to be my eyes in the sky. Keep me posted about their movements, and let me know if they try to breach the perimeter, either out of it or other ghouls into it."

Though not pleased about being ordered around, Huginn consented, whereas Muninn cheerfully agreed.

Almost two hours later, Val was pushing his bike out the gate. The guard regarded him like he was crazy, but followed the Chief's instructions regardless. A lone man in uniform was out in the parking lot, watching the dark neighborhood carefully.

*That's the guy I met earlier… Jim, was it?*

Huginn and Muninn took off into the night sky, moving to the area marked on the map in preparation to guide Val.

Val walked his bike over and clapped a hand on Jim's shoulder, causing him to jump in surprise badly.

"Yo, you on patrol tonight?" Val asked cheerfully.

"Y-yeah, I'm on patrol most nights, gets a bit stuffy being cooped up inside, y'know." Jim nervously replied.

Val parked his bike and pulled out a fresh pack of cigarettes he had gotten from the warehouse. This time instead of drawing his lighter, Val carved Feoh and used a small flame to light his cigarette. Spooking Jim as he noticed Val's eyes seem to glow bright orange for a moment.

Noting his expression, Val offered him a cigarette. "Want one?"

"Uh, s-sure." He stammered. He was not usually a nervous person, and while he enjoyed a cigarette or a cigar on occasion, he did not have a habit. Something in the back of Jim's mind almost screamed at him in fear to not say no to whatever Val asked though, and before he realized it, he had accepted a cigarette again lit with runes.

"How did you do that?" Jim asked.

"Magic." Val grinned. Jim didn't pursue the topic further, simply adding to a list of reasons Val scared him.

"You got family here too?" Val asked, exhaling small clouds of smoke.

"No, just me."

"No? Why'd you stay then?"

"I grew up here, haven't traveled much. Spent most of my adult life in blue, don't really know another life. When everything started falling apart, before I knew it I was reporting to the Chief. Evacuation orders had come in but a lot of people refused to leave. Then the power went out, phone lines went dead, even our radios stopped working. We just kept rounding up people who didn't leave or couldn't leave and before I had a chance to stop and think about everything, we were here. Nearly one hundred desperate faces, most of them had lost their homes, loved ones, abandoned pets in their escape. I guess I was just… continuing to do my job." Jim had a complicated expression as he explained, it looked like regret, but it did not seem to be about staying behind.

"You like the Chief?" Val asked.

"He's a great man, if a bit stubborn and hard on himself. He has a son, Ryan, the boy's seventeen, but his mother passed when he was ten. Chief threw his life into his work, treated the force like his own family. He's like a father to a lot of us. We saw Ryan around a lot more after that. When the disasters came, Chief was the first to tell us to obey the evacuation orders. He told us to take his son, that he'd stay behind and help the survivors, but Ryan refused, got into a shouting match with his dad... All but a few of us decided to stay and remind the Chief the color of our uniform."

The two stood in the chilly breeze, a pair of small orange lights illuminating their somber expressions.

"What about you?" Jim asked.

"Why I'm here or why I stayed?"

"The latter."

"Honestly. It wasn't really up to me." Val replied, putting a questioning look in Jim's eyes.

"Family?"

Val chuckled. "Nah, the EMPs took out my car coming back from Seattle. I went through a guardrail and into a tree, I was out for three days, missed the once in a lifetime opportunity to witness the apocalypse. When I woke up, San Francisco looked like giants had trampled it, wrecked boats littered the bay, and I was just trying to figure out what to do. There were no other survivors for a few miles."

"You seem to have come out alright."

"Maybe. Spent some time in the woods, died a hundred times, then picked up a bike and came here." Val sounded like he was making fun of himself, leaving Jim confused as to whether some of his words were real or some kind of joke.

"…Are you really going out there? Alone?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

Val drew the last of his cigarette, flicking the butt onto the asphalt a short distance away. He looked at him with amused eyes, noting the irony in the line of questioning from Jim of all people.

"Like I said, I'm here to help."