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It took me a few seconds more to realized I was seated in a hard-backed chair and tied to it. A bag was over my head, coarse like burlap and smelling of mold. With only the slightest of movements I tested my restraints.

A wince of pain was my only reward.

Dammit…

I was so wounded it felt like I was mortal again. I couldn’t see through the bag, which meant it had to be black or something for how dark it was. I focused instead on my other senses and listened to the voices. They were raised and going back and forth and couldn’t be more than a dozen feet away.

Which meant they were probably looking right at me.

I kept still and pretended to be unconscious as I listened, interpreting words I hadn’t heard for over a decade.

A woman’s voice. Familiar.

“Why not?” a man responded, his tone aggressive. “Besides, this is your damn fault. You never should have brought him back here, Susan! He’s probably an insurgent!”

“We don’t know what he is,” the woman Susan said.

“A damn spy is what he is! You said he was speaking their language, wasn’t he? Right, Kelsey?”

A pause came before the girl, Kelsey, answered. “Yes, Sergeant Richards. He was speaking their language. At least I think so. It sounded just like the recordings.”

Recordings? What did that mean?

The man let out a curse. “Well, ain’t this a barrel of laughs. I can’t believe this shit.”

“Richards, he’s the first person we’ve seen outside of our colony in over ten years. This is important. It means something.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. That something’s changed maybe?”

Another pause.

“I don’t buy it,” Richards said. “You already hit him on the damn head, you should have just finished the job.”

“I going to take that as a joke,” Susan said with a huff. “You do remember I’m a doctor, right? I don’t care how bad things get. I swore an oath. Plus, I was only defending my daughter.”

“So, what’s your doctor’s oath tell you about that, huh?” Richards said and I could imagine him lifting his chin towards me. “You ever seen anyone built like that before? And look at those wounds. How thick that skin is. This guy would be dead already…if he was human.”

Another uncomfortable pause.

I even wondered if I was still human after all this.

“Perhaps they experimented on him,” a new voice said, another woman, older still. “Before the fall there were reports of the invaders taking children. I didn’t know how true that was until now.”

“You think he was taken as a child?” Susan said.

“All the more reason to get rid of him,” Richards said. “He’s obviously been brainwashed.”

He wasn’t too far from the truth with that one, I thought.

“What do you think we should do, June?” Susan asked.

“Hey, she isn’t in charge!” Richards shouted. “This is still a damn military facility, and I am the highest-ranking officer here.”

“You’re not a damn officer, Richards,” the woman, June, chided him. “And the only reason you’re in charge at all is because Jim isn’t back yet. So hush it.”

I expected some kind of comeback from the sergeant, but he held his tongue.

It was a lot to take in at once, but I’d gathered much by just being quiet. I was in some kind of military installation, it seemed. And these people had survived the fall. I almost couldn’t believe it.

Real people.

Old Earthers who still remembered the world before it was steamrolled back into ancient China. People who still knew our culture. People like me.

“I think we should care for him in the first instance,” Susan said. “At least until he is well. We can figure out what to do with him after that.”

“What? So he can kill us all?” Richards said. “You remember what those damn space japs did to us, Susan?”

Space-japs?

But funny.

“He looks like one of us, not them,” June said. “No matter what language he speaks, he’s still one of our own. Maybe he escaped from them somehow.”

“From where?” Richards said. “Did he fall out of the damn sky? We should just kill him now and be done with it!”

“Richards!” Susan said.

He sighed. “You two aren’t military. You don’t understand. We’re at war here. You don’t know how the enemy thinks. He could be a plant. We’ve survived this long because we’ve stayed out of sight of those damn pagodas. And now we’re just going to welcome one of them into our stronghold? He could be sending them messages of our location now for all we know.”

“How Richards? You see some kind of communication device on him?”

“I don’t know! With their damn kung fu magic! Telepathy or some shit!”

This guy was all over the place. Not quite wrong, but again…funny.

Inwardly I sighed, though. This should have been a momentous occasion for me. To have found survivors from before the invasion. I never even thought it possible after so many years, yet here they were. Living miracles in the flesh and they didn’t even realize it.

They had knowledge that would be key to restoring the Earth. To fulfilling my dream. But I’d also lost a key part to that dream now as well.

My means of taking the Earth back.

Inwardly I looked to my gunk-ridden Flame.

Maybe trying to cultivate that Demonic Frenzy or whatever the hell it was, wasn’t such a good idea. Although it had caused me to ascend and had pulled me back from the brink of death, it had cost me my Flame itself.

Images of that nightmare flashed through my mind. Trauma I didn’t yearn to relive, yet something was important there. And then I recalled it.

Frenzy.

I had sensed it amidst that cesspool of darkness.

It was cleansing me.

I needed to find it again.

But whatever it was, it wasn’t here.

I sensed nothing.

But whether that was because it truly wasn’t here or that I had no Flame to sense it, I didn’t know. In either case, being tied up to the chair and thought of as a Yee spy wasn’t going to help me. And on top of all this, I still had people counting on me at home.

I couldn’t let them down,

Not like I did Mu Lin.

Just the thought of her caused my heart to ache. Innocent. So much potential. She didn’t deserve to have her whole life robbed from her like that. The thirst for vengeance and retribution then caused my heart to burn. I tensed, testing my bonds again. Were I my old self again, I would have broken them easily to set the tone for the conversation I was about to have.

But while I lacked the strength in body, I still had plenty in spirit.

Flame or no Flame.

“Enough talk,” I said stiltedly, the English words coming back to me slowly. “Time me speak.”

Damn, I sound like a frigging moron. Who’d have thought I could forget my own damn language?

The voices abruptly stopped and silence filled the room.

“Yes,” I said. “I speak English. I one like you.”

“Holy shit,” Richards said. “Did he understand everything we just said?”

“Yes,” I answered for him.

“Alright, you three get out!” Richard shouted. “This is officially a military operation now. I need you to––”

“Richards, piss off!” Susan shouted and suddenly the bag was removed from my head.

Ugly yellow lighting strained my eyes.

I had expected to be blinded by bright halogen lamps, finding myself surrounded by the austere decor of a military infirmary or brig, but instead I was in a small room lit only by candles.

It was underwhelming and pathetic all at once.

I got a better look at Susan and her daughter Kelsey in the candlelight. Their hair was blond, but wild and matted. And their features were gaunt and sunken. Living skeletons that barely filled out the dirty green overalls they wore. The man Richards looked no better. Pale skinned, bony. He barely looked over thirty with a close-shaved head and a thick beard. The woman, Susan, looked a good fifteen years older than him with crow’s feet around her tired-looking blue eyes.

The other woman, June, had to be in her sixties. Light brown complexion, wrinkled skin that was spotted with age. Her white hair was cut close to her scalp just like the sergeant’s and she wore a dingy gown or dress. The only thing worse than seeing them was their smell. With the bag removed, the scent of mold was replaced by the pungent aroma of unwashed bodies and filth.

And I thought the Native Housing District was bad.

These people were living in squalor.

Although at the moment I suppose I smelled no better.

“Tell us your name,” Susan said, having stepped back a few paces after removing the bag.

I couldn’t sense what they were feeling anymore, but the looks on their faces said it all.

Fear.

I was an unknown anomaly to them, with Richards thinking I was a Trojan horse. I needed to convince them I wasn’t a threat. Not that I actually could be one at the moment. Looking down at myself, my body was covered in bandages and some kind of robe. At least they had tried to patch me up.

“Max,” I said. “That my…” I paused and tried again. “That’s my name.”

“Where do you come from?” Richards said, his tone sounding like an interrogation. “And how did you find us?”

“City name Jurin,” I said. “I think it name Chicago before. How I find you? Luck. I no expect find people here.” I cringed at my own words. I could remember them, but my grammar sucked. “Sorry. Long time speak English again. Sound like Yee.”

“Yee?” June asked.

I smiled at Richards. “Space Japs. That Yee. How much you know about them? Anything?”

“We’ll ask the questions,” Richards said with a frown. “Tell us how you survived out in that forest. With those monsters and demons?”

No way could I answer that one. Not in a way they could comprehend anyway. There was only one thing I could say.

“Luck. I have big luck.” I cringed and tried again. “I was very lucky.”

I sighed, frustrated with myself.

If there was one thing I could say for the Yee language, it was that it was efficient as hell. Communication stripped down to bare bones. No present or past tense, no extraneous words like is or the. Speaking proper English again was like putting on the brakes and cluttering things just to make it sound right.

It made me realized that if I was having this much trouble, I could only imagine how kids younger than me would feel trying to communicate with them. Most didn’t remember any English at all.

Richards looked to June. “I’m not buying that. That bastard’s hiding something.”

“Please,” I said. “I… am friend.” No wrong word. “Ally. The Yee my enemy too.”

“What did they do to you?” Susan asked, taking a step closer to me. “Your body is strange. Do you understand that? It’s different.” She then tapped her chest and raised her voice, speaking to me like I was deaf. “I’m a doctor. I listened to your heart. It sounds strange. Different. Too many beats.”

Shit… I thought. Was my heart actually different now?

I did regrow it using Dark Frenzy.

Was it mutated?

Too many beats? What the hell did that mean? Did I have a Demon’s heart inside of me?

She raised her voice again. “Can you understand my words?”

“Yes, yes,” I said, nodding. “No shout. Understand fine. Just… speaking hard… hard remember right word. Right….” I struggled again with my vocabulary. “Grammar.”

Susan nodded back and then lowered her voice. “I’m sorry. I understand.”

“How many of them are there?” Richards asked. “Do they control the city?”

“Yes,” I said. “Millions.” I then thought of the greater empire. “Trillions. Control many stars. Planets.”

“Shit…” Richards whispered and then leaned his head back again the wall, looking defeated. He glanced back at me. “Is there any kind of resistance?”

I nodded. “Yes.”

His eyes widened at that, and the two women drew closer.

“There are people alive still fighting back?” June asked, a sliver of hope in her voice. “How many?”

I chuckled.

“One,” I said. “Me.”

All hope vanished from their eyes.

“It okay,” I said smiling. “One enough. I very strong. Grow more strong soon. Free whole Earth someday.”

With that came awkward smiles and something that looked like pity.

They all nodded at me then, like it was a joke.

All except one.

The girl Kelsey, who had remained quiet this whole time, standing at the back of the room was staring at me intensely. A mixture of curiosity and skepticism on her face.

I gave her a wink, and she turned her head quickly with a blush, caught staring.

The three adults in the room then retreated down the hallway for a huddle.

I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the conversation looked intense. A few minutes later they returned, and June spoke first.

“It’s hard for us to understand anything you are telling us,” she said, genuine compassion in her tone. “We’ve lived underground here in this bunker for over ten years now. You’re the first person we’ve heard of from the outside. It’s not that we don’t believe you. We just don’t know quite how to take you yet.”

“For that reason,” Richards said. “I’m still going to have you detained. But I’ve agreed to allow for Doctor Winters here to care for you in the infirmary. When the CO returns, he’ll decide what to do with you. It’ll likely be more questioning. But whether it’s a debrief or an interrogation will depend on how you conduct yourself in the next few weeks, understand?”

Weeks? I didn’t have weeks.

I counted the days in my head.

Assuming I had only spent a night out in that forest, there were only three days left until my showdown with Hein. And not to mention what I still owed Hong Feng. Just the thought of that caused my tar-encrusted Flame to smolder.

Dammit, I needed to fix this thing somehow.

Richards barked an order, and two more men dressed in military gear entered the room holding rifles. The women along with Kelsey stepped back, but Susan looked appalled.

“Is that really necessary?” she said.

“You weren’t on the front lines, honey,” he said, glowering at me as he cut loose the zip-ties binding my arms and legs with a knife. “You never saw what just one of them space-jap bastards could do. Now get up slow like, understand?”

I returned the glower as I tried to stand.

Pain rifled through me as I forced myself out of the chair.

I resisted the urge to cry out, hissing through my teeth instead.

Had I my Flame I would have used [Indifference], but now I was under the willpower of the Struggler alone it seemed. The soldiers grabbed me under my armpits and began walking me out of the room. Richards led the way, as Susan and Kelsey followed behind.

Leaving the room, I noticed a faded sign that read “Brig”.

At least I hadn’t forgotten how to read, I thought.

We exited into a larger corridor that was illuminated with dull orange lighting from faded overhead lamps. What had to be over a hundred people were pressed against the walls, gawking at me in dead silence. I could barely make them out clearly in the dim lighting but what I saw was the raw face of humanity that I recalled from my past.

People. Old people my parents’ age and older. Kids. Some toddlers even.

Every race and creed you could think of.

They all looked at me the same way though.

Faces filled with fear, incomprehension, and mistrust.

“No need to gather here!” Richards shouted. “This is military business! You civilians need to disperse!”

But no one listened to him, too captivated by the prisoner on display.

The wild man from the forest who spoke Space Jap.

Or so I imagine the rumor mill must have been running about me thus far.

I tried to make sense of how so many people had survived underground for so long. Especially in these conditions. This wasn’t a sanctuary. It was a damn dungeon. The thought sparked more smoldering. The empire had done this to them, entombed them on their own planet, but at least they had survived.

I felt my purpose deepen as I looked into each and every face I saw.

A face worn down by hardship, pain, and the loss of hope.

Yet still they hadn’t given up.

Saving the block back home and establishing the Terran sect within Yee society was one thing. That was more like tilling the soil. But this…this was the true seed of humanity that I needed to save.

A dying ember that I had to protect and nurture at all costs.

This was cultivation of a different kind.

I felt something open up inside of me as the understanding of my Dao deepened.

The struggle had just gotten harder, but saving the future of humanity just took one huge step closer to becoming a reality. I’d built a home back in Jurin and now I had the people to fill it. Still one more problem existed.

For any of that to happen—I had to recover my Flame.