Isa led the way through the woods once more. Levi and Colin followed her single-file. The woods swayed around them. Simulated sunlight poured down, but failed to penetrate the depths of the canopy. Down here, only speckles of sunlight made it through. Colin yawned, and Levi glanced back at him. “That bored?”

  “Huh, you’re right. I don’t need to yawn anymore. I guess it’s just a psychological hangup,” Colin said, touching his face.

  “It’s good to stay in practice,” Isa commented.

  They walked on. For the most part, Isa led them through empty forest. She kicked her way through undergrowth and stomped saplings out of their path. As they walked on, suddenly paths began cutting through the forest. Well-defined, clear dirt paths, with stepping stones and everything. Levi glanced left and right, then looked at Isa. “I take it we could find the second town if we followed these back?”

  “Yes. But we were skipping it, no?”

  “Correct.”

  Isa turned forward once again and led them on. “As a final warning, it is very dangerous to skip the second town. It isn’t like the swamp, where it’s all the same level. The difficulty spikes toward the end of this floor. You’re basically skipping the ramp-up and jumping right to the top of the spike.”

  Levi waved his hand dismissively. “That’s fine. Like I said, guerilla warfare. I’m good at that kinda stuff. Used to do it all the time back home. All you really need is a little bit of confidence, and a lot of overwhelming force.”

  “As long as you’re committed.”

  “Like the pig.”

  Colin squinted. “What?”

  Levi glanced over his shoulder. “You haven’t heard that one? It’s breakfast.”

  Colin’s squint grew deeper.

  “You know. Bacon and eggs. The hen was involved, but the pig was committed. Since the hen just shat out some eggs, but the pig died for your bacon. It’s one of those bullshit corporate motivation things.”

  His mouth made an ‘O.’ “I get it.”

  “Yeah. I’m saying I’m in it to win it. Committed to the cause. Dying for the meme.” He paused. “Okay, maybe not the last one. But close.”

  Colin looked at him. “What was your home like? I mean, in detail. You keep giving us tiny tidbits, but it’s not the full story.”

  “We’re super busy right now. I couldn’t take everyone’s time,” Levi demurred.

  Isa gave him a deadpan look over her shoulder. “Got another hour to go until we hit the third town.”

  “So…?” Colin prompted.

  Levi sighed. He spread his hands. “What’s to say? The apocalypse had happened. Rifts were opening all over hill and dale, spewing monsters everywhere. Some people got strong enough to fight back against the monsters, and then they got big ideas about what else they could do. Like, I don’t know, bully the people who weren’t strong enough to fight monsters. Oppress ‘em and shit. I didn’t like that, so I fought back.”

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  “Oh. So you were a freedom fighter?”

  Levi barked a laugh. “Yeah. Sure. That’s what you call ‘em in another country, when you don’t like the other country’s current government. I was a fuckin’ criminal. Hunted like a dog. Kill-on-sight kind of bullshit. They hated my ass. And to be fair, I did my fair share of killing. Lots of blood on my hands. Blood that not everyone would agree deserves to be there.”

  Colin glanced at him, silent.

  “Some of it’s no-nonsense. Rapists. Killers. Dealers. People who thought ordinary humans were so beneath them that they didn’t even bat an eye at crushing them under their feet. And some of it’s more nuanced. Did I kill the guy who was oppressing my city and wantonly killing whoever he so deemed worthy of death? Or did I kill the last pillar standing between my city and being unstoppably overrun by monsters? Your call. Or, well. My call. And I sure as fuck made the call.” He mimed firing a gun downward, execution style.

  “Did he deserve it?” Colin asked quietly.

  “Who’re you asking? Me? Hell yeah, he did. Are you asking the average civilian? Then no. I’m a terrorist who should be tortured, then executed.” Levi spread his hands. “It’s all perspective. There’s no such thing as right or wrong. Did I know more about him than they did? Was he an oppressive bastard? Did he randomly kill people who disagreed with him, et cetera? Yeah. But was he legitimately protecting the city? Also yes. I’m not sure history will have my back. Maybe in five hundred years or so, when the scholars need some new perspective to get their Ph.Ds, they’ll come back and take my side.”

  “The ones who write history are rarely the ones who live it. And they usually have an agenda,” Isa offered.

  Levi raised his brows. “What, really? Even back then?”

  She squinted at him. “What do you mean, ‘even back then?’ People have been skewing the truth to serve them since we were primitives living in caves. My father had dozens of callers to ensure his grand deeds were spread across the land. And his grandfather before him employed a bard, back when such things were in style, to compose shanties and poems in his favor.”

  “You know what? I was a fool to think things were ever any different,” Levi said.

  “There are a few things humanity can always agree on, and deceiving the peasantry is one of them,” Isa replied with a chuckle.

  “Hey! We don’t call them peasants any more! Now we call them ‘voters,’” Levi informed her.

  “Voters? The peasantry decides things for your country?” Isa asked, horrified.

  Levi nodded. “Oh yeah. They decide a lot of things. Not everything, mind you, but they do pick the leaders. Kind of.”

  She shook her head, pursing her lips. “Not in my land.”

  “People don’t own land any more, either. Not like that, anyways. Well, I mean, they do, but in general, the landed nobility is pretty much dead,” Levi added.

  Isa shuddered. “Truly an apocalyptic wasteland.”

  “I know, right?”

  This whole time, Colin had walked along in silence, his head bowed. At last, he looked up. “But you did the right thing?”

  Levi sighed. He shook his head. “You keep coming back to this. There’s no such thing as ‘the right thing,’ kid. This is the real world. Right and wrong? Who knows. I did what I thought was right. A lot of other people disagreed. That’s all.”

  Colin looked at him, conflicted. “I get that. I just… I don’t know if I trust your judgement or not.”

  Levi broke out laughing. He slapped his thigh and shook his head, unable to stop. Gasping and wheezing, he finally managed to rein in his laughter. “You know what? That’s the most reasonable thing anyone has ever had to say to that.”

  “I think I believe you. You’re annoying, but you tend to be on the right side. Even if no one else agrees with you,” Colin said at last.

  “Good. Because it was going to be suuu-per awkward if you decided not to believe in me. I don’t even know if you can go very far from me, being my undead and all.” He paused, then squinted at Colin. “And I didn’t say no one agreed with me. I just said a lot of people disagreed.”

  “How many people agreed with you?”

  “One. No, wait. Two! Two that I knew of. But it’s more than zero, and that’s what matters,” Levi said, puffing out his chest.

  Isa snorted. “You weren’t much of a statesman, were you.”

  “Nah. And I mean, how shocking, right? With my sparkling personality.”

  “That’s a word for it.”

  They walked on, deeper into the forest.