Shadow Slave

The old abandoned bunker was not exactly the best place for a few hundreds of exhausted refugees to rest, and that had been before Sunny and his cohort had smeared monster blood all over the place. It was dark, cold, and in no way suited for people to live in.

And yet, there was no other choice. They needed a temporary shelter to prepare for the journey ahead, and there was nothing better than this derelict facility for dozens of kilometers around.

In the end, the civilian transports and the military vehicles entered the large hangar behind the blast doors, and the refugees disembarked, throwing frightened gazes at the dark interior of the bunker.

The rest was both simple and demanded a lot of work.

Six comparatively clean rooms were designated as living areas, each welcoming around seventy residents. Lighting fixtures were installed, and heater elements were taken off the vehicles and placed in the corners to chase away the cold. Awakened were assigned to the living quarters to keep people safe.

There was so much to do that Sunny was momentarily at a loss. People needed blankets, food, medical care, and a hundred other things that he had not stopped to think about. Luckily, he did not have to solve all these problems alone. Sergeant Gere already had sufficient experience taking care of the refugees, and Beth seemed to have taken on her responsibility as the civilian representative with zeal.

After about an hour of working things out, Sunny was left mostly alone. In the morning, there would be a lot to do, but for now, people just wanted to rest. No one knew when they were going to get a chance to leave the transports again.

Sunny himself chose to watch over the infirmary, sending Belle away to a less stressful post.

Currently, there were three people inside - two refugees and a young soldier. All three slept as their souls wandered in the First Nightmare. Their shallow and rare breaths were almost inaudible.

Glancing at them, he summoned his chair, sat on it, and prepared for a long night. Unlike the rest of the convoy, Sunny would not be resting any time soon. There was too much for him to do.

He closed his eyes.

Above ground, the blizzard finally subsided, and the dark canvas of the mountains could be seen once again. The eerie lights of the aurora danced in the black sky, making it seem as though it was aflame with ghostly fire. Distant stars burned coldly up above.

'What a sight...'

as his shadows climbed four different peaks. Now that the blizzard was gone, he could finally observe the surroundings. He could control his shadows from as far as thirteen kilometers or so. Of course,

lot, if they just climbed high

landscape from the summit of a tall mountain would have been hard for most people, considering that the whole continent was obscured by the veil of impenetrable darkness. The long

could pierce through that veil with ease. To him, that

shadow reached sufficiently high, he sighed and opened his eyes. Then, he activated his communicator and projected the

'So outdated...'

wanted to guide the convoy through the mountains, he

he recalled the journey to LO49, and started to mark all the old roads that he had scouted back then on the map, as well as their condition and degree of disrepair. Some were too damaged for the

all points of interest - potential campsites, possible ambush spots, entrances

was going to

tired, Sunny glanced at the map and sighed. Its current state was

the

changes to the map. Some roads had been destroyed in the past month, some were blocked.

although they had all been that of the Dream Realm in the past. The more he

looking

none of them was particularly easy or safe. The sheer number of abominations flooding the mountain range

like maggots

swarms on the map, as well as the direction they seemed to be heading in and

like a piece of psychedelic art, with a chaotic net of lines and symbols of different

most prominent color, however,

Sunny leaned back and remained motionless for