Song of the Chapter: Build the Cities - Karma Fields ft. Kerli (Electronic)
The music video is weird ...

(Monstercat's POV)

After our activity, as it's getting dark, we all go our separate ways in the house and split. Together, as a group - with heavy influence from Stephen Walking - we decided that tomorrow morning, before the sun has even risen, we're going to make our way back to camp.

"Noisestorm, what are you doing?" I ask as I walk into the kitchen.

He pours a couple pills into his hand and swallows them with some water. "I have a headache," he says.

"But you already took some," I remind, wondering what the side effects of too many painkillers are.

"I'm taking some more."

"Noise - " Phantom sighs before he even finishes his sentence. "How many did you take?"

"Eight," he says matter-of-factly, but then sways and almost falls over.

"Eight?! Dude, you're going to knock yourself out!"

"Then my headache will go away."

"That's bad for you." Phantom takes his arm and leads him upstairs to the bedroom.

"I'm a little bit dizzy," his friend admits.

"Oh, really?"

By then, they're out of earshot - well, for a normal person, anyway. I try not to use my sensitive hearing unless I have to, on account of me hearing a wonderful conversation I did not want to hear last night.

It is getting late, and since we're getting up so early tomorrow, I figure I should try and get some sleep. I go down to the room shared by Aero, Tristam, and Braken, hoping they'll be some room on a bed. I open the door and laugh a little. There's no room in here. Aero's wings take up not only the entire bed, but about half of the room as well. He keeps trying to roll over and get comfortable, but he keeps whacking Tristam with his feathers. I laugh as I watch them, and Aero grumbles at me.

"Is there room on the floor in here?" I ask, closing the door behind me.

"Sure, if you don't mind getting hit every once in a while," Tristam answers.

I chuckle again and pull out some blankets to make myself a bed. "How's Braken doing?"

"Asleep," his friend replies. "Finally."

We settle down, and in an hour, we're all asleep. I don't even bother keeping my ears open. I curl up and let myself slip into the deep sleep I so desperately need.

The sound of someone moving quickly wakes me up a few hours later. I roll over and look up, wondering if it was just Aero's wings, but he hasn't moved, so I turn to the other side of the room and Braken almost scares me out of my mind.

He's sitting straight up, staring forward with blank and hollow eyes. He's not moving at all; he's barely even breathing. His hands are flat against the bed instead of up against his chest like usual, and he's as stiff as a board.

I climb out of my blankets and gently tap his shoulder. "Braken?" I whisper. "Are you awake?"

He doesn't respond. He doesn't look at me or even flinch at my touch. I follow his empty stare, but there's nothing to see. He must be asleep.

I climb around him and poke Tristam. "Wake up. Something's wrong with Braken."

"Huh?" Tristam mutters, barely opening his eyes.

Braken suddenly turns and gets off of the bed. He takes a few unsteady steps and then stops, still staring at nothing.

"He's sleep walking, I think, but he won't wake up," I say.

Tristam is awake immediately. He almost throws off the covers and scrambles out of bed, grabbing his friend's shoulders. "Braken," he says firmly. "Braken, wake up." He doesn't get an answer, so he tries again. "Braken, wake up. Come on. Wake up. Don't do this to me."

"Turn him around," I say, standing up on the bed so I'm about their height. Tristam gently turns Braken to face me and I slap him hard.

Braken seems to snap out of some sort of trance or hypnosis. He jumps a little and staggers back, his eyes filling with fear and confusion as he tips and falls over. Tristam tries to catch him, but his wounded leg gives and they both go down hard, landing on top of Aero. The winged artist jumps up with a yell, leaping backward with his wings flared protectively. "What's going on?" he demands.

"Where am I?" Braken's eyes dart frantically around the room, like a trapped animal. I've seen prisoners of war look at things like this. He's almost wild as he suddenly tries to break away from Tristam's grip, fighting to free himself.

"It's okay, Braken. Calm down," Tristam says soothingly. "I've got you."

"Where am I?" he repeats, his voice shaking. "What's going on?"

"We're at Laura's grandma's something-or-other's house," I say. "Don't you remember?"

"N-no. No. I can't remember." Braken squeezes his eyes shut and presses his fists against his temples. "I can't remember."

Tristam's face goes pale. "Oh, no. It's starting, isn't it?"

"I don't want to forget," Braken whispers.

"What's starting?" Aero demands. "What are you talking about?"

"Can I tell them?" Tristam asks, looking at Braken for permission. His friend just nods and pushes harder against his head. "Almost four years ago, Braken overdosed on sleeping pills," Tristam says softly.

My heart drops when I hear it. "He tried to ... kill himself?"

"Yes." Tristam looks sadly at his friend. "Yes, he did. One of the side effects if someone survives is memory loss, along with other mental problems. The doctor told him that he could lose parts of his memory, days, hours, years, even, but they didn't know when it would start." He pauses and rubs his forehead, sighing. "We both thought he'd lucked out, since it hadn't started before tonight. I guess ... I guess we were wrong."

Braken is shaking, but to my surprise, he's not crying. He's just afraid.

"What's the last thing you remember?" I ask him.

He thinks hard for a moment. "Walking with you, Leo. And being in the alley - Jensen shot you. We climbed up and I helped you, and then it was dark ... dark and I climbed down to look for ... for something ... someone? I can't ... I don't ... " He's squeezing his eyes shut tight and clenching his teeth hard enough to make himself sweat and I can tell he's bringing himself a huge amount of pain.

"Stop straining so hard. You're going to hurt yourself," I tell him.

"I can't remember ... " he says softly. "It's just ... gone. Like I fell out of the alley and landed here. There's not a missing square or a mass of black or anything people make memory loss sound like. The only reason I know something happened is because you're all here and I'm here and I don't know how I got here ... "

We sit in silence for a moment before Tristam says, "Maybe eating something will help you calm down a little."

All four of us shuffle upstairs and to the kitchen. Noisestorm is there by himself, sitting at the table. He looks up and sighs as we come in.

Braken finds a banana and peels it thoughtfully, sitting across from Noise. Every once in a while, he'll shut his eyes and hold his breath and try to remember something, but it won't come.

"You don't remember visiting your mother?" Tristam asks softly. "And meeting your father?"

"No ... I met my father?"

"Nothing happened. You don't remember wrestling me yesterday morning? And you called me a fat walrus and I called you a little muffin child?"

"I'm a little muffin child?"

"Yep." Tristam smiles a little. "Yesterday was great. Bonds grew so strong ... you were happy. You were finally happy. You played and laughed - you laughed, Braken. You haven't laughed for ... for years."

"Oh ... Leo, I want to remember. Tell me more. What happened?"

Tristam hesitates, and then says, "There was one thing. One bad thing. Rogue and Eveelyn found me when I fell and hurt myself. You came around, and you had a gun, and you didn't recognize them. You threatened - and were ready - to kill them. You were going to kill them. And that scared me."

Aero snorts softly and I glance at him. He's smothering a chuckle with his hand, so I smack his wing. He twitches and pulls his wings closer to his body protectively, glaring at me. I know he doesn't believe it. He doesn't think Braken has the ability to scare anyone, except maybe himself.

"I won't do it again," Braken promises. He takes a small bite of his banana and scoots his chair closer to Tristam. "Leo - tell me more about the happy times. What happened yesterday? Why was I happy?"

Noisestorm suddenly gets up and starts out of the kitchen. I follow him and tap his arm before he goes upstairs. "Hey, Noise?" I ask.

"What?" he mutters.

"What are you hiding?"

He actually flinches. "Nothing."

"On your back. There's something there you're hiding from us."

"Nothing."

"You're a terrible liar," I say, poking his arm again.

"Leave me alone, Monstercat." He pushes my arm away.

"If you don't tell me, I can't help you."

He pauses, his hand on the railing to go up the stairs. "You want to help me?" he asks. "Really?"

"Of course. You're my friend."

"You're not just curious?"

"Well ... a little bit. But I really do want to help."

He sits down with a thump on the bottom step, sighing and resting his head on his hands. "I want to tell someone, yet ... yet I can't. I don't know why, but I can't."

"Sure, you can." I sit down behind him, patiently waiting.

He doesn't answer for a moment. Finally, he says, "Scars."

"What?"

"It's scars. That's what I'm hiding."

"Scars? Why are you hiding scars?"

"Because I'm hiding my past. It's not pretty, and I don't want to tell you about it."

"Oh ... I'm sorry." I don't know how to react. "How can I help?"

"You can't. I'm fine, anyway." He stands up and pushes me out of the way to go up the stairs. I watch him go, even more curious than I'd been before.

Scars ... why would he hide scars? Maybe for the same reason Braken hides his burn. Granted, I don't actually know why he hides his, either. Embarrassment? Nervousness? I don't want to ask them anymore, since they are so obviously uncomfortable sharing, but I want to help. I can't help if I don't know the problem.

A couple hours later, Stephen gathers us all in the front room, and we leave quietly. Those of us with money leave some on the counter for the woman who let us stay, and then we sneak out. The city is quiet, of course, and the air is chilly, but I don't mind. I wonder if Aero's wings are warm, and look over to ask him, only to remember that he and Au5 are staying behind for another day. We divided the remaining communicators, giving one to Aero and one to Austin, keeping the others for ourselves and the artists back at camp. I hope everyone's alright.

We near the bridge and I start to worry. How are we going to get past? I voice my question and get multiple shrugs and Noisestorm muttering, "Ideekay." A second passes and then he grumbles, "Ow."

"We could climb down the banks," Braken mumbles.

"We could climb down the banks," Hellberg says louder.

"Good idea," Stephen says. "Let's do it."

"We'll have to go fast," I say, shivering. Curse this wind that probably isn't even cold but I'm still used to having thick fur. "We don't want them catching us."

"Are you cold?" Evee asks softly.

I shake my head and shudder again. She raises an eyebrow. "Yeah," I admit. "You know, I'm not quite used to ... this." I gesture at myself.

"I'm sorry," she says. "Do you want me to steal someone's jacket for you?"

I laugh a little. "Nah, I'm good. Thanks though."

We reach the place to climb down and we go, quickly and quietly. The river rages, but I think we'll be able to cross it. I step into the water and leap back out.

"Ouch, that's freezing," Rogue hisses.

"Ouch?" Phantom smirks.

"Ouch," he repeats.

"Look, a raft," Laura says, pointing to a tube stuck in the bushes.

"Who the heck would tube down this? It's freezing," I say.

"Apparently painfully so," Phantom mutters.

"One day, you're going to get murdered for being sarcastic at the wrong time," Noisestorm says.

"It'll be by you, won't it?"

"Probably."

"We could all hold hands," Hellberg suggests.

"Calm down there, lover boy," Danyka says.

"I wasn't finished." He glares at her. "Then, when we cross, one person wouldn't be knocked over and swept away."

"Yeah, we all would," Noise says. "Even better."

"Actually, that's not a bad idea." I grab Evee's and Braken's hand and then take a step into the water, flinching at the shock. Braken tenses up and tries to pull away, but I grip him tighter. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see the other artists doing the same until we're all in a line.

Together, we take small steps, shivering in the freezing river, and make it about halfway through without incident. Once we reach the halfway mark, when the water is up to my chest and the others' waists, Tristam falls. He must've slipped on a stone or maybe his wounded leg made him stumble, but whatever happened, he went down with a yell and ended up submerged. Braken stumbles, too, causing me to stagger, as well as Evee and Mr FijiWiji on Tristam's other side. Braken and Fij try to pull him up, but he can't get a grip on the rocks and keeps crying out in pain.

"What's going on?" Stephen calls over the rushing water.

"Tristam fell," Rogue answers, his voice worried.

"Grab him," I say as our friend surfaces again.

Braken lets go off Tristam's hand and tries to get a better grip, but he only trips and splashes me in the face. Fij finally pulls Tristam up and they stand together, staggering, but staying upright. Tristam coughs violently, spitting out river water, and holds tightly to Fij's shoulders.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

He coughs some more and then takes Braken's hand again. "Yeah." He shakes his head, his long black hair showering water droplets everywhere. After coughing hard again, he gives me a slight smile and releases Fij's shoulder. "Yeah, I'm good."

We keep going, the water getting deeper until I'm standing on my toes. Finally, we get out of the river and everyone pauses to catch their breath.  Tristam leans heavily on Braken's shoulder, wincing every time he steps on his wounded leg. I'm worried about him, especially since he's weaker than the rest of us. I noticed that when we had chicken for dinner, he only ate a small salad and was afraid to dig through the cupboards and fridge. He doesn't have any energy and can barely walk. He's shivering violently, barely able to stay upright.

"Come on," Braken murmurs in his ear. "If you don't move around, you can't warm up and you'll get sick."

"I'm fine," he protests, his voice shaking from the cold.

I shake the water off of my body, with no luck. "We need to keep moving," I say.

"Hold on," Stephen says. "Let us rest a second."

"We can rest deeper in the forest. We have to move before someone sees us. Plus, moving will keep us warmer. We'll dry out faster and regulate our body temperatures." I glance at Tristam and he nods slightly. "The sooner we get back to camp, the sooner we can get warm."

We keep pushing after that, as everyone realizes I'm right. After about an hour, we reach the campsite. I hear a lot of unfamiliar voices - too many.

"Brace yourselves," I mutter. "I can hear strange voices. There's a lot of them. We might have to run."

We approach the campsite quietly and one of our artists sees us. "Hey guys!" GQ calls. "We have some reinforcements."

Our group breathes a simultaneous sigh of relief as we emerge from our hiding place.

"Is Mike here?" Stephen asks.

GQ shakes his head regretfully. "No. I haven't seen him for ... a while."

"Who's Mike?" I ask.

"Mike Darlington," Tristam answers, shuddering again in the cold. He puts on a smile and says, "He's kind of important. He runs this party we call a label."

"How many are missing?" Stephen continues.

"Too many." GQ pauses to think. "Both Pegboard Nerds, Rezonate, Varien, both Hyper Potions, Muzzy, Puppet, Nanobii, Tokyo Machine, Slushii, to name a few off the top of my head. Do you have Karma Fields?"

"Yeah, she's ... " He pauses and looks around, confused. "I could have sworn she was right here."

"She didn't cross the river with us," I pipe up.

Stephen sighs. "Count her as missing, too. No one's ... dead?"

This time, GQ sighs sorrowfully. "Three."

"Who?" Stephen whispers.

"Insan3lik3, TVDS, and Throttle."

"No sign of Ephixa?"

"None."

Stephen sighs. I think I know what he's thinking. This rebellion is becoming more real every day. "So ... you said reinforcements?"

"Yep." GQ brightens up a little. "You wouldn't believe who showed up. Guys from across the world, even."

"Who?" Rogue asks.

"The guys from UKF, Tasty, NoCopyrightSounds and ... " He pauses and sighs. "And also Spinnin' Records."

There's a collective groan from our group.

"We've got others, too," GQ continues. "Some of the most popular guys out there. Skrillex, Deadmau5 - Marshmello showed up; haven't seen him in a while - Knife Party, Porter Robinson, Alan Walker, Savant, you name 'em. They came to help us fight!"

"We couldn't let you die all on your lonesome, could we?" someone chuckles.

"Ugh, did Spinnin' have to come?" Noisestorm grumbles.

"You know we're desperate when Spinnin's invited," Rogue says.

No wonder there are so many people here. I don't recognize any of these names, but they sound important. I watch Phantom's face light up and hear him whisper, "No way. These guys are my heroes."

"Really?" Evee asks.

"Oh yeah. I've looked up to them ever since I discovered EDM. Especially - " His eyes land on someone further away. The kid he's looking at is wearing a black hoodie and mask, reminding me of a computer hacker. "That guy," Phantom says. "He's not much older than I am. Maybe a couple years. He's performed and traveled  and ... man, I wish I could do that."

"Who's that?" Evee tries to ask, but Phantom's already wandered off to go talk to him. She turns to me instead. "Do you know who that is?"

"Not a clue." I shrug. "I don't know who any of them are. That one looks questionable." I point to someone who's wearing what looks like a giant mouse head and we both laugh.

"Okay, I know that's Deadmau5," she says. "Everyone else ... I don't know. Oh, that's Skrillex ... um ... yeah, I don't know."

"Tristy!" someone shouts happily.

Tristam groans. "Braken, please throw me into that tree as hard as you can."

"We all seem to get along great, don't we?" I say, and Evee laughs.

"That's one of the guys from the label Tristam released with a while ago, before he joined us," Rogue explains.

"Wow. There's so many here." I smile brightly. We might actually have a chance. With this many people, we could be considered an army. We might actually have a chance!