Marcus woke up in the dusty room, quickly grabbed his sparse belongings and disappeared into the darkness, his feet, hands and memory doing far more to guide him than his eyes ever could and no moment too soon. Just after he had hidden himself behind a derelict desk with a rectangular plastic box from the before times, flashlights cut through the darkness, momentarily blinding Marcus. He quickly pulled his head back, his breath going hasty and his heartbeat ringing so loud in his ears, he was sure that whoever was coming must be hearing it. But the lights just danced past his hiding place, not even lingering for a mere second.
“Would ya lookat this place! Told ya the kid was up to sumthing!” a strangely familiar voice said. It took Marcus a moment to recognize it as the voice of ‘Sis’, the woman he had ‘saved’ from being raped and who had saved him from being killed by her family in turn.
“Yeh, Sis, ye were right as usual. And ta think it was right in front of our doorstep!”
“I don’t know, Sis...when ye told Ma ye wanted to let the twerp go and follow him, she had that funny look on her face.”
“Ma’s just bein’ a paranoid old hag! I mean, lookit the place! This place looks like it was just abandoned in the before times! No guards! No sentries! And it’s all ours for the taking!”
“Still...remember ta stories Ma told us? How there’s supposed to be ghosts in these parts?”
“Can’t ye tell a story from reality?! There’s no such thing as ‘ghosts’!”
Sis reprimanding her little brother stung Marcus and his heart sank deep.
“Anyway...where’d ya think the twerp went?”
“We took his lights, so he couldn’t have gone far. Not in here.”
“...I really dun know, Sis. This place gives me ta creeps. What if there’s traps here?”
“Stop bein’ such a wuss, Sal!”, Sis shouted, then turned around to the other raiders and proclaimed, “The twerp must’ve had a reason to leave his settlement and come here and I want to know that reason. No need to play nice this time, just be sure to not kill him by accident. Move!”

The group of raiders fanned out quickly, displaying a surprising amount of coordination and efficiency in their movements. Watching them reminded Marcus of the drills the scavengers did every now and then. The lights told Marcus, that the raiders moved in pairs of twos, making it next to impossible for him to catch any of them by surprise without alerting all the others to his position. He had to put his trust in Ede and evade them until then.

He didn’t have to wait very long though. Shortly after they had fanned out, one of them called, “Hey, there’s a light over here! There’s sumthing actually still working in here!”
“Ye serious?!” the guy standing right next to Marcus hiding place shouted. Marcus covered his mouth with both hands, afraid to even just breathe.
“Keep looking for the twerp, boys! Ima look at it!” Sis’ voice boomed through the ensuing chatter.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever ye say, Sis…” the male voice muttered, obviously disappointed that he was stuck looking for Marcus instead of looking into the ‘somehow still working thing’. While he was distracted though, Marcus gathered all his courage and made a quick dash to a different cover, his heart beating like mad. One of the flashlights hurled around, but did not catch on to Marcus.
“Did ye see something?”
“...no. Thought I heard something...hey wait, what...would ye lookat that,” the guy who had almost caught Marcus in the act of running said and pointed down. There, clear as day in the flashlight, they had spotted Marcus’ footprints in the dust. With rising terror, Marcus could only watch as they first searched his previous hiding spot and then turned towards him, apparently mindful to not disturb the traces. Marcus kept worming himself deeper into the facility, the tiny specks of vision gifted to him by the wandering flashlights being his only guide. But ultimately was futile and they caught him, as he cowered in a corner, desperately trying to remove the bolted grate from a ventilation shaft in silence. The instant the grate lit up was also the moment he knew that he was lost and thus he froze on the spot, like a deer in the headlights. The two raiders that had been tailing him both grinned diabolically.
“That was a fun game. But next time, please do try to make it a little harder, okay?” one of them said, upon which the other responded, “Assuming there is a ‘next time’ for you once Sis is done with you.”

Marcus hung his head in defeat and trudged ahead of the two, towards the main chamber, where all the others had already assembled.
“Look, Sis! We found the twerp! Uh...where is Sis?” the taller one asked.
As if on cue, the entire group unanimously pointed towards Ede’s chamber, where the soft light pulsated out into the darkness. Marcus knew what had happened. And just a moment, he felt pity for the raiders who were now unknowingly pushing him towards their own demise.

“Think Sis will reward us?”, the smaller one asked, as they approached the threshold.
Despite better judgment, Marcus felt strangely obligated to try to save them. ‘A fate worse than death’, Ede had said. And now Marcus had seen it. A fate he did not wish on anyone. Not even them.
Hence he said, “Guys, I...I really don’t think you should go in there.”
“Oh? And why is that?” one of the two laughed.
“There’s...something in there. A fate worse than death! And it is waiting for you in there!” Marcus proclaimed, but the two grown men only laughed.
The taller one grabbed Marcus at his collar and threw him across the threshold and into the room much like a stray cat. Marcus hit the ground hard with his head first and immediately felt blood seeping out.
“So where’s your ‘fate worse than death’ now, huh?! Sis, we found the twerp!”
Sis voice echoed from within the chamber, asking them to come in. Marcus had a hard time seeing, but he knew what was going to happen once they would crossed the threshold.
“Don’t!” he shouted, but they just ignored him and walked into the room.

It happened swiftly and silently. In one moment they were still sneering at Marcus, imagining what Sis would do to him, the next all blood drained from their faces and their eyes became wide open and empty, seemingly staring at something that wasn’t there. Without speaking a single additional word, they turned around and left the room, vanishing the darkness.

“You really are a strange one. For a moment there it seemed like you wanted to save them,” Ede suddenly said with Sis’ voice.
Marcus got up himself and looked around the room, his sight slowly stabilizing again. Sis was still there, sitting on her knees, her hands resting on her legs. She looked at Marcus with the same vacant stare and pale skin.
“I...am sorry?” Marcus said, unsure on how to react. Certainly Ede had saved his life by turning these people into drones. But he still felt bad for them. After all, they were still human beings, just like himself. Or, at the very least, they had been.
“What...have you done to them?” Marcus asked, just to somehow fill the silence.
“I turned them into drones, as you can obviously see. That’ll teach them to not try to pilfer my place. Honestly, the nerve of some people. And what about you? Are you unharmed?”
Marcus reached out to the wound on his head. It had stopped bleeding, but still hurt to the touch. Nevertheless Marcus replied, “I am fine. But what about them? Are they...dead?”
“No. As you can see, they are alive and well.”
“I-I mean...will they ever be...themselves again? Normal people?”
“‘Normal’ may well be stretching it for these guys. But tell me, why should I return them to their previous selves? They are raiders. A menace to the land, who rob and kill in order to prolong their existence a little longer. The world would be a better place without them, wouldn’t you agree?”
“B-but that is…” Marcus attempted to argue, but he couldn’t find a single argument against Ede’s reasoning. Did he not think ‘Good riddance’ himself, when ‘Cal’ was killed in cold blood by Gary? He did not shed a single tear for this man, only saw the monster, the threat to his life. And yet, now, he somehow felt pity for them. Watching them walk like this, robbed of their very being, no more than puppets was somehow indeed worse than just ‘being dead’.
As if he had read Marcus’ thoughts, Ede used Sis to chuckle, “Don’t worry, I have no intention of keeping them like this indefinitely. I will return them to ‘normal’. In due time.”
“And...until then? Are they just going to stand out there like living statues?”

“No, that would just be wasteful. I am having them do a little maintenance. Try to see if we can get this place into a livable condition. If all goes well, you’ll be able to live here without having to go out to find water and food. That will also reduce the risk of more intruders.”
“And…her?” Marcus asked, nodding at Sis.
Sis got up and said, “This one is for you, actually.”
“F-for me? What do you mean by that?!”
“Yeah well, a man’s got his needs after all and she’s not all that bad looking.”
“What?! No! I-I could never!”
“...are you sure? You probably won’t find a better candidate any time soon, you know that?”
“No! That’s just sick! P-please don’t...just...just...I...I don’t want to be that kind of person.”
“...so you are denying my gift? Are you sure that is wise? You have seen how quickly I can erase someone’s will. If I want to, I can make you bang her all night and day until your body gives out.”
Marcus’ thoughts raced, he looked over to Sis and then back to the wall where Ede’s ‘face’ had first appeared and said, “With all due respect, but no. If you really want me to screw her, you will have to kill me first. And whatever you want from me will not happen then.”
“...is that so...well, if you reconsider, she’ll be around for a day or two. Or longer, if you want.”
Marcus shook his head and replied, “You are too kind, thank you. But no, thank you.”
“...ah, I see. You have someone else you are pining for then?”
‘So he’s really not connected to that other Ede then? Otherwise he would know about Claire already. Or is he just playing dumb?’ Marcus thought, but quickly wiped the thought from his mind. There were more pressing matters to attend to.

“So...what is going to happen to them once you are...done with them?”
“Ah yes, that. Well, once they are done, I will have them return home with two additional memories in tow.”
“...does this, by chance, relate to Sal saying ‘There’s ghosts here’ earlier?”
“Ah, very perceptive! Good, very good. But I have had enough of talking by proxy. Why don’t you come in for an actual chat?”

Before Marcus’ eyes, a bright red door suddenly manifested and he couldn’t help but chuckle, knowing full well that he had already entered Ede’s world. Still it felt nice to be asked, even if was a mere gesture. Marcus reached out for the doorknob, opened it wide and walked through into the library, where Ede was already sitting in his chair.

Marcus sat down in his own chair and asked, “So, you mentioned ‘two memories’?”
“Yes well, ‘memories’ might be the wrong term. For one, I intend to implant them with a ‘trigger’. Whenever they approach this place with uncouth intentions, they shall experience a paralyzing sensation of dread. The ‘ghosts’ Ma had warned them about. The second one is a skill I intend to pass on to them.”
“A...skill? You want to teach them something?”
“Yes, precisely. I intend to teach them how to tend to a garden.”
“...you want to turn them into farmers?”
“I want to give them the option to become farmers. You see, the human brain is quite a complex thing. Even for me it is not possible to change someone’s character. At least not without causing severe damage to the brain tissue. Right now, they are in a dream-like state, where I am teaching them about how to be a farmer, with subliminal messages strewn in which will serve as the trigger. At the same time, I am controlling their bodies to do some actual work. But once I send them outside my sphere of influence, they will wake, remembering only the dream and the dread at the thought of coming here again. You...might do well to not cross paths with them again though. Cause I don’t think ‘stories’ are going to save you another time.”
“Yes...I know. They sure tricked me good. I really thought they let me go because I told them about my favorite story. They even invited me to their family.”
“A clever tactic, to be sure. I gleaned at Sis’ memory. For a product of generations of incest, she sure has a cunning mind. Once she advances to be the next ‘Ma’, the settlements would do well to look out for her.”

Marcus took a sip from the teacup in front of him, thinking back at the encounter, when something struck him as strange, “Speaking of Ma. I encountered a raider called ‘Cal’ who had a brother named ‘Sal’ and who tried to rape Sis. Gary from my settlement killed him.”
“Is that how it happened? I did see the attempted rape and how a certain someone distracted Cal from pulling through, giving Sis the opportunity to disappear.”
“Yes, anyway...how is it that Sis also has brothers called ‘Cal’ and ‘Sal’? And who is this Ma Baker?”
Ede chuckled slightly and replied, “You might want to ask Boney M that question.”
“I...beg your pardon?”
“It’s a song from the 1970s. Though they probably don’t even know that. For them, ‘Ma Baker’ is the epitome of ‘Ma’, the old woman who knew the world and how to get by in it. By exerting violence against all those who are weaker. Either way, you were asking about the ‘Cal’ and ‘Sal’ thing, yes? That’s actually easily explained. There are two ‘Ma’s in the ruins of the city, one ruling over the west side and the other ruling over the east side. According to the memories of my new servants, the two of them are sisters and have adopted the naming scheme from their parents, Cal being ‘the firstborn’, ‘Mal’ being the second, ‘Sal’ being the third, and so on.”
“So...Cal tried to rape...his cousin?”
“Happens more often than I’d like it seems. Most of the ‘Bakers’, as they call themselves to everyone who bothers asking, were conceived that way. Upon closer inspection, it’s probably better you forget my earlier offer. There’s no telling what you’d catch.”
“...in all honesty, I thought you were testing me there.”
“Hmm? Marcus, I can read your mind and your memories at any time I please. What need would I have to test you?”
“...good point, I guess.”

Ede clapped his hands together and said, “Well then, after all these unpleasant topics are out of the way, why don’t you tell me how you’ve been?”
“I have been exiled from my settlement for running away and putting my father in an impossible position, got caught by raiders who tricked me into guiding them here and almost got my head bashed in. And at this rate, I will likely never see my family or friends ever again. Ah yes, and I’ve been hearing your voice in my head ever since leaving the last time and it’s been driving me crazy!”
Ede bowed forward, clasping his fingers and asked, “My voice? Tell me more about that.”