Russell's suvival

Russell chuckled through his nose. “It wasn’t by any skill of mine. One of those Enforcers helped me. The guys in black. The horde was coming. My unit retreated too slowly. We were overrun while trying to help stragglers.”

“How did the Enforcer help you?” Skye asked.

“He turned me to stone,” Russell said. “I became a statue of myself. He told me to wait. Like I had a choice! I stayed conscious. I could see and hear. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Didn’t need to. They were all around me. I watched some of the guys in my unit get taken.”

“How did you see if you were a statue?” Cole asked.

“Ask the Enforcer,” Russell said. “I’m no enchanter. It was a changing, not an illusion. I couldn’t move a bit, but I could still see.”

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“They didn’t bother you?” Skye asked.

“Not at all,” Russell said. “Her horde flowed around me like I was a rock in a river. They never gave me a second look. They took everybody else. The town was left empty. It was like nobody had ever lived there. Nobody peeked out the windows once the trouble cleared. No one came creeping up from the cellar. The town of Pillocks was dead. A graveyard without bodies. The bodies all left with her.”

Chapter 21