A crisp breeze swept across his face, dragging with it the scents of the surroundings. Leaves, crisping in the Autumn air. Weeds, fragrant and sweet. Smoke, acrid and stale from long and slow burns. Rot, from the death all around him.

He opened his eyes slowly, tentatively. He was met with a blinding white burning, and opted to keep them shut for a moment. He felt as if opening them once more would lead to the loss of his sight.

To compensate, he listened intently for a few moments to get some kind of non-visual bearing on his environment. There was nothing of note, the only audible noise was that of the breeze.

"…Hello? Human?"

The sound made him jolt and caused him to forget his aversion to sight as his eyes flew open, scanning with strained glances for the source of the noise. His eyes found the small, floating shape, with the blue light emanating from it's core, and felt somehow eased by it. Whilst he was unsure what exactly it was, there seemed to be something radiating from it that felt… Harmless.

"Hello, human," it repeated, in a decidedly female voice. It was distorted somewhat, robotic in nature. "This will be difficult to explain to you, and we must leave this place. I will have to tell you on the way."

The little object seemed to vanish from the visible spectrum, causing the man to search for it inquisitively.

"I'm still here. I'm going to be your guide. I'm what is colloquially known as a 'Ghost'. More specifically, I'm your Ghost. We need to get you to safety," she said in a concerned, almost motherly way. It struck him that he hadn't even spoken yet but was already being commanded by this small being.

However, he did feel rather vulnerable lying on the ground, and with great difficulty, forced himself up onto one knee, and inspected himself. Pale skin, two arms and legs, rather healthy looking in his opinion, and garbed in some sort of woven leggings and vest with a pair of armored boots.

"Sorry, I couldn't construct much better than that with the resources available," the Ghost explained, hovering over his shoulder. He tried to answer, but felt nothing but a dry rasp in his throat, as if he had never spoken before. Perhaps he hadn't.

"Oh, don't worry about speaking, it won't be easy for a few days at least. Again, I will explain," the Ghost chided, seemingly understanding of his plight.

Picking himself fully off the ground, he got a good understanding of his surroundings. It was an urban area, with tall, multi-toned buildings lining the wide street he was standing in. It seemed that the buildings stretched a long distance before and behind him, and followed the road; at least what was left of it. The buildings were all in some form of disrepair, with many holding large holes and destroyed sections within them, whilst others sported burned out or overgrown facades. The road was littered with vehicles, congesting the main pathway, and the vehicles were littered with corpses. Some relatively fresh, many reduced to bone. The only life that appeared aside from his Ghost were that of the scavenger avians that had begun cleaning the corpses of meat.

A sullen silence fell over the man, suddenly grasping the severity of the world around him. It felt familiar, at least in terms of the soil that he stood upon, but everything around him seemed so much more bleak and dead than his fuzzy memory could recall seeing before.

His Ghost had let him stare in wonder for long enough. "We need to get out of here, there are scavengers that will kill you should they find you," She disappeared again, but her voice remained in his head. "I will lead you to a safe place. You need to move."


He walked for a day and night, as it apparently wasn't safe anywhere he had been. The Ghost had told him all about these scavengers, the Fallen as she called them. It was difficult at first for him to understand that they were not of this world, that they had several arms and were filled with a gas of sorts, but in the end it hadn't really mattered all that much. He hadn't run into any of them yet.

He also had to take in the fact that he had been dead no less than a day prior, his bones a pile among many others, baking in the sunlight. He was from many years ago, the Ghost said, as were many others who had been revived by other Ghosts. 'Risen' seemed to be the term for those who were brought from the soil, at least according to his Ghost. Perhaps it explained the vague familiarity with the landscape.

Speaking of which, the floating companion had informed him that he was in the ruins of what had been known as France. It was among one of the only remaining areas in the world where there still existed some traces of humanity, and thus the only reasonable place to search for Risen.

"…In this region there had been a large commercial district, as you can see from the large buildings and machinery present…"

The Ghost was trying to give him as many answers to the few questions he had. In all honesty, he was growing tired of the constant expositing, but his throat wouldn't allow for much discourse on the subject. He coughed again, trying to coax his voice out once more, only to be met with the rasp of barely functioning vocals, and the Ghost turned to him in concern. He waved her off and she returned to speaking to herself.

It occurred to him at that moment that he was incredibly thirsty. The urban growth around him suggested that there wasn't enough water in the area to get a large being such as himself by, and with the near endless line of buildings ahead of him, he wasn't sure just how long he would be able to last before returning to the ground once more in a pile of bones.

The Ghost noticed him tossing his dry tongue about his mouth and affixed him with her optic. "We will get to a water source soon. Just please, keep moving. We're nearly there."

He nodded stiffly and continued on.


Another day and night had found the pair outside of the limits of the city, the urban landscape tapering off into a lush forest that had overgrown what little man-made creations resided beyond the perimeter of the city. Beyond the stiff confines of the concrete grid, it seemed as though life existed in bounteous quantity. There were sounds of birds and insects all around him, and the scents of so many different forms of vegetation filled his nose. There hadn't been a whiff of smoke in the breeze here.

He idly thumbed the latch of the satchel Ghost had found as he walked, collecting every so often a plant that the floating companion had determined was of nutritional value for him. The leather carrying device was filled with various different types of greeneries after only a few hours of trekking through the forest.

He ate as he walked, trying to absorb as much of the moisture content as he could to regain some saliva, as the dryness of his mouth was of great annoyance. The plants were hardly helpful, but they helped to dull the ache of his stomach.

Ghost said that the encampment she had frequented was only a few hours from his current location, but his fatigue was proving to be a hindrance to their schedule. Undead he may be, but unrelenting he was not. He had to make breaks every so often to regain his breath, or to relieve himself of some fluid. His Ghost was growing annoyed at his lack of urgency, but he hardly cared at this point. It wasn't as if she was experiencing this terrible journey in nearly the same physical manner.

In fact, he hardly had the strength to continue on even a few more steps, and the previous annoyance turned to sorrow as the Ghost scanned him and realized the severity of his condition.

"I'm sorry, but you really must continue. You're so close," she soothed, and although he heard the words, it was hardly any help as he tried to bring himself from the ground where he had collapsed. The words started to lose any meaning and the space around him grew dark as his breathing slowed, and eventually stopped.

Then he gasped a hearty breath as he was brought back from the abyss once more, clinging desperately to life. His Ghost had expanded in some strange display of light and shone her beam upon him, filling him with renewed strength.

He looked at his once more as he stood again, feeling the energy coursing through him, and then once more the feelings of dehydration coursed through his very being and he felt so much weaker.

"I'm sorry, but that was what a death feels like. I can't prevent death, I can only bring you back," the Ghost explained. "And even then I can't keep you healthy upon revival if I don't have the resources."

It occurred to him that perhaps he wouldn't want to be revived again, should he feel as pained and weak as he does now. He wasn't given much time to dwell on his recent brush with death as the Ghost floated past him in the direction they had been heading. Like a lost pet, he followed, fearing that she was the only one who could give him any of the answers he needed in the future, however short it may be.


It was evening when they spotted the camp in the distance. It was hard to make any of it out, as it was dimly lit and nestled between many trees and hidden under a small ridge, but it was there nonetheless. There were human forms moving about, some tall and wide, others small and scrawny. Children. Ghost advised him to be as non-threatening as he could be when approaching, showing him a clearing where he could approach in clear view. She would float over ahead of him. She said that these people were friendly, but cautious. He wondered what they could be fearful of from a man such as himself.

He did as he was instructed, standing in clear view as he watched the Ghost converse with what he assumed was the leader of the camp, a tall, dark skinned man who wore a pistol holster on his chest and the armor of a soldier of some sort, though it seemed he no longer represented any nation. The soldier waved him over and he slowly approached the camp.

Upon closer inspection, the camp was something akin to a large tent, a huge tarp between trees that housed around 15 people, sectioned and separate compartments for small groups of them, and in the center a fire pit. Small caches and carrying satchels lined the area, likely carrying essentials. The inhabitants of this small collective were keeping wary eyes on him, inspecting him as if he were a predator. He noticed a few of them carried small firearms on their hips, and decided not to approach them.

As he approached the soldier, he overheard Ghost tell him that he was suffering from dehydration. The soldier reached to his belt and unclasped a flask and tossed it to him, and he opened it with delight as he drank a healthy amount of the clear liquid.

"I can imagine that tastes good right about now, eh?" the man grinned, showing the lines of age on his face. He nodded in response.

"You can stay with us, Risen. You seem like a decent enough fellow, and we could use the extra manpower. What do you say?"

He cleared his throat and attempted once more to speak. "…ah… Auh…" The guttural sounds seemed to frighten the soldier a bit, but Ghost came over with a quick explanation.

"He hasn't yet got his voice back, but we accept. We would be happy to assist."

He nodded to give some credence to her claim, and the soldier seemed to be happy with the answer. He allowed him to keep the flask, and told him where he could park himself and his Ghost for the night.

"I'm Gordon, by the way. Corporal Gordon Fleischman." He offered his hand to shake, although he wasn't expecting a response from the man. He assumed that a speechless Risen hadn't yet found a name, and he was right in the assumption. The Risen man merely shook his hand and nodded, then set out to make himself comfortable in the section of tent that he had been allowed to stay in. As he zipped up the entry flap and boxed himself away, Ghost reappeared and spoke as he removed his boots.

"This is good, we've got you some people to work with now. We aren't safe though, we need to get further East to more Risen and proper settlements. That's where we will be able to do the most good."

He wasn't entirely sure what the 'most good' entailed, but he liked the sound of it. These seemed like good folk, and if he could help them get to a safe place, he would surely do what was in his power to get them there. For now, though, it was time to rest. He shut his eyes, loosened his tense shoulders, and fell into a light sleep.


AN: Hey all. This is going to start a bit slower compared to a lot of other Destiny fics, as it's going to be establishing a lot of Risen-era happenings. If you couldn't tell, this takes place just a few months after the Ghosts are created, and thus there really isn't much of the Destiny infrastructure that we're used to. Expect this to be updated semi-frequently.

Until next chapter,

-Rally