Don't tell the gods I left a mess

I can't undo what has been done

Let's run for cover


Sweden cautiously crept down a thin, precarious path in an attempt to get off the mountain. Even though the moon was small and it was night, the darkness was so light. He could see well enough everything around him, although it was still dark enough to allow shadows to lie over the surfaces. He saw where he put his feet but the obscure atmosphere was perpetually foreboding.

The way was so steep that he had to lean back and hold out his arms to keep himself from tumbling down over the edge. Large rocks occasionally blocked the path that he would slowly step over, but one was so tall and wide he had to climb over it. Once at the top of this rock he looked down fearfully at the even narrower path below. He hesitated but then stuck his legs together and slid down with his teeth bared.

Gravel jumped over the drop and his eyes followed their descent. At this moment Sweden became aware of a pulsing inside him that felt like a heartbeat in his chest. He realized too that he had been breathing. Did he need to breathe? Perhaps not, but he wanted to. Just like he wanted his heart to keep beating. It reminded him that he was alive, or at least- had a life to return to.

Sweden landed neatly on the path and continued on ever downwards. The path looped around the mountain as a hazardous spiral which only gained more obstacles to manage. Sweden saw gaps up ahead on the trail before him which he had to leap over. The sides of the mountain were too smooth for him to grab onto and climb sideways over the drops, thus he grew nervous to find that each next gap was larger than the last and each jump was increasingly more difficult.

His heart, if that is what he could call it, picked up as he sprinted toward each one and sailed over them, suspended over each fatal fall for long seconds. His feet skidded over a ledge and he gasped as he scrambled forward to get secure footing. He looked straight ahead and grimaced when he saw that the next gap was naturally greater. Sweden glanced at the useless walls and he wondered how he could possibly make the next jump if he had barely made the last one.

Sweden approached the edge to calculate the distance that was hard to determine on such a steep slope. He took overly large steps and counted them, but it was not looking good. The amount of room he had to build up speed was even less than the other times.

Once at the edge he looked down and inhaled sharply. Fifty metres below him was not another path, but the ground- although on that ground lay a massive pile of contorted bodies. The stench of rot wafted up and he could see from here the grey, blue, and green colouration of them. At first he thought that his eyes were deceiving him, but then he became sure that these bodies were squirming. His jaw tightened. He had never seen corpses move because in the world he was accustomed to they were not supposed to. He wondered what else they could do.

It was likely that he would encounter some in the flat field out there that were not as broken as the ones crawling over each other down there. His small hairs raised. He was safe where he was right now but who knew what would happen while traversing a seemingly unending plain? If the corpses below him were from those who had fallen, he knew he could die. And when people died here, they became one of those monsters.

Forever.

But I have to find the sun, he thought as he turned his head to look out into the starlit plain. It might be beyond the field.

He had to leave the mountain and go out there despite the risks. This would be his motivating goal to hold on to so he could stay focused as a rule had dictated.

Find the sun. Go home.

He had already found the moon. Sweden tried remembering the other things Tom had said that could help him know where to go, but Tom had forgotten so much that all Sweden really knew was that this land was apparently vast. How vast, would remain to be seen.

He said that the monsters try to turn you into one of them.

Sweden looked back down to the corpses. They had killed themselves, but did they have the power to change him into one of them as well? Did it take a bite, like in any stereotypical zombie movie, or did he only have to die in this world? He didn't know the answer yet, but he knew he could not fall.

Sweden went back up the trail. He made it back to where the last gap ended, then he turned around. He breathed deeply and some of Denmark's words filtered back into his mind.

There are seven rules to survive Eteni.

That was right. Sweden stood for a few seconds as he tried to recall the other ones.

Never be afraid.

So he shouldn't be afraid right now. To clear the gap, he would have to be calm and focused, the latter of which he had already been since he had arrived here. A rule had dictated however, that he could not run. Perhaps that only meant run away as nothing bad had happened to him yet for sprinting up to each gap. But still, it was hard to not be afraid when this jump would determine if he would spend his eternity in the Land of Eternal Night as a twitching, decaying cadaver.

But I can make this jump. I have to. There is no choice.

He started to run.

I will find the sun… I want to see them again.

As determination built up inside him, he felt the speed coming naturally. He felt like a knife slicing through the air as the wind whooshing by his ears sounded like screams. Sweden was certain he had never run this fast before. His fear- he was not only outrunning it but he felt so light inside without a single thing to weigh him down.

Five more steps.

I will see him again.

Sweden launched over the edge but only looked forward. All he could see however, instead of the rocks of the mountain, was the solid image of Finland in his mind's eye. Sweden held onto that picture of him smiling, letting warm hope blossom in his chest that he would make another smile come from him again.

He remembered the world when his feet slammed on the ground. Sweden whipped his head back only to be amazed to find that the gap was several metres away from where he had landed. He had not only just made it; he had conquered this jump more than any other one before it. He closed his eyes. Hundreds had fallen, but he had not. Could he survive then, if he handled every obstacle the way he had?

Sweden dug his hands into the front pouch instinctively but then noticed what he was doing. He was still wearing the gray hoodie that Finland had bought him. He had hardly paid attention to the clothes he had appeared here with on, but at this exact moment he was sure that he had never worn anything more comfy in his entire life. He tightened his arms to his body and dipped his face into the sweater.

Sweden moved on with his hands still in the large pocket. The air was a tad cool, but he felt so warm and calm now. To add to this, there were no more gaps to hop and the path was no longer so steep as he moved forward. His resolve ossified as he finally felt some control leak back into his clutches.

If he was to escape this place, he wanted to go back and make sure that he would say everything that he had kept to himself for so long. He could not continue on in silence again until it was too late to say all the words he wanted to say. As his eyes darted around, scanning for danger, Sweden decided to add to his goal.

He wanted to make himself a promise.

When I escape, I will tell Finland how I feel about him.

He padded ever downwards and the drop to his side became shorter and shorter. Directly after deciding upon his promise however, the sweater felt even softer and his chest like it was melting from warmth. He wanted to stop walking because of how much he only wanted to lie down and cuddle something. If he were not here but in his room, a pillow certainly would have been squeezed. Completely overwhelmed by content and amusement from his own thoughts, he could not prevent his lips from lifting the few degrees that it did upwards.

As he neared the bottom, he made sure to check over the side of the mountain for anything moving. He hadn't seen anything since the massive pile of squirming bodies but he supposed that was all well. The less strange things he encountered, the better. Sweden strolled down the path that straightened out and headed directly for the grass. Once with both his feet planted on flat ground though, he felt much more exposed and helpless. For kilometres he could see nowhere to hide and only such long distances to run…

But I can't run away. I can't fight either…. How I am supposed to defend myself?

Maybe it was impossible to fight them and they were too fast to escape if they weren't crippled. Survival might be based on stealth. Sweden quietly but briskly set away from the mountain straight from where the path had ended. He had no intention of sweeping around the mountain after seeing what he had seen. Sweden only hoped that he was heading in the right direction.

He strained his ears to catch the slightest of sounds. A wind blew periodically over the short grass, momentarily drowning out other noises. He didn't like when it came. Sweden looked around himself and eventually, snuck a glance back over his shoulder. He thought that perhaps the rules were not a strict as they had seemed. After all, he had already run and nothing had happened because of it.

He saw the mountain towering over him. When he turned more, he saw the tiny moon floating beside the peak. He had been up there beside it. He had been standing there and already it looked so far away and felt so long ago. How long had it taken to get down? The moon was in its one spot and the night never ended. Sweden had absolutely no concept of time.

There was nothing else to do but move forward. He was not supposed to stop regardless of because of the rule, Never stop moving. He had to do this to survive and reach the end of the world.

I don't know how long it will take to cross this field, but I will do it.

One foot went after the other in an infinite pattern. For a long time he mindlessly went while seeing nothing else in this land but the field and stars. Ignoring the mountain, this place was so far not so bad. He had travelled across places in the real world that had looked like this, and with Finland. Sweden tried to imagine Finland beside him now but only ended up recalling old memories.

He settled on them for now but after a while of thinking about lying down beside Finland and going to sleep was making him tired. With the night sky above him and all the walking he had done, it felt natural to stop to rest. Sweden fixed his mind on that one rule stating that he had to keep moving, but he couldn't help but wonder if something would happen to his body if he didn't sleep, just like if he were to stop breathing.

Sweden pushed on, thinking that the drowsiness might pass if he ignored it. That sort of worked, but he could never shake off the urge to lie down on the grass to rest. It just kept adding heavy weights to him and after hundreds of paces kept passing, he just found his feet dragging more and more. His eyelids dropped on their own and he had to fight to raise his chin and widen his eyes. Sweden swayed lethargically under the undying light of the stars. So rarely had he ever come to be this tired and even the threat of zombies in the field started to be forgotten.

A yawn broke out and he looked around himself in order to see if it would be alright to lie down here for just a little while. By glancing around himself however, he noticed a silhouette in the distance with a human form. Sweden's fatigue faded as he became instantly wary although the thing did not limp or float. In fact, it had a good posture and it was moving in his direction confidently. Perhaps it was another person? If that was the case, he could get information that would greatly aid him.

Sweden turned and headed to the figure, going through the rules in his mind again as he neared it. Eventually he could see the details of the figure in the dim light and knew that it was a man slightly shorter than him wearing a black suit and tie. His white undershirt glowed now as Sweden got closer to him and his polished shoes had a glimmer from the starlight.

This man was to first to speak, calling out to Sweden, "Hey there, stranger!"

Sweden didn't know what to say. He looked normal and he could talk, so he didn't seem like a threat. Sweden watched his movements carefully however as they came closer.

"Big guy, ain't ya?" The man stopped. Sweden stopped too. They were three metres apart now. "And you're new, I assume?"

"What is this place?" he asked.

The man's face was so blank that Sweden could not figure out his intentions. His voice was so steady although he was trying to come across as friendly, thus Sweden kept his guard on high.

"Well." The man huffed out his nose. "Ignorance is bliss."

Sweden just stared. The man sighed in annoyance for having to explain.

"Look," he said. "You've landed yourself in Purgatory, bud."

"I'm not supposed to be here."

The man in the suit coughed out a laugh. "Damn, and did you also yell 'I didn't do it!' up there?"

Sweden lowered his brows and tilted his head. "I am serious."

The man lifted his hands in a nonthreatening way as he said, "Alright, I got ya."

"Where's the sun?" Sweden wanted to get to the point. He didn't like standing around and being here any longer than he wanted to.

The man pointed behind him. "Back there is a forest," he said. "That's where people try to go, because there's nothing here and bad things pop up if you stop moving for too long. So I assume that we have to explore beyond the forest. Finding a sun- yeah, that makes sense because we appeared under the moon. Maybe the sun is in the forest?"

Sweden inquired, "Then why are you here and not there?"

"Because," he sighed. "There is a part in the field that is hard to get through. I have seen the forest but haven't been able to get close to it. I need help. Are you up to it?"

Having someone leading him in the right direction was good, but Sweden didn't want to agree so readily with a stranger.

"What do I have to do?" he asked the man.

"There is a part in the field where there are shadows. If you don't watch them, they creep up on you. If we go back to back, we can both go through. How does this sound to you?"

"Okay," he rumbled.

"Perfect." A smile crept across the man's face. "Let's go then!"

The man turned around and Sweden followed him. He did not want to pass him and be in front, so Sweden kept just slightly behind and to the side. While he had been talking to this man, his tiredness had faded, but was starting to return now.

Sweden asked, "What happens if you try to sleep?"

"Never sleep," was the reply. "My companion tried doing it but then… he started to rot."

Sweden thought about the pile of corpses. A chill ran down his spine and he wanted to look behind himself. Before doing so, he posed another question.

"When can we look back?"

"What do you mean? Whenever you want." The man in the suit looked to the side at him strangely.

Sweden wasn't sure how much he could trust this man. He could have been relatively new here like him so he wouldn't understand how everything worked. The rules seemed more reliable for they came from someone who had escaped this land, despite how vague they were. Sweden was confused however, because the shadows attacked if one didn't look back at them. Were the rules wrong, or the man? He could only move forward because to not do so would accomplish nothing.

Risks like these are necessary, Sweden reminded himself.

Knowing about what happens when one sleeps helped Sweden stay awake. He thought about how much he wanted to go back and that returned the energy to him that he had been losing. His legs found strength and he headed on at a brisk pace with his head up.

They didn't talk for a long time. Sweden could not know how long they had been walking, but he assumed it was for hours. He looked up to the sky at times, taking a look at the stars up there that he knew were not true stars yet were nonetheless tantalizing. They invited him to stay, tempting him to lie on the grass and look up at them until he fell asleep. He only admired them though.

The man came to a stop beside a boulder. Sweden halted as well to be told, "It was around here. We have to proceed carefully now. I'll go to the front and you can watch our backs."

Sweden nodded once. He turned around and faced the way they came. He saw nothing in that direction except for the towering, sharp mountain so far away in the distance. He couldn't see the little moon from here, but he wondered if anyone else was under it now. Sweden hooked his arms with the shorter man's so that their backs pressed against each other's.

"Slowly now," he told Sweden. "Now watch out for dark spots on the ground."

They continued on at half speed. Sweden peered past his glasses through the darkness to look for any deeper black splotches on the grass. Another hour seemed to go by with them like this, but he hadn't caught sight of any of these foretold "dark spots". Nothing moved either to catch his attention, although he wondered if it was because he was doing such a good job of scanning the sides and back.

"Have you seen anything yet?" Sweden mumbled.

"Are you kidding me?" he gasped. "Can't you see that we're surrounded?"

Sweden tried peering more carefully as they moved forward. He still couldn't see any difference in shade over the grass they were treading on. He tried hard to as he turned his head side-to-side, but another long period of time passed and he still couldn't see what was supposed to be there.

Sweden stiffened when he heard a low moan. His eyes sharpened but he still only glared where he was told to. However he demanded, "What was that?"

"It's okay. Don't be scared," the man uttered. "We're fine."

Sweden could hear more drawn out moans of various tones. Different sources. They kept walking, and he heard more and more voices that just got louder and louder. His ears started to ache and he commanded his heart to calm itself. He checked the grass and thought of his promise to distract himself, but the sounds were getting so loud that it seemed to shake him and the ground. His head rung and he felt the man starting to tremble against him.

Yet still he could see nothing. What was in front of them? Sweden wanted to know. He wanted to turn around.

"What is that?" Sweden unhooked one arm and began to turn. The man grabbed his arm back in a quaking hold and snapped, "You can't turn around! You have to look back to protect us!"

The mass of moans was so close now. It was deafening. Sweden couldn't handle the ignorance anymore. He detached himself and whirled around.

A horde of limping cadavers were advancing toward them. Sweden hardly had time to gawk before the man dove at Sweden's legs. He leapt back in surprise but the man managed to hook an arm behind his leg and Sweden hollered when a sharp stone cut the tendons behind his knee. He collapsed instantly onto the ground where he looked up to his assailant with a face petrified by shock.

The man danced around him when Sweden tried to grab his ankle. The man hopped away and threw the rock at him. Sweden grunted when it bounced off his ribs just as the man took the time to shriek back at him, "Sucker!"

Sweden understood now what had occurred. He had been tricked to serve as bait so that the group of zombies would close in on him and give the man the opportunity to go around them and get a head start. They had been blocking his way, so the man had looked for someone like him to use. Someone new who didn't understand how this world worked.

The brown, tattered bodies scrambled forward in excitement. Sweden pulled himself with difficulty onto his one leg and gasped in fright and pain. He saw the man skip away from him, breaking out into a full-out sprint once some of the zombies directed their attention onto him. Sweden hobbled after him with his teeth exposed in a grimace, but he lost his balance and yelled as he slammed against the ground again.

From his position on the grass however, Sweden saw something extraordinary happen. As the man bolted by the corpses, they stopped limping. Their legs gained unimaginable power and turned into a blur beneath them. In a moment the horde turned and chased down the man in the suit with ease. Sweden stared on with wide eyes as the man was tackled and went down screaming beneath a growing dogpile of corpses.

He heard disturbing crunches and wet tearing noises. Sweden saw through the cluster of wiggling, brown bodies, black teeth gnashing and deep, empty sockets all staring down at one particular spot. Sweden swallowed then looked to his side to see rotted, stick legs standing still next to his fallen body.

Sweden inhaled and pulled himself carefully up into a standing position once more.

Do not run. Do not fight.

Sweden slowly limped forward. He averted his gaze from the eyeless faces that turned to follow his advancing form. As he gently bumped past each decayed shoulder, he kept his eyes on the expansive field and the line of darkness beyond that he was sure to be the forest.

Sweden heard soft moans by his ears and teeth clacking. They wanted to overwhelm him. They moved slightly, raising their arms and grazing their soggy fingers down his arms. When he inhaled he nearly choked on the gut-twisting stench that reminded him where he was even if his mind tried to wander.

One stepped out in front of him, but without really looking at it, Sweden put his hands on it and used it as support for balance as he hopped around it. He was nearly out of them by now. He was past the halfway point, already having had pushed past the thickest of the crowd. In his peripheral vision he saw the other half of the horde return to join the main group and Sweden turned his head slightly to see them regarding him with opened mouths. Among them, he saw the man, now in a ripped suit and perforated body. His eyes were gone and his face was darkening as Sweden stared. Not a drop of blood stained him, but those bloodless cuts on him were turning black.

The torn tie fell off him. Sweden looked back forward and moved past the last line of zombies. He kept going, imagining that they were following him but trying to think of anything else but fear. He had walked through them so he was sure that as long as he was calm, they wouldn't attack. So to accomplish this, Sweden thought once more of how nice this sweater was. He tucked his mouth under the fabric again and put both his hands into the front pouch.

The touch of the creatures had left no stains on him. He had felt oils, but they were gone now. He and his clothes were clean and nice-scented. It was as though he hadn't been where he had just been. What was better was that as he moved, the cut behind his knee started to heal. Sweden regained control of the leg a bit later and could walk on it again. Slowly at first, but gradually getting better.

Sweden watched the forest draw near. He was starting to make out the shapes of individual trees now and he heard no moans or footsteps behind him. Things were looking up. His confidence in himself only solidified further.

He noticed soon a group of four figures sitting on the ground. Sweden planned on going around them but they jumped up and dashed toward him. They were close enough that he could see that they were not monsters like the ones he had just encountered, but in their hands he saw spears and javelins. Sweden immediately ran but heard behind him a woman's voice exclaiming, "Whoa, fella! How did you get this far by yourself?"

Sweden stopped and looked back. The group was slowing down and waving their weapons in salutation. He broadened his shoulders and glared as they came nearer to make them think twice if they were planning on attacking him. Yet inside he was more inclined to believe that the group was kind, seeming so as they lowered their arms to let the wooden weapons bounce harmlessly off their legs. He kept wary though because of his last experience, but did think that a group of mixed ages could be trusted. He still wanted more information no matter what and maybe he could travel with them for the extra protection.

"Yeah!" a teenage boy cried in agreement to what the woman had said. "There were so many zombies back there, dude. How even?"

He decided to answer them, "I walked through them."

"No way!" the third member of the party gasped.

Sweden looked over their heads to the forest. It was still another good kilometre away. Seeing that this group had stopped, he considered that there might be a reason for not approaching the forest.

"I want to go through the forest," he stated. Now he waited for a warning or protest, which he soon received.

"Hold up!" the fourth person yelped. "You'll never make it through!"

"Why?" Sweden muttered.

"Th-the things…" The teenage boy had lost his excitement. "We couldn't make it and we lost…"

"We need a larger group," the woman stated, "to fight them off."

"Don't fight them," Sweden grumbled. "You won't win."

The woman went silent and blinked at him. At that time, the fourth speaker shot out his javelin to point as he shouted, "Holy, what's with your leg?"

The others went to the side to lower their eyes upon the almost healed cut behind Sweden's knee. Sweden turned his leg out to the side to see what they were so awed by. He was shocked to find that instead of blood pouring from him, golden light was shining out.

"Why is it like that?" the boy cried. "It's gold and not black!"

Black?

The woman's face wrinkled but then it cleared as though an eraser had gone over it. She looked up into Sweden's eyes and asked breathily, "You… how did you get here?"

Sweden blinked. He hesitantly replied, "I was drawn by a flower, but when I cut myself on the thorns, I ended up here."

Her breathing increased. Her eyes grew a frantic look to them that was beginning to concern Sweden. He slowly tensed his muscles as the others started to click onto something and were also looking at him with hungry excitement.

"So you're saying," she gasped out, "that you're alive?"

He was uncomfortable about his cut that they were now staring at without shame. He took a step back and noticed that two of the group were heading in behind him.

"Give us your light," she rasped.

Sweden jumped as the weapons all around him shot out. He hissed in pain as a spear sank into his side and light trickled out from the wound. Sweden ripped it out from him then barged through the group to stumble back out into open space. He glanced back as he heard the woman scream, "Give us your life! We want it! Give some light to us!"

Her fingernails scratched his flesh as she tried to grab his arm. Sweden launched forward into a run as he heard her snarl with rage. The others screamed out in desperation and a javelin sailed past him to sink into the ground by one of his feet. Sweden pelted away on a beeline to the forest and he heard the group swearing and struggling to keep up in their chase. He threw his head over his shoulder eventually to see how far behind they were but found that they were slowing down.

The forest loomed before them and now Sweden saw that they had stopped running entirely. He observed the terror on their faces before they turned tail and fled. Sweden stopped for a second to look forward at the forest of tall pines that reminded him so much of the forest he had just explored with the other Nordics. It was as dark in there as Goldheart Forest had been at night, although now he had no flashlight.

He glanced back to the group as the woman screeched from afar, "Idiot! You'll die if you go in there!"

One of them aimed another javelin at him. It pushed Sweden into his decision. He left the field behind to dive into the utterly silent forest.


Song lyrics in chapters are from "Heroes" by Måns Zelmerlöw. This song won Sweden first place in the Eurovision Song Contest of 2015.