A woman near the back shook her head.
"I saw it clearly."
"You did?"
"Between the trees. It was enormous."
Her companion immediately disagreed.
"It wasn't enormous. You were just close to it."
"I know what I saw."
Their voices rose slightly before both remembered themselves and lowered them again.
Nina listened quietly.
The stories were different.
Some people had seen the light directly.
Others had seen only a faint glow.
Some had heard about it from survivors who had seen it.
Others had simply followed the people already walking toward it.
There was no single stream of people summoned from across the world.
The movement had grown naturally.
One person told another.
One group encountered another group.
A survivor saw strangers walking in the same direction and decided to follow.
And somewhere along the way, the unknown destination became a reason to keep moving.
Nina looked ahead at the scattered groups winding up the forest road.
