King was walking through the streets, looking at the ruined buildings around him, a lot had changed in the last 5 years of his life but he had come to enjoy his new lifestyle.
He looked back at the doom, or so he called it in his mind that day probably had many names, the end of the world, thats what it really was at least for most people. For him a new beginning, he paused to take in the sounds of the city, now that cars were not running and that most people had gone it was silent, he could hear the birds chirping and the animals stuttering about, he continued on his way thinking back to that cold summer day, thats what he remembered the most, the chill in the air even though it had been the middle of July it was cold and he had to wear his orange puffer jacket to go and buy himself some food. It was a Saturday and people were out and about despite the unusual chill, he remembers walking down this very street on his way to the convenience store, rummaging through his pockets for whatever spare change he had left, after taking out a coin he had looked up to see what many others all around the world must have seen as well.
A large crack in the sky, as if it was a shattered glass holding together by a miracle, he had thought it beautiful until the sky gave and the crack opened, all of a sudden he had found himself covered in snow, its chill penetrating his bones quickly as he dug his way out. Around him was the town of Gorizia in Italy converted in white, a sight he had almost forgotten as it now rarely snowed, he looked around in amazement but that quickly turned to horror.
Screams filled the air, confused he had looked around to see a woman half covered in snow like him, on top of her a large white wolf as large as a horse and with mandibles that seemed to be made of metal, King questioned his vision, “was that an animal escaped from some zoo ? But there was no Zoo in Gorizia, and was his jaw prosthetic?” His thoughts were quickly ended at the snapping sound of the wolfs jaw closing with the woman’s head in it.
Panic set through his body, fear washed through him chilling him even more than the snow could, “RUN” his body screamed, he felt his muscles tense and his blood pump as suddenly the chill in his body was gone and he could feel himself running hot, but his mind had the better that time, he slowly lowered himself in the snow, he knew he could not outran a wolf and he knew that running would only make him seem like prey to the animal.
He crouched down in the snow and observed as the animal feasted on the woman, soon more screams joined the chorus and another unfortunate should ran across the wolf’s line of sight, in the blink of an eye the creature was upon the man and it jaws shut on its neck with the same terrible snapping sound.
King had taken that moment to enter a house nearby, the door was locked but somehow he had managed to rip the door from his hinges, he did not wait to see if the wolf had heard the sound, he ran across the house and into the backyard, he jumped the fence with a finesse he did not know he possessed, he quickly scanned for more of the wolves and as he found none he ran across the next street, and the next after that until he had gotten home.
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Back in the present King looked around, the snow still remained, now a year round phenomenon, the city had long been abandoned by most, some lived in the castle a small community that had gathered around a leader they called “The Abbot”, other small clans inhabited the ruins of the city living off what they could find, mostly children who for one reason or another had found themselves alone in this hell. He was one of them, he was 12 when the doom happened and had lived alone for a year before meeting Queen and starting his band, they had no name as a group, he had found it Cringey and Stupid and Queen had not objected. His thoughts passed to her, Queen, formerly Sara Reggia, she was 15 when they first met, he remembers seeing her walk across the snowy streets, her pitch black hair in stark contrast with the white snow. Usually he would have avoided her, as he had done many other, but he had been injured taken by surprise by a snow lizard, a large reptile that hides in the snow with a deadly poison that freezes the victim to death. He had watched her walk towards him as he leaned against a wall, his right leg completely frozen and with the rest of his body getting colder and colder, at that point he was not even sure if she was real, he had tough her a mirage induced by the venom, he did not fight her or shoo her away but instead embraced her as she helped him up, she then brought him to her hideout, a penthouse in one of the apartment buildings downtown, there she had nursed him through the poison, it took weeks as no anti venom exists or at least not one available to a street kid in a ruined town, a warm place to stay and some good food seemed to do the trick, slowly he had regained life in his leg and soon after that he was back up and running. He had no doubts after those long weeks that he would follow Queen wherever she went, the girl had not asked him for anything in return and was probably expecting him to not return after he left, he could see it on her face when he had returned the next day with a couple of Warp Hares slung on his shoulder. They had been together since, they both threw away their old names, both of them had bitter memories of the past and it felt natural to leave them behind. Soon others joined, the twins Frog and Snake whom they had found living in an abandoned apartment eating a warp hare raw, barely 6 years old. The there was Rook and Pawn, brothers with a large age gap, Rook tall and with dark skin had begged them for food for his brother pawn, a small child who could not have been older than 3, Queen took them in without hesitation, Rook was the same age as King and often accompanied him on his outings. Queen nowadays stayed at their hideout, taking care of the children the twins were now 8 and Pawn was almost 4.
King reached the end of the road and entered the apartment, he made his way up the stairs avoiding the rudimentary traps that Snake and Frog had set up, he got up to the large door that Rook had installed and reinforced and he knocked once waited a few second and knocked once again.