Mitch trudged through the snow, since the fracture 5 years ago the Alpine and prealpine region had become almost an arctic waste, Plants scarcely grew, most animals who were not adapted to the cold moved south or north to milder climates the only things that remained were strong trees and monsters.
He had come from Trieste, the costal city had managed to reorganize itself quickly thanks to the help of the Awakened, people who developed superhuman powers after the fracture. In just 2 years they had managed to make contact with other cities like them and a new government had taken hold. Most electrical and mechanical things stopped working, the laws of physics themselves had seemed to change after what happened 5 years ago. Nowadays the world felt larger than it ever did, wild and dangerous like that of thousands of years ago.
From the few communications they had received from abroad Mitch knew that the climate around the world had shifted drastically leaving many towns cut off from the wider world and abandoned to themselves, many of the highways that once connected the human race were now breeding grounds for monsters and bandits while the seas returned to their fearsome past with stories of giant serpents and huge sharks patrolling the dark waters.
Nowadays most cities had their own government, the larger ones created states, he knew that Milan held a large part of north Italy under control with patrols of awakened warding off monster from the streets and protecting the smaller cities and towns, from what he head hear it was still a pretty democratic system and people seemed happy under it but he did not believe it.
He continued slowly making his way uphill, his target was an old farmhouse where he hoped to find some shelter for the night after which he would contact home base to get picked up. His car an old Ford Panda that had been modified to run on gems had broken down a few kilometers back, he had to leave his scavenged loot from the surrounding areas in the car as he continued on foot. He was not afraid of the Snapjaw wolves that roamed the area, they were pretty weak monsters even in a group he could take care of them but he did not want to be trapped in an old tin can at night surrounded by them, or by some other monster.
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He made his way up the hill and into the house, the door had long been gone probably destroyed by looters, the inside confirmed is hypothesis, the furniture was destroyed plates smashed along with picture frames and anything else not useful or bolted down. He went upstairs, in one of the rooms he found a bed that was still standing unbroken, the large blood stains on the walls painted a grim picture of what might have happened in the house. He quickly reinforced the door with a gadget that Leo had made for him, it looked like a normal metal stick but when activated it attached itself to any surface by the ends and expanded to create a sort of wall, It would not hold much but it would give him time to react in case something decided that it wanted him as a midnight snack.
He took out his sleeping bag from his backpack and put it on the bed, he also took out a small gas stove and some canned soup along with the radio. He started the stove and placed the soup still in the can on the fire, he placed the radio on the remains of a nightstand and turned it on. A loud static came through for a couple of seconds before Leo's voice interrupted the silence of the farmhouse " Mitch! Mitch where are you?! , you should have been home hours ago" Her voice even corrupted by the static of the radio was filled with worry, this put a smile on Mitch's face, her worry warmed his heart, as he replied "Car broke down, I'm in a farmhouse near Gorizia, its on a hill by the highway I'm going to camp down here for the night if you can send someone to pick m up tomorrow you would have my thanks" instantly Leo's voice replied "Thank God you are okay, you were starting to worry me, why didn't you call sooner you blockhead! Gio is also on the line he will come by tomorrow with the truck" he nodded to himself thinking for a second, with the truck it would take Gio probably a couple of hours from Trieste and he would never leave before 10 , that left him with a whole morning to explore Gorizia some more, maybe contact this Abbot he had heard so much about "Thanks Leo, I'll see you tomorrow then" " You better " replied the woman before he turned of the radio, slipped his boots off, ate the soup and turned himself in for a nights rest.