I had to admit, there was a morbid beauty in my work. How I was able to make sure no one would believe a person could do all that. The muscular man had a hole going from his nose to the back of his head, caused by {Compression}. At the same time, the other side of my weapon crashed on the ground, breaking the floor of the wagon and the axis of the back wheels. Thanks to the speed we were moving, the wooden frame splintered, removing any of the actual evidence my staff was responsible for the attack. Now, it would be easy to think an Eater had pierced the man’s skull.

The lean man had his neck broken by a slam of my staff as we tumbled out of the wagon. But the greasy man took the brunt of my anger. I slammed the staff against his head, ripping out his jaw. Following that, with a spinning strike, I cracked his eggs, on purpose, of course. The impact sending him flying up in the air, then I kicked his stomach, sending him crashing against a tree.

The driver fell once the wagon broke and was run over by the cart. He couldn’t move properly while the other members of his team died. But as a mercy, I simply grabbed one wheel that came off and bashed his neck with it. I still felt angry after that and hurled the wheel at the body of the greasy man, which crashed against his torso and embedded itself in the tree behind. He was already dead, but the feeling of him pushing against my legs made my skin crawl.

I had to say, this was a scene straight out of a horror movie. The type that appeared before the monster showed up for the first time. The one problem about all of this was… it couldn’t have been an eater. They never left bodies behind. At least everyone knew about monsters. Otherwise, it would be very hard to explain. The murder weapon was safely hidden in my boar pelt bag. The pole took the smallest size it could with {Compression} and I wrapped it in the scraps of mountain lion leather.

“What the hell did this?” Marco gasped, but I just stayed quiet, “They didn’t deserve this.”

“Were they good people?” I knew the answer to that, but I wanted to get a feeling for who this guy was. The only thing he did while we walked here was introduce himself.

“They were assholes, but they did help the village a lot. Especially with those supply runs. This was a rough way to go.”

“Did that happen often? The supply runs?”

“Once a month, usually. Every now and then they found someone on the way, or brought people who were lost. It was a good thing they found them, too. Without these four, who knows what would’ve happened with the refugees. Some really struggled with whatever happened to them before getting to Madison.”

“I see,” there was no need to say anything more. That told me everything I needed to hear. Those vermin disguised as people had done that before. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that they had coerced some people they saved into ‘having fun’ in order to get to safety. “Can we go now?” I’m not trying to be mean, but we are losing sunlight, and I don’t want to be out in the open during the night.”

“Yeah. Yeah, come here,” Marco moved with his horse closer to me and put out a hand, “Chip here can take us back quickly. I’ll grab some people tomorrow to gather what is left of the supplies. And sorry for suspecting you.”

“Don’t worry. I understand,” I climbed up and the horse started moving.

During the entire journey, my mind was racing. Who would be in Madison? Likely Pops and Cindy, but who else? Were Vanessa and Michael ok? I knew peter was dead, I saw him getting eaten, but the rest of my kids… maybe they were ok. What if someone was injured because of the explosion?

The System seemed to recognize my worry and spoke up, [Inquiry. Is user Cassandra upset about having killed people?]

‘Those were not people, Sys. Once you cross certain line, you stop being a person. I’m worried about my people. I don’t know who I’m about to find,’ I replied in my mind.

[User will find those who are here. Thinking about who they will be will bring no change to the results.]

That was an obvious statement, and yet, it was oddly comforting. I would find who I would find and that’s that. At least I could tell that some people who lived in Madison would be good people. Like Marco here. He seemed like a nice guy. Maybe a bit naive if he didn’t know what the supply crew was doing, but he wasn’t afraid to admit he was wrong. Even if he wasn’t in this case. There were also others I knew. Or I should know. The merchants that visited my village were kind, but it’s been a while since I saw them last.

I kept occupying my mind with random thoughts like that for the next half an hour or so. Chip, Marco’s horse, could keep a steady trot the entire time, even with my added weight. We reached the village a bit before the last rays of sunlight vanished behind the mountains. Marco also didn’t talk much during the trip, which I appreciated.

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Madison was a much bigger place than my old home. Instead of half a dozen houses spread across the forest, there were close to fifty. All clumped together, built to withstand the elements and protect the people moving around. Surrounding everything was a tall wooden wall, with various spikes that protected the barrier from most things except the bigger animals. They also had one enormous structure, much larger than the community center back home. That had mostly the same function, a place for people to gather for meetings, and various activities.

I never really understood how this many people could live together without a problem. Were they not afraid of Eaters? And how were they able to hunt enough food for them? Pops once told me they had farms nearby, but I don’t remember seeing any.

Once we approached, Marco talked with a couple of guards, who quickly opened the gate, letting us get inside. Across the road, and inside the houses, there were a few lamps with candles inside and those were already being lit. Still, they made sure not to create too much light since that would be a beacon for any Eater in the surrounding area.

Someone approached, who seemed to be the captain of the guards. Marco and I dismounted the horse and approached him.

The captain frowned when seeing me, “I think I recognize you. But damn, you used to be a skinny little kid,” he smiled.

Before I could say anything else, a voice reached my ear, “Miss Cass!”

I looked to the side and saw Vanessa yelling and running towards me. Rushing towards her I got the little girl in a tight hug, she was safe. My stupid idea of saving her worked, “Hi Vanessa,” I said with tears in my eyes, “You can’t yell, remember?” I gave her a couple of kisses on her forehead.

Michael, the other of my kids who I tried to save, approached a bit slower, but he also was getting ready to cry.

“Miss Cass? Is it really you?” he asked.

I smiled, “If it’s not, there is a very pretty fake walking around,” I pulled him in for a hug as well.

“I can’t believe this!” another voice, Cindy’s. She had both her hands covering her mouth and seemed to have dropped a basket on the ground.

I got up, picking both kids up, “Hey Cindy. I really missed you.”

Cindy approached, but she didn’t hug me, instead she put out a hand gently, almost as if she was worried that touching me would make me go away.

“How? They told me you hit an Eater?”

I could hear Marco and the captain getting tense when hearing that. Everyone knew that hitting an Eater was a death sentence.

“I tried, but my aim was awful. The rock I threw ended up hitting a tree, not the Eater. But it still caught its attention, so I just ran,” I turned to the two men behind me, “There is nothing chasing me. I promise. If there was, I wouldn’t have survived this long.”

They paused for a moment, considering my words, and nodded. The captain then continued, “Go with them. I still want to talk to you, but that can wait until the morning.”

“Early morning. If possible,” Marco added, making the captain turn to him with a confused expression, “She found the supply crew, they were attacked by… something. It wasn’t an Eater. The bodies were still there, but we need to figure out what it was.”

With a nod, the captain turned to me, “Either way, it’s late. And you deserve some rest. We’ll talk in the morning. Go.”

I thanked him and started walking with Cindy, one of the people in the city noticed what happened and helped her with her basket. Both kids were still in my arms, sniffling, with their heads buried in my cloak.

“How?” Cindy asked after a minute, we were walking to the other side of the village, where the houses were more sparse.

“It’s a long story. Who else is here?”

“Your grandpa, and Peter.”

“What about PJ?” I asked.

Cindy just shook her head, “It… it happened so fast. One moment he was with me and the next…” tears started forming in her eyes, “I didn’t hold on tight enough. It should’ve been me.”

“Hey! None of that. You are not the one at fault here. The Eaters are.”

We continued walking in silence for a moment. That sucked. PJ was dead… and his dad, Peter, was alive. Pops would always say that the worst thing for a parent was to outlive their children. And then there was Cindy. How she was able to do all this was beyond me. After everything she went through, she still suffered more and continued to walk forward.

“We are staying here, with the kids,” Cindy pointed to a simple wooden house near the south bank of the river, “Your grandfather is there, our neighbor,” she pointed at a house just a few meters away. Further away from the shore.

“They gave you two houses?”

“Last winter they lost some people. A bad case of the flue, from what they told us. Some of the houses were empty and having people inside it’s better than leaving it as a reminder of who they lost,” Cindy explained.

I nodded and put the kids on the ground.

“Miss Cass. Can’t you sleep with us tonight?” Vanessa asked. That shy kid asking for something like this made me smile.

“Please Miss Cass,” Michael added, his big eyes making me think of a cat.

“You are more than welcome to stay with us. And so is Rakeen,” Cindy said.

I nodded, “I’m going to talk with Pops, then I’ll come here. Ok? We might take a little while. I need to have a conversation with him.”

Cindy nodded with an understanding that caught me off guard. How would she know what I wanted to talk to him about? Unless she thought it was about something else. Either way, I gave the kids one more kiss and walked to the house where my grandpa was staying. For some reason, I felt really nervous.

‘Sys, behave. Ok? We are about to meet the most important person in the world to me,’ I said.

[System is unable to communicate with others unless certain conditions are met. User has nothing to worry about in relation with System’s behavior.]

Taking a deep breath, I knocked on the door. There was some shuffling and grumbling, but eventually, it opened. On the other side, a man with dark skin, gray dreadlocks, a surprisingly fit build, and sunken eyes was waiting for me.

Ignoring the powerful smell of liquor, I smiled, “Hey Pops, I’m home,” was all I could get out before he wrapped his arms around me in a hug, tears streaming from his face.

“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,” he kept repeating while I walked inside.