The apocalypse, huh?

That is what courses through Cass' mind as she rides with the group of strange kids she found, they call themselves 'Ravens', and they have, admittedly, saved her life. They were trying to get that Charger's meat for almost a week now, meat from those creatures is supposedly valued by Alphas, it seems like they can feed from it to become stronger.

Right now they are going to a settlement called 'Roadkill', ruled by Alphas. The truck is pretty fast for what it is, and the ride is smoother than Cass imagined it would be, it seems Lucas and Gilbert modified the truck with scrap metal and spare parts. Chris seems to be helping Gilbert with something inside the sack of meat they got from the monster, while Elijah and Lynx are talking with Cass

"So... how in the hell did the world come to this point?" Cass asks the rest of the group, the now stably moving truck feels almost relaxing, even more as the adrenaline slowly fades out

"Ya know the plague and all right?"

"I do remember something about it... It, spread to America too, right?"

"Yeah... so, basically, martial law was instated a week after the first case, and from then on, the infection spread all over. One night, suddenly, a bunch of people just kinda got inside some bubbles of light or somethin'. When they started waking up, that's when the government crumbled, super powered assholes taking over... All that remains of the Gov are scattered military compounds that try to hold up and stuff. Aside from that, some places are run by Alphas, tyrannies, basically... well, not too different from one of the military camps in all honesty" Explains Lynx, with noticeable disdain.

"Okay, and there was one of those bubbles at the hospital?"

"Yep, yours" Answers Elijah

Lucas pokes his head back, saying "We're almost there peeps" His voice was pompous, and a bit sarcastic, clearly a humorous person, though it did had a very serious undertone

"Hey, here..." Insecurely says Gilbert, as he hands a small walkie-talkie to Cass "We all have one, so I thought you could go with one too, you know, if you ever need to contact us or something"

"Ah, sure. Thanks, Gilbert" Cass answers grabbing the walkie-talkie, she puts it in a small one strap bag she was gifted and stores it.

"Hey. You can call me Gil! Gilbert sounds kinda silly"

"You're name's not silly, dummy! I find it very cute" Interjects Lynx, soon after, plopping a beanie over Cass' head "what's this for" Cass asks removing the beanie to take a better look at it, it's black and plain, similar to Lynx's

"Ya know, not everyone's quite as enjoyable as us... the white hair and stuff are kind of a giveaway"

"Giveaway to what?"

"You're an Alpha, people aren't very fond of those, and also, competition's fierce"

"What...?"

"Also! Wear this, you'll need it" she says while she pulls a custom black face mask, it has a drawing of a cat's mouth in it painted over in white

"You know... the teeth" she says while pointing at her own in gesture.

Yeah right, razor sharp and all

"Okay okay... give it here" Cass says as she wears Lynx's suggested 'disguise'

[Not anymore]"Oh yeah, by the way... there's somethin' you should know... we're actually, robbing the place!"

"Wait? What?"

"Yeah, been 'trading' here for a few weeks now, scouting the place, gonna hit it today! And you could help too!" Exclaims Elijah, right before they are too close to Roadkill for her to leave. They're already going through what seems to be a haphazardly built checkpoint inside an improvised set of walls, built from metal frames and scrap. The guards seem to have no common uniform, aside from a gas mask, a vest and a Keffiyeh around their necks. So, this is one of these 'tyrannical' settlements, huh?

"What the fuck guys?"

They all respond with a similar shrug as they leave the checkpoint behind. The mood quickly changes, though, as the settlement drips of a darker and far gloomier air, people are noticeably scared, they move out of the way of the truck with anxious looks, pull their children aside, and eye the guards with worry

"We're here... I'll be waiting for you guys" Says Lucas as he stops the truck

"Sure thing, just keep the engine running" answers Elijah

"Aye aye captn' " Lucas answers with a tone of nervousness and fear underneath the sarcasm.

Chris grabs the sack of meat containing what they took from the beast they fought earlier and, as the group leaves the truck, Elijah puts his hand in front of Ash as she also attempts to jump out, saying "C'mon Ash, you know we can't let you come... stay with Lucas, will you? We'll be back in a bit" The girl seems reluctant and looks at Lynx with pleading eyes

"He's right Ash. Don't worry... it'll be quick" Lynx says, but Ash, with her timid and quick voice asks "You promise?"

"Pinky promise, we will, for sure, be back" Says Lynx as she raises her pinky to meet Ash's height, the both then proceed to seal a deal and the small girl returns to the truck.

That reminds Cass of something she can't quite put a finger on, someone maybe, but her memory still fickle in her mind, it feels important, but she already has too much on her head

"You guys seem pretty close" Cass says trying to get her mind clear of hazy thoughts "I mean, sisters and all, though, still"

"Haha, you seem to have gotten over the fact we dragged you into this pretty damn quick, no?"

"I mean, I didn't, but hey, I guess you guys have more experience in this shithole of a world than I do"

"Haha, that's for sure. But answering your question, yeah, we only had each other for a long time, until these dimwits found us!"

"Hey! That was unnecessary" Elijah says in response to Lynx's comment

"So, what exactly is it you guys wanted to do in here, again?" Asks Cass

"We're 'trading', like we said before. We find stuff out there, they produce stuff in here, they want our stuff, we want theirs, pretty straight-forward" Readily answers Chris

"I meant, why exactly are we going to 'trade', what are we getting?"

"We need food, crops... normal meat. And we got some monster meat to trade thanks to you" Says Elijah with a blink "Alpha settlements pay quite a bit for meat from infected and stuff. Not really edible for us though. And we also got a little bonus for them in there"

"I see..." Cass trails off of the conversation as she looks around, the people's fear doesn't seem to come from them. Few are outside aside from the guards, and most are locking windows and doors, Cass sees a couple of guards extorting a woman in an alley, another guard is beating up a young man, this doesn't feel right, this isn't right, they're scared of this place, but where else could they go now. They reach what seems to be a small market in the center of the community, there are some people giving in crops and edible meat, it seems they only get a very small fraction of what they harvest, no one seems to be receiving food, aside from the guards.

The group approaches a table with a few guards, their looks are piercing and flooded with suspicion, no trust is sensed, no trust is given.

Gilbert seems pretty tense, hence the lack of words, very unusual behavior for the boy, ever since Cass met him, at least. And the whole group seems prepared to run at a moment's notice, though Cass asks herself, are they really being this obvious, the guards don't seem to notice, or is she simply paying more attention, as she knows something is going to happen? It doesn't feel like it, it feels like she's more perceptive, with her senses heightened

"Heya, dudes! So, we've got something special today!" Happily announces Elijah "Charger meat, quite fresh too"

With that, Chris plops the sack of meat onto the table, the smell is... surprisingly intoxicating, at least for Cass, though the guards seem to disagree, as they retreat slightly upon opening the bag, they analyze it for a few seconds, poking it around with a wooden baton, until finally, they say in a muffled down, raspid voice "Yeah yeah... that's charger meat alright. That'll fetch you 15 lbs of meat, and some water to go with it"

"Seriously?! This would fetch us, like, 30 lbs, at least, in Raspberry!!" Exclaims Lynx, outraged

"Well, though shit, huh? This ain't Raspberry now, is it? 15 lbs, take it or leave it" Answers the guard adamantly

Before Lynx could have another outburst, Elijah stops her and quickly says "Hey hey now. I understand, but c'mon, you've gotta admit, 15 is pretty low. You know how rare Chargers are... give us 20, at least?"

The guard, seemingly annoyed answers "18 so you shut up, but no water"

"Wait, no water?" Asks Cass

"Yeah, it's fine. We accept" is Elijah's answer "water, we can get" He says under his breath back at Cass

"Prepare to run..." Says Lynx in a hushed voice. Only now does Cass notices Chris' absence, are they already doing it?!

The guard tells his colleague to pick the bag up, and as he does so, the sack blows up, meat and red mist fly everywhere blinding the three immediate guards, as Chris darts out of a small shack, seemingly used as storage, carrying an enormous bag of food and a few gallons of water within another smaller one, they throw the bag of food towards Elijah, who catches it on the air, and all of them begin to rush away to different streets and alleys, making their way back to the truck while splitting up. Cass begins to run as well, threading her path across alleys and turns.[/Not anymore]

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

She, however, is being followed, not by guards, but by something far worse. From the ceilings, a man calmly walks along, until he loses sight of Cass, but only for a fraction of a second, as within the moment, he is right there, his body still glowing, unstable, as if it were glitching through space, had just appeared out from behind her.

After a few more seconds where he walks towards her, he once again teleports, to her side this time, confidently walking backwards, uttering in smug words and a conceited voice "Hey, you little rats have seriously messed up" Grabbing her arm before she can distance herself, pushing closer to him and blocking her path. He then shoves her into the ground.

"Little rats, stealing food, oughtta be exterminated" He says while passing his hand through his hair, a cocky smile forms in his face, through it, Cass sees a razor sharp set of teeth, glowing orange eyes and a clear intent to kill

"Fuck off!" Screams Cass at the man

"You don't get to call the shots here bitch!!" He says as he swiftly approaches her on the ground, and grabs her by the neck. He then proceeds to remove her mask, revealing her teeth and what she was. As the people around the town scatter and lock their doors and windows ever tighter, the grin in the man's face grows more and more "My lucky fucking day" He says while putting Cass closer to him and sniffing at her face "I'mma get myself a nice meal". Cass quickly places her feet between the both of them and extends her leg at full force, kicking him straight in the stomach, the sheer force of the impact causing the man to spit out blood and fall to the ground, freeing her from his grasp.

Cass runs away from the man, who soon recovers and chases her. No matter how fast she moved though, he simply phased into being right in front of her, and grabbed her by the arms. In an instant, Cass was no longer touching the ground, but high up in the air, free falling from what seemed thousands of miles high, the man releases her from his grasp purposefully now and begins to glow orange as his body seems to almost slowly disappear, Cass, desperately tries to get a hold of him, before he leaves her to fall to her doom, luckily the man seems to be incapable of immediately teleporting twice in a row, and she just barely manages to grab him right as he phases away, once again moving both of them through space. Suddenly, the warm heat of the sun is gone, and a freezing ice clashes with them, as they roll out of each other, Cass realizes, they're not in the settlement anymore, but in a barren frozen wasteland.

The man jumps back to his feet and in clenching cold teeth says "I'll come back once you freeze to death bitch" With that, his body glows in an orange color, matching his sadistic eyes, and right before it fades out of existence, Cass takes the chance, before he can teleport again, and leaps towards him, grabbing the man's chest, and as they fall, she sees herself back at the markets, landing in between fleeing civilians, as the ice teleported with them quickly melts away, drenching them in cold water, Cass begins to pummel the man's head against the concrete floor, her first punch causing him to spill blood, her second, breaking a teeth out, but once she's about to land her third, a soaring pain blasts through her chest as a bolt of lightning hits her unceremoniously.

Cass is suddenly looking at the sky, thrown into a pile of boxes of fruits and crops. Shards of wood fly out of the boxes as she recovers her senses. Another man now stands in the middle of the market, with his hands covered in flames and a seemingly unstable wave of electrical rays moving throughout his body "Axel" He says to the man on the floor, as he stands up and quickly teleports behind the flaming man "This bitch just got a good hit on me, Ethan. That's all!" Says Axel in between spits of blood

"I'm solving your god damn mess, but she's mine" Ethan says in a monotone controlled voice

"Ah, fuck off! I found her first!"

"But if I kill her, the meat's still mine. Unless you want to deal with her by yourself"

"...Fuck. Sure, just murder the bitch"

Cass attempts to get back to her feet, but before she can even straighten herself, she is blasted by another bolt of fire enveloped in lightning, throwing her further through the market, blasting past the already half destroyed tent and as she hits a wall further down the path, it cracks at the sheer impact of her body against it, dust from the building falls to her face as she starts to lose consciousness. Cass attempts to run, but her legs give away, and another blast hits her, completely ripping past the cracked wall this time, and landing in a small living room. Still on the ground, Cass attempts to lift herself, but Axel appears suddenly in front of her, and with one kick to the face, guarantees she'll be staying down

"Should have never come here, puppy Alpha..." Says a voice mockingly, one Cass can barely identify as her mind drifts out of reality, as blood drips down her face and the world slowly fades into black, until

"I know what you truly are. You can't die just yet"

The world stopped, Cass stopped, her mind fades slowly into nothingness as she loses the notion of 'time', but then, she's somewhere else, a room, still bleeding, still fading into unconsciousness, however, as she's about to close her eyes, the pain ends, the bleeding ends, her exhaustion ends, it all ends, she feels just like she felt before everything went wrong.

Or almost that, the room she's in, it's blocked, a heavy metal door seems to be the only way in and out. Not long after she picks herself back up, the door opens, from it, a single man comes in. He's tall and has an inherent air of authority, wearing a white crow mask completely covering his face. When he speaks, his voice is soothing, but rigid, his every word is hypnotic "Hello. Cassidy Ravaner... wasn't it?"

"How do you know my...?"

"name? Yeah... still had your wallet" He says as he pulls a red and black leather wallet, open, it's Cass' wallet, and that's her id

"You're a recent awakening, right? Wouldn't be carrying one of these otherwise" The man says with a smug look on his face "I'm Crow, by the way... or at least that's what you can call me for now"

"What are you going to do to me? Where am I?"

"Firstly, nothing bad, you'll be fine. Secondly, you are in an old office building of the old world in the ruins of downtown, pretty close to where you awoke, I believe. This was a panic room once, not very useful for them in the end, but quite so for me" The man explains while another man, also wearing a crow mask, though this one is different, it's black and is pointier, enters the room "You see, I'm a man with a belief, and a goal... you, are part of this goal. I want your help, I'm building something, a better tomorrow perhaps" Says Crow while he extends his arm sideways, almost showing it to the other man "But I need you to be stronger" And as soon as he finishes that sentence, the man's eyes glow green, and Crow's hand pops clean off, bursting blood all over the room for not more than a couple seconds, before suddenly, his arm is intact, or at least it looked so. There, laying on the ground, still lays a severed hand, his severed hand "Feed"

"Wha... what? NO! I'm not sure who the fuck you take me for, but I'm not eating someone's god damn hand!"

"Well, what about a little incentive, then?" He says while turning away to leave "You should... 'talk', with those Alphas you met today, they know something about him, I'm sure. You know, Do you not remember Alex?" And just as his reverberating voice distorts itself into a cacophony of many words, he vanishes, as does the man with him, and the door is once again, closed shut.

Cass is left speechless, Alex, who's that? She knows, she knows very well, she knows who her brother is. Her brother who was at the hospital. That's when it hits her, Cass flashes back to the hospital, to the last night she remembered, how she sneaked past a group of soldiers to reach her little brother's room, how she got caught, and then, blank, nothing else.

WHERE IS HE?

Cass bangs at the door of the empty dark room, screaming her guts out for her brother, nothing, no response, not even her newfound strength is capable of bending the door, the only thing left is the severed hand at the center of the room. It almost seems to beckon her, to call her name. The hand still twitches and contorts on itself, as if something powerful within is still kicking. It's only once she feels her knees hitting the ground right beside the hand as she crouches closer to it, that she notices, her mouth is salivating, her eyes, flickering around her sockets as she attempts to defy this instinctive desire to consume. futile would be an understatement, however, it is not the desire to feed that is driving this instinctive hunger, in a way, it could be said it is the desire for power, for power to fight back, for power to save her brother.

Cass gives in, munching at the arm at impressive speed, blood splatters around her, and within seconds, the arm is gone, nothing remains, no skin, no bones, nothing. A surge of what feels like adrenaline courses through Cass' body, blasting her senses and piercing her brain, she feels her mind go haywire as the room around her collapses in on itself, suddenly, she is outside, in the air, floating above a collapsing building. As she comes back to her senses, she's once again on the ground formed of the crumbling parts of the destroyed building, she knows she has changed, became stronger. It feels like new limbs, extensions of herself, have just grown from her, she feels she can control it, control gravity, control his power, control her power.

Cass comes back to her senses shortly after that, her mind however, still packed with thoughts of her brother, Alex, where could he be, is he still even alive, he must be, Crow talked about him, why would he, if Alex wasn't.

Cass tries to clear her mind, organize her thoughts. She's at Downtown once again, whatever the city was called before doesn't matter now, known only as the Ruins. She's a few miles from Roadkill, how did he bring her here? Was that his power, or one of them, at least?

Where could she go now? The Ravens, they were at Roadkill, did they escape? Are they okay? Cass couldn't stop worrying about their safety, she couldn't quite understand why, maybe because they saved her, maybe because their bond reminds her of her brother's and her's.

Cass realizes she still has her bag, and with it, the walkie-talkie given by Gilbert. She grabs it as fast as she can and immediately starts to attempt to call them. At first, nothing, radio silence, the low hissing emanating from the walkie-talkie is driving Cass desperate, but the cardiac-arrest can wait, Cass is finally capable of taking in a breath when the radio responds

"Hell... o...? C... ss?"

"Gil? Gil?! Can you hear me?"

"Cass...? Cass, are you there? Guys, she's okay! I... I think, are you okay Cass?"

"Yes, yes I am, but, I... I need to find you guys. There's something I need to tell you all"

"Come back to the hospital in the Ruins, we'll meet you there" This time, Cass hears Elijah's voice through the static, did he just sound... hurt? Was he alright, why did they seemed, down?

Later, as night falls, and Cass continues to wait for the group to meet her, she can finally see the truck's distinctive blue colored hull. The truck parks near her, but there's something weird about it, the driving seems off, Lucas was most definitely not behind the wheel. From the truck comes out, Gilbert, Chris, who was at the driver's seat, Elijah, who seems injured, and Lynx, completely void eyes covering her face, her normal pump up energetic attitude gone, the group seems distraught.

Elijah's words cut through the air as sharp as a blade, striking Cass with the somber news "They got Lucas, and... and Ash... Cass... I... I..." Elijah's voice crackles, as he gets in a loss for words, his usual confidence, gone

"What happened? What the fuck happened!?" Asks Cass in a mix of anger and fear

"They ambushed the truck before we got there. We thought our distraction would be enough to make them ignore it for long enough, but we thought wrong"

"Where's Lucas and Ash right now?!" The group doesn't answer, but their silence, and their eyes, tell everything, they don't know

"Haha, hahahahaha. I didn't thought it would be this fast to find you, bitch"

Cass turns herself to meet Axel, standing behind her, her eyes bursting with wrath, why is he here?

"You know, after your little escapade back in Roadkill earned ME a punishment, not Ethan, boss wouldn't punish his little perfect lap dog, no, but ME. Like I didn't got enough when you ripped my god fucking damn teeth off!!!"

"Where are they... WHERE THE FUCK ARE THEY?!" Screams Lynx, with rage Cass couldn't think possible, until now at least, as she feels she's about to blow just as much, if not more

"Oh... the little bitch and the deserter asshole? Boss' taking them away, selling them off to some creeps I don't really care about"

"How did you find us?" asks Cass, as her blood slowly boils, as she attempts to control her anger, as Axel speaks more and more, all the while, she tries to hold it in

"I have spatial cognition! Part of being able to manipulate space. That's how I found you, came looking around the nearby places, such as the rundown city and could sense you guys nearby" He answers with a smug face that beckons to be hit. Cass can no longer take it, she drops her hold

"You know..." Cass says as she fully turns towards him "...for someone with 'super spatial awareness', you're pretty fucking oblivious"

"Who the fuck do you think you ar..."

An unearthly blast noise is all that can be heard, a mixture of bone shards flying, skin ripping and blood spilling at high velocities as brain matter is scattered away. His head is gone, just like that, splattering across the street's concrete, his lifeless body spilling blood as it falls to the ground. All that remains is the raging sights of a predator's eyes, glistening red, glowing as blood pumps through them, she watches her prey, and readies to feast.