The world swirled around them once again. Louise breathed in slowly to keep from being disorientated, using small light breaths, much like Cray told her. Reality still whipped about like a snake, but it shook her less than the previous times. She’d gotten the hang of it, or somewhat, anyway.
The colors resolved into the same supermarket where Cray nearly died.
Without the pressure of a horde of monsters upon their tails, Louise had the chance to look around. Much like what she'd seen so far, greenery overgrew everything. The shelves… Vines covered some of them and others had plastic bottles of various sorts, but most of the metal shelves were barren. Some laid flat against the ground, others stood straight and proud, but at the wrong angle, and a few lonely shelves rested exactly where they belonged. A sign for fresh fish hung over a smashed deli, with its double doors torn down, a great hole leading into the back of the store.
The refrigerators stood close by, but none worked. Instead, heat crept inside her new jeans in a way that had her wish she wore something light and breathable.
Cray’s cough drew her attention. Next to the waypoint sat a piece of pale blue chalk, used to draw the arrows that radiated from it in several directions. It took but a moment for him to draw a fresh one pointed toward the supermarket entrance they’d come through last time. The path out into the parking lot… and to wherever she’d arrived in this strange world.
Karah motioned them out through the glass doors and to the parking lot outside.
It was almost exactly the same as when they'd arrived at the supermarket… which in itself was strange. Cray’s attacks caused a massive series of explosions and blown apart a cars and enemies alike, but the parking lot was calm with vehicles untouched as if their owners were inside shopping, the illusion only broken by the rust and vines that choked everything.
Crunch.
Louise froze. It came from behind one of the parked cars - a vine-covered minivan.
‘This time, attack the enemies as best you can and avoid being hit.’ Cray’s words from before they arrived echoed in her head. Was she ready? She didn't know, but they were about to find out.
Another crunch, then a porcine snout pushed out from behind the vehicle, with a pair of tasks and spikes beneath them. Snuffle. Snort. The rest of it emerged. It stood high enough that even the six-foot-plus Cray scarcely met its shoulders. The green coloration was strange enough, but it had the body of a normal boar, just larger… except for the fact it was all stitched together, akin to movies of Frankenstein’s monster, with bands of rotten flesh and spikes stuck out from between them. The broken asphalt crunched under great hooves.
The stench of decay slammed into her. With a scrunch of her nose, Louise aimed for its flank, only for Karah to grab her shoulder, then shake her head.
Voice feather-soft, she whispered, "Avoid Tramplers when you can. Follow me."
Karah and Cray crouched low and led Louise through the parking lot, each careful to keep multiple vehicles between them and the Trampler. Soon enough, the sound of the creature faded into the distance.
Cray crouched beside her. "They hit hard and are tough to kill. Better to go for easier enemies if we can."
That… Made sense. Fight easier enemies, get loot. "But don’t we have to come back?"
"We do, but we’ll bypass them or dash for the waypoint, if needed."
They were now on a road near the outskirts of the suburbs. A familiar part of the suburbs. Her neighborhood. It was similar enough that she recognized the landmarks… yet subtle differences messed with her perception. Greenery overgrew everything, of course, but not just that. A gas station was gone in favor of a school, the bus overturned and broken outside, while she could have sworn that the house on the corner used to be three stories tall. Even beyond those subtle differences, dust, cobwebs, broken tiles, and cracked windows abounded. Humanity hadn’t inhabited this place in a generation.
But they weren’t alone. Bushes rustled on all sides, snouts and legs poked out of windows and the tall grass, while the morning sun cast strange shadows upon the pavement, creatures of monstrous design, all just out of sight.
Louise shivered; she tried to peer in every direction at once. But no matter where she looked, every crunch of rocks beneath claws sent icy fear up her spine.
Karah surveyed the neighborhood, then pointed them toward one of the garages. Soft as they could, they crept through grass as high as her chest, then slipped inside a garage filled with boxes, some of which had flooded long ago..
It was open… open, but not empty.
Grrrr! A growl. Right. Behind. Them.
Karah leaped for the monster—some sort of leopard creature with spikes coating its back. It shot several toward Karah, who ducked what she could and rushed in to send it into a tree outside with one mighty punch. Several apples thumped to the ground beside it.
Cray opened fire with his silenced handguns. The creature was quick, but several bullets still caught it across the chest and shoulders. It growled again and leaped for Karah, who ducked and tried to evade and counterattack simultaneously. A few claw strikes raked across her left side despite her efforts, and she hissed in pain.
What are you doing? Louise’s mind caught up to her. Stop sitting around. You have to help! She took a deep breath, aimed for the creature's head, and fired her Arcane Blast.
Purple light erupted from her in a mighty blast, only for the enemy to duck just before would've hit.
No! Louise took better aim and cast Arcane Blast again. Or rather, she tried to. Nothing happened, or at least, nothing happened from her. The spiked leopard creature darted forward, jaw open wide and filled with multiple inch-long teeth.
Her feet scrabbled against the ground for purchase, but she stumbled. Terror filled her, but Karah slammed her fist into the creature and blasted it into a pile of boxes with the clatter of fallen electronic components.
Louise tried to cast her Arcane Blast again, and this time it worked. With the creature flat in a heap on the ground, she just had to aim down and the blasts slammed straight between its shoulder blades. With that, it turned red and began to dissolve.
Victory, at least for now.
She grabbed the loot from the creature and garage and followed Karah and Cray inside the rest of the house—some monsters might already be on their way to investigate the noise. But why didn’t my Arcane Blast -? No, now is not the time. Wait until we get to safety, then I’ll ask Karah and Cray.
Between the garage and the monster’s loot, they found a decent haul of batteries and crafting materials, which Louise all added to her inventory. The only other enemies in the house were a few of those blue-furred creatures - Gibberers - and while they could hit hard in a melee, Cray spotted their hiding spot on the other side of the living and he and Louise shot them up before they could get close.
The next building was a one-story house with a patio, and several rocking chairs placed to allow the inhabitants to enjoy the sunset. Charming, her mother would have called it with that crystal-clear laugh of hers. Once, it would have been charming, but now, the patio was broken with the pegs that held the railings cracked and fallen in many places.
Cray went first; careful not to step across the center of the floor so as not to creak, he made his way to the front door and pressed his ear against peeled paint, jiggled the knob, then gave the thumbs up.
Karah held up three fingers, two, one. Cray pulled the door open, and they pushed inside. Cobwebs littered the front hallway, but a collection of spiders parted to reveal several coats on pegs, across from a trio of shelves stocked with hats and accessories for winter, all filthy with age and neglect. Below them, a bicycle sat with a kickstand down. Down the hall was a living room and what might have been a home office, all overgrown and ruled only by dust.
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Cray stepped forward, then his eyes went wide, and he held up a hand.
A moment later, Louise heard it. The thunder of massive footsteps came from outside and drew closer.
Karah grimaced but pointed them forward and mouthed "loot, now".
Louise rushed to do as commanded and grabbed every bit of loot she could from the shelves. Everything that was still in decent shape could be useful. Books could be useful to sell or read, they could reuse some gadgets and salvage everything made of the metal into crafting materials. Most valuable of all would be food, but Cray had the kitchen while Karah handled the garage. The home office computer was useless, but the mouse might still work, so Louise added it to her inventory. A couple of books that age hadn't destroyed also joined it, as well as the bicycle for salvage.
The footsteps drew closer still, but paused. Louise’s heart thudded in her chest and prepared to enter the next room, when suddenly there was a crash from the garage. Karah.
Cray sprinted over and Louise followed. Inside, a pair of cars stood mounted upon jacks, with a pile of parts between them. Against the far wall, several Gibberers pummeled a motionless Karah.
Louise fired her Arcane Blast straight into the back of one of them at the same time several bullets from Cray’s pistol slammed into it. Before she could cast again, it dissolved into red, but the rest continued their onslaught upon Karah. Every moment, more damage would pile up. No choice. After another Arcane Blast, she unleashed her third and final ability: Chromatic Volley.
Energy bolts of different colors hurtled toward the enemies in a stream of destruction. Quite a few missed and the creatures even dodged a few, but half a dozen slammed into the Gibberers in a bombardment of destruction. The walls cracked, froze and ignited from the multitude of magics, tools toppled from wall pegs to clatter to the floor and steam filled the air, but when the dust settled, four Gibberers remained, albeit wounded, and they ignored them to focus on Karah.
Cray traded his rifle for his shotgun, took aim, then fired. Kaboom. Shells slammed into the creatures, but the onslaught continued. He closed his eyes, and when they opened again, the red within glowed and streaks of scarlet poured down his cheeks. Kaboom. A moment later, another, followed by two more, then three, four, five and six in as many seconds. When he finished, two of the Gibberers were masses of red, and only two wounded ones remained.
They were going to win this!
Crack. The garage door broke and the Trampler from before crunched the ground with its hooves. No hiding this time, its gaze fixed firmly upon the three of them, and when it opened its porcine mouth, a cyan light coalesced into an orb within while overhead were the words ‘Capture Spark’.
Louise hesitated, but Cray fired another shotgun round, then another—slower this time, and red light no longer poured from his eyes—but all shots aimed at the Gibberers rather than their new foe.
Cray knew what he was doing, so she fired her Arcane Blast at the Gibberers, and was rewarded by a burst of red. Four down.
A flash of light, and when it cleared, transparent walls of pale blue light surrounded her on all sides. The Trampler’s ability.
Then the creature charged, aimed straight for Louise. Its hooves thundered like bombs and the garage shuddered and a car rocked back and forth with the momentum, bouncing against the ground. Louise tried to move, but was stuck, trapped by the walls of energy. Helpless, she turned to Cray. His mouth twisted into a grimace, but he fired again at the last Gibberer, and it dissolved in a mass of crimson.
But too slow. Pain exploded through Louise, and the Trampler fulfilled its name and ran her over like a car had hit her. Hooves stomped and buried deep into soft, fleshy bits. A sickening crack. Agony coursed through her and the taste of blood filled her mouth. Above her, the putrid reek of rotting flesh.
A moment later, it was past her, but the agony remained. However, the blue walls shattered when it ran her over. Somehow, she staggered to her feet.
This time, Karah looked back. Beaten up, but still determined. We’re still in it, her expression said. And now, they were all free.
Cray replaced his shotgun with his rifle and took cover behind a rusted car, then sprayed the Trampler with bullets like it was a plant in need of watering. Karah surged up to it and hammered the putrid pig monster with her fists.
What should she do? Well, she was not Karah, and could not take much more of a beating after that trampling attack, so Louise looked about for cover. There was the car that Cray stood behind—the other torn in two by the Trampler’s first charge to leave behind a crumpled mass of parts. If a car couldn’t stop it, not much could, but maybe that workbench off to the side could buy a second or two.
The creature swished its head back and forth to slash Karah with its tusks, but it could only manage a couple of glancing blows, nothing like that initial attack. It snorted and growled, then cyan light filled that porcine mouth again. This time, the three of them hammered it together while it charged up its ability.
Once again though, its gaze fixed upon Louise, and a moment later, a blue box surrounded her, then it charged. The hooves tore through what remained left of the broken car without concern, and it thundered straight for her. It was slower, though—Cray’s weapon, no doubt. Still, it was just a couple of seconds. Then it was upon her, squealing in triumph.
“Thunder smash!” Kara's fist sent it flying into the tool board across from her, where the contents all fell upon their foe. Then she raced toward the enemy, who laid there stunned while Louise was… not surrounded by the blue box?
It must not last very long, or shatter when we disable the creature! Free from her cage, Louise hurled another Arcane Blast into the stunned foe and Cray traded his rifle for his shotgun and bombarded the Trampler with shells.
The Trampler got to its feet again, and slashed madly at Karah, but only caught a few glancing strikes. Another roar and cyan light filled its mouth… but just as it finished its cast, it turned red and dissolved into loot.
They'd won… but not without some heavy blows. At least the wounds went away after the initial hit—Cray explained that it affected her health rather than body, like a video game. Louise shakily stepped forward. No wonder Karah and Cray prefer to avoid that monster.
After that house, they made their way through backyards down the street, through a couple of other houses, then across the street. They turned a corner and, suddenly, she was in front of her home. It was her home. The places she played before, the computer she did homework at, the little library, the rusted basketball hoop in front, all of them were there. She could go inside and eat lunch right then. It was the same. Except it wasn't. Greenery and rust overgrew everything, and nobody had lived inside in decades.
Karah guided her through the front door. Last time, she hadn't noticed with the Mana Devourer after them, but now she took her time and drank it in. Her eyes watered at the sight of the skeleton in the kitchen, the golden teeth of her father.
This was her home… and yet it wasn’t, and not just because of all the rust and decay. Pictures hung on the wall akin to what she remembered, books in the same spots, yet so many things were wrong. The stairs were in the wrong location, while on the left was a bathroom that should be her parents’ and to the right, a desk was missing. It was like it’d been built by someone who only half-remembered it. A look outside showed that the few specks of paint still upon the car in the driveway were red instead of blue, while her bedroom window was rectangular rather than round.
It was different, and not just because of all the time that it apparently passed in this world, but different in ways that made no sense. Same with the surrounding buildings. She distinctly remembered the steeple upon the neighbor’s roof.
Wait, could it be…
She’d seen the dungeon in the last Find vanish. Maybe that was the… Her eyes watered again. To have this happen to her own home… It was terrible. Why did she have to witness this? Why would they show her? She looked at the two of them, desperate for answers.
Karah watched her, neither blatant nor constant, but every so often, she would turn to observe her with an expression of sadness upon her face. Meanwhile, Cray grabbed the loot from the kitchen, food that neither she nor her family would ever stock. Every so often, his gaze flickered toward hers, kind yet so sorrowful.
She couldn’t meet their eyes.
/-/
When they retreated from her former home, or rather the house that looked at it like it, Louise breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't real. She knew that. But that didn't mean that she enjoyed the sight of a place like her home but ruined.
The next couple of houses were pretty simple, with packs of those lizard creatures—Spine Strikers—with some Gibberers mixed in.
Those enemies were easy, she soon realized. The three of them could slaughter these foes in moments. Even a decent sized pack of them wasn’t too bad as long as they didn’t ambush the trio. However, the trick was to deal with them while avoiding the more dangerous enemies. The one battle with the Trampler took away almost half of Louise's health, and even that was absolutely nothing compared to the danger of the Mana Devourer.
Still, a few houses later, Louise noticed something.
It started when Cray listened at the outside door, eyes narrowed, then Karah motioned them inside and shut the door behind them. Right after she did, a group of Gibberers tromped through the muck outside the ruined dwelling. Karah watched outside for a long moment, and only when she was sure they were gone did she nod toward the rest of the house.
This time, the three of them stuck together, This house was a two-story affair, the porcelain of the kitchen filled with mold within the caulk, but there was a backup generator that was actually functional that disappeared into Karah’s inventory, along with various metal and wooden items for crafting material.
In the third room, however, Louise spotted them before they turned the corner. Four Gibberers… And something else. One of those fleshy dog things: another Flesh Hound. Cray and Karah looked to each other, then shook their heads and withdrew, Louise right behind them.
It wasn’t the first time they did that, either. Whenever they spotted a pack they could avoid, Karah and Cray would do exactly that if they could. Not to say they refused to fight - some they had to deal with, or chose to deal with in order to get inside areas they wanted to, but they left alone those they didn't have to.
On the way to the next house; a dozen Spine Strikers bounded across the street in front of them and Karah had them stay behind the fallen oak until they’d jumped into the stream running past the house, and only then did they enter the next building. Louise was about to ask when she found an enchanted set of shorts in a closet and the proverbial light-bulb lit itself over her head: most of the loot they that she’d picked up this Find was from the buildings, not the enemies. If they avoided enemies, they got more loot easier. Or at least, that was the idea.
By the time the stopwatch read 1:55 and they returned to the waypoint, they must have gone through a full dozen houses full of loot.
Best of all, she was starting to understand how this all worked.