The forest broke at the edge of a hill, and as Kyle broke through the edge of the foliage he saw the city laid out in the valley beyond, crumbling buildings as far as the eye could see. The once proud capital city of Cathwick had been destroyed, but Kyle was heartened to see the scope of the destruction was much less than he’d seen when he was sorting through the rubble of Newton. Kyle’s eyes swept across the city, but despite it being in better condition he didn’t see evidence of people having rebuilt or clearing the ruins, at least at this end of the city. He turned to the drone floating by his side, “C.H.A.D.D., can you pick up anything from the city? Any network connections or local signals?” It was a long shot, but if anything was still operational it could meaningfully narrow down the searching Kyle was going to have to do. [NO SIGNALS AT THIS DISTANCE DR. MAYHEW. EXCEPT THE BEETLES.] Kyle was about to say something, then stopped. “Beetles?”
As if on cue Kyle heard a discordant buzz that grew steadily louder, coming from the direction of the forest. Five of the smaller beetles came flying out of the forest towards him, and Kyle quickly prepared himself for combat, shocked that the small creatures would actively choose to attack him. To his surprise, they flew directly past him and towards the city. He expected that at least they’d try to go for his provisions, but as he looked more closely he saw other small groups of beetles flying towards the city as well. Frowning, Kyle turned to C.H.A.D.D. “We’re going to follow them; this behavior is just… odd.” Come to think of it, not once were we attacked in the forest. How are these insects able to eat? “C.H.A.D.D., are you able to track their trajectory?”
A brief pause, followed by a confident response from the drone [YES DR. MAYHEW. PROJECTING PATHWAY NOW, WITHIN LONG-RANGE SENSOR CAPABILITY.] Kyle knew they would need to move quickly to keep them within sensor range, and quickly took off down the hill with C.H.A.D.D. in hot pursuit. Unsurprisingly, they weren’t able to traverse the sloping ground as quickly as the flying bugs, but this proved to be a non-issue as other groups of small beetles appeared, flying from the forest and into the ruins of the city. To its part, C.H.A.D.D. continually projected new flight paths atop the others to give Kyle a clear direction. Before he knew it Kyle was crossing from the open field and into the outskirts of the ruined city. They were approaching from the eastern forest, with larger estate homes dotting the edges with clear lines of sight up towards the woods. Kyle found himself approaching a broken fence marking the edge of one such estate, and in a fluid motion vaulted over the spiky remains of the wooden barricade and saw the ruined mansion behind. The poor home was smashed down to its foundation, and judging by the widely strewn debris, Kyle didn’t have much hope that there were any survivors beneath the wreckage. He idly thought about the people who would have lived in an extravagant home like this, likely prominent families with lofty positions within the Central Authority. And what did it get them? This once beautiful neighborhood was as destroyed as anywhere else.
Following the buzzing sound, Kyle quickly found the source, and he had to turn away at the sight. In a relatively clear space between the homes he saw a pile of human remains, and with the closer vantage he spotted what were likely other, similar heaps. The beetles seemed satisfied to simply scavenge the bodies, but were clearly not responsible for this macabre display. No two ways about it, this was sickening. Working in a hospital Kyle was familiar with death, but seeing these bodies like this, the smell of it all, it was threatening to overwhelm him. He was conflicted – part of him wanted to do something, to investigate, but at the same time he knew that whatever he found would be something he’d carry with him for the rest of his life. He wasn’t proud of it, but this was something better left unknown. He turned to the drone floating by his side, and the weakness in his voice surprised him. “C.H.A.D.D., can you scan for any signs of life?”
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C.H.A.D.D. remained stationary in the air, and just as the silence was becoming uncomfortable the drone responded. [DR. MAYHEW, NO LIVING PATIENTS IN THE AREA. ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHT DEAD, TIME OF DEATH UNKNOWN. CAUSES OF DEATH UNKNOWN.] That was an answer that would at least let Kyle breathe. He suspected that a good number of these people died in either the initial impact that created these small craters, the aftershock of the larger blast, or as a result of falling rubble. But even with that, he also felt confident that some of these people had likely survived – and they certainly hadn’t all come out and died in these… piles.
Something, or someone, had come and looted these homes, piling the bodies to distract the mutated beetles. Judging by the number of piles, it was also likely that it was a larger, more organized group. Kyle had feared this possibility as he’d travelled, and the fear crystalized into the reality that there were going to be groups of people who looked to find advantages for themselves in the ruins of their society. As if roving beetles and chaotic energy weren’t enough of a threat, Kyle realized that he would likely also have to survive whatever marauders were out in this environment too. He still held onto some hope that they were more scavenger-adjacent than straight up murderous, but he knew he’d need to be wary.
As he considered his next steps, he was interrupted by C.H.A.D.D. [DR. MAYHEW, SIGN OF LIFE DETECTED.]
This startled Kyle from his thoughts, and he turned to the floating sphere. “Really? Where?”
[INCOMING FROM THE NORTH. RELATIVELY QUICK MOVING. SIGNATURE CONFIRMED. A VERY LARGE BUG.]
Kyle frowned as he looked, watching the small beetles begin to fly away from their macabre feast. He didn’t expect that a single large beetle would elicit this type of reaction, but at this point C.H.A.D.D. had come to identify the kinds of creatures they’d encountered with accuracy. “How many are there?”
[JUST ONE DR. MAYHEW.]
Kyle found himself gritting his teeth in a savage grin. One beetle was much easier to handle than it had been several weeks ago, and it would do him some good to work through the trauma of seeing so many dead bodies. Turning towards the north, Kyle readied his staff and began to make his way cautiously towards what had been the brick wall of one of the homes. Now it only stood about a meter high, the surroundings coated in dust and shattered brick. It wasn’t much, but he felt good about using it to impede the beetle’s movement if necessary, similar to how he used the trees back in the woods.
His confidence quickly disappeared, however, as he caught sight of what was coming from the north. It wasn’t a dog-sized beetle in flight, it was a six-legged monstrosity that stood nearly as tall as him at the shoulder. It had thick mandibles that clicked together as it scuttled across the ground, and long antennae testing the air. Its bulbous head and abdomen were contrasted by a narrow thorax, each segment of its body covered in sharp barbs. The carapace gave off a glossy sheen in the sunlight, the glare moving as each thin leg covered ground at a shocking pace. Kyle supposed that at one point this creature could have been considered an ant, but whatever it had mutated into was something else entirely. This gargantuan insect caught sight of him over the rubble, antennae waving furiously as it changed course and started charging right for him. He turned to face the creature, knowing he would never escape across the open ground back to the woods. As he readied his staff, he called over to C.H.A.D.D. “I thought you said this was a beetle? What the hell? C.H.A.D.D.!?!? THIS IS A FREAKING CLYDESDALE OF AN ANT!!!!”
[THIS IS A VERY LARGE BUG. IDENTIFICATION IS VALID. OTHERS WERE SIMPLY CLASSIFIED AS LARGE BUGS. THERE IS A DISTINCT DIFFERENCE. ADDING NOTATION FOR CLYDESDALE ANT FOR FUTURE NOTES.] The drone felt almost defensive with its reply, but at this point Kyle didn’t have an opportunity to get a quip in as the ant easily crossed the brick “barricade” and snapped at Kyle.