The spiders weren’t the last threat Elijah faced as he traversed the pass, but they were the deadliest. Along the way, he ran into a couple more Voxx, which he dealt with accordingly, but he avoided any other dangers, aside from those posed by the terrain itself. On more than one occasion, he was forced to climb up or down steep cliffs or leap across gaping chasms, but in every instance, he proved up to the task.

And then, days later, he finally began his descent. It took a further couple of days to reach the other side of the mountain range, and when he did, he found himself back in the woods. However, instead of the temperate rainforest with which he’d grown accustomed, he’d come to a boreal forest, with tall pine trees and rocky terrain peppered with a multitude of placid lakes.

The temperature also experienced a significant decline, though Elijah wasn’t certain if that was due to the regional climate or if it was winter tightening its grip. Whatever the case, he keenly felt the cold, even with the advantage of his animalistic endurance and inflated attributes.

That prompted some experimentation with Ward of Seasons:

Spell:

Ward of the Seasons

Harness the power of the seasons, increasing resistance to elemental damage (Water, Earth, Fire, Air).

However, to his disappointment, the augmentation did nothing to cut the cold. According to his guides, that sort of thing wasn’t unnecessary, and the spell had never been meant to abate environmental effects. Instead, it was intended to protect him from hostile spells. Still, he’d hoped that it would prove special, and he was sorely disappointed when it did nothing to protect him from the cold. Hopefully, it would prove useful in the future.

The forest itself, which had distinctly less undergrowth than the tangled mess he’d left behind, was much easier to traverse, though, so he made good time as he slowly left the mountains behind. The whole time, he kept a keen sense of his island in the back of his mind; he was ready to teleport back via Ancestral Circle at a moment’s notice. Fortunately, no such necessity presented itself, allowing him to continue his efforts at exploration.

After another week, Elijah started to see signs of civilization. At first, it was only a few roads here and there, but soon enough, he came upon the first cluster of buildings alongside what had once been a stretch of interstate highway. The on- and off-ramp had survived, as had a gas station and a Burger King. Both were in a state of advanced disrepair, suggesting that it had been quite some time – years, perhaps – since they’d been inhabited.

Still, Elijah spent a few hours inspecting both, and he found precisely what he’d feared when he stumbled upon a pile of old human bones. They bore deep grooves that were probably teeth marks, but beyond that, Elijah had no evidence to support any theories concerning how they had died.

It was further confirmation that the world had not weathered the transformation very well. Of course, Elijah had expected as much. He’d had to fight tooth and nail to survive, and though he acknowledged that his path was probably more difficult than most, it wasn’t difficult to imagine that the rest of humanity hadn’t escaped the end of the world as everyone knew it unscathed.

Partially, it was a function of civilization. In the United States – and most other developed countries as well – the fact was that people had moved on from many of the skills they would need once everything stopped working. Survival skills had become a hobby, rather than a necessity, and as such, few people could call themselves experts.

Sure, there were plenty of people out there who could adjust. But there were probably just as many who would’ve starved to death once their local supermarket ran out of viable food. Many more would have died from avoidable diseases and, as sad as it was to say, the chaotic opportunism that came on the heels of any disaster.

And that wasn’t even considering the mutated wildlife, the other races who’d chosen to descend upon Earth in hopes of building a better life, and the spontaneously manifesting Voxx. All of it coincided to create a world where survival was probably the exception to the rule rather than the default.

Those thoughts accompanied Elijah as he continued to encounter the remnants of a dead civilization. Sometimes, it was just a stray house or two – clearly, the area had been rural – but every now and then, he’d find an entire deserted neighborhood. Where the people had gone was no mystery; he found their remains as well. Often, they were clustered together as if they’d tried to take solace in numbers. Those were usually accompanied by rudimentary attempts at defenses. Cars that had been pushed together, boxes, wooden pallets – they’d used everything they could to create walls.

But it obviously hadn’t worked, because each instance Elijah stumbled upon featured the remains of the would-be holdouts.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

At first, Elijah let it all send him spiraling into melancholy, but as the days wore on, he grew progressively more numb to it until he just accepted that most of humanity had already died. There were clearly survivors. The ladder was proof enough of that, but Elijah kept going back to his previous supposition that the endurance of human life was, at best, rare.

In any case, as he continued his increasingly depressing exploration, he found himself wondering if he’d actually lucked out by being stranded on a deserted island. The panther had protected him – mostly – from anything truly dangerous, which had allowed him to get a handle on the situation. Without that, he’d have probably died fairly early on.

Almost three weeks after he’d left the pass behind, Elijah stumbled on something he never expected. He crouched behind a disused gas station pump as he looked across an overgrown street at the low-slung building that had, once upon a time, been a Wal-Mart. The sign had been ripped down, and trees – still barely more than saplings – sprouted from cracks in the parking lot’s concrete. But that wasn’t what drew his attention.

He’d seen a few such buildings, and he’d even raided a couple, finding nothing that he could use. But what made this one unique was that it was clearly occupied. Not by people, though. Instead, the residents were grey-skinned, tusked creatures that Elijah could only call orcs.

They carried primitive weapons and wore very little in the way of clothing. Most were only clad in loincloths, in fact. But there were hundreds of them engaged in what looked like a primitive sort of tribal life that reminded Elijah of the various races of proto-humans. He wasn’t certain if that was an accurate impression, but it was the first thing that came to mind when he saw their heavy brows, sloped foreheads, and jutting jaws.

Cloaked in Guise of the Unseen, Elijah watched them for a few hours before he decided to move on. The orcs weren’t hurting anyone, and though he knew from the guides he’d read that they tended to be quite warlike, they were isolated enough that he didn’t think they would be a problem for anyone.

Besides, what was he going to do? Fight an entire settlement on his own?

The idea wasn’t just laughable – it was suicidal.

So, once he’d confirmed that the orcs were just living their lives, Elijah moved on. And over the next couple of weeks, he continued to explore. Along the way, he saw more evidence of humanity’s rapid fall. In one instance, he came across an abandoned settlement that had been built around an old prison. It was reasonably well-developed, suggesting that the occupants had made it for a while, at least. But like everywhere else Elijah had found, it was entirely abandoned.

Still, he spent a few days exploring the disused town, finding few clues as to why its people had left.

Over time, he did find a few useful items, though. Like the collection of glass jugs that could hold a gallon of water each. His clay version had already begun to fall apart, so he was extremely thankful for the new additions. Elijah had also raided an old hardware store, taking a wide variety of tools he thought would be valuable for his continued survival. The only limit was the room in his pack, and even though it was a little more than twice as large as the exterior suggested, it still wouldn’t hold everything he wanted to take.

But mostly, he just continued to explore, killing Voxx whenever he came across one of their trails. As a scaled panther, he found dispatching most of them easy enough, though he did encounter a few that managed to survive his initial ambush long enough to pose a serious problem. Elijah still won those fights, but he didn’t do so without incurring injuries himself.

Fortunately, he had the tools to deal with that, and his healing spells got quite a workout.

In a lot of ways, it reminded him of his first year on the island. Technically, the wilderness was a good deal more dangerous. Everywhere he went, there were creatures that wanted to kill him. However, he had the ability to mitigate that danger – either before or after it manifested – and he soon found himself adapting to it. Just like he had adapted to the necessities of survival on the island.

Before Elijah knew it, winter had truly come, and with it came frequently inclement weather. Snowstorms, freezing rain, and miserably cold sleet were almost as common as clear days, and often, the temperatures dipped well below freezing. He was somewhat protected from the elements by his high Constitution, but even with that, it got to the point where he considered going home and waiting the winter out.

In fact, he was on the verge of making just such a decision when, at last, he reached the settlement that had been listed on the Branch’s Regional Map.

Called Norcastle, it had clearly gotten its name from the ancient castle at its center. However, even from a distance, Elijah could recognize the multitude of newer structures surrounding the large, stone fort. In addition, there was a sizable wall that looked like it had been constructed of cinderblocks encircling the entire town, which was even larger than Ironshore, both in terms of area as well as apparent population. As Elijah settled down to observe the city, he estimated that it was home to at least ten thousand people, but probably somewhere closer to twice that many.

From an ethnic perspective, it was a bit of a melting pot, and Elijah saw people of all different skin tones. However, there were no non-humans in evidence, which suggested that everyone there was a native of Earth.

In the distance, Elijah saw some cultivated fields and farmsteads, but they were too far away for him to see any details, even with Eyes of the Eagle. And there were people constantly coming and going through the large main gate, many of whom carried game or gathered resources. For the most part, it looked like a thriving town.

Except for all the bodies.

Just outside of town, there were workers digging a huge hole in the ground. Elijah might’ve discounted it as a well or something of the sort, but next to it was a huge pile of white-wrapped corpses. Maybe a hundred of them, all in various states of decomposition.

Clearly, there was something wrong with Norcastle.

The question was whether or not Elijah wanted to get involved. He needed to get into the city; that much was certain. They had a Branch, and hopefully, it would lead him to more settlements. He certainly didn’t think he’d find Seattle so quickly, but if he kept going, he’d eventually stumble across some information that might lead him in the right direction. It would probably take years, but he had to believe it was possible.

However, as a healer, didn’t he have some sort of responsibility to help people who needed it? He’d done it in the tower, and without question, so why did he hesitate when it was in the real world?

The answer, he realized, was simple. In the tower, he’d known the rules. Or at least he’d thought he did. But in the real world, there were no rules. The people down in Norcastle might meet his attempts at helping them with hostility.

In the end, though, Elijah didn’t want to live in fear. Even if those fears were valid, he couldn’t let them dictate his actions. If, for whatever reason, the people of Norcastle chose to turn on him, he would react accordingly. But until then, he would do what he could to help.

With that decided, he let his scaled panther form fall away, then strode toward the town.