The shaking felt like it lasted for an eternity, but really it was ten minutes. The blast doors were built over five decades ago and while the northern barony took some steps to maintain the silo underneath, the doors were left undisturbed for over half a century.

Rusted machinery and failing systems prevented the doors from sliding open completely, but it was enough collapse most of buildings in Pyong-gang and the leave the small city in ruins. From their vantage point, it was impossible to see any details, but one thing made Seunghyo’s blood run cold.

“On, no,” he whispered.

He sprinted full-tilt towards the city with Willow struggling to keep up behind him.

Trees whizzed by as the two of them stumbled and skidded down the frozen mountainside. Willow gave a quiet thanks for the thick winter coat, otherwise she would’ve been cut to ribbons by the icy branches and sharp stones.

When they finally reached the city, it was chaos. Most of the structures had toppled over including a machinist’s workshop which had caught fire.

But most alarming was the thirty Frostbitten running through the city.

Seunghyo drew an arrow and notched his bow, “Move!”

Willow instinctively moved towards the nearest rubble of buildings and looked for any signs of life. When she didn’t find any, she moved on to the next building while Seunghyo moved from cover to cover keeping an eye out for hostiles.

The wreckage everywhere made it difficult to spot any survivors. But it also made it difficult to see the Frostbitten. Willow could hear them though, the scratching and chaotic scuffing of feet against the frozen ground.

Then she spotted the man. His legs were hidden under a chunk of concrete but his torso and arms were uncovered. She ran to his side and scanned their surroundings. No signs of the Frostbitten.

“Hey, can you hear me?”

The man didn’t respond. Willow held her fingers against his neck and felt a pulse. Strong. There weren’t any serious injuries aside from scrapes on his face and hands. His legs were pinned under the concrete, but it looked like the rubble around him had taken the brunt of the impact. Quickly, Willow got to work moving as much of the rubble away from him as possible.

While she worked, the man stirred and his eyes blinked to life.

“Sir, can you hear me?”

The man grunted in response. She could see he was flexing his hands and slowly coming back to consciousness. Instinctively, the man reached to his side for a weapon that was no longer there.

Willow searched the ground and found a bow, two feet away but it had been snapped in half. The man spotted it too and tried to reach for it.

She shook her head. “You’re okay, but I need to get you out of here.”

The man tried to speak and mumbled something about the ground shifting, but Willow shushed him.

“We need to move this concrete slab off your legs, okay? But I’m not strong enough to push it on my own, so I’m going to need your help.”

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Willow held her breath until the man nodded.

“Okay, good. Ready? One, two, three…!”

On her count, the man pressed his hands against the concrete and shoved as hard as he could. Willow likewise braced her feet and pushed hard her shoulder. The weight shifted, but only slightly and not enough to free the trapped man.

Willow tried to focus on pushing, but another part of her mind was focused on listening for signs of the Frostbitten. Here and there, she could hear more feet and the sounds of a commotion around her.

Finally, after an eternity of pushing inches, the entirety of the slab shifted off the man’s legs and fell over. When it landed, it sounded like a thunderclap.

“Shit…!”

Willow stood up and readied herself. She could hear the scrambling sounds of hands and feet closeby. The first Frostbitten cleared the rubble just ahead of her and slid down towards her.

“[Arcane shot]!”

The beam arced out and struck the pale, armored woman in the face. The impact knocked her off her feet and she landed on her neck with a sickening crunch.

Behind her, the man struggled to his feet until, with a groan, he stood up on his feet.

Willow turned to check on him and that was her mistake. When turned forward again, there were two more Frostbitten racing towards her with a white glean in their eyes.

“[Arcane-]!”

Before she could finish casting her spell, two arrows pierced her attacker’s skulls leaving wide holes in each. The bodies slid down the rubble and landed a few feet from her.

Just behind her, Seunghyo pulled two more arrows from his quiver and notched them on his bow.

“Don’t just stand there!”

Willow quickly took the man’s shoulder and they hobbled towards the pathfinder as quickly as they could. Other players were starting to awaken from the initial shock of the destruction and make their way out of the structures where the Frostbitten were waiting for them.

They could only watch in horror as survivors stumbled out half collapsed structures only to immediately be set upon by undead monsters.

“Come on!” Seunghyo shouted. He took aim and cut down two more Frostbitten from a distance.

Every structure that she could see was severely damaged. Either so much that there was no safe way to enter or so much that it could completely collapse at any moment.

“Where the hell are we going?” Willow shouted back.

“W-west…” the man mumbled. “We need to head west.”

“Not south?” Willow questioned.

The man shook his head. “N-no… the horde is south. Th-that’d be s-suicide.”

Horde. South. Good to know.

Behind them Seunghyo followed at pace, firing volleys at anything pale that moved.

“Keep moving,” he shouted back at them. “I’ll cover you!”

Ahead, two more players stumbled out of a half collapsed building. They both stopped to catch their breath when Willow saw it. “Behind you!”

A Frostbitten turned the corner and saw the two players. It raised its head and let out a screeching cry before sprinting at the two players.

“[Frost]!”

The monster’s leg was immediately encased in ice. The thing stumbled and fell, sliding along the floor before clawing at its leg. Willow knew from experience that the spell didn’t cause any damage, but it would buy time.

One of the players drew a heavy hammer and closed the distance to the Frostbitten before rearing back bringing down the mighty weapon on the monster’s head.

“Thanks for the assist!”

Willow turned back and though she couldn’t see him, she could hear tiny pops and explosions as Seunghyo fought off another group of monsters.

She motioned at one of the players to help her with the injured man.

“Take him and head west. If you run into anyone along the way, make sure you get them out of there,” she ordered.

The injured man nodded his thanks. He unhooked a long case from his thigh and tossed it to Willow.

“For your friend,” he choked out.