Willow moved quickly through the devastated city, her eyes scanning movement or any hint of survivors. Aside from the man half-buried under the rubble earlier, she’d found four others trapped under fallen structures and one unconscious woman who had fallen from the fourth floor of a structure.
Each one had been quickly checked for injuries and sent west to follow the other survivors.
Head west, she’d told them. You can link up with the others and avoid the horde.
But now it felt like a mistake.
The Frostbitten were coming in like waves, crashing against the remnants of the city. At first, there were thirty, then forty, and they were quickly being overrun. She wasn’t sure how many players were left in the city, but there weren’t enough to defend against the horde. At least, not scattered the way they were.
“Help m-me!”
She spun around, looking for the source of the scream. The streets were wide, but the rubble and smoke made it hard to see.
“Seunghyo! Do you see him?” she shouted.
The older man shook his head and didn’t break stride. “Willow, we need to keep moving-”
He was interrupted by the man’s cry, but this time it was unmistakably closer.
“H-help puh-please!”
Willow moved quickly, sprinting past a small warehouse and rounding the corner to where the cry for help was coming from.
Immediately, she regretted her decision.
Seven Frostbitten stood over a man who was cradling his shoulder. Instead of attacking the defenseless man, they looked like they were watching over him. It wasn’t until Willow had a second to catch her breath that she realized what happened.
He’d been bitten.
The man’s face was already turning blue and the quiver she had heard in his voice wasn’t fear, it was cold. As she watched, the man shivered visibly.
It slowly dawned on her how much danger she was in. She was far too close to be able to take on seven, potentially eight, monsters at close range. They would overwhelm her in seconds, or worse.
Willow took a step backwards. And then another, all while keeping her eyes trained on the scene in front of her. Which is why she didn’t see the rubble directly behind her. She knocked over a small tin can which clattered noisily to the side.
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The Frostbitten didn’t react, but the man did. His head swiveled and from a distance, she could still see the fear in his eyes. The man opened his mouth, no doubt intending to cry for help, but what came out a guttural screeching wail.
Willow didn’t think. She just turned and ran.
***
“Damn it, where did you get off to?” Seunghyo cursed Willow. And then himself for not keeping up with her.
The small city only had roughly twenty structures, but with half of them collapsed and the others completely demolished, the streets and pathways were now a maze.
He felt for his quiver and counted thirteen bolts. He’d been collecting as many as he could including ones he’d used, but with fifty-something Frostbitten running through the streets, he’d need something else.
“Willow,” he hissed.
Too loud and he’d attract the frozen monsters which would tear him apart at close range. Instead, he scanned the area around him looking for any signs of movement or something out of place.
For a moment, he stopped to take in the reality of the wreckage around him. From what he could tell, someone had attempted to retract the shield doors for the silo below. And whether it was due to faulty machinery or the ravages of time, the blast doors didn’t fully retract. It was enough to knock down the majority of the structure in the city, but at least there were survivors.
Henry, he thought.
The only person who would have anything to gain from this chaos was the man who had brought Seunghyo in on this mission. His final mission, the Frenchman had promised him.
“Once this is done, your debt to the Cha Bell Corporation is cleared,” he man had said.
Henry, are you out there?
There wasn’t a response, but he didn’t expect one either. Whatever play Henry was making, he was certainly not a part of it.
His eyes moved across the wreckage until they spotted something glinting in the light. He made his way over quickly and removed a short sword from the remains of what looked to be a poorly kept armory.
image [https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/4/patreon-media/p/post/118890255/89bdd8492a7d41f09a6fc5d70365ffb7/eyJ3Ijo4MjB9/1.jpg?token-time=1737417600&token-hash=mL9ZKQRDf1_sUPJNwYQAgU-8KW7Cadi56czfXUNiSWs%3D]
“Waste not, want not,” he muttered to himself.
The short sword was in better shape than he had expected. There was no scabbard, but it was light enough that he could carry it with his bow. In this maze of wreckage, chances were that he’d need something other than his bow for close quarters.
Seunghyo closed his eyes and focused on his hearing. At first he didn’t hear anything besides the slight crackle of fires, but he was hoping for something unnatural. It could be the inconsistent rhythm of debris shifting or-
“Seunghyo!” The voice was unmistakably Willow’s.
He moved quickly, hoping that his approximation of the young player’s location was correct.
“Seunghyo!”
The second cry was louder, closer, and significantly more panicked.
“Willow!” he cried out in return.
Seunghyo readied an arrow on his bow and sprinted as fast as he could.
“Seunghyo!”
There was no doubt about it, Willow was behind the warehouse to his left. It was still in decent shape so if he could just get around it, he should end up right next to her. He could see the corner of the structure. There was no doubt that Willow was being pursued by monsters and the second he rounded the corner, he’d be faced with a close quarters fight against multiple monsters.
He steeled himself and whirled around the corner with his bow at the ready, took aim and let his arrow fly.