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I was sure everyone would feel much more secure knowing that there was at least some sort of barricade preventing a sudden incursion into our camp.
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When we woke up in the morning, our first task was to get everything that Jackson needed to get a makeshift forge up and running. He had wanted fire bricks, but, we honestly had no idea how to differentiate those from any other brick. Jackson did say that the best place we'd likely find some would be in a fireplace. Which seemed easy enough, any of the surrounding houses would likely have one, we'd just need to get the bricks out of it. We had some rebar though, and we figured that with our increased strength we could probably pry a decent amount for our own use.
The second thing on his list was a solid plate of steel. He didn't have much hope in finding anything immensely useful on that front, however, he mentioned that really anything that could withstand a pounding would be useful. From the end of a sledgehammer to discarded rails from a railroad, most anything could be useful. We already had a hammer, so that was fine. The next biggest thing was really a fuel source and pieces of metal to forge with. We decided on finding rebar and using that and scrounging around the area as well as the local woods to find some charcoal to use. The park was frequently used for camping, and we may have some success in finding a fuel source there.
Otherwise, with our list in hand, Kevin and I made our way out into one of the neighboring houses in our attempt to locate the fire brick.
Luckily, the fireplace was easy to find, and after a short amount of work, it was fairly easy to pry the fire brick from the home. We were once again surprised by how easy some of the more physical tasks came with our increased strength. Of course, the harder part came in attempting to find a steel plate.
We did realize after searching the house that the stainless steel fridge may at the very least provide some type of substitute to a place. So, we dismantled the fridge by prying off the door and delivered that to the back of Alex's yard. We were hoping that Jackson could make some use of it. At that point, our efforts had only taken an hour, and we pretty quickly found a sledgehammer after searching through two additional homes. One of the sheds was filled to the brim with various tools, and lo and behold, there was a sledgehammer in there as well.
The last real thing we were going to need would be a fuel source. While we did find some charcoal from some of the barbecues in the surrounding houses, we didn't find nearly as much as it turned out Jackson would require. So, we then made our trek into the woods. Up until that point we had yet to encounter any more undead, likely because we had cleared the areas just the other day and other members of the community have been on top of taking out any undead that gets too close from the roads.
Just past the entrance to the driveway of Alex's house was an offroad trail into the campgrounds of Prospect Park. The only issue was that Prospect Park formed a partial barrier between us and the Cemetery, and as a result, we knew it would likely be crawling with undead. Kevin and I were confident in our abilities, and so without further refrain, we entered the forest.
Literally, almost a minute into entering the forest we caught our first signs of the Undead, as well as the other bizarre mutations that seemed to be taking place here. When we had driven to Shrewsbury from the Refugee Camp of Riverside Station a few days ago we had seen the mutated spider. Now however there were some obvious signs of mutations also taking place in our very own backyard. It was only obvious because of the evidence forayed in front of us, a half-eaten, deer of some kind. It had two distinct heads as well as a pretty gnarly set of spiky antlers, which looked like they could cleave a man in two if they weren't careful.
We only took a few seconds staring at it before Kevin mentioned something. "Say, Thomas..." He said as he knelt down next to the mutated deer with part of its guts spilling out. I was almost afraid to meet what had managed to kill the deer. "What do you make of this?" He finished as he rolled the deer over so I could get a better look.
It was at that moment I saw what he was referring to, there, in the side of its neck was an arrow shaft poking out. It was surprising because we knew that nobody in our camp owned a bow beside the one I had lent to Kevin. Beyond that, none of our community had even ventured into the forest before us. As such we could only deduce that somebody else must be in the forest, and they were an incredible shot at that, managing to impale a mutated beast. I imagined it was no easy task. It looked like something else had gotten to the beast before whoever shot it had though, as shown by the guts littering the ground from its exposed stomach.
The second thing I ended up noticing though came as I became interested in the deer's antlers. I gently brushed my finger along its edge and pulled my hand back immediately as they cut sharply into my finger's skin. While I certainly expected them to be sharp, I didn't believe they would be sharp enough to cut through the skin of somebody with a [Constitution] stat of twenty-eight. My skin had to be at least several times denser than any average person, yet it still managed to cut through it like paper.
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My immediate afterthought? Take the antlers for ourselves.
"Kevin, we're taking the antlers," I said matter-of-factly. There was no way we were going to leave something like this behind. With Jackson's help, I was certain we could make some type of weapon with these.
The task was easier said than done, however. My blade served no use in cutting through the antlers, and so, I had to instead cut into the deer itself in order to remove the antlers. At that point, the base of them was still connected to some of the deery flesh, but I was satisfied with my find regardless.
I placed the antlers in my bag, while carefully wrapping it around some hide I had also skinned off of the beast. Hopefully, it doesn't manage to tear through my backpack though. I thought. I could only imagine how inconvenient that would end up being.
We continued to make our way through the forest until we stumbled upon the first campsite. It was completely ransacked, and the reason why was apparent when we found three undead standing, silently in the middle, waiting for any further stimulation to indicate further prey. One of them was decomposing still, but the other two were obviously fresh.
Kevin, with his bow in hand, released an arrow at the nearest of the fresher undead. The arrow impaled itself in its throat as it fell to the ground. Just then, as the other two zombies turned, I sprinted forward and cleaved the next fresh undead through the neck, while turning around and sliding my sword in the eye socket of the third, and decomposing corpse. We made quick work of them, as Kevin walked over to the corpse of the undead he had impaled with his arrow.
It was still squirming on the ground, unable to screech because of the blockage to its airways. I suppose even the dead have to have air to scream. I thought, just as Kevin impaled another arrow through the eye of the undead, ending its life. We then collected the mana stones, and after rummaging through the camp, found none of the charcoal we had been searching for. We did, however, find a hatchet inside one of the tents. Unfortunately, it appears that they had been caught unawares by the original undead and succumbed before they could put up much of a fight.
With the campsite proving to be a dud, we journeyed back on the main trail. Only a few minutes passed before the both of us began to have an ominous feeling. The atmosphere itself had begun to take on its own pressure, and it only increased as we kept following the remainder of the trail.
I stopped.
The ash that was a constant reminder of the destruction of the world outside The Zone had lessened, a bit as compared to the outside of the forest, likely because of the canopy of trees above us. That didn't stop the cold temperatures though.
"You feel that, don't you Kevin?" I asked.
He nodded. "Obviously there's something ahead. We can turn back now though if you think that's best? You're the leader after all," he smirked.
I sighed. "Regardless, I wouldn't want to make a decision without your input. I'd bet that whatever is causing the pressure wouldn't take too nicely to two random people stepping in its territory... My only concern is how close whatever is causing this is to the community."
"So, investigate? If it's too much, we can just head back." Kevin stated.
I agreed, "Sounds good to me."
With that, we continued on our way down the trail, with the pressure constantly increasing, until it flatlined as we approached a small clearing. It was an interesting sight, all things told.
The clearing held host to a ruin. It must have been a building at some point, and it came as no surprise considering the fact that New England was host to a lot of history. The only thing was that I had never been aware of the presence of a ruin in the park so close to Alex's house. I'd have to ask him about it as soon as we got back.
That wasn't really the issue though. The clearing held host to stone small stone walls that were laid out in several square patterns, forming what must have once been a building's foundation. In the center of the stone, patterns were what looked like had once been a small garden, possibly simply a communal project of the town. It was almost completely covered in ash though, as the crops planted appeared to be welting.
Beyond the garden though, at the very edge of the clearing was the crowning piece of the clearing. A still standing, stone structure. There were alternating wooden beams forming the framework for what must have once been a roof. The building's interspersed stone pillars were covered in graffiti of all sorts. Then subsequently labeled on the front archway adjourning the front of the edifice leading inside the structure was a simple inscription, 'Garden of Sweet Remembrance' it said.
The phrasing sounded nice and innocent until one considered our present predicament, that is, being assailed by the constant pressure emanating from somewhere in the clearing. It was obvious that there was more than what simply met our eyes.
Kevin and I looked towards each other before we entered the clearing. Just as we move into the center, a rush of wind poured from the edifice of the 'Garden of Remembrance' in front of us.
The wind instantly blew all of the ash that had settled on the ground into a flurry, and our sight was momentarily blinded, for a few moments. During our predicament, my increased senses picked up movement; and unfortunately, it was clearly heavy.
I had the feeling that we had just stumbled into a fight that both of us would have rather avoided. We didn't know what would happen if we ran away, and back towards Alex's house though. If it followed us into the Community, then things could turn out a lot worse.
So, as the ash settled, and we gazed forward, we made the unconscious, silent, and resolute decision to face whatever beast had decided to see us as their prey.
We were High-Humans after all, and we were going to live up to the pride of our newfound race. We will not back down without a fight.