The air was thick with smoke as Mare and Mary walked down the driveway from the garage. The city in the distance was barely visible through the smog and their final destination, the mountains, weren’t visible at all. The world had become eerily quiet. There were no longer any sounds of explosions, screams, screeches or gunshots that had pervaded the night. All that was heard was their light breathing and the sound of their feet hitting the pavement.
The small cul de sac that Mary’s house was located seemed untouched except for her house. It was as if it was just a normal day there. It wasn’t a surprise that none of the houses had been broken into though. Prior to this incident all of the houses beside hers were vacant. Some company had been buying up the houses to make some sort of mall and she had been the only one to not sell yet.
“Huh… All that time fighting to keep our house from those scumbags and now I’m abandoning it…” Mary quietly scoffed at herself.
“I’m sorry Mary. I know that it really doesn’t help but at least they won’t be getting it either.” Mare spoke quietly with a slight frown as she kept looking around expecting something to jump out at them. Mary giggled slightly and her frown turned to a small smile with that thought. The fact that they couldn’t get their grubby little hands on it now did in fact cheer her up a little.
“You’re right… Either way it’s in the past. What matters now is getting to Jake. On our way towards the city I want to make a couple stops to check on some friends to see if they’re still alive. If so I want to help them and see if they want to get out of the city with us.” The small smirk on Mary’s face dissipated after she spoke about the fact that her friends may be dead.
“Ok… I want to get to Jake as soon as possible but that doesn’t mean I’ll abandon our friends or family. So if you feel they’re worth the risk then we can. Also, we won’t be able to survive alone. How many?” Mare agreed after a minute of thought. She originally didn’t want to take any detours and wanted to rush to Jake’s side, but she changed her mind after some thought.
First, she saw the change on Mary’s face. Mary had already lost her husband and even though her friends were unlikely to be alive it might crush her if they didn’t check or attempt to help if they could. Second, she knew that Jake was alive because she still had the quest and she knew Jake would survive. Lastly, she felt it wouldn’t be smart to attempt to live in the city, to many places for creatures to hide and she was unsure of how well the tall buildings would survive without maintenance or with the constant earthquakes that kept happening throughout the night.
The last one may not seem to have to do with her decision to check on the people but it was actually one of the biggest reasons she chose to try and help them. To survive and build somewhere, to live and be safe, they would need many more people than just them. So if they could save some people and convince them to come help it would make their chances of living much higher.
“There are three places I want to check and they aren’t very far from here,” Mary replied after hearing Mare agree.
After they made their way out of the cul de sac is when the scenery really changed. The houses here weren’t vacant before all this. None of the houses seemed to be intact at this point. Some were completely gone, either burned down to nothing but the foundation or crushed as if hit by a bulldozer. Others had holes in their walls or doors from something breaking in, or out. Vehicles were spattered here and there along the road and in the driveways. Most seemed in decent condition with one or two in the distance that looked crushed or burnt.
They had decided that they wouldn’t search for survivors through each house as they would never be able to leave and it would be very dangerous. Though if they noticed the chance of a survivor they would try to help if they could. While keeping low and as quiet as they could they made their way through the neighborhoods. Occasionally they heard the growls or screeches of things in the houses they passed. The sound of smoldering from the now burnt down husks of once beautiful houses created a somber mood as well.
One house they passed had given the heebie-jeebies and caused them to pick up their pace until it was out of sight. The house had been completely covered in spiderwebs, and not the halloween kind either. Mare could have sworn she saw a spider skitter around the corner of the house. She normally doesn’t have any issues with spiders. She even found them interesting, but not when they were the size of a large dog, that was not ok. She could now understand a little bit better why Jake wasn’t a big fan of them.
It had taken them several hours to reach the first house that they wanted to check. It was normally only an hour’s walk to get there but they didn’t want to attract any attention to themselves. They had also had to stop a couple of times to hide as different creatures walked by. Luckily the house looked to be in mostly one piece, so there was hope.
They quietly made their way to the front door and what they saw made their hearts drop slightly. The door stood slightly ajar and there were claw marks on the floor inside the doorway. Mare really wanted to leave Mary out front because she didn’t want her to see what she expected to see, but she knew it wasn’t safe for either of them to split up.
With a small breath to calm her nerves, she slowly opened the door and stepped into the silent house. What welcomed them was a trashed living room covered in blood, a lot of blood. Mary gasped and covered her mouth as tears dripped down her face.
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“It may not be theirs. Let’s look around and make sure,” whispered Mare as she made her way through the living room. The blood was still tacky as they stepped through it. They made their way through the destroyed kitchen and then came to the stairs. There was a set that went upstairs and a pair that went down.
Choosing to check the upstairs first they made their way up. The first room was an office but it seemed to be in one piece. There had been nothing living inside either. After checking it Mare closed the door and they made their way to the second room. As they stepped into the next room which appeared to be a bedroom they heard a noise coming from the closet.
Mare readied her staff while Mary got ready to open the closet door. With a node from Mare, Mary yanked the door open ready for a fight. A loud squeal later and both Mare and Mary sighed with relief, there was a survivor. The squeal came from a young girl curled up in the corner with her hands over her head.
“Sh sh sh… It’s ok sweety we won’t hurt you.” Mare kneeled down and tried to console the little girl who was shivering in fear. The girl lifted her head from her arms once she heard the voice and realized that it wasn’t the creature. She instantly launched herself into Mare’s arms and sobbed.
“It’s ok, it’s ok. You’re not alone anymore.” Mare spoke softly as she petted the young girl's head. Meanwhile, in the basement, a head with glowing red eyes perked up.
The girl stopped crying surprisingly quickly and pulled away from Mare, after not more than a couple of minutes had passed.
“Di… Did… Did you kill it?” The young girl got the words out between sniffles as she tried to rub the tears out of her eyes. Both Mare’s and Mary’s eyes widened once the girl spoke. The fact that they had found a survivor had caused them to forget about the blood downstairs and the fact that they hadn’t finished clearing the house. With the squeal from the girl, if there was still something in the house it had definitely heard them.
Though this all flashed through their head in seconds, it was still too late. A low growl drew their attention to the door. There stood a creature that looked like it may have been human before. It was small and hunched over making it not even reach Mare’s hip in height. One arm was twice as long as the other. Its fingers tipped with sharp claws. Most of the skin sagged over its flesh while some was stretched so tightly it was split showing the bare muscles underneath. Parts of the body were unnaturally muscular while other parts were nothing but skin and bones.
It was completely bald and had glowing red eyes over what should have been its nose but was only a hole. Its mouth was filled with serrated teeth that couldn’t be hidden as the thing had no lips. The thing looked like a failed radioactive experiment. Its pointed ears twitched as it pounced at the little girl.
Mare instinctively covered the girl's body with her own body to protect her and closed her eyes tightly. After a second and not feeling any of the pain that she expected to happen she opened her eyes to the loud growling and screeching from the creature. There, a foot away from her stood the creature thrashing trying to escape thin vines that were wrapped around its body.
Mary stood to the side with her arm pushed out towards the creature, sweat pouring down her face as she looked to be struggling. Mare let go of the girl and grabbed her dropped staff before swinging with all her might at the base of the creature's skull. Just as her staff was about to connect, the creature broke free causing her to hit the shoulder instead.
A loud snap and whimper came from the creature. It backed up and stared at Mare with hateful eyes, the longer of its arms hanging limp at its side. Mare was mad that she hadn’t been able to kill it with the first hit but she still got the outcome she wanted. The creature was solely focused on her and not the little girl. She could hear the girl crying in the corner and Mary's panting next to her. Mare wasn’t sure what it was that Mary had done but she didn’t think that she would be able to pull it off again from the sound of it.
Mare darted at the creature as she wanted to bring the fight away from the others. The staff swung past the creature as it jumped backward. The creature had been so focused on the person that had hurt it that it hadn’t seen the chair that came flying at it from behind Mare. It hadn’t caused any damage but did cause it to stumble.
Even though the chair had startled Mare she wouldn’t let the chance pass by and swung again catching the creature in the head this time. The crack and ding of a notification let her know that it was dead.
You have received 150 XP (100 + 50) for slaying a level one Sorrowsworn.
Nasty things aren’t they?
She walked over and closed the door to the room, that way, if there is anything else in the house they will know it before it gets into the room. Once she turned around she saw Mary sitting against the wall catching her breath and the little girl standing looking at the creature as fresh tears streaked her cheeks. She was no longer crying and didn’t seem as scared anymore. She wanted to know what it was that Mary did as it had saved their lives.
“Thanks, Mary, for whatever those vines were and for that chair throw. Both saved our lives.” Mare spoke as she walked over to check on the little girl again.
“The chair wasn’t me.” Mary nodded her head towards the little girl.
“As for the vines, I guess it's a spell called entangle. I didn’t have it before but when I saw you in danger it just kind of happened and I got a notification saying I had received a new spell. Tiring as hell though.” Mary sighed as she sat there while having the vacant look of someone looking at their screen. Mare wore a surprised face when she learned that the girl had helped her by throwing the chair. She thought that the girl would have been too scared to do anything, but instead she had helped kill the creature.
“It’s good to know that magic is a thing, and tonight when we find a place to rest we need to go over your stuff.” Mare looked over to the little girl.
“Thank you… Without your help I don’t know if I would have been able to kill that thing without any injuries. Are you ok? May I know your name?”
The sincerity in Mare’s eyes was clearly seen by the girl which made her happy as she hadn’t met many people who were so sincere. The girl then ran over and hugged her again before pulling away and answering.
“My name is Abigail. And that thing was my foster brother. I’m ok now. Thank you for saving me.” She smiled brightly just before her stomach growled.