____ POV/Day Zero Cont.

It’s been two hours, and the sun is high in the sky, not that it matters with how gray and cold the Seattle area generally seems to be. The streets were still in chaos, but as far as I could tell, the brunt of the insanity had moved toward the coastline. My folks were holed up in a relatively secure building with the client, and as of the last update, they have yet to decide on how to get out of town.

From what they told me, there's a lot of back and forth on how to get out of town and whether or not they can spare the time and resources to go and rescue the friends and family of the client and our local operatives. All I knew was that I was glad to be alone if only to avoid such conflicts.

First things first, I needed to gather all my belongings; from there, I unpacked everything and laid them out on the bed, so I could get a fresh idea of what I had with me. For now, I need to gather more supplies and scout around the hotel to plan my initial steps out of this area. I've since changed out of my casual clothes, and I'm now wearing a pair of running shoes, a black pair of cargo khakis, and a gray long-sleeve turtleneck.

Considering how if things go to shit even more than it already has, I may need to fight these things up close and personal. Thinking back on how that last creep attacked me, I decided to improvise some light armor. Looking around the hotel room, I grabbed the yellow phone book and the hotel towels, I tied the towels around my shoulder and upper arms to get some padding between my shoulders and arms. With the phone book, I tore it in half down along the spine before wrapping them over my forearms for extra protection.

I did have a relatively well-made and durable brown leather bomber jacket, but I felt that it would reduce my overall range of movement in this situation, so I opted not to wear it. I also had a few different sets of gloves and opted for fingerless bike gloves for a good grip and to allow my hands to be free enough for any necessary fine movements while offering the bulk of my hand protection from teeth or bites.

Reviewing the rest of my equipment, I took up my sidearm, a Glock G19, reliable and trusty with a custom grip, glow sights, and a magazine that carries fifteen rounds. I also go ahead and pocket an extra two magazines in my cargo pants thigh pocket before loading a magazine in the sidearm and chambering a round.

Next, I collected my blade with the iron-knuckle hilt from my duffle bag where I had stupidly left it. Afterward, I just dumped out the duffel bag outright, emptying it. I collect a set of lock picks and my pocket first-aid kit from my ‘Go-Bag,’ stashing the picks in another pocket and strapping the First Aid kit to the left side of my hip.

With all that, I decided it was time to face the music and made my way to my room's door. Taking a deep breath, I unlock it before peering outside. The first thing I noticed was that the corpse in the hallway was now missing, a blood trail leading away and disappearing around the corner further into the hotel hallway. Swallowing hard, I step out and shut the door behind myself, the door clicking almost unbearably loud for my taste.

I made my way back over to the door to the stairs as I had before, peeking inside and listening intently. Satisfied that I couldn’t see or hear anyone or anything within, I slipped inside and shut the door behind me again. Peering over the edge of the railings, I spotted the crumpled form of the now-still body of what used to be a person. I spared a glance up almost absently; there were only two floors above me, so for now, I just needed to work my way down.

I couldn’t help but slow to a stop as I came up to the corpse I had thrown over the edge. It was a brutal mess, the poor bastard having landed headfirst. It appeared that it may have reflexively tried to catch itself, but based on how the bones in its forearms are jutting out and it’s mashed up brain case, it couldn’t help itself in the end.

Try as I might to glean any more prevalent information off the body, it was too heavily damaged from the fall, and I knew next to nothing about whatever science or medicine that may be applicable here to need to know how to deduce what happened to it between being normal and healthy and their current, entirely dead state. Having been down on one knee anyways, I offered the bastard a brief, silent prayer before standing tall and making my way over to the lobby again.

Vitmori POV

Frisby is looking more than a little apologetic about her little screwup, it seems. I'd rather not have her stew on it for too long, so I opted to give her some work to distract her. 'Frisby, as I said, it's fine. But you know what, if you want to make it up to me, I could use some help with my current project.' I explained gently as I looked down at her.

She looked rather anxious despite my efforts to convince her that it was okay, her little hands nervously wringing her rodent tail. However, when presented with the option to do something to make up for her mistake, her ears seem to perk and even wiggle a bit before nodding energetically. "Yes, Vitmori! I'll get it done." She expressed enthusiastically, though her eyes widened with surprise as she watched the remaining fruits and veggies disappear.

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'Alright, Frisby, head on down and find the pink lights. Make sure to space out the seeds and bury them several inches below the surface. Aside from that, all you need to ensure is that half the seeds get planted in one room while the other half get planted in the other.' I explained as simply as I could while I watched her nod intently before she hurried off. I take a moment to drop off the seeds and crop scraps between the two greenhouse rooms before turning my attention elsewhere.

Trisha POV

"Just what do they expect me to do with this stuff? I'm a Blacksmith, not a miracle worker." She huffed with frustration, having just cracked another stone ax she had spent the last hour working on. The stones she managed to collect just weren't good enough to make any practical tools for cutting down trees or any of the other things they asked her to build. The only things of note she's managed to make are a stone chisel and a weighty oval stone she tied to a stick to make a hammer. She didn't want to let her group down, but she knew her limits.

The fact is that they couldn't commit the resources to make her a furnace or a workshop of any kind, but they needed tools for the more critical projects which they asked her to make. The stress of this assignment was starting to get to her, and she knew herself well enough that it would only make her perform worse if she kept trying to force herself.

She set her tools aside, leaving them at the base of the tree she's been working under, and getting to her feet. After taking a moment to dust herself off, she takes a walk to cool her head.

She had been walking for a good fifteen minutes or so, perfectly alone as she sighed to herself, just enjoying nature before settling down on a large rock as she huffed to herself and looked up at the clouds through the dense treeline.

After a while, she closes her eyes, taking a slow, deep breath before exhaling as she looks at her hands. In the next moment, she conjures a ball of fire, deciding to take her mind off the stresses of the day with a bit of magic practice. It wasn't anything special since she didn't get to learn all too much attending her lessons before her father suddenly passed, and she couldn't afford to keep going.

The ball of fire was only barely bigger than her palm, but she focused on the flame and used what she knew of a forge flame to make it grow and shrink, slowly passing the flame around from her right hand to her left hand before moving it back around again some more.

It's only after some time passes that she feels her hair prickling along the back of her neck. Looking around curiously, she soon spots the red cub watching her from the edge of the clearing. The young cat must have thought he was hidden or something, but only half of him was hidden, and his vibrant red fur was somewhat distinct from the still green grass. She couldn't help but smile as she spotted the red cub and waved at him. "Hey, there, little red, out for a walk?" She asked, the stress from today mainly having gone away as she beckoned the red cub over to her.

The red cub looked a little nervous, but after about two seconds of hesitation, he scampered out from the cover and over to her. In moments he was beside her on the rock as his tail swished slowly while he watched her ball of fire.

"Oh? Enjoying the show?" She asked with a grin as she brought over the ball of fire, slowly swirling it around on her palm as the cub watched. His whole head moved from side to side as he followed the flames.

Though, to her surprise, the red cub looked away and blew a little spurt of flames before looking back to her excitedly, his front paws excitedly tapping the stone as he watched her some more.

Her brows raised with curiosity, and she couldn't help but smile some more as she looked at her little ball of fire curiously. "What, you want me to copy you? Sure, why not." She enthused before bringing the flame to her face, studying it for a moment before taking a slow, deep breath and blowing out hard. The fire suddenly spewed out in a similar fashion to the cub, much to her satisfaction, as she couldn't help but chuckle softly. "Well, what do ya know… Thanks, cutie; looks like you taught me something." She enthused warmly as she dispelled the ball of fire and reached out, gently running her fingers through his fur and doting on the cub.

Suddenly she heard a branch snap and looked around curiously again, her hand still resting on little red's head when she spotted a chivosteid. One of the beasts of burden that pulled the carriages she had come in on with the others. The last she saw them, the others had released the beasts into the wild. But now it looked truly feral already, its curled horns now thicker and jagged, the once maintained decently short brown coat now looking rough and rugged as its hooves dug harshly into the grass and dirt. "Whoa… Hey there…" She said softly, carefully picking up the cub, who looked surprised by the movement but remained somewhat still. The young woman efficiently handled his weight thanks to her developed musculature.

The chivosteid, in turn, seemed to have a wild look in its eyes. The square pupils glimmered as it started walking in a wide half-circle, snorting and huffing with aggression, while Trisha did her best to prevent it from having a clear shot at her and the cub.

It wasn't enough, though, the chivosteid bleating aggressively as it started charging her in a deceptively fast charge. Trisha barely had a moment to dodge, tripping and tumbling into the grass as the red cub yelped with distress from being dropped during the fall.

She scrambled on the grass, starting to hyperventilate as she only barely rolled out of the way of another charge. The chivosteid's powerful hooves are kicking up dirt and grass. "Little red! Run!" She cried out to the cub, pushing herself to her feet desperately and ducking behind a tree as the beast slammed into another tree, ripping a chunk from the trunk from the sheer force of the impact as it reared up on its hooves to go for another pass. But it was too late; it was already looking right at her as it brayed out with fury.

She freezes; this is it, she is going to get killed out here, and nobody would know where she went. She shut her eyes as it charged at her, but then she felt a flash of heat and opened her eyes to see little red blasting a breath of fire at the chivosteid. The feral beast rears again to avoid the flame before ripping the dirt apart with its hooves as it turns its attention to the cub now. "No! Leave him alone!" She cried out in response, conjuring her own ball of fire and performing her breath of fire.

The chivosteid couldn't avoid getting singed this time as it brayed out and backed off. Snorting and ripping up the grass as it huffed, eyeing the cub and Trisha as it seemed to get ready to attack again. She stepped out of cover and stood by the cub; she wasn't about to let him get hurt, especially after it came to her defense. Her own hands trembling anxiously as the chivosteid began charging once more.

In the next moment, several powerful gusts of wind blasted down from above, and three birds swooped in, clawing and pecking at the chivosteid as it brayed with rage before rushing off and fleeing while the birds gave chase.

'I'm still alive? It… It's gone?' She didn't even realize her legs gave out as she trembled; the danger had overwhelmed her as she panted softly. Though she was pulled back to the now as she heard the mewls of little red, the cub looked at her worriedly and pawed her face. She couldn't help but smile at him as she reached out to pet his head. "Thanks, little red… We make a pretty good team, eh?"