The New World

Althea frowned before sending a message.

Althea Tolstoy | Level 164 | Unknown - So, like, I’m not a genius or anything, but I’m pretty sure they’ll hear you digging.

Daniel Hillside, The Harbinger of Cataclysm | Level 105 | Unknown - They probably won’t if we get a little distance and dig a little deep.

She shrugged before we crawled further back until we were out of earshot of the guards. With a few quick swipes, my shovel hands clawed through the dirt in large chunks. What would’ve been hours of work for a normal person passed by in seconds before I submerged underground. Althea crawled off, chopping at portions of the railroad tracks. Althea sliced the steel bars and threw in a pile of them at the burrow’s entrance.

I kept digging while she placed supports made from rebar to prevent the collapse of the tunnel. I gave her a nod of respect, “Damn. Nice idea.”

She blushed, “Heh. Thanks. You’re not too shabby yourself.”

Adding to the structure, Althea spit acid at the ends of each railroad tracks. The green ooze melted the dirt as we traveled, making our tunnel pretty stout. Without worrying about a sudden cave in, we made decent progress over the next hour. By then, we landed fifty feet or so from Michael and Kelsey’s holding chambers. Knowing next to nothing about the compound’s insides, I turned to Althea.

I lifted a hand, sparking augmentation and bathing us in orange light. Althea stared back with worry wrinkles on her face. I whispered, “You ok?”

She frowned, “Just...a bit claustrophobic. That’s all.”

I leaned back, putting my hand on my chest. I dished out some sarcasm, “Oh, being close to me is that bad, huh?”

She pursed her lips at me, “What? No, it’s the ground. I’m scared it’ll crush us or collapse.”

Remembering how she transformed into a burrowing eel at one point, she may have forgotten her own abilities. That being said, not all fears were necessarily rational, so instead of arguing, I gave her a knowing grin, “If it did fall, I’d get you out of here. Trust me on that.”

Althea peered away, “Heh...I do.”

I turned up, and from what I could guesstimate, Michael and Kelsey both languished in prison cells or something similar. Althea and I would have to take down a guard or two before busting them out and running back towards the unnamed, chemical creek. From there, escaping relied on Torix’s shades. Considering how reliable they were, everything seemed pretty foolproof.

With some confidence, I pointed up, “I’ll be a decoy. You focus on getting them out.”

Althea frowned, “I could be the decoy, if you want.”

I gestured at her arms, “I think I’ll be better. You’re stronger than me for one. Second, I can make a lot more of a ruckus than you can. Third, I can take a few bullets to the chest, and you can’t.”

“Hm...Ok. I was thinking I could escape after getting their attention, but your plan works too.”

I cupped my chin, “Huh. You’re probably right about that, but I’d rather bet on my plan.”

“So like, I wasn’t committed to my plan or anything anyways. We’ll go with yours.”

“Oh...My bad. Didn’t mean to press the issue.”

“You, uhm, you didn’t. I just wanted to clarify.”

After that awkwardness, we finalized the plan. Once we repeated the steps a few times, I dug upwards. I slowed down my pace until I reached concrete. By then, we dug underground for two hours, each of us sweaty and breathing hard. Planning anymore risked people finding the tunnel, and oxygen thinned out this deep down. Unable to stall anymore, I gave Althea a signal.

I tapped the concrete, the dense material reinforced with steel. For me, breaking through could’ve taken maybe a day or two, not to mention the soldier’s would think a literal earthquake was infiltrating their base. For Althea, the task took seconds. She reformed her left arm, turning it into a biotic rifle. Extra adjustments covered the sides, along with an eye along the edge of the barrel. I whispered,

"Can you see out of that eye?"

The eye closed as she mumbled, "Uh, yeah. It makes aiming easier."

I raised my brow, "Woah...That’s kind of cool.”

From her right palm, she grew a riveted rod of bone. She placed it into the ammo compartment before placing it against the wall, "I'm going to spit acid onto the wall before firing. That should give you enough space to get inside. We get your friends and then run. Y-you ready?"

I raised a brow, “It sounds like you’re the one getting cold feet.”

Althea took a second, raising her hands. She steadied her breathing, and I gave her a thumbs up, “That’s better. Let’s go.”

A swell formed in her stomach before she regurgitated acid onto the wall in steady increments. The acid steamed and hissed on the concrete before she fired. The sound of the shell blew back into our tiny tunnel, booming loud as a jet plane. My ears rang as the concrete gave way. A cloud of dust exploded into our tunnel from above, and Althea slipped through it. I followed.

I leaped up, mana filling into my legs. I crashed through the leftover splinters of concrete. As I came up and out into the air, I lost levity. My feet crashed into the oil stained floor, and I glanced around, powder obstructing my view. I waved my arms, the wind whirling the dust plume away from me. I found myself near the center of a garage, eyes already on us.

Several people worked on cars and machines, sets of tools beside them. Groups of armored soldiers spoke with technicians, and scientists hunched over tables lining the walls. Two large, open doorways let light into the room. Above me, a small hole beamed down light at my face from outside. Althea's bolt pierced through the ceiling.

Along the edge of the vehicles, a set of clear, human sized capsules slotted into the side of the building. Kelsey and Michael’s names were painted onto the sides of them, their hair and feet visible while the rest remained covered with a steel plate. They floated in a vacuum, each of them unconscious but having their eyes open. Althea already reached them, and she cut at the steel with several people watching her.

Everyone else gawked at me, stunned by my entrance. I raised my arms, mana filling into the sigils, “Hello...Everyone...Uhm, what’s up?”

Compacted rifles expanded as soldiers readied their aim towards me. Dozens of laser pointers lined up on me before a deep, full voice shouted, "Don't fire. Get him out of here, and I repeat, do not fire in this space. We cannot afford to bust the containment pods here.”

They held Michael and Kelsey in containment pods for something. I noted that while peering around. I also stood a head taller than everyone else. Their numbers worked against them because of friendly fire, but they used other means at their disposal. Several of them unsheathed laser knives, and they walked close. Getting behin me, a trooper sliced a shining dagger of red towards my throat.

He moved slower than a stream, and I grabbed his wrist while pulling him to me. He fell forward, and I punched his helmet. Letting him go, I crunched the metal armor on my fist, the runes giving me unnatural power. Another soldier came close and stabbed at my back. I wove sideways, the soldier’s slice missing. The arm stretched out wide, and I grabbed the person’s wrist. I shoved the straightened elbow, and the limb bent backwards, ligaments snapping.

The soldier howled out in anguish, and I jerked him sideways. They both flopped onto the ground, unable to stand. I peered at my hands, marveling at how easy it was to break them. It was like snapping a chicken's neck. Unlike a chicken, the broken soldier keeled onto the ground, an electronic voice blaring out of the speaker beside his helmet’s camera.

Another soldier tried a sweeping kick towards my feet. I stepped just out of range and lifted a foot. I stomped my heel at their leg as the kick passed me by. Their armored joint crunched under foot, and I pinned them down. They collapsed before I lifted the person up with both my arms.

I threw them towards a car, and they collided with the windshield, shattering glass. I gawked at how I did all of that, and the others did as well. They peered at me in fear, the soldiers a bit more antsy to approach. My eyes darted towards Althea, and she heaved Michael and Kelsey’s stasis pods. Wanting to make a real mess, I walked over towards a car. I bent over and lifted with all my strength.

The car flipped with relative ease, at least easier than I expected. It flopped over and crushed into another vehicle. Several people ran at me, so I leaped on top of the car. The jeep’s fabric tore under my feet, and I fell into the cabin. Falling into the front seat, I looked at the ignition, finding no keys. A glowing blade stuck through the side window, and I bent my head away from it. They pulled the blade back over my throat.

Before it made contact, I grabbed them. I jerked them into the window, the metal covered soldier lighter than I was. Their head clapped against the window before I opened the car door into another soldier. They tumbled in a pile, one I stomped over while getting out of the jeep. As I got all the way out, three blades came from all directions. I stopped two arms, and the other blade pierced into my side. My armor reached out into the stabbing hand, shredding it.

The soldier pulled his hand out of me while thundering, “It’s a monster.”

I grimaced before kicking backwards at the guy. His chestplate caved, and he crashed into a wall. I crushed the two arms in my hands, snapping the bones in their arms before pulling them close. Their helmets clinked together with a loud ring, cameras shattering. Another trooper stabbed at me, but I used one of their own as a shield.

Another stab came in from an unseen angle, and it pierced into my chest. Fire erupted in my lungs, but I elbowed backwards. The soldiers facemask caved in, their head whipping into the side of a car. They slumped down, and I prayed they were still alive. Another soldier sliced down from above, but a harpoon impaled their raised elbows. The downslice fell apart, and I shoved the crippled soldier aside.

Two more stabs came in. I threw my fists out, and they landed like sledgehammers. Helmets caved. I struck once more, retaliating before they overwhelmed me. Chest plates sunk in. Arms shattered. Cameras fizzled to nothing. I whirlwinded through the group, tearing a dozen guards into broken heaps on the polished floor.

More came. I jumped up, grabbing the edge of a catwalk. I flung myself up, near several snipers. I tackled one, and their body flopped over the railing with force. The others followed their fall. Half a dozen tumbled down like dominoes. I charged through a less armored marksman before jumping back down. Another blade sank into my arm. An angry, violent voice rang out in the back of my mind to kill them, to eat them.

I grabbed my assailant’s arm, breaking it. I jerked twice more, and it broke in three places. I kicked their knee backward. They crumbled down, and I roared out in a primal fury. My armor’s crimson slit widened into a maw over the soldier’s face. I kicked the soldier away, and they flopped back. They crashed into the wall. I inspected around me, most of the soldiers already taken care of or crippled for the moment. In my mind, I surged, my dominance clear.

Several of the gunsmen tapped their triggers, wondering if firing might’ve been a good idea. Before they made that decision, more mana filled into my runes. I stomped my foot down. The crushed concrete from our entrance whipped into the air, hiding us. Althea hugged two stasis pods to herself, having taken several soldiers out herself. She ran over, a soldier grabbing her foot. She fell forward, and the glass jars tumbled.

They stayed together, the glass flexible and not easily broken. Althea glanced around on the ground, seeing faceless suits of armor closing in from every side. She pulled her legs up into the air before forcing them downwards. Her upper body whipped up off the ground before she landed on her feet. A tornado of motion, she knocked several soldiers across the room, bones breaking with each of her attacks. Her own arm bled from the punishment, her fingers and hands bent backwards.

She left herself and her enemies a bloody mess.

The reinforcements rushed in. They took an even more cautious approach as they closed in on me and her. Althea gasped, “Gah...It’s so hard not killing them.”

I raised my fists, “I got to agree.”

Althea’s body crushed and crumbled, her entire skeleton deforming. She sprinted forward, a beast transformed. She stormed through a group of soldiers. She sent them flopping back with her unbelievable strength. Metal met walls. They fell. They plunged. They plummeted. Her legs looked like a goat's hind legs while her arms and hands expanded into massive clubs. With a few quick swings, she crushed and crumbled the incoming troops in seconds.

The room, once full, brimmed with incapacitated soldiers. A delicate silence loomed for a moment. I murmured, “Are you still in control?”

She tore herself apart as she attacked, but she rumbled back, “Yes. I am. What about that growl of yours earlier?”

I gave her a curt nod, “Ok, fair enough.”

I picked up the glass tubes before sprinting back towards our hole. The deep voice from earlier roared with anger through an intercom,

"You maggots. There will be hell to pay if you don't stop those eldritch. I mean literal Hell."

The soldiers redoubled their efforts to stop us. A group of them lined up from outside, blocking our way back to our tunnel. I stopped in my tracks with the stomp of a heel. A thin piece of concrete burst underfoot, sending a hail of rocks at their helmeted faces. Althea leaped over me, latching one of her massive hands onto my shoulder.

I dug my feet into the ground as she pulled on my shoulder pauldron to swing herself around. Her other arm reformed as if she swung a tree trunk. The soldiers crashed into the wall before Althea dove into our tunnel’s entrance. I tossed one of the containers towards her before leaping in with Kelsey's tube held over my head. Althea slid the capsule through the hole before I followed her with the other one.

As we slid down, a rain of bullets slammed into the walls of the tunnel entrance above us. It looked like they abandoned orders. A hail of crumbling rock splattered down. I landed on the ground, my legs bent as the containment tube slapped against my back. The dense flexi-glass bent but held, the steel plate keeping them safe.

Tube in tow, I crawled with Althea. She bent over, crawling in her normal, unchanged form. I caught myself staring at her a few times, her figure drawing my eye. Althea had nice curves, and laid out like that, it accentuated each one of them. Tearing my eyes off of her, I focused myself back on the escape.

Not being as distracted, Althea expanded the tunnel with gouging strikes, letting me pull off a low trot along the ground. We dashed through our tunnel before jumping out of the entrance. Crawling back out beneath a train, neither of us could move the stasis pods. Already working that out, Althea cut at the edge of a railroad cart.

I raised my brow, “Does that slicing power have any limit?”

Finished by then, she shoved a behemothic piece of pure steel from the crate. Her collarbone broke from pushing the metal hunk out of the way. Her eyes watered as she reformed the bone back into place. She mouthed,

“Yes...But by Schema...This hurts so bad.”

Her putting this kind of effort to help me meant a lot, and I aimed to pay her back. I couldn’t right now, so I winced at the sight, “Damn...I’m sorry. I’d like to wait for you, but we have to go.”

Althea nodded, “I know...I know.”

We walked out between two fully loaded trains. With my legs slamming the ground beneath me, I kept pace with Althea, each of us carrying a pod. We sprinted between two railroad tracks, the gravel flinging behind us before we started hearing the sound of revving engines. Althea glanced at me,

"You. Decoy. Again?"

I tossed the tube towards her, “Of course."

She caught the tube with one of her arms before she set them down. Her arms shrank as her muscles tore and snapped into place. Looking like a furless centaur drenched in a robe, she grabbed the two tubes under her arms before sprinting towards the chemical laden creek. I winced a little as she gasped in pain, but her speed mounted to epic proportions.

In the distance, several jeeps rolled out of the garages, finding a gap between the two trains lining us. The vehicles drove in while I sprinted away. My feet thunked against the ground with each step like hammers against stone. Augmentation empowered my strides, chunks of wood snapping under my weight. The air rushed past my ears as I enjoyed the speed of my own running.

Althea still pulled ahead, but I kept her in my line of sight at least. After two minutes of running, a bullet whistled right past my head. I didn't turn around. I pushed forward. Another bullet landed straight into the ground where one of my feet marched. The round slinked right off my armor, leaving an indentation in it. More and more bullets rushed in before I found stray rounds hissing close to Althea, sparks bursting off the train near her.

Coming up with a plan, I bent down and scooped up some gravel. I gritted my teeth before leaping as high as I could. Flailing my arms, I hopped onto the top of a cargo crate, stumbling forward but not falling. After getting back into stride, I stomped my foot down. The thin steel bent under my foot, giving my feet some grip.

I changed directions, my joints hissing at me in discomfort. I beelined in the opposite direction, towards the jeeps and guards. My runes roared out, and I hurled several stones at their windshields. Trails of fractures formed over the panels, rocks embedding into the reinforced glass. Blinding them, soldiers turned and fired at me, but I ducked under the firestorm of rounds. The jeeps let their covers down for sight, and I hurled another few stones at them between bullet bursts. Enraged at my stone tossing, they dragged back around in a circle, barely making the turn between the two trains. My advanced problem solving worked like a charm, and another hailstorm of bullets rained my way. Great. Just great.

They lobbed grappling hooks, each of them snapping against the sides of the trains I rested on. They kept me pinned with suppressive fire, soldiers pacing up the cables. I let them get up there with me, wanting the soldiers to get away from their vehicles. Heading to the side where the grappling hooks tied down, I hung myself along the otherside of the train. My fingers gripped into the metal, but no other part of me exposed itself to them.

The troops scattered over the top of the train, searching for me. I waited, their footsteps sending my nerves ablaze. Flipping back onto the train, my feet panged onto the roof, and they turned to me. I bolted forward, bullets smothering where I just stood. I leaped high in the air over a jeep before crushing my outstretched legs into the engine. The front of the jeep caved in, the engine block bursting out the bottom of the vehicle.

I jerked my legs out of the car’s front before rolling towards the side opposite of the soldiers. Another volley of bullets painted towards me. With a grunt of effort, augmentation flooded my frame. I growled while flipping the car over. Bullets whizzed past the jeep at certain spots, the car less protective than I hoped it’d be.

But that wasn’t my goal.

I bent down and tackled the vehicle’s side. It slid right in place, becoming a barricade for several other vehicles coming my way. A storm of bullets snapped into my skin from above, my health dropping fast. I sprinted towards the bottom of a train, leaping between a gap in the wheels. My stomach scraped the rails as I slid beneath the train. Taking a few deep breaths, I gasped for air, dust pluming up as exhaustion set in.

I stopped the troops from catching Althea, but now they closed in from all sides. I took a few breaths before clawing into the gravel and dirt. I tore into the ground, getting just beneath their barrels peaking into the railway. They let out a pelting of gunfire above me, streaks of light tracing over my head. The bullets banged and burst, several gunmen hitting their own team members.

They scrambled to get underneath here with me, but they struggled getting under the train in their plated armors. It gave me a breather. After half a minute, they scrambled inside again. Refreshed and ready, I peeled the ground apart before bursting out from beneath the train’s tracks. I sprinted towards a set of warehouses in front of me. Bullets flooded in, and I jumped straight through one of the older windows of the building.

The dirty panels burst into tiny pieces as I rolled forward. I landed onto a catwalk, my stomach slamming into the railing. Momentum carried me over it, and I flipped. I tumbled in the air before flopping onto the ground. Air left my chest, and I blinked, getting a sense of where I was. My hands flopped down as I let out a big gulp of air.

From my side, a click rang out beside me. A ball of metal shot upward, and I covered my head. The ball detonated, a set of blades spiralling in every direction. The force of the blades flung me sideways, several of the daggers lodged inches into my armor. Dizziness and disorientation muddled my view.

Shaking it off, I pushed myself back up, but my arms shook while drool leaked out of my mouth. Unable to keep moving, I leaned over. Vomit coursed up my throat and out of me. Falling back down, I puked my guts out, most of my health gone. A dull banging ebbed in from outside, the guards closing in. I lifted my head up, swallowing my spit. I stumbled back up, falling against a wall.

They spread mines out at random here, so it would take time to enter. If anything, spreading mines this close to camp seemed suicidal. They must’ve had a good reason for them. Stumbling forward, I found a soldier’s corpse. Their head carried pin pricks all over their bloodied face, and their chest burst out from the inside from...Something horrific. As I walked a few steps further, a large spider jumped onto my face from the darkness.

Dozens of legs on its abdomen stabbed at my head. They poked and prodded my armor, unable to pierce my metal helmet. They left deep dents before I grabbed the bug. My fingers dug into the beast right through its exoskeleton. I wrenched its body apart. Green blood poured out, soaking over my face from the pieces of the creature. I leaned over, gasping for a moment.

My armor stabbed into the creature, absorbing its essence as I got a grip on my situation. Those spiders explained the mines at least. Still exhausted and dizzy, I willed my body forward. I pressed my heels back into the ground before leaping through another warehouse window. Once I picked back up some speed, I kept my eyes peeled for any more mines.

They couldn’t kill me, but they sure as hell slowed me down. Even in this chase, I peered at the windows leaking in light as I passed by them. This place oozed an empty, dark beauty. At the same time, the mine’s blades oozed out of my body, falling out of my armor behind me. My skin wriggled the daggers out of me. Taking a breath of relief, I leaped into another warehouse window.

As I landed, another mine triggered, releasing a blade ball. My eyes opened wide, and I slapped the ball away as it reached eye level. It launched into another warehouse. Windows shattered as blades snapped out in every direction. They put those death balls everywhere. I ran forward, crushing a leggy spider by accident.

Ok, maybe they had the right idea.

Footsteps ebbed in from outside the building. I bolted forward as the sound of helicopter blades ebbed into the warehouse. At this point, I rolled my eyes. The situation was getting out of hand. Hiding in my building, three helicopters passed by, the wind off their wings blowing trash up around outside. Each helicopter carried thick bracers on the outer edges of their wings, making them more durable.

Caught between the copters and the troops, I closed my eyes for a minute. A part of me just wanted to use Oppression and wipe them out. That piece of me smiled at the thought of just ending this whole charade right there and then. I wanted to gore them apart, to kill them and strip their bones out of their body. I smothered that urge, knowing the bounty and guilty conscience wouldn’t be worth it.

After sliding a window open, I flopped out of a warehouse. I shot down another alleyway. I evaded some soldiers before making my way down several factory floors. The helicopters circled overhead the entire time. After passing a few buildings, another helicopter locked in on my position, and they fired an old minigun at me. The many barrels changed into a ball of light and the bullets into a stream of fire.

It was more like the mouth of a dragon than a gun. The rounds dug inches into the gravel ground before slapping across my back. The lead hissed in my wounds, evaporating my blood. I withstood the onslaught, though the sheer force of the stream nearly knocked me down. The helicopter whizzed past me, so I kept running. The helicopters took turns gunning me down. Hiding behind dumpsters full of trash, I protected myself behind them.

To my amazement, the bullets punched through the dumpsters and the garbage. Stripes of embedded lead traced up and down my body as a result. However, the sheets of steel slowed the bullets enough that grievous wounds turned into superficial scratches. From place to place, I moved like that. Heat built in on my back, the hot lead squealing on my skin. The metal cooled from molten red to a cool gray, the helicopters hovering lower and lower to aim at me.

After whizzing several feet over a roof, I found my opportunity. I ran up and leaped onto a wall. The tin wall caved in, and I kicked off the indentation. Flying up, I landed on the side of the roof. After pulling myself up, I stumbled forward. I kept my balance by pushing myself up with my arms. With a burst of effort, I stomped my feet into the metal roof once more.

My heels left imprints in the tin before I jumped up towards one of the passing helicopter’s side railing. I missed my landing, diving straight into the helicopter blades instead of the helicopter's window. The metal blades gyrated near me, but I flew just short of the spinning rotor. I stuck an arm up. Instead of putting my arm in the blades, I molded a mass of my armor into the rotor. I clipped it, and the circling mass knocked me sideways.

I expected a blade but they hit me more like a baseball bat. I flipped in a circle. One of my armored feet clipped another blade. Slamming into the roof, air left my chest as I gasped for air. Above me, the helicopter spun out of sync for a few quick whirls. That slightly off beat spinning snowballed until it spun out of control. The blades crushed into the roofing. They gouged out the tin and steel, chunks of the blades impaling the building.

The helicopter lost any way of staying afloat. Blades shattered. The hull tumbled. It fell out of sight. I let my head rest against the roof, taking several deep breaths. Adrenaline spiked in my system, my hands trembling and my knees wobbling. I grabbed the sides of my head, closing my eyes. I shook off my unease and terror before pushing myself back up. I had to continue. I had to push through, so I did.

The other helicopter whirled around, getting me back in its sights. I grimaced at it before looking around. Half a rotor blade jutted out of the roofing. A slicing, glowing trail of bullets passed to me. I leaped sideways and picked the blade over my head. The helicopter passed closer before chucked the rotor blade at the other helicopter.

Blade met blade, and my lobbed one whipped away. It was enough to throw the rotating edges out of whack. Like the other helicopter, it spiraled out of control before tumbling towards another building. It skidded over the roof, a maelstrom of red sparks shooting off the tin before the helicopter flew straight into the wall of another warehouse.

The front bent against the building, the glass fragmenting. It slid sideways before cracking into the ground. A fire ignited somewhere along the line, but the troops got out in time. A fiery inferno engulfed the scene, heating my armor even at the impressive distance. Everything was a blinding red and orange before I turned and trotted away. I wiped sweat off my brow, thankful they were finally gone.

Getting my bearings again, I charged over a gap in the buildings. I dashed onto another building nearby. I landed, finding bits of flames following me. Peering at my back, pieces of fiery debris fell off me. I shook off the refuse before glancing around. Above me, a pilot floated down from above, a parachute attached to the back of his seat. I slammed my fists together and grinned at him. My armor contorted into a twisted smile.

The unarmed man in armor scrambled for a switch near him. As he floated closer, his scrambling devolved into a panic. He tapped a keypad on the side of his arm, and a jet of plasma erupted from behind him, shooting him away from me. I laughed a little at the guy’s escape. I intimidated him more than I thought I would.

With nothing else in my way, I ran towards Springfield while aiming to lose them in the suburbs. After a few minutes of running, I neared the edges of the suburbs - this place was my ticket out of this mess. Adding to my escape, a dense fog clustered over the town. Perfect. I ran into it through the backyards of abandoned homes. People left this place for the Force of Iron’s shelter and protection, and it emptied out like a ghost town.

Pacing through the desolate cityscape, I peered at the roads leading into Springfield. Lines of caution tape, safety cones, and gunmen surrounded the town on all sides. Many flames burned in the distance near homes, flashes of gunfire exposing marksman in the fog. Plumes of black smoke traced the compact mist, and a sickening smell lingered in my nose. Getting further in, that scent rotted down into a mix of ash and burning flesh.

My eyes watered at the putrid stench, but even with teary eyes, I found guards along roads arming themselves to the teeth. It unnerved me that so many people guarded every inch of Springfield’s perimeter. Torix mentioned fights and whatnot, but this defied any expectations I had. I readied myself for more fighting because something was wrong here.

Very wrong.