A bright glow, radiating into the dawning sky of new day. Buildings ablaze, the glow of burns spreading with collapsing rubble, not a single intact as far as the eye could see. The dome, shattered to the South and West sides, the glass shot through multiple buildings in of itself, many in half if not burned to a very thin skeleton of their former glory.
Hospitals and public builds collapsed, their fires spreading through the streets of blood. Blood, splattered dry in places along sidewalks, yet to be burned spots on buildings, liquid blood still pooling in the streets along with floodwaters rushing alongside. In those waters, dirtied with mud and blood, severed heads, mutilated arms and legs, fingers, intestines, hearts, lungs, and so many other parts.
Up and down, through windows and walls, in trees and crashed into ground, corpses lay, all mutilated and torn asunder. Flesh, hanging from poles and branches of trees, slabs of it and human muscle splattered across grounds. Schools no different though the scene far worse.
Bodies, stretched out and crucified against school walls, headless. On the iron spiked fence, heads plastered down covered in blood with expressions beyond human, some of such fear, some of such surprise, all of pure rotting death. The central Church building, half collapsed with power lines down all around, lights flickering as visible guards were also torn apart, weapons coated in blood though not blood of the enemy.
Children bodies, also hung, each one hanged by the neck suspended off the ground next to the elderly, next to the women, next to the men, their torsos carved out with guts hanging out bloodied sprawn partway along the ground, only the intestines remaining partially inside with the ribs showing.
All this and cooked corpses splattered around in pieces around the city, the entire domain obliterated.
-
Atop a hill, on his knees looking out, Shawn’s eyes wide and shaking, one teary while the other in utter shock, his jaw hung, his weapon dropped beside with his arms as the smoke ventured up into the sky, the devastation and death quite visible below him in the actual city… behind standing Ellie, looking left, down, and away.
“H-h-...how… how could this happen?”
A pause, fear turned quick to rage, fists formed, “How could this happen!?!?”
Ellie’s eyes popped, her gaze turned back before a half gaze rested to him. Ellie, looking down, walked forward to then look up, “Come on Shawn.”
-
Down in the belly of the city, both walking along the roads, stepping over corpse after corpse, looking around calling quickly out, “Hello!?!?”
“Is there anyone alive out there!?”
.
“Can anyone hear me!?”
“This is a waste of time.”
“What was that!?”
“Everyone is clearly dead,” she in turn muttered walking away.
“How can you just say that?!”
“I can because it’s true, maybe for the better.”
“How dare you- these people-… Ellie!!!”
Slowly as she turned, rubble above giving way, a concrete slab dropping quick, Shawn’s eyes widening with her turn, blissfully unaware.
CRASH!!!
THUD!!
Her eyes shut though with a quick blink open, Shawn’s face right in hers, a glance back a slab down right where she was, then back to Shawn, her face slightly red, “Why would you-”
“Because… I’m not your typical human you’ve met Ellie. You may be a bitch but you’re still my friend. I don’t know what happened to change you into this… but I swear, I will make it up to you and prove to you we are not all trash!” A rustling to the left, a man rushing out with a weapon though stopping there.
“Survivors… wait, Shawn!?”
His glance back, wide eyed with fear, then horror, “Timothy? Wait, sir!!”
“Shawn, it’s good to see you alive and here at last.”
Getting up off Ellie, his hand out to which, hesitantly, she then accepted being pulled up. Rustling behind as from there approached yet another though this time in pairs, several along including Emile and Jonathan.
“We’ve been here for half a day already and investigated the perimeter. We chose to wait for you so we could begin this.”
“This madness… is just horrid!”
“Yeah… it’s horrible but it’s war Shawn.”
“A war for what cause!? This is the biggest city yet ruined by this, how is it happening!?”
“Shawn!”
His eyes locked with Jonathan’s, then a glance down, despair evident on his face, Ellie walking forward to his left, looking to Timothy, “So what do you think happened?”
“It’s likely another failure caused by some form of glitch from what we can tell. Five days ago the city, possibly five, lost power and Darkling began to raid it. We’re not sure when the battle concluded, likely a day and a half ago, maybe two. We’re not yet sure.”
“Jon and I already had a small look inside and began searching for survivors on the outskirts to no luck so we requested assistance. The troops got here twenty minutes or so ago while Tim chose to wait for your arrival.”
“At this point, all we can do is send our messenger hawks. Tim and Emile, what’s the plan?”
“Well Jon, I think you and Emile should team up with me while we scatter in groups of two or three. I want Ellie and Shawn together as well for this one. We’ll use the Emergency Whistles for if we find anything or run into trouble. There could be survivors down there or details to how the system failed, if we’re lucky. I want every inch of this city explored.”
“… are you sure it has to be us two? We don’t exactly see eye to eye-”
“Then you’ll have to on this one Shawn. You two have worked together and right now we have to move as fast as we can. If there are any survivors down there, we need to find them. At noon, move your way towards the main Church building to meet up and discuss what to do. I want you men to explore the East, South, and West wings. Ellie and Shawn, the North. We’ll take the central and explore the shield. Make your way in. Dismissed.”
“Sir!” everyone then shouted out, rushing along, all but Timothy, Ellie, and Shawn, Timothy looking back at the two then sighing with a nod, eyes shut, “I’m sorry to rush you kids in there but we need to move fast.”
Turning and rushing himself, Timothy then left them. His glance now to Ellie, a sigh, “Sorry you’re stuck with me agai-”
“No, Shawn… it’s… it’s alright. You just saved my life for the second time and I… oh never mind, let’s just get to work.”
ns 18.68.41.179da2
