Blood clung to Clay’s hands, as the smell of iron filled his nostrils. This all too familiar smell that remained thick in the air after a fight. At this point, it almost felt nostalgic. Like an old friend that just wouldn’t leave his side no matter what path he treated on.

  Killing humans was… different. That was at least what he thought until the inevitable happened, and he killed his first human. He also imagined his first murder to be something grand, a great struggle, followed by guilt that would haunt him for months if not years, yet he felt… nothing.

  There was no guilt, at least not for the ones he had killed, if there was any guilt then only that he hadn’t struck sooner, instead of trying to talk with these lunatics.

  If he had attacked first, Mia wouldn’t have that nasty cut on the side of her temple. It wasn’t anything life-threatening, but deep enough for Clay to be certain it would leave a scar.

  Thanks to her inner circulation, the wound clotted in mere moments and scab was already forming over it and would completely heal in a few days time, but it still bothered him.

  This was the first human interaction, other than with Mia, that he had in well over two years. He was nervous, didn’t want to escalate the situation but met the wrong kind of people, if you could call them people. They dressed like savages, fought like them, and didn’t act any better.

  He just killed five humans, and the only regret was that he didn’t do so sooner. Was he going crazy, or was the world going crazy? Well it didn’t matter, they wanted to hurt them so he defended himself, it was as simple as that, no reason to overthink it.

  They had it coming for them with that savage behavior, he was surprised they weren’t already dead with how weak they were. None of them used aura, at least none he could perceive. The woman with the big axe must have used inner circulation, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to stand up after the sidekick, but other than that they were weak.

  Or they were still too weakened from the alignment of the moons, but it still was a surprise to him that they survived thus far. In his mind, anyone without aura or self-healing capabilities comparable to his own wouldn’t survive long in a fight with… any beast, really.

  That was the biggest surprise in this fight, how easy they were to kill. That first strike against the man wasn’t even meant to kill him. He acted on reflex and wanted to block that cudgel, only to break right through it, and the neck of that dipshit just happened to be in the way.

  Rushing in like that was beyond stupid. Not to mention some of the guys using metal. They either have no idea about the concept of aura or they are beyond stupid. The biggest problem behind this accident was that they couldn’t trust that map. It was obviously a trap, and he felt quite stupid for not suspecting it right from the start.

  Who in his right mind would just leave a map lying around that led to a safe haven? At least when it had that note on avoiding some Marauders, he should have suspected something. If the map was really legit, it wouldn’t just lie around in some ruin and especially not in such quantities.

  This was clearly hand-made from someone who wanted them to walk into these cavemen, and he had a strong hunch it wasn’t the cavemen themselves who were lying this trap, but instead a third party. It wouldn’t surprise him if these ‘Marauders’ were behind this themselves.

  This whole situation got him riled up. No, he was pissed. He would crush the little shit that made that map if he could, but going back to Riverton and scouring the ruins for the culprit seemed like a big time waste. The groups here clearly didn’t belong to Churchville, so they must have traveled further. There was no time to waste with the possibility of the moons aligning once again.

  Taking a long look at the map, analyzing every detail, the finely made strokes, the professional style, the accurate location of cities… it didn’t make sense. This map was a trap, but maybe not entirely a lie. What did people say, “All good lies are based on the truth,” or something similar?

  The map was just far too detailed to be only a trap. Maybe it didn’t lead to the safe haven it promised, but it definitely led somewhere. On the way were quite a few more towns and cities they could check, so there really wasn’t any reason not to go.

  Turning to Mia, he saw that she mostly recovered. Besides her trying to act indifferent to most situations, was she at heart still a kid. A kid that tried her best to cope with what was happening, but there were limits. She wasn’t prepared for this, and killing her first human seemed to have hit her far harder than him.

  Leaning over her bandaged head, he asked, “Do you feel guilty?”

  Startled, she turned around before relaxing and returned to hugging her knees, taking a while before replying, “I don’t… know. I mean not really right? He attacked us, so I had to defend myself?”

  “Is that a question or your answer?” asked Clay while sitting beside her.

  Realizing that she wasn’t sure, she just let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t know.” Resting her head on her knees in frustration.

  Keeping silent, she eventually said, “I know that I had to do it. You said it would happen, I knew it myself. But seeing his face? As my spear drove deeper into his stomach, his eyes widening? The shock as he looked at the spear in his body, and then back to me with these big pleading eyes. It’s just… different, you know? Compared to the beasts.”

  “Is it though?”

  Confused, Mia turned to look Clay into the face, who in turn kept staring into the distance. “Do you remember the first time you killed a dire wolf?”

  “Of course I do. It was alone, you exhausted it, and I only gave it the finishing blow.”

  Turning to look into her face, he asked, “Describe in more detail. What happened, what did the dire wolf look like in his last moments? What did it do?”

  Thinking for a moment, Mia recounted, “I drove my spear into it’s chest, close to the throat. It was making choking noises, looking at me, his eyes… pleading? It clawed desperately at the shaft, barely any strength behind it, before its eyes finally glazed over, and it slumped down, sliding off my spear…”

  Nodding, Clay turned back towards the forest. “There is no difference, I think. The man is no different to the dire wolf or any other beast or animal for that fact. We are all living beings who when in the face of death, see our past life. Some will be content, others in regret or in the disbelief that it will all end soon. It doesn’t matter how they react, the only thing that matters is how you react.”

  “How I react?” repeated Mia, confused.

  “Yes, how will you go about the death of others? Will you cry? Will you feel guilt? Will you be happy or angry? It doesn’t matter how they die. What matters is how you handle what comes afterward,” explained Clay.

  Frowning, Mia asked, “What do you even know? You are not even that much older than me.”

  Ignoring the rebuke, he asked instead, “Did I ever tell you what happened to my family?”

  Startled by the sudden change of topic, she pouted, “No. You refused to talk about your past every time I asked.”

  “That’s true,” replied Clay, while a strained laugh escaped his lips. “I’m not really good with… people. I never had many friends, only one to be honest. But I was content, I had a loving and supporting family, and that one fried was to me more worth than every person in my school combined. I didn’t need more.

  “When the light first hit us and animals were wildly mutating at random, was our dog one of them. At the time, I was still at school, but my family wasn’t, they were at home. My dad must have picked up my sister like always, my mum would be preparing lunch for us, most likely spaghetti as I know her…

  “Well, I can only hope that their death wasn’t too painful, as our dog mutated and ripped them apart. I only found them days later, when nothing but bones was left. At first, I didn’t even recognize that the mutated dog I was fighting was the same one that I have cared for more than nine years. Only after I was about to give the finishing blow did I realize who I was about to kill.

  “The first mutated animals were driven by unnatural bloodlust and instinct, killing everything on sight. Nothing compared to the beasts we face now, they are a lot more controlled – efficient. Well that is how my family died, my Dad, Mum and Sister all but gone.”

  Too stunned to speak, Mia hesitated a moment before saying, “I’m sorry. I didn’t really mean what I said.”

  “It’s fine,” replied Clay with a smile, “I have come to terms with it, but I know what it feels like to lose your family and friends. You know, after my family died, I only had this one best friend – Chris. We both lost everything, but we still had each other. This might sound a bit corny, but it felt like us against the rest of the world.”

  Laughing, he thought back to that blurry time. “It was strange. But somehow we made it out there, surviving day after day, until I too lost him. Beheaded by the royal ant… I did tell you about the ants, right?”

  “Yeah, you said that a whole ant colony mutated and was a threat to all of Churchville so you joined the party intended to kill the Queen. You succeeded, but this one ant, stronger than any other, survived and hunted you down for it, but I didn’t know you lost your friend to it…”

  “Well, he was the one who killed the Queen in the end and paid with his life… And later on as you know succumbed your brother to the injuries received by the very same ant. I just hope that Max, Dennis and Jake caught up to the others,” said Clay with an earnest expression.

  Nodding, Mia said, “I wish I could see Jake again. We were always together. Jim, Jake and me. I miss these easy days. They feel so… distant now. Like a hazy dream. Sometimes I question if they existed at all.”

  Resting his arm on her shoulder, Clay said, “That is your answer.” Giving him a confused look, he explained, “You killed the man because he wanted to hurt you. He was just another small hurdle on your path to Jake.”

  “You believe that he is still alive?” asked Mia with a slight spark of hope.

  “I don’t know, but I haven’t seen his corpse, so why not look for him?” asked Clay helpfully.

  “I suppose you are right…”

  Standing up, he smiled. “Of course I’m right. I’m always right.” Rolling her eyes, she stood up. “Yeah, sure you are. So what now?”

  Turning to the corpses behind them, he said, “We should probably move before more of these caveman show up. They seem to mark their territory with these totems, so we will just walk around them.”

  Picking up her spear, backpack and heater shield, she nodded. “Sounds like a plan. Onwards, mister always right.”

  They continued on their path, leaving a terrified man hidden in the bushes, and a few drops of Mia’s blood which eagerly purified the plant it landed on.

  Walking along the periphery of the territory of these cavemen proved easy, with all the totems showing which direction to avoid. It took quite the detour, but eventually they left their territory behind without encountering any more of the lunatics.

  It didn’t take much longer before they got out of the forest and unto a road that would take them to the next town, maybe this one was a bit more livid.

  ******

  – 963 Kilometers until Vanguard.

  After traveling for the rest of the day, they entered a new town. They were greeted by ruins not much different to the one they came across in Riverton. The city was dead, with seemingless not a single soul living in it. The signs of destruction and fighting were apparent.

  The remains of barricades, discarded weapons ranging from makeshift spears to firearms. Some parts had shells littering the ground, as numerous as pebbles. People fought fiercely in this place yet not a single soul remained, at least none they came across.

  There was still time until dusk, but they wouldn’t reach any settlement in that time, so they decided to camp in the town for the day. Camping outside wasn’t really pleasant, and they still had more than enough time left to reach this Vanguard place, now that they had a direction to follow.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  – 927 Kilometers until Vanguard.

  Traveling through a small village, there was little damage for once. Being a bit away from the beaten path, it surely hasn’t seen many visitors. Yet like any other place it seemed abandoned, besides the graveyard which seemed to have been expanded not too long ago, with dozens of newly dug graves spotting the land.

  Not long after, they came across the presumed culprit. An old lady sitting on a chair on one of the verandas, eyes half opened, a shovel resting on her lap.

  She seemed more dead than alive, but upon coming closer, she suddenly blinked, causing Clay to flinch. Her eyes lazily meet his own, without her body moving but a muscle. Under the haggard clothes he could spot old and new wounds, some blood trails dried to the skin, and standing so close there was some kind of foul smell.

  “...eave.” Leaning closer to hear the old lady better, she repeated herself more clearly, “Leave.” The voice was raspy and old, rough, like scratched bark. “There is nothing left, but death.”

  Gathering her courage, Mia peeked over beside Clay. “Do you need help? We don’t look like it, but we are doing quite alright.”

  Turning to meet Mia’s eyes, the lady smiled slightly. “What a kind flower you are. But there is nothing for you here. Let this old woman rest, and continue on your way.” Gazing back towards the horizon, she closed her eyes. “I’m content.”

  Sinking into her chair, Mia tried to grab her, only for a firm hand to stop her own. Shooting a confused look towards Clay, he only shook his head. “Is she dead–?!”

  Letting go of her hand, he signaled to be silent. After a quick check, Mia sighed in relief as the old lady turned out to be just asleep. Even through Mia’s protest, pushed Clay forward without staying at the village for the night.

  – 851 Kilometers until Vanguard.

  Their journey continued, the landscape changing as they went, ranging from beautiful nature, to abandoned highways like the one they were traversing at the moment. It stretched seemingless endlessly, but every few steps, it turned into a minefield of upheaved asphalt and gaping cracks. Some fissures were small enough to step over, but others plunged so deep they swallowed the light.

  A small misstep and your leg could be eaten by a hole of black. Some of them being large enough to swallow parts of cars, that could crash into the abyss at any moment. It wasn’t nice to traverse on, but most paths weren’t. At least the highway provided a straight way towards their goal.

  – 735 Kilometers until Vanguard.

  They finally left the highway behind, and at the moment Clay was gutting a strange creature. A mix between cat and dog. He mostly ignored the appearance, concentrating on getting what meat he could and roasting it for the night.

  As they traveled, Clay used every opportunity he could to hunt what animals or beasts he could find. By now ignoring their appearance as many were a mismatch of animals. Some he recognized, but others seemed alien and like nothing he has ever seen before. Either he didn’t know the original animal or they were something new all together.

  He was no skilled hunter with bow and arrow, more like a brute that used the eruption in his legs to accelerate to speeds, no awakened beast could hope to outrun. They were not feasting in excess, but were also far from starving.

  – 622 Kilometers until Vanguard.

  Having to take a detour, they were forced to travel through a forest, which wasn’t full of new and strange life, as the usual scenery had presented them so far. Instead of green, they were greeted by devastation as the forest floor was fractured into irregular plates, each jutting upward at odd angles. Trees leaned awkwardly, some uprooted entirely. Each step was a risk, as beneath the moss-covered ground, hidden crevices waited.

  Stumbling upon such a crevice, Mia badly twisted her ankle. The wound would heal in a few hours, but for that time he decided to give her a piggyback ride. They were still following schedule, but he didn’t want to risk it. There was still the possibility that this Vanguard place had already fallen, if it existed at all.

  – 496 Kilometers until Vanguard.

  Crossing over a small hill, a valley opened before them. Transformed from a picture of pristine green to a murky swamp, as rain-swollen rivers, flooded the valley. Fallen trees floated among the waters, and the smell of decay, hung heavy in the air. Wading through the mire risked being sucked down by mud or bitten by unseen predators lurking below.

  His experience with the toads told him better than to dare to cross such a long distance of mud ridden water. Another detour, but nothing they couldn’t manage. They were getting good distance each day. Their conversations becoming shorter and shorter as a routine formed.

  The ever-changing scenery blended out by the goal that came closer by the day. With each passing day, they were becoming more focused on their task, ignoring everything else. This place was their hope towards a stable life among other humans… Well, hopefully humans that didn’t want to kill, steal, rape or eat them.

  – 373 Kilometers until Vanguard.

  Entering another city that seemed to be little different from the other dozen cities they came across thus far, Clay was quickly proven wrong, as they walked upon a… wall. He hesitated to call the construct a wall, but it was definitely too large to be a mere palisade.

  It didn’t really seem that sturdy, a mismatch of wooden scraps, hollowed out cars and pieces of metal all over to keep the construct together. Rust was beginning to creep across the edges. On top stood multiple people on guard duty, looking over the streets.

  Exchanging glances, Clay and Mia approached carefully, trying to keep out of sight. They came across quite a few people during their travel, some escaped upon sight, a few attacked them, one even tried to rob them. Little tried to talk, and the few that did, did not dare to exchange too much. All on edge, refusing to sit or relax for even a moment. Not once was there a trace of trust.

  Their exchanges most often didn’t last for more than a couple of minutes before they moved their separated ways. Each group they came across was so different from the next that there was no inherent pattern, but that they were traveling in groups. It seemed like society broke into hundreds of smaller communities and groups that all fought for themselves.

  Some were larger, others smaller. He just wished there was a place where people still had some form of trust and security. The group he was currently supervising definitely seemed to have the latter, as the guards were armed with guns.

  This was making Clay quite nervous if he was honest to himself. He knew that bullets probably wouldn’t damage him much more than the next beast, but having grown up with the knowledge that guns could kill you in a single shot, wasn’t easy to just blend out.

  After a short discussion, he was able to convince Mia to stay behind as he approached alone. Not long after leaving his hiding spot was a commotion on the wall as they saw him closing in. Rising his one good arm to signalizing he didn’t want any harm, he stood before the ‘gate’.

  “What do you want?!” A rough looking man asked, gun pointed straight at him.

  “I’m seeking shelter and wondered if you could–”

  “Bulshit! Where is the rest of your little group? Do you think I’m stupid?! We don’t want anything to do with outsiders, so I’m giving you a chance to leave.”

  Seeing that Clay was frowning at the response rather than leave, the man lost his composure, a tear of sweat trailing between his brows. “I’m counting to three, before I put a hole between your eyes! You hear me?!”

  “One!”

  Tilting his head to the side, Clay felt confusion rising inside of him. A feeling that something was off, strong enough to blend out the threat of being shot.

  “Two!”

  There was this unusual calm and the confidence that nothing would happen. It was strange, but looking directly at the barrel, he felt… curious. What could a gun really do? In the past it may have been a dangerous weapon, but with essence?

  “T-Three!”

  Refusing to budge, the grip of the man around his gun was tightening. Was the gun even loaded?

  There was a small boom, upon which Clay reflexively tightened the aura around himself, intending to reduce the impact of the bullet, only to feel a small push upon his aura. The next thing he knew was the bullet deflected at the point of contact. It ricocheted off unpredictably, drilling into a piece of wood from the wall.

  Confused, the man quickly shot a second shot, only for the scene to repeat itself. Looking at him in shock, the man opened his mouth, but no words came out. Beginning to slightly tremble, he swallowed and tried to steady his aim.

  “Stop,” stated Clay simply before turning around. “Stop wasting your bullets. I’m already leaving.”

  They continued to aim their weapons as Clay went back towards Mia, who didn’t bother looking over his shoulder, the guns couldn’t harm him. This place was another bust, and he didn’t have the nerve to try and communicate with a skittish group that shot at strangers. They just had to double down on the Vanguard.

  Looking at the cloudless sky, he smiled. At least he learned something new.

  – 219 Kilometers until Vanguard.

  Resting between ruined houses, Mia began to scowl, “You didn’t fix your clothes again!”

  Following her gaze, he looked on his shoulder where a patch of leather was hanging by the thread, as two nasty lines arched across it. One of the mutated beasts, probably. “Don’t make such a fuss. The clothing barely protects me anyway.”

  Pouting, she stood up and got the sewing kit from his backpack. Kneeing beside him, she reached for the damaged patch, Clay lazily waving her off.

  “Let me.” Her voice making it clear she wouldn’t be rejected. So he silently subjected himself to the treatment.

  Maybe he shouldn’t have let her help him repair his clothes as often, not that she developed some sort of tick to keep their clothes undamaged and pristine at all times, otherwise they would only be occupied with repairing rather than walking.

  First she worked on cutting the small threads, then removed the damaged patch of leather and replaced it with a new from their reserves. His prototype of the silken underlayer had proven sturdy so far. The patches ripped and broke as intended, while the threads of the bone spiders held strong.

  Perking his head up, he heard Mia mumble something as she worked. “Sorry?”

  Finding her courage, Mia repeated herself louder, “You have to be more careful!”

  Giving her a questioning look, Mia locked eyes with him. “You are too careless with your body. I know that you can heal, but that is no excuse to throw yourself at each opportunity to hurt yourself.”

  “I’m hurting myself?” repeated Clay with uncertainty.

  Stopping her work entirely, Mia looked dumbfounded at him. “I hope that is a joke.” Seeing his blank stare, she almost had an outrage then and there. “Clay, you sleep two hours a day. You use your own body as a shield. Like that one bandit, that swung a knife at you, which you didn’t avoid, but instead intentionally ran into to close the distance. Or with these cannibals, where you rather took the hit of that cudgel instead of just side stepping it. Just a few days ago, when you had the smart idea to take firearms head on! Or when you… threw yourself between me and that dire wolf.”

  The longer he listened, the deeper got his frown. Was he really that careless? Hearing her say it like that did make him wonder why he didn’t dodge some of these attacks. With his current speed and reflexes, he definitely would have been more than capable to do so.

  Realizing that Mia waited for a response, her nodded his head. “You are right. I will try to be more careful from now on.”

  Satisfied, she went back to sewing.

  – 136 Kilometers until Vanguard.

  It wasn’t long before they would finally reach the mark of the map. He was tiring if he was honest. Time was of essence should his fear come true, but just as Mia said, he might have pushed himself too far.

  Two hours was definitely not enough sleep, he could feel his essence burning in larger quantities to compensate. His reserves of essence were still at a critical level, not having regenerated much. He was relying on the fact he could drink heart blood to gain a surge of essence, but was that the right call?

  It was true that it gave him incomparable power, but it also only lasted for what felt like moments. The anomaly lasted for four nights, with the last two being especially bad. They were practically swarmed by beasts, and he had to fight almost all night in both occasions. Mere moments wasn’t enough.

  They were currently resting in a small clearing and Mia was watching the surroundings warily, so he closed his eyes for a moment and drew inwards. His current problem was a lack of information. He didn’t know if this anomaly would repeat itself, he didn’t know what beasts he would face and what they can do. Hell, he couldn’t even gauge his own abilities properly. Against any human he encountered so far, he seemed like some unbeatable demigod, while awakened beasts toyed with his body like a dog played with a ball.

  His biggest advantage was his Eruption, which was both effective and costly. The two main ways of using it would be an all out eruption to shred anything in his path but also rendered him weakened for too long, the other was the sustained use of spacing his erupted steps, to accelerate immensely in speed, the problem was that gauging the distance was still too hard. It didn’t even really feel like running, but more like small jumps from foot to foot. Point was, he still wasn’t able to use it in a fight.

  He might have become too complacent after discovering that he could consume heart blood. No, he became reckless. His regeneration, made him gloss over most wounds, but he can’t forget that a lack of essence also meant he wouldn’t be able to regenerate. Essence, which he didn’t have much left of, he was practically running on fumes.

  Feeling anxiety creeping up, he took a deep breath to calm his nerves. Everything will be fine.

  – 13.4 Kilometers until Vanguard.

  Walking along a clearly used path, they crossed a small hill, a small plateau expanding before them. The sky was clear, the air chilling yet refreshing. They have seen a particular mountain range all day, and standing atop the hill, Clay was finally able to exhale in relief.

  Forming an inner circulation to his eyes, his vision immediately cleared, and he felt his vision expanding, like binoculars he was able to see the happenings in the distance at much greater detail.

  Towering in the distance was a mountain range, with a large valley in between, it was hard to make out from this distance, but he could see vast expanding fields that laid fallow. The few stems dotting here and there suggested that it had been cultivated and harvested before.

  It hadn’t this perfect square structure that modern fields usually had, which meant they were freshly planted and by the size of it by no small number of people. Indeed, he could spy well – he hesitated to call them houses as they reminded him more of shacks, but they at least seemed to be lived in, judging from the small columns of smoke rising from a few of them.

  Straining his eyes further, he was able to make out moving shadows, no, not mere shadows, but silhouettes of people! Following the paths around the fields, he came ever closer towards the valley, with increasing distance the shacks seemed to multiply in number.

  Until finally, shack after shack was aligned against a towering ‘wall’, stretching twice over the tallest shack he could spot. If you could call the pristine mix of stone, a wall, rather than an extension of the surrounding mountain. Yet it was neither rugged and sharp nor stretching high enough, to be natural, it was clearly man-made.

  Smooth like polished iron, the sun reflected upon it’s surface, and Clay knew of only one thing that could accomplish such a feat. Even modern technology wouldn’t be able to make a wall that looked as if it was formed by wax rather than solid stone.

  Finally having seen enough, Mia let out a happy squeal. “This is it!” Pulling Clay along his arm, she smiled brightly, her teeth fully showing, “We found proper civilization! The Vanguard exists!”

  When was the last time he had seen her smile like that? “Should we race?”

  There wasn’t a moment of hesitation as Mia sprinted downhill, leaving only the words “You bet!” in her trail. Giving her a small head ups, he smiled before holding his essence in his right leg and shot off. By the third step, he overtook Mia.

  “Not fair!” raged Mia as Clay shot past her and towards civilization. Maybe there was yet hope, as he laughed against the wind rushing past him.

  – End of Book 1: A Promise takes Roots