Glynda stood by the broken doorway in a crouched position facing outwards into the streets, her weapon perfectly held in comfort by her arms with the butt end resting against the curve of her arm that headed up towards her shoulder. Legs spread apart and placed firmly on the floor for balance, her spectacle covered eyes staring ahead into what seemed to be an empty street.
The past month had gone by rather well for the most part, after learning of Jaune and Yang's talk with Pyrrha, Glynda noticed that the red headed girl seemed to be going back to her usual optimistic and calm self. It brought a smile to the woman's lips at the thought, she thought that Pyrrha would forever change because of the incident and that she would end up shutting herself down mentally.
Of course, while it hadn't been a drastic change that had overcome Pyrrha after her separate talks, but Glynda could tell that a natural change was taking place. When asked, Yang had told Glynda what she told Pyrrha exactly, it broke Glynda's heart a little to know what Yang had to do to her own mother. And yet, Glynda felt a soft pang of pride upon hearing how both girls had learned to just… deal with it. It was a pride like that of a relative looking at their kids and screaming to a crow "That's my girl! That's my son!"
After that the days seem to pass without much on the side of tragedy or drama in the camp, though there were the few times that Ruby's and Weiss's voices broke out in their usual arguments. (And Ozpin did manage to break down recently when he realised they had ran out of coffee, almost shedding a tear) Aside from that, most days seemed…. Almost clam, where you could feel so close to just forgetting what's happening around you, but there's always that small dreaded part of your mind that sparks up, that growls in your ear to keep the image of the hell you live in fresh in your mind.
The sudden clap of footsteps atop the smooth ground pulled Glynda out of her thoughts as she whipped around with her weapon thrusted forward to aim towards the noise, her eyes narrowed to search for any sign of movement amidst the abandoned building. Her first thought was to alert attacker to her presence and threaten to shoot at it, but her wavering doubt told her that there was a chance that it was a Grim that hadn't noticed her, alerting would only startle it and possibly attract more.
Her only options were to get as far away from the location as possible or press further inside and possibly sneak up on the threat, the fact that Ozpin was currently investigating outside for any signs of movement made escaping a risk to him if he came into the house oblivious to the danger.
So her decision was to push on and show this intruder who had the firearm. Speaking of firearms… She found her gaze moving down to inspect her weapon of choice, an old rifle that felt heavy in her hands. If I kill anything with that, it's going to be loud… Better stick to a melee, in case anything else is lingering near by. She pulled the weapon up and over her shoulder to cling to her back, held up by a strap that loosely held it.
As Glynda pushed herself forward she reached towards her side to pull out an average sized army knife, freshly scrubbed clean of dirt and previously spilled blood (For all her flaws, Glynda had to admit that Stonewall had a good head for cleaning weapons…) with it's sharp end glaring menacingly back at her, ready to be dirtied again.
The clap came again from the other room, joined by quiet thump as something small was knocked to the ground violently. The ex-store owner sucked in her breath to take away the sound of her breathing as she continued forwards, her pace slow and careful to avoid stepping on the multitude of objects littering the ground, her knife held in front of her with the butt of the handle facing her chest in case of the weapon being pushed back on accident.
Soon she had reached the intact side of the door frame that had long since let go of it's broken door, which now laid on the ground in a limp state that reminded Glynda of a corpse. She pressed her shoulder into the door frame and moved her head past it to get a peek around the doorway, when her eyes reached around and into the room they found their gaze falling upon what was defiantly a grim.
The creature had seemed to have been human at one point, with bony arms and other distinctly human features mixed in with what seemed like jet black fur, coupled with horns that were growing out of various places on the body. So this is what happens when you're turning to long…
There had been reports of similar transformations taking place in other Grim left active in their area, the savage inclinations increasing to mimic those of the creature Glynda still remembered just escaping from that day five years ago. Some speculated that this was just the virus changing over time as it got through more of the human body.
The creature began to attempt a limp crawl over towards the window with it's various horns constantly beging pushed deeper into the creature's body as it pushed them against the floor, with every step of the way causing it to moan out an anguish, but quiet scream.
Glynda took a moment to formulate a plan on how she would take care of the beast, before nodding to herself in conformation of understanding, taking a quick draw of breath before rasping her knuckles against the doorframe.
The response was an instantaneous growl from the creature inside the room as it twisted around to face the door, it's eyes holding only a savage hunger as it glared at the air, stalking towards the door with it's horns scraping against the ground.
She positioned herself just by the corner with her head peaking around it to look towards the approaching shadow, her hand shaking in anticipation while gripping the handle of the knife tightly. Flip, grab, aim for the mouth, stab. She went over her plan again in her head with a slight intake of breath, the groaning foot steps padding closer, emitting a groan from the floor as the horns scraped against it.
The three clawed foot of the creature made it's appearance through the door, it's snarling head soon following as it pushed through with it's leg dragging behind it. It's soulless eyes surveyed to room like a hawk, it's nose twitching slightly as it started to sniff the air for Glynda's scent. That's when she struck.
In one whirl of action and desperation Glynda pushed her self around the corner and threw herself towards the creature in a attempt to tackle it, managing to catch it by surprise and completely topple it to the ground. As the growing horns delivered a cut across the woman's skin the creature attempted to let out a howl, to which Glynda on delivered a blow to its throat, causing it's howl to damper in volume as it attempted it.
Glynda shifted her weight so that she sat with her legs either side of the creature's body, pinning half of it down as it continued to struggle, the horns on it's swinging arms managing to deliver more cuts on the woman. It attempted to growl yet again, but Glynda pushed her free hand against it's chin to push it's mouth shut. Keep it shut, don't let it's teeth free.
One horn on it's elbow managed to cut into the fabric covering Glynda's waist, causing a nice tear through her shirt with a gash to go with it as well as a choked scream of pain from Glyna. "Arg, Shit!" She continued to apply pressure to the swollen chin as the beast continued to struggle, a part of her hoping that the creature's teeth were beginning to break from the pressure.
She moved her knife above the creature's malformed head after it attempted to swipe her a few more times, before slamming the knife down to stab into the darkening flesh, blood of the same shade starting to leak out of the new wound. Before it had a chance to reel at the stab, Glynda brought up the knife and with the same force brought it slamming back down into the rotten skin, not hesitating to continue to repeat this process as the creature below her began to flail again.
It's arm came up again to slash at her as her knife attempted to come down on it, the arm managing to slap the knife away from Glynda's grasp and send it flying across to floor much to Glynda's dismay. Leaving her near defenceless against the creature as it began to fight back against the hand on it's chin, her other hand attempting to reach out towards the knife that lay so close, yet just so far.
She felt her weight shift unintentionally as the Grim struggles became more violent, it's arms beating against Glynda in hopes that it would land a fatal blow the woman's body. This stopped her progress in reaching the knife when she had to bring back her arm to stop an arm from driving it's horn into her eye, which was a struggle in itself as the beast applied it's strength to the attack and started to push her back.
This thing is stronger then me, I can't push it back much longer! I just need that knife… Her gaze darted towards the knife and looked towards the distance in between her and her weapon, judging it to far to reach from her current position. I need to get off the Grim if I am to reach the knife, but me pinning it down was my only advantage. Her gaze switched again as the horn started to close in on her eye, causing her to grit her teeth at the situation and decide on a plan.
If this plan had any chance of working she needed to be fast in grabbing the knife and returning to stab the Grim, if she wasn't fast enough the Grim would be the one pinning her down with it's teeth digging into her flesh. I don't have a choice…
It's jaws started to pry themselves apart to reveal the sharp gleaming teeth that seemed to look towards her with a menacing glare, giving her more incentive to act at that moment as she narrowed her eyes. Using most of her strength she gave the arm in her face one big push backwards, allowing her to duck her head and swing her body weight to the side, rolling off of the Grim and onto the floor. The momentary surprise of her action providing her a few seconds to act, not one to waste time she pushed her self up and rushed towards her fallen weapon.
A growl came from behind her as the creature began to move from the floor, adjusting it's arms as it pushed off from the floor and bounded after the scurrying woman. Glynda seemed to have better skill in her rush as she didn't have the disadvantage of hindering limbs, she only guessed this as she heard a growl of frustration from the Grim from behind her as it tumbled to the side off of it's horned hand.
Her knees only carried her so fast however as she felt her knee cap groan in pain as she hit to the floor knee first, her feet only managing to push her a few inches with every step. She could hear the beast behind her starting to get closer to her form, it's breath could be felt from behind her.
As the beast caught up to her with it's teeth bare for her to see, Glynda managed to reach out and firmly grasp the handle of the knife, the Grim letting out a roar as pushed off of the floor and pounced towards Glynda.
The woman whirled around on the spot with the knife back in hand to give extra momentum, driving the knife through to air and into the pouncing creature's head and forcing it through until she was pushing the Grim to the ground with all her might.
The knife dug deep into the flesh of the struggling Grim with minimal effort as dark blood gushed from it's wound, Glynda managing to hold the position as the Grim slowly but surely began to stop struggling, soon going completely limp and dropping to the floor, dead.
Glynda let out a gasp of her breath as she crawled back to lean on the wall, her chest and shoulders rising and falling with every intake. She readied the knife again on instinct as she heard footsteps approaching, these ones seeming more balanced then that of a Grim.
"Glynda, I found so-" Ozpin pushed through into the building to find the site of Glynda's struggle, blinking for a moment before striding over to Glynda and kneeling beside her with a medical kit in hand. "So, you've been busy"
Glynda chuckled slightly with a grimance as she adjusted her position and raised her shirt, revealing the gash from the grim's spikes. "I didn't call for help because I didn't want to alert it… In hines sight though…" She managed a hurt smile as Ozpin began to wrap a bandage around her wound, soon finishing with a roll of his eyes.
"Have you explored yet?" He inquired, to which Glynda only shook her head as she got to her feet. "As I was saying earlier, I found something. There are bandits nearby raiding a store, I don't know how long it will be until they come here, but I suggest we take whatever we can with haste"
Glynda nodded in agreement and proceeded into the room she had found the Grim in, her eyes surveying the multitude of scrapped objects and parts. Empty cans, rotting apples, pages, a radio… Nothing of large value here…
"Urg, I don't think there's anything to find here. Maybe we should just move before bandits arrive" She turned to Ozpin with a shrug as she phrased her suggestion, her breathing dropping to a slow and steady pace.
A shot rang out from the outside and echoed through out the building before Ozpin could attempt a reply to Glynda's question, causing both to instinctivly to drop to a crouch as they rushed towards the door to inspect the sudden shot.
As they approached the doorway they could hear a few grunts and the cock of a gun, a small deep chuckle comming from the same direction when tehy reached the window. "Stop moving before I shoot off your knee cap!"
Ozpin peered over the window while narrowly avoiding a cut from the broken glass, his eyes meeting a grim looking scene as a woman stared down her rifle as she aimed it at the man that stood in front of her. The woman looked fairly brutal with scars dotting her face along with a few blood stains on her coat, which made the red heaired man in front of her look almost posh. He was dorned in an aged green trenchcoat that covered most of his body, a white mask that seemed to be in the shape of a wolf's facial features sheltered the man's face, only letting an inkling of his pale skin visable.
The man stood silently with a glare boring into the woman's sneering face as she gave out a dark chuckle, gesturing with her gun as she began to speak. ''Alright, why don't you just take off that warm looking coat and hand over any valuables you have. Then I'll consider killing you quickly" Her only answer was his continued silence as he let his arm rest by his side. "What? You a mute or somthing? Hand over your shit, or should I just start bleeding ya, maybe leave you alive for the Grim"
It was then that the male finally muttered something that Ozpin just managed to hear from the distance, though it didn't really seem like a reply. "One shot, five second reloading time. Only four seconds needed."
"Huh? You say somthing asshole? Speak up!" She gestured a bit more with the gun to enphesise her deman, but the man only gave her a defying glare right back, to which she replied with a snarl. "Alright then, don't say I didn't warn ya when you get to the pearly gates!" She raised the gun with her finger on the trigger while the man instictivly twisted his foot, crouching slightly as she pulled back on the trigger.
As soon as she fired her weapon the man pushed off of his feet to side, the shot completly missing the man in a showcase of the woman's clunky aim. THis allowed him to rush forward as she staggered back due to the recoil, only just managing to get her bearings as the man reached her and grabbed the rifle, pushing it up and slamming it into the side of her head.
The woman lurched sideways as she attempted to regain her lost balance, but the man simply drive his knee into her stomach, knocking the widn out of her and alowing him to take the rifle and slam his elbow into her back, sending the woman to the ground.
She landed with a gasp of pain as her head crashed with a wound now gushing from her forehead, her arms struggling forward to try and push herself up, but the man didn't allow her as he stomped his foot on her back, holding the gun with a disgusted sigh while placing his other foot on her head. "What a waste of ammo" With that he slammed his foot down into the back of her neck, giving out a loud snap as the woman joined the world of the dead, leaving only the blood of her gushing wound behind.
The man let out a sigh before reaching into the depths of his trenchcoat to retrive what seemed to be some sort of walkie-talkie, his thumb slipping over a button and pressing down on it as he began to spoke. "I ran into some bandits on my way to Jared, they're probably the reason he's not been responding"
After a few moments of static there came a short reply. "Aww, and I liked Jared. He had such a punchable face" The voice held a swauve and lighthearted tone, the easy disregard for the life of 'Jared' seemed to annoy the male (And angered both Ozpin and Glynda). "Just leave our mark and come back, we have no further buissness in this dry ghost town"
The man simply nodded to himself as he placed the device back into the folds of his trenchcoat, his hand then pulling out a roll of paper, which he unrolled and dropped onto the corpse of the bandit. Turning on his heel and proceeding to walk down the abandoned street in silence aside from his footsteps.
When the man had dissappeared from sight both Glynda and Ozpin vaulted over the window, making their way quickly over to where the corpse now laid with the paper atop it. Ozpin was quick to kneel down and pick up the paper and roll it out fully to get a good look, the sight that greeted him was simple, yet strange.
It showed a large face of what seemed to be a blood red wolf that held three scars that crossed through it, behind it a bright start seemed to light it up as if trying to depict a heavenly glow. Below the wolf was a few bold sentences
Through the blood of humanity, through the darkest of days.
Follow the whispers of purity to Salvation
"There's just a line of numbers after that... Wait, is that a radio frequency?" Ozpin blinked for a second as he examined the poster with interest, adjsuting his specticles as he rolled it back up and pocketed it. "Wasn't there a radio back in the building?"
A few minuets later the two found them selves in back in the small room with the body of the now dead Grim letting out a rotton smell in the other room, Glynda fiddling with the radio as Ozpin read out the numbers. After a few more tries and a sequence of static, there came a simple sequence of beeps to confirm that there was a broadcast.
"I have a bad feeling about this..." Glynda muttered as the beeping continued a few more times, suddenly stopping as a small out take of brezth was heard over it, the person on the other end began to talk.
"This world is a desolate ruin of what it once was, a husk that continues to drain every living being that graces it. We are force to hide and wallow in the darkest pits to survive, digging through corpses that we made to survive. The world is no more. But, there is hope. Through the blood of humanity, through the darkest of days. Rising from the ashes of civilisationa and rising above that of the Grim. We are hope, we are purity, we are the future. We will lead you to the promise land, to salvasion. We are, The White Fang"