Chapter 25: Forgotten City, Part 1

Finn shivered as the temperature suddenly changed from warm to freezing. He wrapped his arms around himself as he shivered from the cold. He looked in all directions and saw the portal behind him, but other than that he was standing in the middle of nowhere surrounded by snow. His only piece of clothing keeping him moderately warm was his scarf. Seeing nowhere else to go, he started walking forward.

He walked for a few minutes as he squinted his eyes, trying to see something past the blizzard. The only thing to lead him were a few large wooden posts with wires connecting each one. He followed them for about an hour before leaning on one of them. He looked down at the stone as it glowed dimly.

"Any chance you could make me resistant to cold as well?"

As always, no answer came.

"I don't even know why I try."

As he continued walking for about an hour, he couldn't find a single trace of anyone. He fell to the ground on his knees, exhausted.

'I have to do it'

He was about to touch the gem on his chest to turn into a dragon when something caught his eye. The snow's intensity lowered a bit and allowed him to see a few structures in the distance. They looked like buildings, and a bit closer was a road that seemed to lead to it. Finn got up and began jogging towards the city.

As he walked across the road, he passed several overpasses and lamp posts. The road beneath him was black with intercut lines running across the center. As he got closer to the city, the structures began getting bigger. He was amazed by the colossal size of them. They made the Candy Kingdom palace look tiny by comparison.

They all had a gray-ish color to them and were completely covered with windows on all sides, however, most of them were shattered. Some were round but most had a square shape. In the street were dozens of cars, but like most of the ones in Ooo, they were broken beyond use and covered with snow. Wanting to get out of the cold, Finn entered a small building on the right of the road. As soon as he was inside, Finn rubbed his hands together quickly to warm them. He gave a sigh of relief being out of the cold.

'I should carry a jacket more often'

As he began to feel warmer again he looked around the building. It was clearly abandoned, with rust forming on most of the metal blades lying on a counter. There was a shattered mirror running along most of the wall in a horizontal form. In front of it were several black leather chairs attached to the ground by a metal tube with a handle sticking out of each one. On one of the corners on the wall was a vertical cylinder painted with blue, red, and white lines.

'A barber shop?'

He knelt down when the ground suddenly shacked. It only lasted a second but continued on one after another like a rhythm. Finn placed his back against the wall as he waited for it to stop. The shaking was like a massive beast walking along the ground. Then Finn heard a noise that confirmed that was the case. A roar, deep but at the same time combined with a howl filled the air as the trembling continued. After a few seconds of Finn thinking the roof would collapse, the trembling began to fade until it was fully gone.

Finn slowly got up and peeked out the window. The street looked like it did when he first saw it, save for a few extra shattered windows on the opposite buildings.

"What was that?"

He turned around back to the shop, not wanting to pursue the matter. He walked around the shop until he reached a back room. Inside were a few cardboard boxes lined on two shelves and a few clothes racks. On one of these racks Finn found a brown hoodie and put it on. Though it was a bit big he found it better than walking around in the snow with nothing. He exited the room and went outside the shop, only for his mouth to widen in complete surprise.

The snow was completely gone. There wasn't a single trace of it anywhere. The city was now illuminated brightly as the sun shined through the tall buildings. He tried to think that maybe the snow just stopped falling but it looked like it never fell in the first place.

'How?'

He continued to walk along the empty street, still confused. Without the snow it was a lot easier to see and the temperature was manageable. He decided to continue further into the city. As he walked the buildings began to seem taller. Finn felt like an ant next to the huge towers that cast large shadows across the streets. the entire city was deserted. It was a complete ghost town. As he went further in however, the destruction was more apparent.

The smaller buildings were missing huge chunks of their walls and looked ready to crumble. Most of the windows on the taller buildings were practically gone. The cars on the street were missing their tires and the paint on them seemed mostly rusted. But what fully caught his attention was a small crater on the middle of an intersection.

It wasn't very deep but its form was strange. It was round on one side, but on the opposite, it was split into three parts. Finn looked left and right and saw more craters on each side. They were all the same and pointed in the same direction. Finn realized they were footprints. He continued going forward, not following the prints in either direction.

As he walked along he came across a large line of green trucks with sheets covering most of the back. In the middle of the line there was a bulky dark green vehicle with a line of tires on each side surrounded by a long black rubber material. It had a long tube on the front and a few hatches on top. Finn remembered seeing a picture of something like it once in a book.

"A tank?"

He continued walking as the line of military vehicles had no end. He went past several more tanks but none of them seemed to be in working order. Not like he would be able to drive one, anyway. After about a mile of walking later, Finn stopped as he laid eyes on a destroyed intersection. A large object lay in the center of the road, mostly destroyed. Finn knew what it was as well.

'Helicopter'

The aircraft was twisted and bent everywhere, clearly indicating it crashed. While most of it was green, it had a lot of scorch marks along its sides. He noticed a figure lying on one of the seats in its front. He had a green uniform and was wearing a helmet over his head. He went towards it and slowly put his hand through the glass. The figure was unmoving, which led Finn to assume he was dead. He lifted his head and could see only his jaws, which were only bones.

Finn cringed at the sight, even though he'd seen dozens of skeletons in Ooo. He put his head back down then proceeded past the helicopter back to the street. He was getting frustrated that his search was getting him nowhere. All he could think of was Phoebe back in Ooo, having to face Parthrax without him there. The thought of returning to a completely destroyed home made him angry for not being there. Then again, it would be the same if he failed here.

As he walked along the street, he heard a faint 'clank' come from inside an alleyway to his right. He turned his head to look into it but saw nothing. He slowly began to walk inside the alleyway. There was not much in it beside a few trash bags and a green dumpster. As he got further in he kept hearing faint noises.

"Hello?"

He waited for a response, only for the noises to stop once he spoke. He narrowed his eyes as he saw something emerging from behind the dumpster. Finn drew his sword as it came into view.

Its body was light brown and heavily deformed. It had no mouth and no eyes, but each was leaking a strange green goo. Finn remembered it from the day he was stuck in a ditch with Bonnie, Jake, and James.

"Not you guys again."

The creature screeched loudly and ran towards Finn. The human slashed his sword sideways and the creature's head was sliced clean off, spurting the green goo upwards. Finn smiled as the creatures body hit the ground but quickly turned around when he heard even more screeching coming from multiple directions. He went outside the alleyway only to see more of them coming from the left. There were more to the right but they were fewer. Not wanting to get cornered, Finn dashed to the right.

As the creatures came closer, Finn turned slightly right and used a car to jump over the hoard. Once the other side, Finn kept running as fast as he could. As he did, he kept taking peeks back only to see dozens of them closing in behind.

'They're fast!'

As he ran, he saw another hoard running towards him from the front. He looked around, trying to find a different route. He saw an opened door in front of one of the buildings. In order to slow them down, Finn shot fire at one of the cars far to the front, making it explode and taking a good amount of the creatures with it. Not seeing another option, he ran inside and quickly shut the double doors behind him. He grabbed a steel pipe from the floor and placed it between the two handles a split second before the creatures began banging on the door. It shook a bit but it could hold them back for now.

Finn was now in complete darkness. The only source of light was a faint blue glow coming from the Dragonstone. He took off his backpack and searched around in it until his hands touched a flashlight. He held it but was worried it wouldn't work since he hadn't used it in a while.

"Please, please, please, please…"

He flicked the switch and grew a big smile as it illuminated the darkness with its white light. He pointed it forward and saw a wide staircase leading up. The only other way out was the door but the creatures were still outside. He began walking forward and up the stairs, seeing nothing but what the flashlight allowed him to.

At the top were two hallways that went left and right. Finn went left, ignoring the sound of the creatures banging on the door below. The hallway had many wooden doors on each side and split left and right at the end. As Finn neared the end of the hall, the flashlight went out.

"No, no. Don't do this to me now!"

After banging on it for a few seconds it came back on, only to illuminate a creature in right in front of him. Finn slashed at it with his sword but turned back when the doors behind him burst open, revealing more of the creatures. Finn began running towards the end of the hall and took a left. As he did, he saw a window at the very end. He used all his energy to run through it as a creature had grabbed his shoulder. The two of them fell several feet before hitting the ground, with the creature breaking Finn's fall.

He quickly got up and saw more of them approaching from both sides of the street. Not seeing another way to go, he prepared to take his dragon form. He was stopped by a loud thunder that caused the creatures to halt and look in one direction. Confused, Finn turned in the same direction, only to see a large gray cloud approaching fast.

The creatures all screeched and began running in the opposite direction, avoiding Finn. Before he could do the same, the cloud was now directly above him. A massive gust of wind followed by a lot of snow sent him flying back, causing him to hit a wall with his back and hitting his head. The strong winds were hurling sign posts, trash cans, and most items that weren't nailed to the ground. As he got dizzy, he noticed the winds were starting to calm down, but the streets were covered in snow once more.

His sight began to blur even more as the blow to his head made him extremely dizzy.

"No. I can't faint. Not here…"

The last thing he saw before everything went black was a shadowy figure standing above him.