Running through the streets with Cyrus guiding them, the group heard the loud fluttering of the beast behind, its shadow big enough that it darkened the area briefly with every flap of the wings. Heavy breathing and rattling grow as the beast flew, the head swaying back and forth on the generated breeze.
Theodore managed to catch sight of the beast above, it's scaly, black, elongated, large, has the head of a viper, looked like a sky serpent with centipede like legs that went down both sides of the body.
Swaying in the air, it hissed, and Cyrus had everyone duck underneath an overturned truck's flatbed with them huddling close together as they hoped the beast didn't descend from the skies above.
His long arm pulling Lila close, Theodore saw the beast as it flew over them, the wings flapping deafened him as he heard them whipping in the generated breeze, the hiss loud as the beast swayed in the breeze.
The golden eyes glistened in the pale grey light as the beast continued flying until it passed over the buildings ahead, disappearing into yonder.
It took a few minutes before the group gained enough courage to leave the safety of their hiding place, looking over yonder where the beast disappeared.
"Wh-what the hell was that?" Lila squeaked as she unconsciously held onto Theodore's arm, frightened by the sight of the beast.
Cyrus tells her it's one of the many large beasts that periodically come out of their dens and hunt the lesser beasts on the ground.
He assessed that it once was a pit viper, decades of mutating and breeding bore the fruit of a massive creature likened to the mythical Quetzalcoatl.
"That's just one of them," he tells Theodore and Lila that there's a diverse ecology born from the nuclear fallout, the next one they'll face wouldn't look the same as this, and he attests this with a wearied look in his eyes.
The one he and the men faced before them, he's certain used to be one of the Siberian tigers that once roamed the zoo, becoming flying demons that hunted people.
Slowly, the group moved onward, their legs trembling with fear as they feared that the Quetzalcoatl would've returned at any point, this time, it'll notice them.
Theodore and Lila shared looks, knowing that Cyrus wouldn't listen to them, he wanted nothing more than to find the power plant, and they shared their concerns privately.
"I don't like this," Lila frowns as she looks at Theodore while they walked while they telepathically conversed.
Theodore agreed with her as he responded, "I know, Lee, but we can't exactly tell them about Al and have him bring us back."
Lila listlessly nodded as she still frowned and Theodore asked what became of the TARDIS.
"Couldn't stick around long, said the whole area's messing with his… whatcha call 'em… he's hanging back for a bit, but he said if we had any problems, he'll pick us up in a jiffy," Lila replied that the TARDIS couldn't remain in its avatar state for long. A mix of the radiation and chaotic energy proved difficult for the aging machine to handle, that it needed to withhold resources for emergencies.
It'll have enough to get them when they need it, but for now, it's hunkered down where it's safe until then.
Nodding, Theodore frowns as he pondered their situation, stuck out in the open of a nuclear fallout world where there's mutated creatures on the cusp of killing them if the situation arises and they're in a terrible predicament where they can't risk Cyrus abandoning them, but they fear that Barkov told the truth.
Using the psychic paper wouldn't work, Cyrus' mind's too set on this, and that alone made him impossible to convince.
"Tell me you have a plan," Lila looked towards Theodore with worry in her chestnut eyes and he comforts her, saying that he'll think of something.
Don't know what that is, but it'll have to do, because they found the sign for the power plant and the building loomed in the distance.
Uneasily, they looked where Barkov said the fighting happened, but there's no bodies on the ground, only rubble, and remnants of blood.
Presumed the bodies became food for the remaining mutant dogs that the group failed to kill or other beasts, dragged them away into their nests.
Looking ahead, they see the Midsomer Nuclear Power Plant in the distance, like a castle, blackened by the heat of the bombs, somehow standing despite other buildings around it demolished completely.
Against themselves, Theodore and Lila followed the group on the path up to the power plant. Cobbled, broken in areas, some areas completely devoid of cobblestone.
The grass turned into dead spiny yellowed vines that crumbled under their feet as they walked up the intact staircase.
Large gothic doors waited for them and they expected resistance opening the doors, but as Cyrus tested them, he found that the doors opened without issue inward.
"Maybe Camp Alpha got inside?" Vodka looked to his team for guidance as he's baffled that the doors opened inward without them doing anything more than turning the handles.
Boris agreed with Theodore and Lila's quiet opinions, something isn't right, but Cyrus remained convinced that something's worthwhile inside, and he commanded his team to follow him inside.
Reluctantly, they followed him inside where it opened up into a wide area that once was the main floor where customers came to pay bills directly or dispute them and workers coming in for their shifts.
There's an emblem etched into the ground with Cyrillic writing in the navy blue and gold emblem.
Didn't know what it meant, but Vodka translated it as: light for the people. A company slogan.
So far, the main floor's sparse, nothing of interest, but chairs where customers sat as they waited for their turns, and an area where security guards stood daily.
Cyrus looked for a map for the interior the building with Vodka's help, leaving the others looking around the main floor with their Geiger counters barely clicking.
"Never expected a place like a power plant having any supplies," Lila commented that it's a first that the power plant held valuable supplies.
Boris replied that when it comes to survival, no one shouldn't overlook potential hiding places for their supplies, even if it didn't make sense.
"So, what if someone hid supplies in a prison?" Lila asked him what he thought about the idea and he snorted, saying prisons became one of the first fortresses after the bombs dropped.
Lila asks why that is and Boris replied that the prisons he knows, built like castles, fortified like them, too, inner courtyards and all. They stood better than other buildings when the bombs dropped and due to their fortified natures keeping prisoners in, the idea became that they'll keep the monsters and beasts out.
Problems came with the radiated prisoners that survived after the initial bombs, but they suffered a merciful end once the survivors dealt with them, their bodies buried in lead caskets.
After establishing a stronghold over the prisons, they became one of the better places to stay if not underground or elsewhere.
Boris knows of two camps that took over the prisons for their benefit, Camp Beta and Camp Gamma, they're strict hardened military type camps, everybody who joins them have their jobs, and everyone's expected to do said jobs, else they risked disciplinary actions.
Worst case scenario's execution by gunfire.
"I'm guessing they didn't help with the power plant job, right?" Lila summed that the camps wouldn't spend time helping other camps over a power plant.
Summarizing, Boris said that he doubted that they even thought about the other camps.
They've got their own systems and they don't often come and trade with the other camps, much less lent intel.
"Um, should we be worried about them?" Lila asks if they're similar to Omega and Boris replied they're not, they have no problems killing anyone from Omega, though.
Their military training keeps them from making trouble and if they encountered types like Theodore and Lila, they'd probably make sure they get back to their respected camps, like Camp Prime, rather, than leave them out in the ruins.
"If you want to know a camp that even Omega despises, you should avoid the likes of those from Camp Wolfenstein. Spineless kozyol!" Boris pointed his gloved hand as he mentioned them a camp so despised that even camps like Omega couldn't stand them and that's something with all things considering what they knew about the camp.
Theodore asked what the camp's about that even Camp Omega couldn't stand them and Boris bluntly responded that they're Nazis. Trying desperately with little books and scriptures they're able to dig out of the rubbles of the Ruins, attempting at reclaiming what little of the ideology lost and using it to the logical conclusion that no one gets into their camp without passing their tests and they're not shy from showing their disregard to anyone they considered 'inferior.'
Especially children.
If there's so much of an indication that a child born in their camp's 'inferior' the child ended up thrown into a special hole dug below the camp that led into the open sewers where known beasts stayed around because of how many children ended up thrown into the hole.
Parents desperate to save their children have known to plummet into the hole, trying their damndest to fend off the beasts that claimed them without failure.
Camp Omega, with its enslavement of women, abuse towards those within the camp, and everything else, hated Camp Wolfenstein purely out of disregard for the camp's ideology.
According to them, Camp Wolfenstein tried to paint itself as a normal camp that's trying its hardest surviving the hellish landscape they're living in now, like any other camp, but with a red brush.
In Camp Omega's eyes, Camp Wolfenstein's worse than them, purely because they don't acknowledge the atrocities they commit, trying to paint themselves as heroes, and lording over those lucky enough to 'pass' their tests, as they attempted to present themselves as sympathetic leaders.
Even if they have better standing to some degree than Camp Omega, just because they wear better clothes and have better weapons doesn't make them any different.
As clean as they looked with their well-made uniforms, they're just monsters that speak like humans.
Damning, coming from the likes of Camp Omega.
"Why would anyone go to a camp like that?" Theodore wondered what would've driven people to try their hand at a camp like Wolfenstein, as infamous as it sounded, and Boris informed him that desperation comes with desperate acts.
People without a home have to make do with what they find, even if it's a cardboard box, and many attempted to try their hand with Wolfenstein, hoping that it's better than surviving on their own out in the Ruins.
Sometimes they're right, but often than not, they're proven wrong, and punished for it.
"If those camps are such stains, why doesn't anyone do anything about them?" Lila inquired that if camps like Omega and Wolfenstein weren't regarded well, then surely the other camps would've taken upon themselves to rid them before they cause even more trouble.
Boris summed as he looked through the empty rooms down a hallway with them in tow, "It's not worth the tribulations."
Despite their discontent with those camps, none of the others able to do anything about them, they're scrapping by as is, they risked ending up in even worse positions trying to deal with camps like Omega and Wolfenstein.
Rather risk it, they'll deal with the members on a day-to-day basis as needed, a fragile truce, only if the camps prove too much, then they'll see repercussions.
Of course, nobody needs wars during the troubling times as it is, some savour them, likeminded others such as Boris don't want any for simplistic reasons.
The moment they start warring with one another, the perfect time for the beasts unable to take them on's going for the easy kills, not just that, the loudness from the war's bound to wake something below the earth that isn't due for another month.
"And when that day comes, God help us all," Boris summed what'll happen if it comes to war and it inevitably wakes something from its sleep earlier than expected.
Nobody, not even Wolfenstein, wanted that.
They continued their conversations as they went over the empty rooms, looking for anything of interest, but there's nothing, nothing of value to the camps, that is, and as Lila sees the state of the offices, they looked untouched since the day the bombs dropped.
Nothing but staples, scissors, office supplies, but Boris told Lila to take the scissors with her, they're good weapons to have, especially if she pries them apart.
Light, rubber handles so they're easy to grip, sharp, they'll do numbers on anything that tries launching themselves at her.
Limited in use, sure, but in a bind, they're worth a try, and Lila acknowledged Boris' advice, taking the scissors she found in a drawer before rejoining Theodore.
Reaching the end of the hallway, the group didn't find anything of interest, and they're coming back down the hallway, hoping to run into Cyrus and Vodka having returned from searching for a map of the place.
While walking close to Theodore, Lila felt that strange feeling again, the feeling of someone watching her, and when she lightly turned her head to look over her shoulders, she swore seeing a tall dark figure in the corner of one of the half-closed office doors.
There's no visible eyes, but Lila felt them on her, and Theodore sensed her discomfort that he asked what's wrong.
When Lila turned her head to tell him, he turned his head back towards the office door, but the figure wasn't there, anymore.
"You don't think Barkov's whistling Dixie, is he?" Lila wearily asks Theodore privately while they're following Boris and the other men.
Uneasy himself, Theodore winces as he answered that they don't have enough proof, but he's not green.
Keeping Lila close, Theodore walks with her as they went down the empty hallway, only their footsteps echoed.