CHAPTER 01 – The Land of Salt
How many months has it been? How many years?
Now it just felt as though it had all blurred together to the point where it could no longer seem any different. But there was one other thing.
A sickness claiming so many lives with much of humanity was now on the brink, many choosing to travel to some far-off place and never return in the hopes that they would be able to avoid the disaster that seemed to bring down the once countless cities all across the globe.
All the while, the remnants of humanity continued to grasp at what remained of this crumbling society. They clung to it, like mud on a shoe.
Once, there had been talks of walled cities, trying to keep a specific disease contained within its high colossal walls before they crumbled like dust, much like those who perished from it. Or a place across the ocean shrouded in the consistent night where many believed paradise awaited.
It was something that had been talked about over and over again until it faded into obscurity. Where now, it seemed to be no longer relevant to the remaining people who merely wished to survive. Words of gossip and remnants of a now-dead history.
The year was 2052, or was it more than that?
Everything felt the same to where she could no longer tell how many years it had been. Yet that didn't deter the land with a thick coating of white as far as the eye could see.
This was not snow. No, sadly, it was salt.
Salt that once was many human beings, humans who became infected by a disease and were offered a choice once infected—a choice coming from unknown beings with no clear goal. The choice to become apart of something only known as Legion, to fight and kill any other humans regardless of who they were as a collected hive mind with no free will of their own or reject it and die turning into nothing more than pillars salt.
Stopping at the top of a salt coated hill, the young woman named Reina knelt on the ground and, with her gloved hands, scooped up some of the salt and stared at it intently through her goggles. This salt was once a person, a person like that of her brother and parents, many families who died from the continuing disease known as White Chlorination Syndrome or WCS for short. To this day, a horrible illness still saw no cure and was slowly bringing the destruction of humanity down to the earth. It was somewhat poetic that this was the possibility for humanity's end, even though many saw hope for the future.
A hope that she could not understand no matter how hard she tried.
Reina merely went day by day as best she could. The salt slipped through her fingers like sand on a beach. She stood and wiped her gloved hands off of her pants before readjusting her mask. The winds howled lowly. Behind her were buildings of a city, one of many abandoned since the outbreak cut through like so many others before it, infecting thousands upon millions with WCS all those years ago.
With many of the significant cities abandoned due to fear of infection, there was nothing to fear for her. She dealt with it once, and now it was nothing.
Reina walked through the ruins of this city, a portion of it long abandoned, while in the distance, high in the sky, she could see the outline of a towering wall that had been erected in the hopes for people of this city to remain safe—cutting them off from the rest of the world.
Or so she could only assume. Reina had never seen what was beyond these towering walls, but for all she knew, it could have very well meant the eventual fate that fell to the rest of them, or that it might have already happened only that no one knew. The sounds of her footsteps echo as she walked through the empty streets, the metal pipe she carries in her left hand as both a weapon and a walking stick. Bright blue eyes shifting from behind her goggles as she looks above and ahead as the salt drifts down. Wary of what might be lurking within the crumbling buildings of old.
Over time she had seen people reform civilization outside the walls, creating towns and villages only for it to collapse at the hands of those who were apart of Legion. Those who had formed a pact with whatever brought the WCS into the world. Yet, what felt like not much time after began the appearance of black shadow creatures known as Shades to the average populous. She found herself somewhat confused by this; where had they come from? What were they exactly?
However, these questions would go unanswered, for Reina would often avoid going to these still thriving towns and villages unless she could help it and would often take on odd jobs. Much like now.
Though she found that some of these Shades seemed to be relatively harmless, at least the smaller ones, when it came to people infected with the sickness, Reina would do her best to avoid those possessed by Legion. The red eyes being a strong indicator of this.
That was something that caused her to be wary most, if not all the time. Though she was more than capable of handling herself when it came to deal with those who were infected, Reina instead preferred not running into them at all if possible.
Thankfully as of now, there were none in the current area. It was something a villager told her from a not too distant small town that would pay her for collecting things that this person needed but was too scared to venture into the abandoned city themselves.
Heading into one of the buildings and up several floors, Reina founded what she needed. It was several cans of food; there were many, more than enough for what that person needed. And even for herself.
She paused when hearing something off in the distance. Lifting her goggles, she watched as something was shot up into the sky. A stream of smoke left a trail of what was heading up towards a faintly visible moon. Reina frowned, wondering what that could have been. But those thoughts fell short when she heard something from below.
Quickly she put her goggles back on, tightened her hood, and grabbed several more cans before heading down the decaying stairs.
It was a familiar sound that she knew well be now. Grasping the pipe tightly in her hands, she kept her back to the wall, eyes surveying the room, keeping an eye out for those that would attack her.
It was then that something began to move underneath the stairs. Underneath her. Quickly Reina jumped off and faced what broke through another floor. Reina braced herself with gritted teeth as the black creature, which had a weapon of its own, went to attack her.
With her weapon in hand, she forced it back, hitting it repeatedly until it fell to the ground, now lifeless as a red ooze came from it, almost like blood. It was a strange sight indeed, no real idea as to why.
What's more, these creatures had not appeared until in the past few years. Around the same time as the appearance of peculiar copies of black books, this book had a face—something Reina quickly avoided.
Something about the book made her feel almost uncomfortable. Added to the fact that when she first tried to touch a black book, something inside of her gave a violent reaction—making her feel sick, causing her to vomit. And with a red hazed vision, she realized that there was something within these peculiar books that could have an even worse effect on her if she dared to touch it.
So, she burned the black book and the place that she had been staying in for a short time. Feeling that was the only real way to be rid of it, and those who had so quickly found her in the first place practically undetected. Whoever had left the book wanted her to touch it, for something to happen, and if she had, they would probably be watching from a distance with great intensity.
Reina readjusted her shoulder bag with a ragged breath before heading out of the decrepit building and walked back to where she had left her horse. Tightening her hood, she kept her ears and eyes open for more of those creatures or infected.
Either way, she would have rather preferred not to run into anything else. Human beings, most of all…
When Reina reached her horse, it greeted her with a rather pleasant snort. Something of which that took no time in gaining trust. Typically, animals were scared of her, not that she could blame any of them for it. But because of that, this stubborn horse seemed all the more compelled in wanting to be by her side.
Even others who tried to catch this tremendous black beauty couldn't seem to keep a steady hand. Yet this creature seemed fine with Reina. As if it was seeing through her like a window to know what she was really. The horse trotted up to her in gallant strides before coming to a stop, waiting silently.
At first, it shocked her. But as the beast continued to follow Reina around wherever she went, regardless of where. She felt that she had no choice but to take him with her since it seemed to have no intention of leaving.
She named the beast Rostam, a rather fitting name considering it; rather, he was powerful and robust, he seemed to have no fear of anything and looked to be even greater than regular horses.
Giving Rostam a comforting pat on his muscular neck before hoisting herself into the saddle, and pulled the reins to direct him into the direction that they needed to return to.
As Rostam started in a faint jaunt, kicking up salt, leaving a trail behind them as Reina glanced back to the now growing distant decaying city. But it was only for a moment before looking straight ahead. For now, that's all she could do.
It was almost evening, yet the sun remained high in the sky as she continued to ride Rostam to the small town that had requested the specific items she had collected. The person in question was also at a local inn and stable for horses.
When she entered the towns' inn, she noted how there was barely anyone inside. She wasn't sure if it was because it was so late at night or if it was merely because there were few people. After all, many had died.
It could have been either one.
And at this point, all Reina wanted to do was survive. For as long as she was able.
Upon placing the requested canned food atop the bar, the man seemed both surprised but exceptionally pleased. He was pleased that he now got what he had wanted for some time and surprised that she managed to do it without dying, something that had happened to many other scavengers before her.
She was well aware of this.
She saw the bodies after all.
When finished, the man offered Reina a free room and a hot meal for the night, saying that she had earned more than her keep for a place to sleep and a free meal with what she had brought.
She declined the bed, stating that she would be sleeping in the stable with her horse in case something arises. But she would be grateful for some hot food, for it had been a long time since she had anything hot to eat considering how cold the weather had turned even though it was supposed to be summer.
The man tried to coax her into staying in a room, saying it was no place for a young girl to be out at night and in the stables no less. She merely responded with a shake of her head.
She had her reasons.
So, with a defeated sigh, the man made her a meal and even handed a large carrot, knowing that she came on horseback before she gave a faint word of thanks and headed to the stables. Rostam was clearly visible, for he was taller than any of the other horses corralled in the stable. His large head was poking out as if to keep an eye out for her or something else.
The massive beast crouched down as she moved to join him, a routine they both were more than accustomed to by this point. Reina handed the carrot to the horse before starting on her meal and began counting inventory of what she had collected for herself in what she could sell for later.
But it had long grown late, and with her stomach now satisfied with food, she pressed herself close to the horse as it let out deep breaths of sleep. And as she closed her eyes to bid the night goodbye, she clutched the staff close to her body.
Something of which that she had always done until the coming dawn of that ever-lasting sun that never set.