JOSHUA'S GRIMM: SIDE STORY 1: THE CRADLE OF MADNESS

What is this that I can't see? An icy hand comin' over me. Well, I am Death none can excel. I'll open the door to heaven or hell. Oh, Death~... Oh, Death~... Won't you spare me over another year?... (Oh Death- Lauren O'Connel ver.)

Chapter 1: Unfamiliar Streets

When the bright light dissipated, I found myself standing in the middle of a fog-shrouded street I didn't recognize. I was standing on an asphalt street, but just where was I? Did I make it home? If so...then where In my world was I? Why was there fog everywhere I looked and no cars or people? I had one too many questions going through my mind at the start. A nasty thought then suddenly ran through my head: Check yourself to make sure you have everything! I began patting down my clothes and could feel everything from my gun and spare magazines to my lighter and cellphone were still in my coat pockets. I let out a sigh of relief as I saw the familiar green strap from my backpack across my chest. I looked to see If anyone else had been brought with me when the book Mimil was holding blinded us with whatever spell was unintentionally cast, and sure enough, everyone was lifting themselves off the ground. Mimil no longer had the book that caused all this which made my heart sink as I realized we might have to find some other way out of this mess.

"Wha-what just happened?" Wilmarina stuttered as she rubbed the back of her head with a confused look on her face.

They all looked around them in utter confusion. No one could see more than thirty yards through the fog and the strange surface of the asphalt perplexed them. I looked around and saw the road behind us was completely collapsed into a blackened abyss, giving us only one route: wherever the road in front of us lead. I watched Mersé kneel and rub the surface of the road with a gloved hand, unsure as to what it was. Elt, Eristia, Sasha, Primera, Mimil, and Yuriy were visibly on edge as they looked around and soon came to realize the road behind us was impassable.

"What the—why's the ground collapsed?" Primera asked in shock and anger as she looked down into the dark abyss below.

"Where are we?" Yuriy asked in confusion.

If we were standing on an asphalt road then that meant there might be a town close by. I took a deep breath as I pulled out my cellphone only to see there was no signal. I un-holstered my PA-63 as I began walking the only way I could go.

"Wait! Where are you going?!" Sasha hollered after me in a panic.

"Joshua, we should stick together! We don't know where we are or what's out there!" Eristia yelled out.

"This is an asphalt road which means we could be close to a town. I'm going on ahead to figure out just where in whatever world we are." I replied calmly as I turned to face them.

They all began to hesitantly follow after me. It wasn't long before we came upon a badly damaged and overturned sedan that lay on the right side of the road. The front end looked like something rather large had stepped on the engine compartment and the entire right side was smashed in, leaving deep gouges in the sedan's green paint. Everyone but me gave the car a worried look and I walked around all sides of the car.

"Hmmm…the front end and right side of the car are completely smashed and the glass is completely shattered, and from the looks of it whatever did this was gigantic. I'm not seeing any bodies inside so hopefully whoever the occupants were made it out okay… I'm not seeing any deep holes around so what on earth…?" I said as I knelt and looked inside the car.

Mersé gave me a puzzled look as she knelt on the other side of the car. She looked inside but neither of us saw anything useful inside. I shook my head as I stood up and refocused on following the road. They all gave me a concerned stare as I brushed the car off like it mattered little to me. I looked up at the sky and not a single ray of sunlight pierced through the grey, overcast sky above. I heard angry footsteps approach from behind and had an idea who it could be.

"Where are you going? Didn't you see that pile of scrap? Whatever did that would tear you to bits in a second!" Primera said angrily as she grabbed the back of my left shoulder.

"True, but I'll take my chances. It's better than sitting around and waiting for things to sort themselves out." I said calmly with a shrug as I turned to face her.

I had been in survival mode ever since I found out Lescatie's inquisition was looking for me and I was determined to live to see another tomorrow. If that meant putting myself in danger to make it home or making dubious deals with shady individuals to get what I wanted I was all for it. It wasn't the first time I had survived against all odds as I often used to run away from my terrible foster parents for days on end only for them to act like I hadn't even left when I got back. I pressed onward down the road and checked to see if they all were following me and they weren't far behind. I could hear them murmuring amongst each other, asking each other if it was a good idea to follow me. I noticed a green road sign starting to emerge from within the fog as we walked, but it was written in a completely alien language to me.

"Well, that doesn't do me a lot of good…can't read this to save my bacon…" I thought as I looked at the sign.

"Do you know what that sign says?" Wilmarina asked me confusedly.

"It's in a language completely alien to me. But I was correct because a sign like this back in my world means we're close to a town." I replied as I shook my head.

They all gave me a worried look, and I scratched the back of my head as I tried to look further down the road for any buildings or other landmarks that might tell me just how close I was to a town. The fog was so dense you could almost cut it like cloth if you had a knife sharp enough. I pressed on once again with my knuckles turning white as I gripped my pistol tightly. I noticed a hanging traffic light in the distance blinking on and off with a pale yellow light as I walked on and began to run towards it. As I approached the light I could see power lines and the silhouettes of buildings among the fog in the distance. I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel relieved to see some semblance of my old world for once.

"Joshua, don't run off!" I heard Eristia shout after me.

"Don't waste your breath, Eristia, he's gone crazy. He doesn't seem to care if he gets himself killed." Primera told her in an annoyed voice.

I stopped at the first building silhouette I saw and they all caught up with me. The building looked like some kind of small pharmacy with a large unlit neon sign written in the unfamiliar language with a large red cross as my only clue. I slowly approached the building's front window trying to see if I could see anything or anyone but it was too dark. I tried the front door but it wouldn't budge no matter how hard I pulled or pushed on it.

"Of course, it's locked," I muttered with annoyance.

"Would you wait for just a moment! You may have been right about the town, but we still have to figure out where we are!" Primera yelled at me.

"Looks like someone never learned to take initiative when it counts the most…" I thought, starting to get a little irritated. "Why are they still following me anyway? I told them not to come any closer back at my camp and now look what's happened. This is what happens when you don't listen to me. I don't know what kind of spell Mimil cast from her book, but this can't be my homeworld."

"I have no idea what you did, but you better fix this!" Primera demanded with the usual angry tone she always took with me.

"Do I look like I could pull off something like this?" I retorted as I looked her in the eyes and raised an eyebrow.

Primera scowled at me, but it didn't bother me. I only cared about surviving above all else at the moment. It's not my fault I ran away from Lescatie as High Priest Noscrim sent the inquisition after me all because I managed to help Luciana make it back to Lescatie with the help of Eristia and Yuriy after she hurt her ankle in the old cabin. I failed to see what warranted such a response in the first place. I was lucky Wilmarina gave me the heads up about her father's rash actions, but that meant I was on my own from then on, as I didn't know who would turn me in for a few measly gold pieces. I didn't like leaving without saying a word, but I had to make sure no one knew where I was going to ensure my survival. That's when Elt grabbed Primera's shoulder.

"Calm down, Primera, there's no way he could have done this. He doesn't have access to magic as we do." Elt said, trying to calm her down.

Primera blushed when Elt grabbed her shoulder but I didn't let Primera's accusation bother me. My biggest concern was finding out where we ended up and how to get back to their world so I could search for another place to lay low for a while. I had been a doomsday prepper back home and had practiced for when things really went south of the border. I managed to locate all my gear for my bug-out bag over a few short years based on research and careful planning so I knew what I had to look for to survive long enough to make it home. The one thing I needed most in this situation was a map of the surrounding area because even though I couldn't read this world's language a map would give me some sense of direction. I holstered my pistol, set my backpack down, and fumbled around for my collapsible baton. Once I had found it I removed it from its belt holster and with a flick of my wrist, I approached the building's display window. I did two practice strikes before smashing the window open on the third swing in one hit.

I climbed over the broken glass with everyone looking at me like I had just eaten my head. The inside was pitch black and I reached into my bottom left coat pocket for my flashlight and shined it around the interior of the first floor. I was right to assume the building was a pharmacy as what looked like expired medical supplies from painkillers and vitamins to first aid kits and medical creams lined aisles of shelves. The only problem was everything was thrown about like there had been some kind of fight or riot. The white tiled floor was desperate for a cleaning and was covered in dust and grime. Whoever had been in charge must have left in a hurry as I noticed what looked like a cash register at the front counter was open with nothing left inside of it. Even the prescriptions in the back room behind the counter were scattered all over the floor.

"Must have been one hell of a fight for everything in the store to be trashed. It could have also been a supply raid because if that car from earlier is any indication then the people must have been in a serious panic. It almost reminds me of the riots that almost happened when the major stores back in Michigan were scheduled to close but disobeyed the state governor as they felt it was their duty to keep providing to those who needed it which meant everyone in Oxford." I thought as I looked around again.

"Whoa…what happened here?" I heard Elt ask as he came up behind me.

He looked around the interior at the mess strewn about with a slightly worried look on his face. I couldn't blame him as he probably never saw anyone from Lescatie riot once in his life. There's a saying "first time for everything" but for him, this was more than just a "first". I wasn't phased as Eric, Dave, and I used to venture into abandoned buildings with plenty of junk strewn around from when the building used to be active or from others just like the three of us spray painting graffiti everywhere and tossing empty bags of chips or plastic water bottles off to the side. Reiko never tagged along as she felt it was stupid to put ourselves in danger and therefore became our lifeline if something ever happened to the three of us.

"Keep your eyes open for anything that looks like a map or is inherently useful," I told him calmly.

I walked over to what looked like a bathroom door and got Elt's attention before tossing him my flashlight and setting my backpack down so I could look for the spare flashlight I kept in one of the pockets. Elt looked at the light in confusion having never seen anything like it. I managed to finally find the spare flashlight I keep in my bag and pressed the switch on its head so I could check the bathroom. Mersé came up behind Elt and looked at the flashlight I gave him with a strange stare as I pushed the bathroom door open.

"What on earth is that thing?" Mersé asked him.

"Not sure. Whatever it is it works like a torch, except the light shines straight forward. Joshua gave it to me so we can search this place." He replied, sounding a little unsure of himself.

"How does it work then? It can't be magic as his world has none." She asked confusedly.

"You mean his flashlight? I asked him about it and he told me it ran on something called "batteries" when Yuriy, Joshua, Luciana, and I were stuck in that abandoned cabin in the middle of the forest." I heard Eristia reply.

"Batteries? Whatever they are they're very efficient." Mersé said curiously.

Mersé's questions for Elt and Eristia amused me. My world's technology was far beyond anything their world's magic could ever create. I began checking the bathroom and shined my light at three stalls. The first stall was locked but I paid it no mind. The next two stalls were empty minus the third stall's toilet had a broken toilet seat and smelled worse than a garbage dumpster. I walked past the last stall and shined my light at the urinals only to come upon a mutilated corpse hiding in the shadows with severe bite marks on its right shoulder and a puddle of brown, dried blood that reeked of decay and miasma. The corpse's face had been nibbled on by what I thought must have been a dog but the bite on the shoulder was deep and didn't match a dog's jawline. I also didn't see any bloody paw prints indicating an animal had done the deed. I gagged slightly as the smell from the body became so overwhelming that even hell itself would have vomited. I began checking the corpse's pockets for anything useful but all I found was what looked like a Bic lighter that no longer worked and an empty pack of what looked to be chewing gum.

"Really?! Nothing useful? Well shit…..UGH, this smell is god awful! I gotta get some air…" I thought disgustedly as I pinched my nose.

I made my way to the door desperately seeking fresh air. As I opened the door I saw everyone checking the rest of the pharmacy with no luck. I coughed slightly as I held the door open so I could breathe fresh air into my lungs. They all gave me a confused look before the smell managed to waft its way over to them.

"Ugh! What on earth is that horrid smell?!" Mimil asked as she pinched her nose in disgust.

"You're better off not knowing," I replied as I gagged again.

It was at that moment I heard the locked stall swing open with a bang and turned just in time to see a pale, hairless freak charge full speed at me and bite into my left shoulder, knocking us both to the ground. I let out a pained groan as I kicked the pale freak off of me and grabbed my baton, but WIlmarina lunged forward and stabbed it in the chest with her sword causing it to slump over dead before I could manage to get up off the ground and strike the creature with my baton. I took a few deep breaths as I stood up before the pain from my bite wound finally caught up with me. The creature had unusual black blood from what I noticed from the stab wound with some of it forming small chunks. I passed it off as a result of where ever we were and let out out a sigh of relief that it was dead.

"Nice save," I said to Wilmarina with a pained voice.

I walked over to the pale freak and poked it with my baton to make sure it was dead. Its teeth were slightly longer than a human's teeth and we're sharp and jagged looking. Its eyes were coal-black and had a crazy look to them almost as if it were excited from a drug high. The creature didn't stir so I began taking my backpack and coat off to get a better look at the bite wound. Pain shot throughout my left arm as I removed my coat and blood was smeared all over the left shoulder of my tank top. The freak had given me a deep bite from the looks of it and blood oozed slowly from the teeth marks once I removed my tank top shoulder to get a better look at the wound. Everyone was shocked by how god-awful the wound looked, but I just began searching for a decent bandage amongst the remaining products on the floor. Sasha approached me and examined the wound, with a horrified expression on her face.

"Hold still…" she said soothingly as a sphere of magic formed in her right hand.

She touched the sphere to my wound, causing a minor burning sensation, but the spell healed my wounded shoulder. I was genuinely surprised by this as wounds in my world took weeks or even months depending on their severity. I started thinking about the many uses I could get from magic but always came back to the same conclusion: I have no spirit energy, therefore I have no magic. Lacking spirit energy did have benefits of its own, though, as the job I did with Eristia taught me that monsters have no interest in me from a sexual perspective and had a hard time detecting me if they were relying on their ability to sense spiritual energy alone.

"Thanks, Sasha, I appreciate it," I said gratefully.

Elt and Wilmarina knelt over the creature as they took a look at it. The two of them were confused and horrified as they looked it over and then looked at me. Eristia, Yuriy, Mersé, Mimil, and Primera turned their attention to the display window and stood in front of it, clearly on edge after what had just happened. I gripped my baton tightly as I approached the front desk and hopped over to see if there was anything remotely useful hidden back there. The floor was littered with bagged prescriptions, but I couldn't read any of the labels, and coming across a prescription of Penicillin or some other kind of strong antibiotic or painkiller would've been incredibly useful.

"I never thought a day would come when being a prepper would come in handy. I wish I had my bug-out-bag from home cuz it would have everything I need right now in it." I thought as I looked at some of the prescriptions littering the ground.

I noticed what looked like an office door past the register and walked over to the door, and was surprised to find it unlocked. I shined my flashlight into the room and could make out a small desk against the wall with an old CRT-style computer monitor, and another dead body slumped over on the desk. The corpse was that of an old man wearing a white long-sleeved shirt, overalls, and he had a revolver in his right hand and a bullet hole through the back of his skull. I gasped slightly when I saw the man opening the door and the gun in his hand before realizing he was dead. I cautiously approached the desk and pried the gun from his right hand, but found the cylinder on his revolver to be rusted shut and couldn't even pull the hammer back. His revolver resembled a Smith and Wesson model 27 but was in such horrible condition that I almost didn't recognize it and I could see the corroded bullets stuck inside the cylinder.

"Find anything?" I heard Yuriy ask me from behind.

"Not yet. I'm going to check the desk drawers, you all should keep your eyes open for more of those pale freaks." I replied as I approached the desk.

Yuriy gagged slightly at the sight of the corpse slumped over the desk. I nodded, acknowledging his disgust, and began checking all the desk drawers. The top right drawer had what looked like tax records stretching to the back and I hastily closed it. Yuriy disappeared around the door and I could hear him vomiting as Eristia checked on him and peeked in the door and did her best to hide her disgust at the foul odor. I checked the next drawer down and was greeted by a box of ammo and I picked it up and examined it. The box had a black and bronze color scheme and had PMC Bronze written in red text on it. I quickly opened the box and thirty shiny rounds of .357 magnum stared back at me, causing me to frown as I put the bullets back in the box. I didn't have a .357 magnum on me and the only one in the room was better off being thrown at a freak's head like a rock. I checked the remaining two drawers but they had nothing but useless office supplies in them and nothing else. I could hear them all discussing what we should do next and who should be in charge as I began double-checking the drawers just to make sure I didn't miss anything useful before I stuffed the box of magnum ammo in my backpack and exited the office.

"No luck. No maps, no extra weapons...no nothing…" I said to them as I closed the office door behind me and Elt gave back the flashlight I gave him earlier.

"Really?! There wasn't a single clue as to where we are?! Any other ideas 'Mr. Team Leader'?" Primera asked in her usual annoyed tone.

"To be honest we're in a world that mimics the building structures of mine to an extent which is a clue in and of itself despite the written language being completely different to the three languages from mine that I can read and speak—those being English, Russian, and Japanese. This pharmacy would have been a great place to find something to treat our wounds as from what I gather about mana is that it's finite but replenishes slowly over time, but forcing Sasha to tend to our wounds with magic almost all the time, should something happen, isn't fair to her." I replied calmly as I rubbed my chin. "The only thing I can't wrap my head around is what caused that pale freak by the bathroom to come into existence? It doesn't look like a 'local' to me….more like it came into contact with something that might have forced a physical or biological change of some kind." I replied as I rubbed my chin.

"What even is that thing, to begin with?" Elt asked in confusion as he pointed at the pale freak.

"Some kind of mutant is my best guess. I still wouldn't take any chances with them so if anyone sees one that's within range of a strike then kill it but kill it quick. We don't need another stroke of luck as I had with it biting my shoulder instead of my neck." I answered as I glanced at the dead pale freak on the floor.

"You think one of those things damaged that 'car' from earlier?" Mersé asked as she squinted at the dead freak.

"Hehehe. I hope not, because if one of these things actually did that then we'd have no chance of winning against it. To quote Primera: "tear you to bits in a second"." I replied with a nervous chuckle. "I hate to sound pessimistic there, but that's the truth of such an encounter, especially if it's bigger than the castle in Lescatie."

Mersé and the others nodded reluctantly as the thought of coming across something so big flashed across their faces. The thought of something so big even caused me to internally shudder in fear. One thing became clear to me: we were all tired to some extent. I could see the fatigue on everyone's faces and thought it might be better to find a safe place to rest and maybe find something to eat. I didn't really like the idea of having them follow me or being their "leader" as Primera said, but I had no choice. I figured once we all got back somehow if it was even possible, I'd continue going my own way and look for a new place to lay low. I just had to survive long enough to make that happen.

"Since I can see how tired everyone is our biggest concern now is finding a place to rest that preferably doesn't smell of decay and is maybe on a second or third floor of a building," I said as I scratched my chin.

"You can't be serious? How are we gonna find a place to rest around here that isn't crawling with those things already?" Primera retorted angrily.

"Simple: we look for a house or apartment building and I'll do a full sweep of the inside. You'll all know If I encounter a problem as the sound of a 9x18 Makarov going off is very distinct." I replied with a slight smile.

Everyone nodded except for Primera who rolled her eyes. I approached the smashed open display window and looked around both sides for more pale freaks and motioned for them to follow after I didn't see any. As Sasha approached I held out my baton for her and she gave me a slightly hesitant stare.

"I feel better knowing that if something happens and you don't have time to complete an incantation you have some way to protect yourself," I said calmly.

She shook her head, leaving me to guess she wasn't one for up-close combat. I gripped my baton in my left hand tightly as I unholstered my pistol with my right hand. I motioned to the left of the window and slowly made my way down the sidewalk with them all following me. We had made it to the next building over and I started hearing what sounded like meat tearing. I motioned for them to stop and looked left down an alleyway to see two freaks at the far end with their backs to me. They looked to be eating something though I couldn't make out what they could possibly have found to eat as both corpses I saw earlier looked to be at the very least two weeks old. Maybe there were other survivors somewhere and these two happened to catch an unlucky bastard? I holstered my pistol and replaced it with my knife as I kept my eyes on them before turning back to everyone.

"There's two down the alley with their backs to us. We're going to pass by and continue on." I whispered to them.

Primera pulled two arrows from her quiver and walked by me with a scowl.

"Watch and learn, sharpshooter." She said with ire in her voice.

She let two arrows loose at once, just like a typical fantasy elf. Primera gave off a slight smirk and I peeked around the corner to see two dead freaks slumped over their "meal". I took a quick look around at the fog engulfed streets to make sure nothing was going to sneak up on us again and motioned for Elt to follow me down the alleyway. Once I reached the end I saw the two pale freaks had been munching on another body, but this time it appeared to have a few useful items on it.

"Geh! That stench…" Elt said as he wretched and held his nose.

"I know…Just keep an eye out for anything that isn't us." I replied before kneeling down and pushing the freaks off to the side.

The corpse lay on its left side facing me and had a military backpack on, an M-65 jacket just like mine that was stained in dried blood, and a broken gas mask covering its face. He was black jungle combat boots similar to mine that I began to feel like I was staring at my own corpse. As I began digging through the pockets, I felt the familiar shape of a gun in the lower left pocket of the jacket. I pulled my hand out to see I had grasped what looked like an FN M1905 in moderate condition. A look of surprise spread across my face as I dropped the magazine to reveal six cartridges of what looked like 25 ACP that were slightly dirty. I pulled back the gun's small slide and pulled the trigger and sure enough, the gun made a click sound meaning it might still work. I began digging through the backpack and pulled out a pair of bolt cutters, two more magazines for the M1905, a compass, and some rope. I could feel Elt's gaze on me, but I didn't care and continued to rummage around in the corpse's backpack. My fingers grasped what felt like a piece of paper and I hurriedly pulled my hand out.

"….Oh, yes!….Elt, guess what I just found?" I said happily as I pulled out a piece of paper and unfolded it.

I held up the map for him to see and I saw a slight look of relief wash over his face as he looked at the map. I was grinning like mad as I folded the map as small as I could before sticking it in my back pocket. I motioned for Elt to follow me and we soon rejoined the others.