It had been a week and a half since I'd left the forest with my companion, who had proven to be full of surprises. The latest one had been how he'd managed to tell that he should go in this direction. "More runes? I thought you were going to find which direction we should go, not stop and rest!" "Relax, runes can be used for many purposes. If you were trained in how to use runes, you would be able to clearly tell that these runes are designed for scrying." "Scrying?" "It's a term for using magic to see things, in this case to see the area around us." "I could just climb a tree and do that far more easily." "Yes, and also far less effectively. Let me remind you that the devastation caused by the massive energies released from the box is worldwide. There may be a chance that you may be able to see something of use if you do climb a tree, but scrying can allow one to see a location hundreds of miles away... I'm not going to attempt to see that far, as even with the stabilizing energies of the water and earth I'd be flat on my back for three days if I tried to do that."

Despite that, I ended up climbing a tree, and got nothing out of it but strain on my eyes and splinters in my hands. My companion had better luck than I did... and I have to admit he had warned me beforehand. "200 miles to the west, there's the ruins of a city. There are some buildings there that are somewhat intact, and there also APPEAR to be people living there." "Finally..." "Don't get your hopes up just yet... I said some of the buildings are semi-intact, and it's the ruins of a city. You should also keep in mind what happened to many of the creatures in the past that survived in body..." "Oh yeah... the people that you saw might not be friendly... or even people anymore." "Well, he'd been right about everything... the city was in ruins, and it turned out that the "people" living there (with one exception) were no longer people. He'd also been right about my skills being essential for both my survival and his.
"So, is there any danger nearby?" "I'll check..." My companion closed his eyes... and was attacked by several assailants. "Hey, hey! We don't want any trouble..." "RRRRRRR!" "Kill.. Kill... KILL!" You get the idea... and so did I. Considering my companion was being strangled to death before my eyes... I guess it's not surprising that I reacted violently. What came as a surprise to me (and still haunts me) is how violently I reacted. It was all over a few moments later... my companion was safe... and his assailants lay dead with heads and faces smashed in by my cane in my desperation to save my companion.
"I.. I didn't mean for this to happen! I may have been a thief but I'm not a murderer!" "Nobody could accuse you of being a murderer... you did what you had to in order to save me... and if you hadn't killed them, they'd have attacked you after they finished me off." "You weren't kidding about my skills being essential to your survival... no wonder you got caught with the box. You weren't meant to be a thief." "Tell me something I don"t already know..." "Well, what do we do with these bodies? I guess we should bury them." "Unfortunately we can't do that for two reasons. First, if we stay in one place for too long, we'll end up being attacked again, and we might not be so lucky the next time. The next group could be armed with weapons or be three times as large in number. " "Unless the second reason is better, I'm going to bury them." "The second reason is that it's a waste of time. From the looks of it these creatures were in the early stages of madness. After a few weeks, those still alive will have progressed to the point where they'll eat anything... even if it's been buried." "Hold on... you"re saying that these bodies will be dug up... and eaten!" "Like I said, these creatures were in the early stages..."

"Creatures" was an accurate description of the way these people had acted... but they still had looked like normal people at first glance. I would have argued further for burying the bodies... but I detected movement towards our position, and I alerted my companion to the fact. He closed his eyes again, and quickly opened them. "There's a group of creatures moving towards our position, and they're carrying weapons." "I'm pretty sure we can take them." "No, we can't. We should get out of here RIGHT NOW." The tone of my companion's voice left no room for argument. I abandoned any ideas of burying the bodies, and both of us quickly left the area. As it turned out, when I took a look back over my shoulder a few moments later, it only confirmed that my companion had been right that we couldn't have taken that group on... not unless we had wanted to be used for target practice.

Once we were both a safe distance away from the place where we'd met our "welcoming committee," my companion suggested that we start searching the ruins. "As dangerous as it is, we may discover something of value to us..." "Like food, information, and perhaps even somebody who isn't a homicidal lunatic?" "We shouldn't get our hopes up for the last one... and information might not be as useful now as it would have been. However, you do have the general idea." The first few buildings we searched contained nothing useful, so we moved on to another area.

"Hey, what's that?" I'd just spotted something lying near the rubble of a building, and I went over to see what it was. "It appears to be a sign... let's see what it says." I turned over the sign, and... "You know, I always thought people who carried these signs were nuts... not any more." My companion said nothing, as there was nothing really to say. The sign told us everything we needed to know about whoever had been holding it: "The End Of The World Is Near!" The sign was useless to us... considering the world HAD already ended. As we continued on, I said to my companion: "You know, I also used to think those signs were worth a few laughs... not any more." "If you still found that sign funny now, I'd probably have to kill you." I said to my companion: "That's not funny." My companion replied: "It wasn't meant to be." I have to admit that he did have a point; if I'd found the sign funny, it could easily have been interpreted as that I was going crazy... and that I could turn into one of those creatures at any time. My companion continued: "... But not immediately, since it wouldn't be definitive proof that you were going crazy and were a danger to me. It could have just ended up meaning that you had a nasty sense of humor." "Thanks... I think."

It was an hour later when our searching finally started to pay off. "Hey, that looks like a grocery store! It appears to be intact... should we search it?" "Of course, but we should keep our guard up just in case. Don't take any cans of food that have been dented or have burst open." "Any particular reason for that?" "Yes... there are enough things in the world now that can kill us... it would be pretty ironic if we did ourselves in with food poisoning." "By ironic, you don't mean the funny kind of irony, do you?" "Was that a rhetorical question? You know that we want to stay ALIVE." I didn't reply to this, and we both entered the grocery store.

Looks can be deceiving... while the outside of the grocery store had appeared intact, the inside was mostly ruined. "What a surprise... the place appears to have been looted already." My companion turned to me and replied: "We should still search it just in case. Despite the condition of this store, there might still be a few items left." "It's worth a shot, so let's get to it. How about you performing that trick of yours that you used to locate my cane back at the ruins of the prison?" As I said this, I suddenly remembered all the people who had died back there when the box was opened, and I wondered if my companion could have saved more of them if he had known he was able to protect more than just himself with his abilities then. Unfortunately, that requires that I spend several minutes with my eyes closed and not moving around. You'll have to protect me from any threats during that time, or I'll have to start over again. Do you think you're up to it?" "Of course I am! Just leave it to me, pal!" "Then I'll start immediately. You make sure to protect me, and I'll make sure to locate anything of use to us still left here." Several minutes passed and no threat materialized, so I didn't really have to do anything to protect my companion. "I'm done... there are quite a few items left here in the rubble, and there seems to be a lot of items in the back of the store... most likely a storage room that nobody managed to get into." "Finally! I was starting to get bored."

My companion had been correct in his assumption about that storage room, and yet again he had been proven correct about the skills I had developed as a master thief being essential for our survival. I had suggested that it would be a waste of time to search the rubble in the mostly destroyed part of the store when most of them would probably be damaged, and my companion agreed with me. However, when we got to the door to the storage room, it was obvious why nobody had been able to get into the room: the door was triple padlocked and had been clearly constructed to repel any attempts to force it open with anything less than a bulldozer. There were signs of attempts to use crowbars, hammers, hairpins... basically every method with a low chance of succeeding and/or depending solely on brute force. "Hairpins? Hairpins? They were definitely amateurs..." "Not too smart either... hairpins are only good when used to open locks which are designed to accept a straight key." "A straight key? What's that?" "A straight key is a key which has al of its notches at the same height... locks like that are very easy to pick. That's why most keys are designed to be unique. There's a reason why locksmiths aren't allowed to make copies of certain keys." "That would be the fact that it would compromise the effectiveness of the lock's design. I've dealt with locks like these before... it's something of a challenge." "From what you've told me, you enjoy a challenge." "I certainly do. This is going to be fun... just hope my lockpicking skills aren't too rusty!"

I was trying to sound happy about it, but my companion wasn't buying it. "You're not really as happy about this as you sound. It's just not the same, is it?" "What do you mean by that? Lockpicking is lockpicking." "THAT wouldn't fool a child... there's a big difference. All the laws against what you're about to do are dead along with the old world. There's no law enforcement to worry about if you take too long to pick the locks, and this isn't what you want to do... but you have to do it." "You're right... I'm not real happy about it. What if there's somebody still here in this ruined city... somebody who's dying of hunger because they couldn't get into this room?" "It won't do any good to worry about them... even if there is somebody, we wouldn't be able to help them because the storage room isn't open." "Good point... but it just doesn't feel right. I was born in a family of master thieves, and I specialized in stealing from master criminals. There's no master criminal to rip off, no guards to avoid... no lasers, no spotlights... no real challenge! Just three padlocks... three small padlocks!"

My companion didn't say anything. Considering what I'd told him, there wasn't anything he really could say. Several minutes of silence passed, and then I said to him: "Ok, I'll get to work on the padlocks." My companion just said: "Tell me when you're done... I'm going to make several runic wards around the store." "Good idea... I don't fancy getting strangled again by another spirit... and I don't think you fancy getting strangled again by those creatures." "So you're finally calling them creatures now?" "Well, they sure didn't act like they were people anymore." My companion and I separated, and began our respective tasks. As I started on the first padlock, I wondered exactly what we'd find behind the door. Whatever it was, we weren't going to find out until I took care of the padlocks. Several hours passed and my companion had finished making the wards... just in time too. I could hear several voices, and they sounded like they wanted to invite us to join them for dinner... and not as dinner guests. "Let me guess... our "friends" out there aren't in the early stages of madness." "You weren't asking a question, were you? No, they are most certainly NOT in the early stages of madness." "How long will the wards hold them back?" "It's hard to tell... but I'd say that the wards will last more than long enough for them to lose interest... or to be be attacked by others. They might even start fighting one another." As if on cue, that's exactly what it sounded like was starting to happen. "I don't suppose you can make a ward that keeps out sound?" "Sorry, but I can't do that. Trust me... if I could do that, I would. It's getting on my nerves too."

"Finally... that last padlock was a nasty one." Night had fallen an hour ago, and I was pretty hungry. I had a feeling that my companion was hungry as well. "Good work, Sly. I know it was difficult with all the noise, and not having used your skills for quite a while. "I'm just glad it's over with... I'm starving!" "Well then... why don't we go in to the storage room now? We'll need a place to sleep, and we'll be able to barricade the door just in case the wards I made give out during the night. I'll put down some more wards before we go to sleep as well." I opened the door, and my companion (who was standing next to me) saw the same thing I did... proof that the trouble we'd gone through had been more than worth it.