Chapter 10: Dead City Part 2
After a short while Kayla nodded off as well, the warmth of the fire was a very welcoming sensation compared to being snow covered, She awoke a short while later with a sudden sneeze. Realizing the room had no way to tell whether or not it was still day time or if it became night, Kayla quickly grew curious, standing up and moving the shelf from the door slightly that she had previously placed to keep anything out from getting in, especially in their current situation.
Just enough to peek outside, she saw that it was darker, she noticed that the sound of the snow storm had seemingly passed. Kayla sighed in a bit of relief knowing its not going to be as cold, she quickly closed the door upon hearing steps close to where they were, holding her breath and listened for the steps to pass, hoping whatever it was that was nearby wouldn't wander or discover this room.
Kayla then started to search the boxes in the room since it was a storage room, there was bound to be something at least remotely useful to either of them, as she rummaged around the boxes finding various items almost all of what was just junk, that for now served no purpose for them. She then smiles to see a can of fruit that seemed to be sitting on a high shelf for who knows how long, Hopefully it was still good she thought.
Kayla quickly grabbed the resting can from the shelf, making her way back and sitting next to the fire, trying to open the can with the dagger she previously and still had. She firstly looked at the can of fruit, then the dagger, making her think for a moment before trying to stab the lid of the can off. Only to hear it dink off the can and fail, her stomach only rumbled slightly afterward which was making her annoyed as she tried again and kept making dink sounds from the can being struck by the dagger.
She sighed after a while in defeat, feeling her arm was tired and the can is covered in small dents and scratches. Upon putting the dagger away she sat the can down and stared at it, thinking on how to open it, "Well that's just great. Who's the one that invented these indestructible things and decided to put delicious food inside... What a sick joke." Kayla said to herself with a scoff, she got up to search more of the storage boxes around her in an attempt to find something to open that can of food.
After searching for what felt like an hour she came across a small dusty book finding no use with it other than chucking it into the fire to help keep it warm in the room. She returned to sitting by the fire with an annoyed expression upon her face at that damn can of fruit, "Well...guess i'll have to wait till Gwenn wakes up...if he ever does." She said with a slight sigh, knowing Gwenn would know what to do, but in his bad condition, it was unlikely he would wake up anytime soon.
She twiddled her thumbs and looked at the bat "You know. I don't think I ever gave you a name. Hmmm..." She pondered for a bit thinking of what to name her new companion, quickly she snapped her fingers as she got an idea, "Skippy? No hmm…" she pondered a bit more then smiled, "Yup, Skippy it is!" She looked around for the bat as it had suddenly disappeared while she was lost in thought for a name, "Skippy! Come here!" Kayla called out with excitement, looking confused as she could not hear the bat, nor would it come when called, which was expected for a feral creature, let alone a baby.
She picked up a stick that wasn't used for the fire and lit it as a torch searching for skippy, finding that the little bat was asleep and hiding behind the bag on the other end of the fireplace, this made her smile. She poked Skippy on the tiny belly, giggling softly at how soft it was to poke, she let Skippy sleep while she curled up into a blanket burrito trying to sleep a bit more.
After a few hours Kayla was still asleep clearly not wanting to wake up because of how cozy she was despite how cold it naturally was outside. Skippy on the other hand was wide awake and flying around clearly bored of being cooped up, flying around in circles squeaking before finally perching on Kayla's hair in an attempt to wake her. She let out some mumbling, "Stop… it's too early to… squeak." Kayla said in a sleepy tone as she rolled over slightly trying to get more comfortable.
The sounds around were calm for the time being, not really any zoms outside the room and no storm raging, just the sound of two tired beans sleeping away, and of course Skippy squeaking away trying to wake Kayla up because of the fire going out and being cooped up, almost making the room pitch black. Kayla who was groggy from being rudely woken up by Skippy, Kayla feeling around in the dim room almost unable to see where the bag was.
Sighing with relief Kayla pulled out the remaining wood that was in the bag trying to relight the fire that kept them warm, especially Gwenn who badly needed it. As the fire brightened the room back up, Kayla stood to check if Gwenn was still breathing given how he seemed almost motionless when he was asleep, sighing feeling how cold he felt to the touch, she tried to whisper to him, "Gwenn…?" she asked quietly, placing her finger under his nostrils to see if he was breathing and didn't freeze to death or anything, she relaxed in relief as she placed a hand on his cheek, feeling the subtle warmth that was thankfully there despite how cold he was still.
She softly patted his cheek after seeing he is still alive, but clearly sleeping soundly, as always. Kayla took one of Gwenns daggers from his belt, noticing they were larger than the one she was given, and most likely stronger. She tried to cut open the can of fruit once more, finally getting it open this time, seeing it contains a mix of grapes and pears all in a syrup which to her, it was an odd sight for her to see, it almost didn't seem appetizing to eat.
Kayla taking a deep breath before taking a bite, quickly noticing a strange after taste, she guessed it was whatever the syrup was; she was tasting a bit more than she could taste fruit. She took another few bites as in a way it didn't taste all that bad, other than the after taste that is, though after a short few bites the taste really killed her appetite as she placed the can away from her. She stood up to take a peek outside, unable to see due to the light and how white outside was, strangely very bright due to all the rubble and open destroyed areas of the building room.
As her eyesight adjusted to the light she looked around, seeing that the cost seemed clear, she went back to Gwenn and tried to shake him awake "Come on, we can't stay here any more, we should go before something bad happens." She said quietly, she knew he was completely exhausted and in bad shape due to the sudden close severe hypothermia from the water exposure and cold temperatures, not only that, but the deep gashes and cuts on his wings.
Gwenn woke up slightly and extremely groggy, "Where are we…?" He questioned weakly, since he knew himself he most likely has been passed out for a good while. "Well not sure where exactly aside from this room was used for storage, if your able to move at all, I think we should keep going at least till were further away from here..." she asked as she glanced around double making sure it was a storage room, she turned back to him seeing he had passed out again.
Kayla grew worried as she tried to feel his face again, feeling his skin was ice cold still. Kayla quickly realized something more was wrong with him, and it was something bad, doing what she can she started to search the boxes for stuff to burn to feed the fire trying to make it generate as much heat as possible for him.
As the heat filled the room it seemingly did nothing to help Gwenn, Kayla wasn't completely sure how to help, she knew severe hypothermia could lead closely to death and he still had warmth and despite the blankets he still was ice cold and blood levels were low. What was happening to him was something she hadn't experienced yet, she slowly began to panic as she tried to figure out how to help, since heat wasn't doing much she rummaged around the boxes she didn't toss into the fire, finding more sheets and blankets she wrapped them around him pretty much turning him into a small blanket mountain in an attempt to help him get warmer.
Kayla stared at him as she knelt down beside him, seeing how he looked, causing her to snicker slightly but tried to keep a straight face because he was still freezing and not well. All she could do was watch the fire, making sure it didn't go out. Skippy flew around the room squeaking away trying to get Gwenn to wake up as the little bat tended to fly around him closely, and after a short while landing on his shoulder and poking its nose on his cheek, almost trying to nudge him awake.
Skippy attempted to bury itself into Gwenn blankets, Kayla watching the little bat try to cover itself in one of the blankets made her only sigh, "Come on skippy, let him be ok?" She said as she picked Skippy off of him, Skippys actions clearly told her that the little bat also knew something was wrong with Gwenn. She started to pet Skippy, looking at the door and sighed looking back at Gwenn.
Kayla then got a bright idea, she went to the door and peaked around outside and started to roll in a bit of snow in the shape of balls, all are of different sizes and Kayla started to stack them from biggest to smallest, after piling the snow she put one of the boxes in the room on the top snow ball, like a hat, Kayla sat in front of what she made, and that being a snowperson, she then started to have a conversation with it. "Do you think home is that far off?" She asked the snow, clearly aware she won't get a response.
She sighed, "I was afraid you'd say that..." she said to the snow pile, "It sucks to be so close yet so far off at the same time, and that's even assuming if we're going the correct way..." Kayla said to the snow pile, still not phased by the fact it wouldn't really speak, Kayla sighed once more, "Not sure why but just talking to this seemed so...familiar to me, but at the same time I..I can't really remember..." Kayla said to herself as she pondered why she feels a block in her memory.
Kayla was confused by this block as she tried to make sense of it, she thought hard about her memories and the past, mainly anything before 11 years ago, trying to recall how things were when she was younger, but she couldn't recall fully. Like she could remember or never had such memories to begin with. Looking back at the snow pile a bit annoyed, "You know something I don't...do you!" Kayla said angrily at the pile, "What secrets are you keeping locked away in my mind! Tell me!" Kayla growled at the snow pile as she grabbed it and shaked it, getting a bit spooked when the pile broke apart, she sighed when she realized she was trying to interrogate a snow pile and felt incredibly stupid for doing so.
Kayla stood up, and approached the door, staring outside the room through the door she had slightly open. Seeing her memory flash before her eyes like an image when she saw the world for what it used to be, like she saw it before, or to be exact, like she's been in this building before in this exact location at some point. She got a bad migraine when this happened and she sat down trying to process what just happened, Kayla became slightly frightened by her thoughts and then she curled up near Gwenn.
"What is wrong with me..." Kayla said to herself trying not to think so hard on the count of her migraine, doing so would only make it worse. She then tried to keep the thought of what happened out of her mind knowing she can't focus on that at the moment, time to her felt slower than what it really was to her, almost as if she was still trying to process what just happened.
She looked at Gwenn as she sat up, redirecting her attention to him to take her mind off the sudden migraine. Seeing he was still not conscious, she sighs after she felt his breath slightly, it was low and hardly noticeable "Gwenn... If you can hear me you can get through this, I know you went through worse than this..." Kayla said as she adjusted his blankets.
"It's all going to be ok..." Kayla said to herself as she tried to reassure herself, despite something being wrong with her that she knew of, her main focus currently is treating Gwenn which up to this point she tried with everything she had on hand and in mind, but she also knew she couldn't stay any longer in this room due to there wasn't anything in the boxes she searched that can be used as supplies, let alone help Gwenn any further.
As reluctant as she was, Kayla knew she'd have to explore outside to find supplies, knowing it is inevitable she peeked out of the room once more before taking a step outside. Glancing down both ends of the walk way she stood in, seeing it was clear she proceeded to scout the closest rooms beyond the walkway, as Kayla ventured deeper into the building, the side she was able to get into seemingly had no light at all. Kayla seeing this clear fact, she retreated back to the storage room where the fire was and Gwenn, grabbing a stick that was partially on fire and using it as a torch so she could proceed back into the dark section of the building in hopes of finding supplies, or at least another safe room.
Kayla moved slowly trying not to make noise when she heard the faint sound of something shambling in the dark, she kept herself crouched and held her breath at times in an attempt not to make too much noise as the shambling echoed through the dark halls, attempting to be as silent as Gwenn and remembering all the tricks and moves he does, well some of them, not all.
Kayla now crawled at the point as she didn't want to alert whatever was in the dark with her, accidently crunching some glass that was on the floor that spooked herself, causing her to immediately freeze upon impact. Snarls turned into shrieks and rapidly approached towards her direction, and from the rate of the sound there was definitely more than one of whatever was fastly approaching her from the darkness.
Pale figures revealed themselves from the darkness, clearly seeing her but seemingly keeping their distance from her as well, for a reason she didn't understand, but they seemed to circle around her like a tiger with its prey. Kayla was confused with not being attacked, she stood up with her torch, the light illuminating more because of her standing as it began to spread out a bit more, the light seemingly caused the pale figures to retreat but still circled around Kayla snarling clearly wanting to make a snack out of her but it seemed like the light from her torch seemed to be like a barrier to them and her protection.
"Interesting..." Kayla said to herself as she approached the pale ones in front of her, seeing as they retreated as she approached with torch in hand, this caused her to stopping short realizing if she kept going she might be going into a trap so she backed away with the torch still pointed at the pale ones ahead of her as she made it back to the side of the building that had full light.
Kayla, intrigued by her discovery, was sure no one living set foot in this city for years but having found an abnormal strain of zoms, at least that's what she assumed, given how their behavior was, she was curious on why they had a fear of light. She wondered if it was by chance their skin had a sensitivity to light, that it may be harmful to them "So… if they fear light…" she said as she began to think, she saw a metal beam near her, she went back to check on Gwenn and to see if he had any rope among his packed gear, which she didn't doubt, he seemed to have everything useful on hand aside from medical such as medicine.
Her idea was to tie the rope to something secured and use the rope as a guide back so she can go further into the dark rooms of the other side of the building, given how easily lost one could get despite having a light source. The area where the pale one's swarmed, was very dark and unable to see with the human eyes, it was pitch black and any source of light could only get so far unless there was a cave in to bring in said skylight, that would be mere impossible though as it went down deeper, not up.
After grabbing rope from the large pack, she went out close to the darker part of the building she found and tied one end of the rope to a metal beam nearby, after doing so she went back to grab another stick from the fire, she tied the rope around her waist and began to venture out into the darkness. Wanting to see how far into that side of the building before she hit a wall or the max length the rope can reach, moving carefully not to make much noise given that there are pale ones around her, they seemingly weren't just afraid of light but also were pretty blind themselves and deaf.
As she was unable to see the light behind her she feared if it was beginning to become night time, as she ventured forth feeling around with her free hand for a door or a wall, it felt like where she was went on and on with no end, not too worried about being lost, since the rope was her breadcrumbs back, she held her breath as she heard scurrying around her to make less noise as she didn't want to suddenly scream out of fright like before.
One of the pale creatures rushed past Kayla causing her to stumble and drop her torch as it scared her half to death, she scampered quickly trying to catch the runaway torch, as she heard snarling around her as the sounds of movement around her sounded more numerous. She quickly grabbed the torch and in the light of it as saw what seemed to be a human like figure that appeared to be fossilized in a tar like substance and covered in peculiar holes all around its torso, those holes appear to make a sicking sucking sound, and the light of Kayla's torch started to dim rapidly from being near it.
Upon realizing that figure, she quickly retreated due to the torch that is on the verge of being extinguished from the fall and rolling, panting as she was out of breath but had to keep running with time running short, and the pale creatures being very aggressive and trying to tackle her from the distinguishing light and using the dark parts to try and grasp her, all of them clearly hungry for human flesh as their snarls echo through the halls of the building the farther she ran back.
Kayla, clearly shaken from what she saw and what could happen she tried to hurry back, realizing there isn't any way forward she tried to devise a new plan to scavenge from somewhere else. She returned to the storage room where Gwenn was, letting out a relieved sigh to see he was still there, approaching him as she hugged him tightly, trying to provide him more warmth for a while as she processed things after what just happened and what she witnessed.
Kayla grabbed more rope and thought about using that to scale down the side of the building and try to grab whatever she could on the lower floors,she wasn't going to give up so easily and just yet. At least that's hoping if anything of use was still on the lower floors, she tied the rope to the same metal beam and tossed it down the side of the building through the large open gape of the building after securing the door of the storage room so nothing would get inside so easily to Gwenn.
Kayla glanced down the building as she stood at the edge, leaving her somewhat frightened as she realized how high up they really were in the tower. She took a deep breath, grabbing the rope tightly and began descending down with the rope, thankfully the storm had passed, but it was clear another was arriving with how dark the clouds were above her, and the sheer fact a gust of strong wind had started to pick up speed and started to swing her along with the rope due to how profoundly powerful it was beginning to pick up, she missed being inside somewhere safe already, or in-fact using Gwenns wings as a shield for her.
She tried her best to hold onto the rope, though the rope was becoming weaker due to the strain on it, as it then suddenly snapped sending Kayla tumbling through a window a few floors down. Kayla let out a small painful groan as she tried to regain her composure and stand but felt off balance due to how she landed, quickly seeing her knee appeared to be messed up, she whimpered in pain as she pressed herself against a wall and inspected her knee, realizing it got twisted forcefully by strength, she hated to admit it, but at least it wasn't her ankle, knowing that would probably hurt worse.
She let out an annoyed sigh along with a growl, thankfully it wasn't worse, such as being broken but it still hurt a lot either way. She really wished things would just go their way in a good and positive way for once and to get a single nights rest without anything bad happening so soon, now she knew why Gwenn was so iffy and angry with her most the way here despite trying to hide it, she clearly saw it, and why he seemingly wanted to rush things a bit when arriving to this tower place.
Using the wall to balance herself, she limped along trying to keep her whimpers of pain as quiet as she could, grateful enough the room she crash landed in was clear as she saw no zoms or anything else in the room with her. She knew she needed to make a splint for her knee quickly so it would help it heal quicker, as she stumbled into a nearby room in an attempt to find supplies for her knee, she noticed a dusty box that appears to be medical supplies and with a pained hopeful look on her face she opened the box as she quickly approached it, only for a gust of dust hitting her in the face causing her to cough and wheeze.
She looked painfully disappointed when she saw there was nothing inside the medical box, whimpering in pain she sat down against a wall trying to catch a breather and think things through on what to do next from her current situation she done on her own, she should've just stayed put and watched over Gwenn like he's done for her.
Having no choice but to carry on, Kayla limped to a door nearby and trying to still stay silent as possible, this was just a small injury and it hurt like hell as it was, this made her wonder how Gwenn could endure much worse and show no signs of pain despite knowing full well he's in it. As she peeked out of the room checking left and right from her, she proceeded down the hall, which felt like to her that it stretched on forever, coming to realize the zoms in this city seemed to have adapted and evolved or some how mutated into various subtypes, "Great… just as if things wasn't bad enough." Kayla said to herself when she saw a hobbling giant like the one she saw fall due to the electric rifle, but the giant seemed to be covered in massive gashes and burns like the snow storm was corrosive at full strength.
As Kayla tried her best to stay quiet as the behemoth lumbered around the room, she had made her way to from the hall, clearly very hurt and extremely angry, more than likely it will destroy Kayla if it saw her, even in her current condition she was not in the position to outrun it. As the lumbering giant started to patrol around the area each of its steps landing with a loud thud with each consecutive step and each time it almost knocked Kayla off balance, it was bad enough keeping her balance as is with how bad her knee was in shape.
She tried her best not to make a reactionary sound from being almost knocked over as she snuck around the giant as it patrolled, despite her injury she has her focus for finding supplies still and making her way back to Gwenn, primarily something that can be used to keep a fire going in the storage room for now as their supplies have gone low.
Kayla went on, there were definitely signs of another storm impending with seeing how the wind was now repicking back up its speed, "Oh come on...not now..." she uddered to herself in annoyance, going outside was a sure no go, as she heard the winds pick up realizing she was essentially in the radius of the snow storm and exposed to it as this room was potentially destroyed to nothing and had a large open gap to the outside, she knew she needed to get back more into the building or at least an interior of some sort as she tried to scurry along despite of her injury.
Skippy had appeared and began following Kayla along, with a hobbled flight pattern due to the wind speed entering through the large destroyed gap and into the room, Skippy ended up nestling into Kayla's hair once more as she limped along and came across what seemed like the remains of a hardware store and hurried inside just as the snow storm went into full effect.
Letting out a sigh as she heard the frame of the building start to creak causing Kayla to hesitant for a moment in fear of collapse, she proceeded to rummage around the store for anything she could bring back, as Kayla searched and rummaged around the old store taking careful steps in hope to not step on a weak plank of the apparent floor of the shop and fall assuming there was a place to fall too, She didn't feel like getting any more injuries, Skippy flew up into the rafters and sat there perched and looked around from above in case there was danger.
Kayla came to a sudden halt when a loud creak escaped one of the floorboards, at this point she wasn't more afraid of falling, but more of alerting that giant hunk of nasty zom into the shop building as she was still decently close to that monster. Letting out a soft relieved sigh as she recognized she was in the clear, not alerting the beast to her presence as she continued to rummage and search around for anything useful.
At this point, Kayla was about to give up in search for supplies, with her luck being hardly the greatest it seemed. She came to the conclusion maybe the barbarians or something, or someone came through carefully into the city and took all the supplies from the buildings. Whether or not she officially knew she needed to get back to Gwenn, she didn't want to leave him alone after being warned how dangerous this top world was, and she already learned that certain areas are more dangerous than others based on her several days experience.
He also warned her that it was going to be even more dangerous from here on out once they hit the north and snowy parts just as they have, they still were a long way before hitting the official north side though. Kayla let out a sigh of defeat in regards to supplies, she directed her attention back to where she came from as she heard the heavy winds of the snow brushing against the buildings with their windows and destroyed gaps.
Kayla glanced up to where she saw Skippy perch up onto, realizing the little bat was not there anymore and had disappeared overall, causing Kayla to glance around the shop and whisper out for Skippy to come out and stop playing around as it frightened her.
Kayla ended up wandering into a whole new room from the shop in her search for Skippy without realizing it, until now. In fact, this formed a small smile upon her face as where she ended up now, led upward thankfully as now she can get back up to Gwenn. She continued to silently call out for Skippy and search for the little bat, realizing she wasn't sure what gender Skippy entirely was and made her curious, though this thought only made her sigh after as the little bat seemed to be nowhere around any longer.
Kayla came across some stairs she needed to use as a way up, realizing this and not only this, but the sheer fact these stairs were seemingly old and most likely have also decayed over the 11 years that have passed. Not just that, but also the fact of her injured knee as she glanced down at it and back at the stairs with an annoyed moan immediately regretting once more with venturing out in an attempt to find supplies alone.
Kayla stumbled her way up the steps as almost each one made a creaking sound of it being decayed over time, not being able to hold out from much weight being placed onto it. After her ventful fails of staggering her way up the steps and desperately holding onto the railing that was surprisingly still well intact against the wall, she had finally made up to a new found large open room, where there were cracked large windows of the snow storm slightly coming through but not badly.
She only stood there and stared, looking around and trying to figure out her location. She had to make her way down, not up beforehand when her and Gwenn got separated, so this was all new to her. Kayla glanced around once more, she was thankful she was alone in this room, no sight of any zoms or anything in an attempt to kill her, though this worried her in a way too as it's been nothing but stuff trying to kill her lately and since their arrival here.
As Kayla took a step forward, the sound of a large creak gave out loudly, spooking her due to the silence in the room and the only sound being heard was the wind and aggressive snow storm happening outside the windows, this caused her to jump slightly away from the sound under her. Due to the sudden fight and strain on her knee as she landed on the leg with the injured knee, had caused her to lose balance painfully and topple over.
Due to the forceful impact of her body, the weak floor boarding below her had gave out where she had landed, giving her no time to react or save herself as she immediately panicked and reached out to possibly grab the ledge from the sudden opening, only to fail as she tightly closed her eyes preparing for the hurtful impact below.
Giving a tight expression for it to only fade, realizing she was not hitting the ground below, and feeling herself dangle mid-air along with the after feeling of a familiar grasp preventing her from the fall on her wrist, which in fact was the hand she attempted to use and reach out to grab the ledge and fail. Kayla immediately shot a look upward as she dangled, seeing the familiar face and forming a pleasant and grateful smile upon her face of relief, "Gwenn!" She sobbed happily.