Missing: disclaimer
Reward: the chapter
"Speech"
"Thought"
Song lyrics
Amily
Finding a way up onto the ridge was a lot easier than she thought; at first she had expected the cliff side to be impossible to get onto without any form of help, but she found a small mud path on an incline made it easier for her to climb upward.
"Alright Amily, I need to find a cave and wait for Terra to come get Me." she thought
She began looking around for a cave that she could hide in and be able to fit Terra inside without her being uncomfortable.
About 34 minutes pass as she looks, passing up several other caves that didn't meet her needs; most of which being too small or just simply weren't good hiding places. As she looked around she just couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching her as she wandered around this place; she figured that she was just being paranoid because she was alone.
"All alone…again…just like…" she shook her head, "I can't start thinking like that, I'll find somewhere to hide and Terra will come find me; I know she will!"
She continued to look for a suitable place in this mountain until she finally came across a cave that suited her requirements: It was large on all accounts, it looked perfectly capable of housing Terra without making her uncomfortable; after an inspection of the inside cave she found it also had several places someone small like her could hide in, it also didn't connect to the long spanning tunnel system that was already in the mountains.
She went back out to the cave's entrance and carved a little arrow pointing into the cave with her claws
"There, that'll make it a lot easier for Terra to find Me." she thought as she looked at her handiwork, she then went back into the cave and looked for somewhere to rest, "and now I just have to wait."
She went to the far end of the cave and did her best to tidy up the area she designated as her resting place, it gave her a perfect view of the cave's entrance and kept her hidden from anything that may come into the cave
"Terra will get here soon and then we'll go to warfang."
She did her best to get comfortable as she lay down on her resting place; listening closely to the sounds of the cave, making sure nothing dangerous could get the jump on her. Eventually she fell asleep, the thoughts of her future weighing on her mind; oblivious to the rain outside of her cave, removing the marker she made.
Dreamscape
She felt an odd calm wash over her when she "woke-up" in an empty room, as she had done in so many of her dreams before. Although unlike all the other rooms that appeared in her dreams, this one seemed a little different; it had a white (for some reason the word "tiled" came to mind) floor and ceiling, along with gray walls and all kinds of strange objects thrown about. She stood at full height and saw she was elevated off of the ground a little, she looked at what she was standing on and saw that it was some a bed of some-sort; there were straps on both sides in the upper-middle area, and some on both sides of the lower area
She got down from the bed and decided to inspect the room more closely; the first thing she noticed after she got down was that the bed was very flat, and seemed to be held up by a pole. To the left of the bed (her right) there was some…thing; it had several knobs and little vine-like things coming out of it, each one of them seemed to end with white circular objects. On the right side she saw another thing; this one had a sack of some sort that had a tube and ended with a needle, the contents of the sack having spilled out sometime ago
She walked around the room seeing all kinds of objects she didn't recognize, along with a few objects she recognized like clamps and saws; there was an assortment of small knifes alongside the saws. She found nothing else of interest as she looked around; eventually she found the door that led "outside" of the room, upon looking at the door she saw that there were two symbols that appeared at the top, "83" and "97"; both of them faded and reappeared at a very quick rate. Next to the door she saw a lever, with another symbol above it
She approached the door and hesitated slightly before pushing it open; she found herself in the woods as she stepped out, a little surprised by the sudden transition. She saw the moon hanging overhead as she took a few steps forward, she turned around and saw that the door had disappeared completely; leaving no evidence of the room's existence
She continued walking down a path illuminated by the moon-light, the calm felling she felt in the room fading away as she walked; being replaced with fear and paranoia. She continued walking for what seemed like a half-hour (which means absolutely nothing in the dream world) until she heard shouting further ahead, she froze on the spot half expecting to be thrust into another nightmare; she looked around and noticed the world hadn't become hellish, so she continued walking towards the shouting despite her fear.
As she got closer to the source of the shouting it seemed to get quieter, the shouting stopped all together when she reached where it seemed to resonate from and seemed to be replaced with someone…crying
She continued along slowly, waiting for something to jump out of the darkness; eventually she resumed her original pace since nothing came out. The crying got softer as she kept going, after a few "minutes" she saw someone in the path further ahead; their stature told her that they're a cheetah; she could tell that they were the ones crying as she could their shoulders bobbing up and down
"H-hello?" she called out to them, "Are you okay?"
As she got closer she could see that they were holding something out of her view, she cautiously walked around to the front of them to see what it was; she nearly shouted out in surprise when she saw that they were holding…her. Some stranger was holding her unconscious body and it looked like they were holding it very tightly as they cried
"Please wake up…please…don't leave me…I can't…I don't want to be alone…again…PLEASE!" the figure cried as it moved a hand across her face
"Why would…" It suddenly dawned on her that she wasn't seeing her own unconscious body in this dream…she was seeing her own corpse, and whoever this was cared for her very deeply
She backed up and began hyperventilating
"Is this an omen!? Am I seeing my future!? Am I doomed to die at a young age?!" She shouted to the figure
The figure growled angrily as it stood up and put her down on the ground gently; it then pulled out two blades and assumed a combat stance
"You stay away from her! You hear me you bastards?! YOU STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM HER!" It shouted as it ran forward, leaving her body
Amily attempted to move out of the figure's way, but it simply fazed through her as it ran towards whatever it was fighting. Amily turned around to see what it was fighting, but was met with a spear flying towards her face
Reality
Amily awoke panting heavily, her heart pounding in her chest
"What was that place…who was that…what did it…was it a vision…the future…am I…going to be…?" She thought as she began panicking, "No…no, it can't be…it was just…a nightmare, nothing more. Dreams don't tell you the future…right?"
After taking a few deep breaths, she calmed down and began to rationalize her thoughts
"I'm just scared; I'm alone in these mountains, I'm just being a little paranoid is all. I was pulled back to those woods because…Ascad and the others…they…they gave their lives to save mine and Terra's…just like AhzrukaI gave his life to safe mine when they found our village." She thought sadly as she remembered the last time she saw that flag, "It was the same ape who led that attack three years ago wasn't it? He wore the same armor and carried the same axe when he attacked the village, but this begs the question; where were his brothers? They were with him when they fought koenraad and Armand, were they killed within these three years?"
Her train of thought was interrupted when she heard someone enter the cave; she panicked at first but quickly calmed down as she remembered she left a marker outside for Terra to see
"Tha-that has to be Terra, no one else would know I'm here and think to look in these caves…right?" she thought as she cautiously walked out of her hiding place, "Well if she's here we can keep goin-"
She resisted the urge to shout in fear as she stared in horror at what was at the cave's entrance
"Oh no…nonononoononnonononononono, not now please not now", she began panicking, "maybe…maybe it'll go away after it doesn't find anything…"
Standing at the foot of the cave was a death-hound much bigger then she was, the fact that it was a death-hound worried her enough; the fact that she recognized it made the whole situation even worse
"Scales red like blood, scarred like a seasoned fighter, eyes once full of rage…one of which was blinded by a child." She looked at her claws and gave them a little twirl, "Three claw marks over the right side of the face, a mark of shame for a failed hunt."
She looked at the hound as it began inspecting the outer area of the cave; she noticed it had more signs of failing many hunts since her first encounter three years ago. Most of an arrow shaft stuck out of its right foreleg shoulder-blade and the upper thigh area of its left hind-leg; she could see burn marks on most of its upper torso, nearly blanketing the color of its scales.
It began moving deeper into the cave, sniffing along the areas that it passed
"Guess I have no other options then…" she thought as she got ready to run, "Fight or flight, like Azzura used to say, I know I'm not strong enough to survive a fight with this thing; my best choice is to run."
She heard it getting closer with every move, its steps becoming louder and its sniffing getting longer as it neared her hiding place; she saw the tip of its nose just outside of her hiding place
"Of course the damned thing is in a cave." A male voice said from the cave's entrance, "it couldn't be down in the forest where it would've been a lot easier to get? No it had to be in the damned mountains."
Amily breathed a sigh of relief as the death-hound turned away from her hiding place to look at the source of the voice
"It's a little weird that it's just one beacon this time." The voice said, "Hopefully it's my swor-what the fuck is that?"
Amily peaked out from her hiding place and saw the death-hound approaching the…well she couldn't tell what it was. It stood up like a cheetah, but its face somewhat resembled an ape's…but didn't at the same time, it seemed to be wearing darkish clothes along with a red scarf, and had all sorts of items clinging to its clothes
"Now, now big dog…thing I suggest you back the fuck down before I get violent." It said as it grabbed a large item hanging off its waist, "and trust me, I'm feeling pretty violent right now."
The death-hound growled in response and continued skulking towards the creature, the item the creature grabbed turned out to be a helmet; it put it onto its head and reached into one of its pockets and pulled out a small black rectangular object, she heard a click and saw it begin to tap its finger against the side she couldn't see. She suddenly heard music, music she'd never heard before…coming from the black thing…?
"Never was too fond of this song", it said as it put the small item into its pocket, "it just feels right to hear it right now."
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but the truth hurts even more!
The stranger (she decided to call him that) got into a defensive stance as the death-hound drew closer
"It's really going to try and fight the death-hound unarmed!?"
The death hound leaped forward, intending to pin down the stranger; the stranger simply side-stepped and delivered a kick to its side, sending it sliding. The stranger ran forward and delivered another kick, this time to its head; the death-hound bit down on the end of the foot and brought the stranger down. The death-hound did its best to try and pin him, but the stranger was stronger and threw it; although it didn't land too far. The death-hound leaped at him again, to which he responded with a punch to the gut.
Amily watched this seemingly one-sided fight go on for another minute or so. The death-hound dodged one of the stranger's attacks and bit down onto his forearm, Amily knew this was the end of the stranger; those teeth will keep his arm in place and then it's going to be torn from his body, but he didn't shout in pain, nor did he try to pry the death-hound off of him
"That's laminated Kevlar you're biting into you little shit." The stranger said in an annoyed tone
A small crunch could be heard as the death-hound bit down harder, the stranger gave a small hiss of pain; and delivered several punches to the hound's exposed rib-cage, 2 knees to its groin area, and finally a head-butt to the snout.
The last attack shattered several of the hound's teeth, sending it flying off towards the cave's entrance
W̵̢̛͘͢A̷̷͜Ŕ̵̢̕! RIGHT NOW!
The hound stood up and began running out of the cave, unfortunately it didn't get very far since the stranger grabbed its tail and threw it deeper into the cave.
HEY, HEY come back here, I'm not done with you!
The stranger jumped onto the hound and pinned it to the ground
HEY, HEY stay right there, there's dying left to do!
The hound struggled to free itself from this position, but was stopped by a punch to the snout
HEY, HEY come back here, I'm not done with you!
The stranger began punching the hound's head repeatedly; she could hear the sound of each hit over the music
HEY, HEY stay right there, your TORTURE IS OVERDUE! (Guitar solo)
The hits continued, drowning out all other noise.
"If it could take on a death-hound no problem…what's it going to do when it sees me?!" she thought fearfully as she receded back into her hiding place, "no, it's probably friendly, I mean…it is killing the death-hound, but it could be an ape using black magic to change its appearance and punish the death-hound for failing to find anything, it might try to get me once I come out."
She could hear the sounds of bone crunching as she decide to peak out again, the stranger continued to punch the twitching body beneath him; each hit continuing to crush and destroy the skull along with its contents (look up Carver's death from TTG's the walking dead season 2 (spoilers if you haven't played it)). Even after the hound had stopped moving he kept punching, each hit rendering the brain into a gooey substance and shattering the skull into many pieces barely being contained by the skin.
She watched the assault continue for another few minutes until the stranger hit the ground beneath the hound's head, the sound of some of his knuckles breaking from the impact was obvious
"Gah, what the f- damn it, not again." he said as it got off of the hound's body, shaking his wounded hand
It pulled the small black rectangle from his pocket and stopped the music; he took off his helmet and put it the little thing into his pocket, then pulled out another black rectangular item, this one being a little bit bigger.
"Alright, where is it…" he said as he pressed a finger against the thing
She began panicking upon hearing those words
"He's coming to get me!"
He began walking in her direction; she got ready to run as she heard his footsteps approaching, soon a few inches away.
"At the cave's end." He said as he walked past her, much to her surprise
She peaked out and saw him fumbling with some loose rocks, pulling out a bag hidden under them
"This can only be one thing." He said as he inspected the bag, "Ammo and the cleaning kit."
He pulled out all kinds of small boxes and containers
"Of course I find the ammo now, not a couple hours ago when I needed it."
He sat down and began taking off the items that clung to his armor (from what she could guess), along some pieces of the armor itself
"Little bastard actually pierced through." He said as he inspected his arm and the armor, "Anymore force and he…it…could've did some serious damage."
He opened what he dubbed the "cleaning kit" and pulled several small objects from it, and moved onto his other items
"Rule number two of the apocalypse: periodic weapon maintenance; if your weapon ain't working right, the only asshole it's gonna kill is you."
He took apart each of the items that he set down, then took a rag and a bottle of a clear liquid…she could tell it wasn't water and began to use it on each of the individual pieces
POV shift- General
After a few minutes of silence Michael began putting the guns back together, he started with Maria
"Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk with you again",he began singing as he was halfway through putting Maria back together,"because a vision softly creeping, left its seeds while I was sleeping"
"And the vision that was planted in my brain still remains, within the sound of silence"
Amily was surprised at how pleasant his voice sounded as he sang to himself, and yet it sounded rather hallow
"In restless dreams I walked alone, narrow streets of cobblestone; 'neath the halo of a street lamp."
He moved onto Hades
"I turned my collar to the cold and damp. When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of neon light that split the night, and touched the sound of silence"
He set down Hades and moved on to the Red Curtain
"And in the naked light I: saw ten thousand people, maybe more. People talking without speaking, people hearing without listening" he began to put some passion into the song he sang, but Amily could hear the pain in his voice, "People writing songs that voices never share, and no one dared; disturb the sound of silence"
He moves onto the pieces of his armor that he took off and begins to clean them as well
"Fool said "I you do not know, silence like a cancer grows. Hear my words that I might teach you! Take my arms that I might reach you!" but my words like silent raindrops fell and echoed in the wells of silence"
He began reattaching the cleaned pieces to his armor
"And the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made, and the sign flashed out its warning, in words that it was forming. And the sign said the words of the prophet are written on the subway walls, and the tenement halls; and whispered in the sounds of silence"
Michael sat down and checked inventory after giving a heavy sigh
Amily sat in her hiding place and debated
"Maybe he's not bad, just scared and alone? I mean he didn't try to find me and he fought that death-hound no problem, but that just makes him dangerous. He didn't hesitate to beat its head into a pulp, and shrugged off his damaged hand." She peaked out to look at Michael, "He just looks really sad, maybe I could befriend him, and get him to help Terra find me!"
As Michael finished his inventory check, Amily began walking towards him
"This was the closest beacon, gonna have set up camp here because of the rain. After the rain clears up, I'm going to go get the other one; after that I'm going to go on the path they were following." Michael said to himself as he loaded his weapons, "I've got enough food and water, and now that I've got ammo nothing will stand a chance."
Amily stepped out of her hiding place and began walking towards him
"Hmm, should probably wash this blood off before it dries."
Michael turned around to exit the cave and saw Amily walking towards him
The two of them stared at each other while a long uncomfortable silence filled the cave, neither one of them daring to break the sound of silence (I'm so clever)
"The kid…the kid's alive? Wait, I didn't see Terra's body in the forest either; but where is she? I know she wouldn't leave her alone, did they get separated, did she die on the way up the mountain ridge."
"H-hello?" Amily said, the first of them to find the courage to speak
FUCK
Happy thanksgiving people ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡⊙ ͜ʖ ͡⊙) ( ͡◉ ͜ʖ ͡◉)
Michael's equipment:
Hades (revolver): 56 bullets
Red-curtain (shotgun): 39 12-gauge shells
Maria (desert eagle): 4 shots left in current magazine, 14 extra magazines
An axe
Body armor w/ helmet
Red scarf
3 dragon scales
Ivan's journal
Dom's iPod
The laptop and camera
Weapon cleaning kit
7 fragmentation grenades
2 semtex grenades
4 flash grenades
2 incendiary grenades
"Universal" charger
Assorted cables
Food: should last another 4 days
Water: until the end of time
Stimpaks: 19 needles
Morphine: 5 needles
Heavy gauze: 18 patches
Alcohol/disinfectants: 2 bottles (small)
Adrenaline shots: 4