The Eternal Winter - Book 1 - Chapter 54 - Trek to the City
Added 2023-01-07 02:17:13 +0000 UTCAlexander North
“So… what’s that?” the captain asks after I meet back up with him and the others at the entry to the stairwell.
I put my hand on Snow’s head before simply nodding my head, grinning, and answering, “It’s Snow!”
No one says anything for several seconds, leaving the entryway in complete silence with the lone exception of the faint howls and echoing growls of the occasional monster coming down from the stairwell.
Since no one is saying anything, I take the time to explain what the Terminal told me. And I think that somehow shocks them even more than me having a frozen one wolf standing next to me acting like a guard dog. They still eventually accept it though, after prodding me with questions.
Although I can’t help but notice some of them sending looks Snow’s way. Looks that I can’t tell what thoughts lie behind, considering that everyone here but me is wearing a helmet.
All of them except for the veteran knew Snow though, so it should be fine.
We all begin heading up the stairs with Snow and I following at the back before ending up at a completely wrecked door leading to the first above ground floor. And what lies beyond the door has each and every one of us stopping in our tracks in shock.
“What… what happened to the first floor?” I hear Victoria mutter as we all stare at the completely collapsed first floor.
I walk past the others to leave the stairwell into the snowy storm outside before looking around at the wreckage. The entirety of the ceiling and walls for the whole first floor and the floors above it are now a thing of the past, with various different frozen ones scampering about on top of the remains. And to make matters worse, the walls surrounding the base have also collapsed as well, leaving the entire base exposed.
Well, this is certainly unexpected. Although in hindsight, the shaking of the ground from earlier probably had something to do with this.
Stupid worm.
“Staying here in the storm won’t do us any good,” the captain breaks everyone’s shock as he speaks, his voice being muffled a bit by the storm, “we should begin making our way to the city.”
Everyone quickly begins to start moving towards the East, which is the direction the city is in, but I stop as something catches my eye.
“Wait,” I call out with a hand raised to point at the sky, “why isn’t the sun out right now?”
My question has everyone raising their heads to look up, but I can’t really see their facial reactions with their helmets on.
“You can see through the storm?” “Are you sure it’s not just hidden by the storm?”
A few of them ask questions back in response, but I just answer, “I can see clearly through the storm, and there is no sun in the sky. Period.”
They all keep quiet for a few seconds as they stare at the sky before the captain interrupts, “No use staring at the sky. We need to make it to the city before we freeze!”
His words once again snap everyone out of the stupor they had found themselves in and we all quickly begin making our way through the blizzard with me in the front. The lack of a sun does seem to be bothering the others though, considering how quiet and tense they’ve all become.
It isn’t until I hear someone’s stomach growling with my enhanced senses that I realize that I haven’t eaten in at least twelve hours now. And yet, I’m not hungry in the slightest.
Is it because of the energy I’ve absorbed up till now? Or maybe I just don’t need to eat anymore?
Which reminds me.
“Captain!” I call out behind me, drawing his attention before I ask, “Do you have enough food for the trek?”
Because the walk to the city should take at least half a day at the minimum, maybe a day or two at most. Depending on how bad things are on the way there.
The captain simply pats the bag that I noticed a while back but didn’t ask about tied to his waist and says, “Affirmative.”
I nod my head at that and begin to turn away, only to be stopped as he waves at Michelle and says, “Hand him the extra rations we grabbed!”
Before she can move, I just hold up my hand and say, “No thanks. I’m good.”
The captain turns to stare at me, so too do the others, but they don’t say anything. Probably assume that I have my reasons.
I pat Snow on the head again, to which she reaches up to lick my hand before I continue walking through the seemingly endless snow, with a lot of the frozen ones simply avoiding us due to my Energy Level. Along the way though, there are some small packs that do attack, and we make short work of them. Most of them simply consist of smaller infected animals that work in small groups. So things like lions and some rather large birds.
But after several hours, an annoying buzzing sound begins to echo above the noise of the storm.
I quickly spread my claws out and enter a combat ready position, still trying to get a bit more used to using them over any weapon, before finding the source of the sound slowly flying down towards us. Or rather, the three dozen sources.
“Grand Mother Terminal…” I hear someone exclaim as we all look up at the approaching group of giant bees. Each of them ranges from half a foot to a foot in height, with a stinger spanning several inches long. They have large wings sprouting from their backs, with a mostly black body striped with one horizontal red stripe going around their center.
Just the thoughts of being stung by one of those stingers sends a shiver down my spine. But I ignore that feeling and instead jump up straight for them, clearing several meters in height with my jump before grabbing one of them by the head and smashing it down to the ground, crushing its head in the process.
“Ignore their appearances and fight!” I shout to the others, making all of the non-symbiont hosts snap to attention and begin readying themselves for a battle.
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