Sleep didn't come easily. It was a shallow, fitful state, punctuated by the distant sounds of shattering glass and inhuman roars. Kai drifted in and out of consciousness, the swordsman's echo a silent, vigilant presence in his mind. He woke with a start to a hand on his shoulder. It was Ben, his face etched with exhaustion in the dim emergency lighting.
"It's almost dawn," Ben whispered. "The sky is starting to turn gray."
Kai sat up, every muscle protesting. His bandaged leg was a knot of dull, throbbing pain. Elara was already awake, packing the last of their meager supplies into her backpack. She gave him a tired but determined look.
"How was the watch?" Kai asked, his voice rough.
"Quiet, mostly. Too quiet," Ben replied, pushing his glasses up his nose. "I saw a few of those Scuttler things moving in packs, sticking to the main roads. They seem to be scavenging. But there's a pattern. They patrol, then move on. If we stick to the back alleys, we might be able to avoid them."
"Good," Kai said, pushing himself to his feet and testing his leg. Pain shot up from his thigh, but it was manageable. "That's our route, then."
They shared the last of their water and a single, stale biscuit Elara had found in her bag. It was a pathetic breakfast for what lay ahead. As the first, weak light of morning filtered through the shattered library doors, painting the dust-filled air in shades of gray, the true devastation of the city became visible. Buildings that had been mere silhouettes at night were now revealed as hollowed-out, smoking husks. The street was littered with the abandoned, debris-strewn artifacts of a world that had ceased to exist only hours ago.
"Ready?" Kai asked, his grip tightening on his saber. The Broodguard Plate on his other arm felt cold and heavy. Elara nodded, her kitchen knife held firmly at her side. Ben hefted his copy of 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire', its gilded title glinting faintly. It was a ridiculously inadequate weapon, yet he held it with a grim resolve that Kai respected.
"Let's go," Ben said. "Before the bigger things wake up."
They squeezed back through the narrow gap in the security gate, stepping out into the cold morning air. The smell was worse now—acrid smoke, dust, and the coppery tang of blood. The purple fissures in the pavement seemed to pulse with a slower, deeper light in the dawn. The city was unnervingly silent. All that remained was the whisper of the wind through broken windows and the distant, unsettling hum of the cracks in reality.
Their journey to the shop had begun. The first steps were a tense, nerve-shredding crawl. They moved like ghosts through a concrete graveyard, sticking to the alleys that ran between the city's main arteries of Ring Road and Lagos Bypass. Ben proved his worth immediately, his sharp eyes spotting potential ambush points and monster spoor that Kai, focused on the path ahead, might have missed. Elara took up the rear, her head on a constant swivel. More than once, she tugged on Kai's sleeve, a silent warning that made them freeze in place as a pack of Scuttlers skittered past the end of an alley, their chittering echoing off the concrete walls.
It was in the third alley, a narrow passage reeking of garbage and decay behind a row of shuttered tailor shops, that they encountered a new kind of horror. The ground was littered with the purple fissures, smaller here but more numerous. As they carefully picked their way through them, a section of the cracked pavement ahead seemed to boil. Dozens of small, beetle-like creatures, no bigger than Kai's fist, swarmed out of a fissure.
[Crack Skitterer - Level 1]
[A mindless scavenger drawn to dimensional energy. Weak alone, but dangerous in swarms.]
"Back!" Kai hissed, shoving Elara and Ben behind him. The swarm surged toward them, a wave of clicking, crawling vermin. There were too many to fight.
"This way!" Ben yelled, pointing to a rusted fire escape ladder on the side of a building. There was no time to argue. Ben went first, scrambling up the ladder with surprising agility. Kai pushed Elara toward it. "Go! I'll hold them off!"
He swung his saber in a wide, horizontal arc, the blade crunching through a half-dozen of the Skitterers. They popped like rotten fruit, dissolving into tiny wisps of blue XP that were barely noticeable. But for every one he killed, three more swarmed forward. One latched onto his boot, its tiny mandibles chewing uselessly at the thick leather. He kicked it off, his leg screaming in protest.
Elara was on the ladder, climbing quickly. Kai backed away, swinging his sword to keep the swarm at bay. "Kai, come on!" Elara shouted from ten feet up.
He leaped onto the bottom rung and began to climb, the swarm surging beneath him. They reached the flat, gravel-covered roof of the three-story building, gasping for breath. The swarm of Skitterers, unable to climb, milled about before losing interest and disappearing back into the fissures.
"Okay," Ben panted, adjusting his glasses. "New rule. We don't touch the ground unless we absolutely have to."
Kai nodded, looking out across the cityscape. From here, they could see the rooftops stretching for blocks. It was a different kind of jungle, a treacherous, uneven landscape of vents, satellite dishes, and gravel. It was slower going, but it was safer. "Rooftops it is," Kai agreed. Their path to the shop just got a lot more complicated.