In the Company of Wolves (1)

After a new day started to wake, a foggy veil had fell upon the rocky hills and shrouded the land in its gray walls. It had Hope creatively challenge his thoughts in comparing it to the sky having fallen.

And in a way it did.

No more were the clouds tied to the ceiling but now laid out in front of him.

Stab!

Sqlssh...

Hope pulled out a soul shard from another monster's carcass and broke it instantly between his trembled fingers.

During dawn hour, Hope waited for another half an hour before he commanded his body to move and begin journeying again. The soreness had died down considerably. Although, with certain movements did the pain return. His injuries haven't fully healed yet, but he was satisfied with the progress.

He wasn't too far from leveled ground when he checked his surroundings that morning. He had climbed down from the small cave he rested by that night, recalled which was East, and begun heading to the opposite horizon.

It took some time to find the trackway again, but many times did he stop by monster's carcasses to harvest more soul shards.

At this point, Hope had counted that he collected 70 soul shards in the past two days.

Was that a lot?

He wasn't sure.

He almost had all the time in the world with no disturbances to wander around to harvest them. Almost.

It seemed that the government had sincerely lacked their duty in harvesting soul shards in this region.

Hope touched his chest and tried to feel his soul core to weigh its saturation. 70 soul shards sounded a lot, but even now it felt like it was barely even a quarter full.

So, it was 70 out of...what?

Hope felt like he probably shouldn't figure that number out. Like many other Awakened, they'd become fixated on some imaginary number and obsess in saturating their core. Hope had no interest in challenging himself in that aspect. But he wasn't going to entirely miss out on the opportunity for free soul shards.

By now it was late noon. The longer he traveled West the more he realized there were less and less monsters around. Dead and alive.

It wasn't hard avoiding the other monsters. Most of the time they were off in the distance. So, he had to either hide behind the hills or go around them like he did the first time. Why fight one at all when one could avoid it?

Hope shook the blood off his shield but slightly stumbled back in the process.

Not a sleepy spell, but a dizzy one that reared his mind. 

He caught himself and straightened himself as best as he could. But his body hunched over with evident fatigue.

He raised his free hand up in front of his eyes-

It was trembling.

'Hungry...' Hope thought.

'So hungry...'

His eyes lazily looked back at the carcass at his feet where he tore the soul shard from.

"..."

Should he eat it...?

"Sigh..."

It was tempting. In its own way. But Hope knew his stomach probably couldn't handle a raw rotten monster's flesh.

Who knew what kind of diseases or sickness could befell upon him if he-

'Wait...'

Hope frowned at that thought.

"..."

Hope didn't need to see it. But from his silent tangent thought, runes instantly appeared in front of him. The damn attribute showed itself, almost tauntingly. 

[Tears of Sorrow] Attribute Description: "...The Heart God's endless overseeing of the mortals...she pitied their short lives...Shortly after, she gifted them the Water of Life, a remedy to their aging and maladies..."

Hope skimmed through the description anyway and blinked at the line 'remedy to their aging and maladies.'

Remedy.

Maladies.

Wasn't 'maladies' tied to the words illness and sickness? Wouldn't that mean that the damn cursed attribute still had its original healing property? Its still a damn curse sure. But the healing aspect of it must be still in effect.

'Not a healing property for physical injuries though...' Hope thought as he subconsciously touched the side of his ribs.

'Does that mean that I...could...'

His eyes fell again upon the monster's torn flesh.

"..."

He felt stuffy at that moment. Well, he already felt that way in the confined walls of the gray fog. Even the idea crossed his mind of maybe raining would have done him some good instead to wash the blood from himself. Of course, the cons weighed itself out. He wouldn't want to walk around in soaked clothes. Soaked blood and dirt was enough.

But the thought of eating a clump of flesh...

Hope weakly knelt down to one knee in front of it.

When was the last time he ate?

It was the day before yesterday. The morning of the night of the convoy attack. Although maybe he could hardly call it a meal. It was colorless and had the consistency of mud that came out of a tube. He had around ten of those that day. He was never one much of having a big appetite, but he should have eaten more when he got the chance.

Not that he knew he would be separated from everyone else and had to walk miles just to get to safety.

Hope leaned forward and used his shield to slice a good handful of meat from the carcass. The sound of it ripping met his ears as pulled it close to his mouth.

"..."

He paused.

He did say before that if it came down to it that he would eat from one of the monsters by the trackway. He was lacking strength, and he didn't want to risk in what would happen if he failed to hide from an Awakened Beast.

Or if he had to fight one.

"Sigh..."

Such a rotten smell of spoil and death. The blood was sticky and grimly dark, even the flesh felt a bit tough.

Who would have thought that he would be in such a predicament to have desperately reached this point?

Hope closed his eyes, the voices clustering in his mind serving as a convenient distraction more than ever...

...and bit into it.

***

Step. Step. Step...

The gray walls around him were thickening. They were blurry fuzzy mists, but they seemed to lose their reflection now. Was the sun setting already?

Step. Step. Step...

His lips and chin were cracked and tight from the flesh he had eaten earlier. The rancid taste still left in his mouth.

How revolting.

Step. Step. Step...

He was close.

He had to be close to the city by now.

Hope's eyes were fixated ahead as he walked in a straight line. A few times he had realized that he had almost lost himself from the trackway completely. He continued on ignoring the carcasses he passed by and instead focused on moving forward.

But eventually they disappeared as well. That meant he was close right?

The gray foggy wall in front of him was especially becoming darker. That meant that there must be another hill...and maybe another one after that. And after that. And after that-

Hope abruptly stopped.

Then he shuffled his feet back and gazed high above.

No. It was a wall. A real one.

Hope felt his heart quicken as he inspected the familiar wall, his eyes following a deliberate crease that shot up from the bottom to the top.

It was the gate.

Hope was panting as he strode forwards and reached to touch the thick metal gate. Definitely real.

The gate was flanked by two gray walls that also towered towards the sky, their bodies stretching themselves to the sides until it disappeared into the fog.

People. Where are the people? 

Hope was about to call out but felt his throat scratched and scorched from the effort.

He gritted his teeth.

Even if he made no sound, there should have been someone greeting him by now.

No guards? No alarm? How could there be no guards?

He turned his head to the right and saw a shadowed boulder-sized silhouette crouched meters away. Hope's feet had already moved their way towards it, his feet slightly shuffling against the rocky soil as two white spots started to form itself on the figure.

He paused in front of it.

It was the Awakened cohort's vehicle...

'The fucking hell...'

Hope narrowed his eyes as he summoned his shield and opened the carrier's door.

Empty.

That didn't matter. Not too much anyways. What he needed was a weapon. A real one.

Hope immediately looked through the drawers and shelves. Even looked through the crevices of their seats and...a lounge area?

'How luxurious of them...'

Hope tossed an empty canteen of water to the side, the sound releasing a clattering noise against the metal floor. He was just about to leave until he found a flashlight hiding at the far back end of a shelf. He reached and grabbed onto it.

Not a weapon. But still useful.

Awakened's main weapons were their Memories anyways. But could they leave Memories behind? Was that even possible?

Hope sighed as he reached behind his back pocket and pulled out a long black shard that looked a lot like it belonged to some clawed animal. And it did. Hope thought he might as well tear something off from a creature to use as a weapon. But it wasn't as effective as an actual Memory.

With a sigh, Hope stepped out of the carrier and looked up at the familiar towering wall. The Mirror City's border. Its name was proven behind those walls but...

No guards...

No Awakened...

Did they climb over then?

Hope frowned. 'With what such urgency...'

Hope wasn't exactly confident in his skills in climbing over the wall himself. Maybe some adrenaline might help. But that didn't exactly come on command, did it?

So, if not over it. Or through it. Then...

Under it?

"..."

'Why do the odds keep getting lower-'

Hope narrowed his eyes. He quickly glanced up at the sky then away.

'Forget I said that...'

There was no time in feeling so bitter about it. Hope turned and started to walk down the wall. He realized the fog around him was losing more of its reflection and draining itself from light rather quickly. There were no hints of warm hues in the sky this time. Only the approach of night's cold bite.

But as Hope continued down the wall, he kept an eye out for some entry. Of course, not a gate. But a tunnel or a sewage line. Each city had them. Although, the main problem was that he didn't have the knowledge about these tunnels. It was still the best chance he had. 

After what seemed to be about ten minutes, Hope finally saw a trench. At the bottom of it and against the wall was a bordered circle with a rusty cage 2 meters tall and wide at its center. It was slightly bent and torn, with claws ineptly scarred around it, but nothing that could fit a well-sized Awakened Beast.

Hope slid carefully down the trench, the dirt and gravel crumbling after him, and stood in front of the cage.

The darkness behind it did not seem at all like the pitch darkness back in his First Nightmare-

Hope gritted his teeth and immediately shook his head from the memories.

No. Nope. This was different.

Normal, but still deadly.

Hope quickly dismissed his shield and put the flashlight in his other backpocket. He grabbed onto the rusty gate, the metal chapped and cold against his bare hands, as he climbed and fit himself stiffly in between where the bars were torn just wide enough for himself.

He grunted as the pain slightly resurfaced in his back and chest.

"Phew..." Hope let out a sigh as he finally reached the other side.

He paused, then summoned back his shield and turned on the flashlight with his right. He would save the black shard, or claw knife he supposed, as something of a last resort.

'In the darkness we go...'

"..."

Step...

Step. Step. Step...

Hope walked on ahead and let himself be swallowed by the shadows leaving the open wasteland behind him.

As he continued forwards, with the company of his whispering memories, the thought resurfaced on what happened back at the gate. Maybe the disappearance of the Awakened did affect him in some way. And with the absence of the guards...

Hope frowned. He had only hoped to come, stop, and go through this city. But what was preventing him from doing all of those things?

Surely his other damn [Black Sheep] Attribute couldn't be the cause of all of this.

Step. Step. Step...

His steps cruelly announced himself in the dark. The flashlight he held onto only defined the darkness, not dispelling it as he shone it around. The smell of wet, metal, and rot filled his nose, almost tickling his senses. Almost. But at this point they didn't affect him as much as compared to eating raw spoiled meat or being hugged by a wall of skinned flesh for hours.

The light bounced off tiny puddles that were displayed sporadically at his feet, and above his head were droplets falling at random.

Was there a possibility he could get lost and die in these tunnels?

Yes. But that truth didn't seem to frighten Hope. Not that it encouraged him either.

Step. Step. Step...

Should he make a run for it...?

Hope paused in his tracks.

He didn't see the harm in doing so. It would make things a lot faster actually.

The soreness was already halfway gone from his body. He did still feel slightly dizzy.

A light jog would be a better option.

"Sigh..."

Hope took in a breath then started to jog forwards.

His steps were even more stark against the silence. Maybe they would unwittingly lure monsters out from the depths of these tunnels. But staying in one place for too long that he didn't know of was dangerous enough. He felt the urge to leave.

After several minutes, Hope finally reached a point where two tunnels diverged. Huh. That reminded him back in the catacombs when he was acting as a guide for the-

'Shit-'

Hope stumbled.

He lost his balance and slammed against the nearest wall as a stream of memories erupted.

He gritted his teeth as he tried to push them back.

'Present. The present. Think about the present.'

But there wasn't much he could describe around him. Except that darkness lengthened endlessly in all directions with a few shiny puddles here and there. But nothing of detailed resemblance to call upon.

Hope pushed himself off the wall and chose the left passage.

He had to try to keep the voices at bay, but moreso in keeping the films and images from playing.

How else should he describe it then...

He supposed it was like walking into the maw of black death itself. The darkness rushing forwards and backwards no matter where he looked. No other sound but his steps alone, the loud thumping of his heart, and the accompanied whispers. He had almost expected to meet some monster by now. Huh. Maybe he really could die down here. 

Left. Right. Right. Left. Straight. Straight. Left.

This was too damn long-

Hope paused in his tracks.

He heard something. Or was that from his memories?

He squeezed his eyes shut as he forced his ears to single out the noise. Definitely real. The sound of a...man. Make that men. As if they were...hollering?

'Noise. People. Exit. Somewhere.'

Hope immediately picked up the pace. His muscles tensed from the action, but he only felt the rush pulsing through his body as he chased the noise.

Left. Left. Straight. Left-

Light.

His flashlight shined a ladder in front of him screwed into a wall. Above was a broken ceiling partially covered by a wooden plank with the night's blue light faintly spilling through. Was the moon visible enough that it was able to shine through the fog?

It was rare to even see the moon at all. But its presence was always made known in one way or the other.

Hope put his flashlight away, still keeping his shield though, and climbed up the rustic ladder. He paused at the top and listened out for the men. It sounded to be a decent sized group alright. And they seem to be on a...hunt? A chase?

Carefully pushing aside the wooden plank, Hope peeked his head through.

He found himself in some sort of narrow alley. He slightly caught a smell of smoke as well. But the walls...no buildings loomed overhead disappearing into the tall fog. Wrist thick vines entangled themselves through their windows and their frames like some possessive nature.

Ah. That was another weird thing about the Mirror City-

Phoooweeet-

A whistle called out, followed by a clustering of steps and snickering. 

Hope silently climbed out and closed back the wooden plank over the hole before hiding behind a building's column.

He peeked to the side, overlooked the front of the building's courtyard and saw two men armed with rifle guns.

Not guards though.

Three other men came into view; two had a crowbar and one at the head had a pistol. In front of all of them, where they had their prey cornered, was a man and a boy. A father and a son most likely.

"Don't you know what happens if you break the fucking sector's rules?" The man with the pistol said.

The father was sweating profusely as he pulled his young son further behind him. That kid seemed to be about twelve years old. Or maybe thirteen.

"P-please...we're just hungry."

"Pah! Hungry?!"

The man let out a hollow laugh as he loosely held the pistol on his finger.

"What?" He continued. "You think we'd just give it to you for free just because of some fucking kid?"

"..."

'Maybe I'll find some other people that could help me.'

Hope thought as he looked away and stared off absentmindedly.

But where could the others be? This city...was different from the others. Just as he thought before, the government didn't seem inclined to get personally involved in this city's business. As long as the main road was available, then this lawless city runs itself. At least, that was what always seemed to be the case.

Hope never personally met with the settlements himself. But it was evident that they were ruled by 'survival of the fittest.'

"W-we don't mean any harm..."

"Kahahaha! You hear that, boys? It was all a fucking honest mistake!"

"Yup. I'm sold kekeke."

"Too bad you came across us then." The man's eyes curved like a sly predator. "Maybe those other settlements could carry you jackasses. But not everyone has the luxury to live that way."

The father gulped and anxiously reached over his shoulder.

"T-take it!"

He threw his backpack at their feet.

The man's eyebrows furrowed, and a disgusting expression formed on his face.

"That's not what we want." He spat. "What we want is fucking compensation."

He brought up his pistol and aimed at the father's head.

The boy instantly gripped onto the hem of his father's shirt; eyes wide in horror.

"Dad-"

Hope heard the familiar click of a gun. He turned just in time and narrowed his eyes as he saw the man's finger pull the trigger.