Journey's End

Adam jumped to his feet in stupefaction. The last thing he could remember was running through the fiery hell and chasing the damned bird.

Nevertheless, he was alive and unharmed. He had just woken up in fact. The fire wasn't a dream though. His surroundings were undeniable proof of it.

Blurry images slowly came to his mind, memories of what had happened earlier. The Tainted walking through the raging inferno. Him crawling on the blanket of charred bones. The pigeon sitting on a blackened skull and cooing cheerfully. A green crystal flickering with light, calling to him.

The memory of the crystal made Adam flinch. He looked around searching for it but to no avail. There were only the pieces of the shard around him, and past them, a black plain dotted with hills of bones.

He couldn't recall what had happened with it, but the crystal must have been something important. It seemed crazy at first, but Adam didn't have any doubt that the entity speaking to him earlier had been the gem.

Its call was still vivid in his mind. It wanted something from him. He wasn't sure what though.

The crystal must have originated from the shard, from outer space. It had commanded thousands of Tainted to come and die for it. It had powers that he couldn't even begin to fathom. What could it possibly want from him? Why had it lured him here?

As he reached this point, he recalled the bird. It was nowhere to be seen. Adam hoped that it didn't die in the fire. It must have been a slave to the crystal, just like the Tainted. It had had the same green flicker in its eyes. The same disregard for its own life. He could only hope that it was free now.

A thought suddenly came to him as the memories settled in. Adam panicked as it bore through his mind. He began grasping madly at his body, looking for any burns or injuries. There was nothing wrong with him though. His body was in perfect condition.

Even the old scars, some of which had been with him for decades, had inexplicably vanished. He remembered vividly what the fire had done to him, but now he was healed. He never felt better in fact and he owed it to the gem for sure.

After checking his body thoroughly, Adam decided that it was time to go. His goal didn't change. He had to reach his family.

There were two problems, though. He didn't know where he was exactly and where to go, and he was naked.

Adam looked at the sun and turned to the west. He recalled seeing the highway somewhere to his left before he had entered the fire. The road had to be close but there was no point in searching for it now.

The city should be straight to the west, not far from here. He only needed to find one of the towns surrounding it and it would lead him there.

Thinking of this, Adam walked slowly through the bleak landscape. The fire burned for two days straight and it consumed a vast tract of land during that time. It would take Adam a while to walk out of this black scar that the Impact had left on the face of Earth.

The monotonous view calmed his mind and made him begin to consider the bigger picture. The world had irrevocably changed. The old rules didn't apply anymore.

Adam recalled his inability to kill the Tainted trapped in a truck. He had still thought of them as humans then. The fire changed it. He saw how they had killed and devoured, without any mercy. He also saw how they had died without a word, bound to the superior will.

His perspective shifted. The Tainted were nothing more than beasts. If he wanted to ensure the safety of his family, he would need sufficient strength. To obtain in, he would have to kill.

Otherwise, they would end up bound to someone else, just like the Tainted dying in the inferno. This changed world was a place where the strong would rule. For the sake of his family, he intended to be one of them.

Adam finally reached the boundary between black and green. A small stream had stopped the fire from spreading onwards and saved the farmlands behind it. Its bank was stalked by a loose group of Tainted.

They had probably been drawn there by the crystal. Adam's arrival in the heart of the fire must have saved their lives. As such, they belonged to him now.

He breathed deeply and steadied his heart. He wouldn't hesitate again. The nearest Tainted burst suddenly as Adam used Blood Manipulation to kill it quickly. Other monsters immediately became agitated and gathered around the corpse.

Adam recalled the fight with the dogs and how easy it was to command the blood of a dead creature. He evoked the feeling that accompanied him at that moment and a bloody black spike formed above the corpse.

It ran through the head of another Tainted killing it on the spot. He then slaughtered them one by one from a safe distance.

Adam almost couldn't believe how easy it was when he unleashed his skill on them. After the last of the Tainted hit the ground, a familiar message popped into Adam's mind.

[You gained a level.]

"The higher the level, the more Tainted I need to kill. Killing the dogs was different though. More efficient. I wonder why was that," he thought as he crossed the stream. Adam looted the corpses for their clothes and continued the journey.

It was early afternoon. Adam stood at the top of a slope, overlooking the valley below him. The Vistula River weaved majestically through its center and at its banks laid the end of his journey.

The city of Cracow. The second-largest and one of the oldest cities in the country, with a population of nearly eight hundred thousand. His home.

It seemed that the Impact didn't spare the city though. Adam noticed numerous fires raging across the city and his ears picked up barely audible screams and growls, and even gunshots.

Nevertheless, what caught his attention was the city center, the Old Town. Or rather, the place where it was supposed to be. A multicolor spherical barrier shining with mystical light covered all of it, as well as part of the river.

"Another mystery," Adam thought as a route started to form in his mind. He would walk to the bottom of the valley and through one of the towns surrounding the city.

He would enter the city from the east, go up to the river, and then alongside it, scouting the magical barrier erected on the other bank. He would reach the opposite side of the city and the bridge that lay over the Vistula River there. When he crossed it, he would finally be able to get home.

After coming up with the plan, Adam took a step forward and began walking down the slope. As he thought about his home, it occurred to him that this last stretch of the journey would probably be the hardest and most dangerous.

Cracow alone was home to nearly one million residents. It meant that there were approximately half a million Tainted between him and his family. He would have to be careful and smart, or else he would die.

Adam reached one of the small towns surrounding Cracow when the sun vanished over the horizon. He would find a place to hide and spend the night here. He didn't want to risk going through the city after dark.

He concentrated and activated the Bloodsense. Clusters of blood became visible to him as soon as he did it. This ability was what made Adam believe that he could wade his way through the city safely.

He sensed dozens of Tainted in his surroundings. They were hiding in the narrow alleys and the buildings around him. There were other presences as well. They were small, probably belonging to the animals that lived in the urban areas.

Thanks to the Bloodsense Adam moved through the Tainted-infested town with relative ease. He was already close to the town center when he noticed a few heartbeats that belonged neither to the Tainted nor the awakened animals.

There were people nearby. Adam searched around and soon enough he spotted a few clusters of blood that stood out among the mass of black ones.

There were seven of them and they were all hidden in a large building, most likely a town hall. Five of them were slightly beneath the ground level, probably in a basement, while the other two were on the higher floors.

The building was surrounded by a massive group of Tainted. They were calm for now, but even in the dark, Adam could see the marks left on the walls and massive doors. It seemed that the Tainted had already tried to enter the building.

Adam hesitated. He didn't owe these survivors anything and helping them might put him at risk. He wasn't heartless, however. If he had the means to save their lives he should do so.

Two sides waged a war inside his head. One was a predator, cold and ruthless. Always a part of Adam, it had allowed him to achieve success in life and the Impact had only made it stronger.

It towered above his other half now. A human, weak and compassionate. This side had given meaning to everything he achieved in life. It had allowed him to share it with those he loved.

The two Adams finally reached an understanding and an idea formed inside his mind.