CHAPTER 4 - A Long Way to Go

By the time night rolled around, miles had passed beneath their feet. Luckily before the sun set they found their way into the streets of what once was a town. They could tell that before everything went to hell, the streets might have even been considered nice to look at with its houses laying by the river and red roofs glowing in the last of the day’s light.

Sure some houses looked better than the others and reverse, but that was the standard from before. After months of abandon though, all the houses took on a more worn down look. Plants grew through many of the buildings, covering everything with a green so large it seemed almost impossible. Some of the plants more trees as they broke through the very bricks composing the houses, seizing entire buildings in some places and leaving very few places alone.

But for their purposes, just finding one ‘good’ house was enough.

It took them a few streets, but they found one decent enough for their not so high standards. They haven’t been ‘roughing it’ in the wild for the past few months only to be picky over their choice of cover for the night.

At the end of the street, they had a view of the entire street and could use one of the windows from the second floor to watch anything coming from the street. Even better, the house had its back against the river, so that took care of one of the angles they had to worry about. As the river was deep enough that only the strongest of swimmer could make it through and even then they would probably need assistance either through magic or superior strength coming from their race. The house itself happened to be mostly held together with very few plants breaking any of the previous contents of the building.

Out of habit, it became his job to be the first to have first watch so Ridge let his thoughts wander to the state of the current world and their luck.

In fact, the house, even with its holes in the roof and partly rotten floorboards, would rank quite high on the list of places they’ve had to spend the night. Especially when you took into account that they travelled through some of the worst hit places on the west coast. New York being hit by raids of centaur like beings except instead of being horses; they seemed to be more composed of a haphazard amount of creatures. Rumours saying they were formed from the mixture of both the people visiting the zoos and the animals living there. Boston became a tundra where the sea creatures became able to walk the earth. They didn’t travel through Philadelphia but they did witness some of the survivors who looked no more than empty shells walking more by instinct to get away than anything. No matter how much they tried to ask, they never answered their questions as to what happened. Plus even some of the more ‘small’ cities such as Reading were hit.

As the group actually came from that area, that fact hit them the hardest. Especially when you took into account what happened. No one wanted to become the next City of the Silent.

Of course not every city was destroyed in the aftermath of the Fall. Some were destroyed by bandits or crumbled because they couldn’t handle the amount of refugees. A few though thrived. The turmoil actually brought people together, what did it matter that our races changed? In fact that made it easier to tell who was truly your friend.

If they still stayed your friend even after you transformed into a two ton ogre when they were a pint sized fairy, what better proved that? And in this day and age having that was what really mattered. You never knew when a monster might pop out ready to eat you to survive another day and having someone you could truly trust with your back helped your chances of seeing tomorrow. And even a thousandth of an increase of survival was greatly appreciated.

And while Ridge refused to voice it out loud, he was happy to have Sef and Phenna by his side. Even if they could be annoying at times, he enjoyed everyday with them. It really was more amusing and entertaining than the days he spent alone with only his thoughts and dreams to keep him company.

Of course, at the moment his thoughts turned soft, both because of the later hours in the day and affection for the siblings, he could feel himself falling asleep. A draw to go to bed that blanketed him in tiredness.

He willed himself to stay awake for the rest of the time of his watch, his eyes growing heavier with the passing minutes. Trying to make plans for the next day or goals for the future but even that didn’t help in keeping him awake. Thankfully his replacement was skilled in waking up with impeccable timing. Ridge barely kept standing as he looked through the windows, only to feel a tap on him shoulder from the slightly shorter young man.

“It’s my turn to watch, go to sleep Ridge.” As he rubbed his eyes, Sef shoved Ridge in the direction of where he had just gotten up from. Ridge didn’t put too much protest in the act and raised his hand slightly in acknowledgement to Sef’s comment.

It didn’t take long for his exhausted body to succumb to the throes of sleep. As he fell deeper and deeper, he soon felt the familiar tug that brought him to her, letting it come and hoping it wouldn’t last long this time.

(After this point the gore starts to come into play. If you have a weak stomach start back reading after the next horizontal line.)

Ugh! Finally it was time for the moon to rise and for night to come out. She only ever truly felt comfortable with sunlight when it was reflected off on the moon. Maybe that had something to do with her new race? She couldn’t help but let the thought slip. It was probably true though, a lot had changed with her new body. And not much about it she could say she actually really disliked. In fact, most of it, she loved. She only hated a little bit but she didn’t like to think about those parts much so she decided to throw it from her mind.

Her new self was just so interesting! Ever since she found out she could do things she couldn’t in her old body, she spent most of the time experimenting with it. except when she was letting loose of course.

She’s tried a lot of things in the few months time she’s had with her new body.

Drowned herself by tying huge rocks to her legs and jumping into a lake. Chopped off her own head. Bled herself out like a pig. Walked into a large pyre that she used fuel to accelerate. Jumped off a several story building and splatted herself all over the pavement. She’s even tried poisoning herself with both an overdose of medication and plants like hemlock or nightshade. It’s been both a busy and interesting time.

Her more recent experiment had been going good as well she thought. She hadn’t consumed a single drop of water or ounce of food for several weeks now. It gave a slight bit of discomfort in her stomach but that really didn’t affect her much.

If she didn’t know any better, she’d fancy herself immortal. But then again, not being able to die by natural means is a form of it right? The thought almost made her giggle. Her immortal. That didn’t sound too bad. For her at least, the rest of the world might not like it. Especially because she planned to use all her personal experience.

Just the thought gave her a tingle. Her favorite past time other that experimenting on herself was experimenting on other people you know?

She couldn’t help but think that the best way to tell how to inflict pain on others was to experience it herself, right? Yeah. And that’s why she couldn’t help but hurt herself in all different kinds of fun and exciting ways.

Really how else would you know what it felt like to rip out someone’s intestines and then force feed it to them? Torture isn’t torture unless it lasting and incredible. It’s got to be impressionable so that the person would never forget it, even after they reincarnate.

Too bad she never stayed too long in one place. Then she’d really be able to have fun.

Oh well, she’s just going to have to satisfy herself with her latest ‘experiment’. She had caught the little bugger after leaving the party of travelers yesterday. She gave him extra special care, he was the one who must have been laughing at her right? No one else had been anywhere near the site after all, not in a several mile radius at least.

So she made her knife appear only to make small, almost miniscule, cuts on the boy’s flesh. Paper thin pieces of skin flaking off as she cut more and more. She went layer by layer of the boy’s skin, almost peeling it back like an onion. A giant bleeding onion that can talk, well more like yell.

The best part of it though came in his screams which almost mirrored the sound of his previous laughter. Sadly, it did start to sound more hoarse as her slicing continued. By the time his skin came entirely off, she let him have a small break. Where she poured water down his throat and even force feed him.

It wouldn’t do to have him die on us now would it?

After giving him his food and water, she grabbed a few nearby creatures and flowed their lifeforce into her current experiment. His blood stopped its flow almost completely and a tiny little bit of skin regrew.

Ah. Ever since I found out I could do this, my experiments have been lasting a lot longer. Hmmm now where should be the next place to hurt? Ahh, yes. There.

With that she brought the blade to behind one of the boy’s eyes and just shimmied the blade a little which caused it pop right out. After the first one left his eye socket, the second one followed shortly after. The optic nerve still completely attached and left to dangle from his head.

She decided that moving anywhere was completely less important than having fun with her experiment. She didn’t have a destination to get to anyway, so she couldn’t help but prioritize her own enjoyment. And that’s why, she spent the entire rest of the night playing around with young blonde haired boy. No other possible reasons could possibly come to her mind of course, other than the whole ‘laughing at her’ thing.

She couldn’t help but smile the entire time as she laid out her knife on the poor boy. Leaving him alone only after she finally had enough ‘fun’ and let him die out.

(Quick, my child run here to safety. The gore is over, it'll be okay. Anyways if you skipped it read this spoiler afterword and I'll give you a quick summary of what happened.)

Spoiler : So, do you remember that crazy chick from chapter 2? She's back because our nice protaganist Ridge started to dream about her again. In this dream, she talks about how she experimented during the few months she's been around by trying to kill herself, as she puts it, in 'fun and exciting' ways. She also explains that her favorite past time is to take these experiments and then force them on unsuspecting bystanders. In other words, she enjoys torturing people. She then proceeds to 'experiment' on a poor young blonde boy she found nearby (blaming him for the laughter at the end of chapter 2) until the sun comes up. Oh and yes, she's good at the whole torture thing but to 'make them last' she uses her ability to transfer lifeforce from other creatures into her victims. That just about summarizes the whole thing. Hope it didn't cause you to vom.

It was at the moment that the sun passed over the horizon, Ridge opened his eyes again. Bleary with tears that he quickly wiped away to prevent the two from seeing. It wouldn't do to have them see him cry, then they’d ask him what happened and he’d rather not share that part of his life. Afterall, who would want to travel with someone who dreamed about being a homicidal freak? He certainly wouldn’t.

He straightened himself up by flattening his clothes out and ruffling his hair a little. Once he got himself at least presentable by his standards, which wasn’t much, he went over to check his companions only to find them gone.

They didn’t figure it out right? I didn’t talk in my sleep or something? Please.

The last word more a plea in his mind than anything. He only relaxed when he heard movement off in the room to the right of the one they slept in.

Which once he looked in, he saw him companions as they were preparing their daily meals. He happily noted the fact of there being three meals. Only once he noticed that they didn’t move to greet him, did he notice something as wrong.