As I returned to my feet, I could see Mya pensively gazed over me and it was clear as day she was tallying up the pros and cons of sticking around me after the shocking display I had just performed.

#Mya# Godu, are you sure you’re okay? You were like a feral animal back there.

She stiffened up and gave me an awkward look.

#Mya# Sorry! That was rude, wasn’t it. Sorry.

#Godu# Ha don’t worry. In fact, I’m the one that’s sorry.. Yeah, I dunno what came over me, even if it worked out okay, it was too reckless.

Both for you guys and for me..Mainly me though.

Giving an awkward apologetic half smile, I scratched the back of my head and carried on plodding along the road, hoping to just let the whole thing slide and disappear into history.

#Godu# But I’m definitely okay now, thanks. Let’s uh, press on.

People who say they are ‘definitely okay’ are usually not, but I was never one to burden others with my demons, no matter how fresh and psychotic they were..

Man, that was strange though. It was like I was someone completely different but still..me. Hope I’m not developing some kind of split brain disorder; the last thing I need right now is to start having episodes where one minute I call myself Godu and the next, Patricia.

We followed the curved road, then took a final left onto the road that led to the front of the airport, taking us well out of sight of the motorway.

As we came up to the airport, the area was another location that looked like a hurricane of cannonballs had passed through, with craters, scorch marks, dried blood splatters and rubble littering everywhere.

We walked past deserted car parks and a very sturdy looking huge building that had the words ‘CARGO TERMINAL’ in big letters on the front.

#Godu# Check it out Siya, that looks like a nice building to hold up in.

#Siya# Hm. Perhaps. My preference is tall nests though. I was proud of my own as it served me well. Kept me safe.

#Godu# Aw yeah I get’cha. It was a very comfy safe place. But don’t worry, we’ll sort something just as nice out for you when we get over to my home. Something high up and cosy!

She smiled and put her clawed hand up for a high five which I happily provided.

#Siya# That would be most appreciated. Thank you. I am very excited.

Mya smiled with raised eyebrows at our exchange.

#Mya# Oh that looks fun, what happened?

Whoops, forgot that these comms only work one to one.

I relayed our conversation as we moved towards the main entrance; Her demeanour completely changed after I finished and she patted her little boy's head as she responded.

#Mya# Aw, that’s very sweet! I hope there’s space for us too!

#Godu# Ha I’m sure we can figure something out don’t you worry, considering the housing market has recently gained a large influx of free real estate.

Nice one Godu. Wasn’t meant to say that last part.

Mya gasped and then covered her mouth stifling a laugh.

#Mya# Oh my god, that’s a bit dark!

#Godu# Gah sorry! This bloody mind-chat, it’s like my brains conversation filters are disab-

There was a muffled roar and the sounds of glass breaking, putting all three of us on alert and into a triangle formation with Mya at the back, holding Trion and urgently whispering to him in her language.

#Siya# Caution. There are faint scents of monsters and maybe humans.

Oh shit, what does that mean-

*Thump* *BOOOOOOOM* *CRACK* *SMASH*

From a very tall vertical feature window, a monster smashed through and rolled across the grass before righting itself and shaking its head. As usual, the thing looked like something out of a nightmare, with a long featureless head that came out of an oblong torso, triangular short spurs spreading down the spine, and two clawed tentacle limbs sticking out of its shoulder plates. It had long powerful looking arms and legs with lean ropey muscle and tough looking, almost metallic-like, exoskeletal skin.

Label: Xevomorph

MAGN: 75.888

HP: 1410/1600

Notes: Creatura malvagia vaffanculo! Holy shit. Giger would be proud…or scared. Probably scared. Also Xevomorph, really?

The eyeless head turned towards us and it peeled back thin slathering lips and screeched a challenge, its jaw filled with hundreds of spiked teeth all curved inwards.

“SCREEEEE!”

The monster kicked off the ground and charged towards us and I immediately deployed my shields in config:prime and sent out a barrage of shards but they were NOT very effective.

SHIT.

The shards scattered harmlessly off its durable skin so I snapped my shields to the front and braced for impact, setting an anchor point close by just in case I needed to pull some Slipfold-fuckery.

“OH NO YOU DON’T! EXECUTIONS FALL!” Completely out of nowhere, a truly HUMONGOUS guy holding a massive axe wearing-Plate armour?-bellowed out as he came hurtling down, falling from the sky.

The creature skidded to a stop as it slammed on the brakes and snapped its head up just in time to see the giant man thundering down, slamming the axe onto its neck with such incredible force that I was convinced the guy would kill himself.

But the giant axeman cratered the concrete, kicking up dust with an almighty boom and as it cleared, he was revealed on one knee with the axe embedded in a pile of monster flesh, organs and debris. The creature was half decapitated, half exploded from the impact, with a few legs still twitching, but it was definitely dead.

Well. That just happened.

As the dust settled, the man slowly got up, and with a grunt, he wrenched the axe up and plonked it on the ground with a concerning heavy metallic thud that I felt through the floor.

He gave an informal salute and held out his hand in the same motion, collecting the EXP.

"Yo." He said in a deep voice.

In a metal that was a grey rusty brown, he had plated jogging bottoms and a metal belt with some kind of moving picture on a tablet buckle.

He was wearing a knight's breastplate armour that looked oddly more modern than mediaeval, and attached to it were huge shoulder pauldrons that consisted of separated plates.

His helmet straight up looked like something out of a certain video game where you spoke dragon word spells and ate copious amount of cheese rolls.

And finally his axe was huge.

That’s a BIIIG axe.

Three quarters of the roughly 2m long pole handle was made of something that looked chitinous. And the rest was made of the smooth 3D printed looking grey metal that I'd seen born from Majik EXP drops. The axe blade itself curved into a vicious looking point, and it was the same size as my torso. The blade appeared as one whole piece, but there were lines and seamless segments that covered it, giving it a complicated and intentionally designed look.

"Uhh. Yo? Sorry I don't speak Italian but my friend here.." I waved and gestured at Mya since she was probably going to have to translate some Italian pretty soon.

"Huh. Well look at that. A Brit survived all the way out here...and with a Striga no less. How about that." The man spoke in a deep gravelly voice, with the passion of a rock, making me wonder if he'd be a perfect match with Catara.

American??..And what's a Striga?

"Oh you are not Italian. From the states?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Wow uh, cool. Yeah I'm from England, my name's Godu, good to meet you." I smiled cautiously, trying to stay calm and neutral as I sent a message to Siya.

#Godu# He's strong, need to be cautious, but my gut is telling me he's one of the good ones.

#Siya# You can converse with your digestive organs?! How strange..

#Godu# No, I, uhh-

"Good to meet'cha as well Godu. You can call me Grave.”

He adjusted his stance slightly and started to glow a very faint yellow.

“So tell me something real quick, what's your favourite movie?" His head shifted slightly towards Siya and Mya before returning to me.

Huh. My.. Favourite movie?

"My favourite movie? W-what..I uhh, good question but a bit random. I don't know. Why do you ask?" I replied, clear confusion in my voice.

He chuckled and relaxed, his faint yellow hue faded completely.

"Ha, right answer, phew. That’s a relief. It was a test, to make sure you're not being mind controlled by her kind." He pointed at Siya. "Not that you’re all bad, Miss. Uhem. So, now that’s out of the way, I'm very interested to hear your stories. Wanna’ come back to the racks for some rest and refreshments? On the house of course." He thumbed behind him, most likely gesturing to wherever these 'racks' were.

"Uhhhh…" The stranger danger inside of me was screaming to run away, but the post apocalypse survivor side of me was..Well, it's also screaming at me to run away..But my gut says he's good. We should go with him.

"Okay sure, we can exchange stories. Thanks for the invite." I nodded and gave a thumbs up.

He startled slightly.

"Wow. Huh. Surprised you agreed to come with a complete stranger that quickly. But cool. Follow me then." With a small grunt he hefted his huge weapon up onto his shoulder and walked the other way.

#Mya# Are we seriously going with him? What did he say?

#Godu# Don't worry, he just wants to exchange stories and offer some refreshments.

I relayed the message to Siya and asked her what she thought.

#Siya# He seems nice. His concerns about manipulation from my people are justified. As you may remember Godu.

I snapped a look at Siya and she was already looking at me smirking, making me snort and shake my head.

Yes of course I remember Siya! Kinda hard to forget the fact that you implanted memories of us living together for years and having a moth daughter!...Water under the bridge now though I guess…water under the bridge..

Grave - a wonderful name by the way, really has a school teacher vibe to it, definitely not what a prison inmate would be called - led us down the road and through a trashed guard station.

The fence and barriers were absolutely shredded, so we had to tread carefully over the remains of chain fences and barbed wire, but once we were over, he led us towards a bunch of military looking buildings and aimed for a specific one.

"So do your friends have names?" He spoke over his shoulder as he walked without turning his head.

"Yeah, Mya and her little boy, and my winged friend here is called Siya. Mya doesn't speak English and Siya can't speak in general. Is it, um, just yourself?" I replied.

"Uhh right. Strange team. But figures, considering we live in strange times." He sighed. He sounded tired. "Strange times indeed my man..just me, yup. I ain’t afraid to say it’s been pretty lonely around here for some time now. Good to see some friendlies, finally..anyways, here we are. Welcome to the racks, hope you enjoy your stay."

The courtyard was surrounded by blocks of buildings and there were military gazebos around the place but a lot of the area was trashed. He led us to one of the nicer looking buildings and we headed inside.

Grave could barely fit through the corridors but somehow he managed, even with his ridiculously large axe, and after two corridors, we entered a large area that had a concrete bunker in the middle.

"This place used to be weapon prototype testing. Now it's home sweet home." He walked up to the thick door of the bunker and heaved it open.

Sheezus.This guy is insanely strong.

We spilled out into a medium sized space, with a corner filled with cushions and blankets, another corner with crates, and then a final one that was like a pantry, with shelves stocked full, with an abundance of food stuffs and MREs. I recognised them because Steve had a stockpile and had shown me, naturally, Steve would have MREs.

"Wow. This is nice." I remarked.

#Siya# Hm. An adequate nest. Very nice.

Mya looked around nervously but she relaxed a little once Grave plonked his axe down near the crates and started gathering some items from his pantry.

"Please make yourselves comfortable, I'll put some grub on the stub." Grave mumbled.

The stub was a tea candle cooker, and the grub turned out to be MREs and oh my word were they delicious. Mine was a steak stew with mash, gravy and cubes of veg. For desert it was treacle pudding in custard and some chocolates with cheese and crackers as a snack.

All specially sealed in packets.

Grave didn't take his helmet off, he simply lifted it slightly for his mouth as he ate. But he was a real talker, and started things off by telling us his backstory and it turns out that he was the kind of guy you wanted as your best mate right now..

He was a military guy, a weapons expert and combat trainer, all rolled into one. And he had been sent here to help setup training for the barracks - the racks, as the locals called it.

He had been here for a few weeks up until the first night this all started, where he had experienced everything that we had come to expect as well, but actually witnessed guns, electronics and vehicles disintegrating right in front of his eyes.

His first thoughts were that it was some kind of new technological attack, then he thought he was hallucinating from some illness, but when monsters started rampaging he decided it would be best to fight first and then think about questions later.

So his first night was spent hand to hand combat fighting with nightmare creatures, whilst soldiers and civilians were slaughtered around him. Many locals flocked here straight away, and things actually were going okay the first night, even with the heavy casualties.

The second night however was a bloodbath. People started 'flinging spells and shit' and then friendly fire casualties started piling up when people panicked or were simply not competent in a fight. And then inevitably, this led to people turning into corrupted and then by the third day only he and a group of 10 civilians were left.

Everyone else had either deserted or died.

Everything was going okay and he was able to keep them safe for a few weeks, single handedly fighting off monsters and even survived an encounter with the corrupted..

Until one day, the Xevomorphs appeared and made the airport their nest. They were cunning tough bastards, and they waited for him to leave before they infiltrated and slaughtered all the civilians.

He hung his head.

"I'd just found this place ya know? And I had been so pumped at how positive things were. To be able to keep them safe, it was my only comfort since I’d accepted I was never going back home..they had families out there still and they would beg me to try and find them and, I wanted to go get them..but those alien freaks showed no mercy…no goddamned mercy." He ground his teeth.

"Many people haven't made it..but I feel like this was the kind of thing we existed for. It was OUR job to protect people against this kind of thing. And we failed, hard…"

He sighed and dropped his shoulders.

"Still, nothing to be done about it now except to keep on going and keep on surviving. You're the first people I've seen in over a month, so there’s still hope. How's it looking out there? If you can keep a kid safe on the road, surely it ain't all so bad right?"

I had been sending Mya messages with translations and when I said the last bit she just pursed her lips and looked to the side in an 'oh I don't want to be the one to tell him it's completely fucked out there'.

So I started from my beginning but shortened a bunch of stuff.

At the dark gritty bits he would curse under his breath and at the times where people worked together to survive he would fist pump.

When I spoke about fighting mutated spiders with skulls, demented giant-eyed child-eating nightmares he asked a few questions, but he was really interested in the military people fighting the cager demon.

"Well tie my shirt up and call me Wendy. You redcoats are still kicking it eh? Heh-heh, not too surprised. I've been on some of the SAS training and it ain't no joke..good times though..good days.." he trailed off and chuckled to himself.

“Wonder if the ol’ boys back home let off any nukes or if everything has gone knights of the round table. I simply cannot imagine America without her guns. Shirt.” He chuckled.

I continued, and when I asked him about what he meant with the word 'Striga' he explained that's what some people called Siya's kind. And when I talked about how she and I met, I stuck to the brief me and her agreed a while back, which was simply; I helped her fight a corrupted off and we stuck together ever since.

Don't think it would look great for her if people heard about her mind control stuff..

He had been puzzled about how I got to Italy as well as travelling so far in such a short time, but I left the Slipfolding details until last and, once I was finished, he barked out a grim laugh and shook his head.

"Well that explains it. Teleporting eh? Dang, the world really is rubber ducked. Wow. All this sci fi crap, I get it ya know? I see the similarities, I see fiction turned into fact. Back in my dorm days, we used to play games. I've wasted as many nights playing warcraft or some other crap, just as much as any other kid - so I understand." He sniffed and looked down at his hands.

"But all this? This is..a nightmare, a slaughter. And I've also seen plenty of both in my time. But life was not meant to be turned into a game with life reduced to an arbitrary value of how much stronger you can make your killer. Yet here we are, killing things and then dealing with stats and spells and all. Not in a million years did I see that coming.." He took a sip from his coffee cup.

“Not in a million years..”

Another sip.

"Anyways, you folk are heading north right? You're heading back home Godu? Jeez, that's a long way to go. Hrm. Any space in your crew for one more?“

Wow, he doesn’t beat around the bush does he.

“What about this place? Weren’t you sticking around for something?” I asked.

“Nah, there's nothing left for me here. Plus, my mind ain’t gonna last much longer by myself.. Not with the way the world is going. The violence and death? That ain’t so bad. At least in wars, I knew my country was okay, that I had people to go back to if I survived.. but now? I’ll never know. There sure as hell ain’t nobody to come back to here. And I’ve already started shouting out my skill names at the monsters like some crazy hobo running hot on bath salts..” He groaned.

I barked out a laugh remembering him falling from the sky hollering something about executing, but quickly apologised

"Ahaha-ah sorry, didn't mean to laugh ahem..but honestly I think it would be great to have you come along. But one thing I want to point out is I won't be able to Slipfold you quickly if things get dicey. Because you're, well, huge."

"Bah don't apologise, there's only two types of people who apologise. People who are scared and people who are guilty, and you ain't got nothing to be scared or guilty about. Ah, well that sucks. I guess I'll have to stick around here some more then. Nevermind." he sighed.

Maybe there is a way..

"Well actually, we could try something. The limitation was around 30 centimetres from my body but it could have changed or-"

"Nah forget it son. If you killed one of those corrupt folk with it, then I don't want to truck around with it. I wasn't always this big, but one of my gifts made me this huge, but on the flipside, it makes me one tough cookie." He waved me off, but I felt like there must be something I could do..

"Well, what about if we use this bunker as a staging place whilst we travel? We could come back to rest at night and also we can grab stuff for you like supplies? That way you won't be alone and maybe my next upgrade makes it so I get a bigger area? And if not, then heck, when I make it back home, we could plan a rescue mission. But just not by the sea.." I shuddered thinking back on the colossal thing and my tiny hairs stood on end at the paranoia it was still looking in our direction.

Watching..

"Why not the sea?" He asked.

"Oh boy. Well, we saw only one of them, but it was skyscraper size. She called them colossals. Something that would make Godzilla shit its pants. And Siya said there are more of these 'colassals'." More goosebumps at that thought.

I'll never go on a boat. Ever.

"Ptsch, not surprised. Sure. That sounds better than nothing and if Mya and her kid want to stick around whilst you guys kick the kliks, that's also fine. I go out most days, clearing up those freaks, but if you share the mind-speak thingy, we can all keep Comms and she can let me know if anything comes sniffing around the bunker whilst I'm out. Not that they could open it, however, another one of my abilities lets me reinforce a structure and lock it down. 'Hunker Down' it's called. Ha. Hunker down.." He sounded happy at my proposal and if I could see his face I would bet he had a big grin on his face.

I explained to Mya and Siya the suggestion, Siya liked the idea of being in the bunker to rest as it reminded her of her own place, whilst Mya said she needed to speak to Grave first before she would be left alone here.

In the end after I shared VoMP with Grave and we all got connected, Mya had her chat with him and even laughed out loud during it, but let me know that she felt safe to stay as long as I promised to come get them if anything went bad, to which I agreed.

It would take barely a few seconds to return and get them out. If anything, she’s vastly safer with him than she would be with me, plus, who wouldn’t want to become best buds with a military combat weapons expert trainer?! I bet he could teach us quite a few tricks..

It was getting late and it had been a tough day so we decided to get an early night, since everyone, apart from Grave, was tired.

Surprisingly, Mya said she'd stay up a bit more to chat with Grave and also to play with Trion who needed to burn energy off.

The poor kid spends most of the day being carried or having to stay quiet.

So me and Siya grabbed a bunch of sleeping bags after Grave directed us to a storage room on one of the floors above, and we came back and set up a comfy spot near the crates.

#Siya# Sleep well Godu.

#Godu# Thanks! You too bud.

And goodnight Marri, goodnight Lone. Hope you have sweet dreams and are not worrying about me..I love you both so much..

..

.

Yawning, I rose up from the galaxy bed and rubbed my eyes.

Ugh, I feel groggy as shit..still don’t understand how I can feel like this in a dream..

GODUYNE

STRY.KYR - MAGN.55.031

HP 923 / 924

MP 999 / 1001

EP 92%

DS 100%

SWRD 68

SHLD 68

FTHR 82

GLYP 82

2 Attribute Points Available.

2 Skill Points Available.

Hmm. I am rather curious to know the difference between me at MAGN.1 and today's me. Well, bar the fact I can teleport and conjure semi autonomous shields from my back, that is.

No doubt me and Steve would have figured out a way to test the difference...man I miss our fun experiments.

Two MAGN levels were outstanding though, my brawl-with the crawl-ers, at least paid off well.

Maybe I should go bloodthirsty mode more often..

I punched in a few updates and grinned.

SWRD 69

SHLD 69

FTHR 82

GLYP 82

Nice. Nice.

Now, skills.

Skills

-> VI Null Surge

REQ: ENT Tier.

-> V SMDS - Majiglyp [10]

Shields detach to create a Daemon construct controlled by Seren.

-> IV OMDC [8] (4+4)

Mass Drain now also triggers on high value area (HVA) hits.

-> III ANALYSE [50]

Vastly Expands data retrievable.

-> IV NEC [5]

Alerts user of corrupted proximity and tracks their location in real-time.

-> V Slipfold

ERORR. REQ: MAGN.80.

-> III Phase Dash [3]

Phase dash now negates all physical damage during use.

-> II EXP Well [3]

You can now deploy [2] units.

-> II VoMP [2]

Max link increased to 20. Group connection unlocked.

-> II Mind Firewall [2]

Immunity increased to +10 current MAGN. You can share this skill.

-> III Null Claw Arma [3]

Null Claw Armament attacks now completely penetrates passive defence.

Note: Does not bypass active defense skills.

-> II Shade Glide [2]

Dramatically reduces cost and increases duration.

-> II TEFv [2]

Improves vision range and colouring.

-> II Shed Wound [2]

Can heal slightly bigger wounds. Tissue will self isolate in the event of infection or poisoning.

-> II Hand Speak [2]

You can share this skill with others.

New I Flesh Sac [1]

"...I mean..""Modify physical structure to accommodate a red stomach extension sac that digests consumed blood and small amounts of flesh that grants various benefits."" who would even go for that?"

There were a few interesting changes and it was interesting to see Slipfold throwing the req error, but I didn't need to overthink much there, time reveals all and being honest, I can’t be arsed right now.

The new skill was just a W.T.F moment and I had no interest in becoming an abomination, visually at least.

I was about to go for shed wound, since passive healing should really be on the priority list, but my gut was talking to me again, telling me that group communication was key to future success.

And in all fairness, it was absolutely right, so I listened.

I -> II VoMP [2]

And being doubly fair, when I get back home, this kind of thing is going to be very, very handy.

Thinking about having permanent communication with Marri and Co made my heart ache that I didn't have it right now.

Just wish I could know you are okay and let you know I'm okay..

..Time for true sleep..Got lots to sort out tomorrow.

…

..

.

10 Days later..

#G1#Mya# Hey everyone, just checking in. All good here. Everyone okay?

#G1#Godu# Awesome. Thanks. All good here too.

#G1#Grave# All peachy here. Living the Italian dream folks.

I snickered.

#G1#Godu# Always Grave, always.

#G1#Siya# I am also fruity. No dreams however. What is it like living the dream Grave? Mya I’ve got some of the items you asked for and I’m heading back.

Oh man, is she doing this on purpose or something?

#G1#Mya# You're the best Siya.

#G1#Grave# Oh boy..I’ll tell you when I figure it out..

#G1#Godu# Great to hear it, Siya. Grave, I’m nearing Naples on the E45 and I should keep an eye out for the A1 correct?

Grave has been a huge help to navigation, plotting out a few alternative routes when we couldn't follow the E45 any more due to monsters, mostly roaming bands of the corrupted, and for everything else, we ended up killing. He had also been giving us daily training routines which he absolutely loved and we appreciated immensely as it wasn’t even just about fighting, it was about how to maximise our chances of surviving a fight.

#G#Grave# Yes sir'ree. The A1 is going to be the straightest road up into the butthole of Rome and then onwards to fancy ol' Florence. If it's still standing that is.

#G#Mya# Grave! This is my dear country you are talking about!

#G#Grave# What! It’s true! If you look at the map..

Every single city or town that we passed had been absolutely thrashed to some degree, with the rule of thumb being the bigger the population, the greater the carnage.

We avoided them like the plague because of the usual corrupted and swarms of monsters, but also because various giants, including Ogreats, liked to potter about and snack on whatever was available.

It depressed me to look at it.

Because here I am trying to keep the hope alive of seeing my family again, and all I see is the complete destruction and collapse of the human race and everything humanity had built…Just one big fucking mess..I hate it. I hate even doubting that they are still alive. If it's this bad here..no! SHUT the FUCK up!

Focus. Move forwards. Move faster.

I had to keep busy to the point of exhaustion these days, otherwise, I would spiral down into my own mentally conjured personal hell.

My thoughts were more devastating than the monsters.

The motorways were great, all in all. Slipfolding the straights, surge jumping and gliding to keep momentum around the long bends. It took a lot of focus and careful actions to maintain at first, since one wrong move could have left me shaved into the tarmac, but it was becoming second nature to me now after all the practice.

The mind is incredible at adaptation. I am a leaf in the wind. A blade of grass in the storm. A..sack of meat flying down an abandoned motorway.

It definitely helped that I'd jumped a few more MAGN levels up to 59. I had unlocked the dramatically reduced cost of glide which was fantastic, and I'd upgraded the shed wound as well because, okay yes, I had mistimed a few jumps and badly grated my skin off a couple of times.

But my attributes had also gained an additional boost, after I fluke-scored two more leeched points in SWRD and GLYP; so on top of the usual increases, things were looking swelly welly.

GODUYNE

STRY.KYR - MAGN.59.045

HP 1021 / 1021

MP 690 / 1115

EP 56%

DS 100%

SWRD 74

SHLD 73

FTHR 88

GLYP 89

#G#Grave# Oh, forgot to mention Godu. I finally located a Xevomorphs nest today. Now I gotta figure out the best way to start the BBQ without firelighters. Such a dang shame there's not a lick of gas anywhere. If not, did you fancy diving in with me and serving their eviction notice?

#G#Godu# Uhh ha maybe. Let’s see how it goes, but don’t wait up on me.

He definitely didn’t need my help.

#G#Grave# Alrighty then. I might go by myself though, I don't want to give them a chance to spread.

#G#Mya# You make sure to be careful Grave!

#G#Grave# Maam, don’t you worry about me. Trion owes me five bucks from that game last night. And I ain’t gonna'’ kick it before collecting my debts.

#G#Mya# Aw, he says he lost because he had to go to bed, but! He bets you one hundred million bucks that he wins tonight.

#G#Grave# Sweet dang! Tell him he’s on.

#G#Mya# I told him and, oh you should see how excited he is. I would scold you for encouraging my dear young child into gambling, but I think I’ll let it pass considering the current situation.

#G#Grave# Ha. Kids a natural. He’s the one encouraging me if anything... Alright, enough chit-chat, let's clear the comms and all report back in an hour.

#G#Godu# Right’o.

#G#Sya# Understood.

#G#Mya# Ok, stay safe all.

Shaking my head I chuckled. What a funny bunch. I’m glad I met them.

Surge-leaping over a collapsed motorway sign I gave it a moment's glance as I sailed over, but something clicked in my head, so I spun round and Slipfolded back to inspect it further.

“Hmm..what do we have here. ‘Sanctuarium invenies in Arce Nuovo’ huh?” I blinked at the words that had been spray-painted on the sign.

I think that’s latin. Sanctuarium means sanctuary if memory serves me right…could be a sign for survivors?

Naturally, this knowledge was coming from a game I’d played, so I needed to consult our resident Italian.

#Godu# Hey Mya, are you free for a sec?

#Mya# Sure Godu, are you okay?

#Godu# Good thanks. I’ve found something scribbled on a sign but I think it’s Latin. Does Sanctuarium invenies in Arce Nuovo mean anything?

There was a pause before she replied.

#Mya# That is Latin, but I didn’t pay attention to the classes much.. I think it says you can find sanctuary in the new castle..Wait a second! There is a historical place called New Castle in Naples. It’s famous for having a pit where really bad prisoners were kept, but the prisoners would strangely disappear. Until apparently, they found out a crocodile was sneaking in and dragging people off. So they aptly named it, the crocodile pit.

#Godu# Uh. Wow. That doesn’t sound very sanctuarium to me.

#Mya# Ha. It’s an old legend. The castle itself would be a good place to take refuge, but I’m not convinced that would matter against some of the things we’ve seen. Besides, my life experience has taught me that anyone using the word sanctuary, has intentions of the complete opposite..

I shall NOT be digging further on that comment, yikes. But she’s right. Sanctuary is the kind of word a bunch of cannibals would use to lure people in..Although in this world that translates to more fucking corrupted.

#Godu# Thanks for the help Mya. As much as I would want to go and help any potential survivors, I don’t think I can risk it right now. I’ll steer clear.

#Mya# No problem. And I agree. If it’s a true sanctuary then they don’t need your help either way.

Taking a quick look around, I placed an anchor nearby and mentally stored it as ‘the sanctuary sign place’.

So creative.

I started jogging and leapt up and onwards..but a heavy weight settled on my skin and settled in my bones, pulling at me, whispering to my mind. I came to a begrudging stop and released a grumbling sigh.

“UGHHH” COMON!? REALLY GUT? YOU WANT ME TO DIE THAT BADLY?

It was my demented gut, insisting that I simply MUST check out the castle, as by refusing to do so would curse my entire future.

ARGH. FINE. JUST A PEEK.

#Godu# Hey Grave, this is going to sound dumb but, I don’t suppose you know where the New Castle is?

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