Download App
28.2% Scions of Gaea / Chapter 22: Awakening, Pt 9

Chapter 22: Awakening, Pt 9

The man's pained screams echo up and down the shopping center with unmuted intensity. You fear they travel all the way to the other end, and could call even more bugs, or people, or whatever to your location. Then again, the screams themselves could just as easily deter any other undesirables in your direction.

There's a crushing and snapping as the psionic Crag slowly tightens its Telekinetic Pincers. Clearly, the man's bones splinter and break under the unyielding energies. Every snap, crackle, and pop comes with grunts and groans on top of his unwavering shrieking and screaming.

With a wet POP, the man goes limp. His upper body slumps over the invisible Pincers, dead.

You sense the Pincers part, which causes the corpse to fall unceremoniously down onto the floor. It comes with a sharp smacking sound as his face hits the stone.

His partner next to him is absolutely frozen at the sight. In fact, he hasn't made a single move or peep ever since the psionic Crag lifted up his partner. Endless waves of paralytic fear emanate from him. You sense a hint of alarm underneath it all, demanding that he run as fast as he can. But that voice is so deeply muted by his terror that even you can hardly hear it.

The psionic Crag snaps its Telekinetic Pincers right in front of his face, as though to literally snap him out of his stupor.

It takes two of them to take effect.

A highly alarmed sense of danger floods the man, and he runs off leaving everything behind. He dashes past your hiding spot with such blind terror that he doesn't even notice you there. Though you're sure that if he even does see you, he wouldn't even care.

You note that the psionic Crag is still well within range, but does not kill him. Instead, it simply tracks the man until he's gone, far from its sensory range. You sense the man literally leaping down the stairs as fast as he can, then out towards the nearest exit.

It dawns on you that the Crag has killed one of them to serve as a warning, perhaps to tell them to never return. You attempt to read their surface thoughts, but you still don't know enough to fully translate and understand.

The psionic Crag's emotions seem to be that of relief, and of mild congratulations - a bit like 'job well done'. As all three Crags relax to some degree, you sense the Pincers dissipate into nothingness.

You relax greatly as well, not just because you've made it out alive in this encounter, but also because you made a friend. At least, you think so anyway. You're not sure if the Crags even know the concept of what a friend is, considering they're a hive mind and all.

Seeing as you're still alive though, at the very least they understand something akin to an ally.

You step out of hiding and walk over to the dead man. You find his corpse a somewhat contorted mass of bone, muscle, and skin. His lower arms have clearly been shattered halfway as everything beneath his elbows are twisted and bent at odd angles. Not only that, but his lower ribs have completely caved in, and parts of his shattered ribs pierce through his skin and clothing.

His body looks a bit stretched out to some degree, and you realize that's because his spine has been severed at the waist.

But you're not too interested in his wounds. Rather, you look at his outfit in an attempt to figure out where he comes from.

His outfit is, in your mind, completely stupid. He's wearing what many consider 'tacticool'. Thick black pants, knee pads, camo shirt, stab-proof padded vest with tons of pockets but literally no molle. And worst of all, a black leather jacket on top of it all.

All you can think of is how idiotic this person must have been, to wear black leather out in the heat.

At least you're certain that no-one in the Settlement would wear an outfit like this, so that rules them out as the perpetrators. In any case, you push past your distaste for the man's fashion choices and instead try to find something that would help you identify where he's from. But you find no such luck - there aren't any logos or patches to signify if he's part of any kind of group. Then again, maybe the outfit itself is a signifier.

You then go through his gear in search of anything of use, and find quite a lot you can loot. Those knee pads, for example. You don't have a pair of your own, and you're certain that they'll come in handy later on.

You undo the straps and place them over your own knees. They're a bit large for you, but that's fine. You can always swap them out later, should you find a better pair. For now, these are fine.

His AK-M rifle has been twisted up and crushed along with his body, as it had also been caught in the Crag's pincers. But you're able to slip its magazine out and stow it away. You're sure that someone will want it, along with the ammunition.

You want to empty the gun's chamber, but the breech appears to be bent and inaccessible. So you decide to leave the bullet in there.

Of course he also has a loaded .45 sidearm with extra magazines. You don't really like that caliber - it's too heavy, noisy, and unwieldy. Still, you take the weapon and its ammunition with the hopes of trading them down the line.

His backpack off to the side has more things in it, such as protein bars, water bottles, and a partially used IFAK. You pack all those things away into your messenger bag happily.

One other thing you spot is a laminated topographic map of the city and the surrounding area. When you unfold it, you note that it has numerous areas circled in blue or red. The marks are scattered all over the city and surrounding suburbs, one of which is marked with a red star.

The shopping center you're in is marked with a large blue circle, which you guess means that there's something of value in here. Which would certainly make some sense. You wonder if this person made this map, or if someone made this map for him. A part of you wishes you could go through his partner's things, but that ship has long since sailed.

You also guess that the red circle with the star could be their home or their base. You try to recall what that location is judging from its outline on the map, but you can't really tell. You've never been to that part of the city's suburbs.

Whatever it is, it's most definitely a compound with multiple buildings. It almost reminds you of a business or industrial park.

A part of you wants to share this information with the Crags below you, but you have no idea how to do any such thing. Even if you could show them the map, it doesn't mean they would understand it.

Although one side of the map is of the city and the surrounding area, the other side shows a much larger view of the countryside - roughly 10k kilometers square. In any case, you fold up the map and stow it away - the large area map will definitely be useful for your travels.

Then you turn your attention to the device the two men had been using to harass the Crags. It reminds you of those rectangular turpentine cans made out of tin. Except instead of a handle and circular opening up top, a small cluster of telescoping antennas protrude upward, along with a few lights and switches.

There's a small LCD readout among the switches, along with what looks to be a USB charging slot.

You slide the entire thing out of its tin housing to find that it's a mad jumble of wires and battery packs connected to each other via what looks to be a small PC motherboard. There's also what you recognize as an SSD connected to it. More critically, there are all kinds of sonic-emitting devices attached to it.

It takes you a second to find the power button and shut the thing down.

Then you disconnect the mobo and SSD from everything else, and pack that away for later. Part of you is curious to know what's in there. But there's nothing you can do about that now.

You pick up the remains of the device, then grab your Crag friend's attention with a friendly Telepathic wave. At the same time, you swing the dead device in your hands, as though to signify that this thing is the cause of their suffering.

Just as the psionic Crag realizes what it is, you simply drop it over the edge. The device careens three floors all the way to the bottom, where it smashes into a thousand pieces.

Another wave of gratitude seems to fill the air around you as the Crags go to inspect the broken device. One of them smashes it further with a pointed bone leg, annihilating it completely. They all then tap the ground lightly, as though in a celebratory dance.

You sense another wave of thanks emanating from the psionic Crag, along with a sense of respect and to some degree, a kind of reverence. You determine that they're waving a proverbial white flag at you in truce, and you get the sense that it's telling you they will leave you alone.

You mirror the sentiments to them, and do your best to add that they can call on you for help should they need it. Though you aren't sure if you're able to completely convey it all properly. You're certainly glad to befriend them, and will certainly try to keep doing this should you run into more Crags in the future.

Or rather, when you run into them. They certainly seem to be everywhere.

The three Crags then move back down to the first floor and continue scouting out the shopping center, towards the Eastern Wing. You on the other hand stay right where you are and instead study the Mall around you.

At the very end is what appears to be a multi-story department store. This floor appears to have all manner of clothes (or what's left of them, anyway), while the floor above appears to have kitchenware. The floor below has beddings and towels and whatnot. All of the floors that you can see have been mostly looted, though there's still plenty enough to sort through.

The shop flanking the department store on the right appears to be a jewelry store. Though it's a shell of what it once was. Every single glass case inside has been broken and shattered. Whatever jewelry inside has long since been taken. From your vantage point, you note that it has been literally picked clean.

A part of you wants to laugh out loud at how ridiculous it seems.

What good would a diamond ring or a pearl necklace have at the end of the world? These things have little value out here, at least in your mind. All they do is shine and sparkle, and don't give any kind of utility. None will help anyone survive. Eating gold won't make one live an extra day, much less forever.

You relent that they might help in certain situations, such as with electronics. Any silver and copper jewelry would be worth the most in that situation. Diamonds could possibly be used as cutting devices, albeit crudely. Thing is, looting an electronics or tool store would be much more fruitful in that regard.

You feel that too many stealing "valuables" in the apocalypse doesn't actually understand the reality of the situation. Or at least, they don't understand what's actually valuable in a time of extreme scarcity. It's the same as whoever had taken the loose cash from that register in the convenience store from yesterday.

Certainly there's likely someone out there who wants the jewelry, and would trade away whatever they have to get them. You imagine them as utterly ridiculous. Or perhaps even crazy.

You can't help but glance over at the mangled corpse near you. The fact that this person was spending time harassing Crags in an outfit unfit for the climate only strengthens this notion within you - some people aren't taking the apocalypse seriously.

Some part of you feels somewhat validated by your choices, that at least you're making intelligent ones compared to others. Perhaps years of games and movies and shows have helped you survive all this. Perhaps it's also due to your analytical mind, which can't seem to shut up about everything it thinks about.

Either way, you move forward, specifically towards the shop flanking the department store on the left. That one is perhaps the most important store in the entire mall. And although it has been looted a great deal, much of its goods are still on the shelves.

It's a sporting goods store, one that appears to have a camping and hiking section. A part of you bubbles up with joy at seeing it, and you can't wait to scavenge it for all its juicy loot.

~~~

Hope you're enjoying the story! Please check out my other work - linktr.ee/ceritusorbis


Chapter 23: Sojourner, Pt 1

It takes you a day and a half to go through Great Mall One and pick through whatever's left in the stores, whatever others have deemed useless to them. Their loss, of course. You don't really run into anyone else much, except that same Crag trio. Or they could be a different trio, you have no idea. Either way, they seem to treat you with some measure of respect and give you your space.

And of course, you do the same for them.

Although you do scour the entire place for anything and everything useful, you decide to only take a few things. After all, you want to stay light on your feet as much as you can for as long as you can.

Of course, you find a good amount of provisions - snacks and protein bars and bottles of water. The usual. You also pick up a couple of sundries and swap out your clothes for more breathable activewear. That's going to be crucial going forward.

On a similar note, you also pick up a lightweight waterproof poncho, which you quickly swap out with your current one. Thing is, it had begun to rain halfway through looting the mall, and this has made you realize that you don't have anything that's water resistant, except maybe your bags.

And perhaps getting drenched while traveling would be awful. Your old poncho could never give that protection, so the choice to replace it has been monumentally easy.

The new one is still light enough to allow the wind to cool you, though it's far less breathable overall. You suppose you could always sling one side over the opposite shoulder on extremely hot days, like gunslingers like to do in westerns. That oughta keep you cooler than not.

One other thing you pick up is a sleeping bag. It's lightly padded, somewhat breathable, but incredibly compact and great for all temperatures. Can squeeze it down, stuff it into its bag, and stow it away wherever you need. Though it isn't the most comfortable thing in the world, it's better than nothing at all.

Most crucially however, you've replaced your small backpack with an actual hiking pack. This thing is much roomier and its straps are much more comfortable. You're able to strap your sleeping bag to its bottom side, allowing Noir more space to curl up atop it.

Better still, it comes with a 2 liter water bladder!

You fill it up with as much bottled water as you can find, then run its hose down one of the straps. You give it a test sip to make sure everything works. You can't help but grin at this find. This is a huge quality of life improvement - being able to carry more water without being too burdened by its weight is a serious blessing.

Now that you've got everything you could need, at least that you can think, you take a break and glance outside. And it's still raining. It's been going on more than half a day at this point, and you're not sure if it'll stop anytime soon.

Since the sun is lowering down into the horizon and the sky darkens more and more, you can't help but feel antsy about getting back on the road.

"I think I'm gonna take a quick shower," you declare. "You up for one, too?"

Noir stops licking her paw for a moment and gives you a cat-like side eye.

I'll pass, she tells you.

"You sure?" you reply. "I mean, that sun sure is hot, and who knows how long this rain'll last. This shower could be a luxury."

Or it might rain every few days like normal.

"We don't know that for sure. Besides, you're starting to stink."

Could say the same about you, you know!

"S'why I'm taking a shower."

You can sense Noir sigh psionically, followed by a sense of reluctant agreement. She then takes a few trepidatious steps out there, but then starts to enjoy the rain. She circles around a bit, as though to get the most coverage, at least until her short fur is matted down and damp.

You can't help but chuckle at her - there's nothing more hilariously pathetic looking than a soaking-wet black cat.

What're you laughing at? she thinks as she trots back in.

"Sorry," you reply as you stifle a laugh. "You kinda look like a mangy, stray cat right now."

Mhm. Laugh it up. It's your turn to look like a mess.

You give one last chuckle, then strip down to nothing. You make a quick scan of the area around you and find absolutely no-one, which is enough for you to brave the outside in the nude.

Whatever modesty you feel seems to wash away as you feel the droplets hit you. The way the rain pelts you is incredibly soothing, the feeling of grime and dried sweat washing away even more so. And because the rain itself is warm, you become extremely relaxed.

This is perhaps the most luxurious thing you've ever experienced in your entire life.

You run your fingers through your hair and lightly scrub your scalp, even as water washes over you. A part of you wishes this moment could never end. Experiencing an eternity in a warm shower would be some version of heaven for you.

You head back inside once you're done with your shower and dry yourself with whatever cloth is piled up here. Mostly just cotton shirts and pants on the shelves or strewn about. Although you pat your body down until it's pretty much dry, you keep your hair relatively damp.

For whatever reason, you like the way wet hair feels.

And once you're dry enough, you put everything back on and get ready to go. Noir climbs up your body, then settles into her spot behind your head, on top of your hiking pack, and nestled inside the poncho's hood.

Oh, how roomy! she says.

Once she's settled herself into a ball, you place your conical hat on your head and tighten its leather cords under your chin.

"Ready to go?" you ask.

Let's go for it, Noir replies.

You then take a step out into the rain and immediately feel the raindrops drum your hat and smack your poncho. Although you're confident about the poncho's ability to resist water, you're not so sure about your hat. Sure, it's made of tightly-woven laminated bamboo strips, but there are plenty of tiny gaps just where the strips weave into each other.

As you travel, however, you're pleasantly surprised at how much it resists the rain. Absolutely nothing leaks through. In fact, it's so good at channeling water that you can watch it drip down along the edge in front of you.

You can feel more of it dripping down behind you onto your back, considering how it's angled. But it still comes down on all sides. You can even feel water trickle down onto your shoulders as you walk.

The hat is amazing for both heat and rain, and you're 100% glad that you found it in that apartment you had been staying at.

You adjust how it sits on your head and retighten its fit as you trudge on in the rain.

Which doesn't stop. And in fact, it only strengthens even more as you travel. Hours go by in the dead of night, as the rain turns into a torrent. Water begins to gather up and wash outward down the streets and into the gutters.

Even when you make it to the highway at the edge of the city's suburbs - that too is awash with a thin layer of water. It certainly washes away down the sides and further down into earthen channels on both sides. But there's so much rain and so much water that even the voluminous, ever-present drains are overwhelmed by it all.

Although your shoes aren't quite submerged in the water, you fear at some point they will be all but useless. The rain seems to be unrelenting, far more than usual.

Most times it rains, it only does so for a few hours before stopping. But this rain hasn't stopped for some time now, and judging by how intense it is at the moment, it doesn't seem like it'll be stopping anytime soon.

It's here that you realize the shortcomings of your poncho - it simply isn't long enough. Everything beneath your knees is thoroughly soaked. Your pants get heavier and heavier as they carry more and more moisture in between the threads.

Even though your hiking shoes are somewhat waterproof, it doesn't stop water from flowing down your legs and thoroughly soaking your socks. They squelch with every step, which frustrates you deeply. Not that there's anything you can do at this point.

But at least everything else is relatively dry. Plus it isn't oppressively hot. You'd rather have soaked socks than suffer direct sunlight any day.

Despite your feet feeling miserable, you try to keep your head high. This is just the first of many experiences just like this, and you try to convince yourself not to get bogged down in the negative. There's no point in feeling bad just because you're uncomfortable right now.

Besides, you've been through far, far worse. This is nothing in comparison.

Knowing that, you may as well pull yourself together, push through the worst, and simply move forward. As you've noted, there will be times when you'd rather be soaking wet. In fact, you fear that there will be entire days of oppressive heat, and you'll long for days just like this.

So you decide to try to celebrate what you can about this storm.

You reach out with a cupped palm and catch a bit of rain in it. Once you have plenty, you reach up and wipe your face with the water. It feels incredibly nice, and washes away a bit of the sweat you've gathered up since you started walking.

I've been thinking, Noir projects in an attempt to start a conversation. I think you're more of a Disciple than a Novice.

"Do you now?" you reply. "What makes you think that?"

Well I've been doing the math, the ones you assigned all the psionic powers. And then I compared them to the Ranking list you made.

"And I come up to a Disciple? You sure about that?"

Yep. You're actually midway through Disciple. I'm about at the beginning of Disciple. I counted. Three times.

"Sure, but that chart's incomplete. I don't know all the powers along the psionic scale. I'm assuming what I do know is the very, very basics."

Well, I think you've got Connection pretty well covered, yeah? I mean, your powers range from just yourself all the way to influencing everyone around you, yeah?

You run through your mental notes as Noir asks. You've had tons of time to think about what you had gone through in that Living Nexus, and having performed that Battle Hymn.

"Alright, fine," you say. "At the bottom is Surge. After that is Scan. Then Telepathy, and then Network."

There's a fifth one on top of that, right? Noir asks.

"Yeah, haven't quite figured out what it is. I thought at first it's that Living Nexus thing, but that's actually a mix of different power categories. Connection and Cognition at the same time. So it can't be part of Connection by itself."

Well I've got a theory. If all the powers in Connection are about, well, connecting with others, then the last power has to be being able to connect with everyone and everything.

"...That makes a lot of sense."

So the fifth power in Connection is Omnipresence.

You purse your lips in thought and consider Noir's suggestion, then nod in agreement a second later. After all, what could possibly be more powerful than being connected to absolutely everyone and everything on the planet? There's literally nothing else past that to connect to.

Logically speaking, that means every power category has the same thing. Meaning that the fifth Cognition power is Omnividence.

"Being able to see everything," you add.

Yep. And that means that Control's highest power would be Omnipotence.

"Being able to control everything…"

You shiver at the thought. The idea that someone or something out there could be powerful enough to control everything in the world. Or know everything that's going on inside it… Even a person able to connect to everyone in the world would be way too much.

And what would it mean if someone or something masters all three? Everyone and everything would be their puppets and playthings.

You quickly shake away the thought, unable to go any further with it. Earth is already a hell, and there's no need for it to get worse.

It only dawns on you after a few seconds that Noir is still chatting away.

So we can be absolutely sure that each category only has five powers each, and we're splitting each power up into five levels of strength. So we sorta know the absolute total, in terms of numbers. Judging from what you've assigned each one, you're a Disciple.

"Why did you even bring this up?" you ask.

Because it won't do you any good to think you're constantly a newbie. You're not. You've got powers and abilities that most can't even dream of, and you really oughta start thinking of yourself as capable.

You sigh as you nod again. Noir's right. Even if both of you are completely off with your categories and ranking and powers and tiers, you're not just some scrub. Maybe you were when this all first happened, sure, but you've grown much more than that since.

You really do have to look at yourself more realistically and understand your own growth. Not just how you've grown in the past, but how you wish to grow in the future. This world is going to attempt to kill you in every possible way, the same way that it has already killed most.

The way it has already killed Kaja.

"It's gonna be a long way to Master, much less Scion," you say after a moment. "I might be alright in Connection, but I barely know much more about Cognition and Control."

Maybe, sure, Noir replies. How about you just worry about getting to Adept next, then you can think about going further.

Your mind mulls it all over as you continue your journey, as you take one step further with every moment that passes.


Load failed, please RETRY

Weekly Power Status

Batch unlock chapters

Table of Contents

Display Options

Background

Font

Size

Chapter comments

Write a review Reading Status: C22
Fail to post. Please try again
  • Writing Quality
  • Stability of Updates
  • Story Development
  • Character Design
  • World Background

The total score 0.0

Review posted successfully! Read more reviews
Vote with Power Stone
Rank 200+ Power Ranking
Stone 0 Power Stone
Report inappropriate content
error Tip

Report abuse

Paragraph comments

Login

tip Paragraph comment

Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.

Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.

GOT IT