章 12: No Place for the Living

After the rapture, most cities were abandoned. There were some odd ones out, but most wouldn't want to stay in a city of vacant corpses. Anyone who would stay in the cities would either be killed, or kill themselves. There was no choice in the matter. All paths led to death.

Lucas usually avoided large cities. That's where most apostles are attracted to. He got stuck in a city once. He couldn't remember the name of it, but he knew that he got surrounded by all sorts of apostles.

He was in limbo between life and death for weeks. These apostles were persistent, and they intended to end his life, however that wasn't possible. He remembered very clearly seeing the guardian Angel just watching from a distance while he was being viciously butchered.

Ever since then, Lucas couldn't bring himself to be afraid of pain. He still reacted to it all the same, but he wouldn't run away when faced with it. That doesn't mean he'd go looking for pain, though, which is why he avoided the cities.

That's also where he became desensitized to even the most odious scenes. Seeing bodies line the streets they use to inhabit use to make Lucas nauseous. But now he hardly noticed. He wasn't completely soulless though. A few particularly grisly scenes had gotten a reaction out him, but nothing like how a regular person would react.

It had been a few days. With on-and-off walking, they had reached the bottom of the mountain. They would camp on the side of the road and wait out the nights before continuing on. They had very few run-ins with apostles, and the road widened. They traveled Northeast now, following the road.

The geography was rich in hills. The land would rise and fall. They could see the mountain by which they did descend, and it's majesty persisted over them. The forest followed them down the mountain, and it still completely covered the land. It surprised Lucas. They had entered Nevada, and yet nothing seemed to change. He always imagined states looking very different from each other, but nothing had really changed between the scenery in California versus what he was seeing here.

They saw something in the distance. It was a… road sign? They approached it. It was a desaturated green color. Lucas could hardly read what was on it. It was a tough reminder that his eyesight wasn't exactly the best.

Stella squinted her eyes. "Carson City, four and three quarters," she read from the sign.

(Stella: "What does that mean?")

(Lucas: "It means we are close to a city.")

(Stella: "That's good, right?")

Lucas didn't know how to respond. On one hand, there could be something there to direct them towards Unit Twenty-one, but on the other hand, cities are extremely dangerous. He didn't know if he was willing to risk Stella's life to find it.

Lucas was in deep thought. So deep, in fact, that he only snapped out of it by the sound of a stick snapping. Familiar.

Lucas looked around suspiciously. Was it the guardian Angel again? He didn't see it anywhere. He looked around at all the lifeless trees.

(Lucas: "Did you hear that?")

(Stella: "What?")

(Lucas: "I don't know for sure.")

They were walking down a road. To their left was a steep hill, almost a cliff of sorts. To their right was a hill downward. They could easily see anything on their right, but to their left, that's where the problem arose.

Unless whatever broke that stick was standing right on the edge of the cliff, they couldn't see it. But there wasn't just something to their left. There was something to their right as well. They could see neither of them. However, they didn't see what was on the right because it was obscured by something. They were simply looking in the wrong place. They didn't look up.

From a bird's eye view, you could easily see what was happening. The guardian Angel stood near the edge of the cliff. It was tracking Lucas and Stella. To the right, the spider from the store jumped from tree to tree, using its desaturated coloration to blend into the trees quite easily.

If Lucas were to look up, he could probably see it very easily, but why would he? He never could've guessed he was being stalked by that same spider. Lucas thought that it would be something like a horde of Lurkers, or a pack of Tartarean Hounds, so he kept his eyes down low. His peripheral vision wasn't good enough to see it.

As the two walked, the angel and the spider stared at each other. It was a standoff of sorts. This happened before as well. The night Lucas heard that stick snap, that was actually the spider creeping up on them, but the guardian Angel warded off the spider.

Something about the Angel was daunting to the spider, and kept it from getting close enough to strike.

The same thing was going on here. The spider was irrationally frightened by the Angel, and wouldn't even try to do anything, but as soon as that Angel disappeared, it would be free game.

The Angel seemed to glide across the ground. It faced the spider. It brushed last leaves and bushes. That's what they heard.

As long as that Angel didn't leave them, the spider wouldn't attack.

They walked for a while. It was grueling. They didn't know when or how it was going to attack them, whatever it was they heard. Lucas kept a straight face, aside from some slight shivering, but he could chalk that up to it being cold. Stella was the one who was petrified. She had seen it. Not the spider. The Angel.

She caught a glimpse of it. It only lasted a second, but she saw those distinct white wings. She didn't know what it was, she didn't want to know, but she saw it. As far as she was aware, that thing was out to get them. It was something she'd never seen before. She didn't recognize that apostle. She knew of some that appeared angelic, but this one was unique. It's wings were short. They weren't used as a display of their holy providence, that at its will it may use to reign terror on the life of this world with. It was short. Humble. But nonetheless terrifying. It drew her attention away from the real danger on the opposite side of them. She didn't mention it to Lucas. She didn't want to acknowledge its presence.

They walked for about an hour and thirty minutes. They could see buildings even from a while away, and they seemed so grand, but now that they were right on the outskirts of the city, they saw it for what it really was.

Like most things in this world, it was an empty shell of what it used to be. In the middle of the road was a body. It looked like it had just fallen over and died.

As they walked, it had been exactly as Lucas had feared. Bodies lined the road. "Welcome to Carson City," a sign read. A body hung from that very sign.

A woman was dead in a pile of rubble, their head impaled by rebar. It stuck out right above her open right eye.

(Lucas: "Keep your eyes straight ahead. Don't look at anything you don't want to see. You will be defeated by the city.")

Stella nodded, but she didn't really listen. As they walked, more and more buildings could be seen. A pink doll sat right in front of a building. It was missing its head. Right behind it, a child sat against the building. Lifeless eyes stared down at the doll. Stella ran over to the child. Lucas tried to stop her. She crouched down next to the boy asking if he was alright.

A couple moments passed by. She stood up. The silence was loud. She walked back over to Lucas, tears in her eyes.

(Lucas: "What did I tell you? This city will defeat you no matter what you do. The best you can do is to ignore the carnage. Everything here is dead. There's no saving anyone.")

She nodded, rubbing her damp eyes. She listened to Lucas this time. She put her mask on. She didn't want to see any of it, so she looked out the small slivers of her gas mask, hoping to eclipse all that she didn't want to remember.

All these bodies. These use to be living people. They loved, they cried, and they all died. One body still held a dog leash. An arm held a coffee cup. A single arm, connected to no body.

The city will win. It always does.

Cities are no place for the living.