36 The Signal (1/2)
The scenery outside reminded him a distant, long-forgotten nightmare he'd once had many years ago. Even now, he sometimes remembered that dream, if only in distorted fragments of what it had once been. His memory failed him whenever he tried piecing it together, something that irked him.
When Reed peeked outside of the house and saw the ruined, abandoned neighborhood, he felt a tinge of sorrow. He couldn't precisely ascertain why he felt the way he did; neither was he in the mood to identify where that feeling originated from. It wasn't the time for that.
He had work to do. ”Focus on the mission,” Reed reminded himself as he shook his head. There'd be time to reflect later after the mission was over. Distractions could kill. He flushed his mind of useless, extraneous thoughts and charted a course on his tome and double checked his plan for any potential issues.
His planned route took him through the suburbs of the city until a certain point when he'd have to venture into the heart of the city to reach the outpost. Judging from the detailed reports that had been given to them, the center of the city was where a majority of the Infested were found.
Traversing through the suburbs was the safest option he could see, given what he knew. The information showed that the Infested rarely traveled into the outer parts of the city and preferred to remain near the hub of the metropolis. Why they behaved in such a manner was unknown, or at the very least, not explained in the reports he'd been given...
The rain continued drizzling down upon the silent city; remote claps of thunder and the desolate howling of the wind filled the city with a somber ambiance. The city had a stifling atmosphere — as if it were a forbidden graveyard — a place that no man should ever walk upon.
As Reed quietly walked down the broken roads, he noticed many a thing. Although many buildings and signs had long since fallen into disrepair, it wasn't impossible to guess what they had once might've been. Various signs of all manner of shapes and styles still stood, faded and illegible.
Reed walked past what seemed to be a restaurant judging from the dull and indistinct image of a plate filled with food. It had seen better days. The building was missing half of its foundation and a massive crater took up what should've been the other portion the structure.
Metallic signs dotted the roads and glimmered faintly in the darkness. Although thousands of years had passed, these signs continued doing their job as they feebly flickered like vanishing fireflies.
A couple hours later, Reed made a decent amount of progress, even if it was slower than he planned. Reed checked his map; he estimated that he was roughly sixty kilometers away. Over the course of the journey, he had encountered no one. His tome remained mute the whole way — that worried him a bit.
Still, the city was massive, so it made sense that it'd be somewhat difficult for anyone to stumble into one another. Reed brushed away several ominous hypotheticals that crept up out of his anxiety. He reminded himself that he couldn't let his emotions take over; only calm and collected reasoning would keep him alive.
Reed bitterly chuckled in self-derision as he continued walking. The longer he thought about it, the more embarrassed he felt. Here he was — stronger than all of his peers combined — acting like a coward. What a gaffe... for the strongest one to be the weakest when it was time to act. He slapped his cheeks and balled fists in frustration.
”How pathetic...” he thought. This was his best? Reed bit his lip as he gazed at the swirling clouds above, but was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts.
His tome winked and a clear ping came out of it. He knew what that sound meant.
Someone was close — within his tome's range, to boot.
Where? Who? He summoned his tome and checked for the signal with great haste as if a miracle had come true. The signal was faint, too distant for a communication channel to be established, but it was enough for Reed. He wasn't alone — Esparon Doveport — that was the registered tag on the signal.
Reed wracked his brain as he desperately tried to think; Esparon Doveport... had he heard the name before? He cursed himself for not making more friends other than Astor and the group. It wouldn't have killed him to socialize with other people outside of his own clique, but it was too late to worry about it.
People become fast friends in dire circumstances, right? Reed made up an excuse for himself as he ran toward the weak signal, in a full sprint. He didn't even care about maintaining his secrecy out of pure excitement and glee.
Reed rushed through empty streets like mighty gale given human form as his blurry figure flew towards the signal. Once he'd gotten close enough, Reed sent out a communications request to Esparon. The signal was getting stronger by the second, indicative that he would meet up with him soon enough.
Seconds passed: No response.
Was something wrong or did Esparon not receive the request? Perhaps a malfunction on Esparon's end? Reed prayed that it was nothing more than that as he sent another request to Esparon.
He was less than a minute or two away from his location. If he was under attack or possibly injured... Reed grimaced and prepared himself for a potential confrontation. Anima pulsed and gathered around him as he rushed towards the signal on the map.
Another ten seconds passed: There was no response.
Reed felt his blood boil and his heart rate rocketed; he pushed himself to the limits of his concentration as he approached the signal at a blistering speed. In record time, he arrived at Esparon's location — a dingy, old house that had a broken roof and a huge hole in one of its walls.
There was something pungent about the air; it smelled rotten and stale the closer he got to the house. Like someone had dug up a decomposing carcass or had dumped the worst filth imaginable in the vicinity. The offensive stench assaulted his senses, but he shrugged it off.