Chapter 589 (1/2)
Hank and Thaddeus found themselves standing outside of an old junkyard, with rusted cars standing piled on top of each other in tall columns. Large heaps of scrap metal and trash formed small hills that gave the area something like a skyline. It seemed to have been a relatively big place before the System arrived, a hub of industrial trash and the rotting remnants of technology.
“Jesus, you take me to the weirdest places,” Thaddeus said, fiddling with his plasma pistol. “Fighting in urban environments in the worst. At least in the forest, all you need to worry about is poison ivy. Here, getting knocked into something is a good shot of impaling yourself on twisted rebar. I don’t fancy getting a tetanus shot with my Endurance this high.”
“If yur Endurance is really that high, the rebar won’t pierce ya either.” Hank drawled, pulling his repeater out of its holster. His legs gave him no further information. This was the place where his brother Alan was. It did not seem to bode well for his current health.
There was an even and low pounding in Hank’s head. Something was coming, he was sure of it. But he also agreed with Thaddeus. If they had to fight, this would be a poor location for it. There were too many places for an ambush among the bones and vomit of the old world.
But still, they were here for a reason. As one, they walked forward, looking around carefully at the scrapped paint and rustling plastic bags. In the early days of the Zone, this would have been exactly the sort of spot that Raid Bosses would love to hide to develop their armies for a time before they attacked nearby human settlements. But now, it was as silent as a grave.
They moved through the towering piles of garbage to row after row of broken down cars. There weren’t even any small animals living here to brighten up the place. The low beat in Hank’s head slowly increased in tempo. They were moving closer, but it was slow. Still, Hank wasn’t willing to toss aside everything he knew to follow the speed of the tempo. He didn’t trust it that much.
Finally, Thaddeus looked up and frowned. They were passing a trash compactor. “Do you hear that beat?”
Hank blinked. Of course, he did, but the fact that Thaddeus heard it-
They shared a glance and hurried forward through the junkyard. Very quickly, the very audible beat grew louder. They found a bend where they believed that the noise was around the corner and Hank signaled the other man. They climbed up the trash, doing their best to remain silent. It was difficult, but the beat was full enough of clatters and thumps that the noise they created blended right into the cacophony that had seized the whole area.
When they looked over a dirty washing machine at the top of the pile of trash, both froze.
Below, there was a wide bowl in the hills of trash, probably enough room for a good number of people to gather. At that moment, there was about double the amount of beings there should be in that area, pressed together and… dancing. They stomped their feet and roared their emotions to the sky while a strange glowing body moved above them on a small stage.
And they were all monsters. They all seemed different, with scales, extra limbs, or fur, but they were clearly monsters. Hank’s grip on his repeater tightened.
“Holy fuck,” Thaddeus breathed. “If all of the monsters gathered into an army this big-”
“Let it go,” Hank growled, his eyes scanning around the edges of the trash bowl. Towards one side, there were several lean-tos made of aluminum sheeting and stacked household appliances. Hank pointed. “We have a goal; to find Alan. Let the fucks party; report this and the army will take care of it later.
“Will they?” Thaddeus seemed skeptical. “Do you see how many are down there? Just the weight of bodies would push through plasma fire. If we set up with all of them sitting down in this bowl, we could handle them. But if a group of them broke out-”
“If we can isolate one and kill it, we can check its Level. That will give us a better idea of the magnitude of the threat. But Alan comes first,” Hank hissed. The other man nodded.
They began to move around the outside of the bowl, doing their best to stay quiet. It seemed as though they need not have bothered, as the noise from beneath them was deafening. Whatever the monsters were doing, it was weird. Hank’s initial impression was that it was massing before charging out as a horde and killing people, but the longer he listened, the more incorrect that seemed. But there were some strange… almost ritualistic elements to what was occurring.
Was there such a thing as a summoning ritual? Hank wondered, then he chided himself. Based on how the System worked, if a person believed in it, of course there was. But was that what was happening here? Or…
It took almost forty minutes to get around to the buildings they had spotted across the bowl. The noise was definitely louder now and driving upward toward something specific. But Hank did his best to ignore that. They found that the buildings they spotted were even rougher and broken down than they had appeared from across the bowl. It was surprising enough that the monsters had been able to build small dwellings, but shouldn’t they have made them more… hospitable?
Walking quietly, they began to explore the different dwellings. They were labyrinthine and claustrophobic, but Thaddeus and Hank made good time as they moved through them. The houses seemed to merge seamlessly to each other, and as Hank continued his considered movement through them, he realized that it wasn’t a matter of making the hospitable… it was a matter of making them. There simply wasn’t enough room for all of the monsters here.