The Shelter had the same gloomy atmosphere as usual, but Zane had an expectant look on his face. It couldn't be helped, since this was his first time going on a real scavenge with a cohort. Normally having to go out into the city filled with vicious zombies made people nervous, even afraid, but Zane's face only showed mirth. He was making the first step towards his goal.
Anyway, nearing the entrance, he saw Arni, Sera and Covan chatting. Arni wore the same military style clothes as yesterday. Sera dressed in her usual tightly fitting clothes, which nicely outlined her supple figure. Kitchen knives were decorating her waistband. Covan had grey tracksuits on. This time, his weapon was something that resembled a maze. Zane could only guess where he got it from.
Approaching them, Zane's said in a cheerful tone:
"Good morning guys! How are we?
They returning the greeting with a dubious look, but then Arni quickly turned the conversation serious.
"Let's get started, and while we are on the way, I'll explain today's plan for Zane." He gestured them to follow.
...
"Today," explained Arni, "we are going to the Plaza."
Zane looked at him with a dumbfounded expression. Places like that haven't been uncovered that much, since there really was no reason to. Usually, the goal of scavenging was food, or some necessity needed for survival, so facing unnecessary danger was rather foolish. Sensing his question, Arni continued:
"There are two reasons. Firstly, of course it's to kill Strugglers to get stronger and get used to fighting together, and places like that are perfect for that."
He continued to be on the lookout, as they walked in a moderate pace, then added:
"Second, and the more important, is an Artifact."
Zane raised an eyebrow. Both Sera's and Covan's expressions didn't change, suggesting they already knew.
Artifacts were items that appeared after the Sundering, which was how people called the beginning of the apocalypse. Since the world was now filled with internal energy that was slowly contaminating the environment, not just living beings, but also items started gathering some. Objects which have been exposed to enough internal energy would turn into Artifacts. These were items which had unique abilities on their own.
Until now, Zane had only heard tales of it before, since they were so rare, that even if you wanted, you couldn't come across one. He didn't even know what kind of abilities they could possess. One reason was of course that not much time has passed since the Sundering, so not many things had enough time to absorb the energy.
Zane carefully listened, as Arni continued with an aspirant tone:
"We are not definite that there is an Artifact in the Plaza, however, if there is an unexplored place which had enough internal energy permeating it, then my best guess would land on this place. Getting our hands on an Artifact would be a differentiator factor to the strength of our cohort for sure."
Zane's shifted his gaze slightly.
Sensing his sound reasoning, he couldn't help but agree. Indeed, there was no better place to look for an Artifact, than the Plaza. Even so, he couldn't help but feel slightly reluctant to going there, since with great reward, comes great risk, meaning it wasn't going to be an easy hunt. Well... it's not like he ever expected the hunt to be unchallenging.
'Let's think positive. If we prevail, we could get our hands on something really powerful. If... No! We will prevail!'
As they walked the streets, Zane noticed that they weren't avoiding Spawns. It's almost like they intentionally let them notice the small group of humans. A few Spawns attacked them while traversing through the desolate streets of the city. As Arni was the one walking in front of the group, he was the one who dealt with the ones approaching them at first.
This was the first time Zane saw him in action, even though it wasn't anything serious. His movements were graceful and swift. He was precise with his attacks and didn't let his guard down, even against mindless zombies. His ability was materializing internal energy, or so it seemed. It was a beautiful spectacle to see him manifest his weapon from nothing.
Small specks of light radiating with bright magenta colour appeared in his hands and formed the handle, while a second later the whole blade manifested altogether. His weapon of choice was a straight and double-edged sword, which looked like an upside-down cross, as he was holding it in his hands.
It was made out of pure, bright purple energy, which was just slightly transparent. It cut through the flesh of Spawns like butter.
By now, a few more Strugglers started attacking, so he also had to take action, along with Sera and Covan.
Zane made a crimson dagger from the blood of one of the zombies' corpse, which was killed by Arni with a clean slice from the collarbone, straight down to its core. Sera was using her a bit larger-than-usual santoku kitchen knives to fight. She wasn't the most proficient, and definitely a bit awkward but she could somewhat deal with a Spawn by herself. Covan used his maze to bash open the Spawns' heads and cores.
Dealing with a few of these dregs wasn't very taxing, so they barely broke a sweat by the end. As they finished their small battle, Zane exhaled, and accidentally glanced at the skies. He saw something very bizarre. With a frown, he stood motionless for a few seconds.
As the others noticed, they got concerned.
"Are you hurt?" Asked Sera in an uneasy tone.
A few seconds passed, then he answered, while still staring at the skies:
"No, I'm not"
As he turned to them, he saw the slight worry in their eyes, so he gestured at what he has been staring at for a while now. As they noticed as well, their eyes widened.
Far away in the skies, there were five islands floating, with some kind of structure on them, which they couldn't discern, since they were way too far away. There was one each in West, North-West, North, North-East and East direction. The ones towards North-West and North-East seemed much further away than the other three.
Zane imagined that if you looked at the continent, which was somewhat of a square from above, you would've seen four of them around each corner, and one in the middle of the continent.
Some inexplicable force seemed to keep them afloat. They were terrifying enough to send shivers down their spines. As they were staring at the dire gargantuan monuments, which stood menacingly at around the middle of the troposphere, they noticed a small dot below the one in the middle. That sinister dot somehow seemed like it was a bit closer to them.
"Shit." Murmured Arni under his breath.
"What on earth are those things?"
Asked Sera with a hint of horror in her muffled voice.
"No idea." Said Zane, with his mouth still open from the bewilderment.
...
After a few minutes of silence, they decided that they had no clue what those terrific landmarks were, so they'll worry about it later, and continue their hunt for now.
As they destroyed a few more Strugglers on the way, Zane felt, even if it was just ever so slightly, that his core has gotten a bit stronger. He felt like it was from killing the Strugglers, but for some reason, he wasn't sure. They were slowly approaching the Plaza, but before that, they stopped for a few minutes and discussed their plans for the exploration of it. The plan was basically that Zane and Arni will fight on the front, while Sera and Covan holds their backs.
They hoped there wouldn't be a scenario where this had to change, and they could get through the day without anything going wrong. With this wish in their minds, they approached the Plaza.
The Plaza was just as desolate and decrepit as other buildings. Glasses along its walls were broken and it started to even be overgrown by the uncanny vine that is usually on the other ruined buildings too.
The first location they would explore after entering, was the cinema. They weren't sure that there is gonna be Artifact there, so it's more like they wanted to make sure they explore every nook and cranny of the Plaza, since you can never know where and what could've been exposed to enough internal energy to transform into one of those precious items.
As they stepped in through the broken glass of the revolving door, they instantly bumped into a Spawn, but there was something unusual about it.