Ivan DeWitt

The two women had been quiet ever since I came back with Jace. Why they would be quiet for so long is beyond me but the silence was welcomed anytime.

We all sat on the dinner table after moving the unnecessary amount of junk on it. The first few minutes were spent in silence as we all ate a can of heated beans, that is until Jace turned towards me and asked.

“So, you ever going to explain how the hell were you able to breathe back in the Metro tunnels?” He asked me. The two women, whom I remembered the names of, turned to me and waited for my answer.

I ate another spoonful of beans before swallowing. I then picked up the bottled water beside me and drank from it. Once I placed the bottle down, I looked at Jace.

“I'm immune.” I answered simply. Jace looked at me with a questionable stare. After a minute of staring he just shrugs and went back to eating. The bacon haired look-back and forth between us.

“Is… is that it? You're not going to ask him anything else?” Jace looked at her, frowning.

“Why I asked him a question and he answered.” Jace explained.

“Besides, there's not much to ask about my immunity.” I said without looking at her. She looked at me as if she was about say something but Chrysalis beat her to it.

“Are there others like you? Others that are immune.” Chrysalis asked. I sighed before placing the spoon down.

“There was six of us, all immune to the virus.” I said in a flat tone. I saw Jace looked at me for a moment then went back to eating.

“W-what happened?” This time, it was Sunset who asked. Her tone showed fear of knowing what had happened.

“Others didn't take kindly to our ‘gift’. They hunted us down like wild animals, I am the last one of the group.” I said before standing up, pushing the seatback while doing so.

“I'll be on the roof.” I said before turning around walking towards the door. Opening it before I walked, I then headed up the stairs again before arriving on the roof.

I shook my head before turning the corner of the roof access door, seeing the folding chair leaning on the wall. I grabbed it before looking towards an old Ham Radio, seeing a mini cooler on the floor next to the desk.

After setting up the chair near the edge, close enough to let me see the streets below before heading back and grabbing the mini cooler. Before heading back towards the chair, I walked to a light switch beside the door and flipped it, causing the light above me to flicker on.

I sat down with a grunt before opening the cooler, seeing a few old bottles of Heineken beer. It was at least twenty or so years old but along with a few other packs of six had been preserved.

Taking one out and closing the cooler, I then popped the cap off before taking a swig. I lowered the bottle afterward before sighing.

“Goddamnit.” I cursed. I don't drink, much but when I do, it's usually due to the depression. I drown it out with a bit of beer, enough to get buzzed and not wasted at least.

I heard the door open behind me. I didn't bother looking back. I heard footsteps before spotting the person at the corner of my eyes. It was Chrysalis.

“You know, the city looks beautiful, in a twisted kind of way.” Chrysalis said as she walked up to the edge.

“Yeah but it was a true thing of beauty twenty years ago.” I told her with a side glance. She looked at me with a single raised brow.

“Oh and how do you know that?” She asked me.

“I was there when it happened. I was only five at the time but I remember clear as day. All this…” I said with a wave of my hand, gesturing the city itself. “for some petty belief by an anonymous group.” I finished before taking another swig then sighing afterward.

“Why would anyone want to cause harm to their own kind?” Chrysalis asked in disbelief. If what Jace said was true, then she doesn't know humanity's own stupidity of fighting for petty issues.

“Money, drugs, religion, politics, beliefs. The list goes on and as time progresses, so does the list.” I explained as she sat on the ledge. It was then I noticed her attire. She wore a black and green corset with black jeans and brown combat boots.

“What about you?” She asked me. I looked her with a raised brow.

“What do you mean?” I asked her in return.

“I mean, what do you fight for?” She repeated. I closed my eyes before sighing once more.

“I don't know anymore. Back when my group was still around I used to fight for the safety of others.” I answered her. She didn't seem to like my answer. She frowned.

“Then why did you put your life at risk back in those tunnels? Why to help two stranger when you know they can't be trusted?” She asked me.

“Old habits die hard.” I answered her. I took a sip of my drink as I looked out to the city.

“What about your friend, Jace I mean.” she asked. I looked over at her.

“What do you mean?”

“What’s your opinion about him.” she asked. She looked over at the door. “Right now he’s tinkering with his spear and Sunset is watching him, she seems interested what he’s working on.”

“Through the few months that I've known him, I can safely say that I can place my trust towards him even If he is the most annoying man I've ever met.” I answered her. She chuckled at that.

“I've noticed his odd sense of humor but I'll give him some credit for trying.” She said. She looked over at me and frowned. “So, you plan on doing something? I can tell by the way you look.”

“I plan to head deeper into the city, eventually.” I answered her.

“I see, so when are we going?” I frowned at her, I was going to say something but she put up her hand. “By the way, I see it, both you and Jace saved us from the… hoard back there, so we are in debt to you and I really don't like being in debt.”

“You're not in debt, I do what I do to let people survive.” I told her.

“Still I feel like I'm in debt so… too bad.” she said as she walked back into the building.

“Wonder what I got myself into now.” I said to myself before finishing the bottle in my hand.

Jace

“Alright, now put the gear there.” I said as I used a thin metal pole to point. Sunset, using some tweezers and a pair of special set of goggles, put the gear where I told her.

I worked on the spear and cane making sure that they were still good, as I worked on them I saw Sunset watched me work out of the corner of my eye. I made her gasp in surprise as I made the cane transform. She asked me where I got the cane and when I told her that I made it she wanted to know how.

That got us to now, seeing if she can fix an old wind up pocket watch that I found some time ago. I got all the parts for it from taking apart other items that I found. I told her the last few things to do then closed the backup.

“There…” she said. She pushed the goggles up so she could see better than looked at me. “Did... did I do it right?”

“Let's find out.” I told her. I picked up the watch and started to wind it up. I held it in my hand as we watched it to see if anything would happen.

Tick, tick, tick.

“It works!” Sunset said with a smile.

“Well, I didn’t doubt that it wouldn’t you have a talent with this you know that.” I said as I set the watch on the table. “Heck if you weren't a student of magic you would be fantastic with this sort of thing,” I told her. I saw her blush a bit at that but then frowned. “Did I say something wrong?”

“No it’s just that… that’s the same thing that Celestia said to me when I was her student.” her expression changed to an angry one. “And look where that got me, miss perfect is sitting up on her throne without a care in the world.”

“No one’s perfect.” was all I said. She turned to me and frowned.

“What do you mean?” I heard the anger in her voice, but it was also curiosity.

“What I mean is that there’s nothing perfect, no one is, it’s a fantasy really, I bet that all this time she regrets sending you away, that it was her fault that you ran away.” I told her. I walked over to my stuff and pulled out a broken radio that I found and a book placed it in front of her. “Next lesson is that I want you to take this thing apart and tell me what’s wrong with it, the book will tell you the ins and outs of it.”

I walked over to a chair and picked up my spear to sharpen it. I saw that Sunset was working on the radio and had occasionally looked at the book. I chuckled as the door opened and Chrysalis walked in. She walked over to a wall and picked a random book to read. She noticed me looking at her.

“What?” She asked, annoyed by the staring.

“Nothing.” I said as I began my sharpening. I knew that it would take me a few minutes to do, the only problem is that once I was done I have nothing to do, it’s always the little things.

I finished sharpening my spear it took a bit longer than I thought but now I didn’t have anything to do so I opted to look out of the window. Five minutes later I heard the door open.

Looking towards the door, I saw Ivan as he closed the door behind him. He looked onto me before his gaze landed on Sunset.

“What are you doing?” He asked. She looked at him with the look of she been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

“Ummm…” I looked over at the radio that she been working on, it was halfway put back together and I say a small pile in the corner that I believe it’s broken parts. I must give her credit, she works fast.

“That thing has been here for more than a year. The only reason I kept is to use for spare parts in case the radio on the roof breaks.” Ivan said.

“You mean the one in the corner?” I said as I pointed over to said corner. There sitting there was a busted up radio. “The one she’s working on is one that I found a week ago.”

Ivan looked at both me then Sunset before sighing.

“Nevermind then.” He said before looking at Sunset. “Keep doing whatever you were doing.” He told her.

She looked at him than to me, I just shrugged. She turned and went back to her radio.

“So, what’s the plan?” I asked him. This caught his attention. Turning to me, he threw a pair of keys my way and I caught them. These keys, I've seen them before but...

“Show our guests where they'll be sleeping.” He said without looking as he sat on the recliner. I nodded and stood up before looking at Sunset.

“You can finish that up tomorrow.” I told her. Nodding, Sunset took off the goggles and gloves before walking towards the door next to Chrysalis.

“Come on, you heard him.” I told the former queen. She looked up from her book.

“I'll be with you in a moment.” She said. Sighing, I opened the door and let Sunset through before me.

After closing the door behind me, I then guided Sunset to one of the old rooms. Why would Ivan give the rooms to them? He told those two rooms were once owned by members of his group. He even shared his room with one of them but each time I ask him about it, he would always avoid the question.

“How long have you two known each other?” I was brought out of my thoughts by Sunset’s voice.

“Who Ivan? For him, I only knew him for a few months, unless you're talking about someone else.” I asked her. I got to one of the rooms and began looking for the key.

“I'm talking about Ivan. You two seem to trust each other for just only knowing each other for a few months.” Sunset said.

“I think it’s because we both know that in this world it’s hard to trust others, and we find someone who we do trust… well it’s makes the world a bit more bearable.” I was silent for a minute then chuckled. “That reminds me of a friend I knew back home.”

“Who was it?” Sunset asked. I silently cursed myself as I lost my place with the keys, there’s like… what ten keys and I still get lost with them?

“An old knight, looked like an onion with his armor. Even in the darkest of times he was always upbeat about things.” I said as I picked a key and put it in the door. It wasn’t the right one… crap.

“What happened to him?” Sunset asked. I stopped looking for the key and looked at her. I clench my jaw and looked back at the door, picking a random key.

“We were in a bad place and he said that he would distract a group of monsters for me, he wanted to die doing something heroic.” I told her. The key went in and I heard the click from the lock.

“What happened to him?”

I pulled the key out and opened the door. “I wanted to continue on but I couldn’t leave him so I stayed and fought beside him, I took away his death, his heroic death and he didn’t trust me after that.”

I looked at her for a moment and leaned in close so I could whisper. “I know you, don’t ask how but I just do and I know that you wanted to get back at Celestia, I’m telling you to not go through with it. I seen many people go insane with power and hurt themselves, even kill themselves but you still have a chance to turn around and do something with your life.” I walked away from her to let her think it over.

“Wait!” I stopped and turned to her. “Why are you telling me this?”

“... like I said, I seen too many people die for power and I don’t want to see another.” I said as I walked back to the room.

When I got there I saw the other two looking up at me and stared. “What? Do I got something on me?”

Ivan shook his head before going into his bedroom. Chrysalis placed the book down before standing up.

“Alright, I'm finished.” Chrysalis said. I sighed and went to sit where I was sitting before to stare out of the window. I didn’t see anything outside of the building which after many months of being here still weird me out, like there’s no birds.

I heard someone walk up to me before picking the keys out of my pocket. Turning back, I saw Chrysalis holding the keys question.

“I will find the room myself.” She said as she turned to leave. I blinked as I watch her leave and shrugged. I looked back out of the window as I let my mind wander. I don’t know how long it was but I felt someone tap me on the shoulder which brought me back to earth.

“What's up with you?” I heard Ivan's voice.

“Just letting my mind wander a bit, did you say something?” I asked.

“Yeah, I was just saying that you should head off to sleep. Busy day tomorrow and with the wind picking up as it is, methinks a storm is a brewing.” He said. I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Right, I’ll try to get some sleep though you know how I sleep.” I told him.

“Right, meditate whatever.” He said. “Just make sure that you rest for tomorrow.”

I nodded and watched him walk out of the room. I sat there for a bit before heading towards the corner of the room to meditate, yes I meditate it helps me get some rest without getting any dreams, or for me nightmares. I sat cross legged and closed my eyes, I focus on my breathing until I felt the world leave me as I enter my own world within the dream world.

I opened my eyes to see that it was morning. I stood up and looked out of the window to see that the sun was up for about a few hours and no one was up yet, it didn’t surprise me since I’m use to this sort of thing. I went to my desk and grabbed the last sharpening stone I made, taking it I went to a chair and started to sharpened my spear and cane.

After a few minutes I heard footsteps heading towards the door, it opened and Ivan walked in and saw me.

“Morning, you look like you just woke up.” I said to him.

“Very funny. Did you already eat or are you saving your rations again?” I stopped and pulled up one of three bags of jerky.

“I had a few, want some?” I asked.

“Sure.” He said, taking a bag. As we ate I finished sharpening my spear and cane, plus two more pieces of jerky as I heard the sound of footsteps again as Sunset and Chrysalis walked in.

“Morning, jerky?” I asked. Sunset shook her head in disgust but unlike her, Chrysalis accept and Ivan gave her a bag. I turned to Sunset and reach into my pocket, pulling out a small bag of granola. Ivan frowned at me.

“Where did you get that?” he asked.

“I got that from one of the buildings we searched a few weeks back, the one by the fire hall. I found three and you took two of them.” I told him. I gave the bag to Sunset and she began to eat. “So, what’s on the agenda today?”

“We scavenge the remaining buildings close by if we're lucky we'll be back before the storm hits.” Ivan explained before looking outside. Following his gaze, I noticed dark clouds off into the distance.

“So are we going in a group or in pairs?” I asked him.

“We split, we'll be a lot faster if we do. If you see a runner, take it down quietly, Jace.” Ivan said, referring to the time I had first tested my spear out on a scavenging run.

“Alright,” I turned to the other two. “What about them? They coming?”

“If they want to.” Ivan said with a shrug. I looked at the other two.

“So, want to help scavenge or hold down the fort?” I asked them. Sunset was silent, thinking of her answer.

“I'll go with.” Chrysalis answered, her gaze set on Ivan. I look over at Sunset as she was still thinking about it.

“No one is forcing you to go with or stay.” I told her.

“I'll go.” Sunset finally answered.

“Alright, I guess we’ll go in pairs.” I said to Ivan. “You and Chrysalis and me and Sunset… right?”

“I don't see a problem with that, sure.” He as he picked up his hunting rifle. I nodded and picked up my stuff, bag, spear and cane, and walked over to Sunset.

“Keep close greenhorn.” I said as I left the room.

“Greenhorn?!” I heard her yell out, I chuckled a bit at that. The four of us left the apartment and went different directions. Sunset and I headed down the street and went into some alleys.

“Why did you call me that?” I heard Sunset ask.

“Because that’s what you are at the moment, a greenhorn.” I told her as we came to the end of the alley. I looked both ways to see if anyone was in the street, luckily it was empty. I looked back at Sunset and saw her frowning and look somewhat… sad. I tap her shoulder to get her attention and nodded at the street.

We continued on for a few minutes until we got to one of the buildings that I knew that wasn't scavenged by me or Ivan. We went into the building through the window and I got a good look around, broken stuff everywhere and the smell of an empty building.

“Alright, this seems like a small building so we’ll check a room together.” I said to her. She just nodded which made me frown. We checked the whole building, no runners or zombies, it took about twenty minutes we found an old rusty M1911, a first aid kit with some stuff, a bottle of alcohol, and five military grade rounds, the rounds are used for currency for trading but I never understand why but I never really asked.

We moved out of the building and headed to the next one. I looked up and saw that the clouds were getting closer, I guess we could hit three or four more houses before the storm hits. I looked at Sunset and saw that she was looking down.

“Oi, earth to Sunset you there?” I said as I nudged her. She looked at me in surprise.

“Umm what?” she asked.

“What’s going on with you? You have something on your mind?” I asked her. She stared at me then look down.

“I was just thinking.” She answered.

“Oh, what about?” I asked her.

“The choices I've made in my life.” She said. I stopped and looked at her.

“I see, want to talk about it?” she eyed me for a second. “It’s better than keeping them to yourself, I should know.”

“After what you told me yesterday, I began to reflect on the things I've done for power.” She said.

“And what did you came up with?” I asked her. She didn’t say anything as we headed to another building. We searched and found some junk and a sword that was broken, I mutter an insult to the idiot that broke the sword.

We headed out of the house and made our way to the next. I looked over at Sunset as she still hasn't said anything. I thought about something that I heard from the past.

“Sunset, I want you to hear what I want to say because this helped me in the past.” I told her.

“How did it help you?” she asked. I looked at her and saw that her eyes became hollow. I didn't say anything and started my tail.

“There was once three siblings, two brothers, and a sister, that were traveling a lonely winding road at Twilight, the oldest was a knight of the royal guard, the second oldest a powerful mage, and the youngest a simple but smart female hunter.”

“In time they came to a river that was too treacherous to cross, but the young hunter came up with a plan to build a bridge-”

“Wait, build a bridge? Why doesn't the mage just teleport the three of them to the other side?” Sunset asked. I frowned and looked at her.

“Because this is a story and your rudely interrupting it so hush!” I said to her. She frowned and muttered under her breath. I paid no mind to it as I continued.

“The old knight and young hunter went and gathered some old logs and grass as the mage used his magic to construct a bridge out of them to the other side.

Before they could cross however, they found their path blocked by a hooded figure, it was Death-” I stopped and saw the shocked face on Sunset. I put my finger to my lips to say to stay quiet as we dashed from alley to alley. When we got close to the other house I continued.

“Death felt cheated, cheated because travelers normally drown in the river, but Death was cunning, he pretended to congratulate the three for their cleverness and each earned a prize for being clever to evade him.

The knight asked for a weapon more powerful than any in existence, so death pulled a bright star and the light of the moon and made a sword out for him.

The Mage decided to humiliate Death further by asking for the power to bring back the dead back to life, so Death poured his own life energy into a jar and told the mage that one drop of the essence can bring life to the dead.” I stop my story as we got to the house. We searched the house and found some granola bars and some very old cheese that we left. Looking upstairs we found some ammo and a two barrelled shotgun with ammo, about twenty rounds, sweet!

We exited the house, I looked up to the sky as I heard the sound of thunder. “We have enough time to hit one more house till the storm hits.”

“Alright, but can you continued the story.” Sunset asked. I saw that the hollowness was gone from her eyes and replaced with one interest and curiosity, kinda like a child's. I chuckled and continued.

“Lastly, Death turned to the young hunter, she asked to go forth from that place, without being followed by Death. So Death gave her his own cloak of invisibility. With gifts in hand the three set off to continued their journey.

The eldest went to the kingdom to kill the king for the right to rule, with the sword in hand he defeated the king and took the throne. Drunk with power, he bragged about his invincibility, about beating Death. But during one night, someone took the sword and slit the knight's throat for good measure. So Death took the first for his own.

The second oldest went back to his home and using one drop brought back the love of his life from her cruel death. With it, she appeared before him, but soon she became cold and turned into a monster, she slaughtered and ate the village that was near. Driven mad with grief the mage killed himself to hope to join her in the afterlife. So Death took the second.

As for the third and final one, Death searched for many years but couldn’t find the young hunter until she came to age where she shade the cloak and gave it to her son, she greeted Death as an old friend and gladly went with him, as equals.” As I finished my story as we got the last building. We went in and started to search the place. So far there wasn’t anything that was useful, all there was the basement. I looked at Sunset as we got to the door to the basement.

“Do you understand the meaning of the story?” I asked her. She thought about it for some time. “The knight wanted power and had the weapon that gave him that power, but it didn’t protect him from the shadows he cast. The mage wanted to cheat death and bring back someone he loves, but made a monster that killed thousands.”

“And the third knew that Death would follow her, so she ask for something that made it hard to be followed.” she said. I just nodded to her.

“Yes, you see wanting power for yourself will just lead you to a very bad end, that’s why I don’t want you to go after it, it will leave you either alone against the dark or mostly dead.” I opened the door and slowly walked on to the stairs to the basement.

As I got there I heard a moaning sound, I turned to see a runner that hasn’t notice us. I looked at Sunset and again put my finger to my lips as I moved into the shadows. I sneaked up behind it and quickly decapitated the runner. It fell onto the ground with it’s head rolled off somewhere. I looked up and saw Sunset looking at me. I searched around and saw that there wasn’t any runners here but I didn’t feel as safe.

After fifteen minutes we found a lot of food, mostly cans of food and some blankets, I also found a nice AK and some ammo for it. Whoever lived here stash this place real nice. I looked at Sunset as she shouldered her bag.

“Back home I’m part of a group that had an oath, ‘We hunt those that walk in the dark, if the dark offer us it’s gifts we decline because if we accept, we turn into those that we hunt.” I said as I looked at my cane, I saw the same oath on it. I turned and flicked my wrist and made it transform and tear into the body of the runner. I took the whip and slammed in on the ground to revert it to it’s first form, I looked up at Sunset and handed her the cane. She looked at it with wide eyes.

“I want you to have this and keep it with you at all times, if the thought of power comes to you I want you to look at this cane and recite the oath.” I told her. She stared at the cane and, slowly, took the cane. She held it with the utmost care.

“Why are you giving this to me?” she asked me. I stared at her before moving up the steps. I stopped at the door.

“I’m giving it to you as a reminder to never give in to power, to never make the mistake that so many made in the past.” I told her. We moved out of the house and onto the streets, I saw that the clouds were over us.

“But… you didn’t give in.” I heard Sunset said. I stopped in front of the house as the rumble of thunder rolled over us.

“No Sunset, I fought many that did give in and went mad from it but when I faced off the head of the beast, I too gave in to the power.” I looked up and felt the cold rain as it hit’s me on the face. I heard a low growl in the mind and felt it’s presence.

“I became the thing that I have hunted.”

Ivan

After splitting into two groups of two, I had made my way through the grass filled streets with Chrysalis in tow. She had been silent throughout the entire time.

We had already searched a few buildings on the way, earning us a half empty bottle of alcohol, ten military grade grounds, and a baton. We stopped at the sound of rushing water, I knowingly smiled at the familiar sound before looking at my companion.

“Come, I know something you might like to see.” I said before looking over to the building across the street. It was an old office building, an H & R Block building. It was tall enough to be considered a watchtower for others.

Walking across the street towards the building, I looked back to see Chrysalis following behind. Entering the building and making sure there weren't any infected, I then checked if there was any power running in the building but found nothing to prove that it has.

“We'll have to take the stairs.” I said in a quiet tone to myself before looking for the fire escape staircase. I had walked down a dark hallway, passing by the remains of another scavenger. The remains had nothing of value so I had continued searching for the staircase before finally finding a door with vines coming out of it.

I pushed the door with all my strength, hearing the snapping of the vines before the door was busted off its rusted hinges. Chrysalis heard this and came as quick as she could, probably thinking that the sound I had just caused was me trying to fight something.

Once I had told it was just the door that made all that noise, we then began making our way up towards the roof. It was tiring but after at least thirty floors, we had finally arrived at the roof.

I ignored my exhaustion and walked up to the ledge and smiled.

“What- what are you smiling at?” Chrysalis said between pants before standing beside me. Looking at her I could see that she was amazed by the view.

“Amazing, huh?” I asked her as my gaze went back towards the waterfall.

“It is but how is this possible?” She asked. I looked towards her before answering.

“If I knew the answer to that I could tell you but I don't and I'll ever will.” I told her. Chrysalis looked down, seeing the flooded streets of downtown Paradise. She then looked back at me.

“Alright, what now?” She asked me. I looked back towards the door before answering.

“We make our way back, going through buildings as we go.” I told her before heading towards the door. She followed behind.

I opened the door and let her through first before going in myself. Once the light from the outside was shut out by the door, we hurriedly made our way downstairs.

After arriving at the main lobby, we left for the streets once more but took a different route back. There was a park nearby and Chrysalis had seemed interested in seeing it.

So we took a stroll through the park, finding some medical supplies and some reusable bottles. As we walked down the grassy stone path, we had a view of the lake next to us.

“What do you like to do for fun, when you're not out and about trying to find things?” Chrysalis asked, bringing me out of my thoughts. I looked at her with a raised brow.

“Why do you need to know?” I asked her back. She pouted slightly before answering.

“I'm just trying to make small talk with you.” She answered. I rolled my eyes at her reason.

“You'll need to try harder to-” I was cut off by a sharp pain on the shoulder. Looking onto my shoulder, I saw blood and a hole through my jacket. Still, in a state of shock, I placed a finger onto the blood before regaining my senses.

“Get behind something!” I yelled and ran towards the nearest tree before taking cover behind it. Chrysalis did the same but towards another tree. I took a quick peek only to be shot at again, luckily I had pulled back before the bullet hit.

Taking a hold of my hunting rifle and loading it before going out of cover and seeing the son of a bitch lying on the grass. I tried to aim but the pain made it hard for me to get a clear shot.

Firing my gun with a loud bang, I sent back behind the tree before loading another round. I missed, I knew the much and with another quick peek had confirmed that I was right.

A loud thunder clap greeted my ears as the last bit of sun was blocked by the clouds and it began to rain. Chrysalis kept her head down behind the tree.

Shouldering my rifle, I took out my handgun, an old M9 pistol. Cocking the pistol, I then began to move from tree to tree.

I had somehow eluded the sniper’s line of sight as he kept aiming towards my original location. After successfully making my way towards the sniper, I could see that it was a middle-aged man wearing ghillie suit. How he found that suit is beyond me and what's even more bizarre is the weapon he had.

He had been using a silent .50 Barrett. Not knowing how it was possible was the least of my worries and I showed that by forcefully turning him over.

Shocked at my sudden appearance, he quickly took out a combat knife and stabbed me in the stomach before I shot the man across the eyes.

Once the man went limp, I dropped to my knees as I clutched my shoulder and stomach. My vision was blurring and I had completely fallen on the floor before total darkness.

Jace

I like the rain, it was nice, refreshing, and has a nice smell to it, and if you get a thunder storm it was nice to listen too. The only problem was if you get caught in the rain you have to home for the nice warm kind of rain.

It was cold and coming down hard. And fast, the two of us had to run the rest of the way to the apartment. Luckily I had a nice waterproof trench coat that has a few scorch marks and tears in it. Unluckily Sunset has squat, we ran until we got to the apartment. I jumped up the fire escape and reach over to pick up Sunset, we both headed into the building.

I tested the lights, they were working as I pulled the coat off and watched it drip with the water that was on it. I looked and saw that some of the water seeped in from the coat, I looked over at Sunset and saw that she was soaked through in through. As a gentleman, I would have been nice and helped her get dry and warm.

But I was a bigger asshole than a gentleman.

“Oh gods! You look like a red and yellow dog!” I said while laughing so hard that I clutch my sides. I was then being beaten by a very wet Sunset.

“Don’t laugh at me! Where’s the more serious Jace from before?!” she yelled. My laughter turned to chuckling.

“Hey I have a sick sense of humor. I can be serious at times but I’m one giant asshole most of the time.” I said with a smile. She grumbled as left the room to one of the other rooms. I went off and set the stuff where they needed to be. Call it OCD but I like it if everything is nice and neat, I place all the food, blankets and guns to where they are needed. I place M1911 on my desk to see if I could do something for it.

I pulled three of the cans of soup and opened one of them. I poured it into the only good pot that Ivan found and took it to the window. To grab a bottle of water and poured it into the pot. I pulled a butane burner that only have three cans for it. What? You can’t sit in a building while it’s raining without soup! Blasphemy!

I grabbed one of the blankets, a large shirt, and boxers and headed off to find Sunset, I was an asshole but not a total asshole. I found one of the doors that she was using and knocked. I waited for a minute then opened the door.

“Oi, Sunny I got something for you… oh.” I said as I saw that she was standing in the room with her back to me… naked… wow. She turned and saw that I saw standing there, we didn’t say anything until I lifted the stuff I had. “Room service.”

“GET OUT!” she screamed as she picked up something and threw it at me. I dropped the stuff and quickly left the room as the object hit me on the head. I closed the door and sighed, this is what I get for being helpful. I saw the object hanging from my hat as I pulled it off. It was her bra… really.

I heard the door open and saw a now very red Sunset peeking out. “Ummm… c-can I have that back please, I only have one of those.”

“Sure.” I handed her the bra as the door closed. I stared at the door before heading back to the main room. When I got there I hung the clothes that were wet and pulled out the ones that I wore when I first came here. I felt a wave and nostalgia as I wore them, I then sat in from of the burner as I stirred the soup. As that was going on I pulled out one of the notebooks from my desk and a pencil and opened to the page I was on and began my work.

Three minutes later I heard Sunset walk into the room with the blanket wrap around her. She sat down in front of me. The soup was done and in the… sort of bowl? It was one of those things that looked like a plate that was punched to make it into a bowl, I pushed it over to her.

“Thanks, what about you?” she asked me. I hold up one of the bags of jerky and set it down next to me. She just stared. “You and your jerky.”

I shrugged and went back to writing and drawing. I looked up at the walky talky and made sure it was on before continuing.

“What are you working on?” I was brought out of my work from the question. I looked up to see Sunset looking at me.

“Just making notes, ideas really. When I'm not tinkering with something.” I said. I continued working for a few minutes before looking up. Sunset has finished her soup and looked at the cane. A thought came to me. “Hey, do you have any other clothes?”

“Not really, the ones that I had were the only ones I had by coming here.” she answered. I stared at her for a minute and stood up and move to my desk.

“Let’s see here… no… no… n- oh hey more jerky! Ummm ah! Here we are.” I pulled out some pants and black leather jacket. I turned and threw them towards her. “That would make things a bit better and I think you would look better with this.”

She took the clothes and moved to the other side of the room. She looked back at me as I covered my eyes and turned away from her. I waited for a bit until she told me that I could turn, I turned and saw Sunset wearing pants and the jacket. It would have looked great if it wasn’t for the oversized shirt she was wearing.

“It… not the greatest fashion choice but hey, we live in a world filled with zombies.” she said.

“Eh, never really cared for fashion.”

“HELP!” a yell from outside. My gaze snapped to the window.

“Stay here.” I said as I bolted out of the room, rain be damned I burst out of the building and saw two figures hobbling forward. The yell sounded like Chrysalis so I guess it was her and Ivan. I lowered the fire escape and headed down. When I got close to them I saw her dragging Ivan and something else with her. I went and grabbed Ivan and get a good grip on him.

“There was someone else, we got shot at and-”

“No time get in.” I said as I move to the fire escape. It was tricky but I got both of us up the fire escape, with me hitting my shoulder. Ow.

I move him into the building and got to the couch. Now that we’re not in the rain I got a better look at him, he was passed out with a bullet wound in his shoulder and a stab wound on his stomach.

“Sunset, First aid now!” I yelled. She ran off to get some, I heard some thuds from beside me as Chrysalis thrown off everything, other than her clothes, onto the ground and flopped down onto the ground. She just carried both Ivan and all their stuff from who know’s where, in the rain, holy hell.

“We… we were ambush by someone… Ivan killed him but…” she panted. I nodded as Sunset came in with all the first aid we got. I took it and pulled out with a knife, sterilizing quickly I took the bullet out from his shoulder. He wince a bit from it, I patched his shoulder up and move to his stomach. I looked through all the stuff but saw that we didn’t have anything to treat it.

‘Shit! This is bad, really bad. If I don’t do something he’ll die!’

‘Then transfer his wounds to yourself.’ the voice said.

‘Uhh news flash, can’t use magic here.’ I told him.

‘For every rift that opened, a little magic seeps in and your body absorbs it, come on do you think you could do most of the stuff you did with skill alone?’ the voice pointed out. I had to admit it had a point.

‘Alright, it’s magic time!’

‘Hold it, just one thing when you use the spell you’ll be weak and in a lot of pain.’

‘So...what?’

‘So when you pass out, then it’s my turn. And I’m planning to hunt.’ I heard a growl in the back of my head. I frowned.

‘... fine, just don’t eat any of them.’

‘What, these three? Ha they wouldn't be an appetizer to me.’ I ignored him as I place my hand on to Ivan.

“What are you doing?” Sunset asked. I only answered with one thing.

“You’re not the only one that came from magic.” with that I poured what little magic I had into the spell. Ash began to circle around us as I saw burning embers began to appear on Ivan’s stomach, slowly the wound begin to close.

At that moment I felt the pain in my stomach, I looked down and saw a wound begin to open up on my shoulder. I grunted as a bullet hit me in the shoulder and felt blood pour out. I gasped and fell backward onto the ground.

“Ow~” I groaned as the other two rush to me.

“What was that!” Sunset asked. I opened my eyes to her as she looked worried.

“Transferred… his wounds… to me… I’ll be fine… just, take me to a room and let me sleep.” I told her. She looked at me for a minute then nodded, with the help of Chrysalis they both dragged me to another room and laid me down.

As they left I felt tiredness creep up to me. I slowly faded I heard the thing in my head chuckling.

‘Tonight, the hunt begins.’

Ivan

Regaining consciousness after god knows how long, the first thing that I've noticed was that I laid on a couch. Opening my eyes, I was greeted with a wave of tiredness and a headache.

Looking around my surroundings, I saw that I had been brought back home. I sat up with a groan and felt chilly. I looked down at myself and saw that I was topless.

I raised a brow questioningly at the lack of the stab wound. Looking onto my left shoulder, I saw the bullet wound had vanished. Rubbing my shoulder, I felt as if it hadn't happen which brings me to the a question of what the actual fuck is going on?

“Well someone's up.” I heard Chrysalis said. I turned and saw her sitting in a chair near me as she leaned forward to pass me a bottle of water.

“Thanks, what happened?”

"Well after you passed I had to carry you and the stuff back here.” she nodded to the corner where the pile of stuff is at.

“That explains how I got here, but how did my wounds heal up?” I asked her.

She frowned for a moment and looked like she was picking the right words. “Jace happened.”

Before I could ask the door opened and Sunset walked in sporting a new jacket. She also looks worried.

“I looked everywhere in the building but nothing, I can't find him.” Sunset turned and saw me. “Oh, you're awake.”

“Wait back up, who can't you find?” I asked.

“Jace, I can't find him. He just up and disappeared.” she shifted a bit. “But I did find someone right outside of the building.”

“Who?” I asked as I stood up, odd I didn't feel sore at all.

“Don't know, all I do know is that she wore spiky armor and looked terrified.” she explained. I moved and grabbed a shirt. I saw a double barreled shotgun with some rounds nearby, I also grabbed my mask.

I made my way to the fire escape and looked down. Sure enough there was the person from the Blood skullz, she was curled up in a ball rocking. I moved down the fire escape to here, as I got closer I heard her talking to herself.

“It can't find me, it can't find me, it can't find me, it can't find me.” over and over she repeated those words. I readied the shotgun as I got closer.

"Hey.” her head up and I saw tear marks on her face, was she so scared that she started crying?

“Y-you're him right? You're the ghost?” she asked. I tighten my grip on the gun and nodded. “Please, help me.”

“Sure~ I help you go to some sort of ambush for the Blood skullz.” I said. She started shaking her head.

“This isn't that, please help me I-I don't want to be alone with that thing out there.”

“What thing?” I asked. She again curled up into a ball and started to rock.

“It… came last night during the storm, no one saw it coming. It was fast, really fast and big and nothing hurt it, we tried everything even rockets and blowing up our gas tanks but that only pissed it off.” she closed her eyes and rocked harder. “It’s nothing like the infected, it was something from a nightmare.”

I stared at her, it's not the infected? “How do you know it's not infected?”

“It… spoke.” I widened my eyes, it spoke? “It told me that it was hungry and wanted me to run, to make it fun for him.”

She looked at me with tears coming down. “Please help me, everyone one is dead and I don't want to die.”

I sighed before lowering the gun.

“Fine but if you try anything, the so called nightmare will be the least of your worries.” I told her, gaining a shaky nod from the woman. She weakly stood up and only watched as I quickly climbed up the ladder. Once on the stairs, I looked down.

“Hurry up!” I shouted at the woman. She hurriedly took hold of the ladder and started climbing up. We went up the stairs before arriving at my room and I allowed her through first.

Once I was inside, I closed the window and looked at the woman in the armor before frowning.

“Go into my room” I started as I pointed at the closed door next to the closet. “And get changed. Armor won't do you good.” I told her. She did as instructed and shut the door behind her.

I took the chance and took off the mask. Before putting it away though, I had switch the canister of oxygen with another canister, this one being different and for my use only.

Once I was done switching the canister, I placed the mask on the counter before turning around, seeing both Chrysalis and Sunset looking at with mouths slightly agape.

“What?” I asked them, taking them out of their trance like state. They both looked away with a small blush on their cheeks.

I shook my head before seeing my shirt neatly folded on the table in front of the couch. Picking up the shirt and unfolding it, it revealed to have holes on both the stomach and left shoulder of the shirt.

“Trash.” I grumbled silently as I rolled up the shirt into a ball. I threw the rolled up shirt onto the couch before hearing the door open.

Turning around, I faced the woman from before, this time she wore a sleeveless tank top and some jeans. She looked around before spotting me.

“Now start from the beginning.” I told her. Getting the idea, she nodded before She began to retell the events she had witnessed.

Kaley

“Before it attacked we were preparing to attack you with one last push, we had one rpg to use to blow your building, hoping to get you.” I saw the ghost glare at me. “I said hoping, we almost thrown everything at you and look where that left us.” He still glared at me but let me continue

“We sent out scout parties to see what you and the Wraith were doing.”

“The Wraith?” the girl with bacon hair asked.

“Yeah, we thought the ghost was the only one we had to deal with but then this guy with a spear came out of nowhere and started to take us out, most of the others place bets which was harder to kill.” I saw the ghost rolling his hand to move this along. “A-anyway we didn’t hear from them for about two hours, we thought that they ran into the infected and didn’t make it.”

I paused as the memory of what happened came back. “Then, it came.”

“This nightmare.” the ghost said. The other two looked at one another but didn’t say anything as I nodded.

“It came like lightning, first it was quite then a loud roar then screaming. In less than a minute it took down almost half of the camp, it ripped and teared anyone and everything to shreds. We tried to kill it, used the rpg, guns, hell as a last ditch plan we blew up the camp to kill it, we just pissed it off.”

I swallowed a bit and felt my throat was dry. “It killed and ate everyone but left me, it told me to run-”

“Wait, it spoke?” the one with green eyes said. She looked at the ghost. “You never said the infected can speak.”

“Normally they don’t, I thought it was like those zombie books; mindless and work off of instinct but this thing wasn’t a infected it was something different, it told me to run, to make it fun for it.”

“So you ran.” the ghost said.

“Of course I ran, it killed and ate everyone and it didn’t look hurt after everything. I went to the other camps to tell them what has happen but… it got there first.” I closed my eyes and I remember what I saw. I felt tears in my eyes. “I-I had a younger sister, we were planning on leaving after one last raid but now… now…”

I covered my face and started crying. I felt someone place a hand on my shoulder, I looked and saw the bacon hair girl there.

“Hey, what’s your name? I’m Sunset.” she asked.

“... K-Kaley”

“So why come here?” the ghost asked.

“I had no place to go, I thought maybe you’ll help with surviving until I can get some stuff and leave.” I looked at all of them.

Ivan

“I suggest you do the same, there’s nothing here and this place is a death trap with that Thing out there.” Kaley said.

“Leaving the city isn't an option for me.” I told her. She stared at me for a minute.

“I know that the Blood skullz have been trying to kill you for a long time but you haven’t seen this thing, whatever is here isn’t worth it with that thing.” she said. I glared at her and opened my mouth, when a loud thud came above me and muffled cursing could be heard.

I looked at the other three and gesture to stay here. I headed up to the roof, as I got to the door I opened it slightly to peek out.

“Why did I put you here! You're in the way and down right annoying.” Jace said as he pushed a scrap engine that he was working on over to the side of the building. He sat down in one of the chairs and looked out to the city. I pushed the door open which got his attention as he looked at me. “Dude, you have no shirt.”

“I had one but it had holes in it.” I told him with a roll of my eyes. He just shrugged and looked out to the city.

“How ya feeling?” he asked.

“Oddly normal but confused as to why I am unharmed despite having been shot and stabbed.” I answered. He put up his hands and did the jazz hands.

“Magic!” he said. He looked at me with a smile then dropped it. “No seriously it was magic.”

“Magic.” I said, bemused with his answer.

“Right, hey look what I found.” he pulled up a box that clank with something in it. He set it down and opened it, pulling out two bottles. He opened one of them and handed one to me.

“What is it?” I asked. He took a drink from the other while holding the other.

“Blood orange drink, it’s not that bad.” he answered.

“What?” I said in confusion. He rolled his eyes.

“They are a drink, made out of blood orange you know an orange but the juice is the colour red.” he explained.

“Sure, I guess.” I answered. I took the bottle and gave it a sniff before taking a drink, it had a odd orangey smell.

Taking a sip of the bottle, it was sweet. Looking at Jace he set his drink down and stared into space.

“So, what happened while I was gone?” he asked.

“A woman named Kaley showed up, a member of the Skullz. Found her in the alley curled up into a ball.” I said to him. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

“That… sounds odd, why was she there?” he asked.

“She said her base was attacked by some nightmarish monster and that the only reason she was still alive was that the monster told her to run because it'll make it more fun.” I explained further. Jace frowned at this, he looked out to the city as he started to think.

“Nightmarish monster huh, was it like the beast from before or something thing else?” he said to himself. He continued muttering as he started naming names and forgetting that I was here.

“Don't know, all she said that it spoke and ate everything in its path.” I told him, gaining his attention again.

“Well that doesn’t really help me that much, the monsters I face does that in spades. They eat and destroy everything they see that moves.” Jace said as he took another bottle and opened it.

Shaking my head, I took another sip from the bottle.

“Whatever it is, it seemed to enjoy killing from what the girl said.” I told him before placing the bottle on the ledge.

“I don’t know if it enjoys killing, but what do I know I haven’t even seen it.” he says. I turned and saw that he was thinking. “But it does sound like something from my home.”

I was about to say something but I heard the sound of a thunder clap. I looked up and saw that there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. There was a second one but it was louder.

“Hmm I wonder.” I head Jace said. He looked the the left and I saw and heard the sound of ripping. The very space in the air ripped open and a rift looking thing appeared.

“Not as grand as I thought but oh well.” Jace said finishing his drink and set it down before standing up. “Well it been fun but that’s my cue to leave.”

“Wait what.” I said in confusion.

“How I got here was through one of those rifts, so I believe that going through another would send me back.” he looked at the rift for a minute. “Or send me to a different world ten times worst than this one, which with how my luck is going that would likely happen.”

I stared at him for a minute and a half before shaking my head vigorously and putting my hands up.

“You know what, fuck it. The more I think I know you, more shit comes in to prove me wrong.” I said. He laughs at me.

“Trust me, don’t even try to figure me out it will just give you a headache.” He looked at the rift and the smile was gone. “You know, you could come with me. It wouldn’t be home but it would be a better place than here, for you and the other tw- well now three.”

“I don't know about them but I can't leave. I need answers and I'll only be able to get them by going towards the center of the city.” I told him, lowering my hands.

“I see, well I can understand that.” Jace said. At that moment the door opened and Sunset and Chrysalis burst through.

“What’s going on-” Sunset started but stopped when she saw the rift. I saw the Kaley came out and saw the rift.

“What the fuck?!” she yelled. Jace looked at me.

“Well this got crowded and awkward.” he said. I rolled my eyes and saw that the rift is slowly getting smaller.

“You’re ride is getting smaller.” I said to him.

“Right! So doing this short and quick; that’s a rift and it might send me home, I offer a way out of this world to another that might be the same or more so dangerous unless you stick into town, any takers?” he said to them.

“The risk is too great, I have already gotten through a rift similar to this.” Chrysalis said before looking over to Sunset.

“Though the thought of going home is great but I'm going to have to agree with Chrysalis.” Sunset answered.

“And what about you miss?” Jace said to Kaley. She stared at him for a bit and thought about it.

“That will take me somewhere not here?” she asked. Jace looked at me with an odd look, back at her he nodded. “Then there’s no debate, I’m coming with.”

“I uhh guess there’s a reason?” Jace asked. he looked back at the rift and saw that it was getting smaller.

“It get’s me away from that thing.” she said.

“Uhh just to let you know that there’s things there that’s equal to more so dangerous.” he said. This made her falter a bit.

“I… I just need to get away from here.” she said. Jace started at her and nodded.

“Well then it’s settled.” He looked at me. “Well this is goodbye for now,”

“Goodbye for now?” I asked him.

“The one thing to keep in mind is that with me I have a habit to show up at random times.” he said. I groaned at this as he chuckles, he walked over the the other two.

“Don’t kill each other and random other stuff.” he said to them. They looked at one another with an odd look. “Also Sunset, remember if you are in dark place just say the oath.”

“Y-yeah.” she said. Jace and Kaley walked over to the rift, which was half it’s normal size now. Jace turned and waved before stepping through with Kaley in tow. A moment later it closed and everything was silent.

“What now?” Sunset said, shattering the silence. Turning to look at her.

“Now I go get another shirt.” I answered her before walking passed Chrysalis and heading back inside, leaving the door open behind me.

Arriving at my apartment, I headed into my bedroom and found a suitable shirt. After putting it on, I looked over towards an old book laid atop a nightstand next to my bed.

I walked closer towards it before grabbing it. I stared at the cover for what felt like an eternity before shaking my head and placing the book back where it was.

“Can't be stuck in the past forever.” I told myself before leaving the room.

Jace

I walked out of the rift I took a look around to see the training room that I left from. I looked at my hand and summoned a small flame. It curled around my hand for a minute before dispelling it. I felt the magic return through my body which gave me a warm feeling.

“That… was something.” I heard Kaley said. I turned and saw her look around. I got a good look at her, she had long red hair with green eyes.

“Well that's one of many things you'll see here, and like I said before there's more creatures like whatever your monster is.” she looked at me for a minute.

“Seriously.”

“Yup, don't worry there's others that are trained to deal with them.” I said to her. We headed out of the room towards the main room. “Now there are somethings that you need to know, like-”

I got interrupted by a white blast that hit me with the force of a fraught train. I got knocked down and was breathless as my brain tried to figure out what the hell just happened.

“Oh my god!” Kaley yelled. I blinked a few times as my vision cleared. I sat up to see a shell shocked Twilight.

“Oh…” was all she said. I sat up and shook my head. Ow.

“Hello to you too Twilight.” I grumbled. I stood up, dusting myself off I went over to her and lifted the book she was reading, it was a book by Big hat Logan.

“I'm sorry, I was waiting for you to return for the last thirty minutes and-” I stopped listening after that, really thirty minutes? I was gone for months and only thirty minutes past. I stopped her talking by raising my hand.

“It's fine, listen this is Kaley she's new and needs a tour of the town.” I told her.

“Of course, come on Kaley there's so much to see.” she said as she took Kaley hand and lead her out.

I sighed and looked around of the place. A smiled curled on my face.

“It's good to be home.”

Author's Notes:

And end! This was a crossover with Legion,