Chapter 14: Desecration and Discovery
Ryan followed the directions given by the traumatized survivor on the CommNet. It wasn’t hard.
The "desecrated grove" the Rage Boar had supposedly last been seen in was also giving off a faint, unpleasant smell like old blood, churned earth, and something else, a kind of crackling, wrong energy that reminded him of the Distortion Hound, only stronger, angrier. His Hyper-Awareness was giving him a low, continuous hum of "bad vibes ahead."
The Shifting Wilds seemed to hold their breath as he got closer. The usual chirps and rustles of unseen creatures faded away, replaced by an frightening silence.
Even the weird, glowing plants seemed a little duller here, as if afraid to shine too brightly.
He pushed through a tangle of snapped, thorny bushes and stepped into what was once probably a very pretty, peaceful little grove.
Now, it looked like a giant, furious toddler had thrown a massive tantrum. Small trees were uprooted, their roots sticking up like skeletal fingers. The ground was torn up in great furrows, and there were dark, ominous stains splattered everywhere.
The air itself felt heavy, charged with that same chaotic energy he’d sensed earlier.
And then he saw the first victim.
She was young, probably one of the newer arrivals, her starting clothes ripped and stained. She lay near a shattered stone bench, her eyes wide with a terror that had been frozen there. There were no obvious wounds, but the ground around her was strangely burned.
Ryan felt a knot tighten in his stomach. This wasn’t just a monster hunt anymore. These were real people, with hopes and fears, who had been snuffed out.
He knelt beside her, his earlier excitement about loot feeling a bit shameful now. "Sorry," he whispered, just like he had with Liam. He reached out, hesitating for only a second before activating his Extraction System on her fading vital signature.