Frostbound

Two months.

It took us two months to come upon civilization again. Well, civilization that was more than stragglers and small groups living in the newly created wilds.

After leaving what used to be the capital of Indiana and taming the herd of horses, we were off at a speed orders of magnitudes faster than our previous walking and covered an amount of ground to match.

We could have shortened that duration and stopped at a place found along the way, but no one was willing to do so. Some for the fact they didn't want the delay, and others for the feeling the city gave off.

Even from the distance we came across it, it wasn't a place I wanted to stop.

Chicago was irrevocably changed and it was nothing like it previously was. The Windy City was missing all of its buildings and seemed to be in even greater disrepair than the previous city we visited.

Nothing was still standing and the tallest structure left was a pile of rubble stacked no higher than the average human.

It looked like a war-torn ruin.

Flashes of skill use and the feeling of dense mana in the area gave an ominous feeling no one had the desire to intrude upon it. Something was going down in the city and no one wanted to become a part of it.

Lightning flashed and huge storm clouds revolved around the city like it was the city itself that generated them. Lightning arced down into the rubble at random intervals only to be matched with a corresponding deep rumble seconds later.

As we came upon it riding in our improved caravan, no one disagreed when I made the executive decision to bypass the city and keep on our way. Even the usual few who departed our caravan with second thoughts didn't think the city was a viable spot to settle.

We moved on from the city and gave it a wide berth as we traveled around it.