Rise Of Myth: Heir To Valor 51 The Shrouded Northwes

Val was relentless, driving faster than any posted limits that remained, taking an occasional broken section of road and asphalt head-on. A brief stop for siphoning fuel from abandoned vehicles and alleviating biological needs was the only reprieve for Asha as she made the occasional complaint. Val himself was not terribly comfortable after driving for nearly ten consecutive hours, but an almost desperate determination drove away any discomfort.

He had been too lax, figuring the situation in San Rafael would not have been unique, any survivors in other cities would have either been picked up by the military or have made makeshift settlements. It was human nature to band together, after all— provided resources were sufficient.

They were coasting along nearly eighty to ninety miles an hour whenever there was a long stretch of intact road. Having just cleared the remains of Portland, not even bothering to stop to look around. In a couple of hours, Val estimated they would be upon the city limits of their destination.

"Val! Stop, up ahead!" Asha cried out against the wind.

"We're almost there, just hang on!"

"No! On your left!"

Val glanced to the left and found the reason for stopping. They had just cleared the trees, and on their left, hills sloped down to the coast far in the distance. Except the majority of the beach was impossible to make out, at the base of the hills was a dense, white mist extending from the sea. He pulled the bike over to a slow stop on the side of the road, parking the vehicle. Asha immediately dismounted, eager to stretch her legs and investigate the mist.

"Muninn, what's it look like to you?" Val asked. He was studying the mist himself, while they had a decent viewing angle, they could only see a mile or two up the coast. The entire stretch was wholly hidden from view.

"This is definitely magically created. I see a tinge of magic to this mist, but it has been so long, I cannot be sure it is really the Draug."

Val frowned. "Draug or otherwise, if this is unnatural and someone is doing this on such a scale... That's reason enough for my concerns. Let's keep moving."

Saddling back in the seat of the bike, Val reignited the engine. Muninn returned to her spot, but Asha took awkward, hesitating steps, wearing a lifeless expression.

Val smirked, though it seemed she was so thoroughly discontent with the ride that she was hardly interested in any snide jabs. "Come on, a couple more hours, and we'll be there, how is this any worse than horseback?"

"A horse is a consistent experience, your maniacal driving over broken road is not, especially after so long…" Asha mumbled complaints to herself, though she begrudgingly took her seat. Having learned from her previous experience, she had her hair tied tightly in a bun, fully revealing her long Elven ears.

Hitting the road again, the three continued their journey. Val's concerns continued to grow as he saw the more and more shrouded coastline. The white mist was entirely unbroken, creeping further inland, stopped only by terrain with rising alt.i.tude. In little under two more hours, they could see the sprawling city of Seattle in the distance. The once iconic s.p.a.ce Needle was nowhere along the ruined skyline of the city.

It was small relief, but much of the city seemed spared from the encroaching mist. The sharp inclines elevating the city from the coast served as an effective barrier, but how long that would last was yet to be determined.

Val drove towards downtown, wrecked, and toppled buildings were everywhere, but it was the closest to the coast and as good a place to start as any.

"Muninn, can you survey the area? If you find signs of human activity, return immediately. Our first priority is survivors, Asha, and I can investigate this mist."

"Of course." Muninn immediately took off to the sky, flying off to begin her search. Val pulled the bike over at the top of a hill overlooking Pike Place, or at least what remained of the marketplace and tourist destination, now blanketed in white mist.

"We can start here."

Asha looked at him curiously. "What about your friends? Shouldn't we start where they live?"

Val shook his head. "No, we actually pa.s.sed by their apartment, toppled and wrecked, but they would not have been dumb enough to stay there. I was actually hoping you could use your magic and search the area, see if there's anything around."

"Sure." Asha began to concentrate, causing the howling wind coming from the sea to lessen and move in unnatural patterns.

Val walked along the road down the steep hill, directly towards the mist.

"And just what are you doing?" Asha called after him.

"Testing an idea." He continued down the hill until he was upon the mist. He had not spent much time of late practicing his runes, but if finesse was not required, he could learn on his brutish magical strength.

Val carved Thorn alone, before the white shroud, charging it with far more magic than he would normally. After a few seconds, he invoked the rune, and a ma.s.sive force of pressure surged forward. The mist was blown away, even a car sitting in the street slid along the frosty ground, stopping only after it hit the curb.

For only a brief few seconds, the street was clear, before the mist seemed to pour back in unnaturally as if trying to recover. In the short few seconds, nothing seemed out of the ordinary in the street. Satisfied, having confirmed his suspicions, Val returned up the hill.

"This mist seems almost alive, whatever magic is fueling it, is also 'fixing' it."

Asha held her eyes closed, focusing on her magic. "Mm, I also can't seem to beckon any spirits of air from within it. My magic can't penetrate this mist."

Val raised an eyebrow. "Is it taking your spirits from you? Or suppressing magic within it?"

"The former, I think, they enter and do not return, something else is compelling them to remain."

"Can the Draug do that?"

Asha knitted her brows, concern, and frustration evident in her tone. "I'm not sure, never heard of them before yesterday. Other than another power versed in spirits, I don't know how this is happening. Spirits do not easily submit, they are willing to cooperate and form an allegiance, but forcibly coercing them…"

"Hmm? Hold on." Val was casually looking around when something caught his attention. Walking over to the sidewalk, he crouched down and picked up what he was sure was a bullet casing.

"What is it?" Asha opened an eye to glance at him.

Val furrowed his brows. "Bullet casings, small caliber, several of them too. This can't have been before the merging… But there are too few of them for this to have been a large fight."

"Your people's weapons?"

"Yes, firearms, but not like the flintlocks that you've seen. Much higher rates of fire, far more efficient, but the powder and shot are contained in a single round. Most modern firearms eject their casings automatically." He explained.

"Wait." Val peered around, before picking up a fallen chunk of cement and chucking it at a storefront display, shattering the gla.s.s.

"Asha, are you picking up any ghouls?"

"Ghouls? No, now that you mention it, that is odd."

"No ghouls, no corpses, either there weren't any here, or something picked them clean, but I see no reason for them to discriminate on location. No dead people from the disasters, either?"

Val continued to search around, it was almost eight in the chilly December morning, the sky was completely overcast.

After a half-hour Asha relented, ceasing her magic, returning the gale coastal winds to their usual howls.

"I can't pick up anything in the mist, but for at least a mile, I can't find anything here save for the occasional cat or other small animals. Nothing around is making much noise."

"It's still morning, could be people sleeping, would you know if they were?"

"I pick up disturbances in the air, so unless they snore like a bear, I won't find it at a distance." Asha explained.

"Noted. Let's move on then, there's another place that I suspect people might have gone."

Asha raised an eyebrow. "Where?"

"Several miles to the South East, near the edge of the city, there's a base for the National Guard. They would be the ones to secure the survivors. Might have evacuated, but it's the other place on my list. I've worked with some of them before, sort of joint exercise between universities and the National Guard, IT stuff."

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"Information Technology, um… It would take a while to explain, but you see these wooden poles and wires every now and then?" Val pointed towards some still standing utility poles.

"These wires carry power and information, creating a communication network for various resources that were important to us. We had the technology to manipulate and exploit such a network."

"They carry information?" Asha had a look of doubt on her face.

"Just… Take my word for it, might even get the chance to show you someday. I suspect it's similar to how your world uses the ley lines."

Val invoked Sigil and Thorn, launching a bright but brief flash of light just high enough to clear the significantly shortened skyline. A few minutes later, Muninn returned.

"You find anything?"

"Perhaps, a bit towards the South, maybe more Southeast, while most of the cars are clearly wrecked or abandoned, there are some that are positioned uniformly. I did not spot any people, though."

Val's expression brightened. "That must be the Guard. If someone bothered to park some cars, there are probably people, hop on, we're going there."

Taking off again, Val zoomed down the streets, he was roughly aware of the location. Muninn clarified directions for him, and it only took ten minutes before they were upon an expansive, fenced-off facility with damaged but mostly intact, low hangar-style warehouses.

The wire fence gate was held shut by a padlock and chain, so Val carefully parked his bike before hopping the fence.

"Wait here, if there are survivors, I have no idea how they will react to… Well, you."

Asha rolled her eyes but nonetheless shifted to lean against the bike and wait.

Strolling towards the most intact warehouse, Val circulated his mana, ready to ignite his magic just in case they were not as 'friendly' as Richard's men.

Reaching the warehouse, Val pulled at one of the double doors, sliding it open a crack with ease, noting someone had left it unlocked. It was dark inside, but more importantly, aside from some empty beds and stacked crates of supplies, there was no one home.

"h.e.l.lo?" Val called out, though as it appeared, there was no one home.

Val walked in, peering around, he was trying to gauge how long ago it was that people were there, looking for signs of food or anything else that would show age.

Finding nothing, he moved on to the other warehouses, repeating the process but finding nothing. No people, though there were enough supplies including military rations to last a sizable population for at least a year. He also found crates of ammunition and even some firearms, not locked away and entirely unattended. Either the people did not need them, or the residents were also the stewards of the weapons.

Rifling through some of the gear and supplies, it was definitely the right place. Hazmat suits, and a variety of aftermarket military equipment, the gear that he expected of a base tasked with responding to both natural disasters and biological, chemical, or nuclear attacks.

Disappointment began to take root in the pit of Val's gut as he closed the door on the third and last warehouse in a row. He moved on towards the offices, deciding to exhaustively search even the very last barracks before leaving.

Curiously, the door to what looked like an administrative office was locked. Val knocked a few times to no response. He tried again, still nothing, impatience growing with concern, he swiftly kicked open the door and walked in.

All the lights were out. It did not look like people had been there for some time, similar to the warehouses. But Val busied himself with a different task, once again looting the output trays of printers and rummaging through doc.u.ments. He found nearly identical evacuation notices to what he saw at the San Rafael police station. Some of these notices were more detailed. However, one of them was a memo specifically addressing the declaration of martial law and the authorization of lethal force to protect public safety.

As Val was reading the doc.u.ment, the slight crunch of bits of asphalt under someone's shoe caught his attention. He whirled around in alarm, spotting a military-issued rifle trained on his chest.

"Freeze!"