Followers of the Light

Chapter 3 - Three Hours Past the End (8 PM)

The sound of wind broke the silent streets. Repeated chants faintly coming from the other sides. I was walking down the road carrying a piece of broken woodblock that I found earlier. Gotta anticipate anything gonna jump in the darkness under the night. That came to my mind that there were no sights of police or riot squad.

My throat began to feel dry, but at least I walked towards the right direction to one of the Prosperistus Elite Districts, the Olimpia. Every day, every night, the streets shone like a rows of gold, full of expensive retail stores with iconic red broad sidewalks and a big fountain roundabout. There used to be sculptures of lion with fireball in their mouth erected at each block of this shopping district – and there was I, standing next to one of them that night. Probably the only one left standing.

It appeared to me that those Tumbleweads unleashed their anger of jealousy and greed here. 'Rows of Gold' no more. 'Rows of Flame' more likely it was, judging from the conditions. Not everything was set on fire though, but the remainings were looted and thrashed, leaving none of the Olimpo's glory left standing. Still, it was worth checking out. So I walked carefully behind the parked cars in front of the clothing stores. There were people singing and chanting far down the streets ahead with the sound of glass shattering now and then. Since they seemed to be leaving the area, I checked out some of the stores there were still visitable. Lots of branded clothes scattering around on the floor. I took this chance to look around and hey, there I found myself a nice track jacket to wear. My favorite piece of clothing. Then I picked a sack bag and inserted a few backup t-shirts in it. Free expensive stuff, who wouldn't, right? I quitted through the store's backdoor, just to be safe, I walked down the dark alley that leads a convenience store and guess what? It was still standing though obviously it also had been looted earlier. Under the flickering emergency lights inside, I picked a couple canned meat and bottled water from the shelf, thank goodness, I twisted the lid open and chugged the whole bottle. Aaaaahhh! The best plain water I've ever had. I tossed the bottle to the trash bin there and found a tourist map on the counter table, with a trip guide to the Prosperistus' historical Military Base. That set my plan, Military Base in the northern Prosperistus would be my destination. I thought there must be some help right there. Who knew what was gonna happen anyway? After a short break, I heard something sounded like a group of people approaching, so I moved away from that place immediately.

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I walked through the dark alley like a sewer rat and ended up in a street where some demolished buildings had piled up next to a highway bridge. Did they really blow them up just like that? What an unbelievable sight... Some rabid animals, those Tumbleweads are. Worse even. But that created a way to get up there, so I climbed the rubbles all the way up to the Saint Velacy Highway, a circular highway that connects to every part of town, which was certainly great to get the northern Prosperistus quickly. The Saint Velacy Ring was divided by four-wheelers and two-wheelers lanes. And so that made the uncountable number of charred vehicles and corpses all over it. From up there, I looked behind towards a silhouette of the ruined city skyline. Damn... What a colossal mess these bastards had created. The power of nobodies united into one turned this city into its own grave. I could not believe that this really happened before my eyes.

Strong wind blew over me, carrying the smell of blood and burned flesh along the highway, reminded me to keep on moving. I covered my nose with a t-shirt looted from that store earlier before stepping further in that highway to hell – wait no, that was more like highway in hell.

Although it felt disgusting, I decided to salvage something from these car wrecks that weren't burned since there might be something still worth picking up. First thing first, I grabbed a steering lock from a sedan to use as a weapon. Then, I took a smartphone left in the passenger seat of another car. Came with earphones plugged in as a bonus. Good thing the batt was still up. So first thing first: the radio app. I run my finger sideways on that phone's cracked screen to adjust the radio's tuning. And just... nothing. Nothing but static noise - over and over again. "Is there really no hope?" I asked myself, almost break down in tears.