Silent City

29. The Rescue

    The Radiance wondered how many more times she would fly over this city. Not too many more times, she figured, since the infection was spreading fast. Near the parking garage, things were getting wildly out of hand. The city was issuing a lockdown for anyone who lived within 10 blocks of Hallownest's entrance, but it was futile and she was pretty sure they knew it. There was no way to predict the spread of an infection that spread through people's minds; there was no way to quarantine it, to lock it away. They were trying to contain the spread of an idea, and considering everyone within a 20 mile radius knew that they were trying to contain something, it meant that they were already being pulled in.

It started to occur to the Radiance that it wouldn't be just this city that she would be influencing. She could feel wherever her influence appeared, even if the occurrence was on the other side of the planet- and that wasn't too far off. The people stuck in their apartments had started to phone their friends, their girlfriends, their parents, and their bosses to complain about how they were locked in their apartments, not allowed to leave. That was all it took-- just the knowledge of the infection, and they were already within her grasp.

She would have been fine with infecting just this city, leaving the rest of the world alone, but she did come to think that infecting the rest of the world would save the ecosystem eventually. She had never had this many people under her influence before, and she wasn't quite sure how this would play out for her. She hoped it wouldn't be taxing, but she had a bad feeling it might be-- and it wasn't like she could control her influence once it started to spread, not like she wanted to stop it. She was eager and interested to see how it would turn out.

The Radiance turned around one of the skyscrapers and spotted the police station not too far away. She sped towards it and landed roughly in the parking lot. She stood up straight and folded her wings, glancing around the parking lot. A few people who had been heading to their cars ducked behind some of the cars, and peered at her from over the hoods. Nobody dared to come anywhere near her.

The Radiance walked forwards into the station, violently swinging open the front door and turning her eyes to the man at the front desk. He jumped up and turned his head towards her, before his eyes dilated and he backed himself up against the wall.

"Oh, please, god--" He looks to the ceiling and clasps his hands together in prayer. "God, please, in your infinite wisdom, spare my--"

"Praying to god?" Radi chides, a harsh edge to her voice. "Really? That's sad." She walks around the desk, and he continues to shuffle away from her into the corner.

"God, god, god, god, god, PLEASE--" his hands are still clasped together. The Radiance smiles, and places her hand under the man's chin. His eyes gloss over, and she feels his memories course through her. Still, there's no knowledge in his mind of where they're keeping the Hollow Knight.

"I'm your god now." She whispers, looking straight into his eyes as she slips her hand off his chin and turns around. She takes a left down a long hallway, waiting for some unfortunate soul to march across her path. However, the hallways were suspiciously bare. She had walked around for quite a while before coming across a man in the hallway, who, upon seeing her, turned on a dime and sprinted in the opposite direction. She could have caught up, but the ceiling was annoyingly low for her. Instead, she held out her hand and shot a sphere of bright light at him, which rounded the corner and hit him square in the back. She hears him grunt and fall forward as she turns the corner, and he struggles to get to his hands. His arms are shaking violently under his weight once she reaches him and kneels down next to him.

"Mind telling me where Officer Wilde is?" She asks politely, grabbing his hair and pulling him up to look at her. His breath is ragged and desperate.