The Only Son

Chapter XVIII

"What is this place?"

He couldn't deny that it looked absolutely stunning from where he was standing, but he didn't have time for sight seeing, he needed to find his daughter.

Looking around a little more, he was glad it turned day. He could see a lot better and noticed another person walking around.

From what he could see, it was a male with black hair and was wearing a red waist coat, a big contrast to the white snow and grey skies.

Ethan nearly risked his limbs trying to get down from the high ledge as fast as possible, but when he got to the place he saw the person, they were already gone.

"Damn it" walking into a nearby house, Ethan gave a side glance to the rotting horse carcass laying next to it, along with a basket of eggs.

Stepping over the eggs, Ethan pushed open the wooden door, only for it to practically fall off it's hinges.

The inside was no better than the outside, it was in ruins and Ethan cringed at it. With every step the floor boards underneath his feet creaked and he felt as if he could fall through the floor at any moment.

"What happened here?" Ethan said softly as he looked at the devestation in the house and turned to the familiar portrait hanging on the wall.

"Nothing good, you should leave" Ethan's reflexes had never kicked in faster as he turned around.

It was the male from before, he was standing in the door opening seemingly examening the interior too.

Observing the male further, Ethan realized that he had seen him before. This male was in his dreams and judging from the dark circles around their eyes and the cold look in them, the worst has happened to him.

"I'm not leaving, I need to find my daughter!" It was after yelling that, that Ethan realized he yelled at somebody, who from his dreams was clearly more powerful than him.

The male in front of him sighed and left, Ethan noticed him taking a right, as if he was going towards the area where he first came from. A gust of wind from god knows where caused the door to close shut.

Quickly running forward, Ethan pulled at the door and when he opened it. The male was gone and so was the carcass of the horse which he saw getting dragged away by he doesn't want to know what.

Looking around Ethan hoped to catch at least a glimps of where the male could've gone, but found nothing.

Deciding to look further Ethan stepped onto the path in front of the house and turn to the right, following the path that led further into the village.

He saw some rather unpleasant things, he saw vehicles that were beyond restoring and houses on the brink of collapsing, he didn't step inside of those.

After struggling to find his way through the decaying house, he found one that was still standing and looked fairly safe.

Pushing the door open, Ethan was met with a skinny hallway, filled with boxes, including a crate with yellow paint on it.

Inspecting the box, Ethan realised that he couldn't just break it with his fist and went to look for something that he could break it with.

Looking at the items on the selves, he eventually found a rusty knife that was good to break the crate with.

Raising the knife and bringing it down on the crate, making it splinter into pieces.

Picking up the bottle that was amongst the remains of the crate. 'Med kit' reading what it said on the bottle Ethan concluded that it was safe enough to use.

Walking further into the house, keeping his hand close to the knife that he stored in his pocket.

It seemed as if nobody had been there for at least a week, judging from the food that had turned bad on the stove. Trying to look for more clues that could help him find out about what happened here and where he could potentially find his daughter.

Instead he saw a can roll out from underneath a curtain, that he hadn't even noticed to be there until now. Stepping closer he janked the curtain away and nearly got shot in the process.

A survivor.

It was an old man clutching a shot gun tightly. He looked paniced and shot rapid questions at Ethan, but Ethan was barely able to answer them as a loud, shrill shrieking started to sound around them.

The man looked beyond scared and shushed Ethan every time the male tried to speak, even going as far to cover Ethan's mouth.

The older man started to look through the windows and Ethan could only asked what was going on. The man ignored his questions.

"Do you have a gun?! Please tell me you have a gun!" Ethan shook his head, his brows furrowed.

"Why would I have a gun?!" The man turned his back to Ethan, reached into the pantry that he was hiding in not more than a few minutes ago and grabbed a LEMI.

He handed it to Ethan and loaded his own shutgun again, whilst Ethan checked the ammo of the LEMI.

"Can you tell me what's going on here?!" Ethan asked as he watched the man struggle with fully loading his shotgun. Ethan opened his mouth to ask again, but fate had it out for him.

An arm came through the wooden ceiling and grabbed the man, lifting him up with such force that Ethan could hear bones snapping and blood spewed from the mans neck.

Ethan reached out grabbed the males leg hoping that he could safe him, but it was too late. The body was pulled through the ceiling and only blood dripped down.

Ethan didn't have time to calm down as the floor beneath him broke open and a hand grabbed his ankle, pulling him through the floor.

Darkness surrounded Ethan and it took a little while for him to grab his flashlight, but when he turned his flashlight on he rather wish he hadn't.

Corpses laid spread around him. Men and women, all dressed very, old. As if they'd been trapped in a different time period.

Taking a deep breath, Ethan got somewhat upright and crawled past the bodies, having to sadly touch some of them to get past. Movement caught his eyes.

In front of him, he could see a mass moving. He stayed still hoping not to attract attention from whatever it was.

Until he was pounched on and held down of course. It happened within seconds and Ethan barely had time to register the wolf like man on top of him.

He tried shoving the manthing off of him, but instead of that happening it bit into his hand and ripped two of his fingers off as well as a part of his hand, making Ethan yell out in pain.

Ethan felt himself being grabbed and thrown through the wooden wall, he felt the cold biting at his skin again, but was focussed on the blood squirting out of his hand and dyeing the snow red.

Then he heard it, loud growling and snarling. Getting up and turning around he was faced with the thing that had just bitten off part of his hand.

Grabbing the gun he had gotten from the old man, Ethan aimed and fired the first shot. Maybe he hoped that it would die after getting shot in the head, but it did hardly anything to it.

"Fucking hell"