The Other Side

The Smell of Death

Location: Vale commercial district, Remnant

The group was still fucking lost and according to McReary's watch they have been in the gas for 5 hours already. In this time they only found more fucked up sights, most of the times corpses but more recently implications the gas has other effects. It looks like sometimes the gas doesn't kill and it drives people insane, evidence of this is "release yourself to the air, it is wonderful" written in human blood and beside it is a corpse partially boiled with a twisted smile on it's face.

McReary: We need to get out of here fast, we only have a few more hours before these masks fail.

Ruby: What happens then?

McReary pointed at a pile of bodies melted together beside a car. Team RWBY understood that this was going to get bad if they didn't get out. What was also concerning was how the sirens have stopped, the only noise aside from the footsteps was the occasional helicopter or bulkhead flying over. The group kept walking forwards hoping to find the correct way out.

A deputy turned a corner and was yanked to the side. Everyone raised their weapons at a person with their skin melting off who was trying to rip off the deputy's gas mask. The maniac was gunned down by the other deputies who ran to check their friend. He had some small welts forming on the side of his face that were quickly covered by cloths and duct tape but the rest was fine. They walked on with their hope dying fast when they heard a very close helicopter. They broke into a building and ran to the roof.

A deputy was waving a flare in the sky as he could barely see the helicopter through the gas. Unfortunately the helicopter was filled to capacity and only flew over while giving a message over the loud speaker.

Loudspeaker: This is the New Orderian Army, we will come back for you. Be advised, hostiles are in your area, evacuate east to Beacon.

McReary pulled out his radio and it actually worked, with heavy interference of course, and switched to the channel the helicopter was on.

McReary: I am deputy McReary of the NCSO. Whatever helicopter is above us, what is the ETA on another evac helo?

Radio: 10-1 that deputy, you are bre-... osing you.

McReary: ETA on evac! 

Radio: Unknown, head east now before they arri-

The radio cut out and the helicopter flew off. Ruby used the scope on Crescent Rose to look for whoever "they" are. She spotted a few people wandering around with their bodies melting and they were writing cryptic shit on walls in their own blood. They would walk over to something, rub their melted arm on it, and move on. She saw someone not dead who was dragged over to one of the melted people who then yanked the gas mask off the survivor. The survivor began to melt and die before being abandoned.

Ruby: We need to go now! 

Yang: What was it?

Ruby: Some crazy people are going around killing anyone they find. Like the guy who tried to kill that deputy, only more of them.

McReary: Let's move then, I sure as shit am not dying to the fucking air. 

They ran out the door and walked through the gas ducking whenever they heard noise. The maniacs were also talking about the lord so it was safe to assume it was a cult of sorts. Aldenoiv had said shit about the trial for man being soon and this was apparently it. Everyone unfit to live in the eyes of whatever this "lord" was would boil away leaving the survivors to ascend to the heavens. The people who didn't die believed they were chosen by god to live and must expose more to the gas to test them. It was honestly fucking horrific for anyone not insane from the gas.

The group just kept moving until a deputy froze. He then began to panic and try and tape the filters of his mask shut.

McReary: The fuck is wrong?

Deputy: I can smell something, and it fucking stings when I breath in. My filter is going bad.

McReary: Shit! Cover your filter with cloths. We need to move fast.

The deputy taped on a bunch of rags and the group jogged east. They noticed the gas thin before walking over to a cliff. Above them was Beacon but their filters would fail any minute now. The options were look for a safe way up or climb. Because they didn't know where to go they picked climb. After a few minutes of climbing and more filters failing they reached the top. They were swarmed by soldiers, firefighters, cops, and medics. A few DCM agents dragged them over to decontamination where they were cleaned. They were then allowed to go over to EMS.

The medics determined they were not going to die and the welts would heal with time. McReary went back to the edge of the cliff and looked over the gas filled city. A few WFM planes were flying over dropping some chemical onto the gas which McReary assumed would neutralize it. The helicopters flying over rarely landed and the occasional gunshots from inside the gas could be heard. McReary had tuned his radio back to NCSO tac 1 where he heard another deputy panic.

Radio: Turn on the fucking news now, VNN.

McReary jogged over to a command tent where other first responders and soldiers were gathered. The TV was broadcasting something showing a man in cult attire.

TV: Vale is the first of many, the trial will occur across the world and beyond to the home of New Orderia, the lord sees all. He wants you to be tested! And we will carry out his work! Prepare humans, Faunus, all of you will experience the test of faith, and many will bear the consequences of heresy.

The TV cut back to the temporary VNN headquarters where a few VPD officers were trying to figure out who sent that information. The reporters were noticeably disturbed to say that wasn't supposed to be on and they were hacked. Inside the tent a military official changed the channel to other news agencies that were playing the same message.

A final part of the message was played and it was the most horrifying part.

TV: Goalaria will be tested next.

Immediately every radio went wild as dispatchers tried to get very available unit to defend Goalaria. It was a panic to not let this attack happen again. McReary hopped into a NOHP helicopter that was taking off for Goalaria. He flew over Vale and noticed fires burning surrounded by people chanting shit while their bodies melted. Their was a slightly sweet smell in the air that burned whenever it entered his nostrils as they passed over the epicenter. McReary could actually see his flipped patrol car and the lights of other cop cars through the gas. The entered NO territory and saw convoys of military vehicles heading in different directions. 

Pilot: This better be a bluff. It fucking better be.