The Messengers of Sanctuary

44 - River

River ran madly through the underbrush, screaming at Chicory to "do something already." He'd successfully lured out a tunneler, but this was frankly getting ridiculous.

Currently, his instincts were screaming at him to 'stop annoying the stronger zombie' already, they'd successfully identified the tunneler as probably just slightly weakert than a terror, the moment it popped out of the ground like a freaking daisy.

River was pretty sure that if he played passive it would get tired of him and leave, but the whole point of attracting one's attention was to see if they could do anything about it. If not they might have to capture one alive somehow, get it to Nina, and figure out how to make the lot of them less aggressive, or at least make them a specialized cure to...gah the cure didn't work unless the mind was still there.

But either way, River was starting to like that plan better and better as the creature slowly gained on him, "CHICORY THIS THING HAS BETTER ENDURANCE THAN ME, I SWEAR IF YOU-"

River was interrupted as the Tunneler let out an enraged snarl. His instincts completely backed down immediately, letting out the equivalent of a whimper at the sound. River spun to the side, glancing back at the creature as he kept running, this time in a different direction. He paused at the sight of Chicory who had launched herself at the creature.

Idiot.

Well to be fair he had been screaming for help for the entire two minutes that the creature was chasing him. He wasn't quite sure what he'd been expecting Chicory to do, but it certainly wasn't this.

River kept running for a bit, his instincts urging him to just keep going or back down or something, because confrontation was the worst possible idea they'd ever heard, 'you'll get us killed!' they practically screamed, 'don't annoy things that are cooler than us!!!'

Naturally, it only took a few heartbeats for River to stop in his tracks and turn back toward the tunneler. His hands at his sides in preparation for battle.

He blinked in shock though, watching as Chicory slowly got the upper hand.

His instincts were very miffed about that, watching as Chicory somehow managed to flip the tunneler onto its back. The creature seemed very confused about that at first, but it soon decided to continue fighting back. Chicory gasped as the creature below her knocked her off.

It shuddered momentarily, and then it was fighting again, swiping at Chicory and snarling viciously as she dodged and wove around it. As River had noticed before, it was probably around Terror strength, but it wasn't much faster than a Pyro.

If River hadn't already been tired out by the act of simply attracting it's attention, it would have been possible to beat it. That was what his mind was saying at least. His instincts on the other hand were absolutely adamant that this thing could and would kill him without a second thought.

It was the strangest thing ever, since he hadn't seen any evidence so far that this thing was nearly that dangerous. It was fairly slow, all he had to do was dodge its strikes and he'd be fine. Chicory continued doing just that, and after a moment of wrestling with himself, River joined in.

---

"So what exactly happened back there?" Chicory at long last asked the dreaded question.

River frowned, glancing at the unconscious Tunneler that Chicory casually had draped over her shoulder. "My instincts were positive that this thing could kill me, it took a bit to assert myself."

Chicory adopted a strange look, "what? Aren't they usually fairly accurate in cases like these?"

He shrugged, glancing down, "I don't know, maybe they have an ability we haven't noticed that would make them especially dangerous to nightstalkers. All I know is that my instincts wanted to leave."

They kept walking for a bit longer, falling into a run once it was clear they were done talking. After a bit, they found their way back to the camp where the pyros waited.

As the two of them exited the trees, the strange zombies blinked at them, gawking at the unconscious tunneler on Chicory's shoulder, "Alright guys, new change of plans. We have to get this guy to a friend of ours so she can figure him out. Who wants to go on a road trip?"

River frowned, "Chicory, if you haven't noticed, that would take at least two months round trip. More if we're planning on actually letting Nina study the tunneler before coming back."

Chicory shrugged, "time is a construct of human perception."

"...That's stupid."

"And that's becoming your catchphrase. Why is it stupid this time?"

River growled in frustration, "We can't just leave this camp unprotected, those idiots will appear and try to take it."

Chicory shrugged, "We'll just leave some people behind then, easy."

River gave the unconscious tunneler a complicated look, "Well, I'm going to be one of the ones staying behind. Besides, don't you have some messengers on their way down here to help out?"

"Stop ruining my fun with logic." Chicory sighed, "But I guess you're right." She turned back toward the pyros, "Who's coming with me? It means not having to deal with River for two months."

Three of the pyros volunteered.

Traitors, the lot of them.

"So uh...When are we leaving?" One of them asked, River vaguely recalled that the pyro's name was something like Vincent, but only because he remembered immediately disliking the name.

Chicory grinned, "we leave at dawn!!! Does anyone know where a working vehicle is? If not, does anyone know where we can get a carriage or something?"

The only answer was an awkward silence, the pyros glanced at each other, shrugging and shaking their heads.

Chicory sighed, "alright, change of plans, tomorrow, we're looking for a vehicle!!!"

That one was met with cheers. River only shook his head, knowing full well that he would be roped into helping with that particular mission. 

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Vote to help this road trip not be like all of Trinity's...!!!