Mutant 99 [Fanfic]

| Loneliness and Devil Spiders |

Sorry for the wait, whatever fans may be reading this. Been a bit busy with life n' shit.

Anyways. Here's Cross's third chapter.

-*-

It had been six months. Six months since Mutant 99 had broken free of the Ice. Six months since Cross had slain those Wolf-Bears beasts.

Since then, Cross had scavenged a thick leather coat that fell to his lower thighs but fit rather nice, he thought. Beneath it was a simple black cotton shirt he was amazed had survived, and some slightly baggy pants that struck him as militaristic, but he wasn't entirely sure why. On his feet were hard leather boots that were nice and sturdy in the soles, and really hard in the toe. He had caught his reflection in a large piece of standing glass and thought he looked pretty damn good.

Cross traveled north and discovered a strange forest. He quickly discovered it was inhabited by more than he. He managed to make a crude but rather sharp hatchet out of stone and a short but sturdy stick, along with a dagger out of a flattened out steel scrap that was rather sharp on one edge.

Crude weapons, but they worked.

He then used them to defend himself as he explored this forest. During this time, he learned something.

Being the lone survivor sucked.

He had trekked through the majority of the southern side of this forest, scrounging for food, learning to get used to the disgusting water, the putrid meat, and all the time the bitterest taste he'd found is loneliness.

It made everything worse. The water was even more sour, the meat was even more grotesque... Not to mention it was completely destroying his human reasoning. He caught himself face first in the body of a slain Wolf-Bear's guts and had to pull back and find his thinking again before he vomited from his own actions.

Since that incident, Cross had been paying much more attention to his thought patterns, making an effort to remain self-aware and not become like the animals he hunts.

It didn't help with the loneliness much.

Plus, it was distracting. He was so inwardly focused, he didn't notice when these weird flying spider things surrounded him. They startled him to the point of losing himself for a moment and going entirely feral, slaying them within moments.

He woke up on a branch surrounded by their bodies, wondering how he killed them all.

Then one day, half a year after he broke from the ice, he discovered an abandoned town. Most of the buildings were pretty destroyed, but a few were in good enough shape. He decided he'd make one of them his home.

Deciding to pick one close to the forest but not entirely in it, he pulled his knife in the right hand, hatchet in the left, and ventured inside.

Inside, it was dark and dust motes floated freely in the air. There was a stairwell off to the left and a second area in the back with a large framed opening to this one. Beyond that, the wall was smashed open to reveal the back outside of the house.

Furniture was broken and destroy everywhere and webs coated everything. Not the average cobwebs, these were thick strands of white coated in a sticky substance.

An odd clicking sound repeated rapidly on his right, beneath it being a low hum. A sound he knew.

The spider lunged at him suddenly, but he knew it was there. He could also see its nine or so comrades hidden amongst the webs, sleeping.

It spat poison at him first, it was a neurotoxin that seeps through the skin and shuts your nervous system down temporarily by overloading it with sensations of pain and blindness. He'd tried it once out of curiosity. Cross wasn't a fan.