New World Order (TNE) [Original]

Chapter 16 - The City Slept

The luxury of sight was bestowed upon Martin and the search party as they settled down for the night. What was once a busy bustling city had become a quiet wasteland of forgotten billboard hanging loosely from half-built construction sites and obliterated buildings. It was even worse that Martin had previously seen, Martin really felt lucky that he was taken down to Forestville. In fact, it really made him think about what would've happened if he had stayed above ground, it didn't seem like there was many other groups out here tonight. The closest light was from a lighthouse that seemed to be bringing in tourists who came just to see the wreckage of such a big city in front of their own eyes. Martin was suddenly thrust out of his distant world in the lighthouse and had to leave his mind to tend to the group's wounds.

"That gang that came in the carts, really got us good," the blue imp pointed out. A deep rooted laughter bursted out of the deep nymph lady's voice. It was dry but still honest, she missed the feeling of laughter. Now that the group knew of the powers that she possessed she was appointed the new leader of the group so that she may freeze any enemies in their path. Timothy felt immediately offended by the suggestion that the imp was a better survival than him, but it quickly passed when she froze a four winged lizard creature that approached them with terrifying speed, just half an hour ago.

"I despise the feeling of not being able to see, reminds me of when I was in the desert and a huge sandstorm engulfed my vision. I was out there for wh-" Timothy began before being silenced by the evidently bored expressions from the group. Something felt strange about camping out with a campfire in the middle of an urban cityscape, even if the buildings no longer had anything of use. The scavenging had taken all that the buildings had and then everybody began to flee away from the main cities. Either across the water onto islands or underground like Martin. "I can take a hint, you guys are ready for sleep,"

Everyone burrowed themselves in their sleeping bags and the blue imp was assigned to stay night watch. After her recent performance the whole group trusted her to protect them most of all and the night watch was the perfect chance to prove that. She hopped up onto a tree and let her short tail wrap around the tree bark watching out for intruders with her sensitive touch looking out for vibrations and ears alert as ever. The search party had ended up bigger than she had expected and she was starting to even get homesick for the people at home like Geoffrey.

That's when the first noise sounded through the rushes of bush and thorn, alerting the druid first since she was closest to it. The blue imp shortly noticed she sound and came rushing towards the noise spinning in the air to make a shockwave impact on her landing. She wanted to send a message to whomever or whatever was out there that they weren't going down easy. She walked with her hands outstretched to either side to create a flow of ice if the time called for it. The scent was slowly growing stronger of something muddy and disgusting like a putrid wastebasket of decaying muck. Slowly a sharp nose pierced the blue imp's ear it was from behind her and suddenly she was down with a clap.

The druid and Timothy were the only other two at camp still awake feeling anxious about the next day and what they would do once they met the government. After hearing the sound of the blue imp's body collapsing a twitch of fear came rushing down Timothy's spine and shuddered down the druid's. Suddenly, the both of them could smell the mucky odor too like a corpse climbing it's way from a tomb of wet mud. At last, they both saw the figure that had been causing the ruckus, it was a creature with glowing white eyes and grey tentacles. It's whole body ruptured with the strength of a dinosaur with the blue imp held in one of it's sticky tentacle ends; curled up one too many times to the point where the imp's chest was being pressed.

"You strike the front, I'll get the back!" Timothy whispered in the druid's right ear before going rushing into the night's darkness. The druid jumped in the air with a dark oak staff in hand with engravings signifying a deep connection to the forest. She prayed as she rushed at the grey beast and struck his chest with the wooden staff creating a stream of leaves and wind sending the creature hurdling back. It landed with it's backside on the ground and the blue imp released from it's grasp. Using this time the blue imp jumped and attempted to freeze the glowing white eyes shut.

"Thanks, I don't know who this guy is but it's strong!" The blue imp flattered the creature who was now charging at them with both tentacles flailing at the ground sending ruptures across the paved city ground of ash and concrete. The ice that was just moments ago cemented to the beast's eyes had been cracked and thawed out simply by the glowing white eyes blinking. Timothy shot one of the grey tentacles with his grappling hook and it wrapped around the arm once, twice, three times before Timothy reeled it in. He would later explain to the group that he reverse engineered the grappling hook just for this capability. Now that the pair were in close quarters combat he tried to throw a grenade of the gas that the cart gang had used against him but it was simply hit away by the impending creature.

"You got that right," The druid replied trying to look in the darkness for anything else she could use against the creature. Timothy was thrown upwards and back towards the other sleeping members of the search party who were startled by the sound of his body hitting the pavement. With the wind knocked out of him it was clear that the fight definitely needed some reinforcements. Martin and Plum now awake, they all charged at the opponent that had managed to break yet more of the blue imp's ice.

"You never let me explain myself!"

A shudder impacted the search party sending everyone flying back, it seemed like the strength of the enemy was simply too much for any of them and the ice was only slowing them down. But, the words surprised the group it seemed that whoever this creature was they had retained the ability to speak. They also seemed smart enough to be able to fight the whole group at once and even deflected some of their weapons. Martin wondered if this creature wasn't actually as inhuman as they thought.

"My name is The Unknown. Some of you may be familiar with me. Regardless, I've come to make a deal,"