The Last Days: A Solaria Galaxy story

Chapter 3

Two days had slipped on by since Soth had died. Jael alongside Marcus, Indra, Seb and other willing people, managed to sort out food and water supplies with Indra and a group of others that had manage to collect water from the nearby river. The food supplies was more difficult, down the years they had access to villages, with a countless supply of fruit, vegetables and meat. When the days started to get shorter but it took a real while for the realisation it was not going to change, they started to build more storehouses to accommodate the need for more food. However, as the hours of sunlight it became harder to maintain the levels. Last year's harvest was still what was keeping them going for now. Two storehouses had been used already, and they still had two left immediately in the city, which might not last them that long especially as they scarcely had a decent amount of animals to make up the difference, though they had certainly less people to feed. They had two more storehouses outside the city that were within a short distance, that were still intact since the ghouls never went there. It still meant that the rations were even stricter than they had been and it had not gone down with everybody. It had made people during the day start to protest and shout, but it never got violent, it would always calm down after a while. Other than that, they had yet to hear a return message from Nilo or anyone from Canidos and it was making Jael start to feel panicky. Others were feeling the same. On the plus side, they had not seen any sign of the mists or ghouls for two days.
Jael sat in one of the offices of the town hall. He had been the one chosen to lead by a few people that had bothered to say anything. The priests had supported him and even prayed for him, making it seem like it was some ordained event but it was very hard to see it like that. It felt more like that he was the only one that was willing to take charge.
I wish there was another way, Jael thought.
'Da, are you okay? You've not been home in two days...' Tyra said, peering through from the doorway.
Jael looked up yawning. 'I'm fine. You should get back now I will be home soon. What are you doing though? Why did you come?'
'I just want to be able to help out in some way.' Tyra said, her voice rising.
'I'm doing just fine thanks.' Jael said, shaking his head. He knew Tyra had been trying to do her part, and help people, which was fine, but he knew that she wanted to be a part of the guards.
'You are running out of people, one of the guards, Chay, he has abandoned his post for some reason.'
That took him by surprise. 'Really?'
'Yeah that's why I came up here, Indra sent me.'
'Why did she send you and not come here?'
'Chay said he thought that he had seen movement on the forest's edge, he opened the gates and went to investigate.'
'Seriously?' Jael, said sitting up in his seat. 'That's not normal. And nobody stopped him?'
'Chay is a captain but no one argued with him.'
'Where's Indra then?'
'She went to investigate.'
'Shit.' Jael said, standing up.
'It's still daylight for another hour.'
'That's what I'm worried about.'
'Why?'
'What if the ghouls had started to day walk?' Jael said, hoping it was not true.
Tyra frowned, not looking convinced. 'But, the hours of daylight are shortening. If it continues there won't be any daylight left, and they will be eternally welcome to come and go as they please.'
Jael's eyes widened. That was likely more to be the case, than his own ideas on it.
Jael headed to the door, still curious as to find out if there was anything to the guard's story or it was just a ruse.
'I want to come,' Tyra said.
'Fine.' Jael said.
They made their way outside, the sun was still out, and there was a gentle breeze in the atmosphere, but it was quite calm. There were people still milling about near the town hall, some just wrapped up on the ground, wishing for something to change, wishing that someone would give them some hope. He could not be that person. He could not give false hope to people, no matter how much he was tempted to give words of comfort.
Jael and Tyra walked silently by, different people with the priests still there preaching and shouting their same old words, but they left them to it as they crossed the city towards the gate. According to Tyra, Indra had gone through the east gate. There was activity of people hovering around the gate with Marcus, Seb, and a number of other guards but also those that were not guards were present. Anything that was remotely interesting draw people's attention straightaway even in these dire times, people still liked to gossip. Not everything had completely changed.
'What's going on?' Jael said, coming over to Seb and Marcus.
'Indra has gone to locate Chay that went to investigate something he saw.' Seb replied.
'Did you see it?'
'No.'
'Do you think he saw anything at all? Or was it just his imagination?'
'Can't say. Chay always seemed to be sane, and was not easily spooked by anything even the mists.
Then the guards on the top of the wall, started shouting down. 'She's back!'
'Open the gates!' Jael ordered.
The gates swung open and Indra came sprinting inside, and stopped through the gates. Her eyes scanned the small gathered group and her eyes immediately fell on Jael, and she hurried over to him.
'Jael, you need to come and see this.' Indra said. From the tone of her voice, it sounded urgent.
Jael followed her out, allowing Seb and Tyra to join but everyone else stayed back. He hoped he was not making a mistake by allowing Tyra to come but if she were so desperate to see outside the city then this would be a safe chance to do it.
'Where are we going?' Jael said, as soon as they were through the gates.
'It's only a short walk away.' Indra said vaguely but Jael did not like this at all. He feared the worst. A ghoul attack in the day. What else would it be?
The east road curved to the left, winding through the forest, and there were nearby villages, some that were still in use but some were abandoned now. When the road veered to the right, distance Jael could see one of the old, outposts that had been used by patrols when they had far more men available to deal with the threat of ghouls.
'There.' Indra pointed further up the road and there was a figure lying on the ground. Even from here, Jael could tell it was Chay. His body was lying across the ground, his legs dangling over into the vegetation.
'What happened?' Jael said as they approached the corpse, though he quickly got his answer. Chay had a pool of blood around his neck, suggesting his throat had been slit. His left hand was clutching a blade with dried blood. He was definitely dead but it definitely did not look like a ghoul attack. 'It looks like he died trying to protect himself from something.'
'I don't think so,' Indra said. 'My instinct is saying he did it to himself.'
'Why would he come out here all this way, make up this stupid story just to kill himself?' Jael said, frowning, Seb did not look too convinced.
Indra was still considering it. 'You could be right but it's not ghouls they would have eaten him, surely? And there aren't many other animals around anymore so if it's not either those two things then it has to be people.' Indra said. 'There's blood on his blade so if he injured his opponent then there should be more blood, from the wound yet the only blood I see seems to be around him, nowhere else. This is why I think it's self-inflicted, but it doesn't make sense. '
'Maybe he did see something.' Tyra suggested. 'I remember some of the stories in the church, there were some creatures that were documented, that were seen in some of the written down visions from people.'
Jael glanced at Tyra. He had not thought about it but that made as much sense as anything else. Especially when a memory flared up inside him, of the attack on the village. He vaguely remembered the explosion sound, which had been the wall collapsing but how did it happen in the first place? Ghouls often attacked, and often people in the towns were safe enough but the villages with very weak walls were in far much danger.
'Urrgh, don't bring those whimsical, superstitious, blind fools.' Seb spat.
'It could be one of them, those creatures aren't normal, they weren't always around. At least there was far fewer of them years ago.'
'Maybe.' Indra said, sounding very unconvinced. 'But we'll have to move him.'
Jael nodded, as he still had some family back in the city and he would have to be buried so he does not become a ghoul himself. Jael and Seb picked him up and they started to walk back to the city. In the corner of Jael's right eye, he thought he saw a flicker of light pulsing in the trees, but when he turned to look, it was already gone.