The Ultimate Rescue

Chapter XXI

MIA

Music: Ghostly Galaxy from Super Mario Galaxy

Well, one thing's for sure: I can now understand why my friends wouldn't think returning to an apocalyptic-ridden city was a good idea. It's not a complete wasteland like it is in movies or cartoons, but the sky is more red-orange than it should be, and I can't even tell what time of day it is. Most trees are missing a good majority of their leaves, and the once bright green grass is now a slight shade of brown. It also reeks of smoke, and the only noise I actively hear is the wind. To save time, I made the hovercraft teleport me right to my neighborhood.

I walk up the pathway on my front porch and knock on my front door a few times, then wait for one of my parents to open the door. Seconds turn into minutes without anybody showing up. "Hello?" I ask, ringing the doorbell. Again, no one comes. My hand finds its way to the doorknob, and to my surprise, the door opens.

Inside, it's even more eery than outside. Everything looks to be in order. No furniture is misplaced, nothing seems to be destroyed, no signs of struggle, nothing. But it's too quiet. And it just feels... empty. "Hello? Anybody home?" I call out. I wait about two minutes, and neither of my parents show themselves.

I take a few minutes to search the entire premises of my house, just to make sure my parents aren't just hiding in some room where they can't hear me. Again, just like my living room, there's no evidence that suggests something bad happened to my parents, but my parents simply aren't here.

"Huh... weird," I mutter to myself as I walk back outside. Something's definitely not right here.

I spend the next hour or so walking around town, exploring to see if I can find clues to my parents' whereabouts. Aside from the occasional homunculus demon flying in the sky, I don't see a single other being throughout my walk. All buildings I come across seem desolate just from a glance. Cars are still parked in parking lots and driveways.

Eventually, I find my way downtown. Again, it's just as empty as the neighborhoods I've explored thus far. Shops, restaurants, and cafes line the streets, but there's not a single person inside any of the buildings. A few buildings still have their lights turned on. Some buildings have chairs and other various objects strewn about the room, suggesting that the absence of people is not something that just randomly happened. Whatever happened to the residents of this town was serious.

While I'm walking, I try to convince myself that I still made the right decision by leaving. "Who cares about what they think? They're perfectly fine without me. They don't need me, and I don't need them," I tell myself. I'm having a hard time believing it, but it's too late to turn back now.

I also try to rationalize some possible reasons for this phenomenon to myself. The entire population could've just abandoned the town and left for somewhere else to get protection from the apocalypse. I shut that idea down for two reasons: The apocalypse has spread to several other locations already (most of which we did manage to provide salvation to, but there's probably plenty of other areas in the country that have been affected outside of where we've visited), and I doubt the demons would make it possible for people to leave. The only other possibility is that the townsfolk have all been captured and enslaved or some shit... but surely the illuminati wouldn't do something that crazy... right?

While I'm trying to think of other ideas, the sound of marching reaches my eardrums, and I freeze momentarily. A group of men dressed in soldier outfits are walking down a street perpendicular to the one I'm on. Whether or not they're members of the illuminati is beyond me, but I don't want to take any chances. I dart out of their line of vision and take cover in a nearby Sonic. Then a familiar building catches my eye.