Alma 36 The Signal

When Reed peeked outside of the house and saw the ruined, abandoned neighborhood, he felt a tinge of sorrow. He couldn't precisely ascertain why he felt the way he did; neither was he in the mood to identify where that feeling originated from. It wasn't the time for that.

He had work to do. "Focus on the mission," Reed reminded himself as he shook his head. There'd be time to reflect later after the mission was over. Distractions could kill. He flushed his mind of useless, extraneous thoughts and charted a course on his tome and double checked his plan for any potential issues.

His planned route took him through the suburbs of the city until a certain point when he'd have to venture into the heart of the city to reach the outpost. Judging from the detailed reports that had been given to them, the center of the city was where a majority of the Infested were found.

Traversing through the suburbs was the safest option he could see, given what he knew. The information showed that the Infested rarely traveled into the outer parts of the city and preferred to remain near the hub of the metropolis. Why they behaved in such a manner was unknown, or at the very least, not explained in the reports he'd been given...

The rain continued drizzling down upon the silent city; remote claps of thunder and the desolate howling of the wind filled the city with a somber ambiance. The city had a stifling atmosphere — as if it were a forbidden graveyard — a place that no man should ever walk upon.

As Reed quietly walked down the broken roads, he noticed many a thing. Although many buildings and signs had long since fallen into disrepair, it wasn't impossible to guess what they had once might've been. Various signs of all manner of shapes and styles still stood, faded and illegible.

Reed walked past what seemed to be a restaurant judging from the dull and indistinct image of a plate filled with food. It had seen better days. The building was missing half of its foundation and a massive crater took up what should've been the other portion the structure.

Metallic signs dotted the roads and glimmered faintly in the darkness. Although thousands of years had passed, these signs continued doing their job as they feebly flickered like vanishing fireflies.

For what purpose they initially served, he knew not. They simply sputtered out neon blue light in an odd configuration every couple hundred meters down every road. Another testament to the technical ingenuity of the ancient Mulians. A sad one at that — for a simple street sign to outlive its creator — what more could be said of such a disheartening thought?

A couple hours later, Reed made a decent amount of progress, even if it was slower than he planned. Reed checked his map; he estimated that he was roughly sixty kilometers away. Over the course of the journey, he had encountered no one. His tome remained mute the whole way — that worried him a bit.

Still, the city was massive, so it made sense that it'd be somewhat difficult for anyone to stumble into one another. Reed brushed away several ominous hypotheticals that crept up out of his anxiety. He reminded himself that he couldn't let his emotions take over; only calm and collected reasoning would keep him alive.

Reed bitterly chuckled in self-derision as he continued walking. The longer he thought about it, the more embarrassed he felt. Here he was — stronger than all of his peers combined — acting like a coward. What a gaffe... for the strongest one to be the weakest when it was time to act. He slapped his cheeks and balled fists in frustration.

"How pathetic..." he thought. This was his best? Reed bit his lip as he gazed at the swirling clouds above, but was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts.

His tome winked and a clear ping came out of it. He knew what that sound meant.

Someone was close — within his tome's range, to boot.

Where? Who? He summoned his tome and checked for the signal with great haste as if a miracle had come true. The signal was faint, too distant for a communication channel to be established, but it was enough for Reed. He wasn't alone — Esparon Doveport — that was the registered tag on the signal.

Reed wracked his brain as he desperately tried to think; Esparon Doveport... had he heard the name before? He cursed himself for not making more friends other than Astor and the group. It wouldn't have killed him to socialize with other people outside of his own clique, but it was too late to worry about it.

People become fast friends in dire circumstances, right? Reed made up an excuse for himself as he ran toward the weak signal, in a full sprint. He didn't even care about maintaining his secrecy out of pure excitement and glee.

Reed rushed through empty streets like mighty gale given human form as his blurry figure flew towards the signal. Once he'd gotten close enough, Reed sent out a communications request to Esparon. The signal was getting stronger by the second, indicative that he would meet up with him soon enough.

Seconds passed: No response.

Was something wrong or did Esparon not receive the request? Perhaps a malfunction on Esparon's end? Reed prayed that it was nothing more than that as he sent another request to Esparon.

He was less than a minute or two away from his location. If he was under attack or possibly injured... Reed grimaced and prepared himself for a potential confrontation. Anima pulsed and gathered around him as he rushed towards the signal on the map.

Another ten seconds passed: There was no response.

Reed felt his blood boil and his heart rate rocketed; he pushed himself to the limits of his concentration as he approached the signal at a blistering speed. In record time, he arrived at Esparon's location — a dingy, old house that had a broken roof and a huge hole in one of its walls.

There was something pungent about the air; it smelled rotten and stale the closer he got to the house. Like someone had dug up a decomposing carcass or had dumped the worst filth imaginable in the vicinity. The offensive stench assaulted his senses, but he shrugged it off.

Reed approached the house and looked at his map — the signal was extremely close, only a dozen feet away. He inched closer to the house in a heightened state of awareness and called out for Esparon.

"Hey, are you alright in there? Esparon... Hello? Answer back..."

He walked into the house but no response came back. The map showed that Esparon was at the other end of the house, in a room to the left. Reed tensed up like a spring that had been compressed to its limits and once again said, "Esparon, goddammit. Fucking answer, or I swear to god..."

The Anima around Reed raged as it compressed around him in coils of incandescent radiance. He was about to blow up, both in a figurative and literal sense. If something was on the other end of the door and it wasn't a human male... Reed would unleash his full might in an instant.

Violett's last words of advice repeated themselves in a constant loop as he held on the doorknob. He could hear his heart thumping out his chest like a mad drum. Reed held his breath as he turned the knob and pushed the door open.

Reed channeled Anima inside of his body to the peak as he opened the door... and then let out a massive sigh of relief. He shook unsteadily and laughed in staccato-esque bursts of air as he slid onto the floor. Sweat poured down his face on the dirty floor, staining his face in the process, but he didn't care.

He looked over at one corner of the room. Esparon was there... fine and dandy. Sleeping like a baby.

The son of a bitch had fallen asleep. Reed laughed for the longest and cursed himself for being such a goddamned coward, yet again.

Esparon was suddenly torn away from the land of dreams — Reed made sure of that. He gave the sleeping bastard a swift kick in the gut, which startled the sleeping princess from his slumber. The abrupt awakening scared the living hell out Esparon and he let out a pathetic scream, thrashing wildly as if he were a cornered beast.

"Hey, wait! Calm the fuc-" A random jab struck Reed right in the stomach and he let out a gasp of cold air. He brushed off the momentary pain and yelled out, "Stop thrashing, dumbass! If I wanted to kill you, I would've already done it..."

Solid reasoning, if a bit on the blunt side. Esparon calmed down and finally focused on the figure in front him. A gleam of clarity returned in his eyes and he blurted out, "Y-You're Reed, aren't you?! The one that's always with the royals, r-right? How did you..."

"Your tome, genius, otherwise I would have never found you... Why the hell were you asleep?! I messaged you a bunch of time and because you never responded, I thought you..."

Esparon realized that his tome had been pinging softly and replied with, "Oh... Sorry 'bout that, man. I didn't mean to worry you, honestly. It's just that I saw... something outside, you see."

"There were several of them a block away from here and then they passed through the street. I saw them and then I-I..." Esparon muttered in a hushed tone.

"You fainted? Out of fear? You don't mean what I think you're implying, right? That they passe-" Reed didn't finish his sentence when he saw the palpable fear within Esparon's eyes.

"... So you saw them. This shouldn't be happening... it was supposed to be a simple mission." Reed gnawed on his thumbnail as he contemplated on the demoralizing piece of information.

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Reed rushed over in a flurry and made a lot of noise in the process, something he regretted immensely now. If they were still around, there was no doubt he'd alerted them. His blood starting pumping faster in response to the realization.

He looked at Esparon, the poor fellow who looked like he'd break any second. The guy would not make it alone; that would be a problem. Time was running out — every second was a now precious resource.

A horrible thought appeared in his head and he rejected it with all his will. Reed would never stoop so low, even if it killed him. In any case, it was his fault in the first place, so didn't have the slightest right to think of Esparon as a burden.

There was a rumbling beneath their feet and the ground trembled slightly. The ancient furniture inside of the house shook and an old glass vase fell. It shattered into a million pieces. An awful screeching cry reverberated across the neighborhood — it sounded like nails on a chalkboard.

Reed closed his eyes and purge any unnecessary thoughts. He reset himself back to zero.

It was time to nut up, or shut up. No more goddamn cowardice.

He let out a long, deep sigh and said, "Get up, Esparon. We've got a job to do."

Chapter end