It's hard to grasp the idea that we actually managed to get all the pieces leading us to go off to face off the big bad already. It feels like a dream,but it isn’t. From here starts our journey towards triumphant victory to end the hell that is the current state of the world. This trip wouldn’t be so simple as I would’ve come to expect. From here to our destination was at least a 3 day trip(which to me was shorter than I would have expected). She wanted to take the wheel,but stated we would switch depending on the amount of hours we spent driving. “So I guess you're driving for a longer period of time”. “Heh, I think you're mistaken, obviously you would be the one to be doing longer hours since I’m the one who worked the hardest”, Melody said sarcastically. “Pretty sure we would just have a heated debate over who does more, so guess I’ll take the wheel for the longer hours.” “Looks like i’ve won this time”, Melody said with a smug smirk. Melody can be quite cunning at times, she always has a way to achieve something, even something mundane as who gets to drive more. Something I’m a little bit envious of, maybe due to me wanting to feel that confidence in whatever discussion I speak of. Although now that I think about it, all it would do is give me an inflated ego. “The GPS says we're headed somewhere that so happens to be an abandoned city.” “A city abandoned that quickly? It's crazy to truly think about, although I guess not fully, there will probably be some people over there with tents and fires.” “Hopefully we don’t encounter anyone,people can become deranged in post-apocalyptic times, and in times like this you can’t really trust anyone.” “Is it really post-apocalyptic though?” “It sure doesn’t feel like it in the grand scheme of things. Sure houses and buildings may not be crumbling,but you can’t deny how empty everything looks.” “Guess that’s true, everything looks like it has been drained from all life only leaving a husk of what was once a populated and organized area. And that realization only makes our trip much more important to stop this madness and save everyone.” “That’s the spirit!”, Melody said with a bundle of confidence in her tone. “Glad we can both agree on that, makes this trip much more bearable when we both have equal amounts of hope inside of us. “Yea me t-” she suddenly stopped speaking and yelled “Ah fuck-” she swerved the car almost making it topple over, before slamming on the brakes. “What the hell just happened”? “I saw something being thrown near the car and I panicked.” We both got out of the car to see what it was. When we stepped foot on the ground, something that sounded like clanking came close. It was a ceramic teapot with a shade of yellow tint that looked like actual gold all around the exterior. On top of the lid, was a long top-hat similar to the mad hatter seen in the fairytale of Alice In Wonderland. Below the teapot were long spindly legs with pairs of cards for its design. “A damn teapot? The hell kind of designs are they making anyway?” Before we could hurry back to our car, the teapot started to rattle rapidly, then it sprung up, revealing a skeletal structure resembling a human spine that was filled with red veins that seemed to store blood. The vanes kept pumping blood into the lid and it was boiling blood near the spout. It shot out a steamy chunk of blood at us,hitting us directly. “Ah,fuck ,fuck,fuck,fuck;shit this burns!” Melody let out while shaking and putting her hands on her face. “Shit,we gotta get out of here.” I was still inflicted with burns from the blast,but still was able to manage getting back into the car and helped Melody get in safely. “I’ll take the wheel.” I opened the door to the driver's seat,slammed it shut and pressed on the gas as quickly as I could. Some time had passed;the drive was a bit better to handle and our burns didn’t hurt anymore(well, when we didn’t touch them at least). ‘’That was definitely not fun.” “Heh,don’t need to tell me twice.” I’m surprised Melody could be someone to act so calmly after something as deadly as that. It had only been at least 15 minutes since that last encounter. I was calm too,but was still dealing with shakiness in my whole body. “You need to calm down, I can see it through your motions.” “Easy for you to say, you’re always calm even in tense situations. It takes quite a while for me to be at ease when something can cause us pain.” Melody didn’t say anything back,but her expression showed she at least understood what I meant.
We were about to hit a roadspot which was in fact the abandoned city. I could tell Melody was more worried about it than me. Something about the other people bothered her; I remember when driving she told me of the weirdos and insane people she helped when she was making tools. I did wish she could’ve told me that earlier so I could’ve helped with that,cause it was clear to me that it makes her very uncomfortable. Melody pointed to the GPS,”Our destination is only 7 minutes away. Just..be prepared.” “Alright.”, I responded in a worried tone. I noticed that she started grabbing for one of the firearms and filling them with ammo. I didn’t want to say anything about it to put more pressure on her. Couldn’t help worrying that this might be worse than I could imagine. “Pull over, we’re here”. I did as she told and parked near an abandoned building. Everything around us was barren as all could be. The once lively streets are now filled with feelings of emptiness. The buildings which were once packed,looked almost damaged beyond repair. I couldn’t call this a full apocalypse yet though,there was still time to set things right. “You know,this whole city is kinda cool if you think about it.”, Melody looked a bit in amazement at the sight of everything around us. “I guess you're right, the view from here looks almost like an artistic painting. Even I have to admit it looks so beautiful, even if it hides a showing of a desolate side of humanity.” Melody tapped me on my shoulder and said, “Before we set up our tents,we should do some exploring to see what else we can find around here.” “Good idea.” We headed out to search for whatever stuff we could find. It did feel a little bit ominous walking around in the chilly empty streets. Feels like anything or anyone could jump out at any given time.
One thing I did happen to notice when walking down each block, was that there were no street lamps, only candles that had been placed around different areas. “I’ve noticed that all the street lamps are missing and that there are candles placed around here.” “Yea,I’ve noticed them too. Seems to me that people are already here.” She was searching for something,but I couldn’t tell what. “What are you looking for Melody?” “Shh, I can hear something.” I started to hear something too and it seemed to be inside one of the local shops. It appeared to be coming from the hair salon. We eagerly peeped inside to see where the source of the noise was. Before we could explore anymore, I heard a low ominous growling sound, and I knew what that was. “Keep your heads down!” A loud blast emanated which sounded like a shotgun. I turned around and saw the apple creature topple to the ground.”You guys alright?”, said a woman’s voice. “Y–yes,thank you for the help.” “No problem,my name's Jill. You guys must be new around here I presume.” Melody chimed in to the conversation, “Yes,we just got here actually by car and we’re looking for the source of the noise.” “Well the source of the noise just so happens to be the thing lying dead face-first on the ground.” Should’ve probably figured myself that it was a trap,but that doesn’t matter at the moment. “So whatcha guys names?” “Name’s Melody and his name is(redacted my name from my story as to what i’ve said at the beginning for my reason). “You know despite my spiffy appearance I’m actually only 18.” “We just so happen to be 18 years old as well.” “Glad we could be on equal terms. I’ll show you around the parts,oh almost forgot to mention; the name’s Rochelle. Forget to mention this,but what’s the whole deal with that costume.” “I just wear it for warmth and I’m afraid in certain public situations.” “Welp, that’s something I would’ve never thought I’d encounter. Doesn’t really bother me that much though.” She guided us as a semi-tour guide, leading us to different locals around the city that were a distance near our car. Shops were used as trading areas for weapons and other supplies. There wasn’t really anyone in the shops that we could find. My guess as to why that was, was most likely it being kinda late. The few we did encounter were surprisingly pretty friendly and welcoming to us(hopefully that can stay that way). Currency was sort of the same as normal currency. The main difference being trading materials which could lead you to lots of dough, which could then be used to stock up on other materials. In theory it did sound like it was a pretty fair and balanced system. Especially for the way it was explained and how it seemed to be a liked system by a majority of people. “I hadn’t mentioned this earlier,but I’m afraid we can’t spend too long here since we’re on a move.” “What’s the hurry?” “We're going to face the mastermind head on.”
“Yo-You’re doing what? You can’t be serious. That’s suicide my friend.” She looked completely shocked and somewhat appalled about what we were doing. “I know it may look like that,but the thing is I was given something important. I searched for special batteries that would power up a machine that would show us where the headmaster was. Even if it means the end of us,we’re still gonna try to stop it and put the world back to where it once was.” She chuckled and said, “You guys got quite the balls to be doing that, I commend you for doing such a foreboding task. Maybe you guys could actually manage to pull it off;hell if I know.” “It’s definitely something that can sound insane to an outsider,but believe me when I say, I know we’ll succeed in the end.” She chuckled a bit and said, “Guess you guys could do it after all,but we’ll see if that’s the case. If you do manage to pull it off, make sure to see us again when you get a chance.” “I’ll keep it as a mental note in the back of my mind”, Melody said, although I knew she would probably forget. “You guys want something to eat?” Me and Melody looked unsure, I mean, we did have food back at our tent. “We have some apples, nah just kidding,we got rid of all the apples we could find.” “I would’ve figured you would have already,but kinda surprising you guys did it this quick.” “Well, when we found out about those types of creatures we decided to remove all apples we could find in case any of them turned out to be fake.” Guess it would make sense for many around here to have set caution,not to mention the removal of lamp posts in the area. Although it still mainly doesn’t solve most of the creatures, it can make creatures that sneak up on you easier to deal with. “I wanted to ask something.”, Rochelle turned her head to look at me. “Sure, what do you need to ask?” “Have you determined exactly how many types of creatures there are?” “That’s kinda hard to answer, we’ve only encountered 7 types of creatures since the day the world plunged into hell.” Probably wasn’t such a very thought-provoking question to ask. There could be hundreds of types, I highly doubt such a city of this size would be able to encounter nearly every type of creature. She only said 7, which would mean they've probably encountered similar creatures throughout. “What type of creatures did you fight off?” “If memory serves me right: the apples,lampposts,teapots,sun and moon,comedy mask, and this dollhouse thing.” “That would be pretty similar to what me and Melody encountered.” “We didn’t encounter any dollhouses.”, Melody chimed in the convo. “Guess you're probably gonna ask what we’ve encountered, although I can’t say if Melody encountered them herself. There were the long haired scissors creatures, this puppet that was puppetered by a giant spider, this ghostly pot thing and I believe that is it.” “Glad we’ve never encountered such nuisances as a giant spider, I would’ve shot it twice,mainly cause I despise spiders.” “Now exactly what was that dollhouse you spoke of?” “Something that disgusts me personally.” “I'm afraid of why exactly,sounds personal.” “It is,but I don’t mind sharing this experience with you guys.” Melody looked at Rochelle and said, “Yea,but we're just complete strangers around here.” “Doesn’t bother me that much, and better for me to tell you whatever narrative I can if you're not gonna see me again.”
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