“Alright, so this should be the area.” I said as I hopped out of the vehicle and grabbed my bag. “Escalate, c’mon, and bring your ladder. We might need it.” I then headed into the woods while looking down at the map I brought and started looking for landmarks.

As I went further into the woods, more and more old structures began to reveal themselves and come out more clearly. Based on how most of the collapsed structures and items have vines and vegetation growing over them.

I looked down at the map and began comparing it to the surrounding area until I spotted the weird triple-grown tree on my right.

The trident-like tree, this is the place.

“Found it!” I yelled. I then put the map away and began searching around for the item I came here for. “Escalate, can you scan the area for any weird energy signatures?” I asked while I began walking toward an old dresser with overgrown vines covering it.

“Scanning area shortly,” Escalate announced as he extended his ladder and began climbing up it with no support. “Scanning area now.”

How does that even work?

I walked to the dresser and began opening each compartment 1 by 1 to see if I can find the item, but each dresser was just filled with rotted picture’s that couldn’t be made out and documents that shared the same fate.

Perfect. I spent 3 hours coming here to possibly have my time wasted.

I closed the compartments and began searching around the rest of the area while Escalate continued to scan. Everything around here is weird and out of place. One minute I see an old infants’ crib, seemingly to have been there for abandoned for many years, to random rusted weapons and equipment left in the open.

Was this place an old house at some point or something? And who attacked it, was it a bunch of undead’s? Wulver’s? Ghouls? Possibly raiders, based on how fresh some of the equipment looks.

I leaned down to pick up one of the pistols and proceeded to examine it.

Weird, this weapon is just… a weapon. No owner signatures, no special handgrip, just a weirdly ordinary hand gun. It’s like someone just made this out of a perfect copier and handed it off like nothing.

I continued to examine all the other weapons and equipment, and each of them shared the same condition.

“Scan complete!” Escalate announced, fully shifting my attention. “Energy signature locked on.”

“Yes,” I laughed, fully dropping the weapon to the ground and heading towards the robot. “Where is it?”

Escalate then began to climb back down the ladder while his shining blue eye was stuck facing. Due to that, he proceeded to fall down the ladder with a loud thud.

Wow, I shouldn’t have gone cheap on buying a search bot.

Escalate got back up and brushed himself off. “Damage sustained… minimal.” He then began walking to the right. “This way.”

“Alr-” I began, but before I could finish, my vision began going a familiar form of red. Ah dang it, I need to do it again.

I sighed through my nose as I reached into my bag and began searching for a certain mixture bottle. After searching for about 10 seconds, I finally found the dreadful yellow mixture I’ve been searching for.

Alright, just drink it quickly and get it over with.

I opened the mouth part of my Owl mask, twisted the top off the mixture bottle, brought the bottle to my lips, and then proceeded to drink the liquid as fast as I could.

The liquid tastes like liquid ear wax, and I dread every moment of drinking this foul liquid. But sadly, it’s the only thing keeping me from tearing people apart and feasting on their blood.

Ugh, I wish normal blood could sate me.

I got done drinking the bottle, put it back in my bag, and began to run where Escalate ran off to. I quickly found him and saw that he was focusing on a weird piggy bank on top of a dresser.

What the heck, why is there a piggy bank here in the middle of the woods? And why is it in mint condition?

“Energy source found. Energy reading’s… unstable.” Escalate announced. I walked in front of him and reached for the piggy bank. As soon as it touched my hands, I felt something was wrong through my gloves.

I then shook my head and carefully broke the piggy bank on the dresser, revealing a weird glowing black stone that is seemingly stable and unstable at the same time.

I carefully picked up the stone, surprised by how normal it felt to hold, it didn’t feel dangerous at all, despite the energy coming off around it.

I slowly examined the stone carefully to see any cracks or concerning areas on it, but what I found instead was much weirder than a crack. It was a message.

When time shows tragedy and grim fates,  

You all will look at them and force them into different states.  

When someone wants to create their paradise in a world of haze,  

You all will stop them in their tracks and set their dreams ablaze.

When all hope seems to be found by the enemy,

You all will appear and turn that hope into distant memory

So go forth into the world and fill it with fear in every region,  

And bring uncertainty and hope to the hopeless… my Legion.  

“What the heck is this?” I asked, looking over at Escalate, who was currently looking over my shoulder.

“By my data, it looks like a future villain’s group speech.” Escalate shrugged. That’s the first time in 2 weeks I’ve seen him shrug.

“On god,” I laughed while bringing my eyes back to the message. “Like what type of Emo, wrist-cutting, no father-having, heavy metal-listening guys call their group, Legion?”

BOOOM

Before I could even blink, speak, or even breathe, the floor under me collapsed straight down.

“Current status, Falling,” Escalate announced while falling in the stiffest form imaginable.

“Oh no, really, I didn’t notice!!” I yelled in panic and began looking through my bag. “Hold on, I got this!” I gritted my teeth as I began to panic, trying to find the proper mixture.

“Ground approaching in T-minus 7 seconds.” Escalate announced, now fully upside down.

Not helping. 

I finally grabbed the blue bottle and smashed it against my hand, causing it to burst into a giant blue gas cloud. Then with that, we began to float.

“Descent has been halted.” I let out a sigh of relief as I looked down. Did someone make this for us to fall into? This hole is too perfectly made to be a mistake.

“Warning, multiple objects descending in our direction at critical speeds. Impact in T-minus 2 seconds,” Escalate announced.

Before I could even truly process what he just said, a second blast went off in front of me and blew up the floor beneath us.

A sharp pain entered my body, along with darkness soon to follow.

“Ugh,” I groaned as I opened my eyes, only to still see nothing but darkness. I tried to move my hands and feet, but not only did neither of them move, it was also extremely painful to try otherwise.

I then tried to move my head slowly, and I was able to a little, but something solid connected with the back of my head. That’s when it hit me, I’m trapped.

With that being discovered, I immediately began to panic and writhe around, trying to move in any shape or form. I tried to slowly claw at the ground underneath me. I tried to crack whatever I was under with the back of my skull, but nothing worked.

Out of frustration, I tried to kick my right foot as hard as I could, and somehow I managed to move it slightly. But whatever I kicked was holding up the thing that was on top of me, so now, instead of being able to move slightly, I’m pressed against the full weight and can’t move at all.

I slowly began to breathe to try to stay calm, but right now I’m on the verge of crying due to this hopeless situation. I closed my eyes and tried my best to stay calm.

That’s when I heard something.

I held my breath and tried to hear past my own heartbeat to confirm what I just heard, then I heard it again.

Approaching footsteps. 

I let out a sigh of relief that might have come with tears as I mustered all the strength and yelled, “HELP!”

The footsteps immediately stopped for a second, then I could hear them coming my way. That’s when it hit me, what if these guys are raiders or serial killers who laid out that trap in the first place?  

Before I could think further on this, the thing on top of me slowly began to lift off of me. But before I could even celebrate, the pain in my body revealed itself, and that pain made me barely able to turn around to meet the eyes of my saviors as they were currently dealing with the large object that was crushing me.

The eyes I met made my blood go cold, and it only got worse as I continued to scan its entire body.

The head of the monster was related to that of a deer skull, but the teeth were obviously canines. It also had the antlers of a deer, but each of them looked sharpened and jagged. It wore a red, torn-up jacket and black work pants, with a wooden short sword on his hip, its blood staining its edges.

Well, I’m about to die…. Let me get one insult off at least.

“Man, your ugly,” I breathlessly laughed.

“Ouch,” the demonic beast said in the most evil and demonic tone of voice I have ever heard in my life. “Anyways, are you ok?”

“Does it matter?” I gritted my teeth, slowly searching to find my mixture bag.

“Of course. It all depends on how we’re going to do this thing,” the demon sighed through his nose as he looked up toward the ceiling. “And hopefully there’s a better way than climbing.”

I spotted my bag underneath some rubble near me and slowly tried to reach for I, but a massive jolt of pain shot up my arm that made me hiss in pain.

The sound didn’t go unnoticed as the beast brought his gaze right back to me and looked at my arm. “Your bleeding,” he said plainly as he reached down to examine my arm. “Based on how your bleeding through your clothes, it would be best that I take you back to the shack and bandage it.” He then looked toward where my arm was pointed and saw the bag.

I clenched my fist as I made another attempt to grab my bag, but the Beast simply grabbed it first. He then surprisingly placed the bag on my stomach, and before I could even say anything, he picked me up with one arm above my thigh and another placed firmly around my back, as if he was carrying a fragile hostage.

Well, I guess in this form of context I am.