Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 116: Family

It was an odd feeling to walk the highway into the city. It was almost completely empty apart from a few odd cars, a bit different from how it looked in apocalypse movies. Zac guessed that most people drove home if they found themselves on the highway when the world turned crazy. He didn’t know how the restructuring actually looked since he was passed out while it happened. Perhaps some people didn’t even notice and just kept driving until the road abruptly ended in a forest.Soon he found himself in the town proper, and it was completely surreal. It wasn’t just the run-down nature of the town that was jarring, there were multiple small details that were subtly adjusted. For example it looked like the topography was actually different in the city from how he remembered it. Where once was a hill it was now flat, making the houses look a bit odd.

There was no large wall that surrounded the town like the one that was erected around New Washington, and it seemed the population was a lot smaller compared to before since he still only had seen a few people scurrying about. Certainly, it was clear that this was only a part of the original town, but it was still there was barely a soul on the streets.

And those he saw looked like scavengers, going from house to house looking for anything useful or valuable. Most of the buildings at the edge of the town looked completely deserted, and Zac could also see marks from fights and beasts marring the pavement and walls.

It wasn’t until he got closer to the center of the town that he saw a wall being erected. It actually looked like they possessed at least one earth mage in the town, as the wall was a bit similar to his own, albeit far more rudimentary. Zac couldn’t see any gates or entrances and was in no mood to look around. Instead, he simply scaled the four-meter wall like it wasn’t there, and found himself in the inner city.

Greenworth looked a lot better inside the walls, with quite a few people walking the streets. Zac had been worried from the missive he bought, but it at least looked food wasn’t an issue in the town as most people were fed.

The aura of the villagers itself was a bit different from New Washington, as far more people wore different types of leathers and armors instead of old-world clothing here. If the government headquarters held on to the past then the villagers of this town rather embraced the new.

As he kept pushing forward he could finally confirm that his old neighborhood was included in this section of Greenworth, and wasn’t teleported somewhere else. His footsteps sped up along with his heartbeat as he moved through familiar streets, both anticipation and fear filling him.

Soon he was just a blur for any onlooker as he sped toward the house where his father and sister lived. He moved out almost a decade ago but Kenzie still lived at home since she was ten years younger than him, and he hoped he’d find both of them there. Finally he found himself on their street and it felt like his heart would jump out of his chest at any time.

He stopped outside a nondescript one-story house with a decent sized yard. A dogwood tree stood proudly on the front lawn, and Zac saw it had grown noticeably bigger since the integration. However, as he looked upon the house he felt some trepidation. There was no movement within, and it was quite clear that no one had lived inside for some time.

The door stood ajar and a few windows were destroyed. No smoke came out of the chimney either. With a sinking feeling, Zac found his courage after a bit and walked inside.

“Dad? Kenzie?” he tentatively asked, but only silence greeted him.

The ground was covered in dust and mud. Someone had walked through his home haphazardly dragging dirt everywhere. Clearly, the house was looted in the same way he’d seen before, and he couldn’t stop a flame of rage blazing up in his heart.

He quickly scanned the whole house and found no trace of either Kenzie or his father. Some things such as clothes and computers were missing, and the gun safe in his father’s bedroom was cracked open as well. However, most things were as he remembered.

As a last resort he went down to the basement and lifted a floorboard under a mat. It was his father’s secret compartment where he put important documents. To his surprise he found a box inside he didn’t recognize. He opened it up and found a small notebook and a necklace.

‘To Zac and Kenzie’ was written on the front, and Zac’s eyes immediately started reddening. With unsteady hands he opened it up and found it was a small diary apart from the first page.

Zac had to close his eyes and take a few steadying breaths before he opened his eyes again. This wasn’t a good sign, but he wouldn’t give up hope just yet. The notepad might have been left here long ago.

However, as he read on that hope was dashed as the diary detailed what happened after the integration. Everything had turned black after a voice said “Welcome to the Multiverse” in his father’s mind. When he woke up he found that Kenzie was gone.

In just a few days he found out that a lot of people, especially youth, simply disappeared when the world got integrated. He kept

Zac could at least breath a sigh of relief that Kenzie might still be alive. But relief soon returned to a burning rage that kept growing with every breath of his.

“Where is Thom Sullivan now?” he asked between grit teeth.

“Thom? What are you planning?” Ryan asked skeptically.

“What I’m planning? You’ll soon see for yourself,” Zac tersely answered as a monstrous aura filled with bloodlust flooded out from him, shaking the very foundations of the structure they stood in.