The Eternal Winter - Book 1 - Chapter 57 - Fish (Patreon)

                                                                                          Alexander North

“Wow.” I can’t help but mutter as I stare at the pitiful remains of Aral City – the capital city of Arran – from our place at the top of the closest mountain to the city. Whereas before, every time we visited, the city was always buckling with excitement. Tourists heading from one place to another on their aircars, new tourists entering the planet and leaving through spaceships, and noise constantly loud enough outside of the building to wake the dead whether from music or any other sounds you might hear in a big city. The enormous skyscrapers would tower far above the mountains in the distance, such as the one we’re standing on, and the planet hall serving as the central government controlling this particular planet underneath the Triad was always a beauty to behold.

But now?

Now the city is in ruins. Skyscrapers having fallen down to the ground, shattered halfway up. Snow piled up across the streets, burying the once clean streets underneath blankets of white. Ice coating every last building in site. Screams echoing through the blizzard from the occasional citizen who runs into a frozen one. And the massive amounts of frozen ones – both new and old, large and small – roaming all over the city on an everlasting hunt for the surviving citizens.

“This is…” Michael mutters, just for Michelle to answer, “Horrible. Absolutely horrible.”

We all stare out at the carnage for a few minutes, just unsure of what we should do before the captain eventually snaps us out of it by saying, “Enough slacking off. We have a job to do. And that’s to save all of the civilians we can.”

I clench my fist for a second, only to pop off a salute and answer, “Yes sir!”

Everyone else does so as well after hearing me, but surprisingly the captain turns to me and says, “I have a different job for you.”

I frown at that for a second before returning to my neutral face and awaiting my orders.

“Your orders are to head straight to the planet hall and gather up the surviving soldiers there, and to search for governor Vlad.” The captain says after lowering his visor and meeting my eyes directly. “You will go directly there. Do not stray from your goal. Leave the civilians to us and head straight there.”

“Yes sir!” I shout with a salute, understanding the hidden meaning behind his words.

After all, I don’t have a helmet on. So if a civilian sees me, then they won’t know that I’m any different from a frozen one seeing as they don’t have any terminals. And that won’t be good.

Although that doesn’t mean I won’t help people if I run into civilians along the way. Simply saving them from the frozen ones by killing the frozen ones doesn’t mean I have to take them under my wing and protect them. And I’ll get their energy in return.

It’s a win-win situation.

“Now go,” the captain orders with a nod, so I turn around and give the others a nod in farewell before rushing down the side of the mountain.

Time to see what it’s really like up close in the city. And if this universe is worth salvaging or not, since it might just be too late. At least, if what remains of this city is the same as every other city in the universe.

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It doesn’t take me long while running at full speed to reach the border of the city, which consists of a large partially manmade and partially natural river that is now frozen solid and runs in a large ring around the city, with the water flowing in at one end and out at the other side of the ring. And since the bridge on this side of the city that’s running across it is destroyed – I’m not sure by what – I have no choice but to cross the ice itself. It’s that or going all the way around the entire city to find the other bridge and hope it’s not destroyed too.

However, a notice appears from my terminal once I reach about halfway across the ice. One that has me pushing my limits to run even faster.

/ Notice \

Exterior energy source located.
Energy source identified as a Frozen One with an energy level of 2.01.

\End of Notice/

If I’m sensing it while in the middle of a frozen lake, then there are only two places it can be, seeing as I don’t see it on top of the ice. Either in the air, or in the frozen river.

Almost as if reacting to my thoughts, I see a huge shadow swim by underneath the ice, making me realize that not all of the river is frozen. Which also makes me wonder just how freezing cold the ice beneath the frozen surface must be.

“Of course there’d be mutated fish,” I mutter, only to end up jumping right when I see the fish begin swimming upwards. The creature breaks straight through the ice where I was just at a second ago and rises up into the air in an arc before going back down and shattering more of the ice to land back in the water. But I continue running away at full speed until I eventually reach the other side of the river and make it to the wall on the other side where I turn back around to find the fish swimming away, and the others of my squad watching from the other side of the river.

Looks like they’re probably gonna end up going around the city to the other bridge. Because I doubt they’ll want to tangle with that fish frozen one.

In fact, I’m not even sure if that fish was the only one in the river. Because I doubt it is.

I give them a wave before turning around again and beginning my walk towards the entrance where the bridge connects to the city.

Time to check out the city.

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