Mark Of The Raven

Chapter Eight: The Nest

We continued walking down the road, hoping to find anywhere was that we could possibly takes shelter although it seemed as desolate as ever. Most of the country had moved put away from their original towns and cities. The West seemed to be the only place not completely overun with the Cult but we couldn't be too sure of that. The last time we had heard anything from the west was months ago and so much could change in time frame. The cult moves fast and unforgiving. They wreacked havoc and destruction everywhere they went, and if you were lucky to survive their attacks, you would have lost so much that the worth of living would have been questionable.

Emery and Issac had been discussing what their plans were for when they reached the resistance whilst Astrid remained silent. He just continued to walk forward, never wavering in his speed. At the very least, he was walking moderately normal now, so that allowed for some form of peace which was quite nice. But I couldn't help but constantly look over my shoulders in fear that we were being followed. Though, no matter how many times I looked, I never saw anything or anyone. Which, most of the time, you didn't really see the cult until it was too late. But, anxiety is the worst and so I couldn't help but do something to make me feel slightly more at ease.

"What in the.." Issac and Emery stopped walking which prompted Astrid and myself to stop as well. Ahead of us, a few hundred feet, was a a small town. This town, was definitely full of life. There were lights, smoke, and faint music could be heard. The question was whether this was the resistance or the cult. We all began discussing how we should proceed and couldn't come to one singular decision. Issac felt we should go off the road and around so that we wouldn't be discovered. Emery thought we should continue forward and just fight if we needed too. I thought it best to maybe sneak our way up to the town and gather reconnaissance first. And before we could come to a proper decision, Astrid had already begun walking towards the town.

" HEY NOW, WAIT UP" Emery shouted at Astrid who did not heed her screams.

" You can't just leave us like that dammit. We are suppose to be a team" Emery pointed out as she ran over to Astrid and stood directly in front of him.

" You take too long to make decisions. This town is in our way, hostile or not, we shall pass through it" he answered which more or less made the decision for all of us. We followed behind him, slowly but surely arriving at the edge of town and noticing that it was in fact, filled with cult members. It would seem as though they had just taken over the town considering the amount of bodies being piled up in the street. Some houses were still burning down, and smoke filled the air, choking us from the the inside - out.

" Well what's the plan? " Issac asked, looking over at Astrid to make sure he had stopped actually moving, which he had.

" I think we should just- " Emery's words were cut off by the sounds of loud screams of anguish. Astrid was gone, and we had to assume he had ran further into town. We didn't want too but we had no choice, we rushed in after him, and finding him standing in the middle of the main street with a man in his arms. With one smooth motion, Astrid slammed the man down onto his knee, snapping his spine in half. It had only been a few minutes but the majority of the cultists in the town had been decimated by Astrid who hadn't even broken a sweat.

" What in the actual hell are you?" Emery asked Astrid who wiped some blood off his hands and onto his pants.

" I already told you, I am here to protect you. I am here to keep you safe. And that is what I'm going to do. These burdens are nothing to me" He proclaimed as he made his way back over to us.

" Yeah but..you just took down like..what...30 people all by yourself? " Issac blurted nervously.

Whilst I was concerned I was more so impressed with the work he was able to achieve. He managed to dismantle so many cultists within such a short time. If he is something I'm capable of summoning then perhaps, I could truly make a difference.

" This was nothing to me. But now must continue forward" Astrid crosses his arms and watches as Emery walks away to a house with an open door. " No, we need to gather supplies. Every town we have hit so far has had nothing. We need supplies or we won't survive much longer" and with that, Emery dissapears into a house which prompts myself and Issac to begin searching the surrounding buildings for supplies as well. Astrid followed me, but only because he always seemed to stick with me. This was the first time he had actually separated from me and that was to protect us. I searched through some houses and other buildings but found nothing of great interest except some canned food and a few bottles of water. The entire place had almost been picked clean.

We all met back in the street and Issac and Emery had giant bags full of supplies. " And this is why it's good to stop and check for supplies" Issac noted. We now had medicine, food, drinks, and even some clothes that should last us a few weeks. Which is more than we could've asked for at this point. Astrid, I noticed kept his focus on Emery. He seemed to be interested in something to do with her but he wouldn't say anything. I could tell Emery caught this as well but she chose to say nothing about it and continued boasting about all the supplies we had finally gotten.

" And I also saw a car down the street that I think we could use so we should head that way. Hopefully it'll start and have some gas to get us a little further along" Issac smiled as he made his way down to the car. Emery followed close behind him and I turned to Astrid whose eyes followed Emery.

" What's up with you? Why are you looking at Emery like that? " I asked him.

" I am just taking mental notes is all" He answered calmly. I could not quite tell whether he was being honest or whether he was trying to not tell me the truth it's a truth. I never got the feeling that he would lie but I also feel like he would withhold of a nation if needed. Which made very little sense as to why he would withhold information about Emery. Did she do something to him? Did he see something about her that he doesn't want me to know? I don't know, he wouldn't tell me anything and I wasn't going to continuously pressure him about it. Instead we made our way to the car which had been cranked by Issac and was ready to go.

" let's get the hell out of here" Issac called out as Emery got into the front seat and motioned for me and Astrid to get in the back, which we obliged.

As the car pulled out, i turned to Emery, I couldn't hold back any longer, I wanted to know " Did you find something whilst looking around? " I asked, as calmly as I could but Emery laughed it off.

"Dude you saw what I found. Supplies. That's it" and then began digging in her bag for what I could only assume was some type of food.

" Yeah but did you..idk, find something else? " I asked again, hoping I could get an answer and reason as to why Astrid was so focused on her.

" What is with all the questions? I told you what I found already " She answered. I couldn't be sure but it felt like she was hiding something. I think Issac could tell as well considering he remained surprisingly quiet about the interaction.

" Yeah..I guess" I answered and decided to leave it for now. But something was off, I just wasn't sure what it was. But they again, things had been off with Emery for a while. Perhaps this had something to do with it? I'm not sure anymore but one thing was for certain, I was going to find out the truth.