Mark Of The Raven

Chapter Four: Settling Down

The last time a destination had been talked about, somewhere in the mid west seemed to be agreed upon. We had all spent our lives on the east coast of the United States for so long and after the collapse, things had gotten so bad here. Most of civilization had turned on one another and the ones that didn't, retreated to the countryside to avoid running into others and having conflict. The landscape had changed so much. Everything became mashed together and yet so divided, and this left us with both an opportunity for a new start, and the caution that we could step into hostile territory without knowing so. But we continued forward, hoping that whatever we found could be better than this place.

" So, we might have an issue" Issac called out from the truck as it slowly came to a complete stop. " Why did we stop moving? " Emery shouted, hoping out from the truck and heading up to Issacs door. " We are out of gas.. we haven't passed a gas station for miles.." Issac explains which sends Emery into a slight tantrum. " Oh come on! As though we haven't had it hard enough! " She shouted angrily. I stayed in the back of the truck, continuing to stare behind us. I half expected another attack, even though it seemed unlikely considering the place we had stopped seemed completely desolate.

" Well there isn't much we can do about it. Vehicles need gas and we don't have any. So now we have to walk again" He explained, trying to provide a sense of order to the chaos happening at the moment. " We should get moving. If we stay on the road, we are going to be in danger" I groaned as I finally climbed out of the truck, planting my feet firmly on the road. " Yeah but we can't keep going like that. If we are exhausted from walking..how are we expected to fight? " Emery proposed to which Issac looked at me. "Well..."

" I can try but I don't know the limit of these powers. I don't have much control over them so I don't exactly trust using them in every single encounter we have..eventually it's gonna catch up with me " I explained. Issac and Emery knew my fear with the powers but I also understood their frustration with the entire situation. They still had belief in me, despite knowing practically nothing about how any of this worked. Sometimes, it felt my abilities were the only edge we even had and if we lost that..well..we don't talk about that scenario too often.

" We will do what we can to make sure it doesn't come down to that but...we wouldn't stand all that much of a chance against these damn things without your abilities " Issac confesses much to the dismay of Emery. " Hey! I'll have you know I've been kicking some serious cultic asses for the past year now without any powers whatsoever" Emery states proudly and crosses her arms confidently.

" Yeah, but they have powers and you don't which means you'll always be at a disadvantage. We have to be realistic" Issac points out which seems to only anger Emery even more.

" I don't have to have powers to kick ass. Powers would be nice but..well.." Emery stopped herself, though I knew what she was going to say. And I cant say it didn't hurt it. " Not all can be like me.." I grumbled. Emery turned to me, her eyes completely surrendering to the pain of the situation.

" I..I didn't mean it like that. I know you didn't exactly choose this. But what do you want me to say? Do you want me to say that I don't want powers? That it wouldn't help, especially with how the world is now? Because I'm not gonna say that. But at the end of the day, you have them. And I'm okay with that. I'm not mad about it. I don't hate that you have powers, I hate that I don't also have them. But anyone in my position would feel the same" Emery continues. " I'm not saying the journey would be easy. Hell, the powers would probably be a burden if anything..but that doesn't change that I want them. And you guys can't freaking blame me for feeling that way" Emery storms off down the road. I understood her plight but I guess I never wanted powers unlike her. So perhaps that's why I see things differently than she would if she had them. If I could trade them, I would but I wouldn't even know where to begin on giving it away. Can it be given away?

" You know she's just impatient. She wants the world to change and she doesn't know how to begin making that happen. She put so much on you, And to be quite honest I probably do too. But I want you to know that's not the intention. I think we are both just scared that the deeper this goes..the harder things are going to get. And before long, we are going to drown in the ocean of things we can't compete with. And we know.." Issac turns to me " That you can".

" We have been avoiding them for the past year and that was before you even killed the elder. They want to make you pay for the power. They have sent assassians, they have sent monsters, they have sent things that are the sheer essence of nightmares and yet, we have always made it through. And that's because of you.." Issac steps forward and places his hand on my shoulder. " But..just so you know. It doesn't matter how deep the water gets, powers or not, we are always going to be by your side" Issac smiled as he tilted his head towards the direction of Emery. " We should probably catch up to her" he chuckles. I nod in agreement and we begin walking down the road behind Emery.

We traveled down the road a few more hours before eventually reaching an old house A few hundred' off of the road. It looks completely abandoned but we couldn't be entirely sure. We were tired and we knew we needed to stop. And that place seemed like as good as any.

We made our way up to the house, Emery and Issac checking around the house to make sure it was uninhabited and safe before entering through the front door which apparently had been left unlocked.

" I guess we will stay here for the night. It'll keep us out of the cold, keep us out of view, and I'm not gonna lie, I'm hoping to find a damn bed in here because I can't keep sleeping on the ground" Issac confessed as he walked around the house, searching the rooms for a bed.

We had what I would guess could be called " Safe Houses" over the past year. Places we would stay for a few days that weren't all that special and provided very little comfort in the way of a home. But they were never meant to. They existed only to give us shelter whilst we ran. And they did their job pretty well. But, leaving home, leaves us without our safe houses. It leaves us without the familiarity of our surroundings. So now, we are on our own.

" And we are running out of snacks too" Emery sighed as she layed down on an old, dusty couch, sending a light Gray dust cloud high into the air, followed by Emery coughing. " Well, I can go out and gather berries or something if we need" I volunteered to which Emery shook her head. " You don't know much about gathering though..you could poisoness berries and then we would be in real trouble. The only one I'd trust enough to get something edible in the forest is Issac and even he doesn't know a damn thing about berries" Emery groaned.

" I KNOW THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH STRAWS.." Issac called down to us, he had apparently made his way upstairs now. The walls were super thin which was good for us because it meant we could hear any disturbance outside. Emery face palmed however at Issac's joke. " That was so bad..just..so bad" Emery remarked. " Well don't be blue about it.." I smiled as I sat down on the couch at Emerys feet who was now rolling her eyes at me. " oh my god...please..just stop that dumb s**t" Emery groaned as she stared down at me.

"I don't get to make alot of jokes. You gotta take what you can get" I smiled again which made Emery shrug. " If they are all gonna be on Issac's level then it's probably best to not tell them" Emery snickered.

" ITS LIKE A CLOUD" we heard Issac shout from upstairs and we could assume that meant he found himself a bed. " Wanna see if we can find a bed too?" I asked, not seeing another couch in the lounge room we were in. " Nah I'm good on the couch. I don't feel like moving.." Emery had made herself completely comfortable, so I nodded and stood back to my feet and made my way upstairs and found myself a room. There was a bed but it looked sunken in slightly, but I figured I would just make do with what was available and began to settle in.

I layed down, and after a bit of adjusting, I finally managed to make myself comfortable enough to fall asleep. But my sleep was quickly disturbed by a faint whisper coming from near the bed. I opened my eyes and found a Raven, staring back at me. I wasn't sure how it had gotten in here, but it felt calming to look at. " Looks like you are about as trapped as we are.." I mumbled, half expecting a response. But no response came, it continued its gaze into my eyes, almost peering through my very soul. " I wonder what you are seeing.." I asked, though the Raven offered no reply. " I wonder if you are - " before I could finish my thought, I found myself surrounded by darkness. I was no longer in the house and no longer on the sunken bed, I was in a an entirely new place, a place that filled me with a sense of both dread and curiosity. The Raven was also now gone, and I found myself completely alone. I didn't call out to Emery or Issac because deep inside of myself, I knew they wouldn't be able to hear me. But was this a dream? I couldn't be too sure of that.

" You have sought the vision and have found yourself blind" a deep voice called to me. This was not a voice I recognized and yet it soothed my troubled nerves for some reason. " I haven't sought anything.." I answered, not being sure who or what I was conversing with.

" All who find me, seek me from within, whether they do so willingly or not" the voice answered. I didn't exactly approve of all the riddles with which this voice answered, but I was in it's domain. This was it's rules. And for right now, I would have to play by them.

" Well, I can only assume that you are tied to the mark. Can you explain to me what it truly is? What is it's true purpose? And who are you? Are you the God that supposedly created it? " I didn't know how much time I would have with this being so i thought it best to try and get as many answers as I possibly could.

" I am neither God nor man. I am the vision that you now possess. I am the gift that so many have squandered. And though some may not understand it, I am both the destruction and creation of your world" the voice answered which didn't exactly answer my questions so I continued. " Well you have to have a name..what can I call you? "

A long silence followed my question, but after a while, an answer finally arrived, one I was not quite expecting. " My name is...Todd".