Pride's eyes shot open and looked around the warehouse. Spread throughout the room the volunteers sat around talking with each other. Some were cultivating, and others sat in groups playing games quietly amongst themselves.
The lights were all dimmed in the room, but none of the sick were sleeping. The people of Tapestry had more than enough endurance to stay up for any number of days. No one in the warehouse would be dumb enough to waste time by sleeping. This was especially true of the sick, who were fighting to return to their families as soon as possible.
Pride watched everything carefully. He wasn't sure what it was, but all the alarms in his mind were going off. No one else seemed to notice anything, even the volunteers who were perfectly healthy. They continued to talk amongst themselves quietly as not to disturb the rest. The sick were all sitting peacefully on their beds, processing the energy in the air around them.
Pride's eyes went wide as he attempted to absorb some of the abundant energy. Shockingly he felt like he was attempting to breathe through a straw. The elemental energy was scarce at best. He stared at the sick, who were still sitting on their beds. No reaction from them whatsoever.
Pride looked towards the volunteers who had also not seemed to notice yet. Specifically, he looked towards Kaji - a close friend.
"Kaji," The young man with a similar build to his own looked up at Pride, as did the other volunteers the young man was talking to.
"All of you, something is wrong." Pride spoke only to them, not wanting to alert the sick. Kaji's eyes went wide. It only took a moment for them all to realize that the air had become scarce of energy. Slowly they looked around, but they did not see any change that would cause this. They wondered how they hadn't noticed before.
"Quietly get the attention of all the volunteers. Tell them not to do anything yet. Just get their attention." Pride's heart was beginning to beat faster. As word passed, the room became exceedingly silent. They all worked together to get the attention of each volunteer without making a scene.
However, as time ticked by, goosebumps formed on their skin. It was obvious to all of them that the air was lacking elemental energy… but why had none of the sick reacted yet?
Pride spoke to them all, attempting to maintain his neutral expression. The last thing they needed was a panic. "Start to make your way up to the front. I will contact the elders and see if they know anything."
Everyone looked around, they had become extremely aware of the silence in the room. It had grown unnerving. No matter how much they stared though, it was like the sick were completely oblivious to the change.
Pride's heart beat faster. What was wrong? His entire being was warning him to get away.
He continued to stare at them.
The healthy volunteers had started to walk towards the front of the warehouse, remaining as silent as they could.
"They're not breathing," A meek voice spoke out from the group of volunteers. Her voice cracked with fear as she stared at the face of one of the sick who she had been talking to an hour earlier.
Everyone froze. Slowly they all turned to look at the cots closest to them.
"Come here now." Pride spoke immediately. But he too was now hyperaware of their breathing. His heart shook. They really weren't breathing… not a single one.
Before the volunteers could react to Pride's words, the eyes of all the sick opened simultaneously. The girl who had been staring at the face of the person she had talked to earlier immediately felt her entire body go cold. A chill ran up her spine and threatened to steal away her mobility.
She stumbled back and tripped onto the floor, gasping for breath. Not just her, but every person in the room broke out into cold a cold sweat.
Pride gave up trying to be subtle and yelled out. "Here! Now!" His heart was threatening to beat out of his chest and beads of chilled sweat appeared his bald head.
The volunteers backed away immediately, turning on their heels they abandoned caution and ran towards Porose as fast as they could. They had heard what had happened with Tommy. Although they tried to put it out of mind, in truth it had unnerved them immensely. They thought that - even if it were to happen with someone in the warehouse - there were a few hundred of them. They probably wouldn't have to face it themselves and could leave it to Pride to handle.
But suddenly, in the span of a single breath, they had felt their world turn upside down. Could all of the sick… have lost their minds?
As they scrambled towards Pride at the front of the warehouse - the many sick were now beginning to react. A crash of metal and stone resounded inside the warehouse. The infected's heads turned to follow the movement – they leapt from the cots with enough force to send the metal beds tumbling behind them.
All of the anxiety which had been building up finally peaked.
In a time as short as it takes for a pin to drop to the floor, the quarantine bay had fallen into complete chaos.
"Use your affinity! Don't hold back! You must not hold back!" Pride dashed forward towards the 200 volunteers, the pressure was too much for him to stand back. The only way he was able to handle it, was to fight against it.
He took a swig from the alcohol bottle that the elder had given to him. The earthen power lines on his body glowed - illuminating the space around him as he dashed through the volunteers, placing himself between them and the oncoming infected. When he set eyes on them his body trembled. It was like seeing a thousand Tahmel's scrambling towards him. Every one of them had the same dead eyes that he did.
Being backed up by Pride helped the other volunteers regain some mental fortitude. They could tell how scared he was - even though he had seen this before. But watching him face them, the volunteers couldn't help but follow his example. Several people turned around as they backed up, preparing to form a blockade.
Pride's energy spread out to the hundred infected in the front, their movements immediately slowed, and their bodies were weighed down. Like Elder Omias, Pride could affect the air making it a bit harder for them to move through it. However, he achieved this using very different mechanics than the elder had.
Behind the infected that Pride slowed down, the rest came barreling through. They crashed into the slower mass in front of them with no regard, even proceeding to climb over those that didn't move fast enough. Everyone watched in terror – these people who they had been chatting with moments before were now unrecognizable. It was like what they were looking at now were no longer human. In their minds, they couldn't connect these, with their friends and family.
What was even creepier was the deafening silence as they moved. There were no sounds of exertion, there was no heavy breathing. Just the clambering of fleshy bodies scrambling over each other and metal cots being kicked out of the way. Others began to take a stand with Pride, helping him hold back the mass as they all backed up towards the door.
Some even began to shout, trying to reach out towards their family who were turned. However, Pride knew that was all for naught. The final nail in the coffin for pride, was that he couldn't sense the Common Heritage in the bodies of the people in front of him. Whatever happened to Tommy, happened to them too.
Slowly they became more organized, pushing against the oncoming horde. Their only saving grace was the elemental affinity they could use to suppress the sick. If it weren't for that - then with their tiny numbers, they would have been able to do nothing against them...
Even with their affinities, it was not limitless. Eventually they would run out of energy and they would be overtaken. Seeing how these things moved, and hearing from Pride about Tommy, none of them had any delusions about how strong these things were if they broke through.
At this moment, a scream erupted from Pride's right. He looked over just in time to see that the woman who had stumbled earlier had been ripped from the line of volunteers.
She had been attempting to call out to her friend incessantly since the fight for their lives started. Despite being warned beforehand, she couldn't help but try. The volunteers around her reacted quickly, trying to surround her with a barrier of energy as they dashed to grab her and pull her back in.
Her face was flushed white and she was covered in sweat. While trying to hold back the sick she had swiftly used up all her energy - quickly becoming lightheaded and disorientated. The lines on her body flickered and were barely visible against the blinding lights of the other volunteers.
Pride was about to dash over too but the sick pressed forward even harder, and he was pinned in position keeping the front most horde from breaking through. Everyone watched to the right, praying for a miracle as the group of three volunteers reached her. One of them swiftly picked her body up and turned to run back while the other two covered him.
Prides expression changed. Suddenly the force he was fighting shifted, lightening his load. But the turned began to swarm directly towards the group which was now completely broken off from the rest of the volunteers.
"Get back! Now!" Pride yelled out. He could see over the heads of everyone else. He could see the swarm mostly lose interest in the large group and turn to dash towards the 4 volunteers who were broken off. The gap between the 4 volunteers and the rest was widened as they couldn't fight against the attention of the horde and were forced to retreat.
Everyone watched as the swarm collided over the 4 volunteers. Screams pierced through the silence, and a mound of human shaped monsters coagulated onto them.
Everyone was stunned. No one could believe what they were seeing. After a moment the screams stopped, and it seemed like time stopped with them. All of the volunteers stared in horror. Even Pride, who knew what the risks were, felt like he wanted to throw up. Wasn't this… too much?
He attempted to speak but his tongue caught in his throat. Terror was quickly gripping his heart.
"E-Everyone. Quickly to the door. We must get out." Eventually he found his voice, however scared he was. His words still pierced into the frozen minds of everyone present. Once again, the mad dash for the door took place.
….
Whoosh
Elder Omias who was camped outside of the warehouse with some of the other elders opened his eyes. Morning was still an hour away and the lights of the city were still extremely dim. However, when he looked around, he could see that he wasn't the only elder who was stirred to attention.
"Elder Omias, what was that feeling?" The elders looked towards the center of the city. Something caught their attention, it left them with a tingle in the back of their neck.
Something had happened in the city.