After a long journey, Spring-Autumn and Rainmist arrived at Cana City.
The air was filled with dust, and the sky was dark. Collapsed buildings were everywhere and there were traces of blood on the ground.
At first glance, it appeared that the city was completely ruined, with no living humans left. Just like everywhere else, they had come across before, the case of Cana City was unique.
Looking at the conditions of the city, one would have many questions. How could it be ruined to this point when there were no longer any monsters around? Why weren't there any ability-users protecting the city? Where is everyone?
Spring-Autumn pulled Rainmist into his embrace and jumped on top of a building. From there, they jumped from building to building, observing the conditions of the city.
Most of the places were destroyed from what is presumed to be damaged from the monsters when the world first changed.
This brings up the question: If one were to survive that first wave of the onslaught, where would they go?
It would be a place with food and an ample amount of security. The first place that came to mind would be grocery stores, and supermarkets followed by military bases.
He first arrived at a nearby grocery store. Unexpectedly. Or rather, expectedly, there were survivors.
Compared to the other buildings, the grocery store was in much better conditions, presumably from the slight cleaning that the survivors have done to it.
It had a big blue neon sign that had the words "Jon's" on it. The sign was slightly tilted. The entire front was entirely out of glass. There was a panel that was completely shattered, and others were merely cracked.
There were no traces of cracked glass on the ground, showing the effort that this store's residents put into cleaning.
The inside of the place was dim, but Spring-Autumn, with his enhanced eyesight, was able to see a group of people huddled together in blankets in a corner of the store.
When he stepped inside together with Rainmist, he could make out more details of the place. The food was entirely cleared off the shelves and fridges, causing him to raise an eyebrow.
The sound of his footsteps startled the survivors awake. When his glowing green eyes landed on them, they scurried their bottoms back in fear.
The group of survivors appeared to consist mainly of men and elderly women. There was a lack of children and young women. Their faces were dried and shrivelled up from starvation.
Spring-Autumn paid no mind to their conditions and merely asked. "Where are the ability users?"
"..." Silence.
"I don't like to be ignored." He said again, the ground below cracking into a spider-web pattern.
The survivors shook in fear once again. An elderly man crawled forward. It was unknown what his age was, his appearance was too skinny and starved to be able to tell.
"They're gone… All gone!" The survivor said in a low voice.
"What do you mean they're gone?"
"I don't know… I don't know…" He shook his head.
Spring-Autumn shook his head, a vague idea forming his head. He grabbed Rainmist's hand who has been silent the entire time and said. "We're leaving."
Just as Spring-Autumn turned his back, the elderly survivor's grew desperate.
"Please… Give us food! Anything is fine… Please…"
He halted slightly, then threw a bag of dried meat over to the man.
Spring-Autumn could see the man's expression the moment he tossed food over to him. It was of surprise, joy, elation. He could see the man's lips arcing into a smile, before turning into a frown, and then back into a smile. Tears started dripping out of the man's eyes. His body was still sprawled on the ground as he hugged the bag of dried meat tightly.
"Thank you… Thank you…" The man's voice came as whispers.
When Spring-Autumn exited the grocery store, he could suddenly understand why Rainmist remained silent. She was an intelligent woman who could pick up on many cues quickly.
"W-what do you think is happening in this city?" Rainmist asked wearily.
"I think I have a rough idea... and I'll know for sure after we look a bit more," Spring-Autumn replied lightly.
A desolate wind passed by. Usually, silence could be perceived as comforting. It was the majority of what accompanied them during their journey here after all. However, when it was in a place where there were usually a lot of people, it became eerie.
There were no monsters, no ability users, no traces of intense battle, besides one that was first made from the first wave of the great change.
They continued to look through the city, arriving at another grocery store for the same thing to occur. And another one. And another one.
Each grocery store had starved survivors that were clueless about the status of ability users that could've protected them.
Some were outright ignorant about ability users, not knowing that they existed at all. It was a fascinating situation.
Finally, they arrived at the city hall. From piecing the information from survivors, the city hall was the place where the government first organized when the great change happened.
Spring-Autumn could already sense a large number of people inside by standing outside. Compared to the conditions of the grocery store, the city hall was a bit different.
The city hall's building had barbed wires all around the premise, and two guards at the entrance holding rifles.
"The last piece of the puzzle," Spring-Autumn said to Rainmist as they observed the city hall from on top of a tall building that had yet to crumble.