Looking at the massive beam of light a distance away, Cree tried to decipher where it was coming from. Based on the map of the previous city of New York, it would be coming from the Empire State building. Now that the world had changed so drastically it couldn't be said it was anymore.
The planes we're filled with rocks protruding from the ground. Various water bodies in different parts of the city had dried up somehow leaving dry solid ground everywhere. The red skies was filled with flying creatures consisting of Hollow bats and other beings he didn't want to know about. Cold air blew through the city causing him to shiver a bit. The feeling of loneliness had engulfing him but he wasn't too worried about it.
Cree jumped off the rock hill he was on and proceeded to break into several stores nearby. Here he had acquired a backpack, face mask, jacket, edible items and some gloves. He believed these things were all he needed for his survival. His reasons for carrying the face mask and gloves though was to hide his sharp claws and teeth which made him seem like a monster. Compared to when he had first come out of the building, the environment looked void of any human life.
He didn't really know the situation of other parts of the world, however if it was said that the same was happening everywhere, humans would also be absent there. Cree knew that human beings were resilient and would never be wiped off the surface of the Earth so easily, though he couldn't help but worry.
"I hope I am not the only human on Earth alive."
Just then Claire had come out of the ground causing Cree to shudder a bit.
"Hey, don't scare me like that!", Cree rolled his eyes.
Upon hearing this, Claire smirked feeling a little bit pleased with herself. She had gone ahead to check the area ahead for any threats, that way he would know paths to follow and avoid.
"There are a few Abstracts ahead but they are not too dangerous. You should be able to handle them with ease. They all range from level 2 to 6 so there is no need to worry."
Cree wore his backpack and began to jog towards the area. Based on how much the environment had changed, he expected it to be a journey of about a few hours before he reached the Rift cube.
As he passed through the desolate plains, the thought of what he had said to Claire ran through his head. He couldn't help but wonder why she was so calm about what he had said. The only reason he could think of was that she was not worried in the least about what would happen. But the question was why?
Shriek!
Jumping behind a rock, Cree took cover to avoid any form of unnecessary confrontations with a monster. The shriek could be heard from a monster in front of him, one that was different from any he had seen so far.
'A new monster, huh', Cree thought to himself.
After a few seconds of hiding behind this rock, he realized that this creature seemed to be struggling with something. Taking a peek, Cree was surprised to see a red haired boy his age fighting against a lizard like creature.
Judging from the way he fought the creature, Cree could tell that he had been blessed with a system of his own. The strange boy eventually used some kind of skill that caused the lizard's hind leg to get lodged into the ground. Using a javelin, he stabbed the lizard's head causing to fall on the ground motionless.
Noticing the fact that this guy had a javelin and a defined athletic build, he believed he must have been into sports. Since this was the first person that Cree had seen that was not afraid to fight, he decided to approach him.
"Do we really need this fool", Claire voiced out like a child.
'Of course we do. The more allies we have the better my chances of survival.'
Acknowledging the logic behind doing so, Claire did not say another word. Upon entering the range of this person's peripheral vision, he turned around pointing the tip of the javelin at his throat.
"Hey, take it easy! I only have one life", Cree jested as he rose his hands up as a sign of surrender.
The brown eyes of this strange boy stared into that of Cree's before his face shone brightly.
"A..a human. I thought I was the only one left in this area."
"This area? Are you saying there may be others out there..?"
"Not may, there are humans out there. When this strange phenomenon occured the government attempted to evacuate the residents of this city to a place they called Haven. Apparently this was something that was been done all over the world. They couldn't really succeed with this completely as monsters interfered with the process. What I am trying to say is that majority of the city residents have been evacuated to who knows where", the boy explained.
This kinda explained why he had seen low numbers of people roaming the streets as the monsters attacked. They must have been the unlucky ones left behind.
"So why are you still here..?"
"The monsters attacked before I could get on board.."
The two kept silent for awhile feeling a moment of awkwardness until Cree decided to introduce himself.
"Hey, by the way my name is Cree."
"Maverick", they introduced as they shaked hands. "So where are you heading to?"
Cree fell silent upon hearing this question. To Maverick, he could easily tell that this was something he didn't want to share.
"You don't have to tell him if you don't want to. Besides you can't trust anyone during these times", Claire spoke to him from behind.
Sure Cree did not feel like he could trust this guy yet, however he knew that some extra hands would be very useful at times like this.
"Come on Cree, I have pretty much nowhere to go. You are the only person I have seen so far moving with a sense of direction."
After few seconds of thinking over it, Cree pointed towards the light shooting up into the sky. "I am heading there."
"What were the monsters came from!?"
Cree nodded in response. Seeing that he was confident about what he was doing, Maverick decided that he might as well help since he had nothing better to do.
"Okay I wanna help out."
"What!? But you could die..!"
"At this rate we are all going to die. I have no better options."
Giving out an audible sigh, Cree signalled for him to come along. Jumping off his feet a bit,a smile could be seen on Maverick's face as he followed Cree closely behind.
Claire who was levitating above the happy individual, staring at him, eventually moved up to Cree who was jogging in front.
'Anything strange about him', Cree communicated with her telepathically.
"Nothing out the ordinary. He isn't having any form of bad thoughts towards you. It seems he genuinely wants to help you but mainly because he didn't want to be alone anymore."
'I see...'
"Are you sure this is the right thing to do? This may cause some form of issues for you."
'There is no need to be worried about it. Just stay there patiently till when I am strong enough to kill you.'
"Ah! That was rude", Claire said in a playful tone as she pouted her lips.