The quest giver stumbled forward rather than running. Its body was far too destroyed to do that. Isaac got closer and raised his knife, aiming for its head. As he did so, the two were an arm's length away and the quest giver actually fell onto its knees.
Isaac stopped as the zombie swayed momentarily before a rapid clicking noise was produced from its body. Its eyes became unfocused as they darted around the room. Then they locked onto the frozen Isaac and the clicking stopped.
Then its body started expanding.
Isaac quickly threw himself back away from the zombie as its flesh swelled. The quest giver's body exploded as Isaac tried to toss himself behind a wall.
Alas, a small piece of bone shrapnel flew through the air and struck Isaac in the head, knocking him out. His body fell to the floor much like a ragdoll.
"Black! Get your ass over here!" Isaac heard a voice yelling at him. He steadied his sore body that was staggering around. His mind was locked behind a wall of fog, and he was having trouble concentrating.
"Now goddamn it!" Isaac heard the voice again as his vision started clearing up, revealing a distorted world. He looked towards the voice to see someone covered head to toe in a bloody combat suit. Their face was covered completely in a metal visor with cameras on the outside that projected the battlefield to the inside.
They were firing a gun past Isaac as their body tore itself apart into strange red, green, and blue blocks before rearranging itself.
That's when Isaac's mind recovered enough to realize the projectors on his helmet were glitching out. He made his way over to the voice as gunfire started erupting from behind him. Left, right, left, right. One step at a time.
His arms extended to make sure he didn't bump into anything, that's when he felt a hand reach out and grab him. They pulled him along as Isaac tried to speak.
"I-I can't breathe." But his voice didn't travel outside his suit. Through the distorted lens of his cameras, he saw the man leading him towards a vehicle. It floated in the air, using propulsion technology as the bullet-proof doors opened up. The man pushed Isaac inside before getting in themselves.
"I can't breathe…" Isaac's voice was getting weaker as his hand fumbled around, trying to find the latch for his helmet. Eventually, he pulled something, and the helmet produced a hissing noise.
The man was closing the large doors when he saw Isaac do this. He turned and shouted, "No! Keep it on!" He left the door partially open as he ran over to Isaac. The vehicle, often just called a bird, started raising itself as Isaac took off the helmet and collapsed to the floor, taking in a large breath of oxygen.
As the man slid over to put Isaac's helmet back on, Isaac witnessed a small pipe bomb getting thrown into the aircraft. His eyes went wide, and the man heard a loud thunk. The man turned and saw the explosive before jumping onto Isaac's body.
Isaac looked away from the explosive just as the bird's interior was lit a bright orange.
Isaac took a deep breath as his eyes opened, darting all over the place in a frenzy. His head was throbbing in pain, and he was dazed. As he got up from the floor, he found himself in an old log cabin. There was blood painting the walls and everything had been blown apart.
As Isaac went forward to investigate the explosion, he found that the room was on fire due to a broken oil lamp. That's when he finally remembered where he was. He quickly checked his health.
[64/100 Health Points]
As if his body wanted to prove the game menu's point, he rapidly felt something warm enter his mouth. He hunched over and threw up a large mouthful of blood. He looked over to find the fire spreading and so he did what any ration person did, he cursed.
"Fuck!" He quickly scrambled around trying to find whatever the cure could be as the fire slowly spread across the wood. That's when he spotted a small book where the quest giver's corpse should've been.
In the large puddle of thick blood surrounded in fire. Isaac gathered his courage and jumped through the fire to quickly grab it. As he lifted the book, it started scorching his hand. He ignored this and jumped back out of the fire.
Despite being unsure if he his body was alight, he quickly got on the floor and rolled around in the blood, snuffing any potential disaster in its crib. The result was, of course, a very bloody Isaac scrambling around. He took the book and ran through the back door of the house.
He tossed himself and the book to the grass and began skimming through it. He thought it had something to do with the cure but was surprised to find it be a journal. Since there was always the chance it actually did have something to do with the cure, Isaac quickly read it.
'December 31st, 1879'
'I have done it again despite my conscious telling me not to. I have failed Elizabeth and Timothy. I promised them to drink no longer, but why must it be so alluring? No. No I must not blame it on the drink. It is my fault and mine alone. The doctor said it was killing me, so of course they would make me stop. I need to recognize that.'
Isaac's brows furrowed together as he looked to the next page.
'January 13th, 1880'
'Elizabeth has finally forgiven me. As long as I never pick up the bottle again, we can stay a happy family. Timothy came up to me today and gave me a long hug. Despite being so young, I think he understands everything more than me. It is a strange feeling, but one I welcome nonetheless. Maybe it is time I learn from him and expand my horizons when it comes to life. The mind of a child is truly something extraordinary.'
Isaac flipped the page and continued reading.
'January 26th, 1880'
'We all went out to the town today to pick up some supplies. While there, Timothy saw a dead bird. It was on the ground in the road, its head had been crushed by a passing carriage. He cried the entire way home. He's a pure soul. Looking at myself however, I couldn't find any sympathy for the bird, no matter how hard I searched. I thought to myself, that's life. That's the food chain, they are beneath us, that's why we killed them. These thoughts disgusted me, yet I still find myself agreeing to them, even now.'
'February 9th, 1880'
'I took Timothy out to hunt today because he was interested in my bow. When I explained that I killed the animals he ate, he couldn't understand it. How am I to teach a four-year-old about mortality? It is not something he would understand no matter how much I explain. I have settled on taking him hunting more, maybe he'll understand it better.'
'February 10th, 1880'
'Yesterday we didn't find anything, but today we did. It was a beautiful buck; I nary can describe it. As I went to shoot it however, Timothy scared it away. He just couldn't keep quiet when he saw me aim at it. How can I tell him that it's us or the buck? I just wish he wouldn't create all that ruckus while I'm shooting.'
'February 14th, 1880'
'Finally managed to kill that buck. Its antlers are sitting by the door and Elizabeth is preparing some of it for dinner. Timothy won't leave his room though, he told me I was a bad person. I am simply trying my best to provide for my family. He needs to grow up and be a man already. Elizabeth says I need to be less harsh to him, but how will the boy ever learn if I am?'
'April 21st, 1880'
'It's been a long time since I've opened this thing. Skimming through its pages has been a delight however. Timothy has been growing up nicely and we just learned Elizabeth and I are having another child. My life has finally gone right.'
'April 22nd, 1880'
'I have made a grave mistake. I am currently sitting in the outhouse as I write this. Elizabeth and Timothy are in town visiting the doctor, while I- How do I phrase this? While I sit here wallowing in my own self-pity, over a mistake that is purely my own. This morning, those devilish thoughts crept back into my mind. About the bottle. I decided I have been clean long enough, surely my liver can take it. I took a small drink to celebrate our newborn child shortly after Timothy and Elizabeth left. But then I took another, and another. What kind of man am I?'
'April 29th'
'It has been a week since that day, and it has only gotten worse. I convince myself that everything is alright and take another drink, all the way until the bottle is empty. When I wake up from the blackout, I hide myself from everyone. They keep asking me where I go but how do I respond? I mustn't tell them. I must never tell them.'
Isaac noticed the handwriting had grown sloppier and the final phrase repeated itself a few times. As Isaac's eyes went to the next page, they widened. The next page was practically just scribbles.
'May'
'It's my fault. All my fault. Elizabeth left the house this morning to go see the doctor because she's been feeling pains. Timothy stayed with me, and I decided to go hunting again. Since I couldn't keep him in the house alone, he came with me. A deer I've never seen before, with a striking white coat, appeared in the woods like an apparition. My hands were trembling as I pulled the bow string back, the only thoughts in my head were of the trophy. I didn't want to eat it; I just wanted its pelt. I don't understand what came over me in that moment! Thinking on it now, my hands can't stop trembling. During my blindness, I failed to see him try to get closer to the deer.
'My poor Timothy…'
A shudder travelled down Isaac's spine. He turned his head up and looked at the house that was now half engulfed in flames. The smoke had started rising into the sky now, people would be on their way soon. He checked his health.
[32/100 Health Points]
"Shit!" He quickened his pace and started rapidly skimming through the pages. They had largely turned incoherent as the pages went further and further. All the way until Isaac couldn't read it anymore.
From what he could understand, after the accident, the quest giver tried to hide it. He told Elizabeth that Timothy had run away into the forest. The town started searching for him but after weeks they couldn't find him. That was because the quest giver had hidden the boy's body. Due to the shock, Elizabeth lost not one, but two children. This made her spiral into a depression and eventually, the quest giver started living in the woods.
That was when he saw the white deer again. The next few pages were illegible to Isaac but after that they became oddly clear. The quest giver spoke of a new faith. That he had seen the light and that the errors of his way would be washed away. He described himself of being free of sin.
Then he started describing something that Isaac could only call necromancy, after all, if not that, then what was it? It allowed the quest giver to bring those he loves back to life. And so, the quest giver did just that.
Timothy was reborn again, but he was different. His skin was cold to the touch, and he wouldn't speak to anyone except the quest giver. Regardless, the quest giver brought him back home and Elizabeth and the quest giver rejoiced. Things stayed happy like that for a while, that was until word spread that Timothy was back.
Neighbors and friends alike were incredibly happy, it was something out of a fairy tale, an impossibility. So, they began to visit. That's when a doctor, the same doctor that had treated Elizabeth in the past, noticed Timothy wasn't the same.
The joyous and innocent boy had become something much darker, an undead. He informed the rest of the town and while the quest giver and Timothy were out hunting, they decided to kill Timothy. After all, their town would be in danger otherwise, they could even be wiped out.
The quest giver described in the journal that the doctor confessed all this after he and Timothy hunted them down. After that, things quickly spiraled out of control. Apparently, Timothy up until that point only listened to the quest giver, but after biting the other men, he stopped. That's when they started attacking the quest giver's home.
Today.
"What's the answer!" Isaac clenched his fists in anger as he slowly got weaker and weaker. He had reached the end of the book. There were no more entries for him to read. No, that's not right.
'There are earlier in the book!' Isaac quickly flipped to the insane ramblings in the awful handwriting. He tried his hardest to decipher it as his health slowly ticked down. That's when his eyes finally could make out the quest giver's words.
'It said to me, 'the cure is the blood of my mistake.' The holy creature is blessing me! Timothy, my blessed son, he is the answer to everything!'
Isaac looked back up to the house engulfed in flames. His mind raced and raced for any alternative. But, in the end, Isaac closed the book. He threw it into the flames of the house.
He didn't care anymore. He would lose all his money and all his work, but he didn't care. Timothy, despite being a fabricated character, deserved his chance to rest. It was all just too real to him.
Isaac sat as the fire grew and the house crackled more and more. His mind grew tired as foam began leaking out of his mouth.
[0/100 Health Points!]
[Player: Black Coyote has died!]