The rest of the city was empty, save for a few stray beta-class Vultures that flew far above us; no doubt on their way to scavenge meat from any corpses left over at the frenzy site.
Them managing to find anything left was a unlikely however, as the rats would usually turn on each other after going too long without any food; canabalism was commonplace among Rabids.
Being ravenous was simply a part of their nature; so they, along with the rest of their kind weren't the type to skip out on a free meal, even if the meat was of their own dead.
My hands ached, a lot. Natalie had made the right call sealing them shut, but a little warning beforehand would have been nice.
I had to slow down my pace down by quite a bit, due to my companion's continuous complaints about how the pain in her ankles was getting worse by the second.
In response to these grievences, I simply raised both hands and presented her with my blackened palms; the thick, dry scabs covering them cracking open as I splayed my fingers wide for Natalie to see.
"Boo-hoo," She replied, doing her best not to wince after taking another step. "It'll heal in a few hours, don't be such a baby."
"That doesn't mean I'm immune to pain." I said, eyeing her with a faux-critical stare.
She glared at me, before stopping dead in her tracks.
"Carry me, please." She requested, dropping all further pretences and subtle hints; staring down at her shoes shamefully. "I don't want to slow us down."
I smiled, having seen a request of this nature coming. "Alright."
Natalie's normally calm heart fluttered as I lifted her into the air in a bridal carry, and I listened intently as its fervent beating sped up.
Funny how when we weren't fighting for our lives, both of us actually managed to enjoy these rare moments together.
"So, where to?" I asked, locking my long fingers together and ignoring the searing pain that came alongside the minor action.
"Onto the next city I guess; or ruin, or jungle. Whichever comes first. We must've explored half the damn world by now."
"Half?" I snorted, we aren't even close to half; ninety-percent of the world is underwater right now."
Her jaw dropped in a mocking surprise, her voice shocked. "Nah, really? I didn't notice."
"Pretty hard to miss I know, just thought I should point it out for you." My sarcasm didn't go unnoticed, and my non-existent third eye detected a tirade of witty banter incoming.
~~~
Twenty minutes later and we had finally reached the end of the main road that led out of the city, our route now cut off by a toppled bridge which lead down into a large, jagged ravine that cut across the landscape ahead of us.
"I vote we go in." I commented, peering down into the dark abyss. We had nowhere better to go anyway. Surely nothing could go wrong, right?
"I second that with that rather brilliant notion, let's go." Natalie gave me a winning smile, snapping her fingers and summoning another glowing butterfly before sending it flying down into the large crevice.
"Well then," I said, walking forwards and extending my arms so that she was being lifted directly over darkness below; as if I were about to drop her in. "Ladies first."
I was joking of course, dropping her in was the last thing I wanted to do; even if she would just revive after dying to the fall.
"Hmmm," She said, tapping her chin musingly. Natalie's thoughtful face suddenly twisting into a malicious grin. "Bet."
Both of my hearts jumped in panic as she broke free of of my embrace and flipped backwards into the pit, plummeting downwards head-first. What the fuck was she doing?
Without delay; I too dived off the edge, following her quickly disappearing figure into the dark.
"ARE YOU FUCKING MAD?" I yelled down, eyes stinging as my vision forcibly mutated so I could see in the pitch-blackness
I focused in on her smiling face as her hair danced in the free fall. she mouthed a single word at me through the wind; "Spiders."
I instantly looked past her, my eyes heating up unpleasantly as my empowered gaze ripped through the blackness.
There were gigantic silver webs lacing the bottom of the ravine, still hundreds of metres away and practically invisible to the naked eye. A speck of pink light floated above the first set of them, which must have been the scout she had sent down earlier.
My face tore up in pure, unadulterated panic as I realised she was relying on the broad lattice of webs to break our fall.
We had done this exact thing a few years ago, purely by accident after being chased over a cliffs edge by a pack of Alpha-wolves; nasty beasts that were almost always the top predator of whichever area we travelled to. They hunted in packs of six and were the size of small buses; how they had survived for so long after hunting every other animal to near extinction was far beyond my comprehension.
The spiders however, had mutated a few months back; and their webs weren't sticky anymore. As most other creatures had long since evolved the strength to escape their webs; they in turn had matched this progression by changing the nature of how they hunted.
Rabids and humans alike didn't get 'caught' in these webs anymore; they got shredded by the now unnaturally hard, and very lethal threads. The spiders would then devour whatever flesh and innards remained.
Simply colliding with one of them at a leisurely walking speed would easily slice through skin and bone; I had figured this out the hard way after nearly getting decapitated while walking through the back alleys of the city.
We were about get cleaved into more pieces than I could feasibly count.
"FUUUCK, THEY AREN'T STICKY ANYMORE! NATALIE!" I screamed down, watching as her easygoing smile morphed into one of shock and understanding at this potentially fatal blunder.
She twisted midair, and I saw the pink speck way below us impale itself on one of the razor sharp wires, exploding outwards in a flash of light.
It had no effect other than making the thread glow a deep red at the heat intense produced and vibrate violently in place, surely alerting every single one of the ravine's eight-legged inhabitants to our impending arrival.
"SHITT!"
Natalie whipped around again, staring up at me in terror; not scared for herself now, but for me. She would come back from this, but I couldn't. No amount of regeneration was enough to piece me back together after a fall like that.
Her hands clapped together as she roared ferociously. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty butterflies exploded out from her clenched palms; each glowing a brilliant, radiant white; transcending her usual pink variants in power by a staggering amount.
Blood splattered upwards onto my face, the sticky red substance leaking from both Natalie's eyes and nose. She was way beyond her current limit.
One of the twenty flew straight at me, latching itself onto my front as the remaining nineteen blitzed downwards at unfathomable speeds.
Natalie's eyes rolled into the back of her head as every single one of those nineteen blew up, decimating most, if not all of the interlaced webs; with the entire base of the ravine being obliterated as collateral damage.
The ground caught up with Natalie, and I watched as her body was bisected by a stray wire before pancaking outwards into a bloody mess as she slammed into the ground.
I had barely three seconds before the same thing happened to me, and I wasn't going to get back up afterwards.
The butterfly that had attached itself to my chest blew up a split second after Natalie had died, the non-lethal propulsion surging outwards after being triggered by its creator's death. Her attempt at softening my landing unintentionally resulting in my chest caving inwards from the force it had generated.
I hit the ground, hard.
I blacked out.