Tremor, son of Aires had finally caught up to a high disciple of hades. His horde of war-mother's descended on Quanox with heavens fury.
The city was not far from the Dunn farm l, in fact they lived in the outskirts.
Tremor and a band of twelve war-mothers descended on the city and they tore it apart searching for the disciples of hades who had secretly taken control of the city disguised as wealthy merchants.
The war-mothers snuffed them out but the disciples had with them their armada hidden in plain sight.
They had remolded the city into a war machine. A giant made of steel and stone and fuel with hell's fire which it spewed from its head, it had four arms larger than a building.
The giant warmachine broke from the ground causing earthquakes and deadly tremors, killing thousands in the process.
The resulting battle resulted in the war-mothers and Tremor slayed most of the disciples and completely annihilating their entire army. The war-mothers had destroyed the war machine.
With the disciples facing defeat they resorted to their last attack; using the core of the already falling warmachine and turning it into a bomb by compressing hell's fire till it explodes.
The blast decimated the entire city bringing everything to ash, the blast spread to beyond the city and wiped out people in the surrounding areas even completely wiping out the Dunn farm.
Lucky enough they had made their way out of the farm before it hit. Mrs Dunn had had a premonition, and Mr Dunn never took that for granted, he packed what they could and they all left all six of them including their dogs .
The farm and their harvest, everything completely vaporized in a matter of seconds, what took years to create and nurture wiped out like it never existed in a flash. The war mother and Tremor, though caught in the blast, survived ; later they discovered It had only been a decoy for the remaining disciples to escape.
Tremor was particularly disgusted at the whole thing; he spat in deep hatred for hades.
"They're too scared to die for what they believe, but willing to take as many life as they please"
He screamed to the skies, through his golden skull.
"Where are you hades, look what your dogs have done!"
After a couple months Mrs Dunn fell sick. It had become very difficult finding food, they couldn't stay around their city anymore, the fall out from hell's fire was twisting, warping the place, it mutated into hideous things.
There was nothing left to eat, they had run out of pets and horses. They journeyed far into the borders of the first hell where else could they go. At least in hell there was hope of getting something to eat and if you got through it you would make it to the other side. There was a city there, and they could all start a new life.
He had been watching Estish, she now seemed distant, they had all been quiet but she seemed she had something of her kind that made her even sadder.
He knew all her dreams for a perfect life was gone, the wedding, the farm, the two kids and a dog, all vaporized to nothing.
He had noticed her sneaking off at night when they laid down for the night, he followed her once and caught her talking to herself. What seemed even stranger to him was that she spoke like she was with someone else, asking questions and reacting to the replies.
He could clearly see she was alone and he didn't want to believe she had gone crazy. She would speak with such glee in her eyes like the ones from before the fallout, like the ones those years back when he first met her and that made him cry. He didn't want to see her lose that so he never spoke about it.
Mr Dunn had been somber recently but he had taken to making jokes every now and then, in an effort to liven up the mood but every time he did, it seemed disingenuous, they could tell he was faking it. But he appreciated what Mr Dunn was doing, he was fighting, trying to stay strong, trying to smile for them.
"No we can't!" Mr Dunn said, shaking his head with eyes full of tears.
"No, we can't eat her."
He and Estiah said nothing. Estiah kept a strong face, she had no tears, he had tears and he broke down crying. They were all standing on the corpse of Mrs Dunn. She had succumb to her illness the night before.
"Dad! We have to," Estiah said with a cold intensity.
He turned to her in a bit of shock
"Come on Esse, it's your mother "
She kept the strong face, he eyes had turned red and she tried to hold back the tears, it felt bitter to say but she said it anyway,
"It's what she would have wanted, she would have wanted us to survive. Get real already with can't make it out here if you two cry over eating horses and puppies"
"What are you talking about, this is your mother not a puppy. We can't do this to her"
"Why don't you get it! What haven't we eaten, it's not the first time we'll be eating a corpse, is it? We ate that mutant, a bloody mutant! And you complaining over this, this is a cake!..... She calmed herself and spoke in a lower tone… you said we'd do anything to survive."
"Stop twisting my words Estiah!.. He yelled.. at least speak with a bit of compassion, this is your mother we're talking about here. I don't know what gotten into you"
He looks away from her, turning towards the wastelands of hell. Estiah walked off.
Mr Dunn turn to him and said
Hey son let's go bury her.
So they got some shovels and started digging, deep into the dry hot earth, out in the heats and amongst the putrid air. They had eaten their horse and now they pulled their own cartridge, they were planning to trade it when they made it to the next city but it was still too far and they had to pull it all the way, everyday.
They were exhausted and when they dug a shallow grave shy of three feet they were tired.
"Come on, son, let's bury her here. He said in tired and weary tone
Really like this? Wouldn't trolls dig her up.
He sighed in frustration seeing the reason in his words,
Alright, come on let's dig a little more.
So they dug to somewhere just above five feet, they got the body. When they manage to put the body in grave, Mr Dunn felt tired, he looked and him and said in a defeated tone,
Do we have any rations left?
No
His stomach grumbled
Do we have any firewood or hay?
Yes
He drop his head into his hand and cried a little then he whispered under his breath
Forgive me, Melissa.
He raised his head up and said to him go get the wood
What? He was confused
I figure if we burn her well enough, it wouldn't be so bad you know, it wouldn't look like her much, so it wouldn't feel as bad eating her.
His eyes widened with shock, as Mr Dunn's words sent chills down his spine. For the first time he was scared of Mr Dunn. He backed away but his back hit the walls of the grave
What are you still doing yar boy! go, go get it and tell Estiah to come eat.
As he ran away from the grave he thought of her Mr Dunn now seemed so much like the people he grew up with, so much like his parents and that terrified him.