Chapter 72 - Haunt
She dove as deep as she could for a full minute, to the point where she could hardly see her surroundings. And then she quickly turned towards the shore and began swimming towards it.
However, a powerful underwater wave suddenly propelled her very quickly in the direction she was swimming. She was caught by surprise but immediately capitalized on the fortunate turn of events and burst toward the shore with high speed.
Jessica shot through the water like an underwater torpedo and travelled a huge distance in mere seconds.
After a few seconds later, as she neared the surface, she turned around to see if the flying lizards were still on to her.
What she saw caused her so much shock that she almost choked to her death underwater. She quickly swam up and her head broke the surface of the water as she coughed and sputtered desperately.
SPLASHHH!!!!!
She was almost immediately sent back underwater as a massive wave crashed into her and pushed her all the way to the shore.
Jessica scrambled to get up and away from the lake as fast as she could even though she was still coughing and sputtering.pᴀɴᴅᴀ-ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ.ᴄᴏᴍ
COUGH COUGH! COUGH COUGH!
After vomiting out a bit of water, Jessica finally stopped coughing and she dashed away from the lake as fast as she could.
“Holy smokes!” She muttered to herself in deep fear as she crashed into the treeline of the forest by the lake. “I am never entering a lake like that ever again. Nevernevernevernevernever!”
What she saw was truly beyond horrifying.
A ginormous golden snake or eel of some sort had burst out of the lake and gobbled up all thirty to forty of the flying lizards in one gulp.
Forty. 3-meter-long. Lizards. In. One. Big. Gulp.
“Holy smokes.” Jessica was still extremely shocked by what she saw. She shivered slightly in fear and quickly made her way deeper into the forest. pᴀɴᴅᴀ ɴoᴠᴇʟ
After seeing such a freakishly fearsome snake, nothing the forest had to offer seemed scary to her anymore. Unless of course, there was another freakishly large snake hiding in the forest as well.
“No.” Jessica told her mind firmly. “There is no way the golden snake would allow another giant snake to live near it. There are NO MORE giant snakes in the forest.”
Whether or not it’s true, Jessica didn’t care. She needed to believe it. If not, she might just break down and completely freak out.
Jessica decided that she would travel through the night while looking for an appropriate place to hide and rest. A cave of some sort, where she could set up the portable bunker which Elliot had given her.
For Jessica, the end of her first day of Apocalypse was a scary and tiring one.
But at least she was alive.
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀꪶ
Of the three siblings, Jennifer probably had the easiest first day. She was with Rak’Tharos, and nothing threatened her life. She had a comfortable place to sleep by a campfire, and a full belly.
However, hers was by far the saddest and the most miserable out of the trio.
She spent almost the entire evening sobbing and crying herself to short, restless sleep which ended almost as soon as she began as she pictured Jessica’s dying face with the knife stuck in her chest over and over and over again.
The first half of the night was complete misery for Jennifer. Her heart was completely shattered as she mourned for Jessica and recalled memory after memory which she had shared with her.
The times they played together with their make belief toys, the times they fought through their fatigue together to make sure that the house was clean and well taken care of so that their brother didn’t need to have an additional thing to worry about, the times they grumbled together as they cursed their “aunt” for being an evil “she-dog” (they couldn’t bring themselves to use the word “bitch” for the longest time.).
By the time midnight arrived, Jennifer had almost run out of tears to cry. She was extremely sad, extremely weary and her mind was filled to the brim with memories of Jessica. And at that point, she finally decided that the memory of Jessica would be better honored if she dedicated the rest of her life towards revenge and making sure that their beloved brother lived long and well.
“I will honor your last request, Jess. And I will make sure Rak’Tharos suffers a fate worse than death.” She said to herself.
After she had dedicated the rest of her life that way, peace finally found her and she quickly fell asleep.
Next to her, Rak’Tharos glanced at the little girl whom he had kidnapped to motivate a powerful player to get stronger much faster so that he could make use of him to do many of the things that he needed to do in order to take revenge on the Void Walkers.
He noticed how her sobs had slowly subsided into deep and determined breaths and then into the slow and regular rhythms of slumber.
“Half a night to transform debilitating sorrow into strength and resolution.” He nodded in approval. “She’s a good seed. She’ll definitely be a useful piece for me as well.”
He sat by the fire quietly and sighed deeply. The road he had chosen was a long one.
Revenge against the Void Walkers was something desired by many billions of living beings, and achieved by absolutely no one.
They were far too powerful.
Still, he had to start somewhere.
The memories of his dead wife, children and clan demanded nothing less.
But unlike her, he didn’t cry.
There was no sorrow in his heart, no longing or desire for his family.
He replayed the memories in his mind simply because he had to.
His beloved wife’s dying curse on him made sure of that.
“Curse you, Rak’Tharos, for bringing this doom upon our family. Our deaths will forever haunt your nights until you avenge us!” His wife had screamed as the flames consumed her and his wailing children. “Every night, you will think of me and our children screaming and dying in flames! You will remember this moment every night! Everyyyy’¦”
Next to her and his charred children was a hooded Void Walker with flames still steadily shooting out of his hands.