NOVEL SIMPLE 50 - Always look up
The cracked and broken asphalt raced beneath David as he glided down the abandoned highway, the wind ruffling his fur and the sun warming his back. The shadows of his outstretched wings flitted across the faded yellow dividing lines still visible in splotches on the deteriorated road surface. He grinned happily, the warming air drifting up from the old road making it pathetically easy to stay aloft as he scouted ahead of Claire while she stomped down the highway behind him.
Their sendoff the night before had been the closest thing to a party one could hope for these days, and Herold had regaled them with his repertoire of outrageously inappropriate drinking songs that they all bellowed together despite having only water to quench their thirst. David had laughed himself almost sick at a song involving a cart, a donkey, and several barrels of whisky that he was sure he’d never forget as long as he lived, and he found himself humming it and snickering as he wheeled back towards the enormous armored reptile trailing behind him.
“The barrels were leakin’!” David warbled off-key enthusiastically when he swooped down to land on Claire’s head, “The ass started peekin’, the farmer had led them astray!”
“Oh my god, David! Give it a rest, you’ve sang that like ten times now.” Claire muttered as she stepped around a pothole in the process of its own special evolution into a sinkhole in the middle of the road.
David chattered back rapidly as he extended his wings a bit to give her some shade like the world's ugliest hat, “It’s stuck in my head, don’t blame me for trying to get it out! Besides, we’re almost there anyway. You can see that old ‘Very Last Chance’ gas station from the air, we should be there in like half an hour maybe.”
“You know that’s like…ten miles outside of Redfield right?” Claire grumbled.
David shrugged and looked out over the road ahead of them, trying to decide if he thought the abandoned cars were creepy or not as Claire wound her way around them whenever they passed one. The grass had grown tall on either side of the old highway where it ran straight as an arrow between Riverport and their destination, and it waved prettily in the wind as it stretched off into the distance to be devoured by the tree line of the forest that grew down from the foothills. David sniffed the air and sighed, thoroughly enjoying the enhanced scent of the pines and fertile earth that spoke of lush hunting grounds, soothing some part of him at the back of his mind that kept telling him the road was too exposed and something would spot him lurking about.
“Yeah, I mean it is…race you to the gas station? The canopy is still standing, you could catch a break in some shade.” David suggested slyly as Claire snorted and maintained her steady pace, “...You know, there’s a pretty good chance some of those pastries inside are still good. I don’t think they ever actually expire.”
Claire wordlessly began to trot, and David was almost knocked loose of his perch on her head by the motion before he secured a better grip and flapped his wings in the surging wind as she steadily picked up speed. Within moments they were traveling at a rapid pace, not quite as fast as a vehicle could have moved, but fast enough to run down most old-world animals over a moderate distance, and her enormous clawed feet pounded the pavement while she breathed loudly in a steady rhythm.
“Onward! Charge! Hi-ho Scaly, awa-” David swallowed a bug mid-dramatic shout and began to hack aggressively while Claire exploded into laughter below him.
“I thought…we were…racing?” Claire barked between her steady inhalations, amusement plain in her voice as the gas station suddenly loomed in the distance.
David gagged one final time as he felt the insect wriggling down his throat before he shook his head and hurled himself into the air, falling behind the enormous reptile as she pounded away down the road. He began to flap hard and pick up speed, the muscles in his back and chest beginning to burn as he rifled through the air and overtook Claire in a matter of moments, and she snapped playfully at him as he passed overhead. David screeched in victory as he sprinted the final mile or so and Claire roared in response to seeing him land atop the fuel station canopy and spread his wings into the air like a champion prizefighter as he panted, tongue lolling out of his jaws. He squinted into the light of the sun as it hung in the horizon behind Claire before she slowed her run to a trot a few minutes later and thundered into the overgrown parking lot, her chest heaving like a bellows in time with her breathing.
“I declare…second place prize to be…snack cakes!” She snarled as she shoved a rusted-out SuV out of her way with her snout. The vehicle rolled away to crash into a small car on the other side of the parking lot with a resounding screech of metal as she flopped down in the shade and savored the cool concrete.
David fluttered down from the roof of the canopy to strut about like he’d just won the championship while Claire rolled her eyes at him. She swung her tail at him and he ducked low to the ground with an amused barking laugh before he nodded, ears upright and amused as he squeezed through the overgrown fuel pumps. He burst through the ivy and scampered across the parking lot with his nose in the air, snuffling for any suspicious scents as he neared the doors to the store itself.
Huh, this place made out pretty well all things considered. I think I saw maybe two panes of glass still intact in Riverport by the time we made it back, and Last Chance Gas looks like it’s only been closed for a few years. Weird. Nothing even cracked, maybe there’ll be some snacks in here after all…oh! I wonder if…
David arrived at the door and stood there expectantly for a moment before his ears drifted out to the sides in chagrin, and he wedged his talons into the small gap between the sliding doors before heaving with all his might and forcing them open a few inches. He quickly wedged his snout into the gap and wrinkled his face in discomfort as he forced his head and shoulders through, slowly widening the gap until he popped into the store and made a terrible discovery.
It was almost impossible to walk on linoleum when your feet were all tipped with talons and claws.
His legs splayed, and his wings drifted out ahead of him as he tried desperately to reclaim his balance but nothing he did stopped his slow collapse onto the cool floor. He growled a bit and slowly and carefully picked himself up, standing on the backs of his feet and lifting his talons carefully to press the bottoms of his ‘palms’ onto the floor to provide some friction. David briefly hoped Claire hadn’t been watching to see him flop around like an idiot but the raucous laughter that exploded from behind him in the parking lot dashed his hopes quite nicely. He shot a glance over his shoulder only to find her rolling around in amusement at his misfortune and folded his ears down menacingly.
David intensified his malevolent glare before snorting and turning carefully to pick his way through the store.
I hope there are some snacks in here, everyone says they never actually go bad, but it might be an old wives' tale. Bugs probably got them but then again looks like this place was closed up pretty well when…everything went down. Pretty well preserved here…
David made his way towards the snack aisle, firing off a few Echolocations as he went but finding nothing too suspicious as he hopped, shuffled, and crawled his way to his target. His nose wrinkled at the unpleasant smell of long-dried chemicals that burned his throat, as well as an oily, musky smell that seemed to permeate the entire building which he found equally unpleasant. To his sorrow, much of the food was totally inedible, and a glance into a tube of his favorite chips had almost scarred him for life when only blackened crumbs and dried brownish mold stared back at him. He sighed in defeat and nudged the tube back with his nose before continuing his search before he finally struck paydirt.
No…it couldn’t be…the legends are true…
There at the end of the aisle, tucked between exploded blue pastry packets and discolored boxes of candy sat the holy grail of snack cakes, fluffy yellow goodness still standing defiant against the ravages of time. Not all of them had survived, the inventory on the higher shelves dried out by the sunlight from the windows, plastic shriveled and split…but on the lower shelves, sheltered by benevolent darkness an entire rack remained unspoiled at a glance. David began to drool instantly at the sight, and he allowed the strings of slobber to splatter onto the floor heedlessly as his body fell into a lurking crouch, unable to resist the primal urge to stalk such a delectable prey. He crept forward cautiously, as if they would vanish into a mirage if he moved too quickly and began to approach his prize.
He was too distracted to dodge when something covered in hard, bristly hair and boasting far too many legs dropped from the ceiling and slammed into his back, pinning him to the ground an instant before two huge fangs pierced his flesh and he shrieked in agony as cold fire began to pour into his body.
–Health: 155/165–
–Stamina: 348/390–
–You have been afflicted by Grab–
–You have been afflicted by Venom D–
–You have taken 7 Poison Damage–