World Filter

Mark watched as Jonathan looped a thick length of chain around the power station's doors. Securing it in place with a thick padlock. Sadly with the introduction of the system, these precautions wouldn’t really act as a deterrent to people with the strength to break the lock with their bare hands.

Though right now it was the best they could do with limited resources on hand.

They had spent a good number of hours trying to clean the Ghosts out. They had not managed to find any more on their last sweep but unfortunately, even with Chris and Sam working together, it was not hard to miss the hiding Corrupted.

So the next best thing was to lock the place down. Elizabeth had set up monitoring software and linked it to the base's servers so that if anything like this happened again they would be able to tell right away.

One final thing still bothered Mark. The people that had broken in here in the first place. What were they doing?

They had not found any survivors here and assumed that all the bodies down there were the poor souls that had arrived by truck but for what reason?

The only conclusion that they could come up with was that this area was easily defensible. The thick walls and strong gates would be the perfect place for people looking to put down a survivor camp.

Sadly there was no one left alive to ask.

By some miracle, the truck still worked so after closing the main gates they parked the truck in front of it to stop any future attempts.

Once that was done Jonathan hoped the wall and rejoined the group. He then sent Command a ‘mission successful’.

After everything was fixed and secured they only managed to leave the facility at around four in the afternoon.

They begining their journey back while they still had some light. The bodies up on the powerlines gave Mark a more somber feeling than when they first arrived.

Making their way through the Corrupted filled streets once more was actually an improvement as Mark could lose himself in the motions.

[Force bolt] reaped the ‘lives’ of any Corrupted that came near.

Hours passed and soon they spotted a familiar sight of the motel just as the sun began to set.

Making sure to clear the place once more they found that a couple of Corrupted had made their way inside in the short while they were gone.

After they cleared them out and set up for the night, Chris helped Mark prep a meal for everyone.

Everyone seemed tired and the mood was restrained, but there was a relieved air to the group. Jokes between the soldier didn’t feel so forced and the conversation flowed smoothly.

Mark for one got into an easy discussion with Elizabeth. He even noticed the tension in Sam's shoulders drop by a degree and more of her lively personality shone through.

One of the soldiers broke out a flask of whisky in celebration. All things considered, the mission had been a resounding success. There were losses and no one was denying that but it could have been a lot worse.

They drew for watch and Mark drew the last shift in the early hours of the morning with Franklin. It was because of this he had front-row seats to the incoming message.

It was close to six in the morning, just one more hour till people woke when the sound of the emergency radio they used to communicate with the safe zone crackled to life.

Jonathan sat up almost at the same time.

A soldier's voice came through the static.

“This is Home Base calling SAGE do you read me, over”

“This is Jonathan Wilson of SAGE, I read you loud and clear”

“Good job on the mission success but you’re needed back at the safe zone asap, there have been some concerning movements from the Corrupted and we are calling back all teams effective immediately ”

“Understood will radio in when we are at the extraction point.”

“Keep us posted on your progress, over and out.”

The message was short and sweet but it didn’t sound like good news.

Jonathan looked over to Mark and indicated with his head to go wake the others while he briefed Sam.

Soon enough the rooms were full of bustling activity, everyone was up and getting ready to head out.

If they hurried they’d be able to make it to the chopper's pick point and arrive home before nightfall.

They were moving out a little early but hopeful they’d avoided the worst of it.

Sam set their direction while studying the maps and they were off.

The street air was brisk as they moved through the quiet calm streets.

The light on the horizon was just enough to get away with not using extra torches and spells. Helping them avoid attention further. Though Mark should have known it wouldn’t last because as they got onto one of the main roads some Ghasts spotted their party.

Changing direction immediately they drove at the group.

Mark put up a shield and they picked the things off, but even as the remaining ones retreated their screeches called more Corrupted down on the squad.

They kept moving while picking off strays, Mark used [Force bolt] at key engagements to prevent them from being slowed down.

As they traveled a couple of hours and were constantly knocked off course having to readjust every hour or so. The Corrupted numbers coming in had not been anywhere near what they were facing now. They seemed agitated and were collecting in droves.

As they struggled through the streets Mark start to wonder if they were even going to make it in time. At this rate, it didn’t look like it.

“Halt, checking our heading,” Sam said as she launched a spike of earth while taking out her tablet.

The squad held position while she got her bearings. Mark glanced at her when he noticed the usual five-second stop was taking longer than normal.

She was frowning at the map and typing furiously on the pad.

“Sam, what going on?” Jonathan called to her.

With a sudden jolt, she snapped her head up, meeting their gaze.

She looked worried.

An expression he didn’t see on her face often.

“We need to move, get out of the open.”

She pointed to a nearby alleyway and the squad moved toward it.

Mark felt something brush up against his senses.

Since entering the green zone he had always kept a close eye on the surrounding Corruption levels. Hoping to learn something from how the ring kept Corruption at bay.

This was also the reason he notice that the ring's effect beginning to fail. The Corruption was slowly seeping back into their surroundings.

Confusion hit Mark, right away he pulled Prana forward and kept it near the threshold of his skin to block what was getting through the ring. The amount was tiny but the moment he let it affect his Cv the ring would deactivate.

Mark liked the ring, but right now he cursed its conditional use. What the hell was even happening?

They made it to the alleyway and crossed over into another main road. This was not even remotely in the direction of home.

Once more Mark saw Sam leading them on an absolutely erratic path, leading back through a different alleyway into the same street they’d left minutes ago, all the while looking at her system Map.

“Sam, what's going on talk to us!” Mark shout to her.

He could feel the ring letting more Corruption through.

He trusted her fully to guide them, but as her expression grew more concerned, he realized something was very wrong.

Sam didn’t even look at him she just kept running but said.

“The Map, somethings wrong”

Mark frowned and brought up his system Map. It opened right on top of where Mark currently was.

They were near the edges of a green zone. The Map had no street names which is why Sam constantly referred to the one on her tablet, but something caught Mark's attention.

Zooming in closer he saw their surrounding area was flashing.

Changing from green to white. Mark hadn’t seen the Map do this before but he knew it worked in real time. So whatever was happening, was going on in the surrounding few blocks, putting the squad smack dab in the middle of whatever this was.

The area flashed again but this time it moved to orange then back to green.

Mark felt the ring on his thumb and made the connection.

The Purifiers presence reduced the strength of the surrounding Corruption by 1 level.

Meaning, it wasn't failing, the Corruption was just getting too strong for the ring to stop it all.

The ring could only stop the Corruption in a green area, but their surroundings were changing to orange.

He realized why they were running so erratically, Sam was trying to get them out of the area but it wasn’t working. The zone was moving as erratically as they were. It was probably not following them but it was similar to being near the site of a tornado touching down. One couldn't predict exactly where it would show up.

Mark thought back to the map she had shown him in the power station, with the orange dots.

Something was coming and they were right near the eye of the storm.

Mark felt the normally inert Corruption respond. They were just crossing through a bus station when all the Corruption in the area suddenly condensed together right infront of them.

Mark shouted a warning to the group.

The residual ichor from ‘the fall’ collected together as if drawn by a powerful magnet.

The mass seemed to writhe and a large form began to take shape within the rolling slime.

They kept running but out of the corner of his eye, Mark saw the mass condensing into the form of a beast, building from the ground up.

It was becoming more defined by the second.

At first, Mark thought it was a horse but when the top half took the form of a humanoid he realized it was more centaur in nature. Only with none of the modern media charm.

This thing looked like one of the horsemen of the apocalypse.

Interlocking scales of amour covered every inch of it looking like it was made from beetle carapace, shining with a black luster. Serrated barbs jutted out from between the panels, dripping with black ichor.

The lower part of it was the size of a bus while the upper half easily stood 15 feet tall. In its hand, a strange-looking spear the size of a lamppost took shape. The spearhead looked to be made of condensed ichor, molded onto the end.

Weapons were new, Mark hadn’t seen a single Corrupted using a weapon yet.

He had been keeping an eye on the creature throughout its whole manifestation and time was up, the thing released an explosive breath as it solidified.

The squad had kept moving at full speed but as the creature turned toward them Mark knew they wouldn’t be able to outrun it. This was possibly the worst matchup if they want to escape.

Suddenly a prompt from the system appeared in Mark's vision.

Warning: The Wandering Blight(Guardian) has been detected in your vicinity.

Mark wished he could beat the system right now.

“Thanks for the timely warning.” he thought sarcastically.

Mark looked over their shoulder to see the Guardian watching them. The damned thing had seen them already and it began to move.

They had been thinking about hunting a Guardian soon but now one had rocked up right in front of them and they were far from prepared.

The sounds of heavy footfalls began to build up behind them, picking up speed with each successive shake of the earth.

Knowing he shouldn’t, but looking anyway, he saw the thing had closed more than half the distance they had put between them. With each step, a pothole-sized crater was left on the tarmac. Mark noticed black mist pouring off the thing.

Sam shouted over the noise.

“We won’t outrun this thing like this. Alleyway coming up!”

Mark saw the one she meant, it was a back alley between two restaurants. Meaning it was narrow enough to let them pass but the ‘big boy’ behind them would have to take another route.

They dove down the passage and escaped out the other side, running straight up the road.

They didn't get far before a concussive explosion destroyed the nearest building. Brickwork, plaster, and debris exploded outward into the street as the creature demolished the building in its way with ease.