Uril stood at the center of Ward 5, unable to move a single inch as she felt stupid in agreeing to Rueben's very, mind you, very simple request. It was just a fetch quest that she had no confidence in completing.
I accepted his request. After all, this is his first request from almost a month that we have met. I didn't want to refuse... Uril thought to herself as she found her heart beating.
Uril is one of the people affected greatly by the pandemic, mentally. Because she's currently 19, most of her life consists of living indoors, unable to leave her home in fear of being infected by the disease.
Because she hasn't gone out for most of her life, this also meant she doesn't have any of the necessary skills to live a normal life in society. Pathetic, if you prefer, but you can't find faults with her, she was raised to be obedient and hidden away, thus her meek personality.
There are times when she can muster the confidence and courage to lead people, but that only happens due to her passion for creating a cure for the disease. Even then, she only spoke to her labmates about how they can solve problems and improve formulas and solutions more effectively. Hell, she doesn't even know most of her labmates' names.
"..Im scared... Hunters are scary..." Muttering to herself quietly, she observed the hunters moving about.
Each hunter only wear a mask that cover their mouth and nose. There are some wearing glasses, but most of them don't have any.
Wearing a scaled leather coat and necessary combat outfits, they looked like soldiers preparing for war without the armor, or the sword, or the shield.
They were an intimidating bunch, and their eyes tell their stories. After all, the eyes are where your soul resides, awaiting to be set free.
Uril consulted her map again, then remembering she didn't know how to read maps because all she learned at school was medicine and botany, not map reading.
Im fucked, utterly fucked.. Thinking to herself, she crouched down in despair.
Now you might think that this is out of character for this woman, well you're right.
Uril stayed still for a moment, shivering ever so slightly at different intervals. Then she nodded her head as her eyes burned in resolution, she just managed to convince herself that she can do this.
She stood up quickly before hitting her head unto someone's chin, which made the both of them let out strange noises.
The poor old man held his jaw while shaking as his mouth rumbled like an earthquake, the pain he felt from his chin was far beyond what he felt in his entire life. His mask had also fallen off due to the chin attack when the random woman he met on the street attacked him.
Uril also felt her head bump with someone's chin, she hurriedly faced the lad with her eyes closed, then bowed her head down and apologized loudly.
"Apologies, mister! I wasn't in the right mind, so i unfortunately bumped with your chin..."
The man cocked his head to the side to fix his chin a little and let out a cough, "It is okay, it didn't hurt that much anyway.."
Then he grabbed his mask and put it on, Uril stood straight as he did so.
He wore a long black robe covered in small sphere shaped dingalings, a large red moon was printed on the back of his robe.
"Anyhow, greetings. I am a priest of the Church of the Crimson Moon. It seemed you needed help, the reason why i bumped with you." The man nodded his head as if proud that he talked.
Uril shifted for a moment, before nodding her head, "Y-Yes. Priest..."
"Calcemo, please call me Calcemo."
"Right, Priest Calcemo, i am lost."
The priest, Calcemo looked at her for a moment, before sighing while putting his palm over his chin, "Well lass, it seems the both of us have the same problem."
"..."
"No matter... By the Crimson Moon's will, someone kind will come to our aid soon enough!"
Then he let out a cheerful laugh as the hunters walking around turned their heads to look at the old priest, before walking away.
Though one did walk towards them.
Wearing a goggles and a scarf to cover his mouth, sporting a sleek brownish leather coat complete with weapons on his back, a crossbow on his waist and two daggers at his sides.
"Excuse me."
The priest smiled brightly as he turned to look at Uril, "See? By the Crimson Moon's will, someone will help us!"
Uril turned to the hunter with expectations.
"No loitering in these parts. This place is where most of those who turned into beasts get killed, so the other beasts come here smelling the blood."
"..."
"That is all, thank you for listening."
The man then bowed his head slightly before leaving.
"..."
"..."
The two stared at the man's back for a moment, before Calcemo rushed towards him.
"Ahem, mister hunter..."
"Gerald. Please call me Gerald."
"Mr. Gerald, thank you for the hospitality but if we may disturb you for a moment?" Calcemo smiled underneath his mask, which the hunter, Gerald didn't see.
"Of course, what do you need help with?"
"You see, my... companion and i are lost. We would like to ask you for directions."
Gerald stared at him, before nodding his head, his hands pressing his glabella, "Ah, yes of course. I often forget that Ward 5 is a massive maze compared to the other wards.."
"So, people not native to Ward 5 could get lost." Warping his mouth, Gerald let out a soft sneeze.
Calcemo smiled brightly, his benign ancient face wrinkled in delight as he pulled out a note, "See here, lad. One of my Churchmates asked me to come to this location, a large tavern called Asinta."
Gerald took the note while Calcemo continued ranting, "Seriously, young people nowadays. They expect the old to be able to know everything, who gives out just the name of the tavern? Atleast put the directions so that i wouldn't get needlessly lost!"
Uril stared at them for a moment, afraid to speak.
Gerald then turned to her, gave her a look from above to below and bowed his head, "Ms. Inventor, where do you need to go?"
"Ah..!" Uril flinched before scrambling to take her note out from her bag.
Gerald watched as a woman with a white coat, black dress shirt and trousers wearing a mask that covered her face scramble to find something in her bag.
Then she pulled out a note.
Staring at the note for a brief moment, he let his guard down and pushed his pistol deeper into its holster and grabbed the note.
Opening it up, he read it for a moment, before opening his eyes wide.
"This is from Mr. Rueben?"
He turned his head to look at Uril, who only nodded her head in agreement. Gerald stared at her before staring at the note with shaking hands.
Uril noticed his hands shaking as Calcemo patiently waited.
"Umm.. Are you okay..?"
Uril gently grabbed his shoulders, shaking him slightly from his trance and coughed.
"My apologies. I was in shock that this letter came from that person."
She cocked her head to the side, before her eyes shined, "Wait, are you a fan of him too?"
Gerald flinched, then turned to her as he heard the words "too". Then with a bright smile, he pulled down his mask.
"You too?"
He then closed his eyes and coughed violently, "Ahem. I'll lead you to your destinations."
Gerald moved his hand to gesture for them to follow him. He moved his head to look at the old priest and spoke.
"I apologize, but we'll have to escort the young lady first."
Calcemo chuckled, "Ah youth. Lead on lad, we'll follow after the expert."
Gerald nodded his head, and he started walking as the two followed after him.
Uril turned her head to look around, taking in the chilling sight of hunters moving in groups, patrolling. She made a mental image in her head and compared it to her ward.
The two wards were essentially the same, same design philosophies, building made of steel, bricks and concrete, small but long alleyways, a maze like structure of the roads, even the bridges have gates and bars that could be used to trap something.
Though there are some differences.
In her Ward, the amount of people moving around outside were, of course, minimal compared to other countries in history, but there are still people trying to live a normal life in this disease ridden world.
Just this morning, she met a wonderful lady out in the market with her child, carefully picking fruits and vegetables to bring home. A laborer out in the streets, toiling himself. A woman in black dress with a large cone hat who winked at her. A man selling used paper but recycled into a new piece of paper.
There were people in her ward going outside, the presence of the hunters there were minimal as most of the beasts attack the east side of Arkvem, which was why the Hunter's territory was to the east.
Uril took a look at the bridge as they crossed it, the sewage water was clean, gone of impurities.
The difference between the two wards was that she barely even saw a netizen wandering around doing things, the most she saw where battle hardened hunters cautiously patrolling the entire ward, some even did so in secrecy.
That was the difference between the two wards.
"Here we are. Mir Bar. One of safe havens for Hunters in Ward 5." Gerald introduced the shop as Uril snapped out of her thoughts.
"You should see a large man in a brown vest by the front table. That person should be Robert, the person you are looking for and if you see a woman beating him in any possible way, then that's Riza, his wife."
Calcemo peeked from the window and whistled, "That's a crowd."
Gerald leaned and looked, "Yes. Most of the hunters like Robert and his wife's antics. This place is one of the remaining solace we hunters have in this city."
"I see... Well! It was nice meeting you, lass. If you ever need help, just look for a church bearing this symbol and tell them my name, they'll understand what to do." Calcemo them grabbed Uril's hand and gave her two packs of gum from his chest pocket.
"Here, take these with you. Mushroom and sour flavored. I highly recommend them, lassie."
Uril thanked him and bowed her head.
"We are off, lassie! We'll meet again if the Crimson Moon wills it!"
"Yes! Thank you, father Calcemo. Thank you too, Hunter Gerald."
Herald nodded his head and tipped his hat, "It is welcomed, my lady." He then turned his feet around and led Calcemo away.
Uril stared at them for a moment, before turning to the bar, she clenched her chest for a moment, feeling a little dizzy.
"Hoo..." She breathed out and inhaled deeply before slapping her cheeks.
Then she opened the door.