The cellar door is pushed open slowly as two people crawl out cautiouslly. Antochi closes the cellar door behind him glancing at Sotiria with weary eyes. "We need to be careful, I know we cleared out this hospital but there might still be some Fleshhounds around here." Antochi whispered to Sotiria while scanning the area. Sotiria stayed silent for a few seconds before speaking. "Wow, I'm surprised." Antochi responded "What do you mean?"
"I'm just surprised you've changed so much, when we first got here, before we made the shelter, you were so different, you've changed a lot." Sotiria softly responds to Antochi looking him up and down. Anotchi blushes slightly before puckering up his cheeks. "It's nothing much, I just decided to man up a bit, I can't always be the wimp you know." Anotchi says nervously laughing in the process.
"Okay, okay that's enough idle chat now lets go." Sotiria sternly exclaims with a slight teasing smile plastered on her face. Antochi nods with determination as they begin to traverse the dark and desolate hospital corridors. Abandoned gurneys and wheelchairs filled the halls telling a story just by looks. They traversed the halls making their way to a door that lead to stairs to the ground floor of the building.
"Damn I'm still surprised a hospital would build so deep underground." Antochi remarks a bit louder than usual. "Shush." Sotiria hushes him as she opens the door slowly. A bright light momentarily blinds the both of them as they enter the ground floor of the hospital. Even though they were still inside the building the light shone brightly into the building through cracked windows.
"Atleast we know it's morning." Antochi exclaims slightly chuckling. Sotiria looks at him not saying anything just smiling. They make their way to the front of the building both holding their breaths as they open the door to the outside world.
The atmosphere shifts in an instant, light floods the space, forcing them to shield their eyes with raised hands. The outside heat was a lot but bearable. The sight was sad to see. "The city of Tirros, it was so beautiful. Now it's reduced to this. It's surprising that we're five cities away from Luminara and the effects of the virus are still heavy here." Sotiria exclaims to Antochi as they stare at the cracked asphalt and ruined buildings. The city is now messy and forgotten nobody dares to wander outside into the streets.
"Most people are either in shelters or they left completely, it's so empty." Antochi mentions scanning the area cautiously. "Well, someone would have to be extremely confident or extremely desperate to wander outside, especially with those monsters roaming around these areas." Sotiria responds grabbing Antochi's arm as she leads him across the street from the hospital to a back alley. "It's dangerous to walk out in the open don't forget that." She says as they begin to walk through the back alleys of the once prestige city of Tirros.
"Where are we heading?" Antochi queries while walking past trashbags and dead rats. "I've mapped the area a bit, There's a few places I want to check for food and maybe weapons for the people at the shelter to protect themselves. The first place I want to head to is the old mall we passed during our last expedition." Sotiria responds looking at Antochi. "Oh yeah we never got a chance to explore it. Best possiblity is that it has few supplies left, worst case is people already raided it. Though that possibity isn't that high, we haven't met other people with abilities." Antochi exclaims looking around the area nervouslly.
"We're almost there, right around the corner is going to be the mall but it's going to be out in the open so get ready for anything." Sotiria nervously remarks slightly glancing at the obviously tensed Antochi. As they turn the corner the large building looming over them just a hundred meters away gives them hope to find supplies. "I still can't get over how big the mall is." Antochi lets out. "Yeah the idea to make a mall themed like a sky scraper was actually a nice idea." Sotiria responds as she steps forward to the mall.
Suddenly a low guttural growl puts them both on high alert. They don't have to look towards the sound to know what it is.
"Fleshhound." Sotiria exclaims. "I'll let you handle this one." She continues. "Okay." Antochi responds. The large hunk of meat that resembles a dog growled at Antochi before dashing towards him. He reciprocates, dashing towards the "monster." Its mouth opens up revealing rows of sharp teeth resembling canines as it jumps onto Antochi. Antochi dodges, punching the hound in its snout knocking it to the ground.
It quickly gets back up contorting as it jumps up to continue the assault. "Just stay down." Antochi says as he sighs not looking that bothered at its presence. It jumps onto him again, this time he reaches out its hand letting it bite onto his hand. He lets out a slight wince but quickly hides it. "Got you." He says before delivering a heavy punch to the hound and throwing it into the ground. It lets go of his hand as he crushes its head under his feet. "I'm sorry... You're free now." He murmurs under his breath before turning towards Sotiria.
"Took you long enough." She slightly scoffs, "Though I understand, it must be hard... since they used to be people." Sotiria says as she looks down sadly at the mess that used to be a person. "Yeah, I still can't accept it but this is the least we can do for them, they've suffered too much." Antochi responds while walking towards Sotiria. "Lets go." He breathes out, his hand healing in the process. "I can see you've gotten your ability under control." "Well, I guess you can say that." He responds as they both head towards the entrance of the mall.