CHAPTER 44: CH 44: RUN.

Advice: Do not draw on Aether. ]

The message faded out of existence.

He sprawled onto the rug in the module, trying to get the feeling back in his digits whilst ignoring the system message.

Flexing his fingers before he snapped. "How the hell am I supposed to survive this without Aether!" He shot up and arched a brow as he thought he heard something on the outside.

~PAA! PAA! PAA!~

He slapped himself continuously till his cheeks ran red with blood and swelled with pain.

"There’s nothing outside. It’s all in your head, calm down." He steadied his breathing, taking deep breaths to calm his nerves before facing the situation at hand.

’Hollowmen? I’ve never heard of those but Mr Collins has definitely mentioned corrupted-aether anomalies.’ He laid back onto the rug and stared at the blank metal ceiling.

He occasionally spoke aloud. For two purposes, one. To hear something other than the incessant howl of the wind outside and two. To keep himself sane.

"Corrupted-aether anomalies are beings made sentient by corrupted Aether. But for them to be here means that something of a much higher rank is controlling them."

His mind churned as he thought of what else could be here to control them.

"But it does explain why Aether is so thin here. Aether normally flourishes in natural biomes... but when there’s corrupted Aether is around, it contaminates the entire place."

He raised his hands, hovering them over his face— the blood had finally started to flow better within them. Dropped them over his eyes, before dragging himself up.

Aegon took off his freezing clothes, practically solid at this point, as he tossed them aside and set his gaze to the left where the gear stood.

Putting them all on took a good minute which made him contemplate whether he should carry everything along, but ultimately decided to with the thought:

’I don’t think the system would give me something I wouldn’t need... it didn’t exactly scream benevolence.’

He stuffed the remaining items into his pack— Fire-starter kit. Compression wraps. Emergency rations. A pop up tent. The mountain climbing gear.

Just as he finished he set his sight on the crate at the opposite end of the room. Curiosity took over.

He flipped it out and his jaw slacked.

Weapons. Handguns, a compass, crossbows, knives, and enough ammunition for a private army. Enough to make him glance back at the door and wonder. "What the hell is waiting for me out there?"

The guns were, however, a trick he’d already seen through. Yes, it’d be perfect for sharp kills but it’d require him to drag ammunition with him which was a giant red flag.

After safely sliding the knife into his side pouch and a handgun in his pocket, he rummaged through the crate till he found something... Peculiar.

Sleek metal black canister with a little note attached to its body. He pulled it off and read.

"Pressurised Aether-capacitor. Stores a tiny burst of Aether for emergency heat/surge. WARNING: Use ONLY in life-or-death."

He studied the can meticulously with a confused face. ’Why give me Aether-in-a-can when I shouldn’t be using it?’

~Shrrrk.~

A sudden scratch against the shelter shook him out of thought. He tried to the side of the module.

The sound wasn’t in his head. And the longer he remained here, the worse it’d get. At least he thought so, in actuality, he had no idea what was going on.

Shoving the capacitor into the pack, he finally covered his entire body— pack included, in the thermal drape.

~Wooooooohhhhhh!~

As soon as the module’s door slid open the wind wasted no time before howling at him.

The contrast between the warm shelter and the blizzard outside was almost too much, like drowning subtlety in extremes.

He turned back and exited the module backwards, eyes darting between either sides to find out where the noise was from but saw nothing.

Burying the eerie feeling, he raised the compass before him to find his bearing. The needle darted frantically— more particularly, the needle darted frantically anywhere North.

And guess where the highest mountain was? North.

Time had clearly passed, evident by the dim of the sky. Still barely visible but somehow his eyes had already begun to get accustomed to it.

He continued the odyssey for the foothill of the mountain. Time dragged past him like a wounded beast, slow, snarling, and refusing to die.

Luckily, with the gear, it made him slightly impervious to the cold and that helped increase his pace by a fraction.

From time to time, he’d pick up the compass to see if the needle had settled but alas, it remained the same.

Aegon already knew possible reasons why a compass would go haywire, from distortion in the magnetic field to electronics and finally anomalies.

It was one of the first signs that an anomaly was present, and now the system was practically leading him straight to it.

"Grrhh!"

A snarl jerked him out of thought as he spun to locate the source of the noise.

But still, he saw nothing through the thick canopy of snow. He stopped moving, narrowed his eyes and searched carefully.

Although, he couldn’t see anything. He did however, hear the slow dragged footsteps of someone— or something, in the snow.

"He- Hello!" He called out hesitantly.

"GRRRHHH!"

It appeared out of nowhere and threw itself onto Aegon.

He barely had time to think before its jaw snapped in his face— again and again. It wouldn’t relent.

"Grrah!" Aegon screamed as he finally managed to push it off.

It’s face— if you can even call it that, was half decayed, fleshed slapped onto bone with the black purple complexion of something eaten away by the ice.

On its head sat loose, thin strands of hair. Its eyes glowed with an unnatural blue and the smell... Its smell made that of a cadaver seem like lilies.

Aegon gritted his teeth and held back his sudden urge to throw up. ’How can something smell this bad through a blizzard?’

It twitched violently on the snow before dragging itself up and turning back to Aegon, who’d unconsciously just been watching.

"SKKREEE!" It snarled before lurching to Aegon.

He sidestepped it. Fortunately, its movements were uncoordinated and clumsy.

As it fell to the snow again, he reached for the gun and without much ceremony—

~BAM!~

A blinking white light sparked through the snow as he drove a bullet through its skull.

He fastened the gun back onto his hostler just before he heard it.

Growls. Too many too count and from all directions.

Aegon crouched slightly. Realising that panicking right now would only kill him faster. Stretched his hand back and retrieved a flare.

Slid off its cap and illuminated the tundra in a faint red glow. Then immediately wished he hadn’t.

Figures. Maybe hundreds, they surrounded him and were closing in. Leaving him with only one thought in mind.

’RUN!’