Chapter 106
The rest of the trip to the big city was completely empty. The only company the pack had as they moved north was the constant spattering of rain smacking into the highway beneath their feet. This was more assuring to Nat and Shannon as they walked up Highway 2 as it turned into Deerfoot trail, as it transitioned at a two-kilometer-wide valley. The fact that there was still fairly heavy rainfall made it so they could not even see the floor of the valley, meaning that unless they came across anything on the road, they were in the clear. As they moved into the city, the rain continued to be a veil for their travel. Deerfoot was wide, with berms going up and over either side of it. It almost felt as though nature itself was shielding them from view, guarding their journey towards the zoo. It was not until late afternoon that the rain let up, but it was more than enough time for the group to make it as far as the overpass that led onto Southland Drive. This was already better time than they had expected. Their original plan was to spend the night at Carburn Park, but they still had a fair amount of daylight left. Agreeing that they could go further, the skirted past the park entirely and followed the river northwards some more.
They were travelling based on what theories they had come up with for where monsters would frequent. The main one that they followed was that the farther away from civilization they were, the less monsters they would find. Of course, this was just a guess and they were in the middle of a city, but it was an area with the least amount of infrastructure. That was the whole reason they had planned to camp alongside the river for the night. Well, after convincing Shannon that travelling through the night was a poor idea at the best of times. After about an hour more of walking, they finally called it quits for the day. Their camp sat just south of Ogden road, inside a dense bit of brush and plant life that had taken root beside the bridge. Since they were deep into the city, they decided against a fire tonight so as to minimize their presence.
Camp was set up, and dinner was pulled from the Soulscape. However, all throughout this process, Shannon did not say a word. Her eyes seemed to be both focused and worried at the same time. She finished off her meal quickly, and went straight into exercise and practice. While she was clearly stressed about what was going to happen tomorrow, she was doing her best to relax. For the last hour before the sun set and another two following, she went through the forms and motions repeatedly. Something inside of her felt that tomorrow was not going to go smoothly, and she felt nowhere near ready for the shit to hit the fan.
Internally, Shannon had the entire moments of the defence against the massive swarm of monsters they had fought. She had barely managed to take any down, and Nat and the canines essentially bailed her out from her mistake. She had alerted the horde to their presence, and had been unable to be overly productive in the fight that ensued. She had only felt that useless once in her life before, and that was when she was a little kid watching on as her family home burnt down. This time was different though, as she should have been able to do something about it. She had achieved medals on the global stage for martial arts, and fought some of the toughest and meanest sons of a gun that she had ever seen. She had enough getting beat up over the fact that monsters were stronger or more numerous than her. She had to step up, to grow stronger so she could finally be able to protect that which was dear to her.
Meanwhile, in Natalie's tent, Nat was working on what she had seen in her dream with the giant gorilla. While her total amount of energy had barely grown in the past few days, there was still a noticeable difference in quantity for each passing day. Thus, she decided to try gathering it outside of her body as she had seen the ape do. Her first few tries were draining, and did not give her anywhere near the results she was hoping for. Instead of gathering around her fist as she was wanting it to, instead it just kept shifting her hand every time she tried. Every time she tried something different, either visualizing something different or directing the energy in a different way. Nonetheless, each way came out to be the exact same result. A wonderfully furry and soft hand.
It was not until Shannon was winding down and doing stretches at the end of her workout that Natalie finally had an idea. She only had enough in her to try one more time, but it may open the door to the whole thing. She sent energy down to her hand, but only pushed a small amount out. This time, she was going to shift her hand first, and maintain that shift, while trying to form the fist of energy. Very quickly, she felt the energy reserves inside of her drop. At the same time however, she began to see something different. Green energy flowed visibly out of her fur and surround her hand, wrapping it as though it was a boxing glove. Sadly, her energy was dropping way to fast, proving that this was horribly inefficient. Ending it all, she collapsed backwards onto her mattress short of breath. "Wow" she heard, coming from the entrance of the tent.
Tilting her head forward the smallest degree necessary, she saw Shannon standing there wide-eyed on her way back to her tent. "Did you see my hand glowing green?" Nat asked. When Shannon nodded, Nat collapsed her head backwards against the pillows. "Well, that was a horribly inefficient use of it. I'll still teach it to you though once you get access to it. But now I need to sleep. Have a good night love." Natalie croaked out, exhausted. With that, Shannon wished her a good night as well and retired to her own tent. While Shannon was left with more to think about, Nat almost instantly conked out after that, drifting quietly and quickly off to sleep. It was not until a half hour later that Shannon finally managed to get her brain to rest, following her partners trek into dreamland.
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