Risen World

Chapter 4: Some Times the Tough Choice Is the Right Choice

"Why the hell would you bring that thing towards me Madalyn? You could have gotten the rest of us killed!" A rather large middle aged man yelled towards a woman who had lowered her head. The man was white with a rather red complexion around the face due to his anger, he had a balding patch of blond hair trying its best to cover his head, and although he still had some muscle in his arms his belly swelled out like a balloon. The man was quite a bit taller than the woman standing at a height of six foot four inches and he used every bit of that size to try to intimidate her.

"I'm sorry I didn't know what else to do." The woman sobbed quietly. She was rather beautiful with wavy blond hair that reached her shoulders, lovely blue eyes that were tinged red from crying, and she had a rather well shaped body that was a bit top heavy if anything. Standing at around five foot eight inches her hunched over appearance made her look even smaller in front of the men. She wore a long sleeved blue top even though it was the start of summer, but from how thin her hands looked it was clear to see she had a rather unhealthy complexion.

"Sorry? You're sorry? Next time I'll throw you back out there if you pull that kind of shit again." The angered man replied.

"Now quiet down you two, if you're too loud you might attract more of them." An older man that came out of hiding said. He was wearing a nice suit, and walked with what seemed to be a slight limp. He was clean shaven and kept his graying hair short and neat. His eyes showed the uneasiness he was feeling, but he tried to put on a light smile to calm the other two.

"No this fool needs to be taught a lesson so she doesn't screw us all over." The man said with a lower voice after the warning, but still rather aggressively. He was about to grab her arm and pull her away when a large hand clamped on to his shoulder. The man's first response was to snarl and turn around in anger, but after seeing who was stopping him his face turned pale. Joshua stared the man down like he had done to the woman before. Although the man was rather large, Joshua stood a good four inches taller and was built like a Greek statue. "Who are you?"

"The man that just saved your life, and the way you're acting is making me regret that choice." Joshua said as he glared him down. "Why was she alone in the first place while you cowered away behind the counter?"

"When I woke up that's where the mayor and I were. We had been talking over there before that ringing noise happened." The man said as he tried his hardest not to look Joshua directly in the eyes.

"He's telling the truth it took us a moment to gather ourselves, but by then Madalyn had already screamed after seeing the thing. You pretty much know the rest." The older man said before offering a handshake. Joshua stared at the fat man a bit longer before turning towards the offered hand. "You can call me Mr. Clark. I'm the mayor of this small town. That man beside you is George Wright and that's his wife Madalyn Wright."

Joshua's eyebrows scrunched up for a moment after hearing that those two were a married couple before responding. "My name's Joshua, I was passing through town when whatever this mess is happened." While shaking the man's hand Joshua stopped for a second and turned his head towards another area of the store. "Come out."

Everyone else turned to look in the same direction he was looking when a small teenage boy crawled out from under one of the checkout isle at the front of the little shop. "Heh heh hi Mr. Clark." The boy was rather small and fidgety, he had clean straight black hair that was long enough to cover up a large part of the side of his face, extremely white skin with a few freckles under his eyes, and he wore a T-shirt that said "nerds are the future" with coding slang underneath. If it weren't for his rather skinny frame and the visible Adam's apple he could have easily been mistaken for a girl.

"Nathaniel is that you?" The mayor said in surprise. "I thought you had disappeared along with the other kids."

"There were other people in the store?" Joshua asked in interest. "Wait forget that, we can continue this conversation after we get to a safer location. With all the noise you guys made more of those things will probably be on the way."

"What are you insane? Why the hell would we go out into that mess?" George said seeming to gain back some of his temper for a split moment before realizing who he was talking too.

"Well if you want to sit here and wait to be swarmed by those things and hope that they don't dive through the windows then be my guest. Everyone else lets go." Joshua said before heading towards the door. The first to follow him with a frightening eagerness was Nathaniel who rushed to keep up with him. The other three were silent for a moment before Madalyn hurried after leaving the two men there lost on what to do.

As Joshua headed outside the door he looked around the area to see if any more trouble was on its way. At first it was silent and the only thing noticeable was the stinking corpses of the creatures he had killed earlier, but soon he could hear a constant clicking sound. It wasn't that far away from what he could tell and soon it was followed by a few more of the same noise. Joshua quickly turned around grabbed a coffee mug from the shopping window at the entrance and then quickly chucked it as hard and as far as he could in the opposite direction he planned to go.

A loud sound of the shattering cup could be heard in the distant fog and right after the clicking came to a halt. For a few seconds there was nothing to hear as Joshua and the others held their breaths to make as little noise as possible, hoping that they wouldn't draw any attention. Then the clicking started again in earnest, first one then two, then three sets and more began to scratch against the pavement. For a moment the ruckus noise was all that could be heard as it stayed in place before slowly fading into the distance as the monsters moved in the direction of the cup.

Everyone let out the breaths they were holding as complete silence took hold in the immediate area once again. Just then the door to the shop behind them opened up again as George and the mayor came following them outside. George was about to say something when Joshua glared at him for a moment before signaling the both of them to remain silent. After a quick nod from the mayor and a reluctant one from George they all headed back in the direction of the gas station.

Keeping as silent as possible the group slowly made their way back pass the gas station towards the outside of town. Along the way they would sometimes here clicking noises off in the distance, but they were often far away and wouldn't catch up with their pace. Before they had left Joshua decided to carry the mayor himself on his back just to make sure that they wouldn't be slowed down due to his limp. After a few minutes of walking past the exit of town the haze gradually lifted until everything ahead of them became completely clear. Directly to the side they could see the back of the entrance sign to the small town, and ahead of them was all farm land.

"Were finally out. Damn it what the hell is going on here?" George shouted in anger almost snarling as he did. Just as he finished they all once again heard a clicking sound and turned towards the haze they had just left behind. Staring for a while they could hear the sound grow louder until a few figures slowly became visible as they shambled towards them. Joshua got ready as he set the mayor down to take a position to fight if need be, but the creatures stopped just before exiting the fog. Their hunched over forms sniffed at the air before letting out shrieks of pain before shuffling backwards.

"It llooks like they can't leave. At lleast we don't have to worry about them out here." Nathaniel said quietly as he wiped the sweat from his face. He couldn't help but stutter out of fear as he tried to calm himself.

"Well that's good for now, but they appeared out of nowhere so I wouldn't be surprised if there is another way for them to get around besides the haze." Joshua said as he let his guard down after knowing they were safe for the moment. He then urged the others to move further away from the town as he wasn't sure if one of the creatures might jump out and attack them in some suicidal attempt.

"Well, what do we do now? There's no way we can do anything in there anymore." George said as he sat down on the ground sweating from both the tension and the short run from out of the haze. "I guess we could go to one of the farm houses around here, heaven knows there's a ton of them."

"What's the area around here like anyways?" Joshua said as he looked towards all the crops in the distance and could see a few farm houses around. "Are there any major farms?"

"Yeah there is a large farm about twenty miles from here. It's owned by an old couple that hires a lot of people from town and other small farms for work. Why do you ask?" The mayor said after thinking for a moment.

"Well it would be a good spot to hold up for a while and see if we can learn what's going on outside of just here." Joshua said while he felt a buzz go off from his pocket. He pulled out his phone and noticed that it had turned itself back on after coming outside of the haze. "At least electronics work outside that crap, otherwise it would be hard to keep track of things around the world, but first lets handle our situation."

"What's there to handle let's get the hell away from here and go somewhere safe. We can head to a farm that's as far away from here as possible I don't care as long as it involves avoiding those godforsaken things." George said as he was still huffing after the run out of town. Everyone else except Joshua nodded along for the moment as they started to discuss where to go and what they should do on the way there. On the other hand Joshua kept looking towards the town as the now viewable four creatures kept staring in their direction. For a moment he seemed lost in thought as the others rambled on before he gained a stern look after coming to a decision.

"What's at the center of town Mayor? What's the layout like?" Joshua asked interrupting their conversation.

"Well, uh, there's a fire department and police office towards the center along with my office. Why do you ask?" The mayor said as he looked at Joshua strangely.

"Is there a broadcast at any of the locations?"

"Well yeah, there is one at my office on the third floor."

"What the hell are you talking about? What does any of this have to do with getting the hell away from here?" George asked in shock. "I will not be going back into that madness, you hear me!"

"Well unless we're the only people that were in town all day there are probably other people from your town trapped in there not knowing what to do." Joshua replied slowly at first, but his voice had a building momentum. "Leaving them all here to die just isn't in me, not when I know I can help."

"Even if you're going back in there how do you plan on using the broadcast system with all the electronics in the town not working?" Nathaniel said as he pointed towards his phone. "Out here stuff works, but in there I couldn't even use the alarm system in the store."

"Well there is one thing I've noticed since coming out here." Joshua replied before pointing towards the haze. "The mist is only so high, it sticks fairly low to the ground and if the broadcast system is on the third floor of the mayor's office then there is a good chance that it can still work."

"You're going back in there on a chance? To hell with all your fake bravado, I will not follow you or anyone else to my death!" George shouted angrily causing the creatures to lock in on him even though they couldn't move towards him. There shrieks reminding everyone that they were still there.

"I didn't ask you to follow me, in fact you would just be dead weight." Joshua said as he looked George over before looking back towards the others causing the man to grow even angrier. "Even if I can't get a broadcast going I can still save as many people as I can. After fighting them a few times unless I'm surprised or swarmed by to many of them there is no way I'll let them bite me. I can handle myself so none of you need to follow me, just wait here and help anyone else that comes out." The mayor nodded in response while George simply angrily grit his teeth.

"I'll go with you." A voice surprised everyone as Nathaniel looked towards Joshua with a nervous smile. "I'm not sure what happened, but my sister disappeared and so did a few of my friends. We all worked at that store together and as the oldest of the bunch I have to make sure they're alright. I wouldn't be able to look my mother in the face if I didn't look for my little sis."

"Good I'll lead the way and do most of the fighting, but if you can create some distractions along the way that would be a big help Nathaniel." Joshua said with a small smile. Although the kid seemed to be as easy to frighten as a deer, he was willing to go through hell and back to help his family. That was one thing the both of them had in common. For a moment he thought of his family and hoped they were ok, but he pushed the thought to the back of his mind and prepared to help the people he could at the moment.

"You can just call me Nathan, all my friends do." Nathan responded with a smile.

"Alright then we'll head towards my truck first to get the other bat for you to use." Joshua said as he stretched out his hand to pat the kid on the shoulder. "I'll make sure to keep you safe the entire time just be as quiet as you can while following, keep your ears open for any strange sounds, and if you can, throw stuff to make a noise away from us when possible. Oh and just call me Josh."

As the two got ready to head back into the mist the mayor wished them both good luck while George mumbled something about them that no one could hear. Then another shock happened as the last person didn't wave to them or stand aside, but instead decided to come along. "I'll go as well. I still have friends in town that have helped me through a lot in my lifeI just can't leave them in there to die." Madalyn said with a surprising amount of conviction.

"What are you saying?" George responded in rage to what he saw as his wife's apparent madness. "I will not allow you to go in there with them!"

Madalyn was quiet for a moment as George strutted towards her preparing to grab her arm. Then she looked up and gave the man a look that caused him to come to a halt. The both of them stood there for a moment, one in udder disbelief while the other had a determined expression. "I'm not going to sit here and do nothing while people I've known my entire life are in danger. I'll do anything I can to help." She said before backing away from George and stepping in besides Joshua and Nathan.

For a moment all that could be heard was the heavy breathing of George as his face grew a deep shade of red and his eyes started to bulge in complete rage. He huffed harder and harder as he made his way towards his wife who unconsciously stepped behind Joshua as the anger on her husband's face started to get to her. George stopped right in front of Joshua who was now in between the married couple, but it was as if he couldn't even register that there was someone blocking his way.

George raised his hand and quickly swatted towards his wife who flinched away, but the hand was caught by another as Joshua tightly squeezed George's wrist until the man started to grit in pain. Then as if loosing what little reason he had left, George punched towards Joshua's face only to whiff, just before he blacked out. Joshua held the man up from falling on him after knocking him out with a quick punch to the chin. "You stay here with this idiot, mayor. Next time he tries to blatantly hit someone in front of me like that I won't just knock him out. Make sure to tell him that when he wakes up." Joshua said before getting a surprised nod from the mayor.

Joshua walked back towards the mist and looked at the four abomination staring at him. He pulled out his combat knife and threw it hard between the eyes of the furthest one before charging forward and hitting the closest one over the head with the metal bat. The last two quickly lunged towards him but he spun out of the way of one while catching the other. He twisted his captives arm causing a quick break to its brittle bones before smashing its face into the pavement killing it instantly. The last one tried to stand back up after missing its first attack only to be stepped on and forced back to the ground. Joshua then ended its annoying screams with one quick swing of his bat.

After stepping off the creature and removing his combat knife from the one he killed first, he turned back around only to see shocked looks from his spectators. "Well what are you waiting for? Let's go."

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