All that's left

Chapter 5: Adding To The Arsenal (Rewrite)

It's been four weeks since we left the Hot Lands and set up our camp at an abandoned plaza that we would eventually call Hide-Away. It's surrounded by a huge forest with trees so tall it makes average buildings look like lego's. In the weeks we've spent here we managed to establish an actual working base of operations with the supplies and materials left behind, thankfully Hide-Away still had working power that we utilized to keep our food supplies fresh and our lights on bright during the dark nights, the only downsides were that it was pretty unreliable at times. We spent the majority of the first week in Hide-Away clearing away all the rubble that was blocking the entrances to most of the stores, with the ruble cleared we found a generator that was still in good shape and was perfectly intact. After spending an entire night learning how to wire up a building we finally had a source of constant power. The second week at Hide-Away we constructed a barricade that surrounded the entire perimeter, we made it out of broken debris and scrap we got from the rundown cars and decayed buildings that were all over the place. For most of the third week I spent my time searching the ruined buildings nearby for anything that might be helpful, like medical supplies or canned food but all I ever found were corpses and damaged equipment, none of which was usable.

Ever since we established Hide-Away I've never been able to shake off this uneasy feeling I've had for a while. We've been at Hide-Away for nearly a month and not once have we encountered or even seen a single monster the entire time we've stayed here, that's not normal. Hell! Nothing about this is normal. My unease grew so much that I brought it up to Rachael to get a second opinion on the matter. I was hoping I was just being paranoid but she agreed that the situation was strange.

(Rachael) I mean I understand we could have just gotten lucky for the first couple of days but not seeing any monsters within three weeks is just not normal, something weird is definitely going on.

While Rachael and I were talking about the situation John came back from a supply run and came over to find out what we were talking about.

(John) yo I just got back, I didn't find anything useful though which sucks. Anyway what are you guys up to

(Rachael) we're just talking about how weird it is that we haven't seen any monsters in the past 3 weeks.

(John) mmm, yeah now that you mention it I never even noticed how peaceful it's been lately.

(Rachael) Since we don't really have anything to do today I guess we could look around, we haven't searched the forest so there could be something there. Maybe we'll find the reason why there haven't been any monsters nearby and If we're lucky we can possibly find something useful.

(Mark) alright it sounds like the best course of action.

Before we entered the forest I put on some thick tactical gloves I took from one of the rundown equipment stores so I could defend myself. Ever since pyros destroyed my gun I've been relying on my physical combat training to handle any threats. Unfortunately without the proper protection I end up hurting myself more than any actual threat does, that's why I got the gloves. As we entered the new uncharted territory, Rachael and John readied themselves in case something jumped out at us, with Rachael arming her cannon and John pulling out his axe in preparation to swing. While walking through the forest I was amazed at the abundance of plant life everywhere I looked. The grass was almost up to our knees, vines were dangling off of most trees I saw and the amount of branches on each tree nearly blocked out the sun leaving us to walk through the forest partially blind.

Something weird that I quickly picked up on was that the further we got into the forest, more and more of these strange looking webs started to appear. At first they were forming small little hexagonal shapes that connected to multiple trees but over time they started forming giant webs that began blocking off entire pathways. This combined with the fact that we could barely see them added an extra sense of unease to the environment. Though I couldn't see anything when I looked out into the darkness I could hear rustling sounds coming from the branches above, when I looked up it took my eyes a couple of seconds to adjust to the slight shift in lighting but when they did the thing that stood out to me were a pair of bright yellow glowing eyes looking at us. As I looked at them more intently it was clear there was a monster sitting on a tree branch looking in our direction... or just past it at least.