Down to Earth~ Sequel to Peter Pan's Dragon Girl

Chapter 13

Elias p.o.v

The sky was turning an odd shade of grey, probably due to the still raging fires of the nearby city that people used to call New York City when the world was normal. I hefted my small backpack that Reine so 'graciously' gave me for the measly amount of supplies she 'sacrificed'. Turning back to the group of ragtag misfits, I focused on Snow and kindly smiled as she broke down in tears and loud sobs.

After lifting my hand in an uncaring wave, I face the horizon and begin walking on my path of banishment and shame. I could hear Reine's voice over the sounds of distress coming from Snow.

"You, Peter, are hereby banished from this Base, never to return." It surprisingly pained me to hear her say those words, in spite of how mad I was at her before. My journey was monotonous and seemingly endless, miles and miles of broken roads, downed telephone poles, bleached bones, variously decicating bodies, and a few rather harmless Jabbers. By sundown I was able to see the New York skyline, crumbling and decimating and serves as an obelisk to what once was the greatest place in the world that was reduced to fairytales and rubble.

The city has a great deal more Jabbers than my trek here, the vast majority shuffling around in what used to be Times Square, more than likely the unlucky tourists caught up in the wave of death and chaos. Now all I've got to do is find suitable shelter until I can find a way home or Snow uses that necklace I gave her.

The housing district of the city was relatively uninfested, a few old Jabbers that serves no threat whatsoever and maybe a half-herd or tiny piddling groups of them. I pick the lock to a nice townhouse and clear it of the family of Jabbers that had trapped themselves within with false hope of survival. It was a couple and their son, reminding me of my family back on Neverland.

After some reconnaissance I learned that the items in the fridge were utterly useless, the bread was practically it's own organism, and over half of the non-perishable foods had already been ransacked by rats and other scavengers. Time to go shoplifting.

I stole my way through five different stores before I had gathered enough food to deem survivable on. I had to lop off a few Jabber heads but meh. I returned to my borrowed home and locked the door firmly before checking all possible entrances for unwanted guests- there were none.

I miraculously created a partially healthy meal and found the least rotten bed to sleep in up on the second floor in the supposed master bedroom. The sky darkened to a murky charcoal color that served as the sign that the sun has set in any way.

I couldn't sleep, I didn't even want to try, all I could think of was just how vulnerable the Base was- how vulnerable Snow was. I knew had it of been anyone other than me on Jabber Duty that day, they wouldn't have seen it until it was too late and lots of people could've died.

It was around 5am when it happened. A loud but hollow thudding floated up through the old wood floor. And another. And another. After a few minutes it all began to flow together until it sounded like hundreds of people were banging on the walls. One hit hard enough to break through the termite riddled door, opening the floodgate to hundreds more pouring in through this single entry. Multiples tried to shuffle in at the same time, no regards to the one beside it, resulting in more than a few dozen with missing arms up to the shoulder.

At first, they just sheep shuffled around in one big herd, then one spotted me in the doorway. It lurches forward at me, disgustingly rotten fingers twitching to rip off my skin and eat me alive. This singular unorthodox movement caused the whole troupe to follow, filling the house and starting up the stairs. I backed away through the small townhouse until I hit the very back wall, nowhere to run to now. The leader lunged for my shoulder, thwarted when I used one of my swords to slice off his hands then stab through his shoulders, using him as my Jabber shield as the mass of Jabbers filled the room to it limit then kept on pushing. It seemed like death by Jabber pancakes until a fatter one miraculously broke through the wall- given the fatter one did get shredded in the process. This allowed me to use my humanoid shield to force my way to the hole and out of the house.