novelraw Interlude: World Events
Interlude: World Events
Jenn couldn’t help but grin smugly as she surveyed what she considered to be her domain. Sure, she wasn’t actually the sole leader of the group she had fallen in with after the troubles at Apple Gate Farm, but she could be considered the spiritual leader. People were listening to her, and not just because of her looks, what little remained of them, but because her words were considered important. Maybe even wise, though she wasn’t sure how much actual wisdom she had, not with the number of ill-advised decisions she had made in the past. There were far too many of those, and only a minority proved ill-advised in hindsight; the majority should have been recognisable as stupid in advance. But maybe that was where the wisdom came in; she had made a number of mistakes in her life, and, hopefully, others would learn the lessons she had, without the painful experiences that taught her them.
Though, given the sheer amount of insanity that had happened in the world, maybe her decisions hadn’t been that bad, at least not from a practical standpoint and the positions she was now in. Her son, Sebastian, had survived the insanity of the last two years, despite the literal end of the world, the collapse of society and everything else the world had thrown at humanity. Given that the number of children under the age of five she had seen was rather low, she considered the survival of her son an achievement, something a number of envious glances confirmed.
If only Chris were still with her, though, if she were being honest with herself, things might not have worked out as well if he were. Chris was, or maybe had been, a charismatic man, confident and outgoing, able to draw people in and make them see his way, follow along his plans. It had been a large part of what had drawn her to him, made her fall for him, that outgoing personality, alongside his good looks. However, getting people to go along with you didn’t mean much if you didn’t know where you were going; it only meant the whole group would get lost. Which might be fun during a road trip, or when out on a holiday exploring, but it was a lot less amusing during a true crisis.
Finding her people had been a journey and a test of certain qualities of hers. Qualities she had only recognised as faith in hindsight. As long as she had been able to hold on, to keep going so her dear Sebastian would be safe, the Mother would keep her safe in turn. As long as her faith held, so would her strength.
It was a belief that had been tested numerous times by a wide variety of monsters. Some of them had been furred or scaly, while others had worn fur or scales on their bodies, but, at the end of the day, a monster was a monster, whether it had once been human or not. The apocalypse hadn’t changed people; it merely allowed what had been concealed by society to come to the forefront.
Stepping out of her relatively simple dwelling, she approached her small congregation. Not many came to pray with her daily, and she didn’t need them to. The Mother helped those she could, just as a Mother helped her Children. It didn’t matter if the children were always obedient, it didn’t matter whether they were always polite, nice and helpful. It would have been great if they were, but at the end of the day, they were children. They needed support; they occasionally needed someone to heal their ills and give them encouragement. That was what Jenn had devoted herself to: giving those who needed it the help they required to succeed in life.
Just as she had received the help of the Mother when she needed it to take that one additional step, to hide in the shadows just a little deeper and to give her the strength to carry on, even when all seemed lost.
It was what a Mother did, and she would not fail her children, even if they weren’t always happy to eat their vegetables. She would do her best and never give up on them.
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Wu Chenhua had seen many things in her long and storied life. Some of those things, she had never talked about with anyone. Initially, because she had been under orders, but eventually, it had simply been easier to keep quiet and try to forget those things. To bury them under new experiences, though she had never forgotten the lessons she had learned in her youth. Some of those lessons, she had shared with chosen disciples, but some of them needed to be taught in ways she couldn’t bring herself to. She simply wasn’t the kind of person who could make herself act in certain ways; it was just not within her. Not for love, not for country and certainly not for educational purposes.
“Kevin seems to be doing well,” she quietly remarked, looking out into the swamp. Kevin was a sore spot, a brilliant young man who had travelled with her for a good while, only to change in ways she still couldn’t comprehend. He had completely embraced his new form, even joining the Drowned, the horrible, formerly human creatures that occupied the swamps near the latest community she called home. And the Drowned had accepted him for some reason; despite the fact that he wasn’t Drowned, he had become one of them.
“They are following his guidance.” Oliver, another young man who had travelled with her group after they left the Farm they had sought shelter at in the aftermath of the Apocalypse, remarked. They were both staying hidden, keeping out of sight, as they had no interest in getting into a fight; they were just out in the swamp to seek some materials for Oliver’s alchemy. And to check on the young man they had once known, to see if there might still be something of that young man they knew within the inhuman shell.
They knew that people could change their appearance. Wu Chenhua had quietly told them about Samantha, now known as Jade Morgana, and her transformation in the aftermath of the Apocalypse. The woman had changed, too, but fundamentally, she had remained the same, a somewhat awkward but incredibly determined young woman, driven by a need to learn and understand. She had been a pleasure to teach and had demonstrated that same enjoyment when it came to teaching others. Sure, teaching martial arts and teaching magic weren’t the same, but from what she had heard, it was remarkably similar.
“Do you think he’ll do something to us? Or will his humanity win out in the end?” the old woman who had seen far too much in her long life asked, unwilling to sentence the young man to death, but knowing that it might be necessary. The Drowned weren’t a threat to them, but only because they didn’t have guidance; they didn’t try to expand. As long as they stayed within their swamp, they could be ignored or avoided. But if they were guided by an intelligence, someone who made plans and schemed, that all would change.
“Not yet,” Oliver shook his head, “See how they move? They are gathering supplies, but not those one would need to fight. They don’t seem to be looking for food, but rather for building material.”
“You think he might, what?” Wu Chenhua paused for a moment, studying the movement of the Drowned she could see, the different clusters and the way Kevin was guiding them, even teaching them. “They might turn back into people? Or into something completely different?”
“Who knows?” Oliver shrugged, “You said that Morgana managed to turn a Shattered back into a person, or at least into a person who had some memories of the original. She did that with much less power than we have now, simply because she had so few levels back then. Who’s to say that the Shattered, the Drowned and Scorched or whatever they are called by the system, who’s to say that they can’t become someone else?”
“Nobody says that,” the old woman sighed, “But I’m honestly not sure it would do us any good. It might even harm us all.”
When she noticed the odd look on her companion’s face, she closed her eyes for a moment, tired of it all. “Think, Oliver,” she implored him, “How many of them have we killed since the world broke? How many of those creatures that were once like us have we consigned to oblivion, thinking there was no other way? How many of us will crack, or break, if they learn that their actions, motivated by survival, have killed hundreds of people?”
For a moment, Oliver was silent, obviously processing the question, only to come up with numbers that he didn’t like at all.
“We'd better keep this quiet,” he agreed with the elderly woman’s wisdom, even while knowing that this only delayed the issue. It solved nothing, but gave them some time. Though neither knew how they could use that time to soften the incoming blow.