Dimensional Warriors: Neko's Story Chapter 3

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New Neko chapter, Enjoy!

The object looked like a crystal ball mounted on some sort of device. There were buttons along the bottom, and Pahhur pressed one. The whole orb lit up with a multitude of colors, it looked like a planet. As she pressed a few more buttons colored dots freckled the surface.

“From what I've figured out, the blue dots are people, and the red ones are those Armor things.” Pahhur said, pointing. “There's a number readout down here. It's like some sort of sick tally.” Pahhur pointed to a little bar area at the base, two sets of fractions were displayed. “If I had to guess I'd say the top numbers are the number alive vs. the total number on the planet.” It made some sense, the bottom blue number was a good 20-30 billion at a glance; the planet didn't look like earth, so I could guess we were transported somehow. But if that was true, the top number was increasingly disturbing; at only a little above 27 thousand. I felt the blood drain from my face. It can't be right, can it? I spun the orb carefully. I spotted a single blue light, moving fast, several red ones closing in on all sides. Then the light flickered out, and the counter went down one. My stomach fell, and I threw up.

“27 thousand. Out of so many billions.” Just kernels at the bottom of the bag. What were the chances my family, my friends, the odds they survived? I wanted to throw up again, fortunately I didn't have anything in me. Pahhur was giving me a saddened look. I wondered how she handled it, when she figured it out.

“I found a town; on my way out here. It looked deserted so I took what I needed. It didn't take me long to find the bodies; piled up in side streets, out of the way, or stacked into buildings. So many, just dead. It looked like they had gone to sleep, and never woken up.” This was ridiculous, what were those things? Why were they doing this? I started crying, thinking of the people I knew. They were probably all dead. My parents, my friends, the people I saw every day. All of it was gone. What about me? Was I just lucky this girl had found me. I was almost another tally mark on that device. If I hadn't stopped running, if she hadn't found me, there was no question now what they would have done. I was alive though. Maybe some of my family members got lucky; like I did. There was still a chance. I had to know; who made it. I turned back to the orb.

“So the blue are people.” I turned it slowly; and suddenly noticed something. It was small, but there was a cluster of blue dots; it looked like people from all over were steadily heading in that direction. I wondered for a moment how so many people knew what direction to go in, but I shook it from my mind. It wasn't important right now. “They're gathering there, at that mountain.” I said.

“I noticed it too. Looks like regardless of the situation, mankind is going to stand up and fight.”

“If the red numbers are to be believed it won't be easy. Looks like some of the Armors have been killed, but not nearly enough. There is still 1 and a half Million left. They have almost ten times our number.”

“Yeah, but maybe there are more folks like me out there, who can fight without worrying. Plus we've got a history of war, I'm sure they will be able to use it to their advantage. But that's not what I'm going to worry about.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah I think they'll be fine on their own for now, what I wanna do is get the stragglers. See how the dots kinda circle outwards; and there is no red past a certain point? But see, like here. There are two dots in this city; its pretty much surrounded by red. A few come in every now and then, but soon vanish. Those two are fighting for their lives, if we can get in there and help them get out. Well it increases our chances; right?”

“Makes sense...” I rolled the idea around in my mind a bit. I certainly liked the idea of helping some of these people that couldn't get out otherwise, it would also give me better chances at finding people I knew. However, looking at Pahhur, this kind of planning wasn't her forte. “Alright, I'll help you out, let me take the orb. I can probably figure out the best route faster than you could.” She laughed nervously at that comment.

“I... I guess so. Sure, tomorrow I'll follow your lead!” She had suddenly gotten enthusiastic, so much like someone else I knew. It couldn't be though, Herm had been my ex. He acted much the same though. Herm would be another good face to see again; we had remained friends after the break, we both had too many problems at the time. I almost giggled at that thought. The problems we had then would be a form of heaven compared to this reality. Instead I focused on getting my spread set up for sleep. Oddly enough, Pahhur quickly gave up the tent she had built, and insisted on putting up a separate tent.

The next morning came too soon. I looked at the orb, and noticed something odd. The Armors had formed a loose ring around us last night, but they were still a good while away; maybe two days distance. They hadn't moved since.

“Hey, Pahhur. You have any idea about this?” I pointed out the odd ring and Pahhur nodded.

“I think they know what I can do. After I fought a few back at that first town I stayed at, I saw not a single one. When I figured out the orb thing, I noticed that they pretty much kept their distance.”

“I guess that's why you slept so soundly.”

“Yep, I'm pretty sure they're afraid of me, since the bullets don't work. Its not like their armor protects them either.” It made sense, then again, more seemed to be gathering at the edges. Maybe they were just keeping tabs for now, and gathering forces to do a real attack. Also if they figured out the water weakness, they would just have to wait for it to rain. Still the nearest people were about a half a week away. I gathered up some of the materials, while Pahhur packed the rest into her enormous pack. At least I could walk now.

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