Welfare and Warfare

Chapter 7

Day: 3122

Days Left: 2358

Lives Saved: 17

It took just over two weeks of travelling until Henry and Nia arrived at the forest that Yven described. The trees were tall and thin, resembling toothbrushes with their leaves like bristles at the top, the bark an unnatural radioactive green that caused Heny's eyes to hurt, straining from the vivid colour before they eventually adjusted. It wasn't just the trees that were of this unnatural pigment but also the grass beneath them and the moss-like flora. As they ventured further into the emerald forest, following a compass, the trees grew sparse, no longer so tightly packed. They looked more uniform, creating a winding pathway between them where the grass had flattened from constant use, and then they both stopped as they saw a sign in the shape of an arrow, 'to the Warren, a safe haven in this Abyss'.

"It seems people have used this path before," said Nia.

"Quite regularly," said Henry. "If the grass hasn't grown back." He crouched down, seeing how fresh the footprints were, a few human, a few monster. "How many people will be there trying to get in? Yven was right; it will be difficult to get in."

"But not for you because of nepotism!" Nia grinned. "Going to get in because of that family privilege!"

"You think second cousins get to profit off of that privilege?" Henry laughed.

They continued walking, following the natural pathway and pausing for rests until the forest broke away, the trees even sparser, a few were cut down to the root or had bark stripped off, revealing their even more vibrant green underneath. And then there was just flat grassland, a vast clearing, lined and defended by the circling forest line of emerald, and in the centre...

Was a city.

Or at least as close to a city you could ever find in the Eternal Abyss. The buildings rose as high as four stories, made of the radioactive green wood from the nearby forest, the buildings shining a matching green. Surrounding this large emerald city were multiple walls and gates, dividing the city into districts, the inner circle being what seemed like a large crater, presumably the Land of the Lost, Henry theorised, as even in this distance, he could see a flicker of light, a portal opening and shutting in an instant and sending down someone's discarded junk from the other realm into this one; the Eternal Abyss a landfill for not just criminals but unwanted items too.

The walls that contained and defended the city were enormously tall, likely due to how large some monster masks became, then encircling those walls were trenches and spiked barricades and other defences to keep everything out.

And what were they trying to keep out?

Henry would have presumed it was for during Blood Moons, with such a high-density population within the city, any monsters during the Blood Moon would be drawn to this place, seeking bloodshed. But it seemed that these defences were not just for blood moons.

Surrounding the city and its multitude of defences were a sea of pitched tents.

Was this... a refugee camp?

People seeking out of the harsh reality of the Eternal Abyss, wanting to live in the city?

How many were there?

In the years Henry and Nia had been imprisoned in the Eternal Abyss, never had they seen so many people gathered in one place. It was too dangerous. They were all fighting over food, water, and shelter that was never enough for everyone, and then there were those who had lost their minds in this place, losing control to their monster masks, and then there were the blood moons...