In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth

Kansas

As the horse trotted in the flatlands of Kansas Coheed tried to draw Faint by memory, but found himself constantly erasing and drawing different versions of his eyes on the side. He could believe it he forgot what Faint looked like, but he didn't want to accept that so he continued to try to draw Faint.. but found himself in a constant loop, "¡Joder!" He cursed. Scribbling over the drawing he made. It was happening, now he doesn't remember what Faint looked like and he was angered by that.

Stuffing the book in his bag in a huff, he grabbed the reigns and made the horse pull to a stop. Pulling out a map to check if he's heading the right way, but it was hard to tell.. so he only had one option and that was to follow Ash Creek which led to a town a couple miles from where Coheed was. He heard stories about an abandoned underground train station used during WWII, so that would probably get him to ruined NYC in a couple hours instead of a few days. A couple hours past and it's now peak hour, but finally he made it to the town called Great Bend, which Coheed thought it was a dumb name but he's heard worse in Texas. The sound of the horse's hooves clacking on the concrete road echoed across the town and that made Coheed worried, so he pulled the reigns to stop the horse. It stopped letting out a soft grunt by the sudden stop and when Coheed mounted off. He patted the horse gently in a reassuring way, "Sorry Jerrel, I gotta walk through the town.. can't have you alerting anyone or anything near by, I'll be back I promise." He said, it was weird how he was talking to a horse but then again he was alone in this part of the states.

One of the buildings Coheed came across was a 'Smoke N' Vape' which made Coheed question what people were doing before the outbreak, but it did have some good loot. Coheed saw a generator outside another building nearby called 'Chuck's Autoworks' huh, maybe they have something useful in there! Coheed jogged to the generator and flipped the switch to turn on the lights. And from a distance he heard the song 'Ahora Te Puedes Marchar', it was weird to hear that in this area.. mostly because rednecks lived here before. He was about to enter the building when he heard the cry of a horse dying, something flashed in his memory chip. A small glimpse of Faint from that day. He ran towards the sound and got knocked out by and end of a rifle butt.. leaving him in the dark and all he heard was muffled conversation.

Hours later, Coheed wakes up to a man in military gear and an Ox skull on his face being held up by straps. "You're awake, little one." The man pointed out as if it wasn't obvious, Coheed struggled against his metal restraints. The man laughed. "No use in resisting, we know what you're weak to." He said, Coheed wanted to brutally beat the shit out of this guy for just mocking his vulnerability, but couldn't since he was tied down to a leg of a table. "I swear, if I wasn't restrained I would kill you." Coheed hissed under his breath, the man laughed but another person walked in with the same uniform but different mask. A Bull skull. What kind of a sick joke was this!? Wearing dead animal skulls? The man looked at Coheed for a moment before turning his attention back to his colleague, "what are you doing?" He asked, sounding irritated. "I'm just questioning him, jeez." The other replied, "Well yeah? It looks like your fucking around we just new orders to kill trespassers on sight—" the man with the Bull skull said raising his pistol at Coheed, until the other helped his pistol down. "W-Whoa! Hey, what if this is an ambush? We need answers from this kid." He said. The two were bickering back and forth in a volley until Coheed saw a figure on the glass overhead.. the man with the bull skull was about to kill the Coheed until something killed him and the other man first.

Their bodies hitting the ground with a loud thud and the masks breaking from the force of the ground. Coheed continued to struggle against his restraints until the figure from the window jumped down, her 5'10 figure crouching down behind the wall before patching herself up. Some of her straight black hair and olive eyes looking around the room before looking at Coheed. "You from Texas?" She asked in her Bronx accent. It was Rebeca! She ran towards Coheed and broke the chains, grabbing his tiny hand before helping him up, "Chê't tiêt! C'mon kiddo, the gun shot must've alerted the others!" She said, creating a cotton tail for when other soldiers arrived.