Alliance of Heroes

Chapter 10 - Shadows

Chapter 10 - Shadows

While Jake and his friends were otherwise occupied in more pressing matters, Jason, oblivious to his friends' plight, was having problems of his own. He had just received a report that the scout he had sent into Veruman Town had disappeared without trace.

                Veruman Town had recently been quarantined because of the infectious plague that had somehow spread throughout the town. The King had no explanation of this and had instead decided to cut off all contact from the town so that the plague could not spread any farther.

                Jason had sent one of the Alliance to give supplies and take surveillance of the town - while wearing protective clothing so that plague would not infect him - to report back as he always did. King Yerga did not even bother to provide food or supplies to the town, instead leaving them to die. This time, however, the scout had not returned. Jason had guessed that something had happened to him so he had decided to visit the town himself.

                He would have sent someone else to handle the situation, but many of the Alliance were out on various missions and the few he had left - namely Yuki, Felicia and Roland - were not fit to complete any missions for some time. Yuki and Felicia were still weak from their near-death experiences and Roland had gone into his room and not left it for some time, not even leaving for meals.

 Jason could send some other members of the Alliance on the mission, but he thought he would enjoy the chance to stretch his legs. He would later regret having thought that.

                The sun had just risen when Jason first caught sight of Veruman Town. It looked shabby and dirty, the front gate into the city rusted and broken, though still hanging on its hinges. A tattered flag hung from the gate, proudly presenting the town's loyalty to the country, a last reminder of what the place had once been.

                Jason pulled out a cloth and covered his mouth, so as to not get infected with the plague. It was not known how the plague started or how to cure it, so the people inside the town were doomed with the knowledge that they would not ever leave until they finally died.

                There were no signs of patrols or guards around the city walls, or even on the surrounding wall. Jason pushed open the gate. It grated noisily on the ground and swung forward. The street beyond was littered with trash, the gutters choked with smouldering clothing, bed sheets and furniture, attempts to purge the plague from the belongings of the local populace, before it was discovered that the disease travelled through living beings, and did not linger on inanimate objects.

                He paused for a moment.

                There was no sound, nothing at all. A complete halt to everything, even the sounds of the wind, insects buzzing about his face, and his own breathing. To his left, a shattered apothecary lay in shambles, its walls collapsed, spilling onto the main road - riots had broken out since the plague was discovered and the quarantine had been enforced, and this, unsurprisingly, did not go down well with the majority of the townsfolk.

                Jason had heard from one of his men, Kurt Lasun - who had been spent most of his time in the town, occasionally leaving to bring supplies from the Alliance - that the elderly owner of the apothecary, Janus Haul, had attempted to quiet the crowd, and had been stoned to death because of it.

                The various nuances of the virus were not fully understood by anyone who studied it, but from what Jason gleaned from his conversations with Lasun, who had been investigating the effects of the plague, only humans could receive or pass on the virus, and the symptoms were varied and variable in their degree of lethality.