Her breath caught as the cart went over a bump, jostling her on the hard front seat. The pain was generally bearable now, but the harsh jolt sent waves of it rolling through her. Rock was next to her in the cart with Hadrian and her mother in the bed. As the town finally came into view, Jes beheld absolute chaos. Rock brought the cart to a stop and let out a low whistle.

“Damn.” Was all he said.

“I don’t know what I expected, but this isn’t it.” Gwendy said from the back.

“Shitshow.” Jes muttered as she tried to take it all in. Disconnected from the world for the first time in decades, Nevada had fallen. No cars, no internet, no phones. Many of the buildings had burned, likely the result of the strange storm that had struck Jes. Even those that hadn’t burned showed marks of chaos. Windows had been broken, fences knocked down, shops looted. No power, no alarms, no cash registers. People had taken what they wanted. There wasn’t any sense of what was going on in the outside world. The streets were mostly empty except for the occasional wild animal or stray.

“Did they all leave?” Hadrian asked.

“I heard from some of the neighbors that a lot of the people who could packed up and started heading toward Des Moines.”

“I don’t think that’s far enough.” Jes couldn’t have said what made her feel that way, but whatever was happening, she was nearly positive Des Moines was feeling the effects just as strongly as they were here.

“What should we do?” Gwendy asked. She had been handling everything so well, but Jes could tell she was starting to fray around the edges.

“It’s hard to say, Dame Gwendolyn.” Hadrian answered. “There isn’t much we can do just the four of us against the might of the Azmaelan Empire, but it seems counterproductive to abandon our position. The Azmaelans haven’t expanded thus far and when they do it will be slow. Hopefully slow enough that we can keep ahead of it.”

“Someone needs to keep an eye on them, even if we can’t tell the outside world.” Rock’s eyes seemed haunted as he looked at the town. “What says the someone has to be us, though?”

“Shouldn’t they have sent the National Guard or something by now?” Gwendy latched onto the idea. “Those Azmaelans don’t stand a chance against the US Military.”

“I’m not so sure, ma.” Jes answered. “Would helicopters and tanks even work? Nothing else does.”

“Well, shit.” Gwendy said. “You have a point.”

Rock flicked the reins and clicked his tongue, getting the horses back into motion. “We had better see what supplies we can round up and get out of here. I don’t like the way this place feels right now.”

Rock carefully wove the cart between parked, and not really parked, cars and down toward the center of town. Their plan was to buy, barter, trade, or steal supplies. With supplies they could plan their next moves. The horses that they had weren’t cart horses and the borrowed cart horses would have to be returned after this endeavor, so they had to stock up as much as they possibly could with just this one trip into town.

The brisk fall breeze felt rather good against the slowly healing burn on Jes’ face as she kept looking around, searching for other survivors or dangers. Rock was right about the town feeling off. There was a constant prickle of being watched and low sounds she couldn’t place kept breaking through the silence.

In front of the bank, a flag snapped in the breeze. Jes wasn’t the only one that paused for a moment, watching it, her eyes drawn to the sounds and the colorful fluttering. A soft, wet, pop reached her ears, like the sound of a water balloon slowly bursting. As she turned toward the sound there was a blaze of blue-white light that cut across her vision. She yelped as the light burned her eye and covered her eyes with her hands. She could still see that briallian blue-white light, even through her hands, as something large came toward the wagon. Her yelp was enough to draw attention away from the flag and toward her, but not toward what was coming from her side of the cart.

There was a roar of sound, sounding something like the t-rex call from a movie, and an ice cold wind washed over the cart. The horses neighed shrilly, fighting against the harnesses. The light faded from Jes’ vision at last and she dropped her hands. Hadrian, with a guttural yell, leapt out of the cart, drawing his sword as soon as he landed.

“Rock, get the cart down the road.” Hadrian said over his shoulder as he squared off with the… monster. It was a monster.

The thing stood only about ten inches tall at the shoulder with a haunch that was significantly shorter. Its general appearance was that of a brown chihuahua, a chihuahua with a massive bulbous head. Six legs, three on either side, moved quickly as the creature raced for Hadrian. All around the thing was a cloud of amorphous white colored… slime.

The slime picked up everything in its wake, digesting it all, as it carried the brown abomination aloft on a wave of white sludge. Rock tried to urge the horses forward, but they were panicking. Gwendy screamed.

Jes couldn’t even scream.