Into The Wilds [2]

Some things never changed. 

The sun. It still shined in the sky as it had been doing for the past few billion years.

Human nature. No matter how much time passed, it felt like the core instincts of a human never changed. 

And, road trips. Whether the years changed in increments of tens or thousands, nothing changed about a long drive. 

Maybe if it was a drive with friends, it could be entertaining, but what about when the one driving was a caretaker?

Seb and Gio interacted a little as they drove, but for the most part, they kept to themselves. Seb listened to music through the truck's audio system while Gio didn't take his eyes off of his phone for almost the entire duration of the hypertrain. 

Nevertheless, when four monotonous hours finally went by, the world around them slowed to a stop and the scenery once again became visible.

It was hard to differentiate the different parts of the Wasteland. There weren't spots in the world that weren't plagued by sand, but they existed practically opposite of Haven, so far into monster territory that even trying to reach them was hopeless. 

As for the Wilds outside of Haven, the difference was practically nonexistent. 

'There's more sand.'

The rolling dunes were certainly less common in Haven. It was a relatively flat section of the land, so even if dunes existed, they were only in small clusters that wouldn't impede the trade and travel routes of humans or provide breeding grounds for beasts. 

Pretty much at the start of the border, however, as if to represent the fact that the territory beyond was unclaimed, the rolling dunes reached such a grandiose scale in both height and number that they could be described best as a mountain range.

'It's like this for the next hundred kilometers or so. The reason why Haven has been confined to this corner, and the reason why it's been so hard expanding past it…'

There was a species of beast that lived under the sand in these dunes. They looked similar to armadillos, seemingly harmless, but they were incredibly fast and had claws and spines sharp enough to slash through common Aether weapons. 

It wouldn't have been a problem if there were only a few of them, but they bred like mutated rabbits. Thousands of them were killed only for thousands more to appear in a matter of days.

They were almost impossible to get rid of. 

And when the people of the Wasteland finally decided to put effort into discovering where they came from, they unearthed the entrance to a massive underground ecosystem that existed alongside the Wasteland's surface ecosystem.

The subterranean world only began where these dunes did, so Haven was safe from its dangers. Since it was the edge, it was also only inhabited by relatively weaker beasts. 

The problem was that if humans tried venturing beyond these dunes, the beasts that preyed on those armadillos would eviscerate them. 

Without an armored vehicle, traversing the Wilds was practically suicide. It was obvious why the Old Lady reacted so harshly when he said he had done it before.

Nevertheless, this time, they'd come prepared.

The truck that Seb was driving was able to hypertrain. If it was given those capabilities, it would have been almost comedic for it to not have the lesser technologies needed to fortify it.

"So, where are we going?"

Seb turned to him for directions. Gio was the only one who knew the way forward from here.

"You've been out in the Wilds before, right?" Gio asked back.

"Several times, in fact," Seb responded.

"Then you know about those ruins? The ones that people turned into rest stops…"

"I do."

Seb nodded his head affirmatively. The Wasteland was mostly unclaimed, but that didn't mean there weren't remnants of humanity and human civilization remaining. Before it became what it was today, it was also another snapshot of Earth that had the same cities and infrastructure the original had. 

Some of those cities still existed in today's Wasteland, albeit in ruins. Since Scavengers often needed to venture out into the Wilds to make money, they'd turned as many of those cities as they could reach into rest stops that other humans could use if they were trapped in the Wilds or needed to restock their supplies. 

The atmospheres of those places were different from what one would find in Haven. The attitude of anyone daring enough to stay in rest cities was more "do or die" than anyone else in the world. 

"I was headed straight north when I found a rest city. I went west from there. It might be best for us to stop there and ask around about the nearby dangers before we continue."

Seb knew of the city he mentioned. It was the most common stop for Scavengers, as it existed closest to Haven. 

He didn't particularly think there was a need to stop in the rest city, especially since he was already knowledgeable about the predators in this part of the Wilds, but he still nodded his head. 

'I can see the excitement in his eyes. This experience isn't just a hunt for him.'

Who was Seb to try and stop this child from exploring the world? He would be there to supervise, so there weren't any risks. 

Little did he know that the glint in Gio's eyes was not caused by such a child-like and innocent reason. 

He would only discover that when they reached the city. 

It took two hours to get over the dunes, as they were forced to drive at slower speeds over the slopes while avoiding as many Cutter Rats as they could. It took another hour to cross the hundred more kilometers there were between the dunes and the city. 

They were moving fast in a vehicle that made no sound. It kicked up dirt behind it and definitely had a physical presence, but it contained the presence of those within. 

The beasts that lived in the area could not smell or sense life from the sandy cloud that was the moving truck, so what reason did they have to pursue it?

The journey was relatively peaceful if one didn't consider the scenery outside. The word "prowling" wasn't enough to describe the number of beasts one could see with the naked eye alone. 

They roamed the world freely, hunting and gathering in packs or alone. They formed this entire ecosystem free of humans as they tried to drive the race to extinction. 

If their forms weren't altered and mutated so strongly, one could believe that this was an ordinary savanna somewhere.

That illusion was broken once by their appearances. 

And once more when the rest city came into view.

Where would this have been when Earth still looked the way it used to? It was impossible to tell. The continents realigned themselves a long, long time ago.

It was only clear that the city was once bustling. 

Before they even reached the towering, half-destroyed skyscrapers in the distance, the sand beneath the truck smoothly transitioned into the remains of a concrete road.

If one peered out the windows and concentrated on the ground, one could almost see the remains of buildings that were decimated during a past era. 

Really, the only things left standing were the tallest and most defended buildings. Even those would have been gone if there weren't people actively conserving them.

"This is the kind of world that the Old Lady is trying to erase."

Seb's comment came out of nowhere, turning Gio's attention to him. 

By the time he looked back out the window, he could see people around the corners, hiding themselves while eyeing the truck. 

"This is a world where people become less than people. Even Haven only corrupts people with greed and desire, but this place… when you're in the Wilds, nothing matters to you anymore."

These people weren't here because they had no other choice. There were constantly people traveling back and forth from Haven who could take them back into human territories. 

Ninety percent of the time, they lived in the Wilds for two reasons and two reasons alone. 

Firstly, they were criminals so wanted that they would be killed or captured the moment they found their way back to civilization. 

Or secondly, they were positively insane. 

Unless there were special circumstances involved, there was no in-between.