I later found out what had happened from Dave. 

While everyone had been sleeping, the woman had screamed, waking up everyone around. 

People had, to an extent, let down their guard, and so the reaction speed was slow. Along with that, there weren’t any guards stationed inside the inhabited area. This meant that nobody had seen what happened, or who did it. But, The bite mark on her the woman's neck, and the sudden disappearance of Eric made it easy to figure out what had happened.

The first time he had bitten someone, It had been somewhat overshadowed by the ant attack. But there wasn’t anything to distract people now.

Instead of being in a highly tense situation, where everyone was too preoccupied with their own things to focus on anything else, this was in the middle of the night, where there wasn’t a single distraction. While I was concerned about the woman who had been bitten, Eric’s disappearance weighed more on my mind. And It stuck for a long time, leaving the majority of my thoughts over the days to follow to surround him. The part that left me most worried was his safety. He had left completely alone, and I wasn’t sure how long he could last without help.

…

…

…

Saying my thanks to the woman of the bakery for possibly the last time, I made my way towards the city barricade, the spider waiting for me out of sight. While I had managed to find a place in the city, I had been growing restless. And while I could only point to one person-spider for that, pointing fingers wasn’t helping it stop.

The main issue though, was that the two of us would be sharing minds for the knowible future, and she wouldn’t just stay out there forever. She might be able to stay for a while, but it wasn’t like I could tell her to just do nothing for the next whoever knows how long. And in all honesty, I didn’t want her to leave. 

So, the two of us had reached the only conclusion we could. 

We’d leave the village, and go out into the desert. 

It wasn’t as though It was a perfect solution, obviously. 

I  hadn’t done anything like that before, and she had done so in a city for about 3 weeks, so we’d be going in nearly completely blind.

But we weren’t able to find any other solutions.

I was also hoping that, by some miracle, we might find Eric out there.

“Oh, You're going out to the monster again?” 

I passed Dave while making my way to the spider. I was going to tell him later today, but I guessed saying now wasn’t the worst time. 

“Yeah, that was the plan. Ehrm-.” I hesitated to say it. While I wasn’t second-guessing my decision as such, I was somewhat embarrassed by how poorly thought out the plan was. 

Especially with how little of a plan there was. But with a bit of encouragement from the spider, I told him. 

“You’re leaving too!?” his shock wasn’t too surprising, but his tone wasn’t what I had expected. It was much angrier than I was used to from him. “Are you sure you want to go out alone? Even if you’re looking for Eric, wouldn’t that get al-” 

“I wouldn’t be alone. I’d be going with the spider.”

“That doesn’t count! You can’t say that something that doesn’t even have a name is Company”

“Yes, She does! And what does having a name have to do with anything?” I had started finding that pretty frustrating. I understood it when someone else had acted like that, but I had told him she wasn’t just a monster. He could at least not refer to her as “Something”.

“It's stupid, that's all it is. Stupid”

“I know it’s stupid, of course I know that. But ‘We’ couldn’t find a better solution.”

He waited a moment, deciding whether or not to continue, and decided against it.

“Yeah. OK.” and left it at that. 

He continued to walk towards the sleeping area, and I continued walking towards the gate. 

*Someone else saying something else about Eric?* 

“Yeah, they-” I started to formulate a lie in an attempt to protect her feelings, but stopped myself, knowing full well how pointless it was to try to lie.

 “No, They were talking about you.”.

With the emotional response being too complicated to decipher, I didn’t try, nor would I have wanted to. 

*Oh* but she recovered nearly imidiatly*So you’re nearly here then?*

“Yep, Just crossed the wall thing,” 

Since we decided to leave, we had started packing, or I had. 

I would’ve loved to see a giant spider try to fit a cooking pot into a hiking bag though.

I had stuffed it with anything I might need, clothes (nearly nothing much in my size though), a sleeping bag, some sewing stuff (if I needed to fix clothes), and all other forms of necessities.

I had largely only been taking from buildings much farther out from the village, assuming that there would be less of a chance of someone needing it.

I was somewhat second-guessing my pillageing, but I had already started, so It didn’t make much sense to stop. 

..

*Is that everything you need?* 

I had filled the bag so much that I wondered if I’d even be able to lug it around properly. But I felt like I needed everything in it. 

Especially all the canned food. I should be able to live off of monster meat, but I wasn’t sure what nutritional effects that might have. Along with that, it was just safer in case there was a period when we couldn’t find any monsters to eat.

“This is horrible. Being nervous is one thing, but why are you nervous?”

*Don’t blame me! Your nervousness is making me nervous* 

“That really why?” it was a rhetorical question. I quite literally know if she's lying or not.

*It’s just… Your weak* 

She meant nothing mean-spirited by that, it was completely true, in comparison to her, It wasn’t like I could put up much of a fight. It was pretty sweet actually, her worry about my safety. It came to mind how surprisingly unforced conversations like this are sometimes. 

They really should be, since half the things we say, we already somewhat know the other person knows. Nah, I guess not, we half-know half the things we say. But we were still able to talk normally despite that. 

 

*So, you’re going back up now.*

We had been already out for a while, a lot of that time wasn’t spent packing, since I already had everything. 

“Yeah,” I, for the millionth time, was impressed by how easily she could pick up on what I was thinking, based purely on emotions. I had been in her head just as long as she had been in mine, but I could only pick up on things like that if they were obvious.

*And we’ll leave tonight then.* 

I got somewhat melancholy at the thought, or it might have been her. 

Agreeing, I started to make my way back towards the inhabited area.

 

___

___

Arriving at the town centre, It was a nice sight. Even if the world had collapsed, it didn’t feel like it had here. At least not in spirit. 

However, as I walked further towards my sleeping area, the growing empty silence made it far more apparent.

Most of everyone was paranoid, which I guess was fair, since they had let down their guard multiple times, only to have it ripped out immediately after. 

Continuing to walk along, I arrived at the designated kitchen.

Order, by some miracle, was still relatively intact, thanks largely to John's ability to organise people. And because of that, there were still scores of people making food. 

I had heard from some chatter that the supplies within the village were running out, though. Which would mean that people would have to turn back to monster meat. Not that I wouldn’t be doing that anyway.

I asked around a bit, but there wasn’t anything to do, so I largely just stood by the sideline, occasionally exchanging words with the spider. 

I saw Dave before the dinner was finished, and behind him was an uncomfortable  Alexander. 

“So, this is where you’ve been hiding.” he projected over the distance between us. 

I gave a short wave, waiting until they reached me before saying anything. 

“So you’re… leaving” Alex beat me to the chase. 

“Yeah, I am” 

I haven’t ever been a big fan of goodbyes, but this felt worse than usual. It wasn’t as though we were best of friends, It was more like… I don’t know.

“And you’re sure you want to leave alone?”

“Like I told Dave, It's not alone,”

While I could see Dave resisting the urge to say something, Alexander just watched me for a moment. 

“I guess it’s fine if that's how you think,” he said, seemingly unconvinced of his own words.

I gave a short nod in response. 

And that was the last of that conversation we had. After the chefs were done making dinner, We sat the rest of the night eating and talking about anything we wanted to. 

And it was a much better way of leaving.  

It was festive, which was a nice change to the norm. 

As the night drew on, so did our conversations. As did our words. While I wasn’t usually one to drink, it was nice to during conversations like this. I was usually a lightweight but, probably because of the healing skill, I drank both of them out. 

I woke up in the morning to the sight of a glaring sun trying to melt my eyes. My head hurt, as did my stomach, legs, and for some reason, my left ear. 

Once again I thanked my healing skill, which I assumed was the cause of my relitivly limited hangover. 

Wishing the world would fade around me did nothing, so I stayed motionless on the slight cushioning I had below me.

After an eternity of lying down, I got a ‘surprise’ from the spider. 

*Oh, you’re up*  

I had been attempting to get proper sleep, but since she was up, It wouldn’t happen. “

“Yheaear, jussst trd.” I groaned quietly, not wanting to wake anybody around.

She gave me a while to fully get up before she continued to talk. Drung that time, I had stood up and took a short jog.

*Well, that was a weird night. Is that going to happen again* 

I hadn’t even thought of that properly. She said a few things last night but largely stayed silent. And with my lower situational awareness, I hadn’t paid any attention to the flow of emotions. Well I assumed all that, It was a bit hard to say how I was thinking while drunk.  

But it makes sense It would affect her as well. Though, sadly, there wasn’t a drunk spider walking about, since The only thing coming through was emotions, no alcohol.

*__* 

Before she even needed to say anything, I suddenly realised, we had agreed to leave yesterday. 

“Sorry, I didn’t think tha-”

*It doesn’t matter, It wouldn’t have been fun for me if you were mopping about because you had left on a bad foot anyway*

…

…

“Are you leaving then?” as I was making my way to the barricade, John had managed to sneak up on me. 

“Yeah… How did you know?” 

 

“I overheard it last night. You guys were pretty loud, even if you had separated yourselves .”

“Oh, sorry, didn’t know I had been so-”

“Why?” he interrupted, going straight to the point.

I gave myself a minute to give an answer I was happy with.

“Because I can’t stay.” It wasn’t a very explanation-rich response, but it felt like enough.

“And you think it’s a good idea?”

“Not… not really”

He bit the inside of his mouth, studying me for a moment, before replying
“Well, It’s not like I’m going to change your mind.” while giving a slight smile, “What I really came here to say was thank you. It would have felt wrong if I didn’t at least do that.“, 

 

“But, It’s not like I’ve done all too much, I ju-.”

He waved his hand, making me stop to listen, before furrowing his brow, seemingly trying to catch something with his eyes.

An expression I had seen once before came up, and his words became heavy.

“You did something to help someone, to the point you risked your life. It doesn’t…“ He paused to breathe, “matter how much or how little you did nor how many other people did the same. The only thing that’s important is that you did something. Keep in mind.”

Though I wasn’t sure what to do with his words, I appreciated them. 

He regained his composure, replacing that expression with his usual face.

“Well then, You go off to the monster out there and do… whatever it is you plan to do.”

He said while he started to turn away. 

“In that case, thank you. For helping me back then.” 

He gave a slight nod in response, before turning his back completely.

Watching him walk away, I questioned my decision. 

Does it really make sense to leave?

No.

But I guess that doesn’t matter.

I gave a short nod towards the village before crawling over the wall.

*So, We’re leaving now.*

Even she was second-guessing, though that might be her mirroring me.

I could see her body peeping out from behind a building just beyond the clearing.

“Yeah, I guess we should”