Cipher Code {complete}

Chapter Three: Darkness •EDITED•

Twenty four hours earlier
September, Year 483
Town of Lacau
State of Nicia
North

Nobody knew who got sick first, but by now everyone knew the symptoms. The bloody coughs, breathlessness and pale complexion were only the most notable signs, but by now everyone knew to stay away from the infected.

Though the symptoms were nowhere near contagious and it was only a matter of time before everyone got the illness and died off, the stigma was still there, especially since the disease induced delusions.

More times than not, friends became strangers and family members ended up slowly forgetting the moments they spent with each other. But becoming mere shadows of their past selves was not the worst of it.

Because of the wan and skeletal appearances of the infected, the rest of the townspeople segregated them to a section of Lacau, to the empty buildings around the town's sole pharmacy for Old Duce, the town's physician, to handle. And once the Shakings—crazed convulsions, spasming fingers and overall insanity—set in, mothers began abandoning their children, husbands threw their wives out into the forest and the population plunged. It was the cruelest symptom, only appearing when an infected was reaching the end of their life.

And as bitter as it was a pill to swallow, no one wanted to care for a deranged, dying man, especially in times like these.

It had been three months since the fog had set in but it felt even longer, the sun becoming less visible with each day that passed. Nowadays, high noon looked no different than midnight.

The town was filled with a constant sense of unease as the day wore on and the fog got closer and closer to the ground, completely obscuring the sight of anyone brave enough to wander about without the safety of a blazestone.

Food was as scarce as hen's teeth, the strange fog eating up the sunlight and stealing heat from the very core of the earth. No one left their homes after the second month to hunt for game in the forest, too terrified of getting lost in the white abyss and never being found.

The days bore the harshness of winter after weeks of absent sunlight, but there was no snow or rain, just chilly winds that howled constantly through the hours. Wildlife had become scarce and townsfolk fell ill faster than the sick were getting better.

Other than disease, starvation was also wreaking havoc on the town of Lacau. Everything touched by the fog—the crops, the people, the livestock—seemed to die in a matter of days.

The infected were dying at a steady rate and the ones left behind had to deal with famine.

"Someone has to do something about this!" By the edge of the town's forest and far away from Lacau's residential circle, sat the only children still alive in the destitute town.

The young boy and girl leaned their backs against the side of the only smithery that could be found across the sixteen states that lined the North-East border—Nicia included.

Because anyone rich enough to own holo hardwares would replace them if they broke, there were not many smithers in the nation. But since Nicia was a state that sat comfortably on the southern boundary of East and North, it was far from the capital.

Low-grade holo wares still had to be repaired because transportation costs ended up being triple their original prices. This smithery was their father's but it hadn't been functional in three months.