The World as it Should Be

“I'm warning you! I will shoot if you come any closer!”



She held the gun to her shoulder and signaled to Ripper to stay put. She didn't want him fighting a zombie and becoming infected himself. Sweat beaded on her forehead, but she remained focused on the noises that were definitely someone coming towards her. There was a painful groaning that could be heard as well. Shit, she thought, its a ghoul. She had yet to actually have to kill anyone since her self exile, but now it seemed she was going to have to. Her heart pounded and she swallowed hard, waiting for her target to make itself visible.



Suddenly there was a burst of movement, just as some sweat dripped into her eye and she fired on instinct alone. She heard a grunt and a thud, so knew she had hit home, and stepped back trying to clear her eyes. It was a few minutes before she could see again, after splashing some of her fresh water into her eyes and wiping the sweat off her brow. Finally she looked up to see what she had killed.



It was an orc, a female, with one long braid going down her armored back.



Treris froze, horrified. It couldn't possibly be...could it?



Blood spread out onto the sand from beneath her, and there was no stench of disease. In fact the body hadn't burst out with noxious fumes and had been down for a few minutes. Shaking, she realized that the orc had not been infected. Trembling violently, she carefully approached the body and rolled it over.



She let out a half scream half sob when she saw who it was.



Janarra's eyes were still open, blood from the perfect chest wound dripped down her sides and onto the ground. Her mouth was half open in surprise and blood dripped from it as well. Treris collapsed to her knees, dropped her gun and stared in horror at what she had done. Her hand had blood on it from when she had rolled Janarra over and she started to frantically wipe it off in the sand, on leaves, anything to get it off her.



“Stand up!” a voice boomed above her. She looked up, instinctively going for her gun. She stopped short when she saw she was outnumbered. A Tauren and two Trolls had come out of the trees and were staring hard at her. One of the trolls had his own gun trained on her, while the other was checking on the dead orc. The Tauren held a large snarled staff and was staring down at her menacingly.



“P-please,” she stammered as she slowly raised her hands in the air and got up to her feet, “I-I though...that is...I thought she w-was a ghoul.”



“Dere are no more ghouls,” the troll with the gun said, “Dey stopped de infection a few days ago.”



“Oh,” she hesitated before stammering, “I-I didn't know...I've been out here, you see I didn't want-”



“Quiet,” the Tauren said in his deep voice, “is she dead Peln?”



The troll over Janarra looked up and then sadly shut Janarra's eyes before she stood up and said, “Ja, she dead, but de gun shot only finish her off. She was poisoned.”



Treris' eyes went wide and she looked back down at Janarra. She hadn't noticed it before, but there was a sickly green fluid along her mouth. A memory stirred and she remembered that she had seen this before.



“Oh Elune,” she whispered, “oh no.”



“What?” the Tauren boomed at her again and she jumped nearly out of her skin.



“I...I just...that's why she didn't answer...I called out and warned I would shoot but there was no answer, just some moaning, that's why I thought she was a ghoul and...”



“Ja, she couldn't talk, dats why she was running, she couldn't think straight,” the female troll said to the Tauren. He scowled at Treris for a few moments and she was sure that they were going to kill her right then and there. At his signal the male troll lowered his gun and turned back to the jungle.



The Tauren handed his staff off to the female and then in one powerful movement, swung Janrra over his shoulder. He started off behind the trolls when he stopped, turned and glared at her again.



“You are not to blame for this, but if I see you again near our territory, I will kill you.” He then turned and followed the trolls out.







By the time dusk was settling on the land, she was back at Booty Bay. Everything seemed almost normal, as if the plague hadn't happened here at all. There were more Bruisers it seemed at the dock, surely now they would make a better check of everything coming in. People were streaming around, going about their normal business.



As soon as Ripper was with the animal keepers, she went straight to the inn and the bar, and ordered a stiff drink. The bar tender looked at her oddly before giving her her drink and moving on. She knew she must be white as death and shaking violently, and didn't even bother trying to cover it up. What had happened was too horrible to contemplate, and her suspicions were only making it worse.



Instead she turned to the nearest patron, a large Draenai male with a large hammer on his back to ask him what had happened since she had missed it.



“The Apothecaries in Undercity, they figured it out,” he said with a shrug, “but that wasn't all that happened you know. Scourge invaded near Stormwind, out in the Blasted Lands, Winterspring, Eastern Plaguelands and Sithilus. Their cities would appear in the sky and they would start forming magical circles. A lot of us were running around trying to keep them in check, but then they'd move on.”



He shuddered and took a large gulp of his beer.



“But they were stopped of course,” she said, wanting to hear more.



“Well yeah, the Lich King pulled them back...and then,” he said leaning into her, “the Scourge moved a new base, right above where the Scarlet's were trying to build some new city. The Scourge wiped them out. “



Her eyes grew wide at this news, “The Scarlet Crusade? All of them.”



“Most of them, you see, Arthas had some new soldiers, called them Death Knights and when they were through with the Scarlets they attacked Light's Hope.”



He took another great gulp and she stared in disbelief. Growing impatient she urged him on.



“I heard it was a horrible battle, 10,000 undead against just 300 of the Argent Dawn. A sure massacre, but,” and a smile appeared on his face, “they weren't expecting Tirion Fordring to be there. He turned the tide and brought down the leader of the Death Knights, Darion Morgraine, but didn't kill him. He turned him.”



“What?” she said, “what do you mean turned him?”



“Well see, Fordring said that the Lich King knew they couldn't take Light's Hope, its too holy to be corrupted by them. And Darion's sword, the Ashbringer refused to fight there. That's when Arthas himself showed up. He just wanted to get Fordring into the open! The Deathknights were furious and I guess were like the Forsaken, they regained their free will. Arthas then almost killed Fordring, but Darion gave him the Ashbringer and it was cleansed in Fordring's hands! The Lich King they say ran away from him!”



He finished off his drink and wiped his mouth with his hand, “Now the Death Knights are allying against the Scourge, I guess we'll start seeing them more and more when they're through cleaning out their base.”



Treris felt as if her head was spinning. She had needed a distraction from her horror at the day and damned, this was a good one. The Lich King scared of Fordring, new allies...she couldn't believe how much the world had changed while she had been on the beach. She wanted to ask him more, but saw that he was already engaged in another discussion with some gnomes, trying to top each other's wild claims about the battle.



“Really, I think its too loud in here, I would much rather hear this story in private somewhere.”



Her ears pricked up as she recognized the voice and turned around quickly. Near the stairs she saw blood elf in a blue robe with long, blonde hair was giggling and sighing as a male nuzzled her neck. He wore black leather, and had short black hair, with two nasty looking blades at his side. Her eyes narrowed as he took her hand and led her up the stairs. When she got a glimpse of his face she confirmed it was indeed him.



As soon as they were out of sight, Treris slapped down some money and followed them up.