Kree pointed down the block. “Over there.”
The group moved down the street. They came to the spot where a pool of blood spread over the sidewalk and into the road. Several pieces of human remains were scattered around. Erlenmeyer gagged and then threw up the contents of his dinner.
“I don’t think I’m going to get used to this,” he said, wiping his mouth.
Kree surveyed the ground near the pool of blood. “It was a single person. And here. A small creature was with them.” She pointed at the small paw prints leading away from the carnage.
“The beast still has a good lead on us. We must make up the time.” Thara said.
“If I had my car we would make better time.”
“Ride in one of the metal beasts? We would move faster but we would have no connection to the trail. We would not be able to track the Trantor beast. How does your tribe survive, Earl In Mire? You don’t grow food. You have no animals to kill for food. You do not even have a connection to your world.”
Erlenmeyer reflected on it. “Yeah, you’re right. We don’t have a strong connection to our world any more. All our food comes to us from the farms and ranches outside the city. The trucks bring it to a store and we buy it, take it home, and eat it. We spend our days working at jobs to get money. That’s how we survive.”
“Your tribe is strange, Earl in Mire. Does everyone here practice dark arts the way you do? ” Seeko asked.
“No, not everyone. A lot of people just have simple jobs, cleaning, or running a store. Some people are doctors – healers I guess you’d call them. Some are engineers and architects and technicians. They build our cities. Then we’ve got police and lawyers and judges. They handle people who break our laws.”
“You have no hunters? No shamans? How do your gods interact with you?”
“We’ve only got one God. Well, only one in our religion. There are other religions that have other gods. The priests handle all the religious matters. I guess they are our shamans. But God doesn’t interact with us directly. He’s more of a ‘behind the scenes’ kind of guy.”
“Tyrie is right. You do live in a hell world.”