The only survivor?

A chill ran down my spine, and my eyes widened. The only survivor. These words felt like a missed shot while playing the Roulette Russ. A village with untold numbers of people living in it was... all of them dead?

The picture of why I woke up at the bottom of a cliff is gradually becoming clear.

"H-how?" I said, my shock is not fake.

They looked at each other, conveying with their eyes on something before the ex-hostage decided to answer.

"A monster or two--"

"Eric!" But was cut off by the buff guy's admonishing glare.

"What?! It's the truth."

"We got orders avoid frightened civilians."

"The village might not have been eradicated if they had been a little 'frightened'"

"Enough you two." Said the blonde man ending their argument,

before turning back to me "You may not know this Kid since your village is a bit isolated even up here in the north, but not much time after the great disconnection, threatening and powerful creatures started appearing out of nowhere, killing anything unlucky enough to be in front of them...And your village this time was unlucky enough."

My mind churned at standard speed as I made sense of their words. For one, the village isn't aware of the monsters' existence. Which may be good and bad at the same time. It may be Good, because if they kept their existence a secret means rampaging monsters aren't that commonplace for people to notice them, making this world relatively less dangerous in my eyes.

And It may be Bad because of how many other secrets they aren't aware of.

There is also the great disconnection that seems to be a piece of common knowledge from the way he spoke of it. I have some ideas about what it means but it's too soon to come to any early conclusion.

That doesn't help if not for adding more questions.

At least the possibility of anyone recognizing me from the village now is gone, even though I feel bad about it.

"So? are we moving or what?" Grumbled the ex-hostage.

"I'm sorry for your loss friend Victor, however much Lieutenant Kelliv seems inconsiderate he is right, we left our friend waiting alone, and that is dangerous." Said the hat guy.

"How should I address you?" As much as I want to call them with not-so-creative nicknames, knowing their real name is preferable.

"Oh my, how could I forget." He said before going ahead and introducing their name. The hat guy's name is Zane Hester, the ex-hostage is Eric Kelliv, the buff guy is Bart Aguire, and the team leader is Alec Brunt.

"Nice to meet you." I said as I nodded at them.

I put my hand over my coat, the area I stored the axe, holding it in position with my belt, confirming that it is still present underneath. That gave me a meager sense of safety. Eric has confiscated both the rifle and the bayonet, and I don't see him returning them anytime soon. And fortunately, they haven't searched my body nor did they ask for an identity card. I'm not sure if they have any but I haven't removed that possibility yet.

"Eric do you get something." Asked the team leader, Alec.

"Negative sir."

"Alright then, let go back team."

And so were the orders, we started walking in the direction I was initially heading to first. The one taking the lead is surprisingly not the team leader Alec but the ex-hostage Eric. None of them asked for my opinion nor if I wanted to go with them or if I had any other place to go. Which I evidently didn't appreciate, to say the least, especially with the formation they are employing; me in the middle while flanked from all four sides.

You may say that I was protected from all sides if you were a positive person. While if you were a negative one you would think that I am being held captive or maybe even hostage, which I find quite ironic.

Regardless, I tried not to be bothered by it. Even turning a deaf ear to the little voice in my head whispering pessimistic thoughts.

"Will you be fine friend Victor?" Zane the hat guy walked to my right and suddenly said. After I looked at him with a query look he continued "You know the village is not in a good shape, you should probably avoid entering."

"I am fine."

"Really? As expected of friend Victor. You were so amzaing earlier, I never saw Officer Kelliv so angry since Borj."

"Shut your damn trap priest." The officer in question barked back.

"See? He is still angry." Zane smiled as he said not even trying to hide his amusement from Eric.

I only nodded at him, engaging in their play may not end well especially since I am pretty sure I made one of them hold a grudge for generations to come.

"So? What sort of training do you follow?"

"Nothing in particular."

"Oh common, trust this hat, I will keep it just between us."

I see.

This isn't let's go back, but let's go back while you talk.

Not that surprising. I expected them to be wary, I did put a knife in the neck of one of them after all. However, I didn't expect to get questioned, and in this subtle way. Nevertheless, if they don't want to go in directly, it will only work in my favor. I just have to be careful in the word I employ.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Well if I have to think about something, then that would be woodcutting."

"Woodcutting?"

"Yes, haven't heard of it? It is a quit tiring work where I use my trusty axe to chop trees to obtain logs."

"Is that so? That must be awesome. But this isn't what I'm referring to."

"Don't underestimate woodcutting. it is extremely important for fletching, filmmaking, and construction."

"What about your rifle then? You know that all civilians are prohibited the use of firearms, right?"

No, I didn't know.

But that is a good piece of information to know.

"That is my late grandfather's weapon."

I don't frankly know the age of the hunter, with the way I found him, a wrecked mess of meat and organ, I can barely distinguish his gender. Using him as a buffer is all I can think of right now. But it wasn't a mindless decision either. Besides the way they acted in a haste gave me confidence they won't dig deep.

I first thought their end goal was the monster, but the more I look at their actions or the questions they are asking, the more unlikely it feels. Giving the impression that they are a bit rushed, out of time, for what? I don't know.

Zane didn't stop talking all the way, asking questions about all types of things. Whether relevant or not, like how much time did I spend out of the village, or which type of hat I think is better. Talking about hats seems to be his favorite subject but soon I learned that this guy just likes to talk about anything. And I always chose the less wordy answer, or even not answer at all, using the loss of the village as an excuse. Something that they seem not to care about. Other than 'Sorry for your loss' they just proceeded to ignore the fact that a village was, using their word, destroyed.

This uncaring attitude gave me another clue. This isn't the only village that was destroyed and it may not be uncommon. But I still need to observe them more.

Less than thirty minutes and I can see the village. It is or was beautiful. A village by a lake or is it a river, thirty to forty homes almost all of them were built with wood, log building, while the minority is built with brick. Their roof was white covered in snow. Log stacks everywhere. The streets are wide and covered in gravel. Small fishing boats docked at the shore.

It really should've been a beautiful and quiet village.

...should.

If not for the massacre that took place here.

There are traces of blood everywhere my gaze lands, on the streets, on the doors and walls. I haven't entered the village yet the smell of blood still lingers in the air, the metallic scent clinging to my tongue. It's overwhelming, and it's making me uncomfortable. From the distance, I noticed three bodies not far from the entrance of the village.

The closer one is a headless body laying on the ground in a twisted form, its belly was torn open spewing out its innards all over the ground. Less than two meters away from it is its head, eyes wide open, the feeling of terror and fear it had before dying is still etched on its face.

The other two bodies lie in what appears to be a garden. A boy and girl, sibling perhaps. Both of them are young, possibly less than seventeen for the girl and twelve or fourteen for the boy. The girl had the same end as the previous body, decapitated. While the boy wasn't so fortunate, he was cleaved in half from shoulder to crotch. The half that lacks the head, its hand still holding the hand of his decapitated sister.

I swallow thickly and looked away. My stomach churns as we make our way to the car parked some distance away from the village's entrance. A woman that I assumed to be the last member of this team stood her back against the car. She approached us as she noticed us.

"How does that feel?" She immediately said to Eric.

"What?"

"Being a damsel in distress you dambass."

"Fuck off!"

"Noticed anything." Not wanting a fight the team leader, Alec asked.

"Negative, as left as found Cap." She answered Alec before looking at me "What is your name?"

"Victor Rose"

"Minabell Roney, call me Bell"

"What?! Wait Ms Mina don't you think that is too fast?" Interjected Zane, his eyes wide.

"Shut up! he deserve it."

"You can call me Vic then, nice to meet you Bell" I smiled or at least tried to as I extended my hand to her which she took with a firm grip. No one will show dissatisfaction with a woman's enthusiasm, especially if that woman had the occasion of blowing up your head but did not. I shivered just thinking about it.

Mirabell is a tall woman with black hair tied in a ponytail, black eyes, darker skin tone. She is on the fit side considering she is in the military. Wearing the same outfit others are wearing. A sniper rifle was strapped to her shoulder, a handgun is holstered on her right thigh, while the left host a tactical knife.

"Cap I will need five minutes to fix his face." Bell said to Alec after he is done giving instructions to Eric and Bart.

"No way, we should start moving asap." As usual, the one that seems more in a hurry is Eric.

Alec looked at me before turning to Bell "Be quick" he said.

"Heard that Vic, let's go." I don't have any reason to refuse, mostly since the blood congealed on my face started itching, so I followed behind her after she took out a backpack from the car's trunk. However, Her direction was the lake, which required us to go to through the village.

"Don't look around, keep your eyes on the sky if you have to." Perhaps noticing my uncomfortable expression, or just not wanting me to get traumatized she said "or my ass if the sky isn't your thing."

"I will just do that then." I smiled a genuine smile. Unfortunately for her, I'm not easy to tease. I may have the easy, innocent virgin face right now, However, easy or innocent I am not. Virgin though? I don't know.

"Suit yourself." Putting emphasis on her gait as she walked in front of me, made me question if her intention was just to tease me or really to get me not to look around. Because if it was the latter then she was successful since I hadn't noticed when we arrived at the lakeshore.

The lake was so clear you could see your reflection in it from here. The water was still, and calm. Surrounding the lake, lay a rigid, pine forest, which stretched far past the mountainous boundaries; rising high, around the solitary lake. A death-like mist pervaded through the trees enveloping them in a gelid, cutting fog.

Beautiful.

My honest impression, I almost forget that behind me is a village littered with dead bodies.

I strange urge sprouted out.

I want to swim.

I don't know where it comes from, but looking at the still, clear lake, and its calm blue surface... makes me feel the need to take off my clothes and mindlessly jump in.

Maybe next time. When all this ordeal calmed down and my safety is guaranteed, I will.

"Sit there." Pointing at a relatively large rock, Bell pulled me out of my thoughts. I shook my head and did as instructed.

Bell opened the backpack and took out a medium-sized pouch before laying it down. Inside the pouch, from my point of view, bondage, a pair of scissors, and gauze. Soaking up a gauze in the lake water, Bell then approached me.

"Don't move" Is all she said before proceeding to scrape my face with the gauze.

"Pointing your weapon at military personel is smart."

"What about the other way around."

"Eric is a prick"

"I've deduced that, is it hard working with him."

"Hard? It is but we tend to ignore the Blessed's trouble, as long as it is remediable."

"Blessed?" I unconsciously blurted that out, and I regretted it immediately. Fortunately, however, Bell didn't seem to find that suspicious.

"This place is really touched by the deaf god, if there is any." She said after a sigh "The blessed people can do things that normal people can't do."

My eyes widened. Finally some form of non convoluted and useful piece of information. The blessed as she called them are people with superpowers and Eric is one such blessed as well as I.

"And what can Eric do?"

"Curious are we? " She said her eyes narrowing a bit. "Why don't you ask him?... and done."

"Mmh, thanks." I stood up and looked at my reflection in the water. My face is relatively clear for a face that went through a bullet and two punches. No band-aid, however.

"Good for you, a nice scar on your left cheek." She said as she put the military aid kit into her backpack and then closed the zipper. "Girls like scars"

"Now for the serious issue." She moved quickly and grabbed me by the collar, looking at me dead in the eyes, with a cold face. If I thought she was cute before now she is scary.

"Speak who are you?"