the starless sky provided no natural light and Silmo was walking down the hill with only the light of his phone screen and the cold wind pushing him down the hill, he risked falling sometimes, but for him it was a blessing, with it he could go much faster down hill, he couldn't wait to reach the city and a warm place to rest and sleep.
he was getting tired to walk with a fast pace barely seeing the ground, he was sweating a lot even though his face and right hand were freezing, but they were not his priority now, the outskirt of Livik were still pretty far. still he could hear and seeing building fell and heard a loud noise that, mixed together with the numerous roar of some beast, it forms a cacophony which accompanies him in his walk.
the more he went down the less he could see the zone where the safe place should be and more he realized how much he is far from that point.
the cities in the Freolin State were massive, they were the center of life, everyone lived in a city and for most of the people the nature and wildlife in general become so distant that doesn't feel a place on earth. Millions of people lived in those cities and the countryside were left for farmers or people who had enough of comfortable life in the city.
with this amount of people living there the city of Livik was one of the largest in the south of the state, it grew so quickly that it was such a mess that the government banned the use of cars and personal vehicles inside it, forcing the citizens to use public transportation.
Silmo once loved this city, full of people, store of everything and with everything, beautiful places to visit. Now he hated it, it was a massive obstacle to go through, full of dead corpes and monsters ready to give him the most painful way to meet God.
relieved he continued his journey towards it with more attention to not make a sound.
as he walk he was having his in head the same thoughts as before, it started when he separated from his friend, with the same arguments but differents words and the same outcome.
meanwhile he was in the middle of the argument he heard a group of voices behind a big rock in front of him, hidden from the darkness he peeked from it and saw a group of four guys, couldn't tell if they were the same age as him or older, checking with the phone's light two car's tires on the same side. the car was at the center of an uphill dirt road. He could tell by the guys who constantly moved the lights around them.
"at least it took us quite far from the city" the speaker was a girl with black curly hair tied in a ponytail wearing a large jacket.
" I, took us quite far, if it wasn't for me we would have crushed before exit the outskirts. right David?" this time it was a short guy with a deep voice and a black mullet, his star earring shone in his left ear when the flash of a taller guy with buzz cut illuminated him.
"listen we're still too close to the city, we have to move. now" his voice was tough, it sounded more like a order, though Silmo understood that he was scared to death.
then there was another guy in the darkness standing close to them who was constantly checking the surrounding area, even looking in the sky sometimes, but it was all useless he couldn't seeing nothing, he looked at Silmo several times and still didn't realize he was there.
"calm down, i have to say good bye to this beauty" said the earring guy passing his hand from rear light to the headlight.
"oh fuck off this useless piece of junk"
"he's right babe we need to move and quite fast, where still pretty far from your parents" the girl was far calmer than the buzz cut guy.
"right, right." he gave one last pat to the car and turn his back to the city. "and it's not a piece of junk, it's the best car ever producted."
David sighed heavily. "i'm going first and light the way."
the others started to walk behind him without using their phone at all but a suddent light illuminated their feet. the girl freaked out and as she freaked the other three panicked as well, but each one were silent as a dead.
"sorry guys" said Silmo while leaving his spot and getting close to them.
David move the light towards him and the others turn on theirs, in a blink of an eye Silmo found four lights on him.
"goddam fucker, what the fuck were you doing there" said pissed off the short guy.
"STAY THERE" David voice rumbled through the hill and made Silmo freeze instantly.
"shhh, don't yell like that, you idiot" the girl spoke quietly but loud enough to be hear by Silmo.
"there may be others hidden." spoke with the same tone as the girl and was illuminating the area around SIlmo.
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"i just want to ask you some questions. i'm all alone and there are no monsters here." Silmo tried to create a calmer situation. David and the fourth one were still checking the sorroundings with the flashes. "i'm headed to the city and i just want to know how the situation is there."
"you're crazy, why you want to go there?" said the girl astonished.
"Are you running away from monsters too? " the mullet guy was worried, it was quite visible in his tone of voice.
"first yes. i was at this party when a giant wolf arrived, some guys manage to kill it" his voice was shaking from fear, now, as he was speaking, he realized how close he had been to the hand of death. They didn't seem to care about him, they were more focused on the last thing he said. "but then a troll came, destroyed everything and slaughtered the others but we managed to run away."
"how did you all managed to kill one of those things?" David was both excited and surprised.
"where did the troll go?" said the mullet guy more worried than before.
"they used Worldshaker, those illegal fireworks, y'all know it? the giant wolf literally exploded. the troll took the main dirty road to the city. that was the last thing i saw."
now Silmo was confident enough to raise his light to illuminate them and finally see to who he was talking and not to some shadows.
"yeah i knew it, do you know if there are others of it?" the guy with the buzz cut was a little bit taller than him, he had this intense stare with those blue eyes, it seems to him that he was reading his thoughts, he had slim eyebrows, a large and wide noise and a small mouth.
Silmo tried to recall if he saw how many of them were inside that metal box. "i don't know, they were inside a large metal box, there could be some inside yet, they used four of it."
"if the troll didn't destroy it too" replied the girl. for Silmo she was disappointing, he expected her to be beautiful and instead was just average, she had little makeup on, most of it on her big blue eyes, her nose was small and wider at the nostrils, her lips were colored in bright red.
"it's too dangerous, what if the troll is still there?" the mullet guy replied facing the others. he was shorter than he thought, he had thick black eyebrows covering his small brown eyes, Silmo almost laugh when he saw his small nose, it was so cute he thought could only belong to girls, and had a large mouth.
"but we could gain a weapon" said the tallest, for some centimetres, in the group, his breath was heavy of alcool. just now Silmo noticed he was slightly moving to find the right balance and don't fall to the ground. his mouth was hidden behind a long and thick dark brown beard, his medium long brown hair fell over his face and his green eyes, some of them were blocked by the light blue edge of the glasses frame, Silmo couldn't not notice his perfect straight nose.
the shorter one sighs heavily. "and die in the attempt. Mark your drank too much and you're not lucid. just follow us in silence" he was slightly pissed off. Mark seems to hid himself more behind his beard and hair.
"we could just go there take it and leave." replied David, then he looked to Silmo. "where is this metal box?"
"it is the center of a spiral of boxes and next to it there is a destroyed mansion."
"we could do it, but where is the place?" asked the girl.
"the mansion has a name if you give me a minute i'll search it and you can find it on Gmaps." said while searching the message Raeneris sent to him.
"Gmaps doesn't work, I used it first to see where my parents house was and it located it in the Northern Ocean." replied with a flat tone the mullet guy.
"ah" the words came out of his mouth on their own. "ok so," Silmo turned around and point his finger at little bit over forty five degrees from the dirty road. "as the crow flies roughly there, It took me about forty minutes to get here."
there was a few seconds of silence filled with the cacophony from the city, it seems to Silmo that it got quieter.
he turned towards them again, Mark was still trying to find the right balance to not fell, the girl and David had a very serious faces and were pondering every possibilities, meanwhile the mullet guy's brown eyes were moving from the point where the road disappear in the darkness and the point indicated by Silmo.
"it's too far away from my parent's house. we'll lengthen the journey for nothing. and it's way too dangerous."
"lengthen? it is almost in our way, we could make a quick deviation and took them. as he said, it's only forty minutes from here." David tone was strangely calm and quiet.
the was about to replie but his girlfriend spoke first. "honey, he's not completely wrong, we need them to just have a something for emergency." her hand slipped slowly on his left shoulder.
"my parent's house it's roughly eight hours from here, if we had the car we, maybe, could have done it. unluckly, we can only use our legs and we need to walk uphill for eight hours, but, we need to rest from time to time and so with that a WHOLE day will pass." the mullet guy went slowly towards David taking off the girl's soft hand. "so David, it's not a quick deviation, as you called it. i don't want to stay out here any longer than necessary and be an easily prey for some monsters. and neither you want it, am i right?" the tone was so deep it penetrate through Silmo's bones.
"nice speech really" the drunk man finally found the right balance. "but if we had them we could use to kill those thing as this guy told us. also i'm drunk and tired so i want sleep and now i'm pratically useless." he spoke really fast meanwhile he lost his balance and started to go backwards for a couples of meters.
"we can rest in the forest, it is always better than here." respondend the girl calmly.
the others accepted with nods, aware of the fact that they were all tired.
"so with that we can go to the mansion, the forest is pretty near, so now this is a quick deviation." responded David with a little funny tone.
"seriously. i don't understand why you want them so much. please enlight me."
"if there a beast in the forest, or we encounter it here, in the middle of nothing" David opened his arms. "we can do something with them, it's just to be safe, nothing more." his tone was soft as he was pity someone.
"we can go around with the darkness, we could listen if a gigantic monster is close to us. i don't think those monsters move quietly" the girl receive a nod of agreement from the mullet guy.
"what if they could see in the darkness" David's response was instantaneous.
"we die." the replie from the short guy was also instantaneous.
"sorry guys, I don't know the situation in the forest, but as far as I know I didn'tsaw or heard monsters out here. so I think you all can go there without too much trouble" Silmo's voice got the attention of everyone. "and i'm with him" pointing the mullet guy. "it's an unnecessary risk go there."
"see he's someone with a brain" he responded with a little laugh.
"fine, i still think it's a dumb idea not to take them. but i'm alone in this."
"i'm with you, for me we should take them." Mark placed his hand on her shoulder.
"you don't count Mark."
"perfect. so it's decided" the mullet guy turn to Silmo. "thanks for informations, i hope you survive in that hell" said while giving a small pat on his left shoulder.
"ah, if you want to hide somewhere, there are plenty empty houses, or apartment, in the outskirt. many of them went to the Two Millennia Concert. always if they haven't been destroyed" the girl came out from the left side of his boyfriend.
"ah right, when we left our quarter the monsters hadn't arrived yet, but this is the only thing i can tell you."
"it's still a precious information. i hope you reach your parents without problem. good luck." said Silmo as he was turning towards the city.
"you too" responded them in unison.
"ah one more thing" Silmo's voice made them looking back. "in the forest you might find a guy, his name is Raeneris... ahemm... you can bring him with you? he's alone."
"if we find him we surely will." said David in the darkness.
"thanks" responded with a silent laugh.