Jake spilled his latte at the horror of what he saw. Rob, his friend, there he was. That familiar face, those thin eyebrows, that glossy golden hair. It stared at him as usual, but instead of the lively fiery eyes, they were like that of a dead fish.

The head rolled from the pavement and into the street. Then—Crash—a car rolled on it, crushing it with its tires.

“Rob!” Jake shrieked and howled. His screams turned into hiccups, his mouth unable to formulate anything but an unintelligible mess.

Tears welled up Jake’s eyes, he didn’t understand what was going on. What was happening around him? Did the world turn mad? Yes, it did. By the time he could formulate those thoughts, a mechanical voice sounded within the depths of his mind.

Survival game has been initiated on Earth #221, may all contestants try their best to survive until sunset. Thank you for your participation.

Jake couldn’t even understand what was going on. The absurdity of the situation, the mental shock, everything was just too much for him. He could only stand in his place, looking at the deformed, bloody head of Rob.

The screams of the crowd brought Jake back to reality. People were running away from something, bumping into him in the process. He looked at the source of their fear and an all-consuming rage filled him. It was a humanoid creature, but it couldn’t be any more different than a human. It had half a head, a grinning mouth and no nose. Bloody blades protruded from its chest and belly, while its arms ended in gigantic sharp claws.

The blood on those blades was that of Rob, Jake knew it. He marched towards it, step by step, his fist clenched so hard his nails dug into the palm of his hand. His steps turned faster and bigger as time went on, soon they turned into a full-on sprint.

“Stop!”

Just as Jake was about to lunge at the creature, an older man stopped him with a bear hug.

“Don’t! Come with me!”

The man took hold of Jake and pushed him into the inside of the café. They made their way through the floors before reaching the roof. For that whole time, Jake’s mind was blank. The only thing he could see was the smile on Rob’s face, and that hateful, hateful creature.

“It was your friend, right?”

Jake didn’t respond.

“Damnit, so it was.”

The middle-aged man looked at the street from the top of the roof.

“Oh f*cking hell.”

It was filled to the brim by monsters. Bodies were piled up everywhere. Men and women screamed and ran, but they couldn’t escape them. The creatures were just too fast, too lethal.

The middle-aged man’s eyes focused back on the creature that killed Rob. It was slowly making its way to the café. They needed to run.

“Buddy. Hey, buddy! Don’t go deaf on me, we need to run!”

Jake could barely hear what the middle-aged man was saying, his eyes looked at him, but they weren’t focused.

The man clicked his tongue before lightly slapping Jake’s face.

“Okay, I get it. Your friend died, it was horrible—I get that. Matter of fact, I don’t know what happened to my family too. But we need to run, we can’t stay here. Mourning won’t bring up the dead; it will only pile up the corpses!”

Jake looked at the old man for a second. This time, his eyes were focused. Tears welled up in them, and he buried his head in his arms.

Seeing Jake act this way, the man couldn’t help but sigh in response.

“Ehh, I’m sorry, I was a bit too rude.” He scratched his head, avoiding eye contact with the young man.

However, amidst the hiccups, Jake was finally able to mutter out a few words.

“I… I want them dead… All of them, I want all of them dead!” His voice started out low, but it slowly built up momentum before finishing with a crescendo.

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The middle-aged man smiled in return. “What’s your name, boy?”

“Jake,” he responded.

“Great, nice to meet you, Jake. My name is Ray.”

Ray stretched out his hand for Jake to take. The latter took it and stood up.

“Okay, so before you start your mad quest for revenge. We have to survive first.” His voice then turned lower, serious, and almost threatening. “I want you to follow my directions. If any of us is to make it out alive, you have to follow my directions. No matter what they may be.”

Jake nodded at Ray in response. He calmed his mind and suppressed his anger. Now was no longer the time to dwell on it—he needed to survive.

"Okay boy, stay close to me. I have a way to get us out of this place. Don't lose me from your sight."

Jake followed Ray through the stairs leading to the first floor. The latter turned and gestured for Jake to stay silent. They tiptoed towards a room and closed the door with care as to not make any sound. The room was full of tables and chairs, and had a window opening up to an alleyway. Ray opened the window to check whether there was any monster roaming around. There was none.

"Ok Jake, I know this might sound insane, but we're gonna jump from here."

"Are you insane? We'll fracture our legs if we jump from this high," Jake rebutted.

"Not directly of course. You see the contours of that window? We're gonna jump on top of that. I'll go first, you follow me, okay?"

Jake nodded at Ray and the latter's focus went back to the alleyway. He gulped down his saliva before muttering, "Here goes nothing."

He put both of his legs outside the window before turning around and clenching at the contours with hands. Fortunately, the wall had fissures in it where he support his feet on. He took a good look at the window below him before letting go of the top one.

Fortunately, he didn't lose balance. Once he reached the top of the ground floor's window, he knelt and took hold of it with his hand. By that point, the ground was but a meter away, so he jumped right down.

He heaved a sigh of relief before looking at Jake above.

"Buddy, do as I did. Even if you fall, I'll catch you. Just don't worry, and keep an eye on where you put your feet."

Jake followed Ray's words. Even though the distance to the ground wasn't big, it still made him anxious. Slowly, he followed Ray's steps. His legs first, turn around, catch the bottom of the window, and then...

Jake looked at the ground floor window, and the worst thing that could have ever happened came into being. The monster was poking its head from it.

"Go back up! Run!" Ray shouted. Jake didn't need any reminder. He climbed his way back to the first floor while Ray bolted away on the street. Once back to the room, Jake was horrified to see the creature climbing after him. With only one way left to run, Jake went out of the room and made it to the ground floor. He jumped out of the window to the alleyway and looked around, fully expecting Ray to have abandoned him. To his relief, he did not.

Ray gestured at him to come from the doors of an apartment. “Come, help me out here.”

Jake sprinted towards Ray, huffing and puffing all the while. The latter was bringing out a motorcycle and pulling it down the stairs. Jake helped him out, and they were ready to go.

“Ray, where are we going?” Jake asked while wearing his helmet.

“I have a friend near the East river. He owns a boat. Hopefully, he is still alive and we can use his boat to escape in the water.”

Jake nodded at Ray and the latter kicked at the accelerator. They bolted through the alleyway and into the main street, where mayhem was taking place. Broken cars, dead bodies, fire, and monsters. It was a scene from hell.

Ray didn’t waste time appreciating the scenery. He pressed on the accelerator and dashed through the pavement, dodging the car traffic completely. Jake hugged Ray from behind to keep balance and looked all around him. There were no survivors in sight. Just the white, humanoid, half-head monsters roaming around in the street. They didn’t even care for the corpses. They didn’t eat them, they didn’t mangle them, they did nothing to them. As long as it was dead, they wouldn’t touch it.

Jake couldn’t help but think that these monsters were sent here specifically to kill them humans. They didn’t cause any destruction or damage that was more than necessary to reach that end goal. And that end goal, for Jake, it meant killing his friend.

Ray could feel Jake’s hand clutching at his sides. He could guess what was going through the boy’s mind. He couldn’t imagine the horror that he must have experience, seeing his best friend die in such a gruesome way. Ray knew that if it was him in that situation, and that the victim was his wife or daughter, he would have lost his mind right away. He wouldn’t stop at anything to see their murderer’s dead on the ground.

The two made their way through the streets of New York, making sure not to go anywhere with high density of monsters. They kept taking detours after detours before finally reaching the side of East river.

“Oh, that’s the boat!” Ray exclaimed. Even Jake couldn’t help but have his face brighten up with hope.

They put down the scooter and sprinted towards the boat, in fear of taking too long and attracting unwarranted attention.

Once they reached their destination, Jake put his hands on his knees while trying to catch his breath. Meanwhile, Ray went up the boat to check it before stopping dead on his track. He stood silent.

“What’s going on, is something the matter?” Jake asked.

“No, nothing. Just stay there and don’t look.”

“What do you mean, don’t look. What’s going on?”

Jake walked towards Ray before the latter screamed at him. “Just don’t come!” He then continued with a lower, much calmer voice, “Turn around, and don’t look.”

Surprised by Ray’s change of tone, Jake complied with his demands. He turned around and closed his eyes. He could hear Ray tinkering with something. He was dragging something heavy. It took a long time, around five minutes for Ray to finally give his okay to Jake.

“You can come now.”

“Finally,” Jake muttered under his breath in frustration. He climbed up the boat, and he was immediately shocked. There was blood, blood everywhere. He looked at Ray, but the latter had an expression on his face that told him not to ask. As such, he complied.

Ray took out a pair of keys from his pants and turned on the boat. And before long, they sailed through the river, until the sunset.