I decided not to think about the unbelievable things that were happening in the city, but since I had nothing better to do. I ended up doing that. First of all, not a single electronic device in the city was working. I only could understand that after I checked the entire hospital and the supermarket, nothing was working. So, no electronic devices, no power was circulating through the city. That was a big problem; because it would take weeks, maybe months to restore the city’s energy.

Another weird thing, all vehicles, food, remedies, and clean water disappeared. But for some reason, the food in my house didn’t vanish. There was a river crossing the city, but that water probably wasn't clean enough. But, if I didn’t find a solution, then I guess I would have to drink it. By the way, there’s no way that I will eat the rat's meat, not even in a trillion years. But who knows, after a week or two starving, my resolve will disappear and then I will end up eating. I don’t want to think about it

And then the last and most terrifying problem, the city was almost empty. When I broke my sensorial limit again, I began to feel some stares, but no one tried to approach me. The city wasn’t empty, but those who didn't dare to leave their homes wouldn’t be of much of a help to me anyway. And let’s not forget about the game elements.

“There’s no way in hell this is a game! The pain I feel is real; my thirst is real!”

My lemonade was long gone, and I only had a few cookies to eat. But those were the least of my worries; I was more worried about my ear. I didn't hear well, and more than ten hours had passed since it got cut off, I was aware that soon no one would be able to transplant it back.

“I guess, there’s nothing I can do about it. I will be a mutilated freak.”

Even though my parents and siblings were very good looking, I wasn’t in no way handsome; I didn’t even look much like them. But without a part of one of my ears, I would look more than ugly. I was getting depressed; obviously, I was exaggerating. But that didn't change the fact. Maybe it was thanks to those thoughts. Or thanks to the darkness of the supermarket. Or, perhaps it was thanks to the entire situation.

“Ah, fuck.”

The wounds in my body were making me feel itchy, but that didn’t surprise me, after all, I didn’t have any time to clean them. To make matters worse, the big wound on my side didn’t let me sleep. I was relatively safe in one of the supermarket rooms since I blocked the only way out with a table and some chairs. I would wake up with the noise if something tried to attack the door anyway, but I didn’t manage to get a wink of sleep.

When everything was brighter again, I left the supermarket. Even though the sunrise was beautiful, everything looked quite gray to me; I felt like I was at the bottom of the pit. For some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to throw away my ear; it was literally a part of me after all. So it was inside my backpack, but it lost its color.

“No, don’t think about it. Keep moving.”

Depressing thoughts at that moment were even more dangerous than the rats, a few rats wouldn’t make me give up, but those thoughts would.

I was naïve when I thought that I could stay awake for three days straight with the city in this situation. I managed to do that in the past, but I only worked and studied during those days. But now I was fighting for my life and getting cut like a pig.

Luckily for me, that exhaustion made those depressing thoughts disappear. I moved forward, and I fought without thinking, but even in that state, I managed to kill the rats before they could approach. With every shot, a rat died. I didn’t care about it, but the skill concentration was saving my life, after all, I didn’t sleep in two days. After a few hours, I found other supermarkets and a hospital, but those were empty too. However, again, I didn’t care about it.

After an entire day, without success, I should have given up about catching up Martin. I was slow since I was wounded. But even without thinking, I still followed his trails. Me and my naiveness, like a single person, would solve all my problems. Martin was an odd guy and a survivor with the necessary skills to keep going, but he was no superhero. I only understood that around noon. Even though one of my ears was making me feel weird, the other was working more than well, and thanks to that, I heard a sound that I didn’t hear in two days. I heard the voices of many people laughing.

“Finally, a group of survivors!”

A single person wouldn’t be able to help, but how about a group? But something was off, my mind wasn’t working properly, but I felt something telling me to be careful. Besides, thanks to my imprudence, I was in that miserable state. Unless I had a death wish, I shouldn’t act like a fool again.

Slowly, I approached, using trashing cans, energy poles, and fences as a cover. And when I finally arrived at the intersection and looked to my right, I saw a group of ten men. My tension rose, and my mind became a little clearer when I saw those men using drugs, their clothes were dirty with blood, and they looked quite haggard. But that didn’t matter because I instantly recognized what they were wearing.

“They are wearing prison uniforms… ah, they are the men who Martin mentioned. Again, my lack of luck is unbelievable!”

Thank God, I decided to approach silently, or else they would have found me. Those guys couldn’t be trusted in any way, what made me understand that was the fact that they even didn’t clean the blood on their faces. They were equipped with swords, axes, lances, and clubs. Even from afar, I could feel the smell of fresh and coagulated blood in their bodies, and they couldn’t care less about it.

“Why are they here?”

It didn’t look like they were resting nearby, they were close to a house, but the door of that house was destroyed. Besides, they didn’t have anything with them besides their weapons. But what worried me was the fact that some of them had firearms, and a huge bald guy who seemed to be their leader had a machinegun and a very familiar gun.

“It’s Martin’s gun!”

I felt a shiver when I realized that, but then I took a deep breath. It was probably just a coincidence. I found those guys, following Martin’s trail, but there’s no way that they would catch him. Besides, I couldn’t see his body. But I had to make sure; however, I couldn’t approach and ask them. I had to wait until they leave.

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Fortunately, that didn’t take long. Since they couldn’t’ find anything that could entertain them, they left. My heart almost stopped when they began to walk in my direction, without any choice, I threw myself in a bush. Thanks to that, my wounds almost made me scream, but I kept my mouth shut. In any other situation, they would feel the smell of blood and sweat on me. But since all of them used drugs, they couldn’t feel it.

Since they could turn back, I decided to wait for five minutes. Only after that I got up and walked towards that house. In front of it, I could see a small pool of blood. I also found a trail of blood that led me to the inside of the house. My heart began to race when I got inside the house, because I didn’t find any sign of rats nearby, and then, I saw it. A body tied in a chair, or at least, almost a body. Some parts were missing, the hands didn’t have the fingers, and then one the legs had been chopped off. Immediately, I threw up, but only some water came since I didn’t eat anything in the last twenty-four hours.

After that, I lost the strength on my legs and began to tremble, that was the first time that I saw a dead human. I never thought I would see one in such state, for a human do something like that to another human being. But then, I remembered Martin’s words, those criminals already did that to the police officer, but at that time, I didn’t care about it. I naively thought that wasn’t my problem since it didn’t happen to me or to my parents and siblings that was why I soon forgot about it.

Since that person had been brutally tortured, I didn’t recognize him. But then I saw it, the tanned skin, the clothes, the hair... That person was Martin. My body trembled when I thought about the first friend I made in years was dead. The person who taught me a lot and helped me had been brutally tortured. I didn’t know him for a long time, but even so, that scene made me feel an agony that I couldn’t describe with words. I felt my very soul freezing and a sensation of emptiness inside me. I screamed and trembled. But strangely, I didn’t cry.

"AAAAAAaaaaaaHHHHHH!"

While I was screaming, the time around me stopped moving, and again, I saw myself been transported to another place. It looked like I was inside a warehouse, full of boxes of canned food. But that room was painted with blood, and around me, I could see dozens of corpses. That was just a strange vision, but I could see my hands trembling, and I could feel a sensation that I never felt, a rage much more intense than the one I felt on the day of that incident, a rage that made me forget about my parents and siblings. A rage that would only disappear after I got rid of those bastards.

Suddenly I was back to that house, and then I knew what I had to do. My mind was saying to me to calm down, but my boiling blood and the rage clouded my judgment.

“I’ll avenge you, Martin, I’ll make them pay.”

I was tired, wounded, and I wasn’t thinking straight. I would probably die like a dog since I would probably attack them without any plan. Every single factor was against me, but I didn’t care, I rushed and left the house only thinking about killing them in the most painful way.

But at the moment I left the house, I felt someone kicking my leg. I fell on the ground, and before I could try to get up, something sit on my back. Thanks to the fall and the sudden weight on my back, my wounds began to hurt like hell. Those guys had returned, but that was just perfect.

“You son of a bitch, I’ll kill you!”

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t know that you were so wounded, I’ll let you get up, but first, try to calm down a little.”

Even though those bastards were the earth’s scum, that guy voice looked very calm, and that only made me feel even angrier.

“Get off me, you bastard! I’ll make you pay!”

I struggled a lot, but I couldn’t move an inch. That guy was tall and heavy. But at the next moment, I became a little less angry and a bit confused.

“It’s no use, Harry. Just put him to sleep, he isn’t in a state where he will listen to us.”

It was a woman’s voice. That was strange; I didn’t see a single woman with those guys. But I didn’t have time to think about it, because I felt a weird pain in the back of my head and then everything became dark.

“Sorry. But you didn’t give us much choice.”

It seemed that I slept for a long time because I felt refreshed. But I was feeling some discomfort because I slept on the floor, I woke up and waited a few moments and blinked my eyes many times, but I still couldn’t see anything. I was in a dark place, or maybe it was night, or perhaps both.

Before my eyes could adjust to the darkness, I remembered my last memories. The memory of Martin’s corpse was still fresh in my mind, just like that anger and the agony that I felt. But this time, the blood didn’t rush to my head, instead of acting like a crazy dog, I felt depressed.

“You look calm this time, good; we can talk now.”

That was the voice of the guy who kicked me, it took a few seconds, but I could see him on the other side of the room. Even with everything dark, I could see his appearance; I made a good choice breaking the sensorial limit; after all, few things could be more useful than being able to see in the darkness. Even though he kicked me, I didn’t have any real reason to hate him; he prevented me from doing something stupid. But somehow, just with his voice, I could tell that he was hard to deal with, at least for me.

He was 1, 90 meters tall and he looked very fit, he probably was a basketball player. His hair was black and short, and the expression in his face emitted some tranquility and goodwill. Exactly like I felt when I heard his voice from the first time, he looked to be the carefree type.

“Yes, my name is Ethan. Thank you for stopping me. Someday, if I have the chance, I will return the favor.”

Even though I was serious about that, I didn’t have much confidence. I almost died against a bunch of rats, more than once. I wasn’t reliable enough to make such promises; besides, that guy didn’t look much of a survivor maybe he would die before I could return the favor. But who was I to say that?

“No problem, we just did the right thing to do. My name is Harry, by the way.”

Come to think of it; I heard a female’s voice when he knocked me down. But, oh well, whatever.

“How are you feeling?”

“Pretty good actually, considering my wounds and that I didn’t take a shower in three days.”

When I said that I noticed, I wasn’t feeling all that dirty anymore; the pain was mostly gone too. But I just only understood what happened when Harry said his next words.

“Well, I have a surprise for you. We put your ear back in the right place; we also treated your wounds and bathed you. Unfortunately, you gained some scars, but it’s better than nothing, right?”

I didn’t believe him, but I still touched my ear, and it was there, my ear was back in one piece. I also touched my other wounds. It hurt a little bit, but all the wounds were now closed and almost healed.

“How… how did you?”

I was speechless; such a thing was impossible. But then, everything that was happening in the city was impossible to believe. A single word appeared in my mind, and then I could understand how that was possible.

“A skill!”

“We have a winner! That’s right; one of my friends can cure wounds. But it took the entire day for her to heal you. By the way, your ear only could be healed because she is a doctor. Well, she is studying to be one. You are lucky if she were just a bit slow…”

I never thought that I was a lucky guy, but at that moment, I was thinking that. But the power to cure people, what an amazing power!

“You guys saved me a lot of trouble. I swear it; someday I will return the favor. Where is the person who healed me? I must thank her properly.”

“She is sleeping now; you can thank her later. But, please keep some distance from her. She doesn’t like to interact with strangers.”

A person who is studying to be a doctor but doesn’t like to interact with strangers? Then how does she plan to work?

“I see, she didn’t look like a shy person when I heard her though.”

“The person who you heard was her older sister.”

Harry’s group was bigger than I thought. But that wasn’t important; I had an essential question in mind.

“There are some limitations when your friend uses her skill?”

“Yes, she has to touch the wound.”

“And she can cure any wound? Then…”

“I’m sorry, I know what you are thinking, but no. She can’t heal any wound. It is indeed an unbelievable power, but it’s still weak, and she can’t use it for a long time. She can’t bring back the dead.”

Again, my naïve way of thinking made me feel stupid. Even if the whole world turns upside down, you only live once.