Life sure is funny, one day you hunt, and on the other day, you are hunted. I thought that while I watched a group of mutant cats being torn apart.
As I expected, something was up ahead, blocking ou way. That something was a mutant rat, but that one was even bigger than the others. It was five-meter tall, and it was fatter than the others. Thanks to that, the fat rat didn't look like it could move around that much. It was slow, but it was powerful. The monster, could throw stones and pieces of walls like cannonballs, where did the fat rat get those? From the ground and the walls of the nearby buildings. Since the monster’ claws were powerful enough to destroy walls and the ground, the mutant cats' bodies became piles of shredded meat.
After the massacre, the mutant rat 2.0 began to eat the mutant cats. It was gruesome, but we watched until the end waiting for the monster to leave the area, but instead, as if it knew about us, the beast approached the bridge and began to sleep.
It was a difficult enemy, but it wasn’t invincible, the mutant cats managed to wound the giant rat in many places. I could even see the monster’s muscle. However, there’s no way that Harry could block a single attack of the beast and if we tried to kill if from afar we would be bombarded with stones.
“What’s the plan now?”
We didn’t have many options, but I asked Rose anyway.
“We have just one option; let ’s swim.”
She was right; that was our only option. But not a single one us, not even Rose was very confident with that option. After all, every animal we encountered so far had become mutant beasts. In that case, the river would be full of those too, right? And just like we all imagined, the river was full of mutant creatures now. Even from afar we could see some oversized fish swimming in the river, and in the riverbank, we saw some purple and big frogs. Quickly we left that place, and we entered a restaurant, it wasn’t safe to sleep, but we wouldn’t stay for a long time anyway.
“Do you have any other plan?”
Maybe I was annoying, or perhaps I was naïve while I waited for Rose to have solutions to all of our problems. But that couldn’t be helped. I already accepted her as my temporary leader. She was far smarter than me, and until I find my parents, she was the only person who could choose the less dangerous path to follow. However, Rose was hesitating. Instead, Harry answered my question.
“We have to kill that rat; we don’t have any other choice. St Louis Street is blocked, and then there are those criminals, if we keep retreating, eventually we will get stuck somewhere.”
“I also agree, I don’t think that big rat is the only one who grew too much. I can’t fight like you three, but I’ll do my best to heal your wounds.”
Now that was surprising, Sarah never gave her opinion until now. But she did the right thing; sometimes it was just too cruel to wait for a single person make the decisions and bear the weight of the consequences. We all have to agree; that way, we all would share the success or the failure. But I had a better idea, it was a bet, and maybe I would die thanks to my new found confidence. However, it was the best plan that I could form.
“Before you guys decide that, let me test something.”
All of them looked at me puzzled, we were in a dangerous situation, and it wasn’t time to do something dangerous or test a half-assed plan.
“Don’t look at me like that; I won’t do anything stupid. I only want to test how fast I can run.”
“Why do you have to do that right now?”
Rose looked pretty annoyed, but she was right in questioning me. Even though I did my job properly until that moment, she still didn’t trust me.
“Well, I was thinking about instead of fighting, we should make that monster get away from the bridge. I’m not sure, but I think that by breaking my sensorial limit, I also got faster. Think about it, since my senses improved, I can react faster, that’s exactly why I managed to hit the eye of that first mutant cat. Since I can now react faster, my speed should have improved too, right?”
For a few seconds, they looked at each other, trying to understand my reasoning. But since it was simple, they soon nodded.
“You noticed that your reflexes improved, but you didn’t notice the same thing happening to your speed?”
Rose asked while looking suspiciously at me again, seriously… this woman is a good leader, but a real pain the ass.
“I didn’t have many chances to run after I broke my sensorial limit for the first time.”
“Let’s say that you are right and that you can run faster than any of us," Rose said, "do you plan to lure that monster away from the bridge? Are you sure about that?”
“Do you think that I’m planning to sacrifice myself? Give me a break; I just don’t want to fight a lost battle. Let’s do the test; if you guys think that I’m not faster enough, then forget about my idea.”
In the end, Rose agreed to test my speed. Honestly, I didn’t want to lure that thing away from the bridge. But I didn’t want to fight against it either; it was madness, nothing more and nothing less.
To avoid any possible problems, we moved away from the bridge, and we begin the test, which was just me running as fast as possible for two hundred meters and then I would return also running to the start point. We didn’t have any clocks, so, Rose would count the time.
As soon as she gave the signal, I began to run imagining myself being chased by the fat rat. I moved my legs as fast as I could, and I didn’t even try to breathe. Soon I reached the halfway point, and without any delay, I turned around and began to run again. And sooner than I thought I was with Harry’s group again.
Since I was just focused on running, I didn’t notice my speed, but I guessed that I took less than a minute. I was tired, but I still could keep running at that speed for four or five minutes. At least, My STA bar was showing that.
“How was I?”
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Rose looked at me with a severe expression, while Sarah looked astonished, and Harry looked amazed. I guess that I did well. Then finally Rose answered me.
“You ran four hundred meters in forty seconds.”
“That’s good or bad?”
“It’s good enough to beat the world record by three seconds," Rose said. "You don’t look like an athlete, so that means that you were right. Your speed improved just like your reflexes.”
That was more amazing than I thought. However, was I fast enough to keep a distance from the fat rat? In a normal situation, probably I would be. But to make the monster chase me, I would have to enrage the creature, and the beast will likely become faster two.
“Well, we can’t test my theory. So It’s all or nothing. You guys hide, and wait for a minute, only cross the bridge when you can’t see the monster anymore. And run as fast as possible, I don’t want to return and see you guys still around.”
“Are you sure about this, Ethan? We can always find another and safer solution.”
Harry’s words made me feel itchy; it was uncomfortable to see a man who wasn’t my father worried about me. Rose didn’t care about me, but she didn’t want to feel responsible for my death. Sarah was a bit more concerned, but it was because, in the future, she would be a doctor. Like any doctor, she didn’t want to see any a person die.
“I’m sure we can find a better solution. I even have one. We just have to make Rose kill one hundred of those mutant cats by herself. Then she will be powerful enough to blow that monster’s head from this distance. But that would take a long time.”
“You are right, just don’t anything stupid," Harry said. "You still have to find your parents and siblings.”
“It’s just me, or this whole situation looks like my farewell? Listen to me, all of you; I’m not going to die! I’m not going to die! Now go hide yourselves already.”
Just like that, they hid in that restaurant. Seriously, it’s good to have people worried about you, but most of the time that feels like a pain in the ass.
After half an hour, I was already totally recovered and decided to put the plan in action. The creature was still near the bridge, and fortunately, it didn’t notice me when I was one hundred meters away. At that distance, the crossbow bolt wouldn’t be enough to pierce the fat rat skin. However, I didn’t have to do that. The monster had already lost a considerable amount of meat thanks to the mutant cats’ attacks. I just had to aim at one of those places where the pink flesh was visible. Unfortunately, the monster’s legs weren’t wounded. If I could hurt one of the legs, my chances of survival would increase by manifold. But whatever, he who doesn’t have a dog hunts like a cat.
I only had one chance; I had to make the creature run towards me. So I had to hit one the wounds. If I miss, the beast would probably throw stones at me, and then I would die since the rocks were as big as my head and the stones were faster than my arrows. Besides was nothing nearby that I could use as a cover.
I forgot about my surroundings, and I began to focus on the target, there was a wound on the creature’s left side very close to the heart. Who knows, maybe would be lucky again and kill it with a single attack. Those thoughts disappeared when the crosshair appeared in the creature’s head. Instead of trying to lure the damn monster, I should go for the kill. But that was impossible, the creature’s head was big and probably hard as a rock.
After a few seconds, everything around me disappeared. Suddenly, the world was just me, the crossbow bolt trajectory, and the fat rat. Thanks to that, I heard the wind that would make me miss the target, and just like that for a single moment, the crosshair became unstable, but soon it returned to normal. That was close; if I had pulled the trigger at that time, I would have missed.
Soon I began to sweat, that tension was unbearable. However, that tension only made my senses sharper, thanks to that, my aim stopped right in the wound. Without hesitation, I pulled the trigger and hit the target. Again a perfect shot, even though it takes a lot of time and makes me mentally tired, they are almost worth the trouble. Almost because every single perfect shot only puts me in the worst situations.
When the monster got hit, instantly it got up and began to scream. Even from afar, I had to cover my eyes.
‘If this scream attracts other monsters, then I will, without a doubt, die.’
That was one of my fears, but I didn’t have the time or leisure to see if that would happen. Even before that creature got up, I began to run for my life. However, I didn’t put the crossbow in my back. After all, in the worst-case scenario, I would have to use it again.
Before I could notice it, I was three hundred meters away from the monster; the creature began to run towards me only at that moment. From a brief moment, I felt safe; the fat rat wouldn’t be able to get close to me. Since it was fat, the beast couldn’t run in four legs, and the legs were too short. So I just had to run a few hundred meters to give Harry’s group a bit more of time, then I would just have to turn left three times and turn right and run like hell to reach the bridge. And so I did, after two minutes running in a straight line, I decided to look at the monster.
‘It seems that we have the same speed. They should have already crossed the bridge; it’s time to return.’
In the next intersection, I turned left and began to run, I was lucky to run so much without encountering another monster, but that was because we killed every monster we met. When I would turn left again, I felt that something was wrong. Suddenly everything became quiet, too quiet. I couldn’t hear the fat rat’s scream, and I couldn’t feel the tremor in the ground either.
‘Don’t tell me, that monster give up on chasing me?’
I stopped running, and I began to worry. If that were the case, then I would be in dire straits. I was alone now, and probably the fat rat wouldn’t chase me anymore. Instead, the damn monster would throw stones at me. However, that wasn’t what happened; the fat rat didn’t give up. The beast appeared on the same street that I was; the creature also turned left in one intersection.
‘Holy shit… that thing is smart. If I kept running the distance between us now would be only two hundred meters.’
Suddenly, my legs began to tremble. I underestimate that monster… to think such a thing would be able to copy my actions to ambush me. I was in trouble; there’s no way that I would outsmart that thing. All of my actions would just be copied, and eventually, I would be unable to keep running. Since that was the case, I picked the crossbow and prepared to shot. The monster saw my actions and began to run again, without aiming I just shot and began to run, this time I didn’t try any trick I just run towards the bridge.
Thanks to my actions, after a minute, I was back to the start point. Only one hundred meters away from the bridge, but the fat rat was now only one hundred meters away from me too. I didn’t have other choices since running around would only tire me, and eventually, I wouldn’t be able to run anymore. I avoided a problem, but now I was facing another, should I cross the bridge? That would be stupid; the monster would only follow me and eventually kill me. I had to do something now. I had to kill it, so I stopped and aimed again. I wouldn’t have many chances, but I would make all of them worthwhile.
However, to my surprise, before I could even aim, the fat rat also stopped running and began to attack the ground and picked some stones.
‘Why the hell this thing is doing that?’
It was strange; the difference in power was evident. The monster only had to get close enough and would be able to kill me with a single blow. But instead, the creature was trying to keep a distance.
‘Is it afraid of me? No way…’
Perhaps my first shot caused more damage than I thought when I thought that, I noticed, I couldn’t see any of the crossbow bolts on the monster's body. But I could see a lot of blood on the creature’s left side. It seemed that both of my shots hit the mark and pierced the deeply in the creature’s body. The beast was almost dead, I could kill it, but I took too long to notice that. The fat rat threw the stones towards me.
“Damn it!”
Two stones, both big and fast enough to kill me, were heading towards me. I only had one choice, destroy them. I didn’t have even time to think about it; I just did it. The crosshair suddenly moved toward one of the stones and stopped right in front of it. Without wasting time, I pulled the trigger, and then the unbelievable happened. The bolt hit the stone and destroyed it in pieces, and the small pieces changed the trajectory of the other stone. I was saved, now I just had to shot again and kill the fat rat. When I thought about that, for an instant, I saw a fist-size stone flying towards my head. I felt a sharp pain in my head, and then I was engulfed by darkness. Just my luck...