Occupying a small space in the back of a small building was a small room previously used for storage. The previous dusty room loaded with items was now an empty room except for two make-shift beds made from cardboard boxes stacked under a blanket and a list of items sprayed across, occupying the center.

"4.. 5..6,…. six cans of food and half a bottle of water, huh." She said with a sigh as she looked at the result of scouring the entire building for any supplies.

“That’s better than I thought, but I think the water is going to be more of a problem than food,” I replied while sitting on the floor on top of the blanket.

She closed her eyes, and spoke the words she didn't want to face “.... The water stopped working this morning so I got no choice but to go outside, don't I?”

“You said that you worked somewhere close, right? Know any mart or shop we can take food from?”

“Yeah, there should be one just 2 minutes from here, but….” She stopped with a complicated expression that mirrored mine.

We have yet to see or hear another person since yesterday’s monster fiasco.

There were no signs of any cars running, nor any signs of help or movement outside. The only sounds that was heard in the quiet city were the occasional screams that seem to echo from far away and loud crashing sounds ringing throughout the area, which did not paint a pleasant picture of what was happening outside.

But.... as far as we know, things might actually be less bad than we were thinking OR the streets could be littered with monsters and that 2-minute walk to the mart might as well be walking through the gates of hell itself with a guarantee of death.

After a minute of silence, I spoke first “There is a protective vest on the shop in the front, we can take a few weapons as well and go before night-”

“Woah slow down there, buckaroo,” She interrupted rudely “You’re covered with bandages from head to toe. You can’t come. You’re practically a Mummey.”

“That does not mean you can go alone either. I was holed up inside a room and I was still attacked twice in the span of what, a day? The chances that you will encounter something and die is pretty high.”

“Also, like I told you before, I have that thing I can do which might save us if it comes to it,” I spoke reassuringly, even though I was even more unsure about it myself.

“That boost-like thingy? I am not sure if that was anything but just your adrenaline kicking in, besides can you even do it in your state?” She asked skeptically while scanning my whole body.

“I should be able to. Besides, it would be better than dying, right.” I replied back, ending that conversation.

To be honest, the reason for my insistence on helping was far from altruistic. I was already uncomfortable and guilty from being nursed and thanked profusely for saving her when I actually left her with no care. Naked and alone, along with a few rotting bodies making things out there find her that much easier.

It was a miracle that she woke up as she did and hid herself. In all rights, she should have died and survived only because of herself.

Her help didn’t just stop after taking care of me, she also cleaned the entire room; removed all the junk items in the previous storeroom, scoured the building for supplies, all while I was snoring and sleeping without a care.

In the end, even though she vehemently refused, it was decided that we would go together.

“Fine, fine, we’ll go together, but we’ll go tomorrow morning. You need as much rest as you can get, even if it’s only for a day, it should be better than something, right?” She added as a condition.

“Yeah, I’m fine with that,” I replied, feeling even more guilty for the care she was giving me.

But it was true that my body needed its time. I also needed to know how to properly use this new ability as well since I couldn’t explore it to my heart's content as that Komodo-wolf thing interrupted me.

I need to know if there were more things to uncover, which there was bound to be.

This whole thing was shrouded in mystery. Magical words in everyone’s mind, monsters, souls, abilities. I needed to get to the bottom of this, which I would, using the tools available to me, and the best one was this ability I got.

I sat back down, closed my eyes to feel my soul again, like before, I could not see the millions of specks that I saw during the darkness, but I could faintly feel the aura filling my being, but much fainter. Felt much more distant than before.

I focused more closely on it, trying to see the faint flow.

I heard her getting up and walking outside the door, perhaps feeling bored or perhaps to prepare for tomorrow. I ignored it and focused inwards, trying to observe the flow.

I could feel it flowing through my body slowly, circulating through me like a separate circulatory system, spreading and flowing through every part, but on closer observation, I observed a few patches where the flow felt weird, I zoned in on that.

It was on parts of my face, my arm, and my back, the same places as my injuries.

Why? Is it leaking? Or is it getting spent trying to heal it? Or was it that the production of aura was dependent on the state of the body? There were many plausible explanations and nothing to confirm any of them.

I thought of 'Vitality'. When I used it, my aura flared up, maybe doing other things might grant other effects. Maybe I could even heal wounds by controlling them towards it, it would fit my understanding of aura. It was the energy of my soul, granting life and substantiality to my body.

With that in my mind, I focused again, feeling the faint sense of the aura flowing through me and tried to manipulate it, and to my surprise, I could, but barely. It somehow felt intuitive enough that I could move it, but hard to do so properly.

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Like trying to use a muscle you rarely used; it felt weak and frustrating that you couldn’t move it the way you want. But I stayed calm and kept on trying.

Eventually, after the nth time, I succeeded in piling up a small amount of aura in the patches which aligned with the puncture wounds in my arm; it felt strenuous to keep it holding there, but I forced it to stay there as long as I could.

I soon started feeling a sense of wrongness. A vague sense of pain or discomfort, like I was doing something very wrong, like I was suffocating my body of something. This feeling kept piling up the longer I kept holding the aura and in a few moments, it got to the point where I felt like I was being choked, despite properly breathing. I quickly let my hold of the aura, and the flow resumed, which quickly dissipated the suffocating feeling.

I took a few breaths, panting hard…. Ok, guess disrupting flow to a circulatory system feels stupid in hindsight.

The door opened just as I composed myself and she walked inside with blood in her hands and clothes.

“What happened!!“ I shouted while getting up in fear. Do we not get a single damn day where we are not attacked?

“Hmm?... Oh this," she spoke calmly as she raised her blood-caked arms. "I was just moving the bodies outside, wouldn’t want more things to come attracted by the smell, wouldn't we."

“You carried them outside? Why didn’t you call for me?“

“Hey, I won't ask the person who is in this state after saving my life to carry rotten dead bodies.“

“I didn’t save you!“ I shouted louder than I intended. “In case you forgot, I left all of you naked along with those rotten bodies after I killed one with a pitchfork and punched the other to death.”

But fuck this. This, being treated as a savior when I failed myself and cowered was too stifling

“I only killed the monster because it went after me. If it didn’t, I would have left all of you to die, that includes you too.” I added while jabbing my finger.

“I see… “ She replied with an unmoving face in front of my sudden outburst, “Well, not like I didn’t know that already. The end result is still the same, you could have killed me when I attacked you, and you killing that werewolf did ended up saving me.“ She answered to my annoyance.

“Forget it.“ I said, irritated by her attitude, and walked back towards my bed and laid down while facing the wall.

Her, seeing this, looked at me amused and went on to get herself cleaned of all the blood.

I heard rustling sounds of a dress being unclothed behind me.

Huh..... no way, right? she's not doing the thing I think she's doing right?

I spoke trying to keep my previous sharpness “Oy, you changing your dress or something?“

“Eh, yeah I am. I got myself blood from moving the bodies,“ She replied as if it was normal.

“What! just change it somewhere else. Why are you doing it here “

“I would, but while I was throwing the bodies outside, I heard a few noises towards the end. So I’m afraid that the monsters that come attracted towards the bodies might also look further in."

"Ahh, but don’t worry I threw them slightly away from the entrance so hopefully they’ll eat them and that’ll be the end of it. And this room is at the back of the building, so I don’t think they will come here unless we make a noise, you know, like you did before “

I shut up after hearing that. But this woman was still weird, changing her dress inside a small room with a stranger in it, whom she met just a day ago. I stayed still facing the wall while hiding my face.

The rustling sound of the clothes stopped and she plopped down on her own bed with a tired sigh. I finally calmed down and took out my phone from my pocket and tried my daily obligatory call to my parents, which ended up the same as the previous times.

Wait, what! I looked at the time displayed on the phone, it was night already? Last I checked, it was afternoon, did it break? But my growling stomach agreed with the time on the phone that it was way overdue for food.

“Here.“ She said as she slid me 2 cans of food towards my back, probably after hearing my stomach rumble.

I sighed and begrudgingly turned back and got up to take the canned food. it should taste pretty bad with all the overcooking and extra salt but it was akin to hotel food for my hungry stomach. We ate the food in silence, gorging the last of it within minutes.

After my final bite, she passed me our last water bottle and spoke “You can have the first sip.“

I looked at our last half-filled water bottle and replied. “You did a lot of physical work today. You can have the first sip,“

"Really? Thank you,“ She said, beaming, as she drank half of what was left, which was then emptied after I drank the last of it.

We sat in complete silence after filling ourselves, ruminating on how things will turn out tomorrow. There was a high chance we would die tomorrow but I prayed that the situation was not as grim as I thought it was and that we would hopefully find people, or at least survive until we find them.

I stared at the empty bottle. Hopefully, we’ll get some more when we raid the mart tomorrow, or else we’ll have to drink from the toilet tank for tomorrow.

I shuddered at the thought of it. I couldn’t drink that without vomiting it out, and no amount of people telling me on the internet that it was basically clean water would change it.

I really hope that it doesn't come to that.

“Now that I think about it, I still don’t know your name,” She spoke, piercing the silence.

“I completely forget my formalities in the middle of all this. My name is Lea Von, what’s yours?“ Lea added in.

I looked at her, thinking the same “Rudy... Rudy Graves.“

“Rudy, huh, that’s a nice name, you don’t look like you’re from here either “

“Yeah, I just came to this country 2 days ago, the day things went down, to study here “

“That is some luck right there, “ Lea said as she laughed. “Which one were you supposed to enter anyway?"

“Lewton.“ I replied.

“Figures, that’s the only good one here, you know, I graduated from that university just last year.“

“What! Really? How was it like?“ I asked, in elation.

Lea, seeing my obvious excitement, replied while exaggerating slightly, “It was enormous, it has a pool, a gym, a gorgeous garden, it even has a stadium in it “

“There isn't a stadium,“ I said with skepticism.

“There was. There also was a museum and a botanical garden,“ She replied, trying to defend her claims.

“A museum inside a university? Now you’re just messing with me “

“No, no, there totally is,“ Lea said as she went on to add to the list of things that an institution that is intended for studying does not need.

This conversation went on for hours, which devolved into asking about our own lives, what my country was like and how hard her work was. The conversation eventually went past midnight, and we were forced to retire to sleep for the big day tomorrow.

.................

....

“Hey, you asleep?” Lea asked in the middle of the night.

“No.“ I replied. It was hard sleeping, knowing that today might be your last. I also couldn't sleep because I felt a vague sense of heaviness for some reason and was just tussling around.

“You know, the thing about you saving me, I really do think that. When it was eating them in front of me, I couldn’t do anything, even when I saw the person struggling to save himself, I just watched. I have a feeling that if you didn’t come, and even if I survived staying inside that locker, I wouldn’t come out of it, you know, even if I physically did.”

“Gahh, it’s really hard expressing it in words. I was always bad at expressing my feeling, but I’m really grateful when you showed up when you did, regardless of your intent to save me or not.“ Saying what she wanted to say she turned around and went back to sleep.

I kept quiet throughout her speech; she was right I couldn’t empathize with that line of thought; I was never really the type to think emotionally like that. I would have been angry at the person who left me there if the roles were reversed, not grateful. But even so, I feel like I could understand a bit where she was coming from.

To be honest, it would be a lie if I told myself that I was not ashamed of my own behavior, so her words ranged with me and lessened the vague sense of heaviness in my chest. I closed my eyes, feeling much better.

And before I knew it, it was already morning. The big day.