“Hmmm, which should I take?” Lea spoke out loud as she looked at each improvised weapon laid out throughout the store like shopping for an assortment of dresses.

I stared at her cheerfully selecting the items from the entrance of the room behind her.

What I’ve understood about Lea in the brief time I have known her is that, unlike me, she is a very strong person. Either that or she was stupidly carefree. Even when being in this present situation where something could come through that door right now and kill us all, she seemed as carefree as one could be.

I also learned a bit about her life as well yesterday; Her full name is Lea Von. She was a recent graduate from the same college I was supposed to join. She was also working part-time in a mart near the end of this road and she was 24 years old. 4 years older than me.

I watched as she wore a protective vest two sizes bigger than her and slash a manchette in the air comically and exaggeratedly. It was hard to be gloom and doom about the situation when you were presented with that.

She somehow appeared to be much more mature than me while also simultaneously being so childish.

“I think you should get that pitchfork, you know, focus on keeping anything away from you rather than trying to do anything,” I added in my not-so-experienced advice.

“Hmm, yeah, but I think I’ll take this axe”

“Huh, but that pitchfork will be better for you,” I interjected

“Maybe, but I’ll take the axe”

“Well, it’s your choice,” I shrugged. The more important thing than these improvised weapons was whether or not I could still use ‘vitality’. My body is not the declining to failure like before, but it was still a far cry from good condition.

The last time I used it, I was about to pass out only after using it for like 10 seconds. The wounds covering my body also has only just stopped bleeding and will probably get worse when I move around.

This gathering of supplies has to be successful enough for us to bunker inside for a week at the least so that I could properly recover from the damage I do to myself when I go out today and use 'vitality'.

Quite a double-edged tool to manage.

I tried sensing my soul again as I closed my eyes. The sense came to me a little easier than last time.

This. Was my only resistance against these monsters. I need to remind myself to practice and try to figure more about them instead of sleeping around doing nothing.

My aura although a little clearer than last time, was still like an obscure sense and hard to really see what was going on. A far cry from the clear view I had before. I also didn’t dare flare my aura for testing out ‘vitality’ despite it being a vital cog in what was to come. I was planning on using it as sparingly as possible.

“What are you doing?” Lea asked me.

I opened my eyes to see her looking at me weirdly “Nothing, you ready?” I spoke, emulating fake confidence.

“Yeah, let's go" She replied resolutely.

We walked to the entrance of the building and looked at both sides of the street for anything; it was as empty as the sound accompanying it.

I looked at the sky, the aurora now completely covering it in a vibrant green and blue color, but this time I didn’t stay entranced in it, my view quickly coming down to scan the surroundings.

The street looked normal enough, though slightly eerie because of no one in it but on a closer look, there were marks of red here and there etched into the road, with no bodies accompanying it.

I gulped and walked, looking around me constantly while Lea watched my back. If I could, I would have walked while crouching and skittering behind things, but there was nothing to crouch behind. We were walking out completely in the open, so walking while hugging the wall was the best I could do.

I slowed down to get close to her “Where was the place again” I asked her. I knew where it was, having been explained where it was 5 minutes ago, but I could use some talking to calm myself.

“Straight for about 100 meters and then right,” She replied, even though puzzled about my memory.

“Ok,” I said back as I walked towards the end of the road, clutching my pitchfork even tighter, imagining something coming around that corner. But contrary to my foreboding and murphy’s, we reached the end of the open road with no incident.

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Guess today was my lucky day.

I peeked around the corner, looking at the mart she mentioned. It was there, and it appeared to be shut tight. That was good. That means there were fewer chances something got inside and more chances of someone - someone humane - actually being in there, holed up inside.

I turned back to Lea regaining a bit of my wit. “You know of a way to get inside?”

“Yeah, there should be a back door, it’s probably closed as well, but I think it’s much safer to pry it open than doing it in the open here.” A sentiment which I agreed.

With that said, we walked to the side of the mart and headed towards its back. I tried looking through the fixed windows for any signs for... Well, anything. But it was completely pitch dark inside and the most I could see were a few stalls and boxes.

We reached the back end of the mart and unsurprisingly enough; it was closed shut, but there was a window on top of the door, which we could use to squeeze inside.

I stood on a few boxes, which were lying around, and smashed the window with my pitchfork. Cleaning the remaining parts of the glasses on the window with my shirt.

“I’ll get inside first and see if I could open it from the inside,” I said to Lea as I wore my shirt back and tried to climb through the window.

My forearms and my back pinged in pain but I grit through it as half my body went inside the window, my upper half inside the mart. I paused my climb while resting my body on my stomach on the window to look inside.

It was completely dark, oppressively so. Even though it was morning and sunshine on the outside, the inside was filled with darkness.

I gulped and tried to get my lower body through the window, but lost my balance and tipped forward, being front-heavy. Planting my face right into the ground.

“My God, are you ok” I heard Lea shouting from the other side of the door. I screamed back, holding my face in pain “Yeah... I’m okay, it’s fine.”

My nose was bleeding onto the floor, but thankfully nothing worse happened, I thought as I looked to my right, into the darkness as I cleaned my bloody nose with my shirt.

I gulped down and turned back to face the door, to open it. Thankfully, it didn’t require a key and with a turn of a knob and an unlocked barreled bolt later; I was no longer alone.

“Are you really ok?” Lea asked as she got inside.

“Yeah, I am. Let’s just take what we need and get out of here.” I replied, wanting to quickly get out of this creepy place that belonged in a horror game.

Well, not like it wasn't one already.

We walked through the aisles. Keeping our eye out primarily for food, water, which was surprisingly difficult without any lights.

But two minutes later, we were loading canned foods, drinks, medicines, and other stuff into a new better bag we found in the mart.

I was constantly on the lookout, peering into the darkness, while Lea loaded the items into the bag.

"...z.."

Huh? I think I heard a noise. A squeaking noise.

Did I imagine that?

“Hey, did you hear something?” I asked Lea while she was busy stuffing as many items as she could.

“No, why. Did you hear something?” She replied back without stopping.

Did I imagine it? I thought as I perked up my ears, listening closely to the silence.

I could hear the same squeaking sounds again, and quiet skittering noises. My hands began to shake as my heart pumped harder. I was positive now.

“Something here.” I alerted her as my eyes darted right and left, looking for anything in the darkness. Which only heightened my beating heart.

“Wait, I found some lights here, let me break the package,” She replied as rustling sounds of the package tearing off could be heard behind me.

I held my pitchfork, keeping it in front of me while reading my aura for ‘vitality’. Restlessly waiting for the lights to come.

“Got it!” She spoke to my pleasure as she took out the torch and shined it in front of us.

Revealing big beady eyes right in front of us. The light revealing its loose skinny body with long arms half-covered in feathers as if someone painfully plucked an owl off of its feathers from its body.

It squeaked right in front of me in response to the light in its dark-accustomed eyes, as I jumped back screaming as well. Completely Forgetting about the ‘vitality’ in my fright.

But Lea jumped into action, dropping the torch to the floor as she swung the axe into its face.

Her weak swing barely did anything to its thick skin, but I snapped from my fright because of it and recognized the situation for what it was. An opportunity.

I flared my aura instantly and stabbed my fork into its eyes, the long pitchfork reaching it despite me being farther than Lea.

It somehow in its confusion and pain, could not dodge it. And the pitchfork penetrated its large beady eyes.

It squeaked again loudly, painfully this time in response to its eye being popped, but Lea cut it short by swinging her axe again to its neck.

I pulled back my fork from its eyes and stabbed it again, as well. We continued pocking and chopping the overgrown featherless beast until it stopped moving and the same intangible rush of something flowing inside of us came.

It felt weaker than the Komodo-werewolf but felt intoxicating as ever as strength filled me, and the same vague feeling of becoming more whole or better than before overwhelmed me.

But it felt much closer than before, felt like I was closer to something, to something being filled.

I looked towards Lea; did she get the same thing I got when I first killed the monster?

“Hey-” but she spoke out loud before I could even ask.

“Directive?” she spoke in confusion.

Well, that confirms it. “Don’t accept it right now. I got the same thing before when I killed the light bulb. You can accept it later, that’s how I did it.”. Light-bulb, huh. I thought as I spoke. I kinda like that name.

“Ok” she replied, “bu-” Another quiet screeching sound cut her short mid-sentence. We instantly perked up, readying our weapon in front of us. I stared at the torch that was lying on the ground, illuminating the surface.

“Got more lights?” I asked as my eyes searched for the monster in the dark.

“Yeah, watch my back for a min, I’ll open more,” she replied as quickly as she turned back and went on to open more torches.

The accompanying squeaking noises increased in numbers. Countless squeaking and skittering, being heard all around me, as my heart sank into my stomach.

Why can’t I luck out just for once...