"Uncle" I hear Liya's voice. I could feel the tug on my sleeves as she called me once again. Opening my eyes, I was greeted by the sunrise and a cute little girl who stood before me.
"There are monsters downstairs" she spoke. It was just one thing after the other. Lamenting the fact, I looked around and searched for anything that could be used as a weapon. We were currently in the master bedroom and the drawers had jewellery, watches, earbuds, clothing and phone cables laying around. Cupboards had your everyday shirts, pants and belt. Around us, I could take the lamp... and that was about it. The layout of the house was quite simple. A kitchen, living room downstairs with the staircase located in the middle. The 2nd floor had a bathroom to the left of the stairs and 3 rooms to the front and right. We were currently in the master bedroom all the way to the right.
"What type of monsters are there?" I asked Liya.
"I walked down and saw a large green monster and his friend" Liya replied. "How did it look like? Was it big and tall?" I asked, wondering if it could be an orc.
"Mm," she nodded her head.
Number of divine beings watching you: 2
The system automatically prompted. Why were they watching me? I had yet to do anything. Should I just try and escape from the 2nd floor? I looked out the window and saw armies of orcs around the area. They were each massive, large and at least 2 metres in height. Not all of them were green in colour. They held wooden clubs that were at least 1.5 metres long and had a physique strong enough to swing it around with ease.
I saw Liya still in the large T-shirt. Heading to the toilet, I passed the old clothes she was wearing back. While doing so, I searched around for anything that I could use. There was nothing but a bunch of soap around the area. I couldn't help but wonder if there was anything I could do with them. The monsters were too large and strong for me the face alone and straight on. Even if I managed to win, the surrounding orcs might get alerted. In order to get rid of them without a sound, I needed something sharp, alternatively, we needed to escape from the area. Seeing as the entire place was filled with those monsters, it seemed unlikely for me. But if its Liya and her ability to hide her presence, there was a chance. Then again, there was little chance of her surviving alone out there. Food, water and other factors were extremely important as well. It was then, I could hear the monsters walking. They appeared to be walking towards the stairs. The stairs made a loud creak as they stepped on it. The pathway was too narrow for their bodies. I can hear the sounds of their bodies brushing against the walls as they made their way up the stairs.
"Udjie asha mebisch" I heard the orc say. The word "asha" undoubtedly meant humans. Was it possible that they could smell us here or sense our presence? As silently as I could, I brought Liya with me into the showers and closed the curtains. Taking a bottle of shampoo, I began to spray the soap everywhere nearby. Liya was looking at me puzzled as I signalled her to keep quiet.
Nodding her head, I could see her controlling her breath. It was to the point where I wondered if she was even breathing. Trying to do the same was impossible for me. I had to really focus just to see her even though she was right next to me.
I could hear the doors opened with a loud bang. The orc's silhouette was visible beyond the shower curtains. I could hear them sniffing the air before making leaving the bathroom.
"Jigi oakube asha jua perunsaieya " the orcs began to converse. Their footsteps began to sound more distant as they headed down the hallway into the master bedroom. This was probably our chance to escape. Grabbing Liya's hand, I brought her out of the shower curtains. I could hear the door to the master bedroom open. Peaking out of the toilet door, I saw the backs of the 2 orcs heading into the master bedroom. Dragging Liya along, I began to sneak down the staircase.
The 1st storey was in a mess, the whole place was turned upside down. I looked around and saw no orcs. It was probably clear. I headed to the kitchen and grabbed a knife, it was just in case we were to get caught on the outside. I could hear the sounds of the orcs moving around upstairs. I needed to move faster. Heading to the front door, I quickly put on some slippers and carried Liya in my left arm. My right hand held the kitchen knife as I scanned the surroundings. Ahead of us were orcs walking and searching the houses. To our back was more orcs searching houses. In short, we were completely surrounded. Cold sweat formed on my forehead as there didn't seem to be a way out. From what I know, heading towards the back is the fastest way out of the housing area. However, the problem was that it was back towards the office. I have no idea how much the spiders have grown over there and it meant going back to square one.
Deciding to head forward instead, I saw Liya nervously hugging my neck. She didn't speak much for a child her age. I could feel her trembling.
I took swift steps forward as the slippers left flip-flopping sounds wherever I went. It wasn't the quietest but it provided enough protection for my feet against the debris-filled ground. There were shattered glass, concrete, rocks and unknown materials all around the roads. I could see an orc alone, just straight ahead from me. I was about 3 metres away when it finally noticed my presence. Was it the effect of Liya's skill? I recalled the ability that was highlighted in yellow on her status board. Regardless, before it could roar, I stabbed the kitchen knife into its throat. The knife went in surprisingly easy and was left stuck there while the orc attempted to remove it. Using this chance, I continued to run forward. A little bit of the blood had spewed out but it didn't really get onto us.
Heroic labourer has donated 10 points!
Heroic labourer admires your quick thinking
The message made me realise that there were beings that were enjoying the chaos as if it was a show.
"Uncle, there are 3 monsters to the right, coming from the turn ahead" I could hear Liya say. How did she know? I slowed down to a stop and headed to a nearby house on the left. The doors were locked so I hid behind the house. I watched as the orcs walked pass us, before peaking out to check if the coast was clear.
We were around 1 street away from the shopping district. I held onto Liya tight and broke into a sprint heading down. It was oddly empty, but then again, most people would have been attempting to escape when the whole thing started. The question was, where were everyone escaping to? I could see traces of human activity the further down the streets I went. Some houses were barricaded with wooden planks and furniture. There were even moments where I caught a glimpse of people looking out of their houses.
We passed by the orcs roaming around as they failed to notice our presence. It was a strange feeling. We were just right next to them and yet they couldn't see us. Arriving safely at the shopping district, the hordes of orcs roaming around was still plainly visible. It was practically a miracle that we managed to run down 2 streets without alerting any of them.
As if I jinxed it, the red coloured orcs began to sniff the air. They turned their heads, and I somehow knew that they were staring straight at us. With that, I ran. The nearest few mini-malls were destroyed. I could see the walls that were torn down by tremendous forces. There were human remains left inside. The red orcs were fast. They came towards us at surprising speeds, forcing me to head into a previously destroyed mini-mall. These places were 2 stories in height and had around 30 different stores cramped together. It wasn't a huge area and it resembled a shopping mall. Thus the name mini-mall.
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I could see the 1st floor where the food area was located had pretty much been flipped over as there was rubble everywhere. I climbed up the broken escalators with the orcs hot on my tail. They were too large to get onto the escalator, so I hoped that it managed to buy me some time. Contrary to my expectations, their roars could be heard closing in on me from behind while I reached the second floor.
"Uncle above us," Liya said, allowing me to quickly run to the right. The roof came crashing down where a red orc revealed himself with the wooden club in its hands. Not stopping, I ran into a store nearby and shut the door behind me. The smell of blood was strong in the area. I could see the dead body of the employee lying in the area with the ruined layout of the store in sight. It was a clothing store with all sorts of fancy dresses and women's wear. There was a door at the back of the store that led to the storeroom where they kept their supply of clothing. It was a dead-end through and through. I could hear the sounds of the orcs approaching from the back, as I made the decision to head towards the storeroom. Letting Liya down, I told her to hide in the room and not make a single sound. She looked at me in horror before nodding her head and telling me that she would be a good girl. The situation was tense and in a rush. I quickly shut the door to the storeroom and scrambled around to look for anything that I could use. There wasn't much time for me to take any action. They were orcs that could easily destroy the concrete ground and break through the floors, including the metal foundation that supported the floors which proved their immense strength. Furthermore, they were nimble and fast and could somehow detect our location through smell alone. I recalled seeing the red orc sniffing the air, maybe they could smell a peculiar human smell from us? I recall someone saying that human sweat smells unique among the animal kingdom. Could it be that they were attracted to that smell?
The system will now be down to upgrade for a more integrated experience in your world!
Time remaining: 1d 3h 24min
The random message that the system would be down cut off my train of thought. I began to pray that the orcs were attracted to the sense of smell. Ahead of me, there were 3 red orcs in my vision. The one which broke through from the roof seemed to be conversing with the other 2 while they pointed towards my direction. Without delay, they headed towards my area as they visibly sniffed the air. I had to lure them away from Liya at the least. My sweat would have definitely gotten onto her while I was running with her in my arms. There was clothing lying around the shop that was ruined by whatever had happened before. Grabbing the hangers and wiping my sweat on one of the dresses, I prepared myself to run out of the shop. These monsters were clearly out for blood. I could see a future where I would be torn to pieces, limb by limb as I became their lunch or dinner. It wasn't a pretty image. Bracing myself, I waited for the orcs to approach near the doorway. Hopefully they couldn't tell my exact location but only the general direction that I was in.
I had to at least get the orcs away from this place. One way or the other, I had to live as well. The enemies were stronger and faster. I had nothing but a dress that had my stench of sweat on it. I needed to get the orcs away from here, that was my priority. I thought about Liya hiding in the storeroom. I needed to escape and come back for her.
The orcs approached. I could see their figure approaching the doors. I squatted down and hid away from their sight and heard their footsteps approaching. My heart pounded against my chest as I hoped that they would look somewhere else instead. However, the footsteps got louder and I could see the door handle getting pushed down. Bracing myself with the sweat stained dress, I rushed out the moment the doors opened. Throwing the dress against the face of the orc, it struggled with the frills and shouted while the other 2 orcs tried to grab onto me but was blocked by the one ahead. Their faces bended down to a degree as I attempted to poke their eyes with the hangers to no avail. Giving up on the idea, I slipped between the gaps of the orc and the door. Making a quick sprint forward, the orcs chased after me at frightening speeds. I ducked as the arms of one narrowly missed me and I turned left towards the escalator where we came up from. Heading down, I turned back to see that the orcs had simply jumped down to the first floor and was waiting for me at the bottom. I thanked the fact that they didn't really use their heads and ran back up the escalator. I could see them attempting to get on the escalator and barely managing to stay balanced by using their hands to dig into the sides of the escalator as their hands were too large for the handrails.
I made my way back towards the store where I came from and could see the torn dress on the floor. I managed to loose them for the moment but they were going to be back soon.
"Liya come out lets go" I called out to her and notice the storeroom door open.
"Liya has been a good girl" she told me with tears in her eyes. "Yes you have" I felt the need to comfort her and carried her in my arms once more. Leaving the store, we ran deeper into the mini-mart. I followed the signs towards the fire exit. The way I see it, we have to run away from the shopping district. The orc came crashing down through the roof previously, meaning that there was no way we could hide anywhere from their disgustingly good sense of smell and immense strength. Running down the stairs, the walls covering it were gone and there were corpses and dried blood stains around the area. I looked out and could see orcs walking about, talking and enjoying themselves as if they were on a relaxed holiday. Reaching the ground floor, I continued to run away from the shopping district.
It was a long run and thankfully we didn't attract any more attention from the orcs. I kept my distance this time and we found ourselves at the edge of the central area. We were at the border that had a bridge connecting us to the northern area. I looked ahead of us and the massive bridge. There were tanks lined up but with bodies of dead soldiers everywhere. The tank itself was simply standing there as good as new. What surprised me was the soldiers and tanks being faced towards the bridge instead of us. Does it mean that the situation out there was worse off? I told Liya to close her eyes while heading forward. There was a clean cut on every soldiers neck that perfectly seperated the head. I could guess that it was the same for whoever were in the tanks as well.
"Stop" I heard a voice, it sounded rough. I turned around to see a soldier rising from the pile of dead bodies. Unlike the others, he didn't have a cut on his neck. Instead, he was covered in blood that didn't seem to be his. There were no visible injuries on his face at the very least. I decided to be cautious of the man. He had a strong facial feature with a chisled face, a squarish jawline and stern eyes. However, the uniform he wore held the rank of a "Private". His muscular body told me that he was well trained. He wore the classic all green army uniform.
"There is something on that bridge that kills anything that gets close or attempts to attack it" he began to speak.
I watched as he approached me while slightly staggering. "Ah right, I'm Danton Irving from the Combat engineer unit" he reached his hand out. I was surprised that he was an engineer. Then again, there were tanks around so having technicians to help weren't unnatural.
"Nice to meet you I'm..." I shook his hands. "I already know, you're famous!" he smiled as he gave me a firm handshake. "Well I can't believe that I'm meeting you in this situation..." he scratched the back of his head as he said that.
"Right so Danton, what happened here?" I asked him. I wanted to know what he was doing hiding within the corpses as well.
"Well the truth is... I don't know. I came back from my lunch break with some friends and this is what we saw. When some of us tried to approach the bridge yesterday, the moment you stretch your hands or anything out, it'll be cut off. If you continue, your head will be seperated from your body..."
"Why were you hiding within the corpses?" I questioned and looked towards Danton who seemed to have already prepared an answer to my question. "Well, putting it simply, I was out for recon" he replied. "Well, remember when I told you that I was on break with some friends? We have decided to form a survival group and have been gathering strength among the survivors." he began to explain. "Will you join us? I could get you some proper food and water..." he said as he glanced at Liya whoese eyes were still obediently shut. It was easy to tell that they were gathering strength to survive, but there was no reason to invite liabilities like us to join them...
The bridge was dangerous and there really didn't seem to be any harm in joining them... unless this man was a monster in disguise? I entertained the thought for a brief moment before he spoke once more. "Well, I'm not forcing you or anything..." he spoke as he looked at my expression. Perhaps it really was simple goodwill?
"Alright... lead the way" I spoke. His expression brightened up and he began to show us the way. "Its not far from here, don't be too surprised when you see it" he let out a cheeky grin as he seemed to be anticipating my reaction when I see their base.