He had seen it clearly. Her eyes were wide open as blood dripped from her forehead. The third man had been holding her up, pulling her back and forth. “What the fuck?” Soren gasped.

“Hey.” One of the men peeked from around the corner of the building and began to approach Soren. “I know all my groupmates, and you clearly aren’t one, so who the fuck are you?”

The man pulled a pistol from his belt and pointed it at him. It was an odd shape, missing the cylinder and clearly different from what Soren was familiar with. Soren raised his hands in surrender, reflexively backing away before remembering the man could definitely shoot him faster than he could turn.

“I-I’m really sorry, I don’t know where I am! I just woke up here, I’m trying to look for my friends. Please don’t—” he gasped for breath. Soren was familiar with the fear of darkness, strange noises, odd shapes in the night. Monstrous ones. But humans like the man in front of him? He had never encountered ones beyond his friends, and the latter were anything but threatening towards him.

“You came here just now? Yeah, sure. It’s been like a month since I arrived, but there’s new people now? Why should I believe you? You know what — ugh” he cut himself off, cocking the gun. Soren squeezed his eyes shut, preparing himself for inevitable death.

There was a sound so loud that he couldn’t hear anymore. Am I dead? He peeked out to see the man dead. His head was gone, replaced by a bloody mess of skull and brain tissue.

Soren’s ears rung. He was disoriented and couldn’t hear properly, could barely even walk. He shuffled forward a bit, trying to get his bearings, but fell to the ground instead. How loud was that? The only guns he’d heard had been relatively quiet, going off with a little POP. This time, his whole world was rocked.

“A … bomb?” he mumbled.

“-ey! … in dan- …” He heard snippets of words coming from his left and turned his head.

“Dude! Move right now …” It was a girl talking. She had short black hair, completely straight. She looked about his height as well. She wore a jacket and carried a bag, along with an odd, long gun, brown at the handle and black at the barrel. He couldn't tell exactly what she was saying due to the ringing in his ears, but based on how her mouth moved it seemed as though that was what she said.

Soren covered his ears as he tried to balance and stand up. He was a bit disoriented, and it felt like his ears would never hear again, but he hadn't been shot so he figured it was the best scenario so far.

"Who?" he tried, unable to tell if he was actually speaking. She seemed to ignore him, instead grabbing his arm and wrenching it out of its socket as she pulled him away from the two men who were no longer near the dead woman, instead approaching them. She began to run and he did too as she pulled him further away. Soren gained his footing as the ringing faded further, and he felt as though he could hear enough to ask again.

"Who are you?" he gasped, running out of breath.

"Let's run first!" she yelled back, refusing to turn her head. She pulled him left down another street as more pops rang out behind him. Were they shooting? It was getting harder to see as the area around him fogged up, so he didn't know how close their shots were.

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The girl pulled him through an alley and behind a building, gasping to catch her breath. "Can you climb?" she asked, looked at the window a story above them.

"I can try," he replied. Soren had only ever climbed ruined walls, but this building was intact. He wasn't entirely sure he could manage.

The girl put her foot on a gray pipe near the ground and lifted herself up. Her hand just reached the windowsill, and she struggled to find grip against the flat building wall. She pulled herself up with much strain, grunting as she sat on the small window ledge. She took her jacket off and wrapped it fully around her elbow before shoving it against the building glass, breaking it in three hits.

"Hurry!" she whisper-yelled, evidently concerned about the men hearing her. She then slid into the building. He copied her movements, albeit with a bit more struggle, and saw her standing at the edge of a bed with her gun pointed at him. "I brought you here and helped you, so now answer my questions. What's your name? When did you arrive here?"

"Soren," he replied with a bit of hesitation. "I woke up here today. I really don't know anything - where are we? What is this place"

She lowered her gun, but still seemed a bit apprehensive. Fair enough, given the people they'd just encountered. "I woke up here about a week ago. I don't know anything either. Could you... come inside? They might see you. Be careful of the bed though, there's glass on it."

He crawled to the side of the window frame and stepped carefully over the bedframe, balancing onto the floor. He turned to her and asked, "What's your name?"

"I'm Jasmine," she said. "What weapons are you carrying?"

"Just these." Soren pointed at his bow and arrows as he slowly pulled out his knife.

"Put them on the floor in front of you and turn around," Jasmine said. She shifted her finger off the trigger and swung her gun to the side after Soren had turned around, approaching him. After checking for more weapons and finding none, she picked up his weapons and told him to follow her downstairs.

"What gun is that?" he asked as they descended.

"It's a shotgun," she replied. "Have you never seen one before?"

"No."

"That's interesting, I thought they were decently common."

He glanced at her, clearly confused. "Not where I'm from, they're not. That's the biggest gun I've ever seen. So loud, too."

Jasmine laughed a bit as she put down his knife, bow, and three arrows. She opened a cabinet door, pulling out a white box and placing it on a counter in front of her. The box had a red cross on it and some words he couldn't read.

"Are you injured?" she asked.

"No, but what is that?" Soren replied.

"It's called a first-aid kit. Never seen one of these, either? They're for medical issues." She grinned at him before opening it. "I like to collect them just in case. See? There's antiseptic, medical tape, gauze, tweezers, even an instant ice pack! You never know when you'll be injured and unable to find one of these, so it's best to keep them beforehand."

"Huh," he replied, slightly speechless. He'd never heard of some of those things. When he or his friends had injuries, they usually wrapped them tight with clothing. It was only when they bled heavily that they broke out the rod --- a metal stick they heated over fire, which they then stuck onto the wound to burn it shut.

"You seem nice enough. Want to come with me?" Jasmine asked. She closed the medical kit and turned around, leaning against the counter. "It seems pretty dangerous here, but I have a friend I met who I can introduce you too. He and I met my first day here, and he's pretty safe, too."

"Can I hold on to my stuff?" Soren asked her, pointing at the weapons.

She scrutinized him for a second before smiling. "Sure! But you'll have to walk ahead of me."

"Okay." He put his knife away, swung the arrows over his shoulder, and grabbed his bow. "When do we leave?"

"Now. We have to run once we're out, though. Are you rested enough to go?" she asked as she grabbed the first aid kit and put it in her bag. Soren opted to walk to the front door, placing his hand on the handle.

"Should I?" he mumbled, trying to stay quiet.

"Once we leave, make a right down the next alley. Then make a left onto the road, and we're going to be running down it until I say so. Understood?"

He opened the door as a reply.