CHAPTER 5- The search

It has been half an hour now and yet I haven't seen any monsters so far. I am walking carefully and using everything I pass near to make myself hard to see, but it doesn’t seem to be needed for now. I am entering the nearby area of where my sister should have been, which is a grand space meant for leisure and sports.

There are a lot of tracks and sports centers in sight but I have to pass through most of them to get to the other side where the basketball court where Leyla played is located. Nonetheless I still try to keep an eye for her as this place could be considered close enough.

There are a lot of places where she could have gone to escape the monsters and I want to think that she will pop out of any of the hiding spots within sight. However, my reasoning tells me that just as the monsters came from outside of the town and made their way to the center, she probably fled to the center too, escaping. I didn’t even have the need to think about that as I was indoords, but if you are a normal person and you see something the likes of a giant wave of monsters slaughtering their way to you…probably you will just run the other way without much of a thought. That's why I didn’t consider going through the nearby buildings. I am planning on getting there, searching for any clues or persons in the nearest places and making a decision after.

I was absorbed in my thoughts as I continued moving close to every cover I could find when I heard shouts. Then, after a few seconds, I notice there is a group of people running in my direction. They are escaping from some kind of monsters. The group consists of 7 people of all kinds. There are five who are running ahead giving their best to keep the lead while the other two, a child of no more than seven years and the woman who is carrying him are losing ground to the predators. The monsters this time doesn’t come out as something really menacing, but I suppose you could say it is still a scary one and definitely deadly to face off against for most people. Its appearance is kinda bland, its body similar to a bipedal mole that grew up to a meter and a half. Its main weapon probably the sharp claws he is trying to use to slash the back of the mother carrying the child. I feel curious about the strength of the new foes I just discovered, but not enough to waste my time helping them. Those claws do seem like a menace though, they are more than 5 centimeters long and most certainly capable of killing any human in one shingle move if it connects.

I am sure I could have taken care of that, but I already didn’t care at all for strangers before the monsters came so why would I change my ways now that I have even less of a reason without anyone to restrain me with laws and all that? I may have a sweet spot for children if I say so myself, but that only works when it comes to getting to know someone in normal situations. Even more, that's only for putting up with someone else that's not my father, mother or sister. ‘Not my problem. I don’t have that much leeway for now.’ I think so as I glossed it over and continue on my way a little bit more careful taking into account that there are monsters in this area.

After a while I start spotting groups of monsters similar to the ones I saw before in groups made from three up to ten or even more in some rare cases. I am lucky that they must have poor eyesight just as their normal moles counterparts. I take advantage of their weakness to pass them undetected. However I am still nervous while doing so. I know they are able to move by themselves just fine on the ground so they must have some kind of method or perk that allows them to. I don't waste my time for now on that type of thing as getting caught between those groups of giant moles is the same as asking to be skewered to death. ‘Those claws are nassssty man!’

Moving on, I finally arrive at the allegedly goal, I then enter the sport center and I comb the area. To my surprise, there is no one, not even a monster or anything. I go onto the next building, which is a similar one just opposite to this one, just a little bit smaller. Getting closer I start to notice a chore of loud sounds such as banging, crashes, and glass breaking.

I rush to the sound while keeping a safe distance expecting to see a fight of some kind between humans and those mutant giant moles or whatever they are, yet reality begs to differ. I get to a long hallway where there is a pack of some kind of armored panthers with spikes all over them banging into a door blocking them from the other side of the hallway. The monster are hellbent on crushing the door as they bang against it again and again, I can see how little by little the guys are denting the door and that they already broke the crystal panels of the upper part ot the doors.’So these guys were the one making all that noise, but what are they chasing with such endeavor as to hurt themselves like that?’

I take a look at the area and then focus again on the pack in front of me, I don’t think they will take that much time to break it and I choose to wait and maybe follow them from a distance. The felines are fully covered in armored plates of what seems like chitin, but I am pretty sure it’s not. It seems to have a lot more flexibility and weight less. Then I start to frown.’Actually, they don’t seem to be taking any damage even while charging like crazy against those metal doors. Is their defense so high that they can completely disregard their own body while doing that against metal?’

I start to have second thoughts now about chasing them or about this whole apocalypse thing. How are all of these new species so damn strong? First the orcs and now this? I am sure I wouldn't be able to make a dent on any of them if it came down to fighting and worse yet, it’s not like I would be able to outrun one of them like I did with all my foes till now. Worse yet! They have spikes in between the segments and connections of their armor and even a long spiky tail that I am pretty damn sure could go through one of those doors just like a knife through butter. ‘This is not even funny, lets fall back.’

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Just as I think of falling back, they somehow manage to wear down the door enough to throw it off it hinges with a synchronice charge and start their chase anew with what seems like endless stamina too. ‘I need to be careful of that type of monster in the future. They are fast, relentless, strong, have a lethal weapon as a tail and even worse, they are more intelligent than I thought. I am just grateful that they didn’t sniff me out from my hiding spot or I would be dead.’

I obviously continue my search in the other direction they are going just to be on the safe side.

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After searching two more buildings I find traces of battle in the third one. I had expected this place to be more populated yet it makes sense that between the wave of monsters pushing the survivors away and it being a place meant only for doing sports it is now a ghost town apart from a few monsters here and there. However, the blood that I find it’s still fresh and it seems that quite the fight was going on here not too long ago. I scout ahead and find that this building has a space split apart from some tennis courts especially for a gym and a few changing rooms for the athletes. I get anxious about the fact that it seems that at last I am going to see some more people, let’s just hope they are alive. I am going insane not seeing anything else other than corpses of half eaten people on the streets, though most of the killed humans must have been either eaten entirely or taken somewhere else by the monsters which in some ways scares me more than the first choice.

*sob, sob*

“Don’t be so lo-ud *sob* , please *sob*”

I tense as I start hearing what seems like some teenagers crying in a nearby room.

“You both listen to me… *cough* *cough* You need to survive, leave me here.” What seems like the only adult person in there says so amidst coughs hanging to life barely for a few more seconds. I am going to go around the corner and enter the room when I see the soon to be killer of the guy and for a second I freeze and prepare to run. It has bulging muscles and is over 2 meters. He is walking slowly toward my hiding spot and the room that has the people I found right now. My thoughts of retreating start to leave my head as I see that this guy is thinner and less bulky than the orcs, either a younger member of the same species or a less combat oriented version of it. Not that it matters, it doesn’t take long till he turns to the sobbing sounds, then I pounce at him,knife in hand and determined to win. At this point I don't even think I would run away even if it really was an orc, I can’t just leave this opportunity of a 1vs1 with one of these clearly superior monsters without any of their overwhelming strategies like the one they pulled on me the other time. ‘ I want to see how I fare in an isolated situation.’

I slash both calves of the guy with my knife as I make a dash behind him to the other side of the hallway, taking his focus away from the sobs and onto me, his new opponent.

‘Yeah, it’s only you and me buddy, let’s see if the techniques I came up with while fighting with the rats are useful with you too.’ I feel thrilled to get some action after all this hiding and running around and focus as much as I can to not get hit by him. It may not be as strong as the other guys, but I don’t think I will leave unscathed if I receive a blow from him, fortunately he doesn't have any weapon on him.

I test the waters baiting him to throw punches my way to make them more predictable while I test some things. To start with I want to know if this guy is strong enough to take all I throw at him without a care in the world or if he still gets thrown back with my hits. Following that plan, I dodge the jab he throws at my left side and I squat as I kick his knee as hard as I can, trying to make it bend the other way without losing my balance. I don't plan on trading blows with a guy who is a literal unit.

Obviously I don’t deal that much damage. However, to my surprise and relief he flinches and is forced to take a tiny step backwards to keep his balance. Not knowing if it was only a one time thing I try again, hopeful, I feint a punch to his chin. He defends from that and I use my other hand to hit his stomach with all my might making grunt yet again. ‘Nice.’

Now that I know that I can deal damage to him I start slicing him with my weapon, which while it may not be that efficient it still gets the job done. I start covering all his body in little cuts that pile on top of one another making him lose blood little by little and tiring him too. If I had to fight in a battle of stamina, throwing punches against him while I dodge everything he sends my way it would be impossible to come on top, yet this way I am able to kill him due to blood loss.

I do not dare to play with him or try anything weird because I know I can’t make mistakes at all if I don’t want to die. Maybe I can fight on equal ground with this guy at least with some armor and a good weapon, but I highly doubt that I will get my hands on anything tough enough to withstand his attacks any time soon, even less those of my nemesis the orcs. I shouldn't discard that maybe some new minerals start to appear just like these monsters, I could even steal their weapons and reforge them if they start bringing better materials. Anyway, I notice the guy is being a lot more sluggish and clumsy as he loses more and more blood. I take the chance to slash one more time at his jugular to fasten the process and then I back off. It only takes a few more seconds of the guy throwing punches into the air to make him collapse. Just in case I slash at the same spot, better safe than sorry.

‘Now it’s time to see what bothersome situation I got myself into…’