CHAPTER 6 - Company
Maria
It all happened so fast! We couldn't react on time. It all started when Sera and I were trying to escape out of our hiding spot for the second time.
In our first attempt we nearly died due to the chaos that was unfolding at the start of this whole apocalypse. We were exercising by ourselves in a shared track with some of the locals teams of athletics when monsters of all kinds started to pour in the track non stop from one side of the place.
In my panic I forgot to run, hopefully, my sister Sera was there to pull on me and help me out of my stupor. We ran, and ran, and ran, and everytime we saw any of the monsters getting close to us, it only helped us to run some more till we were running out of breath. However we were lucky, we got some help from a group of people hiding in a storage room near us when we were about to get surrounded. We managed to enter and locked it after us with the help of our newly met saviors. One of the men that were there used a bench to block the door even more and then we all piled a lot of things on top of it.
It all seemed to be going alright when we heard a thunderous roar behind us. A huge wolf has just appeared from the inside from what seemed like our only way out that wasn’t blocked.
“No! We are trapped!” Someone voiced my thoughts as all of us backed off to the wall behind us while keeping an eye on the cow sized wolf.
Somehow a few of us made it out alive cause there were too many of us for the wolf to take care of, but we separated from most of the group. Fortunately, we found a hiding spot and didn’t make a sound the whole first day. There was no way for us to survive other than staying low-profile.
Then the next day came, forced by the need to eat and drink we all decided to leave our hiding spot. It didn’t take much time for us to be found by another one of the monsters, this time being a lone muscular and tall abomination that killed nearly all of us. Our group of 7 people was reduced to only my sister, another guy and me in a second. We fled for our lives, but the guy that was coming with us was bleeding and we had to stop. We were doomed, we had seen the monster get rid of all of our group in a second while unharmed and not even receiving a scratch.
“Maria, stop, we need to leave him here, let's run together. Maybe we can make it on time!” My sister was still thinking of running, but I didn’t see the point. The outside world was plagued with those monsters and we are all alone, we don’t know where our mother was or if she was even alive.
“Sera you already saw what that thing did to those people, how are we supposed to outrun it.”
*step* *step*
“Oh, no. It is already here!” I register his steps yet I can’t even start to think of a plan that may help us.
*sob, sob*
“Don’t be so lo-ud *sob* , please *sob*”
I can’t fight back anymore the urge to cry as Sera starts sobbing and I surrender myself to fate.
“You both listen to me… *cough* *cough* You need to survive, leave me here.” I get even more depressed as I see that even the dying man next to us is encouraging us to do something.
*urggh* I hear the strong breath of the monster at the door already and just as I was going to close my eyes and give up when I hear someone outside.
Me and Sera find ourselves confused as to why someone would pick a fight with that monstrosity for no good reason. However, our only route out is the door where seconds before was the monster. With no other choice we wait, praying that the person fighting lures it away and we get lucky and manage to leave with our lives. Seconds pass and we start to get nervous. After what seems like an eternity the noise finally stops. ‘Wait, stops?’
We don’t get enough time to prepare for what’s to come as the door opens soon after and we finally see what happened.
A teenager like us, probably around his twenties, comes into view. We can even see the corpse of the guy who massacred us before from here, it is covered in blood just like the guy that killed it. Our savior has a calm expression as he enters. He crouches next to the already death man and closes his eyelids, then he checks out the room and only looks our way after a full scan of the place.
“You…” He seems to be thinking deeply about something.
“Whatever, you both seem quite shaken, you can follow me or stay here, I don’t really care.” He starts and finish his speech with only that sentence shocking us.
“We-” I can't even finish before he cuts me.
“If you follow me you can’t be a bother and you will need to do as I say.”
I was going to retort and ask him a few questions when Sera takes my hand bringing me back to my feet.
“Let’s go, we don’t have any other choice.”
I nod.
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Leo
Well… That's it I guess. I was expecting it to be a harder fight, but the guy didn’t excel at anything so it was only a matter of time. He did have the strength, durability and stamina, but that was about it.
After dispatching of him, I enter the room carefully. The first thing I see is a dead guy in the entrance, probably the one who I heard breathing his last breath. I crouch next to him and after noticing he doesn't have anything of value I close his eyes and then scan the rest of the room.
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There is nothing else here apart from the two girls in the corner, they are both trembling and sobbing, probably thinking they were dead. Yeah, better not getting involved too much with that. I tell them just that, for them to not bother me, I don't really care if they follow me or whatever. I am just not in the mood to babysit them, they are probably between 10 and 12, so not that useful yet, but not that bothersome either. I start leaving when I notice they are following me. Well, their choice, not mine, whatever happens it’s on them.
I check how am I doing.I am a bit tired but nothing much, I will get back my stamina in no time. I search the monsters for loot, but I don't find any. ‘Is this for real? How is it that this guy was unarmed while the less stronger ones are equipped with all kinds of weapons?’ No point in trying to understand it right now tough, I need to continue searching. Maybe I can get lucky?
“You both. Do you know a girl called Leyla? She is not that much older than you.” I ask my new companions just in case it rings a bell.
“Hmm… No, sorry…”
“I haven’t heard of her.”
Useless I tell you.
I continue to search for my sister with the two sisters in tow. They are trying their best to imitate my posture to hide and not make a sound, but they are not that good at it. We are lucky as we get a whole half an hour with no sighting of monsters. We may be inside of the building but there could still be some remains of the big wave of monsters.
Well, we are lucky till our luck runs out, at least I am pretty sure that is what my new ‘companions’ probably think as a new threat makes itself known to us. From my point of view however, it is very different. Where they see a trio of gray wolves a little bit bigger than normal I see my new training partners as I dash at them. ‘They are not orcs or one of those armored panthers or whatever.’ I am not missing the chance to get some experience on fighting new monsters just because they are a little bit bigger and stronger than normal wolves. Maybe if there was some kind of reward, just maybe, I would consider it. However, if someone saw my thrilling expression I doubt they would buy it. Anyways, I fight every single monster we find on our way to the center of the city and there is nothing as strong as the guy I killed on the sportscentre. Guess we are actually lucky, I wouldn't want to bump into a minotaur or something similar. There is no way I am fighting that guy without a proper weapon. His hide is probably stronger than that of any monster I have found yet. Maybe the stronger orc variant I found at the supermarket could contend against it, but I doubt it, specially on toughness.
It starts to get darker and darker as night approaches and I tell the sisters that are still following me to keep an eye open for any place that may be suitable for spending the night. I assume that if they haven’t left at this point they will follow me around for a while. If so, I won’t have any qualms on making them show some worth and work their worth. Someone in the old world would describe it as child labor, but me,not caring. Too much changed for me to find logic in that kind of mentality and not taking advantage of the rewards yet to be reaped.
We end up finding a pretty comfy and secure spot, guess they both earned their meal. The girl named Seraphine suggested this place and she was right. We entered the premises of a lottery retailer that had been abandoned. ‘Guess Seraphine was right, no one came here at all. It kinda makes sense, who in their right mind would go out of their house into a dangerous environment to steal lottery tickets in a darn apocalypse, I am damn sure I wouldn't.’
“Good call, let’s see if we can stay the night on the inside.” I assure them that we are staying here if there is nothing wrong about it and start searching for anything out of place just in case. It’s hard to tell where all the people are hiding. At least the ones that aren’t in their homes, if you start looking up you can see a lot of fortified widows and signs with calls for help. However, I haven’t seen anyone peek out of the windows apart from one or two exceptions. I start getting suspicious of some kind of intelligent monster hunting down these people that decide to isolate themselves at home. It is definitely something to be conscious about in the future, maybe a monster that only attacks the weaker prey like other animals picking the offspring as the safest choice. Only that instead of wolves picking out a young calf it could be an even more intelligent thing breaking into the houses of the survivors where they feel the safest and then striking undetected. ‘Scary’ I can feel myself already shivering from only the idea of a silent predator breaking into my home and killing me in my sleep.
When we finish our inspection of the place I decide it's better to pick the only room where there is a bathroom out of the two available. First because there is only one door we can barricade with whatever we find and second because we still have the option of leaving from the bathroom window which is the only other way in and out of our little ‘bunker’. We block the bathroom door just in case something decides to slip down the small window near the ceiling and give us a surprise in the middle of the night.
We may have only two possible entrances, but at least there is more than one and it feels kind of safe from both monsters and people as you aren’t able to see anything out of the ordinary if you don't try to open the door.
Even so I decide to ‘trust’ my new companions and take turns sleeping. There is no other choice so I might as well rest while I can. I need to make them both inclined to trust in me so that I don’t get stabbed in the back later on and what better than to let them watch over me in my weakest moment right? Well, I am sure they won't try anything funny till they secure someone else to take care of them or another group to replace me. I stay awake for a while just in case while the sister named Maria stands guard. If for some reason they are dumb enough to think their skills will let them survive in this new world they might as well be dumb enough to attack me any moment I make them think I am asleep. Fortunately they seem to be able to see the bigger picture and I get to keep them both as slaves…I mean partners for a while.
I wake up in the morning due to the fact that I am being shaken like a ragdoll. I even panic at first thinking that we are under attack only to realize that it was only one of the sisters using a rough approach to wake me up.
“Finally! You wouldn’t wake up, we were scared.”
“What do you mean by that?” I ask her that, realizing that it is already morning. We had already decided that they would take care of the first two shifts and then I would take care of the last one till morning. At least that was the plan, did I fall asleep? I don't remember taking charge of any of the shifts.
“We took care of your turn to stay up too seeing that yesterday you did most of the job and we really couldn’t fall asleep either. However, you weren’t waking up.”
María says so in a calmer demeanor than her sister before, it seems they are more scarred from their close call than I expected. It makes sense though, they were close to dying a few times in a row after all.
“It’s okay, I was just exhausted from fighting non-stop yesterday.” I assured them, but it doesn't seem to calm them in any way. Again, not my problem, deal with it. They did leave me extra time to rest and I am grateful for that. They didn’t try to kill me or rob me neither, much appreciated! I see a long term companionship up ahead if they keep this up man, I am getting the feeling that from now on it will be hard to find such kind people, better to have them on my side.
Leaving my companions' sadness and gloominess aside, I don't forget to check if there is any news from my parents or sister. My parents just sent me a confirmation that their situation stays the same and a few questions to see if I am ok. I answer them back and then check on my sister's contact in every way I can think of, but to no avail, she hasn’t sent a single message to me or my parents. I am not liking this, it is better to cover as many places as I can today. I am not going to let anything happen to her or my parents anytime soon, the faster I get to her the faster I can make sure she is safe and go help our parents too.
“Prepare yourself, we are leaving.” I tell them.
‘Let’s see what the second day post-apocalypse has in store for us.’