Chapter Two, Day One.

...

----------------------------------------

...

Staring into the man's blue eyes, Isaac wiped the fear from his face.

"What do you know about... Leaping humans that like to devour others?" He asked, trying his hardest not to sound crazy.

This was a different era, and seemingly a completely different world. He did not know whether they called them zombies, or they were something totally different.

"Leaping humans?" The man chuckled, "They're hardly that... I assume you're talking about the ghouls? They're common knowledge..." He said with a questioning gaze.

"I-... was raised in captivity. I haven't heard anything about them until I encountered one on my own." Isaac scoffed up an excuse, something that he could use that wouldn't require too many questions from the man across from him.

"Huh..." The man spoke, as if he didn't believe a single word that came out of Isaac's mouth.

"Okay well. The ghouls are a lower branch of our sister species. They share similar structure to humans, but are incredibly different. They don't need sleep, they don't feel pain, they aren't very smart. They're like the definition of primal instincts. They live to feed, and reproduce. Unfortunately, to reproduce, they need fresh human corpses to do the devils tango with..." He shivered at that part, Isaac being unable to ignore the snapping of branches in the woods.

"They're very dangerous, stronger and quicker than the vast majority of average humans. But, usually a severance of a spinal cord will do the trick in ending them. Though... Effectively they're immortal, so it doesn't actually kill them, it's just a permanent paralyzer." He finished.

Isaac tilted his head in surprise and confusion. It was clear to him that the man before him definitely just gave him more than common knowledge.

He doubted a normal person would know that ghouls are effectively immortal.

"What is that..." A soldier up front muttered, making Isaac bite his lips.

"Would you mind telling me your name?" He asked, staring resolutely into the mans eyes.

"Hoh, why would I give my name to a complete stranger? A criminal at that?" He chuckled with a smile. Isaac could only smile in response, he understood where he was coming from.

"True that..."

"Alright, all of you. Wake up! Get up! And be prepared to fight!" A soldier jumped into the cart, swiftly but frantically unchaining everybody.

Everyone's necks had swiveled, watching as they approached the fiery town just a thousand feet ahead of them.

People were running wild, soldiers were swinging swords.

From what Isaac had been told, this place seemed more like a village than an outpost. There were women and children running around, fathers lugging around weapons.

Ghouls sprinted around like miniature flashes, pouncing at every person they saw.

There were trained soldiers, attempting to fight off the attack, swinging their swords through the necks of as many as they could.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

But from what Isaac could see, each soldier would fell two ghouls at most before being eaten alive.

The soldier passed by, unchaining Isaac, letting him stand up to his full height.

He felt his wrists, rubbing where the shackles were.

"Wow..." He looked to the side, ignoring the soldier's yell, and staring at the bearded man.

He was standing tall, watching the rampaging fire, completely shutting out all the commotion around him.

"Hey, let's ge-"

It was a split second realization, and things clicked.

He had seen this scene of a man standing unbothered...

And just like that, a creature came flying out from the woods, tackling the bearded man and tumbling overboard with him.

He yelled, at the top of his lungs, fighting the pain that overtook his body.

There was blood curdling screeches, and once more, Isaac watched in horror as the man was mauled, the carriage not stopping for even a second.

Instinctively, Isaac wanted to barf, but he controlled himself. He felt a breeze, and he heard more twigs snap.

As quick as he possibly could, he dropped to the floor, his ears opening as he heard a creature fly above him, colliding with another and taking him overboard as well.

"Okay. Okay." Isaac hyper ventilated, desperately clinging to the floor, he crawled forward, weaving around the legs of those that didn't know where to go.

"Ah, fuck!" He was stepped on, a woman voluntarily jumping out of the carriage.

Ignoring the mild pain, Isaac crawled all the way to the front of the cart, turning around and watching the chaos.

There were only three live people left in the carriage, a girl whimpering on the floor, laying on her side with her knees tucked to her head. A man sitting calmly in his seat, his eyes closed, presumably in a prayer.

And, a soldier, bloodied, and cut. There was a ghoul dead at his feet, the back of it's neck having received a deep cut.

"We have to-" The sword was dropped, bouncing forward. The soldier fell to his knees, blood dripping out of his mouth.

A ghoul was stood behind him, it's hand stiffly piercing straight through his neck.

This one seemed slightly more tactical than the rest, using his claws as a real weapon instead of just wildly throwing his hands about.

Isaac's gaze hardened, reluctantly pulling himself together.

He moved to his knees, watching as the ghoul picked up the soldier from his neck.

He crawled closer to the sword that truly wasn't that far from him.

Slowly but surely, he reached for it, steadily watching as the ghoul bit into the neck of the soldier, drinking his blood.

He felt the cold leather hilt in his hand, and firmly grasped.

"Ah, Ah, Ahh." He heard a voice.

His jaw opened slightly, fear settling on his face.

Surely... Ghouls were mindless? They weren't supposed to talk were they?

Isaac picked up the sword, jumping to his feet and dashing at the ghoul.

It was heavier than he expected, but his body seemed to be near it's peak, so he wasn't exactly weak.

"It's not that easy." A deep and raspy voice came from the ghoul, the soldier sliding off his hand.

It was one swift motion that Isaac surely couldn't have predicted.

But, he wouldn't need to.

He felt a cold breeze and his eyes jolted open, his hands trying to reach for his chest.

"One hit." He murmured.

It only took the ghoul one attack, a hand straight through his heart, and Isaac was dead in an instant.

He started to breathe rather fast, sinking back into his seat. His face was conflicted.

There was fear, pain, shock, worry, and distraught written all over it.

"Are we almost there?..."

He heard, but his ears had almost blocked it out.

This wasn't some vivid dream.

He had really just died. Twice, at that.

This cold was very much real. Those zombies were very much, real.

He was scared.

He kept waking up after death, and he did not know if this was infinite.

"Are you alright?" There was a different voice this time. It came from a girl that sat next to the bearded man, and there seemed to be some worry on her face.

"Yes." He replied, closing his eyes and letting his head fall back. He had to think of something.

"I don't think you are." She said, making Isaac open his eyes again.

"Why do you say that?" He questioned, looking at her.

Maybe he should just book it? Make a run for the woods?

"Well I mean your face says it all? Bad dream maybe?" The man across from him interjected, a smile on his face.

"My name's Isaac." He said randomly, his mind still running rampant.

The two in front of him paused for a moment, looking at each other in confusion.

"I'm... I'm Sina." The girl smiled.

"I'm Akain." The bearded man added.

Isaac surely didn't expect the two to give their names, but he was glad they did. It was little remembrance of the fact that this was all real. He was really talking to two people right now, and he would have to figure out how to get out of this.

Now whether or not he was alone or not was up for debate.

"Sina, Akain. What if I told you that we're about to be attacked by ghouls?"

...

...

----------------------------------------