Elgan's fingers didn't shake from fear anymore, they reached for her eyelids and closed them one last time. Most people would think of such an action as irrelevant, unnecessary, or plainly a waste of time. He genuinely didn't think that. He didn't want to think like that. If he were to die like her, right then, on that very instant, on that spot. If he was that corpse, Elgan would have liked to be surrounded by the people that accompanied him through life, by his family, and friends.

Even though he couldn't bring any of those people back to her, he could at least show a little care. He had to be prepared for what was about to come, mentally and physically, Elgan knew it because he himself knew. There would be many more cadavers to follow.

['It is time to go.']

Death was a cruel, brutal, unforgiving thing. Yet somehow, the fear it produced in Elgan reminded him that he had a mission to complete. He had something to do, even if it was the last thing... No, wrong said. It was because his quest was the last thing he would do in this world that he had to complete it. No matter the cost.

Elgan stood up from his kneeling position and cleaned the dust off his tethered pants. He glanced at the corpse one last time, his feet began moving down the road once again. Advancing, evading the emptiness left behind by his hollow footprints. The emptiness left behind by his footprints was no more, inventing a rhythm in his mind as he walked, heartbeat, steps, breathing. All acting in a symphony of himself. A repetitive, excruciating task such as that allowed Elgan to learn something, to discern sounds further beyond. Yes, his hearing was empty, but not as much as before. The silence was nothing but a mere curtain, it hid sounds far beyond. Maybe that is why the kid probed deeper into that silence as he walked.

Attempting to find that source of life, that spark or salvation he imagined hid somewhere. However, there was nothing. The demon left ages ago along with the paranoia, leaving behind something strange. Elgan still feared, yes. His legs trembled and his skin paled. Still, he wasn't the same. Something had changed, something was changing, slowly.

He had plenty of time to think about those subtle differences.

What was the cause? What had transformed Elgan? A human who had grown to be numb to his life, ungrateful to the point of hiding in a selfless cacoon, someone who burnt days on end on useless fantasies, who was convinced he would amount to nothing. What had transformed him into a human capable of advancing in the face of certain death?

What had enabled him to become the last crusader in hell?.. The kid thought about it, and at last, after what seemed like hours, he found the answer.

'A goal.'

['Our goal.']

That was the truth, certainly. Elgan's feet sank to the asphalt, the force behind his steps increased. The silence was an empty canvas, and he had planted in it the seeds of his motivation

No matter what, he would find out what happened to his family and what happened in this city. And if he wanted to achieve so without dying at the hands of some bloody fat ball, he would need to come up with a viable strategy. In fact, he had already begun plotting...

For starters, altering the original route he followed whilst in the car had been his intention. There was the very real possibility that the screeching fatty had decided to follow after him in its raging delusion, and Elgan wasn't planning on finding out. Those things were faster, stronger, taller, and more lethal in every god damned way. Elgan's only resource was intelligence.

...

Hours continued flowing by as the orange lights on the horizon grew in intensity.

In the short span of two miles, the kid had already managed to find another four corpses. All of them were men, each showing the same expression bathed in pain and agony. The same characteristics too... Whatever remained of their bodies was as dry as a mummy, bones and skin fused in a single monotonous yellowish layer, only differentiated by their caved-in eyes and ashy hair.

| Gulp |

From those empty sockets of the dead, Elgan managed to extract one piece of the puzzle.

Organic things seemed to have completely perished. While cars and complex machinery seemed to be working just fine, anything remotely alive had been weakened to the point of extinction. From trees to insects, the ominous silence was all proof he needed to validate his hypothesis. Still, the first piece of a puzzle always brings forth more questions than answers. This was no exception.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

'Strange.'

Other than that, their bodies and especially clothes remained untouched, with no signs of physical damage, not impaled, not cut, not even scratched. The same could be said about their surroundings, no signs of destruction whatsoever.

'How did these people die then?'

If those gigantic creatures weren't able to kill anything without making a ruckus with their messy fat bodies, how did they die?

'Bothersome...'

He ignored the question for the time being and placed his attention on the matter at hand.

Although Elgan refused to search the dead's clothes and pockets for anything useful, his need for resources, especially information pushed him to loot every single vehicle he found. Nothing important was found... Once he was finished, Elgan closed each of the corpse's eyelids in one last sign of respect before venturing into the darkness. Questions wouldn't let go of him, and if he wanted to have a chance at survival, he shouldn't let go of them either.

['Dive deeper.']

Another audible gulping.

The survivor tried shifting perspectives and looking at the problem from several different angles, but for much he searched, he couldn't find answers. Ignorance tries to bury confidence.

'Is there something else lurking in the shadows I am not even aware of? Or am I missing a key?'

What key then?

The simple existence of calamities such as those Elgan had seen today broke all those laws of physics he had learned to accept over the years. The barrier between possible and impossible seemed to become blurrier the more he thought about it, and with the limited information at his disposal, the struggler could only guess.

Guessing, right?

Ironically imagination was his best friend. The chances were, the moment Elgan stepped into that city it would be in a constant battle. A marathon of sorts. There wasn't a single second to lose. If I wanted to get some conclusions before it was game over I better start right ahead. Because if I didn't...

The answer would eat him whole.

So Elgan started thinking. Turning, scraping, and matching the few pieces at his disposal in an attempt to come up with something mildly plausible.

Only half-sensical hypotheses were found though. None of them was good news either.

Whatever killed all these people wasn't any meatball, it just wasn't possible. Although their bodies were in a truly pitiful state, they didn't show any signs of serious injuries. Not a sign of being crushed under weight or impaled to death. As if confirming his thoughts, the headache Elgan had been feeling since he woke up intensified. He couldn't help but wonder if it had something to do with the mysterious assassin. The possibility of a slow death under some kind of damage, infection, or curse from those fuckers was still there.

Perhaps Elgan was already doomed to end up as a rigid mummy and didn't even know it.

Not that it mattered anyway. He didn't need that much time to fulfill my goal, and once it was done, everything would be over.

['Keep marching.']

...

The silhouette of tall buildings appeared in the distance. The fact he managed to find his way back fed conflicting emotions inside the youth. On the one hand, still terrified, on the other, proud of himself. Whatever had made all those people die in agony hadn't been able to break him just yet, he would make sure it remained like that for as long as possible. For some wicked reason, he was alive, he was a survivor, and that is why he continued walking that path.

The pain in his skull grew, still, Elgan acted as if he didn't care, instead, his eyes lit up as the fires in the distance kept growing closer and closer. With the visage of the city appeared the abomination itself, peacefully sleeping, seemingly unaware of his return.

But as said, Elgan was scared. Cold sweat started running down his eyelashes. His heartbeat accelerated with its simple presence. Elgan was looking at the guillotine that would end his life, luckily, he was early to the execution.

'I have time for now.'

Getting nervous wasn't good, staying cool-headed was mandatory.

With his shaking hands, he tapped the left pocket of his trouser grabbing a small box of cigarettes together with a lighter he had found on one of the corpses. The kid had never been a fan of smoking but he had to calm down.

|Cough-Cough|

Bad idea.

Inhaling the pestilent smell of tobacco proved to be just another stupid decision at the end of the day. The sensation of dehydration grew harder, only reminding him of the one objective at the moment. Finding water. The possibility of dying of thirst became more real with every breath. The loss of moisture to the sauna-like atmosphere outside, coupled with the sweating started to take a big toll on him.

"Any liquid will do."

With those thoughts in mind, Elgan continued making his way toward the city.

His original plan had been a simple one, sneaking into the city without being seen. That idea in itself possed an incredible degree of complication. How would he avoid being seen by a creature capable of pinpointing him from miles away?

He couldn't. He didn't know how to do it because it was impossible. The only thing Elgan could bet on was changing his path, opting for approaching the city from the opposite side and preventing an instantaneous defeat. It had taken more than he thought but in the end, it all paid off. In fact, it was far better than he expected. Contrary to his beliefs, the tall motherfucker didn't have a single eye on its back. From Elgan's perspective, only a part of its giant gape of a mouth was visible from his position. Its smirk had vanished from our last friendly encounter.

"Not fun losing to me right?"

He murmured to himself in an ironic tone. Ironic because he didn't have the balls to say it out as loud as he'd wanted to. Whether the meatballs had good hearing was yet unknown, and Elgan wasn't planning on finding out. Thus he advanced through the highway, making sure to check every single vehicle he came across with. Picked a rucksack from one of the nearby stationed cars, useful to store anything he found. A half-emptied water bottle and some other stuff, mostly a bunch of newspapers and light sources.

...

It was a couple of hundred feet farther that his eyes sparkled. A single red-colored truck collapsed on the side of the road caught his attention. Walking around it checking there was nothing out of place, Elgan approached the cabin. A mummified driver stood motionless on the floor. Otherwise, the vehicle looked clean in every way.

The kid circled towards the back door. With a jump and a bit of brute strength, he managed to open the doors letting faint light flood the inside, then closed them behind him. Not that he could lock them, but at least he wouldn't have to see the towering-red-mucus.

Most bottles, being made out of plain glass had broken, leaving behind a sticky sugar-coated floor. Didn't mind it though. Elgan was pretty sure his mother wouldn't mind him dirtying my pricey pants just this once. Vivid with those past memories, he cracked open a bottle letting the liquid fall into his mouth. Before he could avoid it, the kid had fallen asleep on the devil's doorstep.

['Nightmares hunt at night...']