"tic tic tic tic tic tic tic"

I was awoken by a strange sound.

Opening my eyes what greeted me was a metallic ceiling, along with an aching pain in my back as I slept uncomfortably on the rigid wooden chair.

Being reminded of what sort of situation I was in, I quickly turned towards the noise, only to find a disgusting looking gray rat tapping on the window with its tiny paws, seemingly wanting to get in.

"Phew, I am lucky I didn't break the windows yesterday".

Giving myself some props, I checked the time on my phone.

7:25 AM

"Oh, it's morning now", with the sun being unable to reach down in the sewers, my only sense of time was my phone, but seeing it only had one third of its battery usage left I knew I couldn't use it wantonly.

Standing up to shoe away the rat, I accidentally moved my chair causing a squeaky noise to be heard.

Although not to loud it was enough to wake up the sleeping princess.

As she slowly opened her eyes, she had a confused expression.

"Uhh, whe, where am I?".

Seeing me, she initially looked frightened and on the verge of tears, as it looked like she was abducted and trapped in a strange room with an unknown man.

But moments later she remembered what happened yesterday and became eerily quiet.

Initially afraid I would have to deal with a crying kid again, I was relieved when I saw that she stayed silent.

Seeing how she was still traumatized by her fathers death, I sighed as I sat down on the chair directly in front of her and began asking the questions I couldn't yesterday.

in a calm voice I said, "So kid, well, mind telling me your name?"

The girl stayed still, not wanting to talk as she continued to look down at the ground, but after a long few seconds she said quietly, "Lily".

Happy that I even got a response I continued asking " Lily, well that is very…. pretty name, so where is your mother?".

As I asked the question she raised her head and looked at me as she said in a barely audibly whisper, "Mommy is in New York".

I was initially hesitant to ask this question as I didn't know if she had also lost her mother during the previous attack, but hearing her response I was relieved.

Although now another dilemma faced me.

Okay, New York, that only like what a fucking three HOUR FLIGHT FROM HERE!

Even though those were my thoughts, when the girl asked me, "Are you going to bring me back to Mommy?".

I immediately responded by saying "Of course".

Afterwards she became a bit more talkative and we continued conversing.

From the conversation I found out that Lily was 9 years old, and lived in New York.

She came to Dallas Texas as her father was from here and wanted her to experience the parade, her mother was also supposed to come but due to a work complication she had to pull out at the last minute.

From what I could gather it seemed Lily had thrown quite the tantrum about it.

Seeing that she was in a better mood, I told her of the plans I had today.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Mister, s-s-so are leaving me behind?", Lily asked, scarred that I would leave her.

The reason… well I had just told her that I would go to a nearby man-o-hole to check if the situation above ground was safe yet.

Although I doubted the military had been to this area, otherwise I felt like my sleep wouldn't have been this peaceful.

But anyways I told Lily to stay here to make sure that she was safe, and wouldn't suddenly be attacked when I checked above ground.

Although she was against staying, she understand the reason and eventually agreed.

"Lily, close the door behind me by putting the chair under the door knob okay"

"Okay"

Walking out the door, I looked through the window to make sure Lily followed my instructions, seeing how she clumsily completed the task and after looked at me in nervousness, I smiled at her while I said "I'll be back in ten minutes".

Descending down the stairs the smile I had was erased from my face, as I thought 'Even though leaving a kid who just lost her father alone might not be the best way for treating her trauma, I had no choice, she is safer in the outpost'.

I had also thought of giving Lily the gun, but seeing that she probably didn't know how to use it and she was relatively safe in the outpost, it would be better if I held onto it, especially since I would have no weapon otherwise.

After five minutes of Walking through the sewage system I reached a ladder ascending to above ground.

"It looks like the sewers are pretty safe", I thought as I climbed up.

Reaching the top I slightly pushed up the metallic plate, so I could peek at the outside, once I opened it, seeing that I was in the middle of an shopping square I looked around for a second, then immediately closed it.

"Nope"

The situation outside.. was even worse than yesterday, during the glimpse I spotted hundreds of bunnies moving in a pack as they hopped over and feasted on corpses, while a pair of cats were paroling the streets all the wile the laughter of goblins was faintly heard.

Going down I made up my mind as me and Lily had to get out of here.

Although the sewers were safe for now it was only a mater of time before it too became invested with monsters.

Making a plan I eventually decided to use the sewers to get to the edge of the city and from there make a beeline for a forest, hoping that the monsters stayed to the city.

Feeling as if time was running out I hurriedly made my was to the outpost, their I told Lily that we had to leave, and since we had nothing to pack after checking the radio again and hearing the same static message we left immediately.

Walking though the sewers with Lily next to me it seemed she could sense the danger or was just frightened because of the dark.

"M.Mister I am scarred"

Feeling a bit bad for her and thinking I was about to make a mistake I gave her my phone so she could use the flashlight.

"Here, now it shouldn't be so dark anymore".

"Um, Mister.. can I hold your hand?".

"???"

Knowing it would limit my mobility and feeling a bit uncomfortable I first wanted to say no.

But relented and reluctantly agreed as I saw how she was shaking a little out of fear, I could hold the gun in my other hand anyways.

And like this we explored the sewers looking for a path to exit the city.

After twenty minutes we luckily came across a map of the sewer, it was printed against one of the walls, seeing it I realized that the sewer indeed ended close to a forest, but we had taken a few wrong turns as we were now closer to the south side of Dallas instead of the north where the forest began.

I couldn't lament for long, so I asked Lily to take a picture of the map as we continued on our way, this time following the correct path.

After thirty minutes of walking through the maze we made it two thirds of the way.

*Rumble*

It seemed I was hungry as my stomach began making sounds, protesting against the fact that the last meal I had was yesterday in the morning.

It was then that I realized Lily must also have been hungry, but understanding the situation we were in she stayed quiet.

'She is a good kid', I thought.

Just as I was about to ask her if she was hungry, I heard a unusual sound.

"Pat, pat"

"Pat, Pat, Pat"

"Pat, Pat, Pat, Pat"

I sounded like an object was repeatedly pounding a wet floor, and as time passed it was steadily getting louder.

About to ask Lily if she heard the same thing, she let go of my hand and pointed to the cross road ahead.

"Mister, look light is coming from that direction".

As I was looking at Lily I failed to notice this detail, but turning my head I found out what the sound belonged to, and it sounded like people running.

And then my suspicion was confirmed.

"RUN RAYA, LEAVE HER BEHIND!"

"BUT BROTHER IF WE DO SHE Will DIE"

"IF WE HELP WE WILL DIE"

The people who were shouting against each other were siblings, I saw how they just passed the T Junction ahead of us.

If they had continued running straight ahead they would have just passed us.

But unluckily the flashlight of the phone Lily was holding was a dead give away, and the girl had spotted us.

"Brother look over there, Hey please HELP US!!".

Even though she said that they were not give us much of a choice as they were already heading in our direction.

"Tsk"

I was annoyed as they were pretty much leading us into their problem, if I was alone I wouldn't have cared, but now I was protecting a little girl.

I was tempted to say "Deal with your own problems", but knowing that wouldn't change anything I refrained from doing so.

Preparing to pick Lily up and dash away, I stopped in my tracks when I heard a desperate yell coming from around the corner, likely coming from the person they had left behind.

Gritting my teeth and frowning heavily, I knew I had already made my choice.