It was a pitch-black night with the occasional flashes of lightning to light up the sky as bright as day and the sound of thunder rolling loud enough to make even the bravest of men scared. In this gruesome weather in fear of getting sick any person would look for a shelter but that wasn’t the case for Adam for he searched shelter as he was afraid of getting scold by his wife whom he loved more than anything in the world only second to their child. Adam’s colleagues would often laugh at him for being brave in front of monsters diving in headfirst but being scared of his wife.

As it rained Adam came across an open bar and as he went inside, he could smell the beer and vomit you would expect from the run-down joint that it was.

“Good evening, dear customer, my name is Zeik, and I shall be serving you today what I can offer you today??” he asked in a pleasant voice.

“A beer would be fine.” Adam replied politely.

Adam quietly drank his beer in silence as Zeik cleaned the glasses from behind the counter when there was a large crashing sound Adam turned to see what had occurred passing through the people that gathered around hoping a fight had occurred only to go back in disappointment as it was just a man of large built who was unable to handle his liquor and stumbled *through* a table snoring . Adam recognized the large bearlike person as he was one his colleague Lucas.

He knelt down on the floor to help him up (at least he tried to do so). After trying and failing several times, he finally helped Lucas sit down next to him and threw water on his face.

“Geez!!! which bastard dares to interrupt my sleep!!” Lucas roared.

Adam slapped him across his giant face yelling “This bastard you idiot!!”

“Ohhh Adam it's you?” Lucas calmed as he picked up Adam like an adult picking up a 10-year-old and hugged him so tightly he almost suffocated to death.

“What are you doing here shouldn’t you be with your family by this time??” asked Lucas gently putting down Adam back on his seat like a doll.

“Yeah, but Zoe (Adams wife) would be mad if I got home all drenched.” he sighed.

“I don’t know what is wrong with this guy being so afraid of his wife despite being a warrior and all.” said Lucas unable to hold in his laughter.

“I guess when you truly love someone you are most afraid of making them feel any sort of negative emotion towards you in fear of losing them.” Adam said followed by a light chuckle.

Zeik, who was listening to their conversation silently the whole time, couldn’t control himself anymore asked.

“A warrior you say??! must be one tough job dear customer.” his eyes sparkling with curiosity.

Nearly a decade ago the world suddenly changed with monsters coming out of portals that you just read in novels (cliché ones like this one) spreading mass panic and terror across the entire globe. The weapons that humans used to fight the countless wars across their history and trying to perfect were useless resulting in despair and death. The hope came in the emergence of beings named “warriors” which were divided in several forms as they fought against the vicious beings people referred as “monsters” and after countless more lives were lost the world started to stabilize .The orders such as government turned useless, and the entire world became a jungle where only one rule followed “The survival of the fittest”. No one had a definite answer for these phenomena's, but one thing was sure that if you were a warrior no matter what rank ranging from Rank A to Rank e you will lead a life significantly better than normal civilians.

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“It has it’s up and down, but this guy right here makes it look like a walk in the park despite being so tiny.” exclaimed Lucas.

“I am just an E- rank warrior almost similar to a normal human with just better physical abilities, so unlike you I have to use my brains and experience in order to survive you bear!”.

“Yeah, you may be right about that but it's not easy for me either my friend considering how hard that bastard we call our boss makes us work.” said Lucas as he fell asleep again.

Unless the world ends, he will not wake up Adam thought to himself.

“Take good care of yourself dear customer.” said Zeik as Adam paid for his drinks and left.

The weather hadn't improved at all, but Adam couldn’t bear to be away from his family anymore, so he decided that he would rather get scolded by Zoe than spend a night away from them.

On his way home Adam realized that he had drunk too much in order to accompany Lucas and regretted his foolish decision as he finally reached his home. It was a small two-story house with no distinct features, but it was the house where his family was so Adam never complained.

Adam remembered how his son had his school trip tomorrow and had to sleep early tonight so in order to avoid disturbing him he silently entered his home.

It was dark and silent in the hall.

Zoe must be sleeping too, Adam thought as he went to grab a towel to dry himself. As Adam went forward, he felt something.

“Huh why is the floor all wet? Did Zoe leave the tap in the kitchen on?”

Adam followed the trail which led it to his living room as he went inside the room, he stumbled across something and fell hard on to the wet floor.

Ouch what was that he thought picking himself

Lightning struck the sky as the room lit for a few seconds, but those few seconds were enough for Adam to see something that he would remember till the day he died.

The “thing” Adam stumbled across was a dead body.

Lightning struck again followed by the sound of thunder as Adam just stood in the dark just in front of the corpse covered in its blood. He wasn’t able to comprehend the scene he had just witnessed. He didn’t know how much time passed by or whether what he saw was the reality or the result of him being drunk and imagining things in the dark.

“Yeah! I must've hit my head a bit too hard.” he thought, when the flash of lightning struck again, and he saw the same thing again.

Subconsciously he had already interpreted what he saw but his mind kept on searching for any alternate explanation possible. After owning up to the reality of what lay before him wasn’t some object but a corpse, Adam started moving forward to check “whose” body it was, all this time knowing the logical answer,afraid of what he would find. Never in his entire life had he wished of being anymore wrong.

He turned the corpse gently as he saw its face.

Adam stared at the face of the corpse for a few minutes, tears flowing from his eyes without him realizing them as he waited at the top of his voice.

It was Zoe, her cold body lying on the floor holding onto something dearly as if protecting it. The blood seemed to be everywhere. Adam tried to see what Zoe held as his horror multiplied, his heart started racing fast, he was unable to breathe as he crawled backwards suddenly and suddenly puked.

In the arms of Zoe was another corpse, this one comparatively smaller than a normal adult, the corpse of a kid, burned down to a crisp beyond any form of recognition. Adam couldn’t handle the horrific scene that was before his eyes for it was his wife and kid that were lying on the floor killed in gruesome ways and just beside them was Adam, his world lying shattered into million pieces, and he was unable to do anything except scream and cry harder only for his cries to be overshadowed by the rain and thunder.

“This...!! This must be a dream......” Adam muttered to himself as he stood up and started walking towards the wall.

“Yeah, this has to be dream.” Adam shouted while crying as he smashed his head against the wall.

“Soon I will wake up and meet them again!!!!” He started laughing hysterically, still smashing his head repeatedly as he passed out on the floor next to his family.