Kaan's first thought was leaving from the back entrance of the cafeteria and while he could lead them to here and leave the building, he thought they were not in a state dealing with zombies on the street. He was not sure how many zombies were roaming the streets and they couldn’t come back inside again even if they wanted to return, as the zombies in the cafeteria would follow them. So, he decided to take them inside to find a place where they could rest without much disturbance.
"Let’s head down the corridor before the zombies swarm on the door.”
He wanted to quickly move and have a little time in tranquillity after constantly dealing with zombies. But they were not quick to follow him as they examined the entrance.
‘Oh, yes. We had this in here, right.’
He sighed once again looking at defiled bodies on the ground but again he didn’t feel much towards them right now, many thoughts once again popped into his mind, and he began to caress his temple while turning his looks to the three. The man with the suit was looking at the corpses in a confused and angered state as for the woman, she didn’t show much on her face, but her eyes were sharp as she eyed the corpses with a calculating look at what might have happened in this place.
The guy in his twenties was the one who showed most in his face, he had a look of great disbelief as he eyed the bodies with heavy eyes. He was thoroughly examining the bodies one by one to their tiniest detail as the gloom hit his weary face giving him a dreadful look. The woman was the first to leave the state of surprise and moved next to him and talk to him slowly.
“It’s so… bloody. Whatever, whoever did this… just butchered these people. There are always more sinister monsters among us even while we are literally fighting with real monsters, aren’t there?”
She commented with a dejected sigh, the sharp look was replaced with one that was heavy with the grim of the situation.
Kaan nodded lightly to her. It was bloody, twisted, glorious, amazing, fearful, unimportant, ridiculous, oh, it was luscious… fuck! He shook his lightly, he was losing to the thoughts again. It was good when he had given in to them while he was fighting but now as his own thoughts were being suppressed by them, they were being annoying, and he didn’t like it.
“Have you seen anything, or heard what might have happened?”
He heard him ask while clenching his eyes tightly to hold beach the thoughts coming from the visions that infiltrated his mind.
“No, everything was over when I came down here, just a few zombies wandering aimlessly.”
She waited for a while before asking the following questions on her mind.
“So, do you have any idea what might have happened here?”
“I would say it was not a monster as we haven’t seen anything other than zombies, I think it could be done by the same guy considering the same use of the weapon on the bodies or by a group of people with the same weapon. But I would bet it was the former one.”
“I thought it must’ve been a group of people that caused this, you know the bodies are scattered around, I think they would try to team up on if he or she was alone. Why do you think it was only one person?”
The woman waited for his answer expectedly, to have a clear understanding of the butchering that took place in here. She wondered was this happened before they came in or after. She felt uneasy as she looked at the twisted ways that bodies lay on the ground, thinking maybe they could have been one of the corpses on the ground.
“Why… I just feel like that, I guess.”
The woman looked at him with lightly dropped eyelids as if it were really his answer but seeing that the enlightening answer, she waited for from him was not coming, she smiled lightly at him for the simplicity of his answer as if she found it funny.
But that smile didn’t live long when her eyes fell on the swordsman who was enquiring about the bodies to see if there is anyone he had known alongside the dead bodies. The look quickly changed into one that carried sympathy and pity for the swordsman and with the same look she looked Kaan in the eye.
“Have you had anybody who caught up in this… lunacy?”
She pointed to the scene and asked carefully, softening her voice. She wasn’t sure if she should ask it or not, she know sometimes people didn’t want to talk about it, but she wanted to listen to him if he wanted to share.
“Yes, I did.”
Kan answered simply and once again looked at the side where Usher’s dead body was lying. He kept an indifferent look on his face.
After Kaan’s answer, she looked him in his indifferent face and seemed like she was going to say something but then sighed and returned to her face the suit-wearing guy who was heading towards the swordsman. Kaan saw them talking rather quietly while the swordsman continued to examine the bodies.
After a while, the swordsman stopped in front of one of the bodies. The body had a deep blade cut on his chest, reaching from his diaphragm to his throat. He was one of the bodies that were in worse shape than the others, as anyone could see. Swordman kneeled on it and reached to her then shouted like a crazy man which was followed by tears.
“Damn it.”
She said and sighed. She felt a sincere sadness for the fate the swordsman had to face and quickly rushed towards his side to see if she could be a help. As for the Kaan… he simply decided to stay away from this and watched the zombies coming closer to the cafeteria door by the shout. He was already unsure how to deal with someone who experienced loss and while he was in this state it was the best choice.
As he glanced towards their side, the two were trying to ease the pain of loss yet Kaan saw they were not sure what to do about this either while trying to form sentences that the swordsman might want to hear. Kaan thought if he had anything to say, well, the infiltrating thoughts of vision of course had but he wanted to know his own answers.
He didn’t find anything other than some cliche sentences, as he thought he wasn’t sure how to deal with this situation, maybe they were all you could say in a situation like this? But he knew there were many things to say to someone who recently had experienced the loss of a friend from the visions, as death was a common subject in them.
The swordsman's grief over the dead body took a few minutes and after that with the help of the two he was able to get up, hardly. He was still shaking lightly with a hollow face, as he looked around and then all of them.
“Do you know which fucker or, damn it… Which fucked up monster did this?”
He asked with the need of having the answer, something he could vent these built-up emotions inside him to have some kind of fake relief at least.
“No, I don’t”
“How you didn’t, didn’t you come from the entrance!”
He said raising his voice in an intimidating manner, seeing that the swordsman was losing himself the suit-wearing guy whispered to him to calm down. Kaan was not angered or anything, kind of expecting him to act like this, actually, he waited for more aggressive words.
“Wish I had the thing you desired to hear but I don’t have it. Sorry for your loss.”
Kaan answered in the same emotionless manner.
He could say, ‘Don’t act like an imbecile who would their anger, get to your senses.’ said by a [Mage] who once walked in the path of revenge which nearly caused him everything or ‘Come to your senses, soldier! You still have still your fellow comrades fighting for you and your land, will you let them down to face the same fate!' said by a [General] who knew that this soldier would also share same the future as his friend but still tried to fix his morale because it was simply his duty, creating an order even if it was a lie.
Kaan had many more like these in his mind, but he kept these thoughts to himself as this swordsman was a stranger Kaan didn’t know about much, Kaan didn’t know what the swordsman needed.
If he had information, he would share it with him, and it was his choice to decide which action he would follow. He was in a bad state now and there was not much he could do in Kaan’s eyes, yet emotions sometimes caused people to do the impossible, very rarely though, mostly would lead them to the unexpected.
The anger didn’t live long and disappeared as fast as it come into existence in the swordsman's eyes, now they were just empty as he looked at the group. The suit-wearing guy put a hand to reassure him everything was going to be OK but was not getting any response from the swordsman.
"Let's move on then. I don’t think this barricade will hold much longer."
Kaan said as he didn't want to experience this gloomy atmosphere anymore, especially when the zombies broke into the entrance. Not because they were a great threat but because they would feed off the bodies on the ground and he was sure that was not something they were ready to see after everything. He led them to the left corridor and began to walk through the room at the end of it.
The woman was next to him as they moved in the front and the suit-wearing guy along with the black-haired guy followed them at the back, tried to support him mentally by showing that he was not alone. The swordsman said he was OK to stop the suit-wearing guy stop console him, but he didn’t because it was a very easy-to-see lie but he gave him a little space seeing that it was what the swordsman needed. Kaan was cautious as they moved, checking the rooms, ready to react under threat but it seemed there was nothing other than them here, at least alive.
Kaan knew that there was a room which was under renovation. After the third broke into the dormitory, the administration decided to put all the windows on the first-floor metal bars to avoid it but that one shouldn't have it as it was in a renovation after the damage caused by the people broke in. When they reached Kaan and opened the door and gave a quick look around. There were only two beds in the room, so it was mostly empty space, and nothing was in the room other than that.
All of them moved inside the empty room and Kaan headed towards the window. He lifted the curtains and like he remembered they still didn’t place the metal bard on it. Now that he had a chance, he looked at the garden. It was covered by a wall that reached two meters in height and he didn’t see any damage on it. Zombies were wandering aimlessly, not as much as he waited to see though, and it was good. After that, he closed the curtains and turned to the group.
Kaan looked at the swordsman, he had sat down in the middle of the left wall. He still had that empty looked on his face and his looks were focused on his blade, though there was sadness there was also a strange tranquillity radiating from them. He was finally getting the rest he deserved yet seemed to be lost in his thoughts, at least he didn’t seem like he was given in to despair.
The two were sitting next to each other on the corner left wall as they talked quietly to not bother resting and glanced at Kaan and Swordman a few times. While the woman had a calm aura around her, the man had a rather angry look, maybe to the scene you faced at the entrance or to the overall madness of the situation, yet it disappeared whenever he looked at the woman next to him. Kaan saw the care and warmth, which he wouldn’t expect to see in this madness for a while.
"Let's rest here before we move out. You could investigate the other dorm rooms for new clothes or anything if you want."
Kaan announced and like them sat down on the floor. He was in good condition, but resting a little bit here, when they could, looked like the best decision. He also needs a little time to think about what to do next and sort his mind.
The thoughts coming from the visions were still present in his mind as the feeling of disconnection continued. Every one of them was trying to drag Kaan to move in the way they deemed ‘perfect’, in the way they desired. But they didn’t see Kaan as he saw them, these thoughts didn’t know him while he knew where and from whom every one of these thoughts came. Thoughts began to get dimmer as he reached for himself.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
He thought it was fucked up, he thought it from the beginning from the first vision he saw the warrior’s body get mauled by that monster on the battlefield. To watch people, thrive for glory, betray for power, tend a garden, and suffer for nothing. Whoever you were, if you didn’t have enough power, you were nothing in the presence of the absolute, it would play with you as you tried to save yourself from its schemes. Kaan didn’t like it.
He thought about what he would desire before this month. A place, yes, free and in happiness. And it was warm, both in feeling and in the environment but not too warm because he didn’t like sweating. People were laughing and they were crying sometimes, sometimes they were sad and in trouble that looked unsolvable, yet all returned to this place which gave them the feeling of safety and even offered them a way to solve their problems.
They would laugh when they were together and help each other in times of need. And everyone would strip from their worry, from the obstacles and troubles that tried to drag them down when they gathered for a drink and a meal at that place, to have at least for just that until that warm meal ended. A haven, though it was impossible for many reasons, he absorbed this thought into his being.
The thoughts didn’t magically disappear yet they quiet down. Kaan knew they were not coming from the visions, he created them. He knew they were the personas he created from the people in his visions because he knew they couldn’t be in his mind, they were alive out there or maybe dead yet still having this knowledge, maybe he could reach them and this time he could help them for good or bad.
Finally, out of the feeling of disconnection and thoughts putting him into a state of a machine which carried many outputs at the same time, the first thing he did was check what came with the levelling up. Simply he was level 2 in his [Medium] class and there was no other change he could feel. He also realized that he couldn’t use the [Firebolt] now, it was like in some kind of cooldown, and he wasn’t sure when it would be up to use again. He better find out how long it takes.
Other than that, his personal quest, to save ten people, went up by one. He glanced at both the swordsman and the woman pondering which one was able to save themselves from there without help. Was he thinking wrong about it as there might be more variables to the situation like maybe he simply saved the suit-wearing man rather than the two? It made him kind of curious, but he didn’t dwell on it too much for now.
As for the plan, he decided to go outer parts of the and continue hunting zombies to level up and see how things are resolving in the city, he had truly little information about what was going on in the city centre, but it didn’t seem well. One thing he was sure of was that the monster was going to get stronger, or the aspect of ‘survival’ would be too easy with just zombies so they need to be ready for the trails that would follow.
After sorting things out in his mind he reached for his bag. Kaan put out a bottle of water and took a few sips from it and then looked at the swordsman standing in the middle of the wall and extend the bottle to his side.
"Want some water?"
"Yeah, would be nice."
“Here.”
Kaan rolled the bottle to his side.
"Thanks."
He picked up the bottle and drank water for a few seconds and then put the bottle next to him. He was the only one who didn’t have a bag out of four, he had just his sword.
"Ahem, ahem"
The suit-wearing guy coughed lightly to gather everyone's attention in the room.
"We have been together for a while, but we don't even know each other's names. I'm Thar, I am an architect and 27 years old."
He said with a spirited voice to lift up the depressed air in the room.
"I'm Emily. I'm studying civil engineering and I'm 23 years old. By the way, I want to thank both of you for helping us out."
Emily quickly followed after his introduction with her light smile.
"I'm Dean. I'm studying machine engineering, I'm 21."
Said Dean while playing with the bottle Khan rolled to him. Kaan could feel the looks on him continue after Dean.
"I'm Kaan. I'm 22 this year."
Kaan introduced himself like the rest of them.
"Nice to meet you all!"
Thar said in a slightly loud and cheerful voice or at least trying. Kaan could see Dean nodding his head, agreeing with him yet he was not able to share that cheerful aura Thar got while Emily chuckled likely to Thar.
After that, the room was in silence once again.
'It looks like our meeting phase is over now.'
Though it was a small conversation, Kaan felt it really help. At least they felt a little bit more connected now. He got up from where he was sitting and after swiping the dust off his clothes a little, he walked towards Dean. Kaan could feel Dean's hallow eyes looking at him with a curious tweak on them when he got in front of him.
"Let's find you a bag, you will need it. There also might be a few we might find that can come in handy."
He said to Dean and offered him his hand to support him to get up from the floor.
Dean grabbed his hand and got up. He didn't say anything and just nodded lightly, indicating that he agrees with the idea.
When they moved to the door, Kaan saw Thar and Emily looking at him with a smile on their faces but without minding them much he left the room along with Dean.
They walked through the quiet corridor and checked a few rooms, but they were not able to find anything other than scraps, broken items, some clothes, and a few zombies. The situation on the first floor looked more dire as some rooms were in a kind of ruined state, he wondered what exactly happened down here but there was nothing else that gave him a clue other than the scene at the entrance.
When they were in their fifth room, Kaan once again opened the door and moved back for a possible sudden attack, but the room was empty. Both of them moved inside and began to look for anything that could be useful. Kaan could see Dean’s mind was still engaged with what he faced at the entrance. After thinking if he should talk about it or not, Kaan decided to just go for what he wanted to say.
"Was it someone close?"
Kaan asked with a mild voice as they continued to check the rooms.
"What?"
Dean raised his head from the drawer next to the bed and looked at Kaan.
"The one you saw at the entrance. Was it someone close?"
Kaan asked once again as he continued to check the shelves. The room was in silence for a few seconds until Dean broke it.
"He was my childhood friend, maybe calling him my brother would be more suitable for our relationship. For 14 years we have always been together and now suddenly he is not here anymore."
Kaan could hear his voice was strong, he was trying to keep himself tenacious and not swallowed by the heaviness of death, but Kaan felt Dean was in a fragile state, and could be very easily broken with the right approach if he wanted to, not that was something desired to do. He wanted him to get free of this weight that didn’t do good for him now and focus on his survival.
"You have to get over it…"
"Seriously, that was what are you going to say?"
Dean chuckled bitterly and said in a harsh voice, without giving Kaan a chance to continue his sentence, as if he was receiving an attack from Kaan's words.
Kaan turned around and looked Dean in the eye. He felt like he had to look at him in the eye for this confrontation, to show that he had sympathy for what he was feeling if that was what he desired to see. He could see the anger, the grief, the hurt in Dean but they were just dragging him back if he continued to cling to them.
"I know it's not easy, but we must move on even if it's hard. Sticking to what’s happened, firstly, could hurt you and then cause harm to the others around you. I don’t say that you should forget what happened, forget your pain, or forget pursuing revenge if that’s what you desire but you should focus on yourself right now. Living is also a form of grief because I'm sure your brother would like you to let go of your grief if it meant you surviving in this madness rather than his thought dragging you to your own demise."
'Rather than die like him.'
He thought like that but chose to keep it for himself. Death was really a delicate subject, and it was hard to work with. Whatever you say the dead was not coming back, but even though it was hard to cope with, the living had to continue with their life. That was something Kaan didn’t agree with as it felt fundamentally felt wrong for him yet maybe it could help Dean.
After that Dean didn’t add anything and Kaan didn’t have more to say so they continued their research quietly for a while.
“It just feels unreal you know, to know that I’ll never see him again. We were out of touch for a while, we didn’t have a fight or anything, it was just that life goes on people go their own ways. And asking you if you know who killed him as if I’ll be able to do shit about it, and with anger at that while you just probably saved my life. You must’ve thought I’m an idiot, right, sorry about it.”
“Don’t be harsh on yourself, this situation is all together… fucked up.”
“Yes, it is.”
Dean laughed lightly at the miserable circumstances they were in, but he felt much better. Not that the gloom and the scene in which he saw his friend in that wicked state, which was going to follow him for a long while, but thoughts haunting his mind began to fit into some order as he put himself on a path, for now, and that brought an easiness and focus which he needed.
And he looked at the guy, Kaan, who was already returned rummaging through the drawer and smiled sincerely after a long while, just for a second with the feeling of a newfound comradeship which he hoped would grow rather than shatter and return to looting the room.
Kaan was not able to find much in the drawer, a few clothes and magazines, nothing worth of interest. He was looking for ration, bandages, painkillers, rope, waterproof clothes, or any tools that will come in handy, yet he was not finding any of that. He decided to check the study room and after letting Dean know, he walked to its door. Everything was fine until he took a step into the room, at that moment he felt a piercing pain in his head. He felt that he reached something in his mind, and it pained him to do so and some visions began to appear in his mind.
In the vision, he was standing where he was now, but he was looking at the Dean. Dean's head was on the bed; he was lying there with lifeless eyes while a zombie was eating his throat. The bed was painted red by the gushing blood.
Kaan was watching this scene, again he was not able to do as the zombie mindlessly teared up Dean’s body. He was in disbelief that this was happening, as he was looking at the dead body in complete pessimism. He didn’t want to see this, not after a few seconds ago he opened his thought to Kaan. He wanted to reach and tear up that rotting body of the zombie, but he just stood there without any movement like how he did in all of his visions. As the gruesome scene continued to play his own voice echoed in his mind.
'Was it because of me?'
'Was it because of me?'
'Was it…'
And then the vision stopped, and the only thing left was the pain he felt in his head. Kaan wanted to put his hands on his head and clench his eyes because of this pain but didn't do it, there was no time.
He quickly turned around and looked at the Dean who was unaware of what was about to happen.
A zombie was crawling slowly towards him from the bathroom door, without causing any noise. Dean was fully unaware of it as he continued to look if there was something under the bed.
It was too dangerous to warn Dean, it would probably confuse him but there was no way Kaan could reach the zombie before it attacked the Dean. Kaan damned that he didn’t have Firebolt right now, it would come in very handy. So, without wasting any second, he shouted with utmost urgency in his voice to quickly got Dean alerted.
“Zombie, behind you!”
Dean looked at him dumbfounded for a second, but he quickly came to his senses and reached for his sword and then returned to his back. Zombie didn’t wait and lunged towards his throat, but Dean was able to react in the. He held the sword in both hands and pushed it towards the wide mouth coming towards his face.
The sword cut into the mouth of the zombie and held him off from his face, but the zombie didn’t mind the damage and tried to claw Dean’s face or body, simply wherever it could reach. Dean tried to dodge the claws, but it was simply too close, and he was not able to cut through the skull.
Though it was close its movements were still sluggish, so he managed the dodge the claws, but it couldn’t go like this. So, with quick thinking, he grunted loudly then headbutt the zombie, which didn’t do much, and accelerated his power to the limit to push the zombie off of him, to the ground. The zombie tried to hold onto him but simply was too slow to react so without success found itself on the ground next to Dean.
Kaan already rushed to Dean’s side and now having a good opportunity he raised the baseball bat and targeted the zombie’s head. The zombie quickly changed its target and held the incoming bat then dragged himself up towards the Kaan using it as a support.
Kaan was going to kick the zombie off but seeing Dean getting up to attack with his sword he just kept his distance and stopped the zombie from reaching to him by rotating the bat. It didn’t take long for Dean to attack, with a precise the sword quickly delved into the zombie’s head.
It pierced the skull without much resistance and reached its brain quickly. Kaan felt the power on the zombie’s hands begin to fade off and when the sword pierce its brain a second time, it let go of the bat and fell to the ground without any sign of movement. Dean once again pierced into the skull to be sure and then raised his head to look at Kaan. Dean was breathing heavily with the rush of adrenaline and Kaan saw his eyes were vibrant.
“Thanks again, man if you didn’t call out I…”
“Just don’t think about it. Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I don’t think it was able to reach me. What about you?”
Dean asked back as he checked if there was any injury on his body which he was not aware of.
“I’m fine, good, then go grab your bag and let’s meet with Emily and Thar. I think we made a little bit of noise in here.”
“Got it. Just a second, let me put things we gathered to bag.”
Dean quickly reached into the bag and placed a few things you put on the bed in it. Before he grabbed his sword in his hand and come next to you, he gave a last glance to the zombie lying on the ground without a movement. He could still feel his heart beating loudly as a few seconds ago he was face to face with it, he felt that death close.
But he just put a firm look on his face and grabbed his sword tightly with a newfound resolve, he was not going to yield and get stronger so he and no one around was going to find themselves in doomed situations.
Kaan was inspecting the zombie on the ground as Dean was focused on his thoughts and gathering the items in his bag. He was sure that this one deliberately waited for them to lose focus their focus or at least waited for an opportunity where they wouldn’t look at its side.
‘Are they getting stronger or was it just this one different than the others?’
Whatever it was he just wanted to leave this room as he could still see the image of Dean lying in the bed lifelessly as the zombie feed on it and it wasn’t a sight, he wanted to endure any longer, and more importantly, the zombies were coming to their side of the dormitory. He could already hear the zombies walking towards their side from the entrance, it looks like it was time to leave the dormitory for good.