Far from the previous city, at midnight.
The pair were inside an old hut with a shattered roof, surrounded by cracked, dusty earth that contained nothing but bones from various entities.
A small flame illuminated the inside of the hut with a faint light.
Jesse looked at the boy, who was watching the fire with eyes full of admiration and curiosity.
Meanwhile, he was lying on the ground watching the stars, lost in his thoughts: "I survived another day... I don't know if I should be happy for my survival or frown because of my injuries... Heh, I think optimism will make my sleep come faster, so to hell with the injuries." He placed his hat over his face and decided to relieve himself of thinking and drift off to sleep.
The boy kept looking at the ignited fire without doing anything, until he noticed that the fire was gradually growing smaller as time passed until it disappeared, leaving only the blackness of the burnt wood harmonizing with the darkness of the night.
The boy lay on the ground, watching a small spider building its web.
His eyes surrendered to sleep as time progressed, until he was defeated by drowsiness and fell asleep.
In a small city bustling with cars and bright lights.
Eight-year-old Jesse was there, sitting on a public bench, staring at the black sky with empty eyes.
Suddenly, and without introduction, the city began to disintegrate bit by bit; buildings eroded, and people turned into wanderers in hideous ways before his eyes.
They suddenly gathered around him and pounced on him, eating his limbs one by one, tearing the flesh from the bone and the entrails from their place, and Jesse was conscious of all of it.
After several hours passed....
Jesse opened his eyes in terror.
His heart was racing, and sweat was pouring down his face.
He rose from the ground with difficulty while wiping the sweat from his forehead and said with a tired face: "Another disturbing dream."
He stood up from the ground, his eyes wandering through the dilapidated hut wearily.
He noticed Ethan's fetal-like sleeping position, laughing at him quietly: "Haha, cute."
A light pain hit his head, making him unable to go back to sleep.
He went out of the hut, inhaling some fresh air instead of the dust and mold.
The moon reflected its light on the dead land around them, while Marcus was leaning on his car, crossing one leg over the other, while quietly polishing his pistols.
The sound of faint footsteps crept into his ears.
Without hesitation, he aimed his pistol toward the source of the sound.
Two meters behind the car stood a Black man in a white undershirt that highlighted his physical build and muscles, wearing wide, faded classic blue jeans, with long, thick hair styled in carefully twisted and curled African braids. His features were covered in seriousness, and one eye was wrapped in bandages.
He was supporting an injured girl with short, soft hair. She was wearing a grey cotton sweater torn at the sleeves, showing a bandage stained with dried blood spots underneath, and black pants made of rough fabric soiled by the dust of the dead land. Her features were drowned in extreme exhaustion, and her half-closed eyes reflected a bitter struggle for survival.
Jesse stared at both of them for a while, trying to process what he was seeing, before putting his rifle back into his pocket and rushing toward them.
Without saying a word, Jesse helped the Black man carry the girl, leading them toward the hut.
He placed the girl on the dilapidated wooden floor.
Jesse broke the silence, whispering to the Black man: "What happened to her?"
The Black man replied in a whisper: "I don't know, I found her in this state several meters from here."
Anxiety appeared on Jesse's features as he continued: "Can she speak?"
The Black man turned his gaze back to the girl and began to slap her lightly on her head, repeating: "Hey, girl, are you with us?"
No response...
The Black man turned his gaze back toward Jesse, saying: "No."
The latter sighed with regret, his eyes carrying anxiety within them, and said sarcastically: "First a wounded child in the middle of the mountains and now this, I don't know if this is good luck or the opposite."
The Black man replied: "The opposite."
Jesse brought a bottle of water and began to let her drink in small sips, one after the other.
At the same time, Ethan woke up from his sleep. He opened his eyes drowsily to see the two strangers who had joined them.
Ethan kept staring at them for a while with cold features devoid of interest before lying down again and returning to sleep as if nothing had happened.
Jesse closed the water bottle, watching the girl as her breathing calmed down over time until she entered a state akin to sleep.
A glimmer of relief entered Jesse's heart, but it vanished as soon as he heard new footsteps approaching their hut.
He turned quickly toward the Black man, saying to him anxiously: "Were there other people with you?"
A look of surprise appeared on the man's face, as he too heard the approaching footsteps.
He replied to him anxiously: "No."
Jesse crawled to the door, placing his eye against a small opening beside it.
Behind the walls of this hut was a giant creature, nearly 3 meters tall, with pale skin and a body that merged strength and thinness.
Its face was devoid of any eyes.
And long arms extending to the ground.
Drenched in blood and entrails.
Jesse lifted his eyes from the opening in horror, his pupils dilated to their maximum.
The man noticed Jesse's anxiety, so he stepped forward, pushed him away from the opening, and took a look at what was outside himself.
He raised his eyes, his features a mixture of anxiety and anger: "*****"
Jesse picked up his pistol, then rose from the ground lightly, whispering to them: "Wait here until I'm finished."
The man also rose from the ground, taking a small rifle out of his pocket: "You're not going to fight that thing alone, man."
Jesse replied as he was opening the door: "I appreciate that."
The two men went out into the darkness of the night, their weapons loaded with bullets, and a mixture of seriousness and focus carved into their features.
Without warning, the stranger opened its mouth wide, and a huge amount of fog leaked out, like a cold grey waterfall.
The air around them turned into an infinite space of fog in mere seconds.
Marcus told the man: "Stay close to me."
The man quickly approached Marcus, replying: "No need to say what is obvious."
Vision became almost non-existent, and the monster's body disappeared amidst the darkness and fog.
The place turned into absolute silence, no longer interrupted except by the sound of the two men's rapid breathing.
They remained in the same position for a minute, their nerves stretched to the limit, their eyes circling in the grey void in vain.
Marcus took several steps backward while quietly pulling the man with him until their backs pressed against the crumbling wall of the hut.
Jesse whispered: "This entity relies entirely on the sense of smell and hearing, so try as much as possible to stay quiet + you watch the right side while I take the left, the wall behind us will protect us from that area, and thus we will cover all our blind spots."
The man patted Jesse's back, indicating that he understood.
And now, all that remained was to wait for it to come.
A minute passed... then two... and silence was still the master of the situation, a heavy and suspicious silence that forced the mind to imagine the worst possibilities.
After a long wait, Jesse heard a faint wooden creak from above him.
Immediately, he raised his pistol toward the source of the sound, firing two bullets at it.
The sound of the two bullets echoed, piercing the decaying wood of the roof. In a single second, the absolute silence turned into a hell of motion.
The creature let out a sharp, deafening scream, followed by the violent collapse of a part of the wooden ceiling. One of the monster's arms lunged, heading directly toward Jesse.
But the Black man kicked Jesse violently away from the entity, then raised his pistol into the air, firing 4 bullets that pierced various parts of the stranger.
It let out a massive scream carrying a mixture of pain and anger.
The man jumped toward it, trying to catch it before it disappeared again, but the monster had already ducked back into the fog.
Its screams echoed in the air without stopping, causing a sharp headache for everyone in the area.
Jesse placed his hand on his head firmly, trying to alleviate the intensity of that screaming which almost burst his eardrum, while the Black man retreated two steps as he quickly reloaded his rifle, his eyes devouring the surrounding fog in search of any movement.
Jesse returned to the man's side before the situation became worse, sweat pouring from his forehead from the horror of the situation.
The Black man growled angrily: "This annoying bastard... as soon as my hands fall on you, you will know the meaning of true screaming."
Suddenly, the man heard a suspicious sound approaching him with great speed.
He turned quickly toward the source of the sound, aiming his small rifle in a straight line.
He pressed the trigger without a shred of hesitation, and another bullet tore through the grey veil.
The fog split from above again and diagonally, as the other long arm of the creature lunged with crushing force, exploiting the distraction caused by the deceptive ground sound.
It grabbed the man and pulled him into the fog.
Jesse fired several bullets at it trying to hit it, but it had already disappeared.
A mixture of sadness and anxiety appeared on his face, as he realized that the man would most likely lose his life.
Afterward, the sounds of gunfire echoed from afar, mixed with the screams of the monster.
Jesse stood frozen in his place for heavy seconds, his eyes piercing the void in vain. Anger and sadness squeezed his heart, but the sound of distant gunfire reminded him of the passage of time and that hesitation meant joining the man.
The sounds stopped, and silence dominated the place again.
Jesse, trapped by the unknown, and all he could do was wait.
His heartbeat quickened, his breathing intensified, and his focus multiplied manifold.
Waiting for any movement or any sound, no matter how faint, to empty the bullets into it.
He remained in the same state for 5 minutes...
5 full minutes of psychological torment, he felt them like a full hour of waiting.
Unexpectedly, Jesse noticed that the fog was slowly dissipating, which aroused his surprise.
Only a few minutes passed before the fog vanished completely.
"Huh?..."
A few meters away from him, the Black man was standing on his feet, his body completely covered in blood and wounds, and his eyes looking toward something that the fog had hidden from Jesse's sight.
Jesse ran quickly toward him, not believing that he was still alive.
Upon reaching him, he was surprised by the corpse of the stranger lying on the ground, drenched in its green blood.
Its skull was crushed and full of bruises as if it had been beaten to death.
In its chest were 5 bullets.
And a knife was plunged into the middle of its throat.
The man went down on his knees, pulling the knife out and returning it inside his pants.
He sighed deeply and then said: "Finally, we are finished with this nuisance."
Despite the strangeness of the situation, Jesse smiled at him, saying in a happy tone: "Thank you."
The man replied: "You're welcome."
Jesse exhaled in relief after that, thinking that the matter had finally ended.
But his relief vanished as soon as he raised his eyes to what was in front of him.
90 meters away from them, tens and hundreds of wanderers, humans and animals of various sizes and shapes.
Their severed limbs were tied with black tentacles that moved around their bodies like worms, advancing toward them with immense speed.
The man noticed the anxiety in Jesse's eyes and immediately turned around: "Dam*****"
In a few minutes, they returned to the hut.
One woke Ethan up, while the other took care of carrying the girl on his back.
Jesse opened the door and started sprinting toward the car that was near the hut, its keys in his hands, his eyes focused on the crowds rushing toward them.
As soon as they saw them, they let out a monstrous growl that grew louder in seconds.
Their speed and frenzy toward them increased.
Jesse inserted the key into the ignition, started the engine, and the car let out a violent roar.
He pressed the gas pedal, and the car sped off like a projectile, cutting its way in the opposite direction to them.
Jesse exhaled in relief after that, thinking the matter had ended.
But his relief vanished as soon as he raised his eyes to what was in front of him.
Other crowds of the same number and density were completely blocking the road from the front.
Jesse tried to handle the situation and search for any other way to escape, but every direction he took was met with the same sight.
Jesse whispered, with a mixture of anxiety and seriousness visible: "Dam**"
The man shouted, pointing his finger toward the crowds: "We are surrounded, run them over!"
Jesse replied: "If it were that easy, I would have done it. Their numbers are massive, and their corpses will likely get stuck in the car's tires and we will all be dead."
The man replied in an angry tone: "What do you want us to do then? Stand and wait for them to reach us? Just do it!"
Jesse hesitated at first, but he realized there was no other choice: "Damn, bear with me, car!"
Jesse shifted the gear to the max, then pressed the gas.
The car launched like a shell, and its iron frame shook violently as the engine accelerated to the limit.
Dust flew behind them, and the distance between them and the raging crowds shrank in fractions of a second.
With the first impact, the sounds of powerful collisions echoed against the car's body.
The vehicle shook violently as if it were fighting crashing waves, and the windshield began to crack under the increasing pressure.
The steering wheel was vibrating in Jesse's hands as he tried to control the car's path while the wheels faced intense resistance due to the density of the crowds.
Blood splattered violently everywhere, completely staining the car's windshield.
The sounds of breaking bones mixed with the sound of the engine that was struggling to move forward amidst this human swamp.
Suddenly, the engine made a sharp metallic sound, and the car's speed slowed down abruptly. The resistance under the wheels had exceeded the engine's ability to turn, and the frame began to groan under the weight of the increasing pressure from all sides.
Until the car stopped completely.
Then the wanderers swarmed it from every direction.
A giant mass of living corpses gathered around the car, trying to reach those inside.
The side windows gave way under the weight of the continuous strikes, and cracks spread across the windshield to form a complex web that blocked the vision entirely.
Nothing was visible to those inside except hundreds of reaching hands and bodies piled over the hood and the roof. The temperature inside began to rise horribly.
Sweat began to pour from Jesse's forehead as he looked in horror at the car's roof, which began to dent gradually downward under the weight of the living corpses piled on top of it.
While the man was shouting in panic: "No, no, no, no, it shouldn't end this way!"
Jesse turned on the air conditioning because of the heat, replying in a desperate tone: "I don't see anything we can do (sigh). I think it's the end for all of us. I know I only met you 6 minutes ago, but it was bad meeting you."
The other replied: "Now is not the time for joking, think of something!"
Jesse replied, surrendering to the reality: "You were the one with the idea, so find a solution for it."
At the same time, the car shook violently, and loud tearing sounds were heard that shook the entire car.
Jesse: "What is happening now?"
Several minutes passed in the same state, until silence strangely returned to the place.
Jesse reached out and turned on the windshield wipers, and they moved very slowly, clearing the sticky blood and stuck remains.
With the first wipe, a young girl appeared, looking about 18 years old, with thick, wavy pink hair, wearing loose grey clothes, with a purple scarf covering her mouth.
And the strangest thing seen was the completely severed corpses of the wanderers, scattered on the ground around the girl.
She stood firmly in the middle of the pool of blood, devoid of any kind of weapons, which added to the complexity of the situation, and her sharp eyes were fixed on the windshield.
With one leap, the girl landed on the roof of the car, and in an unknown way, she made a hole in the middle of the roof to enter them.
As soon as she entered, she shouted in a soft voice: "Move your car quickly, there are still many more!"
Despite the strangeness of the situation, Jesse did not hesitate for a second to speed away from the scene.
A shocking, stunned silence prevailed inside the car cabin. The cold air from the AC blew to soothe the suffocating atmosphere, but it did not dissipate the heat of tension and confusion. Jesse was pressing the gas pedal with all his might, his eyes moving frantically between the road ahead of him and the rearview mirror.
Meanwhile, the rest of the eyes were fixed on the strange girl, who showed them a gentle smile.
She broke the silence, saying in a gentle tone: "I'm sorry our first meeting was like this, but I'm happy to meet you. You can call me Mira."
Everyone remained silent for several seconds before Jesse replied, saying: "I don't know what you did out there, but I am grateful for your help. My name is Jesse, nice to meet you all... it's been a while since I've encountered this type of gathering."
The Black man interrupted their conversation: "I will ignore the madness that just happened and get to the heart of the matter. Where are we going now?"
Jesse replied: "I don't know. Into the unknown as usual."
Mira replied in a cheerful tone: "No, we have a destination to go to."
A look of surprise appeared on Jesse and the man, and Mira continued her speech: "I came from a simple village a few miles away from us. You can come and stay with us there. We have good sources of water and food there, and good places to live, and everyone is welcome to new people. What do you think?"
Jesse replied in a tone full of doubt and caution, his eyes narrowing as he contemplated her friendly features: "A village? Safe sources of water and food? Excuse me, Miss Mira, but in this world, nothing is free, and no one welcomes strangers without a price."
Mira replied, trying to convince him: "I didn't say it was free. You will perform some reconnaissance work from time to time only, and we will provide you with food and housing. Isn't this good for you?"
Jesse replied in a tone full of doubt: "What kind of reconnaissance?"
Mira: "Let's say that you will go out of the village from time to time to the city or somewhere, you will bring something back and return to the village quite simply. The matter is dangerous, true, but you already know that you do this almost daily anyway. Therefore, entering our village will be beneficial for you. You will expose yourself to danger, true, but at least you will guarantee your food, drink, and safety after returning."
Jesse thought to himself: "Hmmmm, her words are incredibly logical. It's true that I will expose myself to danger by going to the city, but I already do that daily. However, if I accept her deal, the boy will at least be able to get a safe place to live instead of wandering with me from one place to another without even a guarantee that we will find our daily sustenance or not."
Jesse hesitated for a moment before saying: "Good enough for me. So, where is that village?"
A smile of happiness appeared on Mira's features, and she began to direct him to the road.
To be continued.