Date: September 11
Place: Nagoya, Japan
[Shin]
Outside the room, everywhere was as dark as the day we lost our brother, Meon. The two tiny hands gripping my torn shirt shivered as they kept muffling their cries. Maybe the cold air also played a part; they were only sheltering their heat with Rei's grimy jacket, after all.
Should I even be criticizing, given how my shirt looks ragged?
We kept walking in a safe and slow pace but we couldn't just ignore the sounds we heard that were getting a little too close towards us.
"Brother—" Mei quietly calls after we hear a loud growl from something that came from those monsters.
I carefully led them on the side, walking one step at a time towards a shop where I planned to take shelter with them for now.
"I'm scared," Akira whispered, his sobs were quiet but they kept echoing in my ears. A few tears kept rolling down my face as I bit my lower lip to silence my unnecessary wails.
"'Don't be—I'll protect you,'" I said. Seeing that we were nearing the shop's entrance, I let them walk a few more steps ahead while I pointed the gun that Rei had entrusted me with towards the sounds.
"What will happen to sister Rei?" She pulled my left arm down and guided me inside along with Akira. But my sight is not leaving the area outside the shop.
"She'll do fine—" I was too scared to admit that she might not make it as those people are crazy to the bone. "We have to be brave and get to the store where we met earlier," it's too frustrating to think how far that is from our current position. But we must go there at all costs if we want to be rescued by someone Rei told us about.
The snarls kept coming closer, making us walk deeper inside. But just a few steps back, Akira tripped on something that made him fall and make quite a loud thud which attracted a few of them to wonder close.
Although he managed to prevent more noise about the fall, he suddenly let out a quick scream and used his hands to silence his mouth the moment he remembered our current situation.
I noticed his shaking eyes as he only sat there, staring at the floor shockingly which made both Mei and me worry.
I hurriedly went over to grab his shoulder and looked at the thing he tripped on as I had thought of a possibility that it was another monster.
"What's wro—" My eyes couldn't believe what I saw as my hold on Akira's shoulders got heavy and fell on the ground. My grip slowly left the gun and I mistakenly let go of it.
I feel something weird going on in my stomach, my eyes were watering as my fingertips slowly curled up to assist my mouth that begged for any liquid to hydrate my dry lips. I leaned on the side and opened my mouth to emit the food I had digested in the past few days.
I couldn't stop groaning as my throat burned, anything I tried to focus on kept dancing and was blurry as the images of Meon kept flashing in my mind.
"Hey—you have to protect them," I saw a shadow of his figure standing then kneeling to pat my head as I looked up at his smile. It was hard to tell what expressions he had as I squinted my eyes to somehow try and tell.
"Meon—" I didn't hesitate to cry but my vision slowly started to adjust again and I saw past the water in my eyes.
"Shin," Akira was trying to shake me, the corners of his mouth were almost about to be torn by the way he screamed and cried nonstop. "Shin—please," I heard him begging as he continued to shake me with his hands barely able to cuff my face. "I'm scared," his desperation felt too familiar.
Ah—it was the time I first met Meon in the alleyway.
"Help them!" I hallucinated another shadow of him behind Akira's back, shouting at me angrily this time. His face was evident with anger and the same desperation that Akira is showing me right now.
That was when I realized what was happening. For a split moment, I forgot we stood in a difficult position to be acting like this.
I turned around, grasping that I was too late to shield Mei from seeing the same horrible sight we saw. She let out an ear-piercing wail when she found out that the thing Akira tripped on was Meon's lifeless body sleeping on the floor which had a weird drawing.
I hurriedly tried to find the gun that I had let go of by randomly hovering my hands on the floor and feeling where it was. Mei started to cry loudly as Akira ran to her side and hugged her tightly after he was done dragging me back to reality. Her noises were muffled by the jacket Rei gave them when Akira grabbed her face to cry on his shoulder.
The moment I felt the cold interior of the gun's handle, there was no time to rejoice as I heard a loud and hungry growl rushing in behind me.
"Shin!" My peripheral vision saw Akira extending his hand towards me as I quickly turned about, my eyes shut close as Rei's words repeated near my ear.
**start**
My hands were quivering at the gun that was handed to me by her. But I did not hesitate to point it out to her when I saw some of them were plotting to sneak up on her. "We made too much noise here, so I need you to be stealthy and go back to the store I told you to hide," she implied that managing on our own made me quiver.
I glanced at the other two who were just as scared as I. Looking back at her, she displayed a smile that spelled that everything would turn out great. A smile I've never dreamt of seeing ever again in this cruel world.
"Protect each other until I catch up," I swallowed at her words as she ruffled the other two's hair. I can feel their grip relaxing on my shirt as they nod to her next question.
My arms eased as I gave her a stare of my fiery will to protect these two.
**end**
But now, I'm not too confident that I will be able to save them before she can catch up.
She did say her teammates are heading this way, so if I can just buy some time until then—
Please just take these two somewhere safe and let them have the lives they deserve.
Please, I pray to any GOD that is out there.
SAVE THEM!
Even in this dark area, I could see the monster's face and its sharp teeth when its mouth opened, ready to devour me. Launching its whole body in front of me, I pulled the trigger just like in the movies and imagined I was strangling one of the people on that nasty hideout.
My eyes refused to blink as I shouted my desperation, harshly falling on the ground butt first because of the recoil. And in the next second, the monster that was about to eat us alive was now flying in pieces, my ears ringing as I saw the other two crying their eyes out still.
"Hey—" I held out my hand to grab them closer but paused as I couldn't hear myself talking. "Are you okay?" I continued, but heard no sound.
Then they only pointed behind me, and I vaguely knew what they said by how they mouthed their words. "Look out!" They both pointed in unison.
That's when I gripped the gun again and pulled another round without hesitation. Green gooey liquid kept splashing everywhere as I continuously pulled.
My ears started to adjust to all the explosions that had been happening and when both of them hugged me from behind while they cried, I heard their pleas. "Brother Meon, I'm scared," my heart ached as I was only able to shout my cries away. "I don't wanna die yet," I hear Akira's shivering voice this time.
I clicked nonstop until the gun wasn't doing anything anymore. "I'll save.." Now I'm too unsure.
Maybe no God heard my pleas.
Maybe we were destined to be doomed from the moment this all began.
And the lights suddenly turning on and revealing numerous monsters rushing inside doubled my fear. My arms lost their strength to even lift it up as I turned around and just hugged them.
Until my ears perked up at a single shout.
"Kids!" My focus shifted to her who was desperately running towards us.
My lips weakly lifted as tears started to stream down and my blurry vision chose to stare in her direction rather than the number of monsters.