Maela didn't leave because she wanted to.
She left because staying meant watching her grandmother die slowly, or worse turn into something Maela would never be able to forget.
When the noises outside drew closer, when the walls began to tremble from bodies slamming into metal gates and doors, Maela had knelt beside the bed and held her grandmother's hand until her fingers went numb.
"Lola…" Her voice had broken. "I'll come back. I promise."
Her grandmother hadn't answered, but her breathing was steady but Weak.
Maela told herself that at least it was enough.
If she stayed and froze, they would both be trapped. If she left, there was at least a chance to get food or help at least find someone stronger and somewhere safer.
That was the lie she clung to as she slipped out the back door, tears blurring her vision.
She wasn't actually brave.
Ohhh no....
She was terrified.
Every step away from the house felt like betrayal.
Flashback from her thoughts as an explosion got in through her earings
The city didn't care.
It swallowed her fear and gave nothing back.
After escaping the first street, Maela slowed, pressing herself into shadowed corners, moving only when the world seemed to breathe out. The system stayed quiet now, its presence like unfinished scaffolding inside her mind there, but not guiding, nor was it comforting her fragile mind.
[Framework Upload: 53%]
She hated that it was still loading.
Like was this thing even sure it wanted to help her.
She rounded a half-collapsed fence and froze.
Ahead, in a small open lot that used to be a parking space, something was happening.
Ahhh... Everything was wrong even this chaos that came out of nowhere.
At first, she thought it was just shadows moving wrong.
Then she realized they weren't shadows.
They were things, at least they seem humans.
Low to the ground, hunched, moving with jerky impatience. Their bodies were misshapen, skin stretched tight in places and sagging in others. Heads tilted unnaturally as if their necks hadn't learned balance yet. Their eyes reflected light poorly dull, unfocused.
They made noises as they moved clicks, wet breaths, short bursts of sound that almost resembled speech but never quite formed it. Like infants trying to mimic words they didn't understand.
It seem they had the intelligence of a Baby.
Maela crouched lower behind a wrecked jeepney, barely daring to breathe.
The creatures were fighting each other.
At least it seems they were, it looked more like tugging, snapping, bumping shoulders as they circled something in the middle of the lot.
People.
Three of them.
Two lay still, bodies bent at wrong angles, faces smeared with blood. Another was tangled in what looked like organic bindings fleshy strands or hardened mucus wrapped around his arms and legs. One of the creatures dragged him by the ankle, leaving a dark trail behind.
Maela's vision tunneled.
She knew that boy.
Her breath hitched painfully in her throat.
"J—Jasper…" she whispered.
Jasper Reyes.
Her friend since childhood. The one who shared snacks with her after school. The one who joked too much and talked about leaving the city someday. The one her brother had gone to check on earlier that morning.
He lay half-conscious now, chest rising shallowly. Blood soaked his shirt, but she couldn't tell where it was coming from him, or the others.
A sharp ache tore through her chest.
"If Jasper is here…"
Her thoughts spiraled.
"Where were her brothers?
Had they run?
Had they fought?
Had they—"
She clamped a hand over her mouth, biting down hard enough to taste blood.
Don't think. Don't think.....
The creatures hissed at each other again. One swiped clumsily at another, more annoyed than angry. They didn't seem to understand cooperation yet. Didn't understand killing among themselves.
Maela felt her legs trembling looking at what was going on.
She wasn't a fighter.
She didn't have strength. Nor speed even weapons with No absolute plan.
The system stayed silent as always... She thought.
She peeked again at Jasper.
He was breathing..
It looked like rasped breath, Shallow. But alive.
Her heart screamed at her to move.
Her mind screamed louder to stay still.
"If you step out, you die.
If you stay hidden, he dies."
Tears blurred her vision again.
She remembered her grandmother's hand in hers. The promise she made. The way survival kept demanding pieces of her she didn't want to give.
She pressed her forehead against the cold metal of the jeepney.
"I can't," she whispered. "I can't… I'm not like that."
She waited.
Seconds dragged like hours.
The creatures grew distracted again, pulling at the bodies on the ground, making excited clicking noises. One wandered off toward the alley, chasing a sound Maela couldn't hear..
An opening, A small one as it seems luck took pity on her.
Her heart pounded so hard it hurt.
[Decision Pressure Detected]
The text surfaced faintly, unfinished, unstable.
She didn't feel heroic or have courage at once.
She felt sick.
Her legs moved anyway slow but shaking, barely obeying her.
Trying hard to avoid those creatures.
While heading towards Jasper.
"Even a candle shakes when the wind is strong,
but it still burns."
She didn't know where the thought came from. Maybe from somewhere deep inside. Maybe from whatever was still building itself in her mind.
Maela stopped at the edge of the lot, hidden just enough that she could retreat if something looked at her wrong.
She saw Jasper's fingers twitch weakly.
He was alive at the least for now.
Her breath came out in a broken sob she swallowed down hard.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm so scared."
While in her thoughts she understood something clearly that Survival wasn't for the weak of now.
And those who are weak will have to choose or be willing to lose something of value to themselves
Crack...