[gahhhhhhh]

A terrifying scream woke me up from my unconsciousness. Breathing heavily and terrified, I jolted up and looked around me. Oppressive darkness surrounded the streets, filled with silence, only lit by one or two blinking streetlights. Contrast to the earlier bustling city.

My whole body ached, especially my forearms, and could only see through my left eye. My right eye covered in blood which was still pouring from my head.

But before I could even examine them, another inhumane scream sounded out in the darkness, startling me. And I waddled with four of my limbs in a complete panic to the nearest building on the side.

The lights were also out in the building, so I did not dare venture further inside.

I saw stacks of carts lined up inside the building, just beside the entrance, and ran towards it, squirming myself beside the stack. I sat, sandwiching myself between the carts and the wall in a crouching position, feeling a semblance of safety between them.

With only the walls and carts to see, My sense of hearing was peaked, picking up any small sounds.

There were occasional screams of people, the ones that you hear in haunted houses, raw and primal. Followed by another louder scream, the ones that could not have come from a human, and then silence.

What was happening out there? What was causing all these sounds? It didn't sound like it was just one or two that made these, the screams of the people were coming from all around me.

Memories of the earlier day began flowing in. The minotaur. Crunching people to death. Vivid images of their muscles, tendons, and bones to red paste in the tar.

The ram with blood pouring downs its head. Its piercing eyes looking through the blood and human bodies. Body of the person who was just beside me. Alive, just moments ago. Just like me.

My hands began shaking uncontrollably along with my body. The rattling of my body translated into rattling of the carts beside me and into the quiet night filled with monsters.

And it was loud, too loud that something, something dangerous might hear. I pressed my hands together in trying to make it stop, but the shivering came within my chest.

I bit down on my fingers, pressing it down along with my fears as Metalic taste spreads through my mouth. The pain and taste filling me with a sensation other than fear.

Sometime later, my shivering body calmed down, along with my mind.

But I still stayed in my crouching position, trying to consciously pacify myself.

‘Fear doesn’t help. It's irrational. I need to think to get through this.’ I said to myself.

I opened my eyes, and glanced through the holes of the crates, and saw an illuminated sign of a shop, one of many inside the building.

A Tools shop!

My body and mind told me to stay here. To just cover my head into my hands and stay until things were fixed again.

But some primal part of my mind told me to go, to arm myself. To use my hands to increase my chances instead of cupping them and praying.

That help wasn’t coming and I was alone in this. But my body rejected the idea vehemently. Just the thought of moving from this safe haven made my arms start to shiver again.

Goddammit! I am a person who takes matters into his own hands, I angrily told myself.

That’s why I moved from my town after feeling sick and tired of it. The people who said that no one ever leaves didn’t stop me, the heavy load of work I had to do alone and the language that I had to study didn’t stop me.

I am a person who does what needs to be done; I am not like the others who let their fear of the unknown or difficulty stop them.

I said that to myself as if convincing I was better than this, and got up, slowly, calmly. I scanned the dim area inside the building. My adjusted eyes picking up faint outlines.

The thought of why this place was not damaged at all but has no people in it entered my mind briefly, but I pushed it back to ponder for another time and scanned the area keenly, as I started walking.

I felt a sharp pain in my back, likely from being charged by that ‘thing’ but I ignored it and walked closer to the tools shop.

The door was half-closed. With no lights inside, just like the rest of the building.

With an audible gulp, I slowly opened the door and scanned the inside of the shop with my one good eye. This, like the rest of the building, wasn’t damaged at all. It was as if the person just turned off the lights and left without looking back.

Why didn’t they just lock up and stay put?

It was a small shop, slightly bigger than my old room, and looked to be properly maintained. After being satisfied that nothing was inside, I slowly closed the door, paying extra attention not to make noise when locking it from the inside.

There were a few switches beside the counter which I turned on, one by one until I found the switches for the lights. I turned back and checked whether the light was polluting the outside of the shop, but satisfied that it did not, I let out an enormous sigh of relief and finally relaxed.

With my mind being much clearer, I scanned the shop again; it was an unusual tools shop, but I didn’t know if it was unusual or not in this country since this was literally the first shop I entered after coming here.

Some first-time abroad shopping.

But after walking through the shop twice, I had a proper grasp of the things that were here. There were hammers, machete, big ass scissors, and some drills along with other random items.

But I ignored all of them. I couldn’t see myself swinging around a hammer or wielding big-ass scissors, and drills were just stupid.

I thought for a moment about taking the machete, but I couldn’t imagine myself killing that deer or whatever the hell that was out there with my feeble hands. Forget defending if there were more things like that minotaur, though.

I took a pitchfork that was lying around and sharpened its edge with the thickest sandpaper I could find. I’ve heard that a spear was the best weapon for novice to deal the best damage possible, it also had the added bonus of keeping me far from what I was going to be defending from, though the best-case scenario was that I never have to use this.

I took an arm guard and gloves I found and was trying to fit in my hands when I saw puncture marks in my right hand. It took a moment for me to figure out how that got there, then shivered as I realized how.

The deer, goat, or whatever that thing was, was stabbing my body to check whether I was dead or not.

The image of it stabbing and turning my body around while I lay there unconscious and defenseless sent shivers through my body. But the more pressing matters were that I was still bleeding from my hands, as well as from my head.

There was a small washbasin and a mirror at the end of the room, which I happily used to wash my face off the blood, making me finally able to see from my right eye. I had a nasty gash on my forehead which kept bleeding into my eyes.

So I took a tape I found and wound it around my head to stop it from bleeding. I also wound it around my punctured arms as well.

The best thing here was a few sets of protective vests. So I took the thickest one I could find and strapped it on.

There were also a few books on a small shelf behind the counter, which I also took and placed it on my back and chest and wound tape around my body.

As an added protection, in case a human body wasn’t there to prevent me from getting skewered this time.

All in all, I looked pretty stupid with a pitchfork in my arms, tape over my head, and books covering my body with tape over my protective vest, but hey wasn’t there as saying in the west for this.

If it’s stupid, it works?, wait, was that right?

Anyways.

I tried moving with my gear and did a little practice air stabbing motion with the pitchfork which only solidified my feeling that I was fucked if I come across a situation where I had to use them.

My parched throat made me stop my acrobatics and look around for something to drink, which I found behind the counter. Two bottles, one of which I immediately downed.

Satisfied and tired with all my preparations, I double-checked the lock of the door and sat under the counter, hugging the pitchfork in my arms.

Either Because of my brain finally calming down or because of my body missing blood, I went unconscious as soon as I rest my head on the wall.

….....

….

I woke up in a daze, slowly getting up and walking towards the door. It was still in the middle of the night. Only a few hours after I laid down to rest.

I opened the door in a sedated movement and walked outside the shop, going deeper into the back of the building, pitchfork still in my hands.

I took a corner and went inside a wide hall; the room was completely dark except for a ball of light illuminated in the air, hovering in the middle of the room. Its light spreading through the dozen of humans naked and surrounding the ball of light. Watching it in a trancelike state.

I walked closer to the group to join them. I was about to remove any clothing and items I had in my body to band together with them in watching the light but suddenly froze.

I stared at the pitchfork in my hands which I almost dropped.

Removing them felt foolish, felt vulnerable, felt like breathing underwater or turning off the lights when scared of the dark.

Irrational.

The thought slowly brought my consciousness to the surface.

I glanced back at the mass of naked humans, huddled around the ball of light, like moths to a flame. My brain came back to life slowly, as I came to a realization of my surroundings.

I almost screamed but stopped myself. Barely.

But it didn’t matter. The light flashed gently, and like a single system, every human turned back instantly, looking towards me

“Oh, dear”