…

The two parties that were about to fight immediately stopped to look towards the direction of the howls.

Seconds later, more than ten addition howls could be heard.

“There’s no mistaking, those are wolves.” One of the boys said out loud.

“Nooo … why now of all times? When all of the others are sick and can’t even walk properly.” The girl’s face turned pale a she imagined the future of her friends.

“I guess it's not surprising that there would be predators here. After all, such a large ecosystem cannot be this stable without a food chain.” Jonathan calmly affirmed. He had quickly calmed down after realizing that being scared would only further ruin his situation. “The howls all come from the direction of the sickling camp. Although the hoard of wolves is probably way behind it and will attack other groups first, they are still in the path of the attack. I’m curious, will you go back to save them or will you run away?”

AAAAARRRGGHHHHHH!

A loud gory scream resonated through the night. It turned the other parties face even paler.

“We, we, we will retire-“The girl was about to say something when one of the boys screamed out

“Shut up! We aren’t returning to save anything or anyone! Too bad for them. No one asked them to go pick up some random berries. They’re on their own.”

“Although it’s a mean, that is the truth. Wolves are no joke. Adding to the fact that we are super weak, they’ll make one bite out of us. Returning to camp is only throwing ourselves to death. I’d rather live for the others than die for nothing.” The other boy agreed with a solemn voice.

The three of them looked at each other and had no choice to agree to running away.

Jonathan turned to look at Stephanie.

“Although this is a wrong time, do you see what I mean? People will go as far as assaulting others for their friends but when their life is in danger they will give up on those same friends instantly. If it was us lying down there, do you think people would’ve helped us?”

Stephanie’s expression also turned dark.

“You guys, I suggest that we forget our past conflicts. After all, they were for things that don’t matter anymore. I say that we run away together. Since others are going to be the focus, we have a good chance. After that, the five of us can help each other to survive. What do you say?”

“ … sure. We should head towards the opposite direction, then turn left to trick the wolves.” Jonathan accepted the offer as he put away his knife. He identified his three new colleagues as the red boy, as he had a red shirt. He was the one who was the more outgoing and decided to abandon his friends. Then there was the blue boy, who was acting as the supporter of the red boy. Finally, there was the girl.

“Perfect! I love your idea. Now the only thing left to do is … run!”

The group of five quickly ran towards the direction of “the sun.” Using the torch to guide them, they did not injure themselves. The girl also pulled out her phone to use its light.

When they started running, Jonathan had instructed Stephanie to “always run at the same pace as the group of three, no matter what, even it's slower than her potential.”

As such, the group ran for about thirty minutes. As they were only kids, they were completely exhausted. Especially so for the group of three. In addition to that, the moral of the group was very low, as all their hard work to build shelter had gone to nothing.

Jonathan wasn’t surprised that this happened. The group of five thousand humans had made a lot of noise in their activities. Furthermore, they had eaten and left their waste at the same spot. The wolves found it extremely easy to locate them. In fact, the wolves probably had an eye on them the moment they arrived. It was in their nature to observe their preys days before an attack.

This was exactly the reason why Jonathan had accepted to group up with those that attacked him

A cold light appeared in Jonathan’s eyes as they heard a loud growl, behind them.

Suddenly, two large and dark figures walked out of the darkness. Their long teeth shinnied in the torch’s light.

“Aaaah! Wolves!” The girl screamed out seeing what had appeared.

Stephanie face also turned pale white, but Jonathan grabbed her hand to reassure her.

“Follow my lead.” He whispered in her ear. He slowly walked back until they were slightly behind the group of three.

He had expected the wolves to come after them, after all, they were just kids and their speed could not compete. The wolves also observed their targets and knew how humans tended to separate. As such, they sent some to hunt the smaller groups. As Jonathan’s group were some of the forward runners, they obviously gained a lot of attention on them.

Jonathan observed the wolves in front of them with a fear that he couldn’t shake off. However, he also felt joy through that observation. The wolves that had appeared had short hair and soft traits. They were obviously young wolves.

Truth be told, Jonathan’s plan depended heavily on luck. Having the attacking wolves are the young ones allowed a huge boost in the chances of success.

Suddenly, the wolves jumped out at the blue boy, causing the rest of the group to run. They had all ignored his scream of despair.

The wolves were faster than them so they would quickly catch up, but the group of four did not give up.

Jonathan quickly whispered to Stephanie, “Now. run! The fasted you can! I’ll be able to catch up.” Before reposition himself.

Jonathan ran at a speed so that the two girls were in front of him and the red boy was behind him. The red boy quickly caught up with him and reached out his hand to Jonathan’s shoulder, wanting to shove him towards the wolves when-

Jonathan spun and dropped the torch, allowing him to dodge the grab. An object flashed in his hand and went thrusting towards the red boy.

The red boy instantly knew what the object was and remembered what to do when one is in danger of getting stabbed. He quickly chose to sacrifice an arm to stop the stab.

However, before Jonathan’s knife could reach his arm, another object had penetrated his stomach.

“Noooo!” The red boy screamed when he realized what just happened.

Little had the red boy known, Jonathan also had a wooden knife. Although it could only be used to stab, it did just that now. Jonathan had stabbed with his metal knife first, knowing the other party would see it. Since it was night, the wooden knife would be much harder to notice.

When he received the shock from getting stabbed, the red boy subconsciously put down his hands to touch his stomach, but at that moment-

Slash.

Jonathan had slit his M9 Bayonet through his opponent’s neck, causing blood to squirt out like a fountain.

Without waiting to see the outcome of his opponent, Jonathan turned around and sprinted full speed.

Even without the slice at his neck, the red boy was pretty much done for. Doing that was just a measure of safety.

Now, the two wolves would each have a catch, which was considered quite good since they were young.

Even though he was probably safe, Jonathan still ran at full speed.

As the sequence of stabbing had taken less than five seconds totals, he could catch up with the girls shortly without the wolves wanting to catch him since he was too close.

Stephanie was in front since she was extremely athletic for age and could outrun any other person of her age with her long legs. She ran without ever looking back, as she was too scared. The wind made it so that she heard nothing of what happened behind her.

The Girl, However, Turned Around and Saw Jonathan

Seeing Jonathan running alone, the girl knew that her two partners had failed in their escape. However, she didn’t have the reflex to think that it would be Jonathan’s fault.

After all, stabbing someone to their death was an extremely evil act which was only thought to be made by madmen.

When Jonathan caught up to the girl, he pushed her down on the ground, making sure that she fell on the ground.

“What the hell?” Turning her head around, she saw Jonathan’s bloodied face and seemed to understand everything. Before she could get up, Jonathan used his knife to slice her Achilles tendon, assuring that she could no longer run.

“Aaargh!” The extreme pain made it so that the girl screamed. If it wasn’t for the threat of the wolves, she wouldn’t even be able to get up.

In this situation, however, limping with one leg was almost no different from not moving at all. The wolves quickly caught up to her and there was no need to elaborate on her fate.

The only reason why Jonathan had left her a leg is that that the wolves would tire themselves a bit more.

‘The wolves definitely want continue their pursuit now. Two catches are already a lot, the third one is the cherry on top. Wolves are cautious by nature, so they won’t augment the risk of something like getting lost or getting injured for nothing. Furthermore, they definitely noticed the injuries I let on the two. Wolves are smart animals and they will detect the threat I represent. It’s much more advantageous for them to just go back towards the camp and attack the humans trying to run from there’ Jonathan quickly assessed his situation, happy at the outcome.

Although he had killed directly one person, and technically send two to their death, he felt nothing. No disgust, no regret, no guilt. To him, this was like punching someone who had started a fight with him. Although tricking them like this was heartless, they had previously decided to assault him. In this situation, a heavy injury was basically guaranteed death, so he had simply returned the favour. The red boy has even tried to throw him into the wolves’ mouth. Had he not done anything, he would be dead. If this was to be done to someone he had no previous tension with, he would surely feel guilty.

However, that still wouldn’t have changed his plans. He wouldn’t ever scheme against his friends like Stephanie or the other boys, but to strangers, he couldn’t care more than just hoping the situation could’ve turned out another way.

He didn’t consider himself a killing madman or a psychopath, since in his previous world, they would kill people for no reason, or there would be alternatives to killing. In this situation, however, it was him or them, and he surely wouldn’t let luck decide who was the winner.

He even felt a certain joy from doing that. Although it wasn’t like serial killers who felt exalted killing people, he felt that he had gained a victory. Whether it would be by killing people or successfully lying about what the teacher said so that they fail an exam, he felt the same way.

Thankfully for him, Stephanie had followed his instructions and not stopped running. Even if she had looked back, with the dark of the night and the direction of the wind, she would’ve simply heard some screams, not knowing that it was her best friend that caused it all.

AUTHORS NOTE:

Yes, this is a dark MC novel.