Nashi's mind was blank and his eyes wide opened when he stared at his mother in horror. His eyes desperately searched for something... her face... a perfect hole created on her face. He had to say something. He searched his mind for any reason to comprehend what was going on, but brain.exe had stopped working. And to his surprise, his father answered his silent question. "Nashi!! Go get the emergency bag!"

His father shouted with his thick old phone plastered on his ear. Sweat fell from his forehead, his hand was trembling but no matter what he must act tough.

When was he grabbed his phone or what he did before didn't enter Nashi's train of thought, how much times had passed? 10 seconds? a minute? but Father's shout was enough to snap him back to the reality. "Ah.. Y..yes!!"

Nashi staggeringly stood and weakly lifted his wobbly feet, left then right and left again. And yet, no matter how many steps he had taken, he couldn't reach the storage door that kept their emergency bag. Frowned, he repeatedly hit his thigh with all of his might until the pain, the shock and the bruise were enough to stop his leg trembling.

When he reached the storage door, so far as he knew; opening the door was a simple task and yet his brain was trying its best to formulate the secret of turning the doorknob. He stopped, then drew a deep breath as he looked to his feet before glancing back up to the door and using the raw strength to open it.

The backpack was a fat navy blue of the water-resistant polymers. The straps were functional to a basic degree, no advanced fashion or anything like that. Nashi pulled a strap to feel the weight and inwardly groaned. It was far heavier than it ought to be.

When he grabbed all of the bags what followed was a siren lacerated the air like a butcher's cleaver in the meat shop. He remembered of hearing this type of siren before. It was in the old movie, signalling the bombers were coming and it was time to get below ground.

"Are you done?!" His father shouted. He hugged the youngest daughter, Yuzu on his arms. While the second child, Ume followed from the behind as she brought a box of first aid kit on her arms.

Leaving all of their belonging, they ran to the car. The door was unlocked and another scream echoed in the distance, the streets that once overflowed with emptiness at this hour now was full of life, no... more likely death.

The marble wall in front of their neighbour house was now riddled with holes. Several buildings in their neighbourhood that were so beautiful and beloved now was nothing more than a ragged mountain of rubbles.

As they entered the main street they halted as suddenly as if the car tires were bound by ropes. Dust swirled in the early night air as they were looking a large, green creature which resembles a grossly misshapen bird with four wings pulled a man to the air.

And weirdly enough, by the time Nashi took a great look on the unrecognizable creature, he could see a number and letters floated near on its head.

Lvl 31 Moss Flyer.

While he watched Moss Flyer flew away, he also realized the red blinking dot moving away in the same direction as the Moss Flyer.

The next things Nashi noticed was the noise. The shouts were jarring, and he could hear explosions from several directions around him. After that was the sound of gun fires and the roars of beasts. Then he felt the heat, and he gazed to find the buildings around them were consumed by flames.

And his father suddenly hit the breaks, creating a squeaking sound and they lurched forward as the car lost its momentum. His mouth formed a grim line as he looked around.

"....The hell...." Said Nashi by the time he realized the road was blocked by the sea of sand. And not only that, they were in the main street right now, and yet there were too little building that surrounded them.

(Are they destroyed?)

(Where is the pachinko?)

(Isn't that the bookstore in front of our house?!)

(...Wait, so whose house is back there?!)

Things that still sitting on their original place, things that were supposed to be here, things that weren't supposed to be here, things that he never saw before. That was what the things he realized and recognized as their father turned the car, searching for another way to...

"...Dad, where are we going?" Nashi asked, already too tired from all of these things that happened.

"Bunker."

His father answered with only one word. He wanted to ask more, (Where is the bunker?) (What bunker?) (What happened?) (Why are we going to the bunker?) but he just couldn't bear himself to ask those questions. Even a total stranger could tell his father didn't exactly know about whether or not his decision was a correct one.

And after they spent some time wandering around the town, they found thousands of cars flooded down the street the same way water flooded down the river. The mood of the people swirled in unseen currents beneath the dark surface of their car's glasses.

But there was something magical about being one with the crowd. They acted the same, cheered at the same moment, felt the same emotions. What Nashi read on their faces was written on his as he saw hundreds of armed man, lining up and making a barricade to make sure of their safety.

Still, something had been bothered his mind when they were stuck between those seas of cars. Some people started from the front and slowly went to the back, one by one abandoning their cars and ran to the opposite direction.

Why?

He frowned as he saw a grandpa, looking afraid and running while pulling the seemingly confused granny and a toddler.

Followed by a couple, once again the woman was pale as a ghost when she ran away with her boyfriend.

Then three man, all differ in age, running while banging every car windows they could bang. Shouting at every person they could see.

"Too many red!! Run!!" Said the bald middle-aged man as his spits rain to Nashi car's window.

Red?

"Run if you don't want to die!!!" Said the other person, seemingly a college student.

.....

Suddenly all he remembered was the blinking red dot from Moss Flyer, a sudden realization turned his face blue when saw several others people had the same look like his.

As he opened the lock, tried to argue with his father without listening to his reason, the car in front of theirs suddenly drove backwards. Bumped into the headlamps of their car, making their head wobbled as if their head was loosely attached to their neck.

"Just listen to me for one time for god sake!!!" Nashi shouted, spits flying out to his father face as his father nodded and decided to leave the car.

Though...

By the time he finished his shout, hundreds of blinking red dots appeared on his Mini-Map. But where? He looked around, shaking his head to the left and the right, looking up and looking down. There was nothing.

Then the ground slowly shook. A little bit too late to realize what was going on, as he opened the door. Something warm was splattered on his back.

Alongside with that warmness, dozens of white dots turned grey and disappeared, including the white dots that sat next to him and followed by the screams of his sisters, uniting with several other screams.

Looking at his back, what he found out was his father already impaled, spike-like thing spewed from the ground, piercing both of the car and his father. A clean piercing, straight from who wanted to know where and went straight right into his mouth.

His body and arms twitching, his mouth gagging, his eyeballs rolling alongside with the dripping blood from the point of the spike.

"R...run!!!" Nashi shouted then he opened the door and ran to the back. Carried Yuzu while pulling Ume away, completely forgot about their supplies of the emergency bags.

"Fuk, fuk, fuk, fuk." He spoke like the broken record, repeatedly using the same curse word while trying at his best to concentrate both on their path, the Mini Map and his surrounding.

Now he was like the one that ran and shouted to everyone on their back. But the difference was while they were running before the storm, and he ran when the storm happened. Though, the number of spikes that appeared kept reduced by the significant amount. Making enough room and time for them to run pretty far from their last location and slowly increasing the distance between the spike area of appearance and them.

But... like the movie cliche, while he was forcefully pulling Ume hands, somehow she managed to fall.

"Oi! Get up!!" He shouted to his sister, as she weakly shook his head, crying and repeatedly shouted she had enough of those things.

He frowned when he heard his sister word, the thought of leaving her if she didn't get up really crossed his mind, but.... not like he didn't understand how she felt. Maybe because she didn't want to show it, or because she felt safe when their father was still alive or she'd just a slightly late reaction to realizing what was going on. Right now Ume was looked exactly the same as Nashi when he found his mother faceless face.

Weak, terrified, legs shaking, couldn't stand and the list went on. Glaring... confused about what he should do but lucky for Ume when Nashi shaking his head around, forcibly pulling her hand and dragging her bruised feet. He found a slightly older guy sitting on his motorcycle while waiting for the line to move up.

"Oi, grab her for a minute." He said while roughly gave the slightly chubby preschooler to the dark-skinned girl.

Without hesitation, he walked to the motorcycle man. As the motorcycle man tilted his head when he saw a young man, angrily glaring at him.

A punch flying right to his face, breaking the glass of his helmet, throwing him off to the ground. While the other evacuee shocked when they saw this, they did nothing. No one wanted to help some mysterious stranger and risking their self-assumed safe spot or supplies.

And like one single punch wasn't enough. To make sure the motorcycle man didn't fight back, before he was able to stand up or get the gist of what was going on or who the young man was, another kick flew into his stomach, followed by a stomp on his head and finished by the kicked on his head.

As Nashi saw the motorcycle man already unconscious, without saying any word or explanation he took his motorcycle, pushing it throughout the few cars and went back to his sisters.

"...Just shut up and hop on." He said, pulling Ume into the motorbike and putting Yuzu in between them.

Slowly he shifted the lever and pulled the hand grip, clumsily but slowly they moved away from the seas of cars, leaving them behind to their own fate while he was worried and somewhat felt guilty about the motorcycle man.

Once he managed to leave a thousand lines of cars, the rest of his job was an easy task. Unlike before, somehow he felt a little safe and could fully concentrate on the Mini Map as his personal navigation device.

As they circled around and finally found the city outskirt, the break squeaked, Ume's head bumped into Nashi's back while Yuzu's head bumped into his waist. Though this time it wasn't because of the sea of sand or monsters or other abnormal things. It was because of a big translucent bill-board sized screen floated at the top of the bridge entrance showing them or everyone near them about something.

You are now leaving the Danger Area 27. The danger area will periodically spawn monsters and expanding its territories, shifting the geographic and the climate as the result. Once every 7 days, a vast amount of monsters will spawn and attack nearby areas. Once every month a Raid Boss will appear. It is recommended for you to subjugate the Raid Boss as quickly as possible.

And as they left the bridge and driving forward to the city outskirts.

You are now entering the Neutral Area (Rank 2). Within this area, only monsters under level 20 will appear. For every month a Dungeon will appear. If the dungeon isn't cleared within the year of its creation 300 Kilometer radius from the Dungeon entrance will turn into Danger Area.

Nashi’s mouth formed a grim line when he realized there another dangerous place like his former city, and yet another problem arose as the bike slowly stopped, seemingly ran out of the gas in the middle of the nowhere.