Lost (1)

Most kids in the Philippines start going to a formal school when they reach 5 years old, usually entering kindergarten first before going to the 1st grade. This way, they would be ready to enter college or they might already be in college by the time they reach 18 years old.

Rando graduated highschool when he was 19 years old and was lucky enough to be able to apply for a scholarship from ASEAN, which would let him study architecture—which his parents told him to take—in Singapore.

Of course, that didn't happen. Instead, the rumors of World War III actually did become true in early January of year 2020.

Rando would have been dead by now if he only went ahead in Singapore, but thankfully he didn't. As schools in Singapore typically start their school year early January, Rando requested to stay over in the Philippines for Christmas. This turned out to be one of the best decisions in his life.

If you just forget about what happened immediately after, it would be indeed a good decision.

Rando was enlisted to the army soon after the war started, along with his father who was in his 40s and his younger brother who was 16. His parents were still pretty young back then as both were still around about 40 years old when the war happened, this was why his father was qualified as well. His mother luckily unfortunate as she was sick at the time and was deemed unsuitable for fighting in the war, so she was sent to a nearby underground shelter along with other people that were deemed not able to fight. The army said that they were to wait there until soldiers pick them up, and they will accompany them as they travel towards a safer location.

After entering the army, Rando was unfortunately separated from his father and younger brother, as they were assigned to train in the marine corps on Samal Island, an island so close to Davao City that it is just a 45-minute ferry ride back or forth from the bay.

Rando was left alone to fend for himself in the war in Davao City. Although he knew that he wasn't particularly that far from his family, he had a feeling that he won't be seeing them for a long while.

And he was right.

The war lasted for three years. And during those years, although Rando never saw his family, he did make a few close friends in the army. And one of them was Mickey Reyes.

Compared to Rando, Mickey was quite short. Rando was 5 foot 11 inches, while Mickey was 5 foot 7. But the height difference didn't matter to both of them as although Mickey was only a 2nd Lieutenant while Rando was able to become a 1st Lieutenant, Mickey was better at handling a gun than Rando ever was.

They met because their bunker beds were right next to each other, this led to them talking a lot. Both of them quickly became friends among the other soldiers in the army, and they constantly helped each other whenever they were sent out.

When the war ended, Rando left the army to go find his family. Although he didn't know where his mother was currently, he does know where his father and younger brother currently is, and has taken the responsiblity of preparing a house for them to return to when they come back to mainland Davao.

Mickey helped Rando a lot during these times as he was the one who found an apartment for Rando. It was very near to the military base, about 5 minutes of travel time when riding a vehicle, which made it very easy for Rando to stay in contact with Mickey and his other friends who stayed in the army.

That was of course until the first news of an unknown strand of virus spread across the world.

The laymen didn't care about the news and just went about in their own lives, but Rando heard from Mickey, and the army was apparently stocking up some supplies and regrouping the soldiers since the news spread. Mickey didn't know why at the time but he thought that something big was going on and told Rando to do the same.

And Rando did, just in case.

"You never know."

Or so Rando says.

That was two months before the government issued a quarantine, Rando bought supplies that will last for three months. A month has passed since the issuing of the quarantine, and Rando had very little supplies left.

Rando checked his fridge and the kitchen counter, and found a few more canned food left.

"Should be able to last a single person a week more."

Rando then turned towards his door. More particularly, at the bucket on the floor beside the door.

It was the bucket that he used to store the water balloons from when he was fighting the slime collector. Rando brought it with him, he used it as a bag to carry whatever was left in the convenience store that he was just in about two hours ago.

The house clock that Rando hanged on the wall just passed the 10:30 AM mark a few minutes ago.

It was just earlier that day that he was still running away from the blood-red existence, where his jacket was torn apart and his shirt where he put the sunglasses suddenly had a big gaping hole at the back part of it.

"Wait, where's my sunglasses?"

'Damn it, must have dropped it somewhere.'

Rando remembered.

While he was running at the corner of the street, he tripped, and the sunglasses that he wore fell off his face and dropped on the road.

The sun was blazing. As Rando looked up and he stood back up again, his eyes became blinded for a short while, making him dizzy.

Maybe that's why Rando slowed down earlier.

Rando finally looked at the contents of the bucket and took each item one by one.

That was when Rando thought about a possibility.

'Wait, wasn't that store mainly a meat shop?'

What Rando was able to get from the store was mainly cleaning materials like soap, shampoos, and bleach; some packs of sugar and salt; a lot of plastic bags; and a few boxes of condoms. Besides these, absolutely nothing was left from that convenience store.

'Well, maybe some magazines.'

It was a meat shop but they also sold a few other miscellaneous items, which was why Rando was able to get a variety of such items with just a bucket.

Rando stroked Browney's back who sat beside him as he spoke.

"If looters really did come to that place, why did they only take the meat and the water? And why did they destroy almost every shelf that can be found in the store?"

It was a fairly big store with a few shelves that display the store's items, yet all the shelves seem to had either fallen down or been broken as if it was thrown around.

"There were even cracks on the floor. I remember it was a newly tiled floor the last time I went in there, so why would looters even waste time to destroy the floor if they knew about the terrifying monsters?"

Rando has great memory, but he constantly fails noticing things right away. It might bite him back in the future, but who knows.

'If it's something that only wants the meat and the water, and also threw and destroyed the shelves and some of its items, could it be--'

"--That monster?"

'No, it couldn't be. It could not even enter, there's no way it was able to enter unless it passed through the--'

"--The door... The door! That was why the owners barricaded the doors! Maybe they also covered the windows because the monster might pass through the windows, but why did the not cover the..."

*silence*

It was obvious why.

The reason Rando survived was because there was a broken window where he could jumped through. The reason Rando survived was because the people who owned the store failed to barricade the last window.

Probably because--

"--they died. They died didn't they?"

The owner is either now part of the slime collector, or they have been killed by something else.

Death...

The concept alone has already numbed Rando, the number of people that he knew and he saw died alone was uncountable, this made him even more uncaring about it.

But that was during the war.

The world was supposedly in times of peace, yet now an innocent person may have died because of a disease that makes monsters go crazy and kill people.

Rando remembered the dismembered bodies, some parts were squashed so much it looked like paste attached to the body of the slime collector.

'A monster that ripped a person apart before sticking their body parts onto itself like glue.'

Rando wondered how that could have felt.

'Must have been painful... being killed in such a way.'

The lone quiet breathing sounds of Browney echoed in the living room silently.

Suddenly...

"Hahahaha..."

Soft laughter can be heard from Rando's mouth. It was the sound of a helpless cry, one that is shouting for help but could not find one.

Once again, he felt like he was alone. Alone and left to fend for himself.

Rando hugged his dog as they laid on the floor together. He clasped his hands close and murmured silently.

"God, help me..."