Hope

Sixteen years old.

An exemplary student.

Have never been into a fight.

…

He can only feel one leg.

The right one.

The intact one.

The one with which the monsters were dragging him to someplace.

The one which, alone, cannot be used to escape.

His left leg, sliced and holed.

That right arm, there was no more right arm left, as simple as that.

Radius and ulna, bones on the left flank have been pulverized in its attempt to protect his head from the hammering of the tooth, which in the most, most, most, and most optimistic of the opinions, succeeded.

If not, Sebastian wouldn't be awake.

With horrific pain.

But awake. Conscious.

Not dead at least.

…

Lover of silence. Hater of hubbub.

Always aware of his speaking volume.

…

It could be said that in the whole forest… he was the only person disturbing its peace.

Crying being the only alternative to alleviate pain.

But with strained throat, the chorus would reach no one.

…

Never afraid of confrontations or incidents.

Because he, of all the people, believed in the methods and solutions of a mature society.

…

His pants were wet.

If guided by dignity, you want to think it was of blood, fine… no one would say another word.

…

'See you on Tuesday!'

…

'See you on Tuesday?'

…

While the light of tomorrow was wished to be seen.

His intense hearthbeat that alerted the first warning never actually ceased.

In the runaway, during the fight, in the massacre where he was co-protagonist and victim, after the fruitful hunting of these monsters, it simply never stopped.

Taking his breath, stealing his mind.

That feeling was amplified even more when his limbs got stabbed.

The brain of Sebastian was thinking nothing.

Or it could be seen as thinking of everything that led to, generally, no conclusion.

Wasn't Eva like this? When she was sneak attacked?

Odd, but the teenager never asked himself that. His mental state met well with the definition of traumatized.

But as more scandal was heard from the background, Sebastian felt his leg was released.

His vision was blurry as well as crimson, but his eyes regained the certainty to understand the moment. At his sides, the minions walked toward the direction pointed by his legs. The group that used to be nine monsters became five now.

But as he looked to the feet leaving by his laterals, his glance got fixed in a shadow only a few meters apart.

It was a person like him, but much older. And the man was as badly wounded as Sebastian, perhaps worse. Since those stab wounds were not done to his extremities but to his chest and belly. His face was so scrambled and messed up that it was doubtful that he was witnessing a face... or human.

Such person was staring at Sebastian.

And the boy looked back.

Ah, if it wasn't because of those blue eyes he didn't inherit, he wouldn't have known it was his silent dad.

His dead silent dad.

…

In his family, nor Joseph nor Molly demanded attention, almost never. They strongly affirmed that they had their stages on their epoch of youth already. The job of livening up the party was from time to time put on Sebastian and Eva's hands.

And as kids amazed by the world, it was exciting to be leaders of something.

Joseph perhaps will never admit that he was just lazy.

But regardless of cause, intention, or starting point.

He was the silent figure of the family,

…

He cried.

Like a real cry.

Not a drop of artistic silent tear by way of films. But the kind of crying that molded all types of wrinkles on the face.

Fluids came out from eyes, mouth, and nose holes. Mixing up with the dry blood to drop by drop nurture the land.

It was a sob of emptiness on a cold night.

…

…

…

He couldn't stop the sadness, but somehow he managed to stop the crying. Squeezing his eyelids to press the last bit of salty liquid out, Sebastian turned his head to the other side.

Inspected.

finding nothing of what he looked for.

Then he looked toward his dad's direction once again, this time discreetly and slightly sitting up using his scratched back and supported by his remaining leg. He looked over the corpse.

Nothing…

Eva was not there, nor his mother.

"God… tha… thank you…" The atheist whispered.

The hope of Molly having taken Eva away while he and his father were fighting lighted up a flame on him.

This was a result he could accept.

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

All of a sudden, heavy footsteps came within earshot.

Sebastian intermediately laid back again. Despite his imminent death, every person including himself would like to live a little longer. That was part of the survival instinct in every specie.

Half a minute later, a huge foot crossed over him. Pieces of dirt felt on his face.

How could Sebastian forget that creature?

The six-arm… Although now it was just five.

But the teen then noticed something weird: that was not the only footstep being heard coming to this place. Followed by the aggressor of his family, more of these five to seven meters tall creatures appeared.

Some of them had six arms, others had four, and the most unusual ones even got ten. It was appropriate that on this occasion the half-dead boy paid attention to his mistake of last time. At the back of these slim giants, minions were hanging over.

He counted thirty-two giants, and, behind, each one had from five to twelve minions.

'So all these were the monster chasing us in the forest...'

However, the most shocking thing in this situation still wasn't the big number of these not-from-earth creatures slowly filling in the place. The attention and probably sanity of Sebastian got diverge by the second kind of passenger on the back of these multi-handed humanoids:

People.

Some bloody, some clean, and some missing body parts people.

Hanging on the hands of the faceless minions.

Hundred of people, not only limited to campers but also drivers on the highway raped to here.

Sebastian speedily scanned the faces and body types of the newcomers, begging God to not find who he didn't want to find.

But as if life wanted to go against him, the repetitive and monotonous step sound pattern was broken.

"Sebastian! Why you had to choose this place!" A female voice was heard.

Full of hate.