POV: Ninette, Meram & Elly [DAY 49 - 54]

[DAY 49]

On the day Neo and his Legion attacked and overran Camp Luma, Donatien and John faced the Monster named Neo, which gave a small group of survivors enough time to escape the in madness soaked battlefield.

The small group that fled the battlefield consist of no other than the feisty sniper Ninette, the normally fearless leader Meram and Elly who possesses a Stage 1 Soul and is currently carrying John's 9-year-old unconscious daughter, Blythe.

Otherwise, the group fleeing with these four includes a small number of soldiers and a few women and some children.

Currently, the group is running aimlessly in one direction, trying to outrun the few Undead that are chasing them. Basically, the people in the group don't care what their destination is, they just want to get away from the bloody battlefield and the suffering it brings.

Again and again the group ran into some Undead and only thanks to the few soldiers and Ninette, the group was able to break through these blockades.

However, the group never stopped running, even if someone fell and cried out for help, nobody stopped and wanted to risk their life for someone they didn't know.

Therefore, the already small group became smaller and smaller and most of the children were already killed and eaten by the Undead, if they were not carried or protected by adults.

Elly watched the fate of these people with open eyes, but even she didn't intend to help these poor ones, instead she just hugged little Blythe closer and ran on.

This is no longer the peaceful world in which there are laws and order that protect you. Here in the Apocalypse, it's survival of the fittest.

But what does survival of the fittest really mean? Does it mean you have to be physically strong to survive? Or maybe the one with the most power and influence in a group survives? Or does it mean that the smartest and most intelligent have the best chances of surviving.

Elly came to the understanding that not the strongest, nor the smartest, nor the most influential stand the best chance of surviving, but the most adaptable.

The type of person who can adapt to new circumstances most efficiently and take advantage of them. The kind of uncompromising person who will do anything to survive. Only a person who shows no inhibitions has the best chance of surviving.

Elly, who has seen many people die so far, friends, children, men and women, came to this conclusion.

These children died because they couldn't adjust to the new world. They still call for help when they fall to the ground. They seek the protection of others that they got before the Apocalypse, but today, in the new world, here they will just die.

...

While Elly had such thoughts and continued to follow the group, the soldiers and Ninette kept firing, killing or immobilizing any Undead who confronted them.

The group has been sprinting non-stop for half a hour and has already covered several kilometers. Understandably, the people in the group are breathless because of this and desperately need a break. But no one has even remotely dared to address something like this for the fear of being declared weak and being left behind by the others.

But suddenly the group was startled by a bright light in the sky and everyone looked up at the sky from which the bright light broke through the cloud cover and illuminated the previously dark clouds. The people in the group couldn't believe what they were seeing in the sky.

For the first few seconds, the people were drawn into a kind of spell and looked up at the bright sky, although their eyes burned slightly.

"That... that's Plasma! They're bombing the city!!!" one of the soldiers suddenly shouted as he pointed his finger at the sky.

"WHAT?! IS THIS THE EARTH DEFENSE FORCE? WHY ARE THEY SHOOTING AT US??!" shouted one of the other soldiers as he looked at the sky horrified.

"PPPUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMM"

Suddenly it did and the loud noise, which sounded like the anger of a God, rang in the now bleeding ears of the people which caused them to feel severe pain.

"AAAAAHHHHH!"

"WE ARE DAMN!"

"MAMA, MAMA sob...sob... MAMA!"

"I do not wanna die!"

"What have we survived for so far! Why do we have to die now!"

Such and many other cries and statements were said, but could not be heard by anyone as the sound of the Orbital Bombardment was way too loud.

One by one the people, out of sheer panic, began falling to the ground praying and crying in hope to flee this madness.

Others huddled in corners and closed their eyes, not responding to anything that happened around them.

One of the soldiers even shot into the sky and yelled something which no one could understand. Other soldiers, knowing they were going to die, laid down their weapons and one even lit a cigarette and looked up at the now burning sky.

The scenery of a godlike force descending on the city, which has fallen into hell and is inhabited by monsters, took away all people's courage and hope to survive. No one can face such a tremendous force that they have only heard stories about until now. To survive, especially when you are in the center of such an attack that is so powerful is impossible and the only consolation is that death should happen quickly

Everyone lost the will to go on living, everyone except Elly, who just looked at little Blythe in her arms. Who knows what she was thinking, but from who knows where she suddenly came up with an idea of ​​how she could survive the attack.

She nudged Ninette, who was standing next to her while being in Meram's arms, after which Elly looked and pointed in the direction of a small building not to far from them.

After that, without looking back at Ninette, Elly ran towards the building with Blythe in her arms.

...

Even though Ninette is a hot-headed and relatively strong woman, she couldn't help but lose hope just like everyone else at that moment.

Her last thoughts at that moment were with her family, her siblings and her parents, as well as with Donatien and Meram.

What if they had never left the village? Then what could have been? Would Donatien still be with them? Could she protect her family in the village? What could have been, if... ?

These and many other thoughts raced through her head as she unconsciously hugged Meram tightly and began to cry.

But then she was suddenly tapped by Elly which woke her up from her desperate thoughts.

Elly only looked and pointed with her finger in a direction where a small building was and then ran towards it.

Ninette didn't know what Elly meant or what she was up to, however she still decided to follow behind Elly while holding Meram by the arm and in the end they both ran into a ruined building that just had a large ruined staircase inside.

One of the signs next to the building was the word "Subway" written, which Ninette couldn't read so quickly.

In the end, only Elly and Ninette, who both had Blythe and Meram with them, ran into the subway and sought shelter there. The other people in the group had already given up hope and watched the burning sky and in the last few moments they were still alive saw the impact of the Plasma Beam.

The plasma melted the air, the fire itself and everything in its path into countless bright colors and painted the sky with a beautiful but very deadly multicolored tail.

With a huge explosion it then burned everything in the vicinity and all living beings, whether human, animal and even Undead, were melted by the plasma.

The buildings began to shake and were swept along by the plasma, while the buildings farther away were ripped to pieces, losing whatever fortifications they had.

...

[DAY 51]

While all of this was happening on the surface, the four people who had previously retreated to a maintenance tunnel beneath the city just barely survived the impact.

All of them were now unconscious and it took a full two days for the first person, Elly, to wake up.

After Elly woke up, the first thing she saw was little Blythe lying on top of her. Elly checked if she was still breathing and was relieved when she realized that she was.

After examining Blythe a little more closely, Elly continued to look around the maintenance tunnel where she had taken refuge.

The tunnel seems to have taken a beating and cracks could be seen all over the walls of the tunnel. Otherwise, Elly couldn't find anything strange in the area, especially since it was just too dark.

Afterwards, Elly looked at the other two people, Ninette and Meram, who were both lying on the floor.

Elly examined the two and found that both were still alive, but could not rule out internal injuries. Elly then wanted to take something to drink and eat from her backpack, especially as she was relatively thirsty and hungry.

But when she tried to move her left hand she finally felt it. Elly's left hand was cut open by a pane of glass at the wrist and was only half attached to her arm.

Ironically, it was the very pane of glass that hurt her, which also kept her from bleeding out and dying. One would normally expect a person with such wounds to cry and scream in pain.

However Elly didn't scream or cry not even a bit, but looked at her wound carefully and then took some bandages and some medicines from the bag that was next to her.

First she took the anti-infection medication and some other antibiotics. Afterwards Elly took a combat knife and a lighter out of the backpack.

She then lit a small fire in the tunnel with some scrap paper and held her combat knife over the flame.

After that she quickly removed the broken glass and took the burning hot combat knife and cut her hand with it and afterwards held the knife to her bleeding stub.

Meanwhile, Elly relaxed herself with long and deep breaths and began to connect her stub with bandages several times and finally looked at the severed hand on the floor.

In the end she threw her detached hand into the still burning flames and watched as the hand slowly began to burn in the fire.

"What?" said Ninette's dry voice, who seemed to have finally woken up and looked at Elly.

"Here, have a drink before we talk and whisper, who knows what else we might attract." whispered Elly as she handed a half-full water bottle to Ninette with her right hand.

Ninette just nodded and drank two sips and then gave the rest to the unconscious Meram, who was still lying on the floor.

Elly, on the other hand, took Blythe in her one hand and laid her near the fire to warm her up again. After that she took another water bottle and gave some water to Blythe.

Blythe coughed slightly and then finally opened her eyes and looked at the alien surroundings in which she suddenly found herself and was about to say something when she was suddenly stopped by Elly's hand, which closed her mouth.

"Before you say anything, you should know that I'm not your minder or your guard, I have no obligation to save you and help you if you scream around here and cause problems. You are responsible for yourself and if you don't understand this and only cause more problems, I will kill you here and now. So decide!" Elly whispered as she leaned slightly towards Blythe's small body and looked at her with a cold stare.

Although Blythe is a 9 year old child and still very groggy, she could hear what Elly was saying and understood the meaning behind the words and just nodded as she looked at Elly with fear in her eyes.

Blythe was a child prodigy even before the Apocalypse and very intelligent for her age. She was able to understand and solve things that sometimes adults could not even do and was therefore more than just accepted and praised again and again by the performance-oriented society.

That's why she was able to understand Elly's words and also understood that she was deadly serious and wouldn't hesitate to kill her.

But at the end of the day, Blythe was still an inexperienced child and couldn't help but be afraid at the sight of Elly on top of her.

It was only when Blythe nodded that Elly got off her, at that moment Blythe's tears started to show themselves in her eyes, which she tried to hold back as she silently sobbed.

While this was happening, Meram finally woke up too, looking blankly at Ninette while she hugged him tightly in joy that he was still alive.

"I thought I lost you too..." Ninette whispered as she cried slightly in his arms.

"I can't lose you too..." she whispered afterwards as she hugged him tighter and tighter.

"Please... Please Meram. I need you... please" she whispered as she got out of his arms and looked at him with her tears on her face.

Meram just lay there for a while, but when he saw Ninette's crying face, his expression suddenly changed.

"Ninette... I... I'm here." he said in a dry voice as he looked at her.

"Yes, yes you're back." said Ninette as she looked at him with a smile.

...

[DAY 52]

After everyone spent another day recovering in the maintenance tunnel and licking their wounds, the next day they decided to walk down the tunnel and exit further afield.

Meram expressed his misgivings about this plan as they don't know the current status of the surface, but in the end Elly decided to go for this plan anyways as their current status undergroud also is not good.

In the end, the four of them walked a few kilometers down the tunnel, using most of their resources in the process. Afterwards, they decided to exit the maintenance tunnel and look around the surface.

Thereafter the four entered a street and then looked around a bit in the area.

"We're in the north of Abeus, that should be on 56th street if I'm not mistaken." Blythe suddenly whispered, whereupon Elly looked at her questioningly.

"I know the northern part of the city very well, especially since father often took me here to a few tournaments." said Blythe afterwards and looked around the street a bit.

"If we go in that direction we leave Abeus in a few kilometers and there should also be a small supermarket, maybe there are still supplies there?" said Blythe as she pointed down the street.

Elly just nodded at Ninette and Meram and in the end they decided to follow the road and stop at the described supermarket.

...

As the group walked down the street, they could see the devastation of the attack here in the North District.

The city's former skyscrapers were completely destroyed and all the glass was scattered on the ground along with wrecked cars, debris from collapsed houses and corpses.

There was a sulphurous smell in the air and one could not help but associate the smell with death and the corpses in the city.

It was currently night and the sky was covered by some clouds, which didn't make the situation of the four any easier.

Meram and Ninette had minor bruises and internal injuries, while Blythe's legs hurt and she won't be able to go without food much longer. Finally there was Elly, who only had her severed arm, which hurt her slightly, but such pain didn't bother her anymore and she automatically ignored it.

However, all of them still had a slight earache and their sense of hearing will need time to recover. On top of that, they only have two handguns and very little ammo. Their melee weapons were also lost in the heat of the escape and only Elly and Meram still have a combat knife.

The only good thing is that there aren't many Undead on the streets that survived the attack. Here and there they found a stray Undead missing an arm or leg, but it didn't pose much of a threat and was easily dealt with.

After an hour of walking along the street, they finally found the supermarket they were hoping for and entered it.

Luckly, they didn't find any Undead in the store, but unfortunately most of the store's shelves were already looted and very few shelves actually had food on them that wasn't spoiled yet.

The four immediately began eating and drinking all leftovers and stuffed anything of value into their bags and then barricaded themselves in the store for the rest of the day.

[DAY 53]

The next day, Elly, along with Ninette, built improvised spears for everyone, which she built from the poles of a shelf.

The tip of the spear was sharpened enough to kill an Undead and therefore sufficient for now.

Meram, on the other hand, built four shields out of some metal and wood he found in the back room to defend the group in a melee fight.

While the adults were busy, Blythe diligently monitored the street and entrances to the store.

Every now and then she saw some Undead roaming outside on the street, but they didn't pay any attention to the shop and just walked around.

In the end everyone was too tired to do more today and decided to sleep.

Elly opened and cleaned her wound beforehand and put a new bandage around her stub and then went to sleep.

Meanwhile, Meram held the first guard shift and was later replaced by Ninette.

...

[DAY 54]

With the dawn of a new day, the group decided to leave Abeus.

Abeus, the city where they have made countless cruel experiences in the last few weeks. Abeus in which they lost friends and family and in the end even death itself found his end here.

Abeus was no longer a city of life or survival, and even death has been annihilated. All that remains of this former city is ashes, ashes that the group wants to get rid of as quickly as possible.

...