The Past

Arthur quickly cut of the mantis head and the monster finally died. Then dashed to the med-kit attached to a wall and went to bandage Rebecca.

"Phew, it's not as deep as it looked, Emma go bring some water from the bathroom"

"On it." A minute later when Emma brought water the wounds were smaller and less deep.

"What the hell! Oh, who am I kidding, we can telepathically control zombies, I don't think super fast regeneration is that much more impressive... Do I also have that?" Arthur them walked to the dead mantis and used it's claw to make a cut on his arm, he looked at it but it didn't seem to regenerate any faster than normal.

'But if I don't regenerate quickly why does she? This makes no sense. Did she get her own ability? Well she did faint from a cut on the arm so maybe she has to sleep to heal, maybe I can do that too then, I'll have to test this out.'

He then dug out the orb from inside the mantis and it turned out to have two of them, they were different from the one he ate as they were green and one had a mantis inside and it looked like it was encased in resin while the other one was similar but had a curled up centipede inside. Arthur still felt a desire to eat them but it was quickly suppressed as he saw what they did to the body. He wrapped them in a cloth and attached it to his waist before going to check the place where the mantis was hiding.

He found a small structure resembling a bird's nest that was hanging from wall at around 3 and a half meters off the ground, he tried to jump on the wall and surprisingly for him he was only about 20 centimeters off.

"Please God don't be mantises or centipedes that will rip my fingers off." He then jumped again and this time he managed to grab the side of the nest but it cracked under his weight and fell off with him. Since it wasn't a significant height Arthur was completely fine and he managed to keep the nest straight up so the contents wouldn't drop.

Inside the nest were two other orbs, one of them was red and it had something resembling a thunder while the other one was another blue orb. He pocketed them both, separate from the other two, he didn't eat the blue one yet since he didn't know if he would fall asleep again but was very attracted toward the red one, but he wanted to inspect it a little bit more.

"Hey, Art! Rebecca is awake!"

"Coming!" He shouted back. "Hey, Rebecca, are you alright? Why did you jump in front of the mantis like that, what if it slashed at your head, you could have died!"

"I just wanted to protect you! Emma even started running before me but I was faster and got there first. I guess those big boobs have their drawbacks as well, I'm not jealous!"

"I get it but you don't have to protect me! I would have rather gotten injured myself than letting you get even a scratch. Now I feel really guilty! And this trip was my idea in the first place!" Then he took a little time to calm down.

"Haah... I'm sorry for yelling at you, I'm just... I wouldn't know what to do if you got seriously injured, I'm not a surgeon you know? I would have blamed myself for the rest of my life if you died because of me. Promise me this, never put your life in danger because of me, ok?"

Rebecca pondered for a moment before answering. "Ok... Fine! I promise, but you have to promise to do the same thing!"

"Not happening. And you too Emma, promise not to put yourself in harm's way."

"Okay, I'll try." She said a without very much confidence.

"Ok, now go get whatever clothes you want, I'll make the zombies carry them so take as many as you want."

The sisters went on their way but Arthur was frozen in place thinking only one thing.

'What if that happened again? I was am orphan ever since I can remember, I never had parents but I had a brother named David that was five years older than me. I always got along with everyone at the orphan but my brother had made a few enemies that would do anything to just ruin him. There wasn't any justifiable reason, it was just that my brother was way smarter than them I guess. But they wouldn't really mess with me since they always gave my brother two options, they would do something bad to me or do the same thing but way worse to him. He always let them do whatever they wanted to him as long as they didn't touch me.'

'But one day they took it too far, they somehow got acces to the cleaning room and got their hands on some bleach, they were also on drugs that day since if they weren't they wouldn't get such a bad idea. They apparently told him they would either pour bleach in my eyes or make my brother drink it. I only know this since Oliver, James's older brother, who was also best friends with David promised him to take care of me. Oliver was 3 years older than my brother and he would soon get out of the orphanage and start a company since our country offered 10K Euro's to any new adult that wanted to open one and two years later he got married and could finally adopt me and get his brother out of the orphanage. I always respected Oliver and he was my father figure throughout my teenage years, and that's how I got to live with James, even though he chose a bitch that only wanted him for his brother's wealth.

But going back to my brother's "suicide", how the police called it, I tried as hard as I could to tell them what happened but they never listened to me, they just came to take my brother's body away then a police officer "investigated" the scene for a month by staying on the orphanage's porch and smoking for a month until they could close the case. But then karma finally got to the three boys and one girl that killed my brother. One of them got a few strokes that wouldn't have been too bad if he wasn't on substances but the doctors couldn't give him the medication because of it so he was a conscious vegetable for two months until he finally died, another one used a bad batch of heroin and died on the spot, the girl was kidnapped and was brutally you know what until she killed the guy then herself with his gun, while the other one that actually had a conscience couldn't take the guilt of killing my brother anymore and slit his throat but he didn't die and the last time I heard of him he was hooked up to machine for life apparently.

Definitely not a feel good story but because of it I strongly believe in karma and to never be evil without a reason.'

"Art, we're ready!... Are you okay?" Rebecca who was the first one to get there saw the sad look in Arthur's eyes and couldn't stop herself from giving him a hug.

"I'm fine, it's nothing... really."

"Did I really make you feel that bad about taking a hit for you? I'm sorry..."

"No, it's not that, I just remembered something sad from back in the orphanage."

"Are you guys okay? I want a hug too!" Said Emma in a cheerful tone.

"Yeah, let's go home."

...........