Casualty rate

In a day, Lucas had explored Velomore as much as possible. Since it'd be his home from now on, he had to get familiar with it completely.

As he lay on his bed, he thought about his parents and sister back on Earth. They would be devastated by his death. He was in grief just imagining their sad faces and couldn't sleep for a long time.

Sighing heavily, he turned to his right, not realizing that his heavy actions had woken the two men in the room.

Being in a place that could be attacked and invaded at any time, Vance and Ryker were light sleepers. They woke up when they heard Lucas tossing and turning.

"What's gotten you all energetic?" Ryker joked, startling Lucas who was lost in thought.

"You scared me there," Lucas complained and laughed helplessly.

"Why? Were you doing something you shouldn't be doing?"

Lucas detected his teasing tone and understood the innuendo in his words.

"Yeah right. I have nothing better to do."

"Do you?" Vance asked, adding more sauce to the conversation, rendering Lucas speechless.

"Are you two ganging up on me?" Lucas asked incredulously.

"Do we have to say it explicitly?" Ryker shot back as he turned on the light and Vance sat on his bed.

"What's gotten you all perturbed? Can't sleep on a new bed?" Vance asked, losing the teasing glint.

"Yeah. Just." Lucas too got up and shrugged lightly.

"Understandable. Do you want to do something to pass the time? We can keep you company." Ryker suggested.

"Yeah. We're light sleepers, and we can't sleep with you tossing and turning," Vance added.

"Sorry about that." Lucas felt sheepish to have disturbed the two men. "I can take a walk around the place. You don't have to entertain me."

"Relax, mate. We won't be getting sleep anytime soon since we are awake now. We might as well do something." Ryker folded his hand and leaned against the wall.

Lucas thought for a moment before his eyes lit up. "May I see the world map?" he asked, hoping the two men wouldn't start suspecting him again.

"Yeah, sure. But may I ask why?" Vance asked, opening one of the cupboards beside his bed.

"I want to check how bad the situation is."

None of the men doubted him and Vance spread out a map of the world on his bed.

Lucas was surprised to see how vastly different the world was compared to Earth. 

The entire world was divided into twelve major stretches of land or countries, each separated by a water body. Surprisingly, the world was smaller than Earth or that was what it looked like after looking at the map.

But what astonished him was that there weren't many cities. Each stretch of land had ten cities, making it 120 cities in total.

Lucas' eyes instantly sought Velomore and found it on the left side of the map. 'So, we are on the southwestern side of the world,' he thought and nodded to himself.

"What all cities were attacked?" Lucas asked to make sure. "And may I get a pencil or something to mark them?"

"What are you trying to do?" Ryker asked, not knowing what the man was up to.

"I'm marking all the cities that have been attacked by the monsters."

"Why though?"

"I'll tell you. Can you mark them for me? I'll have some water by then."

Lucas brilliantly handed the task to Ryker who didn't suspect him even once.

Picking up the bottle of water, Lucas stood behind the man, watching him mark all the attacked cities.

Ryker started marking all the cities one by one and Lucas counted them in his mind.

"And this is your city, Orvale, the last to be attacked," Ryker said after marking the last city.

'I was saved from Orvale,' Lucas thought and noticed that Orvale and Velomore didn't belong to the same country. His gaze immediately turned grateful as he stared at the two men looking at the map.

The people of Velomore were really kind and helpful. If not for their timely help, he'd have become the monsters' food the moment he landed.

"Forty-three cities have been attacked by now."

Lucas noticed that Orvale was the only city in the country to have been attacked, while the remaining cities were scattered across the ten countries.

None of the cities in the country that Velomore belonged to had been attacked, baffling Lucas all the more.

'Are they extremely fortunate or am I missing something?' he wondered but didn't dare voice his thoughts.

Lucas studied the map with his eyes narrowed. Most cities on the eastern side had been marked, with two countries having been wiped out completely.

Compared to the East and the central part of the world, the West was relatively safe, for now. But it wouldn't be for too long.

"What are you thinking?" Vance asked when he noticed Lucas deep in his thoughts.

"I'm wondering if there is a way to stop these monsters. Any idea about the total casualty rate?"

"Let me check." Ryker picked up his tablet and checked the population count and the casualty rate. 

"We were around 98 million before the attack happened. And more than 27 million have died by now."

Lucas was flummoxed when he heard the number. 98 million? It wasn't even one-third the population of the USA. What kind of ridiculous joke was this?

Lucas didn't speak for a long and seeing him dumbstruck, the two men looked at each other questioningly.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" Ryker jabbed his chest lightly to bring him out of his trance and Lucas looked at him blankly.

"I'm just mortified."

"Ohh! Don't worry. The situation is under control for now," Ryker assured him with a smile. "When the attack started, there were barely any survivors. Do you see these countries..."

Ryker pointed to the two countries in the East that were completely wiped out. 

"Nobody from here survived."

Lucas was especially glad that he landed on the western side of the world. Otherwise, by now, his limbs would have either been torn apart or he would have become a fiend's food.

"Thankfully, the cities became alert once the casualty rate increased. Otherwise, there would have been more countries with no humans." Vance sighed heavily and Ryker nodded.

Lucas noticed Vance stifling a yawn. Even Ryker looked tired. So, he swallowed his remaining questions, curbing his curiosity for the time. 

"Shall we continue this tomorrow?"

Ryker and Vance stared at him with their eyes narrowed.

"I'm feeling sleepy all of a sudden."

"Alright," Ryker relented, glad that he could finally crash. He was dead tired and he desperately wanted to sleep.

Once the lights went off, Lucas didn't make a sound. He wasn't far from them. In no less than ten minutes, he too succumbed to his sleep, one that was filled with nightmares.