Beyond the Walls

Exhausted

Four men are standing just right under the shade, a step short before the heat of the sun that shines through rubbles of the past civilization.

With his arms on his waist, Kiko with heavy sighed said. “There is nothing here.”

Elijah let himself fall to the ground and sighed. “What should we do now?”

Lucas set Aaron down and knelt to his side. “Aaron is injured, we should dress his wounds first.” He replied as he slid off his first aid kit.

“This is *ugh* nothing. We should hurry. We don’t have much time.”

“You are bleeding so much. We need to dress it…” Ignoring Aaron’s tough act, Lucas calmly opens the first aid. “I’ll remove your top.”

“Lucas. I can go.” Aaron grabbed Lucas' hand.

He tries to shakes Aaron’s hand but it didn’ budge. It made him sighed.

“We can’t. We don’t have time.” He said and pressed open his watch.

[00:12:10]

The grip on his hand was removed and Lucas put on the display of the map. It showed their current location. It was right out the entrance of the theme park.

“The nearest exit we could go next is around here.” He scrolled multiple times and finally showed another entrance.

“...We could go from here, but high chances are we won’t make it out with our time left.”

“Should we go around from here?” Elijah peek through his shoulder.

“We can do that but I doubt we can hide ourselves from them.” He looked over the surroundings of the park. It is surrounded by a large carway and open space; the nearest establishments are wrecked and cannot be used as their shade. If they come across a mutant there would be nowhere to hide.

“...”

Knowing they silently agree with him. They move across the street and take shelter in a barely standing convenience store with half the roof still on.

Kiko on look out, Elijah scouting around the vicinity; Lucas is helping Aaron remove his blood dirtied shirt.

There are claws like marks on his back. They are uneven and some are deeper than others. With little water, Lucas damps a clean cloth from the first aid and begins to wash the blood out.

“Was it bad?” Aaron asked.

“Just some—”

Aaron looked light back from his shoulder when Lucas cut his words and his hand stopped moving. “What’s wrong?”

“...You need some stitches. Can you bear with it?” Lucas answered.

“You joking? You don’t see my tattoos?”

“Ah. Yeah right.”

After disinfecting his materials. Lucas begins to stitch Aaron’s cuts. Even a slight groan was not heard from Aaron while the ongoing stitches. Finishing up, Lucas put patches and bandages over the cleaned wounds.

“You are good at this.” A little groan escaped from Aaron as he put his shirt on.

“I’ve learned the basics before.”

Aaron was about to say something else but Elijah went back.

“Lucas, is time’s up?” He asked as he entered the huge hole on the wall.

Opening his watch the timer has already gone to [00:00:00] but the game is still going.

“Yeah. Anything new?”

“That’s weird. Nothing has changed.”

“We should wait for more…” Lucas said.

“Agree. Let’s eat lunch… I’m starving.” Elijah said and positioned himself down and put his backpack and showed a flavored bread.

Maybe because they are all from outer walls, they can survive on barely minimum food intake.

Aaron takes canned food and water while Kiko is still on look out but he is eating his biscuit.

“That’s all you have?” Elijah asked which made the other two look at Lucas’ food. It’s the cheapest biscuit in the point store.

“Aren’t you placed second? Shouldn’t you have points to spare…” Kiko asked with an arched eyebrow.

Lucas suddenly felt embarrassed which he thought he could no longer feel. “I, I… spent almost everything with the glass water bottle.”

“Why would you… ah! That bomb. How did you know how to make it?”

“I learned it from someone… when I was young.” Lucas returned to his gloomy self. He doesn't know why, but as the game goes on, some of his buried memories begin to resurface.

“You…did you also learn how to shoot from that person?” Aaron asked.

A moment of silence, a faceless man with white polo and black pants appeared before him. Lucas doesn't exactly remember the details but he knows the answer to that.

“Yes… Elijah, when you are done, can you check the entrance hallway again.”

“I’m–umff- d,done ” He stuffed all his bread into his mouth like a little hamster.

“I’m coming with you.” Kiko volunteered and they ran back to the entrance.

“Lucas.” Aaron called, after seeing two of their companions made safely on the other side.

Lucas turns to look at Aaron.

“Your sister, how sick is she?”

Lucas was surprised Aaron remembered. He only mentioned it once and he was not even sure if Aaron was listening to him.

“...”

“Is she turning?”

That surprised him even more. “H,how did–?”

“It was actually Hiraya, who noticed it first. According to her, aside from you’ve been carefully watching the bitten Penelope, she noticed you know where to look for the signs.”

Lucas was reminded that from time to time, he would check Penelope’s nails, neck and eyes.

“When you mentioned your sick sister, she noticed you being evasive. Was it because it is illegal to keep her with her condition?”

“... I knew it. Hiraya is really… amazing.” Lucas said mellowly.

“She was…That’s why I have a favor to ask you…” Aaron looked him straight in the eye.

“We’re back… There’s nothing changed— Huh? What happened to you, guys?” Elijah announced his arrival and found an awkward situation.

Lucas has this strained expression while Aaron looks up to Elijah with a serious look.

“What is it? What is it?” Elijah presses for an answer.

Aaron got up and ruffled Elijah’s hair. “It’s nothing, kid. Lucas, we should get going.”

He then offered his hand to Lucas. Lucas has this unpaintable expression before reaching him. He was pulled up with an ease.

“Let’s go.” Aaron said.

“...”

“Man! What is it?” Elijah is lingering around Lucas after being treated like kid by Aaron.

Lucas takes a deep breath and gives one last look to Aaron before answering.

“It’s nothing.”

Their team went back inside, according to their unanimous decision that it is safer inside than going round.

“Wait.” Kiko said as soon as they got inside.

“What is it?” Lucas asked.

“Why does it feel like there is less noise now?”

Looking around, They can’t tell apart if it was but the theme park sounds and rides are still on.

It was later dismissed as nothing but Lucas kept being vigilant just in case. They squeeze themselves in the little space between the wall and the attraction caravan vehicle and from there they stealthily navigate through little spaces like undercover agents in an infiltrating mission.

“Doesn't this seem a little fun? Hihi” Elijah is having a blast at their role that noon.

It took them a little over an hour before Lucas finally noticed that it was indeed becoming a little less noisy.

He took out the binoculars and as if he was looking for something he took a look around and there he saw a kiddie roller coaster ride slowly stopping. Few more seconds it stopped completely. It’s lights and sounds stopped also.

“What did you see?” Kiko was the most concerned because it was him first who took notice.

“The ride… it stopped.”

“Is that a bad thing?” Elijah asked.

Lucas was in deep thought and only answered after Elijah repeated his question.

“In a way, Those sounds and lights are confusing and masking us… Is that it? Is that what the timer is for?” As soon as he spoke of it. The major lights and the continuous music shut down all together.

It was then replaced by a long screeching sound.

“EIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEKKK!!”

As if others are responding to it, shrieking cries begin to fill the large space of the theme park.

Lucas and his team, hidden on the dark spaces between the fallen rocks and debris. They watch in the distance, the flapping wings soaring up and some ghouls climbing up on talls rides, up the attraction houses and running along the street.

The same view is being watched by Liam’s team, who just went back inside the theme park, after failing to see a vehicle.

The lone Gabrielle hiding behind a huge half statue.

A man’s figure with a short sword dripping black liquid is standing on top of two hunchback ghouls' dead bodies.

Lastly, a drone that is flying among the half harpies, zooms’ out and shows to the screen the hundreds of mutants roaming around finally undistracted.

“Sir. Electricity has been exhausted.” A soldier reported.

“I can see that…” Macord closed his eyes and massage his head.

“Looks like we will have no winner this round.” Yuslan said, which earned him a glare from Macord.

“What? I told you, just send them the Car’s location. Not my fault, you didn’t listen.” Eating a grape, Yuslan brushed off Macord’s glare.

“We can’t. Someone hacked the system. The system is on lockdown, retrieving control and retracing back. We cannot send out information.”

Somewhere in the theme park, a beeping red light inside a crushed car has been lighting.

It was a cracked tablet with displayed words of … [Download Complete…. Download Complete.]

“Wow, Macord. I can already see your head rolling ~~” He teased.