Noah
Noah could not let Elliot take the risk; his friend had already saved everyone once, with Cass's help even, and the only useless one who did nothing was Noah.
That was going to change now.
Noah might not be as clever and quick as Elliot, or as brave as Cass, but if it came down to protecting his friends he would do anything.
Even though he was terrified, Noah began to run, one step at a time, and he was already outside the room; the room's natural light was far enough behind him, only darkness lay ahead.
"I'm not scared, I'm definitely not feeling any bit of fear," Noah turned on his phone's flashlight and set the volume to maximum; turning left, he was retracing the exact path Elliot, Cassius and Noah had used to flee the last monster they had encountered.
Without realizing it Noah stopped running; he could no longer see the safe room. Now he was moving through the dark corridor with strange markings, his focus fixed on his ears, any sound he heard was a possible threat.
His steps were now slow and rhythmic, like a child playing hide-and-seek, with the small difference that if he were found his body would be torn apart.
His quickened breathing and pounding heart made him even more anxious and ready to flee or fight at any moment.
He was finally far enough; broken shards of glass, a rotten wooden table and ancient chairs decorated the frightening room.
Noah wasted no time and put one of his songs on at maximum volume on his phone, hiding the device under the table.
"Now I need to reach the safe area before something else goes wrong"
Even panting, the boy ran even faster than before; his instincts screamed "Danger!" as if he couldn't hear the heavy steps and frightening murmurs.
The music echoed through the corridors; whether by luck or misfortune the confined space made it reverberate throughout the building, thus attracting all the monsters.
It didn't take long for Noah to find himself face to face with one of the creatures; he simply pushed it and kept running, not wasting time staring at the terrible plant that had taken the place of a human head.
With each step the number of monsters increased; now every thirty seconds Noah inevitably encountered one of them.
"How many of these things will I have to avoid to finally escape?"
His question was about to be answered, the light of the room was only a few steps away.
Elliot stood right at the entrance and watched his friend with clear concern.
Noah hid under tables and even chairs, and despite his height he managed to remain undetected most of the time.
When his hiding place was discovered he simply shoved the monster and advanced toward the next hiding spot; most monsters gave up the chase and ran toward the loud music coming from the boy's phone.
"I can do this!"
A punch hit Noah in the face, his body was thrown back several meters; his nose had been struck and bled uncontrollably as the boy thrashed on the floor.
In the hiding place some voices seemed to be arguing.
Noah's face was wet with tears against his will; something grabbed his hair and lifted him up, he couldn't breathe properly because of the blood in his nose and coughed a lot.
With some effort he tried to call for his friends; his wet eyes couldn't make out the silhouette of the creature holding him by the hair.
The boy struggled and scratched the being, but it did not seem to care.
Without warning, as quickly as he had been attacked, Noah was dropped to the ground; the boy fell on his own arm, luckily nothing seemed broken.
Noah managed to open his eyes, but it was hard for him to believe what he saw. C3pa, a short green-haired boy, was fighting on equal terms with a creature almost twice Elliot's height.
Each punch from the boy produced a strange metallic sound.
"Noah! Come!"
Elliot and the others had already left the room; Cass was the one who called him, and without waiting for Noah's response the redhead grabbed his arm and dragged him along with the others.
"But what about C3pa?"
"He'll be fine! Pochi told me he's stronger than he looks"
The taller boy relaxed a bit; if Elliot said the boy could hold his own in the fight, then Noah believed him.
The quintet passed through several corridors that opened into rooms with items Noah didn't even recognize, but that seemed to be made of glass and some kind of leaf from an unknown plant.
A torturous time passed with the group avoiding other creatures running toward the increasingly muffled sound.
Until Noah saw something that made everything worth it, a single beam of light illuminated a hall large enough for two giants to dine comfortably; a table made of obsidian sat there with twenty-one ebony chairs.
The light coming from a hole in the wall ahead lit the group's spark of hope; because the hall was very wide and had only one entrance it was almost impossible for them to suffer an ambush from a creature.
"That used to be a door"
Elliot observed, looking at a large granite door the height of a giant; its cracks and scratches showed they were not the only ones who had tried to leave that way.
Apparently, the only success had been the great crack through which the ray of light passed.
Without much thought Noah began to push.
"That's a giant door twice your height, Pair, it's useless"
Ignoring Elliot, the boy kept struggling; Cass quickly joined in, and even Elliot after clearing his throat and muttering a swear began to push too.
A useless effort, despite trying everything, even punching and kicking the door, they didn't get a single reaction from it, not even a new crack.
"Whoever did this damage was obviously those monsters with extraordinary strength."
Sounds of metallic footsteps echoed toward the dark corridor; the only known exit seemed to be harboring something worse than common monsters.
Cassius and Noah promptly put themselves in front of the two girls; Elliot took a moment to notice the danger, but soon drew his pocketknife and stood beside the two.
"So then Flush, what's the plan?"
Elliot hesitated at Noah's comment but soon caught on.
"Oh right, I'm Flush. Well, Ca—pepper-head, you distract the creature while Pair and I attack the monster"
Cass slapped Elliot on the head.
"Pepper-head!?"
"You haven't chosen your nickname yet, why? Prefer tomato-head?" Cass glared at Elliot, while Noah thanked him for not losing his sense of humor even in this situation.
The footsteps were close enough for Elliot to point the flashlight at the unknown being, what was revealed was nothing any of the three expected.
A green-haired boy, singed and wearing almost completely ripped clothes, appeared in the distance.
As the boy approached Noah noticed increasingly strange features: in some burned parts of his face there was a bronze metal plate; one eye was more like a lens with some pins releasing smoke here and there; from the neck down, he was entirely made of metal.
Every little piece of his previously hidden body was carved with runes.
"C3pa is he a robot?"
Pochi made a ugly face and looked at Noah.
"Of course he is, why do you think I gave him that nickname?"
Noah thought of some sarcastic reply but gave up, C3pa limped forward and, without saying a word, punched the door, a punch nothing like any of the three boys could deliver.
Cracks multiplied as he struck, but something worrying happened, the entire foundation trembled with each fracture.
"Is this structure connected to the door in some way?"
Ignoring Elliot's question, C3pa pointed to a small hole he had made in the door with some desperation; Pochi was the first to exit, and Noah regretted not being as fast as she was.
Heavy footsteps echoed from the same corridor the robot boy had come from.
The monsters had followed C3pa, now it would be a race against time.
The robot boy made some signals with his hand toward the elf girl; she hugged him tightly and passed through the hole. Now only the three of them and the robot boy remained.
The green-eyed boy faced the monstrous figures that were now dangerously close to the group and ran toward them.
"Should we help him?" Elliot smiled nervously.
"Did you see the strength of that thing's punches? We'll only get in his way, it's better to leave as fast as possible; I want to avoid certain death if possible"
Elliot pushed Noah first toward the hole; the tallest soon realized the reason was obvious, among the three he was the one most willing to risk his life for a stranger.
The hole was small and the little pieces of stone scraped Noah's skin as he crawled toward freedom; the door itself was much thicker than he thought and the boy had to wriggle for several seconds until he finally reached safety.
The starry sky welcomed him with intense blue and white celestial bodies; on the horizon a large white circle that looked like a much larger moon, followed by a slightly smaller one more centered in the sky; the light of the two dimly lit Noah's surroundings.
The boy felt his mouth involuntarily form an "o". Indeed, the sky was overwhelmingly beautiful, so many stars scattered in constellations he'd never seen before, and if he concentrated enough Noah had the sense the stars seemed to fade and take on other hues.
The sky itself inverted the direction and pulses of its celestial bodies; sometimes even the dark blue tone seemed to shift slightly from one area to another.
Noah vaguely remembered when his mother spoke about the stars, but he pushed the memory away with a bitter expression.
It was like looking at several skies superimposed on one another.
"Really beautiful, No-… Pair, but I'd appreciate your help here!"
Cass's shout brought Noah back to reality.
Elliot was stuck in the door and only his arms were visible; Cass was pulling him but not strong enough to get him out without Noah's help.
The two pulled their friend with all their might, and after some curses shouted by Elliot he finally cleared the door.
Pochi, who had been silent until now, touched Cass's shoulder.
"Pearl told us to get out of here quickly"
Noah looked at the girl and noticed the elf was already far away.
"Do you understand her? More importantly, does she speak? I thought the pointy-eared girl only communicated with her hands" Pochi made a grimace.
"No time for questions now! Move!" Despite being slightly annoyed at his questions being ignored, Noah obeyed the girl.
The quartet ran toward the white-haired girl who was furthest away; Noah's feet sank slightly into the tall grass as he passed between some bushes and small trees, never losing sight of the girl he had to reach.
Noah felt the back of his neck heat suddenly, and an invisible wave pushed him forward with a gust of warmth. Everyone fell to the ground.
"That Pearl could have warned us about this instead of giving vague information," Elliot hissed as Noah helped him up.
"If she weren't a lady I'd teach her a bitter lesson" Cass whispered so low Noah could barely hear.
"Well, at least she warned us, right? The girl had no obligation toward us; we're complete strangers to her," Noah's two friends looked at him.
"Now is not the time to play devil's advocate, my friend" Pochi elbowed Elliot a little after his sarcastic comment.
"She told me to fetch you three idiots because instead of running you were staring at the sky like fools. If it were up to me I would have left you to die, but she gestured for me to risk my skin for you" Noah coughed.
"So... why did you obey her, Pochi? That doesn't seem like your style" He shrugged.
"She seems to know a lot about surviving here — Pearl made the salt barrier at the door; I'd like to stay on good terms with someone like that."
"So honest it hurts. Go ahead, lead, let us catch our breath here" The girl walked up to the strange girl, following Cass's advice.
"Hey, idiots."
"Who's calling whom idiot?" Cass hugged the two, interrupting Elliot's protest.
"Shouldn't we be celebrating? We survived!" Elliot and Cass agreed with Noah's remark, and soon the three began to laugh.
"Fuck! We made it, we really survived, although I'm starving so I could still die of hunger" Elliot joked.
"Maybe if you loved food instead of that damn pocketknife, we'd be feasting like kings right now" The three smiled and sat on the grass for a moment.
The trio had not noticed, but behind them, at the heart of the explosion, the building's exit had been sealed — the structure itself, though, still remained.
And far ahead a city patiently awaited the arrival of more people.