Developing a plan should not have taken too much time, as there were not many options for escaping such a stalemate situation. Asan surveyed the area from the window, looking at clusters of "Ronnie." They had generally decided to call these creatures that. Of course, they could have come up with something else, but since they had already fought one of them, the association with this name should quickly inform the interlocutor. At least, it worked between the two of them.
"Ronnie" wandered around the house, aimlessly roaming the deserted street. Observing them, Asan did not notice anything interesting about them. They moved chaotically in small groups of 3-4 individuals, occasionally bumping into others. Upon collision, they did not interact in any way, but simply continued on their path. The majority of "Ronnie" roamed near the bodies of people they were mercilessly devouring.
Even from this distance, Asan could swear he heard the crunch of bones as they chewed on the flesh of the fallen. This sight made him feel sick and a bitter taste filled his mouth.
He wasn't exactly weak when it came to such sights; he had seen plenty in his life, but corpses? Yes, he had previously assumed that seeing a few corpses or even a murder wouldn't faze him, but these were just fantasies. In reality, both Laszlo and Asan were ready to give up what they had eaten at any moment. Speaking of food, the guy surprisingly didn't feel hungry or thirsty. Right now, he felt as if he had drunk an energy drink. When he asked Laszlo how he was feeling, he heard that the other also felt surprisingly great, even stronger. They concluded that "the System" and level-up were involved in this as well.
For now, they decided to put off dealing with it for later since they needed to get going.
"Alright, beautiful by the window, have you figured out what we're gonna do?" He approached Asan Laszlo, already bandaged up with pieces of his own T-shirt, jokingly.
"Not really. There are a lot of them, way too many. But it seems like they only act in small groups. But something tells me that once things start getting messy, they'll quickly gather around us and tear us apart," he said his guesses rather uncertainly Asan.
He wasn't exactly one hundred percent sure about his words, but if he was honest, fear was eating him up inside. Going outside when there were so many of those creatures out there? He'd much rather retreat to their room, curl up under a blanket, fall asleep, and wake up from this damn coma.
Even now, he didn't really believe what was happening—everything that had occurred in the past hour was so fast and abrupt, filled with so many events that he, honestly speaking, wouldn't have experienced even in a lifetime.
But there was no other way out. This wasn't a dream but reality.
"Hey, look, it's…" Laszlo abruptly pulled him out of his thoughts, and Asan immediately wanted to grumble about it but didn't.
Laszlo pointed his finger somewhere outside, and as soon as he followed the gesture, he saw something he definitely did not want to see. A group of people came out of the anthill located to their left. Asan counted six people: two girls and four guys, whose faces were hard to make out due to the distance, since the anthills were a hundred meters apart from each other. The group slowly combed through the area, looking clearly tense.
The lead was a guy who seemed to be the leader of their small group, walking ahead of everyone.
"What are they doing?! Why aren't they running away from here?!" Asan blurted out. Looking at these people, he couldn't hide his nervousness. Their success depended on his own, as they were also supposed to get out of here soon.
The creatures wandering around hadn't paid them much attention yet; they were more interested in the carrion which they happily feasted upon. The leader of the small group of people pointed his finger towards the burnt forest and waved his hand for them to follow him. This made Asan feel sick.
"Wait, wait, where are they going?! There are plenty of those freaks there!" Laszlo nervously said, placing his hand on Asan's shoulder. Asan could feel how his friend's hand was squeezing tightly, saying a lot.
Their leader was leading them into a trap that they didn't even know about. Asan wanted to shout at them not to go there, but…
If he screams, then they with Laszlo won't get out either. They could only watch as the group headed towards a fatal dead end. Why didn't they check the surroundings earlier? Did panic make them decide to leave immediately? Or did they not encounter "Ronnie" before?
After a couple of minutes, the group faced a pack of creatures that had already noticed them. But what terrified Asan the most was that as soon as one pack encountered the humans, all the others around their anthill turned their gaze in the same direction.
"Can they really communicate location information? But... How?!" Asan asked in horror, watching as a pack of creatures headed toward the group of people, like an aimless swarm moving towards their goal.
His friend's grip became so painful that Asan had to think about his poor shoulder.
He quickly pulled his hand away Laszlo and returned to observing. The creatures surrounded them on all sides, Asan though he couldn't see their faces clearly enough, but he could swear that they were now filled only with despair. At the same time, his mind started working, but along with this, fear was overwhelming him.
"Trapdoor... We need to go," Asan said quietly, as if squeezing these words out of himself.
"What? Are you crazy? But there..."
"Exactly because of that... They... Won't have died in vain."
Both understood that the group would soon perish. Asan immediately looked away from them and scanned the surroundings once more. All the creatures near them were running towards the group of people. Why waste time on carrion when there's fresh and tasty meat ahead?
It made him sick. Asan felt sick from his thoughts... From the thoughts of what might happen to the group of people who, by chance, would simply perish. But there was no time to grieve or hesitate now.
Both guys moved away from the window and exchanged glances. Fear was in each of their eyes, but there was also a desire. The desire to survive.
They quickly approached the door and opened it. Asan still remembered that there was another creature in the hallway, but they would have to go through it if they wanted to survive.
The light bulb on the landing was still flickering, dimly illuminating the dark insides of the anthill. Without much thought, the guys headed for the metal staircase and began descending. Both remained alert at all times, ready to react immediately if they encountered an inhabitant of the cursed room. Whether it was luck or the creature had gone into hibernation, they made it down to the first floor without any major issues. As they descended, they came across bloodstains on the walls, floor, and even some on the stairs themselves.
Besides all this, there was a sweet, putrid smell of decay in the hallway, mainly coming from slightly open doors to other rooms.
Standing already in front of the exit door, Asan hesitated. Laszlo looked more confident than he did. It seemed like he had already mentally prepared himself for what might happen and what they could see there. But for Asan, it was stressful. He wasn't a tough guy, and he certainly wasn't strong in sports. If a creature were to encounter him and it came down to running, he would likely be slower than it. Laszlo would probably think about his own survival and run, at least that's what Asan thought, because life is your own, and why die for someone else?
"Alright, are you ready?" Laszlo whispered calmly, breathing evenly. This surprised Asan and even gave him some confidence.
"Fine, whatever will be, will be," the boy said and nodded.
Without delay, Laszlo opened the doors. Instantly, an absolutely horrific smell hit Asan's nose, which was even worse than in the stairwell. Before his eyes was a horrifying scene with bodies lying on the ground, one of which was just a few meters away from Asan. His heart began to race, and panic gradually took over his mind. He felt hot. Suddenly, he felt intense pain in his right cheek and realized that it was Laszlo who had done it; there was also panic on his face.
"Asan, come on, pull yourself together! We need to go, quickly! While these scumbags aren't around!" Laszlo hissed through clenched teeth.
Nodding again, the guys stepped onto the street. Asan immediately sensed changes in the atmosphere around him. The asphalt was cracked, and from it grew crimson plants that seemed to try to burst out with their vines.
The sky was still covered by a crimson veil, making the entire surrounding world look dark-red. Despite this, there was enough light to see everything around clearly. This was already better than having no light at all for an entire month.
Step by step, the guys slowly moved forward. They kept a rough route in their heads of where they needed to go. Without even asking each other, it was clear that their first destination would be the highway through which the food-supplying vehicles had entered for the orphans.
Suddenly, the two guys heard a piercing scream that made the blood freeze in their veins. Asan's heart was ready to burst out of his chest, and a faint ringing filled his ears.
The feeling was as if fire was slowly spreading in his chest, making his vision darken—he was so scared. Laszlo wasn't any better, but despite everything, they continued moving forward, no matter how hard it was.
Passing by the corpses, Asan couldn't help but look at them. Their faces, filled with horror, fear, and pain, frozen at the moment of death, could not fail to cause even greater anxiety, but at the same time made him quicken his pace. He would not be one of them, no, not today. He would get out, he would survive.
Step by step, they kept going until they entered the burned forest. Asan touched the nearest tree and felt its broken surface. A layer of ash remained on his hand, but it was strange that the trees felt exactly the same as before. Suddenly, sounds emerged from nowhere, sounds like someone was running.
"What is this?" Asan panicked, starting to look around.
But as soon as he turned his gaze back, he saw a person in front of him. A girl.
One of the group of people, judging by their clothes. She looked terrible, part of her hair was missing, her face distorted in horror, but the worst thing was that she was missing an arm. Tears were rolling down her face, making Asan's heart clench. In a moment, the girl screamed so loudly that Asan's ears rang.
Other footsteps could be heard, there were many of them.
"Fuck... Asan, let's go, faster, faster!" Laszlo's voice, filled with fear, came from the left of Asan.
The mind didn't have time to react, but the body did. Asan didn't even realize how he had already started running away from the girl. When they were running, for some reason he turned back and saw the scene of those who had done this to her catching up to the injured girl.
He didn't want to see it, so he turned away, drowning out the screams that were coming from behind him.
By a fortunate coincidence, they managed to leave Janschwalde-Ost.