Step by step, Asan and Laszlo moved deeper into "Colonie". On both sides of the road, one could see burning houses. Asan didn't know exactly what had caused the fires, but he suspected it might be due to a gas leak. Some of the houses were untouched. They looked almost normal, except that all the windows were usually broken, and the doors had fallen off their hinges. Finally, worse things began to come into view. Corpses.
Looking at them, Asan and Laszlo felt only revulsion, but both understood that they would now be seeing such scenes constantly. This was hell on earth, where corpses lay on the ground, no one to bury them. They were of no use to the residents and would serve as food for Ronnie.
Looking up at the blood-red sky, Asan noticed that it was beginning to fade.
The cold wind immediately hit him in the face, causing goosebumps to rise on his skin and his teeth to chatter against each other. It was freezing. The contrast was so strong and sudden that Asan even slightly lost touch with reality.
"It's getting dark, Las. I think we should check out some houses, maybe find some T-shirts, so at least we can stop walking around naked," Asan voiced his thought with a suggestion.
Laszlo nodded, and the guys immediately chose houses to inspect. Although Colony wasn't huge, no creatures were visible yet, though the stench of death hit the boys' noses powerfully. Laszlo decided to go left, where there were extraordinary homes that the two orphans had only ever dreamed about. Asan had never been in such a place before, so he was even more curious about what he would see there. Choosing a house with an orange roof, the boy approached an open doorway without a door and stepped inside.
While in the hallway, he no longer felt the smell from outside. Ahead of him was a bathroom with an open door, inside which Asan had already noticed a broken mirror lying on the floor. He took slow steps forward and turned left. Continuing along the wall, he found himself next to another open door, the one he needed. Although he could have kept walking down the long hallway, upon seeing the door to the living room, he decided to check it out.
Inside the room everything looked as if a hurricane had passed through. Pillows were torn, their feathers scattered across the carpet, and a rocking chair was snapped in half. The plasma TV, about which Asan and Laszlo had dreamed for many nights, lay carelessly on the floor, also smashed to pieces, alongside a chandelier that had fallen from the ceiling. Even though the light was weak, Asana managed to see all this.
Besides all this, he noticed marks on the walls. Approaching them, he touched the wall like an experienced tracker studying a crime scene.
Coming to the obvious conclusion that these were most likely claw marks, he nodded to himself and already visualized what had happened. However, there was still little evidence. After wandering around the chaotic room for another minute, he found nothing useful, except perhaps feathers which one could wear and fly like Icarus into the sky. Shaking his head, he left the room and moved on. Almost immediately, to the left, the wall ended and the kitchen began.
Here Asan should have found something useful. The first thing to catch his interest was the refrigerator, yet another thing that orphans dream of. However, upon opening it, Asan regretted his decision. All the food in the refrigerator was rotten, as if it had been standing there for years.
But, despite this, the can of fish looked normal, almost untouched. Resisting the terrible smell, he pulled the fish cans out of the refrigerator, which no longer cooled anything, and stuffed them into his bag.
Next came the knives, proudly displayed in a small wooden block. Unfortunately, not all the knives were inside, so Asan was lucky enough to take only two. One was long, with sharp serrations, while the other was short but sharpened. After rummaging through the drawers, the guy found nothing that could be useful. Upon another inspection of the kitchen, he noticed an inconspicuous door in the right corner. Entering it, he saw stairs leading up to the second floor. Tossing the serrated knife into the bag and taking the sharpened one in his other hand, he headed upstairs.
The wooden steps creaked terribly beneath him. It seemed like with each step he might fall through.
Swallowing saliva, the guy pushed aside unnecessary thoughts and continued climbing. The second floor greeted him again with a corridor, but this time there was a wall ahead. Turning left, he saw another entrance on the left. Approaching it, a smile couldn't help but light up on his face. It was yet another room. Upon entering, an unpleasant smell immediately hit his nose. As soon as Asan took a closer look, he saw a corpse on the floor.
It was of small stature. Approaching it, the guy saw a familiar expression that he had seen before. Fear, horror, pain. All emotions were frozen on the glassy eyes of the girl lying on the floor. Scanning the corpse, he noticed that part of her body was already... gnawed at. The sight was horrifying, so much so that the guy quickly shifted his gaze to the other side, specifically to the wardrobe lying on the ground.
Mentally apologizing, he approached the wardrobe and opened it.
Inside he found numerous dresses and women's underwear. Like a garbage collector, he tossed everything that didn't interest him over his shoulder, searching for what he needed. In the end, his search was partially successful. Getting to his feet, he put the bag on the ground and picked up… This.
"God, let me only wear this in this house," Asan said irritably as he pulled on a pink "Princess" t-shirt onto his slender body.
Since the cold hadn't gone away, he decided to wear it so he wouldn't freeze. The t-shirt had long sleeves. Now he stood proudly in the middle of the room with the corpse, wearing a cute pink t-shirt.
"Ew," the guy muttered, looking at himself, and decided to quickly leave the room, taking the bag with him.
Exiting the room, he saw two entrances to other rooms. First, he decided to check out the one that was closer.
Entering the left room, he saw only a torn mattress on the bed and a couple of nightstands. It seemed that such rooms were called "guest rooms." There were no bodies or anything similar in the room. After checking the nightstands and a small closet, he found nothing that might interest him. One room remained. He had seen another bathroom but doubted there would be anything necessary in there.
Entering the last room, the smell of decay hit his nose again. In addition, the horrific sight of some man lying against the wall caught his eye. The worst part was that his head was missing. Something rose up in Asan's throat despite thinking that there was no food left in his stomach. Glass shards were scattered across the floor, along with pools of blood. To the boy's surprise, the room's furnishings hadn't been severely damaged and everything was in its place.
Trying to abstract himself, the guy approached the white wardrobe that was nearby and opened it.
The boy's eyes immediately widened, and his heart started beating faster. Inside the wardrobe was Ronnie. More precisely, this was a woman Ronnie. Her bulging eyes stared at Asan as he looked at them. Her lower body was covered in blood, and he could guess whose it was. The creature's jaw began to slowly click, as if making some sounds. It might have seemed like she was trying to say something. Asan suddenly jumped back from the wardrobe, dropping the bag from his hands. However, he held the sharp knife as tightly as possible.
All the cold seemed to be swept away by a hand, and he felt hot. "Ronnie" started coming out of the wardrobe. On her body were cuts from which a white liquid was flowing, the smell of which was simply awful. He immediately noticed long claws on the creature's hands, which had not been present on the previous "Ronnie."
The boy's heart was pounding like an engine, spreading blood throughout his body. Adrenaline instantly made him get up and brandish the knife in front of him.
But what could he do? How could he fight alone against this creature that they barely managed to handle together with Laszlo? The creature silently looked at him, as if relishing his fear and nervousness. Its smile was so terrifying that Asan wanted to run outside and scream for help right away. But a lump in his throat even prevented him from breathing.
Crack. With a clear crack, the creature bent down just like the "Ronnie" had done before attacking. Asan's mind worked quickly, and his body moved again. When the creature moved towards him, he made a dash for the room's exit. After the failed attack, the boy managed to escape the room. A howl sounded behind him, freezing the blood in his veins.
What now?
Where to run? Out onto the street?
The guy's thoughts quickly passed one after another, like a train switching tracks. In such a critical situation, he saw only a few possible outcomes. If the creature is so hard to kill, he would have to improvise, but... how?
There was no time to think, as quick steps were already heard behind him, forcing Asan to run faster towards the stairs and go down them. Turning his head, he saw that the creature was quickly crawling after him on all fours.
"Fuck!" He barked and ran into the kitchen. When he wanted to retreat again, he realized there was no way out, as the creature blocked his path. With a sudden leap, it reached the corridor, literally flying past Asan. Starting to back up, the guy quickly found himself against the wall. His heart was pounding and seemed about to burst out of his chest. The Ronnie disgusting rumbled and began its movement toward the boy.
Now there was no way out, however... Even a cornered rat can bite. Asan remembered his first fight with Ronnie, and therefore knew that mindless attacks were useless. But now he wasn't armed with just a stool. In his right hand, he still held a sharp knife, and he also had the option of calling upon dark magic. He had wanted to try it earlier and blamed himself for not doing so. But there was no choice now.
He would have to test it in action.
The creature began its attack with its hands. Sharp nails flew at high speed towards the boy's head. When Asan tried to dodge, he realized something. He couldn't move; he was scared. His body, his mind, were shackled by the fear of death. He barely managed to turn his head aside and got a cut on his cheek instead.
"Move, bitch!" he shouted at himself in a strangled voice. A lump in his throat made it hard for him to speak.
It all came down to the fear of death.
The feeling of being on the road with a car coming towards you. A person understands what is happening and wants to run, but they are so scared that every movement requires tremendous effort. Asan had never experienced this feeling before, yet he knew it was all due to his fear. The fear of dying.
Unlike him, the creature probably feared nothing; it stared at him with enraged, bulging eyes, wanting to tear the human in front of it apart. And then an insane idea came to Asan's mind. Usually, sharp pain helps people wake up in stressful situations.
A small, scorching, dark flame suddenly appeared in his left hand. Sharp pain spread through his arm, sending signals to his brain to quickly stop emitting the dark flame. When the creature attacked again, in a completely straight line, Asan easily read the trajectory of the strike and managed to dodge it.
Without stopping the flow of something inside him, he fed the flame that gave him the chance to survive. It sounded rather comical – a fire that harmed its owner but also gave him a chance to survive. But what next? He could move and barely dodge the attacks of the stupid creature. How was he going to win?
He didn't know, but he would fight… fight with everything he had.