Jacob's scream sharply pierced Asan's ears, causing him to slightly squint his eyes. But immediately, he realized what was about to happen. The Ronnie standing in front of Jacob instantly raised its head and stared with its bulging, yellowish eyes at the fat man. Its mouth split into a long grin, revealing yellow teeth. Almost immediately, it grabbed the fat man's hand and bit it.
"AAARGH, MY HAND" the guy screamed, attracting the attention of the other Sunflowers on the street.
Asan's heart raced as he quickly pulled Jacob inside the restaurant, trying to get him out of there. There was no time to think. In turn, Laszlo dropped the bag of canned goods and bottle, and started mercilessly punching the skull of the Ronnie, but it didn't seem to care. The Ronnie was pulling so hard that Asan had little chance of winning this tug-of-war.
But what if they manage to pull him inside? Asan's mind quickly analyzed the best course of action, and he had to make a desperate move. He loosened his grip and finally let go of the fat man, whose hand now looked like a bloody mess. The fat man was screaming wildly, and in the last moment, when Asan deliberately released him, he looked at Asan in disbelief.
His gaze was filled with horror and fear. This look pierced Asan.
This will be better. Asan will tell Laszlo that he couldn't control the power of Ronnie. Now they have a chance to escape. There was still a black exit in the building. Asan quickly picked up the bag with the mask and started shouting at Laszlo.
"Get out! Let's get out of here!"
Laszlo looked at Asan in confusion, then at Jacob. Asan understood that for him, such a sight would be a shock, but right now he couldn't afford to break down.
"Rope, idiot, grab the stuff and let's go!" Asan shouted at him again, quickly moving towards the kitchen where the back door was located.
Laszlo, biting his lip, lowered his gaze. With bitterness, he picked up the bag with the jug and followed Asan. Holding the bag and jug in one hand, he illuminated the room with his light, slowly following the skinny boy. Upon reaching the back entrance, they immediately started to force it open with all their might.
Meanwhile, cries were coming from behind them. The constant scream for help made Asan's heart constrict. His drowsiness, which had been bothering him before, no longer troubled him, as survival was now the question at hand. With heavy shoulder blows from Laszlo, they managed to open the door and step outside, immediately freezing in place. On both sides were Ronnie, who were slowly approaching the sound of the screaming man.
"Come on, Las, let's move!" Hissed Asan in a whisper, jabbing Laszlo with his elbow.
He was like in a dream, so he nodded uncertainly. Thanks to Jacob, they managed to get out safely. As they were leaving the restaurant, Asan heard cries for help, and how he shouted the names of both guys. He begged to stop this madness, but no one came to his aid. Shit. A terrible feeling settled in Asan's heart. He let him go without much thought, and that made him feel shit. From the fact that he might have been responsible for Jacob's death.
Both guys stopped only when they were near the forest. The constant surge of adrenaline kept them going despite their lack of strength. Glancing at Laszlo's face, Asan saw emptiness in his eyes; there was no anger, no bitterness, they were completely empty.
He had never seen such an expression in his eyes before.
Stopping by the nearest tree, both guys sat down. Neither of them spoke; they could only hear both of them breathing like horses. Asan's hands, legs, head, and indeed, his entire body ached painfully. He was incredibly tired. His mind needed rest; he had thought so much about how to survive today that it was unbearable. It felt as though his veins were ready to burst at any second. In his chest, he felt the warm pain spreading, caused by the exhaustion and fear.
"Las, are you..." He wanted to ask how his friend was feeling, but upon meeting his gaze, Asan fell silent.
The look was still empty. Laszlo didn't believe what was happening; he had just watched a person he met a minute ago get killed. He had tried to help him, had done his best to push Ronnie away, but in the end... He still died.
Hugging his knees, Laszlo buried his face in them, simply falling silent. There were no tears, no screams. There was only pain… the pain of feeling incapable.
Again. Another choice without a choice, although...
This was only for Laszlo. Asan, however, was rummaging through his thoughts, wondering why he had let Jacob go? And though it was disgusting to admit, he didn't want him to end up in the camp at all. Thoughts about how everyone might already be running out of water, food, clothes made him subconsciously loosen his grip. He thought about resources, not human lives. The best thing he could do was to leave him behind as bait. This allowed the two boys to leave the restaurant safely, alive.
Their meeting lasted about 10 minutes before Laszlo finally spoke.
"Let's not talk about this. Ever. Come on" he said sternly, getting to his feet.
Asan answered him with silence and a nod. He also managed to get up and take the resources. Going back was unbearably hard. Such exhaustion Asan had never felt before. All day long, he had been running, fighting, hiding, and stressing out. An ordinary person would have collapsed on the ground long ago, but for some reason, he still had enough strength to drag his heavy load forward, even if with varying difficulty, since he kept falling to the ground. Laszlo constantly caught up with him and said that they were almost there.
Asan's eyes were drooping and already closing on their own. He wanted to tape his eyelids shut so that they would stop betraying him by not obeying his desire. But the thought that he would finally get some sleep at the camp gave him the last bit of strength. Finally, both boys saw the fire. This fire became a beacon of hope.
Upon reaching it, Asan's gaze fell on a group of people. Now the camp looked somewhat livelier.
Most people were eating canned food that they might have taken out earlier, many were smiling, and this warmed the heart of Laszlo, but not Asan's.
"O! You're back! Wait... God, what happened to you?" A woman's voice came from the left of Asan.
Shifting his gaze, Asan saw Alice, who had a bag of chips in her hand. Surprise was evident in her eyes, but also... reassurance?
Finally, the entire camp turned its attention to the two guys. Asan didn't understand why everyone was looking at them like that, but when he himself took a look, both at himself and at Laszlo, he understood. First of all, Asan's shirt was covered in dirt and Jacob's blood, which had gotten on him while holding him. His hands were bandaged with strips of pink t-shirt, resembling what boxers usually wear. On these strips were darkened circles where the wounds were.
The blood had clotted, but the stains remained. Laszlo looked no better — his knuckles were battered and bloody, something Asan hadn't noticed before. There was dried blood on his face, possibly from when they were pulling the "rope" and his empty eyes reflected the campfire as if in a mirror.
"We're fine, we've run into some problems as you can see" Asan replied wearily, continuing to scan the camp with his gaze but suddenly stopping when he felt a touch.
The girl lifted his hand and began examining the pink "bandages." Asan sharply pulled his hand away and dropped the bag of utensils to the ground. The girl was startled by the sudden movement and reached for her pocket, probably for a knife. A knife...
"T-what's wrong?" she asked fearfully. Her gaze locked onto Asan's eyes, making him feel somewhat uncomfortable, but.
He had forgotten his kitchen knife at the restaurant.
Now his mood had dropped even lower. But at the same time, he once again turned his gaze toward the camp.
"Why..." He simply said and finally walked away, tossing the water jug nearby.
"Wait, where are you going?! Geographer wanted to talk to you when you returned, we were actually worried about you!" Alice continued speaking, but Asan didn't care; he was too tired. Laszlo decided to speak for him instead.
Drowning out all the sounds of people, Asan looked at the people's smiles as if in a dream, at how they sat and ate. Why... Why were they happy while he was working so hard? Why were all of them sitting here and not doing anything?
This infuriated him, greatly infuriated him, yet despite this, he wouldn't shout now that everyone was bad and he was the only one who was D'Artagnan. No, he didn't have the strength to even think about it. Approaching the nearest tree, he sat down next to it.
It was the farthest from the fire and the crowd of people, for some reason he didn't want to be too close to the bright light.
Finally, he exhaled. His tired shoulders seemed to drop their burden, and his face ceased making any expression. Lifting his hands in front of his eyes, he saw that they were trembling slightly. A new wave of fatigue washed over his eyes, and he closed them. He no longer had the strength to do anything. The sounds of conversation gradually faded, leaving only the crackling of the fire, which pleasantly lullabied Asan's exhausted mind. It was hard for him to fall asleep because of the unpleasant burning sensation in his hands, so he often opened his eyes and looked ahead. He saw Geographer talking about something with Laszlo, Alice throwing angry glances at him. He saw Paul examining the items they had acquired.
Crane, who was dressed in a firefighter's uniform, had an axe with a red-painted blade on his shoulder, most likely obtained from the same fire department.
Finally, he met the Geographer's gaze. The latter silently looked at him for some time and then, for some reason, nodded. Perhaps he wanted to signal Asan that he could finally fall asleep.
And so ended the first day in "The New World."