Joseph raised his head with difficulty to find the monster fallen on the ground. He took a deep breath and fell back to his place as the feeling of fear and worry began to fade, replaced by a feeling of relief and the joy of victory.
Several minutes passed with them in the same state, until they began hearing the sound of footsteps approaching them.
They directed their gazes toward the source of the sound to find Jenny walking toward them from afar. Joseph rose from the ground then said to them in a firm tone, "I know you're tired right now, but we have to get out of here. We don't know what might appear to us."
Jesse and the rest of the team rose and headed toward Joseph so he could lead them to an exit from this place. Joseph advanced toward the dense trees and the others followed behind him.
While they were walking, Jenny turned toward Ethan saying to him in a grateful tone, "Thank you… for helping me earlier."
Ethan looked toward her and showed a slight smile.
Jesse placed his hand on Ethan's shoulder with signs of pride on his face and looked toward Jenny and said to her, "No need to thank him, we're a team, we have to help each other."
After that the team continued walking between the trees right and left. Time passed and Joseph began stopping from time to time and looking around then continuing to walk.
They remained in the same state for a long period of time, until they noticed that the sun had begun to set.
Nicholas was surprised by how long they had spent walking and said with a kind of irritability in his voice, "Joseph, hours have passed and we're walking and we haven't reached our destination, in addition to the fact that night is about to arrive, what's holding you up?"
Joseph turned toward them with expressions of worry dominating his face. When the team saw Joseph's worry, they all thought of one thing: "We're lost."
Anger began to take hold of Nicholas and he headed toward Joseph and tightly grabbed his shirt, saying, "Seriously, didn't you tell us there's no need to fear getting lost as long as you're with us? Was all of that just nonsense?"
Joseph placed his hand on Nicholas's hand and replied to him with difficulty, "Yes, I said that, but you have to calm down and let me explain to you." Nicholas replied to him agitatedly, "Calm down? We've lost our way in a forest and darkness is about to fall!" Jesse approached Nicholas and separated him from Joseph and said to him in a firm tone, "Calm down, man, at least let's hear his excuse."
Joseph spent some time breathing with his eyes closed and leaning on his knees. "Thank you, Jesse… (breathes) Alright, it seems that our pursuit of that monster messed up my knowledge of the road directions, and since the forest is nothing but similar trees, that made me get more lost. I tried to remember the path and keep walking, but I was only getting more lost."
Nicholas looked at him angrily and tried to attack him, but Jesse stopped him and tried to calm him.
Joseph lowered his head downward and said, "I'm truly sorry. I'm supposed to be the person who leads you toward the correct path, but now I'm the reason for your getting lost."
Nicholas replied to him, "You should be sorry, you bastard."
Joseph continued his speech saying, "But we don't have to stay still and keep arguing, we have to search for a place to spend the night before night falls because the forest won't stop chasing us that easily."
Jesse replied to him with a disappointed face, "There's a nearby cave that will be our place to spend the night. Gather wood to light a fire before night falls."
Everyone spread out in the area searching for tree branches and gathered them in the middle of one of the caves in the area, and they stopped when darkness fell.
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Jesse headed toward the pile of branches and took out from his pocket a small flint stone and a metal piece.
He began striking the stone on the metal piece producing the first spark so the fire began to ignite. The fire spread warmth in the cold of the night and light in the middle of the pitch-black darkness of the cave.
Everyone brought stone pieces and sat on them in front of the burning fire. After a while Joseph felt hungry so he asked Jenny to take out the food that was in the bag. Jenny opened a bag and took out three bottles of water and a plastic bag containing five sandwiches stuffed with vegetables.
Jenny distributed the sandwiches to everyone so everyone began to eat.
Ethan looked toward Joseph to find expressions of sadness on his features as he ate slowly.
He changed his gaze toward Nicholas to find him almost finishing his sandwich while looking toward Joseph with angry looks.
While silence prevailed among the group. Jesse noticed the gloomy atmosphere surrounding them, so he said in a friendly tone, "Alright, we've known each other for a while, so what do you think about us telling how we used to live or what our experience of living was like before we met?"
Everyone remained silent looking toward each other waiting for who would go first.
Jenny broke the silence saying with her usual worried face, "Alright, I'll start." Everyone looked toward her which increased her tension a little. She took a deep breath and began speaking: "Alright, I'll tell you the story of my strange birth… While my mother was pregnant with me, she and my father were fleeing from a group of those monsters. My mother was pregnant, so of course she didn't have the ability to run, so my father was running while carrying her on his back. He continued running until he reached one of the buildings and closed a metal door and continued climbing the stairs to get away from the monsters that were trying to smash the door to reach him. He continued climbing until he reached the roof of the building and closed the door. My father placed my injured mother who was about to give birth on the ground while she was screaming from the pain of childbirth. My father remained tense looking at her while she was screaming with all her strength, he held her arm trying to console her. She continued screaming for several hours, then she stopped screaming and the sound of my crying began to appear. My father quickly went to me and cut the umbilical cord with one of the knives he had. He was at the peak of his happiness in that moment. He went toward my mother and told her to look at her child, I had been born, but she didn't make any reaction. My father was surprised for a moment thinking she was just tired so he shook her and told her to wake up so she could see her daughter but she remained in the same state without any reaction. The expressions of happiness disappeared from his face and he quickly placed his ear on my mother's chest. Expressions of shock appeared on his face when he found that her heart was no longer beating. He tried to resuscitate her and perform artificial respiration on her but nothing worked. My mother had departed this life and wasn't even able to see her daughter who was born. My father remained frozen looking toward my mother's dead body while the sound of my crying filled the place." Her features changed and became more frowning and she continued her speech, "Whenever I remember this story a question comes to my mind: was my birth something that brought joy to my father or was it just something that increased his suffering in this world?"
The expressions on Jesse's and Joseph's faces changed and became sadder while Nicholas became a little frowning. Jenny continued speaking, "After that my father left the building after those monsters had moved away and found one of the cars whose doors were open and its key was still there. That was the luckiest thing that day. He started the car and sped out of that city and stopped in one of the deserts far from humans or those creatures and decided to spend the night in one of the caves. My father's treatment of me was somewhat good as he took care of me and feared for me from danger but he was distant from me most of the time. He would be outside searching for food and stay in his room for the rest of the day so I didn't always talk to him but I love him and he loved me and I appreciate his effort to keep me alive and even despite that he would play with me and spend some hours hanging out with me. Until I turned 16 years old he told me he would go search for some food and left but I didn't know it would be the last time I would see him. He was late so I went out to search for him in the area where he brings food because he had shown it to me once but I didn't find him there. I kept searching for him for days and months but I didn't find him so I was forced to do everything alone, bring food, bring drink and live in isolation. Until I turned 19 I went as usual to bring some food but I was late because the place I used to go to had become completely empty of any supplies so I changed the place. Anyway while I was returning home I was attacked by those corpses, I fled… but night had already fallen, my energy was consumed from exhaustion, and I hadn't eaten or drunk all day so I fell to the ground and Nicholas found me and what happened happened... but before that I noticed a strange person, a man from afar wearing an orange mask, watching in silence, then he disappeared before I realized that…"
Nicholas's pupils widened and he looked toward Jenny in surprise: "A man with an orange mask? Impossible, I saw him too."
(continues)