CHAPTER 3: EYE FOR AN EYE

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I woke up to the sound of a stick breaking. For the first few seconds, all I could notice was the warmth of the blankets, the comfort of the bed after sleeping on the floor for three years, but as time passed by, my senses started awakening and I could feel that we were not alone.

Silently, I got up from the bed and grabbed my bow, and stepped lightly on the wooden floor, making the least noise possible. The irregular steps sounded from outside, warning my ears of the danger we were in right now.

A few stomps could be heard under me, on the ground floor of the house. Unlike the careless noise downstairs, my feet were almost completely silent, avoiding the creaky planks of the stairs, I reached the origin of the sound, only to see one of them.

A Crimson Glutton. Looked like a wolf, but you could never be so sure, they had no fur and were covered in red marks and wounds. Their eyes were blood-red, but I doubted they could see much.

It wasn't doing anything, just looking for something to eat, everything they did these times. Sighing in relief, I pointed the arrow to the Glutton's head, held my breath, and let it go.

The arrow cut the air, making no noise before hitting the skull of the Glutton, which fell to the ground immediately and stopped moving right after. I went to the body and tried to pull my arrow out, but it didn't work, since it broke in half.

"Shit," I whispered.

I put on my gloves and my cape and grabbed the body, carrying it outside. I put the body one block away from our house, the Gluttons were attracted to corpses, didn't matter if they were infected or not, so the smartest to do was leave the body as much away as possible from their hideout.

I went back to the house and put my clothes aside. Unlike the others, who had fur, if the infected blood only touched my skin, it would be game over for me, so I would constantly hide behind heavy clothing.

I tried sleeping, but it wasn't hard, since I spent almost the entire night staring at nothing yesterday, and for the first time in years I slept like a baby.

I woke up to a weird sound once more, but this time it was only Nathan cracking every joint he had in his body, giving me goosebumps in agony.

"Why do I smell blood?" asked Nathan.

I mumbled something about a Glutton and an arrow, but I was too tired to explain and it was too early to do that kind of talking.

It took me a few minutes to get out of bed, but when I did, Nathan and Maya were already downstairs, hanging out and waiting for me to get ready so we could continue our trip to the other side of the country.

"Whose blood is this?" Nathan asked, still with his eyes on Maya.

"A Glutton," I said. "Carried it outside after killing it,"

"Why didn't you wake me up?"

"I didn't need your help," I answered. "It was just one,"

"What if there were more?"

"Hey, I've taken care of myself and Maya for three years, I know when something's dangerous," I shot at him.

"I'm just worried," he said, starting to cook Maya's meal.

"Don't be," I said. "The day I need you is the day I'll die, because you're going to take care of her for me,"

He didn't answer back.

We packed everything again and kept on our trip, advancing through the devastated town of BeNOWHERE, going further east to find the things we were looking for.

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