Silent City

Ch. 20 - Alpha and Beta

The crackling of fire in the distance and the echoes of the cries of nearby creatures made us feel uncomfortable.

I had no idea what was going on or what I had led ourselves into, but even if the creatures seemed to be unaware of us didn't mean that they couldn't attack us at any given moment.

"Luichy...please..."

Naiomi pleaded me as she pulled carefully, aware of the creatures all around us. I wanted to leave the area too, to make her feel safer but my body urged me to follow the path ahead.

Trying to get through the headache, I turned around towards Naiomi and raised her up in my arms. She almost pushed back in defense since I caught her off-guard, but my strength overpowered hers.

"Listen, there is something I need to look into."

"N-No!" She shook her head, with big eyes that stared right at me.

I could feel her body shaking as I held her.

"It'll be okay." I placed my free arm over her head and forced her to rest on my shoulder. "I'm here to protect you, remember?"

Her grip tightened as a stalker passed closely, forcing me to move out of its way.

"Keep your eyes closed until we are out of this place." 

I felt her head shake on my shoulder as she raised it and looked around.

I chuckled. "Alright, then watch my back."

Before stepping forward, I took a deep breath. I wasn't sure what I was going to find or where I was going exactly but I just felt like I needed to hurry.

Each step I took was filled with uncertainty and fear. Stalkers roamed around us acting very unexpectedly. Naiomi would hold me tighter every time any of them would approach too close, helping me stay aware of my surrounding.

The deeper we walked the more creatures I noticed around. It wasn't long till night crawlers started showing up hanging from trees or pulling out of cover due to their size. We were aware they were a higher threat than the rest, but they also seemed to be...distracted.

Stepping to the other side and finally walking away from the flames, a stalker seemed to walk to close behind me. Naiomi clenched her arms around mine as if ready to run away from it. I sped up my pace when suddenly I ended up facing a night crawler in front of us. 

The creature seemed to be staring directly at us with its no eyed face, as if it was sensing us. I clenched Naiomi harder in my arms, scaring her. Before she had the chance to turn around to face the creature in front of us, the night crawler prepared itself like a cat ready to strike its prey and jumped towards us with crawls launched high.

I tightened my grip around the girl and jumped to the side, avoiding its attack and kneeling on the ground to not fall. The night crawler slashed the stalker behind us, reaping it in half. Perhaps their instincts weren't completely off.

Almost immediately I felt the girl grasp my shoulder and scream. Instinctively enough, I jumped forward, rolling on the ground while protecting the girl the best I could. Still on the ground, I looked up, seen a night crawler's claw stuck in the ground on the same spot we were.

Things were becoming dangerous. Seems that whatever was damaging the creature's awareness has started to slip off. That's when I noticed that I was surprisingly more focused than before. My migraine was slowly dissipating along with the boiling sensation in my body.

I stood up, healing the girl back up but leaving her standing next to me. Night crawlers were beginning to surround the area around us, ready to strike as they stepped closer and closer, hissing at us.