The Trials of Neo City [WINWIN • YUTA]

🖤 30. Game of Survival/Nuvole Bianche 🖤

Yuta yelled, trying to pry the creature off of his leg with his trident. Shotaro shot his arrow off as quickly as he could, but missed the creature and ending up hitting pavement instead. Sicheng stood by, temporarily too afraid to move before snapping out of it moments later after hearing Yuta's screaming.

He tightened his grip on his dagger, practically throwing it into the back of the mutated rat. The creature shrieked and leapt off of him, thrashing against Sicheng now. He pulled the weapon from its rough, thick back and fell backwards, falling into Shotaro and knocking him over.

The creature snarled again at the trio, skittering against the pavement as it bled a deep black color. Shotaro dove down where Yuta was knelt, ignoring the animal. The oldest boy was gritting his teeth, holding his bleeding, discolored thigh whilst looking over in shock at Sicheng's bloodied dagger.

The rat looked at Sicheng with its feverish yellow eyes, only to hiss and slink away suddenly, leaving the trio alone again by the riverbank. They caught their breath, watching it fall away into the shadows and Yuta finally slumped over on the concrete, his trident hitting the street with a loud metallic clang.

Shotaro gasped, sitting next to Yuta and checking his pulse. When he found that, he nodded and started examining the wound. So far, it looked rapidly infected, with bite marks slashing through his tendon and turning the skin a sickly pale yellow color. Sicheng could only stand by, putting his dagger into the pocket on his jacket and looking on with a horrified expression. Yuta himself looked rather unbothered, despite hissing in pain every so often if he was jostled around.

Shotaro grabbed Yuta, who groaned in pain. He hoisted him up on his bony back and looked at Sicheng worriedly. "We have to get out of here. Someone might have heard Yuta scream, they might come after us."

Sicheng nodded, grabbing his own backpack and Yuta's, throwing them on his back and picking up the trident from the ground. The two walked for a while, still weary of other tributes who might be lurking. The sun rose in the morning sky, the day becoming hotter and hotter, still looking for a place to lay low. A few buildings shook and were heard across the city. He looked around, trying to find somewhere to go from here when he noticed an open sewer cover adjacent to an alleyway and ran towards it.

He peeked inside, seeing a hollow room leading to more tunnels. Hesitantly, he grabbed a nearby stone from the road and tossed it in to test any invisible acids or traps. But no, the rock only hit the bottom of the tunnel without any visible consequence. Sicheng leaned his head back upwards where Shotaro and Yuta were hiding and nodded his head, crawling into the sewer cautiously.

He waved them down, helping Shotaro grab Yuta and help him down, attempting not to agitate the wound any farther. Sicheng laid Yuta down against the tunnel wall along with their backpacks, before whipping head upwards towards the tunnel opening.

There was a faint bell sound above them, Shotaro gasping excitedly and spotting a capsule with a small parachute floating down from the sky, the bell noise playing louder as it descended. Shotaro leaned out of the sewer to grab it, standing on his tip toes so that it would land in his small hands.

Shotaro ripped off a small notecard that was attached to the parachute, handing it off to Sicheng.

Sicheng squinted, reading the smudged note as Shotaro fumbled with the lid of the container. "'Do what you have to do'. What's that supposed to mean?" He asked, turning towards Shotaro who shrugged.

"I have no clue. But hey, that was pretty fast, huh?" Shotaro asked, eyes lighting up as he opened the capsule to find a small tube of ointment with a torn off label. He grabbed it and positioned it towards Yuta's leg, cringing at the sight of the yellowing infection.