When the earth went dark

New allies

         Walking towards the gate, Ayaka and I headed out to find more survivors, to bring back to our little safe haven. We headed down the road, back into the city, into the home of the eyes. "Hey Ayaka, what if the people we come across aren't friendly, like the eyes?" I asked her, the glimmer of hope in my eye beginning to fade. She looked at me, "If they are hostile, we'll just have to do something horrible, like we did with the eyes." She told me, with a full on serious tone in her voice, she seemed as if she wouldn't be dealing with any shit that came her way.

         "Hey Ayaka, are you okay?" I asked her sensing that something was off with her behavior. She rolled her eyes, "Matthew, it's been six fucking years, the first time we are attacked we won, the chances of another human who isn't trying to kill us. The chances of that are next to fucking nothing." She said, clearly pissed off. "Ayaka, we have to at least try, we are going to need more people in case the eyes return." I told her, trying to keep my eyes on the road.

         We soon arrived back in the city, the city that had tormented us for years on constant expeditions, "Being back here, it's strange." I said to Ayaka, an eerie silence washed over the entire city, which was once full with sound, cars, traffic, birds, now there is nothing left apart from an echo that once was. "I know what you mean, you remember this city before and even though I don't, I'm sure it used to be full of life." Said Ayaka, looking around the dead city, "Matthew, the stories you told, I thought you were crazy but I can see, you were telling the truth." She said.

         Walking around this now wasteland we searched high and low, taking out our radios, we turned them to frequencies of this city, "Hello? Is there anyone out there?" I asked. Waiting for a few minutes, I asked again, "Hello?" Another few seconds go by then a transmission comes through the radio. It was a man, traveling with two women, "Where are you guys?" I asked, another few seconds go by, then the voice of a woman comes through the radio asking how they could trust us. Looking at Ayaka, I nodded and handed her the radio. She explained everything, "We are a group of five, looking for survivors to bring to our little safe haven. My name is Ayaka, the man you were talking to was Matthew. We were recently attacked and are in need of some new allies." She spoke through the radio, carefully, not revealing too much to the strangers.

        The male voice came back through the radio, saying they could see us, that they were coming out. We waited for around ten minutes, then three people emerged from different buildings on all sides of us. Backing us up against a wall. They held only blades, while we had guns, "Put your knives down, we weren't lying about the safe haven, we are protected from the small group known as the eyes." They hesitated, eventually dropping their blades knowing they couldn't win this fight, "Come with us, we have a safe place, free from the mutated, free from the eyes, nothing bad happens there, we have food and water as well." I said to them, they lowered their weapons and spoke, they agreed to go with us. Walking back towards the car, we were jumped by a small hoard.

         Running towards the inside, Ayaka and myself ran inside a building while the other three ran into another. Pounding at the door, the runner hoard was relentless, but we had a plan. Opening the door to let one singular runner in, I closed the door again, barricading it with random shit around. We pinned the runner down, cutting off its head. "This is going to be disgusting, if you're cut, keep it far away from there and your mouth." I told Ayaka. Cutting into the runners stomach, its guts spewed out slowly, We dug our hands into the runners open stomach cavity.

         Rubbing runner guts all over our clothing, concealing our scent, the growls slowly began to cease, they couldn't smell us anymore. Turning on the radio, I tried to speak to the other three, "Let a runner in and rub their guts over yourself, they won't be able to tell you're not one of them, get to the red car in the middle of the hoard so we can get out of here." I said over the radio, the man's voice came back through the radio agreeing, having no other options left. Ayaka kissed me for good luck, I took her by the hand and opened the door.

         Runners began to pile into the building, completely ignoring us. We ran towards the car, keeping a tight grip on each other's hands, we made it to the car, looking around we didn't see the others on their way. Jumping back out of the car, Ayaka and I took each other's hands once more, running through the passing hoard. Eventually we made it to the building they ran into which was mostly cleared. Opening the door we heard shouting, we raised our guns, knowing more than one runner got into their building.

         Running around we pulled off a run and gun, ripping through runners as if they were thin pieces of paper, eventually we located the others, backed in a room, there were three runners left on the inside of the building. Taking out our knives, we stabbed each of them in the brain, killing them instantly. "Come on, we need to leave like right now." They nodded following us. We made it to the car.

         I began to drive us all away, back to the gates, it took us about thirty minutes to drive there as fast as we could, making sure we weren't followed by the hoard. Getting back the gate was opened for us instantly, we got in and scrubbed the runner's guts off of us as quickly as possible. The newcomers asked where they were going to live. Ayaka spoke up, "I could move in with Matthew, and you guys can take the house I used for living." She said, the newcomers seemed to be on board with this plan, "Just remember, everyone has to do work here in order to keep us all with food and water, sometimes we go on expeditions, some just stay and farm and some patrol the walls making sure the eyes don't reappear."

         The newcomers nod in agreement. Ayaka took them to her house showing them around, "This is where you will be living, just give me an hour to move stuff into Matthews and you will be good to go, there should be water and food stocked within your cupboards." She told them, the newcomers seemed excited to finally have a stable place to stay.

         Ayaka moved her stuff into my house, "Matthew can I just stay in your room for the night until tomorrow?" She asked me. We were sitting at the table in my house, "Ye, I guess that's okay, Ayaka." I told her, we went upstairs and I got into bed, Ayaka climbed in next to me and began to cuddle up against me, "Matthew, I'm glad we survived today." She told me, surprised at the cuddle, I turned towards her, "Ayaka, same, I think I love you, I'm glad we made it out alive, and we now have new allies so we have more people to protect our camp. Goodnight." I said to her, she was already asleep. I drifted off soon after.