Joseph lifted his head with difficulty to find the beast lying on the ground. He took a deep breath and fell back to the ground as the feeling of fear and anxiety began to fade, replaced by a sense of relief and the joy of victory. Meanwhile, everyone remained relaxed on the ground from exhaustion. Several minutes passed with them in the same state, until they began to hear 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 got up from the ground and looked toward the group lying on the ground and said to them: "I know you're tired right now, but we need to get out of here. We don't know what might appear to us." Jesse and the rest of the team got up and headed toward Joseph to let him lead them to an exit from this place.
Joseph advanced toward the dense trees and the others followed behind him. While walking, Jenny approached Ethan who was with Jesse, and said to him: "Thank you for helping me earlier." Ethan looked toward her and showed a slight smile on his face, then Jesse put 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 among the trees left and right. Time passed and Joseph began to stop from time to time and look around then continue walking. They remained in the same condition for a long time, until they noticed that the sun began to set.
Nicholas was puzzled by their taking all this time walking and said: "Joseph, hours have passed and we've been walking and haven't reached our destination, plus night is about to come, what's holding you back?" 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 possess Nicholas and he headed toward Joseph and grabbed his shirt forcefully, saying: "Seriously, didn't you tell us there's no need to fear getting lost as long as you're with us? Was all that just nonsense?" Joseph put his hand on Nicholas's hand and replied with difficulty: "Yes, I said that, but you need to calm down and let me explain to you." Nicholas replied with agitation: "Calm down? We've lost our way in a forest and darkness is about to fall!" Jesse headed toward Nicholas and separated him from Joseph and said to him: "Calm down, man, let us at least hear his excuse."
Joseph began breathing for some time with his eyes closed and leaning on his knees. He said: "Thank you Jesse... (breath) Well, it seems that chasing that beast made me lose track of the road directions, and since the forest is just similar trees, that made me get more lost. I tried to remember the way and continue walking, but I was getting more lost." Nicholas looked toward him angrily and tried to attack him, but Jesse stopped him and tried to calm him down. Joseph lowered his head in regret and said: "I'm truly sorry. I'm supposed to be the person who leads you toward the right path, but now I'm the reason for your getting lost."
Nicholas replied: "You should be sorry, you bastard." Joseph continued his speech saying: "But we shouldn't stay still and continue struggling, we need to search for a place to spend the night before nightfall." Jesse replied with a frustrated face: "Alright, let's just camp in this place. Go collect wood to light a fire before nightfall." Everyone scattered in the area searching for tree branches and gathered them in one of the areas relatively clear of trees, and stopped when darkness fell.
Jesse headed toward the pile of branches and took out from his pocket a small flint stone and a metal piece. He began hitting the stone on the metal piece, producing the first spark for the fire to begin blazing. The fire spread warmth in the cold of night and light in the midst of its pitch darkness. Everyone brought stone pieces and sat on them in front of the burning fire. After a while of sitting in front of the fire, Joseph felt hungry so he asked Jenny to take out the food from the bag. Jenny opened the bag and took out three water bottles and a plastic bag containing five sandwiches stuffed with meat. Jenny distributed the sandwiches to everyone and everyone began eating. The only thing that broke the silence was the sound of the burning fire and the sound of tree leaves moving from the wind.
Ethan looked toward Joseph to find expressions of sadness on his face as he ate slowly. He shifted his gaze toward Nicholas to find him close to finishing his slice while looking toward Joseph with angry looks. Meanwhile, silence prevailed among the group. Jenny noticed the gloomy atmosphere surrounding them, so she said with a tense face: "Well, we've known each other for a while, so what do you think about telling how we used to live or how our experience of living was before we met?" Jesse replied saying: "Good idea, this is better than this silent atmosphere. Well, who wants to start?"
Everyone remained silent looking toward each other, waiting for who would step forward first. Jenny broke the silence saying with her usual worried face: "Well, I'll be the one to start." Everyone looked toward her, which increased her tension a little. She took a deep breath and began speaking: "Well, I'll tell you the story of my strange birth... During my mother's pregnancy with me, she and my father were fleeing from a group of those beasts. 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 beasts that were trying to break down 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 as she screamed due to the pain of childbirth. My father remained tense as he looked at her screaming with all her strength, holding her arm trying to comfort her. She kept screaming for several hours, then 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 at that moment. He went toward my mother and told her to look at her child, I was born, but she didn't react at all. My father was puzzled for a moment, thinking she was just tired, so he shook her and told her to wake up to see her daughter, but she remained in the same position without any reaction. The expressions of happiness disappeared from his face and he quickly put 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 revive her and perform artificial respiration on her, but nothing worked. My mother had passed away and couldn't even see her daughter who was born. My father remained frozen looking toward my mother's dead body while the sound of my screaming filled the place." Her features changed and became more gloomy and she continued her words: "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 added to his suffering in this world?" The expressions on Jesse's and Joseph's faces changed and became sadder while Nicholas became somewhat gloomy. Jenny continued talking: "After that, my father left the building after those beasts 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 rushed out of that city and stopped in one of the deserts far from people 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 cared for 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 loved him and he loved me, and I appreciated his effort to keep me alive. Despite this, he would play with me and spend some hours hanging out with me. Until I turned 16, he told me he would go to 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 showed 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 had to do everything alone: bring food, bring drink, and live in isolation. Until when I turned 19, I went as usual to bring some food but I was late because the place I used to go to became completely empty of any supplies, so I changed the place. Anyway, while returning home, I noticed a strange person from afar who wasn't completely visible, but I think I saw him wearing an orange mask with black glass lenses. After looking at him, I suddenly lost consciousness and found myself in a strange room. I headed toward one of the doors present and opened it, and that was our first meeting, the four of us, and I think you know what happened next because you were present there."
Nicholas's pupils widened and he looked toward Jenny with amazement: "A man with an orange mask? Impossible, I saw him too before I found myself in those rooms with you."
(End)