4 Escape Attempt

A few silent moments passed in as the duo of students attempted to rationalize the events that had occurred within their minds.

Alex was the first to voice his concerns. "Emily, is it? You said earlier that there are more of them out there?"

he stated while gripping the handle of the ax tightly. It made sense; after all, even after she rushed into his room, there were screams from across the dorm. However, Alex could no longer hear them, which, if anything, made him more intimidated. He could not shake the feeling that he and Emily were the last two people left alive in the dormitory.

Alex prayed that this thought would prove to be incorrect. Either way, he would have to harden his resolve; if he failed to do so, he and Emily wouldn't make it out of the building alive. Tears began to stream down Emily's eyes once more as she remembered the horrific scenes from just moments before she entered the room. This room was currently a sanctuary, and despite knowing it would not last long, she still hoped it would remain as such.

Wiping tears from her eyes, she sniffled, "Yeah, I don't know how many there are, but there's a lot of them out there."

Alex pondered for a few moments about the dilemma that presented itself. The sun had yet to rise, and the halls were dark as night. If the two of them were to flee the room now, they would likely be ambushed in the dark corridors of the dormitory and meet their untimely demise. Still, the door had already weakened due to the onslaught of the three goblins. Whose bodies began to exude the scent of death.

He tried to ignore that for now and focus on the issues at hand. He decided the best option was to barricade the door with what little furniture he had within his room and wait for the sun to rise. This option presented some difficulties, for example, how would he dispose of the corpses. If he left them as they were, it would undoubtedly create a sense of despair and panic among the two survivors. He intensely stared at his windows while hatching a plan.

After conceiving a plan, he decided to act upon it immediately. He walked over to the corpses and picked them up individually. After lifting the first one, Alex instantly felt nauseous. Nonetheless, he had to power through, if not for his sanity, then for the wretched young woman fate had forced upon him.

He dragged the body over to the window before letting it down on the ground and sighed, trying desperately not to breathe in the stench. It didn't help that a trail of blood and gore followed the corpse. Emily looked in horror as he opened up the window and tossed the body out.

"What are you doing?" she cried out, almost afraid to ask

"Disposing of the bodies, we can't have these things stinking up the room while we wait for sunrise," Alex stated as he rested against the window.

Alex didn't even bother looking out the window to see the body collapse to the ground; he didn't know if his stomach could handle it. He quickly worked on the other two corpses. Struggling with his growing sense of nausea, he somehow managed to pull it off without vomiting.

Afterward, he let out an exhausted sigh and thoroughly cleaned his hands with some sanitizer. Who knew what kind of diseases these little vermin carried. Hopefully, they weren't transmissible through other species. The stench of death drastically lessened with the removal of the bodies. Nonetheless, it still permeated through the air as there were several pools of blood spread throughout the small room.

After removing the bodies, he voiced his plan to Emily "We'll hole up in here until it's light out, then… then I have no idea".

Emily staggered back and sat on one of the beds, exhausted from the whole endeavor. "Shouldn't we wait for help to arrive?"

maybe it was naivety, or perhaps it was denial; either way, she genuinely asked such a foolish question, and it got under Alex's skin. "Do you honestly think help is arriving? I mean, we can't just stay here. Even if we do barricade ourselves inside, how long can we last?"

The two of them sat silently once more, unsure of how to proceed. One thing was sure; help would not come to them. Despite being unsure how to proceed, the two of them boarded up the room with what little furniture was inside. For now, the doors would hold, but for how long they were uncertain.

After an hour of silence, paranoia, and the pungent smell of blood and brains, Alex finally snapped, "I can't take it anymore!" he cried out as he kicked the leg off the desk, which block the door.

He was already not in the best mental state but waiting for the sunrise in this room was no longer an option. Instead, in his panic-induced mind and constant paranoia, it turned into an act of waiting for death, especially when the aroma of blood wafted throughout the stuffy air.

Emily was frightened and could no longer sit idly by, so while Alex began wrapping a hand towel around the chair's leg and lighting it on fire, she grabbed the stone dagger used by one of the goblins on the floor and prepared herself mentally for what was to come. With his makeshift torch and the barricade successfully removed, they would force their way out of the dormitory or die trying.

He silently opened the door to the hallway while whispering to Emily, "Stay close to me, and keep a lookout for monsters."

Once the door opened, a more pungent smell of blood filled his nose. Forcing himself to swallow the vomit hiking up his throat, he began to press forward into the darkness, dimly lit by the makeshift torch in his right hand. Emily vomited after inhaling the deathly odor that filled the hallways. Her mental fortitude was not as strong as Alex's.

Nor should it be; after all, the intense physical and psychological conditioning professional fighters go through is not something the average human can withstand. He patted her back as she got the last of the vomit out of her system. Alex now felt a stronger urge to puke from the scent of vomit mixed with the stench of death.

Like moths to the flame, the goblins in the narrow hallway rushed towards the light blazing from the makeshift torch, which Alex used to his advantage. Viciously swinging his ax into the head of the first goblin to charge towards him, a familiar message displayed in his peripheral vision as the blood-spattered and bone cracked.

As he had already seen it a few times before and knew what it contained, he paid no attention to it. Dashing forward, he round housed the next goblin in the head, slamming it into the wall. It was life or death, and with Alex by her side, taking the lead, Emily managed to find the determination to do what was necessary after a brief internal struggle. As the goblin lie against the wall dazed, she turned her face away and slowly slid the stone dagger into the monster's throat.

[You have slain a goblin and gain 23 xp]

the same message Alex had seen continuously appeared in her peripheral vision for the first time.

"Eh. What's this?" she cried out as Alex was smashing another goblin's head.

"Some sort of system message that appears whenever you kill one of these fucking things. Stay focused!" he shouted towards Emily as another goblin neared her.

She turned around to see its nasty face with its tongue hanging out as if it were trying to lick her. Out of pure instinct, she thrust her dagger forward and shut her eyes, the stone knife penetrating through the goblin's eyeball as well as the brain. After opening her eyes once more, she confirmed the message and pulled the dagger out of its skull.

She had no time to lament the dead or consider the morality of her actions. It was fight or flight, and the only way to flee was forward through the horde of goblins. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she forced her way through the goblins in the hallway alongside Alex, the two of them racking up experience points and fresh corpses as they did so.