Survival

The door is barely able to keep this monster behind the door at bay, the end of their lives is within the reach of the shadow which is barging in soon.

"Yuto, Kenzo get the supplies now! food and water!"

they both start running to every room in the apartment complex, searching and stuffing food and giving canned food with water to the children which the director is about to lead into the library, all hearts were racing right now as this is a battle of time and efficient timing, Yuto stuffed one last thing though before he goes down, the clock which was handed down by the director for many generations and now Yuto is the next one.

*Bang*

The door bursts open with a dark man who looks mutated and corrupted to the brim of his heart, he is nothing of the baker he was before, just a human-devouring monster looking to feed his self-satisfaction before eventually running around the world to try and fulfil any sort of happiness which can't be achieved.

"get in the stairs now!"

Yuto and Kenzo are seen running into the staircase of the library with tons of supplies, after the two children from the orphanage run behind them, one of them trips and falls to the bottom of the staircase due to the heavy supplies the child was carrying, the last child is still on the floor with the director.

"AH"

the last child gets grabbed by the shadow which rapidly already reached the end of the hallway where the staircase is located, the director grabs the kid and tries pulling it back towards the staircase but as seen with every other person and the director's experience, the shadow was too strong to consider even winning against but the director despite knowing this had to at least try everything in his power to save the kid from the awful fate which awaits beyond the staircase and in the abyss of shadows.

'...no'

The director stares in silence as the shadow jumps back to the outside, leaving him to wonder why couldn't he do it, why couldn't he save her, he looks down at the floor seeing the blood on the floor from the constant pulling.

'My job is to protect them, not to make them become one of those creatures, I can't live by this fact, I will kill them all!'

the director's rage was at the peak since the war had started against them, never since the initial attack and all his brothers in arms dying by his side in the barracks that night, this was far beyond it, a poor child not even being able to live out their lives because of something they couldn't control or even attempt to escape is unfair.

"Kenzo let's go fast, get back up and see if the director is there"

They rush up to the top of the staircase and peak outside seeing the director on his knees in front of the broken door, somehow he is still alive despite the shadows already covering every part of camp within and out, they don't waste time and drag the director into the staircase, he did not attempt to fight or move as defeat is washed over him and the guilt of having not saved the ones he always valued the most.

"Get your ass down already director, we don't have time for this"

he gave no reply to Kenzo as he was being helped down the stairs, Yuto put the plank back above where it belonged and made sure to break the lever and use it as a blocker for the plank to not get accidentally moved during any rumbling or destruction which might still occur from the shadows.

"Director it's not your fault"

Kenzo tries reassuring him as they descend, Yuto catches up to the pair and they all start to reach the bottom of the staircase which reveals the supplies they have and two children, one knocked out from the heavy fall and the other just looking around the library for whatever might interest her.

"what happened... he was fine before descending?"

the director was even more worried about losing the second child just after the first

"he fell due to the supplies being too heavy, can you check his health?"

Yuto being concerned for one of his fellow orphan children was a refreshing sight to everyone in the room which just survived a massacre a couple of minutes ago, the question alone shows that there might be hope for them, but the director already knew the hope is dead by a simple five-second finger hold on his neck.

"it's cold, he's dead"

The room turned silent, an atmosphere of dread filled the library as everyone thought they were the reason for his death, Yuto handing over the supplies makes him think it's his fault while Kenzo thinks it's a fault as he could've tried to carry more due to his age being nearly double that of the dead child which lay before them.

'Despite thinking it's me or Kenzo, I know the director is on the very end of his sanity, he must have thought this was all his first, he already is biassed since he couldn't save the first child and now the second died due to his orders despite it being unlucky of a situation to be in to trip down'

Yuto analysed the thinking process of how the director might imagine the current state of the position they are in, knowing the director needs some time to process his thoughts, he gives Kenzo a little head nod to start climbing up the stairs a bit to not hear anything the director cries out.

"Kenzo we should give him some time, he will either die or live because of the thoughts we will process right, if he has any will or hope for us left which I think is definitely what will happen, we should be able to get the old director back to us and hopefully continue to thrive in this broken world"