Sylvia (2)

Before running down straight to Mrs. Kim's apartment Sylvia takes a look below from the balcony. All to see people running around and over each other to find safety. The panic was so fierce that people were falling and getting crushed under people even though there were no monsters in sight. For some poor folks, the destruction came before the catastrophe had even begun.

Sylvia searches the ground below looking for Mrs. Kim. She finally finds her, not running away with the others or standing on the side trying to figure out what was happening, she found her injured lying on the ground still getting crushed by people's merciless feet.

Sylvia turned around and headed straight for the elevator but it was closed and still on the first floor. Choosing not to wait for the elevator even though it might have been the best choice she started running down the stairs. The time it would take her to wait for the elevator would still be less than her running down, an error made in judgment due to panic.

She runs down three flights of stairs before her feet admit defeat and her lungs give up. Fortunately, the lift had just stopped in front of her. She hopped on and went straight to the ground floor. It took her a minute to locate Mrs. Kim as she was not the only one lying on the ground.

She picks her head up and tries to wake her up. Her head is bleeding and has a serious wound on it. It must have been the cause of her getting knocked out. She cleans her wound with her sleeve only to see another problem, her left arm is bending in a position that it is not supposed to bend.

"Huh! What Happened? Sylvia?! What are you doin... Agghhh..." Mrs. Kim wakes up just as Sylvia is trying to put her broken arm back. Taking advantage of her just waking up and being incoherent she snaps her arm right back in position. She did not know if the way she did it was right or not but she was well aware that she could not leave it like that.

"It's ok, Mrs. Kim. You are alright. You are injured right now but we need to leave right now. I know it hurts but please get up we need to leave." Syliva helps Mrs. Kim get up and they turn around to return to the apartment.

Mrs. Kim is in too much pain to understand what is happening right now but she could tell from Sylvia's face and voice that it was serious then she remembered what happened before she had passed out. The alarm had sounded panicking everyone into a frenzy. It was the reason why she had fallen in the first place.

They both turn around to go back to their apartments but then are glued to their feet as a shiver runs down their spine, a monster howling in the middle of their path. All they needed to do was go back inside and they would have been saved but now their path was blocked by a black-furred wolf, with its mouth and neck red from fresh blood.

.......

Running away from the monsters in front of her building with the other people was what had brought her to this stage, trying to fight monsters with a broken chair. Sylvia and Mrs. Kim had run away from the monsters and gotten stuck in a cafe with some people. The only reason that they were all not dead yet was because of a young boy the same age as her daughter.

The young boy was someone she knew very well it was Oh Ji-won. He lived in their area and they knew each other. Sylvia did not know when he had awakened but he had right now. He was using his ability to shield them from the monsters.

His body was giving off a faint golden glow that matched the circular disc of golden color in front of him. The monsters were trying to scratch and bite him but the golden shield was protecting him and the others. It was a see-through shield made of light that was emanating from his body just a few inches in front of him. Although the shield was see-through it had just enough color that you could make out its boundary.

The monsters were trying to scratch and bite the shield but they were getting repelled. They were trying to bite the humans in front of them but something was stopping them and they were being pushed back. Although they were getting pushed back they never stopped trying, it was not like they had to be somewhere so they tried and tried again.

This was the first time that Ji-won had used his abilities so his control was not the best. Although he was covering a large area with his shield there were still some holes that the monsters were using to break in. They would try to push their snout through the gaps and bite them.

That is when Sylvia and a few other brave people stepped up. They picked up whatever they could find among the rubble that could be used as a weapon and started helping the kid. They would hit the monster's snouts with their weapons and try to have them back off to help Ji-won.

Sylvia was using the broken legs of a stool to fend off the monsters. Whenever a gap would occur in the shield they would cover it themselves. It had been close to ten minutes since they started defending themselves. They were desperately praying for the hunters to arrive. There were injured among them that needed immediate help.

Their prayers were soon answered as someone came to them just not who or what they had hoped for, more monsters. Ji-won went almost limp when he saw the new monsters appear in front of him. He was a kid that had just awakened and was using his abilities for the first time. He wanted to run away from there but as much as he wanted to run there was no place left to.

So far his shield had been holding the monsters back but when the new monsters joined the old ones in trying to break his shield things got worse. His shield started vibrating loudly and any new damage that the shield was taking was now taking a toll on his body. Wounds started appearing on his body in different places and the gaps in the shield got wider and wider. There were scratch marks on his arms and shoulders. He was getting bloody and bruised.

Taking advantage of the gaps the wolfs hastened their attacks. Some people got injured with their claws and fell over. One of the wolfs attacked Mr. Naeem, Sylvia's neighbor from the sixth floor, and ripped his arm off completely. He fell back holding his wounded shoulder when the shield lit up. Ji-won could not take it anymore and his body gave up. The shield lit up for a second and then broke like a mirror into a thousand little flickers of light.

Mr. Naeem got his head completely bitten off as his body lay flailing on the floor. Ji-won's legs were torn apart by the wolfs and one of them attacked Sylvia. Its fangs tore through her arm and bit her hand off. She was holding her arm in one hand with her bones visible to her shoulder.

Just like that the monsters started attacking the people in their group. Sylvia with what little energy she had left shielded Grandma Kim from the monsters and lay there waiting for her demise.

She was thinking about how Ellen had been stopping her from going out and how she wanted to come with. The only silver lining she could think of was that her daughter was not here. At least she was safe, back home. After that, she thought about her husband, Jake. Is this what he had felt when the monsters attacked him five years ago? Was he scared like how she was right now? All this time she believed that her husband was alive.

She fought everyone outside but never admitted to herself that her husband might have died. This moment was the first time she finally gave up. She finally let go of the notion that her husband might still be alive. How could he be? The monsters that were let loose that day were much more horrible than today. She prepared herself to go and finally meet her husband in the afterlife.

She wished he had been here to take care of Ellen now that she was going to die the way she had done for him but that was not meant to be. They had both died to monsters leaving her alone. She believed they had raised Ellen to be a good upright member of the society she was sure she could manage herself.

With tears in her eyes and a body that was shutting down with her closing eyes, she said goodbye.

"MOM!!"