Chapter 8

Leave tomorrow's problem to tomorrow's you.

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Unaware of the limited usage of his tech, Wil scanned the area around the cabin for the second time.

[Useful Eyeglasses have disabled your teammates' and your location.]

Within the proximity, three red dots showed themselves in Wil's tech. But since there were more than three of them, Wil miscalculated the amount of enemies they would be facing. However, he counted their enemies up to 5 when there were 7 of them in total.

It will be the five of them second chancers against seven disfigured yet miraculously gifted brothers. The forest was not the particular radiation site. The brothers only moved to the forest when they realized what they had become. What they turned into. There, they started to first hunt the animals for food, and when they had scared and hunted most of the animals, leaving little to no food for themselves, the brothers began to resort to human meat. 

A young couple found themselves stuck in the middle of the road after a flat tire. Accidentally, a nail had popped one of the tires, causing the couple to pull over to the side.

Carelessly, the man began to look for help while his partner remained in the car. They didn't want to split up, but the man convinced his wife to stay behind as they needed the help. And someone has to look for assistance in order to fix their problem.

The couple became the very first victims of the brothers, turning them into food and their car into junk.

Dried leaves rustle at the slightest inconvenience of a footstep, thus alerting Wil and Mary. They darted their eyes behind them, but no one was there. Then, Wil immediately thought of Berret.

"Is that you, Berret?"

"Well, ain't you sharp," answered Berret, still in his invisible guise. "Do you know how many of them there are?"

"Berret? Who is that?"

Mary does not know Berret since he has his invisibility after materializing back to the Room. So, talking to an invisible person kinda puts her in an awkward position.

Intervening with the two boys' conversation seemed unnecessary, therefore choosing to let them talk to each other and keep watch on the cabin.

While the two were having a conversation, two of the brothers, the midgets to be exact, left the house with a tiny pickaxe with them.

"Hey, those two left the cabin!"

One of the midget lifts up what seemed to be a cover for an underground path. They jumped down the tunnel and covered the path before completely disappearing underneath.

"They went underneath! They have an underground tunnel built around the forest?"

"Guehehehe!"

"Eeep! Trespassers found! Eeep!"

It didn't take that long for the midgets to suddenly appear behind them. They were showing themselves through different holes they had created, annoyingly laughing at Wil and Mary.

"I sniff intruders! I tell brother Martin!"

"Wha— how are they here that fast?!"

"Eww, they look so ugly!"

"Krieee!! How dare the woman call me ugly!"

Disappearing back in the hole, the twin midgets rattled underneath their feet as the three second chancers tried to guess what their enemies' next move was gonna be.

"Did they go back?!"

Still, in his invisible form, Berret sharpened his senses to locate the twin midgets crawling underground.

"Should I use my scanner?"

"You have that? But wait! How many times have you been using it?"

"Twice," Wil answered truthfully.

"Twice already, and you're still at level 1? You can't use it now! A level 1 ATech only has three uses!"

"Huh? I didn't know that!"

They just have to resort to pure instincts, stuck in a dilemma. Whether they should go near the cabin and prevent the twin midgets from alerting the other brothers or stay where they were because they might be being under attack by the twin midgets.

"Fucking idiot!"

"Grueha!"

Behind Mary, a few inches away from her popped up one of the two midgets with its pickaxe about to strike her. He sprang so fast, but Wil reacted just the same time, enabling him to pull Mary away.

He jolted her to avoid having her getting hurt. Upon expressing its anger by yelling before attacking, it caught Berret's attention.

Leaving no opportunity behind, Berret swiftly unsheathed his kitchen knife, which was girded on his waist, and hurled it towards the enraged midget. It struck the midget, causing writhing pain because it immediately went back underneath and was screaming crazily from the wound.

"Damnit! He got away!"

Luckily, before it went down, the midget pulled the knife out of its body. So, Berret didn't lose his kitchen knife, which he hones and polishes sharp every day.

Picking it up as the invisibility barrier surrounding him went down, Berret abruptly rushed towards the hole near the cabin.

"That man is going towards the cabin!"

"No, Mary! Let him! He knows what he's doing!"

What they needed to be worried about was the fact that the other midget still hadn't shown himself yet. And Wil stayed behind with Mary for that reason. Going with Berret and leaving Mary behind might put her in danger, being by herself.

In the middle of a problem, Wil thought of a plan. Something that would literally put Mary in danger.

"Stand here in the open."

Confused and afraid, Mary unwillingly took the job of being bait. Shakily, she stood there like a good girl and impatiently waited for things to transpire. As for Wil, he was looking around. He noticed that the midgets liked Mary so much, thus taking advantage of that.

"Um, why is it taking so long? I'm getting anxious, Wil!"

"No! Don't move from there!" Exclaimed Wil, stopping Mary for a moment. "I think he is relying on the sound of the ground like a sandworm."

To the thumping of their feet does the midget resonate. The underground tunnel was built solely for their escape and for playing with their food, digging multiple holes around the cabin. They serve as a trap for intruders. A live trap that ensnares guests and snatches their capabilities to run by getting pickaxed through the hole.

It means that by standing there without stepping to and fro the midget will not reveal himself. Unless Mary moves around and deliberately catches the attention of the midget he will reveal himself to Wil.

All of it happened one by one. Mary just could not bear to just stand there in the open and decided to clumsily run towards Wil, who had a worried look on his face.

At that moment, as the world slowly moves in her eyes while her feet are loudly thumping toward Wil's direction, the midget shows himself. However, he did not show himself from behind, instead, he had popped up in front of her with a widely sinister look in his expression whilst holding the pickaxe.

"Gyahaha! Don't call my brother ugly!"

In mid-air, clutching tightly onto his pickaxe while Mary was coming at full speed, the midget swung his weapon against Mary.

"Huhhh?!"

By spinning and controlling her speed, balancing herself so as not to fall in the process, Mary managed to avoid getting hit. Not only did she escape danger, but she also followed the evasion with a roundhouse kick, which came out perfectly when her shoe's sole landed straight on the midget's face.

"Gugh!" Groaned the midget after getting kicked away. He had let go of his pickaxe, which Wil took.

The shadow of the man who was gonna take his life covered his whole body while the dusk gradually occurred behind.

"I'm sorry, bud, but we are not gonna spare you an ounce of mercy after what your brothers did to that poor mother and child!"

A last cry for help left the midget's mouth. It didn't sound that loud, so Mary and Wil did not think much of it. On the other hand, Berret's quick actions against the other midget, who was trying to get away came to a successful chase, stabbing through its neck. It was kicking its feet as it gargled its own blood, struggling for air while drowning in its own life force.

"That's enough, Wil," Mary stopped the confounded Wil. He had mercilessly bludgeoned the midget who was fighting till its last breath. "Save your energy for the rest of them— those, who are still alive."

~