Encounter

Virion finally awoke after his long needed rest. He began to look around after waking up while still half groggy when he suddenly realized that Oslo was nowhere to be seen.

'He already left me?' Virion thought to himself.

Getting over it quite quickly because he expected something like this he began to just walk around and see what there is. However all he really saw was just groups of people chatting quietly. Hoping there would be some food for him to eat he began to try his luck at finding some.

"Are you looking for something?" Someone interrupted his search and startled him.

"Ah! Don't do that man."

"My apologies, I didn't mean to startle you."

"I know, just on edge. Sorry…" Virion took a close look at his face and remembered who he was introduced to yesterday. "Lewis?"

"That's right, I'm surprised you remembered my name. So is there anything I can help you with?"

"Oh, uhh, I was just looking for some food, maybe a vending machine or something."

"I see, sorry but those were all looted before we even got here. We don't have any food on us either."

"That sucks. Is there anything to do around here?"

"What, besides staying indoors and making sure those things outside don't notice you? We have a team that we sent out to explore and hopefully find something, but we haven't heard back from them in a bit. In fact I believe your friend Oslo went with them."

"Oslo went with them? I see, that explains why I didn't see him anywhere. I was wondering where he went. Would I be able to join the team?"

"You want to go out there? It's dangerous out there kid. Are you absolutely sure?"

"I am, how can I just stay here while all these people go hungry? What if there are others out there that need our help? If I can at least help out in some way I'm willing to do so."

Lewis breathes out a heavy sigh and looks like he is deep in thought. After what feels like a minute he finally speaks up.

"Fine, but be careful out there kid. This is the best I can do to help you, use it if you need to. As for joining the team you'd have to wait until they get back or head out on your own for now."

Lewis hands Virion a simple pocket knife.

"Thanks, I'll try and bring back some food." Virion says while putting the knife in his pocket.

"Good luck."

After bidding farewell, Virion begins to leave the building, as he does so the blinding sun hits him through the doorway, causing his eyes to water for a second.

'Why does it have to be so damn bright?' He complained to himself.

Not knowing where to start, Virion just begins to walk along the buildings carefully, trying not to draw any attention to himself. Though now that he thinks about it he hasn't heard or seen any of the creatures that he had encountered last night. No roaring, no stomping, nothing.

'Maybe they're night creatures?' He thought while still walking along.

After a while longer of walking in complete silence besides the sound of his feet hitting the ground he comes across an office building.

'Oh sweet, these normally have vending machines in them don't they? Mine did at least."

Upon walking into the building he noticed that all the lights were off but besides that it looked like it had sustained no damage. Maybe a few things thrown about from people being inside but nothing as devastating as the other buildings he had seen.

Looking around he couldn't see any vending machines or anything of value on the ground floor so he began to look behind the counter and search all of the drawers. However he found nothing there either. There wasn't even any money to be taken in case it was still useful.

Thinking about his next course of action he began to walk up the stairs, he didn't even want to know if the elevator still worked, let alone if it would carry him through the floors.

After climbing a couple more stairs he reached the second floor, however it appeared the second floor had something in it. Virion heard strange noises through the door as he creeped close to it. Thinking it could be a person he peeked through the window quietly.

Though instead of a person as he hoped, it was another one of those creatures he saw from last night. One of the small ones that was only around waist high was inside. It seemed as though it was alone though, a group of them nowhere to be seen.

'Shit, I have to get away!'

Panicking, Virion quickly tried to get away from the door but in his hurry he hit the railing which made a loud "Dong!".

'Shit.'

It seems the creature was alerted by the noise because the next thing Virion knew it had started banging on the door and trying to bust it down.

In a scramble to get away Virion headed upstairs to try and close himself in. Without even checking whether it was safe or not he entered the third floor office. Luckily however, it seemed to be empty.

The third floor seemed to be a normal type of office covered in desks with that mundane white and gray paint.

Trying his best to think of what to do, Virion quickly tried to push a desk in front of the door. But the desk wouldn't budge. It felt as if it had been bolted to the floor.

'What the hell? They make this look so much easier on tv!' Virion cursed the tv shows he had seen which made it look so simple.

Since that didn't work he simply began putting chairs in front of the door, he knew it wasn't a good defense but it was the only thing he could think of. Shortly after he finished putting around five chairs in front of the door to the best of his ability a sudden banging began hitting against it, making the chairs rattle.

'Shit it's here!'

In a state of panic Virion hid under one of the desks and finally seemed to remember the pocket knife he had been given.

'What is this going to do to that creature?! Couldn't you have given me something a little bigger?!' He cursed Lewis in his mind.

After a couple more seconds of repeated banging on the door the chairs finally gave out and were pushed out of the way. However after the door was opened it seemed to calm down, Virion could hear the creature panting but it seemed like it wasn't moving.

It suddenly began to sniff the air, trying to get a scent of Virion. Which unluckily for Virion, it seemed like it did. It began to sniff the floor while slowly moving towards the desk that Virion was hiding under.

'Shit, shit, shit, shit' Virion's mind had gone into disarray from the stress he was feeling, in response to that he gripped the pocket knife so tight that his nails began to turn white and he began to dig into his own palm and cause it to start bleeding.

Seemingly smelling the blood the creature began to speed up while moving towards the desk, still panting, however now it was even heavier, which Virion could hear but didn't have the leisure to think anything of it. As the creature finally seemed to reach the desk, Virion violently slung his arm with the knife around the corner of it in an attempt to hit it. He felt a big thud as he had come into contact with something, it felt like the knife had pierced something and began to sink into it. It was a sickening feeling for Virion, who at this point never thought of hurting something, let alone stabbing it.

It seemed the knife had some effect as the creature began to go crazy and started to thrash about, seemingly forgetting about Virion. Seeing this as a chance, Virion got out from under the desk and began throwing things at the creature. Chairs, cups, pencils, keyboards, monitors. Whatever Virion could get his hand on he threw with all of his strength. After continuing to throw things for a couple seconds he realized the creature was no longer thrashing about.

'Is it over?' Virion asked while out of breath and ready to throw another chair.

He slowly inched closer to what he believed to be the creature, it was hard to tell at this point because of all the chairs and things he had thrown. After getting closer he realized the creature wasn't dead, but quite close to it. He saw an arrow sticking out of its side while somehow his pocket knife had managed to hit it in the eye. The thing was breathing and wheezing heavily, as if it was a normal dog in it's last moments.

After what felt like minutes had passed the creature finally stopped breathing, seemingly dead. After confirming it was over Virion collapsed on the ground while leaning against a desk, breathing heavily he felt exhausted. The adrenaline rush had ended at this point and he felt all the stress from what just happened hit him at once.