A new day?

When I opened my eyes, I was in complete darkness. My body felt heavy and uncomfortable. The air felt heavy and stale. I tried to move around but to no avail. Something heavy is pressing on my chest. It was heavy but not heavy enough to suffocate me. I remove what seems to be a piece of debris or rubble. I stand up from my position to see myself covered in ruins of a fallen building. Although I came out with a few injuries, how I survived was a miracle.

What happened here just now? Where is everyone else? The last thing I could remember before falling unconscious was a deafening roar. Did an explosion happen? I tried to look around for people, but the ruins themselves were eerily silent with no one in sight.

"Was this really the supermall I visited earlier? It is in ruins now.", he silently said to himself.

I walked slowly around the mall to search for food or any people. Did something happen here? If so, where are the employees or the officials? I found an emergency first aid kit placed on the wall as I walked around the abandoned mall. I patched up my wounds, but walking around with a wounded leg was still uncomfortable.

"Is anyone there? Someone answer me!" I shouted.

"Is there no one here?"

I heard a short rattling sound of metal tins in the background. It seems to come from the upper floors.

"Who is there?"

I turned my back from the rattling noise when I heard another noise. I immediately turned my head again to see an oddly shaped dog? It doesn't look like one but resembles one. The dog had a large head that was unproportioned to its body size. Its teeth were sharp and looked as its unable to fit in its jaw. Its huge body looked like a mixture between a rat and a dog.

It can't be called a dog anymore, and it resembles more of a monster from a fairy tale. It stared at me with its teeth baring before leaping to me. It came at me at an inhuman level of speed.

I turned away my body on instinct to dodge it. The wall broke on the impact upon receiving the hit. The monster stood there unscathed even after receiving the blow. It was not only inhumanely fast but also durable.

Is there no way out? I got no weapon or anything to distract it. My options were limited, and I had nowhere to go. The monster had blocked all my escape routes.

"Dodge now!" upon hearing it, I immediately moved myself to the right. A person wearing a hood was shouting at me from the shadows.

A gunshot was fired. It pierced the skull of the monster ceasing all its movement. A second one was fire soon after, seemingly making sure it was dead.

A man wearing a hood appeared from the shadows with a hunting rifle held on his back. He seems to be a person in the age of 30s.

"What's your name, kid? What are you doing here?." he said in a joking tone.

"The name Marc. Thanks for saving me just now, Mr…." I bowed my head to him as thanks.

"Charles. The name Charles. Nice to meet you, kid. So you're a polite one. You are quite lucky to survive in this hellhole unscathed."

With dusk breaking in, he pulled out a stern face. "Let's get out of here soon. People who stay here usually don't make it through the night." in a cold tone.

"What do you mean by not making it through the night? I didn't see anyone here. What happened to this place? It looked as if someone abandoned it for years." The answer I was expecting was different than I thought.

" It better if you see it yourself…" he looked somehow disheartened as he said it.

Charles kept his quiet while wearing a glum face. He soon pulled out a newspaper from his bag and handed it over to me. The newspaper was issued approximately a week ago. I slowly turned open the newspaper.

The front page was nothing but a nightmare that came out of a novel. It was full of news that didn't make sense, yet it was real.

"Is this for real? Is this really real? Don't tell me it's a lie" I looked straight at his eyes to disprove my doubts. Yet his face betrayed all the expectation I had.

"What happened to the rest of the people?" I fell on my knees, feeling dejected. "Is there really no one else?"

He silently walked away while keeping a gloomy face.

"Follow me…. We can talk later back at the base." in a quiet voice.