3

“Yoshizawa-san?”

The words ‘you’re dead’ weren’t something that Yossi was expecting, but again, after all that she heard the last hours, she shouldn’t have been so surprised.

“You’re ok?” Kaoru seemed worried.

“Hmm… yeah… It’s just… Too much information, you know?”

“Maybe you’re right and we should go ba…”

The girl’s words were interrupted by a deafening noise, as if the sky was crumbling over them. At first, her mind told her to be quiet and wait until whatever it was passed, but Yossi didn’t seem to agree with that and taking her arm, made the younger stand up.

“Run!”

None of them could see what was happening but it was better to hide somewhere than staying there where they would be easily noticed. The girls ran as fast as they could to hide behind a wall at the same time that gun shots began to mix with the cracking noise. It was like being in the middle of a war.

“We have to get out of here!”

Yossi was trying to make the younger understand that they had to activate the Traveler to go somewhere else where they could be safe, but Kaoru was too scared to move. She had curled up herself, hiding her head between her kneels and under her arms. It was then when the whistle of a bullet passed almost brushing her ear and hit the wall behind her, making the girl scream. Seeing that, Hitomi ran next to the younger and took her wrist, where the Traveler was, and pushed the button.

After a few eternal seconds, nothing happened.

No white blinding light, no headache and, definitely, no safer place.

“It doesn’t work! Why it doesn’t work?!” Yossi’s voice began to sound hysterical and desperate “Kaoru! Do something!”

“I… I can’t…”

“Yes you can! Wanna die?!” this time Yoshizawa was angry “Because that’s what will happen if…”

Suddenly, the older realized that the shooting had stopped. She doubted for a moment but, as the leader as she was, Yossi couldn’t weaken. She mustered all her courage and, standing slowly, she stuck out her head over the wall, just at the same time that something jumped over her.

Yossi moved back surprised and tripped, falling to the ground and hitting her head. Luckily, she didn’t lose her consciousness and remained on the floor just a little confused.

“Yoshizawa-san!”

Kaoru’s voice was a warning. A desperate attempt to make the older get up before something could attack her. Hitomi could just kneel, with a hand on her head still hurting, and raised her eyes to look at the threat in front of them.

The first thing that crossed her mind was that the thing that was looking at her wasn’t human. It was standing on her legs like a man; it had strong arms like a man; but the face.., the face was something that Yossi could have just seen in a nightmare. Big red glassy eyes, white cracked skin with some black spots and an evil smile that showed a row of sharp teeth.

Yossi hesitated for a moment. After seeing how that thing jumped the wall, it was obvious that it wasn’t going to be easy to escape. There was just one way to make one of them to stay alive. She stood up and looked at the creature. There’s no turning back.

“Run!”

She shouted to Kaoru at the same time that she began to run too, but in another direction. Right straight to the creature that didn’t expect the attack. With one move, it was knocked down by Yossi, but she felt as hitting a rock and remained on the ground too. She just could move her head a little to check that the younger wasn’t there anymore. At least, one of them was safe.

The creature had stood up and was looking at her with a awful smile. She gave up. There was no more strength in her body to fight. But suddenly, when she was going to close her eyes to wait the end, the smile on the monster’s face dropped. Something had gone through her throat, a thing and sharp arrow.

A bit relieved, Yossi finally closed her eyes. No matter what was going to happen after. She just wanted to rest. It didn’t matters if she was alone, lying on the ground of a destroyed city. It didn’t even matter the steps approaching her. She just stayed there with her eyes closed, even when she heard a surprised and familiar voice.

“Holy shit…”

To be continued...

Labels: Traveler