the screams of horror and pain, the laughing of the troll, the destroyed mansion had raised a fuss behind them, obscuring the scene and the blood dripping from the troll's hands was being replaced by the heavier and heavier breathe of Silmo and Raeneris, who never stopped running. neither of them never run at that velocity but now, the fatigue was too much to bear for Raeneris, his spleen was begging for mercy, his lungs ached, and his heart was beating so fast he thought it might explode at any moment. he cursed himself for having just lifted weights in the gym, his speed slowed dramatically.

  Silmo, who was behind him, slowed down to match his speed, he too was out of breath but never as much as Raeneris, the hours at the basketball court had paid off.

  both of them stayed in silence as they went on forward into the dark plain, the sky was ripped apart and a vast black emerged, there were no stars, no moon, just black, leaving the the city without natural light.

  they were pretty far away from the mansion's light and were sorrounded by darkness, it was so dense that he could see Silmo's silhouette and his facial details but nothing more. so Raeneris took out his phone to light ahead them, but before of that, he looked behind towards the mansion, the fuss had dissipated. the mansion was shaved to the ground and with it most of the light, some of them remained, the ones placed by them and powered by a generator. he couldn't see much, as the plain went down a little bit and the mansion were located in the most high part of that hill. the only thing he saw and gave him a lot of relief was the troll that was going in the their opposite direction.

  he stopped there to catch his breath In the quietest way he could, in that moment he heard a large building falling in the city, he turned left his head and saw a large fuss almost in the middle part of the city. his eyes opened at their maximum, it was a warzone, like the images of the war in the north that were broadcast on television while he was eating with his parents at lunch.

  <> thoughts while searching their number as fast as he can.

  "Raeneris, we cannot stop here" said Silmo with terror in his eyes.

  "shut up!" his respond was instantaneous while brought his phone at his right ear, each ring only strengthened his doubt, after a minute no one answer the phone.

  he stared at the ground for a couple of seconds, then with a heavy sigh, let his hand fall. <> he was brought to reality by Silmo's words.

  "i'm so glad you're fine." he said shifting his hair out of his face and hinting slightly a smile of relief. "mom and dad?" Silmo was talking on the phone, apparently he was not getting good news judging by the fast switch to a more serious face. "what the fuck" some tears began to fall from his eyes, he opened his mouth to talk but nothing came out. he wiped his tears off his face and he strained to make a smile appear on his face.

  suddently his forced smile trasformed into pure happiness. "Dad is fine?" his eyes meet those of Raeneris, one happy and hopeful for his family and the other one who need to accept the harsh reality. "oh i'm so glad you're fine." he cannot bear that eye contact and so he turn around facing the mansion. "don't worry about me, here there is no danger... ... i'm pretty far from the party, but the others are just fine, drunk but fine." Raeneris was surprised to see how he could keep a quiet, normal voice after seeing death so closely.

  Raeneris began to look in every direction, he strained to hear if there were any noises besides Silmo, which was beginning to annoy him and not a little, but fortunately or unfortunately he heard nothing. they were too much in a dangerous situation, alone on a hill, without no one except them, sorrounded by darkness and without a place to hide.

  "wait, Dad can you repeat" said Silmo as he put the phone on speaker and touch his friend's shoulder.

  "yeah... uhm... now the military has come" the voice of Silmo's dad was a little higher than the noise of hundreds chats, some scared, some hopeful, noise of people crying and sometimes can be heared gunshots and loud soldiers' orders. "they killed a monster coming towards us, the police are escorting us in a improvised safe place. thank god the mayor used a part of the military to help the police for the new year. we were lucky-" a deafening noise suddently appear and overwhelmed the voice.

  "it's an helicopter?" said Raeneris as close as possible to the microphone, but probably they couldn't hear him, so he turned his head toward the city to see where there was an helicopter.

  behind a building comes out a helicopter, judging by the distance, it was from the top right from where they are, the helicopter lowered and disappeared behind another building, soon after that same building collapsed but it came out of the fuss.

  <> thought Raeneris still looking at the city, which was turning more and more into rubble, more buildings were collapsing, and from up there he could see streets that were slowly becoming darker and darker.

  <> he thought without emotion, like he was watching a movie's scene.

  "DAD, we see the helicopters, you are at the exact opposite of where we are." said Silmo raising his tone.

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  "don't yell like that asshole" said immediately Raeneris panicking. "some monsters can hear us." continued.

  Silmo covered his mouth and looked around.

  "Raeneris, you two should come to where we are." said Silmo's Dad, his voice betrayed a bit of sadness.

  "too risky, there are too many of those things in the city" said Raeneris at two centimeters from the microphone. "i won't risk my life for that." his tone was unnecessary rude.

  Silmo remained in silence playing with his hair.

  "ok but after the military will deal with the monsters in the city you'll remain left out, what if a monster escape towards you?" a female voice spoke, his tone was cracked and something would sob.

  "ok Sarah, what if we try towards you and in the process we encounter a monster, what can we do? the military will take their time to kill them all." responded pissed off Raeneris.

  "you fucking retarded, you could scream for help, try to run, hide. what will you do if you encounter it where you are?" the sorrounding noise where were overwhelmed by Sarah's voice, she was desperate.

  "I DON'T KNOW WH--" Raeneris lost his control but Silmo muted him immediately by putting an hand in front of his mouth.

  "don't yell asshole." said as calm as possible Silmo try to calm Raeneris.

  the two of them noticed how everything has become more quiet, they turned to the phone and saw that the call was ended.

  Silmo, out of fear of the endless possibilities that could happened to them, try as fast as he can to call them back, but the call didn't even started.

  "there is no signal" said while his arm fall toward the ground as if he was dead.

  "probably some monsters destroyed one of the Linking Towers" responded Raeneris after some seconds, trying to regain his composure and his cold logic.

  "fuck, why right now." Silmo was still staring at the void like he was hypnotized.

  "we have to look for a place to hide, we can't stay here, then we could think about everything else." his tone was calm and firm. he started to look around like he could see beyond that darkness.

  <> his thought's flow was interrupted by a cold breeze that sent a chill down his spine. the adrenalin was disappearing, they were far from the warm environment they've created in mansion, and his hoodie wasn't enough to keep him warm, especially in the middle of the night

  the hill was silent again, Silmo was looking at Raeneris's feet but he was lost in his thoughts, the air was getting cold and Raeneris's hoodie wasn't enough to warm him.

  <> the mere thought of the troll and the dead corpses there made him feel sick, he closed his eyes and tried to think of something else.

  "we should go towards the forest." said quickly to change the subject and finally those images disappeared. "there are no other places beside it to hide and have a chance to survive." he turned towards Silmo but he was already looking back at him.

  "we should go towards the safe place." Silmo words were empty just like his gaze. "my sister is right, if we encounter another one of those in the forest we are as good as dead. in the city there's people, we can join a group, and there are many places to hide."

  "as many as there are monsters. you will be dead before you know it." Raenerys's tone was delicate and also pissed. He put his hands in his pockets, they were becoming ice blocks.

  "and there are also here" Silmo spoke right after Raeneris . "and... you didn't even know how many of them are there. they may be less than we expect." continued him with a smile that try to reassured more himself than Raeneris.

  Raeneris remained in silence and pointed with his head the city, which was getting worse second by second, more and more street lose their lights, the outskirt for the first time were more illuminated than the downtown.

  "and they could be a lot just as i said, we don't know. why risk it?" asked Raeneris and continued before Silmo could even think how to response. "you have to cross the entire city to get there." he the tone became harsher

  "i have to, my family needs me." he responded going face to face and then lifting the hood of his jacket, even he started to feel cold.

  "your family is more important than yourself? they have the M-I-L-I-T-A-R-Y" Raeneris begin to lose his calm once again.

  "what if something happened to them, how do you know if it was the Linking Towers? what if some monster had come to them?" Silmo was angry and began to raise his voice, he didn't care that he was spitting while talking.

  "then they're dead." Raeneris stopped for less than a second just for breath.

  "SHUT UP" someone he managed to not yell as he would have wanted, his hands took Raen's hoodie at chest level and his eyes where fixed on Raen's eyes. Raeneris was so displaced by Silmo, he had never seen him so angry, that he did not even have time to show any emotion and so he stared at him emotionless. they stared at each other for a couple of seconds, both of them trying to hear if something heard them, but the hill was as quiet as a cimitery.

  "fine, go down there, try to cross the city with all of those monsters and criminals. my father went to the north, people became animals when they're life is at risk. i wish you luck." said as calmly as a monk.

  "get off that fucking pedestal, you don't know anything and talk, maybe the forest is full too. i should wish you good luck." Silmo 's words were full of contempt, he let go Raeneris pushing a little bit behind and started to go downhill continuing on the path he had started when they were running away.

  "you went the wrong way, you should go that way" Raeneris pointed the direction where the troll went and his words where full of mockery.

  Silmo stopped and looked back, now Raeneris can only see a silhouette of him. "see, you don't think, i won't go where a fucking dick of five meters went. i understand now why Dewon e Vyllim chose to go with their friends."

  there was a small silence between them filled with the cold wind. then Silmo went on his path.

  "oh, one more thing," he turned back again. "not everyone is a bad person, not everyone will become a monster when their life is at risk. don't generalize it, everyone is different, some people will ignore me and others will let me join their group. remember that when you'll be alone in the forest." his tone was cold and grave. then the sound of grass that where moved by the cold breeze was accompanied by the sound of his footsteps.

  <> these thoughts became louder the farther away the footsteps were. he wanted to shout them all out, he wanted to turn around and go to him but he couldn't. he was standing there motionless like a statue, by now the cold didn't touch him anymore. until the only sound he heard were his breaths becoming irregular and sobbing, while tears were streaming down his cheeks