Bringing the new survivors to shelter in the house was met with a negative reaction from the Kaczmarek family. They considered the two untrustworthy; after all, they knew nothing about them. Isabella and Kaja were the only ones who stood up for them, arguing that they needed to help each other in such difficult times. Besides, they needed more people. It is true, of course, that more people equals more food, but in a larger group it is easier to survive after all.

  Tarhos did not wait and, without any permission, rushed into Emil's room, wanting to see him. He found the bed all bathed in blood from Emil's still bleeding, albeit slightly, wound. Just as they had told him, the boy was in a coma. The family told Tarhos and Aurora about Klara and her boyfriend, what they had done to Emil and that their disappearance was not certain.

  "It's terrible how the collapse of civilization turns people into wild animals." Tarhos, wanting to see Emil's wound, lifted the bandage up slightly. "You took good care of him, Judyta."

  "Years of work have come to something." She replied, proud of herself. She inspected the wound together with the man.

  "Do you have a transfusion kit here?" covered Emil with a blanket, giving him peace of mind already. The transfusion had to be done immediately, he knew, and that's why he urged everyone.

  The woman rushed to the storage room to get the necessary materials. Tarhos, meanwhile, was looking for Aurora, who at the time was sitting outside watching a dog outside the gate, whining to be let in. The dog was a stray, although it very often came to the Kaczmarek family for feeding or simply playing. Before the epidemic, there were plans to take him in, but as we know, the world died and it was completely forgotten. The dog was hungry, blindly begging for food. At the door passed Tarhos Kaja, who came out of the building holding a can of some food in her hand. She always loved animals and animals loved her. Miko?aj and Anna unfortunately didn't agree on the dog, at least it was until then because they had recently broken down about it. She wanted to keep the dog so she did everything she could to prevent it from running away. Tarhos, waiting a moment, followed the youngster out.

  Aurora took a few steps backward the moment Kaja opened the gate to let the dog in having first checked to see if there was any danger hanging around. She thought to herself, however, that since the animal paraded through the village without any problems, there was no corpse. And she was right, the street was empty, the silence in the village could be calming. The dog jumped around Kaja, wagging its tail contentedly. The girl almost fell under its pressure. She crouched down beside him to keep him from throwing himself around so much. She opened the can with a penknife, intending to feed him. Aurora looked at Kaja with a puzzled face, she looked as if she didn't quite understand what she was doing.

  "Why are you feeding him?" she asked curiously, seeing the girl give food to the dog.

  "Because why not?" she answered with a question to a question, innocently turning her gaze to her friend.

  "It's just a dog. Food should be saved and not wasted on animals." She looked at the young Kaczmarek, who was not thrilled with Aurora's words.

  "It's not just a dog! They deserve to live too!" she became indignant, but she did not make sudden movements so as not to frighten the dog.

  "If you were outside and had to choose. You or the dog, what would you do?" The brakes were starting to let go of her. She couldn't resist her nature.

  "Well..." Kaja was too good to answer that question right away, for a moment she was stumped. Her innocence poured out from every side, it irritated Aurora. She hated weak people.

  "As I thought. You are weak." She waved her hand, turning away. "You won't survive a month with this attitude, you are not made for this world. The first better corpse will eat you."

  These words disarmed Kaja. It hurt her, which Aurora did not notice at first. Kaja was afraid that what she said might turn out to be true. She was a child, she had every right to feel fear. The reality in which she lived was not easy, for anyone.

  "Why do you say that?" her voice faltered. The sadness she felt drove her to cry. She felt helpless.

  "Because it's true." She turned her head, hearing the pull of her nose. She was surprised. "Are you crying?"

  Kaja was angry and sad. She vacillated between these two emotions. She herself was aware of her weakness. That she would not be able to cope was obvious to her. However, despite this, the girl did not want to be like this, her goal was to become independent. She pursued this mainly because she did not want to be ballast for others any longer.

  "I am not weak!" she exploded. The dog that had just eaten its meal jumped away, wagging its tail after her scream. She came face to face with Aurora. The dark-haired one with a stony face reciprocated her gaze to Kaja, who, seeing her friend's face, felt uncomfortable. Kaczmarka tried to scare her at least a little, but she was unimpressed. Aurora was out of this world, even zombies couldn't scare her and Kaja didn't understand why.

  "Then prove it." She smiling mockingly.

  "How?"

  "Kill a few zombies. Then we'll see if you're just a tiny baby."

  Kaja was skeptical about this proposal. She was afraid to go out, especially alone. In addition, she was afraid of her parents' reaction if she suddenly left without saying a word to herself because if she were to ask, they would certainly forbid it. She didn't know what to answer, Aurora saw this, parrying with laughter. This incited Kaja. According to her, she wasn't a child.

  "But my parents will be angry." she explained.

  "That is, you are a coward. Cool."

  "Jeez, all right." she finally agreed, upset with the situation. "I'll prove it to you and you'll piss it all away, you dumb doll."

  "Oh my, the baby is getting rough?" provoked her, taking pleasure in it. However, the same could not be said of Kaja, whose vein was already snapping. "So what, we sneak out at night?"

  The girl did not let go, she had to prove to Aurora that she could be useful for something. She also hoped to impress Aurora, it motivated her.

  "If you want." She pretended to be confident.

  Tarhos approached the girls, listening to the conversation from a distance. He smiled as he saw Aurora finally gaining contact with someone of her age. It was a sad smile that could not be seen under the "mask". Old, long-dormant emotions were awakened in the man. Aurora knew her father perfectly, and unlike Kaja, she saw the despair he was experiencing. It was not the first time what she had not understood until then.

  "Kaja, forgive me, but I have to sneak Aurora to you." He said laughing, noticing Aurora's face.

  "I will beat you." she replied quickly in a cool tone.

  "Don't get angry. Come on, we need to do a transfusion."

  Kaja all the way jumped up with joy at these words. She could not hide the happiness on her face. From all this, she had forgotten about the challenge she had accepted from Tarhos' daughter a while ago. Just as Kaja had been mired in the sadness she had been suppressing inside for two days, she finally felt that things were beginning to settle down. New friends had joined them and her brother would be rescued. There was not a person in the entire shelter more happy than her.

  All three of them headed home. Kaja called the family announcing to them that the newcomers were ready. Judyta prepared the equipment, which Tarhos watched and corrected any mistakes that happened. Despite all his knowledge, he denied having anything to do with medicine. Everyone became suspicious but Emil's health was more important so they ignored it. They felt they could rely on the man, not everyone would agree to voluntarily give up their weapons to strangers and yet he did. After preparations, they proceeded with the transfusion, taking place under the supervision of Judyta and Tarhos.

  "How long will it take?" Anna asked, standing by her son's bedside and stroking his fair hair.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  "It depends on how much blood he has lost. If very much then he will take this blood in doses so as not to cause problems for Aurora" Tarhos replied, taking blood from his daughter.

  "You have experience, don't you? You look like you know what to do." Miko?aj asked the question, which was scrolling for the umpteenth time that day.

  "Please end this topic. No, I am not a doctor." He cut off the subject, focusing on his work. A few, maybe a dozen moments passed when Tarhos finally leaned back in his chair. "Now we wait."

  "When will he wake up?" snapped out Kaja, running up to Emil as Aurora vacated her seat by the bed. Impatient, she now only wanted to hear her brother's voice again.

  "That remains to be seen." Judyta answered her, taking out a pack of cigarettes and taking one for herself. Veredi picked it up, asking for the cigarette she gave him.

  "Maybe in a few days." he added. "But there is no longer a threat to life, you can take it easy."

  The household members dispersed around the house, with only Tarhos and Judyta remaining by Emil's side to watch for any bad symptoms. Everyone took care of themselves, as they do every day. The same boring scenarios every day. Some read books for which there was no time before. Others drowned their sorrows in alcohol and still others slept or simply pondered their own and their family's fate.

  Time passed, the procedure for administering blood to the wounded Emil was already in its final stages, although there was still some time to wait. Only as midnight approached did Kaja realize what she had gotten herself into. She was looking for ways to call off the late-night sit-in, but she didn't want to come off as soft as Aurora had her for. She panicked terribly. She wandered around the house, biting her nails out of fear. She was asking herself questions for the hell of it. She was about to burst into tears, but the voice of Tarhos reached her, looking at the girl from behind the ajar door. Kaja, out of all this, didn't notice that the whole family had been asleep for a long time, she didn't even realize that midnight was about to strike.

  "You can't sleep?" He asked in a soothing, low voice. He sounded sleepy. He waved his hand to the girl to enter the room.

  Veredi sat in Emil's room all this time. He sat in the rocking chair again and sipped hot tea from a thermal mug, which he then brewed in a traditional kettle with Judyta's help. He prepared himself bluntly for a night with a patient. For this purpose, he borrowed a book to kill time. He refused to sleep when others asked him about it. He wanted to be by Emil's side, to observe his treatment. You could see the fatigue in his eyes and not only that. Something had been bothering him all day.

  The girl stood next to Emil's bed for a moment then sat in a chair next to Tarhos. They sat aimlessly in truth, both having the same need to simply sit next to the boy. Kaja was stressing about leaving the shelter, she was soon to meet Aurora in front of the gate. However, while she had the opportunity, she wanted to use it to ask her father about various matters related to her.

  "Aurora-" she began, seeing Tarhos' abrupt gaze on her she hesitated for a moment. "It's hard to talk to her."

  The man pondered her words for a moment.

  "I know." he confirmed briefly.

  "She keeps saying that I'm weak and that I can't cope." She continued, hoping that the man would side with her. "She made me angry."

  "I apologize for her." He again cut it short to the maximum.

  "What is she better at?" Kaja did not disguise her words anymore. When she gets angry she doesn't know when to stop. "Is she any special?"

  "She grew up differently." He turned his head in the opposite direction, trying to cover the tears in his eyes. "She didn't go to school. She had no friends. She never had a mother. I was alone when she appeared."

  Kaja was puzzled, because after all Tarhos had spoken of Aurora as his daughter and now from his words it seemed that it was completely different. And she took up the subject, wanting to understand what he was talking about.

  "Then Aurora is not your daughter?"

  "She is not a biological one. I lost my daughter years ago. In 2001, I remember it to this day." He snoted, still covering his face.

  The girl gasped. She felt terribly bad. The emotions coming out of Tarhos passed on to Kaja, causing her to feel terrible sadness as well. She appreciated that the man opened up with her and didn't want to interfere as long as he spoke.

  "That day I returned from the hospital from the night shift." His hands began to shake as he returned to those moments with memories. "My wife... she was dead. I know she wanted to protect our child, because she had a lot of wounds and fractures on her body. Lena was nowhere to be found."

  Tarhos clenched his teeth with rage mixed with despair. Kaja feared that the man might not be able to stand it mentally. She wanted to cut into his words to make him stop talking but he continued without listening to her.

  "It wasn't until a week later that I found out what was wrong with her. The people who did this were not enough just to know, no, no. The bastards left photos and videos on cassette under my door. I won't tell you what was on them, it's already too much even for me."

  Emotions, accumulating inside Tarhos finally found their outlet. The man burst into tears, destroying his image of a cool uncle with Kaja. At least from his perspective. The girl felt embarrassed and didn't know what to do. She understood the pain Tarhos faced, though it was beyond her comprehension how life could be so cruel. This was her first confrontation with reality. Before this, she considered the old world as candy, looking at it through rose-colored glasses. The realization that life was also terrible for many people before the apocalypse affected her greatly.

  "I killed many people after that loss. I want you to know that."

  "Did you find these people?" she inquired, believing that the perpetrators had suffered punishment.

  "Yes. I hunted them for seven long years. All of them are dead. Including myself." Tarhos looked deeply into Kaja's eyes, wiping away his tears. He leaned toward her with a pleading gesture. "I couldn't make Aurora a good person. I wanted to. I really did. But after all this time... from whom was she supposed to take good role models like her father is such a man?"

  Kaja listened in silence. She was damn sorry to see Tarhos in such a state, she believed he didn't deserve all this. For what sins does a person face so much suffering? She asked herself this question in her spirit, involuntarily shedding a few tears herself.

  "Please be a good friend to her. Even if she doesn't want it, I know that's what she needs. Someone has to guide her. Will you do it for me, Kaja?"

  The girl agreed without thinking, tugged by her emotions. Tarhos' request engraved in her heart a sense of responsibility for Aurora. For a person she has known for only one day. However, it didn't bother her, the girl wanted to spread help and love. Someone had to do it when the whole group was losing its humanity with each passing day. This was her mission, to be the angel of the whole group keeping the group sane. Impressing the girl no longer mattered to Kaja. She was no longer angry with her because she understood that she was an ordinary girl with a disturbed worldview. She sympathized with her, Kaja herself had an ideal life and Aurora's resentment could also be related to jealousy because the only thing Aurora wanted in life was a family.

  Kaja left the house a few minutes after midnight. The moonlight illuminated as much as it could, enough so that Kaja was not afraid of the dark. However, she couldn't give up now that Aurora was waiting for her at the gate. On the way, she thought about how she should convince the girl, her first impression already shattered. At the sight of Aurora, watching the stars in the sky, she let out a mouthful of air taking courage. Aurora noticed Kaja, she sighed as if she had been waiting for ages.

  "And what, ready or cowering?" She opened the gate, being in readiness for their nocturnal reunion. She wanted to leave already when she was strongly surprised by Kaja's voice.

  "I'm sorry." She said, avoiding eye contact. Aurora didn't understand. "Let's stay at home."

  "That is, you are a coward." She replied with a snort of laughter.

  "That's not the point, Aurora. I know it's hard for you." she tried to put a sentence together that made any sense, but she was doing poorly.

  Kaja's embarrassment caused Tarhos' daughter even more surprise. Then it occurred to her that her almost peer must have exchanged a few sentences with her father. She felt uncomfortable.

  "What do you mean?" She growled in a defensive move.

  "Let's become friends. You and me."

  "What?" something struck Aurora, a feeling she had never known in her life. The girl had not experienced friendship, had not even interacted with her peers. She had no idea how she should behave. On the one hand, she felt independent of anyone and on the other, she was full of loneliness. She struggled with herself, not knowing which emotion she should follow. Without hearing Aurora's answer, Kaja raised her head to look at her and saw the silhouette of a man emerging from nowhere. Aurora felt the blade of a knife at her throat, froze in stillness. Kaja, trying to do something, hesitated, hearing the unlocking of the weapon. Looking to the side she saw a revolver pointed at her and a face she had not forgotten. The perpetrators who had hurt her brother were back.

  "Are we interrupting?" Igor laughed mentally, pulling the girl's hair back exposing more of her larynx.

  Aurora hissed, for the first time fearing for her life. Shocked Kaja did not know what to do, her breathing sped up, she had a panic attack. Klara approached Kaja and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her out of the shelter area behind the gate.

  "You just want her." She pointed at Kaja, showing that Igor could leave the other girl alone.

  However, he ignored her, taking Aurora with him as well. Appalled, Klara immediately wanted to convince him not to do so, but suddenly Igor hit her in the face with an open hand when Klara grabbed his arm. The girl moved away paralyzed by fear. Without complaining, she meekly followed his further orders.

  "Don't argue with me, dear." Igor pushed the young Veredi forward to start walking.

  Kaja and Aurora walked side by side in silence, glancing at each other from time to time. They knew they were in huge trouble.