Pain.

  Grigori could feel pain all over his body. His eyes were heavy — hard to open. His body was swaying, he felt like he was being carried like a sack of meat. His ears were still ringing, from near him, he could hear the march of footsteps and names being called…

  “Grigori!”

  … his name was being called.

  “Grigori! Are you okay?” Grigori finally managed to open his eyes. He was feeling groggy, but he could identify the voice. It was Eda. being carried next to him by a zombie.

  “Uuuugh… Eda?”

  “Thank God you’re okay Grigori.” Eda said with a relief in her tone. “Not really.” However, Grigori refuted Eda’s claim. He was hurting all over, far from being okay. He was trying to recall his memory, the last thing he remembered was accompanying Daniel in his guard duty…

  “OH SHIT!” then he finally remembered that they were attacked by a horde of zombies. “EDA! ARE YOU O—” Grigori stopped midsentence. His vision was finally clear enough to see that they were all carried by zombies.

  “Yeah, we’re not really okay… but at least we’re still alive.” Eda said dejectedly. She knew the worst was yet to come. Being kidnapped by undead like this could mean only one thing — they were about to be a necromancer’s experimental subject

  .”Shit!” Grigori tried to break free from the zombie’s grasp. His fist hit the zombie’s chest and his body wiggled with all the strength he could muster… but to no avail. The zombie kept marching mindlessly. Grigori only tired himself further, making his head even dizzier than before. “...shit… don’t feel so good.”

  “He he” Eda laughed weakly. Even though their situation desperate, she could not help but laugh at Grigori’s antics. “... say… where’s Azali? Did she manage to escape?” Grigori asked Eda, she could only shake her head. “She’s somewhere behind us.”

  Grigori tried to look behind him. His vision was obscured by countless zombies, but he could catch a glimpse of Azali. She looked as tired as the other kids around them, either from crying or resisting. All of them were now just passively being carried by the zombies… like sacks of meat.

  “Grigori… do you think he'll save us? Do you think Regulus will come?” Eda sounded defeated, not believing that Regulus would come. “Of course he will. Regulus won’t abandon us. He always saves us.” Grigori tried to convince Eda, tried to lift her spirits.

  But Eda did not even listen to him. Her gaze wandered, empty. Grigori realized, unless Regulus showed up in front of them right now… they were all as good as dead. All the kids were like Eda… lifeless, just as lifeless as their kidnappers. Grigori tried to muster up a word of encouragement, one more attempt to revive everyone… but the word was stuck… He had nothing.

  Then the zombie dropped him. The sudden drop hurt his chest and bloodied his nose. He was not the only one, the zombies had dropped all the kids abruptly. Some of the kids, like Daniel, were looking around, wondering if this was the opportunity for an escape.

  “Eda… Eda!” Grigori also wanted to use this opportunity to run, but Eda was not listening. Her gaze was fixated straight ahead. In front of them, stood a gaunt figure. He was bald, and his ribs were visible. If it was not for the gaudy and menacing robes that he wore, he would easily be mistaken as another undead.

  The gaunt figure scoured the room with his cold eyes, judging, analyzing each and every kid he had kidnapped. He was looking at them like they were less than human — nothing more but a test subject. The kids did not know who the man in front of them was, but they could tell he was the one controlling the undead.

  The figure moved his hand. He was a conductor, moving the zombies to his whim. They lifted the children back up and walked the way the gaunt man directed them too. “Shit! Shit! EDA! AZALI!” Grigori screamed as hard as he could, they were being separated. Eda just let herself being carried, while Azali cried, struggling as hard as her small body could, trying to reach Grigori.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  The zombies kept moving to their designated location, ignoring the children’s cries and struggles. “REGULUS! WHERE ARE YOU?” As Azali and Eda disappear from his sight… Grigori howled one last time.

  **************

  Regulus had arrived in their cave. He did not like what he smelled. Blood, youngling’s and Molrrets’ blood wafted in the air. He wished it was not true, but it was. Their nest was attacked. Kisara kept shouting his name, hoping he had an answer. But Regulus had no answer yet. He used the bounce of Kisara’s voice to figure out the current situation inside the cave. Multiple bodies, four of them were younglings, including Andy — and a lot of mutilated Molrrets. Near him was an object he got acquainted with lately… Mr.Butter. Regulus went and grabbed Mr.Butter. It dropped near one of the air holes. There was a trace of Azali’s smell inside the hole, but the smell did not extend up to the surface. Considering there was a smell of a corpse and a bit of Azali’s blood inside the hole, Regulus concluded that Azali was captured. At the very least, he believed they were not dead yet — otherwise their smell would be different… just like how Andy smelled right now.

  “ANDY!!!”

  The Armory robbery team had finally caught up. They were all shocked with the sight they witnessed. Uri, seeing Andy’s body lay motionless, ran towards him immediately. “Stay with me Bud. Stay with me.” He kneeled next to Andy, pointlessly trying to put his intestine back in.

  “Uri… Andy dead.” Regulus tried to inform Uri, and Uri became enraged when he heard it. “SHUT UP REGULUS!!!” Uri breathing became erratic. He was pointing his anger at Regulus — but not for long. “JOHN!!! WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED HERE!!!” He now pointed his wrath at John. Everyone remembered John’s weird behavior back in the armory — everyone had an inkling John was somehow involved in this.

  But John was in no condition to answer. He was delirious. Cold sweat flooded his entire body. His breathing bordered hyperventilation. He kept muttering to himself, “It’s my fault, It’s my fault.” Regulus smelled blood — John’s blood. He was biting his own thumb nervously.

  “JOHN!!!” Uri marched aggressively towards John. D’aka and Paulie had to step up to stop him. “WHAT DID YOU DO JOHN?” He howled, trying to break free from D’aka and Paulie. John shirked from Uri’s anger and he started biting his thumb more, eating the tip of it. “John…” Cooper, who saw John bite his thumb off, was concerned. He wanted to physically stop John, but he looked so fragile. Cooper felt the slightest touch would shatter him.

  Yet Regulus grabbed John’s hand without hesitation. Stopping him from further hurting himself. “John…” Regulus said softly, “... Calm down.”

  John’s body trembled, “Regulus… I… I…” A thousand excuses tried to escape his mouth, but none could. “...I’m sorry.” Once he said it, John fell to his knees, sobbing uncontrollably. Regulus gently let go of his arm, and pat John in the back, helping him to control his breathing.

  Seeing John visibly vulnerable, Uri’s anger waned a bit. “FUCK!” He let out his frustration and turned away from John. He could not bear to see John like that. None of the kids could. John had always been a reliable and strong leader in their eyes. Now, they realized John was just a kid like them.

  “Regulus…” Kisara spoke up. “What do we do now?” She was hoping Regulus had a solution… for none of them did.

  “For now, we wait.” Regulus said. Kisara wanted to protest, but she was cut off before she could, “we’re still looking for them.” She realized that they’re waiting until the Molrrets able to find the other kids — their missing family. “They’re still alive, Regulus?” Kisara wanted Regulus to confirm it, that there was hope that most of the children were still alive. “Possibly. At least they don’t smell dead.” Regulus gave a vague answer. That was the best she could get, and she would cling to that sliver of hope.

  “Cooper. Yenn…” Once he placated Kisara’s worry, Regulus moved on to the others. John was in no position to lead, and he could tell none of them could take John’s position. So Regulus decided to give them something to do, to get their mind off from their worry, to answer Kisara’s question — ‘What do we do’

  “... You two, go to the surface. Find all the other younglings and gather them all here.” The two of them understood the purpose of Regulus’ order. Just like Kisara, not all of them were inside the cave by the time they left. There might be other members who were roaming in the city, completely unaware of what happened. There was also the possibility of some of the kids inside the cave managing to escape during the event — they would be able to explain what actually happened. The both of them immediately climbed the air holes, following Regulus’ order.

  “Everyone else, go back to the armory and grab as many pieces of metals you can.” The boys gave their affirmative, while Kisara and the girls were a bit confused, but they decided to follow the boys anyway.

  Now, all that was left in the cave was Regulus, John, corpses, and a single Molrret. Regulus peed near the Molrret, once it smelled Regulus’ piss, it dug a hole, disappearing to the bottom of the earth. Once it was gone, Regulus sat in front of John. He was no longer crying, just kneeling there, zoning out.

  Regulus sat in front of John silently, while John stared at him mindlessly. After a few minutes of silence, John asked Regulus a question, “Regulus… What will you do to me?” Regulus was a bit confused by John’s question, so he clarified. “Are you going to kill me?”

  “No. I will never harm any of you.”

  “I caused all of this Regulus.” John raised his voice.

  “Did you directly harm any of us?” Regulus asked. “No, but I might as well.”

  Regulus thought about it a bit, before he answered John. “As long as you don’t kill one of us with your own hand, I won’t either. I will never kill one of us.”

  John knew this. He knew Regulus would not harm nor kill one of them. However, there was one thing that still bothered him. “What about others? What about the people that’s not a part of our group? The one that is not… us.”

  Regulus thought about it before he answered, “what about them?”

  “Heh… Heh… Hahahhahaha.” That was the answer John needed. It confirmed his decision to betray Regulus was not the wrong one — only the results went horribly wrong.