Chapter 2 Grim Tidings

I opened my eyes, wincing at the brightness of the mid-morning sun as the bright reassuring rays leaked into my room through the blinds of the window. Morning. Another night survived in this hell hole. And another day to struggle for survival.

Rising up from my bed, I rubbed at my eyes to chase away the lack of sleep and last night's horror run. A good night's sleep was very rare here in Harran. The thought of your UV defenses suddenly cutting off and leaving you exposed to the night's horrors was enough to keep a man up late at night. Especially whilst hearing the spin chilling screams of Volatiles out in the distance searching for prey.

I sighed and decided to climb out of bed seeing as I was already wide awake and the fact I had to make a visit to the Tower. I hated to be the bearer of bad news but it would be best if Brecken heard about this beforehand rather than finding out the hard way by having one of his runners never come back from the ruined camp. Not knowing it was overrun by Viral's by now.

With each death inside this city it seems more and more of the living are disappearing each day. Somebody has to come and free us from the pit of monsters. They have too…

Exiting my room, I made my way down the hallway. The doors to each of the rooms had been left open and I could see that the sheets to the beds had been wrinkled and untidy. So it looks like the survivors I saved stayed. And made themselves comfortable due to the sounds of chattering down stairs.

As I walked down stairs, I turned the corner to see all of them sitting at the dining table. Talking in low voices hush voices and poking at the food somebody had cooked.

"Oh, good morning Michael-san. You're awake." Saeko greeted, dressed in her usual attire from last night.

"Yea, just woke up." I grunted. Still a little tired from not getting very much sleep.

"Well, at least you're not like Hirano here and will sleep like dead until someone wakes him up." Takagi said, taking a bit of her food with her eyes closed.

"I can't help it. I get so tired having to stay up all night and keep an eye out for Them all the time." The young gun man said defensively.

While Saeko, Shizuka, Kohta, Takagi and even Alice and Zeke talked amongst themselves, I noticed two individuals were missing."Uhh, where's Takashi and Rei?"

The chattering stopped as everyone looked at each other with distraught expressions. But none the less, I got an answer."Their upstairs in their rooms. After what happened last night…" Saeko trailed off, as if not wanting to remember such a horrid night.

"Ok, forget I said anything." I lifted my hands, shaking my head. I didn't want to reopen newly acquired wounds while they should heal. Emotion damage was much more hurtful than physical wounds. Believe me… I know.

As if right on cue, I heard a door open. Looking up the staircase I could see two individuals begin to make their way down the steps. Takashi's face was hidden by his long bangs, and Rei didn't face me but I could see her eyes were redden. She must have been crying.

I watched as they took their seats at the table. Rei didn't even touch her food and Takashi just stared down at his plate, completely oblivious to Saeko as she place a hand on his shoulder and stared at him with pity filled blue eyes.

Taking my seat at the table, I looked down at my plate to see fried hash browns and cooked spam."Hope you like it. I did the best I could with what I could find in that kitchen of yours." Saeko smirked, watching me dig into my food."And I hope you don't mind me intruding in your kitchen. I don't want to tread on your territory without permission."

"No, it's fine. What's mine is yours, within reason of course."

Saeko chuckled but didn't press the issue. Instead, it was Takagi's turn to question me. "So, mind telling us what the hell those monsters were last night?"

I froze in midbite. Looking into Takagi's stern orange frowning eyes. I glanced at each and everyone of their eyes. They all had a sense of fear in their eyes but none the less were curious. I stifled a sigh, setting my fork onto my plate.

"Those things are known as Volatiles." I answered, shivering as I recalled the face of one of the split jawed bastards. "Creepy ass Infected that only come out at night."

"Those monsters are one of Them?" Kohta asked, his eyes widen with fear. "Since when did They become those things?!"

I cocked an eyebrow at the emphasized Them and They in his sentence.

"You call the Infected Them? Why?"

They all looked at each other, then at me.

"Uhh, quick question?" Saeko asked. "Where the hell are we exactly?"

I cocked an eyebrow once again. How the hell do the people not know where they are? "You're in Harran. You know, the nightmare infested city of the dead."

"Wait, you mean we are in…" Kohta deadpanned, than exploded into a schizophrenic fit. "Holy shit! We're in HARRAN!"

Takagi frowned her eyebrows and watched Kohta spazz out with a quizzical expression. "What the hell are you talking about gun geek? Are we supposed to know about this place?"

"Don't you guys watch the News?! Harran is where a crazy ass virus started that mutated people and now it is quarantined off from the rest of the world!" Kohta answered, his face a pale white. "How the hell did we even get in here? Isn't that government agency the GRE supposed to keep us out?"

"Uh, hello stupid. The world is in Armageddon." Takagi growled, flicking Kohta in the side of the head. "So no one that is a government official is going to stop us from entering another hell pit."

I froze. What… what did she just say? "What are you talking about? Is no one coming to rescue us?"

Takagi paused and glared at me, then lifted her eyebrows in surprise at the sight of my fearful, questioning face. "Answer me?" I growled, gritting my teeth. I had to know if this was true. If the world is nothing but a monster infested hell.

"You mean you guys don't know about what happened." Saeko said. I looked over at her as she finally answered my question. "The entire outside world has been attacked by the undead."

My entire world seemed to stop. All I could hear was white noise. The entire world… has become like Harran. "So everyone… is dead? Everyone is experiencing something like this?"

"Thankfully, no." Takagi said, catching my attention as small is it was now. "The undead outside of this… place, are not as deadly."

"And ugly." Kohta added.

I remained silent, and stared down at my knees. Shit! No one... is coming to rescue us! We're going to have too live in this place... for the rest of our lives!

I frowned my eyebrows, Brekon's gonna want to here about this.

I rose out of my seat and walked over to the door where my bag and my weapon was stationed.

"Uhh, where are you going?" Takagi asked.

"To the Tower. It's where a good friend lives." I answered, pausing as I stepped out of the doorway. "Him and the other survivors need to know what's happened to the outside world."

Just as I was about to close the door, I managed to catch a rushed volunteer. "Wait, I'll go with you!"

Opening the door, I could see Takashi standing up from his chair. Determination written across his face. "Let me go with you!"

I raised an eyebrow. Watching Rei and Saeko stand up simultaneously. "I'll go with you Takashi!" They both looked at each other, than glared at each other, then finally looked the other way with dipleased looks on their faces.

I stifled a weary sigh. Those too looked like they'll be at each others throats about Takashi. But, it was good to see Takashi and Rei on their feet and supposedly recovering from their traumatizing experience. Their stronger than they look.

"Fine but we're gonna have to stay on the rooftops to avoid the Biters."

"Wait, what do mean?" Rei questioned, a puzzled look on her face.

"Let me rephrase that." I said, glancing back at them. "We're gonna have to parkour our way to the Tower."