Joseph lifted his head with difficulty to find the beast fallen on the ground. He took a deep breath and fell back to the ground as the feelings of fear and anxiety began to fade, replaced by a sense of relief and the joy of victory. Everyone remained fallen on the ground from exhaustion. Several minutes passed with them in the same state, until they began to hear footsteps approaching them. They directed their gazes toward the source of the sound to find Jenny walking toward them from afar. Joseph rose from the ground and looked toward the group lying on the ground and said to them: "I know you're tired right now, but we need to get out of here. We don't know what else might appear to us." Jesse and the rest of the team got up and headed toward Joseph to let him lead them to an exit from this place.
Joseph advanced toward the dense trees with the others following behind him. While walking, Jenny approached Ethan, who was with Jesse, and said to him: "Thank you for helping me earlier." Ethan looked toward her and showed a slight smile on his face, then Jesse placed his hand on Ethan's shoulder with signs of pride on his face and looked toward Jenny and said to her: "No need to thank him, we're a team, we need to help each other." After that, the team continued walking among the trees left and right. Time passed and Joseph began stopping from time to time, looking around him, then continuing to walk. They remained in the same state for a long period of time, until they noticed that the sun began to set.
Nicholas was surprised by how long they had been walking and said: "Joseph, hours have passed and we're walking and haven't reached our destination, and night is about to arrive, what's holding you back?" Joseph turned toward them with expressions of worry dominating his face. When the team saw Joseph's worry, they all thought of one thing: "We're lost."
Anger began to take hold of Nicholas and he approached Joseph and grabbed his shirt forcefully, saying: "Seriously, didn't you tell us there's no need to fear getting lost as long as you're with us? Was all of that just nonsense?" Joseph placed his hand on Nicholas's hand and replied with difficulty: "Yes, I said that, but you need to calm down and let me explain to you." Nicholas replied angrily: "Calm down? We've lost our way in a forest and darkness is about to fall!" Jesse approached Nicholas and separated him from Joseph and said to him: "Calm down, man, let us at least hear his excuse."
Joseph began breathing for some time with his eyes closed and leaning on his knees. He said: "Thank you Jesse... (breathing) Well, it seems that chasing that beast made me lose track of the directions, and since the forest is just similar trees, that made me get lost more. I tried to remember the path and continue walking, but I was getting more lost." Nicholas looked at him angrily and tried to attack him, but Jesse stopped him and tried to calm him down. Joseph lowered his head in regret and said: "I'm truly sorry. I was supposed to be the person who leads you toward the right path, but now I'm the reason for your getting lost."
Nicholas replied: "You should be sorry, you bastard." Joseph continued his speech saying: "But we shouldn't remain still and continue struggling, we need to search for a place to spend the night before nightfall." Jesse replied with a frustrated face: "Alright, let's just camp in this place. Go collect wood to light a fire before nightfall." Everyone spread out in the area searching for tree branches and gathered them in one of the areas relatively clear of trees, and stopped when darkness fell.
Jesse approached the pile of branches and took out from his pocket a small flint stone and a metal piece. He began striking the stone against the metal piece, producing the first spark for the fire to begin blazing. The fire spread warmth in the coldness of night and light in the midst of its pitch darkness. Everyone brought stone pieces and sat on them in front of the burning fire. After a while of sitting in front of the fire, Joseph felt hungry so he asked Jenny to take out the food that was in the bag. Jenny opened the bag and took out three water bottles and a plastic bag containing five sandwiches stuffed with meat. Jenny distributed the sandwiches to everyone and everyone began eating. The only thing that broke the silence was the sound of the burning fire and the sound of tree leaves moving from the wind.
Ethan looked toward Joseph to find expressions of sadness on his face as he ate slowly. He shifted his gaze toward Nicholas to find him close to finishing his sandwich while looking toward Joseph with angry looks. Meanwhile, silence prevailed among the group. Jesse noticed the gloomy atmosphere surrounding them, so he said with a cheerful face: "Well, we've known each other for a while, so what do you think about telling how we used to live or how our experience of living was before we met?" Joseph replied saying: "Good idea, this is better than this silent atmosphere. Alright, who wants to start?"
Everyone remained silent looking toward each other, waiting for who would step forward first. Jenny broke the silence saying with her usual worried face: "Alright, I'll be the one to start." Everyone looked toward her, which increased her nervousness a little. She took a deep breath and began speaking: "Alright, I'll tell you my story... During my mother's pregnancy with me, she and my father were fleeing from a group of those beasts. My mother was pregnant, so of course she didn't have the ability to run, so my father was running while carrying her on his back. He continued running until he reached one of the buildings and closed a metal door and continued climbing the stairs to get away from the beasts that were trying to break down the door to reach him. He continued climbing until he reached the roof of the building and closed the door. My father placed my injured mother, who was about to give birth, on the ground while she was screaming because of labor pain. My father remained tense as he looked at her screaming with all her strength, holding her arm trying to comfort her. She kept screaming for several hours, then stopped screaming and the sound of my crying began to appear. My father quickly went to me and cut the umbilical cord with one of the knives he had. He was at the peak of his happiness at that moment. He went toward my mother and told her to look at her child, I was born, but she didn't react at all. My father was surprised for a moment thinking she was just tired, so he shook her and told her to wake up to see her daughter, but she remained in the same position without any reaction. The expressions of happiness disappeared from his face and he quickly put his ear to my mother's chest. Expressions of shock appeared on his face when he found that her heart was no longer beating. He tried to revive her and perform artificial respiration on her, but nothing worked. My mother had passed away and couldn't even see her daughter who was born. My father remained frozen looking toward my mother's dead body while the sound of my crying filled the place." Her features changed and became more gloomy and she completed her words: "Every time I remember this story, a question comes to my mind: Was my birth something that brought joy to my father or was it just something that increased his suffering in this world?" The expressions on Jesse's and Joseph's faces changed and became sadder while Nicholas became somewhat gloomy. Jenny continued speaking: "After that, my father left the building after those beasts moved away and found one of the cars whose doors were open and whose keys were still there. That was the luckiest thing that day. He started the car and sped out of that city and stopped in one of the deserts far from people or those creatures and decided to spend the night in one of the caves."
"My father's treatment of me was somewhat good as he cared for me and feared for me from danger, but he was distant from me most of the time. He would be outside searching for food and stay in his room for the rest of the day, so I didn't always talk to him, but I loved him and he loved me, and I appreciated his effort to keep me alive. Despite this, he would play with me and spend some hours hanging out with me. Until I became 16 years old, he told me he would go search for some food and left, but I didn't know it would be the last time I would see him. He was late, so I went out to search for him in the area where he used to bring food because he had shown it to me once, but I didn't find him there. I kept searching for him for days and months but I didn't find him, so I had to do everything alone: bring food, bring drink, and live in isolation. Until when I became 19 years old, I went as usual to bring some food but I was late because the place I used to go to became completely empty of any supplies, so I changed locations. Anyway, while returning home, I noticed a strange person from afar who wasn't completely visible, but I think I saw him wearing an orange mask with black glass glasses. After looking at him, I suddenly lost consciousness and found myself in a strange room. I headed toward one of the doors present and opened it, and that was our first meeting, us four, and I think you know what happened next because you were present there."
Nicholas's pupils widened and he looked toward Jenny with surprise: "A man with an orange mask? Impossible, I saw him too before I found myself in those rooms with you."
(End)
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