December 28th.
We have been traveling nonstop for many hours. I'm exhausted but I don't want to give up, not now. Lihin seems indifferent to fatigue and everything around us. I don't know if to trust him. He seems out of his mind, he's very strong, too strong. This thing scares me. But at least for now it protects us.
Walking through the umbrella forest, we were attacked repeatedly by local wildlife. It's a very dangerous place, I wouldn't have had the slightest hope if it weren't for Lihin. It is as if he senses the threat hours before it arises. He seems to have various weapons, but his favorite seems to be a very long chain, which somehow gives off a lethal aura to those beings.
Since the war against machines is over, the world has fallen into the endless hole it is in now. There is no hope. They all thought that the death of those things would put a step of hope ... That day, thousands and thousands of human beings, animals, were infected. I'll never forget the color of the sky that day. The light was completely dim, the ash dominated and fell relentlessly on our already destroyed lives.
I must go, Lihin is calling me.
December 29th.
We stopped in another clearing. I have never been to this place; I think I am very far ... from everything. The vegetation here takes on a purplish color, even the water. I don't dare to taste it. Lihin bends down and tastes it without concern. Fortunately, I still have some reserves in my backpack. My back is in pieces. I must carry both Jon and all the supplies. Lihin asked me several times if I wanted a hand, I refused, every time he burst into laughter. It is so strange to hear someone laugh. This world is no longer used to it.
Lihin says we are very close to the goal. In this forest it is cold, I walk away from the camp with my makeshift ax, closing Jon in the backpack. This choice scares me, but I won't be away for long, and if anything happens ... Nothing will happen. Lihin has gone away, he hasn't come back for twenty minutes. The trees nearby are huge and hard, and I am forced to look for others, in doing so I move further and further away, and this worries me. I finally find a thin tree. I begin to sink the ax. After each blow I hear strange noises. I seem to hear my wife's voice again. I plow through a few trunks that I find around and go back.
Listening better I realize that it is not my wife's voice.
Looks like Jon's.
"Lihin!" I scream, panic, try to call for help, hear a friendly voice, but nothing. In the meantime, I get lost.
"Lihin! I need help, where are you ?!" Anything. No reply.
Jon's voice gets louder, I follow the voice. It doesn't sound like a single voice, but many voices put together. Ten voices of Jon in one, hundreds of words screamed at the same time. Lihin comes out from behind a corner. I almost hit him.
"What happen?" He asks me calmly. His tone drives me crazy. "Do you feel it too ?!" I ask. He does not change expression; he is not even scratched by my desperation. It is as if he were reflecting, but in reality, there was emptiness inside his mind, in his heart the abyss of him. After five seconds Lihin shakes his head.
"Do you want me to take you to your son?" He asks. I nod and follow him.
Once I'm back on the right path, I recognize the path and run with all of myself, dropping a few logs. It does not matter. Jon's voices grow in intensity. Arrival at the camp. Jon's backpack is open, something black and viscous has soiled it. I follow the trail and find ...
Death.
One of those beings made of shadow is still staring at the trees. His body is immaterial and physical at the same time, it fades and then reappears. The being notices my presence, emits an unbearable rattle. A white face, without intelligible features, stood out among the mass of darkness of which it was made. Between the moans I can almost hear Jon's voice. I do not feel fear in this moment, I do not feel the fear of having to preserve my life, just a huge annoyance, an infinite resentment towards this world. Nothing exists anymore, it's just me, him, and my ax.
Screaming I hit him on his face, he screams, I scream even more, my eardrums almost explode, but now I am no longer a man, I am a weapon. I hit it over and over again, the creature doesn't fight back, it seems to cry, despair, scream. The strange humanity coming from those laments doesn't scratch me. It disgusts me. I hit it so many times that I lose count, until there's nothing to hit, just mush.
I sit on the ground; I wonder where I am. Where am I? I'm covered in that mush, I don't feel my heart anymore, the ax is still in my hands, covered by that viscous mass. I turn around and throw up.
My vision becomes blurred, I am almost blind, it does not go back to the way it was before, but in my partial blindness I can see a silhouette. I touch it, the key in every detail. It's Jon, he's on the ground, but he's breathing. I feel. I do various tests. I call Lihin, who is there looking at me, I also see the outline of him.
"L-Lihin ..."
"Yes, you did it. You protected him one more time."
Lihin smiles, even though I can't focus on his figure, I feel him smiling.
I did it, I protected him again. I am no longer a coward.