Luke had been searching for seven hours and he was yet to find another Domain Lord. If he wanted to complete his quest he needed to find one, the time was running out.
At her request Luke allowed the girl to stay by him until they met up with the survivors. This made his hunting a bit easier as he used her as bait to drag out hordes of beasts. She would scream and he would kill, it was a perfect partnership.
After hours of killing beasts together they became closer and Luke regarded her as more than dispensable. While he wouldn't be distraught if she died, he tolerated her company.
They had finally made it to the building where the group of survivors were staying. Lining the outside walls were sharp metal poles covered in blood and corpses of people and beasts,
"Looks friendly" Luke said with a smile.
As he took a step towards the base a male voice called out "Who are you?". There was a slight tremor in his voice as if he was scared of Luke. To be fair he was covered in blood and had skinned some wolf to cover his body. Days of fighting ruins normal clothes.
"I am just here to return this girl and get some information, can we come in?" Luke replied with his hands in the air. Signalling he was not here to harm them.
They both continued to walk towards what they believed to be the door, suddenly some of the metal poles parted and an opening was revealed. With ease they stepped into the building and witnessed the terrible conditions of the people living there.
The stench of blood and excretion assaulted their noses as they entered. People lay bleeding in their own piss and shit, crying out for God or someone to help them. Luke stared at them with indifference, he had been in the exact same state and no one helped him, why should he do the same.
The girl next to him didn't have the same sentiment as she rushed to help the nearest person. Like viewed it as a futile attempt, no matter what happens they were going to die, from disease or monsters, they would die. Humans became weaker individually when a part of a group, they allowed others to make up for their weaknesses. Therefore they could never lose those weaknesses.
An old woman rushed up to Luke as he waded through injured people, with tears flowing from her eyes she exclaimed
"Thank you for bringing back my daughter, I thought she had … died, you are so kind!" She wrapped her arms around him and wept into his chest before turning to the girl he had saved and rushing to her. For ten long minutes they embraced each other, once they had finished Luke walked over to the girl and said.
"Who runs this place?"
The girl replied with a smile and tears on her face "A man named Richard, he owned the building before the monsters started appearing and he let us stay here"
"But if you want to know where that big monster thing you are hunting is, ask Sal. She tells people where to go and not go when looking for supplies so she might know where that beast is."
"Well thank you very much" Luke said as he went to find this person called Sal. After asking some people he found Sal. She was short, wore baggy clothes and had brown hair, every word she spoke had a trace of malice. With a thick Texan accent she sounded straight out of a movie.
"Do you know where the Domain Lord is?" Luke asked
"What the fuck is that?" Sal replied with a confused look on her face.
"The monster that leads the other ones?"
"Oh you mean a horde leader! The big ones that we seen leading the others!"
"Yes, where is it?" Luke asked, already annoyed at having to talk this long. Usually his conversations lasted two sentences, any longer and he would get uncomfortable.
"You gonna have to make your way to the east of London. There a mighty big snake, an' it's surrounded by hundreds of the little buggers. It's near the train station, don't look for it, I lost tonnes of people to that fucker"
"Ok"
Luke desperately wanted to leave after that talk, he strode away from Sal and back towards that girl, he still didn't know her name. Looking down at a dying person and attempting to bandage their wounds, the girl barely noticed Luke standing right beside her.
"I am leaving" he stated, once he spoke, he turned to walk away
"Wait, I want to come with you, please" the girl implored.
"You can, if you can keep up" Luke had only 7 hours until his quest would end and he had to find that beast.
After the girl said goodbye to her mother, they departed. Instantly Luke raced ahead, after levelling up to level 19 he ran faster than any Olympic athlete.
The girl couldn't keep pace, she would run until she couldn't any more. Each time she fell she got back up against chased after him. The only respite she had was when Luke stopped to fight beasts, this was the only time that he wasn't rushing towards the next Domain Lord.
She tried to prove her worth to Luke as she followed him no matter what. Luke killed beasts mercilessly as they closed in on their intended destination, after an hour of running they arrived.
A den of snakes they needed to exterminate.