Valentine's hurting body finally lifted from the soil, his lifeless eyes stared at everything around him, the rational part of his existence tried to analyse, scheme, look for outlets, survival…
His emotional part, could think nothing else other than his deceased girlfriend.
'Rose… Why didn't you tell me?' He grit his teeth and clenched his hands tightly, grasping a big chunk of soil before calming down.
'First I need to sort out… Where am I?' The overwhelming pain confirmed that this wasn't a nightmare, he also wasn't under the effect of any drug or the like.
…
Staring up he witnessed the same blood red sky, and two shining moons, not totally white, but with a yellowish tonality.
There were supposed to be three, but one of them was covered by a gigantic and dense black cloud that seemed to come from the distance, towards him…
His gaze lowered to analyse his whereabouts, but it was then that he noticed something else…
'This weather is hot?' Furrowing his brows he stared at this forest' trees and saw that almost all of them lacked branches, but there was something particular regarding all of them.
They were burned… Not burning, but more like scalding wood that had been burned recently.
A sulfur smell invaded his nostrils, he could recall this, it's like being in the peak of a volcano… But there are no mountains nearby, this is a forest.
Then there was the most pertinent matter he had been trying to ignore but couldn't.
'Did my body… Just regenerate? Or reformed?!'
His senses were confused, completely bewildered, this is supposed to be a nightmare, but clearly… It's not.
His train of thought were interrupted when he heard shouts coming from the distance, not too close, but close enough for him to barely hear them.
"AAHHH!!"
…
They were the pained shouts of someone desperately trying to catch his breath!
It didn't take long before he understood the reason of the shouts, regretfully so…
The black cloud approached enough to cover to moons and a wide expanse of the sky.
And at that moment, he stared at the rain that came from it… The rain that approached little by little!
!!!
His eyes opened widely at what he saw, in the distance, from where the rain was coming, the trees of the forest started to burn!
Roughly half a kilometre away, the trees started to burn for no reason whatsoever, and they were quickly approaching him!
"AHHHHHH!!! R-RUN!!"
He heard once again, this time closer, a naked man ran approximately ten metres away from him, in the opposite direction of the rain!
Not wasting time Valentine stood up, he didn't know what the hell is going on, but he wouldn't stay here to realise the hard way!
Without any destiny whatsoever, he started to run, anywhere, but away from those burning trees!
He made his way through the forest, noticing that all the trees were scalding hot, and the temperature increased ever so slightly, obviously the burning forest was catching up to him!
Valentine didn't know why the forest was suddenly burning, but he would!
"AHGG!! S-SHIT!"
The rain caught up to him, and the moment the first drop of 'water' touched his naked body, a hiss of pain so acute it almost made him fall, reverse through his back!
*SSSHHHH!!*
Like a piece of raw meat placed on top of a frying pan, his skin hissed and burned as more and more drops of 'water' fell on his back!
"W-WHAT… UGH!! IS THIS!?" Accelerating his pace as much as he could and bringing his movement skills to the maximum, he jumped between branches, looking for something!
Somewhere to hide!
'AHHGG!! What can I do!?' Burning in pain as the drops kept touching him mercilessly, he thought deeply!
These trees have no branches, can't conceal underneath.
Dig a hole!? There is no time for that! And even then, the heat would cook him alive.
He needed to find a cave… But where!?
There were only trees as far as he could see, what if he found a lake? That would work, but then again, if the water is like this rain!
Only a cave would work!
…
For the next ten minutes he took the torture of his life.
He had seen several men and women running, all of them naked, all of them in pain… Some just plainly surrendered and waited until the rain consumed them.
Valentine ran and ran until finally, he witnessed a straw of hope.
Far, approximately half a kilometre away, there was a small elevation that could be barely perceived with the naked eye, not what he expected, but something different from the rather plain terrain he had been running until now.
It took him three torturous minutes to reach it and he marvelled when it turned out to be a big cave! Upon realising this, he simply jumped inside without the slightest care!
"UGHHH!!" He hissed in pain, paradoxically, at the relief of those fire bullets not hitting his skin anymore!
The noise of charring skin continued for a few minutes until it stopped, leaving behind a skin so damaged that it almost couldn't be recognised as skin.
Still, he didn't lower his guard, he couldn't!
His senses were telling him so!
Therefore, lifting himself up, he stared at the pairs of eyes that looked deeply at him from inside the cave's entrance.
The rain caught up and one could see how the accursed droplets of 'water' fell on the floor like bullets, burning it to the ground, but they didn't do anything to the cave except for increasing the heat.
Men and women, all of them naked.
There were two females and three males.
The three men sat in three different corners, while the two females sat together.
One of them ackwardly tried to cover herself, but her visage contained not shame, but raw fear!
The other woman glanced at him straight, she didn't bother covering herself, her voluptuous body was open for everyone to see and her gaze contained plain hostility.
She's the reason why his senses were so acute before, her hostile gaze…
The three men also gave him a glance, one of them also burned to the ground, but visibly regenerating.
"We don't know each other, but why don't you try to take your place over there? No one is going to harm you, we are as clueless about this as you are." One of the men said, he seemed to be in his thirties with raven hair and medium beard lock.
He tried to become the leader apparently… Valentine observed.
Without saying anything he moved to one corner, still under the gaze of everyone else that seemed to be trying to come with terms with the current unexplainable situation.
'We are in a world where the sky is red, black clouds cover it together with three moons, the temperature is higher than the Sahara and it is currently raining acid.'
Totally logical.
Valentine sat down and caressed his forehead, moving his gaze to the right where the darkening trail of the cave could be seen, this cave was way deeper than it seemed outside.
…
For the next three hours no one said anything… The rain never stopped, but the weather was simply scalding hot, as if they were inside an oven!
Sweat ran through all of their bodies.
They, however, kept quiet.
…
That was until yet another body, this time almost completely consumed by the flames, bursted inside the cave with howls of pain.
Another man, this time with long black hair, he appeared to be Asian.
Aside from mumbling in his thoughts and memories, Valentine had noticed that most of them had tattoos similar to his, but in different parts of their bodies.
…
"SHIT SHIT!!" The Asian man struggled for the next half an hour before he could speak coherently.
By now Valentine was almost healed, still surprised at this apparent new regenerative capacity.
It took him several hours to regenerate from wounds that would have rendered disabled until death by common circumstances, that if he survived.
"Why is no one saying anything!? Does anyone know where are we!?" The man spoke, clearly extroverted with an attitude a little too calm for their current predicament.
No one answered, but they all regarded him as he struggled to sit and threw every single person here a mocking glance "Huh!? So is this how it is going to be!?"
"…"
"You! Tell me where are we, now!"
!!!
Valentine sighed at this man's attitude.
The classic thug, a scoundrel. Always going for the ones they consider the weakest.
And in this case, it was the auburn haired female whose face was still marred with fear.
He sat behind the blonde who threw the Asian man a deep glare.
"Sir, calm down… we can-" The same man from before tried to intercede.
"Don't give me that shit, now you're going to talk? I don't want to hear you, I'm talking to that slut! Where are we!?"
All he received was the blonde woman's cold words and threatening glare, "Back off…" she regarded his injured body and instead of standing up, she just remained in place.
She then shot a glare at Valentine who had also been giving her a sidelong glance from his corner.
…
Upon seeing the blonde's glare, the Asian man immediately understood she's not pushover, she didn't get scared and her whole demeanour isn't short of that of a hooligan's.
"Just you wait, bitch!" He yelled and crawled to another corner of the room.
"T-Thank you." The scared girl stuttered to the blonde woman who simply nodded and rested on the stony wall, looking outside as the rain kept falling and falling, she would periodically clean the sweat falling from her forehead, it was getting really hot!
…
The next several hours were spent doing almost the same, but Valentine frowned when light stared to become periodically dim, indicating the night, the rain now looked like fireballs impacting the ground, and it clearly was falling way less, but not yet dry.
He furrowed his brows, which means that those three moons are like the 'sun' in this world.
At some point, unknowingly, his consciousness acknowledged this is indeed not the earth.
The two men had been talking with the Asian man in a corner, deeper inside the cave where their words couldn't be heard.
...
Meanwhile, Valentine's mind continued to analyse.
'I have to wait until the rain stops, but even then... Where to go next?'
Hunger was starting to strike on his stomach and this heat was simply unbearable!
His gaze roamed around the cave, three men... Two of them haven't undergone any kind of physical training, their bodies are average at most, while the Asian man could be seen to have some toughness in him, clearly some kind of thug or member of the Asian mafia.
The most concerning ones were... That blonde woman, her body shows high train condition, not attributed to a gym if the scars on several parts of her body can be taken into account... Gunshots as well, small slices, possibly knife stabbings.
Her attitude, confident, unfearing... She's not normal, at least compared to the others.
Her gaze constantly stared at him, as if performing her own assessment, she clearly witnessed his scars, his attitude had been nothing more than uncaring, not letting out any possible flaw, but even then she had focused on him most of the time aside from the Asian man...
But still, she's inexperienced...
He gave the 'scared' girl a glance and sighed to himself.
The night continued when the three men came back, the Asian man now fully healed, his venomous gaze never left the duo of girls.
"I believe we should at least hold a discussion regarding what we know of this place? We're all in the same situation, is there a need for such a tense and hostile atmosphere?" The 'wanna-be' leader spoke first upon the tense silence, his eyes couldn't help but move towards the blonde woman's chest that she didn't bother hiding.
And he wasn't the only one.
"Indeed, why don't we begin with introductions, we're the only people we know, and we all want answers..." The other man, a dark-skinned fellow that looked like a businessman spoke politely.
The hypocrisy could be smelled from their mouths even from a kilometre away, but even then, information was a key to this situation.
Valentine doubted they would have any useful information considering they all seemed to have gone through the same process...
"My name is Michael Spencer, I'll begin, we all fell from the sky..." The wanna-be leader spoke first as if trying to incentivize the others.
"Shuzna Khatri, Y-Yes I regained my consciousness, falling from the sky." The scared girl was the second to speak, still creeping from the Blonde's back.
'So she's Indian-British...' Valentine concluded due to her tonality, not only her, this Michael must have also been English.
"Fayette Blanchet... I confirm." The Blonde beauty followed, and her gaze moved straight to him, clearly indicating him to introduce himself next.
'French-English.' He thought and spoke next, not truly minding introducing himself.
"... Valentine Wagner." However, the next second his eyes opened wide!
'Shit!' He stared at the other people's reactions upon hearing his name, but there weren't many reactions.
He didn't notice how Fayette, the blonde woman flinched slightly, 'W-Where have I heard that name? Is he a french criminal?'
…
"Tamachita Haruhiko... I too fell from the sky and my whole body got destroyed before reforming again!" The Asian man spoke with a cold voice, but his gaze had never stopped wandering the two girls, lust was more than evident in his gaze, but he knew now was not the time.
The thug threw the bomb that many of them were not willing to talk about.
"My name is Carl Stephenson, indeed my body got destroyed as well, but... I believe none of us has an explanation for this... Neither for the rain, or the red sky, or the three moons... That said, what can we do? This heat is getting unbearable and I'm probably not the only one hungry, right?" The last person present, the dark-skinned guy addressed the point of the matter.
Indeed, none of them had the answer.
"I suggest that we wait for one day until the 'rain' stops... M-Maybe we can then leave and hunt something?" Michael suggested.
"What can we possibly hunt!? Don't you see how everything's burning outside!? What if it never stops raining?!" The Asian man seemingly lost his composure, either by the lust of the natural heat, Valentine didn't know.
"I second Mr Michael's opinion... What do you think, Mr Valentine?" Fayette gave her opinion and glared at Valentine, who in exchange only returned a glare her way.
…
'You're way too confident for your own good, woman...'
"I agree..." In any case, once the rain stops, he's gone... Probably make a guide to return to this cave in case it is needed, but if he's lucky, he will find a better place to hide against this rain, maybe inside a mountain rather than this shallow cave.
He didn't know what he wanted to do next, but suffocating in this scalding oven wasn't in his plan.
The Asian man huffed in disdain upon sensing that everyone confirmed the notion, it made some of them wonder what he wanted to propose if not wait... He stood up and walked inside the cave.
...
Several minutes passed and the rain had yet to stop, Fayette even managed to walk right to the edge of the cave and noticed that the sky was all black, clearly, the gigantic black cloud was still there and it didn't seem like it was going to move soon.
"I... Want to sleep..." Shuzna whispered to Fayette, even she herself didn't know if she would be able to sleep in this heat, they had to move from the walls since they were getting so hot it was impossible to even lie against them without eventually burning their skin.
Fayette frowned at her suggestion "Do so at your own risk, Mrs Shuzna." That was all she said before laying on the ground with crossed legs.
Shuzna furrowed her brows behind Fayette's back she seemed about to say something when...
"AHHH!! R-RUN! RUN!!" The Asian man, Haruhiko's shrieking voice resonated from inside the cave, clearly approaching!
!!!
But it wasn't only that the only thing that they heard!
Valentine and Fayette's gazes couldn't help but frown after a second noise, coming straight from the deepest abyss... made itself known to them, their gazes couldn't help but move at the speed of lightning to stare right at the entrance of the cave... The only escape route, only to see the small fireballs falling on it nonstop, sealing the route.
*GROWWWLLLLL!!!*