Aria blinked her eyes before nodding her head, "We need to survive, not just against that monkey alone but also against these other monkeys and everything else as well."
"I think the best thing to do right now is to gather supplies, as much as possible!" Ferrin rubbed his chin in contemplation, trying to think about what they could do next.
"Hmm! True, I doubt we are the only survivors. There will soon start a competition for supplies. The others just need time to gather themselves like us, then they will also start formulating plans. Its best we don't indulge in the soon-to-arrive chaos and gather a lot of materials right now. Taking a step ahead of others." Aria agreed. She gazed at Ferrin and put forth her plan, "Then how about this? You stay and guard the home, I'll go and gather supplies?"
"Huh!? No way, I'm not leaving you!" Ferrin immediately frowned unhappily. Aria blinked her eyes in wonder and said with a hint of confusion, "Bu-But won't you get tir--" Aria's eyes suddenly widened in surprise, she shook Ferrin's shoulders and asked in avid excitement albeit restraining herself as to not garner the attention of the monkeys' scattered around, "You! You have been running around a lot, haven't you? Do you... Don't you feel tired? And you're not sweating as much either! Ferrin, what-, are you okay? Are you fine?" Aria could feel her heart throbbing madly in excietment.
Suddenly being reminded of his own lazy as hell attitude and way of life, Ferrin was also left stunned for a while. He blinked his eyes in surprise and stared at his own hands. Suddenly, a foolish grin stretched across his face. 'I didn't know I could do all that stuff!'
"Yea! I feel pretty good!" Ferrin stretched around his arms, not feeling as tired as before.
Aria's eyes brightened up, a dazzling smile appeared on her face. She stepped forward and hugged Ferrin tightly. "I knew... I knew you would become a fine person! Fit like a healthy bull!"
Ferrin couldn't help but keep grinning, feel the depressing atmosphere slowly losing effect on him. "So, I guess we will head over to the market place together?" Ferrin glanced at Aria, seeing her difficult expression, he quickly added a few things lest she ended up leaving him behind, "Its best we move together. What if something happened at the house? I won't be able to protect it alone and I might..." Ferrin glanced around. His message successfully conveyed.
Aria glanced at the bloodied street and a shiver ran down her spine, she nodded her head with a somewhat sick complexion and grabbed Ferrin's hand tightly, "Lets go together!" If anything like that happened to Ferrin, she wouldn't think twice before doing over with herself as well, the only reason she had to live for was Ferrin.
The two nimbly started heading for the market, Aria hadn't dropped off the bag at the house in preparation for any surprise elements that might arise in their journey. She carefully lead Ferrin and herself away from the sights of the monkeys. Using the messed up roads littered with burning cars as advantage. The smoke rising from the cars made it difficult to look rather far but they had to made do.
Aria carefully glanced around the place, seeing no nearby monkey, she nimbly led Ferrin around a nearby car. Just as she took a single glance behind the car, he feet along with her breath came to a halt.
Chew! Chew! Chew!
Aria moved her hand and covered Ferrin's eyes. Hiding the gruesome sight of the monkey chewing the flesh of the car's driver which had already been cut in half from the waist. Half having turned into mincemeat inside the car and the other half having become food.
Ferrin tugged Aria's hand, snapping her out of her daze. She gulped nervously and crouched down to Ferrin's ear and murmuring in a low voice, "Don't look at your left and silently follow me."
Only when Ferrin nodded did Aria removed her hand from his eyes and instantly tugged him to follow her, not leaving him any time to glance around.
Ferrin wouldn't dare say he wasn't curious but the subtle shivers running on the hand that had covered his view, he knew she could've very well protected her own self and left him to cover his own eyes. But since she had already sacrificed herself to protect him, he would be letting her down if he glanced now hence he swiftly and nimbly followed behind her.
Thankfully both of them managed to get away safely, for if they had attracted the monkey's attention, most certainly would have the nearby monkeys been alerted as well and then they would've had to deal with a horde of them.
Aria's heart throbbed madly, she had no doubt that if Ferrin hadn't been here, she would've definitely screamed out-loud. But now, she needed to be strong, if not for herself then for Ferrin. Her single mistake wouldn't ruin her but her precious son as well.
'Calm yourself Aria! Be strong! Be strong!' Aria pumped herself up and once again started walking silently.
As they passed by a narrow alleyway, both of their feet instantly froze like they had stepped on glue, sweat covering their backs. Hanging from its tail, a monkey grinned widely while moving its green eyes from their heads to toes. Ferrin felt his throat getting dry. He slowly turned his head and stared straight into the monkey's eyes, staring deep into its pupils.
The monkey returned his fearful gaze with evident curiosity and suddenly burst out laughing, "KEKEKE!"
Aria's grip around Ferrin's hand tightened, just as she was about to dash off along with him, he lightly tugged her hand. Aria slowly turned around, seeing Ferrin shaking his head, her heart rate shot to another level.
The monkey after laughing to its full, waved its furry hand towards them and pushed itself up into the air.
'WHAT THE HECK ARE THESE MONKEYS!?' Ferrin became more and more horrified, the monkey's generosity hadn't in the least made him feel at ease but instead more uneasy than before.
Aria glanced upwards but she couldn't find any trace of the monkey. "What was that just now?" She asked in a low voice.
"God's mercy?" Ferrin replied in confusion as well.
The two after catching their breath once again started heading off towards their destination.
'Keep going Aria! It's right there.' Aria's eyes lit up as she gazed at the supermarket across the street. She crouched down to Ferrin's ear and spoke quietly, 'Carefully and silently!'
Ferrin nodded his head and the two nimbly went towards the market. Thanking profusely after not spoting any monkeys nearby.
'Will there be monkeys inside as well.' Ferrin wondered to himself. As Aria was busy trying to observe the inside of the market through the glass door, Ferrin's eyes fell upon the nearby truck that had slammed into the building next to the market. He wasn't attracted by the burning truck but by the thing that was rather close to it, a gun!
'Dang! This is becoming more and more like a survival game! Tell me, am I going to find grenades next ot what? Then I guess I will gather the survivors and build a safe-house, huh?' Ferrin chuckled to himself before grinning speechlessly at his dumb thoughts.
He tugged Aria's hand and motioned towards the gun. Aria, distracted from her observation stared at the gun in utter silence. 'Isn't this just like a survival game? Don't tell me we will soon go ahead and build our own shelter.' Aria grinned foolishly and slowly moved towards the gun, she couldn't recognise the gun's model but the thing she did realise was that it wasn't a pistol.
'Ak-47?' Ferrin sized up the gun, not very knowledgeable about such matters himself.
"A gun in hand the world at my feet!" Aria muttered cockily while cooling blowing at the gun's muzzle.
Ferrin dumbly stared at Aria before both of them burst out into giggles.
Their tense mood having lightened up slightly, Aria sighed before making eye-contact with Ferrin as they stepped inside the market place.
'Bags! We need bags!' The thought suddenly clicked inside Aria's mind, they couldn't just carry the supplies in hand, could they?
She grabbed hold of Ferrin with one hand and walked towards the counter. She took one glance behind it and her breath froze. Her eyes squinted tightly in response to the sight placed in front of her, she hurriedly pushed Ferrin into her embrace and hid the sight from his eyes.
As a mother, the last she desired after all this was for her son to acknowledge all this bloody mess as the norm. She didn't know if they could leave this place or not but what she did know was that she needed to protect her son, she would ratger let her own hands get stained with blood than let Ferrin even get a glimpse of this hell.
She exhaled heavily before opening her eyes, she made Ferrin stand still with his face opposite to the counter and tried her best to ignore the corpse which had been eaten till the waist and took hold of the plastic bags near the scanning device.
As Ferrin was looking around, he couldn't help but sniff the air, 'The scent of blood here seems rather thick and concentrated, I thought their wouldn't even be any blood looking at this clean floor and the well-intact glass door. Was I wrong? Is there... something here?' He couldn't help but gulp nervously.
Aria sighed again and patted Ferrin's head gently, "Our priority should be things that last long without spoiling quickly and also water. Water will be very essential!"
Ferrin nodded his head, he turned around his head and gazed at Aria, "I think there is a monkey here."
Aria's eyes widened slightly, she frowned and asked in confusion, "Why do you say so? The floor's clean and their is no blo-" Aria suddenly halted her words. Dumb! Extremely dumb! There was a half eaten corpse behind her, why wouldn't there be monkeys here? They were definitely here!
Aria gulped nervously before clenching the gun tightly, "Stick close to me and be on your toes!" They had went through a hell of a lot to get here, they couldn't just leave empty-handed!
"Hmm!" Ferrin nodded his head seriously. Unaware of the two misty pale green eyes observing them from up above, hanging upside down from the ceiling.
"Lets go grab water first!" Aria carefully led Ferrin around the various shelves filled with food and other stuff, realising just how badly she had been fooled after seeing the think blood-stains hidden behind the shelves.
She braced her heart and started picking up water bottles from the refrigerator and started putting them inside the bag. After filling up a whole bag, she finally felt that it might be able to last them some time. "Time for food, do you want anything in specific?" Aria asked Ferrin as they were browsing through the clean shelves.
"Not really." Ferrin puffed out his cheek as he began to survey the shelves more closely, neither the mother nor the son felt any shame taking things for free. Hey! It's the apocalypse, it's the least they can do, right?
"What about some noodles?" Ferrin asked whole eyeing them intently.
"Hmm! No problem!" Aria nodded her head, she felt exceptionally happy today excluding everything else. Not only had her son accompanied her outside after who knows if he had ever even did it before and secondly, he was carrying the bags himself! In the past. he would've toppled over just after carrying them for a few minutes! It was a miracle among miracles, no less!
After taking some noodles and other things that Aria found important, the duo had filled up about 4 bags. Ferrin took three, he could barely lift anything anymore so Aria took the last one. She placed it over her wrist and used her hand to hold onto Ferrin, even now not relenting in his security.
'It's quite late, will it be okay to travel during the night? Should we stay here for the night?' Aria pondered about her choices before deciding to go ahead and travel to her own house.
As the two were walking through the straight passage towards the market's door, a strange sound of something fast came to Aria's ears.
'Shit! Above!' Ferrin had been constantly observing around, he had been feeling quite weird after not spoting any signs of the monkey despite being 100% sure of its existence. He just never believed the monkey would come from up above. His eyes shone resolutely and he pushed Aria away.
Whoosh! Thud!
Aria fell on her back, her eyes frozen in fear as they scrunthisied the 7 feet tall monkey which had sky-dived from the ceiling. It's sharp claws were out-stretched, they glistened dangerously, reflecting light due to the still fresh blood on them.
'Wait, blood?' A more icy fear, more horrifying than the monkey's arrival gripped Aria's heart. Her eyes tried to glance behind the monkey, searching for her son.
"Kekeke!" The monkey laughed manically while moving its body away and glancing at Ferrin, also allowing Aria to get a view of her son.
A smile was etched on his face, a smile out of pure madness, a smile forced out from his being to suppress the pain coming from his right shoulder.
He reached out his right hand and tried to grab his left arm but his hand passed through where his arm should be and touched his waist instead. Ferrin's grin widened, despite his smiling face, tears had began to form in his eyes.
'It hurts! Where is this pain coming from-' Ferrin's thought drifted off, his eyes fell on his left shoulder, looking for his arm. 'Where is it?' Ferrin reached out his hand again, searching for his arm but it wasn't there but instead... on the floor.
"FERRIN!!" Even the monkey's laughter was drowned by Aria's horrified scream. Her eyes were open wide, in anger and disbelief.