Arlan slowly opened his eyes and stood still with no intention of moving. Before he could even comprehend the strange symbols that appeared in his head, he lost consciousness again.
Arlan turned his head, touching the right side of his face to the ground, only to find Kaylynn asleep, her head hanging slightly. Her breathing was soft and shallow, she seemed to be fast asleep and showed no signs of waking up for the next few hours.
Arlan sat up silently and stared straight ahead for a few seconds.
'…I don't know what to do'
So much was going through his mind that he didn't know where to begin.
Arlan looked down at his forearm and noticed that it was completely healed, as if he had never been on the verge of losing it. The only indication that he had ever been through a terrible experience were the horrible scars that covered it.
Then he touched his chest and found that it was healed as well, along with its scars. His chest looked as if someone had taken a knife and tried to draw a picture.
His entire body was covered in blood and his clothes were completely destroyed, the only things left intact were his pants and shoes.
Arlan had taken off his shirt and was naked from the waist up. His body looked truly pitiful, but at least he was alive.
'How was it that I was healed?'
It was simply inexplicable how he could heal from such wounds, it didn't make sense. But Arlan put it down to the orb and the symbols he had seen in his head earlier.
Silently, he got up and looked around. He was still in the kitchen, some distance from the monster. Arlan looked at Kaylynn and inwardly thanked her.
'She should have moved me...'
He had some mixed feelings about the young woman, without her help he would be dead now, but it was his own fault that they came to this situation.
Ignoring his thoughts on the matter, Arlan approached the body of the monster. When Arlan arrived in front of the monster's corpse, he couldn't help but frown.
"What the hell did I do?" Arlan couldn't stop his thoughts from coming out of his mouth.
The monster's corpse had over twenty holes in its back, all caused by his knife, which was still stuck in the monster's body.
Arlan bent down and picked up the knife, however the moment he pulled the knife out, something slightly glowing glistened from inside the corpse.
Whatever was glowing inside the monster's corpse was quickly covered in blood and disappeared from Arlan's sight, but once he knew that there was something inside the monster's body, he didn't stay still and held his breath as he crouched down.
Arlan really didn't like being covered in blood, let alone opening a monster's body.
It was really strange to see how the monster's flesh was visible while its skin was not, but now that the corpse was covered in blood and foam, its silhouette was more visible than ever. However, Arlan had no interest in the monster, only in the strange spheres he had just extracted from the corpse.
'What are these things?'
In his hand, two perfectly polished spheres glowed faintly, one pure black and the other dark blue. Both were the same size, no larger than a ping pong ball.
Arlan stood there in silence, looking at the two blood-covered spheres in his hand, it was really strange for a monster to have something like that inside his body. But suddenly, Arlan felt something appear in his head and stopped paying attention to the two spheres.
The same symbols he had seen in his head appeared again, forming a puzzle, but before he could even read their meaning, Arlan heard the trash in the hallway moving again, which meant that someone or something was about to enter the cafeteria.
'Shit!'
The symbols disappeared from his mind and Arlan turned and walked over to Kaylynn, who was still fast asleep.
Arlan put his hand over the young woman's mouth, jolting her awake in panic. Seeing that it was only Arlan, Kaylynn calmed down, but she was still very confused.
Not only should it be impossible for Arlan to get up and move like he did, but her consciousness was just waking up and she was lethargic.
However, Arlan brought his mouth close to Kaylynn's ear and whispered:
"Someone is coming"
Kaylynn seemed to come to as soon as she understood Arlan's words and looked at him with great intensity.
It had only been a few hours since she had fallen asleep, and it had not been enough rest to replenish all her lost energy. She was still exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep but knowing that another monster would most likely enter the cafeteria, Kaylynn ignored her fatigue and clenched her fists tightly.
Instead, Arlan crouched down and peered over the kitchen table at whatever was about to enter. Thanks to the light, he could see if it was another invisible monster. But what he heard quickly dispelled all his assumptions.
"It smells like blood"
A thick voice spoke, ruling out the possibility that it was a monster. It didn't even occur to him that a monster could talk, Arlan just thought it was definitely a human.
A few seconds later, Arlan could see a group of several men standing in front of the kitchen counter.
Arlan could not make out more than the silhouettes of the men, but he could see one of them waving his hand in the direction of the kitchen.
'…Military'
He had seen that gesture before when he left the bunker with Tristan, so the men were definitely military.
The good part was that they weren't monsters, the bad part was that if they were military, it meant they had weapons.
The man who appeared to be the boss walked into the kitchen and was confronted with the body of the invisible monster.
The man frowned when he saw the state of the corpse and many ideas went through his head. Then he raised his rifle and followed the trail of blood that led to the back of the kitchen.
He pointed to the edge of the center kitchen table and asked:
"Is anyone there?"
Arlan was silent for a few seconds, then decided to speak.
"D-don't shoot" he said in a nervous tone.
Arlan slowly stood up with his hands in the air and looked at the man who was scowling at him.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" asked the man.
Arlan didn't lower his arms and instead looked at the man with a worried expression on his face, ignoring the fact that he had more than four guns pointed at different parts of his body.
"Please help my partner!"