Leaving Werner to ponder alone with himself. Gray walked over to Kayra and Betty.
"We're about to leave. Are you coming with us?"
"Yes... yes, of course. Give me a few minutes, please, I need to talk to Betty."
Gray looked at Betty and frowned slightly.
The girl was clearly in no condition to go with them. She was probably too shocked by what had happened, which had traumatized her psyche.
But Gray wasn't an idiot to take ballast with him.
"All right. You have five minutes. After that, we'll leave." Turning around, he headed for Werner.
"Betty, we have to go! Do you understand that?! It's dangerous in here!"
"..."
"If you're not going anywhere, then stay! I don't want to be here anymore."
"Wait! What about... what about Barry? What about him?" Suddenly the quiet girl exclaimed.
"What about Barry? Barry can't be helped anymore! We can only keep moving forward! So that Barry's sacrifice, would not be in vain!"
Standing at the back exit, Gray inquired about Werner's well-being.
"Be as quiet as possible. And try not to make unnecessary noises."
When the two girls approached them. Kayra apologized again for the crying Betty. And they all set off together.
"Where are we going?" Kayra asked in a half-whisper.
"I have no idea. Somewhere safer. Somewhere the fog won't reach. It's dangerous to be under its toxic influence for long."
"Maybe we should go to the police station. They'll protect us for sure!" A frightened Betty kept turning around. Her dress was all drenched and scarlet.
"No. You can't go in there now." Without giving them a reason, Gray led the group through the streets of the giant, red city. Trying to avoid the bloody puddles.
"It's not far, there's a museum with a specially sealed room where they keep things vulnerable to moisture."
"How far?"
"About half a mile west."
"Lead."
Before they left, Gray told them about the dangers lurking in the red mist.
The pair of girls were already outside when strange screams echoed through the town. After that, they decided to hide in this store.
After hearing the young man's story, they did not want to believe that something like this was happening in this fog. But left without much choice, they were still mentally prepared for what was happening on the streets of this town.
Werner took off his uncomfortable cloak. After a strange transformation, his body stretched out and spread slightly wide again. In his hands, he held the steel rod that had pierced him not so long ago.
With confident steps, he led them in the direction of the museum. Only occasionally he staggered from the strain of his habit and the slightly exhausted state of his body.
"Werner, how did that pin pierce you?"
"Uncle Werner was pierced when he fought that thing. He was protecting us when those idiots were running around the warehouse like chickens..."
Kayra answered in his place, grudgingly mentioning the guys who came along with them.
"Really? Then it's admirable!"
"It was nothing special. I was just doing what a real gentleman should have done."
"Barry wasn't like that; he stood up for me to the end!" Sobbing, Betty mentioned her boyfriend again. To which Kyra only rolled her eyes.
'If only he'd protected you... Stupid, he was covering for you!' She wanted to curse at her but remembered the situation they were in. Calming down, she decided to keep it to herself.
Walking slowly through the streets of the city. Gray couldn't escape the oppressive feeling of unease. 'The city is completely deserted...'
The huge metropolis fell silent in an instant. And except for muffled screams and occasional explosions, nothing could be heard.
"Is it the military? Maybe we should go to them." Betty looked naively toward the endless explosions and gunfire.
"No. I'm not going there."
"But..." Under Kayra's gaze, she fell silent.
"Betty! Use your brains! Don't you get it yet?!" In a half-whisper, she yelled at the uncomprehending girl.
"Didn't you see the corpse of that thing?! And what he did due to Uncle Werner?! He literally brought him back from the dead!"
Betty clapped her big eyes as she listened to everything her best friend told her.
"He obviously knows something! We just have to follow him quietly! And then maybe... we can get back to our families in one piece! "
Nodding sadly, she remembered her parents waiting for her at home today.
Gray looked toward the muffled gunshots, barely audible beneath the sound of falling drops of red rain.
If it had been possible, he would have wanted to turn around and get away in the opposite direction from the explosions.
But according to Werner, the museum was very close.
No accidents occurred along the way. Only once did they have to stop and go around one of the streets.
The eerie screams roused the whole team, and no one had any desire to go in that direction.
On the way, they stopped at a grocery store, which was almost all stolen.
"Take only canned or packaged food. Also, pay attention to the water. It must be new and without any external damage."
Everyone obeyed Gray's commands without question. Unnoticed by everyone, he became the commander of this small group.
Gray, on the other hand, was trying to reach his brother through a telephone booth.
Though he knew it was no use, he had to try. He was tormented by his inner worry for his own brother. 'Alex... just live, please! I have no one else left in this fucking crazy world. Just survive!'
While Werner and Betty diligently picked their provisions and packed them into their newly found backpacks. Kayra looked strangely at Gray, leaning against the phone booth.
Once they'd gathered everything they had, they moved on.
Then, after circling several streets, the group came upon a building whose enormous shadow loomed through the red fog.
There was little more visibility outside than indoors. About three to five meters, but it was enough.
The bright hue of the fog and the shadows of the giant silhouettes told me that the day was not over and the sun was high overhead.
"Big..."
"Yes... The biggest museum in town." Werner admiringly introduced them to the city's heritage museum.
His love of antiques could not be described in simple words.
All soaked in the rain, they hurried to the main entrance. But the front door was tightly locked.
After knocking for a while, no one answered.
Werner even tried to break down the door, but to no avail. "It was probably blocked from the inside."
Gray peered through the windows of the museum. He clearly had just seen someone's head. 'Those bastards!'
"I saw someone in the window. They're deliberately keeping us out. Werner, is there another entrance?"
"Only the back entrance, but I don't think they left it unattended."
"I see... then go to the second floor."
"What?"
Gray pointed him to an unprotected window on the second floor. "Once you get inside, find something to lower us, like a winch."
Saying that, Gray wiped the blood slowly coming out of his nostrils without looking. And the girls behind him sank to the ground exhausted and began panting, constantly coughing up blood. "Hurry up. We don't have much time."
Werner frowned slightly at the sight. In his mind, he estimated that it would take him a little effort to get to the second floor.
"Oh... I'm not young anymore, and I'm being forced to act. What kind of young people are these days?" Smiling slightly, he stretched his overstretched muscles of unknown strength and climbed up the second floor on protruding objects from the wall.
Ten minutes after, he climbed through the second-floor window. From there he heard piteous cries and someone lowered a makeshift rope of long curtains.
Letting the girls go first, Gray could already feel a metallic taste in his mouth. At that moment, he turned around sharply.
Staring into the dense, bloody fog, a strange feeling never ceased to visit him. 'We must hurry!'