Can we somehow build a fire?" Liam rubbed his palms at a fast pace.
"We can, but we shouldn't." Rico uttered a long sigh. "Are you ready to go?"
Liam put on his backpack. "Guess so."
They went downstairs and as Rico cleared the barricades off the doorway, Liam just froze in his place, his eyes stuck upon the block on the other side of the road. He then tightened his cap and followed Rico out of the flower shop.
It had just dawned. The morning light shone over the horizon, shading the clouds peach. Murders of crows fed on the torn bodies across the roads, their sounds of satisfaction echoing throughout the rows of buildings. Avian parades turned the depressing silence of Earth into their own Camelot. Every corner of the streets was now barren of human life. Fields were splattered with blood.
Liam noticed a small animal a few meters away, walking along with them. He stopped and smiled at the minuscule ungulate. He had not seen any mouse-deer for a while due to their rarity caused by illegal hunting. The mouse-deer leaped backward and cried out a long bleat.
"What did you do?" Rico pulled Liam away from the animal.
"What? No, nothing." Liam said, his brows furrowing in confusion. "It just started beeping like a limp landline for no reason."
"It'll attract pale people. Come on, let's get away from here."
"You freaking deer," Liam whispered before sprinting away.
He and Rico ran across the road and stopped in a narrow alley. They sat hunched behind a big cylindrical receptacle, looking at the map on the phone in Rico's hand.
"Thought cell sites were down already," Liam said.
"It's offline," Rico replied. "Give me your phone."
"Run over into pieces by a scorching van."
"What? Whatever."
"Why?"
"My phone is—" Rico shut down his phone. "My battery is almost drained. We need a paper and a pen for the map."
"There must be a someth——"
Liam did not have the opportunity to finish his response when a female greyman stood at the opening of the alley, eyeing him and Rico. The greyman then smiled from ear to ear as she stabbed a metal bin with her blood-coated mattock, making Liam and Rico still in their positions. Liam's pulsation began to boost as he positioned his bat forward.
"The hell," Liam said under his breath. "What are we going to do now, sir?"
"We have to—" Rico turned to his left, then raised his head. "I need you to listen to me, Liam. No more dumb ways to die, understood?"
"Aye."
"You see that balcony?"
Liam nodded. "I do."
"I will—" Rico glanced at the now moving greyman, then squatted. "You have to stand on my shoulders and reach for it . . . now."
Liam shook his head as he stepped onto Rico's shoulders. He heard a grunt as the other guy straightened up his body. He then hung on the metal surface of the balcony and tried to lift his whole weight.
"Elevate your heels!" he commanded.
"I'm a hell of, ugh, trying!" Rico hoisted his heels, his teeth grating against each other. "You're horse-heavy, kid!"
Liam blew a breath out before gripping the balusters of the railing. He marched his feet against the quite distant wall, lifting himself until he went over the railing in exhausting success.
He stood up, then lowered his bat. "Sir, climb! Here she comes!"
"The fuck, Liam?! I'm not able to reach that tiny stick of yours!" Rico turned around and moved farther from the grayman. "I'll distract this nasty lady! Here's my phone! Draw a fast route to the city, which is flagged red, before the screen permanently turns black!"
Liam caught the phone in his hands. He saw Rico entering the next building before the greyman fit herself into the doorway. He opened the door of the apartment and dropped his backpack in immediacy on the threshold. With excellent quickness, he pulled every receptacle out of a drawer by the bedside until he found a crumpled sheet of paper and pencil in the last one. He tapped the map on the phone and started scratching out different lanes, signs, and names on the paper, his mind was curious about the sudden silence outside. He wished Rico was doing just fine, then he was done with the sketch after some minutes.
He folded the paper and pocketed it while going through the doorway. He looked around, but Rico was nowhere to be seen. He hit the balusters of the railing with aggressiveness until the female grayman slid her head through a broken window pane of the adjacent building, smiling at him.
"Hey, you grayman, here! Come on!" he hastened his hitting on the metals. "Sir Rico, where are you?!"
He then blinked at a moving figure in a dim room — Rico — just above the grayman. Rico put his index finger against his lips, then pointed his fingers upward. Liam was confused if he was signaling him to go upstairs or if there was another grayman upstairs. He furrowed his brows at the movement of Rico's mouth, getting the message in attainment.
He then entered back to the apartment and searched for the staircases. He ascended to the top story of the building and reached its balcony. He looked at Rico, who was now holding a long, wide plank, and raised a brow. Rico moved his hand pointing to the side of the balcony. Liam looked down upon at least a four-inch-wide outward horizontal part of the wall connecting the third-floor balcony floors.
"What?" Liam whispered to avoid attracting the greyman. "Am I supposed to walk on that?"
"You've got," Rico lowered his head, "no choice."
Liam clicked his tongue as he jumped onto the surface over the railing, creating a sharp creak. He looked behind him and, as he had just assumed, the grayman was on her way towards him. He rolled his eyes, then sighed out a cold breath. He then started crossing the small path, his back pressed against the wall as he moved sideward. His knees and palms grew colder as he neared the shared corner of the adjacent buildings. He looked down at the grayman who was just watching his moves, her mattock still over her shoulder.
"Come on, kid," Rico said after climbing to the almost-flat slope of the roof. "Hold onto this plank."
"What? You're going to drop me," Liam responded.
"You have to or else you want to rot on that wall."
"I am— I'm nervous, sir."
"Hey, Liam, look at me." Rico moved nearer the edge of the roof. "Trust me with this. All you have to do is hold on real tight."
Liam jounced his head. He was at least on four meters elevation from the ground. He was anxious about slipping off the wood and getting ripped into bits after clattering down into the ground. He still needed to see his father, so he had no choice but to obey Rico's instruction. He did a little mental optimization as he reached for the quarter of the plank.
"There we go." Rico began to pull him up. "I need you to stay still, Liam."
Liam did not reply. Instead, he just shut his eyes close as he felt like flying into the sky. The next thing he knew, there were already arms around him, dragging his weight up the inclination of the roof. He opened his eyes and heaved a deep breath.
Rico knelt beside him. "You okay, kid?"
"I feel great." Liam smiled, calming the rapid thumps of his chest. "Thank you, sir."
Rico stood up. "Come on, let's move along."
Liam rose to his feet and took his bat out of the side pocket of his backpack before looking back down upon the grayman who was just staring at him with a disinterested expression. He went after Rico across the plank that he put on the edges of the rooftops of the buildings. They did it for some time until they hit the last building, giving them visual access to the exurbia — walled and silent.
"After making it through this village of houses, we'll be in the perimeters of the most urban area of the city in no time." Rico glanced back at Liam. "You need a rest?"
"Nah, sir." Liam stepped forward twice. "Let's do this."
They then climbed down the ladder and landed on the pile of burnt polystyrene plastic. They ran across a three-road street and another two-road one, then stopped against a high wall division of the exurbia, five buttresses away from the gigantic gates. Liam looked at the buildings where they came from and took a sip of water. Rico handed him a packet of cake, but he balked at eating.
"You have to eat, Liam," Rico said. "We like participated in a half-mile walkathon."
"I'm good, sir, really." Liam put his backpack back on. "Don't worry about me."
"Ugh, fine."
"Can I ask you a question regarding the greymen?"
"The pale people?"
"I call them that." Liam sighed. "Anyway, why don't they run? They seem nonchalant while they're after us."
"You've noticed that?" Rico threw the plastic packet into the air, then gulped a can of soda. "I think they're— I think they just know that they'll catch us in any way whatever"
"It feels like they're somewhat . . . done with the killings already."
"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Liam. Haven't you seen the massacre they've done? It's a worldwide bloodbath and you're saying that they're done? No, they're going to wipe our race out of existence."
"I think Tahir has been right all along, that they're aliens."
"Extraterrestrials don't exist at all, Liam. They've been scientifically classified as another human species, the pale people."
"They don't look like humans at all." Liam rolled his eyes at Rico, then looked away. "At least they don't act humane, I mean."
Rico knelt on one knee. "What I've been just certain about is that they're eerily, criminally, and sinfully insane."
"Are we moving ahead now?"
"Yes, we can't lose any seconds. It'll dusk soon."
"Through the gates?"
Rico looked behind Liam. "How about through climbing that?"
Liam turned to his back and found a narra with its branches cut, standing at least three feet away from a buttress. Rico traipsed towards it and so he followed. He was not sure if he could reach the edge of the buttress just by jumping off the tree, but Rico was already halfway to the uncut branch to disagree with the plan.
"You think you can reach the wall?" he asked.
Rico stuck out his lower lip, then nodded. "I think so."
"Be careful. I mean be silent."
"Remind yourself that."
Liam let out a cloud of breath. The branch arched and jarred as Rico did a few small steps on it. Rico shook his head before a loud holler echoed from behind them. Liam started to climb the cut branches after seeing a small army of graymen escaping the gates. Rico jumped off onto the buttress and landed in proximity to the inner edge of the wall. He turned to Liam, then hunkered down. Liam, now on the creaking branch, breathed out in depth before leaping onto the buttress. His right foot slipped right off the verge of the wall, but Rico caught his arm in celerity. The guy pulled him up with grand vigor, causing them to fall off the wall and into the cold, weedy ground.
"Fuck," Rico said with a low voice, his right arm punctured with a small aluminum sheet.
Liam, whose lying flat on a heap of cut weeds on his front, got up and, without hesitation, pulled the sheet out of Rico's flesh. Rico bit his lower lip while uttering several moans of pain. Blood flowed down his arm, painting the fibers of his sleeve black. Rico mumbled an intelligible word before Liam walked to the other side and threw his left arm over his shoulders. Liam did his best to lift the other guy's vast weight. They went through a long, narrow cul-de-sac of two-story houses and took a halt between two buildings.
"Sir, I'll just," Liam cut his butterfly knife through Rico's sleeve and ripped it open, "bandage this to slow up the bleeding."
"Just make it quick and as," Rico sighed, "less painful as you think you can."
"Offensive."
"Come on, quick."
After ripping a long piece of cloth from the lower hem of his shirt, Liam tied it up around the thick fabric patch on Rico's deep wound. Rico held his breath and jerked when the boy knotted the cloth for the second time.
"That's enough tightness, kid." He tapped Liam's arm. "You're killing me mercilessly."
"Thank God." Liam sat on the slope of gravel. "I thought it was your leg."
"I could've stood up alone, you know."
"You were like babbling in pain."
"Was I?" Rico sneered. "Thanks, Liam."
"No worries, sir," Liam replied, smiling back.
"Hey!"
"Here, death nazis!"
"Come on, you crave human flesh, don't you?!"
Liam and Rico eyed each other as they continued hearing the same words over and over again. They held onto their weapons as a girl with rich pink hair appeared beside them.
"Please, turn your sticks away from my face," she said. "Come on, let me get you two out of here. Follow me quietly."
Liam and Rico took another glance at each other before standing up and tracing the girl's footsteps. Liam was calling the girl's command into question, but he had not gotten any other choices. Rico and he would have left the open area, anyway. They made numerous turns in the labyrinth of aesthetic residencies until the pink-haired girl entered a house, leaving the door open for them, Liam guessed.
The girl widened her eyes at the two. "Come on in before the ashens come back."
Rico took a step backward once, then whispered to Liam, "What do you think?"
"We have no choice, sir." Liam eased his grip on his bat. "We need a roof anyway."
Rico nodded in agreement. They went through the doorway, then the girl locked the door behind them. They stood in their places as three more heads faced them.
The girl put a small smile on her lips. "Don't worry, guys. We aren't cannibals nor Luciferian cultists, though I was planning to move to the States to be an official Satanist."
"Who are they, Hell?" a face-tattooed man let out. "Other freeloaders?"
The girl, who was called Hell as Liam heard, held his and Rico's hands. "Don't mind that inked toad. He's my ex-boyfriend he's a bastard, literally and figuratively."
An old lady with pure gray hair smiled at them. "Are you two hungry or something? Just tell us what we can help you with."
Before Rico could utter a word, the door behind them swung open. Liam turned back, then creased his brows at the man — Mike.
"The death nazis are—" Mike furrowed his brows. "Liam?"