The moment the door jammed close suddenly, both Ashton and Marcus turned at the direction of the door but they couldn't see anything as the store was pitch black.
"What's that?" Marcus asked after the store wellowed in silence.
"Perhaps the wind had blown the door to close shut." Ashton replied, faltering his guard which had tensed up the moment the jamming door sound resounded.
"The weather is cool without any ferocious blowing wind."
"Eh?"
"Why is this place filled with darkness anyway?"
"I guess the windows are covered with dark clothes which are obstructing the sunlight from coming in." Ashton whispered to Marcus as they both tried to adjust their eyes into the darkness but their efforts seemed like it was not enough.
The sound of a match stick lighting suddenly interrupted them, making both Marcus and Ashton turn towards the direction of the lighting sound.
As the light shone brightly in the dim dark, they both could see some movements as the one who had struck the match stick used it to light a candle that was sitting on a chair with broken legs.
"Who are you?" Ashton asked as he watched the figure subtly. For some reasons, he did not feel any fear strike in his mind as it seems the figure was truly human like Alden had mentioned.
"How did you both get here? How did you survive the attack that raged today?" The figure asked. He took the candle up from the chair with broken legs and raised it to his face allowing both boys to see his face for the first time.
Marcus heaved a sigh he didn't realize he had been holding in for a while the moment he saw the boy's face.
"What do you mean survive? Did something happen here?"
"I wouldn't have asked you that question is nothing had happened." The boy said again with a frown etching its way on his face.
"What is your name?" Ashton asked again not minding his words.
"My name?" The boys asked rhetorically with a bit of mockery in his voice. "Why does having a name in this apocalypse matter? You want to know my name? Tell me how you survived this raid first! Tell me how you both evaded the five ferocious mutants that had fled into the direction you both were coming from."
"What is he talking about?" Ashton shrugged, turning to face Marcus to see if he was also cluster headed as he was about what the boy was saying.
When the boy had noticed both of them seemed dauntless and they were not comprehending what he was saying well, he finally said.
"Some mutants came here and…and they killed them all. They killed them!"
"Who? Who did they kill?" Marcus asked.
"My friends…all of them." The boy said with regret and remorse filling his voice through and through. "I shouldn't have escaped! I shouldn't have saved myself. I should have died with them too!" He wailed.
Ashton lurched forward a bit but Marcus stopped him by grabbing his arm.
"Don't tell me you're falling for his story already?" He mumbled to Ashton.
"Would he lie about this? He said his friends died!"
"And where are their bodies?" Marcus fired back still not believing the fact that Ashton had suddenly bitten into the tale the boy they did not even know his name had cooked for them to eat and digest.
Ashton finally faltered his resolve and stopped his move falling back beside Marcus.
"Where are their bodies? Your dead friends." Marcus eventually asked, his eyes filled with suspicion that the boy's story was probably not true.
"Come, I will take you there." The boy announced and he began to walk towards the shut door. When he noticed both boys were not coming after him, he turned. "Why? Are you not coming?"
"Right behind you."
The door opened letting some sunlight into the store. The little time they had spent in the darkness made them twitch their eyes the moment they saw the ray of light flaunt in.
"How did you survive the raid?" Marcus asked as they walked out of the store.
The boy blew out the light that was in the candle he had been holding and he bent down to drop the candle by the door way. He then turned to face Marcus.
"I really do not know too…it all happened so fast, the rumbling, the ferocious claws slashing into thin air, wild sneer, grabbing…everything happened so fast and all I knew was I was running into a safe harbor…" he paused and took a small breath then continued.
"I know I shouldn't have run away alone…I could have stayed and died with them but…" The boy stopped and he suddenly began to shed tears.
The tears signified how hurt and traumatized he must have been and this little act cut through Ashton's mind as he recalled what had happened to him and Jamil the day they were on a chase with Ulysses and his dead friend, Gareth. The sight was indeed gruesome and the only thing he also could do then was run– run away like a coward he was.
As he watched the boy shed tears, his thoughts also trailed off to Ercan. He couldn't imagine how Ercan must have felt when the mutants suddenly took his son away from him.
All these happenings were unfair and a cheat to humans. What wrong had they done to be faced with a ferocious apocalypse that takes away one's happiness? What sacrifices do humans need to make to let all these happenings get erased from their lives?
*SIGH!*
Aston heaved a small sigh exasperatedly and he walked towards the boy giving him a small pat on the shoulder. Marcus didn't try to stop him this time as he just watched what was going to unfold.
Ashton knew he could do nothing to bring back his presumed dead friends or wipe away the pain he was feeling at that moment but he knew all he could do at that moment was offer a small pat of support and he hoped his subtle act would bring comfort to him.
"I understand how you feel…I have also been in that situation once and all I did was run away from death. You shouldn't beat yourself so much about the death of your friends you didn't kill them, all you did was survive and that alone should keep you going."
"It's really not easy…I feel like I have killed them with my own hands. How do I move on when all I can see is their dying eyes with tears of pain in them?" The boy wailed again as he shed simple tears.
He continued,
"All I can hear is their wailing voice to be freed from pain, from hurt."
"I understand how you feel, I truly do. Now all that matters now is that you're alive and with that, you have to brace yourself and avenge your friends. You have to save them from the hands of death the second time." Ashton said, like he was a professional teacher speaking comforting words to their students.
"You think I can survive that way?" The boy asked, turning at Ashton to look at him.
Ashton gave him a nod and a small smile of encouragement.
"Yes, you can. My name is Ashton. What is your name?"
The boy hesitated for a minute not sure if it was safe enough to reveal his name just yet but then again, the boy seemed harmless so he finally decided to spill.
"William– my name is William."