The others walked towards the store the moment they saw them come out of the store with another boy. Alden was able to walk on his own now and it seems he had regained some of his strength back.
"Is he human?" Alden asked first the moment they had gotten to the store's entrance.
"Yes." Ashton replied. "He's a lone survivor. He said some mutants had raided this place."
"Eh? Nothing seems suspicious about this place." Ulysses said, wincing his eyes as his eyebrows narrowed a little.
"There are now signs of a mutant's raid here as well." Jamil spoke up as he began to examine the area. Indeed, nothing seemed suspicious as the area looks clean and devoid of any attack.
Ashton and Marcus turned to William the moment they had both confirmed with their own eyes the area indeed looked too clean in contrast to William's story.
"I-I'm telling the truth!" William defended himself as it seemed Ashton was doubting his words just like Marcus seemed to never have believed his words from the beginning. William tried to keep his cool as he hoped he wouldn't stutter so his words wouldn't look like a framed lie to them.
"There was an attack here I can swear on that…I wouldn't lie about anyone's death and besides, why would I do that?"
"Where did you say your friends got killed again?" Marcus finally asked, strolling forward towards William like he could pounce on him at that moment if he told another tale that doesn't make any sense.
William's breathing suddenly changed as he heart began to pound with fear. He was the only one up against five boys who seemed to be of the same age as him and they all looked stronger than him and if he failed to make them believe his words, they might eventually send him to hug and have a feast with his dead friends wherever they had ascended to.
"Come with me." William subtly said to them, his eyes darting about their faces as he tried to process what look they all had in their eyes.
One thing he knew was that the look in their eyes wasn't filled with compassion and Ashton was seemingly not ready to side support him anymore unless he had proven his words as true.
William finally turned and began to lead the way through a corner that was just behind the store's building. There was an alley there and the moment Ashton turned, he was suddenly reminded of the same situation he had been in when he was chasing after Ulysses.
He looked behind him to see what look Ulysses was bearing in his eyes and he was right as well, that alley had brought the same haunting memory that led to Gareth's death to him.
"I'm over it already!" Ulysses suddenly snapped at Ashton the moment he noticed his eyes were fixed on him. "And stop looking at me like a crybaby! You look like a wretched swine."
Ashton let out a small scoff at Ulysses sarcastic reply and he turned to face the way. They finally arrived where William was taking them to and the first thing that caught their eyes was some white lining clothes covering something up.
"Here…"
"Are those…?" Aurelia who had been silent all long tried to ask a question but her voice trailed off the moment she began to say the words.
"Yes."
Marcus walked towards the covering and he gently raised the cloth off to reveal what was buried underneath.
"Fuck!" Ashton groaned the moment his eyes caught the dead bodies that were arranged neatly underneath the white lining cloth Marcus had raised.
He suddenly felt a wave of nausea wash over him and he quickly covered his mouth with his hand, trying to hold back the contents of his stomach.
He rushed away from where he had been standing and headed for a close wall away from where he was before. He made it just in time, falling to his knees in front of the wall and began retching violently.
Aurelia seeing him throw up so much felt disgusted as she couldn't help but wonder what type of guy feels nauseous after seeing a dead body or maybe more. She shook her head with disappointment and walked towards Marcus.
She bent down a bit to examine the bodies. Their spilled blood had mixed with air for a long time making it turn a thick and dark with a murky color. It emitted a strong metallic smell and there were bubbles and froth which signifies the air had created its domain on their blood.
Flies were oozing around their corpses and Aurelia came to a conclusion with her little observation. She turned at William and then back at Marcus. She gave him a small nod and he understood what she meant by that without having to say a word.
"We should probably bury their bodies right? Leaving them like this doesn't sit really well with me." Alden suggested.
"Yes, we should." Ulysses nodded, agreeing to what he had said.
"We should pay our last respects to them." Alden added his voice low and calm. "They are probably the same age as us…seeing them lie dead is not a good sight to behold."
***~°~***
The sky was changing its color really fast announcing that night will be falling soon. As the sun sets and twilight descends, the sky takes on a soft, lilac hue. The air feels cool and crisp, and there was a stillness that is almost eerie.
The boys were busy digging graves for the corpses of William's friends and the only sound that was waving around was the sound of their shovels hitting the soil and some stones that had been buried in the earth for long.
"William!" Aurelia called from where she sat. She had created a small fire to help warm the scared boy up and she was the only one not shoveling as she was in charge of keeping watch.
"Uhm." William cooed, turning to face her.
"How long have they been dead for?" She asked as she was still curious to find out a missing puzzle in the whole story.
The wind suddenly howled a strange whistle as it swept through the area making their hairs flutter in the direction the wind was running into.
"Fuck!" Ashton yelped from where he was digging as he suddenly shoved his shovel aside. The wind had blown some foreign elements into his eyes and he they were sentenced into a moment of blindness.
A small smile ensued on Williams lips as Ashton's yelping distraction seemed cute to him. He finally gave a reply to Aurelia's question.
"Three days."
"And you've been hiding yourself so well for three days?" Marcus suddenly questioned, interrupting without notice.
William nodded in response to Marcus' question.
"Where did they die anyway, there are no signs of any raid here…and how did you get their bodies to this place?" Marcus asked again, dropping his shovel aside abruptly, now focusing his attention on William expecting him to skip a beat and spill whatever he was hiding.
Something doesn't sit right with William's story and it seems he was the only one who had seen this while the others were negligent to not notice an odd take in his story. William on the other hand laced his eyes on Marcus and they both began to stare at each other, none wanting to say a word first.
''Erh…why is he being hot headed? He's making it hard for the others to believe my story now.' William wailed to himself in his thoughts, his demeanor suddenly changing to a cruel one as he watched Marcus.