Having lost consciousness, Bryce felt nothing. Two of Eric's men approached the bleeding blonde and caried his body by grabbing his limbs. They intended to bury him alive as their boss ordered. They threw his body on the dirty ground and begin to dig up the ground with shovels in hand. They kept digging and digging for a while.
Unknown to them, the seed given to Bryce was soaked in his blood. It was dropped of next to him when the henchmen threw him on the ground. It had grown into small tree but didn't stop there. It kept growing and manifested branches while forming roots underground. A branch reached out and wrapped around Bryce's legs, dragging him towards the strange tree.
The two men stopped when they saw a tree suddenly appearing where it was supposed to be empty. Out of instinct, they tried to shoot it. But that did nothing to the tree at all. Two branches reached out and pierced through their body, draning their blood and transfering it into Bryce's body.
Afterwards, there were two dry corspe laid close to the tree. It's branches were wrapping around Bryce like a tight embrace of the mother nature. Eventually, his body was completely coated in braches layered with leaves on the outer.
...
Slowly feeling conscious, Bryce opened his eyes. The first thing that he saw was the red sky without anything else shown above. But the thing that concerned him most was that he could still feel his consciousness and even control on his nerves. He stood up only to find himself surrounded by tall walls made of of leaves. There were also pathways in between. With no better choice, he went onward and tried to explore this strange area.
'Just where is this place? The afterlife? Hell? Heaven? Or this could be a dream.'
Another strange thing was that his body and clothing were somehow intact. He was pretty sure about himself bleeding to death after being shot, but there were no traces of that. He seemed to be the only one around this area, at least he thought so.
His questions might be answered once he walked further. As he kept walking, he only saw the same pattern of pathway and tall walls made out of leaves. Bryce started to think that this place was a labyrinth. Which would mean that the exit must be somewhere. He just had to look around more carefully to see if there could be anything noticeable.
Still, even if he did face some weird creatures with grey skin, it did not help him gasp on the strangeness of this labyrinth. The eerie quietness allowed him to fully hear his own steps, almost confusing it for something approaching him from behind. Initially it was only like that at first, until he actually heard something that wasn't from himself.
A few meters behind him was a humanoid figure without any details on their physical features. He only saw a pitch black humanoid form with a pair of big white eyes and a drooling mouth. It got worse when a few more of them appeared and started chasing after him. He immediately run without looking back. Bryce was even more driven to find the exit before losing time and being surrounded by those creatures. They didn't look scary like the ones he fought earlier the night, but anything could happen in an unknown world. He knew he lacked the knowledge about the situation. Only his instincts could guide him out of it.
Thankfully there were multiple pathways available for him to choose. After successfully hiding himself away from the pitch black entities, he sat down and took a deep breath as he begin to work his brain.
'This place is weird... But how did I even end up here? My skin could feel so it isn't a dream either. What do those things earlier want with me?'
Folding his arms together, he tried to come up with some explanation but failed. Then he decided to check his body to see any other unnatural changes. It turned out there was no other change except for one minor detail.
'The seed... is gone? Did I drop in somewhere. None of my pockets have holes so how?"
With things being as weird as they were, it was unlikely a coincidence. But a relation between a seed and the mysterious maze couldn't simply be found, or there was just none and it was simply a coincidence. He would take every possibility into account regardless.
'No choice but forward.'
He kept going but didn't make a haste, he wanted to avoid the creatures around the place. He walked around, took several turns and used some small branches picked from the leaf walls. It kept going like that for what felt like minutes. He started suspecting that the maze itself was too vast, there might not even be an exit. If only he could climb on the walls and see, but life wouldn't him. It was as cruel as ever, saving him from death only to trap him inside a gigantic maze.
But then he had a bright ideal. Since the pitch black creatures seemed to be habitants of the place, he should find one and follow their tracks. Then he walked around for a while and found one. He waited and steadily followed behind without getting caught by it or any others of its kin.
While following the creature, he came to realize that he was heading closer and closer towards an enormously large and tall tree that he didn't see earlier. Good thing he stalked the habitant of the maze. The mere sight make him lose focus and ended up bumping into one of the creatures.
"Ah shit."
The walking once again transitioned into running, this time however an entire horde was chasing after him. Bryce had to run like his life depended on it. He couldn't help but cursed his very life once again for being so unfair. Then he tried to blend himself into the walls of leaves, it actually worked. They ran pass him without noticing anything.
After waiting for a while, he popped his head out of hiding to make sure his hunters were gone away before continuing on his feet again. Troublesome as it could be, he had to check out that tree. It could potentially be the key to get out of the maze.
He went on while looking at the red leaves that formed walls. Thankfully they didn't seem to be poisonous or else his body would feel pain already. Suddenly, the red sky slowly became darker as if indicating nighttime had come. For some reason, Bryce didn't feel any sign of hunger or thirst. He kept walking and picked a corner where it would be easy to spot the creatures if there were any around. He lied down on the ground and looked at the starless sky.
He thought about all the things that had happened so far, from breaking out of prison to being miraculously alive and well. The most unforgettable thing was, however, the face of the bastard that had taken his most precious and treasured one - an ideal entity to be always by his side, gone forever and never to be found again. Eric had taken it too far, he had brought him the greatest despair he had ever felt. The bastard clearly enjoyed that.
Yet, unknown to him, the blonde he wanted to get rid off so much was somehow still alive. The ignited anger in his sould only burned even brighter after remembering the sight of Lily's pale and motionless body. When he hugged her, he had wished that she would somehow move her digits and caress his cheeks as the color of her skin restored itself. But that never happened and the damned villain got all the satisfaction he wanted. He discarded him like a toy he had grown bored at. Then here Bryce was, in an endlessly vast maze.
He blamed himself for being so naive, underestimating how rotten a human could be. But if he were to believe all humans were evil, would he still be able to love Miss Lily? Would he see himself as an incarnation of evil as well? No one would know, neither would he. Hee couldn't explain to himself how Miss Lily was so precious to him either. Perhaps she was kind and gentle to him but that was simply her characteristic. Maybe he was selfish for being so obsessed with her but he couldn't help it. She were there when he had yet to learned about the warmth of mutual contact.
ghtHe began crying again as the image of a sweet single woman appeared in his mind. He would never forget her smile... nor the despair etched on her lifeless face. He vowed to never let his former boss get away with ruining her gentle aura. Hell, he felt disgusted to have worked under his management. With the given chance, he swore to hunt down Eric and deliberately bring forth the downfall of his insufferable ego, ten folds of the pain he had given him.
Having calmed down, he stared at the empty sky once more and looked forward to the days after. His eyelids finally felt heavy and he drifted off to sleep.
...
Elsewhere, under the night sky, three mysterious figures were approaching a pile of rubble. They were not the first to check it out, however. A group of police was already at the scene, checking to see if there happened to be any survivor still struggling under the weight of the pile.
The policemen were busy with their work so they didn't notice anyone crossing their makeshift fence that was supposed to warn citizens from entering. The three figures learned of an intense gunfight going on around the area a while prior. The one standing between two others walked forward as he fixed his lens and looked around, then turned to the two behind him.
"One of them was infected, be careful." He said.
"Of course." Came a calm-toned female voice. "The feral always possesses the elements of surprise."
"Heh! It will be them getting a mindblow if I make a move." Said the figure with an energetic voice, a bit louder than the other.
"Whoever is fine, just make sure no leave no rooms for mistakes."
""Got it."" The two females responded.