As Ayase and Carl edge closer and closer to the safe house, the, once bright and beaming sun is starting to set, and the old light blue sky is turning into a calm, relaxing orange colour.
"We are almost there, Ayase! Just a few more minutes."
Says Carl, before pointing in the direction of the safe house.
A few more minutes go by, before they both eventually reach the safe house.
As Ayase sees the safe house, her eyes light up, as, Infront of her is an old run down mansion, with broken windows, and missing planks, with a half working door.
While it seems like it's nothing special, to Ayase, this is the biggest, most largest thing she has ever seen before.
"Woah! It's huge!"
Says Ayase, "sure is. While it's not perfect, it's managed to keep me and the others safe for a few years now."
Says Carl, clearly proud, due to Ayase liking the safe house.
"The others?"
Ayase says, in confusion.
"Oh right, there's a lot I haven't told you about yet, so come on in and I'll tell you everything!"
"Okay!"
Says Ayase, feeling a new emotion "relief" for the first time, making her feel safe and warm, an emotion Ayase has only been able to feel after hours of confusion and pain.
Ayase and Carl step foot through the battered, yet barely-working front doors, the first dark spruce plank they step on, creeks throughout the entire mansion, making a painful, and alarming sound.
"Yah!"
Ayase screams.
"Tee hee."
"Sorry 'bout that, that's what we like to call our defence system, but in all honesty, it's just a really squeaky plank that we can't fix."
Ayase sighs, before moving forward into the almost empty mansion, being lit up by one old lamp covered with cobwebs next to the front door, followed with two long staircases, one flowing left from the back wall, and one flowing right.
clearly shown by the roughed up and cut red carpet leading towards the stairs bellow there feet.
"As I said, it isn't much, but it keeps us safe."
"Now, if you could be so kind to follow me upstairs, which will take you straight up to our safe room."
Before Ayase can take another step, a hand appears aside her.
"Woah! You gotta be careful."
Says Carl.
"This place is full of different kind of traps, or, that's at least what we call them, in all honesty they are just broken pieces of glass, and holes where planks are no more.
And, before Ayase could speak, Carl picks up a lamp from a crooked stool next to him, the lamp full of various holes from broken glass, and dust completely covering the once clear glass.
Carl then sets the almost completely melted candle on fire with a match, which looks like you could get blisters from just by touching it.
All of a sudden the surrounding areas is lit up with light, and all of the dangerous hazards are revealed Infront of Ayase.
One by one, Ayase and Carl avoid the "traps" and finally make it up the twisted stairs to the safe room.
As Ayase turns the corner to the safe room, there is a noticeable light beaming from the safe room, and with a closer inspection, it is revealed that the safe room has a clear difference in hygiene compared to the rest of the damaged mansion.
As Ayase stairs down the hallway where the safe room is located, she notices that, while the rest of the hallway is filled with various hazards and missing pieces, the part where the safe room is looks almost untouched to the naked eye.
"I take it that's the safe room?"
Says Ayase
"Clear as day."
Carl responded laughingly
Ayase and Carl both reach the door of the safe room, and to fit the atire, the door is also much cleaner than the rest.
Infront of them read a golden, clean but yet rusty sign on the polished door, reading "Author's room".
"What does that mean?"
Asks Ayase
"I'm not sure myself. There are so many mystery's in this world that haven't been solved, but, instead of leaving you hanging, how about I finally tell you the mystery's of this world?"
Carl says, before twisting the well-polished door knob.
Stood before the well-preserved door, was a room, not so big, yet not so small, filled with various bunkbeds and cabinets overflowing with various items, along with food scattered all over the place.
Filling up this room were 5 other people.
"Hello everyone, I'm back!"
Says Carl.
"Welcome back ."
Says the skinny boy in the corner.
"I've missed you so much!"
The little girl shouts, before running to hug Carl.
But, before she continues to hug Carl, she twists her head towards Ayase.
"Who is she?"
Says the little girl
"Your girlfriend?"
"No, no.."
Says Carl jokingly.
"I found her almost passed out by the pond, so I brought her back."
"Oh.."
Replies the little girl, hoping Carl had finally maned up and found someone.
Ayase turns to the rest of the people, and realises that they are all glaring at her, then she was hit with a sudden realisation that maybe she wasn't welcome.
Carl turns to Ayase, and seeing her expression, quickly introduces her to the rest of the gang.
"Well, everyone, I'm sure you have many questions, but to start of, this is Aya-"
"HEY AYASE! NICE TO MEET YOU!"
The rest of the people shout out.
Ayase is taken back by the sudden excitement, and is bewildered by the fact that they aren't sceptical of her.
Carl grabs Ayase's hand and pulls her into the room.
The second she comes in, everyone crowds around her, craving questions from Ayase.
"HOW OLD ARE YOU?'
"WHEN DID YOU WAKE UP?"
"WHERE DID YOU WAKE UP?"
"HOW TALL ARE YOU?"
"Now now everyone!"
"Please step away from Ayase."
As soon as Carl says that, everyone quickly steps back from Ayase, and forms a line.
"Now, I'm sure many of you have questions, but sadly, Ayase can answer any of them."
"Why?"
Says the little girl.
"Well, surprisingly, she only woke up a few hours ago."
Says Carl.
"That's not possible."
"How come she can walk?"
Says the skinny boy in the corner.
"Well, that's what makes her special!"
"Once she woke up, she was able to do natural human things, which as read, stand, walk, and even talk fluently."
Replies Carl.
Everyone in the room starts to whisper one another about what Carl just said, some worried, but some not, due to Carl always being correct and never failing at anything he does, so surely he should be telling the truth about Ayase, after all he's never wrong, and is the most trusting out of all of them..
??
"Everyone quite!"
Carl calmly says.
"I know, your supposed to wake up not knowing anything, and not being able to do anything, like your a new born baby, but Ayase is different!"
"Somehow she's been able to do stuff that a normal human should be able to do past the age of three!"
"She's different and could be the key to solving the mystery's of the world!"
"We can finally do what we've always dreamed of!"
"Anyway, I'm getting a head of myself."
"Could everyone introduce yourselves to miss Ayase?"
Ayase looks back at the other people, all wearing the same tattered white clothes like her, all lined up in a line, so straight its almost like they've practiced it before.
A young boy, around 14 years old, with a ragged, messy hairstyle, which correlates with his beige brown hair, along with his tiered, yet focused eyes was the first to step up.
"Hey, my name's Craig, I'm glad there's another one of us, i was starting to think we were the last survivor's of this world, glad to meet you."
Next to step up was a tall girl, with sparkling white hair, that went all the way down to her waist, and innocent red eyes, that shield her most deep inner thoughts.
"H-hello.. I'm Sylvia, n-nice to meet you.."
"Sylvia is really shy, but deep down she can be a little crazy.."
Carl whispers to Ayase.
Next up was the little girl from before, as she steped up, her ponytail that correlated with her dark ginger hair flopped and flipped around as it were sentient.
She had bright brown eyes, and freckles that almost took up her entire face.
"HELLO!"
"MY NAMES LUCY NICE TO MEET YOU!"
"She can be preetttyy noisy and mischievous, but really, she isn't that bad."
Carl whispers to Ayase.
Next up was a young boy, smaller than Lucy, with tired gloomy dark navy eyes, which matched his messy black hair that seemed almost as tired as he was.
Accompanied with a ruffed up dark black teddy bear, with blue stitched eyes, along with a frightening smile that covered almost it's entire face.
Before the boy spoke, he hugged his bear tighter than he already was, the bear almost seemed to hug him back, before slouching back, like it was a dead corpse.
"U-uhh.. m-m-my name is.... T-T-Teddy.."
Says the young boy, half asleep.
"Teddy is usually half asleep, so you won't get much out of him, but as long as he's got his teddy with him, he should be nothing to worry about."
Finally, the tall skinny boy in the corner steps up, his frail body matches his decently long black hair, covering one of his black eyes.
"My name's levi, and if I'm going to be completely honest with you, I think your a waste of space."
"H-he doesn't mean that.."
Says Carl hurriedly.
"I do."
Replies levi hastily.
"We barely have enough resources for the six of us, and we already have our plans set for the future, having her in our group would just mess everything up."
"I'm just doing what's best for us, so Ayase, go ahead and leave."
Says the precise and intelligent levi.
"W-what?"
Says Ayase, still trying to process what is going on.
"Now, now, I know that you only want best for us, but Ayase is a part of the family now, so you have to treat her like one."
"And plus, it's not like I don't have plans for her to do, I'm going to make sure I work her harder than the rest, I promise."
"Mhm."
Replies levi, still unsure.
"You have to trust me on this. I can tell Ayase is the one that can make our dream come true, I know your about educated risks and all that, but I'm not as smart as you, and quite frankly I'm taking nothing more than a stupid risk."
"But so far, we've hit a road bump in our plans, and Ayase is going to be the one to get us over it!"
Says Carl, with passion.
"Fine."
"But only because your the person I trust the most."
"Thank you!"
"H-her guys.."
Ayase speaks up.
"What exactly is this plan, or dream of yours?"
"Oh right!"
"I suppose it's time we answer some questions of yours."
"There are many mystery's to this world, and I'm gonna be the one to tell them all to you!"
"But first, everyone sit in a circle!"
Says Carl.
Everyone quickly forms a circle in the middle of the room, all sitting down, the only exception being Carl.
"Now then, it's time to tell you what you've been wondering this entire time."