Outstretching his hand in front of him, a small, maroon droplet fell onto Asan's palm that had opened up. It was dark and clearly resembled blood. It spread across his palm and fell to the ground, leaving a bloody trail.
"What is this?" the boy asked in surprise, looking at his palm.
The other members of the camp also raised their heads, feeling the raindrops falling lightly. Geographer looked at the sky for several seconds, perhaps thinking about what they should do now. If they got caught in a downpour, things would be bad, but if it was just a light drizzle, it wouldn't cause any problems. An order was given to change into warm clothes. Thanks to the storage facilities, there were plenty of such items. Asan received a jacket and warm socks. He quickly changed, feeling the raindrops falling on his face. His face was covered in dried blood and dirt, so the sensation of rain was like a salvation.
After all, the Geographer decided to return, as the rain was intensifying. The only oddity that Asan noticed about this rain was its color. It really was like blood, leaving similar bloody stains and marks on the body. After taking off his backpack, Asan felt like drinking some water. Slowly unscrewing the bottle cap, he drank the desired liquid but realized he had done so… Too slowly.
The rain gradually intensified, and the group started moving. Their pace slightly slowed down, and Asan's thoughts began to get jumbled. Everything seemed so strange… So unclear. What was happening to him? Suddenly, from behind, something fell to the ground. Turning around, he and the rest of the camp saw a man lying on the ground. Laszlo quickly approached him to find out what had happened. But, as it turned out, nothing serious had occurred; the man had simply fallen to the ground, losing his coordination.
" What's happening to us?" - Crane's slow voice was heard from the right. He was standing with his head up, gazing at the sky.
Asan didn't understand what he meant. The group had just slowed down, nothing unusual. Although it couldn't be denied that thinking had become harder, not only thinking but everything seemed slower and confusing.
"I don't know" - Asan briefly replied, lazily waving his hand.
The group moved on. It wasn't far back to the warehouses, about an hour. But since the group had slowed down, it might take a bit longer. Meanwhile, the rain slowly turned into a downpour. The blood drops were absorbed by the ground, turning it a crimson color. White lightning flashed in the sky from time to time, and the loud sounds irritated Asan's ears. Something was wrong. That strange feeling again, that the world felt somehow off.
The group's pace became even slower, more and more people started tripping on flat ground, all saying at once that they had simply lost their coordination. Turning his gaze towards the geographer, Asan saw dark circles forming under his eyes, as if he hadn't slept for several days. Approaching him, Asan wanted to know what he thought was happening.
"Hey... Geo...Geogragh. What's going on?" — Struggling to get the words out, Asan didn't even realize he was saying something wrong.
Geographer just looked at him for a few seconds before there was a response in his eyes.
"I... I'm not Geogra... I'm Gagroaf" — He mumbled and suddenly stopped, grabbing his mouth. His movements were slow and clumsy.
Asan began to slowly understand exactly what was wrong. The people in the camp started speaking strangely, sometimes stuttering, and sometimes pronouncing words incorrectly.
More and more people stumbled, not understanding what was happening. Slowly, panic began to grow in the heart of each one. Geographer, frowning, looked at Asan and shook his head negatively, then pointed his finger forward, towards the path leading to the warehouses. Something inexplicable was happening.
After 15 minutes of walking, Asan felt heat on his body. He was terribly hot, and everything was darkening before his eyes. Everyone in the camp had stumbled at least once. Most had to watch the woman with a child who was hunched over, walking ahead to keep raindrops from falling on the baby, which was screaming loudly. Asan did not like this cry; it was loud and quiet at the same time. His ears also started to whistle unpleasantly. The whispers of the people around him slowly scratched at his consciousness, driving him mad.
What is happening? Why does he feel this way? Could something have been done to him?
The guy started panicking and looking around, not understanding what was happening. The whispering of the people was so loud that his heart was beating fast. But he didn't understand why his heart was beating so fast since there was no enemy nearby. Finally, he realized something else. Although there was whispering, when he looked at the faces of a couple of people passing by him, he was horrified. Everyone was silent. This whispering was in his head.
"Sasan... What are you mumbling about..." Laszlo asked him, saliva dripping from his mouth.
Asan didn't understand a word.
"What are you talking about?" Asan tried to repeat the question, noticing how hard it was for him to speak. It was as if he had a full mouth of food and was trying to force something out.
Laszlo tilted his head in confusion, indicating that Asan's words hadn't reached his ears or were incomprehensible. Everything was getting worse. After another ten minutes, Asan heard a scream behind him, which terrified him immensely.
Turning heavily around, he saw a woman sitting on the ground who was a medic. The very one who had been in the hangar next to him.
"I... I can't see anything! Can't see anything!" the girl screamed, completely covered in blood... blood falling from the sky.
Scary. Asan felt incredibly scared by this sight. It was even worse than the Valley of Death that the group had barely managed to cross. Questions, so many questions filled Asan's head, but one after another, they were swept away by other thoughts that were so chaotic that they destroyed his mind. Now instead of heat, he felt an unbearable cold — he couldn't feel his fingers and toes. Mucus ran from his nose, which he wiped relentlessly, but soon it started flowing again. He was delirious. He was in a state of delirium.
The girl continued screaming, while the others blankly looked at her, not understanding anything. Where were they going?
They were going somewhere, but where? Asan forgot about this and started forgetting everything. His body became so stiff and heavy that every breath became difficult. He heard his heart beating rapidly, like the sound of a hammer. Cold spread through his body like a blizzard. Everything around seemed both huge and tiny at the same time, and Asan tripped on flat ground, falling onto the bloody earth. Looking up at the dark sky, he saw another lightning bolt.
Drops of blood fell endlessly onto his pale face, burning him. His attention to them worsened with each second. For him, they became like streams of water that had fallen from the sky. Suddenly, Asan saw a figure above him; it was Alice, who extended her hand toward him. For several seconds, he looked at the hand, not understanding what she wanted from him, but then reflexively reached for it.
When he got to his feet and looked Alice in the face, he saw an empty expression on her, as if looking at a walking corpse.
He had already felt something similar earlier, when he was standing in the house. But who was he standing in front of? Something terrible and inexplicable. What exactly helped him get out of that situation. The guy closed his eyes and delved inside himself. Even though his thoughts moved slowly and unhurriedly, subconsciously he felt what needed to be done. Energy inside him flowed through his veins, quickly moving up to his hands. Dark fire appeared at the tips of Asan's fingers, immediately causing the guy pain. The guy's nervous System slowly but reacted, feeling the pain. The brain sent a signal, and the slowed neurons started working at their previous speed. Adrenaline quickly replenished oxygen in the tissues, allowing him to think clearly.
"Kha!"
"Kha! Fuck!" — Asan cleared his throat, greedily inhaling air. His lungs burned, and tears welled up in his eyes. His heart was pounding terribly due to its rapid beating. The boy's hands were shaking so badly it looked like he had tremors.
He made quick movements, rummaging through his backpack and pulled out a bottle of water, which he drank quickly. People standing next to him looked at him as if he had gone mad and slowly moved away. Asan, however, wasted no time and grabbed the second bottle, nearly finishing it off to the last drop, replenishing his body's fluid and electrolyte levels. It hurt. Every part of his body was in excruciating pain, but since Asan understood what was happening, he knew what the problem was.
There was no need to think long about it; his mind quickly went through all the options when this started, and the answer came to him. The rain. This bloody rain was quickly killing each one of them. Without wasting any time, the boy immediately opened his characteristics.
[Health points – 79/120]
His Health points mercilessly fell before his very eyes. The situation couldn't get any worse. His friends—the entire camp—were slowly turning into vegetables, after which they would die. What should he do? How could one survive in such conditions? His heart was aching terribly, and the pressure was immense. He quickly approached the Geographer, whom he considered the leader of the camp, and started shouting at him.
"Geographer! Geographer, bitch! We need to run! Let's hurry to the hangar, or we'll all drop dead one by one!" The boy shouted in the Geographer's face, whose gray eyes were glassy.
There was almost no time left; Asan felt that he was starting to become dull again. Pain slowly spread through his body, and warm blood began flowing from his nose, immediately mixing with the blood falling from the sky.
"Damn it, damn it, damn it! What to do? Give up?! No... No-no-no! There must be a way out, definitely, we just need to knock some sense into everyone! Yes! That's it..."
"This will help!" The boy was talking to himself and started looking around.
People whose eyes no longer reflected much light were just moaning, staring at him. Some of them were already lying unconscious on the ground. Neurons in each person's brain were slowly stopping, leading to hypoxia. Asan's panic was roaring. Tears welled up in his eyes, and his mind was gradually fading. It seemed like the situation was dire and hopeless. But Asan thought so until he looked ahead. He saw a group of Ronnie, consisting of about ten individuals, moving towards the group, occasionally stumbling and falling to the ground.
Once again, Asan found himself on the brink between life and death.