« As soon as she entered the street, she saw torches. A gathering of people protesting with rifles, shouting no to the monster. A sort of group fighting against all the murders that could happen.
Yumiel was skeptical, yet she needed these people to get information. Slaughtering them would have been useless. Slowly approaching with her arms raised, the first men noticed her. Raising their rifles toward Yumiel.
« Stop, don't move, tell us where you come from and what you're doing here. » The first to speak was a tall man with a scar on his cheek.
« I'm coming from a street not far from here. My friend lives here, I came to visit him. » The men started laughing.
« It takes some guts to come here in the middle of the night just to see a friend? What's his name and what's your name? »
« Yumiel, and I came to see Mathis, a friend from university. » Everyone looked at each other before lowering their weapons.
« Ok, you can come in but first you have to say "system". All monsters have this thing, some sort of floating window according to Chinese reports. » Yumiel was stunned, she thought:
These idiots are stupid enough to believe everything China says? In truth, it was real, but 50% of the population had this window and 50% were not monsters.
« Very well. » Yumiel opened her senses, ready to open her canteen. If anything happened, she was ready. « System »
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Hello, please specify your question?
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Yumiel tensed the muscles in her legs to the maximum, ready to jump at them, but the men scratched their heads before saying:
« You can go through, sorry for the inconvenience. » Yumiel stayed there with her predator eyes, whispering:
« They can't see it? » They all went back to their business.
Yumiel didn't know what to say, luckily it seemed they couldn't see the window. That confirmed that only transformed people could see it, or maybe it was unique to each person.
Slowly moving through the huge crowd—there were easily over a hundred people—she tried to reach Mathis' house. Her priority was to get information to find Morgane. Close to the house, someone called out to her.
« Hum, excuse me? » Yumiel turned around to see a slightly frail man approach her: « I'm sorry, I forgot your name, could you give me a bit of your time? »
Yumiel took the time to analyze the man from head to toe before giving her answer. « No. »
He stepped closer to Yumiel to whisper: « Now you're going to follow me. » pointing a Glock at Yumiel's abdomen.
In this huge crowd, no one could see what was happening here. Yumiel walked along the walls; the man took the opportunity to pin her against the wall, pressing the gun against her abdomen, hiding the view from others.
« Ahahaha you're a funny one! So this is what you do to newcomers, point a gun at them?! »
The man looked surprised; he wasn't expecting that reaction.
« You're crazy I think, you misunderstood or… » Yumiel cut him off with a very salty response.
« I think you're the one who misunderstood, you pile of shit. Trash like you, I'd gladly kill for fun, but you would've known that if you could see my window. »
The man's face went from serious to terrified when he heard the word window. But Yumiel didn't waste time; her time was precious. She broke the man's gun with one hand in a single snap. The man stepped back then ran off.
« Hum, one piece of trash less or maybe I should have killed him? »
Not losing time, she arrived in front of her friend's door, ringing repeatedly. The wait was long enough for Yumiel to notice that the house had been unbarricaded. In fact, nearly every house had been unbarricaded.
The surprise was unsettling when the door opened. A woman not resembling anyone she knew even remotely.
« Excuse me, I'm looking for Mathis? Or maybe you know his father, Mr. Norman. » The woman was surprised, closing the door slightly.
« I'm sorry, I don't know who you're talking about. Goodbye. » shutting the door instantly.
Yumiel was shocked, maybe she had made a mistake? Stepping back a few steps. She could confirm for certain this was their house, returning to the door and ringing without stopping this time. The woman opened the door angrily. « WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?! »
Yumiel ignored her completely, forcing her way in, searching the house for Mathis or his father. « YOU'RE COMPLETELY CRAZY, GET OUT OF HERE!! »
Yumiel ignored the woman yelling at her, searching every room. Unfortunately, no trace; their belongings were still there, Mathis' piano was still in his room, his father's paintings still in the living room. It was indeed their house, but they were no longer inside. The woman, on the other hand, wouldn't stop yelling, which irritated Yumiel to the extreme.
« OK listen, tell me where the previous owners went and I'll leave. » The woman, around forty years old, crossed her arms, trying to intimidate Yumiel.
« Excuse me! You think you're in a position to threaten me here under my own roof? »
Yumiel sighed. This time she wasn't sighing from fatigue, but from frustration. Yumiel took her gun from her holster, pointing her magnum straight at the woman's head.
« This method works well on people like you, now answer me or I'll put a hole between your eyes. » The woman felt uneasy.
« You think you can intimidate me? If you shoot, everyone will rush in. » Yumiel tightened her finger on the trigger. « Ok ok calm down, if I tell you where they went, you'll leave? » Yumiel put away her weapon.
The woman led Yumiel to the couch where they both sat.
« Listen, you are? » "Yumiel", « Alright Mrs. Yumiel, first of all I want to apologize, you know, with everything happening lately I lose my mind easily. » Yumiel was surprised but accepted the apology.
« As for the people living here, they left—or rather we made them leave. » Yumiel immediately asked:
« I beg your pardon? You made them leave? » The woman was embarrassed but continued.
« Well yes, you see, everyone here, including my husband, is part of the anti‑monster organization, and we decided to take this street as our HQ. Being spared from the explosions and having lots of resources, plus being close to the center. »
The woman saw Yumiel start to grimace with anger; she looked like a wild cat ready to jump at her enemy's throat. Clearing her throat, she continued:
« So our group began knocking on every door to rally them to our cause. However, if they refused, they had to leave immediately. The two people living here refused to contribute, saying they didn't accept classifying people based on their nature. »
Yumiel was furious.
« YOU'RE–YOU'RE KIDDING ME!! YOU SENT HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE TO CERTAIN DEATH AND YOU CALL YOURSELVES HUMAN? YOU'RE NO BETTER THAN THE MONSTERS. NO, YOU'RE MAYBE WORSE!! »
The woman was extremely uncomfortable, not knowing where to look. One could feel sadness in her eyes, a trace of bitterness. She couldn't say anything in response.
« Where did they go? » said Yumiel in a pressing tone.
« They said they were heading toward the city cemetery to find someone named Morgane. People from our group claim to have seen her there. »
Yumiel let out: « Morgane? » Leaving immediately, Yumiel warned the woman:
« I'm warning you, if when I come back I still see you here, I'll kill you all to the last one and bathe in your blood. »
Leaving, Yumiel ran into the man with the scar on his cheek who had just come in. The man stopped her from leaving by blocking the door.
« Kid, apologize to my wife for what you just said. »
Yumiel couldn't waste more time, she had to go right now.
« Move, I told your wife I'd leave after getting my answers, so move or it'll turn out differently. »
The man wanted to reply. But his wife stood up and walked toward her husband, taking his arm.
« Come on, let her go, it's not worth it. »
The man stepped aside. Yumiel walked out calmly, leaving. Well, not exactly—she climbed onto the roof, opening her senses to listen to their conversation.
« Why are you letting her go? She dared threaten us. »
« You don't understand? She was certainly not human. I felt it. »
« But what about the system? »
« Did you ever think that only they can see it? And even if you knew, what would you have done, shot her? Please, she would've killed you in less than a second. Do you remember the metal man? »
This alarmed Yumiel; she knew this individual all too well—if of course he was talking about the same one.