"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Elijah shouted, pacing across the hospital lobby.
"Calm down, Elijah. Losing it won't help," Samuel said, trying to calm him down.
"Our food is still up there!" Elijah's voice cracked. "Without it, we're dead!"
Samuel pushed himself upright, but a sharp jolt shot through his arm. The adrenaline was fading, and only now did he feel how bad it was, his flesh swollen, purple, and throbbing with every heartbeat.
Elijah's eyes locked on it. "That looks bad." He finally stopped pacing and crouched beside Samuel.
"You don't say!" Samuel hissed through clenched teeth.
But then something impossible happened. Right before their eyes, the bruising began to fade. Shade by shade, the ugly purple drained away like time-lapse footage. The swelling pulled back. The skin smoothed out, the discoloration retreating as if being erased from within.
"What the hell?!" Elijah whispered, frozen.
Within minutes, the deep bruise shrank to a faint yellow smear, then almost nothing. Beneath the skin, Samuel's body worked in overdrive, the blood started clotting, the muscle tissues knitting, the broken bone realigning. The fracture sealed itself with fresh callus, hardening far faster than nature should allow.
"That's not normal…" Samuel muttered, breathing hard, staring at his arm in disbelief.
Elijah straightened, his expression shifting. "My father might know something. He's the one who sent us to find you."
Samuel didn't answer right away. He flexed his fingers, testing the arm that shouldn't even be usable yet. Finally, he looked at Elijah. "We'll deal with that later. Right now, we need to know if those things are still here."
He moved toward the shattered lobby windows and carefully peeked out.
Nothing.
"Looks clear. Let's check the roof door, see if they're still above us."
The two climbed the stairs in tense silence. At the top, Samuel eased the door open and scanned the roof.
Empty.
"All clear," he whispered, though his chest was still tight. He turned to Elijah. "Do you know what those things even were?"
Elijah shook his head, his face grim.
"No. This is the first time I've seen anything like that," he said quietly.
"Then let's check your farm. That's what we came up here for anyway," Samuel replied.
Elijah led the way, Samuel close behind. As they moved across the rooftop, faint streaks and gouges cut across the concrete, scars left behind by the massive tentacles.
When they reached the farm, their hearts sank. Half the crops were flattened, the soil torn and churned as if a storm had passed through.
"Goddamnit," Elijah cursed, rushing forward. "The tentacle from earlier must've crashed down here."
They scrambled to salvage what they could. After a frantic search, Elijah managed to gather enough food for three days. The rest was ruined.
"So what now?" Samuel asked as he helped bundle the surviving plants.
"We'll have to scavenge the city for canned food," Elijah muttered, frustration etched on his face.
"Great. Another problem," Samuel sighed, continuing to collect what was left.
Once they finished gathering, the two returned to the hidden room to report to Erina.
"We have food for three days. If we ration carefully, maybe five," Elijah said, staring at the floor. "But the nearest safe zone is three weeks away. We won't last that long."
"Brother, the outskirts might still have supplies," Erina suggested. "The city was evacuated in a hurry. There should be canned food left behind."
Elijah frowned but nodded. "Then we have no choice but to go into the city."
"Hold on," Samuel cut in. "You still haven't explained what happened while I was unconscious."
"Alright, but first help me with this." Elijah dug into his duffel bag and pulled out a glass bottle, handing it to Samuel.
Samuel lifted it to his nose and instantly recoiled. The stench was overwhelming, rancid, and chemical. He gagged and coughed violently.
"What the fuck is this?"
"Hey, don't just sniff random stuff people hand you," Elijah chuckled. "That, my friend, is the bile of a Rat King."
"A what now?" Samuel quickly capped the bottle, though the stench still clung to the air.
"It masks our scent, but only for a day. And it's ridiculously expensive. If we had more, we wouldn't be stuck on rooftops, we'd just hide inside here." Elijah pointed toward the hidden door.
"We were saving it for emergencies, like right now, since we no longer have the advantage of the rooftops, the door up there is sturdier than the hidden door down here, it helped us defend from devil dogs," he shook his head.
"Devil dogs?" Samuel raised a brow.
"Yeah. Infected dogs. It's just what everyone calls them," Elijah explained with a shrug.
'So it was those things that mauled me before,' Samuel thought, grimacing at the memory.
He held up the bottle and gave it a small shake, the thick green liquid sloshing inside. "And this… how exactly does it keep us safe?"
"The dogs have insane noses. One whiff of this and they'll think the place is a Rat King's lair," Elijah smirked.
"So all I have to do is spread it around, and we're safe?" Samuel asked, still staring at the bottle.
"Pretty much," Elijah nodded. "Coat the whole area around the hidden door. Make sure you use all of it."
"Tsk. The vendor watered it down. Greedy bastard. If it were pure, half a bottle would've been enough," Elijah muttered, annoyed at the memory.
"So this already smells worse than death, and the original was stronger?" Samuel muttered as he started pouring the bile over the entrance.
"Yeah. One sniff of the pure stuff and you'd probably drop on the spot." Elijah laughed.
Samuel shivered at the thought, his stomach already twisting from the stench. When the last drop was gone, he returned the bottle, looking pale.
"There. Done." He set it down with a clink.
"Good. Now, can you finally tell me what happened?" Samuel asked, growing impatient.
He dragged a chair across the floor, sat, and fixed his eyes on Elijah.
Elijah pulled up a chair of his own, took a breath, and leaned forward. His gaze dropped to the ground, as if dredging up memories buried deep.
"Well," he began slowly, "let's start from the very beg–," Elijah was cut off by a sudden shout.
"ELIJAH!!!"
The voice of Erina echoed out.
'What the heck just happened?' Samuel thought to himself as he and Elijah bolted toward her voice.