"What were you thinking, Yuri!" Mr. Flounders shouted as he grabbed onto my shoulders. He looked at me with frustration. I stood there silently and could hear my heart beating loudly from the sprint. Reina grabbed me onto a hug from behind. I could imagine her worried face.

  "Nothing is more important than your life out there! Those things are dangerous, and you should already know that! Girl, you were lucky Cain got to you on time," Mr. Flounders continued.

  I didn't know how to answer him, so I apologized. I could feel myself trembling from the lingering fear of events a minute ago. Mr. Flounders eventually sighed and softened his gaze. He looked at everyone and apologized for shouting at me. Peter quietly asked me why I ran back, and I told him that it was something important but not for him to worry about. I couldn't tell him that it was because of Mr. Brown. He would probably think it was childish of me. I was glad he didn't dig deep into the details.

  Mr. Flounders was relieved we all made it inside safely. Who knows when more of them will come again. But it was likely soon. Candace and Mr. Flounders were adamant that more of those things were on their way because of his earlier broadcast and from the sound of gunshots. The Sun had also set so it was dark outside, and it was hard to see.

  "How did you guys get in here?" Candace immediately asked.

  "Busted through the door. Can't you tell?" Mr. Flounders responded as he and Cain pushed a couch followed by a dresser behind the door to barricade it.

  "I see you've been acquainted with the firearm storage underneath this radio tower," Candace stared at the wooden trap door that was half concealed with a rug. Mr. Flounders explained that they were lucky to have seen it already opened when they made it inside. Candace didn't pay attention to the details as much so she went down the ladder and turned on the lights. We could see from above that it was a pretty tight square space. There were many different types of guns and combat weapons displayed on all walls.

  Candace informed us that the storage below the radio tower was built for hunting animals back in the day. Only a few park rangers were allowed inside and only they were allowed to use them. She had an older brother named Garry who used to be a park ranger in charge of watching over the radio tower. He would sometimes sneak her inside to show her how the broadcasting station worked. Eventually, he showed her the underground firearm storage which explained why she knew about it. She pestered her bother about learning how to use one and when he finally gave in, he taught her how to use them only when no one was looking. Garry later quit the job and moved over to the big city where he later started a family. Candace couldn't get access anymore so when she heard Mr. Flounders's broadcast early on, she was shocked someone made it inside the radio tower.

  I looked over at Mr. Flounders who was holding on to a shotgun and Cain who held a pistol. Dylan clinging to his metal baseball bat and Reina's hands were empty. Knowing her, she wouldn't hurt a fly, so it only made sense she refused to carry anything even if it was to protect herself.

  "Mr. Flounders had the right idea. If we want to survive, we need to learn to protect ourselves. It'll only get worse out there from now on. Fortunately, there are plenty of weapons for all of us," Candace unlocked a few of the weapons and passed them along. She went ahead and explained the basics of handling one. I can sense the discomfort from the others. Their eyes almost in fear of holding one. It was certainly unsettling.

  I stared at the gun that was handed to me by Candace. It was similar to the pistol that Cain was holding. It felt big and heavy on my small hands. I thought about the time when Ernie took me to go hunting with him far back of our house. He had spotted a deer that was standing still on its own. Ernie handed me his hunting rifle so that I could have the chance at it. We instantly set ourselves into a hunting position with me following his movements. I aimed the rifle at the deer but in the end, I couldn't bring myself to do it. Ernie took the rifle from my hands and told me that it was okay. He never hesitated. He was calm, quiet, and focused and the next thing I remember, the living creature that was once breathing lay motionless on the dirty path ahead of us.

  It was disturbing to think that what I was holding in front of me could kill someone. But if I wanted to survive out there, I needed to learn how to handle it. What if my family was in trouble and these creatures had already reached Waterfront? I needed to protect them. But how could I make it out of this to protect them if I couldn't save myself?

  I looked at Reina who resisted holding the gun handed to her then looked over at Peter. He stared deeply into the shotgun then grew curious of its features. I could see him trying to fiddle with the trigger and I grew nervous at the thought of him accidentally shooting it, so I told him to be careful. He didn't listen and before I could hold my hand out to him, he immediately aimed the gun at Dylan.

  "Fuck you, Dylan! Go to hell you fucken bastard!" Peter yelled from across the cabin. Everyone grew silent and didn't move from the unanticipated event. Dylan looked frightened and immediately stood cautiously with his metal bat in front of him as if it could deflect a close-range weapon.

  "Peter. Let's calmly put the gun down, okay?" Mr. Flounders held his palms out gesturing for Peter to put the gun down and trying his best to lower the tension in the room.

  "How does it feel to be scared now, huh? You beat me up and treated me like shit. Do you know how much I'm suffering because of you?!" I could see Peter trembling as he kept Dylan at gunpoint. I knew how Peter felt about Dylan and I knew they never got along. I'm sure if I were Peter, I would probably have done the same, but this wasn't right. Was he holding this pain inside of him the whole time? Why didn't he tell me he was suffering this much? This could explain why he felt somewhat quiet and distant the last couple of weeks. Peter, please don't do this. Without thinking I rushed in front of Peter holding the gun so that the tip was pointed at my chest.

  "Peter! Don't do this! Please put it down. Please stop-."

  "Yuri, stay back." Peter's eyes grew cold, and he was starting to feel like he wasn't the Peter I thought I knew. Mr. Flounders attempted to calm the situation down again, however, Peter persisted, and I tried my best to stop him. When it seemed like Peter wasn't going to give in, Candace immediately pinned and locked Peter on the floor while taking the shotgun out of his hands.

  "This isn't the time for this. Letting your emotions get to you won't help anybody here!" Candace became impatient and her temper grew from the sight of Peter and Dylan. She went on about how it's important to let go of the past and worry about the current situation now. That we all had a goal and that was to survive together. Those creatures still exist out there and our minds should be focused on saving ourselves so that we can get out of Mt. Boulder.

  This was a war between those creatures and us. That's at least how Candace saw it. And if we wanted to stay alive, we had to work together as a team.

  "Hello-." We heard some interference coming out of the radio. "This is Waterfront p-lice dep-ment. Is there an-one out -ere, over?" A voice came from the radio of the broadcasting station. Mr. Flounders took the call immediately. "Hello, this is Mt. Boulder. Did you say Waterfront police department?" He spoke through the radio. My eyes widened after hearing that it was the police department. Ernie's team might be looking for us. Maybe they're okay.

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  "Hell-. This is R-chard. Yes, th-s correct. Who am I s-king to?" The man asked.

  "You are speaking with Mr. Flounders. Please send a rescue team as soon as possible! Listen, there's something going on in Mt. Boulder. These things, these creatures, whatever they are. They're out there!" He responded desperately but with a sign of relief.

  We don't know exactly what happened over at Waterfront when we witnessed the trail of smoke coming out of the town when we were up the top of Mt. Boulder, but it looks like the police department was still operating.

  "Sor-, can you rep-t that, over?" The man seemed to have lost connection through the call. It seemed like there was an interference between every word and we could hear more static sounds in the background.

  "I repeat, this is Mt. Boulder. People are dying here, do you copy!?" But after Mr. Flounders responded, there was a moment of silence. No voice had come out of the radio for a while. He let go of the mic and cursed. I looked at Reina who tightened her grip on my arms. Mr. Flounders looked hopeless.

  "We can't rely on the police department to come and rescue us. We have to get out of Mt. Boulder. Who knows when more of them will come. This radio tower will only keep us safe for a short time. Plus, our bodies will eventually dehydrate from the lack of water," Candace let go of Peter as he had finally calmed down and sat on the floor. I leaned down to comfort him, but he let go of my hand and turned the other way.

  "We should move in the morning. It's quite an early assumption but based on my confrontations with a few, every one of them seemed to have no vision during the day. Without the capability to see, they seem to move slower," Candace added. "But with the two just now..." She paused and thought for a moment.

  "The two just now moved a lot quicker and their vision seemed to amplify in the dark. In other words, their vision lacked any obstruction," Cain continued Candace's thought.

  "Just what I speculate!" Candace's head shot up. She put her bag down and rummaged through it until she pulled out a notebook. She began to write on it and after a few seconds, she closed it and put it away. She told us that she had been writing down any thoughts and speculations she had about these things. That it started early on when she was attending to a patient in the infirmary.

  Based on her descriptions, the patient was a student named Adam Lock who was brought over to the infirmary by one other student from his team. That patient had early signs of vision loss and fatigue. He was having difficulty breathing and his nose started to bleed. When they were finally settled in the infirmary, they began to act peculiarly.

  Their pupils were slowly forming additional cells that turned white and had completely gone blind. Candace didn't have time to write everything down as she needed to head back to her team for the first activity.

  I walked over to Sally to check up on her while Candace continued her thoughts. Mr. Flounders had pitched in his theory of these creatures based on their encounters with them when I separated from the team at that time. Sally seemed alright. She was sitting on the floor trying to catch her breath. She looked weak and dehydrated so I pulled out my water bottle from my backpack and handed it over to her. She thanked me and then handed it back. I could feel it almost half empty. Candace was right, we won't survive here if we stay any longer. We'll eventually run out of water. Lake Muir was located in the center of the campsite below the peak of Mt. Boulder. I asked Candace if we could go back to the campsite for water, but Candace thought it was too dangerous to go back and marked it as a danger zone.

  I stared into the window of the cabin near the broadcasting station. Darkness really overtook the outside scenery, and it reminded me of the moment I stood out there immobilized in fear of them. Was Candace and Cain's theory true? Could they really see in the dark? But how? And their speed was a lot faster. Like they were on a different level from those we've encountered during the day.

  I don't know what got into me, but I ended up walking closer to the window and placed my palms right on the glass. I stared into the darkness and for a moment I thought I had imagined someone was out there. The moment I removed my palms from the glass window, my heart raced. Right where I had placed my palms a second ago, a hand was visible on the other side. Blood dripping on its fingertips. I backed away quickly terrified of what I was seeing. The moment I backed away everyone could see it. Reina screamed in horror and Candace and Mr. Flounders shouted for all of us to back away from the windows.

  There was someone standing outside, only it wasn't someone, it appeared to be one of those things. What was actually more disturbing was that they were smiling through the window. It slowly tilted its head sideways with eyes wide open piercing directly at me.

  "Everyone stay quiet and keep your guard up." Mr. Flounders instructed as he held on to his shotgun standing with caution. The creature moved away from the window and disappeared from sight. A second later we all jumped in place from a loud bang on the door of the cabin. Candace, Mr. Flounders, and Cain instantly brought their weapons in front of them and aimed them in the direction of the sound.

  "Huh?" I quickly looked over at Reina who was standing right next to me. I could have sworn she lightly whispered into my ears just now, but her eyes had been fixated on the door, so I brushed it off. Then suddenly, an indistinct flash of events overcame my mind, and I could feel the stabbing pain expanding across multiple locations in my brain. After I opened my eyes and let go of my head, my focus reverted to the door. It must have been from dehydration and anxiety that it led me to start hearing and seeing things. That creature banged on the door again followed by the sound of it screeching in the air.

  After a minute, everything went silent. As if the creature had disappeared. We all waited for any more sounds coming from the door or any more of them showing up on the window but after a while everything was quiet as if it was safe to say they were gone.

  "Yuri, are you okay?" Reina looked at me. She pointed out that I was sweating on the forehead and that up close my breathing sounded irregular. It started to become hard for me to breathe, so I pulled out my inhaler and quickly let the medicine through while I inhaled my breath and then slowly exhaled.

  Mr. Flounders took notice and immediately asked if I was okay. I responded with a yes when suddenly a loud thud was heard on the roof of the cabin. Everyone panicked and looked up. It sounded like they were trying to break open the roof and we heard a loud screech coming from the top.

  Our attention immediately turned to the window where a few more of them had been banging on the glass. We were surrounded. We stayed alert as best we could. Candace handed Peter back his shotgun and everyone was holding on to a weapon in front of them.

  "Alright everyone, we don't have any other choice," Candace announced.

  "Agreed." Mr. Flounders and Candace strategized that we should open up the window and shoot them from that opening. That way it prevented them from breaking the glass, but it was too late. The glass window broke open and the two of the four had quickly jumped inside. Candace instantly shot one in the head while Mr. Flounders shot another one. Both fell to the ground immediately. Their aim was incredible.

  The other two made their way inside as well and Peter had shot one but missed the head, so it ran right towards him and grabbed his rifle off his hands. Dylan tried to hit it with his metal baseball bat, but the creature wasn't affected. Candace kicked the rifle off the creature and did not hesitate to shoot it in the head instantly. I was shaking and I wanted to aim right at them, but I couldn't. I looked over at Reina who had thrown up on the floor from all the mess of blood and flesh in the room.

  Tom and Cain stood in front of Sally who was standing at the corner of the room. Both had their attention on the roof and as the creature made an opening, it jumped down and attempted to bite Tom, but Cain had shot it directly into its brain.

  I could see its brain shattered into pieces. I still couldn't get used to seeing so much blood coming out of them. Again, I stood there in panic. I was useless. Then I saw one heading towards Reina and I screamed for her to move but she couldn't hear me clearly, so I pushed her to the side and the creature landed on me.

  "Yuri!" Peter and Reina shouted. Mr. Flounders aimed at the creature heading towards me, but he didn't have time to reload as it all happened fast. So fast that I thought it had already been over for me. But when I opened my eyes, I didn't feel any pain. Instead, the creature on top of me had gone quiet, loosening its painful grip on my shoulders. I realized that the gun I was holding had gone off before I knew it and it fortunately aimed right at the creature's brain.

  I sat there on the floor shaking, my hands and forehead sweaty, as Candace and Mr. Flounders checked for any bite marks on me but didn't see any. They asked if I was in pain, and I responded with a negative. They both helped me up to my feet and we all looked at the aftermath. The strong smell of decaying flesh was all over the air as we stared into the motionless bodies of those creatures.

  The rest of the night under the radio tower was quiet as we took turns keeping watch so that some of us could fall asleep. When the sunrise had finally set, we headed out of the radio tower and stayed alert for any more signs of them. Candace knew a shorter way out of Mt. Boulder, which was the opposite way of the campsite, so we followed her direction. We planned to leave Mt. Boulder and follow the road that would lead us back to Waterfront. Our families were there, and we wanted to get back to them as soon as we could, hoping they were still alive. Who knows how many more of them had escaped out of Mt. Boulder, so we kept our guard at all times.

  "Alright everyone, we'll be going downhill from here so watch your steps," Candace informed us in the lowest voice she could in case there were any of those things nearby. We followed Candace as Mr. Flounders stayed right behind the group to keep watch.

  I looked back at the radio tower that was high and further up behind us. It wasn't clear to me why, but last night when I heard those voices, a vision of a lily flower appeared in my mind. If the voices weren't Reina's then...was I really just hallucinating?

  -------------------------

  Chapter Epilogue

  "Hell-. This i- Richard from Wa-front police dep-ment! If anyone can hear me! Do not return to Waterfront! I repeat! Do not return to-.

  Ah-!"