Chương 4: Superpowers

How can a big piece of flesh hide in a room this crammed? The shelves were so tightly packed that I had to stand at an angle, for me and Pyiari to stand shoulder to shoulder. Yet, Orand vanished just like that.

"Where did he go?" I whispered to Pyiari.

"Mr. Orand is gonna patrol the whole area," She answered, matching the level of my voice.

"What happens if he catches us?"

"Mister, you don't wanna know." Yeah, I don't. I just want to get out of here right now.

"The exit isn't that far, only... Why did you bring us to the other side of the room?"

"Because this is where the medicine for your wound was supposed to be, and it was here, wasn't it?" Arrgh, no point in arguing with a kid. The wound was closed, and the pain was gone, but I still felt weak because of the blood loss, and even if I didn't, I could never fight Orand. He looked stupidly strong. Copper rank walkers are no better than normal humans. I was only able to fight Strange Toy because I had information about it from the wiki. But Orand is something completely new.

I can only hope that it doesn't catch Pyiari or me.

"Pyiari, you know the way, right?"

"Of course," she said it louder than she should have and immediately covered her mouth. Heavy footsteps started moving towards us. That fat piece of flesh shouldn't be moving this fast here. I grabbed Pyiari's arm and ran in the opposite direction and hid behind another shelf. The footsteps stopped, and Orand emerged just where we were. He stood there, staring at the medicine bottle on the floor. Fuck, he knows. Something, which was definitely not saliva or blood or the black sludge. A mixture of the three?

Dropped from his broken jaw and melted the glass bottle.

"Mister, we need to go before Mr. Orand calls others." Are there more like him? I nod at her and let go of her hand so she can lead the way, but Orand was staring in the direction we needed to go. The other route is to circle all the way to the other side and pray that he doesn't turn around while we move behind his back. Or we can wait until he moves, which he should because that is his job, but he doesn't. Around two minutes must have passed, and he has not budged an inch.

I would have thought that he died standing, but I could see the black sludge moving on his skin, towards his feet, towards the floor. Wait. The amount of black sludge on Orand had lessened and was spreading across the floor in all directions.

"What is he doing?"

"He is using those weird superpowers of his."

"I know, but what's the use?" Pyiari did not need to answer that. I got to know it the moment it touched my feet. Orand screamed so loud that my ears bled. Then he started thumping the floor and moved towards us.

"Fuck, run," I grabbed Pyiari's hand and ran straight ahead. The room isn't big; I could see the exit. Getting out of the room should be enough, all creatures in the rift works in game like logic. If I exit his territory, he should leave me alone. I hope it is just this room and not the whole dungeon. The shelves started to fall forward as Orand smashed through them. What type of person destroys the very place they are supposed to take care of? And can he stop screaming? My ears were bleeding, literally.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. The exit was right in front of me, and so was Orand. All the black sludge came back to him, bulging his muscles.

"What do we do now?"

"I don't know," Pyiari answered.

"Yeah, I know, you don't know."

"Then why did you ask?"

"The question was meant for me."

"So, do you know what we do now, Mister?"

"No," Pyiari sighed like old people do, "I really didn't want to do it, but we have no choice." She took a step forward and stood between Orand and me. She clutched her teddy hard and sang.

"Tired toys are sleeping, books asleep. Blankets and pillows are waiting for the children. Even a fairy tale goes to bed to come to us in dreams tonight. You wish her: nighty-night." It wasn't the dizziness from the blood loss, but the sleepiness I felt from listening to Pyiari's song. Before I fell, I heard Orand falling with a loud thud, and then my face was kissing the floor. I jolted awake. It did not take my eyes much time to adjust to the warm orange light.

"What happened to me? I was lost in the maze, then followed Pyiari to the pharmacy, then that abomination was between us and the exit." I sprang straight up, but I was not in the tightly packed room, but in the hallways.

"Mister, you are awake," I turned and saw Pyiari, who was tall enough to come up to my hips.

"How did we get out of there?"

"I dragged you here. Mister, you are heavier than you look."

"That is a rude thing to say, but what I meant was, did Orand just let us leave? Why were you singing? Why did I fall unconscious?"

"That was my superpower. I can make people sleep with my singing."

"Superpower?" She did use that term before, but I thought that's her trying to justify Orand using the black sludge.

"Yup, superpower. Everyone here has one, that's why we are here."

"Ah, I see."

"They say we are sick, these superpowers are a disease, and we shouldn't use them, or it will spread. I hope using it once doesn't affect you." Pyiari looked genuinely worried about me.

"Don't worry," I patted her head.

"Even if I were to get infected, I would be happy to have a cool superpower like yours."

"Really? Do you really think my power is cool? The other kids say that my power is lame."

"Yeah, it's cool." I gave her my best smile.

"Thank you, mister." I looked around and noticed that we were still in front of the pharmacy's gate.

"How long was I out?"

"Three hours, I think,""Three hours?" I practically shouted at her, which made her flinch.

"Yeah, do you need to be somewhere, mister?" I have been in this rift for more than half a day. It will raise suspicions.

"Yup, I need to be somewhere. Pyiari, can you show me the way out, please?" She nodded her head up and down frantically.

"Yup!" Pyiari sang all the way while I tried to find my position on the map. I did ask her, to which she replied 'Mister, do you really expect a child to know how to read maps?' Fair remark, but she could have said it more politely; kids these days are so rude. It took us about an hour to reach it. The hallway ended, and at the end were steel ladders going up to an iron hatch. Exactly as the wiki said, no matter where you are, Pyiari will always leave you right here, and it will take exactly one hour to reach it.

The iron ladder felt cold to my touch. Once I cross the hatch, I will leave this rift. I looked back at Pyiari.

"Do you want to come with me?" I don't know why I asked her that; maybe it was because of how weak she looked. The marks on her hands or just because I liked her company. It isn't like I am the first person to ask her this; it has been asked many times before, and I know her exact answer.

"Thank you for asking, Mister, but I will have to decline. As I said before, I am sick, and the people here are trying to heal me. When I am healed, I can leave like many of my friends did." Why wouldn't an anomaly like before take place right now? If she could just leave with me, it would have been nice, because I couldn't help but think that no kids were being healed here, and absolutely none of them were leaving.

"Maybe I will come again, and we can talk or play. Wish I could stay longer right now."

"Really, you will come back just to meet me?"

"Yup, really I will."

"You are the coolest mister I have ever met, mister."

"I am technically not a mister, I am just twenty."

"Okay, mister." Sigh. I locked my legs against the ladder and took two steps up, then turned around to look at her, but she was gone. If I were to go back down, I would never find her. I will have to get lost in the maze again to meet her. I took another step up, then another, and soon enough I was near the hatch. I twisted it open, and white light consumed me. The familiar smell of the city hit me. The smell of dirt and car emissions. I opened my eyes and was back in the real world.

Behind me, the large blue rift gate swirled like a vortex. Life Last Hope An underground facility belonging to the world's biggest pharmaceutical company. Approved by every government in the world, the facility was established with only one purpose in mind. Develop an immortality drug. Recorded it in the Akashic system in the year 13449 When the rift opened, there wasn't a single walker who didn't enter with the hopes of finding that drug. Fifteen years later, no one has found it.