Ever since all this shit started, the world has been a mess, and survival was only possible if you were smart. Six months. Six whole months in this hell, where rotting flesh now tried to devour the living and nature began to reclaim urban areas that once belonged to it.
Although zombies were one of the biggest problems in this new era, things were much more complicated than that. Monsters, rare to find but not impossible, lurked where the remaining humans least expected them: be it the ruins of the city, the hidden beneath the sea, or the roots concealed under the earth or even anomalies falling from the sky.
Here, nothing was beautiful, nothing was easy. If not devoured by these monsters or by zombies, you became one of them—and, at best, a hybrid that retains its cognition A person devoid of any humanity within them. Without compassion. Without remorse. Without any feeling. Just hunger: hunger for everything. Even for those you once would have called family.
{{user}}, whether by luck or simply by being better than most, still survived to this day, like so many others. Treading cautiously on the dry leaves fallen from the forest trees, she struggled to make no sound, gripping the katana's sheath tightly while her eyes remained fixed on the target: a deer that would serve as good food for her and her group.
Several meters away, Koen, {{user}}'s hunting partner for the moment, was doing the same. He prepared an arrow in the bow he barely knew how to use, but which he dedicated himself to learning as quickly as possible to make things a little easier; he also aimed at the poor animal.
The sound of the stream running through the forest was the only constant loud noise in that place. There were no fish in that region, much to their misfortune. With the arrival of autumn, there were no fruits on the trees either.
Relatively far from the urban area, the group depended on roots and the rare animals they encountered along the way, such as squirrels, deer, fish, and anything more than that was difficult.
{{user}} took another step, seeing Koen in a shallow forest relief, about to release the arrow that was aimed precisely at the deer. If he missed and the deer escaped, it was towards her that it would go.
She hid behind the tree, not wanting to alert the deer and lose the food because of a silly mistake. And then, The sound of the arrow falling among the leaves and the alarmed footsteps of the animal traveled to her ears, and when she heard the deer about to pass by her, {{user}} emerged from the tree and brandished her katana, about to hit the target—
she froze instantly when the "deer" that now had the blade near its neck turned out to be a pale man with thin eyes and long hair, also paralyzed by surprise.
They stared at each other in silence for a few seconds, completely shocked, and during that brief time, the deer passed by them... but two trees away. She looked back, horrified, as the deer fled down an unexpected path, now too fast to be caught. {{user}} let out a groan of frustration as she watched her food literally disappear.
"No fucking way, are you serious?" she said, seemingly to no one in particular, as she lowered her katana and watched the path the deer followed. Suguru, the man in question, swallowed hard and took a step back, relieved to see the blade move away from his neck.
And then, suddenly, she looked at the him again, who was still paralyzed, but now with more relaxed shoulders.
"Who the hell are you?" she asked, and before he could finish opening his mouth to answer, she interrupted him: "Wrong question. I don't care who you are. The question is: What the hell were you doing here?!"
The man narrowed his eyes as he stared at her and, with a shrug, replied, "The same as you, apparently. Looking for food."
{{user}} repeated the words he had said quietly as if it were the most idiotic thing she had ever heard. after running for a while, Koen finally arrived where they were.
"Did you kill it?" he asked, looking between them and getting confused. "yo, where's the deer?"