After his contribution against the last monster of the wave, or boss, as Chen insisted they called it, Hugo thought he would finally be in the good graces of Will. The man did seem to have warmed up more to him, but he was still sent on a food raid instead of being included in the training session.

Hugo didn’t regret his decision of interfering and stopping the conflict between Will and Leo before it went too far. Will was too strict and too loyal to his own good, he failed to see some of the circumstances we were in. Although it was good to have someone that determined and driven take a lead role in their group, he also needed to learn some flexibility.

The punishment wasn’t so bad, doing supply runs was also a form of training. It was great for his vitality status, it had already climbed two times since coming here. With seven points in it, Hugo knew he wasn't as high as some of the stronger people, but he was ahead of the curve, even if not by much. 

He had lucked out in the early days and found a machete, the same weapon as John. After unlocking the skill a couple days ago, Hugo had been training with it every night before resting. Unlocking the beginner rank the night before had given him enough confidence to join Will when he asked two others to join him against the boss.

“Ey, big shot,” Carlos called him out. “Think you can check upstairs instead of daydreaming?”

“Absolutely. Sorry, I’ve been a little distracted today.”

“Don’t worry, we are just glad you didn’t die facing the big one. We heard Tillman isn’t doing so well.”

“He lost a lot of blood,” Hugo said as he approached the stairs to the second floor. “But he is a tough son of a bitch, I think he will be fine.”

“I hope so,” Carlos said with a subdued voice. “Maybe leave the big monster to the in-house monsters next time, eh?”

“We can’t rely on them forever, Carlos. What if one day they decide to leave, or worst, what if they die?”

“I rather not think about what would happen if they left, better the monster you know than the one you don’t know, so they say.” Carlos mused as Hugo stood in the first step of the stairs. “That Machurachi guy is completely insane. It could be worse, you know?”

“Maccurach, Carlitos.” Hugo chuckled.

“Whatever his name is,” Carlos opened his bag to stuff some supplies he had found in a rather large cabinet. “He is crazy, totally nuts that one.”

Hugo went to the upper floor while shaking his head. The building they were in was larger than the average, but not by much. It only had a ground and upper floor, Carlos and another two guys were cleaning up the ground floor while Hugo would start on the upper floor. They usually worked in tandem, but Carlos had realized that his teammate needed some alone time.

The upper floor opened up to a large central room surrounded by adjacent rooms. Right in front of the stairs there was a hallway flanked by more rooms. Hugo didn’t think much of it and went straight to the hallway and the first room to his left. He was still distracted by the events of earlier, but tried not to dwell on it too much. The boring task of going through drawers and doors didn’t help much to keep his mind busy, but it was better than sitting somewhere staring out a window.

A hard blow to the back of the head dropped Hugo to his knees as he clutched his head with both hands. He grunted in pain, but before he could call for help a hand was already covering his mouth as another held his neck. His assailant turned him and he found himself staring at a heavily tattooed face sporting the creepiest smile Hugo had ever seen.

“Shhh.” Maccurach said. “You don’t want to warn your friends. It will only make it worse for them if you do.”

Hugo mumbled, wide eyed, as someone started tying him up.

The conversation with Ani had given me a lot of food for thought. From the revelations about this place to her advice on how I should deal with Maccurach, I had a lot going on my head as I made my way back to our base.

The training with Sarah had been difficult, I couldn’t concentrate well, and I eventually decided to just focus on more body training through calisthenics. It was still afternoon as I arrived in the base.

Johann was conducting his general exercise routine, and even Mrs Aya was among them doing some light exercises. She smiled warmly when she saw me, and I smiled back. I leaned against the wall of the main building as I watched their training routine. They performed simple exercises guided and supervised by Johann and a couple other guys I wasn’t familiar with. 

Crunches, jumping jacks, push-ups and so on. Some of the ways they had found to overcome the lack of proper training equipment was very interesting and creative. Two people of approximate the same height would hold a long sturdy piece of wood from opposite sides, while someone in the middle used it for chin-ups. Later, the person doing the chin-ups would hold steady while the other two trained shoulders by pushing his weight up. Despite the poor quality of weight distribution, it was better than nothing.

Their exercises lasted upwards of one hour. As the sun started to go down, the people responsible for the supply runs were starting to arrive and the people training leaving the empty area to go about whatever it was that they had to do.

As Mrs Aya passed me by saying she had to check on some patients I heard a commotion between two groups of runners. I didn’t have to do anything about it, I rarely got myself involved in the internal squabbles of the group, but I was bored and looking forward to whatever distraction I could find. 

They didn’t see me or didn’t care, as they continued their discussion. One of the groups had three people while the other had five. One man from each were speaking with each other in raised tones, but things had not devolved into aggression, yet. The one from the bigger group had a prominent beard, he reminded me of a stereotypical lumberjack, while the other was tall and well built, if a little skinny. He reminded me of a character I had seen in a movie sometime ago. The character was an Armenian gangster, but this guy didn’t strike me as a bad person.

“How is it possible you didn’t see him?” Bearded guy exclaimed. “You were meant to clear the same section as him. It’s impossible that none of you saw him all that time!” 

“I am telling you, we didn’t see him, right?” Tall guy turned to his group, which promptly nodded. “Honestly, I thought there was a communication mistake and he had gone to another sector.”

“Mistake of communication?” Beard guy said incredulously. “You know we always put the groups in pairs when doing runs. There was never a single group responsible for a sector!”

“I know, I know. With everything going, I thought we should just suck it up and work faster. We know the food situation isn't great.” The people behind the tall guy spoke out their agreements.

“Alright, alright.” Beard guy grumbled. “Did you guys find anything weird in your sector? Any clues as to what might have happened to Carlos’ and his team?”

“That’s the thing we wanted to tell you about,” Tall guy said. “When we approached the area that should have been covered by Carlos’ team, some of the houses had been cleared, but one of them only partially. We also found two upturned furniture. And also…”

“What? Say it already Roman, for fuck’s sake.” Beard guy almost shouted as he gestured for the tall guy to spit it out.

“We found blood on one of the rooms.” Roman said softly. “At the time we thought it could’ve been an accident and that is why they weren’t there. You know, they got hurt and-”

“Oh for Christ’s fucking sake, Roman. It’s always a fucking positive outcome with you, yes?”

“I am sorry, Nico.”  Roman spoke sheepishly, which would be quite the funny sight if not for the implications of what he had said. “There were just a couple houses to finish checking before we made our way back anyway, so we decided it was best to just wrap it up and then report.”

Nico’s forehead had two huge veins seemingly on the verge of popping. It gave the man quite the look when he wanted to be intimidating. Leo could sympathize as the three men under his gaze tried to make themselves small to escape his wrath.

“Just fucking go, already. At least you had the presence of mind to inform me of it first thing when you arrived. Maybe we can do something to help Carlos and the others.”

“You think they are fine, Nico?” Roman chanced a last question before scurrying away.

“How the fuck will I know?” Nico barked back at him. “You just told me what happened. I will see what the other knows and try to figure it out. Just get the fuck outta here, all of you.”

Roman and his team left in a hurry, heads hanging low. Nico glanced at me, but didn’t say anything. I was sure at this point that they were all avoiding my presence for one reason or another, but the situation was serious enough that I didn’t feel like digging out the why. I closed the distance between me and Nico as he was passing instructions for his team to gather all the team leaders.

“Has this happened before?” I asked Nico.

“An entire team disappearing?” He spoke with restrained anger. “It’s not the first time, but the circumstances are new.”

“What do you mean by that? Do they usually disappear under what circumstances?”

“I don’t know, maybe they want to fuck, maybe they want to scavenge for themselves and build a stash somewhere for an emergency, maybe they think they can find an exit.” Some of Nico’s bad temper slipped into his voice. “Look, if you have nothing else to ask me, I have a missing team that disappeared during a mission and left a blood trail behind.

“I would like to help.” I said to which Nico seemed shocked for a brief moment.

“I guess we might need your help.” He mused, suddenly not so angry anymore. “I was on my way to get Johann, you can come with me if you want.”

“Sure,” I said, gesturing for him to lead the way. “Let’s go get him.”