On top of the roof of a tenth-floor building, Jason was taking a sweep over the entire rooftop with his eyes glancing over the surrounding area. For now, there was no canine humanoid in sight. Jason returned back to the two who were waiting for him.

 

“How is it?” Hakeem asked.

 

“There’s none,” Jason said.

 

“Don’t you think we should head back home?” Esther asked. After being informed by Jason that there might be more, the previous experience she felt was making her jittery.

 

Jason glanced at her and saw the nervous look in her eyes. He even noticed her left leg which couldn’t stop shaking.

 

She’s scared.

 

He could read her like a book but the word retreat didn’t exist in his dictionary. With him expecting more of those kobolds to appear, he wasn’t going to let those experience wasted.

 

“I think she’s right Jason. I know you can win against them but with us two around, we’re just going to be a burden,” said Hakeem. He remembered that night where he watched Jason slaughtered those kobolds and the memory of him being bitten by one of them.

 

“Enough,” Jason said. “I know both of you are scared but you guys have to go through this.”

 

He sat on the floor as his eyes didn’t leave the sight of these two.

 

“Think about it this way, when there’s no more land for humans, how do you think we’re going to stay alive?” said Jason. Although it was still far from the future and still uncertain, yet judging from how the invasion of the second wave of the crack wasn’t stopping then his mere assumption might not be far from the truth.

 

“You’re thinking way into the future Jason, by then the military can handle these things,” said Esther.

 

“They can’t,” Jason said. Confident in his own words.

 

“You…” Esther was speechless.

 

“The boss monsters won’t let us win that easily,” said Jason as the word ‘boss’ made Esther confused.

 

“Like that big scary tree back then?” Hakeem asked.

 

“Nope, that’s just a mini-boss. The boss I’m talking about is like those building-sized monsters,” the mentioned of that kind of size made Hakeem and Esther recalled about the gigantic kaiju-like monster roaming at every major city on earth.

 

“I bet one year of hard leveling won’t be enough to fight against that ridiculous lizard,” said Jason as he remembered those crimson scales.

 

“Lizard?” Esther didn’t quite get it but Hakeem did. He nudged Esther by the side as he whispered.

 

“New York,” Hakeem said and Esther immediately knew by what he meant. She saw the news back then, a short video about the towering dinosaur-like creature.

 

She fell into silence once more not knowing what else she could do to convince this brother of hers to get away from here. She understood the message he was trying to relay but that near-death she experienced wasn’t something easy to brush off.

 

“Just keep your eyes wandering around and don’t relax even for a second,” Jason said. He was trying to teach them on how to stay alert under pressure. A baptism of some sort, a baptism that he was forced to went through in just two nights, although it wasn’t long but it was enough to change into his current self.

 

He didn’t enjoy the experience but at least he wanted for this friend and family to at least know what they were getting themselves into. In a way his way of easy leveling them had a detriment effect on them, rather than thinking everything would be fine if Jason was around, he wanted for them to relied on themselves.

 

“I’ll go check on the floors downstairs, you guys keep a lookout for anything. Radio me if there’s something,” said Jason as he left the roof.

 

The door clang closed and the two who were left together looked at each other eyes.

 

“Can’t we just go?” said Esther.

 

“He’s doing this for us,” said Hakeem as he tapped Esther’s shoulder. “I know it’s hard but let’s just endure it. I’ll be checking out that side.”

 

Hakeem left Esther to her own as he stood near the edge of the rooftop. He too felt conflicted about it as he knew the kobolds were a different league than those pigs and cows.

 

Before long the sun was at the top of their heads. Jason came back not without bringing something along.

 

“Cans of corn and bean? We’re really getting similar to refugees,” said Hakeem.

 

“Well, it won’t be long,” Jason fired back and the two stared at him realizing what he meant.

 

His remark only made these two even more downcast. Jason was being too pessimistic about the situation as if he had lost hope for all humanity.

 

“There goes my appetite,” said Hakeem but his hand still clutching on to that can of bean.

 

All three sat near each other under the shade of the cylindrical water tank. They ate with silence as only their mouth kept on moving around. Hakeem glanced at the other two as he felt this situation was too suffocating for him.

 

“So Jason, you’ve got a girlfriend? I bet the babes in New York are pretty fine,” said Hakeem.

 

Esther glanced at Hakeem with a frown on her face. Her face said it all, while Jason only stared at Hakeem.

 

“Nope, I’m too busy looking for work,” said Jason.

 

Then silence prevailed once more, Hakeem was frustrated seeing how emotionless Jason was in responding. He thought that Jason should have given him something to talk about.

 

“Oh yeah, I remember back when we were in high school. You’re dating that chica right, what’s her name again? Ah, it’s Maria, right? Damn, when I found out you were dating that girl, I’ve got to give it to you man, big respect,” Hakeem was excited as he turned to Esther.

 

“Yo, you know about your big bro here? Although he looks dull and plain, but he got game, he dated one of the top three most beautiful girls in high school and…” Hakeem was getting hyped up as he reminisced about his schooling days. He didn’t even notice the change in Jason.

 

Meanwhile, the moment Jason heard Maria’s name, he flinched. The plastic spoon he was holding on to was trembling as the corn kernels dropped back into the can. He stared at the shining metal lid of the can as he remembered once more the sight of Maria falling. If he had stayed awake and not fainted, he could have saved her.

 

CRACK!

 

The plastic spoon broke into two falling on the floor.

 

“Dude, you heard anything about her? After she transferred to the states I didn’t hear anything about…” Hakeem turned over to Jason and shut his mouth after realizing the spoons on the floor.

 

“What’s wrong?” Hakeem asked. He felt a bit guilty seeing how he just brought up about Jason’s ex-girlfriend.

 

“Sorry man, I didn’t think you would be this upset about your…” Hakeem apologized but Jason cut him off.

 

“Dead,” he said.

 

“Hmm?” Hakeem confused by that word coming from Jason’s lips. Esther who was internally shutting her hearing down came perking her ears up as she heard that word.

 

“She’s dead,” Jason said once more as he didn’t make eye contact with either one of them.

 

“Maria?” Hakeem asked.

 

Jason nodded and Hakeem reacted with his mouth gaped wide open. Hakeem got up from the floor and paced himself around the area as he just realized he made the biggest mistake. For the sake of escaping the suffocating silence, he brought up something that he shouldn’t say.

 

Esther found something was odd, although the news about his ex-girlfriend was dead but why did Jason had a face like that. It wasn’t like him, it wasn’t like the jerk brother that she knew off beside the loving and warming side she just saw back when she was shot to the brink of death but this change of face of his made her questioned something in mind.

 

“Dude, sorry man. I didn’t know, I…” while Hakeem was apologizing with his huge hands kept moving around trying to appease this brooding friend that he had, Esther on the hand was thinking things through. She knew about Maria and she knew of how much Jason hated her after their sudden breakup, it didn’t make any sense seeing Jason having a forlorn face like that for someone he hated to the core.

 

Although she didn’t care about her brother’s love life but she still heard about the rumor regarding his ex-girlfriend. Then she realized something, when Hakeem just spoke of how she moved to the states, it gave her a clue.

 

“How did she die?” she suddenly asked going straight for it without caring about being considerate.

 

“Esther?!” Hakeem with his eyes wide open couldn’t believe what just came out from Esther’s mouth. Did she really just asked him that? Was one of those fleeting thoughts in Hakeem’s mind. Making the situation even worse wasn’t the best thing to do right now.

 

Hakeem glanced back at Jason hoping that the man didn’t explode hearing such a question. Now he started to regret being such a talkative man. He should have just shut his damn mouth.

 

“She was with me in New York City and she’s dead because of me,” said Jason with a flat tone as his eyes stared far away into a daze.

 

Hakeem and Esther couldn’t help but be surprised by hearing those words. More questions kept popping up inside Esther’s mind while Hakeem didn’t know how to respond. Hakeem couldn’t imagine what this friend of his had been through in those two nights full of nightmares.

 

Hakeem was about to console Jason but then the three of them turned towards the same direction as they heard something at a distance.

 

“You hear that?” Hakeem asked.

 

“Gunshots,” Jason said.

 

But then he heard the door to the roof staircase being opened. The cringing noise coming from the door couldn’t escape his ears. He signaled to the two beside him with his index finger on his lips. He beckoned to follow him from behind as all three made their way to the staircase.

 

They took a peek and saw a man busied blocking the door with everything that he could find on the roof. While the man was finding things to block the feeble looking door, out of coincidence he met eyes with the three of those who were peeking at him.

 

“Who are you?!” the man shouted as he took on an offensive stance.

 

The man took out a wooden rod as he aimed pointed to the normal-looking stick to the three of them. Jason recognized the uniform the man was wearing and seeing that normal-looking wooden rod, he had something in mind.

 

“Identify,” he said.

 

Seeing the blue window popped out in front of him, he couldn’t help but let out a grin.

 

Bingo.