F0RTUNA

9

Another week passed.

Every day, the same food. Instant noodles. Sandwiches. Sometimes if we were lucky, we could steal some money from mutants we managed to kill and buy ourselves a great treat.

Damian looked a little skinnier than before. We had to start cutting down on food supplies because we started running out of money. He would be the one telling the team,

"It's alright, I'll just drink water. I can survive."

Well, he is surviving. Just not in a good condition.

Arthur's happy and lively attitude was still intact, to our surprise. 8 scars on his arms but he lived life without a care. He'd also be the one in charge of the team if Angela wasn't around.

Rose was as normal as she was. Except one day when she came back crying because she dropped a toddler to his death.

All I remember was her mumbling a few curse words at Angela and then burying her head into her chest.

Rebecca was, surprisingly, about to be the first mutant in our team to finish her goal. 9 scars. 1 more to go.

I had started to leave the house more often to find more rampaging mutants everywhere. Most of the time, they'd be nasty and wicked. Greedy, hungry, ready to pounce on you at any given moment.

There would also be the very small chance where we would find polite, humble mutants. Mutants that would like to trade items with us and such. As much as we wanted to kill them (for the sake of completing the goals of Arthur, Rose and Rebecca), we would show mercy.

Angela...

Well, nothing much changed. She still semi-lead the group, occasionally taking the time to also find food and water supplies.

Ever since I confessed to her, we grew a little closer together. Not super close, but decently close.

She did warn me that I shouldn't be jealous if I saw a few more scars on her arms. Now, she has 4. I wouldn't question where she would find people to kiss because that would just create awkward conversations.

Overall, the team spirit definitely dimmed, but we were making progress. Damian had 8 scars, Arthur had 8, Rose had 7, Rebecca had 9 and Angela had 4.

I was told that they were given a time-frame to complete their goals. I was getting worried for Angela day by day. How long was she given?

It has been about 20 days since that fateful day. I could still remember myself walking under the rain without an umbrella and spotting a weird red slit in the sky.

Now, New York City just seemed abandoned. Not a lot of human life.

I sat at a pavement outside of an empty coffee shop. To my left, I saw broken cars, streetlamps that weren't operating anymore and a lot of water. Pipe bursts became a natural occurrence.

To my right...

was Damian.

He was running over with his right arm clutching the left side of his torso. He looked like he was in real pain.

"Dude, you alright?", I got onto my 2 feet and wrapped my arm around Damian's neck.

He was sweating really hard. Blood stains on his shirt, blood stains in his hair. He smelled like blood.

"9. I got 9 scars."

So, he was fresh from killing another.

Either the trauma of killing people was getting to him, or he was really really really exhausted.