He ran out as fast as his legs could take him. He had managed to run down the many flights of stairs from the top of the tower and through the fancy lobby. He burst through the double doors, quickly skidding to a stop. Many of the monsters were roaming around the city, either attacking someone, or looking for someone to attack. Leonardo needed to find safety. A shelter of some sort. But he first needed to find a way through the crowd of monsters without them noticing him.

  He backed up against a wall, trying to stay in the shadows as he racked through his brain for a solution. He turned his head slowly to look around the area. His eyes, now adjusted to the darkness, spotted a rge stick only a couple meters away, ying on the concrete sidewalk. He walked sideways, like a crab, against the wall, remaining unnoticed by the monsters. He bent down as slowly and steadily as he could, picking up the rge stick with two of his fingers, and raising to his feet again.

  Leonardo pulled back his arm and unched it into the middle of the road, maybe 20 meters away. All the monster's head snapped towards the direction of the sound. Every single one of them were facing where the stick nded.

  Then they all started running at the stick, screeching loudly. It was ear piercing. Leonardo quickly took the chance to sprint in the opposite direction. His shoes spped loudly against the hard surface and he feared one of the monsters would turn around and start chasing him, but luckily for him, none did.

  He ran and ran, quickly ducking into a long alleyway to catch his breath. He had only just leaned over with his hands on his knees to recuperate when he heard a loud scream from the other end of the alley.

  He swivelled his head around, spotting a figure in the distance. It was a girl. A dy. She was using a small dagger to ssh at a monster, bearing its teeth at her. Whenever the dagger hit the monster, it would only stop for two seconds while the wound, seemingly magically, healed and sealed up by itself. Every ssh angered the monster more and it jumped on her.

  Leonardo had a sudden urge to go save her, so he started sprinting again, down the alleyway. He only made it in time to see the monster take a bite at her leg, almost taking a whole chunk out. The dy screamed. Tears rolled down her face. She leant against the wall, choosing to give up and give in to death, but he wasn’t allowing her that choice. He picked up the dagger she dropped and when the monster lunged at her, he sliced off the monster’s head. The skin was surprisingly soft and the bones brittle. It’s head came off with ease, and it gurgled softly as its head hit the ground.

  Instead of blood, gooey grey stuff started pouring out of the body, where he had chopped off the head, and the head itself. Realisation hit him. It was the monster’s skin. It was trying to fix itself, and he had no doubt it would. He grabbed the dy’s arm, forcing her to her feet. She cried out in pain as he rushed down another alley, half running, half limping behind. He was basically dragging her. He felt bad. He knew she was in much pain and that wasn’t helping but he needed to get them to safety.

  He decided to enter a building, a sturdy one made of bricks. He dragged the dy inside, shutting the doors behind him. He spotted a chair and gently led her to it. She shakily sat down, with his help. He started searching the room quickly, and pushed any heavy objects in front of the door, to make sure no one, or no monster, could get in.

  When he was finally finished, he went over to the dy, who was whimpering in pain, holding back loud cries. He knelt in front of her, examining the rge bite on her lower leg, which was now full of half-dried blood.

  “Quite a nasty wound. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything to stop it from getting infected. I’ll have to find water to clean it,” he looked up at her and she looked down at him. They just stared at each other.

  Leonardo cleared his throat.

  “I’m Leonardo Garnish. What’s your name?”

  The dy was silent, still staring down at him, straight into his eyes as if she was trying to figure out if he was someone she could trust.

  Then she finally responded.

  “I’m Danie. Danie Aucir.”