Eaten.

That was the fourth rule.

Now, an hour later, as everyone had gone quiet hearing those rules, we all became lost in our own thoughts. I had so many questions to ask. So many confusing things to ask but when we had started to bombard her with loads of panicked questions, she just raised her hand to shut us up and told us to hold off on them until we got somewhere safe.

Rule two was to never travel at night.

That explains her drive to get out of the open area before nightfall. I was curious on what would happen at night. But then again, I didn't want to find out. Being attacked by that one creature was enough and I definitely didn't want a repeat of that.

"Woohoo!"

We all stop momentarily as we hear someone celebrating in the far-off distance. Lacy curses as she stares off somewhere to our left. I look to where she was staring to see someone on top of a tall building.

"What is he doing?" Seth asks as we all continue to watch as the person just dances around.

"Getting drunk." Leo huffs as he stares at the man with disproval.

"He has to be a newbie too." Lacy whispers in displeasure. "Come on, we aren't going to want to be here when that sun is gone. We need to move it." She turns away and starts walking even faster.

"Wait! He probably doesn't know about the creatures that are lurking around. You can't just leave him like that." I say in disbelief.

"He's too far away. By the time we reach him it'll be too late for any of us. I told you, we can't be out in the open when night falls."

"Is he at least safe being up there?" I ask next as Zared starts pulling on my hand again to get me to walk.

She doesn't answer.

Which was filling me with dread and a sense of moral starts coursing through me. "You can't just leave him like that to die. He doesn't know anything either! How do you expect him to live throughout the night if he doesn't know?!"

I snatch my hand from Zared's as I march up to her and stop her from going any further. Her face was impassive as she heaves a huge sigh. My eyes widen in understanding.

"You don't expect him to live at all." I say lowly.

"There are certain things that are just out of your control here. If we had enough daylight then I would go warn him, but we don't, so there isn't anything we can do for him. It's just the way things are here."

She goes around me to continue walking. I turn around with a frown. "What if he isn't a newbie? What if he was someone you knew? It's apparent he's drunk so maybe he's too damn wasted to realize that time is running out, you're just going to leave him anyways?" I scoff at her.

She slowly stops again and turns her head to the side, looking at the ground as she says, "Whether I knew him or not, I'm not willing to sacrifice my own life for stupidity like that."

"Even if he wasn't drunk? Maybe he wants to die, since you're saying this world wasn't anything like our own. You're just going to let him kill himself like that?" I press as I step in front of her again.

"Jinsen..." Seth softly says, but I ignore him.

Tears sprang to my eyes. "I understand now. So, no matter if any of us are stuck or in trouble we'll have no hope for rescue or help from you people if it's about to turn night, is that it? You're just going to let us die."

I stare into hers, but they show no emotion as they stare back into mine.

"That's just the way things are here. You either survive and let the weak take the fall or try to be a hero and become their dinner. It may sound cruel and unjust, but there is no such thing as morality or selfless acts here in this world. You best learn that real quick, otherwise you won't last a single day here in this hell."

She pushes past me. I just stand there as the others slowly start to follow her. Clenching my hands into fists, I couldn't help but feel full of anger and stubbornness at her words. How could she just walk away when someone was in danger?

Zared steps up to me and I couldn't bear to look at him at the moment. I felt too frustrated to deal with his shit right now, especially his sarcastic comments.

"She contradicted herself you know." He softly says to me, making me look up at him after all.

He gives a small smile. "'No morality and selfless acts'...if that was true, I wouldn't be standing here right now, and neither would you. She saved me and she didn't have too, she could have kept walking on by if she wanted. But she didn't."

He looks away as the memory fills his eyes with fear again.

"What happened?" I finally ask him.

I've been wanting to ask about it since we started walking, but I didn't think he would want to tell me. He seemed like he just wanted to forget it all together. He grabs my hand again, something he won't stop doing since we've met up, and gets us walking once more. He picks up the pace to try and catch up with the others as he starts telling me what went down before he showed up and saved my life.

Something I will forever be indebted to him.

"I had just woken up, did my normal routine before I realize the power was out. I didn't think anything of it when my phone was on but wasn't in service. Found that a bit odd. It wasn't until I noticed my parents were gone as if they were never there. Their car was there, even their phone and keys were sitting there on the hall table."

This was the same as me and the others. Exactly the same.

"I went outside to see if I could get some service but that's when I also realized there was absolutely no one around anywhere. I started walking towards the nearest large shopping center thinking I could find people but then..."

He goes silent as he recounts on what he must have seen. My brows furrow at the image he must be replaying right now. I didn't want to pressure, but he couldn't just start his story and not continue with it.

"But then...?" I continue for him.

He looks back to me, blinking then clearing his throat. "I saw something really odd. When I went up to it, I nearly puked all over the place. It was one of the scariest shit I had hope to never see in real life."

"What was it? What did you see?" I ask him next, my heart beginning to pound at finding out exactly what it could have been.

"They were corpses, not just a few, but dozens of them. The skin and muscles were...like they were completely gnawed off. Some had half their faces gone. They have been there for a while because they were rotting, flies buzzing everywhere, magots..."

His face turns pale as he recounts the images he had seen. And just thinking about it was making my stomach turn.

"I knew then that something really bad was happening and my first immediate thought was..." He gives me a side eye look and clears his throat again. "I started running as fast as I possibly could, and when I couldn't find you at home, I went straight to my uncle's store where we worked."

Wait, was he saying that I was the first person he thought about? Why would I be the first person he thought of? My heart fluttered at the knowledge. Why the hell did it just do that right now? There was no way I was happy at knowing he thought about me first, as if he had been worried about me.

But then again, I had thought about him too. Maybe he wasn't my first thought, but I still thought about him. Ugh, this was all too damn confusing.

"I was suddenly attacked inside the building. I didn't know what it was, and it wasn't anything like that creature that was getting you. This one was different, smaller, and pudgy looking. It almost bit me, but then she came crashing through and sliced its head clean off with that sword of hers."

He gives out a shaky sigh. "She said she had saw me go inside and knew something bad was going to happen. You must never venture inside buildings where they have a smell."

"Smell?"

"She said that certain creatures extract a smell that will attract you to their hunting grounds. Some of them are smarter than others and that the monster that I faced was one that produces a smell that will get me to their location. I thought it was the store products that I had been smelling, it was sweet like honey buns."

I take a deep breath at learning this. This would be very dangerous for those who are starving and looking for food.

"She also says that it's different for everyone. They learned to adapt over time. For me it was honey buns because they remind me of you."

I look back up at him with wide eyes. His cheeks were slightly pink as he stares straight ahead. "Why does honey buns make you think of me? I don't normally eat those."

"It's the store. The honey buns are always at the counter. And you're always at the counter. Every time a customer bought a honey bun, for some reason they feel the need to open them right there as they're paying, so the scent of sweetness lingers in the air in that area. I think I smelled it because I was looking for you. The thing picked up on my desperate need to find you and used it to its advantage to lure me in."

Actually, that makes a whole lot of sense. Now that he mentions it, the counter always smelt sweet to me too. Because of those damn honey buns. Maybe that's why I don't really eat them. Because I'm sick of smelling the damn things.

"So, we need to avoid smells that attracts us in the moment, huh? That's going to be hard."

"Tell me about it." He mumbles as he puffs out his cheeks and blows air out in exasperation.

We finally caught up with all the others, almost to our destination, I hope. He still held onto my hand as if he was afraid to let go of it or something. I look down at them. They weren't intertwined, but the physical contact seemed a little too intimate for us. It wasn't like him to worry about me so much, it was still throwing me off a bit.

We stay silent as we walk and after a few heartbeat moments, I mumble, "Aftershave."

He swings his head back to look at me. "What was that?" He asks.

Clearing my throat, I felt my face heat up in my embarrassment. "I said aftershave." I say louder.

I continue to look forward, not wanting to look at him right now. "That's the scent I socialize with you because you always smell of aftershave to me."

"Oh." Was all he says, making me feel stupid for even mentioning it out loud.

"Since rule number three states not to let out a scent, I promise to never wear aftershave while we're stuck here. So," He leans his head down to look up at me since I was staring at the ground now. "If you ever smell my aftershave, know that it isn't me. So, don't come looking for me if you smell it."

His voice was soft as he says this, only making my entire neck and face flame up. He gives me a grin, the asshat. I try to take my hand away from his, but he just tightens our grip.

"Staying together is important. So, let's hope that never has to happen." He finishes.

"We're here." Lacy whispers fiercely as she crouches down, still looking ahead.

We all follow suit as we stop and look at the giant hotel looming in front of us. It looked way to damn creepy for my liking, with its boarded windows, a row of handmade wooden spikes fencing around the perimeter.

"We're going in there?" Rissa squeaks out, looking frightened.

I grab her hand in my other one and give it a gentle squeeze. She turns to me with those frightened eyes, and I try to reassure her with a soft smile, even though I was just as frightened as she was at the prospect of going into that fortress. But I don't think it did anything to calm her nerves, because her look didn't change as she looks back.

But she doesn't let go of my hand and just hangs on tighter.

"Say hello to your new home, children." Lacy hollowly says to us all.