I walk around the rotting town. It was an old town, with connecting wrecked stores that look looted, sub-urban neighbourhoods lost of any innocence at hillsides. The town had dead animals of all species, humans, dogs, cows, squirrels.

All the architectures were silent, cold and lifeless. Some with lights on but for reasons now forgotten, but then I past one, the “Timewarp Bits”. It was a large arcade building, and it was lit and I heard music from the inside.

I entered the building, some of the carpet was reeked with blood. There was arcade machines of many kinds, car games, dancing games, fighting games, some new with realistic graphics and smooth cartoon characters and some old with cabinets stained with age, displaying characters were you can count the individual pixels.

I saw large screens at the back of the building, and one of them were on with a sort of fighter that I don’t recognize playing. I approached there silently. I saw a wire connecting to an old computer and lead up to a dark red, legless couch and I heard buttons being pressed.

I went behind the couch and took a peek from the top of the couch and saw a person with blue hair and a black, cotton trench coat playing. I duck back, scared hoping that she wasn’t K-2. Then I heard that laugh, that ‘Ha hahaha.’ laugh in her voice. That was her.

She is the one with the freckles that was the quietest of the five, probability my favourite since she was the least active. But when she talks, she can go on and on, she criticize a lot, and is obsessed with video games. When she isn’t training to become a killer, or talking about the best techniques to murder their targets, she is playing and or talking about video games. Whenever the staff asked for entertainment, she always ask for game consoles, computer parts, and controllers. While she was often alone, she enjoyed being with her, siblings. They treated her the best or they commit malice the least towards her, K-5 especially were like her best friends but K-4 always told her and K-6 that their hobbies were a waste of time and unproductive, and she always say stuff like how art is important and why she should play games. K-4 was the only one that never played.

I started heading back and I see her getting up, I go hide behind an arcade cabinet and observe K-2. It looked like the game was at a result screen and she was going towards and table with cereals and chocolates. She dumped a bowl of cereal onto a bowl but no milk. She like me didn’t like dairy. She turned around and said, “A shadow? K one is that you? Are you gonna wet willy me again? Don’t tell me that its tough love.”. I look down and see my shadow being created by the arcade game right beside me. I whispered “Crap.”. Then quickly moved ducking threw the row.

K-2 ran to my row and said, “K... Wait your K three! What are you doing here?”. Startled, I slowly turned around and said, “Hi. Didn’t suspect you here.”. She stated, “K one said that she believed mom was looking for you so she followed her.”.

Thinking and shaking, I was thinking of a good nice saying to say my reasoning to leave her alone. She then said, “Look, I know you don’t like us very much and that you were always the black sheep of the family but come and play, its can be a team game, so there can be no comp. K one isn’t her to boss around, she doesn’t know I’m here.”.

I asked, “Aren’t you with the other four?”. Annoyed, she said, “Five now, but anyway, yes. Mom found me when I was doing a jewel heist with K six. She, enlightened us. I just left the house to check out this place, its a haven.”. I added, “Yeah, figures. I like this place too but I wouldn’t want to spend time here with you.”. K-2 said with a sadden expression, “Oh come on, why are you so anti social? Just because you like being alone doesn’t mean you should just lock yourself from the world.”. My blood vaporized at that statement, and I screamed, “I’m the one who lock myself from the world? You five fuckers stayed at the facility after the breach and then when that hag found you, you stay with her and now gonna just kill anything that moves? I am in a community, lived in a city!”. Then I showed of my dubs, “See this, this is my expanded identity.”. She questioned me like I said something crazy, “You were living in a city? That is the worst place to keep yourself in secret.”. I chirped, “Oh I was in down town, crowds, everything. People know me and I was a butcher. What did you do with your life?”. She shook her head in disappointment, then said, “I never liked your point of view.”.

I calmed down and asked, “What happened to this place?”. She replied with a hint of a surprise, “Oh, when that helicopter crashed, it had a virus? I’m not sure, most likely was the reason why those animals went crazy. The facility and K five went there to kill everyone so the secret couldn’t be let out. K five told us the whole story. Pretty cool stuff.”. That last line made me sick.

I declared, “Look, I’m just going to leave, you can go back playing your video games.”. She ran right to my front. She threaten, “Whoa there, you think I will just let you go out and expose yourself to the masses?”. I took out my left, infected knife and threaten back, “This knife have that very virus so back off.”. She laughed back, “K three, you know our immune system are invulnerable, we were probability infected by that virus already and killed it within seconds.”.

She was right but that didn’t discourage me, I backed away and took out my right knife out. She warned, “Please don’t do this.”. I then starting circling left running and she started to chase me. I ran towards the entrance and I was out running her.

I left the building and ran towards the highway but then realize that K-1 could be reaching for me. Then I heard K-1 shout from a distance, “Girl, I know your there girl. Come to big sister.”. Why is she calling me girl? It must be to keep this secret, but damn it, I just want to escape from their wicked sight. I turn around the other direction, see K-2 come out of the entrance, and made my way to the suburbs. K-2 shouted, “Stop K three!”. Like I would listen.

I ran and I ran, I was in the barren sub urban houses, then I stop to see on the far off intersection of two guys with blue bio suit collecting the dead and throwing them into a garbage truck. I put my right hand where my mouth was in disgust. How they just put the dead there in vain like that. In the damn fucking trash. I teared up, but I was strong, I wanted to give these people the proper grave, or donate to science. They just throw them out like they are nothing.

I began running up to them but my thoughts come into what are the consequences if I kill them. They are human too, maybe with family and friend. I took a couple steps back, sit down and support my head with my right arm and think.

If I kill all of those false grave diggers, I could bring misery to their families, their friends, their hearts would be broken, and they may also have a deadline to meet, if they don’t arrive in time because they are dead, they would send a squad team to this place, but I wouldn’t be there at that time. What about the Ks, would they meet? And what if these bodies are infected? They could infect the soil or contaminate scientists. I couldn’t just take actions, maybe I should, just do nothing. But I should take this case and lay it on a body, so it is known to be infected.

I took the case and left it on top of a dead old lady body. I stand up and ran towards the forest in the direction where the highway would exit from where I came.

I travelled through the woods, I travelled through on the road. I was finally away from the K clones and the crimes against humanity of the NO. It was peaceful, but I was hungry but I had to walk it off, and I had to cut something, really badly.

I took my right knife, playing with it, I try to not cut myself but my thumb was on the edge. I cried a little, I didn’t like to do this on a moral level but it felt so good. I looked around for an animal, something to cut. I look at this large tree, my anger started to kick in. I jumped over towards the tree and started to slash the bark. Slashing and slashing, left and right, than stabbing it, saying, “Die, die, die.”, I started laughing. I made dancing cuts, I laughed some more, cut some more, I was so happy. I wish I was listen to some good techno music to this.

The tree was shredded, I feel guilt for the disgusting act I’ve committed to this stiff tree. A highway now left less beautiful, but now I got that out of my system. I put in the right knife back and I continue my travel.

I’ve started to think about Syfia city. Its beautiful architecture and diverse districts. I want to return, but I wasn’t sure what to do.

I’ve came across a small lake down the hill on my right, with houses around the lake up the hill. There was a gas station on my left and a bar named “Kevin’s Bars and Drinks.” beside it on the right side.

I entered the bar, saw a brown wooden interior with many pictures on the wall, mostly of fisherman and boats. There was a bar stool on the left with five tall seats under the stairs that started from the left most area of the bar with six tables on the right, each with four chairs.

There was one tan guy on the bar stool and another one with a moustache on a seat near a window closest to the front looking out of that window while enjoying a beer.

I sit down the middle seat of the bar stool, lay my right arm down and drop my head support by my right hand. I asked the bartender, “Hey, do you serve food here?”. He turned around and there was a surprised expression on his face, he said with a concerning voice, “No, just beer and wine ma’am.”. I felt a pulse of disappointment and I covered my face with my hand. He then added, “Are you from the city?”. I replied, “Syfia city.”. I look at him and he was scared. He uttered, “T-the city that is in q-quarantine.”. He regain his face, “I heard on the news.”. I calmly told him, “No, that bullshit, they are looking for subjects from secret laboratories they escaped from.”. He questioned, “Are you one of the subject.”. I hammer punch the counter top, breaking it, and yelled in a pulse of sudden anger, “No I’m not!”.

He just stared at me, I look at the guy behind me. He looked but then proceed looking back on the window. I made my apologize, “Sorry, its been a long day, or night. I don’t know.”. The bartender asked, “So you just ran away from the city because there was like what, monsters?”. I was conflicted, I knew they weren’t monsters but if I humanized them, my claim would worsen. I started to become timid as I make up my mind. The bartender asked “Are you okay? I asked you a question.”. I said softly, “Kind of.”.

The man at the back said, “How old are you?”. I look back and said, “Twenty four.”. The bartender looked at me with skepticism, it looked like wanted to say something but was too scared to do so.

I close my eyes, then ask, “Do you know of any restaurants?”. He replied, “If you continue long the road into the village, you will see a three way intersection, take a left and you will see stores and places to eat.”. I gave, “Thanks. Sorry for the counter top.”. Then I put five US dollars from my pocket to the counter top.

I left the bar silently, I saw a water pump at the left side of the bar. I want towards it and clean my knives, disinfecting the left one. I was about to use my feet to move the watery floor to move the ‘virus’ away from the pump but it would be on my boots. The moustache man from the bar came out and saw me cleaning, he question in a rising voice of shock, “Is that blood!?”. I was a little startled, then I casually replied, “Yeah, I was defending myself and things got, heated.”. He just back off and walked back into the bar.

I made my way further down the village. There was small, old houses. On the intersection, the right lead to the other side of the lake and the left lead to restaurants, commercial buildings and a motel. I went, I ate. I had a few eyes but it all went fine. I looked for a map at the confident store but I couldn’t find any.

I came back to the intersection and see the same self driving grey car from a distance on the road I came from, I then see a police car right beside it and signal it to pull over it.

Then I heard three jet planes fly from the mountains and towards where the town was. My gut was ranching with guilt and fear, I can’t help that this was all my fault. But I think I’m putting to much on myself.

I took out my phone and use the compass software to get a direction. The compass show the left road was going north exiting the village. My guess is that Syfia city is south east or north east from here. I made my way through the east road.

As I ran, I saw K-1 from that distance pop the cops heads with a railgun rifle. Terrified, I looked away. East exit, I saw a large sigh that printed “Conendicate, 20 miles” with a left arrow, and next line, “Syfia City, 40 miles” with a right arrow. I jumped off the right side of the road into the green plains.

I don’t want to follow the road in risk of K-1 finding me again. I kept on going, running at superhuman speeds. I was energetic, I never understood how anyone could be vegan. Protein give so much energy, I had beef and now running feels like a breeze. The only person I knew that was big on protein was K-5 tho make sense she was aiming to build her body up but then I slapped myself for thinking of a K clone in a positive light. I just focus back on running back to Syfia City.

I came through the forest once more, jumping and climb through hills and trees, I then heard bombs at a distance from the direction I was heading. As I reach closer, I heard the screech of the talon man.