After a few hours, the girl woke up a little and seemed to hear the boy getting up and leaving the room, but fell asleep again immediately.

Suddenly, a loud commotion on the ground floor woke her up. She tried to see something in the dark, but found it impossible. She listened intently, a little frightened, but heard nothing more.

She thought about not getting up and going back to sleep, but she remembered that it had seemed to her that the boy had left the room. Determined, she got up and went to the other bed. She touched the blankets, but there was no one there.

She worried about the boy. Maybe something had happened to him. He had helped her; she did not want anything to happen to him. She went to the door following the wall and found it open. When she came out, she touched something with her foot. She crouched down and grabbed it. It was the teddy bear. It would have fallen to the ground while she was sleeping. With the teddy bear in her hand, she went out and saw some light coming from downstairs. She walked over there, slowly, a little still asleep.

The light came from the fireplace, which was still on. The girl would have sworn that when they went to bed, they turned all the lights off and the fire had not been turned on.

She entered the dining room and the table was on the floor, lying on its side, with all the leftover food scattered around the room. Some feet protruded from behind the table. She approached. It was the boy, lying on the ground, with his face in pain and his eyes wide open. No blood or wounds were seen.

She stared at him for a few seconds. Analyzing him.

“Why does not he move? Yesterday he moved and said things. What is he doing lying here? Something seems to be hurting him”.

With these thoughts in her head, she approached him and touched his face. He was still warm. She shook him a little. But he did not move. She looked into his eyes and frowned. It was extremely uncomfortable for her not to blink.

She looked around and found a piece of clothing that had been used to cover one of the cheeses and put it in that horrible look on his face. In doing so, she remembered all the men who did not move either when they arrived in the village. And she remembered the dead cat, and tied up loose ends. “He is dead”, she told herself.

It was serious for her. He had helped her a lot, even though she did not know him. As a farewell, she lay down beside him and, putting his arm under her head and the bear between the two, hugged him and slept with him.

By the time she rose, the fire had been extinguished and the sunlight was illuminating the room. She yawned silently. Touching the boy's arm to get up, she realized that he was already cold. She looked at him a little sad. She felt that he did not deserve it, that he was a good boy. She took the bear and looked for the main irrigation canal. She wanted to pee.

When she left, she heard low voices she did not know. They came to her distorted, as if something was covering their mouths. She approached until she understood what they were saying, so she had to go down halfway down the stairs.

“I did not imagine that while we were extracting the Ether we would come across this”, a serious and tired voice said, of an old man, but not that old. “It had been years since the last massacre I had encountered…”

"Do not complain," a more jovial but serious voice reprimanded him. “Since we are already healed of fear. What I do not understand is what the Captain was thinking about in order to get Puppy to come too… Look at him, he cannot stand up straight. Hey, Puppy!”, he raised his voice, calling someone outside the dining room. “There is food inside that seems to be in a good condition. Plus, it looks like the fog is not coming here either, so you will be able to eat some.”

Nayla heard someone else entered the room. The man with the jovial voice joked with Puppy, but loose enough for the girl to only hear his laughter.

“Hey, hey!”, the older man exclaimed. “Do not leave the mask lying on the floor! Since when we get out of here, we will need it again, as we have not explored the whole town yet!”

There were a few seconds of silence in which only footsteps and the sound of objects could be heard as they moved. Suddenly, a high-pitched shout broke the calm.

“A… a dead corpse!” Puppy exclaimed, frightened.