Rei dumped the black bag onto a rusted metal bed frame, breathing a sigh of relief as he released the heavy weight.

After some deliberation Rei and Marc had made up their minds to spend around a couple of days in an apartment on the outskirts of Selvin, deciding that staying in the apartment in the heart of the city that they had lived in in the past was too risky after the encounter with Afton. Too out in the open when they desperately needed to hide.

Marc strolled over to the bed and opened it up, rummaging through and pulling out a pack of nutrient cubes. Rei contorted his face into a look of disgust at the sight, and Marc rolled his eyes as he opened the bag. He grabbed one and offered it to Rei, expectantly holding it in front of his brother.

“I’d rather starve than eat that thing. The stuff tastes like squishy old paper,” Rei mumbled, raising his hands up in front of himself to ward his brother off.

“Suit yourself,” Marc shrugged, shoving the cube into his mouth, visibly trying to hide the look of repulsion on his face as he chewed.

Rei nodded as he reached into the bag and pulled out the tablet, opening up the tracking app. It had become a frequent habit of his to check the software every thirty minutes or so. The software booted up, displaying a map of the city. Rei stared at the screen, about to tell Marc that they were clear, when he noticed a small red dot in the corner.

Heading rapidly towards their apartment building.

“Shoot,” he mumbled. “Marc?”

“Yeah?” Marc questioned, shifting his gaze from the loaf of bread he was carefully inspecting to Rei.

“Exterminator heading towards us. Fast.”

“What?” Marc asked, taking a moment to process the information. “We need to get away from here, then,” he said, stuffing the piece of bread back into a small compartment in their bag they had designated for food. Rei hurriedly scrolled downwards on the tracking app to see where they should go, then disconnected the tablet and stuffed it into the bag as well.

Rei thrust the bag into Marc’s arms.

“You hold it this time.”

“Yeah, sure,” Marc answered carelessly, striding over to the apartment’s rusted metal door, expectantly waiting for Rei to open the door as his arms were more than full.

Rei rushed over to the door and opened it, silently closing it shut once Marc was out the door. He unzipped the bag Marc was holding and pulled out the chipped glass compass.

“Let’s head southeast. The tracker said the person was coming from the northwest; and we can lose ‘em that way,” he told Marc.

“Okay.”

Compass in hand, Rei led the way as the two brothers raced down the building’s flight of stairs and traveled southeast towards the city of Felro. Neither of them had been that far south before, and in the back of his mind each wondered what they would find there.

Exterminators? Hopefully not. The tracker app displayed the area as a safe zone, at least.

They had soon left the immediate vicinity of the apartment.

As he ran, Marc felt a gust of air against his back. A whoosh swept through the air as he felt his hair brush his neck, lightly blown by the gust. He froze in his tracks, involuntarily jerking his head to see what had created the rush of air. Rei turned as well, noticing his brother’s pause in action.

It was a car. One of those cars that hovered and sped along on those electromagnetic rail systems which Marc had spent a large portion of his life building. The car sank back into the ground as it deactivated, the tinted glass windows slowly disappearing.

Inside was a man, staring right at them. He wore one of those old baseball caps, a bright blue one, and had an unnerving smirk on his face. Light brown hair spilled from his cap onto his pale skin, his silver eyes bleakly shining.

Rei gulped, frozen as if in a trance.

“Hey there,” the man started, his voice deep and somewhat raspy, a sly amusement laced in his cruel tone. It took a moment for the brothers to realize he had addressed them. “Couldn’t help but notice I’m not getting a signal off you two,” he continued, a motion of his arm showing that he was reaching for something on the floor of his car.

The trance broken, Rei bolted from the scene, leaving an expressionless Marc simply standing in place before the threat.

Rei ran, adrenaline pumping through every inch of his body as he ran for his life, not daring to look back to see what had become of Marc. His heartbeat quickened as a fear enveloped him; he knew he couldn’t escape from the guy.

The Exterminator was in a car for crying out loud; he seemed to be armed as well. Marc and Rei didn’t stand a chance. The Exterminators had found them. This was the end of their freedom. Of them.

Frantic thoughts filling his mind, Rei ran. Still not looking back.

And then he heard the whoosh of the car behind him. He spared a glance back and saw that he was being followed by the sleek orange vehicle, which was barely several feet behind him. After he couldn’t see his brother anywhere, Rei assumed that Marc had been captured. Or worse, killed.

Rei felt a pang of guilt hit him hard in the stomach at the thought, his eyes stinging. He should’ve stayed and helped, maybe put up a fight. Instead he ran like a coward while Marc was taken by that Exterminator.

It didn’t matter now anyway. Now that it was his turn.

Rei ran for his life, no longer oblivious to the pain in his muscles as he strained himself to get away, trying to keep up his stride as the vehicle gently coasted next to him, the window slowly opening. He had already lost the chase.

A heavy blow struck him in the chest, knocking him down and forcing the breath out of his lungs. A weak electric current spread from where he’d been hit, and his body stopped working. He’d been shot. The strike hadn’t killed him, but he was as good as dead anyhow.

It was only a matter of time before it was all over.

⬩  ⬩  ⬩

Rei forced his eyelids slightly upwards, the light grayish blue shade of sky and blurry silhouettes of city buildings in the distance meeting his tired gaze. Rei tried to ignore the ache in his chest where he had been hit and the splitting pain in the back of his head. He slowly moved his hand upwards to rest his injured head, as the hard ground was worsening the headache. The sweltering heat didn't help either.

He was still alive. He had been left unconscious where he had fallen. The Exterminator hadn’t taken him along with Marc.

Confusion took the place of exhaustion as he wondered why. Maybe the Exterminator thought he was dead or something? He didn’t know.

Either way, he was alive. And he needed to find Marc.

If Marc was still alive, that was. He’d probably been killed. Or forced into the NET system. Even   worse than being killed, Marc used to say.

Rei tried to block the morbid thoughts from flashing through his mind, but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t control the thoughts that came up in his mind.

He tried to lift himself up a little bit. Though it ached and a sharp pain erupted in his upper body, he pushed himself upwards with his arms until he was sitting upright. Clutching onto his knees, Rei pushed himself further up into an awkward standing position, reflexively moving his arms to grip his paining chest.

Rei winced a little as he stepped forward, his limbs still not as functioning as normal due to the electric shock he had been subjected to earlier. It hurt to move, but that didn’t matter.

He needed to find Marc. Regardless of whatever might have happened to his brother, for Rei it seemed like the best thing he could do.

He walked around for a little while, searching aimlessly for a clue; something to point out to him where he should go. He had forgotten which direction the car had gone off in, and with his terrible headache he couldn’t effectively think. He didn’t have the compass to help him or anything else for that matter; the bag had been with Marc, and was probably long gone as well. He didn’t even know how long he had been unconscious for. It could’ve been anywhere from a couple of minutes to days, maybe. 

Rei was more lost than he had ever been before. At least before he’d had a family. Someone he could trust who was there for him, who was there with him every step of the difficult journey.

Now he was all alone. With absolutely no idea what to do next.