The ember glows of a sunset fell on the ruined city.

Despite the warm light falling into the alleyway, Cain felt his back touch a brick wall and broke out in cold sweat.

It was a dead end.

In front of him were a trio of small, red monsters that humans had taken to calling goblins.

Similar to the goblins from human fantasies, they looked like they ate a lot of raw meat and had really bad breath, but had leathery red skin instead of the mucus green.

They were dressed in strange a mixture of human clothes and leather that looked like they had been tanned, recently, and seemed excited about finding a fresh meal.

“I don’t suppose we could work this out, er, peacefully?” the young man tried with a weak laugh.

The goblin in the back started drooling, and Cain desperately tried to maintain his calm.

Perhaps working too hard, his brain dragged up an unbidden memory of his old man, who had passed away from cancer a few years before the world ended.

‘Even in the maws of the tiger, keep your wits about you and you will find a way,’ his old man said.

Cain had told him that this was America, and old Asian proverbs belonged in old Asia.

His old man had then proceeded to beat the snot out of him under the pretext of ‘training’. He had still been healthy back then.

Training for what, Cain never found out, but maybe the old man had known that the world would go to shit, way before dimensional rifts had started spewing out monsters.

…Probably not.

Still. Thanks to his 'training' and a previous (even if it mostly involved running) encounters with a lone goblin, Cain knew he had a chance.

Well, this is really do or die now.

The young man grit his teeth and stared at the goblins who had sauntered  confidently closer, giggling to themselves. They had probably stopped taking humans as threats after the first few days.

Let’s see if all that talk of yours about tigers and wits and ways was true, old man.

On a sudden instinct, Cain shrunk back further into the corner of the alley, making himself look smaller and pretending to shake.

A picture of the perfect prey.

As though it sensed the weakness, the first goblin eagerly leaped forward, its face twisting into a terrifying visage of primal rage and hunger.

A split second after that, Cain made his move.

The lone human exploded into action with a raw shout and leapt at the goblin, smashing his forehead straight into the goblin’s hooked nose.

Certain parts of the head were very hard, and when aimed at vulnerable spots like the very prominent nose of a goblin… Painful.

Still, Cain knew it wasn’t going to be enough.

Despite their small size, it had quickly become common knowledge that goblins were much tougher than a regular human.

Before his own mind could let him panic, Cain wildly grabbed for the goblin’s neck with his hands, then brought his knee smashing into the goblin's face while pulling the creature’s head down towards the blow at the same time.

As the creature collapsed, Cain swung his arm up and swung his elbow down into the back of its head hard.

The goblin fell with a small *crunch*, as the two remaining goblins screeched in anger.

I can’t believe that worked.

Cain thought, shooting a prayer up to his old man. He would be proud.

There was no guarantee that he could do that again, and the last goblin was holding a red crystal dagger of some kind.

Oh come on!

He couldn’t fight a human holding a weapon, much less a freaking goblin.

These things were natural predators with an instinct for blood.

Before they could corner him again, the young man tried to run at the space between the two would-be man-eaters.

He managed to slip past one and took a few steps before the other goblin, the largest of the three, suddenly shot forward with a sudden speed that he hadn’t seen from others of its kind.

Before Cain could dodge, the goblin had stabbed him in the thigh with the dagger.

Cain had never been stabbed before. It hurt like a bitch.

So, this goblin was both larger, had a weapon, and moved faster? What was this, an evolved version of goblins or something?

The young man bit off a curse and stepped forward, but lost his balance before swerving and crashing into a pile of garbage and rubble on the side of the alley.

Damn!

More than the pain, the feeling of overwhelming panic returned and churned in his stomach.

Both goblins standing were cackling now, ignoring their fallen comrade and not even trying to chase him down.

They knew he was done for.

Cain’s thoughts accelerated hysterically.

Should he run? Call for help? Were there even any humans left in this area?

He was only 19. He’d never gotten to travel the world, never even kissed a girl, never got to chase the dreams that had gotten him through the years in the orphanage…

Cain looked up at the goblins that were smiling and stepping towards him, monsters that had probably taken the lives and dreams of every single human being that they had come across, and for the first time since being cornered, felt something other than fear.

Cain felt angry.

It burned away the pain. It burned away the doubt. It burned so hot that it almost hurt.

Cain held on to it, because it was the only thing that could keep him moving.

And as the goblin that had stabbed him stepped in within distance, Cain also realized that the monster no longer had the dagger. It was still in his leg.

Mistake.

Cain grabbed the hilt of the dagger and imagined for a second the anger course through his body, giving him strength.

With a raw-throated yell, wrenched it out of his own thigh, and dragged the blade deep across the goblin’s throat and jugular just as it jumped for him.

The goblin fell to the ground with a gurgle as the last goblin let out a surprised yelp.

That’ll teach you…

Cain thought with a grin, even as he panted as the pain from his leg set in deeper and deeper. All his sensations were off, and he felt a strange warmth from the dagger even as he felt the rest of his body grow a little bit colder.

The last goblin’s yelp turning into a menacing growl snapped his focus away from the sensation.

It was… probably over.

The fire of anger ebbed away as well as the strength that it had provided. He had been running for a long time, and the miracle that he had pulled off against the first goblin had taken a lot, too.

Well, I guess I didn’t do too bad…

He had done okay, Cain thought to himself.

Maybe the old man would be proud.

He could almost hear…

“Not bad.”

Huh. That didn’t sound like his old man.

Apparently he hadn’t been hallucinating from toad poison or whatever goblins put on their daggers, because the goblin seemed to have heard it too.

It whipped around to face the source of the noise, but before it could do any more than that a figure came crashing down from one of the walls, swinging a baseball bat into its head and producing the sound of a watermelon breaking.

Cain blinked as a girl wearing a tattered jacket and sport pants casually stepped over the body.

“Phew! Can’t do that too often, or my knees wouldn’t be able to take it,” she chuckled.

Cain swallowed dryly.

She was slender and her clothes hid it well, but she was athletic and moved like a…

There was a flash of ivory as the girl grinned, and Cain knew what she reminded him of. A predator.

There were a few humans like that. They had taken to the apocalypse like fish to water, and they… scared Cain.

“Thank you,” he said, after a moment of hesitation. 

She was also very beautiful, with slightly wolfish features and bronze skin that spoke to an athletic lifestyle.

She had long black hair, tied up in a ponytail. It didn’t help that his social skills had rusted into near nothing in the past few weeks of being alone.

“Nah, I think you had it,” she responded, a small smile playing upon her lips. “I’m Noel.”

“I’m… Cain.”

The girl simply nodded in acknowledgement, studying him.

Cain snapped out of it and grit his teeth.

He really didn’t like asking for help. You couldn’t trust people, after all.

That was how he’d made it this far during a literal apocalypse!

But still… his leg was bleeding, and he had lost his scavenging pack that contained some rudimentary medical supplies while running from the goblins.

“Do… Do you have any medical supplies, by chance?” Cain managed to get out.

The girl smirked and unslung a small backpack from her shoulders and threw it towards him.

His backpack.

She must have been watching him getting chased, then.

“Thank you…” Cain said with a bit of a forced smile, as he pulled out a roll of bandages and started wrapping his wound tightly. He didn’t have medical training, but he knew the basic principles, one of which was to put pressure on wounds.

“No problem. Saw you throw it away when the goblins started gaining on you,” Noel said nonchalantly.

Right. Better get straight to it, Cain grunted in pain as he tightened the knot and used the wall to prop himself up a bit.

“...Why did you help me?”

“More and more monsters are roaming around. Even lone wolves like us are gonna need someone else to watch our backs,” she said, eyeing Cain.

 "And you seemed like you could handle yourself,” the girl said, twirling her bat.

Cain considered what Noel was saying.

She was right. He had been getting more and more fatigued, scavenging with his guard up day after day due to quickly dwindling supplies.

He hated to admit it, but being alone was also having an affect on his mental health…

He was surviving, but at what cost?

It would help to work with someone that could handle herself.

And Noel seemed more than capable of handling herself, though he suspected most of the people who couldn't had all gotten themselves killed and eaten quite quickly.

She was still looking at him, waiting for his response when Cain’s arm suddenly whipped out in front of him and launched a flash of red forward.

The girl started at the sudden movement, and had brought her bat up in a defensive posture in a flash when she heard a yelp and a thud behind her. 

The first goblin Cain had kneed in the face, now with missing teeth and a red dagger sticking out of its eye, lay on the ground and with blood gurgling out of its mouth.

“Yeah. Definitely handle yourself,” she said.

That was so lucky. Cain thought to himself as he chuckled confidently.