"What if the world you live in suddenly ends?"
Ruminas closed the book, it was a pretty good apocalyptic themed book that she had just found at the library.
"The end of the world…?" she thought.
This is a tough question for everyone, because basically the fact that the apocalypse is happening is beyond imagination, let alone thinking of a way to survive in it.
But a weak girl like her is even more unmentionable, weak and small, the only thing is that she is a bit smart and can run fast.
"I hope I won't be the first to die then."
"Rumi-chan, it's time to go home!" A friend of Ruminas's came over and said to her.
Only then did Ruminas realize that she had been so engrossed in reading that she had forgotten about the time to go home. Sunset had already passed and there weren't many students left in the school.
"Sorry, I'll be right out"
"Ok!"
Ruminas quickly packed up and left with her friend.
"Rumi-chan, how was the track and field tournament?" she asked.
"Huh… well, everything is ready. I was chosen to participate," Ruminas replied, her attitude somewhat absent-minded as she was still thinking about the contents of that book.
"That's great, you're the one with the best physical strength in our whole grade. You'll definitely win the prize."
"It's not that bad," Ruminas scratched her head, she wasn't used to this kind of compliment.
Coming to a fork in the road, the two said goodbye to each other, Ruminas walked alone on the road home. The quiet feeling around her made her feel a bit strange, but she was used to the quiet so she didn't pay much attention.
Ruminas walked quickly and returned to her apartment, even though she was a high school student, she lived alone. Her family died in an accident and she was adopted by her aunt.
This apartment was rented to her by her aunt, but other than that, Ruminas received nothing else. Her aunt always considered her a burden, so every month she only sent money for living expenses and rarely came here.
Ruminas also knew her status, so she just silently lived through the day, she was looking forward to graduating so she could take care of herself. With her excellent results in athletics, she already had a letter of recommendation.
"I guess I'll go to bed early today…"
Ruminas decided that since tomorrow was the weekend, she didn't have to go to school, but she still didn't want to stay up late. For an athlete, staying awake was the most important thing, so Ruminas would always follow her schedule.
"Good night, someone out there…" Ruminas turned off the lights and began to drift off to sleep.
But when she slept until midnight, a strong shock suddenly woke her up.
"Is it an earthquake…?"
Ruminas quickly took out her phone to check but there was no notification. She thought she was dreaming but immediately after that, the tremor appeared again.
This time it was so real and intense that Ruminas couldn't calm down anymore.
"Damn it, it is real earthquake!" Ruminas immediately got out of bed.
She quickly followed the earthquake prevention instructions that had been broadcast on TV before, cursing in her heart: "Why weren't there any reminders?!"
Ruminas fumbled in the dark and grabbed the TV remote. She quickly turned on the news channel to watch, but what greeted her eyes was a scene of utter chaos.
It wasn't just an earthquake, everything was wrong, buildings were collapsing, fire was everywhere, and there were cracks on the road. And from those cracks, there was a black liquid flowing.
Even though she was only watching on TV, she could still feel an indescribable chaos.
"What is this…?" Ruminas was stunned by the sight before her.
Suddenly the cameraman's attention was drawn to something, the camera was pulled closer to the road surface, from the cracks a creature was emerging, its body was strange with tentacles and four arms. Although it was not clear what it was, but as soon as its head emerged a pair of bloodshot eyes appeared and looked straight into the camera.
Then, it immediately disappeared.
"Ah—" Suddenly, the image was lost along with a scream that followed.
Ruminas quickly turned off the TV.
She couldn't believe what was happening before her eyes.
Earthquakes? Strange creatures? Collapsed buildings.
"What the hell is this?!"
Ruminas' whole body trembled. Living alone had never been a problem for her before, but now she felt how scary it was to be alone.
"We can't sit here forever!"
As hard as it was to believe, Ruminas knew that things had changed, things that weren't old age, and if she just sat here and cried, the only outcome would be death.
She quickly got up and changed her clothes. She chose the clothes she usually wore when exercising because they were light and slim, convenient for moving around. She also quickly packed the necessary items.
Bandages, flashlight, rope, lighter, multi-tool and a mirror…
Since Ruminas lived alone, she always kept these items in her house to prepare for any unexpected situations. Finally, for self-defense weapons, Ruminas brought two kitchen knives and a small dagger at her waist.
"Anything else…?"
Even though she tried to calm herself down, her hands and feet still couldn't stop shaking while she packed her things.
As she looked around the house, she saw her savings pile. She wasn't sure if money was still necessary in these troubled times, but it was something she worked hard to earn, so it would be a shame to leave it behind, so Ruminas decided to take it with her.
Once everything was ready, she slowly opened the door, always holding a knife and a flashlight in her hand.
The scene here had not changed at all, but it was eerily silent. The place she lived in was a five-story apartment building, and her room was on the fifth floor, so it would take quite a while to get down there.
Ruminas was careful with every step she took, not even daring to breathe heavily. She tiptoed to the stairs and began to descend, carefully checking every spot as she reached a floor.
"It's really too quiet…"
Ruminas finally made it to the ground, but just as she was about to run outside, a noise from behind made her freeze. Sweat poured down her face as she stood there for a while, but she heard no more movement.
"There's definitely something here!"
She judged.
As she passed the security room, a hand suddenly reached out and grabbed Ruminas' leg, startling her, but luckily she managed to stop herself from screaming.
Looking down, she saw that it was the guard she usually met, he was very kind and helpful to her but now he was in a state where only the upper body remained and he was bleeding profusely.
"Guard!" Ruminas quickly bowed.
"Rumi, it's you… run away," the guard said with difficulty.
"What happened? You need to be treated immediately!" Ruminas said and tried to take out the bandage but was stopped by the guard.
He shook his head.
"I… couldn't save it… that thing, is still here. You quickly run, it can only hear sounds so remember… be absolutely quiet!"
The guard said and breathed his last.
Ruminas cried, she slowly dragged the guard's body inside and closed the door.
"Rest in peace, security guard"
After performing a simple ritual, Ruminas regained her high alertness. Although she couldn't do anything, she had just obtained some useful information about that creature.
Now she only needed to run a few more steps and she would be outside, where she could seek help from others. But things weren't going as smoothly as she had hoped.
Ruminas had only run a few steps when she heard some strange sound from behind. She didn't turn around to look, but she guessed it was from that mysterious creature.
"Calm down! And keep running"
She said to herself.
Rumias took a breath and immediately ran, but the creature jumped from behind and blocked her path. In the darkness, Ruminas couldn't see its shape clearly, but she saw that its mouth was still chewing something.
No need to think to know what it is.
It was now blocking her path, and although Ruminas was scared, she knew that if she didn't do anything, it would be difficult to escape, so she began to carefully observe the creature. Its body was a little smaller than hers, unlike the one she had just seen on TV.
"Probably an immature one. Still a chance!"
It also has tentacles on the back but only four.
Based on its jump just now, she guessed that its physical strength was much higher than that of an average person, and even if she was someone with good physical strength, she still might not be able to overcome it.
"There must be something to distract it…"
The creature started to act after chewing on the thing in its mouth. Up until now, it had only considered Ruminas as its prey that had no ability to fight back, so it was leisurely like that.
"The guard said it can only hear sounds…" Ruminas looked around but couldn't see its eyes so she started to stop all her movements.
She moved slowly but immediately—
One of its tentacles immediately shot up, intending to capture Ruminas, but she immediately dodged to the side.
"How did it know…!?"
Ruminas was shocked by the attack. However, through it, she was able to evaluate some things about the creature.
"The speed isn't too fast, I can still dodge it!" Ruminas silently judged and ran away, she had to leave its sight first to think of a way.
Not giving up, the monster continued to attack with its two tentacles.
Ruminas immediately turned around and ran back to the apartment because that was the only way right now.
"So fast!"
Her speed was quite fast but she was soon caught by the tentacle, she lunged forward, lowering her center of gravity to dodge. Then she quickly turned around and stabbed the knife into it.
A stream of black blood flowed out and stuck to her face but Ruminas didn't care, she used more force to stab the knife deeper and the creature's scream echoed from afar.
You could hear the anger coming from it.
After creating a wound on it, Ruminas pulled out the knife and continued running up the stairs.
"I will not die here!"
"I want to survive!"
"The end of the world? Come if it comes!"