“Why is no one else coming!?” Becky’s hands shook as she looked at Desaray in hopes she might have an answer.

“This is strange. It’s like no one is around….” Jake did not understand why no one was coming over to help or even inspect what was going on. When he looked around to see a few people, but they were running in the opposite direction. The fact that they were running made him even more confused. But he was starting to have a bad feeling. “Desa, I think we need to leave.”

“Huh? We can’t. I can’t leave, Mike!” Desaray was keeping Mike’s head propped up on her knees, which were red from kneeling on the ground, and keeping her finger on his pulse. It was painful since rocks were pushing into her skin, but she was waiting for someone to come over and help out. At the same time, she was trying to her calm down, but Jake was not happening.

“Then take him with us! Everyone else is running from something!” Jake yelled out. He kept seeing people passing by. They were completely ignoring what was happening. Cars lined the streets, but even those people who were stuck in traffic were getting out of their cars and running away. It was like a scene out of some kind of apocalyptic movie.

“Wha….?” Desaray finally took a look around to see people running down the street in a hurry screaming. She had not realized it until now, but something truly was going on.

“Guys…. I think it’s too late….” Becky’s trembling voice entered their ears. Desaray turned to look at her best friend to see her eyes wide with fear, her finger pointing towards the car that had crashed into the wall.

Desaray turned her head to see something sitting on top of the car. A humanoid that was short with green skin and had pointed ears along with a large pointed noose with a sharp elongated chin. It licked its lips and smiled at the Desaray, showing its black teeth and purple tongue while squinting its beady black eyes.

She did not know what to do, she looked at her friends to see them all frozen in fear and knew things were not good. “Jake, take Yu and Becky and get the hell out of her! I will bring Mike!”

“Ri…Right!” Jake snapped out of it and quickly helped Yu to her feet before half dragging her to Becky and taking Becky’s hand, pulling her along. Becky did not want to go as she tried to pull back from Jake, but he refused to let go. “Becky cut it out!”

“I can’t leave Desa!” Becky yelled out. But Mike still dragged her away. She turned to look at Desaray, her best friend since they were little, to see her smile at her before turning her attention to Mike. That smile she knew well. It was her everything will be an okay smile. That smile was enough for her to stop resisting and allowed Jake to lead the way. She could only hope Desaray could escape too.

Desaray Gritted her teeth and stood up while pulling Mike up with her. She was happy that Mike was skinny. This made him light enough that even she could carry him. But as she stood up, the thing on top of the car that was stuck in the wall suddenly let out a shrill scream. “GREEEGI!”

Before Desaray could even take a step, she felt something heavy hit her back, causing her to cry out. “Ahhh!”

A sharp pain jolted through her body as she stumbled forward. She lost her grip on Mike, dropping him to the ground. Sadly things did not end there. She felt something pulling at her skirt, causing her to kick backward with her foot, landing it solidly on its target before swinging her body around to see the green humanoid tumble to the ground, trying to stand back up. Now that she could get a better view of what it was, her eyes widened in shock since she had seen such a creature before. “A goblin!?”

She hated to admit it, but she understood why it tugged on her skirt just now. Goblins are mythical creatures that normally show up in fantasy stories, movies, and TV. While sometimes they are depicted as a race of intelligent beings, they are more known for their savagery and their need to breed. With one look, she could tell this one was the latter. The goblin had a brown cloth wrapped around its waist, but there was a certain part sticking up that told Desaray that if she got caught, it would be very, very bad.

She looked down at Mike, who was still unconscious. Blood was soaking through the bandage she had put on him. She had no idea if he was even still alive at this point. Right now, although she wished she could get him out of here, she first had to deal with the situation at hand. She did not dare take her eyes off the goblin for too long as it slowly got up.

She was wracking her brain, trying to come up with some kind of plan to deal with this situation. “I guess there is only one way to make sure we both live….”

It was risky. She had two options. First, she had a feeling that if she ran, the goblin would chase after her and leave Mike alone. But she was worried that if she did, another monster might come out of nowhere and attack him. Her second option was to fight the goblin here and now. Her eyes were already darting around while keeping the goblin in view, looking for a weapon of some kind.

A glimmer of light caught her eye when she looked towards her bag. A pair of scissors had been dumped out when Becky had gone through it. Her eyes flashed. Just know she had barely kicked the goblin hard, yet it went flying back. This means she could probably win in a fight if she were to use the scissors to kill it. Then she could escape with Mike. “Option two is the only option….”

Taking a deep breath, Desaray rushed forward….