The world we fight for, is not our own. It belongs to the enemy now. We only fight for survival. There's nothing left to do anyway. We protect each other as much as we can. But there's no winning this war. It is folly to try. I gave that up a long time ago.

I carry canned soup on my hand, a loaded pistol in the other, not that it'll do any good. I toss the food to Ry, him catching it with one hand. "All I could scavenge. Hope it'll hold you well."

I walk over burned papers and a torn couch to the window, cracking open the plastic blinds, throwing dust into the air. I peer into the dark dirty world in front of me, ash covering the structure once called Big Ben. But the face of the clock has cracked and fallen

"We need to move," I say as dark soldiersbegin walking the lands ahead.

"To where?" Ry asks.
             I look back at him. "Gather your things."
             He runs his fingers through his hair. "You mean 'thing'?"

"Yeah gather your thing," I return the attitude. "And your rifle."

"I'm out of bullets."

"Take it anyway we'll find some."

"Where are we going?"

"Somewhere else." I pass him and head out the door, walking into the open, windy air, dust blowing around the dark streets of London. It's midday, but green clouds cover the sun from our pale faces. I don't see the sun much anymore. It is distant.

Lightning flashes across the grim sky, making a silhouette from the city buildings... or what's left of the city buildings.

We walk along the sidewalk, not sure of what we'll see next. I start checking cars to see if they will work, breaking the glass of one before unlocking it.

"We should find a boat, head across the sea," Ry says from behind me.

"We're not done searching this continent."

"Vil..."

"I know we can find survivors," I turn to look at him.

He mirrors my expression. "Vil we haven't seen another soul in over four hundred days..."

Something inside me lights with realization at this fact. We've been alone that long? That cannot be right... yet it is. Ry is hardly incorrect about anything he speaks of.

My eyes cast down to the pieces of glass scattered across the cement, my heart sunk.

He steps closer to brush my hair away from my dirty cheek.

When this happens I look up at him and he returns my gaze. "We can get off this forsaken land and head for the north. We'll find an island off the coast of Scotland and live there. Perhaps we can enjoy life a little before the end... you'll be happy. You'll be safe."

I have to admit it's tempting. Maybe we could start a civilization there if we can't find survivors; a new beginning for mankind. Maybe that's where I can find hope...

But I can't shake the feeling that there are people hiding here who need our help. I just can't leave without making sure. I haven't seen another human being in so long and my soul hungers for it; to not feel like Ry and I are the only ones left on the planet... what a lonely, lonely thought.

"I can't leave... Not until I've checked the underground beneath the city."

He looks almost broken hearted when I say this but then a thought comes to him. "If it's empty we leave," he says sternly but kindly.

I hold out my hand after some thought.

He takes it with one shake as an agreement but I already feel nervous about making that promise... What if...?

I sigh and look back at the car. "The gas was stolen from it," I realize before looking back at him.

"We'll go on foot."

We trek across the city, moving from the small neighborhood to the larger and newer buildings, cracked and broken from various military and siege weapons. I gaze upon a still standing skyscraper, the glass that's left reflecting the dark clouds.

We'd been away for a while, searching neighboring countries on our own to find survivors. But London is my home... or... was... Now it's only a nightmare. Granted it  was always dark even when I was a child but with everyone I loved gone it's only an isor that brings out the sadness inside me.

My foot kicks against something and I look down to see a child's teddy bear lying in the rubble. It reminds me of the one I had as a child. No doubt some kid loved this just as much as I loved mine...

I shut my eyes to tear the emotions away and keep myself steely cold as I continue to travel.

A haunting wind echoes across the ground as it passes between the half fallen structures. When I peer to the left I catch a building finally give way as it leans against another, the bones of the skyscraper breaking as it crumbles onto the earth with a steady rumbling.

I jog to keep up with Ry's long legs until we reach the bridge. "I think there's a sinkhole overe there where the water once was. Do you see it?" he asks me when I stand beside him.

I squint but sure enough that's what it looks like. I nod. "Let's go."

We mke our way across the bridge, the metal inside the structure creeking from the wind at every blow. My feet step across the cracked cement as I keep a steady pace, watching the lighting crack over the city buildings in the distance.

A sudden noise comes from the abandoned car to my left and my eyes flash over to it, my heart skipping a beat...

But it looks completely empty...

"Vil," Ry gets my attention and I keep going.

I watch the river below us, the entire ditch being completely empty except for some deep but still puddles at the bottom. Then my eyes scan up ahead to study where we need to be. "If we take those steps it will get us to the left side near the bottom where the hole is," I tell him when I've caught up but he stops dead in his tracks and I do the same when we see a devilish creature emerge from behind a structure ahead. We try to keep still but it immediately spots us and dashes in our direction.

"Run!" I say to him and we book it back to where we came from with as much speed as we can conjure up.

Suddenly I am thrown back into the realization of how lost this place is. I run fast with Ry taking my hand to urge me to move faster, more footsteps being heard behind us as they begin to multiply.

"If only we could just bring the whole bloody bridge down beneath them!" I shout to him as we sprint.

"In here!" he pulls me along when we reach the city again, leaping into a shop of some kind as we hear the yelping and snarling of monsters at our backs.

"What are we—" But then I spot the bullets. My eyes widen and Ry and I frantically search through them until we find some that match our weaponry. I take some of the small golden things with my shaking hands and load them into my magazine.

"Would we have more of a chance if we headed for the stairwell?"

"No. We'd be overrun. We need to get to the docks."

"That's two miles away—!"

"It's our only chance to escape. Come on!" he gets up and readies his weapon. I follow after him when he leaps out the door, dodging an arrow that whizzes past us and crackes the glass window. I lift my handgun and fire at the archer in the face, his head whipping back as black blood slings into the air. I dash for Ry after he lets loose some bullets into the group that had been chasing us, his incredible aim taking out three of them.

We run down the street, him hopping over a taxi swiftly to keep sprinting in the same direction.

An arrow flies by me so close it catches my hair. My heartrate quickens before Ry and I duck behind a city bus that's on its side. I cock my pistol with my back to the metal, ducking back around the corner to aim at the beast that's sneaking past the taxi in search of us. I pull the trigger and watch the bullet bounce off his armer when he moves but I quickly send another that flies through his unarmored neck and makes his body fall to the concrete.

The sound of Ry's gun makes me look over to see him sniping out one that's on top of another vehicle and he moves his aim to another that falls dead instantly.

He yanks me back when an arrow almost this us, the thick arrorwhead scraping the damp concrete at our feet.

"Ahead!" I warn when I spot two of them peering around the corner of a bank. He switches places with me to take them out with his rifle as I fire two bullets behind us at one of them loading an arrow into his chunky bow. They hit his gut and make him sink onto the ground. But I try to conserve as many bullets as I can.

I duck back again when another arrow flies by and come out, aiming in the direction it came from but not seeing anyone.

A body landing down beside us makes me shriek and I sling my feet across the ground to trip and knock the beast on his back, Ry letting two bullets from his rifle shoot through the thing's skull before he turns to another that found us, slamming the butt of his weapon against the creature's head so hard ot flings the body onto the ground just as I toss a throwing blade through the air and watch it stick into the collarbone of another that just spotted us a few feet away.

I cock my gun again and stand up, letting a few shots fly from the barrel and into a demon running for us ahead.

Another one jumps down from the bus and Ry grabs an arrow from the ground and jams it into the thing's abdomen, spinning around to behind him to grab his head and break his neck with one twist. He grabs the chunky sword from the beast and throws it with immense strength, it slining through the air and catching another beast right in the skull as soon as he runs from around the corner.

"Duck!" I tell him and he does so immediately when I raise my gun and fire at a demon charging for us while roaring, my bullet firing straight through his mouth before he falls back against the ground.

"Swap with me!" he says and we trade guns as quickly as we practiced it before, me running over to the other side of the bus where a large grouping has formed and he snipes out some scouts on the rubble to the left. I mow down about three of them when I let bullets fly through the air, the car window breaking when it's hit.

The falling of their men distracts them for a millisecond too long as I aim for their throats and let onyx blood spray from their flesh.

"Duck!" my partner tells me and I do it to let him lop off the head of a soldier who was running to us from around the bus, with one of their own swords.

But they're starting to crowd us. He needs this back.

"Switch!" I say and we swap just as quickly as before.

He takes out a good number but his bullets are running low.

I toss a throwing blade to my right that pierces one but another runs at me from right behind him and I duck down to avoid getting my skull split open, Ry knocking him in the head with his gun.

I pluck the blade I had thrown before from a body and jam it into the creature's throat to kill him.

When I stand up I see how many there are. Maybe we can get them grouped we could toss a grenade? I don't know but we can't stay here.

When another leaps down to end my life I fire into his throat before he can make his move but I grab Ry's hand and run with him away from the crowd before we are overrun. In a panic move, I head straight for the bank, not sure of why but when I get there I immediately leap into a vault and shut the door before arrows kill us.

Light still gets in from above.

"We can't stay here," he says with wide eyes, not even panting like I am.

Strangely enough he still doesn't look tired. Doesn't surprise me. He never gets tired.

"We couldn't stay there either. We were almost surrounded," I tell him with a panicked breath.

"What do you think we are here?" his perfectly shaped brows pull together.

"I'm sorry, it was a rash decision!"

"I know. What will we do?"

"I don't know!" I realize. We can't not make it out. This isn't the end. "Do you have any grenades?"

"None. You?"

"I have one—"

A hammering on the metal door startles me. I look over after my heart jolts.

"Okay here's what we can do," I say quickly. "We'll get that door open and immediately toss the grenade. That will create enough of a blow that we can make a run for it. Or maybe we can stay in here until they get tired and we can throw it then. They won't be able to get through that door no matter what primitive weaponry they use."

"Wait," he hushes me before looking up at what is creating that light. It's a hole in the roof of the vault that leads to the second floor. How it got here I don't know but that's not what I am thinking about right now.

"We can sneak out the top. Keep them distracted—"

I grab his arm. "What—no. Let me go."

"Stay here and come up after me," he says sternly as his blue eyes stare back into mine.

I hesitate but then nod.

We part and I start slamming my hands on the door and making a racket to make the devils think we got locked in. They're not very bright anyway.

But Ry steps up on a metal table and carefully pulls his body up. But when I hear the horryfing sound of an arrow hitting flesh my heart stops. 

Ry stumbles back down before his back hits the floor, a huge arrow stuck right into his heart.

My insides suspend and my brain gets a wave of panick and denial. Nevertheless I don't hesitate to leap forward down to where he is and yank the arrow from its place. I try to find something I can bind him with to stop the bleeding and for a moment I use my hand but that's when I realize his heartbeat is barely there...

He realizes this too and when I look at him he seems only worried that he wouldn't be able to protect me anymore... But he doesn't seem in too much pain... just sadness... "Vilora I'm done. There's no reviving me," he tells me calmly with the life left in him.

"What are you talking about?" I demand. "I'm not going to let that happen. Listen to me—"

"Child it's done... I'm so sorry..."

I stare into his mesmerizing eyes with a heavy heart, placing my hand on the wound and letting it pick up dark blood. A lump in my throat grows. I have only known Ry for a few years but he has become my best friend. We tell each other everything... everything. He is my age as well; 23. But people always said he was mature for his age and that I was the reckless one. I suppose they were right. But growing up in a world like this, I didn't have much morality left... or hope.

I touch his angelic face, the perfect complexion looking drained of blood already, his beautiful shoulder length blonde hair tucked behind his strange pointy ears that he had ever since I knew him... His blue eyes stare into mine with so many words in them his lips could not express.

"You can't leave," my shaky voice manages to choke, tears building in my hazel eyes. "You're not leaving. I'm going to take care of you... and we're going to go across the sea. I promise. As soon as we get out of here we're going to the docks and getting the first boat we find," I tell him as if I'm not even considering his death. "We'll go to Scotland. We'll live on an island and start a new home for us; a new start for all mankind." I smile, my eyes filling with tears.

He manages to smile back at me but he is still troubled, everything lying before him; his life, his past... his mysterious past... "I thought I could protect you..." his ghostly yet smooth voice says, even as life leaves his body. "I failed."

"No! You're going to live. I have to—"

"Villy there's nothing left. I am gone. But you..." he takes my face in one hand. "I knew you were going to move mountains from the first day I met you..."

Suddenly I get a flash of that moment when I saw him for the first time and he saw me, both mesmerized and curious about each other...

"That's why I protected you. That's why I knew I had to. You can end this—You can save the Age of Men." His eyes look urgent. "Vilora—"

A thudding occurs behind me at the door as the demons try to get in.

He grabs my palm tightly and I look back at him, a more worried expression in my eyes than in his. He looks calm but at the same time he knows he must tell me something before he's gone. He frowns. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you..." he says more hastily. "My real name is Ryohnin."

My own brows furrow.

"Find my father," he says with a struggle.

What? His father is dead... What does he mean?

"Find him..." my companion mutters as he grasps my hand, his scar from his palm that he always had pressing against my skin.

"No..." I murmur quietly. I can't let him go...

He chokes as the beasts slam on the door and around the room. My heart beats fast.

He clutches my hand harder and stares into my eyes as the life leaves him, an urgent look in his eyes.

Just then my palm that he holds begins to sting tremendously and a bright light blinds me. My head gets light and my body goes numb. Then instead of white I see black.