Zhan and Yibo had both been lying on the sofa, kissing, for over an hour with no end in sight. It was more like they were both thinking of continuing and they were ready to do it. But then something hit the roof of the building with a loud bang. Immediately, Zhan and Yibo jumped up from the sofa, put everything into the backpack and listened.

Both of them were standing in the bedroom by the window that leads to the forest. From here, they could jump right out the window without hurting themselves. Not only because the apartment they were in, was on the 2nd floor, but also because there was still a high pile of gravel at the back of the building. They could, if necessary, just jump out the window onto this pile of gravel and escape into the woods, where they could wait until nightfall and then run to the car.

Yibo listened strained upwards, but heard nothing else. Very slowly, mindful of each step, they walked back into the living room. They went to the window and looked out. At first there was nothing to see, but then something huge black fell from above and it was followed by two more black shadows.

Zhan stared out into the parking lot and couldn't believe what he was seeing. The two creatures were greedily pouncing on the other creature lying on the ground. It whimpered and tried to protect its body with its wings. Only when the creature spread its wings to fight them off did Zhan realize that this creature, like the dead one, was dark gray instead of black.

The dark gray creature fought back as best it could, shrieking and flailing. And just a few minutes later, more shadows appeared. More Dark Gray creatures, helping their mate or whatever they are to each other.

They beat the two pitch-black shadows until they lay motionless. Then the other dark grays helped their companion to his feet. Shortly after, they flew so close to the living room window that Zhan and Yibo jumped away, startled. And although the creatures definitely saw the two men, the creatures did not attack them.

One of the dark gray creatures even paused fluttering for a moment in front of the living room window, staring wide-eyed at the two men. But then it simply flew away. "There are definitely two species. The black and the dark gray. Whereas the dark grays seem to have compassion for their fellows and seem to be less aggressive." Murmured Zhan.

"Zhan, what does it matter now? They've seen us, and we should make sure we get out of here. And I mean as fast as possible." Replied Yibo, dragging Zhan with him back into the bedroom to the window.

Both were standing at the open window, ready to jump, when a dark gray creature appeared. It fluttered just outside the window. Its flapping was so powerful that Zhan and Yibo could feel the wind the wings were generating.

Zhan and Yibo stood frozen, unable to move. The creature came closer and crawled in through the open bedroom window. It stood up in front of the two and sniffed at them. As it did so, it made clicking noises and puffed.

When it noticed the backpack, the creature looked at it curiously and pulled on it. Yibo let go of the backpack and the creature held it in its clawed hands and sniffed it thoroughly. Then, to the astonishment of Zhan and Yibo, it pushed the backpack back into Yibo's arms.

Zhan stretched out his arm and the creature took a step back, then stopped and came sniffing closer again. It licked Zhan's hand and Zhan even managed to touch the creature. Yibo stared at him in horror, but said nothing.

Very carefully, Zhan approached the creature and stroked its head. The creature tilted its head to the side and into Zhan's hand, which Zhan thought looked silly, because his hand was barely visible under the creature's large head. Still, he was fascinated by this creature and its cold smooth skin.

When another creature appeared at the window, it made a short shrill sound and the creature that was with Zhan and Yibo went back to the window and crawled out awkwardly. As it looked around one more time before finally flying away, Zhan could almost see something loving in its gaze.

The two of them only breathed properly again when the creature was gone. Yibo slapped Zhan against his arm and asked him, "Are you crazy? Something else could have happened. How can you just touch that thing?"

"I don't know, I felt that there was no danger from this creature. Like it was a curious child." Replied Zhan.

"Maybe it was a child. I think the other grays were bigger than this thing. But still, you shouldn't do something like that. What if the creature bit you? Or worse, killed you? I don't want to lose you Zhan."

Zhan looked at Yibo thoughtfully and wrapped his arms around him. "I'm sorry Yibo. I won't do it again." He said. Yibo nodded and held Zhan tightly in his arms. Just the thought of losing Zhan almost drove Yibo crazy.

Since they were both sure that more of the black creatures would show up soon, they wanted to make sure they got out of there. One after the other, they jumped out of the window and into the pile of gravel. They looked around on all sides and when they were sure they were unobserved, they ran around the building and to the parking lot.

They got into the car as fast as they could. When Zhan started the engine, Yibo saw that one of the two black creatures was still alive. Mortally wounded, but not yet dead, it stared at the two in the car. Yibo took the shotgun he had gotten from the soldier and pointed the barrel at the creature. Zhan, however, pressed the gun down and shook his head. "If you shoot now, the shot will be heard for miles and attract any creatures that are nearby. Besides, the thing is dying right now." Explained Zhan.

Yibo lowered the gun and told Zhan to drive off. They drove onto the dirt forest road and Zhan had a strange feeling. It had still been daytime, the sun was still in the sky, and it would be anything but wise to leave the forest now. And he told Yibo so. Yibo agreed with him and pointed to a spot on the side of the road. "Let's park the car there and go a little deeper into the forest and wait until it gets dark." He said to Zhan.

They took the backpack and the gun and left the car. They walked maybe 200 meters into the deep dense forest before stopping between several tall dense fir trees.

The fear of being discovered, the feeling of helplessness and the intense tropical heat, were bothering both of them. "I think there will be a thunderstorm soon. The weather is already hinting at it." Said Yibo in a whisper.

"Mhm, if not today, then maybe tomorrow. But if it is, hopefully we'll be somewhere safe and not in the forest like we are now. Everything is so dry here that one spark is enough to set everything on fire here." Replied Zhan.

"Really? You're worried about a forest fire right now?" Yibo asked with a grin.

"Well sure, as long as we're still in the forest, that would be fatal. But something else, what do you think the Dark Gray Creatures are all about?"

"I don't know Zhan. I'm not a scientist and I don't know anything about it. I can only guess that the two species don't get along."

"Mhm, I think so too. But I'd be interested to know why that is?"

"Well, who knows if we'll ever know. It's not like we can ask them."

"The noises this creature was making kind of reminded me a little of the noises bats make."

"Mhm I know what you mean. They really gave me the creeps. They kind of resemble bats a little too, don't you think?"

"Yeah right. Maybe it's really true that the lore of vampires comes from these creatures."

"Who knows. Once we're safe, we can still speculate about it. Right now, we'd better concentrate on our survival. By the way, I have the map here, so let's better see which route we'll take tonight." Yibo replied.

The two looked at the map and Zhan showed him approximately where his great uncle's hotel was. Yibo was horrified to realize that it would probably take them several nights before they reached their destination. The nights are just too short and they always have to add time to find a good hiding place for the day as well.

Zhan showed him where he thought they might be safe. However, he also indicated that it has been two years since he and his father last drove the hotel this way. At that time, they were going to his uncle's funeral. And that was just before the hotel was scheduled to open.

As dawn slowly began to break, the two headed back to the car. The car was already coming into view when Yibo, suddenly held Zhan back and pointed to something behind the car. A black creature had approached the car and was looking at it closely.

With almost bated breath, the two of them stood in the forest watching the creature. Not finding what it was looking for, it flew off again a few minutes later. Zhan and Yibo exhaled in relief and ran to the car. Darkness was coming upon them quickly now and finally their time had come.

Yibo was now behind the wheel of the car and started the engine, leaving the lights off the car in case the creature was still around. Once again, Yibo was glad he had taken Zhan's car when he was looking for Zhan. Because the engine was so quiet that it could hardly be heard. Unlike the military's Humvee's.

They had been driving on the highway for an hour when thunderstorms began. Lightning was twitching across the sky and the closer the thunderstorm got, or the closer they got to the thunderstorm, the more violent the lightning became.

As they drove into a small town, the many lightning bolts kept giving them a clear view of the creatures that were in the town. Some looked to them with interest, but didn't seem to understand what they were seeing. Others broke away from their stance. Zhan pointed to a creature that stretched its wings. "See that we get out of here." Whispered Zhan.

Yibo stepped on the gas and increased his speed. He sped through the locality and that one creature began to follow them. Yibo's heart began to race when he saw the speed at which the creature was following them. Yibo didn't dare to step on the gas any more as long as they were driving without lights. But he also didn't want to turn on any lights so as not to draw more creatures' attention to him and Zhan.

Zhan tried hard to see something on the map. With every flash, he looked for a possibility where they could hide. And then he said, "To the left, now to the left. There's a forest coming up, drive into it." Yibo turned left and stepped on the gas a little more.

They drove over a dirt road and thanks to the lightning, Yibo could see where to drive. And finally they reached the forest. They drove as close to the forest as they could and then jumped out of the car. They ran into the forest and hid in the darkness.

The creature inspected the car. It shook it and shrieked in rage because its prey had escaped. Although Zhan and Yibo saw the creature fly away again, they stayed in the forest for another half hour before returning to the car and slowly driving back to the road.

They did not stop again until they arrived at a village school at about 4:30 am. They parked the car and entered the school. They didn't take the time to look around for long, but immediately went down the narrow stairs to the basement that led to the two workrooms, where they decided to spend the day and rest.

"We must try to avoid the towns from now on. We really don't need another incident like last night. And who knows if it would go well again."Said Yibo as he cleared a workbench for Zhan to lie on.

"We should take another look at the map later. It's going to be hard to drive around all those towns. Even more so, we'll have to refuel at some point."

"I know. But we have to try. That was really close earlier. Maybe it was just the thunderstorm, but maybe they would have spotted us even without the lightning."

"We'll take a look at the map later, and then we'll see where there are gas stations that we can possibly drive to without danger. If it brings us anything at all. Because they all work only with electricity. And without electricity, we can't refuel anyway."

Yibo nodded. He lay down on the workbench with Zhan and took him in his arms. Actually, he was still far too exhilarated to sleep right now. But he knows that they need sleep to keep up their strength. So he gave Zhan a kiss and then closed his eyes. But it still took a long time until he fell asleep.