The phantom was gone yet the boys had no idea what had driven him away. After all, what could drive away this monster who seemed to fear naught? In their minds, only one explanation felt certain. The weak flee from the strong. They themselves had fled from the strong, all the way into the supermarket.
With the immediate threat somewhat gone, they needed to rethink their plan. Not that the previous one had been bad, but they had never imagined that a single phantom could cause them so much trouble in such a short amount of time.
Alexis began to go over everything they had and the many problems that came along with it.
"First, some of us are injured in a supermarket that's filled of bodies and blood, with real monsters possibly hunting us down."
"What do you mean? You clearly saw the phantom run away." Answered the unsure and trembling Jacob.
"Exactly, Jacob, exactly. But run away from what? And what tells you it did not leave only to return with others, ready to feast on our bodies after whatever frightened it finishes the job here?"
"..."
Jacob couldn't find any words, after all, starting a debate in the middle of this chaos was an extremely horrid idea.
"What do you suggest we do then?"
Mathieu had enough of the shouting and decided to listen to the only person who seemed calm enough to come up with a plan. He knew that Alexis would be able to make a plan in just a short amount of time, like he always does, he just needed to wait a bit.
"I know what I am about to say will sound crazy, but you need to listen carefully to understand it."
With that, the group finally calmed down and started to silent Alexis's plan. After all, Alexis never spoke without a clear understanding of what he intended to do.
"We cannot just walk out in case it appears again, so two of us will have to leave the security room to gather what we absolutely need from the supermarket."
"And what might that be?" Gabriel answered back while glaring back and forth from Alexis to the security cameras.
"… We need walkie talkies for a start, and-"
Gabriel quickly cut Alexis off with a brief motion of his hand, clearly unamused.
"Are you actually telling us to go back outside of this room? To search for something that we might not even find at that? Sure, no phantoms are on the cameras at the moment but isn't it rumoured that they can disappear within shadows? We won't even notice the monster coming towards us! It's clearly not the time for plans that are going to get us all killed. Look around you! Look at the camera footage! There are hundreds of bodies on the ground, and you are telling us to back in that very place while we are safe here, unnoticed?"
Clear anger and disbelief showed on the face of Gabriel. What Alexis was suggesting seemed completely idiotic to carry out. It was obvious to everyone that he had gotten far too ahead of himself after bits of luck at the clearly illegal weapon store.
"We have time no time for your crap, if you want to propose a plan, think of making one that won't get all of us killed!"
It was then that Gabriel realized he was overreacting, as he was grabbing Alexis by the collar almost lifting him in the air. With small anger emitting on his face, Alexis gently hit away Gabriel's hand away from his shirt and continued to say his plan.
"As I was saying, we need to find walkie talkies. It does not matter if they are toy versions or not, they will still work as long as our group stays within the same area."
It was then that Arnaud, who was bandaging himself with the only first aid box found in the security room and the bandages Mathieu had barely collected, spoke up.
"We can't just send people out without knowing where the walkie talkies are located, except if death really is your plan after all? So what do you propose?"
Alexis did not even seem to think before answering and replied at directly:
"Are we not in a security room with about 20 to 25 cameras across the building? We should be able to spot some interesting products on the shelves, no?"
________________________________________________________________________________________
For the next 20 minutes, Alexis, Gabriel, and Arnaud scanned every camera angle as best they could, but without success. That was until Arnaud noticed something on camera 17.
"Hey, isn't that the tip of a walkie talkie of some sort?"
Alexis quickly turned to look where Arnaud was pointing. It did appear to be the end of a walkie talkie. You could see on the camera a black circled tip sticking out, but they had no way to be certain. There was no way to confirm it except by going there themselves.
Alexis then looked at each member of the group in turn. Most of them had suffered some kind of injury in the past hour, but only two would be needed to go out. Arnaud and Gabriel could not risk it, they would likely be slaughtered in seconds because of their heavy injuries. Philippe, Victor and Jacob had taken the most trauma from fighting the phantom compared to anyone else in the group. Mathieu was the least experienced, having barely witnessed the beast itself and not truly understanding how to even face one.
"Didier, you and I are going to go get the devices. Do you agree?"
From the extremely surprised look on Didier's face, Alexis did not even wait for an answer as denial seemed inevitable. But before he could cross the security room door, planning to go alone, Didier spoke up.
"Wait, I am coming with you!"
Didier rushed to his feet as shaking panic could be heard in his voice. His hands and were also shaking as he grabbed his Viking axes. His mind was also undeniably shaking as he forced himself to move towards Alexis out into the bloody chaos beyond the security room door. Alexis glanced sideways at Didier. Even in the dark supermarket, the fear on his face was indeed there.
"Say, Didier?"
"What is it?" Didier answered in surprise.
"Why did you follow me when it's almost certain that phantoms will appear as soon as we go out?"
Didier hesitated a bit, the question clearly slowing his mouvements for a moment. He then looked up at Alexis as if he had his own conclusion to this question.
"If you die out there, I will feel like your death is my fault since I'm the only one here that can really fight at the moment. And in any case, we need experience fighting phantoms. Otherwise, I will never be able to survive nor aid the rest of the group, will I?"
At that answer, Alexis let out a faint smile before beginning to explain where they would go.
"The walkie talkies are in the upper left corner of the supermarket."
"And where are we exactly?"
"..."
Hesitation and unease showed on Alexis's face as he answered in near embarrassment.
"We are in the lower right corner…"
"Isn't that… on the complete other side of the store?" Didier answered in unease at the thought of crossing path with nearly every dead bodies around the store.
"It… sadly is." Alexis answered back in utter disappointment.
As the duo slowly advanced through the blood-soaked supermarket, they could couldn't help but feel disgusted at the sight of bodies and blood scattered across the floor and the shelves. Only then did they fully understood the horror and tragedy of what had happened here. The victims had not simply died in a swoop like the bald guy from the weapon shop, they had suffered tremendously. Many showed clear and very unmistakable signs of having been eaten alive. Intestines and other major organs were exposed beyond what remained of their bodies, scattered across the ground as if a feast had been interrupted.
It was a truly nauseating sight to witness. Above all, the stench of blood filled the air, making the two boys less and less comfortable by the second.
The deeper they moved in the market, the stronger the extreme urge to vomit became. But they needed to force it down, after all, they needed to remind themselves that this was only a single supermarket that can hold about 650 human beings. If this alone was unbearable to witness, what would they face in an entire city drowned in blood and bodies? They could not afford to break over something so small compared with what awaited them in the near future.
Even so, Alexis and Didier could not fully suppress it, they could feel the vomit trying to get out. If they get attacked by a phantom now, they would vomit only because of the jumpscare, not because they were attacked. But of course they couldn't hold it in, they were just a bunch of kids. What they witnessed before their very eyes was beyond anything they had imagined, far worse than "horrible" in human sense. In a weak voice, Didier muttered a comment that, in another world, might have drawn extreme judgment if the apocalypse had never came:
"They kill the kids in an even worse way than adults…by the looks of it."
In front of them stood the severed head of a boy who looked no older than nine, impaled on a jagged piece of wood, displayed like a trophy, like a banner of human remains. It was like a sign of victory on an enemy camp whose only purpose was to scare the hunted. Despite this, they needed to advance as they were only around halfway there.
________________________________________________________________________________________
|Meanwhile in the security room|
"Why are you all focused on the interior cameras? The whole purpose of being here is to watch the outside."
Arnaud and Gabriel turned towards Jacob as if they had just remembered their only responsibility, but the realization faded almost immediately.
"So what? It is not like any of them would come near us, especially since whatever scared the phantom earlier is probably still out there."
"..." Jacob then let out a faint sigh in utter desperation seeing as this pair of lazy bums knew very well that they were safe here.
"Is that not perfectly my point?"
Arnaud only wanted Jacob to stop talking, so he switched the feed from the interior cameras to the exterior ones.
"See? There is nothing at all."
Jacob leaned in, scanning each camera to make sure they weren't cutting corners like they always do at school. His eyes moved from one screen to the next until he froze on a feed. It took him a moment to understand what he was seeing.
"… uh, guys? Is that a phantom?"
Gabriel and Arnaud snapped their laziness to look towards the screen. The camera clearly showed a phantom, moving slowly toward the supermarket.
Since the phantom was not grinning like a madman, it didn't seemed aware of their presence, yet it kept advancing. Jacob bursted out in panic,
"Which side of the building is it on?"
Gabriel glanced at the camera number.
"Number 5... That puts it… on the right side of the store. So Alexis and Didier are moving away from it, and with all the bodies along its path, there is no way it will find them before finding food."
"That is a relief, I suppose?"
Out of the corner of his eye, Jacob caught a flicker of movement on camera nine.
"Wait… what is that?"
Then he saw it, another phantom was approaching.
"There is another one!" Jacob couldn't stop shaking now, the phantoms were coming one after the other.
"Camera nine… it's heading toward Alexis and Didier. Left side."
The situation was quickly turning dangerous. On one side, a phantom close enough to hear any commotion if a fight broke out. On the other, two seventeen year old boys, completely unaware that they were walking straight towards a deadly being.
Victor spoke up, his voice carrying a strained confidence.
"Philippe, Jacob and Mathieu will go help the other two. Arnaud and I will handle the other one."
The others exchanged glances, clearly surprised his words, and Arnaud was the first to respond.
"What exactly are the two of us supposed to do against a phantom? You remember what happened last time. It destroyed you, no it destroyed us completely."
"I know," Victor replied in a somewhat faint anger. "But this time is different. There are two of them. We need to silence at least one as fast as possible. The two of us will hold the one on the right, if we manage to keep it from reaching the other side, then we most likely win. We do not need to win on our side. We only have to buy Alexis and the rest enough time to take one down quickly, five against one, before it turns into seven against two. It may not sound that bad, but it really becomes two separate fights, and in that case, we lose."
The group was quite honestly surprised by Victor's composure. He was calm, too much calm for someone who was most likely walking toward his own death. Before anyone could question him, Arnaud spoke up,
"How am I supposed to fight? I got stabbed last time. I do not see any good outcome in a two against one. It will spot me again, and this time it will not play with us."
"Do not worry I have a plan."
Before Victor explained his plan, Arnaud spoke up again just to make sure Victor hadn't turned crazy already.
"You do know that there is no kind of plan that will save us from this thing, right? It's way faster, stronger and resilient than us. Even worse, it adapts to pain and even my arrows in seconds."
"I can understand your concerns." Victor quickly said." But tell me this, what happened at the weapon shop?"
Arnaud hesitated for a bit before honestly speaking. "It adapted… after like 10 seconds or so. What's your point?"
"That's right ! It took a somewhat long time to adapt ! But, what do you think would have happened if we had all attacked it together while it was down? Would we have killed it? Would we have stoped the adaptation? Maybe it was a trap? In the end, we don't know because we were too scared to try !"
Arnaud understood quickly what he was getting at, when they saw the phantom move again, they just ran away in fear. They didn't even try to kill it while it was down.
"I see your point but what if it doesn't work?"
Victor's answer was quickly handed to him but, maybe a more human-like answer would have been better for his moral.
"What's the point of living in this mess if we fear and run away from things that we can't even kill, I think dying would be better than this bullshit."
"… I see."
"In any case, I have a plan for the two against one and also for killing it obviously. It will not see you. I will make sure of that. All you need to do is stay hidden, fire at the right moment, and reload as quickly as you can. Besides, my fighting style is easier to do in one against one."
"..."
Amid the confusion, Gabriel finally spoke, even though he wouldn't be fighting at all.
"Guys, we should at least hear him out. What he is saying makes sense, and if we do nothing, we are all dead. That includes me too. If seven preys were wandering around the bodies and blood of their own kind carelessly, the phantoms would search every corner of this building until they would inevitably find me."
Victor then asked his last question before they might never see one another again.
"Are you now all ready to go kill a monster."
________________________________________________________________________________________
Alexis and Didier were now very close to their objective point, the walkie talkies. The closer they got, the heavier the tension became. What if they were fake? What if there were no batteries inside, would they need to search the whole market for these too? What if they were not even walkie talkies at all?
These were not questions they could afford to dwell on anymore. Not here, and certainly not now. With phantoms potentially nearby at any moment, doubt had to be pushed aside until they reached their objective.
Without a sound, Didier slowly leaned to talk in Alexis's ear to make the least amount of sound as possible.
"Alexis, I just heard something move behind us... if it's a phantom, it's near, very near."
"Could it be the others?"
The fear in Didier's face answered his question but he still let him answer him.
"I don't know it was just a faint walking sound but I can't hear it anymore."
"Then we need to hurry. We might run into a phantom very soon."
Out of the corner of Didier's eye, he caught sight of several walkie talkies resting against a surface.
"There they are."
The moment they saw them, the conversation from earlier seemed to fade completely from both their minds. As they stepped closer, something felt wrong, very wrong. The devices looked off, they almost seemed fake, like fake toys rather than something actually meant to work.
When they finally stood in front of them, both boys hesitated to know the truth. Their instinct quickly rose to suspicion at the authenticity of the objects.
It took less than five seconds to notice. The moment Alexis held the object in his hand, he understood what it really was. It wasn't a walkie talkie, and it wasn't a toy version either. It was a plushie. None of them were real.
All of a sudden, a low growl echoed from behind them. Slowly, they turned their heads while trembling, silently praying for the worst not to happen. But of course, in the end, it did. A phantom stood behind them, smiling with its malicious grin, with it's claws ready to dissect a new living prey.
________________________________________________________________________________________
|On the other side of the supermarket|
A phantom moved silently through the alleys, searching for prey, something that would at least put up a struggle, not those lifeless corpses, something that moved and felt fear. It had not moved, nor hunted, in a long, long time, the last time it hunted was maybe… ten or eleven years ago? Then, out of nowhere, a scream cut through the silence, drawing its attention away from the empty alleys of blood.
"COME GET A PIECE OF ME YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"
When the phantom turned its head, it saw a singular human. The prey had no big muscles to speak of, yet it was there, ready to play with him. Victor was standing in that direction with a confident glare, ready to play too.
Without saying anything, the phantom had only one thought in mind.
[Ah. There it is. My prey.]
The long boredom had finally paid off, and now it could feel something close to real anticipation, phantoms always talked about it after a long hunt. Something like excitement rose within it as it moved forward the human, the faintest hint of satisfaction shaping into a smile, a bright one .