"No, no, no, no," Joy panicked and fell to the ground. "This is all my fault. If you hadn't come back for me—"
Keneric looked pale too, but he didn't lose his cool. He knew what waited ahead.
"Stop it, you crybaby," he interrupted Joy before her fresh tears spilled over once again. "We don't have time for this. We need to move. And we need to move quickly."
"But the bite—"
"We have no idea what it means yet," Keneric cut in.
"On your leg—"
"There's danger outside. Getting out of here is the main priority right now." He eyed her seriously.
Joy wiped her eyes and forced herself to stand. "Okay," she said. "Then let me help you this time."
Keneric could still walk fine, but Joy insisted and slipped under his arm to support his weight as they limped outside of the parking lot. Keneric had already seen the outside—twice actually—once when he came out of the gymnasium and then again when he left Joy to find something to bridge the gap between the cars.
But for Joy, this was her first time seeing the deformed world beyond the four walls.
It was night too.
First she looked up at the sky. There were no stars. A thick mossy mist shrouded everything, even tinting the moon green. Then she noticed the long grass, bald zones, and the wetlands in all their uncanny glory as they moved forward.
The route Keneric picked had clearly been walked before—probably by him earlier.
One more thing stood out. They were walking on long straw grass, probably to avoid sinking into the swampy areas. Even if the water wasn't deep, it could easily slow them down.
But her thoughts were cut off when Keneric suddenly winced.
"How bad is it?" Joy whispered.
They were crouched low, trying to blend in with the grass. She didn't know why, but she trusted that Keneric wouldn't do something so unnecessary unless it was important. So she followed his lead.
"It burns," Keneric said. "But I can handle it, so don't worry."
But Joy was worried. She looked down and saw the greenish wound spreading across his leg, tracing his veins. It wasn't too fast, but at this rate, it could cover his whole body in a day or two max.
She bit her lip and said nothing.
Suddenly, Keneric knelt. She thought it was the wound again and was about to ask if he could still walk, but he instantly covered her mouth with his free hand and gestured for silence.
Joy nodded and followed his gaze.
She saw nothing—only darkness.
But after focusing, she heard it: footsteps. Not normal ones. Heavy steps. Something massive was walking. And the sound of wood creaking echoed with each colossal step.
Instantly, she remembered the wooden giant she saw in the building. A chill passed through her spine.
There were more of those…??
Keneric started moving again—slower now, and more careful. The campus was huge, and after the earthquake, the land seemed even more spread out. Walking while crouching didn't help either, so it took them a long time to reach the IT building.
What used to be a short walk now felt like a trek.
But that wasn't what caught Joy's attention.
It was the source of the earlier footsteps.
A golem stood to the right of the IT building, moving away toward another golem far in the distance.
Keneric and Joy couldn't see the others, but there were at least six more in the vicinity—each one or more stories tall—walking or standing aimlessly.
When the closest golem moved far enough, Joy finally whispered, "What do we do now?"
"We go into the IT building and stay for the night. Moving in this darkness—especially with the moon this dim—is way too dangerous."
Joy nodded. She instinctively looked toward Keneric's wound but couldn't see how far it had spread—there was no emergency light here like in the parking lot. And lime colored clouds now covered the sky.
They slipped into the half-crumbled IT building through a hole in the wall—probably formed from a kick by that wandering golem.
The moment they stepped inside, a terrible crash echoed behind them—from the direction they came—from the parking lot.
The ground shuddered.
Joy's heart jumped.
She was suddenly very thankful Keneric had insisted they leave that place as quickly as possible.
"Looks like that giant sucker didn't die. I expected it." Keneric smiled as he said it, and Joy didn't like that expression at all. She nudged him to move deeper inside, to leave the open space behind for good.
Unbeknownst to them, the crash worked in their favor. All six or now seven golems in the vicinity turned toward the sound and started moving in that direction.
Meanwhile, Keneric and Joy walked deeper into the building and found an isolated room that felt safe enough to stop and sit down.
It was the janitor's closet.
Joy helped Keneric sit in one corner, then pulled out her phone and turned on the flashlight to check his wound. She was a medical student. Even if she was practicing to be a dentist, every medical freshman got basic emergency training.
Good thing there were no windows because a light in this dark would definitely attract a golem or two.
The spotlight revealed a horrifying sight—Keneric's lower leg veins had all turned green, as if injected with some kind of venomous toxin.
And it was getting worse.
Joy stood up resolutely.
"I'll be back soon," she said—and disappeared out the door before Keneric could question her.