A lasting silence was ensured in the place After everything so unreal. Virgil and the rest came back to their senses.
"What in heaven's name!!!" Virgil turned around in shock to see all the mangled creatures lying limply. The spiders had been cut into various pieces and their blood-soaked the grounds below.
The eerie sight brought shivers down Virgil's spine.
Virgil held his face in exhaustion and realized that he was drenched in sweat. What was that thing from before? what did he do to me? God damn nothing makes sense here!!.
"Hey hey hey...what did you guys do here, what happened here?" A tall blurry man and his men came near them. Virgil looked up at him. He was taller than Virgil who was 5'11 and wore a black coat over a white shirt. He glanced around before looking back at the group in front of him.
"I want to know that too..." Zack spat in indignation, his face contorted in fear of the thing before.
" All my men are dead and I don't even know how the culprits died"
" Your joking right?" The blurry man asked. He gave Virgil and others a dangerous look. The man looked like a ferocious tiger ready to leap given an opportunity.
" No Derek, We don't dare!" Zack then hurriedly explained what had happened. About how he had gotten here, met the spider creature, and until they were surrounded by dozens of them. He hesitated a bit before telling about the humanoid creature.
" so...someone comes and single-handedly takes care of dozen of them and you four grown men were too scared to even know what happened... right? " Derek put on an amused expression. " So we got some pampered ladies here mates!! haha.."
One of Derek's men said and all the others of their gang laughed like it was the funniest joke ever told.
Hector and Wayne felt humiliated, Virgil thought they would do something stupid,
" Well, can you kill a bunch of these alone?" He questioned them.
Whatever it was, Virgil didn't like them humiliating them like that for what was truly terrifying. He was sure they would feel and had done the same if they were in their situation.
The man didn't like Virgil's reply " Oh maybe not, but I wouldn't be as scared as you. Now scram, the spoils don't belong to you"
"What!!" Hector asked.
" I'm saying that all the good stuff belongs to us...if you get it then get lost"
"We were the first one here and killed one ourselves!!" Wayne joined.
It looked like the other party was trying to monopolize everything. and Virgil and the rest could do nothing as they were short on numbers against Derek's gang, they had nearly 20 men armed surrounding them.
'Well if we can't negotiate then we don't have any choice but to back off' Virgil thought. The outskirts were merciless, people died for the pettiest things and Virgil didn't want to be one of them.
Before things could escalate Derek held back his man " That's enough, there is plenty and they have the right to take their share"
"But boss, they can be sold for a good price"
" What did I say!!" Derek silenced the man with a sharp stare.
Around this place, there were very dangerous men. unnecessarily cruel, but there were people like Derek too who was good leader and not unreasonable.
With Derek's permission Virgil, Hector, Wayne, and Zack picked up whatever parts of the creature and went their ways. Zack who had lost all his comrades grimly took a few bits and left.
"thank you" Saying that Virgil darted away with his friends in tow. After they reached a considerable distance away from that place.
"What thank you, it was supposed to be ours in the first place!!!" Wayne aggrieved.
"Well at least we are alive, if it was some other gang we would have been straight up killed," Hector said in dismay.
were they lucky to be alive? Yes, they were, that's what Virgil thought. The outskirt was an unfair place, to begin with, this place had no law protecting its inhabitants. Only with might and cunning one could survive in this harsh place. Rarely anyone gave a second thought before killing.
Looking at Hector and Wayne from the back Virgil felt nostalgic. they had been together for four to five years and it was not easy surviving till now. Their once small bodies grew big and strong. Virgil himself was unlike before.
After half an hour's journey, they reached their hideout. It was a small house that was in bad shape but it had all its walls and roof intact so it made a pretty good shelter.
" Wayne bring some logs to burn fire, we are having a barbecue tonight" Hector called.
"uh..yea...Well, I avoided asking till now but this creature is outright suspicious, what if we catch some weird disease!!?"
"Yeah, so you are going to eat first," Hector said as it was a given.
" Fair enough, our safety first" Virgil commented.
" What?! you guys would let me die!!!"
"Damn right!!" Both Virgil and Hector replied at once and laughed it off.
" This is not a laughing issue!!" Wayne was getting flustered.
Seeing his face Virgil couldn't hold himself and laughed out loud to his heart's content. Wayne was like a little brother whom both he and Hector liked to tease, Wayne was a clumsy and hearty guy.
" What much could happen anyway, we don't have a future to look up to...And I don't think anything would happen" Virgil said.
"Why would you think it's safe?"
" instinct" Virgil replied with a blank face.
"....."
....
After setting up fire in the living room of the house, they began to cut out the external hard part of the creature. They mostly took a fat part of the leg as it was easy to carry, it had plenty of meat in it anyway.
The sweet aroma slowly spread once the skewed meat began to get cooked. Grilling them sufficiently they all took the hot meat in their hands ready to eat.
" Wait I will bring the salt, I saved it for times like this" Saying that Hector ran to a room and brought a tiny bottle containing salt.
With the dish ready they digged their teeth deep inside and tore the tender meat, savouring the taste they had not felt for ages.
" Oh gods....this is sooooo gooood.." Wayne started to tear and chew like a man possessed.
"hmmm....it was worth living for" Hector echoed.
Virgil simply ate in silence. His mind replaying sweet memories of his family. he took small bites and enjoyed every bite. Who knew when they could ever taste something like this ever again. In this moment, the three forgot all their troubles and enjoyed their one of the most blissful moments in past five years.