The Red Nights

Arrived in her room Natasha pulled Carla to her bed while Dana was following them timidly. The girls were sitting in front of Natasha waiting for her to start talking.

However, the latter didn't engage the discussion right away, she left the bed and walked toward her closet, she opened it and reached a glass box then walked toward her mini-fridge which was in one of the corners of the room she grabbed a bottle of fruit juice and returned to the bed. She put the box in the middle leaned to pick a plastic bag in a compartment of her bedside table, she placed on the plastic the bottle of juice so that the bed would not get wet and opened the glass box which was filled with cookies and other biscuits while making a sign to the girls to help themselves.

She noticed that they were a little hesitant after she took a glance at the food and the drink she hopped out of the bed as if she just remembered something. " I forgot to bring glasses " she exclaimed, " give me five minutes ". Carla grabbed her hand before she could go and pulled her back to the bed " relax it's okay, we can drink directly to the bottle I don't mind, we rarely used glasses or goblets back in the battleground " she told her. They stared at the young as if to ask her what did she think and she shook anxiously her hands in the air to say that it wasn't a problem for her too.

" Alright, then can you tell us about what happened there? Like who did you fight against or how did you win against them " Nat' asked very enthusiastically.

" You're more interested in Jamal's prowess, aren't you? " Carla replied teasingly, she laughed uncontrollably after seeing Natasha's cute reaction, " sorry I couldn't hold myself, it's just adorable how obviously you love him ".

" Please don't say such things, it is already enough irritating when it's Lina who teases me there is no need for you to join her " Natasha complained while throwing a pillow on her face.

Carla caught it in the air before it hit her and said: " I need to find a way to avenge myself since you almost got me killed with that pie of Lina ".

" You're still holding that grudge, can't you forget that already " she replied after throwing another pillow.

" I will forget when my belly will stop hurting, " Carla said before throwing back the both pillows at Natasha's face.

" Tell me the story and I promise to massage your belly " she tried to negotiate.

Carla suddenly looked at her suspiciously, " when you say 'massage' you don't mean that kind of massage Lina would surely refer to, right? "

" Hein? I mean normal massage, what kind of person do you think I am? " Natasha replied while a little offended.

" I'm sorry, but I know you since only a few hours and the repeated dirty jokes of Lina make me feel doubtful " Carla justified herself.

Natasha turned to Dana and said, " you have been living with me for almost an entire week, so please tell her that I'm not that kind of person ".

The girl was nibbling a cookie silently when Natasha talked to her, she nodded and looked at Carla " she says the truth, she is a kind but it's just Lina who loves teasing people especially Natasha ".

" You see? "

" Alright alright, I believe you " Carla admitted, she picked a biscuit and ate it quickly before she said " okay, so let me tell you what happened ", then she started telling her about her adventures since he met with Jamal until then.

While Natasha was listening to her attentively Dana fell asleep on her l.a.p after eating a dozen of biscuits and drinking the half of the juice. Natasha noticed that when Carla finished telling her about how they won the war in the last city against a woman who could somehow manipulate people. She told to wait for her to carry Dana and put her to bed in the room next to hers.

She came back a few minutes later and jumped on the bed. She recalled that Matteo had seen a vision where Jamal and his group have been attacked by a group of undead but didn't know more and she realized that it was the occasion to get more details. " If I have followed you well you have finished your global mission quite in advance and left to head here early, so why did it take you so long to arrive? " she asked as she couldn't directly talk about Matteo's visions.

" I'm sure you already have an idea, but it okay I will tell you," she said then she paused and sighed, " we have been attacked by some of those living corpses " as expected, Natasha was not really surprised by her revelation, so she started giving her more details.

" Volga and Jamal were rolling ahead of the group so they were the first ones to notice the threat. Immediately he told us to stay in the cars and to not panic but we could see that he particularly was worried, I have to admit that it was the first time I saw him make such face, usually, he always seems to have a control over the situation. He managed to repel the first ones by slashing one until he couldn't no more move even though it was still alive... or dead... you got my point anyway, and the second one by putting a grenade in its mouth and making it explode its head. Of course, I got down from my car to give him some help- "

" You look so like me in that part " Natasha quickly commented.

" - but the situation rapidly turned out into worse. More of them were coming in our direction and no matter how times we would shoot at them they wouldn't fall. I'm ashamed to admit it, but even I started to feel scared, they were like immortals even the one whose head exploded got up on its feet to walk towards us. Despite the efforts of Jamal to try to reassure everyone, they couldn't help but tremble and crying out their fear. They were still some brave people like Volga, Nelson, Sania, Pam and even that Andre guy who could stand to continue shooting at the undead, despite the general panic.

" As I incapable of completely calm myself Jamal grabbed my shoulders and forced me to look at him in the eyes, he told me this << I was expecting you to be our hope of getting out of this situation but obviously, you are too scared to do anything so don't get in my way, return in your car where you may feel a minimum of security and you can even shoot at them and to try to convince yourself that you are not completely useless >>, it may sound rude at the first sight but it's the way Nelson used to talk to us when he wanted to motivate us just like in the Army.

" The thing is that Jamal, at that moment, how to speak to me so that I could feel more courageous and it worthed. Suddenly, I felt like my blood was boiling, my adrenaline was extremely high. I don't know how to explain what happened after, it was like my body was on mode automatic, I turned my back to the group of undead while my hair started to grow, to straighten and to become hard ".

Carla repeated the process to show her as an example, Natasha leaned forward to have a better look at her hair she couldn't hold herself to touch and Carla didn't stop her, she grabbed one hair as thick as a stick and when she tried to bend it she found out that it was as hard as still.

" Does it hurt? " she inquired while pulling slightly on it.

" Not that much " she shrugged and replied. She waited for Nat' to take back her place in front of her to continue narrating the story.

" I don't remember how but I shot my spiky hair on the undead like arrows and but only some of them fell as it was not very accurate, but the essential point was that the hard hair of mine could actually kill them. So, I picked two, one hair in each hand and intended to jump on the group of the rest of them but one thing that I didn't pay attention back then but I can't stop thinking about it now is that when I glanced at Jamal to inquire about his reaction and to be sure that he was not what I about, he staring at me with a smile proud as if... as if- "

" As if he was expecting you to do the exact thing you have done and was at the same time proud that you did it " as she had difficulty to find her words, Natasha completed for her.

" How do you know? "

" Because I suppose he had the same smile as I used for the first time my power to make appear my sword of fire," Natasha said, she was smiling while remembering that moment.

" How does he do that? Do think like he has some kind of special ability which allows him to see in the future? " Carla asked her eyes full of expectations.

Natasha shook her head, " no he just has a sharp sense for that kind of stuff ".

" Well, anyway with my hair as weapons in my hands I ran towards the undead and started thrusting them in their hearts while Jamal was stopping those I missed to get too close to the cars and hurt my colleagues. It took me one hour, I think, to kill them all ".

" But you had still enough time to come help me since you said you were near the city " Natasha pointed.

" Yes, you're right but even though we managed to overcome that danger without losing a single life people were not so confident to go on our way. It was exactly as Jamal had said, those people just come from a long battle, they have lived many traumatic events and they had the hope that they would leave all those horrible souvenirs behind them while coming here in Stainfall but on their way, just near the city they thought they would finally get the tranquillity they have been seeking for such a long time they got attacked by monsters almost immortal who seemed to come straight from their nightmares, they all thought that they would die there. Put yourself in their shoes, at that exact moment if someone came to tell you that let's go or tell you to accompany him to go slay those monsters, what would you respond, honestly? "

Natasha couldn't reply she just bowed silently her head.

" You see? As you may have guessed those people were still scared while feeling completely lost as they couldn't know where else to go, for them it was like there was no place safe. It was chaotic to a point that there was even a group of people who wanted to return to their desert and lifeless hometown. It took Jamal the rest of the day to convince them that the best solution for them to ever feel safe was to follow him to Stainfall, he told that obviously there is no way for them to obtain freedom and security without fighting and he promised them that it was actually their real last battle, to not worry about a thing since they won't be the ones to fight them directly and finally he promised to never ever put them in danger neither he would let anyone endangering them. I have to acknowledge that the hardest part was to convince them to fight during nighttime. But hopefully, he managed to achieve it.

" He explained to us the plan, how we should be quick to place ourselves in our respective positions and how we should make of use the projectors to frighten and immobilize the undead while giving us the time for you and I to finish the job. I remember that he pulled me aside to tell me that they would rely on me more since you would have been probably extremely exhausted. Then we got in our cars again and we roll as fast as we could to arrive in the zone of combat, Jamal was guiding through the ways and the alleys with his sharp ears telling us that he could hear the noises of the fight and the rest of the story you know already " Carla finished.

" I see. That was some crazy shit adventure " she commented before she left the bed to go disposing of the empty box and bottle then she returned back to lay down on the bed. Carla imitated her and lay down next to her.

" Thank you for the story. Have a nice sleep because the training of tomorrow will be hell " Natasha muttered before she gradually fell asleep.

" Good night " Carla responded while slowly closing her eyes at her turn.