Damned! The World!

Chapter III (Damion and the mysterious man)

An hour ago.

GASP!

The same young man awoke with veins popping in his head. His pale complexion slowly turned tan, along with his senses snapping in his mind. He abruptly rises from lying on a damp surface while breathing heavily.

"Where am I?" The young man's eyes roamed around a forest shrouded in murk, leaving him wondering where he was. All of a sudden, an intense whoosh of breeze coming from nowhere split the murk, enabling the bright full moon above to light up the whole area.

The surroundings then rendered his eyes immobilized; he was horrified. "W—what in the—!".

The area was filled with countless decomposing corpses, whose nasty odor spewed in the air, making his stomach gurgle and dryly puke in discomfort. "GWAHK!"

The young man instantly covered his nose with his left hand to avoid sniffing the nasty odor. "Smells like a rotten f*cking fish!"

[GROUND SHUDDERING]

The ground all of a sudden shuddered, causing him to fall from his buttocks. Something raspy then directly grasps his right foot, causing him to squeal in fright. "GAAAAH!"

And the moment he checked what it was, he instinctively flinched in trepidation when he saw that it was a decomposing, disjointed necrotic hand. "What in the world?"

[CRACKLING AND CLAMPING NOISES]

Later on, from the muddy and wet ground, the decomposing corpses slowly arose, their bones cracking. The corpses did not resemble zombies; they were faceless and made of white clay.

The young man's eye then broadened, while his head and mouth were shuddering. His body paralyzed as fear caused his heart to thump rapidly. His dreadful cries then engulfed the skies when the faceless corpses made out of clay aggressively rushed and dove right into him.

"AHHHH!"

[TICK-TOCK! TICK-TOCK! ]

As the wall clock spun every second, the young man found himself breathing heavily while a cold sweat streamed down his face. His frightening eyes were looking at an empty ceiling while the wooshing air from a wall fan hit his face. It then took him a moment to realize that he was having a nightmare.

"A nightmare?" he thought to himself with an uneasy feeling as his heart was beating rapidly. He then looked around and realized that he had fallen asleep in a classroom. "No way! Why am I here? Did I just fall asleep in the classroom?"

[CLACK! STEP! CLACK!]

A loud clacking of boots echoed from outside the room. It was the silhouette of an individual from the window pane who seemed to be checking the room using its bright flashlight.

The individual outside faced a problem. The closed windows prevented it from seeing the inside. "Why are the windows closed?"

The individual from the outside also heard the wall fan whirring, which made him grumble, "Tssk!  Tsk! How come these students forgot to turn off the fans?".

The young man seems to be surprised, as he somewhat knows who that individual is. As he slowly rises from lying, an unpleasant situation greets him. He accidentally bumped his head into a stool and produced a light commotion that created unpleasant noises. "Oh F*ck! I'm dead!"

"Who's in there?" The individual from the outside shrieked. Obviously, its voice was kind of surprised. It seemed to notice the light commotion inside the room and quickly pointed its flashlight towards the window to inspect. But yes, he totally forgot that the windows were closed, so he decided to enter the room.

[CLICK!]

As the individual entered the room, his appearance caused the young man to give him a fake smile. He then greeted the individual while saluting, "Hello, chief!"

That individual was a man. The man wore a white sleeve paired with dark slacks and dress shoes. His right chest bore a patch with a description that read 'School security'.

That individual was a school security officer.

"What are you doing here?" The school security officer was seriously questioned.

While uncomfortably sitting on the ground, the young man stood up, looking at the school security officer with his puppy eyes.

[BLINK BLINK]

He then answered, "I can explain, hehe," with a pressed smile.

The school security glared at him. "What do you mean you can explain?"

Afterwards, he approached the young man, handed him his right hand, and demanded with his dilating eyes, "Give me your school ID."

The young man scratches his scalp as he gives his school ID. Upon checking his ID, the school security officer then ordered, "Follow me to the security department office!"

===

A few minutes later,.

Security Department Office

Location: front of the university's front gate.

"I am so sorry, sir! Promise, I won't do it again!" The young man apologized in a soft tone while lowering his head in front of the chief of security at the university.

The young man's actions violated a university's rule that restricts students from staying on campus late at night unless they receive or request a letter of approval from the president of the university. One of the school security officers caught him sleeping in room two hundred twenty-one of the engineering building.

"Damion J. Yuson"

"Age? 21"

"O! College of Engineering?"

The university chief of security openly said those words while reaching for something from his wooden drawer. He then stood up with his elegant, well-ironed uniform shining. Later on, he approached the young man he mentioned, 'Damion'.

"This is an amnesty envelope, Damion! Put your letter of apology in here and give it to the Dean for his signatures and to me on Monday, understand?" He firmly said to Damion in his deep and hoarse voice.

Damion was a third-year student studying mechanical engineering at the University of Polo de Oro. Studying engineering held no actual interest for him; his uncle had only encouraged him to go to college.

He lived with his uncle when his grandmother died of lung cancer almost three years ago. Meanwhile, his mother was working as a nurse overseas. About his father, he doesn't have any clue, as his grandmother and his mother avoided discussing it with him.

"What a drag!" Damion muttered while restlessly scratching the back of his head. The chief of security dismissed him after he gave the amnesty envelope to Damion. Damion's dismissal without a heavy punishment was fortunate, as it prevented his uncle from damning him.

Currently, he waits outside the university's gate for a motorized trike known as a 'tricycle'. It is a type of transportation that exists in the Philippines alongside jeepneys, taxis, buses, trains, etc. It isn't as safe as it sounds, but it is a convenient mode of transportation, especially for students and individuals who are saving money.

As time passed, there were no tricycles coming around. Damion then decided to walk to the trike terminal, a certain place where motorized trikes are idling, waiting for passengers.

Down the street gutter, as Damion was briskly walking, a sudden gust of wind occurred, which shortly after gurgled his stomach obnoxiously. It made him feel like something was going to explode down his pants.

"C'mon! In the middle of the night and nowhere?" He was dissatisfied with what was happening at the moment, as his face expressed frustration while running, trying to find a place to dump. Luckily, there was a public toilet close to a convenience shop, two hundred meters from where he was located.

He hurriedly went to that public toilet. And from inside, he swiftly takes off his gray cotton jogging pants. As soon as he enters one of the cubicle toilets, he instantly sits down in the toilet bowl and slowly lets out all his problems in the world.

"O—waah!" It was a serene feeling and the most relaxing for Damion, which made him sigh in relief.

[FARTING NOISES]

However, after a few minutes, that moment snapped inside his head when he heard rustling footsteps alongside a man heavily breathing.

[BLAG!]

A jolt ran through him as his toilet cubicle door suddenly opened, and a badly wounded man with plenty of scars fell on him. The tall, blonde man, who looks foreign, is wearing a dark suit paired with two dark dress shoes.

That man was Finn.

Finn was carrying a strange brown satchel around his waist. If not wounded, Finn can be described as a fine-looking man. Damion immediately lifted Finn, as he was too uncomfortable and, at the same time, too heavy for him. "What the hell, dude? Can you get off of me? You're twice my size!"

Finn was swaying when he stood up, owing to a gunshot wound in his right leg. He then positioned himself while holding on to the cubicle door. Afterward, he gave Damion an intense stare with his fractured, bleeding face.

[HEAVY BREATHING]

Finn was heavily breathing, his face irking in discomfort. After a few moments, he doffed the satchel he was wearing around his waist and tossed it to Damion.

Damion was surprised as he caught the brown satchel from Finn. The brown satchel seemed to be heavy, and he could feel some weird trembling noises in it.

Finn instructed Damion with his stuttering voice, "Please take care of that! And don't let it fall from the Aphe—"

Finn later veered behind his back with full vigilance and didn't finish what he was about to say to Damion. Suddenly, he shut the door strongly.

[BLAG!]

After a few moments...

[BANG! BANG!]

A loud gunshot echoed.