I Am The Heir Of The Kingdom

3. Animal's Dont Die

David spent his time in a five-star hotel room. David's skills improved when he tried to turn on a small lamp he now uses to sleep.

In the middle of the night, David woke up when he heard something weird on the outside. David was on the third floor, the top floor he could reach by climbing the stairs. 

The sound was very close.

David blinked his eyes. Peering through the window at the horrible darkness outside. He still couldn't believe he was the only human alive during this destruction.

The noises were coming from two lions fighting over a human corpse.

"Animals don't die." David was half incredulous.

A bat came through the window. It flew around the room and occasionally attacked David.

"Stop it!" David took cover behind a cabinet. The bat continued to chase him.

David grabbed a painting on the wall and threw the bat like a professional tennis player.

"Wow, why wasn't I this good when I played tennis at school?" David remembered when he was bullied by the tennis champs at school for not being able to hit with good motion.

David went back to the window and saw wild animals roaming in the middle of the street.

"Why don't the monsters kill animals?"

David rested again and woke when the sun shone through the dew on his window. David prepared to live his days without humans.

There was so much food that David could take from the hotel kitchen. David took as much as he could fit on his plate, food that wasn't rotten and covered in flies. 

"What about people from other parts of the world? Did they die too?" David had so many questions in his head that he wanted to know the answers.

David headed to his car to return to the house where he lived with Eugene and Iris. As far as his journey, all he saw were destroyed buildings and human corpses, with none of them still alive.

Luckily, he didn't see any lions or tigers roaming in the streets.

David saw that his house had been flattened to the ground. There was no Iris, no Eugene. David only had them in his life.

Next month, David was supposed to start his mission to find his real parents at the orphanage where he lived, but the orphanage was located on the mainland, and he needed more money to go by plane or boat.

Now, David's chances of going to the mainland were impossible. No pilot or captain will take him because none of them are left in this world.

David continued his journey. He enjoyed this freedom. But David felt it would be better if the world went as normal as usual.

Until the sunset came again, all David did was walk around the city, looking for still-alive humans. He was almost hopeless.

"I am sure I'm not the only one who took hideaway in that storm and didn't die," David grumbled.

David turned his car toward an apartment building with dozens of wrecked cars on its doorstep. The black shadow in the middle of the road shook David's body in shock.

David looked back, thinking that the monster had returned to roam the city in search of the remaining humans, but it turned out that the black shadow came from an elephant that was walking on the road.

David breathed a sigh of relief. He pulled the car over to avoid being stepped on by the elephant's giant feet.

As David watched the elephant walk straight down the road, two beautifully antlered deer ran ahead of the elephant.

"Why are they scared?" David thought a lion was hunting and the deer were running away from the lion.

David's curiosity got the better of him. He thought the deer were being hunted by living humans. David felt he needed to check it out.

David walked towards the corner. There was a large forest behind the building in front of him. The bushes there were swaying even though there was no wind.

David approached the bush carefully. He grabbed the broken metal of the street lamp that he would use to defend himself.

"Hello!" David exclaimed with his heart racing.

He hoped the figure behind the bush was human.

"Show yourself!"

A white tiger leaped from behind the bush. It landed on David's chest. Its sharp nails dug into his skin. David screamed in panic. The iron he wanted to use to defend himself had fallen somewhere.

The thought of being the last man standing disappeared in David's brain. This hungry tiger would eat him.

The tiger's saliva dripped down David's face. Its mouth roars, revealing sharp teeth ready to crush David's head.

Bang!

There was a gunshot. David was in shock. He didn't realize whether he was alive or dead.

The tiger leaped away into the jungle with a wounded leg.

David's breathing sounded so strong. His heart seemed to have been ripped out. His face was pale.

David looked back, searching for the person who had just shot the tiger, which meant there were still people alive in this world.

There was movement from behind the wall of the building. David observed it so as not to be mistaken. A girl carrying a bag and a bird hunting rifle in her hand.

David tried to get up while holding his chest, which was injured by the tiger's claws. He approached the wall, but the girl was already gone.

"Hey, are you still alive?" David shouted at the building.

The muzzle of a rifle was aimed right at David's chest from behind the car. The brown-haired girl stared warily. David raised his hand with a ragged breath.

"It's good to see another human alive," David said with a satisfied smile.

David couldn't stand the wound, and he fell to the ground.

"Stop, Jess!" an adult male voice shouted from behind the building wall when the brown-haired girl wanted to help David.

"Don't trust him!" the bald man pointed his gun at David's helpless body.

"Dad, he's hurt. His blood will run out if we don't help him."

"Leave him alone. He's probably a bad person."

David shook his head helplessly. "It turns out that there are still many people living in this world."

"Of course, you think you're the only one who can survive?"

Jess put down her gun and squatted down to look at the scratch wound on David's chest. "Oh no, he needs someone to take care of him."

"This is just your excuse because he's quite handsome, isn't he, Jess?" asked Jess's father with a cynical expression.

"No, Dad. I'm serious." Jess led David to get up.

"Thank you," David said. "For calling me quite hot."

Jess gave him a flat look.

They walked in the middle of the night and came from nowhere. The sun had perfectly set. The streets looked like hospital hallways at midnight.

"You can use my car to... uh, it's not my car," David was about to offer his help, but Jess's father interrupted him first.

"Driving a car brings a lot of attention. Wild animals will eat us alive."

"I'm David, who are you?"

"I'm Jess, and he's my father, Albert."

"How did you survive?" David looked at Albert, who was busy watching the dark rides in the distance.

"We didn't mean to survive. We were outside during the storm, watching people die one by one," Albert said.

"Did you see the monster?" David gave a curious look.

"No, all we saw was a black, shapeless shadow," Jess said.

"How did you survive?" Jess asked back.

"I hid in the garage."

"Only special people survived," Jess explained to her father.

David gave her a curious look. "What do you mean special people?"

"Monsters kill anyone, even those who hide in the safest places. We never hide, but monsters don't kill us," Jess explained.

David couldn't believe his ears. That meant he was one of those special people. But what made him a special person?

They stopped at an old, intact building with only small cracks in the walls. David was surprised he hadn't glanced at this building even though he had passed this place many times.

Jess knocked on the door many times. There was someone in there whom she called Kourtney.

"Kourtney!" exclaimed Albert as he kicked the door a few times.

Moments later, a sharp-nosed female figure emerged from behind the door. Her sharp eyes glanced at David.

"He's hurt and needs help," Jess explained before Kourtney could ask more questions.

"We don't bring strangers into our group," Kourtney explained.

David peeked through the crack of the open door. There were two people busy fixing the electricity in there.

"I can fix that light," David said.

"Yeah? The power grid is completely down because of the storm. What are you going to fix it with?"

David hobbled into the room. The wound was very sore.

David was surprised that the person fixing the power line was Franky, the muscular man who went out with Eugene to fight the monsters.

Franky was a special person. That's why he survived, but why didn't David find Eugene in this place when he looked around?

"Where is Eugene?" asked David.

"I don't know. We split up. He served on the left flank of the city with the army."

David gave a disappointed look. "Did he survive?"

"I don't know."

David took a deep breath. Stared at his blood-soaked palms. He closed his eyes to concentrate.

The lights flickered. People stare in panic.

A second later, all the lights and electrical machines in the apartment came on. David fell to the floor unconscious.