If they had been attacked there should have been some blood at least , as Zac had little confidence in the four being able to fend off that beast and flee . The axe in his possession had been the only real tool that could be used as a weapon in the camp , apart from some small kitchen knives . And even with that , he had only survived with great luck and some quick thinking . His improved physique had helped immensely , but that alone would not have been enough against that monstrosity . That beast had been both faster and stronger than a bear , and unless the three had gotten the same type of strengthening as him they would just be food rather than an adversary for it .
He surreptitiously glanced around as he neared the camper . The car stood empty , and no sound came out of the camper either .
Guys , are you there? Hannah? - he croaked in a subdued voice , still scared a scream would attract more monsters .
But silence was the only thing that met his question .
Chapter 4 - Alone , v . 2
Zac had an ominous feeling and prepared to look around in the vicinity for tracks or signs of where his friends had gone . However , a dizzy spell reminded him of the most pressing issue . Almost falling , he went to the car and brought out the small green box with the first aid kit from the trunk .
He then limped to the camper whose door was standing ajar and hesitantly went in . The interior was completely empty as well , with no signs of either friend or foe . Scared that the smell of blood would attract more monsters he firmly closed the camper’s door . Luckily it was one of the few spots which hadn’t been dented by the demonling’s rampage . Zac finally slouched down on the sofa , not caring that the blood would stain the fabric .
He put the box on the small dining table and opened it , and first grabbed the small bottle of surgical spirit . By this time his face was drenched in sweat from the pain and his hands were already shaking . Putting all the things he needed next to him , he started to prepare for his treatment .
Slowly and gingerly he took off shirt and pants . Luckily the blood was still wet and hadn’t had time to coagulate and stick to his wounds . Still , the pain was a hundred times worse than ripping off a Band-Aid as he removed the clothing .
The claws of the beast had raked a long gash on his waist , and three additional but slightly smaller on his left thigh . There was finally the last wound on right calf . While the wounds looked ghastly , it actually did not seem as bad as he feared . The cuts seemed clean and straight , and the bleeding had somehow almost stopped by now , turning into a slow trickle . He could only hope that it meant that he was getting better , and not that he was running out of blood .
Knowing what came next he almost whimpered when grabbing a water bottle and a gauze swab . He carefully poured the water over the wound at his waist to clean out the blood and dirt , and the agony almost made him pass out . Gritting his teeth and blinking away the tears falling from his eyes , he then grabbed the alcoholic solution and poured some in the wound as well . The wound didn’t look inflamed , but he didn’t dare skip this part , even though it felt like he was being ripped in two from the alcohol .
His face was like a beet by now , sweat pouring down and veins throbbing out on his forehead . Finally , he took some surgical tape and taped the wound together , and then wrapped some bandages a few rounds around his waist .
The first part down , Zac just sat panting for a while . He closed his eyes and a wave of exhaustion hit him like a truck , almost making him pass out then and there . However , there were still wounds to treat so he roused himself again with some difficulty .
Zac did the same procedures on his legs , and by the time he was done his face had gone from red to a ghastly white . His hands were shaking so bad that he could barely grip the water bottle when he downed the last of its contents in a few big gulps . He was so weak he barely managed to make it to the back of the bed in the back , and as soon as he hit the pillow he passed out even though the suns still stood high in the sky .
It was still shining brightly through the window when Zac woke up . Was there no longer any night now that there was an additional sun up in the sky? He stretched a bit and found out that while far from healed , he did feel much better than he did before . His bandages were red with blood but not wet , so the bleeding seemed to have stopped . He also didn’t feel that intense pulsing agony anymore , and it was replaced by a lesser throbbing pain .
He still had problems keeping weight on his left leg through , and almost fell when moving toward the fridge . The second thing he noticed when waking up , beside his wounds improving , was a fiendish hunger as if he hadn’t eaten for weeks .
He ambled to the fridge and found out it didn't work anymore , and some food was already starting to spoil . The monster had probably broken something while creating the various dents in the mobile home . He picked up a few sausages they prepared yesterday before they ran out of firewood , and a couple of slices of bread . Then Zac finally relaxed with a bottle of water after he virtually had inhaled the food like a starving ghost .
The others still hadn’t returned . Zac was afraid they either were dead or had fled without looking back . Both scenarios were grim and the possibility of the second left a sour taste in his mouth . He took out his phone from his pocket , but it was mangled and bloodied beyond redemption , likely from one of his tumbles .
Luckily they had prepared an emergency phone in the camper in case something went wrong , and he opened a cupboard and took it out . The phone was in working order but it got no reception . This was weird as they had a decent signal yesterday . Even if they were camping and enjoying the wildness they wouldn’t stop at a spot with no reception , as no one was ready to go a whole day without surfing on their smartphones .
He also noticed from the time that three whole days , not one , had passed since the world went mad . He truly had blacked out hard after tending his wounds . The date only further reduced the chances of his travel mates and Hannah coming back . At least it also probably meant that the monsters kept to their territories and didn’t wander around as much as he feared . He wasn’t sure he would be able to handle another of those demon dogs at the moment , even with knowing their weaknesses from the last fight .
With food settled and not having any pressing issues he started to take account of what had happened , and what to do from here . The absurdity of the situation finally hit him and Zac spaced out with glazed eyes , unsure of how to proceed from here .
A distant roar brought him back to reality . This was no time to slack off , he was by no means safe at the moment . He was in the middle of the forest surrounded by crazy monsters , and that glowing pillar still shone in the distance , reminding him that more monsters might come .
Perhaps the pillar was a portal to hell or something similar , and demons could keep flooding through from their infernal plane . Or was this an alien invasion? The monsters could be something like Zergs in a popular computer game he played back in the day .
Then he finally remembered the weird robotic voice he heard earlier , and the confusing things it said before it started its crooked gambling scheme that almost cost him his life .
Welcome to the multi-verse . . . - he mumbled . If the TV-shows and comic books he had devoured throughout the years were any indicators , a Multi-verse was a connection between multiple planets , galaxies and even dimensions .
If the voice was to be believed , Earth had been introduced to some larger system , and due to this , there were suddenly demons roaming the forests . But that didn’t mean that only demons were around . What about other monsters or races? Would he suddenly meet elves jumping around in the trees , shooting arrows at him with pinpoint accuracy?