After Jesse and the boy left the city and night fell, they decided to camp in front of one of the trees to rest a little from this tiring day. Jesse gathered some nearby sticks to light a fire. They had nothing but the light of the fire burning in the midst of the pitch-black darkness of night. Jesse looked at the boy as he gazed at the flames with eyes full of admiration and wonder. While lying on the ground looking at the stars, lost in his thoughts, he looked at his broken hand and began to think: "I survived another day... I don't know whether I should be happy for my survival or frown because of my injuries. My feelings are volatile because of everything that happened." He put his hat over his face and decided to rest his mind from thinking and go to sleep.
The boy kept looking at the burning fire without doing anything except he noticed that the fire was gradually getting smaller until it disappeared, leaving only the blackness of the burnt wood. Darkness enveloped the place, and the place was only illuminated by moonlight. The boy lay down inside the car and began looking at the stars. Drowsiness began to overcome him and his eyes closed slowly until he fell asleep.
...In a small city bustling with cars and lights everywhere, little Jesse, 8 years old, was staring at the star-filled sky while waiting for his father to come pick him up. Suddenly and without warning, the city began to disintegrate little by little, buildings corroding, and people transforming into walkers in horrific ways, before Jesse's shocked eyes, only to suddenly gather around him and pounce on him, eating him alive, tearing flesh from bone and organs from their place, and Jesse was conscious of all this. He closed his eyes calmly while a small tear escaped from his eyes.
Jesse began to slowly open his eyes until he woke up. He started rubbing his eyes with sleepy features on his face. He got up from the ground with difficulty and said with a tired face: "Another disturbing dream." He began looking around. He wasn't in the same place where he had slept last time. Shock appeared on his face when he found himself in a square room with metallic walls of dark gray color and some lights above with a door at the end of the room. Tension began to take control of him as he turned left and right. He noticed that the boy was sleeping in a corner of the room, so he went to him and began waking him up. The boy began slowly opening his eyes until he woke up, and Jesse told him to get up quickly. The boy got up with dark circles under his eyes. He began rubbing his eyes and following Jesse. Jesse opened the door located at the end of the room to see that there was another corridor with a door at its end. Jesse felt confused and uncomfortable. He was wondering how they had gotten to this place and feeling that someone was toying with them. He headed toward the door and they opened it slowly, only to be surprised by a room like the one they were in but larger, with 3 other doors besides theirs and with a huge door at its end. Jesse put his hand on his face saying: "I'm not in the mood for these games." Then suddenly he heard the sound of one of the doors opening, which surprised him greatly. He quickly directed his gaze toward it. The door opened slowly for a black-skinned man to emerge wearing a white shirt and light blue pants with one gray eye and another eye covered with bandages and severely curly hair. The other two doors opened slowly for a girl to emerge from the first door with white skin wearing a loose gray shirt with long black pants and red hair extending to her shoulder and two black eyes. And from the second door, a man emerged who was between black and white, wearing a winter hat with completely gray clothes and two black eyes. The black man began looking at those present in the room with looks of wonder and said: "Great, another room and new people." Jesse looked at them with shock and wonder on his face while thinking: "What the hell is happening... I've examined all the areas existing on this earth and found no human other than that boy, where did all these people come from?" But his train of thought was interrupted by an unknown voice saying: "Welcome everyone to my humble room." Everyone looked toward the source of the sound to find that the voice was coming from a strange device hanging on one of the walls. He continued speaking saying: "You must be wondering why I brought you here. You may not like what I'm saying but I'm not interested in your opinion. You are here to measure your competence through several tests to see your efficiency and take those worthy to join our colony, while the losers' fate in all cases will be death." Jesse interrupted him with features of wonder and confusion on his face: "What is the purpose of this test in the first place? And what exactly is happening here?" He replied saying: "Well, as you can see, the world has been going through a huge crisis for twenty years, where cities were destroyed and billions of humans died due to the spread of those strange creatures in the world. And traveling alone to search for food or do anything has become extremely dangerous. Therefore, the goal of this challenge is to find the best people who can live under the conditions of this crisis and gather them under one roof as a group capable of challenging the hardships of this world. They have the ability to expand and eliminate the dangers existing in the world gradually until they restore safety to human life as it was before. And at the same time get rid of the consumers who might get this food either through help or luck and who only waste food on others. Their death is inevitable due to the spread of those beasts everywhere and therefore they are considered as if they are burning food without benefit. To restore safety to life we need to gather strong men to do that, while the weak and useless are considered only worthless consumers, and the goal of this challenge is to distinguish between the two." Suddenly a wall opened in front of each door, and a gun dropped from it for each person. All those present picked up the dropped guns, and the unknown man said: "Let's not talk too much, let's start the test." The black man cursed him. While Jesse took a look at the dropped gun feeling confused. He took a deep breath and said: "There's no other choice anyway." The huge door located at the end of the room began to open, and dozens of walkers came out of it. Four of them headed toward the girl quickly with disfigured faces whose features could not be distinguished. The girl was terrified upon seeing them heading toward her and began shooting randomly under the influence of fear. One of the bullets was about to hit the man with the winter hat, so he shouted at her saying: "Stop shooting, you'll cause us to be killed!" Jesse headed toward the girl and took the gun from her hand and directed his gun toward them and killed them all. He told the girl to calm down and move away from them. Then he called the boy who was in front of one of the doors. The boy headed toward Jesse wondering about the reason for calling him. Jesse gave him the gun and said to him: "Well boy, I know it's not exactly the right time but you need to learn how to use the gun. I won't be able to protect you always, I can't guarantee staying with you forever, and when that happens you'll have to protect yourself. Watch how I use the gun and learn." Jesse directed his gun toward one of the walkers and the boy did the same but he didn't put his finger on the trigger. Jesse looked at the boy and said to him: "You're holding it wrong, you need to put your biggest finger on the trigger so you can press it, in addition to that you need to aim and focus well on your target. Just a simple mistake in aiming will make the bullet miss its target." The boy put his finger on the trigger and aimed at one of the walkers coming toward him and pressed the trigger, so the bullet shot toward the walker's head causing his head to explode and turn into pieces and his body fell to the ground. Jesse put his hand on the boy's shoulder and said to him with a slight smile: "It seems you learn quickly, a headshot on the first try, that's excellent." The boy felt flattered and showed a slight smile on his face. The black man looked at Jesse after killing one of the walkers and said to him: "Thanks for adding another person to help, but hurry up a little and help us exterminate these." Jesse directed his gaze toward the walkers and raised his gun and pressed the trigger. After a period of gunshot sounds spreading everywhere, silence filled the place and the ground was filled with dozens of walker corpses. Jesse and the boy were lying in front of one of the doors sighing from exhaustion, and the same was the case with the other people. The unknown person's voice appeared again saying: "Congratulations, you survived the first test out of two. To be honest... (line cut off)." A hole opened in the wall and several water bottles came out of it. Everyone got a bottle and began drinking. At the same time, Jesse was looking at the huge door while saying to himself: "What awaits us behind that door? More crowds of walkers or maybe something worse? I need to take a rest to be ready for what's going to happen."
After 30 minutes passed, the huge door began to open, and everyone focused their attention on the door and prepared themselves. After the door was completely opened, a huge creature emerged from it, two meters tall, with pale skin and a long neck. It had a large mouth and no eyes. It was thin with two huge arms. Jesse looked at it and expressions of tension and anxiety appeared on his face.
(End)