There was really nothing to be done here except duck and hide away from the bullets. There really is a great distance of slope between them. Kai wasn't superhuman enough to run faster than they catch him in fire.
He sighed and sat down behind the rock. He was in a rough situation. Above him the peripheral twilight was growing dim, the sun was soon to be durned dark… red. Closing his eyes he remembered his first night in the apocalypse—that was a gnarly memory and not limited to him. Everyone feared night—even monsters, who didn't know any better, can die in the night in the most gruesome ways. The world is tipped upside down in a way no one imagined. A strange phenomenon happens and—
BANG!
Kai was pulled away from his awful memory before he went deeper and lost himself. His body was shaking and his mind was acting strange.
'Shit. It's starting again. And what is with this firing? are they still firing at me?'
"!!?"
Getting back to his current situation, Kai looked at the sound of bullets resounding, its target's flesh ripping away, blood staining the humid air with the smell of tar and iron. That was a monster they were firing at, what is it doing here?
"Whaaa!!!"
Kai was immediately taken aback. He didn't expect now of all times for this to happen. Then he thought back how there was no other monster nearby when he was approaching this place.
'Curses, when did I become so slow? I would've noticed these things before. And he was right. If Kai's mind wasn't affected by the approaching night, he would've expected this situation.
There are only two reasons for someone walking across half a city to encounter no monster. It's either because he is incredibly lucky, which is rare in his case, or, some strong monster was nearby and the others didn't want to approach.
"Dammit—"
The monster in question was a Bonegritter—a mutated mountain rat that earned its moniker by chomping down monster flesh. It can easily grind down elephant bones that were weighed twice in size. The grotesque monster was approaching the mountain from the other side where Kai was.
The fourth wave of bullets and fire followed towards the monster's flesh, ripping it apart, but it did not slow the monster's movement. From what he could tell, the monster showed no reaction towards pain. The injuries were severe, and she paid it no mind, as if immune to pain. That is a horrifying trait for a monster to have. Only monsters that have a self healing gene have that trait. No matter how slow the approaching monster was, it would eventually reach and bring havoc to the survivor camp.
This was the worst that could happen if the camp had no way of dealing with them.
Kai looked at the firing squad above the mountain and the man that led them. Despite the hardship they were facing, he did not look like he was shaken. His demeanor was that of someone who has this under control. It could be a face he was putting up, or a confidence stemming from his certainty that he can take care of this.
'Either way, this is the only chance I will get to get inside the camp without drawing too much attention.'
Kai took a step towards the camp while they were distracted with the monster. There were few shots fired towards him but he easily dodged them or avoided the line of fire thanks to his incredible eyesight.
As he got closer and closer, while running like his life depended on it, grasping for fresh air, his legs tired and all the fatigue catching up to him, he was hit with a wave of large deafening roar of a monster.
He immediately fell down sideways before it made sense. He was thrown out of the false sense of extreme fatigue. His mind was being played by the peripheral light of sunset.
"Dammit, I need to find shelter in the forest, and fast. Or else I'm toast."
He needed a shadow right now but not like this. Without a shelter to spend the night, he will die.
Looking up to what caused the demonic roar, he saw the bonegritter stopped in its track.
"What? How did they manage to do that?"
What he saw made him question his eyes. The monster was shot in both eyes and was shaking his head, splattering strange goo from the sockets with bleeding eyes.
Kai knew, of course, that the weakness of these kinds of monster was its eye, but they had to be incredibly accurate to hit it, not to mention that monster's senses that help it avoid getting hit in critical places, they were dangerously flexible when it came to things like that. They had to account for how the monster would move for each shot, and precisely target its future movement. The way they did it made Kai certain. This was definitely not the first time they dealt with this monster.
'...Curse my luck.'
In the next minute the squad focused their attention on him.
The beast wasn't actually dead, of course, and they all knew that. Guns were long proven to be primitive against monsters. They are not as effective as awakened powers. But they can still injure them to a degree of paralysis if done right. Whoever the shooter was, they have done a great job.
But that leaves Kai in trouble again.
The beast would probably go back to its nest until it can see again and continue its attack another time. The people in the camp were probably used to one such routine. But they can't do it indefinitely, since bullets like that are precious resources too. But that was the reason Kaib felt unsure of their actions.
Another round of fire was fired in his direction.
They did not forget about him at all. How can they carelessly fire like this? Except for a few, the others were terrible at shooting. He noticed this because he was closer.
But Kai lay still ,and did not dare to move, not because he couldnt–althogh partially true–but because he knew they weren't going to hit him. They were relatively close enough, none hit him.
Maybe it was because they had a better look at him and stopped firing midway, or someone who did, stopped them. A shooter with a keen eye, perhaps–he assumed.
His vision was growing darker with the peripheral light of the sun.
'This is bad…'
He realised he was about to lose consciousness. The night was approaching and he's defenceless.
'Is this it…?'
Before darkness closed his vision, his eyes focused in the distance. He saw a beautiful woman with sharp eyes and dark hair, looking at him from the mountain. Unnatural as it was, he immediately felt safe as soon as she appeared.
***
The peripheral light.
It is a mixed state of time between a night and a day where the light from the sun becomes distorted and becomes harmful to living cells. Anyone who comes in contact with it during the setting and rising of sun, experiences mild to severe side effects depending on the time of exposure.
That is also why Kai was weakened heavily as he scaled that small mountain and the monster like Bonegritter–which regular humans had no business facing–can be fought back with proper countermeasures in place and a skilled shooter who took out its eyes.
The peripheral light–or perpetual twilight–caused the city to be trapped in a strange state during night. The science behind this is yet to be explored but this creates a unique atmosphere of eerie beauty, where the sky is a blend of dark purples and grays, casting long shadows across the desolate landscape. Completely different for the day.
Even the celestial bodies like suns or planets could not escape the horrors of apocalypse, as they too were affected. The sun was dimmer than what humans knew—like during a half eclipse–but also more hot.
Strange environments like this were spread throughout the world, which is why if someone can't find a shadow to hide behind or a shelter to rest during the time of peripheral light, they are considered dead. In rare cases humans can even turn into monsters in such light.
Common sense dictates the man in tatters who approached the mountain was dead, so Harry ordered the men to stop firing. That was the reason Kai wasn't hit when the last round was fired. They presumed him dead but stayed vigilant for any other movement.
"Get back to your posts everyone. And be ready! We'll be taking shifts again. Night is approaching," Harry said.
And they were right to think so, too. Kai did face death in perpetual light before and he did lose… before. But that did not stop him from coming back… from surviving… from finding a way to live again.
As light receded from the day and darkness encroached the world, the man who lay almost dead in the middle of the mountain slope, opened his eyes once more, his will to live burning, yet to be extinguished.
===