3-4

3-4

"Here you go. Given the urgency, this is all I can hastily make for you." Steph handed Gregory a quickly made spear-like thing.

Troy and Jefferson created their selves a weapon; also a spear-like weapon, a knife tied on the tip of a narrow stick, as for Jasmine, given the limited time, she just grabbed a butcher knife as an immediate weapon.

"It looks like we're set. Let's go." Gregory exclaimed.

The four of them hiked out from the left or the west wall opening. The plan is simple, walk straight for an hour and then walk back, that way, they, themselves, won't get lost in the process. That was the best option we could come up, with no information to back up anything; no navigation, no location, no map, no nothing. We are as lost and clueless as Kevin and others. We didn't want to take our chances but we also don't want to stay idle.

I only looked at their backs as they disappeared between the trees. I want to go with them too. I want to look for them but my legs just won't let me. It's as frozen as ice; it would be after seeing those faceless personally. I'm scarred for life. Now, I feel so useless than I already am. I just hope they could find a trace of Kevin and others and prove my instinct that it's not worthy to be trusted in the first place. That blood is not theirs. It's not theirs…

I returned to the estate.

Outside of the estate, everyone, except for Nadia, Kristen and Venus, prepared a long table and placed it. Jane, Wesley, James and I are assigned in the weapons department while Johnny, Steph, Claire and Sheila are in the defenses department. Kristen and Venus are preparing our meal for our lunch.

"Daryl!" Jane called me as I slowly approached the weapons department,

"What kind of weapons do we need to create?" Wesley started the brainstorming,

"We need something efficient and durable while also easy to use." Jane added,

"I thought this would be easy but it's quite hard apparently." James scratched his head,

"What do you think we should be making Daryl since you are a gamer after all, you have like an array of weapon ideas?"Wesleyasked me,

"And you also saw the Faceless; you might have any insight on how to handle those 'things'? A flaming sword sounds about right, a trident or Javelin. A scimitar or mace." Jane added,

"I suggest spears… Just spears" I answered while looking afraid and serious at the same time,

"Why's that? Don't you want to make some crazy things like Swords or something?" Jane questioned,

"No… It's not ideal. I would suggest bow and arrow but that is too unlikely and no one knows how to handle that weapon either or even know how to make one. Considering the claws of that faceless, it is more ideal if we can just produce enough medium range weapon like the spear, halberd, pike or lancesince it is easy to use, you just have to thrust it upfront without risking yourself from the reach of their claws. We better just stick with that." I expounded,

"What's a halberd?" James asked curiously,

"It's a combination of a spear and an axe. It is also good since you can both thrust and slash in a safe distance." I answered,

"Ohh…" James grasped,

"Hmmm… You're right. I may not have seen this 'Faceless' but since none of us has any proficiency with any weapon; it would be impractical for us to use weapons that needs mastery." Jane nodded in agreement,

"Isn't a sword is as easy as a spear? Since you only have to swing it in any direction and hope something will hit." Wesley asked,

"Yes, Wes, it is as easy as spears but now that you think about it, how are we going to make one? We are not blacksmiths. Even if we are, there are no anvils and no smelter here. No hammer, no apron… Basically, spears are the only possible thing we can make." Jane rebuked,

"We can make daggers… Haa… By daggers, I mean knife. If you want to use that then good luck dodging the claws of the faceless." I sighed repeatedly,

"Tridents are good too! There are wide mops in the estate, we can use that as base and tie three knives on it." Jane said with confidence,

"And the halberd that Daryl said is also a possibility. Tying both the butcher's knife and a standard knife to the tip of the stick will result to a halberd-esque weapon." Wesley added,

"Okay. Then let's mass produce some spears, halberds and tridents then. It's funny how we call it spears when it is just a knife tied to the tip of a stick but whatever." James said,

"It's a spear, James, whether you like it or not." Wesley said,

"We better start hoarding all the knives, butcher's knives, mops and brooms in the other houses then." Jane said,

"What can we use as a rope? I haven't seen a rope in the estate and the house that we hoarded last time." James asked,

"Yeah, you're right… Hmm…" Jane started thinking,

"We can rip some strips of cloth like a curtain, etc." Wesley answered,

"Yeah. Good thinking." Jane agreed,

"Have you guys ever seen any tools that we can use?" Johnny and company approached our department,

"No." James said while every one of us also raised our shoulders as if saying 'We haven't',

"Don't you guys find that weird?" Steph asked,

"Why would you say that?" Jane questioned,

"We've been talking about building defenses and such then we asked ourselves if we ever stumble upon some equipment or tools that we can use. I know all of us were assigned to a specific house when searching for the flashlight which also covered the entire six houses but none of us ever saw a tool?" Johnny questioned,

"If there are no tools then how is it that everything herelooks so new as if it is just being erected yet we have not found a single construction tool, not even a paint brush." Sheila added,

"The kitchen is full of kitchen ware but even a single screwdriver is non-existent in this place." Claire also added,

"What we're also concern about is the power sources of this house. There are no fuse boxes or any wiring that leads to any electrical source or whether the wirings are even underground. It is as if our electricity comes from nothing…" Steph said while looking worried,

"Just imagine if we lost power and the faceless comes." Johnny said,

Now that it is raised to everyone, we are now starting to feel scared knowing that a scenario like a blackout is also a possibility and we will be left defenseless.

"Our plan is to surround the estate with natural lighting so incase a power shortage does occur. We are still safe in the estate. But without the right materials and tools, we can't consider anything much." Johnny said,

"Let's look for alternatives then and we need it immediately. Since our department already agreed to only making spears then we better prioritize of coming up with an idea for defenses." Jane said,

"How about torches?" James suggested,

"We also thought of that but without gasoline that would just become a concept. The fire that we did was made from dried leaves and sticks and twigs then burned. Unless we surround the estate with bonfire but that is also unlikely." Steph answered,

"We also need wood and trowel to dig a hole on the ground and place the torch in it but without an axe to even cut a single tree, forget about torches. Though, we can use a knife to dig a hole for the torches but it would take quite some time." Johnny added,

"How about we just burn the forest and everything will be done?!" Claire exclaimed, looking frustrated,

"We can't, we still haven't found the three of them yet." Sheila protested,

"Haa… Let's also be practical guys, a night already passed by and most probably Kevin, Carlo and Ryan could already be eaten by the faceless, as much as I don't want to admit but if Gregory and others haven't found a single clue from themthen we will just have to accept the fact that they already gone." Johnny sighed as said,

I became angry then sad, I can't blame Johnny for thinking that, that is also true, as much as we want to admit that nothing has happened to them, it is still a fact that they have been gone for a night and they are lost while the faceless also lurks around.Plus, the faceless I saw was covered in blood makes it more probable.

My breathing became heavy. I don't really want to acknowledge such possibility. All of us felt downcast to what Johnny said.

"haaa… Though that would solve the problem with the faceless but we can't really do it. We are in the middle of the forest, if we burn the forest, we will also be burning ourselves. So we can't do that." Steph sighed and rebutted,

"AHH! I never thought we would be in such a dire situation. We will be food to the faceless for sure." Jane groan,

After seeing a much broader picture, our situation is considered fucked. Everyone looked irritated and frustrated. I am also exhausted with all the thinking and now my mind is as blank as a paper.

I looked to the estate and saw Nadia looking at me from the window with a very serious face. She still has doubts at me that it is pressuring me. I waved and smiled to her forcefullyand immediately ignored her existence. I don't like that kind of stare as if you owe them a million pesos or something, it's aggravating.

She hasn't placed a single foot outside the estate, it's understandable, after seeing those 'faceless' up close, you would be scared to even think about going out. Now that I think about it, me and Nadia we're lucky enough to return to the compound even though we didn't carry any light devices, though before returning to the compound the bonfire was already lit so maybe that's one of the reason why no faceless went near us. But thinking about it like that sends shivers down my spine.

"There's oil right? Let's use that. The other houses seem to have oil in them too so let's hoard all of them and use that, if we can find some alcohol or alcoholic drink then that's also good. We will also use the clothes that we will find in other house and soaked it with oil. Now we are only concerned with the actual wood to wrap the oil soaked cloth." Jane suggested after digging for all information she could think of,

"Now that you have said it, we can also prepare some molotov." Johnny added,

"Yeah!That's a very good idea." Wesley agreed,

"That is a good idea but let's not get ahead of ourselves until we can find alternatives for the actual torch." Jane said,

"What about the stick of the broom?" Claire asked,

"We are using that to make weapons. Unless there are extras then we will naturally make torches out of it." Jane answered

"Let's just destroy some wooded appliances like the bed and make a torch out of that or use the tall lamps as the base so we could minimize from digging holes." Steph suggested,

"That's also a good idea. Let'suse a butcher knife as an alternative since there are no tools around here." Johnny agreed.

We immediately enforced the plan and started going to work, the females are assigned to hoard all the alcohol and oil from other houses and also dig holes while the males are grabbing all the cloth we could find and also destroying wooded beds and ripping clothes. We were immediately becoming busy, Nadia, who was listening from the inside, also helped by throwing clothes from the second floor of the estate and placing tall lamps at the front door for us to use.