1 Grief

I awoke to intense physical pain - my body felt unable to move. It seems I'm somehow pinned tightly in place. 

Although the situation is unclear, I feel no discomfort about being unable to move. For some reason, I understood that this is how it should be. 

The shaking continues intermittently, but it settles as I rest. Though it was pitch dark before, now it's slightly brighter.

Looking around, I see motionless, shapeless things all around, soaked in a viscous fluid. 

Though I don't know what they are, I think they might have been the same as me.

"Big brother..." 

A voice calls out from another direction.

Turning towards the voice, I see another figure covered in fluid.

"Big brother...it hurts. My whole body hurts..."

Big brother - 

Hearing the pained voice, I remembered. I'm the big brother of the voice's owner. We're brothers bound by blood.

So those silent, formless things I saw earlier must have been our brothers.

"I'm coming over there now!"

But my body is fixed in place, unable to move. I can't get to the other side, despite being close.

"Damn it! Damn!" 

I panic, not understanding the situation. Someone...

"Am I gonna die?"

"It's alright, your big brother will save you. So keep it together!"

I call out to my little brother, who seems close to death. I keep calling to him.

"Thank you, big brother—"

Just as my brother said that, a violent shaking assaulted us.

When the shaking subsided, everything around went silent. My brother said nothing more. I couldn't even hear him breathing.

His lower half was gone.

"Ha, haha... What is this?! What the hell?!"

I couldn't think straight.

I lost consciousness.

=====

"Ah, total annihilation, huh?" 

Recalling what just happened, the young man sighed.

The thing in front of him was shapeless with its contents scattered.

I had a bad feeling back then, he thought with a shake of his head, and started checking the remains just in case.

"Oh?"

Could this be...? Hard to see covered in fluid, but he found one undamaged object.

"Good for you, surviving through that."

The young man picked up the sole survivor in his hand and gazed at it fondly.

In his other hand, the happily smiling young man gripped a pitiful looking "egg pack."