Thanks to his map and compass, Ryan made good progress towards the nearest city. He wasn't the best at orientation, but that didn't hinder him this time, fortunately. He had a plan in mind. He knew the city and its surroundings have quite a few fortified buildings, where fellow survivors could reside. He was surely longing for some company, he never was the "lone wolf" type. And anyways, two's chances of survival are higher than one's.
As he was walking down the road, he suddenly heard shooting from the nearby forest, but it quickly passed. His curiousity was once again bigger than his fear, so he decided to check out what happened. At the presumed place of the shooting he found three dead bodies - none of them human, fortunately.

[i]Hmm...there was definitely someone here, if not more! It's actually pretty hard to take down a mutant like that, but three! Impressive."[/i] he thought. He quickly looked through the area, but much to his dismay, he only found some garbage lying around. However, the seeds of hope were already planted in him. Someone has to be nearby...Someone who's a good fighter.

His thinking was cut short by an unmistakable growl.
[i]"Oh god, what did I get myself into..."[/i] he murmured to himself. He drew his katana and slowly started walking in small circles, so his enemy couldn't surprise him from behind. The growl became louder and louder each second...And finally, the monster showed itself and immediately jumped on Ryan. Despite his precautions, it caught the boy by surprise and he had to quickly tumble away to avoid takedown. As he stood up, he assessed what he is up against. A terrible mutant, bearing two heads and three legs, which is probably why it was able to jump on him so quickly. In addition, two smaller and seemingly more fragile imps followed the big one. Maybe it used to be a father once? No time to think. Ryan got into his fighting position, quickly putting his earphones in his ears, turning up his [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_Z7yAK3VBA]battle music[/url] and with a ferocious battle cry, finally charging at the monster.