A Way To Survive

On the highway, a white car sped in the afternoon sun towards the city of Dawn. The driver was a middle-aged man wearing a navy blue jacket; on the back seat was a young man about eighteen years old wearing a black coat, shoulder backpack, and silver hair messed up by the wind from the car window.

"Uri!" The man nervously looked at the eight-lane highway in front of him. "Someone wants to arrest you; they even want to kill you. If you see them, you must run fast, don't let them catch you."

The young man named Uri leaned forward in surprise, looking at the man. "Dad, I'm not breaking the law. Why do they want to arrest me?"

The man said quickly: "Now there is not much time, listen carefully, if someone is chasing you, try to run into the forest, find our wooden house and wait there; I will come to find you, then I'll explain everything."

Suddenly the man's hands trembled, his eyes widened, and he looked straight ahead, panicking:

"Uri, they block the front. Turn off your phone, don't try to contact anyone!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he slammed his foot on the brake pedal, causing the wheel to friction with the road surface, sparking fire. He stared at the black cars blocking the middle of the road, his face pale with terror, shouting:

"Uri, run!"

The situation was too urgent; Uri did not wait for the car to stop. He slammed his foot on the car door and quickly rushed out, running in the opposite direction of the road they just went.

Immediately behind him, cars sped after him, shooting black muzzles from inside the vehicle and straight at Uri.

The highway is now a suffocating chase. A young man with a backpack on his shoulder ran fast at an unimaginable speed. Behind him, about a dozen cars were chasing. The sound of car engines, the sound of people cursing, and the sound of gunshots made other cars on the road hastily drift to the side; no one dared to poke their head out of the car door.

Uri struggled to dodge the bullets but did not dare to slow down. Sweat poured down his back; his extraordinary purple eyes opened wide, and he looked towards the distant forest, which was the place that could help him escape death.

He turned his head to look behind; the car was still chasing, and the bullets continuously ripped the wind towards him. Uri tries to run fast. He can't die. Even if he dies, he must know why these people want to kill him.

With extraordinary efforts, Uri finally managed to run to the forest. He rushed into the woods like he was in the arms of a guardian. The tall, dense trees immediately blocked the cars outside, helping Uri quickly escape their chase.

The angry people cursed, jumped out of the car, carried guns, and dashed into the forest. But within a short period, the figure of the young man in black had disappeared without a trace. They angrily fired bullets into the dense bushes, causing the birds in the forest to panic and scatter.

A man fired a few more shots into the woods, then stopped and shouted:

"Return! We couldn't even catch him on the way. Now that he's run into the woods, we can't catch him anymore."

"Fuck, that guy runs too fast." Another spat on the ground, angrily scolding: "If he were human, he wouldn't be able to escape us."

"If he's human, we don't need to hunt him down." Another man carried a gun towards the car. "Get in the car; we still have many ways to force him to surrender."

They got into the car and quickly drove out of the woods.

...

When the cars race to chase Uri away, only the sound of the engine and gunfire echoes; on the highway, there is still a black car parked across the road; standing in front of the vehicle is a man in a vest, on his lapel is a red leaf badge. His face has many scars that look extremely ugly.

The white car stopped, and a middle-aged man in a blue coat got out; he stood still and looked at the scarred man.

"Hi Clement Miller, long time no see." The scar-faced man crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Long time no see, Richard." Clement clasped his hands behind his back, greeting him unfriendly. "After all these years, you are still loyal to the organization."

"I am not like you. You ran away from the organization and now dare to raise that kid. Do you know what crime you committed?" The scarred man named Richard growled.

Clement smiled and replied, "What crime? He is a son born to my wife and me. Is it a crime for me to raise him?"

"A son born to you and your wife? Ha ha..." Richard laughed. "Your son dodges bullets, and cars can't catch up. He's your son?"

Clement stared at Richard, growling, "He's my son. He's my son anyway; you're not allowed to touch him."

"Don't touch him?" Richard scoffed. "You have no right to say that, Clement; I'll catch him sooner or later."

"I ask you to stop this arrest immediately. My son needs to live a normal life." Clement shouted angrily.

Richard laughed again and looked at Clement as if he were looking at a foreign object.

"Clement, you used to be a member of the Red Leaves organization; you are not unfamiliar with the organization's mission. How can you even say such an unreasonable request?"

Clement gritted his teeth and clenched his fists; he wanted to punch Richard in the face. But he dared not act or say another word. Because, what is the mission of the Red Leaf, Clement knows all too well, and the person he wants to protect is their hunting target.

Richard approached and patted Clement on the shoulder. "Wait, I swear I'll catch him."

...

Escaped from the pursuers, Uri ran deep into the dense forest. It was starting to get dark, and the temperature dropped. His sweaty clothes made him shiver; his legs were tired from running as hard as he could, and his face and hands were bloody from the scratch of a tree. At this point, he felt his health was exhausted, so he decided to jump on a big tree to rest for the night.

In the backpack were new clothes and some food; Uri took off his sweaty shirt, changed into a new one, and then sat with his back against a tree, taking out food to eat to fight hunger.

The forest fell into darkness. In the dark of night, Uri hears the occasional sound of insects and owls of prey, which are bizarre sounds for someone who is only used to living in a city like him. Uri took a sip of water and lay down on a branch, looking up at the dense foliage.

He let out a long sigh as he thought about his current situation. Just yesterday, he lived happily with his parents and sister, but now he hides alone in the forest to avoid his pursuers.

Clement's probing words rang in his ears again; he had to find the wooden house, he wanted to see Clement again, he wanted to hear an explanation.

The night passed, but Uri couldn't sleep. He misses his family, a cozy meal, and a bedroom with a soft bed. He wanted everything to end so that he could return, still had to go to university and had a lot of unfinished projects.

The morning sun shining down on the forest and birds chirping woke Uri up. Although he only slept a little in the early morning, his health had completely recovered.

He stretched and sat up dreamily, looking around. It took him a while to realize where he was and what had happened. Sighing, he splashes water on his face to wake up, then takes out a packet of cookies from his backpack and eats it. The dry crackers were nothing like the delicious hot breakfast Mrs. Jane had, which his mother made for him and his sister every morning.

After eating, Uri jumped off the tree branch and started moving forward. He had to find the wooden house he and Clement had built three years ago to shelter from the harsh summer sun. The wooden house is very close to a small stream, surrounded by a fence of climbing roses, and inside there is a small courtyard.

In this dense forest, Uri could not locate him. The fastest way to know the location was to open the phone to locate, but if he did, he would indeed be discovered by the other people and continue to chase. So now that he wanted to find the wooden house, he only had to search for that small stream.

Uri walked quickly; he stepped on the grass, still wet with night dew, deep into the forest. During the day, the sound of birds chirping on the trees makes the forest more lively and joyful than at night.

Wandering until noon, when the sun shone vertically down the treetops, Uri still had not found the small stream. He tiredly sat down on a tree stump, took out water and food from his backpack, and leaned back against the tree to eat and rest.

When Uri felt that his health had recovered, he stood up and continued to search for the spring. Suddenly, a figure appeared in the distance, making him jump in fear. He thought he had escaped the pursuers but did not expect him to hide in the forest; they still found him.

He immediately turned around; his arms hurriedly turned the forest trees, and he ran as fast as possible. He knew that with his speed, those people wouldn't be able to catch up unless they deliberately set a trap.

But all of a sudden, that person did not lag. Even if Uri used all his speed to run, that person still followed him, and they were only a few trees apart.

Uri was surprised; this was the first time someone had caught up with him. Running for a long time in the forest, Uri was so tired that he was out of breath; his heart was pounding, but the strange man was still clinging right behind. If he kept running, Uri couldn't escape the man either, so he finally decided to stop, ready to face the pursuer.

"Who are you? Why are you chasing me?" Uri hunched over, panting, and looked at the strange man with angry eyes.

"I'm someone like you." The man stopped too; he was standing behind a tree, and his deep black eyes did not reflect the light. "Don't worry. I won't hurt you!"

Uri did not understand what the man said. "Like me?"

"Don't you see how much we have in common?" The man gave a friendly smile.

"I don't feel we are the same. If you want to arrest me, there's no need to say that." Uri wiped the sweat from his forehead, looking at the man with sarcastic eyes.

"So you were discovered and killed by them?" The man took a step forward.

Uri stepped back, shouting: "Don't come here. Why do you want to kill me?"

The man immediately stopped to look at Uri, lowering his voice very low:

"Boy, calm down. I'm not harming you; I'm not the one who chased you."

"Don't lie to me. I don't believe you." Uri retreated deeper into the bushes behind, "Let me go! I want to go home."

"Boys." The man stood still and looked at Uri. "I understand your situation; you have no idea why you were chased and killed. Please listen to me. I have the same running speed as you; I can see in the dark, my skin will burn when the sun shines on it, and my eyes will turn red when angry. Do you understand what I am saying? You and I are alike!"

Uri looked at him in surprise; what he said were the diseases he had suffered since birth. "I don't understand what you mean. You and I are not the same, and the doctor diagnosed me with an illness; I will recover after treatment."

The man laughed loudly. "The person who adopted you was so good; even the doctor lied to you."

"No one cheated on me," Uri shouted angrily, his eyes gradually red.

The man ignored Uri's anger and continued to ask, "Have you ever found out about your illness?"

"I researched and asked the doctor, but this is a rare disease, so there is not much information," Uri replied honestly.

"So you and I have the same running speed, many times faster than humans. How do you explain it?" The man asked.

Uri thought for a moment; he still didn't understand what this strange man wanted to say. "It could be random."

The man laughed again. "Random? If you want, I'll show you there are more people like you and me."

"What do you want to say?" Uri was highly annoyed. He felt this strange man was like a predator playing with his small prey.

"Okay, then I'll tell you, you and I are not human, so that I won't harm you; I will help you." He held out his hand in front of him. "My name is Egan."

Uri was surprised. He glared at him, and his words were paranoid. "Not humans? Do you think I'm a three-year-old child?"

"I did not deceive you. You also know you're not like a normal person, don't lie to yourself." He brought his hand closer. "Let's get to know each other!"

Uri did not dare to shake his hand; he stood still in place, and his heart seemed to stop beating. He was right; from a young age, he knew he was not like the people in his family and the people around him. So if he's not human, then what is he? After a while, he regained his composure and stammered:

"My name is Uri... Uri Miller."

"Oh, a human surname, you were raised by humans, no wonder you don't know who you are, and you don't know the danger humans bring to us." The man pulled his hand back, shoving it in his pocket. "Come with me. I will take you to meet people like us."

Uri did not want to go with this strange man. After the chase, he did not dare to trust anyone.

"I don't want to go with you!"

The man named Egan wasn't angry; he was sympathetic. "I know you don't believe me, but if I wanted to catch you, you wouldn't be able to escape. Humans might have difficulty catching you, but I don't."

Uri silently looked at Egan because what Egan said was true.

Feeling the confusion in Uri's eyes, Egan smiled gently and said:

"Believe me; it is hazardous for you to continue wandering in the forest alone. The Red Leaves have found you and won't let you go."

Surprised Uri, the people chasing him are the same organization that Egan said.

"Those people belong to the Red Leaves? But why do they want to kill me?"

"There's a lot you don't know. If you want to know, follow me, I won't hurt you." Egan said, then turned and walked away, quickly disappearing behind the thick bushes.

Uri didn't want to go with Egan, but the truth was that he would be in danger if he roamed the forest alone. Furthermore, he needed to know what the Red Leaf organization was and why they wanted to kill him. So Uri immediately ran after Egan.

Egan took Uri very deep into the forest until a waterfall fell from the top of the mountain to stop.

"Our abode is behind this waterfall; join me in it."

Uri looked at the tall waterfall with white foam, not knowing what was behind it. Egan pointed to a ledge in the middle of the waterfall.

"You see that ledge over there? There is a cave door. You should be like me."

He jumped straight into the waterfall and disappeared behind it. The height from the ground to the ledge was very high. Uri had never tried to jump that high, so he was a bit scared. But Egan can do it; indeed, he can too.

He took the momentum to plunge into the waterfall exactly where Egan had just jumped. The water poured down and soaked his clothes when he crossed the waterfall. Fortunately, he landed on the wet ground in the mountain cave behind the waterfall.

The cave is vast; inside, there is only darkness and the sound of Egan's footsteps. Uri could see everything clearly in the dark and quickly followed Egan into the cave. Cold drops of water fell from the sharp stalactites on the dome, making the stone floor extraordinarily wet and cold.

Going through a few turns, Uri saw a relatively wide, dry space outside. In the corner of the cave was a fire, surrounded by many people, from which the smell of firewood and meat soup came out.

"Egan, who did you bring back?" A woman with a thin body stood up and stared at Uri.

"He was chased and killed by them, I accidentally met him wandering in the forest, so I brought him here." Egan walked over to the fire and took a breath. "Why don't you cook rabbit soup with potatoes?"

"The potatoes are gone. No one dares to go out during the day." The woman answered and walked over and took Uri's hand. "Poor, you are too young. Sit down here!"

The woman's friendliness helped Uri feel more secure. He sat down on a rock and looked around. Many old mattresses were on the cave floor, and clothes were hanging on the cliffs. The musty smell made him find it difficult to breathe. There were no lights here except for the fiery red stove cooking food.

Egan brought two bowls of hot soup, sat down next to Uri, and gave him one.

Uri took the bowl of soup, shoveling a spoonful into his mouth. The smell of rabbit soup was very similar to what Jane cooked; he missed her and his family.

"Why were you discovered and chased by them?" The woman brought her soup bowl and sat beside Uri on a rock.

"Humans raised him. They lie and hide so much that he doesn't know who he is." Egan said and ate the soup deliciously.

"Unfortunately, if they didn't find out, you would have lived a free life like a human." The woman said.

Uri asked Egan and the woman. "Can you explain why you live here, and why do you say I am not human?"

"We were all discovered and killed by the Red Leaves. We escaped and found this secret cave." Mr. Egan replied. "Do you know anything about vampires?"

"Yes, I have read a lot about vampires." Uri shoveled a spoonful of soup into his mouth, wanting to eat this delicious hot food more than the dry packets of biscuits in his backpack.

"So, what did you read?" Egan asked.

Uri recalls what he already knows about vampires. He began to list the characteristics of vampires. "Vampires have tremendous power, sucking human blood to live; anyone who gets sucked in blood will die or turn into a vampire. The sun burns their skin, and they often go out at night to hunt their prey, very afraid of the church, will die when the wooden stake pierces the heart."

Egan finished the bowl of soup, smiled, and said: "Everything you know is untrue. Humans deliberately spread like this so that the next generation will misunderstand us."

"Misunderstanding about us?" Uri looked at Egan in surprise.

"You're like me; we're both vampires," Egan replied calmly; he stared at the changes in Uri's face.

Uri was scared and dropped the bowl of soup on the ground. "What do you say? Am I a vampire? I don't believe it! I have parents and a younger sister; we live very happily. No one says I'm a vampire."

"Then why were you being chased by the Red Leaves? Why do you have night vision? Why do you run faster than humans? Please explain." Egan said.

"But I never sucked human blood. I don't know what the Red Leaf organization is, so how can I explain why they chased and killed me?" Uri is irritable.

The woman brought Uri another bowl of soup and gently sat beside him.

"The Red Leaf Organization is an organization that specializes in killing people like us. Everything you know about vampires is wrong. We don't have power, we don't suck blood, we don't kill, and no one turns into a vampire if bitten; we can go to church like humanity. But because of a grudge that has lasted for thousands of years, they still seek to kill us."

Uri took the new bowl of soup and ate some more. Although the information about the Red Leaf organization he could accept, the fact that they said he was a vampire, he didn't want to believe it.

"I don't know those things, and I'm not a vampire; I'm just sick. My dad made an appointment to pick me up. I'll ask him about it."

Egan was about to speak, but the woman stopped him. "Give him more time; this is very difficult for him to accept."

"Where did you meet your father, and when will he come to pick you up?" Egan changed the topic of conversation.

"Our family has a wooden house near a stream. I've been looking all morning but can't find it." Uri replied and finished the bowl of soup.

"There is such a house on the other side of the forest." Suddenly, a brown-haired young man sitting by the fire stood up and approached Uri. "If you want, I will guide you there."

"That's great, thank you!" Uri grabbed his outstretched hand. "I'm Uri."

"I'm Finn." The young man sat down on a rock near Uri. "Calm down. I didn't dare to believe that I wasn't human before. Now that the Red Leaves have discovered you, your father won't dare to hide everything from you anymore; ask him. I think you will believe him."

"I'll ask him." Uri handed the finished soup to the woman, bent down to collect the soup he had spilled earlier, and looked at Finn. "How long have you been here?"

"I have been here for over thirty years, but someone has had to hide here for a hundred years." Finn pointed at Egan. "He's been here for over eighty years, so I know this place because he's always looking for people who are being chased and killed."

Uri looked at Egan in surprise, and his appearance was only in his forties; how could he be here for more than eighty years? And the young man named Finn, he guessed only a few years older than himself, claimed to have been here for more than thirty years. Maybe they were lying to him.

"You think I trust you?"

"I know you don't believe me." Finn shrugged. "But you can rest assured when you believe; we will welcome you and not abandon you. You see us as young because vampires have a lifespan of over five hundred years."

Uri was silent. He didn't want to hear myths from these strangers. But there was one thing he was pretty curious about.

"Where do you guys buy food here?"

Finn laughed. "We rarely go to human settlements. When night falls, we hunt wild animals. This forest is under our watch; if there is any movement from the Red Leaves organization, we will know."

The rest of them finished their soup and went to stand around Uri. They all held no hostility towards him; they just looked at him with pitying eyes. A man with silver hair said.

"Be careful when you go out; if you get caught by them, they'll kill you."

"I will guide him to that wooden house, everyone rest assured." Finn looked at Uri and added, "Whenever you want to go, I'll take you."

"I want to go now." Uri stood up. "I want to see my dad. If I don't go there, he'll have to wait for me."

Finn also got up and went to the mouth of the mountain cave. "Let's go!"

Uri thanks Egan and the cave dwellers and runs after Finn, jumping out of the waterfall. It was already dark outside, but the darkness did not stop their footsteps.

"When night falls, the area is quite safe." Finn walked very fast, his feet stepping on the low bushes. "A few decades ago, life was easier. Now people have developed technology, so we live more difficult; I'm afraid that we will not be able to survive in a few decades."

The words of the group of cave dwellers shook his faith. But the person he trusted the most was Clement. If Clement said he was a vampire, he would believe it.