Thinking seriously about what he should do, Jhonatan continued to protect old James.
Denise, who was behind Jhon, trembled from head to toe, barely able to remain standing, having difficulty even thinking about what was happening.
"Jhonatan, please, don't let James die!" the old woman shouted sincere words in an awkward way.
Jhonatan, who was already in a moral dilemma about whether to let the old man die or not, found himself even more cornered by Denise's words.
Not that Jhonatan was evil, quite the opposite; Jhonatan was extremely grateful to the two elderly people. If possible, he would prefer to leave there with both of them safe and sound.
But unfortunately, the circumstances were different. Brenner's men continued shooting, with no sign of stopping even for a few seconds.
While one group of four people fired nonstop at the barrier that Jhonatan was forming, the other group of five took position when the other four needed to reload their weapons.
Making any attempt by Jhonatan to find an opening impossible.
"Little Ten, give up already. My patience is short. If you don't give up now, on the way back I will certainly have a lot of fun with you." With a sinister look, Connie spoke these words, making Jhon's back freeze.
"I'm sorry, sir, ma'am..." Right after those words, Jhon removed the protective barrier from in front of the old man.
Dozens of high-speed bullets pierced the old man's legs and stomach.
Even though the bullets did not hit vital points, the amount of bullets that struck the old man was enough to bring down an elephant. The old man collapsed completely from the pain while slowly dying, bleeding.
"James!!!" A heartbreaking scream came from behind Jhonatan.
Upon seeing her husband dead on the ground, the old woman's mind went completely blank. It was as if, for her, life had also come to an end.
Between the old man's death and the woman's thoughts, mere seconds passed.
Jhonatan, now no longer needing to protect the old man, was already fully concentrating his telekinesis into a great telekinetic wave.
Seeing Number Ten focusing his hand forward, Connie panicked.
"Quick, shoot with everything at hi—"
Before she could even finish her sentence, the powerful wave finally arrived. Its power was so strong that the ground where it passed tore up chunks of earth.
All the people were struck by the great wave and, without exception, all of them were thrown at least ten meters away.
Connie, who was near the van, violently collided against it.
Without wasting time, Jhon approached the men, who were now slowly struggling to stand up, and one by one he broke their necks with difficulty using his telekinesis.
Lastly, he finally saw Connie, completely motionless and unconscious.
Jhonatan was furious with that woman. The first people who had treated him like family in this world had suffered because of her.
He slowly raised his hand. His vision was blurred and his nose bled like a waterfall. He applied the rest of his mental strength to Connie's neck, causing the woman, who was waking up, to begin struggling.
Before he could strangle Connie to death, or break her neck, the sound of a gunshot came from behind him.
With divine reflexes, Jhonatan instantly created a barrier behind himself.
His telekinesis was already weak at that point and, by a hair's breadth, he managed to deflect the bullet coming toward him, only tearing a part of his arm.
'Who is still alive?' he shouted in his own mind.
Turning slowly, he saw Denise, the old woman, holding a gun used by Brenner's men.
"Why, why are you shooting at me!?" Jhonatan, frightened by the woman's action, shouted in a questioning tone.
A look of hatred and disgust shone in the old woman's eyes, who cried over the loss of her husband.
"We fed you, we clothed you, and we even let you sleep in our son's bed... But who would have thought we were raising a little monster under our roof, who at the first opportunity let my husband die!"
"You aberration! With just the raise of a hand you can kill people. No wonder so many people came after a monster like you and, because of you, we got involved in this!"
The old woman, who was no longer thinking straight due to an uncontrollable fury, finished her harsh words and began shooting wildly at Jhonatan.
Many of the bullets missed Jhonatan's body, but since many shots were fired in quick succession, several of them came dangerously close to hitting him.
Even so, all of them ended up being deflected by Jhonatan's telekinesis. However, his mental strength was no longer as powerful as before.
Because of that, many of the bullets managed to partially pass through the telekinetic barrier he created, barely passing and tearing into his body.
His body was now stained with blood, with many bullet wounds forming.
While being violently shot at, Jhonatan ran, ran as fast as he could.
Running with all his strength, he constantly received shots from the old woman, but all of them were deflected or missed the target, until the moment he disappeared into the farm's cornfield.
The old woman, seeing the little monster disappear into the cornfield, mentally condemned herself for not being able to kill that aberration of nature.
Since she was already old, chasing after Jhonatan was impossible, so she turned her gaze to the second culprit of that situation, who was still alive, Connie.
'Damned woman, today I will kill you so that my husband can rest in heaven.' the old woman thought.
She raised the gun she held with both hands and pulled the trigger. Contrary to what she thought would happen, no bullet came out of the gun, because it was unloaded.
Without wasting time, the old woman hurried to grab another gun from the ground, but because she was too slow she received a bullet directly to the head.
The person who fired could be none other than Connie, who had now awakened shortly after Jhonatan strangled her.
"Damned old woman, thinking about killing a government agent!? But I can't complain too much, after all you saved my life." Connie slowly stood up from the ground, passing her hand over her neck, which now had a huge purple mark around it.
"Failure, mission failed... Who would have thought little Ten would already be this strong, or maybe he was always this strong? It doesn't matter now." Connie, who was speaking to herself, walked to the car and slowly opened it.
Entering the car, she grabbed a small walkie-talkie and said: "Zero One reporting the mission situation. The mission was a complete failure. All our men were killed, with two civilian casualties. The experiment was stronger than expected. He managed to escape, but he is badly wounded. Send a search team."
"Headquarters listening. Full report received. We will immediately send an evidence cleanup team, a medical team, and an investigative team." The man on the other side of the walkie-talkie said.
While Connie passed along information, Jhonatan, who had just exited the other side of the cornfield, had a completely dark expression.
His body was full of wounds, blood flowing from everywhere, but Jhonatan did not dare to stop running.
In Jhonatan's mind, the old woman's words kept hammering inside his head.
'A monster... I am a monster... I let the ones who sheltered me die...'
Tears welled up in his eyes, but they were quickly wiped away by his hands.
"No, I tried my best to protect them, but... did I really try? If I had refused to go to the city, wouldn't I have avoided this? No... if I had simply refused the old couple's help, this would never have happened!"
The tears that fell from Jhonatan's eyes suddenly stopped. In his thoughts, he could only think: 'I must never form bonds with people in this world again, not before being capable of at least protecting myself.'
Right after leaving the cornfield, Jhonatan found the two crows that were waiting for him.
The two crows were hidden, because they had been frightened by the gunshots and, until Jhonatan appeared again, they had stayed hidden.
The crow that Jhonatan had previously held in his palm flew in front of him and said: 'boy, what about my corn, can I have it now?'
The sound of the crow's voice came directly into Jhonatan's mind. Automatic voice transmission was one of the first abilities developed by Jhonatan.
'Crow, I cannot fulfill my part of the agreement now, because my life is in danger. But I promise that if you help me from now on, you will never lack food.'
Hearing Jhonatan's words, the crow, seeming to think about the pros and cons, shook its head.
'Fine, but if you cannot feed me, I will abandon you at the first opportunity.' said the crow.
"Very well, let's leave this place then. Call your companion and, together with her, guide me and warn me if there is any danger on the way through the forest."
After Jhonatan said that, the crow in front of him flew to his companion and passed along Jhonatan's orders. They then flew over Jhonatan's head while he entered the forest.
Still thinking about what he had done earlier, Jhonatan was in a war against his own mind, blaming himself for the old man's death, but also consoling himself, because if he had not let him die, not only the old man would have died, but the woman as well.
But Jhonatan did not know that even the old woman, at that point, had already died at Connie's hands.
With his mind in the clouds, Jhon walked with his last strength through the forest. From inside his pocket, two small snakes finally poked their heads out.
"That's right, you are there. I almost forgot." Jhonatan turned his gaze to the two small snakes.
"Come here."
Stretching his hand toward the two small snakes, they coiled around each of his hands, remaining calmly there, not finding the situation they were in strange.
For six hours, Jhonatan walked deeper into the forest. As the hours passed, night fell.
Since he was already tired, he stopped near a nearby cave and asked one of the two snakes to check if there was danger inside. After the snake's inspection, nothing wrong was found inside, so Jhonatan entered.
After entering, the two crows also came in with him. Jhonatan asked the two crows to sleep outside and, if they noticed any strange movement outside, to quickly enter the cave to warn him.
The two crows did not complain and quickly went outside. Seeing a huge tree nearby, the two went to it and settled in the tree.
Jhonatan, who was now sitting on the hard ground of the cave, closed his eyes trying to sleep. His deeper wounds were now covered with pieces of cloth torn from his shirt.
Fortunately, Jhonatan had trained his endurance and body a lot during the time he spent with the old couple and was not physically so weak.
With the snakes coiled around his wrist, his tired body quickly fell asleep.
A day of disasters had finally passed like that.
While Jhonatan slept, in the Hawkins laboratory a disaster slowly unfolded.
Little Eleven was now lying on her bed inside her room.
After Ten disappeared, she once again became lonely, without any companion or friend. She asked herself daily why Ten had been taken away.
With Number Ten's escape, Brenner justified his disappearance as a relocation to another place, so as not to give ideas to the other young people in the facility.
As the night passed, she fell asleep thinking about Ten.
The next day, she was once again called for the morning snack and the daily exercises that always happened in the facility.
But today a different person came to her. Someone who had never interacted with her approached as if he had been her friend for a long time. That person was none other than Number One.
"Hello, Number Eleven... How have you been since Ten was taken away?" With a friendly smile, One approached Eleven, who was eating breakfast.
At the mention of Ten, Eleven frowned and a dark shadow spread across her face.
Noticing Eleven's discomfort, One quickly put his plan into action.
"Come closer, I will tell you something that will make you happy." One leaned closer to Eleven's face while speaking.
Eleven seemed curious about One's words and instinctively leaned closer with her ear near his mouth.
Whispering into Eleven's ear, One said: "What if I told you that I can help you see Ten again, would you believe me?"
Eleven pulled her head back, seeming surprised by One's words, but she instantly looked suspicious.
She was young, but she was not stupid. How could she see someone who had been taken from the facility? She was clearly suspicious, and One noticed that.
He quickly hurried to explain in a low voice: "What if I told you that Ten's disappearance was not because he was taken away, but because he escaped, would you believe it?"
A small smile remained on One's face, but unlike him, Eleven's expression was strange. She did not seem to believe his words.
"How can you prove that he really escaped? And if he escaped, why didn't he take me with him?" she asked sadly and, at the same time, even more suspicious.
"Do you really think our father would take Number Ten to another facility without any kind of explanation? When has he ever done that with any of us?"
"Besides, it is easy to explain why Number Ten didn't take you with him. He was afraid that you might get hurt going with him. Also, I myself saw Number Ten escape. He barely managed to escape alone." Between half-truths and half-lies, One told the story to Eleven.
Eleven, who was only a child, who before was suspicious, now seemed to believe half of the things One said.
"If that is true, why would you help me? What would you gain by helping me escape and find Ten?" Eleven whispered back to One.
"Simple. It may not seem like it, but I am also like you and all the others in the facility. The difference is that I already tried to escape once and they caught me, and then they placed a chip to contain my powers, so that I would not try to escape again."
Pointing to his own neck, One showed a small scar where a chip had been implanted to limit his powers.
"And since I saw that you miss Number Ten, I thought that you might also be interested in escaping this place with me. What do you think about escaping with me?" he asked while looking seriously at Eleven.
Eleven seemed to hesitate for a moment, but then a look of determination appeared on her small face, and One knew that his plan was halfway to succeeding.