49 The 'Hero' Attracts a Crowd

I stand outside the bus and begin to speak, "Alright, everyone, load up in the short bus." I glance at Bryan, "I know some of you probably have more experience riding in buses of this size than others."

Bryan glares at me with obvious hate.

I smile, "Well, hurry up. It'll be sundown soon."

Watching everyone load onto the bus, I tap the hat that sits upon my head and feel the top hats smooth surface. The uncomfortable sunshine beats down onto my skin, but that isn't enough to take away my good mood.

'I had such a nice meal, and I even get to wear my new hat!' my smile grows larger.

I feel someone tap my shoulder, and I turn to find Eden, "Eira, about that, shouldn't we wait till tomorrow morning before leaving?"

I shake my head, "No, it should be fine. It'll take time for the Crawlers to convert people. There was only around a thousand of them, to begin with, not to mention the military is hunting and fighting them. It'll take a bit of time before they spread this far out in any considerable numbers."

Eden nods and climbs onto the bus. I continue to watch and make sure everyone loads up.

Annie stops just before getting on the bus, "Miss Eira, where are we going."

"Miss Eira? Uhm, we're going to the hospital where it's safe."

Annie nods, and I smile awkwardly, 'I don't like being called Miss. I call people Miss or Mister when I'm about to do something bad to them.'

I hop on the bus and motion to Aponi, "Alright, let's go."

Aponi starts the bus and puts it into reverse. She begins to back out of the driveway only to hit a large bump immediately.

"Eh?"

I climb off the bus to find the Staff Captain lying beneath the wheel of the bus.

"Aponi. You ran over the Staff Captain. Pull forward." I say lazily.

Aponi glares at me through the bus door and begins to shout, "What!? You're the one that said, alright, let's go. I assumed that meant everyone was on."

I awkwardly scratch the back of my head, "I forget about him sometimes. Anyways he should be fine. He just passed out from blood loss. I'll just have Terry carry him."

I load up the Staff Captain, and we begin our drive to the Hospital. This is the hospital I found on the phone app earlier before going to sleep. While we drive, I talk to the system about other functions of the Master of Deception and discover a few handy things; I again feel my mood rise.

It isn't much longer after my conversation with the system that we hit traffic. Cars are parked bumper to bumper, and many people seemed to have abandoned their cars altogether. I glance out the window and see helicopters in every which direction flying over the vehicles and surveying the surroundings.

**Wooom**

Suddenly three jets fly over the line of cars and make their way toward the docks. A few moments later, a loud explosion comes from the direction of the 'Moonlight,' and a fireball fills the sky.

"Too little too late." I hear Terry murmur next to me.

Outside the bus, I can hear several people begin to shout.

"Dear God in Heaven!"

"What are we going to do?! It'll be nightfall soon."

"It should be okay, right? I heard the Crawlers are contained in the southern part of the city."

I sigh and begin to speak to the people on the bus, "Come on, we'll have to walk. Just leave the stupid bus."

I toss sunglasses to all the vampires, and I hook Bryan to the soldier he nearly beat to death. I instruct the soldier to watch Bryan closely, which causes the soldier to give me a big grin.

I move my hand to the top hat and tap on the flowers. The top hat shines for a moment, and a second later, a single red flower is left in my hair. According to the system, when the tophat is like this, the only function that is operable is the passive ability, which deceives the <Analyze> skill, and for now, that's all I need.

'This is more practical even though I do find the top hat a bit more fashionable...I think I might have bad taste.'

Coming back to reality, I toss on a hoodie and my mask. We begin to walk between the parked vehicles toward the Hospital casually. People stare at us curiously, and some ask where we are going.

"Hospital," I say indifferently.

"Why are you going there? Why aren't you trying to leave the city?" a woman asks.

While I'm deciding if it's even worth the effort to talk to the woman, Sam begins to speak, "Cities on lockdown, isn't it? No one in or out is what I saw on the news. We are going to set up at the Hospital."

I stand dumbfounded, 'What is this idiot doing?'

A man interrupts, "Hospital? Is that safe?"

Sam ignores the man and continues to face the woman. He thumps his chest and begins to speak with confidence, "Of course it's safe! We're soldiers, uh, ex-soldiers. We know what we're doing."

By this point, a crowd has begun to gather. I move and punch Sam in the gut he bends over and starts wheezing.

Meanwhile, the man seems to realize something, "Hey, wait! I know you, you were the guy that was unconscious on the news. You would have died if that girl hadn't saved your life."

The woman continues, "Wait, you're right. That is that guy. Does that mean, that girl is...?"

"It is her! Look, she's wearing the mask!" a teenage girl shouts.

I glance around at the people, 'This...This is not what I wanted. At least not here in the middle of the highway.'

"Come on, that girl survived on that ship for all that time; she has to know how to make it through this." another man says.

"But why don't we go to the military camp?"

"Ye-yeah, that might be better."

Suddenly someone shouts loudly, "Hey! Everyone listen to this."

The person turns their radio up to its maximum volume, "This is a warning to all civilians who are trying to reach military Camp B. There has been an incident, and an infected individual was inadvertently brought into the camp. It is advised that all civilians en route to Camp B instead find a safe location and barricade themselves for the night and proceed to Camp A or Camp C in the morning. Repeat..."

All the people stand in silence; everyone here was trying to make it to Camp B, it seems.

One person finally breaks the silence, "Is-is that so. Maybe, we should all try to find somewhere we can stay together. Just in case."

Sensing where things might be heading, I begin to drag our group away as quickly as possible, but the conversations continue.

"Maybe, we should try to make it to one of the other camps tonight?" someone else says.

"No, you're stupid! You heard what the radio said. Come on, Helen, we're going with them." one man says and points in our direction.

"Ye-Yeah, let's go with them also, honey." a woman says.

This causes me to pick up the pace further, and I glance back to find dozens of people following us.

'Well, maybe a few dozen won't stick out too much.'

A few minutes later, I glance back once again to find hundreds. Then a few more minutes later, I look back again to see what has to be more than a thousand people following us.

In frustration, I punch Sam a second time, "Look what you've done." I shout.

From behind, people laugh and talk to one another, "Oh my gosh, her voice is adorable. What do you think she looks like under the mask? I bet she's so cute."

This continues the whole way to the Hospital. Arriving at the Hospital, I find lines of police officers, ambulances, and other emergency vehicles parked. I glance up at the large building to find the hospital's name printed in big red letters, "Mary Tudor Medical Center".

Seeing a huge crowd of people approaching the emergency response teams look shocked. A heavy officer steps forward, "What are all you people doing here?! You should all be heading for the camps."

I step behind Eden and motion to Aponi.

Aponi frowns at me, but steps forward, "Going to the camp is impossible. We were told to barricade ourselves somewhere, so we all decided to come here."

The Officer looks confused, "What happened at the camp? Was it Camp B? That's where we sent some of the patients before the roads got too crowded to drive on."

Aponi nods, "Yes, it was Camp B. A Crawler got into the camp apparently."

The Officer gasps, and continues, "Dear God in Heaven, but why come here? There are better places you could have gone."

Aponi looks blindsided for a moment, "Hmm, why here?"

Eden steps forward, "Because there are lots of beds and other supplies here."

"I mean...I guess, but I'm not sure if we have enough for this many people." the Officer says.

"Still, that makes this better than anywhere else, right?" Eden asks.

The Officer frowns and glances at the nearly set sun, "To be honest, girl, I don't know, but it seems all of you are already here. Everyone just comes in quickly. We were just going to barricade a single floor, but that probably won't work anymore."

Everyone breathes a collective sigh of relief, and I make sure our group is among the first to enter the Hospital. I turn and watch as everyone scurries in and quickly starts trying to access their surroundings. I don't watch long and, instead, leave the area with my group to search for our own corner of the Hospital.

"Good thing we found that girl. I don't know how old she is, but she obviously knows what she's doing."

"Girl?" the police officer questions.

"Yeah, the one from the news. The one with the black mask."

"What! Where?!" the officer shout.

"Uh, I don't know I lost track."

Hearing the Officer and man's conversation fading into the background, I speak, "Come on. We're going to set up a little farther down."

Terry looks at me with an unhappy expression, "It's not where I think it is, is it?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. I just need a nice quiet place where I can think.

Terry raises an eyebrow, "Which is?"

I open the door to the stairwell and glance back, "The morgue, obviously."

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

"That's not obvious at all!" Sam yells.