Lights in

"With the risk of being called a nerd, we could hook up the Tv with a console, so not a total waste." I fold my arms as I look at the big plasma Tv that was stashed on one of the long shelves that run the distance of the whole warehouse.

Thankfully, we found that said warehouse in the corner of the estate was untouched, no corpses or signs of break-in. Well, up until now that is, since we did break the lock to get it.

"You, just said it! You neeerd! Gaah! Why is this stupid thing so, heavy?!" Saya, who was trying to swing a sledgehammer we found inside the warehouse retorts, making an almost comical half spin as the sledge's momentum won over Saya's ability to stay balanced.

"Could we not also use it to see if we get any new emergency broadcasts?" Saeko then asks.

"Hah, you think the government will care to do that any time soon? They are probably still too busy picking their pieces off the ground. Especially considering that it will probably be the army that calls the shots now. Since the politicians will hide behind them for safety. Like how they all run to the airport the moment it was deemed safe. That's why Papa desided to work with them" Saya groans as she uses the sledgehammer as a crutch to lean on.

"We could also see if we could set up some cameras and link them to it." I add as I nod.

"The estate already has cameras." Saeko answers back.

"Really? Didn't see any." I arch an eyebrow as I turn toward Saeko.

"What would be the point of having them if they would be easily spotted? If somebody came all this here way to break in, visible cameras would not make much of a deterrent." She responds as she shrugs.

"True, but where is the camera room?" I ask back as I tilt my head.

"Hmm? We did not have one, my father had the cameras on his personal computer, he usually used a cable that he hooked to the machine that he used to connect to the internet." Saeko answers as she folds her arms.

"Internet? A rooter? So you got Ip cameras here? Hope they still work then. They should be rather easy to link em to our laptop if they are not fried. I also think I spotted the rooter in the room we slept in, next to the desk we dragged out." I turn to look around the warehouse as I spoke.

"Yes, that was the one." Saeko nods back at me.

"Well, we searched for corpses here. And the place was thankfully empty. So, the dojo left. Since we also scoured the estate's open area and found nothing. Nothing 'alive' anyway. This should be the last stop." I take a deep breath as I motion behind me with my head, towards the open warehouse gate, then turn around to walk.

"Let's get this over with. I want to see if fatso managed to figure out how the generator works or if I'll have to do everything myself." Saya groans slightly as she also starts to walk.

"Fatso huh? Sometimes I forget how mean you can be, what with how cuddly you've been with me lately." I chuckle as I keep walking.

"W, what stupid nonsense are you spouting?!" Saya quickly retorts.

So yea, apparently, Khota's family also had a generator in their house that was like the one here. And since he was an arm short, he asked to see if he can check it instead.

(I sorta forgot that Khota was also from a well-off family as well...)

And so, we exit the warehouse and into the small back garden, using the stone pathway that circled around a few small ponds and grassy patches towards the dojo.

"Kinda sad how all the koi here are dead..." Saya mumbled as we passed one of the ponds. The water's surface littered with the dead bodies of said fish.

"Not even one of them looks eaten. Corpses really do ignore animals. Or fish at least." I add as we keep walking.

"It's more like wild and street animals are too smart for corpses to catch if you ask me. Because aside from them, we have not seen a single live house pet. Or at least an animal that does not run away from us. No idea about the fish. Maybe it's because corpses seem to avoid diving in water? I'm just glad that animals don't seem to catch whatever this is." Saya sighs.

"True. And let's hope it stays that way, don't need zombie deers in my life right now..." I nod as I keep walking.

"Only deers? So bears would be fine?" Saeko asks as she tilts her head.

"This place has bears?..." I ask as I turn to look at Saeko.

"Hmm, there have been black bear sightings occasionally." Saeko answers with a small nod.

"...Great..." I sigh as I keep walking.

"So much about hunting rabbits in peace..." I chuckle as I shake my head.

"Look at the bright side, if animals don't get infected then the bears could actually benefit us by taking out the corpses that wander too close to their territory" Saya continues.

"Let's hope none of em decide that their territory includes this place as well. Huh, where's a bunch of chickens when you need em." I tap my mask as we close into the dojo.

"But it's not like we have the resources to keep animals here anyway. Or anybody with a base knowledge in livestock farming." I add with a slight shrug.

"I'm going to tell it from now. I am NOT, going to be tending to livestock." Saya blurts out right after.

(Princess much? Not that I'm surprised though.)

And with that, we reach the front, double door of the dojo...

"Huh, you locked the front doors with this?" I ask as I pull a loose end of a garden hose that was holding the front doors closed.

"We were short on lock pads." Saya scoffs sarcastically.

"Ok, all set? The door opens inside or outside?" I ask as I twirl the hose around my wrist.

"Inside." Saeko calmly responds as she puts her hand on her blade's hilt, Saya readies her Luger and nods.

With a deep breath, I quickly untie the garden hose, before kicking the door in, causing it to open with a loud thud.

"Did you 'have' to kick it in?" Saya asks with a sigh.

"I always wanted to do that." I answer flatly as I look at the insides...

That were, a fucking mess for the lack of a better term. While not very brightly lit, as light seeped in only through the small rectangular windows that run along the upper edge of the walls before they connected to the ceiling, and the door we just opened. There were signs of battle visible throughout the whole dojo. And not just from the bullet marks that the trio of girls was probably responsible for when they cleared the place.

The place looked like an actual battlefield. Katanas in various states of damage were stuck, tossed, and scattered around on the surface of the dojo's floor, body parts littering the whole place, not mentioning that I could no longer make out the floor's original color from all the blood...

The whole place screamed...

"Last stand huh." I whisper as I keep looking around.

"Most likely. My father and his acquaintances had real Katanas in here, along with the ones used for training. Possible that the people here made a last stand by gathering here to arm up." Saeko whispered calmly as she stopped next to me.

"How will we clean this mess..." Saya mumbles right after.

"I think we have bigger problems than just cleaning..." I respond as I point deeper inside the dojo, amidst the bodies on the ground I could make out a couple that still shuffled about on the ground.

"I'll go first. If only because I'm actually covering my legs..." I speak up as I start to walk.

"W, well scuze me..." Saya mumbles as she tries to lower her short shorts, though there was not much to lower with what she was wearing.

"I am wearing boots and leg guards though." Saeko just tilts her head as she starts to follow me.

"Yea, but cargo pants win over stocking." I respond as I chuckle, lifting my rifle to aim at the moving bodies I could make out.

"Two, three, five? Or four? Ah whatever..." I take a deep breath, and pull the trigger.

One, two, three, four times...

I then lower my gun and look at the bodies again.

"Oh, there, another one started moving" I lift my gun again and aim to my left. And pull the trigger again.

"Uhh..." Before turning to look around again...

"Another one..." I mumble as I lift my gun again.

And again. And again...

-Five minutes later-

"...I'm this close to just lighting this place up on fire and calling it a day." I sigh as I pull the trigger again.

"I would rather we don't do that." Saeko adds as she points at another moving body on the ground.

"Well noise causes them to move, so we should be fine as long as we can cause a lot of noise right?" I ask as I tilt my head.

"I guess so." Saya nods slightly.

"Good. Then. Saya, sing. I'm almost out of ammo." I reply with a flat tone as I turn to stare at her. Saya stares back at me with a blank expression.

"W, what are you saying you Dofus! You sing!" Saya retorts as she frowns at me.

"Fiiiine..." I groan, then take a deep breath. Saya's eyes actually going wide as...

"To save our mother Earth from any alien attack!~"I start singing...

"Aaaahh! What are you doing! Stop stop!" Saya quickly cuts me off as she starts to flail her arms.

"What? You told me to sing." I respond as I turn to glance at her.

"I didn't think you would though!" Saya flatly answers as she brings her hands next to her hips.

"Jeez..." I just chuckle as I shake my head and turn to look back at the bodies in the dojo.

"Normally one of you is supposed to continue now..." I mumble as I look through my scope.

"I never heard of a song that starts like this though." Saeko apologetically shrugs her shoulders.

"Well neither did I. And I wouldn't even if I did." Saya adds as she folds her arms.

And a few seconds later...

"From vicious giant insects, who have once again come back." And a new voice speaks up from behind us, with a tone as flat as a pancake.

And turning towards that voice, we find Khota staring at us.

"What?" Saya asks with a confused frown.

"We'll unleash all our forces - we won't cut them any slack~" I continue as I take my free hand off my scar's handguard and motion my hand to the rhythm of the song.

"What?" And Saya turns to stare at me now.

"The EDF deploys!" Both me and Khota yell at the same time. Then I quickly turn to look behind me.

(Wouldn't it be stupid if a corpse had crept up behind me now?)

I chuckle under my breath as I turn to look at Khota again.

"Are you two retarded?" Saya groans as she shakes her head.

"Yes." I respond flatly to Saya.

"So, my fellow EDF trooper. What's the gig?" I ask as I turn to Khota again.

"Ah, I. Figured how the generator works, and I also found something you need to see." Khota responds with a smile as he points behind him, towards the second garage that was by the estate's kitchen.

"Hmm." I turn to look behind me again.

And after a few seconds of seeing nothing move.

"We have yet to fully check the place here. I'd rather not leave mid sweep." I respond as I turn to Khota again.

"Ah, well. We just found the solar panel's inverter and battery bank you see." Khota responds.

"...Close the door with the hose. We'll come again later." I respond flatly as I start to walk out.

"Really now?" Saya asks as she arks an eyebrow, a small smirk on her lips.

"Rika told me that the breakers in the main panel were switched off, and that the inverter itself was switched off as well." Khota continues as we 'lock' the dojo's door, I could honestly feel the excitement in his voice. Not that I blame him.

"Wait, so somebody closed em?" I ask right after. Khota nods.

"Rika seems to think so." He continues.

"Hmm. There are way too many corpses here for just people that could live here. And based on what Saeko's father told me, the place got overrun. So maybe there was infighting? Or another group of survivors tried to take the place by force? You know, sneaking in and shutting the place down, as it unlocks the front gates. But in the end they all got attacked by corpses while they were busy killing each other?" I shrug slightly as we start to walk.

"That would actually be rather poetic." Saeko adds.

"So, we flip the switches and see if we get lights or explosions?" I ask, Khota nods.

"I'd rather avoid the explosions." Khota adds with a slight chuckle.

"What? Mister Torque would be so disappointed in you right now. Next you're going to tell me you like laser weapons" I say as I fold my arms. Khota just laughs through his nose.

"So jokes aside, that should also bring water right? From the pumps that filter the groundwater?" I ask as I turn towards Saeko.

"I, do not know." Saeko shakes her head.

"I didn't see anything resembling pumps anywhere in the estate." Saya adds.

"Ahh a breaker in the main breaker box was separated from the group and had the words 'water pump' engraved over it. It almost seemed as if it was added in later. That should be it I think." Khota continues.

"One huh, so we need to go check the riverside one at the intake spot? " I ask as I tilt my head. Saeko just, shrugs again with an apologetic expression.

"Do we though? Underground water patches and cracks refill when it rains. If that place has an underground 'lake', it means the geography here forces the water to congregate there. So I doubt eight people could run it dry, as long as we are not exceedingly wasteful." Saya folds her arms and lowers her head slightly as she tries to think.

"I guess that could be true, we just never used this house for long periods of time to strain test it. As my father used this place when he wanted to relax or go on a short vacation from his daily life." Saeko responds.

"Well, what we need the riverside pump for is for stuff like watering the soon to have farm and bathing. So worst-case scenario, we'll just get a crapton of barrels and learn to rain dance." I nod slightly as I pick up the pace.

And so, we continued straight towards the small garage by the estate's kitchen.

And upon reaching the side with the generator, Khota motions me towards the big rectangular metallic box.

"This button here should start it. But if you check here, it shows that it has no fuel in." He then shows me a big, red button inside an open panel. Before pointing at a small empty glass vial? The thing itself firmly logged into the machine behind a transparent, protective cover.

"Now come on, you should see what's inside~" Khota then motions with his still-functioning arm as we head to enter the garage. Only to find...

A body. No, more like half a body. By the upper left corner of the room. On its knees with its ass up, said ass, which was wearing cargo pants, slightly swaying as the rest of the body was for some reason, clipping through the ground?

"This is, indeed something." I respond as I turn to look at Khota.

"Ahh? Did you bring em?" And the butt asks.

"Y, yes.." Khota mumbles as he keeps staring at the talking butt.

"I found the water tank!" The butt exclaims as the rest of the body finally pulls itself back out from the hole it had shoved itself into. Said body belonging to a certain purple-haired sniper.

"Thing is big but empty, judging from the sound it made, guess without the pumps working it can't function." Rika adds as she closes the lid of the hole she was looking into. Then sits with her back by the wall. Next to her and to her right was a big, metallic wardrobe full of, car batteries? Along with a big smooth rectangle box that had thick plastic tubes sticking out of it, one going to the metal wardrobe and the other leading towards a big breaker box that was on the wall to our left, the one that run from us to Rika.

"Huh, so everything is here? I didn't actually check this place since it was corpse free." I mumble as I walk into the garage, walking up to the metallic wardrobe.

"Yea! This place has a very big battery bank! I can only imagine how much energy the solar panels must make!" Khota adds excitedly.

"Well, we can just start the damn thing and find out. It's sunny outside so all the better." Rika chuckles as she gets up. Looking, sweaty, for the lack of a better term.

"Where you not supposed to be digging holes or something?" I ask as I turn to Rika.

"But I'm tiiireeed. I want a break..." Rika dramatically leans on her knees before looking up at me, almost as if she was trying to make puppy eyes by looking at me through her eyelashes.

"So you left the others alone outside?" I ask again.

"Asami is on lookout. Have some faith, she's a cop." Rika adds as she returns to her normal posture.

"But yea, I 'was' going to take a short break. But chubby here needed help figuring out what is what." Rika chuckles as she raises her arms.

"So, what did you find?" I ask as I fold my arms.

"Well this thing here, that has the word 'INVERTER' written on it with big black letters, I think it's the inverter for the solar panels. Also, it's turned off~" Rika chuckles as she throws a light slap on the inverter next to the battery bank.

"You know how solar panels work?" I ask.

"Nope. No idea. I just told you what chubby told me. Also, the big flip switch under it is pointing at 'OFF'." Rika shrugs.

"..." I just kept staring at Rika.

"Aaanyway. The main breaker over here has most, if not all of its stuff turned off." Rika then leaves her spot and walks up to the breaker box on the wall to the left.

"So, if we open up that bad boy, and flip the switches here. We should hypothetically be ready for cristmas~. If nothing is fried that is." Rika adds with a smirk.

"Hmm, well, fuck it. I'll flip the inverter on and hope we don't all blow up." I sight as I start to walk up to the inverter.

"Ahh! Naier wait!" And Saya quickly runs up next to me.

"What? Need to check something?" I ask as I turn to her. Saya just glances at the inverter, then at me.

"Just uhh, be careful..." She mumbles.

"Awww, your girlfriend is worried~" Rika snikers.

"S, shut up you talking butt!" Saya quickly retorts.

And with that, I turn to the switch again...

(Here goes nothing.)

A loud 'thud', and the switch stops at the 'ON' point.

"No explosions?" I 'ask' as I look at the battery bank.

"Or any sings of li, oh?..." Just as I was about to speak, the inverter's screen comes to life. And...

"What, the hell, is this? I blink as I look at the 'KW' number.

"What's wrong?" Saya quickly comes up to me to look at the inverter.

"Huh? Is it not wor-Oh holy crap!" Khota responds as he also looks at the numbers as well.

"Is something wrong?" Saeko, who was quiet up until now asks as she comes to also look at the numbers as well, tilting her head.

"...Depends. Are we going to power the death star?" I ask as I turn towards Saeko with a chuckle. The girl just blinks at me with a confused expression.

"This thing crates over sixty Kw!" Khota shouts.

"Is that a lot?" Saeko asks back still as confused as ever.

"...A normal house could do with that. Five, ten, fifteen? And right now it says we are using less than one, probably because the main circuit board has most if not all its stuff down." I respond as I fold my arms. Rika just whistles from the back in response.

"So I can leave the Air conditioner open all night now~" The purple-haired sniper chuckles.

"How do you know all that?" Saya then asks as she tilts her head with a small frown.

"Free time and an internet connection." I respond flatly.

"But yea, this place definitely draws more energy than a normal house." I add as I fold my arms.

"The gate, camera system, water pumps." I continue.

"Speaking of pumps. Flip the pump switch." I then point at the breaker.

"Ai, ai captain. Ehehe, I'm all jittery now~" Rika giggles as she flips the switch. And the meter in the inverter goes from half kw to two kw.

"We have movement." I nod as I tap the screen.

"Ohh I got to check this out!" Rika then quickly leaves the garage, and enters the kitchen. By climbing up the window. Or more like she ends up hanging over the window.

"Aww crap! The sink is next to the other window..." Rika grumbles as she keeps hanging over the window.

(Oh look, the talking butt is back.)

She then jumps back down and tries to climb up the next window. While at the same time I open the lid on the floor next to me and look at the water tank.

The cylindrical meter gauge that was embedded into the thick metal blue barrel was sitting firmly at zero. Yet.

"I can hear water running." I speak up as I place my hand on the tank.

"So, it works?" Saya asks.

"It just works." I reply flatly.

"Eeeey! We got water in the taps!" And Rika shouts right after.

"Leave the water to run for a bit! Fill a bucket or something so we don't throw it away!" I add.

"Why would we need to let the water run?" Saeko then asks as she tilts her head.

"Water was probably left in the pipes for who knows how long. And we could use it for mopping the place anyway." I respond as I close the lid and get up, then walk up to the breaker box.

"I've never been this excited to mop floors." Khota chuckles.

"I've never been this excited flipping switches." I respond as I flip the first breaker switch. Then look at the inverter.

"Hmm, something changed, I think?..." I mumble as I look at the breaker box again.

"Let's find what this thing opened." I nod slightly and step back.

"Let's split up, look around the house, flip lights on, see for signs of life. Just stay away from the dojo for now." I add as I turn to look at the group, who quickly nodded and split off.

"And sombody inform Rika!" I shout as I turn to the breaker.

And not a minute later...

"Lower bathroom! Water is running and the lights are open!" A female voice shouts.

"Aight. so, B1" I nod and pull my knife, and carve a square shape next to the breaker box, then carve a B1 on the upper left corner. Then glance at the inverter.

(Bearly any change.)

"Next~" And I flip the next switch...

"Oi! Who opened the dish-washer!" Rika shouts right after.

"Is the fridge working!" I shout as I carve a 'K1' next to the 'B1'

"No, idea!" Rika shouts back. I then turn to look at the inverter.

(Hmm we got an increase, from two to three and a half.)

"Is there anything other than the dishwasher working? If not, close that as well!" I ask again.

"...Everything is closed!" Rika shouts. And I look at the inverter again.

(The same drain, so the fridge must be working.)

"Close the fridge door and leave it! But make sure no fluid is left loose inside first!" I shout. Rika just shouted back an 'Ok'

And so, we kept flipping switches.

The main room and hallway on the first floor were next, that was 'L1'

Then was the second-floor central room and hallways, that was 'H2 + W2'

Then the rooms, each one with its own breaker, from 'R1' with a smaller '2' next to it, all the way to 'R6'

Then the second room bathroom, which was 'B2'

Then the third floor, which was the whole floor, with a plain '3'

That, was essentially two lines of breakers.

After that, was the third line with five more breakers.

The first turned out not to work, as the switch was loose, falling back down when I flipped it.

The second reacted, but we could not find what it was.

The third, opened the lights in the courtyard, so I carved an 'O+'

The forth opened the warehouse lights, and got the designation 'W+'

And the fifth, also opened something, but we could not find what it was either.

-About half an hour later-

"So one broken, two mystery switches." Saya nods.

"Dojo, cameras, and gate?" Rika asks.

"Most probably. The broken one must be the gate, since it still won't function via console. Cameras, we need to charge the laptop and check. Dojo, we'll find out soon enough." I nod back.

"I'll go plug in the laptop then." Saya adds as she turns to leave.

"Just don't make 'Rika the bark bark' while I'm not looking ah? We already got one dog." I respond as chuckle, Saya turning to glare-pout at me, along with a deep frown.

"Bark bark?" Rika asks as she tilts her head.

"What does Zeke have to do with anything?" Khota then asks with an equally confused expression.

"Zeke has to do with everything" I chuckle as I fold my arm, smirking slightly at Saya.

"Ohh, I'll show you bark bark..." Saya mumbles as she starts to walk away with loud footsteps.

(...Something tells me Naier Takagi is in mortal danger now...)

"...I can bearly believe it, we actually got electricity..." Khota whispers as he stares at the inverter. Now sitting firmly at ten KW.

"Yea, and we'll need a new set of rules about it..." I sigh as I turn to look towards the house.

"Rules?" Rika asks back.

"Yea. Do you know easy it is to see light pollution at night? Especially when the only thing having electricity other than us is the airport?" I nod as I turn at Rika.

"Ahh, yea makes sense. Guess no nighttime sightseeing with the lights open. Unless we want to become a beacon." Rika nods back.

"Exactly. If we are to use lights at night, we need to make sure that light won't seep out, like shutters that block it completely." I continue.

"Let us add that to the list of things we need then." Saeko adds as she nods.

"Along with wooden boards, nails, plaster, and the ability to build house walls." I chuckle as I point toward the first floor of the house.

"We really ought to make a list." Rika scratches the back of her head as she sighs.

"We will, once we deal with everything here. More importantly, we need to find out if the second pump by the river has its own tank somewhere, or if it connects to this one." I respond as I fold my arms.

"Hmm, yea. Good point." Rika nods slightly as she turns to leave.

"Well, I should go back to digging holes, the faster we're done, the faster I can moth around the lights~" She adds with a chuckle as she waves goodbye with her back turned to me.

"I should go too. Help Asami guard." Khota adds with a nod as he also turns to leave.

"We should get done with the dojo as well." I add as I also turn to walk.

"Just the two of us? Saya went to fetch the laptop remember?" Saeko then speaks up.

"Not that I would mind~" She adds as she slides up next to me.

"Uhh, right. If we leave and she returns to find nobody she'll probably flip because we dumped her. The laptop was at the Humvee. Which doing runs back and forth with the corpse clearing. I don't see it here so, outside?" I tilt my head as I fold my arms.

"We lose nothing to check outside." Saeko then nods. And so, both of us started heading towards the front gate.

Finding the Humvee to indeed be parked next to a relatively shallow, but quite wide hole. Rika in it with a shovel we found in the warehouse. Shizuka was in the Humvee's driver seat. Alice talking with Khota and Asami a bit further away. Saya herself was with the laptop in her arms and was heading towards us. Oh yea, and a mass of 'dead' corpses next to the hole.

"Huh, why are you two here?" She asks the moment she walked up to us.

"I'm overlooking the slave labor." I respond with a flat tone. Saya just blinks at me, before glancing behind her.

"Yea I'm just here to tell you that we're going to the dojo, since you'll have to go and plug that laptop in the room." I then add as I point at the laptop she was hugging.

Saya glances at Saeko, then at me.

"You should not go in unprepared. Wait for me. Or better yet. Come with me so we can see if the cameras work." Saya narrows her eyes before shaking her head.

"Uhh, yea we could do that too." I tilt my head as I fold my arms.

"Fine by me." Saeko nods with a small shrug.

And with that, the three of us headed towards the house.

(Back out the stone age we go.)

And thank you to all my supporters. All three of em xD