A City in Panic

"The data of the Leader's group have been updated. Next time they can enter freely without opening the barrier first."

Haruhiro found the Sentry's efficiency in doing things pleasing. Which is why he decided to give more jobs to it in the near future. "Go ahead and start with your report."

"Yes, Leader. These past days nothing noteworthy happened around the camp. Some animals tried to cross the barrier but got shocked by its electrical property. This humble one has already cleaned up their corpses, aside from those small events nothing else happened. However, the redecoration of the rooms the Leader has ordered has been completed. As per the Leader's request, four rooms have been decorated with the pieces of furniture brought from the outside."

"Good, go and fetch the three outside. I'll wait for you all at the audience hall."

The Sentry saluted and left in order to complete his order. Haruhiro continued walking until he reached the electric fence, he stopped in front of the guard house where the guard of the inner walls would usually stay and where a trespasser would be detained. He put his hand in front of the scanner and let it scan his Master Ring.

<<Scan complete. Verified. Welcome home, Leader.>>

An electronic voice spoke when the scan was completed and then the gates opened. "I'm home," Haruhiro muttered under his breath before going inside.

He headed straight for the audience hall where he said he'd wait for the girls. The tower is made from light materials. He didn't stop and pushed open the doors and when he did, he saw the interior of the tower. It has a simple design, one corridor leading to all the rooms. The corridor has a width of ten to fifteen meters while the length is around thirty. Haruhiro walked straight to the audience hall, stepping on the wooden floor.

Once he reached the door to the audience hall he once again pushed it open. What he saw still dumbfounded him. The first thing people would notice is the large ten feet long table. The table is made of wood just like almost everything else is in this tower. There are four of this kind of table inside the audience hall, all of it placed at the sides of the room. In the middle is a red carpet leading to the center of the room where a throne-like seat could be seen.

The room is as large as two basketball courts placed side by side. Although the way this room irked him, he decided to just ignore it all and head straight to the throne. The throne has a simple design, it doesn't contain any ornaments or anything else and is just made of wood. However, if people of certain profession saw it they would be awed as the throne may be simple looking the way it was made is certainly not like that. It was as if the throne was not carved out of the tree it's been made of but instead, the tree was molded to become the throne.

That was in fact how it was made. Everything inside the base camp has been transformed by the mission cube into what it is now. However, Haruhiro ignored all this since what would be the point of thinking about all this? What he needs to do is make him stronger in order to survive.

Arriving at the throne, he didn't sit on it like expected but instead went to the back of the throne covered by the red curtains. Behind the throne is the heart of the camp, it once was the mission cube. Now it could be called as the Village Heart, this heart controls everything inside the camp. From the barrier to the electric fence and everything. Haruhiro placed his hand on top of the floating cube and soon enough his vision is filled with holographic screens.

These holographic screens show the status of the camp. Right now there isn't anyone living inside the camp except the four of Haruhiro's group. The Sentry is not considered as a living thing and it's also part of the base camp that the Village Heart controls. Due to this, the Sentry can also only stay inside the camp and not go outside.

He also checked the storage of the camp. Haruhiro saw how it's still empty without any kind of supplies, however, he is not worried since the shipment of their supplies would start tonight.

Haruhiro continued to fiddle around with the cube and only stopped when he heard the of the audience hall slammed open and Anna's shout that came along with it.

"Haru! We have a problem! An outbreak is happening here!"

Haruhiro is shocked by this sudden piece of news, he quickly left the Village Heart and went back to the audience hall. There he saw the anxious expressions of the girls, now that they're worried he's not going to let them see the same anxiousness they have on him. He's now their solid support, if he shows a sliver of anxiousness then they'd panic even more.

He tried to act calm and said, "That's earlier than we expected. Will there be a problem with the delivery of the supplies Nanako?" Haruhiro first asked the question that he believes is more important than the rest.

Nanako fell into her thoughts and then said, "Maybe. The supplies are hidden at the edges of the city but if the people I trust gets infected by the virus then it would be a huge problem. We won't have enough manpower to load the supplies into the truck and transport all of it here." While reporting that, her expression sunk.

All of them stayed silent until Anna talked. "It seems we'll need to change our plans a bit. Instead of doing all that we should in a safe place, we'll all need to stand in the front lines. First of all, we need to make sure the workers are safe. We need their hands in order to store our supplies, Mom you should go ahead and contact them immediately. Tell them to double their efforts in loading the trucks, we'll transport it now.

Second the people that we need to save..."

Saying that Anna looked at Yasumi's direction. She noticed that Yasumi hasn't been paying attention in the group's conversation. "Yasumi-san's family is now being escorted by people we can trust. I'm sure they'll be fine, we just need to wait for news from them. The place where they're at is safe from the virus for now. What we need to worry about is our friends in the city. Haru, the orphanage..." She couldn't continue speaking when she remembered the children and how they may now be in danger.

"Anna don't worry I'm sure the children are all safe. Let's do it this way, Ya-chan and Nanako should go together, go to where our supplies are and supervise them. Wait for Anna and I to arrive there with the children from the orphanage. Also, while on our way we can contact those we want to save if they come then good. If they don't, we can't put our lives on the line for them. Remember that, alright? This is the best that we can do."

Saying that Haruhiro didn't hesitate and quickly moved, the rest followed behind him.

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

They left the Sentry to make arrangements for the people they will be bringing to the camp. Haruhiro's group speedily returned to Nanako's white F-150 SVT Raptor, an off-road vehicle. She just changed her previous car to this one since she finds an off-road vehicle better than the one she usually drives. However, she didn't throw her previous car away and just stored it in the camp's garage.

During their ride back to the city, their group remained tense. No one spoke and just silently listened to the incoming reports, Haruhiro thought that the voice from the radio sounded familiar but he didn't pay it much attention.

When they finally arrived back at the city, Anna and Haruhiro got down the vehicle and went to the orphanage. Yasumi and Nanako headed straight for the place where they kept the supplies and their people.

Haruhiro and Anna held each other's hand and went to the orphanage. On their way, they could see countless people that have fallen into a coma. No matter the age, gender, or their social standing people that have been infected by the virus can do nothing but fall into a coma. Then, a few hours later -they would turn. Only the upper echelons know of this but they have all the police, firemen, and hospitals within the city cooperate with each other in order to gather all the infected into a quarantined zone.

The two tried their best to avoid public places where they might get obstructed or delayed by others. The two walked in this chaotic city as if nothing bothered them. They continued to hold each other's hand, they blended into the scenery and then they became the scenery themselves.

Two beautiful people walking in a chaotic city as they held each other's hand.

Haruhiro and Anna saw different kind of scenes as they made their way through the city. Children, parents, lovers, friends... No matter what they all are to each other as long as they can see that the person they were just talking with moments ago suddenly collapsed like that, they started getting anxious.

It wasn't just like that, there are some that have collapsed that were doing important things. Such as some people that were driving or that were cooking, no one could prevent the accidents from happening which is why the city got even more chaotic. Fires started without getting resolved, car crashes remained in the streets.

The city is in chaos.