59 Anomalies in the Front Yard

Somewhere in another part of the city, a familiar figure shrouded in darkness received two reports. One report discussed the plane crash at the edge of town that caught everyone's attention earlier in the day, but when they went to inspect the plane, nobody was there. The second report stated that they found two humans who had fought their way through the city and were now staying in the residential area.

In a low, commanding voice, the mysterious figure instructed, "Keep track of the two humans but do not engage. Let's see what they're up to and if they have friends first. As for the plane crash, keep an eye out for survivors in the area."

"Yes sir," responded the scout as he left the room.

The mysterious figure looked out the window, appearing to think about something.

***

In the store where the other group was staying, Aida continued to feed Rin more blood. Ace watched on, extremely concerned about her health as he watched her grow more and more pale. Every time he tried to intervene, she would glare at Ace and tell him to get more ice.

To re-energize herself, she directly stuck her fingers into the outlet and pulled power from the power grid.

Rin had been infected for a full day now, but his fever still hadn't broken. The good news is that the virus had healed his body and he didn't break into rashes as other infected patients had. This was an indicator to Aida that he could likely be afflicted in the same way she had.

Aida was also concerned about Light and Yukio, but also knew based on their connections that they were most likely safe. Both felt melancholic, but this is to be expected given the situation.

It wasn't until the following day that Rin's fever finally broke. Similar to Aida's situation, Rin was now just laying there asleep. Seeing this, Aida felt as though she could finally relax. The past couple nights had been extremely taxing. Not only was she mentally burdened, she had also lost 5 liters of blood and was hanging on by a thread herself. A normal person could only afford to lose 3-4 liters of blood before dying. The only reason Aida was still alive was because her blood was able to reproduce far faster than an average human coupled with the infected blood improving her life force.

Ace had given up trying to prevent Aida from providing blood. Instead, he acted as the lookout to make sure there were no Enraged or Reapers wandering into the building while she was in this weakened state.

Collapsing onto the floor, she began mapping out their next steps. They needed to travel another 5 km in order to reach the house. She estimated that after a couple hours of rest, she should be mobile again and they could start moving. While she would not be able to do any sustained fighting or use her superpowers, she could still use her scan and fight hand to hand.

Draining more power from the building, she felt stable enough to walk. Having Ace carry Rin to the car, they set off again.

***

Back at the house, Light and Yukio were doing housework. Light was enamored by the idea that he could find a place called home. Although it was unlikely that they would permanently stay at this "borrowed" home, he wanted to leave it pristine on the off chance that they would.

Unbeknownst to them, the entire house had been surrounded. It had been two days since they moved in and the people who were spying on them were beginning to get antsy.

Amidst his "spring cleaning", Light happened to be wiping down the windows and noticed that the gate, which he closed when they came in, was open. Immediately on alert, he began to scan the entire area outside while continuing to clean the window as though he had not noticed the anomaly. As he began to look in more detail, he noticed that there were a number of oddities that were not previously there.

For example, he noticed that there was a tree in the front yard that seemed to pop up out of nowhere and an eagle perched further out on a building. Had he not noticed the tree, he probably would not have noticed the eagle. Additionally, based on his experience in the apocalypse so far, it was extremely atypical to encounter animals. He had personally yet to encounter any animals aside from the human spider.

Realizing that these were likely mutated beings or different kinds of Reapers, he casually finished cleaning the window and closed the blinds. After closing the blinds, he quickly dashed out the room and found Yukio. Grabbing their backpacks, he wordlessly brought Yukio out the backdoor.

In a case like this, every second counted. Time was of the essence as their opponents had not noticed they left yet. For this reason, Light did not explain anything to Yukio and just pulled him out. Yukio sensibly followed behind Light and snuck out of the house.

In the short time that Light noticed the anomalies, he had already begun planning. Climbing over the fence of the house, they dashed down the street and ran into the nearest large building. The only advantage they would have against these mysterious creatures was Yukio's sharpshooting ability that would allow them to test the waters.

They quickly reached the building while trying their best to stay in the shadows. Climbing up the stairs, they reached the rooftop on the 5th floor and Light began helping Yukio set up his sniper set while explaining the situation to him.

"I saw something strange outside on the front lawn, it looks like there was a tree and an eagle watching us. I realize how strange that sounds, but given that it's the apocalypse, it's highly likely that they are dangerous."

Yukio nodded obediently, "Nii-chan, you don't sound crazy. I will look for them now."