60 Escaping the House

Back at the house, the tree that Light had noticed had gradually inched closer and closer to the house. On reaching the door, it transformed into something that resembled a human with green foliage for hair and root hairs protruding from his face.

Kicking the door down, he immediately ran in to apprehend the two only to find that the house was completely empty. Cursing, he ran back outside and kicked the fence down on his way out.

At the entrance, two men were there waiting for him. One of them had the eagle perched on his shoulder, while the other looked like he was made of metal. "What happened?" asked the metal man in a gravelly voice.

"The two humans got away. How did you let this happen?" The tree man directed this question to the third person.

The third person did not respond, but the eagle on his shoulder quickly flew up into the air and out of sight.

"We will wait here until Eagle finds the two humans." It was apparent that the metal man was in charge here.

Aida would have been extremely surprised if she were present at this moment as well. She had already hypothesized that since she was able to become infected and gain superpowers, others would be able to as well. So far, she had only encountered Reapers, but she was still of the belief that there would be others out there. Afterall, humanity was far more resilient than most people thought.

Moments later, the eagle came flying back and the man said, "Found them."

They quickly followed the flying Eagle as they navigated the streets to a nearby building.

Yukio saw them approach and quickly fired a warning shot at their feet. The sound of the gunshot reverberated down the quiet street.

"Shi*t!!" yelled the tree man.

Light had deduced earlier on that these people were sentient based on their approach towards the house. Unlike Reapers, who reacted based on instinct, these people seemed to approach with strategy. Up till this point, he was not entirely sure if they were variations of Reapers that somehow learned strategy or if they were something else. Seeing the treeman speak, he realized they were most likely human beings with full awareness. Seeing this, Light knew it would not be an easy fight if he and Yukio wanted to win.

Knowing that they had been found, Light called out to them, "What do you want?"

"Stupid humans, come down and let's fight like men!" screamed the rash tree man who had transformed himself into a tree, which appeared to be its battle state. It was a strange sight to see a tree yelling at someone.

On the side, the metal man stepped forward and said, "We promise we won't hurt you, but we need to take you back to base. We can either do this the easy way or the hard way."

"For who", retorted Light. "That shot will attract a lot of Infected to you. How are you going to escape?"

"What did you…" the tree man was infuriated, but the metal man cut him off and responded calmly, "You don't have to worry about that."

Thinking for a moment, Light decided to surrender. The eagle that was hovering above them didn't slip his attention, it would likely dive down and attack the moment they tried to counterattack. He could sense that these three men were likely more powerful than they let on. Light had also spent most of his life learning how to read people to further his businesses and his instincts told him that the metal man was telling the truth. The safest option was for them to comply with his demand.

"...Ok. We are coming down now." Light and Yukio quickly descended the stairs and came out with their arms up.

Walking closer, the tree man quickly used his branches to tie the two up tightly and they began moving. The Enraged and Reapers had closed in during this time yet the group was still nonchalant. Continuing to shift around, the tree quickly formed a shelter that encompassed the entire group. The group stood in darkness for roughly 10 minutes.

Then, he changed back into a human while keeping Light and Yukio tied up. They saw that the Enraged and Reapers had all left. It turns out the tree man was able to cover up their scent and trick the infected into believing that they were inanimate thus helping them get away.

"Let's go," ordered the metal man and they set off to the base.

***

Roughly half a day after Light and Yukio got captured, Ace, Aida and Rin finally arrived at the house. Aida, who had left her scan on this entire time, noticed that there were a few figures hiding nearby and surveilling the area in a tactical pattern. There was also nobody in the house. She quickly picked up that something had gone wrong.

Looking at the broken fence and door at the house, she could easily deduce that someone had broken into the house. In all likelihood, Light and Yukio had been captured or were hiding. The likelihood of captured was higher as she knew that while they were strong, they couldn't possibly handle 3 sentient Reapers at once.