17 The Trio

Thankfully, nothing occurred during the period that Ace was asleep. He didn't know how much time had passed, but the first thing he did was check on Aida.

With a sigh of relief, her fever was completely gone now. She just appeared to be asleep.

He frowned as he noticed she was still submerged in water. Not wanting her to catch a cold, he got rid of the ice and water, and dried her clothes with towels to the best of his abilities.

During this entire time, he never came in contact with her skin. In reality, there were a lot of options for clothes, but Ace did not want to violate her privacy. Instead, he decided to just bundle her tightly in towels to keep her at least warm. During this entire process, he also took extra care to ensure that the hand connected to the electrical outlet was intact.

With that, he went to go take a shower and wake himself up. He didn't know the situation outside and couldn't afford to leave earlier due to Aida's condition. Now that she was stable, he needed to start planning their next move. No one knew how long she would sleep for, and they could not stay in this locker room forever.

The first problem was with keeping her charged. She needed to stay connected the entire time.

Thinking for a moment, he recalled there being an electronic store not far from where they were. The store sold headphones. He should be able to get all the tools he needed there.

He left a note for Aida on the wall in case she woke up. "I'll be headed out for a little while to get some components. Will be back soon."

He moved all the items that were blocking the door and went out with a backpack.

As he left, he missed two major events.

He missed the moment when Aida's finger twitched ever so slightly, not that he would have noticed even if he were watching though. She was wrapped in far too many towels.

He also missed a few people standing around the corner watching him leave. It was the group of kids from the Gate who had disappeared in the middle of the night.

The group was comprised of 3 boys. One of the boys peeked around the corner to check if Ace left. He had blue hair, blue eyes and an innocent looking face that people would easily trust.

Nodding, the oldest of the group signaled to wait just a little longer to make sure Ace was not coming back. The oldest had a sharp and refined face with eyes that were perpetually calm. Just by judging his appearance, it was clear that he had gone through a lot in life despite his age. He was the strategist among the group of 3.

The third member of the group was jumping around in the back, eager to rush in. He turned out to be twins with the boy who was on the lookout. He also had blue hair and blue eyes, but rather than an innocent look, he had an incredibly energetic look on his face. The oldest had to hold him in place to keep him from running out.

After holding their position for another 2 minutes, that confirmed that Ace had truly left. "Yukio, Rin, let's move."

"Ok!" "Ok..." responded the twins with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

The tension has been rising within the airport over the past couple days since Aida fainted. When the trio returned to the Gate where everyone else was, they learned about the raid and kidnapping. It set everyone on edge. Everyone was also getting hungry and things were beginning to break down. If not for the police squad intervening, a fight would surely have broken out.

The police squad also went to investigate the kidnapping, and shortly came back with news that 6 men had been brutally murdered with one of them even entirely dismembered. They also noted that they didn't see a girl among the group killed.

In addition to the murders, the news from outside was also not good. The network infrastructure in the city had not fallen as Enraged did not target inanimate objects, so everyone was able to maintain full understanding of what was happening.

The virus had impacted 99% of the population and all cities along the coast had fallen within less than 3 days. The Enraged were spreading out and inching closer inland. Many of the cities that had not fallen began building walls and mass migrations began. Despite the government, CDC and World Health Organization's efforts, they still had not identified the cure.

There were also rumors that the Enraged were evolving. Enraged was just a phase that the infected went through just like the fever and rashes.

In that moment, Light, the strategist among the trio, made the decision to move away from the larger group. They needed to plan for the event that they would be stuck here for the long term with no help from the outside. The government certainly had their hands full, and would not care about a mere 80 people in a coast city. They would surely be sacrificed.

With this in mind, they began going through each store to find food and water. Most places were locked, so they used fire extinguishers and other equipment to break the locks. Nobody knew if the water was safe, so the trio tried to collect as much water as possible.

During one of their raids, Yukio noticed Ace breaking into a couple stores with a gun in hand. When he shared this information, Light began to observe Ace's actions from afar. Ace had been the only person coming in and out from the room for the past couple days. Each time he went out, he would come back with an abundance of food, water, and oddly enough, ice. Watching this, he began to form a plan to acquire the food and water Ace had collected.