Traversing the city

Leaving the woman behind, her cries slowly got quieter as they walked up the stairs to the surface.

Luckily electricity still ran through the city as they only required power and the emp effect from the eruption did not hinder the lights. Although certain parts of the city were completely blacked out as they were cut off the grid.

They reached the top and they no longer could hear the woman's cries. Akira put his hand on Reia's shoulder to make sure she was okay.

"I'm okay, the goodwill in me wants to save her, but the situation doesn't allow us to." Reia put aside her emotions.

"It was hard for me to, but I think to avoid a similar situation we should get out of these uniforms since people will start thinking we are a rescue squad." Although Akira did not show it, it was rather difficult to leave the women behind.

"The city isn't completely ruined so we might be able to find a clothes store that is still intact." Reia saw in Akira's eyes a little bit of remorse, but now wasn't the time to be worrying about the women as they already made up their minds to leave her.

"We seem to be close to a market area seeing as there is a carpark, so let's take a look around for any indications of shops." Akira figured they had to be close to a store, but because they had grown up with a military family, they were not able to freely explore the city properly.

"Sounds like a plan." Reia nodded and they opened the door that led to an alleyway next to the carpark. Having their swords ready for any mutants doing any back-alley deals.

Upon exiting the alley no mutants were giving out free one-way trips to death.

The chaos of the city had died down and was much quieter. The occasional scream or explosion was heard, but it was not as constant as it was a few hours ago.

"Looks like we are fine." Akira also looked up to make sure there was nothing upon the walls.

"Let's not get seen and find us some new clothes and some extra supplies." Reia wanted to avoid as many mutants as possible as fighting one group may lead to a whole army's worth of mutants being drawn to them.

They also don't know if there are more types of mutants. The massive mutant meant there might be variants that could alert more mutants or a much stronger mutant than they have fought before, and Reia did not want to find out yet.

Akira nodded and they cautiously made their way to the end of the alley keeping an ear. Thanks to them being foxes their hearing was much better than a human making it easier to recognize sounds.

Hearing a few growls from mutants around the corner, Akira poked his head to see exactly where they were. The street was filled with at least 100 mutants wandering around which was not ideal. Thankfully there were a lot of cars down the street making it possible to get past only killing a few.

"Should we try to sneak by, I saw a few shops on the street." Akira leaned back whispering in Reia's ear.

"Only if we had Aoi, her bullets make no sound. If we are going to, we have to use our swords but I have no idea how well the mutants hear." Reia was still unsure if they had enhanced hearing or were relatively the same depending on the race.

"Let's do a small test, we can move a lot better than them generally and if we need to, getting on a rooftop should reduce their numbers significantly." Akira wanted to give it a shot to test how far they could take it while the mutants are easy to deal with.

Reia nodded and Akira taking the lead crouched walked out of the alley. Getting behind one of the cares Akira gestured for Reia to come over. Following his steps, they got behind the first car which crashed into a light post on the sidewalk.

The Mutants that were on the road had not heard them which was a positive sign. Moving to the front of the car there was a gap between the next one which was the troublesome part of doing things quietly.

There was a tall bin in between the cars but they would be out in the open for a moment. Akira looked over and saw that the mutants were not looking in their direction. Taking the opportunity Akira moved behind the bin. Reia also stayed close by holding onto his shoulder and moving when he did.

Because there were 2 bins next to each there was a small crack in between them allowing Akira to safely see a portion of the road. Seeing that the mutants had not noticed anything yet gave them some hope and that they only respond to really loud noises.

Reia also came to the same conclusion and saw a small piece of rubble on the ground. Squeezing Akira's shoulder, she pointed at the rock and Akira understood what to do. Picking up the rubble which was the size of a baseball prepared to throw it.

Throwing the piece of rubble behind them and across the street, Akira managed to hit one of the cars making a loud metal sound.

The mutants turned and began to move towards the car to investigate it. The more primal animals like the bears and dogs went head first while felines were cautious and observed from a distance. Humans varied as some were cautious while others were reckless.

Waiting for the mutants to move past once it was clear Reia and Akira moved to the next car which was parked on the side. This time there were a few cars lined up parked making them able to travel a bit further.

However, while moving a jaguar jumped on the car they were next to. Akira and Reia both having their swords out stabbed the jaguar almost hitting each other's blade. They both hit the core with only millimetres between Reia and Akira's sword.

Quickly moving as it was unclear how mutants reacted to other mutants being killed they did not want to hang around.

Just as they feared when the mutant saw the jaguar's melting body, it instantly started running over to investigate. Akira and Reia had already moved forward but there was no guarantee that it wouldn't come on the sidewalk.

Wanting to pick up the base so that they wouldn't be spotted, they kept throwing rocks over the road which turned the heads of mutants allowing them to cross to the next obstacle.

They also managed to kill a few mutants that wandered onto the sidewalk before they made a commotion keeping their presence unknown.

Akira and Reia finally managed to make it to where there were lines of shops all across the street. Looking for a sign that indicated clothing, they found a shop that was a few buildings down.

Using their collection of rocks they picked up along the way continued the same process of diverting their attention.

Once they made it to the store that had the sign saying urban clothes, they looked inside and everything in it was kept intact, the only thing was a lot of the clothes had fallen to the floor.

Akira made one last check that the mutants were focused on the sounds they made, entering the store through the front.

This was their biggest mistake as the door had a bell attached to it and it rang upon opening.

Akira and Reia realised what this meant and not turning to even look they ran into the store looking for a place to hide. Getting to the back storage rooms they both rushed inside and as they were shutting the door they heard glass shatter indicating the mutants had run over.

"Of course, the one thing that gets us is a fucking doorbell." In a frustrated but quiet voice, Akira complained.

"We were doing so well." Reia was rather impressed and although it would have been easier to go by roof, it was a good test to see how well the mutants can hear and see.

"At least it wasn't the entire street, but if we leave it for too long the clothes could be ruined." Akira did not want clothes that had been touched by the mutants as there were still many unknown possible ways to get infected.

"Looks like we have to either run out there and kill them or we try to find a new store." Reia did not want to leave as she had a glance at the clothes in the store and they looked like they were meant for outdoors.

"We are in the back rooms so there might be some storage somewhere, so let's look for that before deciding any further." The room was rather dark so it was unclear what was in the room.

Reia pulled out her gun and using essence turned on the flashlight on the front of the gun.

The light lit up the room and when she did a massive mutant bat was hanging upside down asleep.

Reia freaked out for a moment, but before she could panic fire Akira threw his sword at the bat that he quickly covered in corruption. Reia's heart had almost jumped out of her chest, but she was able to calm herself down quickly.

The bat woke up and started to roll around on the floor and screeched out of pain.

"Shit! I missed the core." Akira knew he missed the core with the initial strike as the bat died only a few seconds later of his corruption.

The screech had got the attention of the mutants in the store and they started to bang on the door.

"Get ready and try to avoid shooting." Reia let her gun hang from her shoulder so she could quickly switch at a moment's notice and pulled out her sword again.

Akira pulled his sword out of the bat and prepared for the mutants that were going to break through the door any moment now.