Chapter 8 – the Buenavista twins

Third person POV

 Shortly after, Reina and his two escorts are now walking around a block in the city. "Gen-san, one street is now cleared of zombies," Reina said to Gen through a walkie-talkie. "Nato-san and the rest of his squad are now escorting the survivors to one of the subway stations underground." Back at the headquarters, Gen appreciated his efforts, so he responded back, "Good work, Taro-kun, keep on scouring the area and stay vigilant on your surroundings."

 Reina gets it quickly, and he and the two soldiers with him kept on scouring the area in the city while staying vigilant on any possible zombie attack. Both the area they are in and the city are as quiet as a library and chaotic like a city after a nuclear fallout. "It must be hard for you to move on from that happening, right?" one of the soldiers from Nato's squad said to Reina as he and they walked together while being vigilant on their surroundings.

 "Yes, still," replied Reina as he looked down while walking with them, "that one is still haunting me to this day."

The two soldiers understood that like last time, with one of them putting his hand on Reina's left shoulder while encouraging him not to be consumed by his negative emotions and thoughts.

Although Reina gets it, his mind didn't want to accept it due to the severity of the psychological and emotional damage Reina's past actions on Gen has on it.

 Later on, by 10:32 a.m., they arrived at the park in the neighborhood, which was left abandoned. It was eerily quiet like the rest of the city, and they walked in while wielding their weapons just in case. Then, Reina heard some faint cries coming from a barricaded children's slide at the park's playground. It was surrounded by metal roofing as barricaded against danger. Being familiar with the tone of those feminine voices, he went closer to the barricaded fort while saying, "Hello? Anyone there?"

His two escorts saw what he was doing and went closer as well, telling him to be careful about that.

 And then, Reina knocked on the metal roofing barricade. "Who's there?" a woman said behind it.

 "Um, we're here to rescue you," Reina responded back calmly and briefly.

 "Are you okay in there?" one of his two escorts added.

 And so, the barricade was removed, and a pair of twin young women, armed with nothing more than baseball bats, came out. Those two identical grown-up twins are almost starving due to the lack of food. They also stocked on drinkable water, but that wasn't enough to counteract their hunger. Reina and his group were shocked to see them in their current state, and Reina himself quickly recognized them as Mara and Martha Buenavista, some of his childhood friends from middle school.

 "Mara-chan? Martha-chan?" he asked them.

 "Reina-kun?" Martha responded as she and her twin sister were stunned to see their friend again.

"You know them?" one of the two soldiers asked Reina.

Reina then nodded. "Y-Yes, they are my childhood friends."

And so, feeling that they missed him so much, Mara and Martha stood up and hugged Reina tightly.

 "Thank goodness!"

 "We thought we'd never see you again, Reina!"

Though overwhelmed by their hug, Reina was happy to see them again, and he started to tear up and hug them back. "Yeah, you girls are safe with us…"

His two escorts were astonished at their years-old friendship and now, their reunion.

Meanwhile, Nato and the rest of his squads had successfully escorted the survivors from the area into a subway train that will take them somewhere safe and far away.