Chapter 5

The date is August 24th, 2042. It's a national holiday, celebrating the founding of Anurica. Normally, fireworks would have been going off from midnight till morning, making it a sleepless day. Fortunately, the city finally enjoyed a quiet morning, nobody dared making a sound attracting the hordes.

The family trio had woken up and were at the dinner table. The success of yesterday's pillage ensured that the table was filled with an abundance of food that only served as a light snack to the siblings.

"We are going to check up on Aunt Sharon today, we found a path that is relatively safe." Sarah brought up her plan as she finished her milk.

"Right, I hope you can find Sharon in her room, she may be clever, but my sister is not the type that would stay indoors even in this situation. She never picks up my call, even now. Does she know how much I worry about her? She just..." Catherine showed a rare occasion of endless rambling in front of her children.

Leo gave his sister the look saying "you started it, you go end it". Sarah wryly smiled and called out to their mother.

"Mom, we will just pass by Auntie's apartment to check on her. If she is not there, we will continue east to the small shopping center. We need to stock up on other living necessities and find better weapons as well."

Looking at the map Sarah pulled out, Catherine hastily raised her concern.

"Isn't the shopping center crowded with a lot of people? It will be too dangerous. There are other locations where we can get the stuff we need, like the stores here." Catherine pointed to another shopping area.

'That is precisely why we are going there.' Similar thoughts flushed through the siblings' minds. Having felt the increase in power from the ruby-like jelly they ate yesterday, Leo and Sarah agreed privately the previous evening to venture out for more. There should be more of them in crowded areas. There was no way mother would support that idea; hence, they needed an excuse.

"Those things roam around the city and never stay in one place. It is hard to say where the horde will be. We will, of course, check out the area first before we move further in." Sarah tried to convince mother.

"And the shops there are too small, they must have been plundered over and over again, we are not going to find much there." Leo added as he points at the location Catherine referred to, Sarah secretly gives Leo a thumbs up.

"Alright...I trust that you guys can take care of yourselves." Their mother resigned in defeat.

The siblings were ready to set out. They checked the vicinity of the house once again to ensure mother was safe and made their way towards the apartment complex. By the time they arrived, at least an hour had passed by. With their increase in speed and strength, small numbers of zombies were of no threat. On their way, they ignored all the survivors hiding in their homes. Most survivors were too afraid to call for help and Sarah was against getting in contact with any of them.

The apartment building Aunt Sharon lived in is certainly a tall and glamorous one; but now, the building's perimeter is filled with bloodstains and rotting corpses. The entrance of the building is barred with wood planks. This is a good sign as there may be a group of survivors still holding on. The siblings could have broken through the barred entrance, but they decided to climb into the building through an opened window.

The building's interior was dark. It was a cloudy day and the electricity of the building seemed to be cut off. The siblings spent some time adapting to the darkness in the hallway and refused to use flashlights for safe reasons. On the way to Aunt Sharon's room, they noticed a suspicious number of doors that had been shattered with brute force. Each of the busted rooms had bloodstains, some dried, others still seemed fresh. The siblings became more vigilant, but they decided to press on to at least check if Sharon was still in the building.

Closing on Aunt Sharon's room number, the siblings saw that the door was battered wide open. Quickly rushing into the room, Leo and Sarah inspected the surroundings. There were no bloodstains or corpses to be found. From the mess, the owner seemed to have left in a hurry. The window was left open and the fire ladder could be seen beneath an air conditioning unit. Aunt Sharon must have escaped from whatever was chasing her. Having confirmed Sharon was not there, it was time for the sibling to leave the building.

Sounds of creeping steps could be heard from the darkness of the hallway. Leo turned his back to check, but there was nothing to be seen. Something must be following them. An eerie feeling crept towards their bodies.

"Something is following us, you sense too, right sis?"

"Yeah...it's already found us. Might as well turn on the flashlight"

Sarah pointed the flash light at two ends of the hallway, but not a trace of anything to be found. Then, Leo felt a tingling sensation spike through his nerves.

"Above!!"

Sarah instinctively pointed the flashlight up. A grotesque humanoid figure was crawling on the ceiling and was already about to strike with its claws. It was too late for Sarah to dodge, but a push from Leo helped to avoid her vitals. Looking at the figure, that thing had four arms, each hand ending in five claws. The eyes were swollen shut, obviously, it did not sense its prey through vision.

With five deep cuts on her waist, Sarah's movement was severely limited. The humanoid creature knew to go after the weakest link. 'It fast!' Before Sarah could react, it already had its claw above her head. Leo, who was not about to have her sister die before him, blocked the strike with his arms.

The creature quickly backed away before Leo could make any counter attack. Having lost his chance to retaliate, blood started to drip from Leo's arm as the protective layers of clothing helped little against the sharp claws.

"Leo!" Sarah shouted.

"I am fine, take care of your wound first" Enduring the pain on his arm, Leo launched toward the enemy and quickly engaged in a brawl. He cannot afford to let the creature have the initiative to attack his sister.

Sarah, tending to her wound, watched Leo from the back meeting the creature head on. The sister would never have thought the boy that used to follow his sister around everywhere, would look so tall and strong at this moment. In the heat of the battle, Leo did not hesitate to defend his sister with his body.

With the regenerative power of her new constitution, just a slight treatment and the cuts had stopped bleeding, but were far from healed. On the other hand, the cuts on Leo's arms had already healed with blood clotting the wounds.

The brawl lasted for a minute and was still ongoing. Sarah needed to stop being a burden and think of something to do to change the tide of the battle. Unfortunately, there was nothing much she could do with Leo sticking so close to the enemy. But soon, the battle ended, Leo connected a blow with his fist against the creature's skull. Leo walked back to his sister with blood all over his body. Surprisingly, all his wounds regenerated in a short amount of time.

"Leo! Are you alright?" Sarah hugged her little brother, disregarding the bloodstains on his clothes.

"Here, this is for you." Leo handed her a jelly with a wide smile. This time it was much bigger, rounder and much more vibrant with a crimson luster. Yet, Sarah did not take the jelly.

"But..." just as she opens her mouth, Leo once again shoves the red jelly down into her throat.

"My wounds are already healed, see? Your injury seems bad. Heal up and let's go, we still have a full day."

Sarah's heart throbbed as she swallowed the jelly. The feeling of warmth once again spread out from her stomach to her entire body. The cuts on her waist almost instantly healed. The effect was much stronger; Sarah let out an erotic moan and hugged her breast. The view of squeezed marshmallows formed by large cleavage and a sight to behold. She continued to gasp after the feeling of effect was over. She instinctively touched her crotch from behind to make sure it was still dry.

"I told you if you do that again you are going to get a taste of taser! Watch out tonight." Sarah attempted a threatening look with a flushed red face. Ah...tsundere mode activated.

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The siblings did not stay long at the apartment. The clouds in the sky began to clear as they headed out of the building. Leo was happy that they got what they came for; a jelly for his sister and they checked Auntie's apartment. Leo proposed to head back, but Sarah insisted that they follow the plan and get jellies for Leo too. Plus, they couldn't go back home empty handed or their mother would suspect them. Hence, the siblings made their way to the shopping center.

Mutated zombies with ruby-like jelly were not that hard to come by. It's just the size and luster were all nowhere near the one they acquired in the apartment. The siblings hunted three zombies with the jellies on their way to the shopping district and all of them were of no threat. Leo ate one of the jellies for the thrill and saved the rest as emergency health potions.

The first stop Leo and Sarah arrived at was the department store, where Leo wanted to buy his birthday present. The interior was devoid of zombies, as not many survivors could make it this deep into the shopping district. Sarah was right, most of the zombies dispersed to look for more prey. The most dangerous place was now the safest.

Coming back to the counter that sells Xbox 5 and PlayStation X, Leo learned that only children make decisions. As a proper upstanding adult, you have to take all the available options.Sarah shook her head as she watched her little brother stuffed both of the gaming consoles into his bag and then began to salvage for actual necessities.

Feeling the urge from his bladder, Leo went inside the store's restroom. It was a nostalgic feeling coming back to the place where everything started. While the boy took out his manhood and to relieve himself, he sensed that he was being watched. He became vigilant, but he calmly finished his business as he started to inspect the surroundings. "Found you!" Leo said to himself as he opened up the janitor's room.

What Leo saw was not what he expected. In the janitor's closet, there is a woman holding a golf club in trance-like state, her demeanor showed that she has been under a lot of stress. Behind her, was a little girl peeking out from her mother's rear, she seemed to be even younger than Leo. Seeing the mother and daughter, Leo finally remembered that they were the survivors that were trapped on top of the shelves before.

"You are...that boy!"

The woman recognized Leo as well! It was thanks to him that they had a chance to get off the shelves and hide inside the restroom. After the zombies dispersed, the department store had everything she needed to survive and she did not take any chances leaving this safe zone.

"Uhm...my name is Leo. So, you guys have been trapped here since that day?" Leo felt a bit awkward as it was his first time talking to another survivor.

"Yes, thank you for saving us back then. Where did you come from? Since you are back here means there is a safe place around here? Is there any rescue coming? Can I...."

The woman finally let her guard down and started questioning Leo. She couldn't hold back her excitement of meeting another survivor. The little girl did not make a sound and only stared at Leo. Leo was flustered by the barrage of questions coming from the woman. As he tried to sort out his thoughts on what to say to her, Sarah came calling for him.

"Leo! What are you taking so long for?" Sarah opened the restroom door to check on her little brother; it is better to be safe than sorry. When she saw the woman and the little girl, Sarah was a little bit surprised to see there were survivors hiding in the store. Leo took this chance to explain the situation and asked Sarah to handle all the questions.

"So, we live quite far away on foot, it will be very dangerous for you to come back with us. Especially if you bring Mindy with you. Uhm...Ms. Cindy? The best we can do is to bring you to a place nearby that we know is safe. We will come by here quite often, so we can drop you some supplies on the way here."

Sarah gave her promise as she made suggestions for the mother and daughter. It was impossible to bring them along. Leo and Sarah scaled the buildings and traveled on the roof tops with their superhuman strength to make detours and avoid danger. Those were the only reasons why they could travel so fast throughout the city suburb.

Having no choice, Cindy could only accept the sibling's offer. She glanced at Leo and blushed as she nodded her head. She had peeked at Leo back in the restroom. She was shocked to see such a huge thing on a young boy, surprised it could be so much larger than her husband's, even when it was soft!

The restroom was not an ideal place to live in, even if it was close to all the necessity. A tall apartment building sounded a lot safer. Leo and Sarah made sure the building was clear with their senses as they helped Cindy and Mindy move into their new shelter. It was the apartments Aunt Sharon lived in. They observed that mutated creatures like one here before, have territorial behavior. They will kill or eat any creature that enters its territory, so the place must be safe for the time being.

The siblings made it back home before dinner time. Catherine gave them their usual round of breathtaking hugs and proceeded to prepare for dinner. At the dinner table, Leo made his report to mother, skipping the life and death situation at the apartment, and swiftly arrived at the part where they rescued Cindy and Mindy.

"So, Sharon seems to have escaped, hmm? At least it is not bad news." Catherine was prepared for the worst that could happen to her sister. Hearing this news actually helped lift her spirit and made a comment she otherwise would not.

"Sarah, definitely help take care of Cindy and Mindy, take responsibility to the end. OK?"

"Aye, Mom." Sarah responded as her thoughts wandered somewhere else while peeking at Leo. Then the rest of the day ended without much going on.