It was the third hour of my night shift, when I had lost all hope of finding them when I heard it.
Something that reminded me of the past.
Something that I've not heard ever since the start of the apocalypse.
'They must be really brave or really stupid to use motorbikes for travelling.' I mused 'Especially one that makes so much noise.'
'They're not dead yet.' Lily pointed out 'So it means that travelling on vehicles might not be such an impossibility anymore.'
'Only because of the giant behemoth lingering in the horizon that is acting like a vacuum for all the abnormals. Otherwise they would be dead before they can cross one block.'
'True enough.' Lily said.
But none of that is what matters the most right now.
A small sound behind me told me that Netra had already woken up from her sleep.
"They're quite daring. I'll give them that." She said in a whisper and I could feel her excitement bubbling up at the prospect of more blood.
She might be a kind and gentle person most of the time but cross her and you would not live long enough to regret your choice.
"We're following them?" I asked but I already knew the answer.
"Let's find where's their base is." She said with a grin which showed all her teeth and I smiled demurely at her.
Indeed. They were going to regret pissing her off.
—————
Motorbike are fast but after going through three evolutions, I was just as fast if not faster than them.
And unlike motorbikes, we were silent and capable of blending in the dark of the night to such a degree that even someone with sharp senses would find it hard to find us.
So we tailed the four bikes in the dark as they went from town to town, taking food from supplies from any of the shops that still held them.
Netra was of the mind that we should capture them right then and there and torture them for the information about their hideout but I was patient and we came up with a deal that if they did not get back to their camp till dawn then we will go along with her plan.
They were travelling in a group of seven, the same as yesterday and I wondered if the bandit leader made this some kind of rule that a group will consist of only seven people.
Perhaps.
If so then he was probably smarter than most people.
But smarter doesn't mean stronger.
I did not know how many bandits lived in the camp but I was sure that me and Netra were strong enough to deal with them.
We did not have wait for long as after half an hour, they reached an outpost hidden deeply in the forest where the seven stopped and dumped their food supplies.
Me and Netra observed the outpost that was made up of dozen of fallen trees, giving the bandits there a suitable obstacle to hide behind and shoot from.
Three men with guns were bunched around a bonfire with rifles in their laps while one of them dozed off near the wooden gate.
Their conduct seemed anything but professional and I wondered if they even knew how to use those rifles.
Perhaps. Perhaps not.
It's not like I would give them any chance to use those weapons in the first place.
I looked at Netra and she nodded at me with a predatory smile which would send chills down the spine of lesser men.
The outpost was created with the sole reason of stopping vehicles and not super humans like us.
We jumped from tree to tree in the darkness and the bright bonfire in front of them made them blind to their surroundings.
Not that they would have found us in the darkness anyway.
But still, it made them easy target. And I was not one to let go of such fortune.
I watched as Netra crept behind the dozing bandit and sliced his head off cleaning without making any sound.
The bandit died in his sleep and in the same position he was sleeping in.
If possible, I would have made him suffer but now was not the time.
I looked at Netra as she crept behind the three fools ad on her signal, I jumped down from the tree at the same time she swung her sword.
The three bandits never stood a chance.
—————
The bandit camp was a hundred meters away from the outpost situated inside a fifty meter wide crater.
I had no idea why the bandit leader would create a bandit camp inside a crater but my guess would be that it hid them from the abnormals.
Probably.
Four five meter large towers had been created at the top edges of the crater where two men always kept watch.
These men did their duties in a far professional manner than the one at the gate and I knew from experience that any ordinary man would find it immensely difficult to infiltrate the bandit camp.
But I was far from an ordinary man and had the Camouflage Cloak to boot.
The guards never stood a chance. And just as soon as we cleared the sentries, we infiltrated the bandit camp in the darkness.
I did not like what I saw in there.
Netra liked even less.