Sightseeing

(Well, glad I'm up here and not down there right now. Or back at the airport for that matter. I was NOT ready for Saeko's 'kun-fu master' dad. But, anyway, focus on the task at hand Naier.)

Right now, the helicopter had come to a full stop over a gas station. A point we decided to check as it was very close to the airport.

"Looks intact." A soldier with binoculars, that was sitting on the other corner of the cabin, speaks up.

"It also looks like a fort made out of cars." A soldier with a medical cross armband, who was sitting in the opposite direction of the binoculars one, answers as he keeps looking down the open helicopter's door that was next to him.

"Getting there with all the cars will be pure bullshit for whoever has to go there by foot." The third soldier, who was by the mounted machine gun in the middle adds.

"What if they use a heli to zipline down on the roof on top of the dispensers?" The medic asks.

"The noise will be too much, everything will be onto the team by the time they get down. Even if the helicopter leaves afterward, half a side will still be heading straight towards them. And a gunfight in the middle of a gas station, will probably end up in fireworks. Add that this greatly limits how much fuel we can actually take back. Add the fuel for the helicopter, and we might actually lose in total with that method." Rika, who was sitting ahead of me, speaks up as she turns to look at the soldiers.

"Saya, you see the helicopter's tracker?" I ask as I tap the microphone that was over my mouth.

"Yea, want me to note the location down?" A voice in my headphones asks. Well, the truth is that 'everything' up until now was a voice in my headphones. Because, helicopters are insanely fucking loud.

"Yea, gas station, though getting to it might be a problem. Add it as a secondary option." I answer. And Saya responded with a 'm'hm'.

"And uhh. Are you sure you want to keep your channel locked on mine? The others could say something you might wanna hear." I add as I keep speaking.

"You can just say it to me if that's the case, can you not?…" Saya answers…

(When she said that she wanted to be on the other side of the comms to see what 'I'll' find. I didn't realize she meant it word for word. Because now, I sort of have my personal 'operator'...)

"Nahh, it's probably better like this. Or dumbo right here might start going all creepy on her." The medic then speaks up as he turns to me, pointing at the machine gun dude in the center. Because, while the rest could not hear Saya, they could hear me…

"Oi, fuck you." The guy by the gun groans.

"I don't even know how the chick looks." He adds right after…

(So if she looks nice, you 'will' go all creepo on her? Yea, better she stays on a private channel then. Because she looks more than 'nice', for me at least...)

"Should I move on?" The right pilot in the cockpit then asks.

"Yea, keep going." The armband dude, who was in the middle of the cabin responds. And the helicopter starts tilting forward.

"We'll go in a circular motion around the airport. Starting from the right, and head to the left. We'll return to base after we hit the sea." The right pilot adds before he focuses back on flying the heli.

(Huh, speaking of the sea, I 'think' I saw the island with the underwater tunnel while we were coming here. But that's, for later.)

"Where're we going next?" The medic asks.

"Power plant." The right pilot responds.

"Uhh, it's not a nuclear one I hope?" I add as I lean to look towards the pilots.

"No, this town has no nuclear power plants, neither do any of the neighboring cities. Partly why command is so adamant that we take it back without turning it into a wasteland." The left pilot speaks up.

"Power plants do have fail-safes in case of a catastrophe. But everything 'can' fail. And a melting down nuclear power plant? A big no-no." The same pilot adds.

"Aight. So, keep eyes open for anything down the road?" I ask as I turn to look back out the open door, the left pilot letting out a 'yep' in response.

And with that, the muffled sound of the helicopter's spinning rotor blades overtook any silence that was about to issue...

(The city seems so calm from up here. A striking contrast from how it would feel if I was actually down there right now…)

This silence went on for some time, until...

"Hey, we have wavers to our left." The left pilot speaks up.

(Wavers?...)

I tilt my head as I frown. Yet, before I could ask, we flew over a small office building. A giant 'SOS' sign made of bags, wooden planks, tables and sheets. Several people waving frantically towards the helicopter as it passed over them.

(Oh, that's what he means. Waving people…)

"Isn't this a bit insulting? Calling them wavers I mean." I 'ask'. The left pilot letting out a sigh in response.

"Don't get me wrong kid, I feel for the ones that are stuck down there. But I can't stop and pick up every single survivor that jumps out and demands that I land this bird in order to pick them up." He continues.

"And we don't get sent out here to stroll about, flying these things is expensive, especially now that resources are scarce. If I was tasked to go to point B and do thing D. Then stopping at point C to pick a couple of people in order to return them to point A. Is both time-consuming, resource-consuming, and will probably mean I might not be able to complete the task D I was given in time. Which can end with more dead lives compared to the ones I saved by not doing what I was asked of." The right pilot adds right after.

"Uhh, at least they ain't shooting homing missiles at us. Because I get the feeling they might take this personally..." I add with a monotonous tone as I turned to look towards the building, the people on it slowly letting their arms drop as we quickly picked up distance from them.

"Eat your damn tongue, last thing I need in my life right now is a helicopter crash." The binoculars soldier scoffs...

(Huh, who 'is' wrong here though? The survivors that think that the people here just don't care, or the people here that have been tasked with something to do? And as things are unstable as fuck, I don't think insubordination will be treated lightly right now. And, he is not wrong. The reason they are out here is to, plainly put, ensure that the safe zones we have don't end up a smoldering wreck. Ammunition, food, power. All these things can get 'used'. And once they run out, it'll be chaos. Especially if you have a couple of self-entitled people sitting in their tents, thinking that they deserve everything given to them without them giving anything back.)

I shake my head and turn to look back towards the way the helicopter was flying at.

"We can't save everybody Naier. You said so yourself." Saya then speaks up.

"Never said we 'should' save them, I know that. Just don't see the point of adding insult to injury. Not, that it really matters if we are being insulting or not. I get the feeling that these people would gladly break our legs and leave us for dead right now." I answer to Saya.

"So it's fine if I call them wavers, right?" The left pilot 'asks' with a small chuckle. I just let a small breath through my nose as I shake my head lightly once again…

(Well, people are going to be peo…Oh?)

I stop mid thought as I spot a relatively flashy looking building in the distance. Flashy in the sense that it was much bigger than the ones around it, and had a big wide white 'board' on top of the building's entrance, looking pretty much like a billboard. Except, it had several black letters on it instead of an image…

(...The hell is this?...)

As we got closer, I started to make out the things written on the board…

(Beany bean and the beanie bin. Premiere 16:00 - 18:00.

Why did you spend so much time on a frigging bat. 18:30- 20:30

Unoriginal cannon 4 Unoriginality strikes back, again. 21:00 - 23:00

The Nervous lost puppy and the Swagging machine. 23.30 - 1.30...

...Uhh. A cinema?...)

And just as we flew over it.

"Wait, stop for a second." I speak up as I wave my arm, keeping my sight locked on the building.

"What's up?" Rika tilts her head as she turns to look out as well.

"Saya, got my location?" I ask.

"Yes, found something?" She asks back.

"Yea, cinema." I respond.

"...Uhh, what?" I hear her answer back with a confused tone.

"I found, a cinema." I responded again.

"I don't think it's the right time for movies Naier." Saya answers with a slight groan.

"Aww, want to take your girlfriend to the movies?" The machine gun soldier 'asks' as he turns to me with a shit-eating smirk.

"No, and no. Well the second might be a yes. But no." I respond as I turn to the machine gun dude. Saya letting out a rather confused, 'uhhh?' after my answer.

"No, I want you to mark the cinema. Because in there, I can go into a room, scream my lungs out, and nobody other than the people in that room can hear. Didn't you ever wonder why you couldn't hear the movies playing right next door to you when they were going full blast?" I ask. Saya, after a couple of seconds, lets out an enlightened 'Ahh!'

"Soundproof rooms!" She adds with a loud voice.

"Yea, soundproof rooms." I add, in order for the rest to hear as well.

"While the army seems capable of holding back the corpses, having this place as an outpost can help. It won't need a lot in terms of corpse defense. Plus, we could place any 'loud' machinery in there without worrying about them attracting hordes day in, day out. Like generators for example." I keep speaking as I turn to look back outside.

"Alright, noted." Saya responds a couple of seconds later.

"Ok, we're good. Let's keep going." I nod slightly as I raise my hand. The left pilot nods back, then motions to the right one. And the helicopter tilts forward once again…

(Huh, wonder what type of movies Saya and Saeko used to watch…)

With that thought, I kept looking down as we zoomed past streets and houses…

And, as we moved deeper inland, I started to see the town degrade. At a rather alarming pace too. Streets started to turn more chaotic. Houses, more often than not being with partly collapsed sections.

"Looks like a damn warzone down there…" I mutter as I keep looking below us.

"The Yakuza was relatively active in this location, not surprised this place turned into a wreck. Be it that they tried to defend themselves, or that they tried to take advantage of the situation." The medic responded as he also looked below us, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"So we 'are' trying to get blown out of the sky." I add with a half-joking tone.

"This location has turned into a wasteland, don't think anybody that's capable of using such guns is left here." The right pilot responds.

(So you're just winging it? Ain't that a bit 'too' reckless?)

"Well, don't think we'll find any structures that will be of use around here. Everything's a pile of rubble." And with a shrug, I focus back on looking outside.

"Uhh. Can I ask why you keep mentioning that you will be getting blown out of the sky?" I hear Saya ask.

"Uhh. A giant ass zombie with a rocket launcher is chasing S.T.A.R.Z around here." I answer with the most deadpan voice I can muster. Causing even Rika to look at me funny...

"...What?..." Was all I got from a confused Saya...

"Ughh, Naier this is important. Don't goof around." She adds right after with a serious tone.

"Jee, way to be a stick in the mud. We are flying over a location where the Yakuza was active." I answer as I let out a sigh through my nose.

"You're a stick in the mud!" Saya shouts back.

...and seconds later…

"Uhh, ahh. S, sorry Papa. I'll be more quiet." She adds with a much more hushed tone…

(Ouuuhh, buuurned.)

"Just, you wait until you return idiot. I will get you back for this..." Saya hisses.

(...I have, so many comebacks for this, but they will definitely make her shout again. Let's not make her day harder. For now.)

"Why are you so mad anyway. Stick in the mud can be considered a compliment. The stick is unique, different from everybody else." I 'answer' back.

"You, are an idiot." And got an original response from Saya.

"Only on days that I'm flying in a Blackhawk helicopter." I retort back...

"Umm, ok. You really make me want to join your little chat. Tell your cute little friend to open her channel." Rika then speaks up as she leans towards me.

"Cuuute? I agree, open the channel." The machine gun man speaks up right after as he turns to me with a stupid grin.

"Ok, just because 'you' asked in such a creepy way. I'm telling her to add extra encryption." I respond as I point at the machine gun man.

"Aww man come on, she can at least introduce me to some of her friends~." He retorts as he exaggeratedly raises both hands.

"Uhh, how? With smoke signals? No phones, you can't even 'see' anything." I 'ask' back. The guy stares at me for a few seconds, then bites both his lips as he glances away and snaps his fingers.

"Shoot. Touche." He adds as he turns to look back out his side of the heli...

"Uhh, do I want to know what all this was about?" I hear Saya ask right after.

"I think you don't." I answer.

"Yea, I think so too…" I hear Saya respond.

"We're almost there people. Less chatting, more looking outside from now on." I hear the left pilot speak up.

And sure enough, it didn't take long for the view below us to change, from a 'warzone' to a greener, less populated area.

"Fewer buildings around." I say as I keep looking out.

"Yea, most of these facilities are in the city outskirts. Easier to get the big amount of land needed to build them. Easier to manage too, no traffic jams, no people complaining about the noise and pollution. Or the smell." The machine gun man adds.

"You seem knowledgeable on the subject. A previous experience?" I ask.

"Cousin that worked in one. He would never shut up about the stuff when the family got together. So yea, 'experience' alright." He answers with a snicker.

"I see, so you know something that can help us assess the condition of the place we're going?" I ask again.

"Ah, no. The guy worked in a uhh, whatchamacallit? Dinosaur power plant? Heard this one is a waterpark type one." He responds as he dismissively shakes his hand.

"Dino, waterpark?" I ask as I frown.

"Dino what?" Saya asks right after as well.

"He means a fossil fuel power plant. And a Hydroelectric power plant." The medic answers as he turns to me.

"Oh, heh. Makes sense? I guess?" I respond as I turn to look out of the open door.

"If it makes sense. Then care to explain what in the world you mean with `Dino waterpark'. " Saya asks again.

"I could tell you, but you're being mean to me. So I won't..." I respond as I smirk slightly.

"Wha, why you littleeee. Hum, f,fine. I don't want to know anyway." I hear Saya respond. I could honestly almost 'see' her folding her arms and looking away with a pouty face...

(...I know I'm going to regret all this later. So stop being so much fun to tease. Please, for both our sakes.)

"Alright people, eyes outside. Check for infected numbers, damaged areas, you get the idea." The left pilot then speaks up. And, the power plant then came into view…

A 'river' dam. With the 'high' side of the dam, which held the river in place, seemingly being wide enough to fit three or three and a half commercial vessels. And, from the height of the dam's wall, it seemed deep enough to fit these vessels in if they got sunk. The other side of the dam, where the river normally continued, looked more like a scar on the land to be honest, a long one too, as it extended all the way towards the sea...

(Damn, big dam. And how the hell can a river be 'this' friggin deep.)

The whole place was surrounded by greenery and grassland, with only a couple of roads that led to the 'bridge' section of the dam that blocked off the river. And with only two relatively big office-like buildings near the dam itself. Definitely, not a populated area.

"That's a big river dam." I say as I whistle.

"Yea, one of the newer ones made, the river is partly human-made too. Rivers usually don't get this wide or deep by themselves." Rika responds as she hands me a set of binoculars.

(Huh, that explains why this looks so, unnatural…)

The helicopter then started to slowly lose speed, and altitude, to the point that it started to steadily circle around the facility at a slow pace…

(Uhh, let's see. I uhhh, don't see any corpses. Or survivors. Hmm, the bridge looks, flooded. No, wait. It is flooded. There are streams of water running down the dam's wall. From a distance, they looked like darker stripes of gray. Though they were some sort of mark. Turns out, they're water streams…)

"The fence that looks towards the city is down. Fallen towards the facilities inside. Meaning something from the outside side brought it down." The binocular's guy then speaks up.

"Don't see any horde that might have toppled it though, they fell into the river? The other fence is still up too." Rika speaks up next.

"Rika, look at the edge of the dam, lakeside. The color changes to a very dark blue, almost crimson. Think that's blood diluted in water? Because if so, that's a lot of blood, from a lot of bodies." I speak up as I point at the dam's bridge.

"The dam is also closed. But, I can see small streams of water running down from it." I add as I point at the 'darker' lines on the dam's wall that run from its top, all the way to the bottom.

"Huh, you're right. This, can't be good…" Rika responds as her expression turns grim.

"Maybe it's starting to overflow? Corpses blocking the intake points?" Saya speaks up right after.

"Overflow? If so we need to act fast. The more time we take, the more damage it will do. These dams are not made to withstand 'overflow' levels of pressures for an infinite amount of time." I hear a new voice speak up...

(Uhh?)

"Ahh! M, mama. D, don't sneak up on me like that." I hear Saya yelp with a whiny voice.

(...These microphones can't pick up voices from a big distance, did her mother just shove her face next to Saya's? Or is her mic different? As in not attached to the headphone?)

"And if a horde of rotting bodies is chilling 'in' dam? Won't that make the place useless? Water won't flow even if we clear the ones outside." I ask right after.

"Yes. But if we open the flood gates, we can protect the dam from pressure damage. We can slowly clear the insides then, after the excess water has been taken care of." Saya's mother answers.

"Uhh. So, what? We are to land now and do this?" I ask, and everybody in the heli, other than the pilots, turns to look at me with a stupefied expression. Yuriko, just giggled lightly.

"No, we'll send another group to do that now. A different helicopter. You are not equipped for this. The dam might need some of its electronics switched for the floodgates to open. We will get a team of specialists to go. Don't worry." As Yuriko answers, I lift my hand and wave it as I shake my head. The rest letting out an almost synonymous sigh..

"Also, Saya would never forgive me if I sent you there." She adds right after with a giggle.

"M, mamaaaa…" I hear Saya whine with a 'distant' voice.

"Ok so. The dam is still standing, but needs to get unclogged, fast." I say as I ignore Yuriko's last comment.

"Yes. Tell the pilot to go on. We are sending another team to take a better look." Yuriko responds. Then, goes silent.

"Ai. One of the high ups said we can move on. They're sending a team to do the heavy lifting." I say as I look at the rest of the team.

"Whoo boy, felt that one for a sec…" The machine gun dude sighs as he 'waves' his hand to his face, as if he was getting hot.

"You pooped your pants?" The binoculars guy asks as he glances at the soldier next to him with a smirk.

"You would be jumping out the damn bird if that was the case my man." The machine gun man responds as he turns to him before he starts chuckling, the binoculars guy also laughing through his nose as he turns to look back out.

"Boys and their poop jokes." Rika shakes her head with a one-sided smirk as she makes a small eye roll, then turns to look back out as well.

"Where to next?" I ask.

"Hospital, a straight line from here to there. It's on the other side of this landmass, and next to the central one. After that, we are going down by following the river between the landmasses. As the airport is by sea, we can use boats to drive up the river. It's safer, faster, and cheaper than going through a hostile, infested town." The right pilot responds.

"I see. And speaking of the sea, they told you about the island?" I ask again.

"Hmm? Oh, they did tell me something about checking an extra spot in the open sea. That must be it." The right pilot answers back.

"Yea. Big boss man told me to lead you towards a medium-sized island that was free of corpses, it's not very far from our endpoint if we end at the upper left point of the central landmass." I respond as I nod.

"Alright. We will check it when we finish this." The right pilot makes a thumbs-up without turning to look back, then starts picking up speed by tilting the Blackhawk forward, also lifting the helicopter to a higher altitude in the process. And, headed straight back towards the 'warzone'...

(Hmm, if we can power that dam. Will the power lines work to reach the airport? It's not 'too far' from here, but not too close either. Maybe they aim to erect new lines that run along the river? Anyway. A Hospital? Ughh, why I really don't like this?...)

And, we slowly started to see more buildings once again. Followed by more damaged buildings soon after…

"How far is this hospital?" I ask.

"Halfway point we reach the stadium. You can't see it, but it's visible from our windshield view." The right pilot responds.

"Stadium? Hm, can't we use that to round up corpses and light em up from a distance without damaging the buildings around? You know, tossing a napalm bomb or something in their face while they are congregated in the middle of the field." I ask as I tilt my upper body to look towards the front windshield of the heli. Sadly though, I could barely see anything, other than a small part of the sky, and a smaller part of the city. Nothing reminiscent of a stadium though.

"Nope. Command wants this place as intact as a falling snowflake." Rika responds as she turns to me.

"Uhh, why? They like football this much?" I ask with a half-joking manner.

"Heh, could be. But as they told me. It seems that one of the initial 'spreads' started from there." She adds as she smiles, then turns to look outside.

"One? Wait, there were more than one 'ground zero?'." I ask right after.

"Yea, the main reason why everything went to hell so fast too. Everybody mobilized to come here once things started to get out of control, then suddenly. Hey, the other side of town? Suddenly it's a worse hell-hole than this hell-hole." Rika answers as she keeps looking outside.

(Huh, I was pretty sure by now that this whole thing was man-made, but this pretty much seals it. If it happened as she said, the timing is just, 'too' good. Too good to fuck everybody's life that is.)

"Yea, top brass has been pretty clear about us not going too close to it. Apparently, from the reports we got. If you as much as enter the buildings that have been labeled as ground zero, you will turn, then and there. Supposedly, whatever this is. It's so thick there that it kills you the moment you breathe the air in..." The right pilot speaks up next.

(Huh, they send me to do grunt work, yet inform me about nothing. Sure, this has nothing to do with the missions. And I 'am' just a grunt to them. But still…)

"And there she is, to your right side." The right pilot adds.

Turning my head to look at the open door on the opposite side of the heli, I could now see a football stadium. Looking, rather normal to be honest, other than several roadblocks and barricades that were set up by the police around the exits and nearby intersections, with most of them having notable 'holes' in them. Hell, I could not even see a lot of corpses roaming about the open space around the stadium...

"Doesn't look any different than any other stadium. Where's all the fleshy walls and tentacles?" I 'ask' as I lean to my right in order to get a better look.

"...Eeewwww what?" I hear Saya ask right after. If she ever made a wincing face, now would be one of those moments...

"Ha, you watch way too many horror flicks kid. I 'wish' the building looked like an eldritch horror abomination. Bigger chance the top brass would let us create a crater out of the damn place." The left pilot speaks up.

"Or, they would send in some sad hazmats to gather samples so they could make bone spitting assault rifles. Or chonky rocket launchers that shoot chonky bois." I respond as I bring my hands up, as if I'm holding a rocket launcher.

"Heeyy! What the hell are you talking about?" Saya asks again, this time with a tad louder, whiny voice…

"I'm talking about. CHOnky bois." I respond as I lower my arms, putting a bit more emphasis on the 'cho'…

"...Ha, ha. Very funny. Idiot…" Saya retorts with a 'pouty' voice.

"Hah, yea, not thanks. Last thing I need is having to fly a wiggly helicopter." The left pilot adds with a chuckle...

With that, we flew past one of the 'ground zero' points. And on to the hospital...

"First the clinic, then a hospital. I'm just 'asking' to get shoved into a mental asylum..." I say as I turn to look out from my side of the heli.

"You're not even going to land there. What? You scared?" I hear Saya ask with a cheeky tone.

"Yep. Me shaking in my boots. I'ma ask Saeko for cuddles to calm down." I respond as I smirk slightly.

"Wha, why youuuuuu, I'm seriously going to bite you when you come back." Saya responds with a hissing tone.

"That's kinky Saya." I answer with a flat voice.

"Kinky?" The machine gun dude instantly turns to me with his iconic stupid grin.

"Great. Now thanks to you I have the groups pervert eyeballing me." I add as I dramatically shake my head. The machine gun dude responding with a frowning 'Hey!'

"Hum, serves you right. It's because you're also a pervert." Saya answers with a disinterested voice.

"You know that unless you decide to stop being around me. That makes you one as well." I respond as I fold my arms and look outside.

Quickly realizing that we were closing in towards a tall, and rather wide building. Which had a whole block for itself. Positioned next to a bridge that went over the river and connected with the main landmass. Being surrounded by an equally large yard that changed to a driveway at the side of the building which faced the main road. Also, a rather small red cross was placed on the top corner of the building. Signifying that this was indeed our target.

"Y, you wish." Saya responded with a slight stutter, bringing me back to our little 'chat'.

"Bark-bark." I retort with a small smirk.

"S, shut up. I told this was…"

"Ok people, time for take two, same deal as before." The left pilot, not knowing that Saya was talking, started speaking as well, drowning her low, whiny voice.

"Ai, we're at the hospital. Going silent." I responded right after.

"F, fine…" Saya answers. Sounding as pouty as ever...

And. It didn't take long to realize that the hospital, was a literal hell zone.

"Am I the only one that only sees 'red' through the lower floor windows?" I ask as I keep looking through the binoculars.

"Nope. I can confirm, the lower floors are a blood bath, but it gets better on the higher ones. Floors five to seven are clean. But the lower ones? A big hell no." Rika adds after me.

"Plus getting there by land won't be any easier. The river might let a team get relatively close, but the hospital is surrounded by wrecks and corpses. Lots of corpses." I say after Rika.

"Corpses, in pullover medical gowns. So many, rotting butts wandering around the hospital's perimeter…" I arch an eyebrow as I speak, causing the rest of the group to start chuckling.

"Ughh, not only you're a pervert. You are being squicky now too." Saya groans.

"What. I'm just stating facts here." I respond.

"Does not make it…"

"Butt facts." I cut off Saya.

"...Why do I even bother." I hear her groan in response.

"Because your life would be too boring otherwise?" I add nonchalantly as I keep looking outside.

"Hey, my life was plenty exciting without you around." Saya retorts.

"Then, why do you even bother?..." I 'ask' back…

"...Ughh. Just, you wait. Won't you return before the day ends..." Saya groans.

"So, the hospital is still semi-functional. Top floors look fine, electricity excluded. And this can work for us. If the low floors are a hellscape, it would deter most survivors. So the top floors might still have things we can use." The binoculars dude then speaks up.

"Alright, so the place is worth the checkout. Noted?" I ask.

"Yea…" Saya responds.

"Alrighty then. Down the river we go." The right pilot chimes right after, and the helicopter starts to move once again...

(Really though, what does she consider 'exiting'. Acting like a chundere for Takashi? Or having make up sessions with Rei? As seen in one of the credit images in the anime. Or, μaybe being overly mean to everybody?)

I started looking through the binoculars as the helicopter picked up speed, glancing at the corpses below us.

(Hmm, wouldn't that mean that Takashi and Rei used to visit Saya's mansion before the outbreak? Takashi did seem pretty chill walking around that castle-like house, while I had to count pillars in order to remember where was what. And that, would also mean that Rei and Saya were 'friends' before the outbreak. Though, they don't seem to really act like so during the outbreak...)

And while I kept looking at the corpse infested streets, a bridge started to become visible to my right, towards the direction the heli was flying at.

(Hmm? Oh? That's the bridge I and the trucks used to pass from the central landmass to the rightmost one. We really, didn't fly too far away. Funny how I never realized that we had a giant ass stadium nearby. And that it was a ground zero...)

I stop looking through the binoculars, and turn to look back towards the stadium.

(Ground zero huh? Wonder how much of what they told me is real. Obviously I'm not going to waltz there. Even if they 'are' lying. Then that means that instead of 'killing air'. It'll be full of trigger happy people. And I honestly don't know which one is worse…)

"So, new guy. Tell me about this island. We will be by the beach soon. Fill me in on the details. Location and the such." The right pilot then speaks up.

"Uhh. From the center of the central landmass. It was to the left, so now it's to our right. Can't really see what you're seeing. But it's relatively bigger than the rest. Also a little deeper into the sea compared the smaller islands around." I respond as I turn to look towards the pilots.

"Are you telling them about the island?" Saya asks right after.

"Yea. We're nearing the beach." I answer.

"Roger." The right pilot responds.

"The island also has a small shack on the beach that is looking towards the landmass." I add as I turn to look outside.

"Alright then. Changing path. Keep head, hands, legs and tongues inside the bird, I'm going to pick up speed." The right pilot then pushes the helicopter to tilt over more, making it move even faster as it started to slowly lose altitude…

"Ohh and, the island is also full of hallucinogenic plants. Don't start any accidental fires or you'll end up fantasizing about, stuff…" I add casually. Having almost synonyms 'What?' as a response from the rest of the team…

"Dude, stuff like that. You ALWAYS mention first." The machine gun dude says with a serious expression as he turns to me.

"Because you want to take a batch with you?" I 'ask' as I turn to him.

"What? No." He answers as he frowns.

(Huh, color me surpri…)

"I want a friggin truckful! Heeeeeeeeeeeehhhhh!" He adds as he opens his mouth and lets out a long, one breathed laugh. Which, felt more like he was choking to be honest...

(Color me, not surprised.)

"You can end up in jail if you use it on unsuspecting girls..." I respond flatly.

"...What?..." Saya asks once again, confused if her voice, yet again.

"It's not a crime, if they never catch you." He responds as he lifts his index finger towards the heli's roof. Narrowing his eyes as he smirked.

(Ok, I am definitely keeping Saya and Saeko away from this dude…)

"Ohh, really? Maybe I. Should drug you. And then leave you there buried in the sand. Take it as a unified answer of every girl on the planet in response to your 'plan'. " Rika then speaks up as she turns to look at the dude, a one-sided smirk on her face…

And, as the machine gun dude opened his mouth and turned towards Rika, I turned to look back outside. The land having already been replaced by the sea.

(Damn, the pilot was not kidding, we're going fast…)

And, with the rest of the group chattering. We moved towards the biggest island in the vicinity...

-Fifteen minutes later-

(So, much, sea…)

By now, the others had also turned silent, so all I could hear was the helicopter blades. And Sayas occasional murmur.

(I think Saya forgot she's on the microphone. She keeps talking to herself. Can't really make out what she's saying though...)

"You said there is a shack on the beach that overlooks the mainland?" The right pilot then speaks up.

"Yea." I answer as I shake my head to snap out of the 'unfocused' mode I was in.

"Hmm. I see something on the island's beach up ahead. Gonna turn the bird, tell me what it is." The right pilot responds, then tilts the helicopter back, before turning it in place. An island appearing through the open door of my side on the helicopter.

"I see it, give me a sec." I take the binoculars and look through them. Then focus on the beach that was dead ahead of us...

(Hmm…)

On the beach, a small campfire, and a shack. Ahead of the campfire heading deeper into the island, a narrow path.

(Yep. This is it.)

"We got a winner. This is the place." I answer as I look back inside the heli.

"Nice, first try too." The right pilot chuckles as he turns the Blackhawk to move closer to the island.

(Weird, the path that leads to the cave, moves 'away' from the mainland, yet the cave it leads to connects to it? Does the path make a full turn somewhere?)

"I'll fly over the island, tell me if you see anything of note." The right pilot adds.

And as the helicopter starts gaining altitude while slowly moving towards the island. The group started to look around through their respective open door. In other words, me and Rika from our side, the other three from theirs. The armband dude in the center, that has been eerily quiet up until now, stayed quiet some more, with his arms folded...

"Hey, At the peak. I think I see something." Rika then spoke up while looking through her spoke, half of her body leaning outside the helicopter.

In response, the Blackhawk started gaining altitude, then started moving towards the peak of the island. And, sure enough, a small building started to become visible among the trees and vegetation, a couple of antennas along with a satellite dish on its roof. A relatively small communication tower next to it.

"Huh, this island has a com tower?" I ask.

"Uhhh, it looks like a radio station to be honest. Probably illegal one too." The binoculars guy says right after me.

"That could come in handy, the shack still had functional electronics, big chance this thing can still broadcast." I add.

"Found something?" Saya asks right after.

"Yea, radio tower, comms tower. Something among that assortment of things." I respond.

"Huh, so there was more to this island other than the shack." Saya adds casually.

"And the plants." I add.

"N, nobody cares about the stupid plants and their stupid hallucinations." Saya quickly retorts.

"So, you do remember what you saw in order to call it stupid?" I ask again.

"N, no I don't. What makes you think I do. I don't remember anything." Saya quickly responds.

(Too much denial, somebody's lying.)

"I guess this is reason enough. Let's start heading back." The right pilot then speaks up.

And as the helicopter turned to head towards the airport, which honestly was barely visible from here…

"Umm say Saya. On a scale of one to ten. How would you rank your urge to kick me right now?" I ask...

"Eleven." Saya responded flatly.

"Ok. Uhh can I have a parachute?" I ask as I turn towards the pilots.

"What for? Intend to skydive?" The left one asks with a chuckle.

"Oh, f..." And as I tried to answer…

"F….FACHOO!" I sneezed…

"Uhh, the hell…" I shake my head as I blink a couple of times…

(That came out of nowhere…

But, uhh. Why do I suddenly have the urge to curse at the sky?...)